As the sounds came closer and closer, I finally saw how many there were.
Three of them.
When I saw this, I couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.
As they came closer and closer and the sounds became louder, I started getting worried that there might be too many of them because of all the sound that they made. But in the end, it was only three of them which was still in the realm of what I could handle.
After all, the Time Stop skill wasn't an omnipotent skill.
It was still a skill that had restrictions.
The Time Stop skill was currently at level one and at this level, I could only use it for ten minutes at max. Then for however long I used it, I would have to recharge that time by letting that amount of time pass without using the Time Stop skill.
In short, there was a banked time for this Time Stop skill and every time I used it, I would drain from that banked time.
It was like a battery for the Time Stop skill.
Based on the time that it had taken me to kill the slime from before, I should be reaching the limits of the Time Stop skill by taking care of these three slimes.
So I didn't activate the Time Stop skill right away when I saw the three slimes approach.
Instead, I started moving towards them on my own.
The distance between me and the three slimes slowly decreased until they were in range to attack.
Then just like the slime from before, these three slimes all stopped bouncing and tightened their bodies on the ground. All three of them were gathering tension to shoot at me like a cannonball.
I stopped moving when I saw this and carefully watched these three slimes.
Then all of a sudden, the three slimes shot out all at once.
All three of them were aiming at me, but it seemed like there was some kind of coordination between them. Not all of them were aimed at the same spot.
One was aiming at my head, one was aiming at my stomach, and the last one was aiming at my leg.
It seemed that they knew that they wouldn't be able to hit the same spot, so they divided their parts equally.
I didn't understand how these slimes knew to cooperate, but they were able to work together in the end.
I didn't have time to think about this since they were quickly coming at me.
Seeing this, I finally didn't hold back and released the Time Stop skill.
The moment that it was released, all three of the slimes were frozen in the air. It was just like before with the other slime.
But I hadn't remained idle like before.
I knew that they would freeze, so I had already started moving the moment I released the Time Stop skill.
I didn't hesitate to stab at the nearest slime again and again until I was finally able to pierce through its skin. Then in one smooth move, I stabbed my sword right into the core of the slime.
Then in one more smooth move, I pulled the sword out of the slime and turned to the second closest slime.
Wasting no time, I started stabbing at this slime too.
Just like this, I was able to stab through the core of all three of these slimes.
But to my surprise, I found that I had only taken around eight minutes to do so. I had thought that it would take at least nine minutes to do so, but it seemed like that wasn't the case.
It seemed that I had gotten better at this.
At the same time, I had forgotten about the fact that I had acted without hesitation this time. This has saved me quite a bit of time since I didn't waste any time delaying my actions.
I also didn't waste more time after stabbing the core of the last slime. As soon as I stabbed it, I quickly moved away and released the Time Stop.
The moment that the Time Stop was released, all three of the slimes exploded at the same time and dropped their acid innards onto the ground.
After a while, all of the things left behind by the slimes disappeared and they were replaced by drops.
It was only then that I relaxed my body and let out a sigh of relief.
I had been prepared just in case anything changed, but it seemed like I had been worried for nothing.
But of course, I didn't waste any time in picking up the drops that had fallen to the ground and put them all away in my bag.
Then I wasted no time in dimming the light on my head and finding a place to rest.
I need to recover the time that I had spent taking care of these slimes.
Only after all of that did I finally go find more slimes to take down.
Just like this, I went on a killing spree of the slimes.
…
Close to an hour had passed and I had gotten much better at killing the slimes.
I had found that there were certain parts of the slime that were much weaker than the rest of the slime.
These were parts of the skin that were thinner, making them more flexible which allowed the slime to contort its body like this.
But since they were thinner, they were easier for me to cut through.
Like this, I was able to increase the number of slimes I could take care of at the same time since I didn't need to spend that much time on each of the slimes.
I had gained quite a bit of loot this way, it seemed like I would make quite the killing when I got back.
As I was preparing to hunt some more slimes after resting, I suddenly heard something coming from in front of me.
"Help!"