Wolf

Small droplets of frozen sweat fall off of my face as I give one last pull, ripping the large chunk of gray ore off of the archthron’s back. Meanwhile, right afterwards, the enormous creature begins to move slightly before standing up on all four of its feet.

Shit. Time to go.

I dump the last piece of the ore into my inventory before jumping off of the creature’s back and making a frozen slide to allow me to slide down to the ground. Soon after that, the archthron begins to burrow itself into the sand, still ignoring my existence as it disappears from all but my life sense skill.

That creature is rather laid back… it makes me wonder if it would attack even if it wasn’t hungry.

Although it would probably attack me if I attacked it.

Putting the creature aside for now, I turn around and approach the previous path of ice I had been traveling on.

It’s about time to continue moving.

One hour later

I stand absolutely still as I stare directly into the strange eye-sockets of the ralcan’s mask. The ralcan itself stands only a single meter in front of me, with nothing in between us to act as a shield.

And yet, the creature still just continues to stare at me.

Thinking back on the forum’s description of this creature, I vaguely remember it mentioning that they were extremely curious. Kind of like children, in a sense.

Our staring match lasts for nearly an entire minute before the creature finally turns away and breaks apart into a cloud of sand that then merges with the sand sea beneath my feet.

My brows furrow slightly before I shake my head and continue making my way towards the faint sounds of monster roars – likely representing an arena’s audience.

It isn’t until I make it several steps that I realize that the creature’s life source had disappeared the instant it morphed into sand.

Lucky Days

Several hours later

“Oh?” Sam exclaims in surprise as he watches a Competitor known by the title Solar sprinting across the sand sea on the fortieth floor, “I really want to see how this plays out. Most of the Competitors have avoided the sand sea like a plague, the only exceptions being The Winter Wolf and Thorn, so we don’t have all that much information about what is out there.”

Toby nods his head in agreement, crosses his arms in front of him with an interested look on his face, and says, “I just want to see what will happen if one of those-”

Before Toby can finish speaking, the sand around Solar suddenly begins to rile up before floating into the sky. At the same time, Solar himself – wearing his overly long red robe to match his bright red eyes as a member of the sol species – immediately stops running and conjures two small flames: one on both sides of himself.

“If you were about to say what it is I think you were about to say…” Sam begins with both of his eyebrows raised in surprise.

Toby frowns slightly as he says, “Yes, it looks like it might just happen. But let’s see how it plays out first.”

The sand suddenly begins to converge into a humanoid figure as Toby finishes his statement, “After all, these things can be rather unpredictable.”

To the surprise of both the commentators, along with many of the viewers within the audience, Solar suddenly throws both fireballs at the figure of sand, causing the sand to disperse slightly in all directions.

“Oh, shit.” Toby and Sam both say at the same time with their lips slightly parted in surprise.

“How could we have forgotten about the general jumpiness of the Sols…” Toby says right before the sand all around them begins to whip up into a sandstorm. Within the sandstorm, two bright red eyes can be seen floating around before vanishing multiple times as Solar nervously spins around in circles.

“This is bad,” Sam says with a frown. “I doubt any of the Competitors are able to defeat an element shifter. At least not yet.”

Toby grimly nods his head in agreement, “The only way he might be able to beat its elemental shifting will be with an item.”

As the two commentators speak, a menu appears above the screen showcasing the battle between the ralcan and the sol.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ralcan

Ralcans are sand element shifters, allowing them to temporarily shift their entire body – or even just parts of it – into sand for the expenditure of stamina.

They are generally childlike in their actions, with a large amount of curiosity. Ralcans also have a very cautious stance where if they believe something is strong enough to be a threat to them, then they will normally avoid attacking them unless provoked.

Few know the true appearance of a ralcan beneath the rags that make up its clothing, and even fewer know what lies behind its mask. This is due to its status as an element shifter, along with its ability to use the sand around it to repair its own clothing and mask.

However, they will still attack if they are provoked. No matter the danger to their lives.

Note: Element shifters are only killable when all of the element making up their shifted body is wiped out. However, since they are able to replenish the element in their body through their surroundings, they are nearly undefeatable in the early levels in their preferred terrain. The only known way for someone below level 1000 to kill an element shifter is through items or wearing away at their stamina.

Level of intelligence: C – The level of intelligence of a child of a sapient race.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A loud shriek suddenly echoes out of the screen into the stadium, scaring viewers throughout the audience into their own screams of fright. This shriek is then followed by more shrieks, all of varying different pitches and originating locations as the ralcan moves around like a ghost through the sandstorm.

Suddenly, a brief ripping sound echoes through the sandstorm as the ralcan’s claws suddenly materialize in front of the sol and rip long, bloody gashes through its shoulder. The gashes then immediately begin to turn a rusty grayish-brown color while Solar himself screams in pain, falling to his knees to grab ahold of his shoulder.

A dark silence spreads throughout the viewing room stadium as the viewers watch Solar get torn to shreds by the ralcan over the span of several seconds. By the time the ralcan is done, the sol is nothing but a rusted corpse.

Throughout the entire process of the fight, the sol could do nothing but throw random fireballs into the sandstorm in an attempt to stop the creature’s rampage. However, not a single one of the fireballs managed to do any permanent damage to the ralcan.

The silence within the stadium extends for several more seconds until the screen goes black, with the last scene showing on it being that of the ralcan’s ethereal, red eyes glowing in the middle of the sandstorm before vanishing into the sand.

As soon as the screen vanishes, the audience breaks into a frenzy, with many of the viewers screaming their upset at the ralcan despite the lack of its presence. However, before they can get too worked up, several voices rise above the audience.

“Look at The Winter Wolf!” “The Winter Wolf!” “He’s reaching the fiftieth floor!!!” “It’s time for sponsoooors!!!!!”

Taking advantage of the convenient change of subject, Toby immediately focuses on the forerunner screen floating above every other screen and says, “It looks like we are finally getting into the first sponsorship floor of the dungeon!”

“Is everyone ready to race for that sponsorship auction?!” Sam shouts, eagerness clear as day on his own face as he begins messing with his own menu right as Wolf appears in the middle of another arena’s tunnel. One with black sand making up its foundation.

As if on cue, a notification appears on the interfaces of every player following The Winter Wolf.

System Message

This is a message to every player following the Competitor known by the title: The Winter Wolf

The sponsorship auction for the Competitor’s sponsorship positions will be opened half an hour after this message disappears.

There will be five positions available, and each position will be bid on one after the other, starting only after the previous position is purchased.

Each auction will only last for ten minutes before the highest bid will win.