Unlike Athena, just two monsters are not enough to threaten many people who have survived until now.

The speaker was called Potato, but he was soon mocked by the crowd. Athena clicked on his profile picture, and there was something in his trade panel. It was his self-promoted trade item, boasting and selling his wares.

Athena wondered where this guy named Potato got this scroll from, and he managed to get ten at once.

Although everyone was chatting, not many people were willing to use this scroll. As a result, it hadn't been sold yet, and he himself had to promote it in the chat interface.

Athena thought about the scroll's feature and decided to send a message to the other party.

Although she didn't need it now because she had plenty of monsters, what if there were special circumstances in the future?

Despite the danger, as the system said, it also had absolute returns.

Athena sent a message to the other party. Sitting by the fire, eating the last berries to fill her stomach, the snow on her body melted into water drops under the roasting of the fire, dripping down the tarp.

As everything reset to zero, the second wave of monsters attacked. Although there were fifty snowstorm beasts, it was still within Athena's capabilities to handle. Although it took some time, she managed to finish them off perfectly.

She placed the two packages dropped in the courtyard together with the ones from before, totaling three white packages.

Just after this batch was eliminated, the vast horde of snowstorm beasts was heading this way.

Athena frowned as she looked at the large monster two meters tall in the distance, which, from the first round to the second round now, even after so many snowstorm beasts died, perhaps remained motionless standing there.

There were still two waves left, her refresh mechanism was different from others'.

For some reason here, Athena had spawned the main nest. The monsters elsewhere were all teleported from here, so her monsters didn't need to be teleported in waves.

Instead, after this round was eliminated, the next round would come. So she could clearly see the third wave of snowstorm beasts in the distance, and faintly see the fourth wave as well.

Compared to the previous waves, the fourth wave clearly followed an elite route with only five beasts.

She pulled her bow taut and shot at the huge monster. Since her monsters didn't need to wait for teleportation, could she choose to end the killing early? The huge monster looked extraordinary at a glance, and it hadn't joined the battle yet. If it were to support the rear, combined with the elite monsters, it would be quite troublesome.

Unfortunately, the arrow was blocked in mid-air by a transparent shield.

Following that was the system's piercing warning sound.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Athena stopped and aimed at the monsters from the third wave. Unexpectedly, this time there was no special barrier protection, and she successfully reduced one of the snowstorm beasts.

Attacking early turned out to be feasible, but the snowstorm beasts started to become restless, it seemed they were going to launch their attack early too. This was within Athena's expectations.

If she could attack early, then so could the opponents.

Two hours was too long; it was better to just kill them all.

---

The special reward was something Athena hadn't anticipated, but at this moment, she was more focused on shooting arrows. Arrow after arrow was shot out, accompanied by the fierce bombardment, monsters surged like tides.

As the third wave of monsters began to attack, the fourth wave began to advance.

When this group of monsters realized they were being called for help, Athena already knew they had a certain level of intelligence.

Facing the intense line of defense, they would also retreat, but under the unknown power, they would charge forward again. But as long as they retreated, they would gather together.

What Athena was waiting for was now, as crowded places were more prone to causing collective damage.

"All dried weeds!"

"Yes!"

The oil bought earlier had already been sprinkled on these bundles of weeds, adding fuel to the fire! Athena put away her bow and arrows into her spatial backpack, and with a lighter in hand, she lit the weeds.

The fire instantly grew larger, and Athena felt the heat in her hands as she held it. With her astonishing strength, she threw the blazing weeds into the group of snowstorm beasts.

The previous purple font hint:

Almost all animals abhor and fear fire. During the previous siege, she unavoidably came into contact with the snowstorm beasts.

Contrary to her expectations, the fur of the snowstorm beasts not only closely resembled the color of snow, but their fur was also dry. Snow melts upon contact with warmth, and these densely packed and lush fur should have been moist as they traversed through the snow.

Yet they were inexplicably dry, and when snowflakes touched their fur, they slid off, as if lacking friction, never staying on their fur.

This is excellent material for starting a fire. Athena originally bought oil just to give it a try, after all, it's almost impossible to get a fire going in such heavy snow. But in subsequent encounters, the characteristics of their fur greatly increased the possibility of the fire spreading.

Several piles of ignited dry grass were thrown over, and as soon as they touched the snowstorm beasts, they began to burn. Instantly, they merged into a growing fire, eventually resembling a sea of flames.

Even the heavy snow couldn't extinguish the blaze, and the following snowstorm beasts tried to retreat to avoid the flames.

However, by now, the third wave of snow beasts had arrived, successfully blocking their escape route. The charging snowstorm beasts were destroyed by Athena and the turrets.

As the fire grew, Athena's experience points increased rapidly.

...

The situation continued until the fourth wave, which was the final snowstorm beasts to arrive on the battlefield.

At this point, most of the snowstorm beasts were either burning or already incapacitated, and only a few intact ones remained. Perhaps only a dozen or so would ultimately survive; they had completely lost their combat ability.

These four remaining snow beasts stood at a distance from the flames, opening their mouths and exhaling. Instantly, a small vortex formed, carrying the snow and wind forward.

Some of the flames were extinguished, but compared to the large fire, it was still not enough.

As if knowing it was futile, they didn't charge in like the previous group of snowstorm beasts did through the door Athena intentionally left open, but chose to attack from another side.

Athena also chose to abandon defense here, letting the turrets continue to attack as she moved around to the side. Her movements never stopped, continuously shooting arrows at these four snowstorm beasts.

As she became more proficient, she tried to focus all her strength on her arms. A strange feeling surged through her, and she shot out a different arrow than usual.

The arrow began to disintegrate in mid-air due to its excessive force, but still firmly pierced into the snowstorm beast's body.

The snowstorm beast hit by the arrow was instantly left with a small amount of health, but unfortunately, the fatal state was not triggered.

Athena fired another arrow. Now there were only three left. As she approached, she put away her bow and arrows into the system backpack and took out her long-unused axe.

Across the fence, she swung the axe fiercely at the snowstorm beast. These creatures had no hands, only mouths, they couldn't grab or bite Athena.

When one of them opened its mouth to bite Athena, she fiercely thrust a wooden arrow into its mouth, instantly killing it!

Just narrowly avoiding another attack, Athena flipped backward, swung her axe at the snowstorm beast's head, pulled it out instantly, and then delivered another blow along the gaping wound.

Another one was severely wounded in the eye by the wooden sword in her left hand.

Efficiently dealing with it, she then finished off the blinded snowstorm beast. By now, both sides of the battle had ended, and the experience point bonus from the defense turrets gradually subsided.

The values on the system panel fluctuated. Finally settling at 367!

Each of these four snowstorm beasts (Soldiers) added 30 points to Athena's experience, and there were still some beasts that hadn't completely died.

In the end, she would probably gain about 400 experience points. But she couldn't relax now, because the Snowstorm Beast (Commander) had moved!

Its movement speed was twice that of the other snowstorm beasts, covering about two meters in a second!

The continuous swinging of her axe and firing of arrows placed a great burden on Athena's arms, and the temperature of the defense turrets became scorching hot.

Even if it hadn't fully awakened, this was still an opponent impossible to defeat, at least for now... The giant monster opened its big mouth, inside of which there were no sharp teeth, but a dark hole similar to their nest.

A sharp and icy wind suddenly blew, pushing Athena back two steps, making her face sting. She touched her face and realized it was bleeding from the scratches!