Dungeon of Niflheim

Why did adventurers and everyone else brave into harsh lands such as the glacial mountains and monster lairs. Of course, money was a contributing factor but more so people desired power, the ability crush whatever stood in your way. Money was desirable but only power garnered you respect. That’s why the majority of kings and emperors were strong fighters in their own right, without such power one would not follow. No one is more respected that those that have reached the epitome of power, no one is so idealised by the masses. With enough power one can do anything they wished, money, land, woman, men everything can easily be achieved with power.

The monster lair core floating in front of Frost was promising him power, strength, the ability to crush those that stood against him like his barbaric third brother or those from the church of light. The temptation was strong but so was Frost’s will. He resisted the urges and calmed his thumping heart as he pondered what this meant. The fact that he would feel such an urge when seeing a monster lair core was puzzling, as far as knew others wouldn’t feel such a primal urge when in front of a monster lair core.

“Is it unique to dungeon cores?” Frost asked this question aloud as he cupped his chin in thought. He knew that powerful monsters would be attracted to the high concentrations of mana, but would their urges be the same as his....he didn’t know the answer but if so a dark thought scratched at the back of his mind.

“If I can get more powerful from eating a monster lair which is basically a primitive version of a dungeon what about a dungeon core?” The moment this thought flashed in his mind Frost felt an eery chill down his back. Would his siblings seek to devour each other?

The faces of his family flashed before his eyes, Gobuske, Indra, Aqua, Terra and even Yami.

“No no no I won’t go down such a road.” Frost shook with repulsion, refusing to even think about such a possibility. Even with Pyro though they were diametrically opposed in personality and element wise he would never wish to...eat him. This was a frightening revelation and one that Frost wished he’d never realised. His eyes darted back towards the core of the monster lair one last time before turning around and leaving.

‘I won’t go down such a road.... but monster lairs, they’re fair game.’ Frost had no issue eating monster lairs as there was no sentience. However, he wasn’t here alone and was also an adventurer, eating the core would cause more trouble than its worth. Besides he didn’t know what sort of effects it would have on his body.

“I need to talk to Maya about this and if possible father.” With a serious expression Frost left the core room never looking back, he got what he needed, it was time to go.

.....

“All done?” Sam asked curiously.

“Yeah, got a good look at the thing, quite spectacular if I must say.” Frost put on a bright expression, trying to not let on about his dour mood.

“It was fashioned by the dark god after all, the complexities of a god’s creations is far beyond what we could possibly hope to understand.” Sam’s eyes revealed a deep curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Even now after centuries of monster lairs they had barely scratched the surface of how they truly worked. They knew that the core would suck in vast amounts of mana from the natural world but how it transformed such mana into monsters, items and even the very landscape was beyond their capabilities to understand. Which was to be expected, even the most powerful S-rank monsters couldn’t understand the complexities of divine energy, that was solely the realm of the Gods.....and now the dungeon cores.

“Did you feel any attraction to the core?” Lola asked in a concerned manner. Being attracted to the core was something that usually affected spell casters like herself and Frost. The more keen the senses the more pull it’ll have. Lola knew that Frost’s potential was far above hers and this included his sensitivity to mana. It was one of the main reasons she was rather unnerved with him wishing to get close to the core.

Frost trembled at her question ‘Attraction? That’s an understatement.’ He subconsciously licked his lips as he remembered the so called ‘attraction’.

“Yeah but nothing I couldn’t handle; I kept my faculties and didn’t touch the core.” Frost responded honestly, much to Lola’s relief.

“Good, restraint in the face of high concentrations of mana is the markings of a strong and composed mage, well done.” She smiled brightly and patted Frost’s shoulder in praise.

Frost smiled and nodded in response, happy to be praised.

“Shall we start heading back now?” Sam asked.

“Sounds good, you said that we could make it in under 48 hours?” Frost remembered that they spent 3 days on the bottom two floors alone.

“As long as we move fast and sleep for around 4 to 5 hours then yeah it should be doable.” Sam counted somehow with his fingers before nodding his head.

“Oh, but just because we’re going to rush doesn’t mean that your lessons will end. In fact, they’ll be all the more crammed and gruelling.” Lola added from the side with a mischievous grin on her face, causing Frost to tremble slightly. That look in her eyes meant that he was going to wish he was dead. They’ll make him their pack mule and forcibly cram more knowledge into his poor mind.

Over the past three days Sam and Lola learned that Frost had great endurance causing them to add more and more to his training schedule. With twitching lips Frost felt nostalgic for his training with Maya, at least that was only physically exhausting. But he was in no place to complain and was in fact grateful for Sam and Lola’s time. Plus, whenever he did complain Lola would punish him quite severally all with a sadistic smile on her face.

‘Women are all demons, demons I tell you!’

The group as scheduled reached the exit of [beginner’s ice magic] in just under 48 hours. Sam and Lola exited with smiles on their faces, ruddy cheeks and looking far younger than their actual ages. They took in a deep breath of the chilling glacial mountain air before laughing in victory. Frost meanwhile followed behind with the exact opposite appearance. His face was pale and haggard like he hadn’t slept in days. His walk was unsteady and every breath he took was difficult, he looked at the backs of his teachers with pure hatred. They were both damn demons.

The four hours sleep that was agreed to so as to make it on time was for Lola and Sam. Frost was not allowed to sleep, they said it was part of his training plus he was the one that needed to do all the camp prep, monster battling as well as reading the books Lola gave him. He didn’t get a single break over the passed 48 hours which to him felt more like weeks. He didn’t even get to enjoy Sam’s glorious cooking, no he had to make his own food which was fine and good training. The problem was that Sam would also cook but only for him and his wife, Frost had eat his own cooking while being taunted by the fabulous smells of Sam’s. It was absolute torture for the poor young foodie. On top of that he needed to be faced with Sam and Lola’s lovey dovey displays of affection. Now that they were so close to Frost they didn’t feel ashamed in the slightest, he was now their student not a colleague or some stranger, so they acted as they normally did back in their enclave Kranor. Several times Frost felt like burying his head in the snow, these two lovebirds were embarrassing but more than that Frost was insanely jealous.

“Alright Frost you can relax now, we’ve made it out. You can rest in the encampment for a couple hours while we take care of some business then we’ll head for Kranor.” Sam turned around and spoke to his student, his eyes showed a slightly guilty expression as he saw the state of his young protégé. He wasn’t sadistic like his wife; he was the soft gentle one out of the two. Being so hard on Frost was difficult for him but he had to suck it up since he knew it was what he needed.

Frost’s eyes lit up as the mention of rest, ‘finally’ he thought.

“Sam you take him to a rest area, I’ll go and speak with Ellen.” Lola gave out instructions before heading off to meet this Ellen character.

“Alright dear I’ll see you see soon.” Sam waved his wife off not forgetting to ogle her large butt as she walked away. This was not just because he loved to look at it but a promise he made with his darling wife; he was contracted to have his eyes glued with passion whenever she walked away.

Once she was out of sight, Sam reluctantly turned to Frost. “Well let’s get you some rest, our treat.” Sam then put his large muscular arm around Frost and helped guide him to the rest area.