Although Yuki-Onna seems to be not hostile to me, I still feel nervous because she got curious about me. Why? Because in the tales of her legends, she can freeze any human, strong or weak, man or woman, child or adult to an ice block. And without any resistance to ice magic, I don't think I will survive it either. I bet the Yuki-Onna is quite high-leveled already. No way I will survive if I enrage her. The only way to do that is to keep her calm and collected until we are allowed to go. Of course, my persuasion abilities are next to none so I will be hoping for the best that I survive this encounter without the need for me to escape.
"I can tell that you are quite serious in your goal here and you didn't do anything wrong in the first place. But I am not just gonna let you go without answering my questions. After all, I am very curious about you."
Then, all of a sudden, the ice around me started to flow into the snow pile not too far from me and started gathering there all of a sudden. And a few seconds later, the Yuki-Onna in the flesh appeared, smiling and showing her icy beauty.
"Hello there."
I froze up on where I stood the moment she appeared. Although I have seen my fair share of women in my lifetime, I can say that the Yuki-Onna is quite the beauty. If she stars in a movie or anything close to that, she will immediately gather male fans left and right without effort. She might even get the role of the leading lady all the time as well and many actors might even try to court her if that was the case.
Her beauty is something else. She had a natural beauty on her and I am not saying about her body type like her sexy body and bigger assets, but just the face alone, many people would find her pretty attractive that I can even see some women go livid and might actually feel attracted to her as well. You can say she is the living beauty standards women want to have.
But even with that beauty of hers present, that doesn't mean she is harmless. That beauty alone is dangerous and I know that beauty can also bring danger. If she could, she could attract a lot of them, and once they are head over heels for her, she will freeze them to death and collect a lot of bodies for her amusement. That alone is terrifying.
I immediately went on defensive on instinct. I may not feel any hostile intent coming from her, but her presence alone triggered my survival instinct. Her presence alone is enough for me to know that I am not going to be in a good situation if I made a bad decision in front of her.
"Hehehe, I can see that you are not just easily attracted by my beauty, and instead of fawning over me, you immediately raise your guard and are ready to fight. That is a mentality of a true warrior there and only a handful of people have ever shown me that kind of behavior. You are indeed a curious one."
"Uh...I know you seemed kind of amazed to see someone like me but can I go now if you don't need anything else? I am in a kind of a hurry."
"Impatient, aren't we? That's fine and all but being impatient does not bring many blessings and sometimes, it brings misfortunes too. Be patient. Anyways, I am not letting you go just yet. You could say that this was something necessary to be done for you who trespassed on a territory without asking for permission to hunt. Therefore, I will take a bit of your precious time for the time being."
Ugh, great. Now I am stuck at this and waste a bit more time. Still, I can't ignore her, or else, she will just freeze me and I will have to wait for the revival counter to count down before reviving into the cathedral. That is more hours wasted than waiting to see what she has in mind right now. As she just said, I should be patient. Anyways, let's see what she needed me for.
"Follow me, and we will talk for a bit. I will ease up the temperature as well so that it's easier for you to follow me as I can see you are having a hard time traversing the snowy forest."
After saying that, the surroundings got significantly warmer. It's not that warm as the cold air is still present but it was just not that bad compared to earlier when it is just freezing temperature.
"You see, I have been observing you since you started hunting. You have been a great hunter from what I can see and you are pretty patient and capable of adapting to the movements of your prey. That shows that you are quite capable and know what you are doing in the first place," Yuki-Onna continues to walk through, while we pass on the previous areas where I killed the White Howlers. Blood is still present on the snow that has been slowly got buried by new snow.
"Well, it's practice, and practice makes perfect. I didn't start this well in the beginning so it's normal."
"I can see that. And with that, I have to ask a favor of someone who is a hunter. I rarely give out requests to humans and most of the time, the humans I have requested stuff have only followed my wishes and requests due to fear and I don't like it as they are more likely to do more sloppy things than doing something good."
"A request? Well, if it is within my capabilities, then sure, let's hear it then," I nodded in response. If she is giving a request, that also means she is giving out a good reward as well. It's tempting and I think this is worth hearing and might even be worth a shot as well.
"Good. Then, perhaps you have heard of the legend about me and this forest, yes?"
"About the woman who begged you to kill her husband because he cheated?"
"Yep. That's the one. As you can see, legends might be fake and might be something that has been fabricated by people and I can definitely see some people adding more details that shouldn't be part of the original scene that transpired twisting the real information, turning it into a legend. However, the legend about me and that woman is indeed real."
"Okay...so why bring that up?" I tilted my head as I think I can guess something about her request.
"Here is the thing. I have indeed decided to take the life of the wife when she decided to escape instead of giving me an offering or anything that can count as an equal payment for my services. I take my contracts seriously and if someone did a good job, I would be happy with it and happily receive payment. But being cheated after she agreed to give me something of an equal payment breaks that and that resulted in her death."
We soon arrived at a clearing in the forest that I have not seen before. Perhaps we are in the deepest part of the forest. As I mentioned before, I didn't fully explore this forest and have not reached this far in the past timeline.
On that clearing is one large tree and on that tree is a big chunk of ice that is strapped on the tree's trunk.
"Wait, is this the location of the man in the legend? The one who was frozen to death by you after the wife requested for his death?"
"Yes, you are correct. This is the one who was killed due to a request. However, that is not the one I am trying to let you focus on. Look around that tree and focus on it. Something is currently floating around there, yes?"
I didn't notice it until Yuki-Onna pointed out to me what she was talking about. And that is an incorporeal entity flying over there, circling around the tree and the ice block. The moment I spotted it, a status box appeared, revealing to me what it was.
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[Ice Haunt] Unique Monster
Level 450
HP: ?????/????
Traits: Ice, Ghost
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Ice Haunt? That is something new and I haven't seen that kind of monster before. Haunts though, I have seen my share of them and have defeated a few of them in the past timeline as well.
"Here is my request. You have seen that ghost floating around the tree? Please, remove it and eliminate it from its existence, perhaps even bring it to the afterlife if possible."
"You can't defeat it yourself? Aren't you stronger than the Haunt?" I asked. After all, she is a strong entity and can even rival some boss monsters as well.
"Because she became somewhat similar to me. She is now immune to ice and has started to corrupt her surroundings as well. I can't get rid of her even if I wanted to."
"What's in it for me though?"
"Of course, if you are successful, then you will earn an appropriate reward and an extra bonus as well~"
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