The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 45 - Accidental Development (Patreon)

Wolf

I wordlessly stare at the two arctic lycanthrope bears as they pass by me with nothing but a brief glance.

Several seconds pass before I open up the System Forums and begin looking for any… incidents on this floor.

As soon as I read the subject line of the first thread to show up, I involuntarily mutter, “Oops.”

Maybe I should have thought about it before I carelessly let the arctic lycanthrope go free… with its own venom in a dungeon full of monsters.

I look back up from the forums at the bears as they casually walk away from me before opening my dungeon map.

What’s done is done. Now might be a good time to leave this floor though.

I glance at the top right corner of my interface before muttering, “That’s good enough for this floor.”

My Info:

Level: 252

EXP: 2003/25200

System Points: 12.41

Viewing Room Profits: 11,802

Sapphire’s Info:

Level: 159

EXP: 14612/15900

Seeing as quite a few monsters on this floor are now arctic lycanthropes, I feel a little bit responsible for them. Not enough to actually give a damn about them, but I probably shouldn’t go around slaughtering them.

Although, I do kind of want to test out my control of them on a mini boss.

That is, assuming my howl actually gathers more than just that one bear that I turned myself. It was, after all, the only one I gave the order to appear if I howled.

Anyways, before that, I should go shopping. My auction cooldown should be finished by now.

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One hour later

“The fuck?” I mutter in confusion as I stand next to the Expanded System Store totem with my profits menu pulled up.

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

Profits

Viewing Room Profits: 11,802 SP

Slayer Profits: 1352 SP

Claim all Profits

Return

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

“Where did…” I begin before trailing off as Vulcan’s face flashes in my mind. “Oh.”

Yeah, I completely forgot about slayer profits.

I claim all of the profits before navigating to the Player Auction menu, and then selecting the Auctions sub-menu.

Time to find a new skill to buy!

It about half an hour, but I finally decide on a Tier 8 skill that I think would work well for me.

Superior Recovery | Tier 8 | 8000 SP Starting Price

This skill passively increases the natural recovery of the user by 50%.

From what I can tell, it should be the Tier 8 version of my current skill, Increased Recovery.

At first, I was apprehensive about purchasing the upgraded version of a skill I already have, but when I put in some research on the subject, I decided to choose it.

Apparently, if you get a superior or inferior version of a skill that you already have, the inferior version will be absorbed into the superior version, giving a boost to the starting level of the skill.

Anyways, I select the skill before appearing in the auction.

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I briefly smile at the notification before raising my eyebrows in surprise as another one replaces it.

A strange tingling feeling spreads throughout my body before I am sent back to the dungeon from the auction box. The feeling then goes away again after several seconds.

I take a second to gather my bearings after the teleportation before turning to the door.

Sapphire pops her head out of my shadow and makes a noise halfway between a screech and a purr before going back in.

“Now,” I begin with a salute towards the audience watching me right now, “it’s time to leave this floor!”

And spend most of the next floor training Sapphire again.

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Somewhere on the twenty-third floor

Ruth rolls to the side to dodge the charge of an arctic lycanthrope bear before quickly getting to her feet again and facing towards it. This leads the bear to charge straight into the tree behind her, causing a loud crack to echo through the clearing before the tree begins to fall down. The bear then roars in anger, leaking small amounts of icy mist from its mouth in the process before shaking its head to recover from the impact. It then turns back around and prepares to charge straight at her again as she grimaces at the bear with two daggers held in her hands.

Suddenly, the entire clearing freezes as an eerie howl echoes throughout the area, originating from nearly a kilometer away.

Both Ruth and the bear turn to look in the direction of the howl before the bear begins to charge straight at it with a look of irritation on its face – as if it were upset about the interruption to the battle.

By the time Ruth looks back in the bear’s direction a few seconds later, it’s already charging straight out of the clearing, leaving her behind.

A mixture of annoyance and confusion flashes across her face before she puts her mask on and her daggers disappear from her hands. She then sends one last look in the direction of the howl before starting off in the opposite direction.

Right as she reaches the edge of the clearing, the loud sound of an arctic lycanthrope owl’s strange call begins to echo through it before the monster breaks through the cover of the trees and crosses the clearing without paying her any attention.

Ruth stops in her tracks and sends a strange glance at the owl before shaking her head again and continuing to make her way through the dungeon.

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Wolf

I lower my head after howling in my hunter form for the first time.

It actually felt really good to do, if I’m being honest.

My post-howl thoughts are interrupted as a loud roar echoes from the clearing a few dozen meters in front of me.

Yeah, the mini boss definitely heard my howl.

Loud noises echo through the forest before a very large bear with little wisps of darkness around its eyes and mouth rushes into the clearing I am in. At the same time, a few arctic lycanthropes begin to charge into the clearing from three different directions before looking at me.

A smirk stretches across my face before I point at the mini boss and order them all, “Kill that creature!”

The mini boss at first ignores the new arrivals and continues its charge straight towards me, but that changes as two of the bear arctic lycanthropes charge straight at it, knocking it about a meter backwards before it slaps them both away with a roar of anger.

Both of my eyebrows raise in intrigue as the owl arctic lycanthrope suddenly swoops in during the mini boss’s distraction and chomps down with its beak on the bear’s side.

The bear’s roar grows even louder in its rage as it swings one of its large paws around and bats away the owl like it was a sack of flour.

I circle around the fight to get a better look at the bear’s wound before muttering, “Well, that’s interesting…”

The venom in the wound actually appears to be having trouble spreading. To the point that it honestly looks like it might suddenly…

My thoughts are interrupted as the venom begins to leak back out of the wound before dripping with a sizzling sound on the ground.

So… does that mean that lycanthrope venom can’t turn creatures that are quite a bit stronger than them?

I mean, I guess it makes sense. After all, it would be broken to just be able to turn any creature, no matter their level.

That said, is it the same for my venom? Or maybe my venom is possibly stronger, and can turn creatures at a slightly higher level than me?

It’s also possible that it just needs more venom to turn them than weaker creatures. The venom itself did seem like it was struggling to spread before it was pushed back out. Maybe we would just need to overload them with it, or possibly weaken them a little.

I am drawn back out of my thoughts as several more arctic lycanthropes begin spilling into the clearing and joining the assault on the mini boss.

“This is getting a little…” I begin as I watch the mini boss finally begin to get overwhelmed by the large number of lycanthrope bears and owls, “sad.”

Suddenly, a few darkheart bears that aren’t turned charge into the clearing from the direction of the mini boss’s area before joining the fight, only to get bitten themselves and turned.

“Well, that was a pretty sad attempt to help their mini boss,” I mutter with a hint of amusement as I create a throne of ice before sitting down to watch the show in front of me.

In any case, as long as I am willing to cause a lycanthrope apocalypse on a floor, mini bosses and bosses probably won’t be that much of a problem for me anymore.

That said, it would probably be a little awkward if other Competitors were turned by them… especially if it was a lower purity lycanthrope that turned them.