Wolf

“That System GUI is my new best friend,” I say to myself with a smile as I look at my EXP, SP, and level on the top right corner of my interface.

Level: 115

EXP: 1416/11500

System Points: 31.47

It’s so much easier to check everything. Especially if I am in combat, seeing as the status covers up too much of my vision.

I glance down at the spider-popsicle at my feet before moving on through the jungle while chopping at the roots and bushes in my way to pass through.

The monsters within this jungle would be a hell of a lot harder to deal with if it wasn’t for my life sense skill. Thanks to it, I can sense all of the monsters before they can get anywhere near me, so they can’t sneak up on me through the foliage despite how hard they have been trying to do so.

That being said…

I grunt in annoyance as a branch comes back and whacks me in the face after I push it out of the way with my left hand.

“This foliage is annoying to move through,” I mutter with a frown.

Yes, it doesn’t actually hurt, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t annoying.

Several minutes pass by as I continue hacking through the foliage while occasionally cutting down a spider until I find something rather interesting.

Is that…

My unasked question is answered as an arachnid crawls out of a web-infested cave in the middle of the clearing in front of me.

A spider nest?

Maybe that’s where the loot boxes are for this floor?

I was kind of surprised to not even find a single room throughout the several hours that I have been on this floor, but maybe this is why. Perhaps the loot boxes aren’t always in a ‘room’ as they were in the labyrinth?

Unfortunately, I’m not close enough to the clearing to sense anything but the entrance, so all I can sense are a few arachnids, but just based off of that and the appearance of the entrance alone, it should be obvious as to what it is.

That being the case, let’s see if this works…

I lower my hand to the ground before looking straight at the den as I generate a large amount of ice element before having it travel across the ground in several different paths as a very light icy mist until it reaches the entrance to the nest. After that, I have the icy mist suddenly shoot towards the spider at the entrance, along with the other two spiders that I can sense near it.

While I can’t see the other two spiders, the one that I can see is quickly covered in a layer of ice, turning it into a living statue.

I smile before getting up from the ground into a crouch and making my way into the clearing towards the nest.

Aside from the first frozen one that I could already see, I quickly find the other two spiders that I had sensed frozen solid as well. Which means that all of my hard work practicing my control throughout this floor has been worth it!

Life sense makes a pretty good match with my ability, especially considering that my ability’s range is about 57.5 meters right now.

Although it is difficult to control it from such a large distance away. Especially when I can’t even see where I am controlling it, outside of a vague sense of the walls and floor.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the two arachnids were only just barely out of my sight, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to get them with it.

That being the case, I still need to work on it some more.

I also need to level up my life sense, but seeing as it’s a passive ability, I can’t really do anything to make it level up faster.

Anyways, now that I am at the nest, I can sense over a dozen arachnids inside of it.

Time to go slaughter some spiders!

Arcadian Live

“This just goes to show how broken some harbinger’s variant element can be,” Mikaela dryly states as he watches Wolf freeze all of the arachnids without even being seen by any of them before crushing them all within the ice.

“It’s not just his ice at this point, but also his new life sense skill,” Katherine adds while watching the stream with amusement. “That skill is always a pretty big game changer for the dungeon if one of the competitors manages to get it.”

“That’s true,” Mikaela says before turning to Katherine, “and since the first competitor to defeat a boss will always get a Tier 6 drop from the first boss, it’s a pretty commonly seen skill within the dungeon. But only by a few of the competitors – aside from us undead who naturally have the ability to sense the living.”

Katherine raises a brow before turning to Mikaela at the slightly smug tone of voice he used for the last part of his explanation, “You do remember that vampires are only considered half undead, right?”

Mikaela just turns back to the screen with a shrug and says, “Who cares about the details, I still have the ability to sense the living, don’t I?”

The audience laughs at their interaction before pausing as a green plume of smoke raises from the floor at the end of the nest of spiders.

“Life sense aside, we aren’t likely to see very many rooms from this point on like we did in the labyrinth!” Mikaela says, changing the subject right as Katherine opens her mouth to say something.

Katherine briefly frowns at him before accepting the change of subject and saying, “That’s true. Every theme has their own way of doing the rooms for loot boxes, with some of them even going as far as not even having anything guarding them!”

Mikaela nods as he adds, “Like little secrets that the players can search for hidden on the floor.”

They both go quiet as Wolf reaches out and touches the chest.

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

Skill | Basic Fireball | Tier 4

Allows the player to shoot a small fireball out of their hand at a target for a small price of stamina.

Note: Thanks to the player’s class, this skill is unusable.

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

Mikaela winces at the last line and says, “Ouch! It’s unfortunate, but that is a side effect of being a harbinger! They can only use their element when it comes to using magic that uses the elements!”

Katherine nods with a frown on her face as thousands of voices scream out in the audience about how unfair it is.

Wolf

“Are you kidding me?” I mutter as I stand in front of the loot box in the middle of a cavern filled with cobwebs.

I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

When I first saw the uncommon chest appear after I finished off the last of the arachnids, I was actually pretty happy. Not only did it prove my hypothesis about different themed floors having different manners of dealing with loot boxes, but the chest that I got was an uncommon one and not the usual common chest!

But now?

Now I am wondering why my luck keeps changing from great to terrible in the blink of an eye.

Despite not being able to use the skill, I reach forwards and collect it anyways before checking my skills list.

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

Skills:

Stealth – Tier 3 – Level 2

Knife Mastery – Tier 2 – Level 6

Unarmed Combat – Tier 2 – Level 9

Identify – Standard Tier – Competitor

Initiator – Standard Tier – Competitor

Razor Claws – Tier 5 – Level 5

Call of the Undead – Tier 4 – Level 3

Predator – Standard Tier – Level 1

Pain Resistance – Tier 4 – Level 5

Sword Mastery – Tier 2 – Level 5

Ice Flow – Tier 4 – Level 3

Increased Recovery – Tier 5 – Level 2

Basic Contracting – Tier 3 – Level 1

Life Sense – Tier 6 – Level 1

Fireball – Tier 4 – Level 1

Return

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

At least it looks like I should be able to trade it away to someone else, considering that it is in my skills list despite not being usable.

Anyways, I turn from the chest and begin walking towards the nest’s entrance.

It looks like I have to defeat all of the monsters in a certain area to get the loot box to spawn in for this floor’s theme. Which is a lot nicer than being locked into a room with the chance to be forced into having to open a Pandora’s box.

Although it could also just be for this floor and not for the theme, but I still think that it’s probably for the theme that dictates it.

I glance at the corner of my interface at my level as I reach the entrance to the nest.

At least I managed to level-up from this nest.

Right as I am about to leave the nest, a thought comes to mind.

I turn back around to look at the nest before muttering out loud, “I wonder what the structure for the raptors will be? Assuming that this is a running thing for this theme that is.”

My pondering is interrupted as a very familiar screech rings out from quite a distance to my left.

Raptors?

Maybe I can find the answer to my question if I go that way.

Then again, even if I can’t, then it should still be some good EXP.

I set off towards the direction of the screech as I leave the clearing.