(Zack)

"Hey, Gold," I greet the Beastborn as he starts setting the table, breakfast already completed. "Are you sure you don't want to spar with me?"

He nods.

"Alright," I stretch, then sit at the table.

I picked up my new equipment from Jackson yesterday, and will be heading out to the forest to farm more monsters today, though with my old equipment. There's just something about the Spook Sword that I really, really enjoy. And the Spook Knife.

After I eat, I change out of my exercise pants and into my standard outfit. Black pants, boots, belt. Red tunic with black trim, then my Spook Armor pulled over everything, my sword and knife fixed to their spots, then my red coat with black trim pulled on.

I wish Gold luck, then leave, making my way out of town and into the forest, reaching it just as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, though the tunnels of snow are still illuminated only by what light makes it in and my Crimson Guide.

The monsters have actually dug holes around three feet wide straight to the top every fifteen to twenty feet in the tunnels, so that light can filter down. And since snow is snow, the light spreads out.

I move quickly and silently, my coat's lower portion trailing out a bit behind me from my speed. When I'm sure I'm nearing a settlement, based on the tracks on the ground and the scent in the air, I remove my coat, sending it into my Inventory.

These tunnels are a bit larger than the others, which confuses me. They're not large enough for Goblin Giants – those seem content to stay in the villages right now – but they're definitely too tall for the Goblins, standing around twice the height of one. I'm actually able to walk pretty well right now.

It would still probably be better to use my knife, so I draw it, just in case I'm attacked before I'm in a settlement.

The moment my knife is in front of me and I start moving using Stealth and Conceal, something bursts out of the snow beside me. I sidestep and slash at it, only it's disappeared into the snow wall to my other side, yet there's no sign that the wall had been touched.

What the hell?

Jumping back, I avoid being bitten, only to watch as the thing disappears back into the snow. It attacks me several times, moving just a little bit faster than I can keep track of. I'm barely able to avoid being eaten.

It looks like a wolf as tall as I am, with snow-white fur and silver eyes, and it's blending seamlessly into the snow, without a trace of its passing, apart from the snow covering the ground. Somehow, it's filling the snow back up and not 'damaging' the walls.

Looking around, I dodge another attack from it, then take a few more steps back, before sidestepping with my knife slashing through the air, feeling it bite through something. The wolf is back in the snow, and I watch as the blood fades away – both from my knife and the wall, remaining only on the ground and the snow it splattered onto.

I still hit it, though.

It attacks again, and the injury's gone, I think. I'm not sure.

We continue to play this game, one of us needing to wear down first. It's probably going to be me, but every attempt to flee is met with it showing up again, and-

Fuck.

I just got a glimpse of its status.

Snow Master Level 25 Health: 28,972 Mana: 23,496

It's the Snow Master, a Special Monster that only shows up in the winter, especially if there's been a lot of snow lately. I should've remembered this! It's nowhere near as dangerous as the Ice Lord, but it's still very, very powerful, on par with the other Special Monsters and Holiday Monsters – possibly more so.

No wonder my attacks seem ineffective against it and its recovery seems so high – it heals through snow. And there is plenty of that around here. It's fast, being based on wolves, and stealthy. No wonder I can barely detect it, and only when it's about to attack.

In addition to that, it's able to generate snow and meld into it.

As I try to dodge it again, an arrow flies at my back, and I move to dodge it, only to find the Snow Master biting down on my arm.

"Argh!" I yell in pain, slamming my knife into the Snow Master, which releases me and returns to the walls. "Fuck you! Fireball!"

My fireball kills the Goblin Archer that attacked from afar, and I realize with a sinking feeling that I was ambushed.

The damn Snow Master is working with the Goblins. One of the times it was in the snow, it must have sent them a signal letting them know there was someone here.

Dammit! I really need to go extreme if I want to win this, don't I? And that's if I can win this. There's a high chance I can't, and I'd rather get away, if possible.

Feeling my rage building up even further, combined with the pain from my arm, I let out a Roar of Darkness just as the Snow Master bursts out of the snow again. It falters.

"KNEEL BEFORE ME!" I yell in my Demonic Voice, and the Goblins flee as the Snow Master takes a hesitant step back. "I WILL CONSUME YOUR BLOOD!"

Fear radiates off of the Snow Master, my Intimidation attempt working, and as it's temporarily paralyzed from the fear, I take off running. It chases me down once it recovers, but I use Intimidation and my Demonic Voice enough that it eventually gives up.

Intimidation does decrease in effectiveness as it's used more against the same target, and it'll take time for me to be able to use it on that thing again, but hopefully, by the time I do fight it again, I'm a fair bit stronger.

Or with someone else.

Though I want to kill that fucker on my own.

Orienting myself, I make my way through the tunnels again, eventually reaching a settlement of Goblins, perfect for me to Level against. I estimate there to be around two hundred Goblins here, and as soon as I see them, I draw my sword and immediately get to work. There are quite a few shaman, two Chieftans, and about twenty Goblin Giants, but overall, I acquire only 3 Levels. Dark Lord, being a Rank 2 Class, takes a lot of Experience, and since I'm already 'experienced', that means I receive decreased Experience.

After the last Goblin dies, I begin looting what's useful, then turn on my heel and leave, pulling my coat back on and returning to Maelnor. It's been long enough that the sun's going to set before I arrive, and I want to at least be out of the forest by then.

I reach the tunnel that's the path leading back to Maelnor just as the sun begins to set, and by the time I'm walking through the gate, the sun's long-since set. Before heading home, I make my way to the Trading Post, where Jesse's talking with a woman, her blond hair tied into a high ponytail.

