Reset: DPS to Support?!

"...!" Shocked by the sudden voice that rang through his ears, Shinto abruptly turned his head over to the direction of it—Quickly noting that it was none other than Frey. "...F-Frey? What's up?"

"What's up?" Ethaniel clicked his tongue at Shinto's confused expression. "We've literally been calling you for the past minute. The hell were you up to this entire time?"

"...cough. Something came up in my whispers, so I uh... Was replying to that," Shinto uttered out. "I guess I was lost in the conversation?"

As Shinto the situation within his notification window was too farfetched to mention, he had to come up with an excuse. The most plausible was that he was replying to whispers as the ban on it was lifted upon completion of the dungeon.

"...you," Ethaniel helplessly glared at Shinto as he soon glanced away. "Bah, whatever. Anyways, since you didn't listen to whatever we were saying, I'll repeat. You know how we've been walking for quite some time, right?"

"Uh, yeah?" Shinto tilted his head. "Did something go wrong while I was on whispers?"

"We're lost," Frey muttered out.

"...what?" Shinto blinked at Frey's statement.

"We're lost! That damn slime didn't do his job in escorting us!" Ethaniel scoffed. "We took too many turns and ended up in some cavern."

"S-Sorry..." Rustly murmured. "...I should have done my job properly before I went to wail..."

"Sigh. Idiot," Reru scorned as he soon sighed. "How did we even end up like this? All we did was walk in a straight line... I'm not even sure how we took turns and went somewhere else."

"B-Because this place has a sensory magic veiled by Madam Ru which messes with people's sense of direction unless they know the entire layout like the back of their head," Rustly muttered out. "What may seem to be a straight line may not always be like that..."

"And you didn't care to tell us that now?!" Ethaniel frowned.

"I'm sorry...!" Rustly cried out. "I'll do my best to find our way back... But I just need to know where we are exactly..."

"Ahh! We're so dead! We're so dead!" Minister Yer stated in panic whilst running around the rocky grounds. "Why couldn't I have just been on the other side of the barrier?! We have Erith here for your stupid eye witness!"

"Me...?" Erith seemed to be blinking. "Knowing you... You'd probably accuse me of being in hand with them."

"I...! How dare you-" Just as Minister Yer was about to shout, he was quickly interrupted by Shinto.

"Ahem..." Ignoring the cries of the slime's language from Yer and Erith, Shinto let out a cough whilst listening to Ethaniel's translation. "Well, from what I'm getting at your conversation here, we're no longer in the catacombs? But... Somewhere outside of that?"

"Basically so," Ethaniel shrugged. "I've no idea what dungeon we're in right now, but this is definitely not the catacombs. Though... We didn't receive a single notification of entering into a domain."

"I was debating with this guy whether it was the Old Wood Cavern dungeon!" Frey stated. "What do you think?"

"...hmm," Shinto narrowed his eyes as soon scrutinized the area, noting the rough cavern walls with his night vision under the guise of darkness. "A normal cavern..." Continuing to glance around the area, his brows raised in slight curiosity as he saw two passageway upfront. "There are two paths ahead of us."

"Two paths?" Frey blinked at Shinto's sudden revelation of information. "You can see clearly?"

"Rustly! Do you know anything about that?!" Minister Yer shouted angrily.

"There are many two-way paths in this place! How do you think we got lost?!" Rustly pouted. "Let's just go ahead and see where we are!"

With Rustly's annoyance at Minister Yer's tone of voice, he leapt forward with the group soon following behind. Then, upon reaching the area where Shinto had spotted, Rustly's expression turned shaky.

"...um...um..." Rustly uttered out.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Erith questioned.

"...remember when I said I just needed to know where we are exactly?" Rustly stated in a shaky voice.

"Yeah?"

"Well... We're utterly lost!" Rustly laughed awkwardly. "We're already out of the designation spot under Madam Ru's magic..."

"You... You... RUSTLY!" Reru frowned at Rustly's words. "...god. We have to turn back now?"

