(Total newbie here.)

I had a random event pop up on top of a page, saying that the Ice King had challenged me to a fight in the coliseum. I died (because of course, none of my baby pets can withstand 4000str yet), but the Ice King is now nowhere to be found on the challengers list.

I'd take it as a one-time incident if I didn't have three "secret" challengers unlocked on that page; they popped up when I was looking at the (edit: nature walk page. I know what I'm talking about)

So I was just wondering... what's the difference between secret enemies that stick around to be fought again and random encounters that seemingly vanish after one try?

Most challengers can be unlocked by doing certain actions, visiting certain pages or through items, those are not random (Javir is a little but details), while the Ice King is an exception where he is a one-time thing and completely random - he's the only one like this btw. [sub]Also, welcome c:[/sub]

Ah, I think I get it. Does he at least come around periodically, so I might have a chance of fighting him far into the future when I might be strong enough to beat him?

Yup, he's a pretty common event. Got him twice yesterday for example.

Alrighty. Thank you for explaining ^.^