Dungeon of Niflheim

“A couple days ago the Dark God released a revelation to all the higher ups in Nova, the Yangmir adventurer guild included. These new monster lairs are actually something he calls Dungeons. A new kind of monster lair that can grow and evolve.” Bastion couldn’t help but tremble as he spoke. He felt a mix of fear and trepidation towards the unknown as well as curiosity and excitement. He felt that it was a shame that such an occurrence didn’t happen twenty years earlier when he was in his prime. He’d have to leave such exploration to the younger generation.

However, as a member of the Furano viscounty he also viewed this revelation from a different perspective. Furano has been unable to retain its native high ranking adventurers due to the lack of nearby multi-floored monster lairs. Only coming back for the monster stampede or for long lasting ventures into the Glacial mountains. With such an interesting monster lair or rather dungeon right on their doorstep they may be able to pull these wayward adventurers back home. Then the Furano viscounty would become much more powerful in comparison to the other noble houses.

The situation with Adam was a wakeup call, the sharks were swimming and right now they were a tender defenceless piece of meat. The moment the monster stampede was dealt with, and the frost wolf battalion returned to the borders, the eyes of the royal family will no longer be on Furano and the sharks would definitely strike.

“This news has shocked the entire continent and people are eager to investigate these new Dungeons and see what makes them tick....how much do you know about monster lairs?” Bastion felt it was necessary to understand Frost’s knowledge base before continuing because without the base knowledge it’d be difficult for Frost to truly comprehend what these Dungeons were.

Images and memories flashed to the forefront of Frost’s mind. a collection of his inherent knowledge as well as that gleamed from the books he purchased and read. He collected his thoughts before replying as though he was a student being called on by the teacher. “From what I understand monster lairs are another creation of the Dark God. In regular cases in areas pretty much any area with dense enough mana, the mana can coagulate into a unique crystal forming the core of the monster lair. From it, it draws in the natural mana to alter the landscape and generate monsters. The size of said monster lairs and their inherent monsters are entirely random unless in an area with predominantly one element i.e., a monster lair formed near a volcano would summon fire based monsters. Other monster lairs and usually the largest and most diverse as those created by the Dark God personally though they are very rare and have not been seen in several centuries.” Frost gave a textbook answer and Bastion was blown away. Not even Leo or Luna would give such a thorough answer, he had Frost pegged as someone from a minor village in the Glacial mountains who was rather lacking in worldly knowledge. His bafflement only lasted a brief second before replying.

“Good, good that makes this next part easier then since you have such in depth knowledge.” Frost couldn’t help but stick his chest out with pride at Bastion’s comment. “These new monster lairs or rather Dungeons can be considered having the Dark God’s personal involvement so right off the bat that’s a plus in terms of profit. Second it was revealed that these Dungeons can grow and evolve, showing similar traits to that of a monster lair but less random and far faster. The Dark God even hinted that there was some form of sentience at play.” Frost felt a chill at the word ‘sentience’ that was him. “This possibility changes the entire ball game and makes these Dungeons not only incredibly lucrative and desirable but also dangerous. The unknown and the changing will always bring about death therefore the guild will be posting multiple investigation quests hoping to learn as much as they can....that’s where you come in.” Finally, Bastion got to the real reason for calling, this wasn’t just a notification/heads up about an announcement that would become public in the coming days.

“I’m listening,” Frost replied with a smirk.

“I know that your home is in the exterior regions of the Glacial mountains so this Dungeon shouldn’t be too far from your current location”.

.....

‘Well, that’s understatement’ Frost thought.

“I’d like for you to take part in the investigation quest given your experience with the Dungeon, you’d be paid handsomely of course.”

“....” Frost was silent as he took in Bastion’s request. ‘True I would be the best fit given my status but.... should I really help people map out my home at this stage?’ If this was during the one month protection period, he would have probably agreed but now, there wasn’t much point in helping the adventurers. Their agenda would of course be to reach the dungeon core to examine it and study it, he for sure wasn’t going to lead them right to it, that was his heart after all. One wrong move and bang no more Frost. Money wise he was still fairly rich, so the reward didn’t interest him plus, he already agreed to do another quest which he planned on leaving for in the next few days.

