Whoooosh.

A little while later, after the smoke cleared.

The ice pillar that had towered as tall as a three-story building had vanished, shattered into countless pieces.

And beneath the rubble of the broken pillar, a great heap of snow made of pure mana, brimming with deep blue light, came into view.

"Nice."

How long had it been since he’d seen mana snow like this?

Walfred licked his lips.

Elsa wore an excited expression too.

"Wow, there’s so much!"

"There sure is. Want to eat it together?"

"Yeah! Okay."

Elsa beamed.

Walfred and Elsa sat down and began happily sharing the snow made of pure mana.

Meanwhile, in the background.

The frost spirits Elsa had chased off circled round and round in the sky, letting out their cries.

"Beeee───!"

"───Beep!"

They clearly looked anxious and restless.

Judging by their reaction, the broken ice pillar and the snow made of pure mana seemed to be quite important to them.

So they wanted to come closer right away, but it seemed they couldn’t approach because of Elsa.

Of course, Walfred didn’t care in the slightest.

[You have consumed snow made of pure mana.]

[Your health is greatly restored.]

[You gain additional experience.]

[Experience: +2.08% (additional +18.99%)]

Experience surged up like crazy.

Eventually, by the time they’d eaten up all the mana snow.

Ding!

[Level up!]

[You’ve reached Level 71.]

He’d gone up two levels in an instant.

With ordinary snow, he could shovel it down three meals a day all day long and barely scrape together a single level.

’Snow made of pure mana really is something.’

Walfred was honestly impressed.

After licking up even the bits of snow stuck to the corners of his mouth, he turned his head toward the west side of Philadelphia Station.

’There are supposed to be more ice pillars downtown, right?’

Margaret had said so.

That several ice pillars just like this one had sprung up between Philadelphia Station and West Philadelphia Station.

Which meant there might be snow made of pure mana in the other ice pillars too.

’Either way, all I have to do is report the count and the locations.’

While he was at it counting them, he’d smash every single one and gobble down as much snow made of pure mana as he could.

Once he’d made up his mind.

Walfred turned to Elsa.

"Elsa."

"Yeah?"

"Want to go get more of what we just ate?"

"Really? There’s more yummy snow?!"

Her eyes sparkled wide.

Walfred nodded.

"Yeah. I think it’s over that way."

"Let’s go! Move out!"

Elsa shouted, thrilled.

Walfred took her by the hand and crossed Philadelphia Station once more, heading downtown.

It was the start of a treasure hunt for explosive leveling.

---

KWAAAAANG!

Along with a thunderous crash.

The ice pillar in front of West Philadelphia Park shattered to pieces and collapsed. Walfred, who had swung his ice hammer and broken the pillar, grinned.

"Good. That’s the eighth one."

After combing through downtown Philadelphia.

So far he’d found and broken a total of eight ice pillars. And every single pillar, without exception, had snow made of pure mana inside it.

This time was no different.

Crunch! Gulp!

Walfred shared the snow made of pure mana with Elsa. Seeing his experience pile up fast, a smile came to his face on its own.

’That’s all of downtown smashed.’

After marking every location where an ice pillar had stood on his map, Walfred looked toward West Philadelphia Station.

A moment ago, when he’d checked through his binoculars, he’d spotted a single ice pillar right in front of the liberated gate at West Philadelphia Station.

’Counting that one...’

The number of ice pillars came to nine total.

With that, he’d accomplished the goal Margaret had asked of him: confirming the count and locations of the ice pillars.

Walfred looked toward West Philadelphia Station again. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

’Part of me wants to break that one too, but...’

He couldn’t.

Because around that ice pillar was a spirit that looked different from the ones he’d seen so far.

Unlike the ordinary frost spirits, which were no bigger than a crow at most, this one had the form of an enormous bird, well over six and a half feet.

It was a high-ranking spirit.

’The ordinary spirits ran off the second they saw Elsa, but the high-ranking spirit didn’t.’

