Dungeon of Niflheim

153 Chapter 153: Reviewing the current state of the dungeon

“Looks like the competition between us siblings could be pretty fierce.” Frost surmised with a smile on his face, this knowledge sparked his interest instead of making him feel threatened. He felt as one of the older dungeon cores -no matter how many seconds- he should be an example. At least two on the northern continent also had second floors, which brought to reason that the other continents likely had a few as well. Very interesting.

In regards to the possibility of shock troopers coming to end his existence if he was deemed dangerous, that was something for the future. He wouldn’t let it restrain his rate of improvement, besides Maya was still at his side, to deal with such an eventuality.

“The family gathering will happen tomorrow, and I’ll finally get to meet my many siblings and once again speak with father. Is there anything you’d like for me to say to him on your behalf?” Frost leaned back and looked up at Maya’s beautiful face, resting his head against the natural pillows on her chest. Only Dungeon cores would be summoned to the family meeting, the guardians would remain in the dungeon to manage the place while they were gone. Since Frost understood Maya’s feelings towards his father he offered to speak on her behalf. It was the least he could do. Over the two weeks with Nanna and Loki, their relationship had only grown closer. There was less teasing and risky situations but more physical contact. He even received a few lap pillows now and then. Even with him resting his head gently on her chest she wasn’t blushing or calling him a pervert, as though it was natural, much to Frost’s enjoyment.

Maya looked down softly at her young master, continuing to massage his tense shoulders as she contemplated his offer. There was lots she’d like to say and talk about with the Dark God but those were things she wished to do in person. She thought over her current circumstances, she was assigned to be a guardian to a young man with even better looks than her. Her and her young master’s personalities meshed very well resulting in them becoming quick friends. Her life was joyful and full of excitement. That only grew when they brought back Nanna and Loki. She felt happy nearly every day, teaching and caring for them all while watching them and her young master grow. Bliss was how she would describe her current situation.

Maya smiled gently, her eyes growing a little red before responding.

“Thank you....tell him thank you.” She was incredibly grateful for the gifts she had been granted even if it was only temporary. After a year she’d have to leave and return to her previous life as an unrestricted S-rank Fenrir. Though she missed her family and what she did before. Living with Frost, Nanna and Loki fulfilled her far more, she felt more mature and relaxed. It would be really hard for her to say goodbye.

As those thoughts coalesced in her mind, her eyes grew more red, and tears threatened to flow down her cheeks. She promptly bit her lip and turned to the side, but Frost saw her pain in that brief second and he felt pain in his heart. He subconsciously clenched his fists before eventually sighing.

“Haaaaaaa ok I’ll tell my father that you said thank you. Anything else?” Frost spoke gently.

“Oh, if you could ask for a bottle of his specially brewed alcohol that’d be great too.” Maya quickly faced Frost, her face no longer looking depressed, instead mischievous and smirking. She covered over the sad moment with a joke. Alcohol made by a God would have an exorbitant price tag and rarity, likely not even 10,000 gold coins would be enough for a single glass. Frost however didn’t even flinch.

.....

“I’ll see if I can con him out of it.” He smiled mischievously as well knowing Maya meant it as a joke but at the same time would definitely love something like that. As would he, over the past two weeks thanks to a certain book he bought and Maya’s personal interest he had been educated in the fineries of alcohol and had developed quite an appreciation for the stuff. Even going to the extent of occasionally using DP to buy a bottle for the two of them to share when the kids went to bed.

“Oh, you know me so well young master hehehe.” Maya giggled hugging Frost’s head as a reward, enveloping it with her chest. Nanna and Loki giggled at the side, fully used to their antics.

After a few seconds of bliss, Frost removed himself from the comfort of Maya’s embrace and asked Nanna and Loki the same question. Though they didn’t have a relationship with the Dark God, it wasn’t everyday you’d get to speak with a God, surely, they’d be curious at least. However, Frost was pleasantly surprised.

“Not really, we’re already learning things from Maya-sensei and our lives are perfect.”

“Yeah, yeah what Nanna said.” The two of them had absolutely no desire to ask anything of a God.

“Are you sure? I could ask about removing those slave tattoos or about your family?” Nanna and Loki looked at one another like they did on occasion before turning back to Frost, this time their eyes were full of determination.

“No thank you, because of these,” Nanna pointed to her tattoo “we got to meet you master and Maya-sensei, so we don’t want to be rid of them. We like being your slaves.”

