Everything, including how his passive skill, Cold Emission, lowered the surrounding temperature. Meanwhile, Rosa and Bauer’s eyes went round at his words.

"What? Frost attribute?"

"But it wasn’t this bad earlier, when we were talking and eating..."

"That’s because she was here."

Walfred pointed at Lauren’s retreating figure.

"She’s a fire attribute."

He’d originally planned not to reveal Lauren’s attribute. Fire attribute was highly valued; it was the noble attribute everyone wanted.

But he’d changed his mind.

He figured that the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall, which had Blue Hole with its tropical climate, wouldn’t have any reason to covet a fire attribute Awakened. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

And his guess proved correct.

"I thought it was strange she was out in this cold wearing nothing but a single coat. So it was because she’s a fire attribute Awakened."

Bauer nodded as if his question had finally been answered. And there was no trace of greed in his expression toward a fire attribute Awakened.

Just then, Rosa suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked Walfred over.

"But if you’re frost attribute, wouldn’t you be useless in combat? Most monsters have had cold resistance ever since the ice age started..."

A remark that hit the nail on the head.

Walfred was about to explain that he was fine against lower-ranked monsters. But Bauer’s rebuttal came even faster.

"No, it’s fine. He’ll definitely be useful."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because the ones we’re dealing with are E-rank monsters. And low-rank monsters don’t have particularly strong frost resistance anyway."

Bauer spoke with unwavering certainty.

Then he broke into a grin.

"More importantly, the fact that he made it here alive from Crown Heights, which is crawling with monsters, is proof enough that he can more than pull his own weight."

A confident rebuttal. Rosa seemed convinced and quietly closed her mouth. With the conversation wrapped up, Bauer rose from his seat and looked at Walfred.

"All right, time for you to hold up your end of the deal."

The agreement to cooperate in monster extermination in exchange for information about the White Dome and food. Walfred nodded and asked,

"Starting right now?"

"Yeah. Those things only come out at night."

With that ominous remark.

Bauer’s gaze drifted to Lauren in the distance, busy helping with cleanup. He probably intended to bring her along for the monster extermination as well.

Catching on, Walfred quickly spoke up.

"I’d rather leave her behind."

"Huh? Why?"

"She’s still an F-rank hunter."

"...What?"

Bauer’s eyes widened slightly.

"Don’t tell me she just recently awakened?"

"Something like that."

That wasn’t remotely the truth.

But explaining the full story was too much of a hassle, so he decided to just go with the "recently awakened" story.

"More importantly, having an opposing attribute right next to me makes it hard for me to perform at my best."

"Mm, I see what you mean."

Bauer nodded.

"We’ll leave her out of the extermination. But that means you’ll need to properly pull double duty."

"Don’t worry about that."

Walfred grinned.

E-rank monsters shouldn’t be much of a challenge. With that confident answer, Walfred left the gate along with Bauer and Rosa.

---

The front entrance of the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall building.

Bauer called over one of the two young men who’d been guarding the parking garage entrance earlier, telling him he’d be joining the monster extermination.

A moment later, a young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties stepped forward. He bowed his head to Walfred and introduced himself.

"I’m Ferd, light attribute hunter."

A Level 15, E-rank hunter.

He said he was twenty-three this year and had been discharged from the military just before the ice age. He then explained the skills he’d acquired.

"The skills I primarily use are one that illuminates darkness with light, and a physical ability enhancement buff."

"Physical ability enhancement buff?"

"Yes. Anyone enveloped in the aura of light I create gets a significant boost to their physical abilities. The maximum enhancement effect is +50%."

The skill that illuminated darkness with light was expected, but the skill that enhanced the physical abilities of everyone bathed in that light was not.

Walfred raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Then your attack skills are..."

"Unfortunately, I haven’t learned any yet."

Ferd smiled sheepishly.

In other words, a pure support.

Still, skills that lit up the darkness of night and enhanced allies’ physical abilities would be quite helpful.

Next was Rosa’s turn.

"I have the skill you already experienced, the one that levitates targets into the air."

"Anything else besides..."

"A skill that lightens a designated target’s body to amplify their movement speed, and Wind Cutter, which creates blades of wind and launches them."

