Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 11: Traps

“Yosh yosh, you’re quite a cutie.” Frost continued to rub the polar bear’s fur, enjoying how soft it was. After having his fill of attention, the bear lightly butted his head against Frost before returning to his previous spot.

“I’ll definitely need to summon more polar bears in the future.” If not for their strength, then for their soft white fur.

‘I wonder how comfy it would be to fall asleep on its back.’ One of the main reasons that polar bear monsters were hunted was due to the softness and durability of their fur making it a perfect fit for expensive textiles.

“You’ll probably need to increase your strength before you can do that.” Maya chimed in putting an end to his thoughts.

“Hmm why?” Of course, he couldn’t buy another one now due to the lack of DP that wasn’t reserved but why would his strength matter.

“Didn’t you see how it first reacted towards you?” Maya let out a sigh before explaining.

“At first it refused to bow its head, it didn’t immediately accept you as its master.” Frost remembered how it didn’t run happily towards him like the other monsters but simply stared down at him. He initially thought that it was a personality issue but with Maya bringing it up.

.....

“Why?”

“Strength!” Maya shouted with conviction.

“Strength?”

“Yes, your battle strength is probably in the upper D-rank level that’s why it hesitated. Monsters usually won’t obey those weaker than them, even if you’re the summoner.” Frost suddenly remembered something similar being written in the guidebook, it was also the reason why he didn’t have access to any monsters rank C or higher.

‘So, I’m a little stronger than a polar bear.’ Frost felt that it wasn’t enough, according to Maya, Furano had C-rank adventurers. If even by accident one decides to enter the dungeon there’d be nothing he could do against someone that strong. His emotions were being clearly displayed through his facial expressions.

“Don’t worry about it, that’s why I’m here.” Maya tapped his shoulder to reassure him before gesturing towards herself.

“But I thought you couldn’t take part in defending the dungeon?” Frost knew that Maya was probably incredibly strong, but the rules stated that she wouldn’t interfere unless absolutely necessary.

“Oh, you misunderstand, I’m not going to fight.” Maya tilted her head to the side looking innocent and cute.

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“What then?” Maya’s smile suddenly turned evil looking in response as if she were looking at prey to toy around with.

“T.R.A.I.N.I.N.G” She mouthed each letter before openly smirking.

“Ugh!” The word itself wasn’t scary but seeing Maya say it in such a way and with such an evil look sent shivers down his spine.

‘How could I forget that one of the purposes of the guardians was to train their charge. But why did it sound so scary coming from her mouth?’

“What’s wrong? You cold? Should we work out to warm you up?” Maya saw him flinch and tremble from her gaze, she was just toying with him since it’s impossible for someone with the [One with ice] skill to feel cold.

“N... n...no I’m fine really.” Frost rapidly shook his head and hands to prove he was fine. He felt he should avoid training with Maya, at least for now, for his own wellbeing.

“Tch... fine it was only a suggestion.” She clicked her tongue at Frost’s response even though she expected it. Frost seemed to have made the correct decision since she was planning to go extra hard on him due to his earlier blunder.

“Let’s train at another time, I still need to buy some traps and magic first.” Frost felt like he successfully dodged a bullet. He currently had close to 2000DP left, half of which he planned spending on traps.

Now that they had completed their journey through the dungeon the only place left was the core room, which lay beyond the now prone polar bear. Unlike the doors or gateways previously seen, the entrance to the core room was of very high quality. The frame looked to be some sort of white jade covered in beautiful symbols that screamed elegant. It reminded Frost of the stone courtyard he first met Dark in, simple yet beautiful.

Currently there was no door just an invisible barrier blocking access to unauthorised intruders. To Frost and Maya though it was as if it wasn’t there.

“I can feel the importance of the room just from the aura it gives off.” As Frost walked closer, he could feel a kind of pressure bearing down on him. It wasn’t painful or unpleasant, but it was definitely intimidating and making its presence known.

“That would be due to the mana stored and absorbed by your dungeon core. It’s like a super condensed orb of mana so it gives off a pressure akin to gravity due to its mass.” It felt powerful and very attractive but also familiar. Since the core was part of Frost he wouldn’t feel as much of the effects as others would. According to Maya however monsters from outside the dungeon would be driven insane by this aura. Their desires to devour it and absorb all the stored mana would takeover, even Maya was apparently affected albeit slightly.

The larger and more powerful the dungeon becomes the greater the range of this aura, attracting bigger and more powerful monsters to the dungeon as well as adventurers. Frost remembered that before the dungeon was deployed, he didn’t feel much from the orb when it floated in front of him.

“Why didn’t we feel this pressure when in the private space?”

“That’s only a replica or remote control for the core so it doesn’t have its physical properties, the true core lives in this room.” Maya gestured towards the room before walking through the translucent barrier. Frost now used to the pressure followed suit.

The room was only about 5 metres in diameter, too small to have monsters stationed inside but enough to safely store the core. In the middle of the room on a white pedestal or throne sat a glowing white orb, Frost’s dungeon core. The pressure receded once they stepped past the barrier as if on reflex, it recognised Frost and pulled back its pressuring aura. It reminded Frost of an animal puffing up in the face of a predator then shrinking back down when it’s safe.

‘Rather cute’ Frost began to rub the dungeon core in appreciation. The core seemed to react by heating up in the areas that Frost touched.

“This is effectively your heart remember, if it gets destroyed or damaged in anyway, you’ll also be affected.” Maya quietly chimed in, hoping to remind Frost of the core’s importance.

Frost’s hand lightly froze before continuing to rub the core.

“I know.” He knew and understood the significance of the thing currently before him. He would never forget what his father or what Maya just said.

