The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 44 - The Reaper (Patreon)

                                                                                        Wolf

As soon as I appear on the fiftieth floor, a System Message appears in the center of my interface.

After the message disappears, I begin to step forwards toward the guardians, only to pause in surprise as another System Message appears in its place.

I stare blankly at the notification for a few more seconds after finishing reading it before it vanishes.

Reapers?

The Reaper?

Created the System?

What the hell?!

Although, this does explain why the System sometimes shows hints of not being as omnipotent as many people seem to believe.

My brows suddenly raise slightly as my thoughts turn to The Abyss. Is it possible that my having a reaper ability is why the Ruler hates me so much?

I look down at the ground for a few more seconds before shaking my head.

At least that explains why my ability started out at Tier 8.

I reach out to open the System Forums, only to pause again as something comes to mind.

It would probably be for the best that I don’t research any of this while on the livestream… for now I should just go ahead and wait for the sponsors.

Reaper stuff aside for now, I continue my approach towards the guardians, only stopping to read the System Favor part of the menu for the description of the sand type.

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

Welcome to the Arena theme’s second arc!

If you break any of the following rules, the guardians will be forced to deal with you:

1. Do not attack any members of the arena audiences, whether they be monsters or Competitors

2. Speak with a guardian to sign up for a challenge

3. Wait for your turn, and you will be placed into the arena for your challenges

Competitors are allowed to leave the arenas but be warned that the monsters outside of the arena are all incredibly powerful.

There are teleporters that lead from one arena to another, and to unlock access to them, one must complete the default arena challenge.

To unlock the exit to the next floor, a Competitor must complete the six-star ranked challenge in one of the arenas.

The teleporter behind you will send you to the arena hub, where you will be able to go to any specific arena that you have cleared the default challenge of before.

System Favor: The type of sand used on this floor is a special type of miasmic sand. This sand contains miasma and will release it whenever it is hit with enough force, or whenever the miasma is drawn out of it by something with miasma manipulation.

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

Miasmic sand? So the boss probably has the ability to manipulate miasma then?

That’s gonna suck.

I step through the menu as it fades away to enter the arena bleachers, immediately squinting my eyes as the rays of the sun enter my vision. Meanwhile, the roaring of the crowd drums into my head, prompting me to raise the soundproofing on my headphones even higher as I raise my arm over my eyes to block the sun.

Interestingly enough, the arena itself is a little different from the past arenas, black sand aside.

This arena doesn’t have any way to leave the arena and enter the sand sea outside of it, with it having one large wall surrounding the bleachers instead of multiple large pillars.

I guess that means that the sand sea is off limits for this floor.

My attention turns towards the fight currently going on in the center of the arena as a loud roar echoes from it. When I find the source of the roar, my eyebrows raise slightly in surprise.

_-| Unnamed – Lesser Sphynx – Level 547 |-_

The creature has the head and body of a lion, with the wings of an eagle. The sphynx is about two meters long and stands at nearly two meters in height. It also seems to have some sort of ability to manipulate sand, considering the sand floating around its body that occasionally flies towards the monsters opposing it in the form of spikes.

There are also five monsters fighting the sphynx at once, instead of the usual one.

The five monsters appear to be the elite jackyls that I saw on a previous floor. They have the head of a jackal with a humanoid form and sharp, poisoned claws on their hands and feet. The elite jackyls also seem to be wearing some sort of long black cloak over the usual leather, gladiatorial armor that I have seen them wearing before.

_-| Unnamed – Jackyl Cultist – Level 547 |-_

Cultists? Does that mean that they can use magic? Or are they just named that due to the cloaks?

My question is answered quickly enough as one of the cultists slashes their claws at the air and sends out five purple arcs of what is most likely poison at the sphynx, who directly counters it with its sand manipulation.

After watching the fight for a few minutes, I realize that the sphynx seems to only be able to manipulate the sand within five meters of itself. Meanwhile, the jackyl cultists can send out three different sets of poison arcs before they become too tired to do any more.

That said, the sphynx can still launch the sand in compacted spikes with enough force to make it a projectile even after it leaves its range of manipulation. Just like what I used to do back when I only had a few meters in my ice manipulation range.

In the end, the sphynx’s overall power and stamina win out over the jackyls, and it ends up the winner before floating back into the bleachers.

At the same time, two more monsters begin to float into the arena pit. One of them is familiar to me, with it being a desert gladiator, but the other one is new to me.

_-| Unnamed – Sand Elemental – Level 548 |-_

An elemental? That’s a little annoying, but at least it’s not a fire elemental.

I continue watching the arena battles for over half an hour to study each and every monster of the floor until several black and red fireworks suddenly begin to shoot up around me, exploding only after reaching the top of the arena walls.

Unsurprisingly, the monsters within the arena just ignore the display as they continue to focus on the battle currently going on in the arena.

Meanwhile, my attention immediately focuses on a notification that appears on my interface, covering up almost all of my vision in the process.

Which explains why the System recommended to stay out of battle during the sponsorships.

Huh. I’m kind of surprised that Diane managed to get the first sponsorship. After all, I would have thought that The Abyss would have tried to mess with her.

Although I guess they are limited to only a single sponsorship slot, so they probably know that they can’t stop her from sponsoring me. Not without recruiting other people that are as well off as Diane.

Anyways, time to wait for the rest of the sponsorships to finish auctioning out.

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For those of you who can't see the images:

System Message

You have arrived at the fiftieth floor of   the Administrator Dungeon and therefore are now available for players to sponsor.

Sponsorship auctions for you will begin in   half an hour.

You will be notified every time one of your   five sponsorship slots has been purchased.

It is recommended that you do not   participate in any combat during the time of the sponsorship auctions.

Congratulations for reaching the first   sponsorship floor!

System Message

This is an automatic message from the   System’s creator to any reaper that is able to make it to the fiftieth floor   of the Administrator Dungeon.

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

“Hello, child.

I have set the System to automatically send   this message to all reaper Competitors that reach a sponsorship floor on the   Administrator Dungeon so that I can explain a few things to you before you reach   level 1000.

Now, you may be wondering what a reaper is,   whether it’s because of this message, or because other people have expressed   a… distaste.. in you because you are a reaper.

Reapers are – to put it simply – my descendants.

For someone to be assigned a reaper ability   by the System, they have to be a descendant of mine, and have the correct   mentality and luck to match one of the various reaper soul-bound abilities   during an Initialization.

For example, a descendant of mine who is   hotheaded or just full of passion, with a penchant for heat and fire, might  become a fire reaper during a System Initialization.

However, I didn’t realize that people would   begin to move some of their… distaste… from me to the reaper ability holders.

Specifically, the older   people – those who have been alive for as long as the System, or those who   had become strong before entering the System.

So, in the end, I felt a little bit   responsible for the high death-rate among the reapers, and since I can’t just   go around telling everyone about this stuff, I decided to only give this   message out to the future Administrator reapers.

And yes, I mean you when I say future   Administrator reapers.

After all, you have one of my reaper   abilities.

So, you better survive the dungeon   run.

Because if you don’t, then it will look bad   for me.

Sincerely,

The Reaper”

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

The next automatic message will be sent to   you once you reach the 100th floor.

Sponsorship Announcement

One of your sponsorship slots has been   purchased by the Administrator: Diane Frost!

You will receive your sponsored items or skills   when all five sponsorship slots are taken.

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