The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 5 - Chapter 4 - Levels (Patreon)

Wolf

I frown after landing a few feet back, finally noticing the drop in my physical capabilities. But it doesn’t last long before I end up jerking my head back to avoid a claw swipe from the monster, of which I’m guessing is a wendigo.

It has pale skin, with a mouth full of razor sharp fangs, two incredibly long and pointy ears, absolutely no hair, and crimson eyes. For some reason the creature – despite its rather large size making it over a foot taller than myself – is wearing rather damaged clothing. In fact, the clothing it has on is so damaged I would honestly feel safe calling them rags.

I reach for the creature’s arm in order to grab it, but surprisingly it yanks it back while swinging its other arm at me and sending me flying a few feet away with a cough of pain.

“What the-” I begin, only to cut off when the creature lets out another roar and begins charging at me again. “Shit.”

I hurry to my feet, hoping very much to avoid another instance of that. But before I can even get to my feet, I realize that the wendigo has already stopped moving. In fact, it’s started whimpering instead.

And that’s when a familiar yet putrid smell finally registers in my mind, bringing my attention over to the stinky orb that had fallen out of my pocket.

The whimpering sound turns into full on whines that bring my attention back to the wendigo as it begins rushing out of the bedroom. But right before it leaves the room, I make sure to identify it.

_-| Unnamed – Berserk Wendigo – Level 2227 |-_

My eye twitches at the creature’s level.

Why is it so strong? Even with the levels I farmed while heading to this room, it’s still about thirty levels above me!

Even without the decrease to my physical capabilities it might’ve been just as physically strong if not stronger than me!

‘Hey, dad?’ I suddenly hear Sapphire asking from my shadow, making me calm down a bit before I turn to grab the stinky sphere while answering, ‘Yeah?’

‘I’ve been wondering this for a while now…’ she begins, seemingly pausing for a second as if somehow smelling the ball in my hand before I put it in my pocket again, ‘How much does a single level affect you? I mean, just how much stronger does it make you?’

I pause at that.

‘Well,’ I begin with a frown, only to shrug and answer, ‘I’ve put in some research in the subject, but there doesn’t appear to be a clear consensus on it.’

‘Really?’ I hear Sapphire’s send to me through our bond with a note of surprise.

I nod while slowly reaching out to carefully close the bedroom door so as to have this conversation without the possibility of another monster walking into the room. And once that’s done, I continue talking through our bond, ‘Yep. Most people seem to speculate that there’s about a five or so percent increase in everyone’s physical capabilities with every level. But there’s also speculation that it’s lower at around three or so percent increase for each level. After all, it’s rather hard to judge when there aren’t any actual listed statistics or anything determining someone’s exact strength. And the technology in most of the System isn’t up to snuff when it comes to figuring it out.’

I feel hints of both disappointment and curiosity coming through the open bond before she mutters, ‘That’s sad. I wanted to know just how much it mattered to be a higher level than someone else!’

A smile makes its way onto my face, and I can’t help but chuckle in the middle of the dark and creepy room as I say, ‘From my understanding, the higher the level you are, the more important a single level is in regards to your strength compared to someone else around your level.’

I somehow feel Sapphire giving a mental nod of her head while in my shadow.

‘There’s also the fact that different species have different strengths, with some being a lot stronger than others, even with their balancing factor making them rather poor in certain situations,’ I add before reaching out to grab the doorknob. ‘Anyways, time to focus again.’

Unlike before, this time I crack open the door and peek out to make sure there aren’t any monsters in either direction. Because this floor is obviously meant to be a stealthy one.

Which really isn’t my style. I very much prefer to brute force each floor.

Fortunately there don’t appear to be any monsters, so I open the door all the way, wincing slightly when it squeaks on its hinges. Then I slowly enter the hallway to head in the opposite direction of the way the wendigo ran off in.

As I walk, I slowly inspect everything in the hallway. All the way from the furniture, the paintings on the walls, and even the occasional lantern hung up on the wall. Which is rather telling for what era this building is from.

I wonder if there’s any particular reason for that? Is it random? Or maybe it was the last era of which The Reaper visited Earth?

Who knows.

Interesting nonetheless though.

I continue walking down the hall rather slowly for nearly a minute before coming across a corner, where immediately after turning it, I find a poltergeist passing through a wall into the hall. Then I immediately turn back around the corner again, quietly open a door right next to it, enter the room that turns out to be another bathroom, and close the door behind me.

So, running into a poltergeist would be a very bad idea. At least, considering that I can’t use my ice here, leaving me stuck with only physical attacks against a non-physical entity.

Makes me wish that I’d bought some sort of item or skill when I could that would let me damage ethereal creatures.

I look around the bathroom, breathing a faint sigh of relief that there isn’t another stinky orb in it. Only to regret it when I breath back in and smell the stinky orb in my pocket.

I’m eradicating this thing when I leave this special room.

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