When they first said they smelled blood flowing in from somewhere.
To be honest.
I was thinking of just ignoring it and moving on.
‘It bothers me, but... I’m in a hurry too.’
Humans were dying.
If I thought about the original reason I came over into Gyeonggi Province.
It was something I should somehow deal with.
That was what my rational mind was shouting.
‘My parents’ safety comes first.’
My family, currently listed as missing.
There was a chance they might still be alive for now.
And if I was even a little bit late.
The people who were still alive up to this very moment.
Might end up discovered as corpses because of that tiny difference.
Yeah.
Just like how, back when I hadn’t yet realized I could cross that Wall, my parents weren’t missing.
But by the time I’d made thorough preparations and crossed the Wall, they were already in a missing status.
Like that.
Even while I was feeling sorry about it, I’d been planning to ignore that commotion and just keep running.
“If we keep going like this, I think we’re going to run right into them...?”
“......”
What I hadn’t expected was.
That the direction those humans were fighting in.
Was the same direction I was heading.
Gyeonggi Province is a wide stretch of land.
Smelling blood in the air.
With how sharp vampires’ sense of smell is, that much was understandable.
‘But humans just happening to be fighting there... on the shortest route toward the source of that cold?’
When I thought about it.
It was a bit strange that humans were even in a place like this.
“What do you wish to do, Master of our master?”
“Shall we just ignore them and pass by?”
However.
If they were on the path I was taking.
“...Ha. Damn it.”
I hesitated for a moment.
Then let out a sigh and said.
“If we pointlessly detour far away just to avoid that battle, it’ll take even longer.”
If we kept going along the shortest route anyway.
We were bound to collide with them.
In that case.
“We clear it up as fast as possible, then we go right back to where we were headed.”
“Mmm. Understood!”
And so.
I decided to intervene in their fight.
****
When I first arrived at the scene.
What I heard was...
“Charge!!!”
A booming voice ordering a charge.
And I saw the magic power contained in that voice spreading out in all directions.
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but widen my eyes.
‘That?’
The magic power contained in that voice wasn’t affecting me.
But the way that kind of power was being used.
Was quite familiar.
‘It’s similar to Lieutenant Kim.’
The amount of magic I felt was less than Lieutenant Kim’s.
But the effect itself felt like it would be similar.
I didn’t know the details.
But.
There was a high probability that a group including someone with a Field-type ability like Lieutenant Kim’s.
‘So it’s a group that includes a wide-area buffer, and they’re the ones being ambushed.’
Now that I’d roughly grasped the human side’s situation.
I decided to look at the side that was ambushing those humans.
However.
Their figures weren’t easy to see.
‘They’re using the blizzard.’
The sun was already hidden behind the snow clouds, so the ground was dark to begin with.
On top of that, a blizzard was raging, so visibility was extremely narrow.
Those attackers seemed to be fighting while keeping their distance from the humans.
As if they were deliberately taking advantage of that limited visibility.
‘...Hm.’
The problem was.
Even though the charging humans were moving at quite a speed.
The ones moving away from them.
Were also widening the distance at a tremendous pace.
In an environment like this, how were they even moving that fast?
And not only that, despite keeping themselves at a distance where they were invisible behind the blizzard, how were they still pinpointing the humans’ positions and attacking them?
There were plenty of questions.
But one thing was clear.
‘At this rate, they’ll dry up and die just chasing.’
I didn’t know if the one who unleashed that Field-type power had realized that and therefore given the order to charge.
But if things kept going like this, it was obvious the humans were going to lose.
The one bit of good news was.
‘Their encirclement isn’t thick.’
There were many silhouettes lurking behind that blizzard.
But maybe they thought there was no chance of themselves being taken down by humans.
Each silhouette was covering a fairly wide area.
And just taking down one of them.
Looked like it would open up an escape route for those humans.
‘Even if they can move at incredible speed... all they’re doing is moving away from those charging humans.’
