Dungeon of Niflheim

“Just a few more minutes.” Frost and Maya returned to the private space, to sit at the table in wait. Frost was on the edge of his seat as he said this, full of anticipation. He watched the seconds tick away on the clock. The dungeon was set to open at 8am local time, 3 days after he arrived.

“The dungeon will only open at 8, who knows how long it’ll take to encounter any adventurers, relax.” Maya tried to downplay the event but couldn’t help but smile. She was also incredibly excited but felt that she had to act cool, and calm given that she was the older one and his guardian.

“Yeah, yeah I get it but as soon as the clock strikes 8, I’ll be able to see the outside world regardless of any adventurers.” Frost had asked Maya to tell him about the outside several times so as to satisfy his curiosity. Every time he visited the entrance of the dungeon, he’d be met with a dark black barrier blocking his vision, making him feel rather claustrophobic. He desperately wanted to run outside and smell real fresh air. Dark repeatedly mentioned the size of Nova so he didn’t want to be trapped inside for much longer.

“5...4...3...2...1” Frost and Maya counted the remaining seconds left together and as soon as the clock hit 8 there was a loud rumble and an imposing voice entered both of their heads.

“Hello, my cute children, I hope you had a good time designing your dungeons because now the 3-day time limit is up, and your dungeons will be open to the public. I wish you luck kids and remember we’ll be having a family gathering a month from now, so look forward to it, bye bye” Dark spoke in a playful tone before vanishing.

‘A family gathering,’ Frost felt overjoyed at the sound of that, he eagerly looked forward to seeing his many brothers and sisters. He looked over to Maya wondering if she heard the same thing.

.....

Maya had indeed heard the same message and was momentarily stunned.

‘Was that really Dark God-sama?’ She’d never heard him act like that before. He was always so formal and divine whenever she encountered him.

“Ummm Maya?” Frost waved his hand in front of her face since she wasn’t reacting to his voice.

“Ugh yeah” she pulled her thoughts together, ending her daze.

“Did you hear?” Frost softly asked.

“Yeah, the dungeon’s now open and there’s a family gathering in one month.”

“What do you think about this family gathering?” That mischievous old man wouldn’t do something so simple there has to be another meaning.

“I believe Dark God-sama intends to make this into some sort of competition. Instead of seeing how everyone is doing, it’s more like comparing who’s a better dungeon maker.” Maya gave her honest thoughts.

“I knew it, a simple family meeting would be to dull for him.” Frost was truly excited about meeting his siblings but knew about his father’s playful personality.

‘Sounds like he’s already comparing the young masters and madams. Looks like we’ll need to try extra hard to get a high amount of DP during this month.’ Thought Maya in response.

A few moments later Frost remembered that the outside world was now open to him. His eyes lit up and grand smile adorned his face as he teleported to the dungeon’s entrance, leaving Maya behind.

Maya was momentarily shocked and a little annoyed but understood his reasoning. She lightly sighed and smiled before following after him.

Space distorted at the dungeon’s entrance; Frost appeared with Maya following closely behind a few seconds later.

Frost originally wanted to rush straight out without waiting for Maya, but he was overcome with anxiety. The idea of experiencing the world made him nervous, so he patiently waited for Maya to catch up.

Before them, the large stone entrance which was previously blocked off by a large black barrier was now clear. Frost could hear and feel the air from outside rushing into the dungeon. The air was cold and powerful like a blizzard, similar to parts of the dungeon’s first section but also different, it was proper air, not fabricated by the dungeon.

Frost looked towards Maya in order to give himself reassurance and courage, he was a lot more nervous than he thought he’d be. Maya looked back in his direction and noticed the peculiar state he was in. She smiled and grabbed his hand.

“Shall we go young master?” She calmly asked while gently looking into his eyes. She felt that her young master was growing cuter every day.

Frost felt the softness of her hand, it was smooth like silk and much smaller than his, yet it filled him strength. He looked towards her and nodded before quickly walking towards the entrance with her hand in hand.

The two of them walked fairly quickly, passing through the threshold where the barrier once stood in a matter of seconds. Once they reached the end or rather the start of the dungeon they were hit by a strong cold breeze and a bright white light causing them to shield their eyes.

The dungeon opened up into what looked like a winter wonderland. To their backs was a massive mountain covered in snow and ice that reached up into the heavens. The halfway point couldn’t even be seen let alone the peak. Multiple similar mountains could be seen attached to the sides and behind it creating a very imposing pressure. This was the first mountain of the huge Glacial Mountain range that spanned across a large chunk of the northern region of the Yangmir continent.

Ahead of them was a large open ground covered in snow several feet deep before turning into a massive snow-covered forest. Strong winds were prevalent, throwing large amounts of snow everywhere, making it difficult to see.

Even though there was snow everywhere and strong winds, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and a great orange sun was beaming down. Three moons could also be seen high up the sky, one being dark violet in colour and the others being blue.

It was the strong light given off by the sun reflecting in the snow that nearly blinded Frost and Maya.

Their eyes adjusted after a few seconds allowing them to enjoy the wonders of their current environment.

