Dungeon of Niflheim

A moment later the origin of such noise revealed themselves. 25 G-rank monsters made up of frost goblins and artic horned rabbits with the goblins being the majority. Each of them had blood red eyes, protruding veins and saliva lingering around their lips as though starved crazy.

Their expressions didn’t change in the slightest at the sight of the tall ice and snow walls forcing them into a chokepoint. Nor did they quiver at the sight of dozens of much stronger and well prepared monsters lining those walls, staring down at them as though they were but mere prey. Their madness caused by the mana vein’s corruption had completely clouded their judgements, overwriting their base instincts.

With barbaric roars the group barrelled into the dungeon, climbing over one another so as to reach the tantalising food first, chaos was an apt word for what was going on in front of Frost and his monster cohorts.

“They’re no better than starving beasts in this state.” Frost judged the strength of these intruders as the bare minimum at best. Their madness takes away the most dangerous aspect about enemies, intelligence.

A smart or at least calm opponent would see the situation for what it was and swiftly retreat from the kill box or at the very least think of another way to attack. However this large group charged dead ahead, clambering over one another directly towards the bottom wall defended by the frost revenants. They were drawn towards the core; the scent of the powerful mana thus made a beeline straight for it regardless of the obstacles put in place.

Frost shook his head, his excitement dwindling slightly.

“Fire at will!” Frost gave his order with a flick of his hand, no longer interested in examining his guests. He hoped for something a little more substantial for him and his monsters to fight against, but this was a long siege, the difficulty would only rise as time passed. At least this way he’d get some easy DP and experience for his low ranking monsters. The frost slimes in particular would be benefitting greatly from such an arrangement.

Too delicate to be placed on the front lines and too weak to face off against opponents individually or even as a group of slimes. Having them on the walls attacking at range meant that even though their attacks were weak and pitiful they’d still land and grant them experience all while avoiding danger, a win-win. Frost was quite keen to rank up his slimes so as to explore their evolutionary path.

.....

The moment Frost gave his order was the moment these intruders lives’ were forfeit. All the monsters on the left and right walls immediately took aim and fired at will, creating a veritable deluge of arrows, ice webs, slime spit and even chunks of ice that were gathered as ammunition.

The suspense of the first wave was very short lived, the 25 G-rank monsters quickly fell to the ground, their bodies littered in wounds, killing the majority of them rather swiftly. The rest moved as though they had lost all sense of pain, madly charging forward even when their backs protruded with arrow shafts, or their very limbs became destroyed. As long as they could still breath they moved forward, fearless.

But in the end they were still just a bunch of weak monsters, their tenacity only saved to let them reach an extra metre or so before they joined their comrades in death. The smell of blood was thick in the air and silence loomed after every one of the intruders had fallen. Even the F-rank winter stag was nothing in the face of such well prepared troops. Its larger size proved to be its undoing, resulting in it receiving far more attacks, being one of the first to die.

“Stop!” Findlay loudly commanded causing the monsters to immediately stop their attacks and lower their weapons.

2 minutes in fact less than 2 minutes that’s all it took for 26 monsters to be annihilated with not a scratch on their own forces. An undisputed victory, Findlay however was not showing a pleased expression in fact a very pronounced frown adored his face.

‘Such a waste of ammunition.’ The ice troll commander sighed internally before looking towards his lord. There was no need for a ‘fire at will’ command. This was going to be a long drawn out siege, they couldn’t waste their precious ammunition on such low level grunts.

Frost however at this moment was feeling waves of bliss throughout his body as the life energy of the slain flowed into him, topping up his DP reserves, truly a very addictive feeling. He’d gotten a bit better at controlling his expressions while experiencing such pleasure thus only a satisfied smile adored his lips.

Frost turned to look up at his mighty ice troll commander, feeling his questioning gaze. Frost wasn’t an idiot he knew well that this was going be a prolonged battle and that their precious ammunition should be reserved as much as possible. They weren’t like Furano an experienced war factory that made ample preparations months in advance, their supplies were limited.

Of course this didn’t include Frost’s ability to create arrows, armour and weapons with DP since they wanted to avoid doing that as much as possible. Why spend money on something you can make for free with the materials you already have, very inefficient.

“Relax Findlay, firing all cylinders on the initial wave won’t break the bank besides take a look at what it achieved.” Frost pointed with his chin towards the monsters decked along the ice walls.

“Ah.....now I see.” Findlay portrayed an expression of understanding when he saw the result, this resounding victory had on the monsters under their command. The ‘fire at will’ command may not have been the most apt order for their supplies, but it did however allow the monsters to understand their current level of power, their moral skyrocketed. Each and every one of them were visibly trembling from excitement, their eyes showing fervour as they clenched their weapons. Struggling to believe their combined devastating power. They felt invincible, ready to take on any foe.

This was what Frost wanted, a few extra arrows were a sufficient price for motivation, as Findlay mentioned this was going to be a long drawn out war. The mental strain was going to be as much an enemy as the physical.

Frost smiled wildly as he stood up straight, his aura once again releasing pressure around him.

“Well done, you have successfully destroyed the first set of invaders but there’s far more to come, be ready and destroy them as easily as this lot.” Frost paused, letting his words sink in before gesturing towards his mighty ice troll commander.

“Findlay will be taking command from now own, obey his orders as if they were my own.....when I return I expect to see these walls undamaged and for my DP reserves to be sufficiently stocked.” Frost thus handed the reigns over to Findlay before vanishing into a spatial warp, returning to the private space.

He wasn’t needed for the early stages, Findlay, Kiba and even the officer class monsters could handle the first few days. His time would be better spent increasing his own strength as well as managing the influx of DP that would be frequently flowing into his body.

The moment Frost vanished, and authority was officially handed over to Findlay, the tall troll revealed a cold and intimidating expression as he looked over the monsters left under his charge.

“Frost centipedes get to work and retrieve those corpses, dismantling teams get your gear ready, I want those corpse taken apart within the hour, no exceptions. Those on the walls check your ammo count and refill if you need to oh and there will be no more of this fire at will nonsense. Look what you guys did, there’s more wounds on the corpses that regular flesh, complete over kill. For the next wave there will be no arrows used! Am I clear!” Findlay roared out his orders, nearly deafening the lesser yuki-onnas and dwarven quarrellers by his side. The former giving begrudging looks towards their crass commander. While others showed slightly embarrassed expressions as they look on at the amount of arrows sticking out of the G-rank corpses, over kill was an understatement.

“Another rousing speech young master, you certainly have a knack for this leader business.” When Frost arrived back in the private space he was warmly greeted by Maya who along with the kids had been watching the dungeon’s entrance through the dungeon core present in the living room.

They sat on the sofa with snacks as though watching a play, though only Maya was treating it as entertainment. Nanna and Loki were watching with rapt attention, moved by Frost’s words and the actions of their monster comrades, desperately wishing to be on the front lines with them, aiding their master.

“Thanks, my practise in that regard seems to have paid off.” Frost smiled gently as he joined his family on the sofa, taking a couple snacks from Maya’s plate as though it was natural.

Frost knew that there was a lot of qualities one needed to be a good ruler, many of which he’d seen in Douglas. His aura, his charisma and of course his ability to move his subjects with words. His monsters would never know but Frost practised for many hours on giving rousing speeches. Maya found his hard work quite cute, so she rewarded him with some well earned praise.