Executive Stream

A few hours later

Wolf nods his head in his wolf form to the old man and Diane before vanishing in a green flash of light. Soon after that, a white flash of light signifies the old healer’s exit.

A few minutes of silence pass before Diane eventually mutters from her place on the couch next to Leo, “Now that’s interesting…”

Leo – who had been ignoring her, Wolf, and the healer to instead focus on Ruth’s screen – looks at her for a second before once more focusing his attention on Ruth’s screen as he offhandedly asks, “What’s interesting?”

“Wolf’s venom,” Diane answers whilst resting her elbows on her thighs and supporting her chin on her hands. “It clearly has some similarities to werewolf venom, but with a large number of differences as well.”

After watching Ruth kill another snow spirit, Leo turns to look at Diane as he says, “And? You already knew that.”

Diane finally takes her eyes off of Wolf’s screen to look at Leo. “Yes, but I just sensed a minor soul link in his soul.”

This finally catches Leo’s full attention as he exclaims, “A soul link!?”

“Yes,” Diane says, raising an eyebrow in amusement, “you didn’t notice it?”

“No, I didn’t,” Leo shakes his head. “Wolf has come in here to meet with that healer of yours almost every day for over a month now, so I stopped paying attention to them at some point when they are here.”

Diane stares at him for a second before chuckling.

Leo doesn’t share in her amusement as he asks with a frown, “How can you be this happy when your pup is building up new weaknesses through these soul links by the hour?”

The question just makes Diane laugh even harder before she calms down again and answers, “It’s because the soul link was so fragile that if someone so much as touches it, then it will shatter without any harm to Wolf.”

A brief look of surprise flashes across Leo’s face before he returns to frowning as he turns back to the screen.

Several minutes pass by in silence as both Leo and Diane silently watch the screens located across the room from them. Of those screens, two stand at much larger sizes than the rest. One of these two screens shows Wolf as he rips apart a frost fairy, while the other screen displays Ruth as she walks through the thirty-sixth floor with two daggers held at the ready in both hands.

The two Administrators continue to watch their respective Competitors for several more minutes before Leo finally breaks the silence and says, “Wolf is probably going to continue making enemies, even if we aren’t including his new species.”

Diane doesn’t say anything as she rests her right arm on the arm-rest of the couch and leans her head against her hand.

After a few more seconds of silence, Leo turns his attention towards her and asks, “Are you sure that you still want to have him as your heir?”

This time, Diane answers straight away without a hint of hesitation. “Yes. I’m sure.”

Aegis – Within a partially-constructed castle near Safe Zone 63

A tense silence reigns through the throne room of the castle located on the peak of the closest mountain to Safe Zone 63.

The throne room itself is partially outdoors, with the cold wind and snow of the snow-covered mountains blowing in between the large pillars making up the southern end of the throne room.

Meanwhile, seated on a large, majestic throne is a beautiful woman with long black hair, purple eyes, and two large black and purple wings sprouting from her back. She is wearing a dark purple armor that covers every inch of her skin below her neck, and when she opens her mouth to speak, a mouthful of sharp fangs can be seen, along with a dull purple light coming from the back of her throat.

“Why are you here?” Tiamat coldly asks the man sitting in front of her as she sits on her throne without any semblance of emotion on her face.

The man in question looks back at her with a bright smile on his face as his red eyes emit a faint red light. He has long red hair, with small sparks of fire occasionally escaping the tips of his hair, along with his own pair of red and gray wings sprouting from his back.

“Why am I here?” Astaroth asks with a chuckle. “Why, that should be obvious!”

He then spreads his arms out and says, “To see my wonderful great-aunt, of course!”

As soon as he finishes speaking, a spark of purplish-black energy begins to radiate from Tiamat’s eyes before she raises her hand.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Astaroth quickly says, causing her to pause in her movements, “I actually wanted to ask you about what you think of that strange anomaly in the current Administrator Dungeon!”

Tiamat narrows her eyes and slowly begins to lower her hand. She then waits several seconds, allowing sweat to build up on the volcanic dragon’s back before finally saying, “And why do you want to know?”

“Because he looks interesting!” Astaroth shouts with a grin, quickly reverting back to how he was before feeling threatened.

A tense silence follows his words before Tiamat eventually sighs.

“Unless the anomaly can get out of the dungeon alive, then I have no interest in him,” she says without showing anything on her face.

Astaroth’s eyes fill up with a happy gleam before he shouts, “Thanks!” and immediately turns around whilst both his body and crimson colored robe fall apart into ash that then proceeds to blow away in the wind.

Tiamat watches the ash as it vanishes in the cold of night before shaking her head and clapping her hand, summoning an enormous, black hole in front of her. Within seconds of appearing, the hole releases three dragons who quickly shift into a humanoid form before landing on the ground and bowing.

“Watch over the brat and make sure he doesn’t do anything we might all regret,” she orders before waving her hand at the three.

The dragons all shout, “As you command, Primordial!” before turning around, shifting back into dragon form, and flying out in between the pillars into the cold night.

Wolf

Several hours later

A frown spreads across my face as I look at my Dungeon Map from my place sitting at the center of a small cavern. The cavern was – like many other caverns on this theme – hidden by the natural elements of the floor. If it weren’t for my pure arctic lycanthrope’s being able to feel the lack of ice element in the caverns when compared with the outside, then they wouldn’t even know to come inside. And if they didn’t go inside, then the EXP Orb wouldn’t have appeared on my Dungeon Map.

All of that aside though…

“Why do I feel like there are less EXP Orbs on this floor than on the past floors…?” I mutter to myself as I continue looking through the areas of my Dungeon Map that have been scouted out by my new ‘pack.’

This floor alone would probably take a couple of days to finish just because of this problem if it weren’t for my newfound friends… which also makes me wonder just how big my lead over the other Competitors will get after this. Since they won’t be able to do the same thing I am doing.

Then again, for all I know, my lead could completely fall apart depending on what the next floor theme is.

I shake my head to get rid of these thoughts before standing up and walking towards the crevasse marking the exit to the cavern.

The other Competitors aren’t my problem right now. The last time I even saw one of them was when I met with Crystal to trade for that amulet of hers, and that was still days ago.

I carefully crawl through the crevasse whilst moving the blizzard away from the opening, only to pause as I notice something strange.

“Is the ground shaking?” I mutter to myself, only to stumble slightly and catch myself as a large tremor radiates through the snow beneath my feet.

Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think I have seen the third monster species on this floor yet…

As if answering my question, a very loud trumpeting noise echoes throughout the area, covering up the sounds of the blizzard in its entirety before quieting down again.

My eyes widen in surprise as I climb to my feet outside of the cavern.

Was that a fucking elephant?