Dungeon of Niflheim

203 Chapter 203: Doing rounds

Frost was presented with a few options for the wolves.

Alpha Frost wolf, E-rank 250DP: an upgrade of the frost wolf caste, larger and faster with great leadership traits. More cunning and strategic, the more wolves they command the stronger the pack becomes.

Dire Frost wolf, D-rank 550DP: rank up from the regular frost wolf, far larger and faster almost rivalling that of a polar bear. Still a pack animal that travels in groups, making them far deadlier if amongst their own kind. Its claws and fangs naturally exude ice chakra that burn their targets like a venom. Their pelts are tough and can block most weak weapons and they come with a roar skill that can send fear into their enemies. Overall, they are fast, agile, deadly, and cunning, very dangerous enemies even for the most adept of adventurers.

Ice Wolf, D-rank 550DP: slightly smaller than a Dire Frost wolf but more magically and chakra inclined. Great close combat fighters, agile and devastating claws and fangs that can be extended with ice. They also exude a frigid aura around them that slows enemies. And if that’s not enough they come with a spell/chakra called ice wave. They summon their mana and slam the ground generating a cold wave of ice that freezes the feet of enemies allowing the ice wolf to either flee or catch up to its foes and devour them.

He and the frost wolves agreed to choose the D-rank options, one becoming an ice wolf and the other becoming a dire frost wolf. After escaping their sphere of light, the two of them were far larger than before and gave off an oppressive aura. He now had two more D-rank monsters and unlike the Lagombi and polar bear they worked best with other monsters, wolves in particular, which he had an abundance of.

With everyone now evolved and their positions decided, the 12 of them left full of excitement, a couple even wanted to spar against each other in order to test the limits of their newfound power.

Frost and Maya were then left alone in the large open room and at first, they were still in the joyous state of watching the monsters evolve but after a minute or so the solitude of the room became apparent, and Maya couldn’t help but have her mind drift to her encounter with Frost earlier. Her face quickly developed a blush and the next moment before Frost could notice her expression she vanished back into the private space.

Frost was left confused ‘I thought we were having a good time talking....guess not.’ He frowned a little before shaking his head. He knew Maya had returned to the private space and from her attitude it was probably not good for him to return immediately so he left the room and headed towards the iron mine. He chose not to teleport, deciding to go on a long walk alone, something that he could really do with considering the situation with Maya.

He walked up the stairs and through the castle ruins greeting the monsters that he passed with a smile. He even encountered an adventuring party in the third section, they weren’t polite, looking at him with wariness as they passed one another. He could even hear one of the adventurers suggest that they ‘take care’ of him. Luckily the group’s leader was of sound mind and admonished his teammate with a sharp cuff to the back of the skull. The dungeon had just gone through a dramatic change and these aggressive adventurers were desperate for riches, powering through the monsters to reach here and claim anything that was present. The ‘idiotic’ adventurer that advised taking care of Frost was worried that he had already looted some valuable treasure and wanted to take it himself but thankfully his leader was aware that they weren’t bandits. This of course wouldn’t save the idiotic adventurer, Frost already added him to the kill list, the rest he may allow to survive, depending on their actions.

.....

After that once he reached the winter forest, he came across more groups, but they were more friendly, a few even politely smiling his way and a few asked if he was ok being alone here, offering to help him leave safely if need be. Of course, he turned them down but appreciated the sentiment and added those groups to the ‘don’t kill unless necessary’ list.

Eventually he made his way to the heavily guarded glade where Findlay was stationed, no adventurer groups headed this way, already aware of the danger this place posed.

“Greetings master, can I help with anything?” Findlay poked his head out from his impromptu office after hearing the grunting of the dwarves of goblins stationed here. He was busy working out assignments for the new monsters, the evolved ones included. Frost had already contacted Findlay about their choices, and he was currently making plans for the new ranged corps and magic corps. Of course, he’d need more members for the latter.

“No, Findlay I’m fine for the moment you can get back to work. I just want to go visit the iron mine.” Frost waved him off as he walked on through, the only way to enter the iron mine room was through the glade.

“Ok Master, enjoy....oh wait when you’re done can we talk about the plans for expansion?” Findlay smiled and poked his head back into his room before abruptly poking his head back out and requesting his presence later. Frost still had at least 5000DP left in the reserves from the dungeon war, not including the amount he was currently gaining from the adventurers in the dungeon. The money needed to be spent and Findlay had a few ideas, especially considering the new high ranking monsters Frost just gained.

“Sure, I’ll swing by later to discuss it, are we good for monsters at the moment?” The dungeon had been reopened for several hours now with the fervent adventurers piling in.

“We’re doing fine, a couple deaths and injuries but nothing to worry about in the short term, I’ll give you a report later.” And with that Findlay got back to work, being the dungeon core’s right hand, he had quite the workload.

Frost, happy with how things were going walked into the iron mine room. The room was completely open plan and 1km in length and width. Without a raging blizzard or encompassing treeline Frost could see the entire mine as well as the surrounding walls. The room was simple, a sort of quarry was present in the centre rather than a mine shaft. He could see bits of iron ore in the rocks that would need to be mined out, far less than what the size should indicate but it could be upgraded.

Down in the centre of the quarry was a spawner, a fair bit larger and denser than that of the frost goblin one. He didn’t leave this one inactivated, so a spawned frost dwarf had already been summoned and was hard at work mining the ores with a pre-summoned pickaxe that was freely provided by the environment. The moment the frost dwarf was summoned it already had in built orders to start mining, so it wasted no time and got to work. It had already successfully mined a few kilograms of iron ore in the past couple hours but being all alone in this large room seemed a bit lonely.

Though Frost didn’t feel quite a bond with those birthed by spawners, but he still made an effort to greet the frost dwarf and spent a bit of time getting to know it. After getting a tour and examining the iron ore that the dwarf had already excavated, he bade farewell after promising to assign some helpers to aid the solitary dwarf. He also ordered it to report to Findlay whenever the daily iron was harvested. Findlay would then assign it extra work until the next dose of iron ore is generated, Frost would also teleport to the room and store a portion of the iron ore in his dungeon vault to be used later whereas another portion would be left for the dwarf smith and any of his assistants to play around with.

He promptly teleported back to the private space for some food, Maya had already calmed down her rampant heartbeat, returning to her cool temperament. She was in the middle of giving Nanna and Loki a lesson in writing. She sent a gentle smile towards Frost when he arrived, no longer afraid to meet his gaze. She regained her usual confidence and mature deposition.

“Welcome back young master, did you manage to finish what you were doing?” She batted her eyelashes subconsciously as though to over sell the fact that she was back to normal.

“Yes, I took a long walk through the dungeon, met a couple adventurer groups, some that won’t be leaving.” He smiled evilly as he mentioned that. “Then I visited the iron mine, it looks more like a quarry to be honest, rather simple and basic but it works.” He waved his hand and summoned a piece of iron ore from his built in dungeon vault before tossing it towards Maya for inspection. “Findlay asked me to visit him later to discuss spending the remaining DP, but I was feeling rather peckish and bored, so I came back here.”

Maya caught the iron ore and gave it a quick glance before crushing it in the palm of her hand, turning it to dust. “Very basic iron of average quality, nothing that impressive.” She tutted slightly and dusted her hands of the remains, not even feeling slightly guilty about wasting the ore. Frost was due to receive 50kg a day, the chunk she was handed wasn’t even a kilo.

“Do you want me to make you something, I’ve just finished a lesson with Nanna and Loki and was about to rustle up some food anyway?”

“That would be great, do you need me to summon some ingredients?”

“No, I’ll surprise you, take a seat and I’ll get right on it.”