Like the past few days, the group made their way north through the Snow Wood Forest, passing through countless trees that had balls of ice dangling from their branches, but this morning was slightly different than the rest.
It was no longer snowing.
Nor was there the chilled wind.
As quiet as it was, with not a single shake from any trees, the sound of their footsteps crunching on the snow was the only noise present. That was, of course, until they came across a certain snow wood tree.
The moment they approached it, it shook, causing the grayish-green leaves to rustle. Then, with a plop, an unknown corpse fell from somewhere on the tree and splattered all over the snowy ground, stunning the group for a second.
Quickly though, they realized that was just the body of an ordinary white rabbit… who had its neck slit 180 degrees!
Alarmingly quick, while they were in shock, a small figure jumped down from the tree. However, just when it was going to move and unleash it's surprise attack, it found that it couldn't move! It was as if it had hit a brick wall without even moving, causing it to instantly stop from a staggering zero kilometers an hour to an absolute standstill.
Then, without realizing it, a big shadowy figure suddenly appeared behind it from the ground, slicing it's ankles, separating its feet from its legs due to the corrosion.
Afterwards, once it collapsed onto the ground, with no resistance, its neck was slashed open, also separating its head from its neck due to the corrosion.
Once the problem was dealt with, everyone's unknowingly tense muscles relaxed.
Ran walked up to the shadowy figure and then high-fived it.
"Great teamwork, Fluffy!"
"Meor, meor."
Fluffy then swatted away the figure's head with her big and rough paws, as if to say it was nothing.
The dismembered head flew a few meters before falling in front of Ann and the rest's feet with a thud. Picking up the head, Ann revealed a confused expression.
"This is… a squirrel? And it's rank-5 no less!"
Of course, after transforming at rank-5, they anthropomorphize no longer completely resemble their original appearance; this was more or less applicable depending on the race. But, looking at the easily stretchable cheeks as well as the bushy tail, it was clear what this person was. Queenie too, cleared it up.
"This squirrel is actually a Snow Wood squirrel, so you can imagine why it's here. Moreover, we'll be encountering many more of them later on," Queenie stated matter of factly, and she was right.
The Snow Wood Forest was obviously the Snow Wood squirrel's territory, so the possibility of encountering them again was basically one hundred percent.
And indeed, after this short interlude, the group continued encountering them again and again and again for over a week. They were usually in groups of three to five as well, but they were easily able to counter them thanks to their teamwork.
Actually, it was usually much harder to pass through the forest, but even someone like Queenie was amazed by their efficiency, which was mostly due to Ran. The reason it was usually difficult actually lied with the squirrels themselves. As these trees were not only their territory but also their origin point, their connection was intricately locked together (even their soul juice had an affinity for their environment). The result was the creation of multiple skills.
And one in particular, at least in this context, was most troublesome. That was their snow wood escape skill. It wasn't an escape like running away, but rather an escape from one's senses. Basically, using their affinity for these trees, they can harmonize with them and hide their body and aura, as if they were one with the very trees themselves.
In this way, it was similar to the skill Scaly had taught Ran, and now you can see why it was so difficult. Pretty much every mile one crossed, they would be sneak attacked by a group of squirrels which usually consisted of those who were rank-5.
As for why it was easy for them? Well, it all goes back to sensitivity. We already know Ran's nose was extremely sensitive and even a slight amount of killing intent can be sensed by him, but there was a problem. With their skill, the squirrels were able to hide their aura as well, which was what made the killing intent.
So then, for Ran to sense them, the only time available would be the time in between the dispersal of the skill and the launching of the sneak attack. Luckily, it was enough time for him since he didn't need to charge any skill, and taking their momentum was almost instantaneous. Nevermind the fact that because of the sheer quantity of his soul, he was able to achieve a level of multitasking that even those ranked above him would envy. Thus, even groups were easily stopped by him and the rest.
And by the time a week passed after the first encounter, they had already battled close to a hundred groups of squirrels, plundering all of their cores along the way. Even better was the fact that by now, under the absorption of dozen after dozen after dozen of rank-5 soul cores, as well as fighting all this time, Ann had finally reached the apex of rank-5 and only required a strong enough trigger to upgrade her rank.
Not only that, but according to Queenie they were only about a few days, a week at most, to reach her home, the city of the R.B.R.
In fact, during this fun little timeskip, they finally encountered something.
A strange chill ran through everyone's body as they walked, and they all shivered. Usually, due to their clothing and soul juice, this cold environment wasn't enough to affect them at their level, but this was different.
Unconsciously, they looked in the direction the wind came from, and very very far in the distance, I mean hundreds of miles out, they could see the faint silhouette of giant clouds above the Yellow mountains.
The four of them were confused and didn't know the significance of what just happened, but Queenie did.
And before any of them could ask anything, Queenie's face paled before she directly threw up all over the ground, coloring it a nasty yellow.