“As far as we’re concerned, we lost our family already and gained a new one.” They both blatantly refused, already happy with their current lives. They only knew their mother and she was dead, killed by bandits like the rest of their village, they were thus captured and turned into slaves. They had no desire to seek out their father then or now. Frost and Maya were their family now and that was all that mattered to them. And this time they’d make sure they were strong enough to protect it.

“Haaaaaaaa one that likely asks too much and two others that want for nothing haaaaaaa.” Frost sighed while shaking his head, feeling that Nanna and Loki should be more assertive and wanting in life but for now it was fine. He planned to ask his father about the tattoos regardless.

‘I’ll just ask him for sweets then, surely they’d appreciate that.’

With the family gathering in sight Frost decided to overlook the current state of the dungeon.

First floor

1st room: Winter highlands

· 20 frost goblins

· Frost goblin archer

· Frost goblin fighter

· 10 frost slimes

· 6 artic horned rabbits

· 4 artic foxes

· 4 snow owls

· 6 winter boars

· 2 frost wolves

2nd room: Winter forest

· 20 frost goblins

· Frost goblin rogue

· 6 frost slimes

· 5 artic horned rabbits

· 5 snow owls

· 6 winter boars

· Spiked artic boar

· 5 frost wolves

· 8 frost dwarves

· Findlay

3rd room: ruined castle (interior)

· 15 frost goblins

· Frost goblin spawner

· 2 frost trolls

· 6 frost dwarves

· 5 frost wolves

· 2 ice flan

Second floor

First room: ruined castle (interior)

· 10 frost goblins

· 3 frost dwarves

· 3 frost wolves

· 3 large frost spiders

· Frost goblin spawner

Second room: ice caverns

· 6 frost goblins

· 2 frost dwarves

· 2 frost wolves

· 3 large frost spiders

· 6 artic stags

· Lagombi

· 2 ice flan

Third room: ice caverns

· 3 frost goblins

· Frost dwarf

The second floor clearly needed to be populated a bit more, given that all three rooms were expanded to medium size (5km each way). The first floor however seemed pretty much complete. Frost shifted around some of the monsters around the Dungeon and found that for the environments and current size of the sections the first floor was pretty saturated. Any more monsters and it’d be too crowded, fights with adventurers would always attract other groups of monsters making fighting in the dungeon more risky than outside. He was still finding the right balance but was almost there. The frost goblin spawners were working wonders, now he got 4 frost goblins every day, and the frost dwarves would outfit each of them with a spear, increasing their survival capabilities. With Findlay organising most of the monsters in battle his losses reduced quite significantly and most that were eventually lost were spawner goblins, keeping costs down. Of course, whenever an overly powerful D-rank party decided to enter there was a fair amount of losses, just killing one of their party however seemed to make up for it.

Frost was less against killing intruders as much now given that his overall personal and dungeon strength had increased significantly over the past few weeks. The knowledge of his Dungeon being an evolving monster lair and having an additional floor meant that adventurers would continue to enter regardless if people died or not. The adventuring game was filled with peril after all and since the great war a few centuries ago, there’s only been smaller skirmishes and wars throughout Nova meaning an abundance of people. Furano alone had a population in the tens of thousands and that was just one town in the viscounty. His income therefore sharply increased thanks to this change in mindset, although he still did try to go down the long term staying option. His traps managed to hold a couple groups for a couple days granting nearly the same as killing thanks to the triple DP from being in a sealed room.

His regenerating treasure chest traps have been working wonderfully as lures, with a couple groups successfully drawing iron armour or weapons, one even got a health potion, making a nice profit for the day.

However, Frost even with his increased DP income and expenditure was seeing an upcoming bottleneck. His daily income would struggle to increase too much more with only two floors and six rooms. He could only hold and attract so many adventurers at once, and they’d only be the weaker groups. After getting more and more of a taste for DP and using divine energy, Frost had grown addicted, constantly pushing to earn more.

He thought long and hard about how to really make his mark in Nova. He’d never be a match for the endless monster filled Glacial mountains behind him -at least for several decades- so he shouldn’t compete that way. No, he needed long term DP donators, and not imprisoned or captured adventurers but permanent residents. A town or even a country seemed the best way to develop in the future, but that would take a long time and a hell of a lot of DP to build in the first place.