Dungeon of Niflheim

Not all monster lairs receive names, only those that have existed for a while, reach a certain size and or guests, have special monsters and or materials gain such a privilege. This [beginner’s ice magic] is a long standing dungeon of smallish size that became quite popular over the years given its defenders. It’s seen as the perfect monster lair for those of low level and with little experience in dealing with magic users. Frost of course would be considered rather high level and given his ice affinity in very low danger but still it should prove entertaining.

On the way to this monster lair, he bypassed the large expansive frozen lake as well as a few other wayward cliff edges. His natural path didn’t cross any villages or hidden enclaves but thanks to mother Callie he knew that there was one such enclave near the monster lair, if there was time, he planned to visit it, who knows they may have some delicacy that he could partake.

He passed through section 23 halfway through the second day and made a brief note of the monsters he came across, saw tracks of as well as left behind corpses that clearly weren’t killed by man. Yet he saw no signs of a C-rank monster nor in fact a D-rank, at least not any that were alive. After compiling his notes, he continued north towards the monster lair, he’d make another report once he was done in the monster lair to be more thorough.

Throughout the two days journey he didn’t have much opportunity to practise his glaive arts, well not as much as he did during his travels in the yeti valley but still, he raked in another two thousand or so DP from those that inevitably crossed his path. When the walking became boring Frost practised the other skills common among adventurers such as tracking, using leftover blood trails and footprints left in the snow. His targets weren’t solely focused on monsters, occasionally he tracked, followed, and came across other groups of adventurers which he then did his best to act stealthy, training another skill. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t that skilled his presence was quickly noticed, one such time it nearly led to a conflict. The adventurers accused Frost of insidious plans and instantly brought up their guard. It took Frost a lot of friendly smiles and gestures and explaining to bring down their animosity before the two groups left in opposing directions. Frost was left feeling a little embarrassed about the situation and stopped his stealth training against adventurers.

When he finally arrived before the monster lair it was not exactly deserted, far more busy than even his Dungeon that was the hot new topic. This place even had its own basic encampment that he was still aspiring to achieve. Like the official camps this encampment was utilising the anti-monster fog repellent though of a lower quality. Most established monster lairs would have at least some kind of camp such as this near the entrance to support the large amount of traffic coming and going. It was a clear opportunity for profit, so people willingly braced the danger to create such camps.

The upcoming monster stampede affected not just the monsters in the external regions but also the monster lairs. The frenzy would increase the monster generation within the lairs attracting greater numbers of adventurers. It was funny, the only people to really suffer from the monster stampede-not including the ones who unfortunately fall victim to increased monster activity in the wild of the external regions- was those in Northrend, Furano in particular. It was almost as though they were specifically targeted. Everyone else seemed to profit and was more than happy to do so.

“Whoa now that’s interesting.” Frost smiled and placed his hand above his eyes to get a better view of the encampment as well as the grand entrance to the [beginner’s ice magic] monster lair. Whereas his dungeon was incorporated into a super-sized mountain this one was built into a large glacier. The entrance led underground and was made from ice instead of stone. The thing was even much larger than his, spanning 8 metres across and 6 metres up, allowing large monsters to easily enter and exit. Frost didn’t know what waited at the depths of the monster lair but given the size of the entrance he couldn’t help but grow excited.

With a grand smile Frost walked toward the encampment, his glaive resting upon his shoulders. Along with his robes he struck a rather confusing yet intimidating presence. The area was highly active given the monster stampede. Groups of adventurers camped around fire pits with joyous faces preparing to head back into the hunt. Some were calling out to passing solo adventurers looking for extra teammates. The more powerful monsters gathered at the bottom two levels of the lair, having more people would help tackle these beasts more safely.

.....

Frost with his imposing atmosphere and high quality glaive was exactly what these groups were looking for, but Frost ignored them, walking straight on through, staying solo. If he was with others, he’d feel hindered in battle and not in the good way. The groups reaching out frowned towards Frost, clicking their tongues, and calling him arrogant. Even though this was just a D-rank monster lair, tackling it solo was incredibly reckless and foolhardy. But Frost wouldn’t have it any other way. With rapid steps he marched through the grand entrance and officially entered his monster lair. The moment he did, he was amazed.

“How pretty” his mouth was agape as he took in the sight. The first room appeared to be the inside of a glacier. Ice spanned as far as the eyes could see, covering the floor, walls and even ceiling. Large ice cliffs could be seen in the distance as well as what appeared to some sort of forest made of ice, quite magical in appearance. And that was just what he could see, the entrance to the next room couldn’t be seen showing how large this first room was. Without a roaring blizzard, Frost could see quite far in the distance allowing him to see a groups of adventurers fighting against monsters that he hadn’t come across yet.

“Seems to be an advanced type of ice slime.” The monster was at least three times larger than his slimes and appeared to be far denser. It was attacking with ice bolts while jumping up and down. The group of three adventurers were slowly drawing in close without much difficulty taking this slime as nothing but practise. It reminded Frost of the time he swatted down Shadow’s daggers back in Furano.

To explore the entire monster lair if one was not that strong or picked a fight with every monster that came across their path could take days if not over a week. Most people would rush to the floor that suited their skills and or where their targeted monsters dwelled. Frost’s goal was to quickly reach the mid and later floors where E and D rank monsters prowled the grounds in large numbers despite the large amount of intruders.

Monster lairs created monsters similar to that of spawners but with their rate of production depending on the amount of monsters within the lair as well as the ambient mana in the surrounding area. Thus, even with high levels of hunting, as long as the core remained intact and the glacial mountains filled with mana, the monsters would keep on coming. Their methods of producing monsters seemed to be far more efficient than that of the dungeons but in comparison they were far more limited. No defined levels, highly aggressive, lower intelligence and in most cases weaker. In due time the world would see that monster summoned by Dungeons would be a great deal superior than their monster lair counterparts, attracting the high ranking adventurers to test their mettle. It was no wonder the first group of adventurers to walk through his door, the Artic Warband struggled so much.

With a mad smile Frost launched himself into a jog, admiring the beautiful sights of this room as he dashed forward in search of the entrance to the next area. Thanks to his time talking with mother Callie, he knew the basic layout of the first couple floors so he wouldn’t get lost. Making his way there however would take some time.

Not wanting to draw the ire of the local fauna Frost emitted his pseudo aura as well as blood lust. The weaker monsters in the first couple floors avoided his path as he passed through, unable to rely on anything bar their instincts. The same worked on several groups of adventurers who willingly moved out of his way, afraid to anger such a powerful person.

Of course, not all monsters chose to avoid him, at the end of the first floor-plus all the others- was a sort of boss monster that would prevent access to the next floor until it was defeated. If one had great timing, they could bypass it before it respawned, but Frost wasn’t quite so lucky.