The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Prologue (Patreon)

Arcadian Live
Four Days After Wolf And Sapphire’s Syncing

“The Winter Wolf!” “The Winter Wolf!” “The Winter Wolf!”

Nearly two million people chant the title over and over again as Wolf wipes his claws on the bloody corpse of the bear of darkness. Meanwhile, Sapphire uses Wolf’s extra ice element to freeze the purple blood covering her claws before smacking her claws on a nearby tree to shatter the frozen blood.

“It’s only been four days since The Winter Wolf finally synced up with his soul-bound companion, and they are already about to enter the thirtieth floor!!!” Mikaela shouts with a mixture of shock and happiness filling his tone. His shout feeds the audience’s enthusiasm even further as their chanting increases in volume.

Wolf walks up to the mini boss chest and touches it as Sapphire shrinks her body back down and climbs back up to her spot on his shoulder.

After quickly reading through the item description above the chest, Wolf reaches out and puts the gauntlets that appear in its place into his inventory before turning around and making his way towards the exit.

Niklai grunts and says with a hint of amusement, “At this rate, it won’t take long for The Winter Wolf to reclaim his throne as the forerunner. Especially considering what the next floor theme is.”

The chant begins to die down a little as excited conversations break out amongst the audience at the thought of the next floor theme.

As if on cue, the main screen changes to show the current forerunner – Norbert Heinrich – as he spins around the large, two-and-a-half-meter tall monster amidst the bone-chilling weather on the thirty-third floor. The monster has bright red eyes that radiate a faint red light that almost seems to melt the falling snow that gets near them, with four sharp claws on both its hands and feet. It has a build similar to that of a gorilla from the planet Earth – excluding its size – with snow-white fur, and a mouth full of sharp fangs.

_-| Unnamed – Mountain Yeti – Level 359 |-_

“You are right about that, Niklai,” Mikaela says with a chuckle, “the fourth floor theme is going to be a cake walk for The Winter Wolf!”

Several excited cheers echo through the audience at this. Meanwhile, Norbert manages to slice a long cut across the heel of the yeti, causing it to lose its balance and fall onto one knee before the dhampir climbs up its back, jumps into the air, and brings both of his swords down straight into the yeti’s skull.

The yeti doesn’t even manage to express its pain before the light in its eyes dies and it falls face-first into the snow-covered ground below.

“I wonder how Deadshot and Silver Siren are doing?” Katherine mutters, turning her attention away from the main screen as Norbert wipes his blades on the yeti’s massive body.

Niklai turns to her and says, “You were on break at the time, but they both reached the thirty-third floor at around the same time.”

“Oh?” Katherine utters with a hint of surprise on her face before she smiles and looks back at the screen, “that’s pretty good then.”

Mikaela nods in agreement before rubbing his hands together in anticipation, “I can’t wait to see how quickly The Winter Wolf regains his place as the forerunner!”

The other two commentators chuckle at this, but a light shines in their eyes that says that they are just as excited for it as he is.

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Aegis – Safe Zone 52

A knock sounds on the wooden door to Luke Adler’s office within the building that was built as the ‘zone hall,’ the building meant for all administration for Safe Zone 52. The office has very little within it, with the only decoration being the heads of a couple of monsters, along with a hand-axe that Luke had obtained from clearing a dungeon.

He decided to put it up as decoration instead of selling it due to its limited value, outside of its striking appearance.

“Come in,” Luke says in his usual no-nonsensical tone of voice from behind his large, wooden desk.

The office door opens to reveal a young man in a pale, greenish-white cloak. The man quickly salutes the head of military affairs and intelligence within the Safe Zone before beginning his report.

“Sir, we have gotten bad news from Safe Zone 101,” the man says with a frightened look on his face, “the anthrovespids from Safe Zone 103 are finally going all out in their attack on their nearby safe zones!”

Luke grimaces at the update before looking down at his desk for a few seconds.

