Aria

  On the way there, I go ahead and contact the king of Frostfall, telling him that I’ll be there soon. Which leads to us having a rather large welcoming party when I have Crimson park the spaceship in one of their largest docks. One consisting of their king – a man with stark white hair kind of like my own and pale blue eyes, very much unlike my own – along with a couple ministers and a dozen royal guards.

  The man walks up to me with a smile on his face and reaches out his hand as he says, “Welcome to our frostbitten world, Lady Death! I hope you enjoy your stay here for as long as you please!”

  “Thank you, King Varan,” I tell him with a faint smile of my own as I take his hand and give it a shake. “I’ll probably be here for at least a few years before moving on.”

  He nods his head, his smile growing even wider when he says, “Sounds great! If you ever need anything, just ask! And remember what I said before. All taxes on your loot from the Endless Glaciers are free from any taxes!”

  “Much appreciated,” I say with a nod, very much loving this VIP treatment.

  From my understanding, this world is an Alpha Tier world that follows more along the quality over quantity mentality. With their king here being around level six thousand something. Far higher than my level, but also lower than Leone and Shirogane.

  Meanwhile the average level of his royal knights are around a thousand or so levels beneath him at five thousand something.

  Speaking of those knights, it’s rather amusing how none of them are paying much attention to me but instead have their gazes locked on Leone. As if they’re worried she’ll suddenly attack and kill them all.

  Then again, I’m not much of a threat in their eyes without the use of nukes and weapons. Since I’m not even level one hundred.

  And, if I’m being honest, I’m pretty sure most guns lose their effect at around level five thousand. No matter how strong the gun is.

  Nukes and explosives still work though. At least up till level ten thousand.

  Well, assuming they’re nukes strong enough to blow up half the world.

  Which would… have a bit of collateral damage.

  Just a bit.

  Anyways, the king once more gives me polite words telling me to ask him if I need any help before he and the knights lead us to his castle. Where he gives us rooms to stay for our time here.

  Then I go ahead and follow a knight to the closest Endless Glacier. At which point I realize exactly why it’s called an Endless Glacier.

  Because I literally can’t see the end of the glacier from the sky above it.

  Suffice it to say, the thing is big.

  The royal knight drops me down right in front of it and hands me some sort of coin, telling me that I can use it to call him back when I’m finished. So that he can bring me back to the capital if I need him to.

  Then he leaves without another word.

  I look around while putting my hands on my hips, just taking in the bone chilling temperatures around here. With ice patches here and there across the snowy ground, trees all over the place in front of the glacier, and frozen rivers connected to said glacier. Not to mention a large crack running down the glacier that is very clearly the entrance.

  At this point the cold doesn’t have any sort of effect on me, so I completely ignore it as I put my hands in my jacket pockets and walk over to the glacier while wearing a simple T-shirt, my jacket, and shorts. Then I step inside of the crack and begin navigating my way through tunnels within the glacier. Tunnels that honestly just look like naturally formed cracks in the ice.

  Eventually I find a large creature made entirely of ice just crawling across the surface of the wall. With the creature having an appearance based partially on some sort of short humanoid.

  I pull out my gun from the holster on my thigh before shooting it in the head, shattering its icy skull in a single blow and making it collapse to the ground as a message plays out.

  [User has killed one being of Level 7. Requirements to reach level 81 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 418423/3000000 beings have been granted Death.]

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Right. This could take a while.

  Honestly, I kind of want to reach level 100 before having to go to lyon’s home world. More than that, in fact.

  Simply because of what Famine told me after the ceremony through a text.

  Ignoring how he got my private contact information in the first place.

  That all three of the other Horsemen got their horses at level one hundred.

  Along with a surprise he refused to tell me about.

  I frown at that thought, only to shake my head.

  The king said this place would be for me alone today. So I’ll go ahead and take advantage of that.

  Although it’s just today. They are allowing other hunters access starting tomorrow.

  Anyways, I go ahead and begin opening rifts around me.

  The Next Day

  Not far from the Endless Glacier

  “Did you hear?” Valkar asks with a wide, excited grin as he and his group of hunters march through the Frost Woods towards the Endless Glacier closest to the capital. “They say there’s a Horseman of the Apocalypse on our planet!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Valla says with a wave of her hand, dismissing his words and no doubt not believing them.

  The others just chuckle, not entirely believing the rumor that’s been making its way around since the enormous spaceship landed in the king’s personal dock.