Since their path of movement was obvious.
‘They’re not going to be able to avoid me sneaking up on them.’
Catching up to them.
Wouldn’t be difficult!
[You have consumed Legion’s Droplet Jelly infused with a War Cook’s devotion!]
[Through the effect of Absolute Palate, you gain Trait ‘Environmental Assimilation’.]
A world of blinding white blizzard.
In that world, my body turned white and blended in naturally.
And soon, it completely became one with it.
Now that the effect of Absolute Palate no longer stacks.
Once Environmental Assimilation activated, the Cold Resistance that had been in effect up to that point vanished.
And I felt a cold like it was piercing my bones.
‘I finish this as fast as possible.’
Like that.
After fully assimilating into the blizzard-filled environment.
I approached the humans who were being ambushed.
“I’ll clear a path for you.”
“What?”
“I’m busy too, so from next time on, handle it yourselves.”
Leaving just that rough line behind.
I immediately widened the distance from those humans.
And moved in pursuit of the silhouette that was circling around them.
The monster that was moving to avoid exposing itself to the humans who’d revealed themselves.
Didn’t even pay any attention to me, who was hiding my presence.
A faint shadow visible beyond the blizzard.
After moving as fast as I could toward that shadow.
‘I cut it.’
[Chef’s Eye activates.]
[You gain Insight into Advanced Cooking Secret – ‘Frost Hunter Panteron butchering method’.]
[Insight already acquired.]
[Insight acquisition is nullified.]
Together with the two vampires that had been hiding inside my shadow.
I slashed that silhouette down.
[You have gained experience.]
And.
As I was cutting it down like that, I realized.
‘This guy is—’
The monster I had just cut down.
Was a monster I’d already butchered before.
[Frost Hunter Panteron]
This monster, which looked like a white monkey, was a herd-living, wild-beast-type monster.
Because of that pure white appearance, it was a monster that was hard to spot in the snow.
‘I’m sure there were some in the Northern Branch’s storage too.’
In Gyeonggi Province.
It was a monster you could find fairly often.
Which was why.
I couldn’t help but find it strange.
‘Didn’t these guys just throw ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) something like ice spears?’
Not only that.
They’d even been moving through this snow.
As if they were swimming through water, with incredible speed.
That kind of thing.
‘Is not an ability the Panterons I know have...?’
Frost Hunter Panteron was indeed a fairly strong monster.
But in the end, it was just a beast-like monster whose only strength was its physical capabilities.
It wasn’t the type to display such unusual powers.
While I was wondering what on earth the ability I’d just seen was.
[‘15’ Divine Power senses a heterogeneous existence.]
“Huh?”
The giant monster in front of my eyes that looked like a monkey.
Inside it.
I could feel something unknown.
It was clearly lodged within that monkey.
But once I cut the monster’s body clean in two.
As if it had lost its place to be.
It wandered here and there.
And then.
It dropped out of the Panteron’s body.
‘What the... is that?’
For a moment, I thought it might be some kind of zombie-like parasite.
But.
For that.
It was moving around far too freely inside the monster’s body.
‘As if it doesn’t have any physical form at all.’
I reached my hand out toward that something.
SSSSK.
My hand just passed through that something, powerless.
Catching nothing at all.
No.
To be exact.
Nothing was caught.
But there was something I could feel.
‘Cold...?’
That thing could only be sensed thanks to the influence of Divine Power.
I couldn’t get a grip on it.
I couldn’t even see it, so I couldn’t trigger Ingredient Identification.
And yet.
It was incredibly cold.
-!?
As my hand passed through it.
It reacted as if it had been greatly startled.
It thrashed around wildly.
Then flew off somewhere.
And.
The moment it disappeared off in the distance.
‘Just a tiny bit, but still.’
I.
Realized one thing.
‘The temperature went up.’
The moment that thing vanished from this spot.
This place.
