Chapter 106: Mark of the Spirit Devourer
Chapter 106: Mark of the Spirit Devourer
-----
[Extermination successful.]
[Boss: Frost Spirit King (Complete Form)]
[Rank]: S
[Extermination Rewards]
[1,000,000 Coins]
[Skill Book: Ultimate]
[Skill Book: Random (x2)]
[Frost Soul Egg]
[Necklace of the Frost Spirit King]
[Mark of the Spirit Devourer]
-----
The instant he saw the notification that followed,
Walfred’s eyes went wide.
"...A million?"
Maybe it was because this was an S-rank Boss Monster.
The sheer amount of coins handed out as a reward was staggering. Exactly ten times the sum he’d received back when he exterminated the A-rank Elite.
’And on top of that...’
There was plenty besides the coins to catch his eye.
An item he’d never seen before, [Skill Book - Ultimate], along with the Frost Soul Egg, and even a mysterious-looking necklace and a mark.
Walfred gathered up the spoils that had appeared before him. Aside from the skill books, nothing was bulky, so it wasn’t much of a hassle.
Around the time he’d collected every last piece of loot.
Ding!
[Alert: Formidable Enemy Exterminated]
[Channel: International / Region: New America Republic]
A message he was seeing for the first time appeared.
-----
[Target]: Frost Spirit King (Complete Form)
[Type]: Boss / Spirit
[Rank]: S
[Exterminator]: Walfred (Solo)
[Contribution]: 100%
-----
’Ah, I see. So this is...’
The formidable enemy extermination alert Bauer and Jonah had mentioned. He hadn’t gotten to see it when he took down the Bone Drake, since he’d passed out after the fight.
As he quietly studied the first formidable enemy alert he’d ever laid eyes on, something odd suddenly caught his attention.
’Wait, why does the contribution say that?’
According to the memories he’d seen from the Spirit King earlier, Margaret’s group had fought a desperate, brutal battle too. So why wasn’t that reflected in the contribution?
Walfred tilted his head.
Then a guess suddenly occurred to him.
’Ah! Could it be...’
Was it the difference between the growth form and the complete form?
The Spirit King Margaret had fought was the growth form, while the one Walfred exterminated was the complete form.
So maybe that was why the difference in contribution had come about.
Of course, what mattered was the result, so Walfred turned to Margaret and spoke up.
"You saw the extermination alert that just popped up, right?"
"...Sorry?"
"Since I basically took it down on my own, I’m claiming all of this loot for myself."
Walfred declared that he’d be hogging the spoils.
He had no intention of giving up a single piece. After all, every one of them looked high-performance.
Walfred looked from Margaret to Damon to Julie, each standing there dumbfounded, and said,
"If anyone’s got a problem with it, speak now."
"..."
The three of them stayed silent.
Of course they had no complaints.
Having survived with their limbs intact when death had been right in front of them, they honestly felt like dropping to their knees and bowing to Walfred right then and there.
"None here. It’s all yours."
"I, I’ve got no objection either."
"...Same for me."
The answer came back unanimous.
Walfred smiled, satisfied.
"Good. Then let’s head back."
He wanted to get somewhere safe and examine the loot as soon as possible. After confirming that the gate, Permafrost, had become a fully cleared gate,
Walfred and his group returned to the shelter.
---
After everything had wrapped up.
Margaret used Julie’s [Sound Link] skill, which relayed her voice, to inform the survivors at Frankford Station of the Spirit King’s extermination.
Not long after that.
"And here I thought this was really the end..."
"Haah, what a relief."
"Thank you. Really, thank you."
The survivors who returned to the shelter breathed sighs of relief that the threat was gone.
A few survivors offered their thanks to Walfred’s group for joining the fight against the Spirit King.
Meanwhile, around that time.
"Hey, look over there."
"That’s the guy who..."
The hunters showed a rather different reaction.
Already aware of the situation through the Eden System’s formidable enemy extermination alert, they kept stealing glances at Walfred and traded remarks.
"When I first heard the name I wondered, but who’d have thought it’d really be that Walfred."
"Anyway, what’s the deal? The community definitely said he was a light-attribute S-rank hunter..."
"Hey, he soloed a Spirit King. Who cares what his attribute is?"
"Right. Forget the attribute, the man himself is just a monster."
Suspicion, shock, confusion, astonishment, and more.
The hunters’ gazes at Walfred were a jumble of countless emotions. But only for a moment, as the many emotions soon fused into a single one.
Awe.
Every hunter looked at Walfred with awe-filled eyes, wearing expressions that said they wanted to rush over and bombard him with questions that very second.
Walfred, on the other hand, didn’t care.
’Margaret will explain it all well enough.’
She’d witnessed the fight with the Spirit King firsthand, and she was fairly quick on the uptake. So Walfred decided to tune the hunters out.
Just then.
"Haaah. Daddy. Can I sleep now?"
Elsa let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
The drowsiness was written all over her. Then again, she’d been dragged out at her bedtime and thrown into the fight against the Spirit King, so it was no wonder she was tired.
"Sure. Let’s get you to sleep."
Walfred gently lifted Elsa into his arms.
Cradled against his chest, Elsa drifted off before long. He stroked her hair and smiled faintly.
’She really was a huge help.’
Combat support through [Dragon Tongue].
And with [Cold Absorption], she’d also saved Margaret and the hunters from the brink of freezing to death.
Thanks to that swift action, the three hunters had avoided fatal injuries and were now receiving emergency treatment in the infirmary deeper inside the shelter.
"Ugh, but why is it so cold?"
"Feels like a draft is coming in from somewhere..."
Just then he noticed some non-Awakened people nearby shivering in the cold.
Figuring it was the aftereffect of [Cold Emission], Walfred stood up while holding Elsa. Then he headed for the most deserted corner of the shelter.
After settling into a suitable spot,
"Status."
He immediately checked his status window.
-----
[Name]: Walfred
[Level]: 115
[Attribute]: Frost
[Mana]: 14,500
[Rank]: B
[Experience]: 13.75%
-----
His current level was a whopping 115.
A full 30 levels higher than just before he exterminated the Spirit King. That was the result of gorging himself on the ice vines, which had the same effect as pure mana snow, and then taking down an S-rank Boss Monster on top of it.
He’d heard the average level of an A-rank hunter was around 120, so he’d nearly caught up.
’All that’s left is the trial, huh.’
But he hadn’t gained any information about the Eden System’s trial, and there was no way to find out, so Walfred decided to calmly bide his time.
’Alright, now then...’
It was time to examine the loot.