Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 5: Establishing the Dungeon (2)

Frost’s face clearly showed that he was unimpressed. Maya however was full of excitement as she gazed in wonder at the floating dungeon map.

“Wow isn’t that amazing, just a minute ago there was nothing but a cold dark cave, now there’s over 100 times the space.” Prior to Dungeon cores such a thing was impossible unless the Gods were personally involved, no amount of mortal magic could produce such a result. But now through the use of DP, beings like Frost could create them at will.

Hearing Maya’s opinion Frost felt quite embarrassed at his immaturity, unable to fully comprehend what just happened, only seeing skin deep.

“But it’s kinda dull looking while empty so let’s rectify that.” Maya cheekily smiled at Frost erasing his doubt as she felt the same way.

“Sure, what do you or the book suggest doing first?” The three sections were all square in shape with their length and width being approximately 1km each way. Certainly, large enough or even too large for some kind of arena-based room but far too small for something like a forest or maze.

The examples Dark showed him previously were generally much larger in size, with the sections being split up into smaller rooms or their dimensions being elongated or circular. Frost hoped either Maya or the guidebook would give him some answers on how to replicate such rooms or at least guide him in the right direction.

“I suggest we look at the monsters you have available to summon first so as to work out what type of environment would suit them best.” Maya energetically answered without hesitation, she clearly put a fair amount of thought into this.

.....

Frost agreed but was rather puzzled, Dark hadn’t mentioned anything about limiting the types of monsters he could summon.

Frost took back control of the dungeon menu at Maya’s behest, returning back to the main screen and then entering the monster section.

Now displayed in front of them was a very short list especially compared to the pages and pages that Dark had available. There was about 20 or so different monsters, each with different DP costs and ranks. They were laid out in order of rank then cost like such.

[Monster] [rank] [cost]

[Frost goblin] [G] [30]

[Winter boar] [F] [90]

[Frost wolf] [E] [150]

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[Polar bear] [D] [500]

D-rank monsters were the highest rank that were available as well as having the least variance, showing a mere three options, polar bears, yetis, or frost trolls.

‘Huh there’s no regular goblins.’ Frost clicked on the frost goblin monster to get some more details on it and was presented with a picture and a brief description.

[Frost Goblin]

Similar to a regular goblin in strength but has blue skin instead of green. They tend to live in cold climates causing them to be slightly smaller but more agile and resistant to ice magic than their green counterparts. Very weak monster, the size of a human child and similar in strength. Simple frost goblins are incapable of speaking the common tongue and come armed with a damaged dagger and some simple rabbit pelts for clothes.

“That’s actually a pretty good selection, the fact you also get a description about the monster is a nice bonus, plus it’ll save me having to explain about each one.” Maya didn’t say the last part out loud.

Frost looked over the list of twenty or so monsters, a few certainly stood out whereas others looked pretty useless, but he still wished to try them at some point.

“When it comes to actually choosing monsters, I won’t give any input, leaving it entirely to your discretion. However, I don’t recommend trying all 20 to begin with. Start with maybe 8 or so different types and see how they work out against intruders before buying more.” Frost agreed with that point and already hallmarked a couple to try first.

While having a closer look at some of the more interesting monsters he noticed a separate link called beasts.

“Maya, do you know what this page is for?” He gestured towards the beasts section. In his mind he didn’t see much difference between beasts and monsters.

“Oh yeah, beasts aren’t technically monsters due to not having a magic crystal in their bodies and due to that they tend to be smaller and less aggressive. They also can’t get any stronger or evolve like monsters can.” Maya gave a textbook answer without batting an eye.

Monsters have magic crystals within them that can be used to power magic artefacts; be used in alchemy, casting magic and much more. So monsters are frequently hunted by adventurers for these crystals even if they don’t have much else useful in terms of materials e.g., goblins. Beasts however are your basic forms of animals and are generally less dangerous, they don’t have magic crystals like monsters but can still be very attractive to people due their meat and or hides.

Frost went into the beast section. Again, there was a list of creatures each with their own costs but no rank. The beasts available could be classified as simple wildlife as there were rabbits, squirrels and even deer. Their costs were quite a bit lower than the monsters available, rabbits costing a mere 3DP.

“What do you mean by monsters can get stronger and evolve?” Frost picked up on that point. Within the frost goblin’s description, it said ‘simple frost goblins’ which suggested there were others. Maya looked slightly shocked, she gazed at Frost blankly.

“W...what did Dark God-sama actually teach you?” She questioned in dismay. In her mind Dark should have taught or given Frost this basic knowledge before he arrived. She wondered if she’d have to explain every little detail to him as they progressed.

Frost looked back on the time he spent with Dark and remembered him prattling on and on about food and drink for a while. His face scrunched up in irritation.

“Never mind I’ll explain it.” Maya got her answer from Frost’s frown.

“Monsters can sometimes evolve after gaining enough strength into a stronger species. Outside of dungeons, monsters would gain strength through killing and eating other monsters or people and eventually they would evolve into their next form e.g., goblin to hobgoblin. However Dark god-sama reworked a few laws for dungeons, monsters will gain strength the same way, but you’ll be able to see it as a numerical value, known as levels.”

