Basement level two of Prospect Park Station.

Jonah, who had been lying on the freezing cold floor, felt his consciousness gradually returning. Once he came to, he staggered to his feet.

"Ugh!"

A headache hit him out of nowhere. When he let out a low groan at the throbbing in his head, the hunters nearby hurried over to him.

"Ch-chief!"

"Are you coming around?"

Worried voices came from all directions.

To reassure the hunters, Jonah nodded without a word. Then he traced back the last thing he remembered before losing consciousness.

’We’d fended off the monster assault, and just as we were all about to head down to the basement...’

A horrific disaster had struck.

The A-rank Elite Monster, the Bone Drake.

A powerful shockwave had erupted along with the shriek the thing let out. Jonah, who’d been about to head down to the basement, had been caught in that shockwave and knocked out.

’Right. That’s what happened.’

Next, it was time to find out what had happened after he lost consciousness. With his memory recovered, Jonah turned to the hunters and asked.

"After I passed out, what happened?"

"Hunter Miles collapsed Exit 3 and blocked the Bone Drake from getting in."

"I see. Is Hunter Miles all right?"

"Yes, I’m fine, chief."

Hunter Miles answered with an awkward expression. Jonah let out the sigh he’d been holding back, then murmured in a voice tinged with relief.

"Either way, I’m glad everyone’s safe..."

Then his expression hardened.

Among the hunters gathered around, there was one person he couldn’t see. He looked around once more and asked the hunters.

"Where is Hunter Walfred?"

"Th-that’s..."

In that moment, silence fell.

The hunters only exchanged glances, none of them opening their mouths. Sensing something ominous from the sight, just as he was about to press for an answer again.

"I’ll tell you."

A C-rank hunter of the light attribute, Reuben.

The man, who had a scraggly beard, calmly and quietly summarized the situation.

"Hunter Walfred was seized by the Bone Drake and disappeared in the direction of the White Dome."

"What? What do you mean..."

"It’s true. I saw it clearly with Light Orb. The sight of the Bone Drake grabbing Walfred and flying off toward the White Dome."

Light Orb.

A placement-type skill of the light attribute, one that lets you observe the field of view of the surrounding area.

Reuben explained that through it, he’d seen the scene beyond the collapsed Exit 3.

Meanwhile, Jonah was at a loss for words.

’The drake took Hunter Walfred?’

A monster took a human? Why on earth?

What’s more, the Bone Drake was a death-attribute monster that despised living life to the extreme.

That made it all the harder to understand.

As his confusion mounted.

"...That man, something about him was a little off."

A voice broke the silence.

A D-rank hunter of the frost attribute, Mina.

She had the same attribute as Hunter Walfred and had been in charge of defending Exit 3 alongside him.

"He was far from an ordinary frost-attribute hunter to begin with. Even to me, someone with the same attribute, he gave off a feeling of being different."

"What do you mean by that?"

"For starters, it’s suspicious that he doesn’t have a single slowing skill. As you know, chief, any frost hunter has at least one of those by default, right?"

"That’s..."

Jonah couldn’t argue.

By his own common sense, having worked as a hunter since before the world froze over, the basic skill of frost-attribute hunters was ’slowing’ caused by frost.

In the meantime, Kyle, Jensen, and Jamie also added their opinions about Hunter Walfred.

"And the fact that he’s D-rank seemed like a lie too."

"Right! I saw him fighting earlier, and he was fast enough that you’d believe it if someone said he was B-rank." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Above all, the way the Bone Drake relentlessly went after that man and only him is super suspicious too."

Suspicions that fed into one another, one after the next.

As they said, Hunter Walfred was certainly a mysterious figure. Hunter Bauer, the representative of the Lower Manhattan Tech District Hall Shelter, had said something similar.

’He said that the man claims to be a D-rank hunter, but his actual ability looks a tier or two above that.’

So he’d said it seemed like he was hiding something. But at the same time, Bauer had added his personal thoughts about Hunter Walfred.

That he was a man you could trust.

’And...’

In Jonah’s eyes too, Walfred was someone trustworthy. After all, he’d risked his life fighting monsters for the sake of complete strangers who had nothing to do with him.

Of course, he couldn’t figure out why the Bone Drake had relentlessly attacked him and even abducted him, but still, he wasn’t someone who deserved this kind of criticism.

"Let’s stop this."

So Jonah cut off the hunters’ continuing suspicions in one stroke. Then he looked at everyone and spoke in a serious voice.

"Whatever his identity may be, it’s no exaggeration to say everyone here is safe thanks to Hunter Walfred."

The reason the other hunters had been able to flee to the basement without interference was that the Bone Drake had relentlessly gone after Hunter Walfred and him alone.

And it was also thanks to the Bone Drake snatching him up and disappearing that no further battle broke out.

"Speaking carelessly about a comrade who fought alongside us, about a benefactor, isn’t right."

Jonah’s low, cutting rebuke.

The hunters who had been doubting Walfred clamped their mouths shut. Having settled the situation, Jonah looked toward the collapsed Exit 3 and sighed.

’I’d like to go rescue him, but...’

His opponent was an A-rank Elite Monster.

Realistically, a rescue was impossible.

On top of that, beyond the White Dome was an unknown zone from which no search team had ever returned.

In the end, there was only one choice.

’...I’m sorry, Hunter Walfred.’

Jonah bit his lip and turned away.

The thought that he couldn’t save a comrade and benefactor who had fought for everyone weighed heavy on a corner of his heart, but there was nothing to be done.

’In exchange, I’ll protect Lauren, the student Hunter Walfred brought with him, no matter what.’

A fire-attribute Awakened, Lauren.

The schoolgirl who had joined them along with Walfred.

Recalling her, Jonah felt a tightness in his chest and sighed once more.

’I don’t know what I should tell Lauren...’

He already felt overwhelmed.

Jonah moved with steps as heavy as his heart and headed down to the platform.

It was to chase after the advance party that had set out for the Financial District right after learning of the monster assault.

And then.

Ding!

A notification chime suddenly rang out.

A system message displayed before every hunter present, Jonah included.

[Notification: Powerful enemy exterminated]

[Channel: New America Republic / Region: New York]

At those words, everyone’s steps stopped.

A powerful-enemy extermination notification.