The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 5 - Chapter 3 - Haunted Mansion (Patreon)

Wolf

Before we go pay Diane a visit, we decide to go check out a room first. After all, I want to see what these ‘knowledge crystals’ are and how they’re used. Because they sound quite interesting.

Too bad it takes nearly five minutes of slaughtering zombies to find the first room. Even if the slaughter is giving me far more EXP than I would’ve gotten this early on in a floor back in the other dungeon.

The only thing that has me frightened are the various types of bosses and whenever we end up on a fire themed floor again. Because at that point almost everything will be able to melt my ice.

I shiver at the thought before reaching for and opening the door to the first room we find. Only to surprisingly end up teleporting the moment I do into some strange and incredibly dark room that seems to be furnished in a Victorian style.

Beta Administrator Dungeon Notification

Beta Tester has entered the special room ‘Haunted Mansion’ of the floor theme, ‘Miasmic Dungeons’.

The rules of the special room are as follows:

Beta Tester must make their way through the mansion to find a key that they will then use to unlock the front door.

Throughout the mansion are three different types of creature.

The first is a poltergeist, which will try to throw objects at beta testers. They are afraid of the light.

The second is a wendigo, which will go berserk at the sight of a beta tester. They have an incredibly sensitive nose.

The third is a faceless watcher, which will attack any beta tester that sees it. They cannot see unless they are looked at directly.

Of these three types of creatures, there will be ten poltergeists spread throughout the mansion, five wendigos, and one faceless watcher.

There are items scattered throughout the mansion that may or may not help with clearing the floor.

Physical capabilities of the beta tester are reduced to a certain level appropriate for the floor in order to promote a stealth approach for the floor.

Elemental energy cannot exist in the mansion and will disappear the moment it is generated.

Companions are not allowed.

The notification stays floating in front of my face for a few seconds before I notice that Sapphire is in my shadow.

‘Dad, I can’t get out!’ Sapphire says in a slight panic. But she seems to calm down after noticing the notification. Or more specifically, the last line in it.

“Damnit,” I mutter with a scowl on my face. One that only gets worse as I realize that even my senses seem to be dulled a little.

Fortunately it’s only a little though, as I can still see mostly well in the dark of the mansion. And I can smell something rather disgusting coming from the other side of the bedroom I find myself in.

I turn around to find a door, likely leading to a bathroom.

Before I approach the bathroom, I lower the soundproofing on my headphones, seeing as my senses were decreased.

At the same time, I can’t help but wonder how The Reaper was able to lower my physical capabilities and senses? Should that really be possible, what with how the System works?

Or maybe it’s just some special power in the System that has limitations?

Yeah, it’s probably something like that.

I slowly make my way through the old looking room to the other end of it, where the door is. And on the way, I notice quite the number of cobwebs coating the walls and furniture. Which definitely adds to the creepy factor of the place.

‘You can do it!’ I hear Sapphire say from my shadow before her presence in the back of my mind fades away a little bit, signifying that she’s going to sleep.

My eyes narrow and I shake my head.

Of course she would go to sleep right after saying that.

I continue making my way across the floor, careful to not make any noise as I’m not entirely sure just how badly my physical capabilities were limited. Which is odd, since you’d think I would be able to tell. But I really don’t feel a difference.

Once I reach the door, I plug my nose with one hand, really wishing that I had a nose plug, and reach for the door knob with the other, slowly opening it to reveal a bathroom. One equally covered in cobwebs as the bedroom was.

There doesn’t appear to be any monsters inside though, so I slowly walk in, making sure to breathe through my mouth with my nose still plugged before I come across the source of the smell sitting in a large, round bathtub. The source being some sort of very faintly glowing green orb that is clearly releasing an unpleasant odor.

What the hell is this thing?

As if responding to my thoughts, a menu appears above the little ball.

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

Ball of Unpleasantness

Releases an unpleasant odor that may drive away pests.

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

I stare at the menu for several seconds before it vanishes.

That… wasn’t particularly helpful.

While I would really rather not touch the thing, the fact that it’s here and is a System item means it’s likely important to the floor. In fact, if I remember correctly, it mentioned something about the wendigos having sensitive noses, so maybe it could help there.

I reach out to touch it before trying to put it in my inventory, only for nothing to happen.

Well, shit. Guess I’m carrying it.

I stuff the putrid thing in my pocket before looking around the bathroom a bit more and turning around again after not finding anything of note. I then repeat the process with the bedroom without much success there either.

Doesn’t look like there’s anything here.

I glance at my pocket with a frown, only for the frown to lessen slightly when I unplug my nose and notice that the smell is significantly less strong when in my pocket. Meaning it’s not a waste of my precious coat’s snow-like smell to put it in there.

Let’s just hope that the bad smell doesn’t attract one of the other monsters. Although judging by their descriptions, I doubt it will.

The faceless watcher sounds like it doesn’t even have a nose to smell with, and the poltergeists should be ghosts. After all, I ran into a poltergeist somewhere on the first floor theme.

I make my way over to the bedroom door before opening it and taking a single step out into the hallway that it reveals on the other side. Just to find myself staring at a rather unpleasant looking creature, who I quickly find staring right back at me while drooling some sort of black liquid.

“Uh, hi?” I half ask, half state.

The creature just roars in my face and tries to snap at me in response. But I manage to jump back rather quickly, causing the ball to fall out of my pocket and onto the floor in response.

How rude.

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