The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 47 - Trouble Rising (Patreon)

Note: I made a change to the chapter that posted today on Royal Road at the same time as this chapter. The change was about when he purchased the limiter item.

"The item cost a whopping 1560 SP, and I had to use the Auction sub-menu so that I could get it directly from the old man since it’s not sold on the System Store. Fortunately, this particular item was auctionable, and no one else bought it before I did."

That is the change.

I added the "this particular item was auctionable" part to show that not all items and skills are auctionable or sellable.

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Wolf

“And that should be all of it,” I say as I close out of my inventory and turn to the dwarf in front of me. “Would you be open to crafting some items for me in the future, after you have leveled up enough?”

Karunn nods her head with a smile – no longer afraid of me after having spent the last fifteen or so minutes haggling over the price of the crafting materials I had – before she says, “Sure!”

I nod back to her before tilting my head slightly in curiosity as I ask, “By the way, why did you look afraid when you first saw me?”

The dwarf grimaces at my question before she says, “Have you seen yourself in the mirror recently? You’re pretty damn terrifying at times, ya know? Not to mention the small apocalypse that you caused on the last floor.”

I wordlessly raise my eyebrows at that before she elaborates further, “Your eyes are intimidating as hell, you have sharp fangs sticking out from between your lips a touch, and you have god damn claws! And don’t even get me started on your other forms!”

My brows furrow at that as I ask, “My other forms?”

She has seen them? That’s kind of surprising. At least for my wolf form that is. I have only been in that form once since turning.

It’s not as surprising for my hunter form though.

“Yeah,” she says with a glance towards the trees around us, “saw ‘em on the System Forums! You are terrifying in either of those two forms!”

The… System Forums? Pictures of me in my forms are on the forums?

Well, that’s kind of annoying to hear.

Karunn seems to notice the irritated look on my face as she backs up a step and says, “Well, if that’s all ye got, then I should be headin off now! Please try not to cause another apocalypse if you will!”

She then turns around, flinging her long brown hair with the speed of her turn and begins leaving the clearing with nothing but a wave as she walks.

I don’t say anything in response as I open the System Forums to find these pictures that she mentioned.

Unsurprisingly, the second I look up the term ‘lycanthrope’ on the forums, the first several threads are all about me. What’s more is that each of them seems to have pictures of me, although only one actually has a picture of me in my wolf form.

I didn’t even know that they could take pictures of the livestreams…

That makes things annoying.

Now I won’t have any form of surprise against anyone… if I had any in the first place that is.

I glance up again at the dwarf’s disappearing form before glancing at Sapphire in my shadow and saying, “Let’s go back to training, okay?”

Sapphire pops out of my shadow with a purr at this before we both start in the opposite direction of the dwarf smith.

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Executive Stream

“So, how is my heir doing?” Diane asks the old man as he appears in her room within the Executive Stream. “From what I can tell, he appears to be adjusting pretty well, but I would like your opinion on it.”

“Your Majesty,” the old man says without lifting his head from his bowing position, “he has been adjusting at a splendid pace. It should only take around two more weeks for him to be fully adjusted to his new body.”

The old man finally lifts his head, only to turn to the screen instead of his empress as he continues, “That said, he might need some more time to adjust to his other two forms. They are more challenging due to the inherent differences of the forms from his old human and harbinger forms.”

Diane purses her lips in thought for a few seconds before she asks, “Is there anything you can do that might speed up that adjustment?”

The old man turns back to his empress and bows once again, “I apologize, Your Majesty, but there is nothing we can do outside of what has already been done. The majority of the pureblood werewolves with the ability to transform into their hunter form were born as purebloods, and not turned. Meanwhile, the lesser werewolves tend to just work off of instinct in their wolf forms. Due to this – as you most likely already know – we do not have much to help them adjust.”

A frown emerges on Diane’s face as she shakes her head and says, “I thought as much. I guess we can only wait for him to naturally adjust to those two forms.”

A bright smile engulfs the old man’s face as he looks up at his empress with pride and says, “Yes, but His Highness is extremely adaptable, so I don’t believe it should take as long as it would for others to adjust.”

Diane looks at the old man and raises a brow, “Getting proud of your temporary student, are we?”

“Yes, I am,” the old man says as he turns to look at the screen showing Wolf and Sapphire as Sapphire kills off another darkfire witch.

Diane just chuckles at this before waving her hand in dismissal. The old man quickly gives one last bow before vanishing in a light blue flash of light.

A few minutes pass in silence as Diane watches Wolf’s screen before she mutters to herself, “I wonder how long it will take you to catch up to the other Competitors once Sapphire syncs with you?”

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Artorius Royale

“What the fuck is it doing?!” Jacob Artorius shouts in surprise as Tra’Kkol – the anthrovespid Competitor – reaches out and touches the black chest in front of it. “Is it trying to get itself killed?!”

The audience breaks into a rage of shouts, not wanting the only remaining bloodthirsty Competitor to die, only to fall completely silent as a skill description appears above the Pandora’s Box.

Everyone of the hundreds of thousands of people within the newly expanded theatre stares wordlessly at the skill before Jacob breaks the silence and shouts, “Fuck, YEAH!!!”

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Skill | Magma Creation and Manipulation | Tier 9

This skill is not attainable outside of Pandora’s Boxes within the Administrator Dungeon.

This skill allows the user to create and manipulate the magma minor element.

The extent to which they are able to do so is dependent on the level of the user, and the level of this skill.

Note: This skill is not auctionable or sellable. It is tradeable.

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

An eruption of noise runs throughout the entire theatre as the anthrovespid reaches forwards and touches the rainbow-colored orb that replaces the skill’s description.

Jacob shouts along with all of the bloodthirsty viewers as the first Competitor within the dungeon claims a Tier 9 skill.

“Yes!!!” “Now it’s even easier for him to kill people!” “Go Soldier!!!” “Kill everyone!”

Tra’Kkol raises his hand up before pointing it at a nearby tree. Right as everyone is expecting a large wave of magma or something similar to come out, a few drops of magma excrete from his exoskeleton before landing on the ground with a quiet sizzling sound.

This causes the previous excitement to die down as confusion replaces it.

“Don’t worry, everyone,” Jacob suddenly says, “creation and manipulation skills are different from abilities. They take a lot more practice and overall power to use well. You will have your fill of magma in the future, but for now?”

The anthrovespid sends what most of the audience believe is an annoyed look at its hand before continuing on through the dark forest without a word as a series of clicking noises come from its mandibles.

“We shout just sit back and watch Soldier as it continues its bloody path of death!” Jacob shouts with a bloodthirsty look on his face as he spreads his arms out to both sides of him and licks his lips.

The wendigos amongst the audience break out into a mixture of horrific howls and applause, whilst the various other viewers from other species all break out into cheers, ignoring the horrifying sounds made by their neighbors.

The grin on Jacob’s face widens even more at the sight of the enormous audience as he thinks to himself, ‘The Winter Wolf’s rise to fame might not have been a bad thing. It did, after all, send most of Vulcan’s and Soldier’s fans here.’

He then turns back to look at Soldier’s screen and finishes his thoughts, ‘Even if a lot of said fans are just here for the blood and death that follows an anthrovespid, and still think of it as a disgusting bug.’