Dungeon of Niflheim

“After his valiant death and the death of the baltic anaconda we all rose up against the remaining invaders with fervent aggression, no longer caring for defence. Many of us ended up with quite serious injuries but we successfully took down the remaining frost drake and the demon spiked zilla. I got off easy due to my role primarily being support but you may wish to check in with Kiba and Khuno when you get the chance, their injuries were quite brutal.” Right now the clean up job was underway and should be completed within the next ten to fifteen minutes, Findlay nor Khuno or Kiba were necessarily required to take part.

“....I see thanks for your thorough report and sorry that I left you alone to deal with such an extreme threat.” Frost sighed, pained by the loss of a ronso but at the same time full of pride due to his final act. He placed a hand on Findlay’s shoulder reassuring him that it was over, that he could take a much needed break now.

“No thanks needed master. It is my duty and honour to serve you.” Findlay performed his usual military salute, but his hands were still trembling. He felt that he didn’t perform well enough, if only he was B-rank such a thing would have not had had to happen.

Frost sat back on his chair and brought up the dungeon menu.

“I’ll replace all the lost monsters from the past 12 hours and send some more mid and low level health potions to the medical centre. That should be enough to bring everything back to order while you and I discuss a certain topic.” Frost thus spent tens of thousands of DP to replace his lost monsters and restock the medical centre to deal with the large amount of wounded that was set to arrive in a few minutes.

“.....What topic?” Findlay inquired only just remembering now that Frost requested to speak with him in person.

“It’s regarding your inability to evolve to the next archetype.” Frost didn’t beat around the bush and as a result Findlay felt a sharp pain in his heart as though Frost just brutally stabbed his weak spot. His expression clearly portrayed his feelings about the matter.

“Relax Findlay the problem isn’t on your end but mine.” Frost quickly allayed his commander of his misunderstanding. Findlay had done absolutely nothing wrong. Dark had placed limitations on his children to serve as protection for them as well as safeguard the power balance of Nova.

.....

Frost thus described his talk with Dark, filling Findlay in on all the aspects of these so called limitations as well as the possible loopholes that were placed within. Although Dark’s answer was anything, but clear cut Frost understood the gist of what he was getting at and had some idea of how to get passed the protection.

“So to prevent me from rising through the ranks at an abusive rate Dark God-sama placed limitations on the dungeon system to better reflect the true nature of evolution that happens outside the dungeon dimension.”

“Yes that sums it up well. Outside the rate at which monsters actually evolve to the next archetype is incredibly rare, especially in the higher ranks i.e. above C. To impose fairness, protection and to technically deprive us of the golden spoon that we’d been born with so far this limit is imposed on any monster attempting to reach B-rank and beyond and will remain in place even if I myself reach A-rank or higher or I establish dozens of floors within the dungeon. There will always be a barrier making attaining upper ranked monsters through evolution far harder.” Dark however didn’t go into any detail regarding his or his siblings ability to purchase B-ranks or higher monsters directly once their power reaches a sufficient level but that was a long way in the future at least for him.

Findlay subconsciously smiled and his back straightened as a weight was lifted from his shoulders, he wasn’t the problem.

“So for me to reach B-rank at your current level of power I will need to attain far more than what’s normally required?”

“Correct. My Father stated that the energy you’d need may even be more than your body could handle and that you’d need to hone your skills so much and or prove that in some way you have already surpassed the capabilities of your current archetype. And even then there’s still a good possibility of failure just like in the wild, we may have to attempt this breakthrough more than once.....” Frost frowned as he looked at his right hand man, his ice troll commander. Should he really push him to the point that his life could easily be forfeit. If the energy within his body proves to be too much he could lose his trusted general but more importantly the monster he relies on most.

Findlay was more than just a monster or a general he was practically family, his first named monster and the very first one that he could converse with, their was bond strong.

Findlay could see the conflicting emotions in his master’s eyes and couldn’t help but feel warm, his master truly cared about him.

“Master please allow me to attempt this forced evolution.” Findlay was sick and tired of feeling frustrated, so what if there was a risk he was willing to take it as long as it meant he could help his master.

“Findlay”

“Please master, I want to do this.”

“...Haaaaaaa” Frost stared silently towards Findlay before letting out a deep sigh and shaking his head.

“Fine but we still don’t know exactly what we need to do.”

“I’m sure you already have some idea otherwise you wouldn’t feel so conflicted in telling me about it.” Findlay smiled and let out a slight chuckle causing Frost to feel a little embarrassed. It was true he did have a plan in mind.

Frost reached out and summoned something from the dungeon vault, a magic crystal.

“Father said that energy was required to bridge the gap. DP can’t be used and in the wild monsters grow by beating and devouring their opponents, feasting on their flesh and life energy.”

“The dungeon provides a constant environment filled with dense amounts of mana, but that mana sustains each of you removing your need to eat. You can’t however store vast amounts of this mana within you thus simply staying within the dungeon and waiting isn’t an option. I can’t send you out of the dungeon to embark on a killing spree either because every monster summoned by the dungeon is strongly connected to it, leaving it is practically impossible especially for any length of time.” Frost had run a few tests with his monsters and found that the higher ranked ones could stay out for longer, but the difference was a matter of minutes, not enough to doing anything other than chasing down some escaped prey.

In the future Frost wanted to test if a tolerance could be built up by the same monster repeatedly leaving for periods at a time but that was something for the future and if possible would take a long, long time to establish, time he didn’t have.

“All the life energy from invaders is absorbed by the dungeon once they die leaving none for you guys. I don’t think there’s away for me to stop that or even minimise it thus that’s also not an option. However magic crystals are left when a monster dies just like their flesh and corpse. These crystals are usually used to power magic devices and all manner of things in villages, towns, cities and across kingdoms and empires. Monsters also tend to eat their opponents magic crystals thus I’m guessing the mana/energy contained within should qualify for the energy requirement. How much however I’m completely in the dark about.” Frost boldly stated his hypothesis which had quite a strong reasoning and if proved true would be a rather easily achieved requirement. The dungeon vault was stock full of thousands of magic crystals retrieved from the stampede so far.

Frost had wanted to test the effects these magic crystals may have on his summoned monsters before but never got around to doing it. His earlier guess was that they would likely provide a minor amount of experience but perhaps this was the correct way to use them.

Frost tossed the crystal over to Findlay and gestured for him to try and absorb it and get a feel for the change in his body.

Frost withdrew a mid D-rank magic crystal, not the highest that he had but enough that Findlay should be able to feel a change if his hypothesis was proven correct.

Both Findlay and Frost grew excited, the two of them quite enjoyed the process of trial and error.

Findlay held the D-rank magic crystal in his hand and closed his eyes. The process to absorb it was quite simple, he just needed his mana to make contact with the crystal and suck out the mana held inside.

“Huuuuummmmm” The magic crystal let out a humming sound and started glow as Findlay rapidly absorbed its contents.

20 seconds later the crystal lost its shine and started to crumble, it was now deprived of its mana a useless crystal without any magical properties, useless.