Somewhere on the thirty-sixth floor of the dungeon

“And this one is yours, grumpy guts,” Shamil Folkor says whilst pointing at the EXP Orb in the center of the sealed-off cavern with her green eyes focused on the large tiger-kin in front of her. The young half-gnome is wearing a simple red and blue robe, with no shoes despite the bitter chill of the floor. She is about one-and-a-half meters in height – a little shorter than the average human female – and has her other arm resting on her hip.

The tiger-kin – known by Ander Rein, with the title of Fang – reaches out with his left arm towards the EXP Orb without sparing the feisty half-gnome a glance, the brownish-orange folds of his expensive-looking clothes bunching up slightly at his forearm and revealing the orange fur of his arm as his sleeve raises past his glove in the process. He has two tiger-like ears on the top of his head, two fingerless, black gloves that reveal his claws and orange fur on the ends, and a large, gray spear strapped to his back.

Shamil harrumphs, placing her other arm on her hip as well as she glares at the tiger-kin.

The remaining member of their group – a lasian named Koseth Uuthrakt – shakes his head with a sigh before patting the woman on the shoulder and saying, “You should know by now that he isn’t going to say anything unless he has to.”

Koseth wears a gray set of light leather armor as if he were used to it. Once a guard for a lone human city on the planet Khat, he has taken on the role of mediator for the small group of three Competitors ever since they first met on the nineteenth floor. The man has gray skin to match the color of his armor, and a third eye on his forehead that allows him to see one second into the future for a small cost on his stamina. He has no visible weapons on his person and very little ability in magic.

Shamil looks back at him for a second before raising both of her arms into the air in her frustration as she says, “I know, but it’s just so infuriating!”

“I mean, seriously!” Shamil adds, crossing her arms with a frown on her face as she leans forwards slightly, “If he keeps this up, people might think that he is trying to copy The Winter Wolf or something!”

Ander turns to look at her for a second before turning back to the entrance and raising his hand.

“Oh, come ooon! I was sure that would get a reaction!” the half-gnome complains, swinging her arms outwards in frustration as the lasian silently shakes his head.

Suddenly, the large boulder sealing the cavern begins to raise into the air as the tiger-kin uses his ability to create and manipulate the minor element, gravity element, to move it out of the way, letting in a strong gust of cold wind and snow through the thin crevasse.

Despite Shamil’s lack of shoes, she doesn’t give any sort of reaction to the cold as a ring on her right hand glows with a faint blue light before she begins stomping her way towards the crevasse right behind Ander, with Koseth following closely behind them both. However, right as they step outside of the cavern, Shamil suddenly stops.

“Shamil?” Koseth asks, confusion clear in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

Shamil doesn’t say anything for a second, only to suddenly turn towards Koseth and ask, “Do you think we will ever meet The Winter Wolf in person?”

The question makes the slightly older man raise both of his eyebrows in surprise as the tiger-kin stops walking as well to look at him, also interested in his response.

Koseth looks between the two for a few seconds before shrugging and stating, “It’s possible, but considering how far ahead he is, it likely won’t be for a very long time.”

Shamil cocks her hip slightly to the side whilst grabbing the lower half of her face with her right hand, and her elbow with the other hand.

“Why?” Koseth asks, his brows slightly furrowed in question. “Are you wanting to do business with him? Because I doubt he would need any sort of gear you can make for him right now, at your level.”

The crafter woman looks up at him, her eyes slightly widened before she shakes her head.

“Yeah, I doubt that he would need anything of mine right now, but there is always the future to think about,” she says with a shrug before adding, “and besides. I will likely be a lot better at crafting whenever we eventually meet.”

“If ever,” Ander suddenly states before turning around at the feisty woman’s gasp and starting into the snowstorm without another word.

Shamil quickly rushes to catch up, yelling at him the entire way as Koseth lightly shakes his head and begins to follow the two.

Wolf

“…and that makes six,” I mutter right as my claws cleave their way straight through the neck of the final fire jinn gladiator, causing a large amount of blood to splatter out of it onto my armored right arm.

I grimace at the mess before attempting to wipe it off, only pausing for a second as the corpse disappears.

It would be a lot more convenient if the blood disappeared too, along with the corpse, but that would make things too easy on us, and the System doesn’t seem to like doing that.

My focus immediately turns away from the blood as the sound of a large explosion echoes from the fire jinn’s tunnel. When I look to see it, all I find is a large cloud of smoke before something blasts its way out of the smoke at a very fast speed.

_-| Efriy – Desert Efreet – Level 466 |-_

Another named mini boss. Does that mean that every mini boss from now on will be named? Or is it just the mini bosses for sponsorship themes, like this one?

I surprisingly couldn’t find much on the subject from the forums.

Either way, the mini boss looks twice as big as the other fire jinn, reaching almost two meters in height, not including its fiery tail. It has two golden rings surrounding both of its wrists, an outfit that looks like something from an older time period in Arabia, and long red hair that runs down to its mid-back.

The monster’s crimson eyes immediately lock onto me with a rather unpleasant look that seems to border on hatred before it immediately rushes straight towards me with a loud roar that shakes the stadium and causes the audience to go wild.

Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be any other monsters in the wave aside from the mini boss.

That said, it doesn’t make me feel any better. Since it likely just means that the mini boss is stronger than the last one.

Or something like that at least.

I tense up slightly as the efreet gets closer, only for my eyes to widen slightly as I see it breathing in deeply with a strong flame building up in the back of its throat.

“Oh shit,” I mutter before leaping several meters away to dodge a large wave of flames that blasts straight into the spot I was standing before following along the path I had leapt, only stopping a meter from my landing position.

When I look up again at the monster, I find it stopping several meters above the ground of the arena pit, not bothering to get lower as it breathes in again to prepare for another attack.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I swear, once again leaping out of the way to avoid the attack.

I knew that I would eventually have to deal with some sort of flying monsters, but I didn’t expect it to happen this early, and especially not on a desert themed floor!

This fight is going to be annoying.