Within Wolf’s Shadow on the eighty-second floor

Sapphire lets out a short screech as she watches her partner rip straight through a large fire-coated lizard with his claws.

She then notices from within his shadow the approach of another lizard who seems to think that it will stand even the slightest chance of sneaking up on her partner.

‘Her partner!’

Sapphire lets out a short hiss at the ridiculousness of the idea before watching on with satisfaction as the creature gets its heart ripped out by her partner’s claws, just like the last one.

‘Nothing can take us on!’ the little spider thinks as she eagerly watches Wolf tear apart the weak monsters filling up the molten cavern, clearly having forgotten about her and Wolf’s fight with the deepsea kraken.

Wolf glances at his shadow where Sapphire is currently tucked away with a smile on his face that directly contrasts the blood coating half of his body.

Blood that quickly begins to freeze before flying off of him and shattering onto the steaming hot floor of the cavern.

“What has you so riled up?” Wolf asks before raising his head a few seconds later with his gaze going unfocused.

Sapphire calmly watches him as he begins to mess with the strange floating things that occasionally appear in front of him, only to immediately hiss as a screen with a familiar face appears on it.

“So why did you call this time?” Wolf asks with an eyebrow raised towards the spider in his shadow.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t just call for no reason this time,” Crystal says with a look of amusement on her face.

Wolf turns away from his shadow to look at her while raising his other eyebrow and thinking, ‘Which means she really did just call most of the other times for no reason?’

Meanwhile, the spider in his shadow continues to show her denial of the woman on the screen as she both hisses and even begins to leave Wolf’s shadow, only to go back in once she feels the heat outside of it.

‘The devil again! Get away from her partner!’ These thoughts run through the little spider’s mind as she continues hissing like crazy, drawing both Wolf and Crystal’s attention towards her in the process.

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Wolf

Is this a case of her getting jealous again? But what would she be jealous about?

I glance at the call before tilting my head slightly.

Could it be because I’m in a call with Crystal?

Crystal somehow manages to just ignore the spider and focus on me again as she asks, “How is your family doing on Aegis?”

Putting the matter of Sapphire’s strange actions aside for the moment, I answer, “They’re doing okay.”

I don’t explain any further due to the audience that is pretty clearly watching us, considering the massive number of viewing rooms watching me right now.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Not that it’s a surprise, considering my massive lead over the other Competitors.

With the exception of Ariana, who is actually only about seven floors behind me, unlike the others who are all upwards of like thirteen or fourteen floors behind.

“That’s good,” Crystal says before turning her head to deal with a crystal spider.

Wait a second… crystal spider?

A smile lights up her face as she seems to notice thoughts and says, “I finally made it past the ocean theme.”

“Not bad,” I state while nodding my head, only to glance at Sapphire again as she finally begins to calm down with her hissing. Surprisingly though, when I see her, I find her with her entire head sticking out of my shadow and her eyes hatefully glaring at Crystal.

Huh. At first I thought those posts on the forums about soul-bound companions jealousy over their partners was overexaggerating things, but now…

I almost chuckle at the look on Sapphire’s little face before focusing on the screen again as Crystal lets loose an arrow at something off-screen.

It’s rather adorable how attached she is.

Although whenever I run into people again it might be a little bit annoying if she tries to attack them.

“Damn it,” Crystal grunts as I see a flash of light reflect into her eyes.

Oh, yes. I remember the hell that was that crystal forest and bright sunlight combination.

Although if it wasn’t for my ice element, then this magma cavern would be much worse.

In fact, it really is a lot worse, even with it. Strictly because it limits my ability and makes me have to focus on using skills to a degree instead of purely using my ability.

That is, whenever I don’t just use brute force.

Because that works fine as well.

I turn away from the screen as I start making my way through the tunnel.

At least that event boss didn’t spawn in this theme, because having what would likely be a fire-related event boss trying to kill me would suck.

Just that kraken alone was enough to two-shot me with its tentacles, and it didn’t even have any elemental manipulation!

I shiver at the thought of being forced to fight a fire-related event boss.

“How’s your family?” I ask offhandedly, deciding that I might as well continue the conversation. It’s always nice to hear an actual voice instead of just the ambiance of whatever floor I happen to be on.

Which right now happens to be full of the sounds of flowing lava, with bubbles popping every now and then.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Crystal looking at the screen with an incredulous expression on her face before she clears it up and answers, “They’re all fine as well.”

I hum slightly while nodding my head, only to glance at Sapphire with a raised eyebrow as I feel her poking at my leg with her claw.

Okay, now I’m not so sure if she’s just being jealous, or an attention hog.

I pause in my step for a second as the thought that it might be both comes to mind before I continue again.

However, after only a single step forwards, I feel something enter the range of my life sense skill from the direction of a pool of lava.

Some sort of fish, perhaps?

I stare at the lava with my arms crossed before my eyes widen slightly at the sight of a red frog jumping out of the lava.

“A frog?” I mutter with a hint of confusion as I shift my arm into my hunter form and rip it upwards whilst activating the skill Ice Arcs and sending five blades of ice at the frog.

Not sure what a frog is doing in a magma cavern, but whatever.

The blades of ice cut straight into the frog as it cries out in pain and falls to the ground. I then rush towards it before stabbing my still-shifted arm into its body and digging around for its heart. However, before I can find its heart, a chime rings in my head, marking the creature’s death.

“Oh?” the words escape my lips almost as if on their own while I begin to pull my arm out of its body.

That creature was rather fragile.

It isn’t until I fully pull my arm out and notice the sizzling sounds coming from the ice coating my arm that I realize its blood was actually poison.

Huh. Well, that explains why it was so fragile.

Anyways, I turn my head to look at the screen again to find Crystal locked in combat.

Hmm. She’s not half bad in battle, actually.

I glance at Sapphire to see her eyes peeking out of my shadow and glaring between the screen and the frog’s corpse, only to focus on the screen entirely as the corpse vanishes from sight.

Is she ever gonna stop glaring at-

My thoughts are interrupted as I hear a loud roar echo through the tunnel from what must be a ways away.

Nevermind. I turn my attention away from Sapphire’s antics to instead begin sprinting down the tunnel towards the source of the roar.

I think I just found the mini boss for this floor.