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  Cold. That word perfectly defines what I'm feeling right now.

  We finally entered Cirgo's territory, and it's freezing. Snow keeps falling without pause, the trees are basically frozen, and the wind makes the snow swirl through the air, making it hard to see. And worse, I'm barefoot.

  “[Are you okay?]” Merlin asked, floating beside me.

  "N-not... not okay at all..." I said, shivering as I tried to warm myself up.

  I didn’t expect Cirgo to be this cold. I imagined a regular winter chill, but this is just too much! There are even dead animals out here.

  I looked at Merlin, floating peacefully without any sign of discomfort. Not being able to feel the temperature must be a blessing.

  'We’ve been attacked by so many wolves on the way here… I just want a warm house already, seriously...'

  “[We must be getting close. Can you feel it?]”

  "No... I can’t feel anything at all'..." I said, trying to focus my vision, but struggling because of the swirling mist.

  There was, in fact, a different structure ahead. I couldn’t tell how far, but it was something — at least it was right there. I couldn’t identify what it was, though...

  My ears picked up a sound. Footsteps, more than one creature. Wolves. We were in a densely wooded area, which made it easy to get cornered.

  I jumped back, dodging a wolf that lunged from my blind spot. I only avoided it thanks to my ears. But another one came from the left and bit my arm. I flinched, but it didn’t hurt that much; I’ve already been bitten plenty of times on the way here.

  That wolf exploded moments later, thanks to Merlin's attack. Another circled and leapt toward me, but I smacked it with the back of my hand, smashing its head against the ground, it died instantly.

  "I think there are more nearby. They're closing in," I said after hearing more footsteps.

  My legs were instantly frozen, painfully so. Three more wolves appeared, their fur white with some blue streaks. Their mouths exhaled something like mist — they could breathe ice. Probably a species trait.

  I placed my hand on the ice and activated [Fire Manipulation]. I burned myself in the process to melt the ice faster, but it wasn’t anything serious.

  Merlin cast a protective barrier around me to block the wolves. I managed to recover and burned one’s face, dodging the rest of the ice blasts, they only grazed me, but were so cold they froze patches of my skin.

  I balanced on my right leg and spun my body with the left, turning like a top while releasing fire, scorching everything around me. The wolves retreated. I quickly kicked snow up toward them.

  With their vision obscured, I tore through them one by one, not giving them any chance to react. My claws are pretty useful in close combat.

  "Whew..." I sighed.

  “[Not bad, you’re getting better. Before, every hit landed on you.]”

  That stung a little, but she was right. ‘My body is reacting better against these wolves. Maybe it’s because I’ve fought so many of them by now. My instincts seem to be getting sharper.”

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  "Well, I’m not a fighter. Besides, I never imagined I’d have to fight wolves… Let alone multiple ones..."

  If it weren’t for Merlin covering me, I’d be in much worse shape. Even with high resistance, they were gradually wearing me down, and I had no healing abilities. The ice attacks were what hurt the most.

  The spears were created from pure, dense mana, so they could wound me more easily. Merlin explained a bit about it to me, but the density of your mana influences your attacks. An attack with denser mana will still be able to hurt a mana-born like me, because the mana I possess isn't as dense as the mana in the attack.

  These wolves attacked with ice, but their attacks were linear. They either charged in a straight line or tried to trap me, forming ice spikes on the ground.

  During our first encounter, I was nearly impaled, but I’ve learned to read the signs. When they use that move, they lower their head and body slightly.

  This is the first time I truly realized how strong and tough this body is. But if more wolves keep showing up, I might not hold out. I need to be more careful. These wolves are class (B), not too difficult to deal with individually, but in packs, it’s a whole different story.

  “[Victor, more of them are coming!]” Merlin warned, her speech bubble showing a panic emoji.

  ‘Great, here we go again.’

  Looks like I’ll have to use my “special” skill.

  I took some distance and drew in as much air as I could. I opened my mouth, unleashing a massive stream of fire that scorched the entire area in front of me. I channeled all my energy into [Fire Manipulation], and luckily, it was enough. The charred corpses of wolves collapsed onto the snow. While I was spinning and burning everything, some trees also caught fire, but Merlin quickly extinguished them. She really is a guardian ofnature.

  "I think that's all of them," I said, letting out a small sigh of relief.

  I felt confident, until a surviving wolf leapt at me and bit my neck. Without thinking, I drove my claws into its skull. Finally starting to use them properly.

  I was trying not to get blood on my hands, but in a life-or-death situation, I had no choice. I may not have much combat experience, but I think I’m doing okay so far.

  “[Perfect! We’ve taken down 200 so far!]”

  "We killed that many?! How the hell are we still alive?!" I said, stunned.

  "[These wolves use ice powers, but they’re not that good at it. They kept trying to bite and claw you. Since you’ve got higher resistance for physical attacks and natural physical strength, it made things easier. You’re much better with your claws than with your skills.]"

  "...You're right. It's easier to kill them with my claws."

  I looked at one of the fallen wolves. Maybe it was worth a try. Stretching out my hand, I activated [Skillful King]. With that, I should be able to grow a little stronger.

  I created a connection with the fire ability I’d acquired through [Skillful King]. Basically, whenever I think about the skill and the element "fire", I activate it. It’s not the best way to manage abilities, but it’s what I figured out to make things easier. Besides, I don’t have that many skills — the ones I use the most are already part of my unique skill: [Skillful King].

  Back to the main point — the least damaged wolf was the last one I killed. I didn’t know if my skill would work on a corpse that was too destroyed.

  ? Application complete. Skill [Ice Manipulation] acquired. A Class (B) skill. ?

  It’s a higher class than [Fire Manipulation], so I guess that wasn’t a bad deal.

  I should test it out later.

  That brings me up to three skills. According to Merlin, skills can evolve, but she doesn't know how exactly, it seems random.

  'Maybe I’ll try to evolve [Fire Manipulation] into a Class (B) skill. If I use it a certain number of times, will it evolve?'

  ? Other traits acquired from the snow wolf: [Night Vision] ?

  'Wait, what? I didn’t know I could steal "traits" from other creatures and add them to myself as a kind of ability. There are still so many things I don’t understand about my skill.'

  "[You got a very interesting ability. My [Enlightened] is also a Class (S) skill.]"

  "I figured. You said your [Enlightened] is made up of multiple sub-skills, so I assumed as much."

  My ears picked up a sound to the right, a carriage?

  'That would be very welcome... If it’s a carriage, that means humans! Maybe I can join them to get into the city.'

  Considering monsters and humans don’t get along, it’s best to hide my identity. Unless they use [Appraisal] on me… I really hope they don’t...

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