  “I’m serious! Wouldn’t it be cool if there really was a Horseman here?!” Valkar exclaims, feeling more than a little indignant at their blunt refusal of the rumor.

  “If there were a Horseman here, we’d all be dead,” Ragna says. And the others all nod their heads in agreement. “So please don’t go summoning Horsemen here with your words, Valkar.”

  Valkar puffs his cheeks out, feeling even more upset at their words. But the youngest member of the hunter party – a level 401 hunter just fresh of six hundred years old – doesn’t say anything.

  Because he knows it’s true.

  And the others will be shocked when they learn of it.

  I wonder if we’ll run into the Horseman or not? I really want their autograph!

  Valkar isn’t the type of person to be frightened off by the reputation each of the Horsemen have garnered. Moreover, he’s just excited at the idea of meeting someone who will be around for long enough to see Valkar’s own great-great-great-great-great-great-great-many-more-greats-grandchildren long after Valkar himself has died.

  “We’re coming up on the entrance now,” Valla says, sounding as stern as always. Meanwhile her long hair flows past Valkar in the wind, bringing with it the smell of her rather flowery perfume.

  Something she only wears because it attracts the mana creatures within the Hunter’s Spot.

  He personally really likes the smell, though. So he never says anything about it.

  “What d’you reckon caused yesterday’s closure, anyways?” Ralk asks, the tall, foreign man glancing over at Valla and Ragna. “They don’ often close an entire Hunter’s Spot afta all.”

  “I’m telling you! It’s the Horseman!” Valkar exclaims with his excitement returning.

  Only to be shot down by Valla as she says, “Probably some sort of accident that happened inside and needed investigating.” Completely ignoring Valkar in the process as they get close enough to see the entrance to the Endless Glacier.

  Then they pause when they see two strange creatures just standing guard at the entrance.

  “Get ready,” Valla says, with all of them preparing their weapons, whether they’re guns or blades.

  But the two creatures don’t move from their place standing guard. Even after their group readies themselves for battle.

  Valkar frowns at the creatures. Both of them are cloaked in shadows with glowing red eyes peeking out from under them, and he can’t quite see through the shadows from here. So he isn’t sure what they are.

  Except that their overall shape doesn’t imply human.

  Which doesn’t make sense since this Hunter’s Spot shouldn’t have any creatures like this in it.

  What’s more is that identify doesn’t result in anything when they try it.

  “Get ready to attack on three,” Valla whispers as they slowly inch their way forwards.

  “One.”

  “Two.”

  And the moment she says “Three!” all of them shoot forwards, with Valkar throwing fire spells straight at the two creatures while the others shoot them or cut through them with their blades. Each being careful to avoid friendly fire.

  Both of the creatures fall apart, turning into a pile of bones with a faint crimson tint to them mixed with some shadows still on them.

  Valkar and the others share a glance, only to poke at the creatures to make sure they’re dead. But when nothing happens, Valla just shrugs, and they continue walking through.

  Just to hear the sounds of rattling bones behind them, instantly making them turn around to find the two creatures already fully reformed and standing guard once again.

  “What the hell are these?!” Valkar shouts, no longer bothering with being quiet.

  None of the others answer.

  Eventually Valla just sighs and says, “For now, we continue moving. They don’t seem aggressive even after our attacks, so we just need to keep an eye on our backs.”

  Everyone nods their heads in agreement before they proceed further into the Endless Glacier.

  Until they find themselves stopping again at the first major cavern of the Endless Glacier.

  Where they find hordes of those strange creatures slaughtering the mana creatures of the Endless Glacier in droves, always restoring themselves whenever killed.

  The group just numbly stares at the strange sight for several seconds before Valla mutters, “What… am I watching?”

  They watch the strange creatures slaughter the mana creatures for a few more seconds before Ragna and Ralk answer simultaneously, “No idea.” “Beats me.”

  Silence fills the air as the shadowy skeletons kill the creatures made of ice. Without a single organic noise being made other than the rattling of bones and shattering of ice.

  Eventually the group just moves into another tunnel to skip past this cavern, realizing that there isn’t really anything they can do with the skeletons taking all of the corpses and storing them somewhere while hogging all of the enemies. Only to find the next cavern filled with the skeletons as well.

  And the next.

  And the next.

  And the next.

  After trying five different caverns, the group finally gives up and leaves the Endless Glacier, feeling defeated while muttering about their plans to try again tomorrow.

  But when they come back the next day, they find the exact same thing still happening.

  So they move on to a different Hunter’s Spot, having clearly realized why the place was closed for that day.

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