Chapter 73: Obey the Strong
He walked up in front of Walfred, offering his thanks with a bow at the waist. Then, in a polite voice quite different from before, he said:
"I sincerely thank you for resolving our shelter’s crisis. And I humbly apologize for doubting you all this time."
A complete 180 from his attitude moments ago.
Walfred snorted and asked back:
"What’s with the formal talk all of a sudden?"
"Because this is the right way to do it."
Mitchell answered curtly.
After the ice age, the laws and norms that had kept order vanished, and it became a world where power was everything.
As a result, a new rule emerged.
’Obey the strong, no exceptions.’
Otherwise, all that came back to you was merciless violence and death. There were actually hunters who’d beaten a non-Awakened to death simply because their mood had been spoiled.
That was why he kept speaking in a deferential tone.
"Honestly, I didn’t pin any hopes on the post Sienna put up. After all, there was no reason for the hunter Walfred to come to a place like this."
His thinking was spot on.
Walfred, too, would have had no intention of coming here if Elsa hadn’t been struck by the curse.
"And yet you came anyway, on purpose. I sincerely thank you for that. Truly, thank you."
Mitchell offered his thanks once more.
And just then.
"...Ah!"
Sienna belatedly snapped back to her senses.
She’d been wearing nothing but a blank expression for a while, but now, just as Mitchell had done earlier, she clasped both hands in front of her and bowed her head over and over.
"I-I’m so sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were the hunter Walfred, so I doubted you, and I spoke so rudely, so, I mean, what I’m trying to say is..."
"It’s fine, so calm down."
Her doubt had been reasonable.
Because if the situation had been reversed, Walfred would have reacted exactly the way Sienna had.
At Walfred’s cool reply, Sienna lifted her head with an awkward look.
"Um, there’s something I’d like to ask."
"What is it?"
"Oh! Before that, please speak casually with me. You’re older than me and you’re our shelter’s savior, so if you keep talking like that, it makes me really uncomfortable..."
Judging by the look on her face, like she was about to get indigestion, she didn’t just mean it as a courtesy; she genuinely seemed uncomfortable.
Walfred nodded as if to say he understood, and only then did Sienna look relieved.
Then she went on with her question.
"Are you really a frost-attribute hunter?"
"As you can see."
"R-really?! Then how did you exterminate an Elite undead all by yourself...?"
It was only natural she’d be curious.
Walfred had anticipated a question like this would come up sooner or later. So he brought out the answer he’d prepared.
"I’ve got a skill that ignores attribute resistance."
"What? Th-there’s something like that?!"
Sienna asked back, startled.
Mitchell, who’d been keeping quiet, looked fairly surprised as well. In response, Walfred simply nodded without a word.
His manner seemed to say not to ask any further, so Sienna clamped her mouth shut.
As a brief silence lingered.
"Um, miss?"
"Now that the Corpse Lord’s been exterminated, don’t you think the chief might have come to as well?"
The hunters, watching for an opening, spoke up.
At that, Sienna’s eyes widened.
"Oh, you’re right. Should we head back for now?"
Walfred nodded too.
Elsa had probably woken up by now as well.
And so the three of them set off toward the warehouse where everyone was gathered.
---
A while after that.
Walfred took off his blood-soaked winter gear and changed into a fresh set the shelter had to spare.
After that, around the time he’d picked off all the blood and flesh stuck to his face, he reached his destination. And a familiar, energy-filled voice greeted him.
"Daddy!"
Elsa came pattering over from a distance.
Reaching him in a single dash, Elsa nestled into his arms with a beaming smile. She looked so lively you’d never guess she’d been struck by a curse.
"You okay? Nothing hurts?"
"Nope! I slept super well."
Elsa grinned.
He’d worried that lifting the curse might leave some after effects, but perhaps because the curse had only held her for a short time, nothing out of the ordinary turned up.
The other side, however, was a somewhat different story.
"Hey, bring some warm water!"
"We need wet towels too! As many as you can"
The chief, who’d slept for three days under the curse.
Probably because she hadn’t been able to so much as drink a proper sip of water that whole time, the chief looked like a wreck.
In the chaotic atmosphere, the children hovered, unable to do anything but watch for cues. Just then, Elsa suddenly tugged at his hand.
"Daddy, Daddy."
"Hmm?"
"Can I go play with the other kids?"
Elsa pointed at the children.
Somehow they’d already grown close, and a few of the kids could be seen waving at Elsa. As if she’d caught on to Walfred’s puzzlement, Elsa said with sparkling eyes:
"They talked to me when I woke up earlier!"
Well, going by mental age alone, they might be about the same, I guess. And since he happened to have something to do anyway, Walfred gladly nodded.
"Sure, go play."
"Okay!"
The instant Walfred finished speaking.
Elsa dashed off toward the children.
Now alone, he settled into a suitably out-of-the-way corner and rummaged through his pockets.
It was time to look over the loot he’d gotten from exterminating the Corpse Lord.
’Coins first.’
Twenty-five thousand coins.
A somewhat underwhelming amount compared to the Bone Drake, but still not a small sum.
This would give him a little more breathing room when shopping at the hunter shop. Having finished checking his balance, Walfred next pulled out the skill book he’d obtained.
And the moment he opened it.
Paaat!
The skill book flashed, wreathed in light, then vanished like dust. A moment later, the new skill he’d acquired appeared before Walfred’s eyes.
-----
[Support: Ice Orb (Lv.1)]
[Absorbs and compresses cold into the form of an orb. Consuming the orb temporarily enhances physical abilities. Alternatively, destroying the orb scatters sharp ice fragments that devastate the surrounding area.]
▷Mana cost: 10 per 1% of charge
▷Physical enhancement: +250%
▷Enhancement duration: 180 seconds
▷Maximum held: 3
▶Cooldown: 10 minutes
-----
Before he could even read through the skill’s detailed effects.
Once again, without fail, the skill enhancement effect of [Frost Domain] kicked in.
[’Ice Orb’ is enhanced.]
[Mana cost: 20 → 10]
[Physical enhancement: 250% → 500%]
What he’d acquired this time was a support skill that could be used both as a buff and as a means of attack.
Swallow the ice orb and physical abilities shot up dramatically for three minutes. Conversely, throwing the orb to burst it looked like it could be used as an attack as well.
But one thing puzzled him.
’How does it absorb the cold?’
It wasn’t like there was an absorption-related command written anywhere. Walfred tilted his head. But this question was resolved before long.
-----
[Notification]
[Cold is being emitted into the surroundings.]
[Support: Ice Orb activated]
[Cold is being absorbed.]
[Current charge]: 5%
-----
Along with a sudden notification.
A single ice orb about the size of a BB pellet appeared before his eyes.
The instant he saw it, Walfred realized something.
’Ah, I see.’
That [Ice Orb] was a skill that linked with his passive, [Cold Emission].
It accumulated the cold radiated by [Cold Emission] and compressed it into an orb.
’Since each [Cold Emission] charges it by 5%...’
It meant one orb would be complete after just twenty repetitions. Considering the current interval of [Cold Emission], he could make an orb roughly every seven minutes.
This seemed good enough.
’In any case, I’m curious how much power it has when used as an attack.’
This he couldn’t test right away.
Not only was the ice orb not yet complete, there also wasn’t a suitable target to attack.
So he decided to test it later.
Then, just as he was about to finish looking over the rest of the loot.
"You can’t!"
Along with a loud voice that suddenly rang out.
A small commotion broke out over where the chief was.
