The hunters wore grave expressions.

Walfred walked up to them and spoke.

"What’s wrong? What happened?"

"Ah, Hunter Walfred. The thing is..."

It was Mitchell who answered the question.

"We went to check whether the liberated gate had switched to a cleared state, and they say they spotted some stragglers wandering near the gate entrance."

"Stragglers? How many?"

"At least forty zombies and two ghouls."

That wasn’t all that many.

Few enough that there was no need for him to step in personally; they could just leave it to the hunters of the Trenton Station underground shelter.

Just then.

"Um, by the way..."

"...?"

"What’s that thing around you, Hunter?"

What Mitchell pointed at, curious.

It was three ice orbs slowly circling around Walfred. They were [Ice Orb].

’Ah, they must have finished forming while I was asleep.’

Having completed forming under the influence of [Cold Emission], the [Ice Orb]s had grown to about the size of ping-pong balls.

Walfred answered Mitchell’s question by saying it was one of his skills. Then, just as he was thinking of heading back to where Sienna was.

’Wait, in that case...’

’Why don’t I test how much power [Ice Orb] has when used as an attack?’

It happened to be break time, and they’d said there were still zombies and ghouls left over. A moment later, having made his decision, Walfred said to Mitchell:

"Let’s go. I’ll help."

"Huh? But you must be tired..."

"It’s fine, so lead the way."

"...Thank you."

Mitchell bowed his head.

And so Walfred followed behind them toward the entrance of the liberated gate.

A while later.

Walfred and the hunters arrived at their destination.

"It’s over there."

Near the entrance of the liberated gate.

Just as he’d heard from Mitchell, he could see some forty zombies and ghouls.

’Let me throw just one for now.’

That way he’d get a proper read on its power.

Walfred snatched up one of the ice orbs circling around him. Then, taking dead aim at the center of the zombies, he hurled it straight at them.

Whoosh! Thwack!

The ice orb slammed into a zombie’s head.

And.

[Support: Ice Orb]

[Time until detonation: 1 second]

With the brief notification as a cue.

The ice orb glowed a brilliant blue.

In that instant.

Kukwaaaaboom!

A tremendous explosion swallowed the zombie horde.

At the same time, a powerful chill spread in every direction and enveloped the surroundings. Watching this, Mitchell and the hunters reacted with shock.

"Wh-what was that? What you just did..."

"A skill."

Walfred replied curtly.

In the meantime, as the hazy smoke that had enveloped the area cleared, an astonishing sight unfolded.

"...!?"

Countless sharp ice fragments lodged in the bodies of the zombies and ghouls. Most of the zombies had frozen solid and crumbled, rolling across the floor.

It had enough power to make you think this was what it would look like if there were such a thing as a grenade made of ice.

’Stronger than I thought.’

The range was wide and the power was strong.

At this level, it looked plenty usable as an attack without bothering to eat it. With a satisfied smile, Walfred hurled the remaining ice orbs all at once.

Kwagagagaga! Kwaaboom!

A second and third explosion followed.

Unable to even put up any real counterattack, the zombies and ghouls turned to chunks of ice and crumbled.

After dealing with the stragglers in an instant.

When he passed the spot where they’d been and went farther inside, a blue vortex swirling in midair came into view.

"Ahh, finally...!"

The symbol of a cleared gate.

Seeing this, the hunters let out cries of relief.

Embracing one another and sharing their joy, they soon bowed at the waist toward Walfred.

"Thank you, Hunter Walfred."

"Truly, thank you so much."

Hearing everyone’s thanks once again.

Walfred shrugged his shoulders without a word.

After that, only once he’d finished checking the inside of the gate did they head back to the warehouse.

---

That afternoon.

Sienna, having recovered her condition, resumed the recitation for the [Eternal Blessing of Light]. When she’d read about half of it, a change came over the book as well.

’The light has grown stronger.’

The book, which had given off a faint light when she’d first begun reading, now gave off a fairly strong glow.

Just as he was watching this with interest.

Thud!

Footsteps suddenly sounded.

Walfred reflexively raised his head, and where his gaze landed stood a middle-aged woman who looked to be in her late fifties.

"...Hunter Walfred."

A middle-aged woman with a gaunt face.

She was the leader of the Trenton Station underground shelter and the chief who had been struck by the curse and asleep for three days.

Approaching with Mitchell’s support, the chief bowed her head toward Walfred and said:

"For helping our shelter... for protecting the children, I thank you with all my heart."

Tears welled up at the corners of her wrinkled eyes.

Soon she introduced herself.

"My name is Chloe. I’m a water-attribute B-rank hunter, and before the world froze over, I ran a kindergarten and an orphanage along with everyone here."

Chief Chloe. Age fifty-seven.

As she’d just revealed, she was a water-attribute B-rank hunter, and before running the kindergarten, she’d belonged to the rescue team of the Hunter Association.

"I mainly did work finding missing hunters or recovering remains. In the course of that, I came to see a great many children who had lost their parents."

And this was precisely the reason Chloe had set up the kindergarten and orphanage after retiring.

Just then.

Chloe spoke with a smile.

"I find myself feeling rather amazed all over again."

"Amazed?"

"Yes. I never imagined a hunter this strong was still left in the metropolitan area. Nearly all of New America Republic’s S-rank hunters went to Antarctica."

The Antarctica gate of unknown rank.

When the first exploration team, which included ten S-rank hunters, vanished entirely, the hunter associations of nations around the world quickly recognized the severity of the situation.

And so the nations decided to mobilize every S-rank hunter to exterminate the Antarctica gate in a single strike.

’But...’

Not a single one of the S-rank hunters sent into the Antarctica gate made it back. And the moment the Antarctica gate was liberated, the world froze over just like that.

Just as Walfred, recalling his earlier memories, wore a bitter expression, Chloe spoke up again.

"That said, when I was with the Association, I never heard anything about a Hunter Walfred... Could it be that you Awakened after the world froze over?"

"That’s right." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"My goodness... Then you mean to say you’ve grown this much in just half a year since Awakening!"

Chloe’s eyes went wide.

But there was something she didn’t know.

That Walfred had grown this much not over half a year, but in a little under a month. If she knew that, she’d be far more astonished than she was now.

"Could it be that you’ve undergone a Second Awakening?"

"Second Awakening? What’s that?"

This was the first he’d heard of it.

When Walfred asked back, Chloe said:

"It’s a phenomenon that occurs with an extremely low probability among hunters of superior aptitude. To put it simply, it means Awakening into a higher attribute."

"By higher attribute, you mean...?"

"An attribute with even greater power and potential than the current one. And hunters who Awaken that way are called Second Awakeners."

So there was such a thing.

Walfred wore an intrigued expression.

"For your reference, our country has one as well. The water-attribute S-rank hunter, Hunter Elma."

"...!"

At those words, Walfred’s eyes widened.

The hunter currently in charge of managing the Key West shelter, and the very person Walfred had so badly wanted to make contact with.

He never expected to hear that name here.

"Ordinary water-attribute hunters gather moisture from the air to create water. Hunter Elma, on the other hand, can create water even in an environment where there’s no moisture at all."

The ability to create something from nothing.