Wind Cutter.

The signature attack skill of wind attribute hunters. However, upon hearing more, it turned out she had no other attack skills beyond that.

In other words, Rosa’s role was that of a support and sub-DPS with ranged attack capability.

"Guess it’s my turn next."

Then Bauer stepped forward.

A Level 42, C-rank hunter.

He clenched his large fists and spoke.

"I have a skill that manipulates earth and rock, reshaping them at will. Other than that, most of my skills are specialized for close-quarters combat, getting up close and trading blows with enemies."

Tank and melee DPS.

That was how Bauer described his abilities.

With that, Walfred understood why Bauer had asked him to help with the monster extermination.

’They don’t have a main DPS.’

At the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall, the only one truly capable of monster extermination was Bauer. The rest were either too low-level or not particularly suited for combat.

"Your turn now."

Then Bauer spoke up.

He meant for Walfred to explain his skills. Walfred nodded and began.

"I’m similar to you. I create weapons out of ice and fight up close."

He added that he also had a mid-range attack skill, though not quite long-range. With their mutual skill and ability briefing concluded.

Walfred followed up with a question.

"By the way, how are you planning to handle the extermination? Just patrol around the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall and take out anything we see?"

"No, our target is that."

"...The Lower Manhattan Tech Precinct?"

"Yeah. The goal is to wipe out the creatures that took it over and reclaim the building."

The building across from the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall.

The Lower Manhattan Tech Precinct, only about a hundred yards away, gave off an eerily desolate atmosphere compared to its surroundings.

How to describe it? Compared to the District Hall building, the whole place seemed cloaked in darkness. And the most baffling part was something else entirely.

’They want to reclaim that? Why?’

It didn’t look like anything special.

On top of that, unlike the District Hall, there was no underground parking garage, so it didn’t even seem suitable as a shelter.

So he asked outright.

"Is there a particular reason to reclaim it?"

"Absolutely. There’s another F-rank gate on the sixth floor."

"Wait, there’s another gate?"

"Yeah. A gate called ’Mirror Lake.’"

F-rank gate, Mirror Lake.

According to Bauer’s explanation, Mirror Lake was smaller in scale than Blue Hole, but it contained a critically important resource that Blue Hole lacked.

Fresh drinking water.

"Blue Hole is saltwater, so it’s useless as drinking water. There are limits to purifying it, too. Mirror Lake, on the other hand, is made up of water that people can drink."

The downside was that, just like Blue Hole had been originally, the gate’s entire space was nothing but lake, one hundred percent water with no ground to stand on.

However, Bauer had solved this problem the same way he’d solved it in Blue Hole, and Mirror Lake had been serving as the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall’s water source up until just four days ago.

"But after that building was overrun by those things, we’ve had to either purify seawater or find drinking water outside the gate."

Bauer let out a sigh.

Walfred pressed on with another question.

"Then why fight at night specifically?"

"The things that took over are nocturnal. During the day, who knows where they hide; we’ve torn the entire building apart and can’t find them anywhere."

"What exactly are they...?"

"Vampire bats."

E-rank monsters, vampire bats.

Slightly larger than a big dog, these creatures flew through the air at high speed.

On top of that, their pointed fangs and razor-sharp claws were coated in paralyzing venom.

But above all else, the most dangerous thing about them was that they swarmed in packs.

"That does sound like a tough fight."

Monsters with paralyzing venom that travel in swarms.

And if you imagined creatures the size of large dogs sucking your blood, it was horrifying just to think about.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Lure them outside and slaughter them all."

"You’d need bait for that..."

"We’ll use this."

Bauer set his backpack down on the ground.

When he opened it, a pungent, bloody smell hit them immediately. Inside were plastic bags stuffed full of fish blood and entrails from Blue Hole.

"Those things go crazy for the smell of blood."

Bauer picked up one of the plastic bags.

"I’ll say it again: they travel in packs. They’ve got paralyzing venom, and they drain blood extremely fast. Whatever you do, do not get bitten."

"Got it."

Walfred nodded.

"Let’s go."

Bauer took the lead.

On his signal, four hunters, Walfred included, advanced toward the precinct building cloaked in darkness.