Had gotten just a little bit warmer.
At that moment.
One intuition flashed through my mind.
‘A trait that lowers the surrounding temperature.’
The fact that the surrounding temperature had risen when that thing vanished.
Meant that the surrounding temperature had been dropping because that thing was there.
‘My straight-line dash toward the source of this cold... overlapped with its route.’
The place where I’d run into this thing.
Had been on the middle of the shortest path toward the source of this cold.
I didn’t have much evidence.
But my intuition was screaming.
“These guys.”
The cold that had blanketed Gyeonggi Province.
And.
The humans who had gone missing.
“Those things are...!”
The very cause.
That I had been running to find.
****
The thing I’d been searching for.
The cause of this cold.
That the cause was that ‘something’ which had just disappeared.
My intuition was screaming that at me.
‘I never thought I’d be able to run into the cause this soon.’
However.
There was one problem.
“I couldn’t see it.”
Thanks to the influence of Divine Power, I had been able to sense it.
But it hadn’t appeared to my eyes.
And.
What that meant was simple.
‘Ingredient Identification and Chef’s Eye are both powers that only activate when I actually get it in my sight.’
Until now, not a single entity I’d discovered.
Had escaped being observed by those skills and traits.
But this time was an exception.
Even though I’d finally found the enemy I’d been searching for.
My traits weren’t activating to let me get information on it.
It was a hugely frustrating situation.
Even so.
“...Ha-ha!”
A laugh slipped out of my mouth.
“Found you...!”
I laughed.
Monsters that were probably deeply connected to my parents’ disappearance.
That I’d be able to latch onto a lead like this so quickly!
Not being able to get information was fatal.
But there was a way to solve it.
[Divine Power: 15]
This unknown stat.
That was flowing somewhere inside my body.
This stat was what had let me sense that existence that I originally shouldn’t have been able to sense.
‘If it’s this power that makes the impossible possible.’
Then when I found that existence again.
It might be possible.
‘To get it into my sight.’
For that.
First.
I pushed myself up to my feet.
And looked around.
-Break through, break through!
-I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s a chance! We have to escape now!
Once I’d taken down one of the monsters.
I could see, off in the distance.
The humans trying to punch through the gap that had finally opened in the encirclement.
And.
Those unknown silhouettes.
Which had gathered to hunt those humans.
“At first, I missed them.”
Gripping my knife.
I headed toward where those silhouettes were.
“This time, I don’t miss.”
I tried to move my feet.
Toward them...
-WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH-!
Right at that moment.
The blizzard that had already been fiercely slamming into my face.
I could feel it grow even thicker.
“...!?”
Even before, it had been hard to see ahead.
But now, the blizzard had thickened to the point where I truly couldn’t see right in front of my nose.
-WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH...!
The sound of it howling around me.
Was like.
‘Are you angry?’
A roar pouring out the anger.
At having its prey stolen.
And.
Maybe that wasn’t just my imagination.
-KUUM......
From beyond the dense blizzard.
From that place where nothing at all was visible.
Something.
Let out a set of incredibly massive footsteps.
‘...Figures.’
Even if I had used Environmental Assimilation.
To hide my presence and assassinate a monster.
‘It’s not like they’re such pushovers that they wouldn’t even notice that much... is that it?’
This blizzard.
Was probably their domain.
Just like that ‘Pope’ had managed to find my position underwater when I’d used Environmental Assimilation.
These things too.
If they put their mind to it, could probably find my position as well.
KUUM...
KRRRRRRRRRT.
KRK.
KIIIK...!
From beyond the blizzard where I couldn’t see even an inch ahead.
Came footsteps that were absurdly huge.
And the roars of countless different beasts.
And.
[Combat Power Gauge]
Beyond that blizzard.
In the invisible fog, countless colors lit up.
‘Looks like letting those humans go... really pissed them off.’
I could feel them.
Drawing closer to me.