“Once a monster you summoned has reached its max level, you’ll be able to choose from a list of options it can evolve into. I don’t know the options available but that was the basic details Dark God-sama placed in the guidebook, you can probably experiment by levelling as many different monsters as you can.” Maya took a deep breath after explaining that in one go before giving Frost a look to make sure he understood as she wasn’t going to say that whole thing again. Luckily Frost understood with a single telling, he did however think it would be prudent to look through the guidebook himself, so as to fill in any blanks he might have.

“Alright now that that’s explained, and you’ve had a chance to look at the monsters available, should we check out the environments?” Maya explained a few additional things to Frost before bringing the monster subject to a close. Apparently, the monster roster would grow alongside Frost’s knowledge and strength, Dark was clearly encouraging him to explore Nova.

The max level of a monster is also determined by its rank, Maya didn’t know every ranks max, but the book said that for those of G-rank it was level 10.

Finally, monsters that are within the dungeon don’t require food or drink due to being able to absorb the dungeon’s mana removing any upkeep costs.

“That sounds good, I’ve thought of at least 3 monsters I’d like to summon, the rest it’ll depend on the environment styles available.” Maya said before that his monsters and environments were ice based so he already had a good idea of what they could be.

Frost manoeuvred the dungeon menu back to the dungeon design section bringing up the 3D hologram once again. The hologram was fully interactive allowing Frost to rotate, zoom and isolate different parts of the dungeon, making designing much easier.

He brought up the list of environments which was similar to the monster list just much, much larger.

“That’s a lot to choose from.” Frost scrolled through a few pages of options that were ranked by DP cost. The cheapest ranging from 1,000DP whereas a few of the more expensive ones reached over 1,000,000DP.

‘Damn 1,000,000DP just for a single section’s environment, what is it made of gold?’ Frost briefly took a look at one of the extravagant environments called primordial ice realm but quickly pulled out so as to not dampen his mood. He’d lose all interest in the environments he could afford if he got a taste of the best right away.

All of these options could be customised to change their layout, add unique features such as mines or unique plants as well as generate basic wildlife i.e., beasts. There was also the option to design your own environment from scratch, but it looked quite tedious and taxing to start with, easier to choose an environment template and edit it to his preferences. Frost was spoiled for choice and looked towards his partner for assistance, she hadn’t said anything about assisting with the choices of environments.

“Haaaaaaa sometimes too much choice isn’t a good thing, give it here.” Maya released a sigh before ordering Frost to relinquish control of the menu.

She swept through like it was second nature, she must have had practise with something similar. Maya filtered the list to show only the basic environments and their template layouts as well as limiting the cost to a max of 3000DP shortening the list to a much more manageable level.

“Just look at some of these ones to start with, you only have 15000DP so spend it wisely.” Maya gave back the menu after saying her piece. The list was as follows:

[Environment], [cost]

[Winter Forest] [1500]

[Ice plains] [1500]

[Winter highlands] [2000]

[Tundra] [2500]

[Artic castle (interior)] [2000]

[Ice Caverns] [2000]

They were all simple templates without any additional unique features just the basics. The artic castle especially sounded grander than it appeared, all it was, was an arrangement of cold stone rooms all fairly damaged.

A few rooms would have broken furniture and old wooden doors, more of an abandoned ruins than a castle, plus it was only the interior. You’d enter straight from another section without seeing any outside castle features but what can do when you’re on a budget.

Each section would have to have its own environment so that’s a minimum 4500DP right out the door. Plus considering the current size of the sections they’ll need to be expanded to be of any solid use. Luckily, there was no extra charge for the environment based on the section’s size. Frost thought that he should at least expand the first two sections once and leave the final section until the next shot of income.

The sections were currently classed as small rooms each 1km by 1km. To increase the size to a medium room (5km by 5km) would cost 1500Dp per room so another 3000DP. Frost continued to mull over the possibilities before roping in Maya to bounce ideas off of.

After about 30 minutes Frost and Maya had decided on which environments to use.

“So, we’re agreed?” Frost tiredly asked Maya, all their back and forth was quite vexing as he desperately didn’t want to fail in the eyes of his father.

“Yep, sounds good young master.” Maya responding back while waving her hand showing she was done with the subject.

Their selection was as follows.

The 1st section would have a Winter highlands environment. The winter highlands was a collection of open snow-covered plains along with some large cliffs and rocky areas as well as a partially frozen river that flowed through the centre of the room. Frost randomised the arrangement of the cliffs and rocks. For anyone to reach the second section they’d have to cross a vision obscuring blizzard and some fairly harsh terrain.

The 2nd section would be a winter forest. It was full of frost covered trees and not much else. The trees themselves weren’t particularly special however navigating through it would still take a fair amount of time plus it should be easy for intruders to get lost when everywhere looks the same.

The final section would be the artic castle (interior), since it’s the last area Frost thought having some smaller rooms with tougher monsters would be better than an open landscape. He also decided to expand the first two sections to medium size.

“How much is that going to cost you?” asked Maya.

“5500 for the environments and 3000 for the expansions so 8500DP in total, leaving 6500DP for everything else.” Frost calculated with his fingers as he answered. He felt that 6500DP should be more than enough. Of course, the majority of it would go to monster summoning whereas the rest could be used for traps and items.

At this point Frost hadn’t had the chance to freely look through the dungeon menu as that would take several hours considering the amount of miscellaneous items he could purchase. There was even a section for purchasing magic spells, simple skills and even weapon techniques, the possibilities were endless.

‘Father really went all out on designing this menu.’