CHAPTER 91: CHAPTER 91: SERENA’S APPEARANCE

Deep inside the Ice Pillar Zone. Cold snowflakes drifted in the freezing wind and slowly fell onto a huge ice pillar.

Serena lay there, covered in blood. Her body was shaking, and her lips had turned gray-white from heavy blood loss, making her look like a late-stage cancer patient.

The snow that landed on her melted quietly. Serena forced herself to roll over and slowly crawled toward the edge of the pillar.

She looked down. On the ground below lay a dozen or so players’ corpses.

Seeing this, Serena shut her eyes in despair, let out a deep sigh, and whispered, "It’s over. It’s all over."

"Damn it! If I’d known this place was so dangerous, I would’ve hired more class-change players!"

As the Guild Leader of the Winter Guild, Serena had already reached level 10. If she had picked a normal class to change into, she would have become a class-change player long ago.

But by chance, she got a class-change quest. If she finished it, she could become an [Ice Spider Warlock].

To complete the quest, she had to hunt a [Ice Spider Queen] here.

However, before class-changing, she couldn’t enter the Safe Zone 9527 Station, so she couldn’t take any transport to quickly get near the Ice City hub.

With no other choice, Serena set out from Safe Zone 9527 and walked here step by step.

After going through countless dangers and dodging many monsters, she finally arrived—only to find, in despair, that the [Ice Spider Queen] was far stronger than she had imagined.

To make sure she could finish the class-change quest, Serena not only brought top players from her guild, she also paid a lot to hire three class-change players.

But now, all of them were corpses on the ground.

And she could only hide on the ice pillar, clinging to life and slowly waiting for death.

Serena looked down at her watch, and the despair on her face grew even deeper.

[Name]: EarlyToBed

[Talent]: Energy-Saving Casting (Purple)

[Level]: Lv10

[Class]: None

[Status]: Poisoned

[Gear]: Cotton Underwear (Gray-quality), Alloy Longsword (Blue-quality), Fine Gloves (Blue-quality), Beastskin Cloak (Blue-quality), Shell Necklace (Green-quality), Common Pants (Green-quality), Common Snow Boots (Green-quality) ...

[Health]: 30%

[Strength]: 10

[Speed]: 15

[Defense]: 8

[Energy]: 6

[Charisma]: 7

[Luck]: 1

...

The [Ice Spider Queen]’s poison had already cut her health down to 30%, and it was still slowly dropping.

On top of that, the poison was eating away at her body, bringing sharp pain.

At one moment Serena felt like she was in a furnace, burned by fire, the next, like she had fallen into an icy river.

The constant switch between hot and cold made her sometimes pull off pieces of gear, exposing her blood-covered chest, then curl up again, shivering.

Just then, a dozen huge [Ice Spiders] slowly walked up to the players’ bodies.

They lowered their heads and began to gnaw.

Seeing the severed limbs, Serena, hands shaking, slowly took out a pill.

It was a [Suicide Pill] that could ease the pain of dying for players.

But when the pill reached her lips, Serena stopped, her face tight with conflict.

If she died now, when she respawned, she would appear again at Safe Zone 9527’s "Noob Nest."

To keep going with the class-change quest, she would have to spend a lot of time doing it all over again.

Serena took deep breaths, trying to calm down.

She clenched the [Suicide Pill] in her hand, gritted her teeth, and muttered to herself:

"There’s still hope. Maybe I’ll get lucky and another player will show up!"

...

Meanwhile, near the Ice Pillar Zone.

Through the blowing snow, a figure slowly came into view.

Ethan walked over the hard-packed snow, studying the huge ice pillars ahead.

They weren’t very dense, and when the sunlight hit them, he could see a rough, mirror-like shine. It looked special.

He couldn’t help but say, "No wonder some players don’t want to fight. They just want to wander around and enjoy the unique scenery."

If he weren’t sick—just a healthy, ordinary person—he might have stopped to take it all in, a sight that’s rare in real life.

But now he was a patient with less than three months to live, and his body was getting weaker.