"I-I guess... But since we're out of Madam Ru's veil, it means finding the area is not going to be easy..." Rustly stated in a helpless voice.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Upon hearing from Rustly, the slimes all stared at Rustly listlessly. Meanwhile, Ethaniel had placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, in the urge of wanting to hit Rustly.

"...why did that slime put you in charge of escorting us?" Ethaniel clicked his tongue in an annoyed manner. "Argh! Seriously, we could've been back to town by now if it wearn't for this shit!"

"W-What do we do now...?" Frey uttered out. "If we're this lost... And from whatever this guy stated... We won't be going back to the catacombs anytime soon?"

"Well... We are already out of the dungeon, it's just that... We've got no idea where we actually are," Shinto sighed as his eyes narrowed over towards the two pathway that was in front of them. "If only there was some kind of sign-" Shinto quickly closed his mouth as he caught glimpse of a small light by the end of the two pathways. "...eh, light?"

"Light? Like... The actual daylight or something?" Frey questioned.

"...well, this one is much dimmer and darker?" Shinto thought to himself. "Whatever it is, it seems to be an exit."

"An exit?" Minister Yer's expression brightened. "Then hurry! I don't want to be here anymore. We can decide on what to do later, right?! I just want to be safe and see light!" Without any hesitation, the slime began to rush ahead of the group and quickly walked up towards the left side of the pathway.

"H-Huh? Hey!" Reru cried out as he saw that Minister Yer was moving in a fast manner over to the exit. "Are you crazy?!"

"...I guess we're going to find our way back to the catacombs on the surface?" Rustly questioned.

"No, wait... Weren't we underground?" Erith seemed to be raising his brow. "If that's so... How could we be able to reach the surface if there wearn't any staircase or steeped roads?"

"Madam Ru's magic works to give the illusion that we are going in a straight line remember? So we wouldn't know the steps taken," Rustly stated. "And so we ended up like this..."

"Huh. So if that's so, that means there's plenty of entrances to this place?"

"Well, yeah. But only one actually leads to here without interference, which is what I think the humans took..."

"...hey, you two. How about you stop conversing and actually help me drag Minister Yer back here so he won't lose the guy?!" Reru cried out.

With a nod from the slimes, the group quickly moved over towards Minister Yer. Meanwhile, the humans that were behind the slime hesitated to follow suit.

"...isn't just going back the more efficient way?" Raina questioned.

"It is... But what are these slimes thinking?" Shinto blinked at the sight in front of him.

"They're chasing after that minister or something," Ethaniel shrugged.

"So... Do we like, follow after them?" Frey asked.

"...sigh. I feel that if we don't, we'll get more lost than our current situation," with a sigh, Shinto hurried up ahead with the group following up from behind.

Upon reaching closer towards the end of the caverns, the party members felt a cold sensation around them. As each stepped drew close to the exit, the feeling grew much stronger.

"...is it me... or is it getting colder?" Frey folded her arms.

"This place is..."

As they reached the end of the caverns, the feeling of coldness became extremely prevalent, however—That wasn't what had caught their attention. The moment that they had stepped foot outside of the cave, their eyes widened in shock as they were greeted by the sight of a cold hail storming within the atmosphere.

"Achoo...!" Raina sneezed at the drop of temperature almost immediately as they walked outside of the cavern. "W-Where is this place...?" Glancing around the area, the eyes of the party members averted away from the cold hail and turned towards the ground, where they saw the frozen tundra forest.

Moments after, a notification appeared before the group.

[ You have entered into the 'Bareth's Tundra Zone' ]

[ You have been afflicted by the 'Cold Chills' debuff, thus, stamina usage has been increased by 40% and you're more likely to freeze to death if you were to stay out in the wilds for more than ten minutes! ]

[ The hail atmosphere that you feel has decreased your movement speed by 20% and cold resistance by 30%. Not only that, your water resistance has been lowered by 100%. ]

[ As this is a natural phenomenon, your attribute has failed to work. ]

[ You have failed to resist. ]

...

"...we're so dead," Minister Yer murmured out. "I WANT TO GO BACK INTO THE CAVE!"