Jatan takes her time explaining a local legend about the snow walker, a being that nobody really knows about. What is agreed on is that it only appears in snowstorms and wields a black staff with frozen leaves. A single tap from the branch is enough to send any mortal to an endless slumber.

There are a few ways to tell if you are in danger of meeting the snow walker. If the blizzard randomly gets colder or if you get lost when you shouldn't have, there is a possibility that the snow walker is currently walking through the same storm as you. If you get unlucky enough to find him, the aura of death should deter any sane creature away.

Also, the scary part is that this isn't some random goblin tribe folktale. The snow walker's existence was documented before the Collision. If he was trapped all this time or had his own way traversing between fractures is unknown to me.

He might not even be a goblin, but just a short guy. Anyway, I decided to leave the fracture on that note.

I don't need to stay in the same place with an entity that could've one-tapped me. I bid Jatan and the goblin people farewell and leave as fast as possible.

I stopped at the bungalow on the way for nostalgic reasons. After that, we continued on.

~

The first thing I do after leaving the fracture is to rip the parka off of me. I don't bother with the zipper. It's not like I'll need to wear it in the future. I stretch, then make way for my tamed beasts.

Duchess comes out and shudders off the loose snow while I clean off Rob. Khan kicks up the wind, and the snow starts to fly everywhere.

I rub my unkempt beard as I watch Duchess get pissy at Khan and his antics. I look around since I rushed into the fracture when I first got here.

The fracture wasn't secured in a FIB containment site because a team needs to submit a thorough investigation before it can be classified and stored away. There have been many cases of the scouts claiming a fracture has creatures that only reach a certain level, then the first raid team would get demolished by monsters that are way out of their league.

Ironically this fracture popped up in an abandoned ice cream parlor. Well, I mean, it was ditched after the fracture was discovered.

There is supposed to be a minimum of one FIB agent watching this site, but I don't see anyone. I walk over to a set of cabinets and pull out the necessary paperwork and some personal effects I kept here as storage.

I sit down in a random booth and start the report. I don't know why people complain about paperwork. You fill in the blanks. I pull out my [Lexicon] and begin to write down my notes on a different piece of paper.

My superhuman stats allow me to finish before an hour passes. I decided to betray my nation and not note the goblin tribe in the fracture. I don't think it's paramount to report the Junji people. Who knows what the government would do if they found a surviving tribe with records of the planet before the Collision?

Until very recently, the other races were trying to keep humans in the dark about the history of their original planet. Now they limit the information or require magic contracts to learn the knowledge.

My concluding statement was, "It's a great vacation spot if you can ignore the frostbite. The denizens are a sadistic race of creatures with enough intelligence to play tricks on you and enjoy it. See above the most efficient way I found to kill them. The constant mana-infused snow must be acknowledged with the heavier cold protection that this level of fracture would necessitate. I recommend not straying too far away from the exit, as you can get unnaturally lost, and the natural resources don't differ."

I stick my reports into a manila envelope and leave them on the table.

~

I wanted to see my family first, so I went to my parents; house. Unfortunately, it looks like no one is home.

I entered with my key and decided to make a sandwich or a salad. I ate nothing but jerky for a week and desperately need a change of pace. My house has no groceries, so I guess I'm mooching today.

The front door opens. I peek over and see my foster sister Val standing in the doorway. I was halfway done making my sandwich, so I focused on the task.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Ellis, come out here. I need to talk to you about the training you 'volunteered' me for."

I say nothing, clenching my sandwich between my hands, about to take a bite.

"I know you're here, so don't ignore me. You left all your tamed beasts outside."

I begrudgingly put my sandwich down and walked out of the kitchen to face my foster sister. I bet she'll chew me out for signing her up for the representative team without her permission. Maybe if I promise her the vice caption spot, she'll go easy on me.

"Holy shit, dude. What the fuck happened to you? Did you lose a fight against a snowmobile? It looks like you got run over by a Zamboni after being dragged through the woods. Speaking of woods, you look like you've been living in one for the past month!"

I was a little shocked at her insult. I wasn't expecting her to fly right out the gate with criticisms. It's strange if she was saying all this for no reason, so I look for the nearest mirror.

Wow, I look like shit.

The first thing I notice is everything wrong with my hair. The winds and the mana-infused snow frosted my hair, making me look like a mad scientist with terrible hair dye. My beard is scraggly and wild. Usually, I shave every day, even if I don't need to. I definitely need a shower.

I started fixating on my body, starting with my torso. My clothes are covered in blood and dirt and will need a wash. I realized that my prosthetic arm felt weird. I don't know if it's battle damage or if rapid cooling and heating caused expansions in the wrong places.

I haven't noticed it until now, but now that I'm conscious of this damage, it's bugging me.

I can "heal" this arm with [Heal Anything], but as I figured out in that mausoleum, healing inanimate objects takes way more mana than healing something alive.

I'll use my mana on it at the end of the day. I don't know if I'll need mana later today.

I start walking back to Val but notice something wrong with my leg.

I take off my pants and see something underneath my skin. Like a pimple, I pop the foreign body out of my thigh. A wolf tooth falls to the ground, covered in my blood. I stretch my legs and feel good as new.

"So, Val. You wanted to speak to me?"

"...never mind, Ellis. I just wanted to vent about the training I'm going through, but what they're making you do is much worse."

?

"I mean, they must be forcing harsher training regiments. You disappeared for a week and came back out looking like that. I mean, it makes sense since you are the team captain."

"..."

"If they didn't give you a harder time with training, what are they doing? Letting you do whatever you wanted for the month before the capital trip."

"I mean-"

"Also, we'll be in the capital in a month, not leave in a month. But I'm sure you know that. Dean Palmer wanted to make sure you knew that. Not sure why he asked me to tell you."

"...I'm going to shower and shave."

"Good. If you didn't, I would beat you up."

~

Val came into the house to pick up some stuff, and I used that time to finish my food. When she left, I went to the nearest door and entered my mansion.

I don't know if I'll keep this place hidden from my family, but I see no reason to parade the fact that I have a pocket dimension to the public.

I search the mansion far and wide and come to a daunting realization. This place has no indoor plumbing.

The only source of water is a well located in a kitchen. It's even worse than that since the only kitchen isn't connected to the main building but inside the servants' quarters.

There isn't any electricity here, but that's not that big of a problem. I can probably buy a portable generator if I need it.

I left the mansion grounds and decided to head to my home near the market district and shower there. I brought all my toiletries there when I moved, and I'm not using someone else's.

Shit, that reminds me that I need a pilot's license if I want to ride one of my aerial beasts inside city confines. I've heard that it's a tedious process.

Bluefield isn't really tamer friendly now that I think of it. I don't recall any other cities needing these weird permits or having these bylaws against beasts. Good thing I'll only be here for a few more weeks.

~

I step out of my bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel. Taking liberties with my modesty is a perk of living alone. My beasts don't count since they are all basically naked anyways.

Alright, what I need to do is to create a timetable in my head. I have two weeks before I need to meet back up with dean Palmer and set off to the capital.

CRASH

One of the windows out into the backyard breaks open as Rob suddenly forces his way inside the house. I'm getting better at reading the emotion on his undead face, and it looks like he's worried about something.

"What's the matter, boy? What do you see?"

He points to the front door and gesticulates wildly. Before I can say anything, my house blows up.