The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 22 - Intel Exchange (Patreon)

Wolf
One day later

“Well, this is a surprise,” I mutter as I crouch behind a web-infested bush, watching a man with black hair, pale skin, and red eyes as he dances around a greater scythian arachnid with his two swords while a light black mist spills from his black cloak.

_-| Norbert Heinrich – Dhampir – Level 210 |-_

I didn’t even realize that he was on this floor yet. Although it makes sense that he would be.

About a minute passes as I analyze his style of fighting before he finally finishes the spider off by jumping from a tree onto its back and impaling it through the back of its head, right above its eyes.

Unsurprisingly – considering his status as at least half undead – the second he finishes his fight, he turns in my direction with his swords still raised. Although, for some reason a strange look runs across his face the second he sees me before it disappears the next second as he sheathes his blades.

He then nods his head in my direction as I rise to my feet before he says, “Winter Wolf.”

I nod my head back and respond in kind, “Nosferatu.”

“I am assuming you waited for me to ask for a trade?” he asks, getting directly to the point.

“Close,” I say before crossing my arms, “it’s more like I am here to see if you have anything I would want to trade for.”

I haven’t done as much research into Nosferatu as I would like. Or at least, not as much as I looked into Vulcan, Crystal, or Silver Siren. So, I don’t know what he has right now, aside from some of the stuff he got from chests.

Fortunately – or unfortunately depending on how I look at it – there are several threads for each player showcasing what items or skills they have gotten through loot boxes and chests throughout the dungeon.

That said, items or skills purchased via the System – whether that be through auction or the store or any other way – don’t showcase their descriptions to the audience, so those are kept secret. My armaments for example. The only thing the threads have on it is that it is probably either Tier 6 or Tier 7, and that it might freeze a hostile if they try to touch me.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I must apologize,” Nosferatu says with a light shake of his head, “I don’t think I have anything that could be of use to you.”

Well, that’s unfortunate.

I didn’t think he would, considering the stuff I did see when looking at his thread, but I was at least hoping that he would show me what he had.

That said…

“What about intel then?” I ask him, uncrossing my arms before nodding towards the enormous spider web in the far distance. “I could trade you some information about the boss if you have anything that is of interest to me.”

This seems to pique his interest as he looks down while rubbing his chin in thought.

It takes a few seconds, but he raises his head again and says, “Would information about the anthrovespid nest that is back on Aegis work?”

My eyes widen in surprise before I ask, “And what information would you have that I can’t just find on the forums, or from my contacts back on Aegis?”

“Well,” Nosferatu says before pausing as the ground suddenly shakes very faintly.

We both glance towards the boss’s nest to see the boss leaving it in the opposite direction from us.

He then turns back to me and continues, “The anthrovespid nest on Aegis was originally from the same planet as I came from before the Initialization.”

Oh?

This might be interesting.

“Then we have a deal,” I answer him before seeing him reach out his hand.

I quickly shake his hand before he begins to give me a rundown of the anthrovespid nest, “They first surfaced about five of our years ago under a leader known as Ixnah-lakin, where they went and attacked several bordering villages of a small kingdom.”

Kingdom?

They had monarchies on their planet?

Then again, there seem to be a lot of monarchies in the System. And, surprisingly, our societies’ technology is actually one of the more advanced ones. Although this might be because they had the System and didn’t need to advance their technologies as much as we did. Either that or they slowly devolved their technology since they didn’t need it; what with the powers given to them by the System, along with the monsters.

My thoughts are interrupted as Nosferatu continues, “Since the anthrovespids are lacking a little bit in the intellect areas, they have much stronger bodies than many of the other species. Even stronger than us dhampirs. Which lead to the unfortunate wipe of several hundred people in the attacked villages before our soldiers managed to find them and begin pushing them back towards their nest.”

He then pauses with another glance towards the boss’s nest before continuing again, “Unfortunately for us, they managed to escape into the wildlands outside of the kingdom before we could eliminate them. Which turned out to be where their nest was located; but since we couldn’t safely explore the wildlands because of the many dangers of the place, they managed to escape to build back up their nest.”

Sapphire suddenly comes out of my shadow, startling him for a second before he continues talking without paying her any more attention, “They didn’t appear again for another two of our years after that. But when they did appear, they had a much larger force than the first time they attacked. However, before the second wave of conflict with them could extend for long, the Initialization happened, bringing us all to Aegis.”

“Which means that they were already in a warring mindset before coming here,” I finish for him before looking down with a frown.

This is bad news for everyone on Aegis…

Although it’s also possible that the visitors might just deal with them for us.

He nods in agreement before asking, “Now, about the boss?”

I look back up at his question before repeating everything I learned about the nerscillus from Mikaela.

Aegis Live

“I wasn’t expecting those two to be the next two to make a trade,” Aaron says with his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Winter Wolf maybe, but not Nosferatu, since he has already made a trade before.”

Murmurs of agreement run through the audience before he adds, “Although this is only a trade of information and not items or skills, so it makes a bit more sense.”

Conversations begin to break out amongst the audience as the main screen shows Wolf explaining details about the nerscillus to Nosferatu before the screen changes to show a young, teenage girl in a school uniform with pitch black eyes right before she opens a purple chest.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Item | Mask of the Fallen | Tier 6

This item is not attainable outside of epic boxes within the Administrator Dungeon.

This mask makes it more difficult for other beings to detect the wearer’s presence, allowing the wearer to fade into the background as long as they aren’t doing anything that might draw attention their way.

Note: This does not block perception skills or abilities such as life sense, or perception effects that come along with skills or abilities such as manipulation powers.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Holy shit! Our little forsaken, Thorn, has just gotten a perfect skill for an assassin!” Aaron shouts with a mixture of surprise and excitement as the audience explodes into a roar of surprise.

The surprise quickly leaves Aaron’s face as he smiles and adds, “The Winter Wolf may have been the first to open a mythic chest, but out little forsaken here is now the first Competitor to open an epic chest!”

Ruth looks at the description before it vanishes to reveal a dark looking mask.

Confusion spreads on her face as she reaches out to grab the mask and turns it around in her hand to see the other side.

“I wonder how she is supposed to put it on? It doesn’t appear to have any sort of-” Aaron begins before stopping mid-sentence as Ruth just places the mask against her face, causing strange black tendrils to shoot out of the mask and surround her entire body in a layer of murky shadow, only for it all to vanish in an instant to reveal her standing there with the black mask attached to her face.

“Oh?” Aaron says with intrigue as he rubs the light whiskers on his chin, “That was unexpected.”

Ruth just shrugs it off before starting towards the exit to the spider nest.