Dungeon of Niflheim

“I’m surprised you have kids Lola; you look far too young to be a mother.” Frost flattered Lola without reserve, generating a wide smile on her face. What woman didn’t like to be called young.

“Flattery will get you everywhere Frost so don’t stop on my account hahahahah but yes Sam and I have three children, two girls and one boy. The oldest being 10 and the youngest 4. Right now, they’re back home under the care of their grandmother until we return.” Lola stuck out her chest with pride at the mention of children and a fawning look took over her eyes yet at the same time a sadness. Her children were her world, her little angels, and she hated to leave them but this time they had no choice, their quest could not be delayed.

Sam smiled lovingly at his wife as he too remembered their children, his gaze however lustfully drifted down to his wife’s pert backside. Lola always did have a large rear but after having kids it grew to its now almost comical size, very much it his enjoyment. Lola’s too, she loved having a big ass, not only did it drive her man wild it made sitting very comfortable. Sam was in fact desperate to have more kids hoping to enlarge it even more and they were definitely not want for trying.

As his throat started to dry and his blood raised in temperature from the provocative thoughts running through his mind, Sam suddenly remembered Frost’s presence and coughed to clear his mind.

‘God my wife is the most beautiful woman in the world.’ He applauded internally blaming his desire upon his wife’s sinful appearance.

“Yes three little angels, our eldest daughter as Lola said is ten, we called her Tulip after the beautiful flower, though it has nothing on her cuteness.” Sam flipped his lovestruck husband appearance to that of a doting father almost immediately, describing his children to Frost. Now that they’d told Frost of their desires and he accepted their offer to learn from them their relationship became that much closer. And one thing parents loved doing was bragging about their kids to friends.

“Our second daughter is 7 and a real firework, also getting into mischief and pranking her elders, ironically she’s called jasmine, her personality being the complete opposite of her namesake.” Sam shook his head as he was reminded of some of his youngest daughter’s antics. While Lola had a rather dark expression on her face. Usually, she was the one forced to punish and reprimand Jasmine and was the victim of most her antics. Jasmine was a complete daddy’s girl and Sam was useless in reprimanding her as he always laughed at her pranks. It’s a hell of a lot harder to convince someone what they did was wrong if your husband is laughing his ass off. “And finally, our youngest, Ren. He recently turned 4 shortly before we left, he’s a real shy boy constantly attached to the hip of his eldest sister.” The fawning look returned to Lola’s eyes when Sam brought up Ren. Though she would never tell Tulip and Jasmine, Ren was her favourite, he was so cute, kind and had the most pinchable cheeks. She missed them greatly, this talk seemed to foster that longing.

Frost sat with a gentle smile as he listened to the two parents talk about their children, family and about their enclave. He could feel their warmth and love, it reminded him of his family. His comical father, his overprotective sister, his rival like brother Indra, his many other siblings but most of all it made him think of his dungeon and the people waiting there for his return. Maya and the two phoenix kin children, Nanna, and Loki. For the first time since he left the dungeon he felt homesick, like a tug on his heart that wouldn’t go away.

.....

Sam and Lola continued to chat with Frost for almost an hour as they polished off the remaining soup and let their food settle. Frost learned a lot about their enclave as well as their family. The enclave they hailed from was considered a decent size, not quite big enough to from a native kingdom but bigger that a county in the Northrend empire, population wise. It was dangerous to cover too much open ground here in the Glacial mountains without sufficient military or defensive power.

The enclave like many others was situated within a depleted monster lair, with the core crystal already been consumed. What was left was the perfect place to establish a community. Multiple levels underground allowed room for generous expansion without the cost of hard labour digging and provided a great escape from the biting cold on the surface -though it’s usually still chilly there’s no constant blizzard. And with the residual mana within the floors, it made it possible to grow crops even without the light of the sun. Monster lairs were god sends for these people even after the monsters had long vanished. The lair they were currently in the [beginner’s ice magic] would too one day be extinguished and hopefully turned into another community.

Of course, it wasn’t just enclaves that used extinguished monster lairs, many were outposts for the military, bases for the order of the ice shield or large counties under the control of the native kingdoms. Sam and Lola’s however was an independent enclave that answered to no one and tended to keep to themselves in terms of diplomatic relations. Lola’s family were the ones in charge of the entire enclave with the position of mayor, but it was more like a small king or noble given the amount of people they were in charge of. The job was usually also passed down through her family but occasionally someone else took over, Lola however was quite well loved and respected, so the citizens had no problem with her taking over. Her and Sam’s high levels of strength certainly helped in that regard. The two of them were pretty much the highest ranked adventurers present in the enclave bar a few older elders that were passed their prime, it was also the reason that they were here in this monster lair. They needed to retrieve something and only people with their strength were capable enough.

Unfortunately, the reason was not a happy one, Lola’s father and Sam’s father in law was suffering from a serious ailment that left him almost bed ridden, and his symptoms were only getting worse. Wary of outsiders the enclave could only entrust such a delicate task to its most powerful members and Lola and Sam wouldn’t have it any other way. Thankfully they knew what the ailment was and how to treat it, the only thing they needed however was..... the core of a C-rank monster proficient in magic. They had everything else required for the medicine in their reserves and a fairly accomplished doctor and alchemist in their enclave just this one thing was left.

At first they tried to purchase such a core, but the price was extortionate because of the type’s rarity as well as the quality they required. The core needed to be of almost perfect quality and had to be fresh otherwise the medicinal strength would not be strong enough to combat the illness. The recipe actually worked best with the core of a B-rank monster but no one in the enclave was strong enough to hunt such a beast and the price for a B-rank core was far far higher. Sam and Lola volunteered almost immediately for the job; they wouldn’t let their father die when they could do something about it. They left the kids in the care of their grandmother as well as ailing grandfather, just in case they weren’t successfully they wished for him to be surrounded by his darling grandkids as much as possible. At least then he may pass on without regrets.

Frost listened to this and felt pain in his heart as Lola held back her tears and Sam comforted her but then confusion was clear on his face.

“Why then are you here in this monster lair? As far as I know there’s no C-ranks here.” What Frost said was true, the highest monsters present even on the sixth floor were peak D-ranks not Cs, but if even he knew that then obviously Sam and Lola did too.

Sam took a deep breath before explaining. “What you say is true, within the [beginner’s ice magic] monster lair there’s no C-rank monsters however that’s only during regular times. Now that the famous monster stampede is looming the mana has grown more ambient affecting the monsters summoned by the monster lair, primarily the bottom two floors. For example, the great frost centipede usually only shows up on the sixth floor and the boss of the 4th floor is usually not two D-ranks but one.” Sam explained their reasoning. “Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s going to be a C-rank monster present, but we’ve already received intelligence from other adventurers that there is one.” Sam slightly frowned and a difficult expression showed on his face. “The final floor’s boss is said to currently be an ice revenant.”