Dungeon of Niflheim

“Hmmm” while looting the corpses, he removed their satchels and small bags with finesse. The contents weren’t too impressive, some herbs, regular supplies as well as several daggers and frost lizard parts, quite fresh as well but only from the one corpse. What was interesting however was that on Kargul’s finger there was a spatial ring, same with the ugly human leader. Having one spatial ring was quite impressive enough but considering their capabilities it wasn’t too farfetched.

This meant he probably didn’t need to search around for a base camp, all their major gear would be held within the rings. After sifting through the regular loot and tossing them into his own spatial ring he sent his mana sense into the newly recovered ones. They were of the most basic rank in terms of size, quality, stability as well as locking mechanisms. High ranking spatial rings tend to have imprinting locks on them so that only the owner can access it.

“Not bad, not bad at all, not only have you guys given me a nice dose of DP you’ve gifted me such a haul let alone your coins.....so generous.” Frost smiled with glee as he perused the spatial rings. Of course, these guys weren’t nearly as skilled as him when it came to handling their materials but none the less, each item was in decent nick and in a large amount too.

In the ugly human leader’s spatial ring was all of their loot gained over the past several days from hunting down here on the 4th and 3rd floor. The target primarily being frost lizards given their worth. Frost could see nearly 20 skins, dozens of bones, magic crystals, jars of blood as well as their fangs and nails. A bounty easily amounting to 3 gold coins or higher. Adding to his own haul of frost lizards and other monsters, just on materials alone he probably made over 5 gold coins in this little foray into [beginner’s ice magic].

In Kargul’s ring there was their camping gear, spare weaponry, maps etc... as well as the coin purses which contained a total of 80 silvers give or take a few dozen copper. They were quite an accomplished and wealthy set of adventurers, were being the operative term.

With a rich man’s gloating smile Frost slid the new spatial rings onto his fingers before unceremoniously removing the intact armour and weapons off the corpses. They weren’t going to be using it anymore and feeding them to a monster lair was such a waste. Kargul’s two bows, remaining arrows as well as the leader’s blade were still in useable condition, just needed a little repair work. The hammer and gauntlets however were destroyed beyond recognition as was most of their leather armour, but a few pieces was better than nothing. Frost didn’t like to waste things; he was very environmentally friendly that way.

Once recovery was done it was time to move the corpses a little out of the way. Now that the noises of battle had died down, monsters were sure to be attracted by the smell of blood. He didn’t wish to cause any problems for innocent passer-by’s so he dragged them all over to a nearby bunch of trees since he didn’t know how long it would take for the monster lair to absorb things that weren’t created by it. In his dungeon he could manipulate when, but a monster lair was purely an instinctive organism.

“Actually, this could be good research, another reason to thank this group of adventurers....what’s their group called again?” Frost had removed their guild cards but had already forgotten their names. Feeling slightly guilty he found the ugly human leader’s card to jog his memory, they deserved that at least if he was going to treat them as guinea pigs.

.....

“Cassius D-rank adventurer and leader of the...are you serious?” Frost’s lips twitched and his eyes opened wide in surprise, struggling to come to terms with such a ‘unusual name’. “[The gang of upright lances], they really didn’t leave anything to imagination did they.” Frost shook his head while struggling to hold back his laughter. Cleary the ‘upright lance’ was referring to their personal weapons since not a single one of them wielded spears or lances plus this group was far from being morally upright.

Frost resisted the urge to burn the guild card, simply choosing to toss it back into the spatial ring. There was a reward for returning guild cards to the adventurer’s guild, small but greatly appreciated. Even though Frost was the one to kill them, they attacked first so he wouldn’t be caught off guard when hooked up to a lie detector, but he had other plans. This group was the first adventuring party that he killed himself, their guild cards would be a trophy so to speak, though the name made it really embarrassing.

“Haaaaaaa never mind I’ll just keep it my little secret, who knows how Maya would mock me about my first personal adventurer kill being an upright lance.” He could picture her face right now, struggling to contain her laughter..... Frost the master lance slayer.

With that dealt with and out of mind Frost kept an eye on the four corpses laid out in front of him all while keeping an eye on the time. Around 15 minutes later the corpses started to disintegrate, their bodies turning into life energy to be feast upon by the monster lair. The process from start to finish took around 5 minutes, so 20 in total. Frost didn’t know if it was different depending on size or personal strength since all four were roughly similar in stature and were all D-rank. But data was data, he committed this to memory before continuing on his journey.

It was getting very late now outside of the monster lair, but down here the environment was always the same. Without a sun it was very hard to tell the time of day, the current environment would darken a little but other than that not much changed. One sure fire way to tell however was by stomach and body.

Frost continued through the fourth floor, killing another bunch of monsters as he entered the final section. But the drain of battle was starting to get to him.

“Rumble rumble,” his stomach groaned in protest as he walked, begging for sustenance and not the quick fire jerky that he used to satiate his hunger over the past several hours no it desired a proper meal and then a good rest. His eyes had become bloodshot, and he was yawning as he walked. The battle with the ‘upright lances’ sapped the majority of his remaining strength; the sudden influx of DP was all that kept him going but that had its limits. He needed to make camp.

“Oh, shut up already I already told you I’m going to the check out this floor’s boss first!” Frost roared at his own stomach, hating this dependence on food and rest, he missed his dungeon and the constant stream of mana. This was one part of adventuring he was not fond of, at least for now. Once he gets a better hang of his timing and personal cooking it wouldn’t be so bad. Plus, the idea of camping with Maya and the kids around a firepit as they cooked up their hunts sounded magical. But at the moment he was alone, annoyed, and hungry. Thankfully no one passed by when he admonished his own belly otherwise they’d think he’d gone mad.

He was already near the end of the fourth floor and desperately wanted to glimpse at the boss before calling it a night, his curiosity trumped his hunger. Camping wise however in a monster lair was not for the faint hearted nor the unprepared. The fact that Frost was alone made it all the more deadly.

Usually a group would enter, they’d find a sheltered spot for the night with good defensive properties. They’d set up alarms as well as have a rotating watch schedule. One or two people would always be set to keep an eye on the surroundings while the others slept. There were no natural safe zones within monster lairs unless it was built. Monsters could reach every part of the lair and unless a fortification was built you’d always have to be on guard.

The larger and deeper monster lairs all tended to have some form of man-made shelter in the lower floors so as to guarantee safety and a good rest, with some people living there for weeks or even months on end. It wouldn’t be practical to camp in monster infested areas for weeks on end just to descend then to do the exact same thing to leave. The [beginner’s ice magic] monster lair only had 6 floors so one such fortification did not exist. Frost would have to make do alone.