Wolf

Several minutes later

I stop whistling as I notice an unusual blizzard kicking up in the far distance. Meanwhile, something enters the range of my life sense skill as soon as I get close enough to the blizzard.

“What is…” I trail off as the blizzard suddenly goes berserk and rushes towards me while I’m skating.

With an eyebrow raised in amusement, I take control of the ice element within the blizzard to make it pause in its approach before having it part to reveal the creature that I can sense within it.

My other eyebrow raises in my surprise as I look at the creature. It doesn’t seem to have a physical form and is only made out of pure ice element in the shape of a diamond.

Since ice element – if you don’t count the icy mist that it automatically produces just from existing – isn’t technically visible to the human eye, the creature really just looks like some sort of fountain of icy mist, with the general shape of a diamond.

In fact, the only reason I can even tell that it is made up of ice element is through the senses that I was given by my ability.

I pause in my skating as I identify the strange creature.

_-| Unnamed – Ice Elemental – Level 334 |-_

An ice elemental? That certainly explains how it can be moving without a sound or a smell. If it wasn’t for my life sense skill, then I wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

That said, it doesn’t appear to be very high level.

The creature seems to get bored of my inspection as I sense it begin to manipulate the ice element around us to create another blizzard, while also trying to force the blizzard I had just parted to cover it again.

I raise an eyebrow at the creature before attempting to forcefully take control over the ice element from it again.

“Oh?” I mutter in surprise as the ice elemental fights with me over the control of the blizzard, “Now you’re going to get serious?”

A frown crosses my face as the ice elemental puts up a decent fight over the ice element.

This thing is stronger than I first gave it credit for, despite it being five levels below me.

That said…

I push harder at the ice element before finally ripping it out of its grasp.

…it’s still not strong enough to beat my ability.

Several seconds pass by after I take complete control of the ice element in our surroundings before I frown.

How do I kill a glob of ice element?

I evaporate the skates on my feet before opening up my menu and navigating to the forums.

The ice elemental – as expected – doesn’t like my ignoring it and shoots a wave of icy mist straight at me.

I ignore the icy mist washing over me as I read through the first thread I can find regarding elemental beings.

“Oh?” I mutter with interest before closing out of the forums and turning my attention back towards the elemental. “That should make things easy for me.”

I break into a sprint towards the ice elemental, who seems to be rather surprised by my blatant act of ignoring its attack, before I reach straight into the ice element making up its body and clasp my hand around a very small crystal.

The ice element making up its body begins to tremble the second I touch its core before completely breaking up as I yank it out.

“Just as the forums thread said,” I mutter with a smile as I watch the ice element that was making up the elemental spread out into the surrounding area.

After a few seconds, I turn my attention towards the very small crystal in the palm of my hand. It is only a couple of inches long and is in the shape of a diamond – the type of diamond that would be on a poker card. It has a pale blue glow that reminds me a little bit of my eyes, and a smooth surface that-

My thoughts are interrupted as the core suddenly shatters in my hand.

I frown at this before watching the shards of the core evaporate into ice element, leaving my palm empty.

“So much for keeping it,” I mutter before walking back to the ice rink and recreating my skates.

Back to skating through this barren place.

Arcadian Live

“Poor guy,” Mikaela chuckles at the sight of Wolf’s disappointed face before he says, “I guess he didn’t learn through his research that the only elemental cores that stay solid outside of the elemental are the ones given as rewards by the System.”

“Yeah,” Niklai mutters with his arms crossed, “but it is still possible for him to get one from an ice elemental type mini boss.”

Mikaela nods his head at this before pausing as the main screen switches to show a woman, heavily clothed to protect her from the cold, and a man, still cloaked in the same black cloak he traded for over a month ago. Both of them are standing only four meters apart from each other with two swords each strapped to their backs.

“Interesting,” Mikaela mutters while scratching his chin, “it looks like Nosferatu and Silver Siren have run into each other on the thirty-fourth floor.”

Niklai nods with an intrigued look on his face as he says, “Yeah, although I’m a little bit surprised that Silver Siren has caught up to him again. He also has an advantage on this floor, along with Ruth, since undead – even partial undead – have a resistance towards the cold.”

“From what I heard,” Mikaela begins as he stops scratching his chin, “Silver Siren managed to get lucky and find quite a few EXP orbs in the last floor, so she moved on faster than she would have otherwise so that she could catch up with Nosferatu.”

They both fall silent as the two Competitors – one shivering from the cold, one acting almost as if it’s not even cold at all – begin to speak.

“Do you have anything that would help with the cold?” Ariana asks without beating around the bush.

Norbert looks at her for a second before taking a white cloak out of his inventory and saying, “Yes, I do.”

He holds it bundled up in his left hand without making any motions to hand it over before Ariana sighs.

“I have a skill that I think you might want,” she says, understanding his intensions.

“A skill?” Niklai mutters in confusion before turning to Mikaela, who only shrugs with a look of intrigue on his face.

The two Competitors walk closer to each other before messing with their menus.

“From what I remember, that cloak Nosferatu is holding is one to guard someone from the cold,” Mikaela begins as the two navigate to their trade menus, “it should be able to help her to tolerate the cold of this theme a bit better, but it won’t help her deal with the monsters that use the ice element.”

Niklai nods his head at this before a surprised look covers Norbert’s face at whatever skill Ariana put into the trade menu.

“Oh?” Mikaela mutters before turning his attention towards his own menus, “whatever it was that she is offering him, it must be useful for Nosferatu in some way.”

Several seconds pass in silence before Norbert nods his head and the white cloak in his arms vanishes and he says, “Thank you.”

Ariana nods back towards him before they both begin to go their separate ways.

“Interesting…” Mikaela suddenly mutters with a light smile on his face, “if my guess is correct, then she just gave him a pretty good skill in exchange for that cloak.”

He then turns his head towards Niklai and says, “Apparently, Ariana actually had a blood-related skill.”

Niklai’s eyes widen in surprise before he turns to look back at the main screen, only for it to change at the same time to once again show Wolf as he skates through the barren wasteland that is the fourth theme.

Laughter runs through the audience at this still-bizarre sight before Niklai turns back to Mikaela and says, “That blood skill will probably help Nosferatu train his blood manipulation quite a bit. He’s lucky to have gotten it, even if it was just through a trade.”

Dhampirs don’t get the full blood manipulation ability that vampires get. Instead, they get a limited version that they have to awaken, most of the time through the use of skills that use blood in some way.

Mikaela nods his head before chuckling at Wolf’s antics on the main screen.

‘That never gets old to see,’ he thinks to himself with a smile.