Dungeon of Niflheim

Leo instinctively shivered in fear and looked beyond Frost to see his angry mother glaring at him.

“Hahahah you fucked up Leo ahahahah.” Douglas laughed at his son’s predicament.

“Watch your language you old brute! Kids are present!” Cassandra suddenly turned her aggression towards her husband, glaring furiously and waving her finger in accusation while taking a few forceful steps towards him.

Douglas shivered and shrunk his body in response knowing that he truly fucked up. The moment the guests left the room she would discipline him in her own special way. He was probably healthy enough to withstand her ‘corporal punishment’ now.

“....Yes dear” he meekly replied while everyone bar Leo giggled.

Leo straightened himself out, returning to his chair and releasing a couple coughs to regain his calm. His mother’s anger was nothing to scoff at.

“Sorry about that Frost-senpai I’m just not really used to dealing with such problems and I let myself get overwhelmed.” Leo rubbed his temples as he tried to maintain his sanity. Luckily his father was feeling much better and could assist him with some of the work.

“So, the short of the story is that your lacking in personnel you can trust.”

.....

“Pretty much yeah.”

“Have you tried using adventurers to cover certain areas like for security, cataloguing and things that maybe don’t require certain clearance or high education. As long as you put up a request in the guild with a decent reward, I’m sure they’d be clambering to help out the young lord of the territory. Chance of a connection to a noble, easy money with low chance of danger well unless it involves fighting the underworld gangs.” Frost spoke without any delicacy, practically slapping Leo in the face like he was an idiot.

“Eh?” Leo’s lips twitched and his mouth hung open truly unable to believe what he was hearing. This would easily solve his current shortage in manpower and thanks to Adam’s vast wealth he now had more than enough money to supply such a project. This would also inspire bonds between him and the adventurers thus cementing his position as future lord.

Douglas looked towards Frost with curiosity as did Cassandra, even they found his suggestion be very effective.

‘Hoh young Frost has talents in governance.’ They both praised Frost in their minds, giving each other knowing looks. They both agreed that Leo needed to maintain his friendship with Frost at any cost, he would certainly grow to be a big fish in Northrend.

Leo’s confusion eventually turned into mad joy; a smile started to grow on his face until it practically reached from ear to ear. He then jumped from his seat and fist pumped the air.

“That’s perfect! Sorry Father, Mother, I need to get back to work and put this idea in motion. Thank you so much Frost-senpai I’ll see you later.” Leo roared aloud before dashing out of the room and down the stairs. He needed to get to the adventurer’s guild as soon as possible, he also needed to speak to the Furano council to help facilitate the use of the recovered funds. He still had a lot of work to do but now he could see a light at the end of the tunnel. He was practically skipping as he alighted his fastest carriage.

“Haaaaaa apologies for my son young Frost and thank you for assisting him once again.” Douglas bowed his head to Frost.

“No need to apologise Douglas, happy to help. In fact, I would quite like to learn more about how you manage to run such a large territory?” Frost asked Douglas politely, but he really wasn’t expecting a refusal. Douglas here was once a prime leader, vastly improving his territory in such a short span of time. He also had experience in large scale defence thanks to the monster stampedes making him a rich resource of battle knowledge for Frost and one he wasn’t going to not take advantage of.

Douglas’s eyes opened wide in surprise before they started to sparkle with excitement.

“I’d be happy to Frost, come, come, sit closer and let me tell you all about it.” Douglas was smiling as he beckoned Frost closer, eager to lecture on the topic. Douglas was very proud of his achievements as a noble and saw much of himself in Frost. If teaching Frost his knowledge of governing a territory would aid him in the future, he was happy to help.

Frost smiled gently and moved in closer, eager to learn.

Cassandra convinced Maya and the kids to leave the room, listening to discussions about governance was not something kids would find enjoyable. She coaxed them with promise of treats and games, while for Maya she made a symbol with her hands to indicate alcohol which easily got her to follow.

Douglas was filled with energy today and continued to talk for hours, regaling Frost every tid bit of information about governance he could. Frost was entranced for the entire lecture soaking up all the knowledge like a sponge. Many skills that Douglas spoke of could easily be transferred to running the Dungeon when it eventually grows in size. Frost was particularly interested in the so called monster stampedes that would start from the Glacial Mountains and wreak havoc on Furano every few years.

“The monster stampedes have always been a serious problem for the Northrend empire, the Furano viscounty in particular. We are the first bastion of defence against the monsters residing in the Glacial Mountains. For as long as the Furanos established themselves here in this territory they have constantly protected those that stand behind us haaaaaa.” Douglas grew nostalgic as he spoke of his family’s history. The Furano’s are a very old family, dating back to the beginnings of the Northrend empire, Douglas’s very distant ancestor claimed these lands in the name of Northrend and since then it has been their territory.

