Dungeon of Niflheim

215 Chapter 215: Beta camp

Frost walked out of the valley of yetis, drenched in blood and severely damaged attire. The leather armour he wore underneath was completely shot and even the chainmail vest covering his chest had several rings missing. Only his glaive was in prime condition, the left over blood making it far more intimidating.

Frost gave up on cleaning up after every battle, waste of mana. For 6 hours he marched through the valley and encountered no small amount of yetis as well as other monsters that dwelled in the valley. His kill count had racketed up to the dozens thanks to the untouched hunting grounds. It’d take a long time for this area to flourish with full grown yetis once again. In total he killed 22 yetis, all equivalent to D-rank, another 15 E-rank monsters and around another dozen or so F and G-ranks for a grand total of 8300DP, along with the frost wolves, ice snake and the few artic boars he had close to 12000DP stored in his body, a vast sum, especially for a single day’s work. Not to mention the amount of magic crystals he recovered and materials from the non-yeti monsters he made quite a killing.

But it was anything but easy. The yetis tended to live in families instead of acting solo. Not massive groups but still anywhere from 2 to 5 full grown members. Once in the valley combat become far more deadly, narrow strips of space and rocky outcrops made fighting against overgrown monkeys adept in jumping from place to place even harder to deal with. The first four were icing on the cake compared to some of the families he encountered. And it wasn’t even the large family of five members that gave him most bother but a groups of just two members. A female and a male both different from the other families and occupied the largest territory, right in the centre of the valley. These two were larger and had what appeared like horns starting to grow on their limbs. They were almost ready to evolve to the next tier of yeti, C-rank monsters.

Thankfully Frost came through and culled them as well as many of the other full grown members when he did otherwise it’d become a major problem. Whenever a monster or group of monsters reach the next tier of their archetype, it brings about the desire for territory. Those two yetis in centre of the valley would have brought the others under their complete control once they evolved and moved to expand their lair, killing anything that opposed them.

In the external regions especially in the Alpha and Beta sectors, C-rank monsters were very rare and those that were C-rank were not usually social monsters making them far easier to deal with. Frost just prevented a possible calamity for the nearby weaker monsters as well as enclaves and Beta’s resting camp, yet he didn’t even realise.

Fighting against the two of them he succumbed to a few injuries and was forced to down a low level health potion so as to not slow down his pace, much to his irritation. He still couldn’t get over the ‘unique flavour’ of the potions and always gagged. The next family of yetis had to suffer his wrath, making the battle rather short lived.

Every battle he fought he could feel his glaive mastery improving, making each and every subsequent fight easier, by the end of the valley he’d barely find the yetis challenging at all, able to defeat them solely with the use of his glaive. To grow he’d need to find stronger opponents and or ones with more diverse attack patterns.

Yetis like polar bears and regular frost trolls were not the strongest of D-rank monsters as shown by their respective costs in the dungeon menu. Upper rank ones present in the external regions would be the ice demons and Baltic tigers which would likely cost around 800 to 1000DP. Unfortunately, there weren’t any untapped hunting grounds for such monsters like the yeti valley. But there was another area that he wished to visit in the fringes of the Gamma sector but first he needed some shut eye and a good meal.

After casting clean up a couple times and activating his robe repair function, he thought about donning his mask again but chose against it. There’s no way he could be linked to the dungeon out here and since Dark gave him this handsome face, he should show it off.

.....

He walked towards the glowing lights that symbolised the camp with a bright smile on his face, he was in a real good mood right now.

‘That must be the anti-monster fog I read about.’ As he grew closer to the camp, he could make out the red fog that loomed over the area, releasing a faint scent and pressure. He was amazed that such a thing allowed this camp to proudly yell their presence in a monster infested landscape.

He read that deep within the inner regions using such fog was actually forbidden given that it usually had the opposite effect, attracting instead of deterring. Deep within the Glacial mountains the sapient races needed to rely on strength, numbers, weaponry, and massive walls to live even somewhat safely. Monsters were far more aggressive than their sapient counterparts and could breed far quicker or even be created from out of mana such as with monster lairs and now dungeons.

“Halt!” Carlo spoke out loud to Frost, yet his body was shivering. Frost bloodlust was still present from his earlier bloodbath, affecting the young guard.

Frost did as instructed, still smiling brightly, enjoying the residual heat from the camp reaching his body. He released a deep breath and relaxed, he made it.

“Identify yourself,” Carlo followed up with his interrogation while Tarok continued to laze at the side, showing very little interest. This was another one of their tedious jobs. Welcome and identify those entering and leaving the camp.

“Frost, I’m an adventurer from Furano, heading to the gamma sector for a scouting quest.” Frost then removed his guild card from his robes. It wasn’t illegal to not have ID, but it would make the whole thing smoother. Carlo took the guild card and did a quick check before handing it back to Frost. This was simple protocol and Carlo appreciated Frost being so on board.

“Welcome to Beta camp, is this your first time here Frost?” With Frost being identified he walked up closer revealing his face. Both Carlo and Tarok were momentarily shocked at his appearance but quickly got over it. If it wasn’t a woman, it didn’t matter how pretty he was. But they didn’t recognise him.

“Yes” Frost nodded his head in reply, reminded of his first time entering Furano.

“Alright then a few ground rules, no fighting while in the camp and no causing trouble otherwise you’ll be tossed out. You can stay in Beta camp for a maximum of four days, any longer will need permission from the camp leader. All food and drinks must either be provided by yourself or traded for, there’s no free treatment here am I clear?” This was a working camp with limited space, they wouldn’t accept loafers. Frost nodded along as he listened, while Tarok yawned, leaving the whole thing up to Carlo.

“In the camp there’s a few vendors and repair workshops as well as a camp notice board for those looking for some extra work. People will put up posts for certain materials as well as people looking for help with their quests. In regards to shelter there’s yurts as well as large log cabins, both work well in keeping out the cold. Speak to the dorm managers to get prices and vacancies. Food can be bought at the large canteen or butchers and can be cooked on one of the many firepits, first come first served. Any questions?” Carlo listed the usual speech along with a few extra info since it was Frost’s first time, and he was rather easy going.

“Can I sell some of my monster materials?”

“You can but whether they buy it is up to the vendors or other adventurers, you’ll also have to negotiate a fair price.” Carlo replied immediately but his words caused Frost to frown as the memory of his encounter with the female dwarf jeweller in Furano came to mind, she scammed him out of quite a bit of coin.

“Thanks...sorry what’s your name?”

“Carlo and this slacker.” Carlo kicked Tarok’s shin, “is Tarok, nice to meet you Frost. I hope you enjoy your stay at Beta camp.” Carlo then nodded his head and took a step to the side, allowing passage. Tarok did the same while glaring at his comrade. Their welcoming was over and now it was time to get back to regular guard work.

Frost nodded his head in thanks before walking into the camp. The entrance here was around 4 metres in width, boxed in by the large frozen cliffs. Ahead was an area roughly 100,000m2 (about 320m length and width) split up into different areas. Lodging to the north, fire pits and cooking in the centre, guards barracks and camp staff to the south. East was vendors and west was repair workshops. The entire place looked very packed but at the same time efficient, a lot of thought was put in to utilising the maximum amount of space.