Dungeon of Niflheim

“Cough cough” Dark coughed loudly to get everyone’s attention, the first two segments were now done so he was prepared to move onto the next. Once everyone was quiet and looking his way he started to speak. “First off a big congratulations to Frost and Gobuske for competing in the first ever dungeon war, very well done.” Dark then started a round of applause which most cores joined in. “From this war I hope you’ve all learned a few things that would help in your future survival. As I said earlier the Light God does not agree with your existence and will try to eliminate you if he can.” Dark’s stark reminder doused the excitement among everyone once again, even Maya was brought out of her stupor.

“After today each of you will gain semi independence, your protective barriers will come down and your guardians will give you a single save or two if you’re Frost.” Dark didn’t forget to throw his son under the bus causing a few jealous looks to head his way. Frost simply scoffed internally and called his father petty. “But please don’t let this be a shackle, explore and experience the world of Nova, the world that I built. I hope that each of you will interact with the residents of this world and find your own place within it. Of course, with exploration comes danger, but life is dangerous, without it, life would not be any fun.”

“To promote all of your battle skills I’d like to make dungeon wars a common thing, especially in the first few years of your lives. I want everyone here to participate in at least one dungeon war within the next two years, Gobuske and Frost have already fulfilled that quota but there’s nothing stopping you from competing in more than one.” Dark looked around the room, eyeing everyone of his children, making sure his orders were understood. Gobuske let out a sigh of relief when he heard that he wouldn’t have to compete again if he didn’t want to. Frost however couldn’t help but feel riled up, eager to throw himself into another dungeon war. Only this demonstration had limitations, in the proceeding wars he could personally take part.

“For the next and final segment of this gathering we’ll be having a long group discussion. You can interact with one another more but mainly I’d like to hear some feedback and suggestions so as to improve the dungeon menu system....this will be for dungeon cores only so Maya, if you could head back.” Dark flicked his wrist causing a magic crest to appear under Maya’s feet. She barely had time to look at her young master with a strong desire as well as warning before being encased in a black egg, along with the cold flame.

Her warning was clear as day to Frost ‘don’t you dare touch that wine without me’ was the clear translation. This discussion would likely last a long time, and Frost was with his many siblings and was going to be once again surrounded by nice food. Bringing out a delicacy wine would certainly help to smooth things over when forming friendships. Especially that Indra, Maya got one look at this brother of his and knew that he was an alcoholic like her. So, she saw fit to protect her interests. If Frost so much as even let his siblings smell the wine, he’d be a dead man when he returned home.

The final part of the gathering lasted for the rest of the day, Frost got to meet pretty much all of his siblings and learned bits about each of them, but he was clearly closer to a few. Mainly Indra, as well as the other elder dungeon cores, bar Pyro of course. Yami was always silent and stoic, but Frost felt very warm when in his presence and felt that even though they didn’t talk much they were quite close. Aqua though overbearing was very comforting, he really liked the idea of having a protective elder sister even if he didn’t need it. Sylph was a little annoying but otherwise alright, Terra was very kind and gentle and he learned a lot of things from him in regards to bringing outside monsters under the dungeon’s control. Whereas he tried with a show of power, Terra relied on his brilliant charisma.

The large group of siblings discussed a great many things with their father in regards to not only the dungeon menu and its features but life and the world of Nova in general. Some cores that found they were relatively close together aimed to come to some sort of alliance or protective agreement, others opted to possibly travel together for safety. Whereas other hid their intentions like a cloaked dagger.

In regards to pricing of items Dark decided to not fiddle around with things too much, but he did make a few key changes to the Dungeon menu system, such as:

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· After every fifth floor, the cost to create subsequent floors would increase by 5000DP i.e., floor 1 to 5 would cost 10000DP to make whereas floor 6 would cost 15000DP.

· Due popular demand Dark introduced a random/gacha system with varying prices starting at 1000DP. From it the dungeon core would get a random item or monster. This would allow dungeons to get monsters that weren’t available for them to purchase the usual way. Any monster gotten through gatcha will not then be available to purchase the regular way in the monster section unless that monster is of the same archetype or element of the dungeon core i.e. if Frost randomly drew a fire monster, it would be a one off summon but if he drew an ice monster that he hadn’t unlocked yet, it would be added to the regular monster purchase section.

· The ability to restrain and control dungeon monsters will now not be mainly be reliant on personal strength but the size of the dungeon itself -with an extra floor being worth more than a larger floor. This was to help those dungeon cores like Gobuske that may not focus on upgrading themselves. They’d now be able to summon C-rank and higher monsters even if their own strength was below them. This also worked for materials, weapons, and spells, the larger the dungeon the higher the stuff available would be.

· The ability to design their own monsters was now fully unlocked yet Dark stressed that it would take a lot more effort than designing traps- of which he added a bunch more to the initial roster.

· Subduing a foreign monster within the dungeon will now unlock said monster in the monster summoning section -does not work on magic summoned monsters.

· Because of a request from Void and Chronos any new spells created can be sold to Dark for DP who will then possibly rework them and allow them to be purchased through the menu, granting the creators dividends for each purchase. Void and Chronos asked for this since they were currently working on creating spatial magic infused with time that would allow the preserving of perishables thus allowing for more advanced forms of spatial rings to be developed. Dark was amazed by this and promptly rewarded them.

· And finally, to promote friendship, Dark decided to incorporate a communication feature in the menu between the different dungeon cores, allowing them to trade numbers and communicate with one another. Aqua and Indra quickly demanded Frost’s number in response to this change, in which he was forced to comply.

What they discussed next was issues in regards to Nova and its inhabitants. Dark nervously brought up the Church of Light so as to reaffirm his children’s fear and wariness. He had Yami discuss his interactions as well as a few others who came across mention of them. Frost was included in this bunch; he told his siblings of the slave tattoos and Nanna and Loki. A fair number of his siblings subconsciously grasped their necks in response, imagining being subjected to such a fate. Thankfully however other than Yami no one had any direct interaction with the Church of Light and its members.

“When everyone returns, I’ll be contacting some people to let the world know about Dungeons, that they’re a new type of monster lair. However, I’ll keep all of you a secret, they won’t know that your dungeons are sentient, just that they can grow and evolve. That way there should be a reduced chance of shock troops being deployed from the nearby empires to eliminate a possible threat. Plus, by me being the one to reveal half your existence, Light won’t be able to corrupt the information. So, expect a rise in intruders either coming due to a sense of adventure and greed as well as people coming to study your homes.” Dark spoke with a soft tone, but the content was anything but gentle. He was effectively announcing their existence to the world, promoting people to come and take a look at his new creation. It certainly had some upsides such as a possible increase in DP and intruder traffic, but it could also leave them vulnerable, who would like someone poking around their body trying to find out all their secrets.

For Frost however and a few of the older dungeon cores this was actually a relief. Frost was wary of these shock troopers that could be sent to uproot a dangerous monster lair, having that change to research teams was a much easier alternative to deal with.