It just clacked its grotesque-looking beak and stared at Elsa intently. Even when Elsa came close, it didn’t run or shy away.

If he carelessly attacked the ice pillar in this situation, the high-ranking spirit would get caught up in it too.

And then a fight would break out instantly.

’On top of that...’

There were no fewer than three high-ranking spirits.

Even Walfred wasn’t confident he could handle three B-rank elites. And if he provoked the high-ranking spirits, the ordinary spirits would attack alongside them too.

In the end, Walfred let go of his regret.

’Let’s pull back here.’

Giving up on the ice pillar at West Philadelphia Station.

Walfred tossed all the remaining mana snow into his mouth. And then, a little while later.

Ding!

[Level up.]

[You’ve reached Level 84.]

A welcome notification appeared out of nowhere.

Since breaking that first ice pillar that had risen in the eastern plaza of Philadelphia Station, he’d gone up a whopping 15 levels.

’It really is incredibly fast.’

He’d leapt past a stagnant stretch all at once.

It was all thanks to the snow made of pure mana. Walfred muttered with a satisfied smile.

"Status."

-----

[Name]: Walfred

[Level]: 84

[Attribute]: Frost

[Mana]: 11,400

[Rank]: B

[Experience]: 07.18%

-----

Crossing Level 80.

Three big changes had come to Walfred.

The first was that his hunter rank had risen from C-rank to B-rank. With it, the variety of skills he’d acquire going forward would broaden even further.

’And...’

The second change was that an ’international channel’ had been added to the Hunter Community. He decided to log in later and look it over slowly.

The last change was that special sales had opened up in the hunter shop. This too he planned to check out later, once he’d returned somewhere safe.

And then.

’Leveling up fast is great and all, but.’

A fundamental question crossed his mind.

A question about the ice pillars he’d broken up to now. What exactly were these ice pillars for, that they’d sprung up all over downtown?

And what was the reason such large amounts of snow made of pure mana had piled up inside the pillars?

"Could it be..."

And then.

Walfred’s eyes narrowed. As if he’d hit on some possibility.

"...some kind of special food for a spirit king?"

It might have been an idle fancy, but he couldn’t quite dismiss it as impossible either. As he speculated about the ice pillars’ true nature.

"Phew, that was delicious!"

Along with a cheerful voice.

Elsa rested her head on Walfred’s knee. And just then, something he’d forgotten came to mind.

’Ah, now that I think about it...’

Elsa had eaten quite a lot of snow too, hadn’t she?

In that case, just like back at the White Dome, hadn’t she acquired a new skill? Walfred pulled up Elsa’s status window.

And then.

-----

[Name]: Elsa

[Level]: 84 (Resonance)

[Race]: Dragonkin - Pureblood

[Mana]: 84,000

[Trait]: Frost Feast

[Skills]: Blessing of the Frost Dragon, Frost Dragon’s Roar, Shared Sight, Polymorph, Freezing Immunity, Cold Immunity, Frost Resonance, Curse Immunity (B-rank and below), Cold Absorption

-----

’There it is!’

He spotted that a new skill had been added.

A skill called [Cold Absorption] glittering at the very end of the skill list. Walfred examined the details with an expectant look on his face.

-----

[Support: Cold Absorption]

[Absorbs the cold present in the surroundings, converting it into mana and storing it within the body. The amount of mana that can be stored is up to 10 times the base mana capacity.]

-----

"Whew..."

Walfred was floored.

In a world frozen over like it was now, this was practically the same as receiving an unlimited supply of mana.

It was a broken skill, plain and simple.

’Wait, in that case...’

If he used Elsa’s [Cold Absorption], couldn’t he offset the penalty of [Cold Emission]?

That would solve, all at once, the problem of not being able to enter shelters and the fatal drawback of not being able to stay with Jenna.

’Let’s test it.’

Once he’d finished thinking it over.

Walfred dove straight into the test.