The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 48 - Trust (Patreon)

                                                                                          Wolf

The thing isn’t a mini boss, considering that this is just the default challenge, and a boss floor for that matter. It also isn’t named, nor is it the boss itself.

So why is it so strong?

And big.

It kind of reminds me a little bit of the monsters roaming outside of the arena.

Of course, the monster doesn’t let me ponder the matter and immediately begins charging towards me whilst letting out a loud roar that quickly has me raising the sound proofing on my headphones. As I’m doing that, I leap out of the way of its charge, causing it to continue moving straight past me before turning slightly and ramming into the wall of the arena, kicking up a large cloud of black sand and miasma.

I guess that means that the creature can’t turn very well…

As if on cue, the monster quickly spins around to face me again – ignoring the miasma around it in the process – before charging in my direction, just like the last time.

…or it just can’t turn while charging.

Either way, I jump out of the way again whilst pointing my hand in the creature’s direction and using ice flow to spray a pulse of freezing water at it. The water quickly hits the monster as it attempts to change the direction of its charge away from the spray without much luck, freezing the entirety of its lower body and stopping its charge in the process.

My eyebrows furrow slightly in confusion as I climb back to my feet.

It was stopped that easily?

The instant I think this, the creature raises its upper body – of which had flopped forwards due to its momentum when it was frozen – and opens its mouth in my direction.

I should stop jinxing myself.

Right as a strange reddish-brown dust begins to build up in the monster’s bony mouth, I use frozen path to create a slide for me of which I immediately use to get out of the way. Soon after that, a pulse of that same reddish-brown dust blows past me towards the audience before hitting a sphynx.

I briefly glance at the system guardian before turning back to the sphynx after finding the guardian doing nothing. As soon as I see the poor creature, my eyes widen in surprise.

“That must hurt…” I mutter at the sight of the creature’s skin having gained an appearance similar to that of the dust, except with a slight metallic shine.

Did that pulse just turn that monster’s skin into… rust?

Also, does that mean accidental audience member casualties are allowed? Because I’ve never seen that happen before.

When I turn back to look at the monster again, I find it preparing another one of those pulses with its head pointed towards me at an awkward angle.

Well, that’s annoying.

I create another slide to make sure the beam doesn’t hit me before reaching out to control the ice on its legs and forcing it to dig into them while also sending another ice flow at it. Right as the monster’s attack passes by my previous position to strike at the top of the wall, my ice flow slams into the monster’s upper half and my ice freezing its legs manages to dig into its bone.

Now that the monster is incapacitated, I control the ice to further move through the monster’s bones until it hollows out the entire skeleton as an experiment. Surprisingly, the thing remains alive and silent all the way till I finally get to its neck, in which case it dies almost immediately, with the flames in its eyes going out in an instant.

“Interesting…” I mutter, ignoring the level-up for now. Could there be something in the thing’s neck?

Before I can approach it, the monster’s corpse disappears in a flash of lights, just like all of the other monsters.

I frown slightly before shaking my head as the challenge clear menu appears.

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

                                                                             Congratulations!

                                    You have completed the default challenge for arena 83A!

Thanks to this accomplishment, you may now enter the arena through the portal hub and attempt the star ranked challenge within the arena.

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

Something to wonder about the next time I see one of those, I guess.

Suddenly, as I am floating towards the bleachers, I notice a slight movement from my shadow down below. When I turn my head to look, I find Sapphire peeking her head out of my shadow before hiding back in it again.

A thin smile graces my lips, only to vanish again a second later as I land in the bleachers.

Sapphire has been hiding in my shadow for most of our time on this theme. Especially after the first few floors of the theme. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think it is due to the heat.

It did get hotter after the first few floors, after all.

Turning my attention away from the cute little spider, I focus on the arena for a few seconds before beginning to approach the entrance to the arena.

At least the miasma in the sand seems to be compacted in it rather well, so it doesn’t come out unless there is a big impact. When I first read that the sand had miasma in it, I worried that it would come out just from my running across the arena.

Which wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, considering that I doubt it would be able to get through my ice, but it might still be annoying.

Anyways, I should fight the challenges until I reach level 570 or so, considering how strong that monster…

I pause in my steps towards the entrance as a thought comes to me.

If that monster was level 564, then what level are the monsters outside of the arena? And also, since the boss monster is twenty levels above the highest leveled monster of the floor, does that mean that it will be twenty levels above the strongest monster outside of the arena?

Or are there even any monsters outside of the arena? Considering that there is no way to get outside of the arena in the first place.

I furrow my brows as the questions keep coming to me, only to shake my head and focus on the teleport pad.

Before I think about that, I should take a look at the teleport hub. On the other floors, the hub had no walls around it. So I should see if this one is the same or not. And if it is the same, then I can see if there are any monsters in the sands.

As I continue making my way towards the teleport pad, a System Message appears on my interface.

Oh?

She finally responded.

My brows furrow in confusion.

She approves of our working together? Also, what’s this about trust?

Trust really isn’t worth all that much in a place like this. I trust people to act for their own benefits, her included.

Although… I guess I do trust that she won’t betray me without a good reason for it. We’ve worked together quite a few times already, after all.

The part about the Administrator approving of our working together irritates me slightly though, but I continue walking anyways as the message disappears.

However, I only make it three steps before pausing right in front of the teleport pad with my brows furrowed even more.

Did she just admit that she was having a System Call with an Administrator while fighting in the dungeon?

I dwell on the thought for a few seconds before shaking my head and stepping onto the teleport pad as a flash of light envelops me.

Probably for the best that I don’t question the other Competitors’ interactions with their sponsors. Not when considering how Diane interacts with me.

Because I doubt she is the only eccentric Administrator in the System.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

System Notification

Congratulations!

You are now level 548!

System Notification

You have received a message from Competitor:   Crystal Leblanc

“Wait, she actually sponsored you?

That’s news to me as well, but it makes   some sense.

I do remember her saying that   she approved of our working together at one point, but I was too busy   fighting at the moment to say anything about it.
 And I forgot about it by the time I finished the fight.

Anyways, she probably did it because   she sees that we trust each other.”

Discord Invite:

https://discord.gg/R7M6QNRm7y

Top Web Fiction Link:

http://topwebfiction.com/listings/the-rise-of-the-winter-wolf/