Dungeon of Niflheim

328 Chapter 328: Findlay’s report

Maya continued to eye Frost with a questioning glare until he brought out the fabled [wine of the abyss], then her face became a ray of sunshine as though the previous argument never happened. Her swift change was a bit too seamless.

“..... I just got played didn’t I?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about hehehe.” Maya giggled as she caressed the [wine of the abyss] bottle, completely ignoring him.

“Haaaaaaaa oh well it doesn’t matter, as I said, I planned on opening it anyway.” Frost sighed choosing to ignore what happened, though his shoulder still stung from where Maya bit him. “I’ve got some great meat to go with it, so I hope you’re up for some cooking.” He was referring to the griffin meat that was stored within his new backpack. Thanks to ambient cold temperature as well as the natural preserving features in the bag the meat was in perfect condition and would make a fine pairing with the wine.

“Sure, whatever you want as long as I get to drink this godly elixir.” Maya had to work overtime to resist opening the bottle then and there.

“Maybe I really should have bartered the wine after all.” Frost muttered under his breath as he saw Maya’s fascination with the wine.

“What was that?” She wasn’t too absorbed to not catch Frost’s mutterings, turning to glare at her partner.

“Nothing, nothing.” He panickily waved his hands in the air and showed an innocent expression.

‘Damn her super hearing.’ Kiba who was sitting quietly at the side struggled to contain his laughter, finding the tit for tat between his master and Maya absolutely hilarious.

.....

Nanna and Loki exited their rooms shortly after this exchange, sporting their new weapons and wrist guards, dying to try them out in training.

“I’ve got some stuff to deal with in regards to the dungeon so why don’t you have Maya take you into the training room. You can test out your new equipment there.” Frost rubbed their heads before looking over at Maya who was still cradling the [wine of the abyss] the other two wine bottles had mysteriously vanished into her spatial ring as well, preventing him from taking them back. “Actually, take Kiba as well, he’s been looking to test his mettle against some powerful opponents, Maya did you hear me?” He called out to Maya but got no response.

“Yoink!” Seeing as the wine drew her entire focus Frost grabbed onto the neck before sending it into the dungeon’s storage vault. His actions of course caused quite a violent reaction. Maya instantaneously spun around and grabbed him by the collar in a threatening manner. “We can have it later; don’t worry I won’t break my promise.” He tapped her hands, that were beginning to lift him off the ground.

“First however I’d like you to take Nanna, Loki and Kiba into the training room as they would like to test out their new equipment. While Kiba’s been looking for a good opponent to fight after being sequestered in Kranor for so long, could you help him out?” Frost needed time to go over all the changes brought into effect by Dark’s update as well as discuss the current situation of the dungeon with Findlay who he left primarily in charge during his absence.

Maya reluctantly let go of Frost’s collar and agreed to his request, “By the way you should know that Aqua, Indra and Gobuske called while you were off galivanting and skirt chasing.”

“Oh, what did they want to talk about?” Frost couldn’t help but feel excited, wanting grow his bond with his siblings.

“Aqua was pretty standard, wanting to contact you first out of everyone and see how you were doing, very big sister like. Whereas Indra wanted to brag that he was going solo exploring in the Storm mountains. I of course told him that you had already left for the Glacial mountains a few days prior which caused him to immediately hang up and leave his dungeon, seems that he sees you as something of a rival.” Maya giggled as she remembered her exchange with the other dungeon cores.

“What about Gobuske?” Frost couldn’t help but smile and feel proud at beating his elder brother Indra to the punch. He could imagine his brother’s annoyed expression at the time and him running out of his dungeon at full speed, trying to catch up.

“Gobuske wanted to thank you again for your help with Bala, but he was mainly looking to speak to me. Apparently he’s been living a much nicer life with Charlotte and Lily as his guardians and wanted to thank me for recommending them to Dark.”

Frost’s heart warmed at such news, very happy that his younger brother was no longer feeling abused and depressed. “I’ll give them all a call back soon, thanks Maya.”

“Don’t mention it, glad to help.” Maya showed a warm smile, she too was glad that Gobuske was no longer suffering and that he got along with her friends.

She then took hold of Nanna, Loki and Kiba before teleporting them into the training room, leaving Frost all alone in the private space. “Well let’s take a look at the damage, Findlay can you please come to the private space.” Frost brought up the dungeon menu to contact Findlay as well as finally take a look at his total DP reserves.

“On my way.” Findlay responded through the menu with the stern voice of a commander, but undertones of exhaustion and stress could be subtly heard. Findlay had a very heavy workload over the past two weeks and when he arrived in the private space Frost saw him sporting bags under his eyes and a rather pale expression.

“Eh? Findlay what happened to you?” His strong and noble ice troll commander looked as though he aged several years, his body appearing worn out.

“Haaaaaaaaa it’s a long story master but allow me to explain.” Findlay sighed deeply, releasing his heavy burden.

“Take a seat Findlay, I’m sure there’s a lot we need to discuss especially given that the dungeon has out ranked me in terms of DP gain.” Before he left, the dungeon was raking in around 2500 to 3000DP per day. Times that by the 12 days he was away on his trip, the Dungeon should have raked in between 30,000 and 36000DP, a fair bit shy of his impressive 43,000DP. Of course, there was always wiggle room in the estimates given that the closer they drew to the monster stampede the more intruders would be present but even then he would never have guessed the present value.....61,000DP, practically double expectations.

Now that he got a better look at Findlay his mighty ice troll commander not only looked weary but had a fair number of marks on his body, remnants of wounds in the process of healing. Findlay was his most powerful monster, within the range of upper C-rank, for him to not only have to be in battle himself but to have sported wounds was quite a shock. One that sent a chill down his spine as well as confusion.

‘Nanna, Loki and Maya didn’t give any indication of there being significant danger.’ They would have been privy to the goings on of the dungeon so if there was a major issue even if they didn’t bring up he would have been able to see it in their expressions.

Findlay took a seat on the sofa, his spine cracking as he did. Frost seeing his prized monster being so overworked brought out the bottle of hot sake he purchased in Beta camp, along with some serving cups. Since the sake was best drunk when hot he casted the lifestyle magic [ignition] summoning a small flame below the bottle.

“We can go over your report while drinking, I got this stuff in the Glacial mountains. It should help with easing stress and fatigue.” Once the sake was sufficiently warmed Frost poured Findlay and himself a cup.

“Thank you master.” Findlay lightly bowed his head before downing his cup, bringing a rosy tint to his pale blue cheeks.

“That’s pretty good stuff master, much better than the keg of beer you summoned before.” Findlay licked his lips in satisfaction before stretching out his hand for a refill, which Frost obliged.

“Glad you like it; now where should we begin?” Frost drank his cup as well before refilling it, finding it to be very different from wine yet just as delicious.

“Well to start I’ll say that there’s no major issues to report at least not anymore.” Findlay couldn’t help but show a prideful grin at his words. He personally took care of the big issues, thus all the healing wounds. “The first week that you were away nothing eventful happened, intruder levels were manageable as were our losses. We increased the killing rate and debilitating wounds as you ordered which resulted in our daily DP intake being roughly 3000 plus, things were going good. Some of our soldiers even reached max level before I ordered them to evolve, thus improving our forces further.” Frost nodded his head, telling Findlay to go on.

He had no issues with Findlay ordering the monsters to evolve in his absence, he had limited manpower that would only decrease not increase as the day’s went on, (not counting spawner monsters). Evolving then and there not only improved the dungeon’s defences but would make sure the monsters didn’t waste any experience they gained in future battles.