A few days later.
The world was a sheet of stark white.
Heavy accumulated snow blanketed the forests and wilderness.
Two figures and a bulky gray wolf trudged through the desolate, snowy woods.
Behind them, a long string of footprints stretched deep into the dense forest from where they had come.
Hoo—
Alya pulled her fur hat tight against her head, her exhaled breath instantly turning into billows of rising white mist, her cheeks frozen bright red.
She subconsciously drew a little closer to Gauss, who was walking ahead.
Gauss walked in the lead, dressed less thickly than she was.
Yet drawing near to his side, one could feel a faint warmth, much like a small, human-shaped stove.
Gauss's gaze roamed around their surroundings.
He was actually a bit cold too, though he didn't say so, as it hadn't yet reached a point of being unbearable.
Over the past few days, the crucial benefit of the rewards brought by the thousand-kill milestone—the attribute point allocation of 1 point to Strength and 1 point to Constitution—had truly manifested.
Eight in Strength and eight in Constitution, three whole points higher than the five points of an ordinary healthy human, also granted him a stronger tolerance for harsh weather environments like bitter cold and scorching heat.
Of course, most importantly, if one wanted to move freely in combat, they couldn't dress too heavily, otherwise it would hamper flexibility.
Chewing on some dried meat, his consciousness turned to the Monster Codex in the Adventurer's Handbook.
"Monster Kill Count: 1,311."
The hunting efficiency of these past few days simply couldn't compare to the first two.
After all, these were relatively scattered, small monster settlements, and this year's weather had grown even colder, which also caused the adventurers' efficiency to fall far short of previous years.