Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 2: Dungeon points (DP)

‘So, for every 10 goblins that die I’ll get a free one.’ Internally calculated Frost.

“The stronger the monster the more DP it’s going to cost you but whether a single strong monster or multiple weaker monsters is more effective I’ll leave that for you to experiment with.” Dark had an amusing smile on his face, he wasn’t going to tell his kids everything. Where would the fun in that be.

Frost instantly understood and smiled in response, he too felt that it would be rather boring to be told everything. Even the weakest monsters, if used strategically could take down something like a dragon.

“I think that covers monster basics; you’ll be able to discover the rest later. Next up we should probably discuss the dungeon part of Dungeon cores.” Dark gestured Frost to move back a few steps, Frost did as instructed. His heart started to thump loudly with anticipation for what he’ll be shown next.

Dark once again manoeuvred through the dungeon menu, he came out of the monster section and moved to a section called [dungeon design]. After entering, the menu changed quite drastically, it enlarged to about 3 times in size and became three dimensional. Frost now understood why he was asked to take a step back.

The menu now displayed multiple examples of pre-generated dungeons. Some had tens of floors, others had massive sections over 30 kilometres in size and even the smallest ones were 200 metres long.

Many of the example sections had mazes or some extreme terrain such as deserts or mountain treks. More common environments were things such as forests or plains, there were even castle designs that spanned several floors. All of these examples differed greatly from one another, Frost thought each of them looked interesting but failed to realise the purpose of a dungeon. The only common trait was that it would take someone a long time to reach the end of them even without monsters blocking their path.

.....

Dark watched his son intently as he studied the examples before him, he didn’t want to immediately explain their purpose before giving Frost a chance to work it out himself, like is eldest brother managed to do. Dark zoomed in on a simple dungeon of five floors which had multiple room types.

“You can use the dungeon menu to create as many floors and rooms as you wish, each with the same or different environments, but like with monsters each design will cost you DP.”

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‘DP again.’ Dark already mentioned that using the core would cost DP, but he hadn’t yet said how he was to go about procuring said DP. Only that he couldn’t convert mana into it like he did. Frost looked once again at the dungeon that was being displayed, trying to figure out what his father was hinting at.

“Does how I design my dungeon somehow affect the amount of DP I can gain?” Frost didn’t know why this would be the case but surmised it from the way his father was acting. His response caused Dark to laugh.

“Hahaha, yes how you design your dungeon, from its layouts to the traps and monsters that dwell in it will most certainly be a major factor.” At this point Frost still couldn’t understand why they were connected and was confused as to how he would create and design a dungeon to gain DP when it costs DP to make in the first place. Frost grew rather annoyed with the constant tid bits of knowledge he was being given instead of a straight answer. Dark picked up on his frustration when he started receiving frowns and glares instead of smiles.

“Hit hmm.” Dark lightly coughed.

“Let’s address the elephant in the room then, how you acquire DP.” Frost once again looked happily towards his father, encouraging him to answer directly.

“Your main source of DP will be gained from intruders that stay in your dungeon for a period of time and or die within in it.” Frost had a lightbulb moment, having a large and complicated layout would force the intruders to spent large amounts of time within the dungeon, and the monsters would kill them. He now understood how they were all linked but....

“Why do intruders give DP?” He found that to be rather strange. Considering that the dungeon would also be his house wouldn’t designing a home for others be beside the point.

“Good question, every living being contains life energy including you. That life force can be converted into creation energy or dungeon points as I’m calling it for you guys. Technically it’s nothing new just a renaming along with a measurement scale. When people are in your dungeon, the core will slowly absorb their life energy and convert it into DP. When they die however, you’ll receive all of their life energy at once so definitely use that to your advantage.” All of this information sounded like a lot to take in, but Frost found it to be quite simple, clearing up his remaining confusion.

“I’m guessing the stronger the creature the more life energy it contains resulting in either gaining more DP from the intruder or costing more to summon one.” Dark responded by tapping his nose with his finger.

“Exactly, man it’s enjoyable explaining it to someone smart. Your 3rd sibling, well let’s just say he’s more brawn than brains.” Dark’s brow subconsciously tensed and frowned as he remembered his third child.

“Anyway, that’s how you gain DP but how you’ll attract intruders in and what the most effective monsters are I’ll leave for you to experiment with, it’s more fun that way.” Dark mischievously looked towards Frost with a smirk on his face. Frost agreed with this statement, being told exactly how to run his dungeon would be boring, trying out new monsters or different environments. Seeing how they play out even if they’re failures would be exciting. The corners of his mouth couldn’t help but rise into a cunning smile as he conjured up different options in his head.

“Will the intruders notice the core absorbing some of their life force and will it affect their health?” As Frost was pondering, this question cropped up.

“No, at least not in the short term. I haven’t tested it out on periods longer than a year, so it’ll be another thing for you to investigate.” That was good news for Frost as he was currently imagining trapping intruders within the dungeon basically forever if possible.

‘If they’re not affected over the period of a year then it’s unlikely that it’s doing anything to them that doesn’t happen naturally in their daily lives.’

