Dungeon of Niflheim

“Father, how are we going to do this war? As far as I know only Chronos, and I have our dungeons near enough for this demonstration to be feasible? Plus, what about any intruders that are currently within the dungeon?” Void laid out the main queries he had without any hesitation, innocently ripping into his father’s all-knowing atmosphere.

“Good questions little Void, for this war and subsequent wars, the two dungeons will be connected via a spatial door. Each of the dungeons would open up into a special space that will allow the opposing team’s monsters to enter their dungeon. For the intruders well...I guess I’ll have them temporarily removed in this demonstration, whether you’d want to take advantage of them in future dungeon wars will be up to you.” Void eyes lit up at the mention of a spatial door. Something solid and stable enough that could facilitate transferring of multiple persons across unknown distance was something far beyond the capabilities of the sapient races in Nova. And something that Void was very interested in; his element was space after all.

“Those chosen will be teleported back to their Dungeons to prepare for an hour and once the timer is complete, I’ll connect the spaces and display the battle here for everyone to view in real time. Anything else?” Dark asked again, this time no longer as confident.

This time Frost spoke up.

“I know you said that there would be rewards for those that take part in the demonstration but how would the DP be allocated? Would it be like normal wherein we gain ten times the daily amount when an opposing monster is killed and does that happen when in the opposing dungeon or only in our own?” Frost asked with a sharp look, he knew that Dark tended to half ass many things when it came to the small details. If they didn’t receive DP for this war, there would be no benefits even if they did win. Could a single reward make up for the mass loss of monsters.?

Dark visibly twitched, feeling an invisible blow to his ego. ‘Damn why are my kids so inquisitive.’ He released a short sigh before laying out a few more rules.

· Killing opposing dungeon monsters will release three times their daily DP value, regardless of whether that be within their own dungeon or the opposing dungeon.

· For this demonstration, spawners will be deactivated, and they cannot be destroyed.

.....

· Lost monsters will still release 10% of their cost price even if killed in opposing dungeon.

· Boss rooms can be designated making it so opposing monsters (or intruders) can’t pass through until boss monster is killed.

· Maps of the opposing dungeon core will appear after monsters have scouted the area.

· Combat will only happen within the dungeons, not the connecting space.

· Monsters will be divided into offensive team and defensive team; monsters cannot transfer between for example when the offensive team has suffered heavy casualties the defence team cannot enter the opposing dungeon to aid them. This will help once again, to test forward planning and strategic ability. Future wars may not be so restrictive.

After that pretty much all the queries were answered, with some things being put off until after the demonstration. Dark would view and judge the current format and alter it if needed for subsequent dungeon wars.

“Right, hopefully that’s cleared up any underlying confusion.” Dark spoke with an annoyed tone, eyeing up Frost and Void in particular. “Alright let’s find out who the lucky people will be.” Dark waved his hand and a large black hat appeared filled with pieces of paper. He’d draw two names from this hat to decide the opponents.

The audience waited on bated breath as Dark smirked and slowly rummaged his hand amongst the names, enjoying the mystery.

After a few seconds he pulled out the first name and his eyes lit up and his smile grew as he looked towards the chosen individual.

“Congratulations Frost, you’ll be one of the first Dungeon cores taking part in this demonstration, come on up here hehehehe.” Dark giggled mischievously as though Frost was going to endure some kind of plight he created. Karma he thought for requesting some of his secret alcohol stash. He even had the thought to no longer make this random draw random.

‘If I pick Aqua or Yami or even Pyro, Frost will surely have his ass handed to him heheheh.’ Evil thoughts of petty revenge filled his mind as Frost nervously walked up the stairs. Dark wasn’t exactly hiding his emotions very well and Frost knew him quite well. His steps were slow and forceful, internally hoping that he was just imagining the evil grin on his father’s face.

Eventually Dark chose not to give in to his pettiness, his emotions over the past month have been really out of whack thanks to splitting his soul. He regained a little clarity and kept this choice random.