Ethan didn’t have time to enjoy the view.

While waiting for Veritas Snow Group to develop a new drug, he needed to keep getting stronger and use Dawnfall Online to gain more resources.

Without hesitating, Ethan stepped into the Ice Pillar Zone.

Soon he saw the corpse of an [Ice Spider].

He frowned slightly, hurried over, and examined it closely. There were many wounds: cuts from sharp weapons and marks from blunt blows.

He quickly guessed that a few players had been here not long ago and fought an [Ice Spider]. They probably weren’t very strong, since they couldn’t finish it quickly.

Ethan looked around the ground, hoping to find footprints. But snow was still falling, covering everything, and any tracks were already gone. Otherwise, he could have figured out more.

For Ethan, it was a good sign that the group ahead wasn’t strong.

This time, his goal was to kill [Ice Spiders] as fast as possible and push his level to 20.

The number of [Ice Spiders] in the Ice Spider Zone is definitely limited.

If others have killed a lot, there might not be enough left for him to reach level 20.

Ethan quickened his pace and kept moving forward.

As he passed an ice pillar, he suddenly stopped and snapped his head to the right.

An [Ice Spider] was hiding there without a sound!

It was huge, over two meters tall, its color almost blending into the surroundings—easy to miss if you didn’t look closely.

If Ethan hadn’t caught a whiff of blood, he wouldn’t have found it.

Under his gaze, the [Ice Spider]’s eight black-and-red eyes, each the size of a fist, stared fixedly at him.

Ethan stayed calm and used the [Scan] function on his watch.

[Name]: Ice Spider

[Level]: 18

[Skills]: ???

[Weakness]: ???

[Description]: A monster living in the Ice Pillar Zone near the Ice City hub. Very good at hiding and ambushing prey.

Seeing the level, Ethan nodded, satisfied. A normal player would have run from a level 18 monster. But Ethan was different. Without any hesitation, he gripped the [Damaged Blood-Drinking Long Knife] and took the initiative to attack.

The spider reacted at once. It swung a spear-like leg, slicing the air as it stabbed at Ethan.

But Ethan was faster. The instant its leg left the ground, he was already ready to dodge.

In the next moment, his right foot snapped into position, and his whole body pivoted around it.

The [Ice Spider]’s attack missed, and Ethan dodged it perfectly.

His [Damaged Blood-Drinking Long Knife] traced an arc in the air and hit the joint of the spider’s leg with precision. The leg that had thrust at Ethan was cut off and fell to the ground.

Pale blue blood sprayed from the wound.

The [Ice Spider] trembled and threw back its head, letting out a harsh screech.

Losing that leg hurt it badly.

Ethan didn’t hesitate. He seized the chance while it was howling and rushed to its belly.

In the next second, his blade stabbed into its abdomen. There was almost no resistance, like poking into a sponge.

Ethan moved quickly, and the [Damaged Blood-Drinking Long Knife] moved with him. He brutally split open the [Ice Spider]’s belly.

Guts and blood splattered onto the snow, turning the ground blue.

The huge body crashed down and kept struggling.

The fight didn’t last long. Ethan’s smooth, flowing attacks left the big [Ice Spider] with no way to fight back.

For Ethan, dealing with a level 18 monster was still easy.

Soon, when the [Ice Spider] stopped moving, a ball of purple light slowly rose from the corpse.

Ethan frowned a little. He had thought it would drop an Orange-quality Intel reward. After all, the [Ice Spider] was much stronger than the monsters near Safe Zone 95274.

Looks like to get Orange-quality Intel, he has to kill a boss.

Ethan’s two Orange-quality Intel rewards came from killing the boss on the third underground level of Frostspire Tower and the thief leader Sinclair in the underground cave.

Thinking of this, he looked deeper into the ice pillars. He wondered if there was a boss in there like the thief leader Sinclair.

If there was, that would mean he could get another Orange-quality Intel reward.

The [Ice Spider]’s corpse was still leaking blue blood. Ethan took two steps back and opened his watch.

He was ready to see what kind of Intel reward dropped this time.