The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Epilogue (Patreon)

And here is the epilogue for book 2 :)

There will be no break between books 2 and 3, and the prologue for book 3 will be out tomorrow at the normal time.

Enjoy!

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Wolf
One day later

“Aaaannd…” I begin as Sapphire finishes off the dark sprite sentinel and drops it to the ground before the notification I have been waiting for finally appears, “it’s done!”

At the same time, a flash of purple light begins shining from both me and Sapphire with a thin purple string in between us, connecting us. As soon as the level-up notification disappears, another one takes its place, and the thin string begins to thicken.

A grin stretches across my face as I finish reading the notification. Meanwhile, the purple string becomes thicker than a rope, stretching about three inches in diameter, before it fades away.

Nice! New skills are always welcome! Not to mention those eternal ice skills. Even if she can’t create the element herself, she can at least use those skills to do some attacks with it without my needing to generate the element.

The notification disappears before a golden light begins to shine from Sapphires body and her appearance begins to shift slightly.

Evolution?

Several spikes of eternal ice begin to grow out of the lower edge of her head, pointing outwards from her head. Meanwhile, her previously black eyes begin to gain a slight, pale blue tinge to them, while the claws on the ends of her legs all begin to show characteristics of eternal ice.

As this is going on, I open her status to see if there were any changes.

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Name: Sapphire

Species: Tarachnid of Eternal Winter

Level: 270 | Synced

Skills List

Revive | Current price: 0 SP | Companion must be dead to use this.

Return

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“Interesting…” I mutter as I take note of the changes. Not only did her EXP disappear entirely, but her species changed as well.

If I remember correctly, she used to be an Arctic Eternal Tarachnid, so I guess this evolution just made her closer to me to match with the syncing process?

Either way, the new changes look beneficial.

The golden light begins to fade as I select her Skills List.

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Skills:

Stealth – Tier 3 – Level 7

Fire Immunity – Tier 7 – Level 1

Increased Recovery – Tier 5 – Level 3

Razor Slash – Tier 4 – Level 7

Limited Size Manipulation – Tier 7 – Level 1

Breath of Eternal Ice – Tier 7 – Level 1

Chains of Eternal Ice – Tier 7 – Level 1

Return

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I lightly nod my head at the sight of the skills before identifying each of them.

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Limited Size Manipulation

This skill allows the user to manipulate their size to any size smaller than their natural size for a small initial stamina cost, and a miniscule passive stamina cost.

Close

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Breath of Eternal Ice

This skill allows the user to exhale a wave of frost made out of eternal ice from their mouth for a medium stamina cost.

Close

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Chains of Eternal Ice

This skill allows the user to create chains made out of eternal ice from any part of their body. The chains length and size are both determined by the user and are factors in the stamina cost.

Close

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“Pretty good,” I mutter before glancing at Sapphire as a flash of green light shines out of her. The light is then followed by the sight of Sapphire shrinking back down to the size she was when she first hatched.

I chuckle at the sight of her happily scurrying over to me before climbing up my leg and going back to her original place on my shoulder.

After spending several seconds petting her as she rubs up against my neck, I begin lowering the soundproofing on my headphones to listen for the closest mini boss to my location.

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Aegis – Forest to the west of Safe Zone 52

Two figures cloaked in shadows appear in the trees close to the edge of the forest, looking inwards towards the fortress across the taiga. Very little about them is discernable, other than their bipedal stature, as the shadows hide every one of their features.

One of the figures raises their hand to their head and begins speaking in a slightly garbled voice, “We have located the target and are ready for our next orders.”

The two figures wait for several seconds before the same one that spoke nods his head and speaks again, “As you command.”

They both then look at each other and nod before slowly beginning to fade into the background. Before they can completely vanish, one of them suddenly gets knocked out of the tree as blood is sent flying everywhere from an open gash across their chest. The shadows once cloaking the figure scatter as they crash into the ground below, revealing a female creature with red skin and two black horns sticking out of her head.

The blood spilling out of the claw marks on her chest blends in with the scarlet color of her skin as the other figure looks back and forth as they continue vanishing, only to gasp as another figure, one cloaked in a long white cloak, appears in front of them on the tree branch.

The branch snaps from the weight of both of the figures as the new one grabs the first one by the throat and casually jumps to land on the ground next to the bleeding creature.

Soon after, another figure cloaked in white appears next to them and lowers their cowl, revealing a beautiful woman with long brown hair, a set of sharp fangs, and two golden eyes as she coldly glares at the first two figures.

“Abyssal demons,” Amalea spits at the dying woman before turning to the other cloaked figure and saying, “finish him off. We need to go report to Her Majesty about this development.”

The other figure cloaked in white nods their head and squeezes their clawed hand, crushing the throat of the other figure – who had been revealed through the shadows to be a younger looking man by Earth terms – before dropping them to the ground and following after Amalea.

Amalea suddenly pauses and glances behind them before waving her hand, sending a large wave of darkness towards the two bodies. The darkness completely swallows them both whole before returning to her hand as she continues walking while raising her cowl back over her head.

Within seconds, both figures cloaked in white vanish into the forest without a trace.

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Executive Stream

Diane stares at the screen showing Wolf’s livestream for several seconds before turning to the Moderator in front of her.

“So, the Ruler has finally moved on from just focusing on Wolf in the Administrator Dungeon, and is going to try going after his family?” Diane mutters with a frown.

Amalea nods her head with a grim look spread across her face, “That’s how it appears, Your Majesty.”

A cold look flashes on Diane’s face before she turns back to the screen and says, “And if that’s not bad enough, it looks like the bastard has changed his focus from the recently deceased Vulcan, to Soldier.”

Disgust covers Amalea’s face at the mention of the anthrovespid before she points out, “The other Administrators won’t like that.”

Diane stares at the screen as Wolf finishes tearing a dark sprite gladiator apart with his claws.

“No, they won’t,” she quietly mutters whilst focusing on the large spider currently slicing apart dark sprite after dark sprite to finish the mini boss fight.

The anthrovespids, as one of the few player species that think of other players as nothing but food, and a way towards evolution, are looked down upon by most of the people in the System. Whether they are executives or players.

The room falls silent as both the Administrator and Moderator watch Wolf as Sapphire shrinks back down to her original size and climbs up on his shoulder again.

‘Maybe I might be able to get support from other Administrators outside of just Leo now that the Ruler is supporting the bug,’ Diane thinks to herself.

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Wolf

I wipe the blood off of my claws onto the mini boss’s corpse before turning to look at Sapphire on my shoulder as she purrs.

“You really missed being able to sit on my shoulder, didn’t you?” I mutter with a smile.

Sapphire surprises me by nodding her head before she goes back to rubbing up against my neck and purring.

I chuckle at her actions before focusing on the exit in front of me.

“Time to catch up with the others,” I say with a salute for the audience watching me before reaching forwards and touching the exit.