Reaching back down into the hat he pulled out the second name and this one caused his eyes to widen in surprise, his gaze instinctively drifting to the one chosen.

‘Now this will be interesting.’ It wasn’t Yami, Aqua or Pyro or even one of the older dungeon cores yet this person despite his personality was within the top 25 of DP accumulation.

The audience followed Dark’s gaze towards the rear of the crowd, a few dungeon cores moving to the side to allow everyone a better view.

“Gobuske, you are the second choice.” Dark spoke loudly but with a gentle tone, yet Gobuske still shivered and took a few step back while shaking his head.

“M...Me?” He pointed towards himself feeling pressured by everyone looking at him.

“Haaaaaa yes you my son, up you come.” Dark beckoned him over, his expression a mixture of pity and gentleness. He’d looked in on Gobuske and his dungeon a few times over the past month. He was worried, Gobuske was born rather timid but certainly not to this degree and unfortunately, he knew the reason.

‘Perhaps this battle will help resolve this problem or one of his elder siblings might.’ Dark knew the cause of Gobuske’s cowardice but didn’t move to fix it himself since technically the cause hadn’t done anything over board just belittling and harming his child’s self-confidence.

“Hiiiiiiiii” Gobuske yelped in a high pitch, his skin crawling from being the centre of attention, but he didn’t have the will to refuse his father. Under the fierce stares of his siblings, he walked up the staircase to join Dark and Frost. He could over hear however many of his siblings jeering and mocking him as he went.

‘Why did I get picked, I’ve not done anything wrong, I even stayed out of sight at the far end of the room.’ Gobuske lamented his poor luck as he took his place next to Dark, his body still cowering, looking rather small and weak.

Frost meanwhile looked at his younger brother with interest, fully expecting an impressive fight but Gobuske was shivering, he frowned before moving towards his younger brother and slapping his back.

“Hiiiiiiii” Gobuske yelped in surprise, not expecting to be physically struck.

“Stand up straight Gobuske you’ve got no reason to be so nervous.” Frost spoke with a confident tone. Gobuske turned to look at his assaulter, confusion in his eyes. But after seeing the look in Frost’s eyes he stopped shivering, he felt less nervous, calm even. He nodded his head and did as instructed, straightening his back, and looking down at his many siblings. Dark smiled slightly in response to Frost’s actions, finding this pairing to be very good.

“Number 007 Frost and number 067 Gobuske you two will be sent back to your dungeons and will be given one hour to prepare for battle, good luck.” And with Dark’s usual practise, the two dungeon cores were swallowed by his trademark black egg without any warning and sent back home.

“Everyone else, I’ll prepare some seating for you to get comfortable, please help yourself to the many snacks as we watch the show.”

Frost arrived a couple minutes later back in his dungeon’s private space, Maya and the kids were there and waiting.

“That was rather quick young master, is the gathering over already?” Maya asked from the sofa, not expecting Frost to be back for the entire day yet it’d been less than a couple hours.

“Not exactly,” Frost then went on to explain the dungeon war that he was forced to participate in as well as his opponent.

“I see, a war between cores, interesting and our opponent is a goblin looking core?” Maya asked with an unusual tone.

“Yes Gobuske, rather timid and lacking in confidence though I don’t see why. I’m sure he’ll have dozens of different goblin type monsters.” Frost was truly eager to see the many types of goblin monsters. Given his element and core type he didn’t have much access to many archetypes even though he was really fond of goblins.

Maya had an unusual look in her eyes and something on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t say it, it wasn’t her place after all.

“So, we have an hour to prepare, after which the dungeons will be connected, and we’ll no longer be able to use dungeon points.”

“Yes, but more accurately I won’t, Father forbade guardians from interfering in any way, he wants to test out own capability”

“Oh....sweet so I can just lie back and take a nap, perfect.” Maya then relaxed, arching her back in a stretch, testing the limits of her tight fitting dress before falling backwards and lying on the sofa with a satisfied smile.