Wolf

I wipe the blood off of my claws onto the mini boss’s corpse before freezing whatever I can’t wipe off with a smile on my face.

That was fun.

Sapphire lets out an adorable sounding screech from her place on my shoulder before I walk towards the mini boss chest whilst petting her.

My eyebrows raise in surprise as I read the skill description that appears above the chest after touching it.

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

Skill | Contracting | Tier 5

This skill is not attainable outside of loot boxes.

Contracting allows the player to write down a basic, Tier 5 contract.

Note: A Tier 5 contract will only work on players up to level 1000.

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

“Well, that’s-” I begin before getting interrupted by a notification as soon as I touch the orb that replaces the description.

System Notification

Warning! You have obtained the Tier 5 skill Contracting, and therefore your Tier 3 skill, Basic Contracting, will now be merged into it!

Contracting has reached Tier 5 Level 2!

I stare at the notification for a second before it vanishes.

“That was unexpected,” I mutter with an eyebrow raised.

Why exactly would a dual-tailed frozen tiger give contracting as its Tier 5 skill?

I stare at the grayed out chest for a few seconds before shrugging and turning towards the exit.

Sapphire suddenly lets out another little screech before I reach the exit and touch it, causing a bright green light to fill the cavern.

As soon as the light fades away, I find myself once again in a barren wasteland, with nothing but snow for as far as the eye can see.

“Well then,” I mutter with a glance at Sapphire, “time to go back to ice skating.”

I quickly make a little place for Sapphire on my shoulder using my ice so that she won’t be thrown off of me before forming my ice skates and starting down the mountain.

A few days later, on the thirty-fifth floor

I stop skating as I begin to hear voices.

Voices that – by the sounds of it – belong to a certain pair of Competitors.

“…think we’re ready for it?” Christopher asks in a clear tone of voice.

A few seconds pass in silence before a higher pitched, female voice that I recognize as his partner, Lily, responds in a slightly uncertain tone of voice, “Maybe we could look for a few more hours for another orb…?”

“Hmm,” I hum in the silence that follows her question before continuing to skate towards them.

I didn’t expect to run into these two for a while.

The two Competitors continue talking to each other for a few minutes before going silent – likely having noticed my approach, despite them still not being in sight as of yet.

A few seconds of silence pass with the only noise being that of the wind blowing the snow, and that of my skates hitting the ice before Christopher speaks again.

“Get ready,” he warns Lily.

I continue skating my way up the mountain through the use of my ice element manipulation before making my way over the summit and spotting the two Competitors – both wearing heavy garments with wary expressions on their faces.

The wary looks immediately shift into ones of surprise as they see me casually skating down the mountain towards them.

I don’t say anything as I begin to slow down before stopping several meters in front of them. Silence fills the air around us, with the only noise being that of the chilly wind around us that has the two Competitors shivering in their boots.

It isn’t till half a minute has passed that Christopher finally speaks.

“Hello, Winter Wolf,” he says with a light nod of his head.

I nod back before glancing at Lily, who surprisingly isn’t cowering behind Christopher.

From what I had seen and heard – mostly through the System Forums, but also from seeing them on a screen in the Executive Stream during one of my ‘physical therapy sessions’ – she is pretty damn timid.

But that makes sense when I think about it. She was just a high school girl before the initialization from what I have heard.

“I’ll keep this brief,” I begin speaking with a slightly cold tone of voice, “from what I have read online, neither of you two have anything of interest to me, item or skill-wise. That said, information is a different topic altogether.”

Christopher looks surprised for a second before he shakes it off and says, “I have some information that I’m sure you will want.”

He then glances upwards before looking at me again.

I raise an eyebrow at this.

So, it’s something that he doesn’t want the viewers to know about?

I approach the two before stopping right in front of Christopher, taking note of Lily’s growing tension.

Christopher walks a few steps closer to me before whispering, “The information is from one of our planned sponsors about the top factions if you’re interested. This information can’t be found on the forums.”

My other eyebrow raises in surprise at his statement as Christopher backs off again with a nod.

A planned sponsor? I guess he means someone who is planning on sponsoring him or Lily on the fiftieth floor. Like Diane is for me.

I purse my lips for a second in thought before asking, “What would you like in return for this information?”

Surprisingly, Lily takes a step forwards and says, “If you don’t mind, could we have the Storm Amulet that you have?”

“Assuming you still have it, of course,” Christopher suddenly adds.

That thing?

I raise my hand towards them before navigating through my menus to my inventory to find the item.

It takes a few seconds, but I eventually manage to find it.

“You’re pretty lucky. I was planning on selling this soon,” I tell them as the golden amulet appears in the palm of my hand. It has a lightning bolt at the center of it and is filled to the brim with static electricity that is already getting annoying just from having it in my hand.

I had gotten this item from a rare loot box on the thirty-second floor. It is similar to my Amulet of Winter, but it increases the power while decreasing the stamina cost in regard to the use of the electric element instead of the ice element. The effects are also greater, seeing as it’s a higher Tier than my amulet, but that’s because it can only be obtained through mini boss and boss chests, or loot boxes.

Overall, it’s a pretty good item. But it’s damn worthless in my eyes outside of its trading value.

Which makes it a great trade for this information.

There is an ice amulet like it as well, but once again, I can’t buy it through the auction or the system store. So, I’m stuck with my current one until I find someone to trade for it with, or just find it through a chest somewhere.

Which is unfortunate, but there isn’t much I can do about it.

Lily’s eyes light up the second the amulet appears in my hand before she begins to reach for it.

I raise an eyebrow at her actions before pulling my hand away from her encroaching hand.

“Sorry, but information first,” I tell them with a frown while crossing my arms.

Christopher looks like he wants to say something but decides not to as he instead begins to mess with his menus.

Giving me the intel through a System message?

That’s a pretty good way to go about it.

As he is composing the message, I focus my attention on Lily. She looks like she really wants to grab the amulet out of my hand right now, but she also seems too nervous to get near me outside of her initial action of reaching for it without thinking.

Considering her ability, this amulet will probably be an enormous boost to her fighting prowess. Assuming she doesn’t already have an amulet like my own. One that is a dumbed down version of the one in my hand.

Although, even if she does have one, it would still be a pretty good increase. At least ten percent more damage, without even mentioning the stamina cost decrease.

“Alright,” Christopher suddenly says, interrupting my thoughts, “I am about to send the information.”

I turn my attention back towards him before nodding.

About ten seconds later, a rather long System message appears on the side of my interface.

One that makes both of my eyebrows raise in surprise.

“Holy shit…” I mutter as I read the message.