The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 27 - A Story and The Interruptions (Patreon)

Wolf

I manipulate my ice to open the door without moving towards it myself just in case it’s a trick before letting my guard down a little bit after seeing Crystal begin to walk into the cabin.

“Well, this is a surprise,” Crystal says with one eyebrow raised, “I was expecting us to have to meet up later, but this works out great!”

I nod my head before looking at my new gauntlets again.

Crystal seems to notice them as well before she says, “New gauntlets? You didn’t have those on the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah, just bought them,” I mutter before looking up again and asking, “do you want to go find the event boss now?”

As soon as she nods in agreement, we both leave the store before starting towards the event boss’s location.

It isn’t until a few hours of walking later that we begin to talk.

“Where did you get your combat training from anyways?” Crystal asks me a question I had been hoping she wouldn’t ask.

I glance at her as we pass through a small clearing amongst the trees.

She seems to notice my hesitation and adds, “Come on! We have known each other for over a month now, haven’t we?”

I pause for a second as I think back to how long it’s been since I first met her before I mutter, “It actually has been over a month…”

We’ve been in this dungeon for what, over two months now? Over three?

Either way, it hasn’t really felt that long.

I turn my attention to Crystal to see her genuinely curious about me before I let out a sigh of defeat.

It’s not like those ‘visitors’ can really find out much about my family just from this information… Especially not now, considering that the governments from earth are probably not a thing anymore.

I begin walking again as I answer her question, “Well, I should start by saying that my family came to America from Germany about two centuries ago, hence my name.”

Crystal quietly follows next to me as I speak without interrupting me.

“That said, my ancestors originally came on a job and didn’t plan on staying. They were assassins and were chasing after a target who had escaped to the US, but, somewhere along the way, they ended up making contact with the US government after finding out that the US government was after the same target that they were,” I explain before looking down as Sapphire hops out of my shadow and starts walking alongside us.

I briefly smile at her before I continue, “My parents never went into too much detail about the job in particular, but they ended up working together with the US government to finish the job, since they were independent assassins in the first place, and not actually connected with any particular group back in Germany. Soon after that, the US government offered them a job of their own, which they quickly took after seeing the difference in payment between them and their old employer. This eventually led to my family’s ancestors moving to the US permanently.”

A tiny life source suddenly enters my skill’s range before I pull a knife out of my inventory and throw it straight at it, nailing a dark sprite brute in the shoulder as it barely manages to move before the knife hits it.

That said, my knife still managed to cut one of its wings, making it unable to fly anymore as Crystal lets loose an arrow straight at it before I continue speaking, “My ancestors were a strange bunch. They always taught their children how to become assassins, whether they wanted to actually become one or not. It was just a tradition for my family. Each member doesn’t have to become an assassin, but we do have to train the next generation to give them the choice. So, skip forwards about two centuries, and here we have my family.”

Crystal finally speaks after listening to me in silence for this entire time, “So you were trained by your family to become an assassin?”

I nod my head before saying, “Yes, although my parents decided to break the tradition after their last assassination went wrong, leaving both of them badly injured and in the emergency room. They immediately stopped taking jobs after coming to the realization that they don’t want to leave me and my sister alone in the world. Ever since then, we have been living a rather normal life.”

“And do you plan on continuing the tradition if you ever have kids?” Crystal asks me a surprising question.

I glance at her with an eyebrow raised before saying, “I’m not very good with kids, so I wasn’t really ever planning on having any, but if I did for some reason have them, then it would be best to train them. Considering the world – or worlds – we live in now.”

Crystal goes quiet at my answer before I look forwards again before opening my dungeon map and coming to a sudden halt.

My actions attract her attention before she asks, “What is it?”

I glance at her before looking at the map again as I say, “The event boss seems to be heading in this direction.”

Crystal grows cautious at my words before she pulls out her bow.

I activate both of my claws just to make sure I’m ready for whenever it shows up before I say, “We should still have several minutes before it gets here, but it would be best to prepare now.”

She nods in agreement before glancing up as we enter a clearing.

For some reason, her face shifts to one of confusion.

Before I can ask her about it, she suddenly says, “I thought the moons in the sky were both crescent moons?”

“Yeah,” I answer her with my brows furrowed in confusion, “they were.”

I follow her gaze up into the sky before freezing.

Why are both of the moons full on this floor?

Before I can think about the discovery, I sense a human-sized life source enter my senses.

“We have a visitor,” I warn Crystal as I turn towards the life source, only for my eyes to widen in surprise before I grab Crystal, push her, and roll away from where we were standing.

Less than a second later, a large fireball suddenly explodes right where we were just standing.

“Damnit!” Crystal cusses as she lands on the ground and quickly climbs back to her feet while aiming her bow in the direction of the attacker, “Vulcan!”

I quickly find Vulcan standing at the edge of my life sense range with his hands raised towards us before another two fireballs suddenly fly in our direction.

Without any hesitation, I raise a wall of ice in between us, only for the wall to surprisingly melt at a quick pace as his first fireball hits it before the second one comes towards me.

“Shit,” I mutter before rolling out of the way and identifying Vulcan.

_-| Ludric Hyde – Human – Level 242 |-_

Seriously?! He is just one damn level above me!

“Let’s see if he can handle this,” I mutter while creating several dozen ice daggers around me before sending them all flying his direction.

Meanwhile Crystal lets loose an arrow of her own straight at him, but before any of it can reach him, he raises both of his hands and fires out a large jet of flames that instantly envelops all of my daggers before they can even reach him, melting them all down.

Although, despite that, Crystal’s arrow flies straight through the flames and pierces one of his hands as a shout of pain comes from him before he sends us a very pissed off scowl.

Just as I am about to let my ice element out in an attempt to swarm him with it, an ear-piercing howl echoes throughout the area.

“Wolf, the event boss!” Crystal shouts to get my attention before I notice Vulcan sprinting off through the forest whilst holding his injured hand.

Shit, the bastard’s getting away!

I raise my hand to manifest more daggers of ice, only to be tackled by Crystal before seeing five strange, black arcs fly straight past where I was standing.

What the fu-

My thoughts are interrupted as I sense a life source spanning nearly twice the size of a human being enter my skill’s range.

I turn to look at it before finding a large, two-and-a-half-meter tall creature covered in dark fur with bright red eyes charging straight towards us while raising its wolf-like head and howling to the moons above us.

“Well, shit,” I mutter the instant I read its species name and see its level after identifying it.

_-| Unnamed – Primal Werewolf – Level 307 |-_

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PS: This is not part of the chapter, but the event boss's ID will be colored blue on Royal Road and eventually Amazon.