"[Notify Ruling Lord] isn't supposed to be used like this, but I will try to keep you abreast of the happenings in the South as I get to know them. I know that you would just as gladly ignore all of it until you get back, but I still don't know when that will be.

"These have to be short, so I'll get to it. As you are already aware, the treaty has been signed, and we are now in a formal alliance with Vanessa. That being said, Rachel thinks that the Admiral, as the one who called for the Assembly, is trying to act as world police.

"She thinks the meetings will culminate in an agreement of sorts to try and get people to not wage open war, or if there is to be a battle, limit it in some way.

"She requests to know what stance she should take, along with how firmly she should make it.

"That's all until tomorrow. The skill is fighting me. Love you, be safe." ~~

The message from Abigail wasn't entirely unexpected. There was a chance that she wouldn't bother with keeping me updated and let it all stew until I got back, but who was I kidding?

She wasn't going to let me go that easily.

Still, even though I was hoping not even being on the same continent would spare me, it was nice to know what was going on. I didn't need it, per se, but it was still nice. And it just so happened to break up some of the boredom that had been building up.

It wasn't like I had things to do all day, every day, keeping me busy. Most of my time was just spent walking, with the rare chance to stretch my legs when an errant beast made a poor choice.

Sure, I was technically the intruder, but still. They should be smart enough to know who not to bother.

I wasn't too annoyed by it. It was few and far between, and it brought certain benefits along the way. Breaking up the monotony of walking for one, but the main one was the influx of essence.

Seeing that number start ticking up once again was a wonderful feeling.

Not that the levels were being raked in at any generous speed. It was honestly quite slow, compared to some of the other times I'd experienced it. The tutorial felt like one massive mad dash that had me gaining levels like they were falling out of the sky.

Then, with the demons, there was a massive influx of them.

Explosive growth followed by slow but sustained increases.

I wasn't sure which one I liked better. The explosive growth was nice; it got me through the levels faster, but it also came with a commensurate threat level. Sustained growth of running through the dungeons daily didn't have that, but it was also much slower.

As for the subject of Abigail's message, I wasn't too worried about it. I had placed my full trust in Rachel and knew that she would handle things well. If I were being honest, she would probably handle things better than I would have.

Faced with someone trying to reassert rules and restrain my actions, whether done with good or ill intent, they would have been met poorly. After finally experiencing freedom in a way I had never experienced before, I was not going to let anyone take that away, even if those shackles were in the form of civility and public good.

That was the first stepping stone to returning to the same thing we had just broken out of.

While I admit that the return of some policies or rules was a good thing, I didn't trust a single person in order to handle it. It was the main reason I had ventured so far away in the first place. To distance myself from those things.

Everything's gonna be fine. Rachel'll handle it.

As my mind was filled with these idle thoughts, my senses picked up something interesting. Or more specifically, several somethings that were interesting.

Monsters. A lot of monsters.

The distinction between monster and beast was sometimes blurry, but what I was seeing and feeling was no beast.

They stood out compared to the snowy plains like a sore thumb in more ways than one. First of all, they weren't even white. Everything I had encountered in the lands of Everwinter was either pure white or some variation of white so that it could blend in.

Reindeer had white or light grey coats. Elk and moose were the same. Foxes were white, owls were white, the giant eagles and other birds of prey were mainly decorated in white feathers. Rodents and other prey animals were the most white, but all of the beasts in the ecosystem incorporated it in some way.

These monsters didn't, and even with my poor Perception stat, I could see them from a great distance away.

Secondly, they did not carry a piece of winter with them. They held no affinity for Ice or Snow, and I could feel them rally energies around themselves in order to brave the snowy atmosphere.

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Thirdly, they were ugly as fuck and like nothing I had ever seen before. They were completely black, and the shadows given off by their form were odd in a way that was hard to describe. Some parts were covered in fur, while other parts had scales like a lizard.

Shadow monsters of some variety. In a land that currently saw near constant sun, it was a bad day to be a shadow monster.

Only one thing made sense for why these things were here, especially in such numbers.

A dungeon break.

It wasn't something I had seen before, but I had certainly heard about it. Depending on how one looked at the fallen pylons of the tutorial, I had dealt with something similar, but it wasn't a dungeon break exactly.

The way Sarah had described her tutorial made me rethink how similar those two events were. Still, with her and others' tutorials being about dungeon breaks, I had heard enough to know what I was looking at.

A group of foreign monsters that so obviously didn't suit the area was the hallmark sign of a dungeon break.

The only odd thing was that I didn't feel a dungeon nearby.

Our map had markers for many of the dungeons, but where I was wasn't on the map anymore, and even if I was, that didn't mean new ones didn't pop up. That map was drawn the day before we returned.

