The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 36 - Comedic Relief (Patreon)

Wolf
Several hours later

I let out a sigh before twisting my hand as carefully as possible on the doorknob to leave the Expanded System Store.

Unfortunately, despite all of my careful attempts to adjust to my new body, I still use too much strength and end up slamming the door open as soon as the seal from the doorknob being turned unlocks. That said, I do at least manage to let go of it before it can send me sprawling outside of the store.

At this point, I don’t even bother getting irritated at my failure. Not after considering the hundreds of failures that came before it.

Instead, I just carefully begin to step outside.

At least I managed to get the walking part down pat as long as I focus hard enough.

Although, only when I am in my neutral form.

The fog in my head while I am in my hunter form makes it too difficult to focus, and the slight disorientation from just how different my wolf form is, is a little bit too much to handle right now, so I am going to have to adjust to my new changes form by form. Starting with my neutral form.

And what better way to adjust is there than battle?

Especially considering that the ents on this floor won’t attack me, and the sprites are only really able to use dark magic and aren’t a high enough level to break past my ice armor.

And speaking of sprites, a dark sprite brute that I had both heard and sensed earlier finally makes its way into the clearing while giggling nonstop.

“Let’s see if I can kill you without my magic…” I mutter as I push with my feet in an attempt to jump towards it with a claw raised.

Several loud crashes sound throughout the forest as I fly straight past the sprite and through a few trees until I find myself face first in the ground with a large amount of dust around me.

“Shit,” I mutter with a small amount of pain. “That didn’t work out.”

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Arcadian Live
Several hours later

Laughter echoes throughout the stadium as the audience – now completely rid of almost all of Vulcan’s fans – watches Wolf try and fail over and over again in his attempt to kill a single dark sprite brute. All while the dark sprite brute itself continues giggling nonstop as it periodically blasts him with bolts of darkness.

“Watching The Winter Wolf has basically turned into comedic relief over these past several hours,” Mikaela jokes in between chuckles as he sits back in a floating chair near the main screen with Niklai and Katherine.

“It’s bizarre,” Niklai states with a straight face, barely managing to hold back his smile as he continues, “most Competitors slowly lose their followers when they are getting left behind in the dungeon, but The Winter Wolf has instead continued gaining followers at an astonishing pace!”

As soon as he finishes speaking, Niklai waves his hand, causing a menu to appear above Wolf’s description.

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

Wolf Adler | The Winter Wolf | 13,843,750 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Harbinger Lycanthrope

Crystal Leblanc | Deadshot | 9,562,805 Followers| 0 Current Sponsors | Human

Ariana Silverheart | Silver Siren | 7,225,074 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Siren

Ludric Hyde | Vulcan | 5,295,708 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Human

Norbert Heinrich | Nosferatu | 4,254,365 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Dhampir

Lily Veldon | Crimson Rose | 3,997,550 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Human

Christopher Sinclair | Unbreakable | 3,898,870 Follower | 0 Current Sponsors | Human

Adriana Heath | Adriana | 3,005,761 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Elf

Ahxul Kinich | Lucky Lizard | 2,408,643 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Lizardman

Dewey Hobbs | Dark Shadow | 2,234,594 Followers | 0 Current Sponsors | Shadow Panterra

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

“You’re right, and he isn’t even on the furthest reached floor anymore!” Mikaela exclaims before adding without even trying to hide his mood, “Meanwhile, Vulcan is also stuck on the twenty-second floor without having moved on yet, but his follower count has actually begun to drop!”

Katherine snickers at this as she says, “That’s true, but that might also have something to do with his missing arm making it pretty damn difficult for him to fight.”

Immediately after saying this, a look of satisfaction crosses her eyes, which is soon reflected in the eyes of millions of Wolf’s fans throughout the audience.

“Followers aside,” Niklai suddenly interjects, “how do you think our current top ten on the list will fare when the first sponsorship floor comes about?”

Shouts immediately begin to resonate throughout the audience at the topic of sponsors as thousands of fans begin shouting out their wishes to sponsor their favorite Competitors.

Mikaela glances behind him at the audience before he says, “I guess there is your answer.”

He then turns back to the main screen and says, “Although, considering the Werewolf Empress’ interest in The Winter Wolf, I’m not sure if there will be any more sponsorship slots for him left for any of his fans to take!”

This causes a wave of disappointment mixed with various expressions of happiness from the audience.

Niklai glances back at them before deciding to elaborate, “For those of you who do not know how sponsorship works during the Administrator Dungeon, this should give you a thorough enough explanation.”

He then waves his hand to replace the Competitor list with another menu.

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

Administrator Dungeon Sponsorship Rules

1. Every Competitor may only have up to ten sponsors for every 50th floor.

2. The sponsors – if there happen to be over ten trying for the positions – will compete in a brief ten minute long auction for each of the ten positions, starting as soon as the Competitor reaches the sponsorship floor. The highest bid during the ten minute window period will gain the sponsorship, and each sponsorship position will have a separate auction starting immediately after the previous one ended.

3. A sponsor may only send one System item or skill they own to their Competitor during the sponsorship period, and only on the sponsorship floor. If the sponsor were to wait till the next floor to sponsor them, then they will lose their access to the Sponsor System Menu. After they send their one System item or skill, they will lose their access to the Sponsor System Menu.

4. Storage items containing multiple different items are banned by the System unless they are empty. Any attempts to give multiple items will be met by the sponsor losing their privileges as a player.

5. Any attempts to force another into sponsoring a Competitor will result in the one ultimately forcing to lose their privileges as a player.

6. A player may sponsor a Competitor only once in each sponsorship period, but they may sponsor them in as many sponsorship periods as they would like.

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

Many of the voices amongst the audience fall silent as they read the menu. Meanwhile, the experienced viewers begin talking amongst themselves about the sponsorships.

Niklai suddenly begins speaking again a few minutes later, “Unfortunately, the sponsorships for the top Competitors are almost always sold out to those high up in the most powerful factions immediately.”

Disappointment runs through the audience from those previously wishing to sponsor their favorite Competitors before Mikaela says, “Don’t lose hope now, it’s still possible to get one of the later sponsorship positions if you are lucky.”

“That said,” he adds before turning his attention from the menu above the main screen back to the main screen itself as Wolf finally manages to directly strike at a dark sprite brute instead of accidentally swiping some of the blue liquid off of his claws to land on them, causing them to freeze solid in a matter of minutes, “we are not even at the halfway point to the first sponsorship floor, so you can worry about that later on…”

Mikaela trails off as he and everyone else within the stadium see the dark sprite brute cut to ribbons with a single claw strike as the separate parts of its body that were separated from each other get sent flying to slam into a tree.

Everyone stares in silence for several seconds before Niklai mutters, “The Winter Wolf might just be the strongest Competitor that I have ever seen at this point in the Administrator Dungeon Run…”

A wave of nodding heads follows his statement from both the other commentators, and the audience.

Mikaela looks at the screen with a ponderous look on his face as he thinks, ‘I wonder how the other executives will react if he makes it out of the dungeon…’