The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 2 - Floor Themes (Patreon)

Lucky Days

Visible breaths leave the mouths of both Lily and Chris as they shiver from the cold. They had been traversing the snow covered mountains of the thirty-second floor for hours without finding anything other than three solitary monsters.

Toby watches them as they struggle along with a look of pity before he says, “I pity the Competitors moving through the fourth floor theme.”

Many people in the audience mutter agreements with this statement before Sam says, “Except The Winter Wolf of course.”

His comment leads to several chuckles and muted laughter from the audience as Toby glances at him and says, “That’s true. This theme is the complete opposite for him from what it is for the other Competitors.”

Both commentators fall silent as they watch the two Competitors – both in heavy garments, having forsaken their previous outfits for more comfortable ones – while they continue their climb.

“The Winter Wolf is lucky that the first hazardous theme is perfectly suited for him,” Toby mutters with a grim look on his face without taking his eyes off of the cold suffering of the popular duo of Competitors.

This statement confuses many of the newer viewers amongst the audience – those who had either never seen a previous Administrator Dungeon run before.

Sam glances at the audience once he notices their confusion before waving his hand without saying anything.

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

Administrator Dungeon Themes

As categorized by the inhabitants of the System.

Puzzle Themes – The floors of this theme are filled with various ‘rooms.’ These rooms contain either loot boxes, mini boss areas, or boss areas, and they will often contain some sort of puzzle that the Competitor will need to complete in order to leave the room. The first theme of every Administrator Dungeon is an example of a puzzle themed floor.

Combat Themes – The floors of this theme have no ‘rooms,’ and little to no puzzles. They are often filled with a large quantity of monsters and have a high focus on combat.

Hazardous Themes – The floors of this theme have no ‘rooms,’ little to no puzzles, and often have more powerful monsters at a further distance from each other than the previous floors. The environments of these themes are always hazardous to the Competitors – sometimes even more so than the monsters held within. They have a focus more on endurance than surviving any particular battles. However, as a way to balance out the lower amount of monsters – and therefore EXP – these floors also have a unique item that can only be found on a hazardous themed floor within the Administrator Dungeon. These items grant a set amount of EXP to the user one time before becoming unusable.

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

Gasps of surprise run through the audience as those who are still relatively new to the Administrator Dungeon read through the information on the hazardous themes.

‘It’s the same reaction every year,’ Toby thinks whilst shaking his head, ‘everyone is always surprised by how harsh the hazardous themes are.’

Everyone suddenly pauses to focus on the main screen as a loud shriek echoes from it.

“Oh?” Sam mutters, “is it another one of those?”

Both Chris and Lily get ready for a fight as a pale, ghostly figure floats out of a nearby patch of snow. The figure is vaguely human shaped, with white claws on the ends of its hands, no pupils in their eyes, and no clothing or any sort of feature discerning whether they are male or female, appearing similar to a genderless mannequin from Earth with eyes and a mouth.

_-| Unnamed – Frost-bitten Haunt – Level 351 |-_

Lily begins to prepare her ability as Chris turns both of his hands into steel while raising one of his arms, bringing a small shield strapped to it up towards the monster.

The haunt suddenly becomes enveloped in snow as the snow coating the ground and falling from the skies in its nearby location begins to float around to form a small blizzard around the creature.

Both Competitors brace themselves as the blizzard suddenly forms into a cone shape before a half-a-meter-wide beam shoots directly at them from the tip of the cone.

“These haunts are kind of creepy,” Toby mutters with his arms crossed.

Sam glances at him with an eyebrow raised and says, “I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be creepy.”

Toby quietly mutters to himself, to the amusement of the audience.

After a brief wave of laughter, everyone grows quiet again as the beam of snow strikes Chris’s shield directly, forcing him backwards slightly with his feet dug deep into the snow.

Chris grunts from the exertion as electricity continues to build around Lily’s hands. The beam continues to push him backwards further and further until the snow finally begins to run out, leaving two large piles of snow on either side of Chris and revealing the figure of the haunt again.

The haunt begins to shriek even louder before rushing forwards with its feet only inches from the snow.

Suddenly, Lily shouts out loud before a large beam of electricity, spanning about a quarter of a meter in width, suddenly blasts out of her hands directly into the haunt seconds before it can reach Chris.

“Holy shit,” Toby mutters as the beam drills a bloody – and crispy – hole straight through the torso of the haunt, “it’s hard to believe that that was only has partial charge…”

Sam nods his head in agreement and says, “True enough. She might just have the strongest direct attack in the dungeon. If it weren’t for how long it takes to charge it up, and that if she is interrupted mid-charge then it could either fizzle out or even electrocute her a little bit, then it would be one of the strongest abilities I have personally seen!”

Now that the haunt is dead, Chris falls exhausted to the ground with a light sheen of sweat covering his forehead, despite the bitter cold of the mountain.

“It’s too bad that the haunts are immune to physical attacks,” Toby says with a frown, “otherwise they wouldn’t have to rely on her ability to take it down.”

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Wolf
One day later

I shift back to my neutral form as the notification appears in the corner of my interface.

“That sh-” I begin before pausing at the difference between speaking in my hunter and neutral forms.

In an attempt to adjust to my hunter form, I had been keeping myself in it for this entire floor up till this point.

Sapphire lightly screeches as she reaches my shoulder again – likely wondering why I cut off mid-sentence.

I pet her as I begin speaking again, “That should be enough levels for now.”

She screeches again in contentment before I focus my attention on the top right corner of my interface.

My Info:

Level: 338

EXP: 10463/33800

System Points: 2493.20

Viewing Room Profits: 9085

That should be enough to get something good on the auction.

I open my map whilst rubbing Sapphire’s head with two of my fingers to search for the closest Expanded System Store.

I raise an eyebrow as I read the message in my interface.

“Okay,” I mutter with surprise in my tone, “she was right about me wanting that…”

An item that lets the user teleport ice element… that would make a lot of my stealth attacks a lot easier, while also giving me a faster attack speed in combat. Since I wouldn’t have to bother with manipulating the ice element over towards the opponent, possibly revealing it in the process.

I glance towards Sapphire as she continues eating her food in her true form next to the long table.

Now I have another reason to catch up with the other Competitors. And a reason to save up my SP in case she turns out to be harsh in negotiating…

“Anyways…” I mutter, catching Sapphire’s attention as she glances towards me and tilts her head out of curiosity, “now would be a great time to test out how a lycanthrope army would deal with a theme boss.”

I reach out to pat Sapphire’s head before she purrs for a few seconds and goes back to eating her food.

But before I can do that, I need to go on a turning spree.

Which will likely mean apologizing to anyone who ends up on this floor after me, but that’s something to worry about at another time.

At least it means that some of the monsters will be attacking other monsters. Which is what I found out happened the first time I turned a monster.

Apparently, when a monster from the dungeon is turned, they are still considered a monster with the same intelligence, but whatever it was that blocked them from attacking the other monsters goes away. Which tends to lead to a bit of a free-for-all.

So, it’s not all bad for the other Competitors.

I glance towards the door.

Anyways, it’s time to go build a hunting party.

After responding to her message that is.