Dungeon of Niflheim

Over the ten days several monsters reached their max level and evolved some even twice, greatly expanding the repertoire of monsters Frost could generate. He now had several hob goblin variants of his frost goblin caste, ice slimes that were E-rank, frost venom spitting spiders as well as their beefier frost tarantula cousins. But most of all was his frost dwarves.

Out of all his monsters the frost dwarves played the largest role in terms of defence, numerically he had more of them than goblins now and each of them packed enough wallop to be stationed on the wall even now. There wasn’t a goblin or hob goblin in sight, the left and right walls were currently lined with frost dwarven quarrellers, runic mages and last but certainly not least, ice dwarves. Their D-rank archetype, far more intelligent, diverse in their skills, sturdier and could speak common tongue with ease. It was very hard to separate these monsters from their regular dwarven sapient species, that’s probably the reason why they could build such a powerful empire within the inner and core regions of the Glacial mountains.

Frost assigned all those that evolved as well as the several that he purchased the moment they were unlocked to act as squad captains, covering a section of the walls, reinforcing the aggregate power held there.

Down at the bottom wall however the defences were looking a fair bit damaged, large cracks and marks could be seen throughout and the gate and portcullis were broken in areas after suffering repeated blows. Frost revenants still stood before it guarding the area with their great swords, a fair few sporting nasty gashes across their armour.

The pressure on these guys was insane during the past couple days with two of them even dying thus resulting in the gate being damaged. Findlay was ‘forced’ to jump down and clear the area, decimating the E ranks that were ganging up on the revenants.

The kill box system was starting to reach its limit. The area was only so large, now that the monsters were more numerous but more importantly more powerful it took them a lot less time for them to reach the gate. The squadrons of archers couldn’t kill them before they reached the revenants anymore.

At the moment each of the monsters wore grim expressions, Findlay included. The next wave was due shortly and given the time frame its likely that the mid-stages had begun, the onslaught would be even more formidable. Findlay clenched his fist hard around the shaft of his mighty axe, the promise of battle, one wherein he’d actually be allowed to participate filled him with excitement.

When the two frost revenants were unfortunately killed Frost made an appearance, frowning as he saw the state of the kill box.

.....

“Looks like we’re about to enter the mid stages, get ready to enter the battle personally Findlay, as well as the rest of the officer classes, the true challenge will be upon us soon.” Frost spoke in a serious tone, but he too couldn’t help but reveal an excited glint in his eyes.

It was after that that the last of the weaker monsters were swapped out and several more D-rank were purchased. Every monster present was individually purchased meaning they could rack up experience and evolve, the spawner grunts were left to handle non battle related stuff as they were mainly for the other kind of guests that came for materials not to ransack and consume his core.

Findlay and Frost stood side by side on the bottom wall as monsters did their best to repair some areas while others checked their weapons, ammunition and mana levels. The air was different, something big was coming.

“In your opinion Findlay what has been the most annoying monster type to take down over the past ten days?” Frost asked with a frown, his heart or rather core felt uneasy, a slight dread filled him.

“...” Findlay frowned in response, he thought deeply before responding.

“Other than the D-rank polar bear that required the ballistae bolts to bring it down in time I’d have to say the snakes.” Two waves ago there was a large polar bear, stronger than the one Frost had summoned given its enraged state. No matter how many arrows the frost dwarven quarrellers shot into its hide and no matter how much runic magic was fired off at its face and limbs the beast didn’t stop charging as though it was possessed and numb to pain. It smashed right into a frost revenant smashing him against the gates and leaving a major depression thanks to the resulting force. The opponent itself wasn’t too dangerous for the revenant given its hardy exterior but such bashing did a number on the wall and gate.

“The snakes?” Frost turned around, confusion on his face, he hadn’t seen much snakes in the waves and even if there were they’d be E-rank at best, not very large.

‘Could it be their venom, but I’ve not heard of anyone being bitten.’ Frost remembered the ice snake that he killed back in the Glacial mountains one that he now had access to summon but avoided due to his inherent trauma with poison.

“Yes master they’re really slippery bastards that are a real pain to take down. Small and narrow making for difficult targets, fast and skilled at scaling any surfaces making the walls pretty pointless against them and finally the danger they pose when in close combat. Even if you’re stronger you need to be careful to not get bitten.” Findlay showed a dark expression as he remembered the annoyance of trying to take down several snakes that kept avoiding their arrows even after all the other monsters had been taken care of. A tedious foe which they lacked appropriate means to take down easily.

“I see.” Frost cupped his chin in thought, he’d mainly prepared for the monsters becoming larger and more forceful as the stages progressed and didn’t think much about facing a strong but small opponent, it was quite an eye opener.

“How did you deal with them then?”

“High amounts of magic spells by the frost dwarven runic mages and the lesser yuki-onnas bombarded their vague position with wide spread focus, cutting off all avenues to flee. This however could only be done after all the other monsters had been dealt with. Too much going on to redirect so much attention to a single or couple small foes. The fact that ice magic only works at half capacity given our opponents certainly doesn’t help.” Findlay complained in place of all the other magic users present. Against G and F-ranks it didn’t matter but at E and above the monsters dwelling within the Glacial mountains have quite impressive ice resistance practically halving the effectiveness of such spells from the 1st and 2nd circle against them. A real pain considering Frost’s forces could only use ice magic.

Again it was brought to Frost’s attention that he was a one trick pony and it seemed that that extended to his monsters who were just as if not more limited than he was.

Frost clenched his fists at this moment, stubbornness flowing through his heart. He’d been studying and absorbing the cold flame every day now and had come to realise that as long as the quality was of a higher origin, resistance made very little difference. Take him for example he was supposedly [one with ice] the embodiment of the element but a single touch of the flame and his left arm was completely taken over by the freezing mana.

He would never be able to create a monster species that specialised in fire the natural nemesis of ice, it was beyond his means. But it didn’t mean he couldn’t create a race that specialised in cold flames, a higher level than regular ice magic and something that E and D-ranks would struggle to endure regardless of their inherent resistance. He was sure that even the elementals which were literally embodiments of mana would suffer when attacked by a higher order of the ice element.

When Frost wasn’t training or managing the dungeon he was putting his all into creating this unique race that would define him, represent his abilities in terms of creation amongst his siblings and help to greatly increase the dungeon’s strength, he was close and now thanks to the repeated monster waves he had enough DP to buy them in mass even if their base cost turned out to be huge.

Even with the additions of monsters, traps, outfitting and expanding the fifth floor to match the other floors as well as making mass purchases of stock for the budding territory, Frost still had over 100,000DP in his reserves sitting there unused. The mid stages hadn’t even officially begun yet and he was swimming in DP, this stampede was certainly a god send.

‘Perhaps I’ll even surpass Yami and Aqua in DP income at the next family meeting.’