‘Yuji! It’s a dead-end!’

‘There’s a lot of noise!’

The slimes that were advancing in the tunnel had now stopped… Well, they had arrived at what was likely the exit.

Or perhaps it was the entrance for the people who had dug the tunnel.

‘…Here…’

I had meant for the slimes to go on ahead and find out where the entrance led to…but that was not necessary.

It was incredibly obvious where it led…a giant facility…or village.

‘Meshias Village.’

That’s what the sign by the village entrance said.

The village Udoka had said was mysterious and eerie.

Rikardo was having a firewood shortage. And yet Meshias had lots of firewood in spite of their small population. And they had tried to sell their firewood at exorbitant rates.

It had been a mystery as to how they had so much firewood, but if this entire village was a secret hideout for the Blue Moon of Salvation, then it all made sense.

After all, it was this village who was scattering the cursed stones and causing the weather to become cold.

…When you thought about it, a village in the countryside was the perfect place for the Blue Moon of Salvation.

No one would come in from the outside. All the villagers were members and it would not be difficult to drive out any wanderers.

And any who still refused to leave could just be killed, and they could say it was an illness or accident.

And no one would be any wiser, since everyone in the village were members.

Well, I didn’t know for sure that everyone who lived here was a member…but it did seem like a safe bet.

‘Can you enter the village without getting caught?’

It looked like a normal village from the outside.

But there was a magic barrier once you went through the gate, and normal people could not enter.

As there was nothing to protect the gate, they probably allowed visitors to come that far before driving them away.

Even though they were the Blue Moon of Salvation, they couldn’t kill everyone who approached them. People would get suspicious very quickly.

And so it was best to make visitors leave peacefully without finding out about the barrier, if possible.

The problem was…how was I going to get the slimes inside…

‘Easy!’

‘Piece of cake!’

The slimes said as they climbed up the wall.

The Blue Moon of Salvation must have anticipated that someone would try and climb the outer walls, and so they had blades sticking out on top. They were at an angle that hid them from view when you looked up….of course, blades were not effective on slimes.

Slimes did not care about being cut. And so blades and tree branches were the same to them.

And so they entered the village without any problem.

And then…I was able to hear the conversation of the residents very clearly.

‘We have to recover the cursed rough stones no matter what! It doesn’t have to be all 108! But as many as you can! …Damn it! What the hell happened!’

…I see.

So they called them ‘cursed rough stones.’ That was easy to understand.

And I had purified and destroyed exactly 108 of them.

In other words, I had succeeded in finding all of them and purifying them.

Nothing could get passed my slimes.

‘We’ll put together a team to go and find them! Gather everyone who is free!’

‘Yes! …But how shall we make teams? I think there should be groups of 6 if there is a possibility of battle…’

‘…There is no need for that. Teams of 2 are fine. …That wasn’t the kind of disaster that humans could cause. It must have been a meteor or something.’

But it was good that they didn’t know it was me.

‘What about the people who saw us?’

‘Kill them all. I don’t care if it looks a little unnatural. Now that the ‘Curse Source’ is destroyed, there is no reason for us to stay in this village.’

‘As you command!’

That was the conversation that I overheard.

…Leaving these guys alone seemed like it would result in innocent deaths.

‘Surround the village so they can’t escape. …Not too close to the wall. About 1 km away.’

If we caught them as soon as they left, then the enemy would notice us.

And so I thought to cast a wider net…

‘Okay!’

‘Actually, we already did!’

Apparently, the slimes had already finished surrounding the village.

In fact, the slimes had been scattered around the area already, so they just had to fill in the holes.

This was possible because I had so many slimes…

I thought of this while trying to decide what method of attack I should use for the Blue Moon of Salvation.

Now that I knew all of the residents here were members, there was no reason to hold back.

Using Hellfire of Death and just destroying the entire village was one way.

I had already used it once today, but with my current HP and MP, it would not be difficult to use it again.

But…that should be a last resort.

This entire village was their base.

It would not be strange if there was something inside.

For instance…they could have a shelter that was able to withstand Hellfire of Death. That would mean I would have to fight them after all the MP and HP depletion.

That was something I had to avoid.

It would be suicide to take on the Blue Moon of Salvation without being able to use magic.

And so I did not want to use it if possible.

So then…

‘Alright, slimes. Go inside of the buildings and gather anything you can find! If you see a bookshelf, take the whole thing!’