“Every few years for some inexplicable reason major battles erupt within the central regions of the Glacial mountains. Weaker monsters, the losers are forced into the outer regions driving themselves and the weaker species into a frenzy. They fight and gorge upon one another while they amass into a starving horde. When their frenzy and madness reaches a certain level, they break out of the mountains aiming to devour everything in their path. Furano as well as the nearby towns of the viscounty are charged with stopping the stampede so as to prevent the devastation of Northrend.” Douglas frowned as he spoke, this was a very serious subject for Northrend citizens. As far as he knew the other major countries and empires on the Yangmir continent didn’t suffer from such problems. Yet in a way this problem was likely the reason that the Northrend empire became so powerful in terms of their military. A constant supply of high ranking monster materials.

“In the beginning when we first settled this region whenever the stampede would happen, we were forced to rebuild from scratch, everything would be devasted, buildings and towns reduced to rubble, beyond any semblance of repairable. Our citizens slaughtered and forced to flee in panic, while waiting on the military to restore order, it was dark times young Frost very dark.” Frost could feel the despair from Douglas and could envision such a time, he felt both envious and relief. Envious that he couldn’t take part in such a hopeless battlefield and relieved that he probably wouldn’t have to, it was complicated.

“Now however we’re much more adapt in dealing with it, thanks to our scouts and vast experience we can know in advance and prepare. We summon high level adventurers, prepare war supplies, get the regular citizens to protected shelters and the Royal family sends out a full battalion to aid us, usually the Frost wolf battalion. I don’t know if you noticed that our town walls are significantly higher than usual and have significant battlements placed throughout?”

“I did” Frost nodded as he replied. The walls around Furano at the lowest point were already ten metres not to mention the highest, certainly more than high enough for a town or even a city. The walls were also dotted with war machines such as ballistae and other contraptions. He also remembered that the top few metres were made of pure ice, difficult to scale.

“Those walls need to be at minimum ten metres otherwise they won’t be able to endure the multiple charges of monsters or impede the larger D and even C-rank monsters that attack. During the stampede the war machines will be doubled or even tripled, with most being on the northern wall where we’re hit hardest. The other towns that face the Northrend forest and Glacial Mountains are built the same way with similar specs but it’s Furano that takes the brunt of the attacks. We’re pretty much a straight shot from the largest exit in the Glacial Mountains.”

“The walls and war machines merely give us a defensive advantage; we still need the manpower and strength of the adventurers and soldiers. Haaaaaa although we’ve become very adept in dealing with the monster stampedes many are still lost to the horde, never to see another day. With my rule I’ve strengthened the walls and war machines, making them taller and reinforced them with ice to prevent traction. I’ve also made sure to store away many war supplies in preparation for each wave, freely giving them out to adventurers and volunteer fighters thus reducing the threat and making it incredibly advantageous to the territory. With all the monster materials recovered and our towns and citizens remaining intact I was finally able to improve other aspects of the town. Along with Ryuu, Bastion, Sebastian and even Vaccos we started to improve all aspects, using the money from the stampede to improve and not just repair.”

Douglas then went on to explain all the aspects of the stampedes such as the waves of monsters that attack, the duration, measures taken to prevent it as well as some of his more hidden defences such as exploding and poison mines.

“How do you know that a stampede is about to begin?” Frost believed this was the most important point, given the fact that his dungeon was directly in front of the Glacial mountain’s entrance and was constantly emitting an alluring mana scent. The monster stampede would surely affect him. Frost needed to know when it would arrive so he could prepare.

“There’s a few markers but the main one is finding high ranking monsters such as strong C-ranks within the external boundaries of the Glacial Mountains. After that monsters would become much denser in the area and fights would break out more and more often eventually filling the area with the scent of blood.” Douglas spoke sternly.

‘High ranking monsters hmmmm.’ Usually in the external regions of the Glacial Mountains, D-ranks would be the most powerful entities living there. Frost had only met two D-rank monsters in his life, and he summoned both of them, he wondered how powerful a C-rank would be.

“Thank you Douglas I’ll remember that.”

“Good, good......now we’ve be chatting for quite a while now Frost, look the sun’s even going down and I for one am famished. Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?” Douglas’s stomach started to rumble in agreement to his words.

“I’d be honoured, what are we having?” Frost too was becoming rather peckish. He planned to stay in the Lord’s manor tonight and leave for the Dungeon in the morning. That way it’d be easy to say goodbye to Leo, Douglas, and everyone else. After that they’d pop over to Kathy’s inn, pick up their stuff and say farewell.

And finally, they’d notify the adventurers guild that they’d be leaving Furano for an extended period of time. Sometimes adventurer guilds would have a mandatory quest allotment for their members, meaning that if they didn’t complete a quest every so often, they could have their license revoked and or fined. Luckily this requirement was up to the guild master’s discretion, so Frost and the rest weren’t in any danger of being penalised.