She looks like she's in her late twenties, but the strength of her affiliation suggests she's older. She aligns to Dark of Fire, and her black-and-red outfit suggests she's either a Dark Knight or a Blood Priest. Judging by the sword strapped across her back, she's the former.

She must be one of the six new ones. I haven't actually seen them yet – they all went to Praevar immediately after arriving.

Well, I guess she could be even newer, arriving later. Or the mysterious eleventh one I forgot to ask Nik the identity of. Maybe Jesse knows? He's pretty knowledgeable.

"Hey, Pervert," I walk up to the counter, then look at the woman. "Hi, I'm Zack."

"I figured," she looks at me with her blue eyes and smiles. "Jesse was just telling me about you, though I've heard a little. I'm Kayla, one of the Dark Knights that arrived a few days ago."

"Cool," I say. "Why'd y'all run off to the mines immediately after arriving?"

"Fallen Hunting," she answers.

"Huh?"

"Hunting Fallen Adventurers," she answers. "There's a team of six of ours and four others who hunt them down, the others being Champions of Light or Archpriests, while working on the other. Nik sent word to us about the increased number of them in the mines, requesting we come deal with some of them. There are at least two hundred total that are known, and with the more recent losses, it was determined that we should temporarily stop hunting them elsewhere and handle these. While they could handle them before, working around the Fallen Adventurers, twenty-some more is a large increase, and they do need hunting."

It takes ten powerful Adventurers to take on Fallen Adventurers. I'm betting they're mixing up buffs like crazy for it, and possibly burn through potions like crazy, too. Her sword is high-quality, I'm betting, and their gear probably is the best they can get.

A Fallen Adventurer has a reward of 20p for a kill, generated by the System, for the low-ranking ones. There are a few that have rewards five or ten times that. The hunters probably spend that on their gear, to ensure they can keep fighting these undead abominations.

The ten of them, if they really do hunt the Fallen Adventurers as a team, could probably make a huge difference in the war, when it's time. They probably move throughout the Boundary and handle the Fallen Adventurers in places where it's a lot more rare for someone to be able to just ignore them or work around them.

Places where people aren't serious about getting stronger for the Boundary. Nik's mentioned before that the Fallen Adventurers tend to stick to the areas around where they died, and so they know the general locations of them throughout the mines. Sometimes, they move, but the teams that are there are generally able to either push them back, kill them, or get away.

For the most part, though, no one wants to tangle with the Fallen Adventurers. A dead person who may have once been a comrade would be hard enough to fight, especially since they look human. Then there's factoring in that they come back with stats at least ten times as high as they were when they died.

So a Level 100 person dies and become one, with their health at 3,000? It's 30,000 as a Fallen Adventurer. Mana scales the same way, so it's theorized that their Stats are exactly ten times as high, though no one knows for sure on the others, since they can't be read.

Fighting people who look human, and may have once been teammates…

No wonder it's mostly Dark Knights doing it. The holy-Classed ones are probably there mostly for healing or any purging that's needed.

"So," I say. "How many have you guys killed there so far?"

"Four," she answers, then looks back to Jesse. "I should get going, I'll see you when I return again."

"Goodbye!" he dips his head to her, then she dips hers to me, before leaving. "So! What brings you here, Zacky?"

The strong desire to burn this place down with you tied up inside of it while anchored to the ground.

"I want to buy the Diamond Tags," I approach the counter and set twenty diamond down.

Jackson paid me fifty platinum for the Ingots he didn't use, taking my commissioning fee out of the cost as well. I'm not sure if it turned out to be exactly fifty platinum or if he rounded up to make it even, but it's enough for me to do this. Frost Ingots are thirty just to sell.

He takes the two coins, then hands me my Diamond Tags, bluish tags, like what Nik showed me before – though he's apparently platinum, he just wears the diamond ones for some weird reason.

I set down two platinum coins, and Jesse laughs, handing me my platinum tags, the white-silver tags of the highest rank. I pull them on while sending the other two sets of tags – golden and diamond – into my Inventory.

"Thanks, Jesse!" I say, then turn and leave, making my way down to the armors and clothing store, grinning at the annoyed expression on the shopkeeper's face. "Hi! I need to buy a few new outfits."

For the three pairs of underwear, three two-tone shirts, and three pairs of pants, my total is seven silver and five copper, though I haggle him down to two silver and eighty-nine copper. My purchases done, I make my way home, where Gold's happily cooking dinner.

How he knew I was on my way now, I'm not sure, but he's got good timing.

The moment I remove my coat to sit down for dinner, Gold's expression and thoughts turn to concerned, and I realize that he's seeing my bloody sleeve, which is part of the reason I was buying new tunics.

I rip my sleeve off and show him my arm.

"I'm healed," I tell him as he looks a little less concerned. "I ran into the Snow Master."

His ears perk up, his tail wagging in excitement. His thoughts are too jumbled for me to make sense of at the moment, though I think he's wondering what the rewards for its kill were.

"I didn't kill it," I tell him. "I was forced to run, actually."

His ears droop a little, his tail drooping a lot.

"It's okay," I smile at him. "I'm going to kill it, eventually. It's just a tad too strong for me at the moment. Remember, though – I can take on things that usually require large teams to handle. For the Ice Lord, I only needed a healer, and I was able to take it out."

Gold nods, perking back up.

"Now!" I clap my hands together and rub them. "This feast looks delicious! Let's dig in!"