‘Damned bugs, why couldn’t they have been further away from us?’ Luke thinks before looking back up again at the messenger, “Does the mayor know about this?”

The messenger nods his head and says, “Yes, another messenger should be telling him about this right as we speak.”

Luke nods his head and says, “Good.”

He then gets up from the wooden chair he was sitting in, grabs his System jacket, and begins walking around his desk as he says, “In that case, I am going to go see him.

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After a brief knock, Luke enters what many people in the safe zone have termed, ‘the council chamber,’ to see the mayor – Manfred Lowth – talking with the head of the law and order within the safe zone – Jessica Lowel – in the center of the dozen chairs spread in a circle around the room.

Both of them turn to look at Luke before nodding as he enters.

“I’m assuming you have something to say about this development, Luke?” Manfred asks without beating around the bush.

Luke nods his head in agreement and says, “Yes. We should increase the amount of time the people have to join the hunters to hunt. Whether they are going to fight or not, we need everyone to be as strong as possible for whenever those bugs get here.”

Jessica flinches slightly at his term for the anthrovespids before letting it go and nodding her head in agreement, “That would be the best course of action for us right now.”

While Luke doesn’t see the anthrovespids as anything more than monsters to be exterminated, Jessica – having been raised as a cop – doesn’t find the idea of referring to another sapient being as a ‘bug’ as something that should be done. Even if it’s a technically correct term.

“That may be true from a military perspective,” Manfred starts with a frown, “the civilian players amongst the populous, especially the new people who have come over from the more… violent safe zones, won’t take a change like this very well.”

Luke just shrugs and says, “Too bad. It’s for their own safety.”

Manfred sighs at this and says, “I know that, but you should also understand that it’s not as simple as that.”

“Yes, I do,” Luke says before shrugging once again and adding, “it’s just that I know that you will deal with that. I have other things that I have to deal with right now.”

A worried look crosses Manfred and Jessica’s faces as Manfred says, “You’re talking about the abyssal demons, aren’t you?”

One week ago, two abyssal demon corpses were left inside of the council chamber with a note explaining that they were scouts for the abyssal demons.

Luke nods his head with a grim look and says, “Yes. From what we have been told, as soon as the abyssal demon’s main forces reach us, they will be declaring war. And while that won’t be for a long time due to the distance between us, we still have to worry about them more right now than the anthrovespids. They are a powerful faction from amongst the visitors, after all.”

A grim silence fills the chamber for several seconds before Manfred attempts to change the subject, “How is your son doing?”

A very rare smile flashes on Luke’s face as he says, “He is catching up with the other Competitors right now and should be entering the fourth theme soon enough.”

“That’s good to hear,” Manfred says whilst Jessica nods her head in agreement.

“Yes it is,” Luke says with a nod before his face turns grim again, “now, I have to go deal with training some of the new recruits for our hunters.”

“Right,” Manfred says with a slight smile before Luke nods his head once more and leaves the room.

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Wolf

I pause to look around the clearing for a few seconds before glancing at the dead mini boss.

“I honestly expected more of a fight from it,” I mutter, to which Sapphire makes a little screech in what I am assuming is agreement.

Ever since fully syncing with Sapphire, we have been fighting together as a team for everything. This has made everything a lot easier to deal with, both normal monsters and mini bosses.

It’s like having a partner that you don’t have to share EXP with.

I glance at Sapphire before whispering, “Then again, it is exactly that…”

Sapphire looks up at me from my shoulder and tilts her head in confusion.

I chuckle at the sight of it before shaking my head and petting her. She closes her eyes and purrs in contentment.

At the rate we’re going, it shouldn’t take too long to catch up with the current forerunner. Especially considering what I have heard about the next floor theme.

I stop petting Sapphire – to her displeasure – and continue walking towards the exit to the next floor.

“Let’s finish this theme,” I declare with a smile as I touch the exit.