“Alright we’ve covered introductions, gone over monster summoning, dungeon design and dungeon points what else is there... what else....” Dark placed his hand under his chin and tilted his head to the side as he tried to think of what else he needed to tell Frost.

“Hmmmmm.... Nope I got nothing.... What about you Frost, do you have anything you want to ask before you go?” Frost twitched in surprise from being suddenly put on the spotlight. Not long ago he didn’t even know who or what he was and now he’s being asked what else he needs to know. Frost copied his father’s actions of placing his hands on his chin and tilting his head to the side as he tried to come up with something to ask.

“.... Before you go.” Frost mumbled what Dark said subconsciously before grasping something.

“Where am I going?” After he said it, he couldn’t believe that it didn’t come to him sooner. What was going to happen to him next, where was he being sent to?

“Ah!... Damn I can’t believe I actually forgot that part.” Dark smacked his forehead with his hand in realisation at what an idiot he was.

“Sorry about that getting more and more forgetful in my old age.”

‘Old age’ Frost looked over his father but all he could see was a handsome middle-aged man actually he looked just on the cusp of entering middle-aged, way too early for him to be blaming age for his memory.

“You’re going to the world of Nova, something my friend and I created a long time ago.” Dark smiled with pride at the mention of Nova, his eyes revealing a sense of nostalgia.

“Now this world is big, and I mean BIG. Even with a 100 massive dungeons you’ll barely take up a fraction of it, so no need to worry about running out of space.” Frost recalled some of the examples Dark showed him that contained hundreds of floors each over a 100 kilometres in length.

“About 60% of Nova is made up of water and the remaining 35% is made up of 5 major continents aptly named the north, east, south, west, and central continents with the central one being slightly larger than the rest. The remaining 5% accounts for the hundreds of thousands of islands that dot the oceans. Each of the landmasses has their own preferred environments and monsters. For example, the southern continent is very hot and dry, resulting in many deserts and volcanos which fire based monsters like to call home. Many of these landmasses as well as some of the oceans contain great kingdoms and empires created by some of the more powerful and abundant races, each with their own customs and laws however....” Dark’s expression suddenly became dark, he was clenching his teeth together in anger and his eyes and aura radiated a strong pressure. Frost froze in shock.

“Be careful of the Holy White empire and their so-called Church of Light!” Dark appeared to be forcing out these words as his teeth ground together. Pure hatred was all Frost could see in his father’s eyes, what could those people have done to cause such wrath to appear by merely mentioning their name. Dark spat on the ground as if he was ejecting something foul from his mouth before calming down.

“Just be wary of them, they’re dangerous.” Frost made sure to memorise Dark’s words and promised himself to be careful.

“Anyway, they’re just a part of Nova, there’s much more of it you can and should explore and interesting people you can meet, and I strongly advise that you do.” After spitting, Dark returned to his joyful attitude and continued to explain the rest of Nova.

“Some of the seafood found in the oceanic kingdom’s is absolutely heavenly and dwarven alcohol always goes down well blah...blah.” Dark happily fired off foods and beverages that Frost should try, clearly trying to overcompensate on the good things after mentioning the Church of Light. Frost understood this but still listened intently as the description Dark gave of his favourite seafood caused his mouth to salivate.

Beep! beep!

Suddenly a loud alarm started to sound from Dark’s wrist bringing an end to his ramblings. He pulled up his sleeve to reveal a beautiful silver watch.

“Out of time already, damn and I was really having fun here but oh well.” Dark waved his hand causing a large magic crest to appear beneath Frost.

“It was fun chatting with you my son, I hope we’ll get another chance soon, good luck.” Dark started waving goodbye. Frost was frozen stiff from the shock of the sudden goodbye.

“Me too, bye.” He said the first thing that came to mind before his vision was enveloped in darkness.

“Oh! one last thing.” He could still hear dark’s voice but couldn’t see him.

“Take care of that girl and she’ll do the same, have fu....” Before Dark could finish his sentence, Frost was completed covered by the darkness of the magic crest and vanished leaving nothing behind.

“I really gotta time these things better, maybe I should have the alarm go off a few minutes before the deadline instead of a few seconds.” Dark pondered and fiddled with his watch switching between new times for the alarm to go off.

“Alright time to call in number 8.” Dark turned invisible and returned to his seat at the jade table before the next of his children appeared in the courtyard.

Frost however was currently still quite shocked at his sudden removal from Dark’s garden. It all happened so quickly that he barely registered Dark’s last words, something about a girl. The current situation was certainly not helping. He was enclosed in a large black egg about 3m in diameter, just enough room to be comfy. He couldn’t feel it moving per say but it was certainly transporting him through space making him rather queasy.

With no horizon to stare at it’s just a question of whether he’ll barf first or arrive at his intended destination first. Of which he still didn’t know where, as Dark put it the world of Nova was big, he could end up anywhere even in the middle of the ocean, who knows.

“Oh well no use worrying about it now.” Frost uttered, resigning to his fate. There wasn’t much he could do to change it anyway, only wait.