The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 6 - Chapter 58 - Ins and Outs of Domains

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Wolf

Time passes as I slaughter the bugs within the temple, killing one after another after another. And over the course of two entire months of just killing bugs, something new finally happens within the stupid endless temple. Something I wasn’t expecting at all.

As for what that something is? I have to rub my eyes to make sure I’m not dreaming as I stare at it.

Because it’s rather hard to miss. What with the massive building floating in the middle of the place. One so large that it dwarfs dozens of towers all stacked together.

So big that I can see it from thousands of kilometers away.

The structure has the shape of one of those Arabian castles that I remember seeing in some fairy tales back on Earth. Or at least, I think they were Arabian. And it is absolutely crawling with bugs.

Literally.

As in there are probably hundreds of thousands of bugs of all kinds crawling across the thing.

Although the most common bug amongst them seems to be beetles.

I frown at the sight of the place before glancing at my level. Which is currently sitting rather nicely at level 9000. Then I glance back at the bugs again and try to identify some of them. Only to get nothing but their level back without any sort of species name.

But their level is enough for me. Especially since their level actually is the exact same as my own.

Meaning these bugs won’t be much of an issue. I can even use them for fodder to devour and grow stronger.

So I begin heading over to the little palace or castle or whatever it is. Only for the bugs to notice me when I get about three quarters of the way to it.

At which point they begin to swarm straight in my direction in what looks like a massive tsunami from this far out. One so large that it’s hard to even tell they’re bugs at first glance.

I grit my teeth before spreading both of my hands outwards and stretching my domain to make a massive tsunami of my own, albeit with the power of my domain significantly diluted. Then I send the tsunami out to clash with the bugs.

And the moment the two clash, my ice immediately begins to freeze the bugs at a rapid pace. But some of the bugs manage to make it over my tsunami and continue heading towards me.

So I send a second wave while the first wave is still freezing the majority of the bugs. And this second wave manages to deal with all of the stragglers.

Then I put my hands in my pockets and calmly watch as the rest of the bugs are all frozen solid. Without a single one escaping or being able to break my ice.

A faint smile stretches across my face at the sight. Not to mention the confirmation that numbers don’t matter when it comes to my variant.

I only have to freeze every single one of them and I’m good after all.

It’s definitely one of the benefits of using an ice related element.

Anyways, now that the bugs are all frozen, I go ahead and take my time letting my domain devour them. Moreso because I kind of have to with it spread out so far rather than wanting to.

I’ve learned over the course of the past months that my domain is both complicated and simple to handle. There is a set amount of it that currently spans my entire body. But I can stretch it as much as I want, which dilutes it more and more the further I stretch it. So the effects of the domain diminish drastically the more stretched it is.

Theoretically, I can stretch it as much as I want. But functionally, that’s not possible. Or rather, it won’t work very well if I stretch it too far.

If I cover something directly in my undiluted domain, I can devour it almost as quickly as freezing it.

But if I cover something in a significantly diluted domain like I’m doing right now, it can take hours to devour everything.

As for expanding my domain? I’m not capable of doing that yet. I simply don’t have enough energy to do it.

Expanding my domain requires me to condense more of my elemental energy into my domain itself. Which is literally just my body at this point, as I technically don’t have a physical body anymore. I just have my domain which is taking the form of my body now.

But I don’t have enough elemental energy to expand my domain.

I might be able to scrounge up enough to do that if I’m in a place filled with lunar ice elemental energy, but there aren’t many places like that in the multiverse. And I highly doubt there are any in the dungeon.

Unless the System decided to add new content to the Beta Dungeon that includes my element or something, there shouldn’t be anything related to my element in it. Not when the Beta Dungeon was made before my element was even born.

Anyways, I spend a few hours just letting my domain devour all the bugs before finally continuing on my merry way over to the palace. Which is a lot more visible now that the bugs are gone.

As for said bugs, I get the feeling the Centurion Boss, Beelzebub’s copy, is trying me. That he’s literally doing all of this on purpose just to make me grow stronger.

Strong enough to fight him.

Which I guess makes sense, seeing as Beelzebub doesn’t really want to have anything to do with the Beta Dungeon, and that he literally declared war on Grim for the copy being made. But he is still a progenitor and likely won’t just let me kill him to move on.

So he’s training me so that we can have a good battle.

At least, that’s my guess.

Only time will tell if it’s correct or not.

Although, if this is in fact the location of his scepter…

That time may be arriving soon.