Wolf

I frown at the progenitor in front of me. Or the sliver of progenitor? The consciousness of a progenitor in the body of a wolf pup?

I frown at Fenrir after hearing his words.

“So everything I’ve done up till now has still been my own work, even if it was built off of the tools you gave me,” I state, and Fenrir quickly nods his head.

Okay… that’s not bad, but it’s not exactly pleasing to hear either.

It does put everything into perspective though. Now I understand how the hell two descendants of two different progenitors could end up together, with the child between them being blessed by a third progenitor. All right before an Initialization.

“Wait, what about the Administrator Dungeon?” I can’t help but ask, a frown on my face.

Fenrir shakes his head, “That was a surprise to me as well. If I had to guess, Grim most likely hand picked you for the competition. But it could’ve just been a coincidence as well.” He frowns. “No way of knowing with him.”

True.

“In that case, as long as you don’t interfere with anything else, I don’t really care about all of that,” I tell the Progenitor of Ice rather plainly. “My answer is the same as my daughter’s.”

The Progenitor sighs with relief at that.

“Would you mind telling me why you seem to care so much about what I think?” I can’t help but ask, finding the Progenitor in front of me rather bizarre. Because despite being so similar to me in a lot of ways, they seem to care a lot about me. And I would never care that much about a stranger personally.

He’s put in all of these years trying to get me to where I am very nearly at, and he doesn’t seem to look at me like some sort of experiment or a weapon despite all that.

It’s just bizarre.

“That…” Fenrir begins, only to let out a sigh. “I don’t know. I just do.”

I raise a brow at that before deciding that he either really doesn’t know, or he’s just not going to tell me.

Either way though, I’ll be keeping an eye on him.

“There are some thing I must tell you about how to move forward from here,” Fenrir continues, growing more serious. “To become a full progenitor, you need more power. Level up. Grow stronger. And when you reach around level ten thousand, you should have enough power to manifest your domain for longer. Then I will tell you the next step.”

Level ten thousand is just the first step in this? Wow.

Then again, my domain lets me directly siphon life force from others. So leveling up is probably a lot easier now.

“I will have to leave soon as this is still The Reaper’s domain, but know that I will keep in contact with you from now on,” Fenrir says before moving closer and placing his claw on my chest, where I find that very same amulet from a while back reappearing. “Simply inject some of your energy into the amulet and a connection will emerge through which we may speak.”

The Progenitor backs away again, the little wolf pup’s form slowly beginning to fade away.

“Remember these words,” Fenrir states as he fades. “Do not trust the void or fire progenitors. And know that bosses will no longer be the only threat to you within the dungeon.”

Then his form vanishes completely, leaving me and Sapphire alone in the icy abyss filled with my lunar ice.

Silence fills the area for a while, only to be broken when Sapphire’s body suddenly begins to glow with a pale blue light.

We both share a glance, the girl briefly smiling and mouthing ‘stay safe,’ before her body slowly turns into lunar ice and enters my shadow, marking the beginning of her evolution.

Almost forgot about that.

I look down at my shadow for a few seconds, only to smile a little myself and focus inwards on my body.

My stamina is quickly rising now that my backlash is over. In fact, I go ahead and down another stamina potion to bring it back to the top.

Then I walk over the event boss’s legendary chest before opening it and finding some sort of medallion inside. One with the head of a devourer on it.

When I identify the thing, all it says is that it’s proof of having slain a devourer. And that it’s Tier 9.

Odd. It has to do something other than just act as proof of an accomplishment, right? It’s Tier 9 after all…

I turn the medallion one way and then the other, but nothing happens with it. So I put it in my storage ring and turn towards the exit of this floor.

This whole floor theme has been a massive pain. Honestly really glad it’s over with.

But that thing Fenrir said about not trusting the void and fire progenitors… who is the fire progenitor anyways? And then there’s the bosses not being the only threat thing…

None of that bodes well for me.

Is The Reaper going to change things up with the dungeon again?

No, the other progenitors already banned that.

What could he do that doesn’t directly alter the rules of the dungeon…

I frown when a possibility comes to mind.

He couldn’t… could he?

I focus on the exit to the floor, just staring at it for several seconds.

If it is the case, and he really does let other users into the Beta Dungeon just to change things up a bit without changing the dungeon itself, then things might get tougher from here on out. The dungeon itself though should be easier, simply because of my new change in species.

I doubt there’s much besides event bosses and bosses that can kill me in the dungeon now.

Hopefully.

There’s no proof one way or another, so I’ll just have to go with my instinct for now. At least until I can get more information out of Fenrir, and maybe my allies outside of the dungeon.

Right now, the only thing I can do is fight.

So, after doing one last once over of my body, I walk up to the exit, and press my hand against it, making light shine out from the door, flooding everything around me.

Time to see what the dungeon chooses to throw at me next.