Chapter 176: Injecting Cold
The day of the White Whale hunt.
In the early hours before dawn, Walfred left the Coral Cave Shelter and headed outside. The blizzard that had raged through the night had died down completely.
He was looking at the snow piled soft and deep when a voice suddenly called out beside him.
"Daddy."
Elsa, who had come out with him, rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked up at him. Then she pointed at the snow banked up all around them.
"Can I stay here and eat snow?"
"Sure. Eat as much as you want."
"Hehe, okay!"
Elsa broke into a bright grin and ran off.
She sat down near the shelter entrance and started picking out only the cleanest snow to eat. Walfred gave her head a pat and turned away.
He headed for a spot about half a mile from the shelter. It had once served as a parking lot for tourists visiting the caverns.
"Whew."
After loosening up a little, he reminded himself why he’d come.
He was here to run a final check on how his newly unlocked special abilities linked up with his skills, ahead of the fight against the White Whale.
’First thing to confirm...’
The special ability tied to [Cold Emission].
Namely, how to make use of the cold stored in his body through [Cold Accumulation]. Over three days of testing, he’d gotten the hang of it completely.
’The cold does two main things.’
The first was boosting skill effects.
Exactly as it sounded: every frost attribute skill had its effect increased by up to double.
That applied not just to attack skills he favored like [Ice Spear] and [Icicle Chaser], but to buff skills as well.
Snatch!
Walfred plucked one of the ice spheres orbiting him, an [Ice Orb], out of the air. Then he focused and channeled cold into it.
[Injecting cold.]
[Ice Orb is being enhanced.]
The clear [Ice Orb] began glowing blue. Walfred popped it into his mouth and crunched it down.
And a moment later...
Ding!
-----
[You have consumed an enhanced Ice Orb.]
[Physical abilities enhanced.]
[Body Enhancement]: +1,000%
[Duration]: 360 seconds
-----
His physical abilities had shot up dramatically.
Before the cold injection, swallowing an ordinary [Ice Orb] gave a 500% boost to physical abilities for 180 seconds.
But the instant he channeled cold into it, every buff the [Ice Orb] carried leapt to double the original value.
’Of course, pulling that off burns through a fair amount of cold...’
Enhancing a single [Ice Orb] consumed 10% of his stored cold. Compared to what other skill enhancements cost, the mileage was on the poor side.
Still, with a boost that large, it was worth using when things got dire.
Walfred shrugged. Then he turned to the second effect he’d discovered.
’Structural evolution in certain skills.’
Some of the skills he’d acquired were enhanced under the influence of [Cold Emission].
The prime example was [Frozen Weapon].
Beyond that, [Ice Needle] and [Frost Shield] were affected as well.
For these three, the change went well past numbers going up. They’d transformed considerably.
"Frozen Weapon."
The ice axe in Walfred’s hand.
Just as he had with the [Ice Orb], he poured cold into it.
And then...
[Injecting cold.]
[Frozen Weapon is being enhanced.]
[0.1% of stored cold will be consumed every 10 seconds.]
Along with the familiar notification, the ice axe turned blue.
Or more precisely, a brilliantly glowing blue aura wrapped itself around the axe.
Walfred turned and swung it toward the vehicles abandoned at the edge of the parking lot.
Whoosh!
One light swing.
And in that instant...
────!
With a sound like space itself tearing open, a massive slash radiating blue light split the scenery in front of him clean in half.
Krrrrrash! Boom!
The slash tore forward.
It sheared three or four cars completely in two before it finally lost power and dissipated.
Overwhelming force, plain and simple.
Walfred looked at the aura-clad axe.
’The old version was closer to a single-target attack...’
And now? How to put it.
It felt like it had been reshaped into an area attack.
The raw power had climbed far higher than before, too. It drained cold continuously, sure, but compared to the [Ice Orb] the mileage was good.
And there was one more thing.
Something else had changed.
’Let’s see.’
Scanning for a suitable target, Walfred fixed his eyes on a car parked on the far side.
He hurled the ice axe straight at it. The axe spun through the air at high speed, and the instant it struck the vehicle’s frame...
KABOOOOM!
The ice axe exploded.
Like a grenade going off, countless shards of ice sprayed in every direction.
When the dust settled, the cars were riddled with holes, a scene of carnage that looked like someone had gone at them with a shotgun.
’That’ll come in handy.’
Depending on the situation, he could use it as a ranged attack too. With a satisfied smile, Walfred stretched a hand into the air.
"Ice Needle."
Dozens of ice needles materialized and circled around him. When he fed cold into them as well, a deep blue aura enveloped each one.
And then...
"Launch."
Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!
The enhanced needles flew far faster than before, punched straight through a car door, and buried themselves densely in the interior.
The power had grown enough that calling them ice bullets rather than ice needles would have been fair. Having felt the strength of the cold firsthand, Walfred moved on to the next skill.
’And last...’
The defensive skill he kept permanently active.
[Frost Shield] had undergone a structural change of its own. Walfred fed cold into it and pulled up the skill information.
-----
[Defense: Enhanced Frost Shield (Lv.4)]
[Creates a frost shield that absorbs damage.]
[The frost shield’s effect is enhanced under the influence of (Passive: Cold Emission).]
▷Mana cost: Proportional to damage taken
▷Frost damage absorbed: 45% (90%)
▷Other damage absorbed: 22.5% (45%)
▷Fire damage absorbed: 10% (20%)
▶Enhancement effect: Damage reflection +50%
▶Enhancement effect: On being struck, inflicts chill/slow
-----
Two new enhancement effects.
One returned half the damage he took to the attacker, and the other applied a debuff to whoever hit him.
In combat, where life and death turned on a fraction of a second, an ability that locked down an opponent’s movement was excellent. Testing complete, Walfred smiled with satisfaction.
’All that’s left now...’
Was to pour every bit of it into the coming fight. He looked out past the white expanse of snow toward the sea.
’Twelve hours to go.’
That was how long until the White Whale arrived.
The plan was for the extermination force, Walfred included, to ambush the creature over the frozen sea before it made landfall on Key West.
The reasoning was simple.
’Fighting on land risks dragging the non-Awakened into it.’
So the operational zone had been set out on the frozen ocean. And that decision worked heavily in Walfred’s favor.
Because he had [Blessing of the Frozen Sea], a boon that dramatically raised his physical abilities and skill effects while he stood on a frozen sea.
’Preparations are done.’
All that remained was to kill the White Whale and win.
Just as he was steeling himself once more...
"...Ah."
Something he’d forgotten came back to him.
Walfred’s eyes lifted and he immediately opened the hunter shop. At the very bottom of the category list, an entry blinked in red.
-----
▶[Dimensional Exchange]: Opens in 1 hour
[Thank you all for waiting!]
-----
’The Dimensional Exchange.’
In a nutshell, it was where extremely rare goods were sold, the kind that never appeared under [Limited Sales] or [Special Sales].
Maybe that was why using it came with a special requirement.
’Only hunters holding fifty thousand coins or more can access it, wasn’t it?’
Walfred recalled what he’d looked up on the Community a couple of days earlier. Then he reflexively checked his current balance.
[Coins held: 1,121,802 coins]
Roughly 1.1 million.
It was what he’d accumulated hunting all manner of Elite Monsters and wiping out the Coral World hardliners, Edward included.
More than enough, and then some.