There were plenty of dungeons that could have popped up in the five years since. There was also the chance of a dungeon getting destroyed, but that was vanishingly rare and took deliberate action.

No one would willingly destroy a source of wealth like the dungeons were.

Also, I wasn't sure if this was true or not, but Lucille raved about the possibility of splitting a dungeon off in order to propagate it. Our resident Dungeon Curator had high hopes of growing dungeons from the beginning.

Nothing I or Abigail had read backed up such a claim, but it wasn't our Profession. Lucille would know better, but I was still skeptical.

That tidbit aside, the beasts were roaming the area in a pack, doing a piss poor job of being stealthy, but it wasn't like I was very good at it either.

A grin formed, and my fingers closed around the shaft of my hammer as I sped off in the direction of my next distraction.

While I had never seen a dungeon break in person, I knew enough about them to understand the process.

A dungeon pulled in the mana of an area, using it as fuel to dig deeper and grow, but it also used it to pull in monsters to populate it. The books I'd read contradicted each other on how exactly dungeons did that, but enough of them conferred that a cost of mana was involved.

I thought it was the System's doing, but that was just me. Some of the authors went to great lengths to point out that doing so was 'beneath the notice of the Great System'. The fanatics. Why would someone deify or revere the System was still beyond me.

After pulling the beasts in and populating the dungeon, the mana continued to build up, but the dungeon could only grow so fast. As it built and built, there was only one outlet for the energy to go, and that was out.

Dungeons that were routinely delved didn't have to worry about breaking, as the mana never built up to critical levels, but dungeons out in the far reaches of the wilderness with no one to delve them...

That only left one option. Spewing its former denizens into the wild, making room for new ones to spend its mana on. In that line, the deeper the dungeon, the stronger the monsters, and the more it costs to populate the floors.

The lowest floor of the dungeon was the maximum threat a dungeon break could pose.

I wasn't sure how many floors this dungeon had, as I had no idea when the break occurred. After the monsters were freed, it wasn't like they were static. They could grow and level just like everything else.

That didn't much matter, because they were of no threat to me. They were low D-rank, but that was still a far way off from being deadly unless you had something else to back it up.

These beasts didn't seem to have any powerful bloodlines or strong magics.

"[Meteor Blow]." My hammer crashed down and took one out instantly. They had noticed my arrival, but the monsters didn't flee. Instead, the dozen or so had spread out to surround me like that would work.

The now rare weapon skill was more than enough to take one of the beasts out, even though it was a few levels above me.

After the first fell, the others took the chance to attack, thinking I was vulnerable. Their fangs and claws landed on my flesh and did nothing. I didn't even form my ice armor and instead let the attacks land.

"Ha! Weaklings." I laughed.

For a moment, I was ready to use [Jotun's Resistance] to bolster my defense just in case they pulled out some hidden strength, but it was entirely unneeded. My Fortitude had been enough.

I had over 2000 points in the stat, and I was still getting used to what I could and couldn't tank. There were a few new scars lining my skin from misjudgments, but I was getting a better feel for things as time went on.

The first polar bear I came across would be the true test, not these weakened shadow pups. They weren't dogs, but that was the closest resemblance to anything I knew, so it stuck.

The area was so dominated by light being reflected off the thick layer of snow that they were struggling just to withstand it.

"[Tundra's Descent]!"

I saw that teetering balance and placed my hand firmly on the scale and pushed. The skill had devolved to Rare, but it still held the power it once did. It just couldn't be called an Epic skill anymore for my grade.

The chill deepened, and I pressed it harder with my Law. I saw the gathered beasts shivering, and I couldn't help but grin.

Ice rose up from the ground with [Ice Manipulation], entrapping those too slow to dodge, and even though what came next was a bit sinister, I couldn't help but smile in anticipation.

The ones trapped, encased with ice, could only stand there in a whimper.

"[Shatter]."

A skill that had been with me for a while, and one that was endlessly fun to use. It didn't pack the same punch it once had, but it was more than enough for these stray monsters.

That was when the few survivors turned to flee. While their first instinct was to fight, and they would do so 99 times out of 100, that didn't mean monsters never fled. When faced with someone so far above them, it was the instinct of every living being to survive.

Seeing that, my smile dimmed. I really didn't want to go slugging through the snow tracking them all down. I also didn't just want to leave them be.

I had been too busy playing around.

With my fun had, more mana rushed into my hammer for the finisher. As it came down, with pure force alone, [Hammer Reverberation] spread out the force to concentrate it on the remaining trio of monsters trying to run.

The concentrated force was more than enough to send them off to their maker with flattened skulls.

The essence of the dozen beasts flowed into me, and I heard a chime signaling yet another level.

Level 111.

My smile returned.

"Now, where did you guys originate from? Hmm?"

The dead didn't answer me, but it wasn't like I was expecting them to, anyway.

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