“Woah!” Frost was blown away by the scenery’s beauty, even though it looked very close to the dungeons first two sections albeit without the mountains it felt so much better. He couldn’t quite explain it, but it was something instinctual, no matter how good the dungeon’s environment was it wasn’t the real outside.

His vision flicked between the snow-covered open land and the unending forest of trees before he eventually took notice of the imposing mountain behind him.

“Holy shit!” He craned his head up so far back in order to see that he fell backwards.

Maya released a beautiful chuckle at this before offering to help him up. Frost blushed in embarrassment, rejecting her hand, and standing up himself. He felt like a countryside farm boy being shocked by the views of the big city.

He took a few steps out with the dungeon hoping to get a better view of the mountain but it didn’t help. At most he could see maybe a third of it but that was a complete guess, even the width of this mountain was imposing, looking left and right he couldn’t even see the elevation change much let alone the end.

‘It’s got to be at least several hundred kilometres wide and that’s just one of them.’ He could make out some of the other mountains behind it. Several kilometres away there was another mountain opposite and along with this mountain they constituted the southern entrance to the Glacial mountains. A large valley meandered through the gap allowing access.

“The Glacial mountains span tens of thousands of kilometres and take up the majority of the northern region. The deeper you go the larger the mountains become; these few could be considered some of the smallest.” Maya coolly informed him.

Frost’s face twitched; he couldn’t fathom the fact that the mountain in front of him was considered small.

‘Father really wasn’t kidding when he said Nova was big.’ Frost shook his head at the thought before smiling.

‘Oh well just means there’s more of it to explore.’ He had no idea how long it would take him or if it was even possible, but he had the urge to climb each of the mountains in the Glacial Mountain range and laugh out loud in triumph once he reached the peaks.

“Is there any other massive regions like this on the Yangmir continent?” Frost asked like he was planning his bucket list.

“There’s a few, first off to the west and connected to the Glacial mountains would be the Storm Mountains which are constantly covered in lightning storms. Next would be the spirt swamp in the east which contains deadly poisons, both in plants and monsters. Finally, there’s the wildland prairie of the south which is home to a vast array of massive creatures. There’s many other danger areas but these are the biggest and considered the main four since each is situated in a different direction.

Frost tried to picture each of the danger areas in his head. Maya didn’t give many details, probably because it wasn’t that important, but it didn’t stop his mind from wandering. The Storm Mountains sounded particularly interesting, but it’d have to wait till after the Glacial Mountains.

Frost stared off into the entrance of the mountains marking it deep within his heart. Maya told him earlier that with his current strength it would be dangerous for him to enter even the outermost layer since it was filled with D rank and even C rank monsters.

He turned his eyes back onto the forest which eclipsed the other directions.

“Does this forest have a name?” Maya didn’t mention it as a danger area so it mustn’t be that large or dangerous.

“It’s simply called ‘The Northrend Forest’ as it is situated in the Northrend empire and lies before the Glacial mountains. Danger wise it isn’t much, at most there may be an occasional C-rank monster if you’re very unlucky and D-ranks being rare. It’s mostly filled with low level monsters and beasts, prime targets for low level adventurers and hunters.”

“There should be a few villages dotted within it that live off hunting the local fauna and gathering herbs. You’ll have to travel for at least a day to leave its boundary. Furano’s about another half day trek from there, give or take a few hours.” Maya happily answered his questions.

“A day and half huh.” Frost planned to visit Furano as soon as possible, he wished to see a lively town and its inhabitants. Luckily, he could actually leave his dungeon unprotected for the first month due to the core room being sealed. Meaning there was no chance of him being killed while playing around in town. However, since he wouldn’t be able to purchase anything new or alter the dungeon in anyway while he was gone, he’d have to plan ahead. He didn’t want to lose out on precious DP just because he waited to travel.

‘If it takes a day and a half each way then got to plan for at least 5 days of us being away from the dungeon.’ Of course, he’d spend at least one night in the town.

As Frost was trying to plan around his and Maya’s vacation time to Furano, Maya’s tail stood up and her ears twitched. Her face showed an alert expression before she quickly moved towards Frost at rapid speed.

“Young master we need to head back in now!” She quickly grabbed Frost by the shoulder and dragged him back into the dungeon rather forcibly without explaining why.

Maya teleported the two of them into the private space before letting go of Frost, resulting in him landing on his butt.

“Owww” he rubbed his ass while standing up.

“What was that for?” He asked angrily.

Maya had moved over to the dungeon core ignoring Frost’s complaints. She brought up a large screen display that showed the outside area around the dungeon.

Frost wanted to berate her a little more but was distracted by the large screen that suddenly appeared.

“That’s outside the dungeon.” He didn’t know the core could act like CCTV and show the dungeon and outside it in real time.

“Watch” Maya lightly smiled as she looked at Frost’s slightly dishevelled appearance caused by her dragging.

Frost was annoyed by her smile but obeyed her instructions. A few seconds later there was some movement on the screen.

“Hmm what’s that?”