He turned around to face Maya.

“Shall we head back to the private space; I believe you mentioned something about a tea break?” Unperturbed by the sudden serious atmosphere he redirected the topic to tea. Maya stared silently at Frost for a few seconds, she saw the determination in his eyes and knew he took what she said to heart. She smiled coyly in response.

“Yes, I believe I did.” She moved close to Frost and grabbed his arm so they could teleport to the space, unnecessary but much more comfortable in her mind. Frost was just about to move them before he spoke.

“Oh! but not mint this time please.” After receiving a nod from Maya, he thought of the private space and spoke.

“Teleport: private space.” He still didn’t have the hang of using the dungeon’s abilities without voice commands, but he felt it was better to practise this way than going through the dungeon menu.

Space warped around the two of them sending them back into the private space. They were used to the shock of moving by now, so they weren’t even fazed.

The moment they arrived Maya instantly got to work on brewing the tea whereas Frost moved over the core to look at the traps selection.

‘I wonder what kind of traps would work well.’ He scrolled through the menu looking for the trap section.

“Huh, that’s it.” Frost instinctively said after opening the trap section.

· Ice spike pitfall

· Bear trap

· Frost mine

It only showed three options. The first two were pretty self-explanatory, with the usual metal or wood spikes being replaced by ice for the pitfall and the bear trap being a simple stand in it and get your leg clamped.

The Frost mine worked similar to the bear trap as it was pressure activated. According to the description, once the victim activated it, ice aspected mana would forcibly enter them, freezing them solid. Of course, how well it worked depended on the person’s strength and resistance for example it would have no effect on Frost due to his immunity to ice, in fact it may even have the opposite effect.

“What’s wrong?” His loud voice disturbed Maya causing her to stop making the tea and turn around.

“There’s only 3 traps to choose from.”

“Eh! Just three.” Maya also acted rather surprised. considering that he had about 20 monsters to choose from she assumed there’d be at least 10 different traps.

“Just give me a second to finish and I’ll come look.” She turned back to finish making the tea since she was almost done. This time she went for green tea instead of the lemon or mint, a more refined and earthy taste which she quite enjoyed from time to time.

Seeing that she’d be another minute Frost kept fiddling with the screen hoping that he’d missed something but no matter how much he scrolled or exited and re-entered the page the contents never changed.

‘Could it be some kind of bug or was father really that stingy?’ Frost could think of several different trap types that would work in his current rooms, but he didn’t have access to them. It felt incredibly frustrating to him, the monsters he could understand due to his strength being a deciding factor but why would that limit the traps. His mind was spinning while he continually closely examined the entire page.

‘Hmm what’s that?’ At the top right-hand corner of the screen there was a small button with a saw and hammer symbol, hardly noticeable. He pressed the button causing the screen to change.

-Trap Design

These words were plastered at the top of the new page that had become 3D.

“Hahaha” Frost couldn’t help but laugh out loud, seeing the title reminded him of something written in the guidebook.

‘Your database of items will increase alongside your world knowledge and strength however I hope that you’ll bring some unique options of your own to the table.’

How could he forget, he was gifted the ability of creation, the power of the Gods. If it doesn’t exist, then why can’t he make it exist. Frost didn’t know that one of the main reasons Dark created the dungeon cores was because Nova had grown stagnant and needed some new and interesting creations. He hoped that his children, the dungeon cores would go on to create new species, environments, items and even empires, bringing new life to the world instead of it having to simple rely on the innovations of the Gods. Different perspectives bring out different possibilities, his children may be able to think of things he never could.

Frost couldn’t stop a large smile from forming as multiple ideas and concepts filled his mind. Apparently according to the design page, the menu would work out an appropriate DP price once the design was finished. It didn’t need nearly as much details as creating an environment from scratch, so the idea was a lot less daunting.

“Hmm what are you smiling at?” Maya had finished with the tea and was bringing the cups over to the table. She initially came to clarify the issue with the traps but saw Frost smiling instead.

“I had it wrong, father wasn’t stingy with the options, just promoting the use of a different method.” Actually, Dark was a little stingy he didn’t put much thought into the options for traps, so it turned out a little bare but since Frost thought otherwise he wouldn’t correct him. Frost moved over allowing Maya to see the 3D trap design workshop.

“Hmm” Maya hummed with interest as Frost pointed out different tools.

‘This will certainly help divide up the talent between the dungeon cores.’ Maya surmised. The more options they could develop the better they’d be at handling different scenarios increasing their survivability. Frost was still in the excitement phase and didn’t truly grasp the danger of this world, but Maya knew all too well. She looked painfully towards Frost’s smiling face, hoping he’d never lose it.

‘Better safe than sorry.’ Maya had made up her mind about something unknown to Frost.

“Now I should be able to design the dungeon the exact way I wish in future but for now I think I’ll stick to the pre-set traps since I know their costs right off the bat.” Complex and more interesting traps could wait until he had some income coming in that wasn’t from the mana vein.

The dungeon had just passed the 24-hour mark, so it sent Frost a notification about the vein giving out the daily mana dose of 30DP, equivalent to a single goblin. It may not sound like much compared to the 15,000DP he started with, but he’ll get it every day and it’ll increase with the scope of the dungeon generating a great amount over time.

“Sounds like a good idea, considering the look on your face you’d probably spends days and days designing all the traps you’ve got cooking up in your mind.” They had a less than two days before the dungeon opens so he couldn’t spent all that time on traps that he probably couldn’t even afford.

“Hehe was I that obvious?” Frost lightly laughed while scratching his temple in embarrassment.