Wolf

Several days later, on the fifty-eighth floor

“-and then my sister immediately bolted out the door after the dog to get her sock back!” Crystal finishes her little story from the screen of the System Call as I continue alternating my gaze back and forth between the two odd statues in front of me. As soon as she saw the two dog-shaped statues through the screen, she immediately went off on a tangent about her pet dog, Sugar, from back before the Initialization happened.

As for why she is going on about random stuff in a call with me, in the middle of the dungeon? I have no idea.

For whatever reason, she started calling me once or so a day a few days back. My only real guess is that she’s bored and wants someone to talk to.

Which makes sense, considering where we are.

But I do kind of wish she would be quiet when I’m trying to solve a puzzle.

I glance at her screen as a loud explosion sounds from it before finding her pulling back an arrow on her bow.

Guess she encountered a monster. Anyways, I turn my attention back towards the dog statues now that she’s stopped talking.

One of the statues has an orb of ice implanted where one of its eyes should be, while the other one has two orbs of solidified magma in both eye sockets. Other than that, however, there isn’t much of a difference between the two statues. They are both statues of large dogs – or possibly even wolves, considering their size – and they are both facing slightly inwards at an angle towards the center of the room.

Meanwhile, aside from the two statues, there is also some sort of obstacle course with a very nice looking pool of water that’s practically radiating ice element at the end of it, along with a few round balls of some sort. The combination of the two immediately make me think of the missing ice orb eye in one of the statues, but the balls themselves are way too big to fit in the empty socket.

My eyes stray to the sign next to the balls depicting the image of a knife.

Oh. I guess the puzzle is to freeze one of the balls in the pool of ice water without hurting yourself by the cold of the water before chipping away at the ball until it fits into the statue.

Which would be annoying for anyone else.

I turn towards the statue before creating a small orb of ice inside of the statue’s eye with my ice element, causing both of the statues to turn and face towards the exit as the exit itself begins to open.

But it’s rather easy for me.

“You finish another puzzle?” I hear Crystal ask as the sound of her letting loose another arrow fills the room from the screen. When I turn to look, I find her pulling another arrow back onto her bow and firing it at one of the robot dogs that I saw on the fifty-second floor.

“Yeah,” I answer her before focusing on the pool of ice water at the end of the obstacle course.

Should I, should I not. Should I, should I not…

I haven’t really taken the time to bathe – much less swim – since the dungeon run began. I’ve mostly just been cleaning myself with my ice element, along with the self-cleaning aspects of most of my equipment.

Which is convenient, but it’s not the same as taking a swim.

Not to mention that I might be able to soak up some of that ice element coming from the pool…

My mind made up, I begin walking towards the pool of ice whilst freezing over the obstacle course to make an easy path towards it. As I walk, I watch Crystal continue blowing things up until I reach the top and jump into the icy water with all of my armor and clothes still on.

After the icy water – which, considering the amount of ice element it’s giving off, is probably cold enough to freeze a normal person solid – reaches up to my neck, I let out a sigh of relief. At the same time, I notice Crystal glance at the screen on her end before focusing on her fight again, only to jerk her head back to the screen with an amusing expression on her face. She then just shakes her head and continues fighting as I raise my hands to release ice element that I then manipulate to freeze both of the entry ways shut before closing my eyes.

This is really nice…

A couple of minutes pass by with the only noise being that of the battle going occurring on Crystal’s side of the call. However, the battle eventually comes to an end, leaving me in silence until I hear Crystal’s voice, “Are you just going to fall asleep?”

I open my eyes and turn my head towards the screen before shrugging and answering, “Why not?”

Interestingly enough, when I see the way she is looking at the water, I notice a hint of jealousy.

“Just so you know, this water would probably turn you into a popsicle if you tried getting into it,” I tell her with a faint smirk before leaning my head back against the wall as her face scrunches up at the thought of what I said.

“That’s not a pleasant thought,” she mutters with a frown.

I chuckle at that before looking up at the ceiling as a peaceful silence fills the room, with the only noise being that of Crystal’s footsteps as she crosses an intersection between puzzle rooms.

However, those footsteps stop rather abruptly before she quietly asks, “Are you doing alright? With the loss of your-”

“Stop.” I interrupt her before she can finish the question, my peaceful smile straining at the question she was about to ask. “Don’t ask that.”

When I glance at the screen to look at her, I find her with her lips pursed as if she wants to say something.

I sigh before thinking back to the message Diane sent me not too long after Lexi’s passing.

Just to make sure her message wasn’t a dream or something my imagination dreamed up, I had saved it using an access menu that I had purchased a little while back. One that allows people to save notifications and messages. It also lets them post them on the System Forums if they want, but I obviously didn’t want to do that.

Pulling up the saved message now, I relax again as I reread through it.

Recorded System Notification

You have received a message from Administrator: Diane Frost

“Wolf, there is a way to resurrect your friend.

Remember when I said that there were benefits to becoming an Administrator?

Well, one of them is the privilege to resurrect a single person that died within the bounds of the System.

So, keep it together, okay?

Because if you can clear the dungeon in the top three, then you will be able to bring her back.”

I stare as the notification for a few minutes before gently waving it away and closing my eyes again.

Life sure can be ironic sometimes. Who’d have ever thought that the thing that I was shooting for just to survive would also be the thing that could bring her back.

Before I just wanted to get out of here and back to them, but now…

Now I have to place in the top three finishers. No matter what that takes.

Diane’s offer surfaces in my mind for a few seconds before I distract myself by opening my eyes and looking at the screen, only to be surprised as I find Crystal staring directly at me through the screen. After she sees me looking at her, she immediately looks away again and begins going through the door to another room.

Uh… okay then. That was weird.

Anyways, no need to be in a call as I sleep.

“I’m gonna take a nap, so I’ll see you later,” I tell her before ending the call after seeing her nod her head to signal she had heard me.

After that, I look down at the entrances to the room to make sure that they’re both closed before shutting my eyes again.

I don’t think I’ve slept in days…