The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 44 - The Anonymous Source (Patreon)

Wolf

After experimenting with the bear for a little while, I ended up finding out that it will obey any command that I give it almost immediately. That said, it doesn’t always do it happily.

The bear can’t hurt me, nor can it disobey my orders, but it does still have a mind of its own from what I can tell. Considering the angry looks it keeps sending me.

Interestingly enough, even when I tried ordering it to attack me once out of curiosity – while covering myself in ice of course to make sure it couldn’t hurt me – it still didn’t try to attack me.

If it weren’t for the fact that it’s still considered another being entirely, and therefore doesn’t give me any EXP for its kills, then I would probably just go turn a bunch of creatures on a floor and have them go on a monster massacre.

Now, unfortunately, it looks like the bear’s only use to me is as a minion to order around that steals my EXP. Which will only be useful in difficult battles, where the EXP isn’t of great importance.

I glance at Sapphire who is standing next to me as the bear approaches us again after tearing a dark sprite trickster to shreds before I look back up at the bear and order, “Go, I have no more need for you as of right now. Come find me if I howl.”

The bear seems to relax for a second before the angry look in its eyes softens and it breaks off at a sprint through the trees.

Hmm, I have also learned through my interactions with the bear that the monsters do actually seem to have some basic intelligence. Although not very much. Still nowhere near enough to speak or understand me outside of my orders.

I watch the bear slowly vanish into the cover of the trees, illuminated by the moonlight before turning to Sapphire with a grin and saying, “Now it’s time to finally work on getting you synced with my level!”

Sapphire purrs before following along after me as I start in the opposite direction of the bear.

It’s not like I will be getting my lead back for a while anyways, and I still need to adjust to my body. So now would be the perfect time to get Sapphire leveled up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aegis – Safe Zone 52
One week later

“Where did you get this information?” Luke asks the messenger standing in front of him with his arms crossed. “I wasn’t expecting to receive it so soon.”

The messenger – nervous from having to talk to the head of both the military and the intelligence gathering for the safe zone – briefly stutters as he says, “I-it was from an anonymous source.”

Luke raises an eyebrow at the messenger without saying a word.

“The source approached us as we were leaving safe zone 54 during our routine trip,” the messenger begins elaborating, understanding Luke’s unasked question after only a moment’s hesitation, “they were wearing snow-white cloaks that practically blended in with the snow covering the ground, and they were extremely blunt in their speaking.”

“They?” Luke asks as he uncrosses his arms, “so there was more than one?”

The messenger nods his head, having calmed down a little bit, “Yes, sir. One of them was a woman, and the other was a man. They both looked human, but I couldn’t say for certain due to the deep cowls of their cloaks.”

Luke turns his attention away from the messenger towards the report as he continues listening.

“After that, they just abruptly told us to give this to you before vanishing without another word,” the messenger finishes with a look of confusion on his face.

A short silence fills Luke’s office as he reads the letter before waving the messenger away, causing him to leave the office without another word.

You may call off your search for the contacts of the ex-Competitor previously known as Vulcan.
He was abused and experimented on by people – including his own family – throughout his entire life.
We’re pretty sure that you should be able to reach this conclusion on your own without much trouble, but Vulcan immediately became obsessed with revenge against other people in general as soon as he was given the chance by the Initialization to get it.
From what we were able to gather – which isn’t very much due to the lack of survivors – the first thing Vulcan did after the Initialization, was to escape the safe zone before anyone could stop him. He then came back a couple of days later, not long before the class selection, and began killing everyone within the safe zone.
His safe zone was a smaller one due to the relative seclusion of his ‘family’ before the Initialization, so there weren’t very many people that could defend against them. Furthermore, the majority of the people there were what you Humans call scientists.

Luke frowns at the contents of the letter, along with the abrupt ending and lack of a signature to tell him who it was from before he folds it up and puts it in his pocket.

He then turns to look at the door for a few seconds.

“That’s unfortunate,” he mutters without much pity for either party of the events described in the letter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aegis Live

“It looks like the slower Competitors are finally beginning to catch up to the floor The Winter Wolf has been on for the entirety of the last week!” Aaron shouts with excitement as Ruth enters the twenty-third floor. She has a thin, black mask covering her face, a black cloak, and blue jeans. Her eyes shine with a faint black glow through the eyeholes of the mask, while her fingernails – sharpened due to her change – faintly reflect the moonlight from the two moons off of their black surface.

“I wonder what would happen if she met The Winter Wolf?” Aaron comments, drawing several shouts from the audience at the thought before he adds, “Would she try to do something against him?”

Many people in the audience begin to loudly reject that theory before Aaron smirks and says, “Or will they possibly try to work together?”

This second theory brings about just as many shouts of denial as the first one did, if not more.

“Or maybe they will just trade with or ignore each…” Aaron trails off before muttering, “another Competitor?”

The screen changes from Ruth to show Adriana as she appears in the middle of a moonlit clearing, wearing her deep blue armor that covers her torso, legs, and arms completely.

“It looks like it’s our resident elf! Not to mention one of the few Competitors to actually use their name as their title,” Aaron declares with a joking smile as the audience begins to grow more and more excited at the possibility of more encounters between Wolf and other Competitors.

Aaron’s smile stretches even further as he says, “Now, who wants to bet on which of the two, if either, will meet Wolf first?”

The audience laughs at his comment while some viewers begin navigating to the betting menus to create that bet. However, the noise within the theatre begins to die down as a monster – one never seen before on this floor by these viewers – approaches Adriana from the skies.

The viewers who were focused on their menus begin to look up as silence fills the stadium. What meets their eyes is the sight of a large owl with pale blue and golden eyes, sharp talons at the ends of its wings, and several strange – and yet sharp – fangs on its beak.

“What the hell is that?” Aaron mutters with a shocked look on his face that matches the one on Adriana’s.

The owl flies down from the tree-line while making a sound that is a mixture of a roar and a hoot. As its talons reach the same elevation as Adriana’s height, a light mist begins to leak out of the creature, causing frost to emerge in the areas touched by the mist.

“I don’t remember The Winter Wolf turning that thing,” Aaron mutters in confusion as whispered conversations begin to break out throughout the theatre.

The owl flaps its wings a few more times without taking its eyes off of Adriana before it suddenly lets out a loud hoot and strongly flaps its wings towards her, sending a wave of frost to fly straight towards her.

Adriana’s eyes widen in surprise before she leaps out of the way with a muttered curse.

“Oh, shit,” Aaron suddenly mutters as he watches the action, “did the bear start turning other monsters?”