Dungeon of Niflheim

Its entire body trembled but still it moved forward, neither of the instincts coming out on top. It moved automatically yet was filled with fear, powerless to stop its investable forward motion into the jaws of death.

Frost’s aura was fully activated, pressing down upon the boar making it feel small and fragile. Frost smirked slightly but a strong look of pity filled his eyes. He could see and sense the struggle within this creature. Its eyes filled with fear as well as madness, its body trembling and begging to submit yet still it carried on, moving every closer towards him and the dungeon’s core.

He remembered the time when he encountered the core of the [beginner’s ice magic] monster lair. That irresistible desire that urged him to eat, to devour the defenceless core. Even him an intelligent lifeform with strong willpower was nearly overwhelmed with desire. Instincts, powerful behavioural reactions that can overrule almost anything.

The ice back boar before him was prime example. Its fear was so strong, subjected to his fully blown aura as well as his blood lust yet still its body edged towards him, the binding from the mana corruption prompting its behaviours beyond the level of fear, fascinating in a way but also pitiful. It may be less damaging towards something like an ice back boar which didn’t have much intelligence to begin with but what about those of higher rank, those that have fully developed emotions, feelings and that could even converse in the common tongue.

What did it feel like for something with high intelligence to be subjected to this level of mana corruption, to be driven into an uncontrollable frenzy, is their mind locked away, forced to watch as their body expands upon its primal nature.

Frost who was adamant about eradicating the invaders regardless of whether they were being controlled so as to protect his home was filled with pity as well as a strong sense of vengeance. Something that messed with the natural order of the world and so frequently at that, corrupting these monsters and forcing them from their natural habitat and life. Anger filled the young dungeon core; the flames of hatred could be felt in his bloodlust towards the one or the thing responsible for such pointless carnage. What did this stampede serve other than death, at least when they died within the dungeon their life force would put to good use.

With a pronounced frown and despondent expression Frost raised his hand and placed it upon the boar’s quivering snout. These invaders needed to die so that he and his monsters may live that fact would not change but.

“You can rest now.” Frost uttered in a gentle tone before sliver flames slowly formed from his hand, spreading across the ice back boar’s body, dyeing it a similar silver colour, ignoring the creature’s inherent resistance to ice mana. Such resistance held no power over the silver flames, the difference in quality being magnitudes apart.

.....

The massive frame that was easily 3 metres high and full of muscle and fat was quickly frozen, snuffing out the last vestiges of life from the mighty boar.

The blood red colour in its eyes receded at the last moment, its consciousness momentarily returning in its final moments. Peaceful would be the best way to describe the emotion displayed in its gaze before the eternal darkness overtook it.

Frost still showed a depressed expression as he witnessed the boar’s last moments, anger still very much present in his chest but more so pity. He kept his hand on the silver boar’s snout, and looked behind it, towards the masses of smaller boars and two lagombis charging this way, finally making their way through the deluge of arrows and magic.

“Your sacrifice will be put to good use; the circle of life will continue.” Frost then clenched his hand that was on the silver boar’s snout. The cold silver flames funnelled deep into its body before violently exploding outwards, shattering the silver ice statue.

Frost the returned to the bottom wall, back to Findlay’s side.

“Kill them all and make it quick, no need to drag this kind of slaughter out.” Frost was in a bad mood, his excitement for battle completely ruined by his wayward thoughts of compassion.

He placed his hand over his chest, sensing the life energy of the slain ice back boar flowing into him and becoming DP. Fighting against controlled enemies with no sense of reason was not an enjoyable experience, especially when they could feel the difference in power yet unable to stop themselves. His mood was ruined, his expression clearly displaying such disappointment.

Findlay let out a sigh, understanding his master’s feelings but even if it wasn’t enjoyable from a battle standpoint they still needed to take care of these enemies, at least Frost understood that.

“Understood master!” Findlay performed a bowing salute before standing in front of Frost, taking charge of the battle.

“Slaughter at will!” Three words but these three words brought smiles to the soldiers faces. They weren’t like Frost who was looking for an enjoyable clash of skills with each other’s life on the line. No their only purpose was to eradicate these invaders and do so in the most efficient way. Succeeding in that duty brought them joy.

The deluge of arrows and spells seemed to increase at Findlay’s order, clearly the monster were holding back slightly.

The two lesser yuki-onnas both took a step forward, standing side by side with Findlay before casting their own magic spells. The horde was finally in range, time to unleash some true ice devastation.

The ballistae quarrellers weren’t ones for standing around either, they aimed their cross hairs at some of the larger monsters such as the Lagombis who were fast approaching the bottom wall.

The frost revenant’s azure eyes glistened with joy at their approach, their great swords vibrating slightly as they held back the urge to swing down until the opportune moment.

Frost though feeling disappointed did his best to fix his expression, appearing rather cold and stoic as he watched his monsters loyally defend against the wave.

With the improved soldiers lining the left, right and even bottom walls the first wave of the mid stages was passed without too much difficulty. No deaths on Frost’s side though a few got injured when falling from the wall. It was impossible to stop the charging actions of every boar thus the walls developed a fair few more cracks but all in all it was a good result. A lot of experience was gained resulting in quite few monsters reaching the next level, hopefully after another few days some of his D-rank monsters would ascend, becoming C-rank monsters.

Frost stayed throughout the entire wave which took around 25 minutes to eliminate, his presence serving as great motivation for his monsters. His mood had also been remedied by the end of wave, seeing his monsters working so hard together, it was impossible not to feel proud.

“Centipedes quickly get to work, get those corpses to the dismantling corps, boar leather is a quality material as is the meat, do your best to preserve both.” Frost gave his order but felt a little heat on his cheeks, realising he was a bit of a hypocrite. The strongest boar that would have surely provided the best materials was shattered into blocks of silver ice, no longer useful in any way, his doing at that. Thankfully his monsters didn’t notice this fact or willingly played dumb to spare his feelings.

“Dismantling captains how are you for manpower, the next waves will surely only see an increase in invaders as well as the overall size of the monsters, do you need more men?” Frost asked as he witnessed the great frost centipedes launching one boar corpse after another over the walls, finding such work far harder now that it wasn’t small goblins or rabbits. He realised that he needed some more corpse retrievers and was thus led to thinking about the dismantling corps.

Frost wanted as much material preserved as possible, relying more on such teams than the dungeon’s automatic retrieval process that came with a 20% tax as well as outputting average quality work.

‘I wonder if I can pay or upgrade the process in some way?’ Frost still had a lot he had to experiment with in regards to the dungeon’s features and its incredibly long list of items for sale. There was also the improvement options for his regenerating clothes to look into, perhaps some of the income generated from the stampede could be used for that. The choices were pretty much endless and his DP though fairly substantial at the moment could be eviscerated in a single unrestrained purchase with no refund option.

“Grunt”

“Gruuunnt” The two on shift captains for dismantling corps, two frost dwarven smiths answered back with exhausted expression, grateful that their master was thinking about their wellbeing and quite frankly that he finally asked that question.