After much internal deliberation he decided to refuse Bastion’s offer. “Sorry Bastion I’m rather busy at the moment and can’t help”

“Haaaaaaa no problem then, just thought I might give you an inside track to a lucrative quest but never mind.” Bastion was using his power to personally hand the quest over to Frost before posting it up in the guild hall, a significant advantage but if Frost was busy then that was that. “If you ever do decide to enter the Dungeon, again be careful, and don’t mess with anyone that has a black book symbol on their chest. Just answer their questions politely and don’t lie.”

“Hmmm why?” Frost didn’t have any recollection of this group of people, but he’d definitely note it down for future reference if even Bastion was wary of them.

“They represent the federation of knowledge, investigators of special realms, oddities and monster lairs. Given that the Dark God has gotten personally involved they’d be sure to sent a team to investigate and they’re not known for being....gentle to those that impede their work.”

‘The federation of knowledge,’ the name rang a bell, mentioned briefly in one of the books he bought from Furano.

“Will do, thanks for the heads up, Bastion.”

“No problem, Lad, by the way did you take a scouting quest for the gamma sector of the external regions of the Glacial Mountains?” Bastion was about to sign off when he remembered something. The Keeper came badgering him about Frost shortly after he left Furano, wanting know everything about him and blaming him for keeping such a prized asset under wraps.

“Yeah, and I plan to head out in the next few days or so to complete it.”

“Alright just to let you know that we received a report recently near your assigned sector, multiple D-rank monster carcasses were spotted, and many E-ranks had fled the area. There may be a C-rank monster or two nearby so keep both eyes open.” Bastion gauged Frost strength to be around early C-rank not enough to deal with a C-rank monster so he thought it wise to warn him.

“Will do thanks Bastion,” Frost thanked him with earnest.

“No problem happy to help, got to get back to work but I’ll try to keep in touch and stop by Furano some time I know Luna and Leo are missing you, bye.” Bastion thus ended the call; he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples.

“Haaaaaaa my workloads gonna triple at least,” he’d just started to get a hold of things and work out a rough plan with Ryuu and Douglas yet now this whole Dungeon thing along with the upcoming stampede and all the other things going wrong in the territory it was enough to age a man by ten years.

“Well at least the prospect of this new what was it Dungeon or whatever will draw in more adventurers and other high strength personnel.” Though he’d be swamped with work having such a large force on hand would certainly aid them in dealing with the upcoming monster stampede, a blessing in disguise.... Doesn’t make the paperwork any easier, however.

“Kamey get me a couple coffees it’s going to be a long night and call up Thrall and the Keeper.” He shouted out to Kamey who was functioning as his secretary.

“Right away guild master,” like a proper office worker Kamey responded quickly and politely before dashing off fetch him some coffee and summon the vice guild master and the Keeper.

Bastion couldn’t help but have his eyes drift towards Kamey’s perk backside as she quickly scuttled away, another reason he had her work as his secretary, a beautiful view always helped deal with a hard day’s work.

“Do you want to get back to training?” Maya asked once the call between Frost and Bastion ended.

“Yeah, guessing you overheard the conversation.” Frost couldn’t help but glance at Maya’s wolf ears, jealous of how good they were.

“Dark God-sama kept his word and told the world about Dungeons, yeah I heard.” She walked off as she spoke to an open part of the training room.

“We’re going to be busy over the next week or so,” Frost shrugged his shoulders before getting into a battle ready stance. They were still doing physical training to improve his endurance and defence.

“Well, you are, I’m just going to have fun dishing out some punishment.” Maya smirked with evil intent before swiftly vanishing.

“Ugh!” Frost managed to release a sharp groan before inevitably being shot up into the sky by a vicious uppercut.