After leaving the underground mall at Trenton Station.

Walfred carried Elsa on his back, sprinting at high speed along the rail line. As he ran, he found himself recalling the warning Mitchell had left him.

’There’s a band of looters at Hamilton Station.’

A group that hunted people, not monsters.

The kind of trash that had cropped up naturally once the Ice Age set in and law and order collapsed.

Walfred’s gaze sank low and cold.

’...Best to steer clear of them if I can.’

The smart move is to walk around the dung, not through it.

More than that, there was nothing to gain from fighting looters anyway.

So before reaching Hamilton Station, he deliberately spent a night in an abandoned building nearby.

Early the next morning.

Setting out before dawn, Walfred soon drew near Hamilton Station. Then he spotted a cluster of people over by the platform.

"Huh? What the? Who are those guys...?"

"Hey! You two!"

"Hold up a second. We’ve got something to say!"

Spotting Walfred and Elsa, they waved their arms, trying to flag him down. Normally he would have slowed his pace, but Walfred didn’t stop.

If anything, he picked up speed.

"Burst."

The instant he entered Hamilton Station.

Walfred fired off all three charged stacks of Instant Burst stored in [Snow Walker] one after another.

Fwip! Fwoosh! Fwip-fwip-fwish!

Each burst carried Walfred up to 200 feet, his movement so fast it looked almost like teleportation.

"Wha, what the?"

"He was right there a second ago..."

"Where’d he go?"

The people stood blinking, dumbfounded.

In that time, Walfred had already passed clean through Hamilton Station. The looters didn’t so much as give chase. They couldn’t even tell where he’d gone.

Having broken through Hamilton Station without incident, Walfred reached Chester Station that evening and spent the night. Then he resumed his journey south, over and over.

By the third day.

[Welcome. Welcome to Harrisburg, the central city of Pennsylvania.]

A sign posted near the rail line told Walfred he had entered Harrisburg.

’Let’s rest at the next station before moving on.’

The day would be ending soon.

Just then, a train station came into view ahead.

A fairly large station building.

It was Harrisburg Junction.

"Elsa. Want to rest there tonight?"

"Yeah!"

Elsa beamed.

Holding her hand, he stepped inside the station, its interior strung with dangling icicles.

The first place he sought out was the stationmaster’s office.

After staying at Trenton Station himself, he’d learned that the stationmaster’s office was the most comfortable spot to spend a night.

"Well, this isn’t half bad."

Maybe because it had sat abandoned for so long, parts of the interior had frozen over, but with the door shut, it kept out the blizzard and the biting wind just fine.

Once he’d secured a place to stay the night.

As always, he scraped together the clean snow piled outside the station and ate it. This was one of his personal routines for leveling up and growing stronger.

[Level up.]

A little while later, just as his stomach was starting to feel full.

His level rose at just the right moment.

Walfred tossed the last handful of snow into his mouth, then checked his status window.

"Status."

-----

[Name]: Walfred

[Level]: 69

[Attribute]: Frost

[Mana]: 9,900

[Rank]: C

[Experience]: 02.81%

-----

His level now stood at 69.

He’d gained three levels in the three days since leaving the Trenton underground mall. That worked out to a steady one level per day.

Still, Walfred’s expression wasn’t bright.

’The experience I’m getting keeps shrinking.’

For someone who’d been wolfing down snow every morning, noon, and night, his leveling pace was far too slow.

The reason was obvious.

The higher his level climbed, the more experience each new level demanded. Three days ago, a handful of snow had netted him 6% per serving. Now it was barely 2%.

’If only I had some of that pure mana snow I ate at the White Dome...’

That would clear this plateau in no time.

Or if the skill level of his unique skill [Frost Feast] would just go up. Feeling the sting of it, Walfred let out a quiet sigh.

That said, not all of his growth had stalled.

His leveling may have slowed, but his skill levels were climbing by leaps and bounds.

Walfred checked his skill list.

-----

[Cold Resistance (Lv.4)]

[Cold Emission (Lv.4)]

[Frozen Weapon (Lv.3)]

[Frost Domain (Lv.3)]

-----

The skills that had leveled up that morning.

Among them, the ones with the most noteworthy changes were the passive [Cold Emission] and the support skill [Frozen Weapon].

-----

[Passive: Cold Emission (Lv.4)]

[Periodically emits cold air to the surrounding area.]

▷Emission interval: 30 seconds (15 seconds)

▷Cold range: 33-foot radius (66-foot radius)

[Special Ability]

▶Unlock condition: Skill Level 5

-----

First off, [Cold Emission] had hit Level 4, more than doubling its range from before.

A base radius of 33 feet.

Add the skill-boosting effect of [Frost Domain] and that became a whopping 66-foot radius. On par with the range of the area-of-effect skill [Frost Field].

On top of that, the emission interval had gotten much shorter.

’...With this, I won’t be able to enter any shelters.’

A power that turned a 66-foot radius into a walk-in freezer just by his sitting still.

It was the last thing a shelter would welcome, where securing and maintaining the temperature needed for survival was essential.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

’If this keeps up, even when I finally meet Jenna again, I won’t be able to stay with her.’

His one and only niece, Jenna.

He’d planned to live somewhere safe and peaceful with her once they were reunited.

But as long as [Cold Emission] existed, being with Jenna would be impossible. Walfred clasped his hands together tightly, like a man at prayer.

’Please, let Level 5 give me an on-off switch...’

The text stated that the base passives [Cold Resistance] and [Cold Emission] would unlock a special ability upon reaching skill Level 5.

So he was hoping the special ability for [Cold Emission] would be control over the auto-activating skill.

That would solve everything. Prayer finished, Walfred checked the next skill.

-----

[Support: Frozen Weapon (Lv.3)]

[Transforms snow or ice into the shape of a weapon.]

[The completed weapon is affected by [Passive: Cold Emission], boosting its power, and will neither melt nor break so long as mana is not depleted.]

▷Mana cost: 1 per 10 seconds

▷Required materials: Snow or ice

▷Maximum held: 4

▷Cancel command: ’Cancel’

▶Convertible weapons: Sword, spear, axe, hammer

-----

The first change was the reduced mana cost.

The maximum number of weapons he could hold had also gone up to four.

And above all, the most noticeable change was the addition of a new weapon, the ’hammer.’ What’s more, the hammer had an ability the other weapons didn’t.

-----

[Ice Hammer]

[A weapon that can be made with (Frozen Weapon).]

[After forming the hammer, mana and cold can be condensed into it for up to 30 seconds. The size and power of the hammer vary with the amount of mana and cold.]

▷Charge command: ’Begin charging’

▶Mana cost: 30 per second

-----

A kind of charge-type skill.

That morning, while heading south after leaving Chester Station, Walfred had tested the hammer’s power.

The results were shocking.