The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 4 - Chapter 73 - Exposed and Awake (Patreon)

                                                                           The Void

A tense atmosphere fills the Void as The Reaper lightly taps his claws against his throne. The various void creatures around him don’t dare lift their heads from the ground or even glance at the ruler of the void as he stares at the screen showing Wolf’s unconscious body. And more specifically, the bond he feels between him and the young reaper.

“It’s grown more distant,” he mutters with a frown. He then glances at the void creatures around him, only to focus on the screen again as he thinks, ‘So the Fae are trying to distance the boy from me?’

The Reaper narrows his eyes slightly at the thought, only for his eyes to widen a few seconds later, following which a grin stretches across his face. He then snaps his fingers while holding his left hand out, causing a random void creature located near his throne to teleport and appear directly with its throat held by his hand. He then turns its head to face the screen, ignoring the absolute terror on its face as he changes the screen to show a planet not within the bounds of the System.

After a second, the screen zooms in to show a simple graveyard with a few Administrators standing in the open at the center of the graveyard, surrounded by zombies who are ignoring them.

“Have the preparations been made?” the Ruler of the Abyss’s voice sounds from within the screen. The leviathan then nods his head and answers, “Yes. We will be able to get you inside of the Administrator Dungeon the moment the Reaper Spawn reaches the two hundredth floor.”

The Reaper’s grin widens, and he glances at the terrified void creature in his clutches as he says, “I’d like you to keep a watch on these creatures. The moment the abyssal demon steps into the Administrator Dungeon, I authorize you to activate Alpha protocol on him.”

The terror on the void creature’s face suddenly vanishes at that, instead getting replaced with confusion as the two legged, two winged draconic creature furrows its brows made of black scales. It doesn’t state any agreement or disagreement though, because only a split second after giving his orders, The Reaper snaps his other hand again, teleporting the creature onto the planet where the Ruler is.

‘To think the mortals actually thought they’d be able to sneak inside,’ The Reaper thinks with a laugh that echoes throughout the void. ‘But this gives me a very good opportunity. And I’m going to milk all I can out of it.’

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                                                                                 Wolf

I let out a groan the moment my consciousness returns to me. Only to grunt when I feel something slam into me before I open my eyes to see Sapphire tightly hugging me.

What… oh. Right.

Guess I killed the hydra.

After a few seconds of silence, I hear Sapphire begin to cry.

Oh. Shit. What am I supposed to do?

I awkwardly move my hands around, unsure of what to do before I eventually just hug her back. And as soon as I do, she relaxes ever so slightly. While somehow sobbing even harder.

Did that help… or what?

Several seconds pass, and her sobbing doesn’t slow down. So I simply begin rubbing her back and humming a random, soothing tune I remember from earth as I raise my head to look around, only to find us both in our expanded system store, sitting on a couch.

Huh. Good to see the store is still summonable, even if I can’t actually use it.

It certainly makes a nice relaxation spot.

Well, actually, on second thought, it is usable. I just can’t sell things. So it being summonable makes sense.

Eventually Sapphire’s sobbing quiets down and she ends up falling asleep while lying face first in my jacket sleeve.

I can’t help but smile a little at that before opening up my notifications to see if I missed any. But none of them are new, so I just close them all out.

Thank goodness for System Favor. It’s a good thing I had that. And that it wasn’t taken away when I was disconnected to the System.

Which is a tad odd to be honest. After all, why do I have the favor of something I’m not even bound to?

I frown as I try to think of an answer for that, only to eventually shake my head.

Never mind. Guess it doesn’t matter.

For all I know it could be The Reaper’s doing.

Anyways, I can’t use the System Stores anymore, nor can I use the Player Auctions. Which is a real bummer. Now I can only use my SP through directly trading with other players. And I can’t really buy anything useful, since the only things the System Stores sell that I ever buy nowadays are the consumables. Potions, food, drinks, and other random things. Although I don’t need to eat or drink much anymore, so I don’t buy that much of it. Except for the occasional bit of wine.

Too bad I’m completely immune to the effects of alcohol.

My thoughts pause as Sapphire moves slightly, making her head fall down into my lap with her hand landing on my knee.

I frown slightly at the feeling of the tiny icy spikes in her shoulder poking the pants of my legs, but otherwise ignore it since it’s not bothering anything. Outside of a tiny bit of discomfort from having spikes tiny poking my leg.

Sometimes I wonder. What’ll you do after we leave the Administrator Dungeon, and everything’s finished? All of our enemies dealt with, and us being left in peace?

Considering her wandering spirit, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried exploring the universe as a whole. Especially since we discovered that she can just teleport to me through our bond once a day.

I watch her sleep for a moment before looking up at the ceiling and letting out a sigh.

The rest of the floors won’t clear themselves, but I guess I can spend some time taking a nap. I haven’t done it for a while after all.

My eyes slowly begin to lower, and the last thing I think before falling asleep is that the System Forums is probably going to have a lot of fun taking pictures of this.

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