Wolf

“I wish I could do that…” I hear Crystal mutter from the call as I finish cleaning off the blood of the large frog-like mini boss that I had just killed.

I ignore her for a second to look at the corpse before it disappears.

This has been bothering me for a while now, but why is it that ever since the fiftieth floor, every single monsters’ corpse completely vanishes after death, except for their blood?

It’s just weird.

When I tried prying a scale off of one of their bodies once, the scale just vanished along with the corpse. But any of the blood that’s been released out of its body still remains, leaving me to have to clean it off of myself.

Anyways, I reach out and grab the garbage item from the chest before turning to the screen to see Crystal firing another arrow off into the distance.

I raise an eyebrow before commenting, “You wish you could clean blood off of yourself when you use a ranged weapon?”

It’s not like she should actually get blood on herself very often, and the inventory automatically cleans anything that enters it, so cleaning her arrows should be an easy thing. And that’s assuming her quiver doesn’t just have a special effect to it that cleans them for her.

Which doesn’t sound like something that would be all that difficult to find.

“It’s not like I’m always at a reasonable distance away from the monsters,” Crystal says while sending me a frowning glance before focusing on her fight again and letting loose another arrow, “sometimes I have to get up close and personal for a monster, and others we’re in too narrow a space for me to shoot.”

Hmm, I guess that makes sense.

I much prefer my methods of run up and rip their hearts out with my claws. Assuming I don’t just freeze them to death first.

“Well, excuse me for not having the brute force strength you have,” Crystal suddenly says, making me raise both of my eyebrows in surprise.

“Wait, did I say that out loud?” I mutter in confusion, only to get a chuckle in response.

She continues shooting arrows for a couple of minutes as I finish up in the floor before draping her bow over her shoulder and saying, “No, but what you were thinking was pretty obvious, if the glance you were giving your claws was anything to go by.”

Oh.

Okay.

Wait, she came to that conclusion from…

Actually, never mind.

I don’t really care.

With that thought in mind, I proceed to touch the exit, causing the usual flash of light to shine from it before I find myself on the eighty-third floor.

And almost immediately frown from the noticeable increase in heat.

I glance at Sapphire, who actually seems to be feeling some of the heat now if the faint sheen of sweat is anything to go by.

That sight makes me blink twice in confusion before I mutter, “Spiders can sweat…?”

I crouch down to my shadow before putting my hand out and saying, “Come out for a sec, Sapphire.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She reluctantly follows my direction and leaves the shadow to climb onto my hand.

Hmm, okay, it doesn’t look like she’s actually sweating. Just somehow creating cold water and having it coat her…

Oh.

Huh, that’s actually a pretty interesting way to cool down.

“Wolf?” I hear Crystal ask from the screen, causing Sapphire to hiss before she rushes back into my shadow again. “I don’t think spiders can sweat.”

I climb back up to my feet again while facing the screen and saying, “Yeah, I just realized that she’s not sweating. She’s just freezing a faint layer of ice over her body with the ice element that’s leaking from it. That ice is then immediately melting due to the heat, making it look kind of like sweat.”

Although I’m not sure when she became able to excrete ice element. And judging by how it’s melting, I doubt it’s my eternal ice element either.

Which likely means that she’s somehow changing as we level.

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as I hear the explosion of fireworks from both my side of the call and Crystal’s, followed by a notification appearing at the center of my interface.

Administrator Dungeon Notification

This is a notification to every Competitor in the Administrator Dungeon.

The competitor going by the title, ‘Techral,’ has just opened a transcendent loot box on the sixtieth floor!

The location of the opening will now be shown on every Competitor’s map when they enter the sixtieth floor.

Uh…

So someone just got a Tier 9 item or skill from a loot box?

That’s…

Wait a second!

“Didn’t that person get a mythic loot box not too long ago…?” I hear Crystal mutter what I had just realized myself.

I nod my head despite her attention not being on me as I say, “Yes, I think they did.”

Due to the kraken issue, I never did get around to looking into them. So now would be as good a time as any to do that.

Especially considering how freaking lucky they seem to be.

Although, before that, I focus on the screen and ask, “Do you know anything about this individual?”

My question draws her attention to the screen as the light around her continues to reflect off of the crystals, blinding her for a second.

“Yes, I have heard of him,” she answers with a grimace on her face. Although whether the grimace is due to the light or the person we’re talking about, I can’t tell. “Techral, or otherwise known as Alaric Ridel, is a strange case. They seem to be almost unkillable thanks to their extreme luck that has to be related to their powers or the system somehow, but they are also as weak as a mouse under it all.”

I raise both of my eyebrows at her explanation.

“No matter what happens, he always survives it through some seemingly impossible streak of luck, whether that’s through the mini boss somehow slipping into a bunch of rubble, causing the rubble to explode outwards into him, blasting him straight into the exit with just enough force not to kill him, or something else just as unlikely as that,” she continues, causing my eyebrows to continue raising higher and higher.

That’s just fucking bullshit.

“So what you’re saying,” I start before glancing at Sapphire for a second and turning back to Crystal again, “is that this guy has been making it through the dungeon through some sort of blind, supernatural luck?”

Crystal nods her head with a grimace before adding, “Yes. The man has almost no skill in combat and has never even bothered to try getting it. The guy seems to treat the entire dungeon as some sort of game.”

Well that’s even more fucked up.

“He’s also a repeat visitor to the viewing room Lucky Days,” she adds, almost as if as an afterthought.

I frown at that before shaking my head and starting down the tunnel in front of me.

That’s so freaking annoying.

The guy isn’t actually bothering me, but if he keeps getting lucky then there’s a chance he might get so many powerful items and skills that he could actually, theoretically, pass me in the dungeon. And if that’s the case…

Ugh. This is so annoying.

I can’t just kill him for trying to survive, seeing as he, once again, hasn’t done anything against me, but it’s still pissing me off.

A groan escapes my lips before I shake my head and speed up my progress through the floor.

At least, even if he did somehow pass me, it’s not just the first place position that gets to become an Administrator.

As long as I get in the top three, I’ll be fine.

But I would still like that Tier 10 item or skill.

I glance at the screen again before saying, “I’m gonna focus on clearing the dungeon for now, so I’ll talk to you again later.”

After hearing her brief farewell, I hang up the call and begin sprinting through the floor.