Wolf

I blankly stare at the screen in front of me after hearing what my parents had to say.

When I received a call from them soon after entering the igloo-shaped Expanded System Store, I was just expecting them to be calling to catch up or chat.

What I wasn’t expecting was for something like this to be dropped on me…

“She is absolutely going to use this against me at some point in the future,” I mutter with a slight shake of my head before glancing at the bathroom door.

When I turn back to the screen again in front of the bathroom mirror, I find both of my parents sharing a serious glance with each other before focusing on me again.

“What exactly is your relationship with the Empress anyways?” dad asks me with a slight frown on his face.

I sigh after hearing his words with another light shake of my head.

What is my relationship with Diane?

I look at dad again as I answer with a single word.

“Complicated.”

Dad raises an eyebrow at my answer without saying a word.

“As you know, I first met Diane through the recommendation of a now-no-longer anonymous benefactor, but there have been several details that I haven’t told you about,” I begin with a frown, “including her unhidden desire to make me her heir, and at the time, to make me a werewolf.”

Unsurprisingly, a cold look flashes across mom’s face as I mention Diane’s plans to make me her heir.

Dad, on the other hand, reveals a brief flash of surprise before he says, “Continue.”

“…and that’s about it for my interactions with the executives,” I finish while laying back in the make-shift ice throne that I had created at some point, after I had gotten sick of standing up during my explanation.

At this point, I’m not really sure how to take the expression on my mom’s face.

As for my dad?

Well, he doesn’t look happy; that’s for sure.

“So let me get this straight,” he begins with an ice cold look on his face, “an Empress – one who also happens to be an Administrator no less – has been trying to manipulate you into becoming her heir, while at times also trying to convince you to become a werewolf. And you never thought to mention this to us?”

“No, I didn’t,” I answer him with a frown, “you guys were already too busy with your own problems, and there wasn’t anything you could do about mine. So what would the point have been? To worry you?”

Both mom and dad open their mouths to speak, but I cut them off as I continue, “That said, I do realize that I should have told you in case you ever met with and spoke to the Empress’s subordinates.”

They both close their mouths and share a glance before calming down.

“You’re right,” dad admits, “and we didn’t exactly tell you about the problems we were having right now either, so it’s not like we can complain about this.”

Both of my eyebrows raise in surprise at his statement as mom nods her head in agreement with him.

“Let’s get back to the topic of how the Empress might use this ‘favor’ against you,” mom says with a frown, steering the conversation back to the original reason they called me.

I nod in agreement, “Since I am not technically under you, nor am I actually a part of the safe zone right now, that favor won’t bind me at all. So Diane won’t be able to directly make me do anything.”

“But,” dad interjects, “she can still use the favor to get the safe zone to manipulate you somehow, like telling us to drive you towards becoming her heir.”

“Unfortunately,” I state with another nod, “but there isn’t much we can do about it now. I also doubt that the mayor would be willing to trade the survival of your safe zone just because it might cause me some issues down the line.”

Mom frowns at this but seems to agree with my statement.

Several long seconds of silence pass before dad finally says, “Just make sure that you’re careful, okay?”

I nod my head with a smile, “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourselves.”

A faint smile crosses dad’s face before the call comes to a rather abrupt ending.

The smile leaves my face as I stand up from my throne of ice, letting it dissipate behind me as I walk towards the bathroom door.

This is going to be annoying.

One day later

A smile lights up my face as I sense an area lacking in ice element compared to my surroundings.

Another orb?

I dissipate my ice skates before walking towards a small mound of snow.

It should be somewhere around here…

I kneel close to the ground and begin sweeping the snow until I reveal a thin layer of ice covering a small cavern. At the bottom of the cavern is exactly what I am looking for.

“This should be the last one I need for this floor,” I mutter while manipulating the ice away from the hole to allow me to jump inside of the cavern.

After falling a few meters to the ground, I land on my feet before walking over to and touching the orb.

System Notification

Congratulations!

You are now level 344!

The notification makes my smile stretch wider for a second before going away as I turn to look back at the hole above me.

Now to go back to that mini boss area that I found a while back.

I jump straight out of the hole before opening my dungeon map and starting off in the direction of the large cave system that makes up the mini boss’s den.

Arcadian Live

“The Winter Wolf is already planning on heading to the next floor, it seems,” Mikaela says without any surprise, “after only one day on the thirty-first floor!”

The audience explodes into applause at this as they watch Wolf casually walk into a den full of nearly a dozen frozen tigers without even bothering to hide himself.

“It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t find an ice elemental mini boss on the floor, but mini bosses are a lot less common on hazardous floor themes than in the other themes,” Niklai says with a light frown.

Mikaela nods at this without taking his eyes off of the main screen as Wolf freezes all of the frozen tigers with his own ice element, not bothering to use the ice element in his surroundings due to it not having the eternal ice properties. After freezing them, he then uses the ice element in his surroundings to kill them as a way to save stamina.

“Honestly,” Katherine mutters, having finally come back to the show again after some personal issues, “I am curious as to whether The Winter Wolf would be able to kill an event boss on this floor theme without any help.”

Her casual comment riles up the audience as screams and shouts rain out with various forms of agreements and disagreements.

“Of course he can!” “The Winter Wolf is unstoppable!” “That’s not possible!”

The other two commenters – aside from Katherine – show different expressions of amusement at the audience’s reaction before focusing on the main screen again as Wolf enters the largest cavern of the cave.

Within the cavern is a three-meter-long tiger with two incredibly long fangs sticking out of its mouth, claws as sharp as swords, and fur as white as the ice coating the walls of the cavern. It has two glowing, blue eyes, and two long tails.

_-| Unnamed – Dual-tailed Frozen Tiger – Level 346 |-_

“Hazardous floors are strange when it comes to the monsters overall strength compared to their levels,” Mikaela begins for the audience’s sake without taking his eyes off of the main screen, “the monsters on their floors are all stronger species that are more dangerous to the Competitors, but they are also at lower levels when compared with the monsters of previous floors. Mostly due to the lack of other monsters for them to kill.”

Wolf suddenly shifts into his hunter form and breaks into a sprint towards the mini boss with a grin stretched across his canine-like face as Mikaela continues, “Which brings us to this mini boss that – when compared to the mini bosses and bosses on other floor themes – is actually relatively low leveled.”

The tiger lets out a loud and angry growl before sprinting to meet Wolf halfway as their claws strike each other, only for them both to be knocked back slightly from the force.

Wolf shows a brief expression of surprise before the grin stretches further and he rushes in for another attack whilst manipulating the eternal ice element leaking from his body to surround the monster.

“It looks like The Winter Wolf wasn’t expecting to meet a monster so soon that matched him in physical strength,” Niklai says with a hint of a smile, showing his anticipation of the fight.

Katherine briefly nods in agreement as the audience cheers for Wolf.

At the same time, Mikaela stares at the screen with a thoughtful look on his face as he thinks, ‘I can’t help but wonder… how would The Winter Wolf do if he were to face an event boss on a frozen floor?’