Wolf

I stare at the menu in front of me for what must be several minutes before I grit my teeth.

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Soul-bound Companion designated Sapphire has died.

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For a brief moment, a flash of the past leaves me frozen.

Nine years ago

I stare up at the stars filling the night sky with my brows furrowed in worry.

“Wolf, do you think…” Katie asks from beside me. When I look back down at her from the stars, I find her sitting on the curve next to me, with her arms wrapped around her legs.

Before I can say anything, a shout echoes from across the street, in the direction of our school.

“Hey! What are you two still doing here!!”

I turn my head around to look, only to find a security guard standing on the other side of the street. The man seems to be both irritated and worried at the same time.

Which makes sense, considering that Katie and I are still at school despite it almost being midnight.

And it doesn’t help things that Katie is only a third grader – three years younger than me.

Right as I’m about to answer the man, my phone finally begins to ring.

I jerk my head towards it as Katie tenses up before reaching into my jacket pocket and grabbing the phone.

Once I see the screen, I frown.

“It’s an unknown number,” I mutter before answering it.

I feel Katie lean into me to hear as a woman’s voice immediately speaking from the other side of the call.

“Hello? Is this Wolf Adler?”

The voice sounds tense and even a little frantic, which doesn’t bode well.

“Yes,” I answer whilst beginning to feel a lump build in my throat.

I almost drop the phone despite expecting it as the voice comes back saying, “Your parents are in emergency care right now!”

The Present

I’m snapped out of the memory as a sudden bolt of lightning crashes into the ice near me.

Lightning…?

Since when was there anything besides rain in the weather here?

I stare at the singed area where it struck before shaking my head and opening my status. After that, I immediately select to revive Sapphire.

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Competitor has selected to revive Soul-bound Companion – Sapphire.

Confirm Cancel

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Without a hint of hesitation, I select Confirm, causing a strange feeling to well up inside me before an explosion of ice blasts out of my shadow, with Sapphire leaping out in the middle of it with her full size. She then looks around for several seconds in confusion, only to rush towards me whilst shrinking down again once she sees me.

A relieved smile stretches across my face as she begins climbing up my leg to my shoulder like always.

I spend a few minutes petting her before focusing on the notifications I had ignored up to this point.

System Notification

Congratulations! You have killed a monster at least 100 levels above you!

As a reward, your skill ‘Predator’ will increase by a level!

My brows furrow slightly at this.

But wasn’t the creature about 99 levels above me?

Or did it level at some point?

Then again, it did rush over here, creating a tsunami in the process. It would make sense if it gained a level or two from the monsters killed by it.

Anyways, I swipe away the notification before focusing on the next one, which immediately makes my brows raise in surprise.

That’s a strange notification.

ERROR MESSAGE

USER HAS TAPPED INTO POWERS BEYOND THE SYSTEM’S CONTROL

INITIALIZING SAFETY MEASURES…

Uh, what?

I blink a few times at the strange box.

It then vanishes with a strange glitchy sound before I can think too deeply on it.

With my brows furrowed slightly in confusion, I turn my attention towards the next message after it, which has the same style of box as the last one.

ERROR MESSAGE

INITIALIZING REAPER PROCEDURE…

Just like with the first, it disappears after I finish reading it.

Okay, what the hell is happening?

The next one doesn’t make things much clearer either.

ERROR MESSAGE

REAPER PROCEDURE HAS BEEN CANCELED BY THE SYSTEM’S CREATOR

PROCESSES RETURNING TO NORMAL OPERATION

The system’s creator?

Wait, does that mean I attracted the attention of The Reaper?

I wait for something more to happen, but nothing does. That was the last of the notifications from the battle, and nothing else is appearing.

So I turn towards the legendary chest and begin approaching it.

As I do so, I also open my skills list and identify the newly leveled Predator skill.

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Predator

This skill raises your overall abilities by 50% whenever you are fighting against a being who is at a higher level than you.

Close

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Oh? Well, that’s a nice boost from the level 2’s benefit.

Maybe I’d actually be able to break through the kraken’s scales with this?

Not that it’d matter now.

Considering that it’s dead.

Also, I wonder if the error messages from before have anything to do with that weird spear of ice?

I pause in my step at the thought before slapping my forehead at missing something.

There’s probably something about the missing bits of my memory on the System Forums!

And with that thought, I begin navigating my status towards the System Forums.

Throne Room of the Grand Werewolf Empire

“So they’re already beginning?” Diane’s tired voice echoes through the throne room before she rests her head on her hands once she sees the royal guard in front of her nod their head.

“Yes,” Amalea says with a strange look on her face, “the reaper cults have begun creating a new branch for His Highness.”

Diane groans at this revelation.

“And the name of the new branch?” she asks despite already knowing the answer.

Amalea turns her head to look at the livestream of Wolf as he looks through the System Forums and says, “Worshippers of the Blue Moon.”

Wolf

My… what?

For one, the massive number of threads that have already been started about my recent fight is honestly mind-boggling.

But the more important part…

All of that really happened?

Why did I just conk out in the middle of the battle and turn into something else?

Was that the source behind the error messages?

And what’s this about a cult? Because that’s not something I want to be dealing with right now.

Or ever, really.

Maybe I can ask Diane about this? Because there’s not much else I can do.

Other than asking Diane, the only thing I can think of to find out about it is to continue getting stronger.

After all, I doubt The Reaper would answer my questions even if I had a way to contact it. Not considering how it canceled whatever was happening.

I look up again at the legendary chest before glancing at Sapphire – who’s still on my shoulder despite the pouring rain – and starting towards the chest. Once I reach it, I place my hand on top of it, causing a skill’s description to appear above the chest.

My brows raise slightly in pleasant surprise once I begin reading it.

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Skill | Kraken’s Scales | Tier 7

This skill is not attainable outside of a legendary chest from the event boss: Ruler of the Maren.

Kraken’s Scales allows the user of the skill to gain a plating of scales on a small portion of their body. These scales have close to the durability and shock resistance of a Deepsea Kraken’s scales, granting the user an immense defensive layer for a large cost of stamina.

Note: Skill cannot be stacked onto other transformation skills but can be stacked onto natural transformations from species.

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Okay, that’s a pretty good skill.

It’s also my first non-cooldown defensive skill if I remember correctly.

All of my other skills so far have either been cooldown locked defensive ones, like Aegis, or offensive ones.

I reach out to grab the skill orb before turning towards Sapphire as it breaks into orbs of light and enters my arm.

“It’s very nice knowing that I can always bring you back,” I mutter to her while rubbing her head and feeling her purr in delight. “But please don’t die on me like that again.”

She actually seems to nod her head slightly before I open up my map again to regain my bearings.

Anyways, time to move on.