Dungeon of Niflheim

“Eh?” The man who seemed to be the leader of the group was caught by surprise not expecting such a response.

“I said do any of you want the meat?” He repeated his question while rising to his full height and dusting off his clothes with clean up magic. He also withdrew his chakra dagger, appearing far less menacing.

“Y...you’re offering us the meat?” The leader asked nervously, afraid to draw the ire of Frost. The meat of a D-rank frost lizard was a highly desired commodity and could be sold for a fair amount of coin or if one was confident in their cooking skills it could be made into a glorious dish. The group with their skills would be hard pressed to gain such a material by their own merit, Frost’s offer was tempting but they were still wary.

The male leader looked towards his two female companions for their input. They didn’t have many materials that they could trade with, and their coin purses were rather low yet refusing Frost’s offer may be seen as an insult. They couldn’t afford to offend someone so strong.

Frost released another sigh before speaking out once more, understanding their trepidation. “No need to be so wary, I’m not wanting to trade it for anything. I’ve got no need for the meat and would rather see it go to fellow adventurers than be wasted.” Frost crossed his arms and stood silent awaiting their answer.

The group of three looked towards one another once again, the two woman nodded in agreement. “We’d be honoured senior, thank you for such kindness.” The three of them gave a polite bow in thanks before bright expressions adorned their faces.

Frost smiled as well, “I’ll leave the rest to you then, I’m off to the lower floors, good luck.” He turned around and started marching towards the staircase, no longer caring about the corpses.

“Thank you senior,” one of the women called out as Frost walked away before brightly smiling to her colleagues, they made such a windfall thanks to Frost and couldn’t help but express their joy. Frost waved his hand in response as he heard their joyous laughter. Although doing such a kind gesture didn’t make him any DP it warmed his heart.

.....

Next was the bottom floors, number five and six. The monster lair jumped in difficulty every two floors. On the bottom floors, D-ranks were abundant in number as well as strength. As the rankings rose the diversity in power between those in the same rank became quite substantial. For example, a frost troll that usually cost 500DP in the dungeon menu was no match for a Baltic tiger which would be close to 800DP. D-ranks encountered in the middle floors were the lowest of D-ranks, now Frost will be faced with much more dangerous foes. If he was lucky or unlucky depending on how he viewed it, it was possible to even encounter a C-rank monster. Though that was super, super rare, only happening a few times since the lair’s creation and only happened during periods of high mana activity i.e., during the monster stampedes.

If C-ranks could be birthed during regular times, this lair would no longer be called [beginner’s ice magic] and would surely be raised to C-rank danger level perhaps even B-rank if they were plentiful. Currently the monster lair was D-rank and quite a high levelled one as well, on the cusp of C-rank, especially at the moment with the monster stampede looming. The bottom two floors were perfect for Frost’s current strength, his battles from now on would not be easy and if he wasn’t careful he may even lose his life. And monsters wouldn’t be the only things down there that could prove a risk. He already encountered the so called ‘upright lances’ the adventurer parties hunting there would only be stronger not weaker.

As thoughts of battle passed through his mind, Frost’s lips curved upwards revealing his desire. His walking speed even increased to reach the battle that much quicker.

The fifth floor.

Like the first four floors the environment was pretty much the same, ice everywhere in different shapes and sizes, cliffs, valleys, and trees dotted around the place, but the main difference was that the 5th and 6th floor were far bigger than the others. Previously each floor had three sections just like how his dungeon started out but here, there were six and each individual section was larger than the ones on the earlier floors. One could spend days traversing just these two floors and not cover the entire thing.

Even though there were a fair amount of adventurer parties down on the 5th and 6th floor, it looked far less busy in comparison to the middle floors, not including the monsters of course, those were a plenty.

The moment Frost entered the floor he could see several D-rank frost lizards dotted around as well as several species he hadn’t seen yet. By the trees there appeared to be walking ice trees, ice treant another D-rank monster. In another direction he could see a giant blue centipede devouring a weaker monster, crunching its bones into pieces with its powerful jaws. This monster was different from the rest, far more powerful. Even Frost felt his hands tremble at the sight of it. It was clearly not a basic level D-rank like the rest. Though it was at a far distance and Frost didn’t see the thing in battle he made a guess of its worth.

“Probably around 700 to 750DP, mid-level or so.” This was the strongest monster he’d personally come across that wasn’t Findlay, and it got his heart pumping. “Well guess there’s one way to find out.” With an evil smile Frost made his way in the centipede’s direction. Once he fought it he’d know exactly how powerful the thing was and if it was worthy of being a part of his roster.

The trip into the monster lair was not only for training and materials but it also gave him good ideas for his own dungeon. What monsters work well in these environments, how strong they are and what adventurers desire to hunt. So far he’d noted down a bunch that he wanted. Hopefully now that he’d killed them himself they’d be unlocked in the menu. His most desired ones currently were the frost lizards as they were highly desired by adventurers and their strength was nothing to sneeze at. Only Frost found them easy adversaries, others would have to group up and even then they’d struggle.

Next was the frost elemental, though it didn’t drop much in the name of materials for adventurers, it was strong, really strong. Something Frost desired in a protector; it would also help limit those that lacked magical means of attack even if its opponents were a rank higher. They were the main forerunners; a couple others were in the maybe pile.

“Let’s see where you end up.” Frost arrived in front of the centipede’s lair 20 minutes later, it had carried its kill back to its den, so Frost had to follow. The thing he came to hunt was a great frost centipede, a highly aggressive and powerful D-rank monster. Not only was it rather fast given its multiple legs, it had razor sharp jaws with powerful crushing strength. Next was its carapace, as hard as refined iron but far more flexible and light, covering the majority of its body. If one could hunt the beast, the carapace was the main material desired. Great armour could be made from it, as could some weapons as well as arrow heads. A strong physical fighter but also an adept user of magic. Having access to not only 1st circle spells but also 2nd circle. A deadly opponent.

That was how the thing was described in the monster encyclopaedia Frost purchased, along with a few pieces of advice on how to fight the thing and locate its nesting ground. Apparently its main weakness was its legs and under carriage. The armour was not nearly as thick there. However, exposing its belly would be an ordeal in itself.

Usually if one was hunting such a monster specifically they’d prepare items to aid in such a hunt so as to reduce the risk of injury and or death as well as to preserve the state of the corpse as much as possible. For example, pitfalls worked well, the beast would be punctured from the belly once it fell, trapping and wounding the beast, making the fight far easier. They also had an in built fear and weakness to fire like most ice based monsters .Frost however was not one of these well prepared hunters nor did he have access to fire magic or something that could supply fire attacks. All he wanted to do was have a straight up fight, caring not at all for profit.

Step step

As Frost drew close to the thing’s nest- a large ice cliff with several holes dug into it, clearly by the centipede- his presence became known.

Suddenly in response darting out of one of the holes was the giant blue centipede and it was not happy. After successfully hunting its favourite meal it was interrupted by a rude adventurer, if it had a human face its expression would be livid.

On its many legs the thing skittled around Frost eerily. It sent a shiver down Frost’s spine as he was reminded of the frost spiders he summoned. Eventually it finished its little intimidation dance and rose straight up, looking down at Frost in anger.

This thing was huge, easily 5 no 6 metres long and chock full of muscle and nasty chompers, ready to bite down on Frost’s pretty little face.

Frost looked up at his new found target with a cocky smile “well what you waiting for?” He titled his head to the side as though mocking, while twirling around his glaive.

Frost’s taunt only served to make the creature more incensed, it roared or rather screeched before moving. The battle had now begun.