Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Leaving home

Over the next four days Frost and Maya welcomed a fair few adventuring parties into the dungeon alongside several external monsters drawn in by the scent of the dungeon core. Most left intact since they were aware of the danger however a few of the more reckless groups either suffered severe injuries or even lost a party member or two.

No one made it past the second section, and neither the frost troll, the polar bear or Frost were required to take part in any battles. The strongest visitors were only E-rank, so the frost wolves were more than enough.

Frost’s treasure stash also managed to increase slightly bringing his total to 50 silvers and his DP up to 4000.

A small group of goblins entered on the last day; Frost tried to engage with them to see if they’d join his monsters, but they were incapable of reason forcing him to kill them. At least they gave a good dose of DP.

Monsters would give a daily DP equivalent to an adventurer one rank higher, i.e. goblins gave a daily DP amount of 20 equivalent to an F-rank adventurer.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, he had a nice flow of income, and his forces were gradually increasing thanks to the goblin spawner, he even got lucky with the third summon coming out at level 8. With how things were progressing Frost felt that it was time to visit Furano. Unfortunately, his glaive mastery hadn’t progressed since his fight with Alex despite the fact he was diligently training in the training space every day.

Bang!

.....

Frost smashed an ice golem to fragments with his chakra covered fists. He looked at his hands in frustration.

‘It’s not enough, I’m not improving fast enough.’ He turned to face Maya who was lounging at the side.

“Maya, I thinks it’s time... let’s leave.” His gaze was filled with determination, it was time to pay Furano a visit. Feeling his determined gaze Maya sat up and smiled, she was also getting rather bored being holed up in the same place.

“Sounds great, I’ll go pack.” She jumped up and teleported back to the private space.

“Pack?”

‘What do you need to pack for woman, it’s just a short visit.’ Frost sighed and shook his head before joining her in the private space.

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In the past few days, they rearranged a few pieces of furniture and Frost got into the habit of occasionally summoning food with DP but other than that nothing else had changed.

Maya was in her bedroom throwing things into her storage bracelet, stuff like alternate clothes, jewellery etc... before rushing into the kitchen to pack snacks and alcohol. She was treating this like a holiday. Frost wisely chose not to interfere; his instincts were telling him to just let her do her thing.

He simply sat on the sofa in wait. Since he didn’t have a storage space that he could bring with him there was nothing he could pack in the first place. All he was taking was the silver and copper coins he pilfered from the dead bandits and adventurers -which he placed in a coin bag stored in his sleeve pocket- plus his 2 star glaive.

After 20 minutes Maya was still packing and rummaging through her things and Frost couldn’t take it anymore.

“What the hell are planning on doing? We’re only visiting Furano for a few days, we’re not moving house.” She’d thrown at least 20 dresses into her storage bracelet. Frost only had the one which regenerated and self-cleaned, so he didn’t understand the point.

“Ah! What do you know this our first outing together, dresses and make-up are a woman’s essential weapons.” Maya replied with a fierce expression.

“W...weapons?” Frost had zero clue about what she was saying. He frowned in confusion unable to respond.

“And here take this.” Maya reached into her sleeve and tossed an oval object at Frost. Frost caught the object; it was a beautiful white mask that covered the top half of someone’s face. He flipped it over to see the front depicted a wolf’s face and the material felt warm to the touch. A premium jade mask.

Now he was even more uncertain, he looked at Maya and then the mask then Maya again.

‘Why’d she give me a mask?’

Noticing his confusion, Maya deigned to explain.

“That face of yours is mine to look at, can’t just have any woman gawking at while we stroll through the streets of Furano.” She then ignored Frost and continued to pack.

‘What!’ Frost didn’t know how to feel about that. Angry that he was treated like an owned object, pride for his good looks or embarrassment from Maya’s declaration. Eventually with him unable articulate anything, just opening and closing his mouth repeatedly he gave up. He held his hands up in resignation and sat back down on the sofa entirely ignoring Maya, but he couldn’t help but smile slightly as he rubbed the mask.

It took an entire 2 hours from when she began for Maya to finish packing and that was only because she ran out of room in her bracelet.

“I’m ready.” She beamed a smile at Frost who had at some point drifted off into a nap. Woken up by her, Frost yawned before giving her a once over. She changed into a less revealing dress with tougher material, appearing more like an adventurer, she still looked beautiful though. He internally gave a thumbs up for her current outfit.

“Good the let’s head out.” Frost stretched before bringing up the dungeon menu.

“Let’s see there’s two groups in the winter forest and another larger group in the winter highlands area.” The first two were both E-rank adventurers whereas the last were a group of six F-ranks.

“The entrance is currently clear so we can teleport there.” The strength of the current parties were nothing the frost troll couldn’t handle so Frost felt safe leaving.

He extended his hand to Maya, which she grabbed hold of happily before the two of them teleported to the dungeon’s entrance.

Within the large stone gateway that led into the dungeon, space warped before Frost and Maya appeared. With the coast clear, they stepped beyond the boundary of the dungeon and proceeded to walk into the Northrend forest. Maya knew the way and told Frost of the path they were taking.

“It should take around a day or so if we simply walk there without any detours. In around 12 hours or so we’ll come across the main camp adventurers use, it contains a few places to rest and as well as supply stations. Up to you whether we visit or not.” Maya was only interested in Furano and not some smelly adventurer camp, so she didn’t exactly sing its praises.

“We’ll skip it then; we can visit it on the way back or another time.” Frost didn’t mind missing the camp, there was nothing there for them anyway. The two continued to walk and idly chat, however once they reached around 500 metres away from the dungeon Frost could feel as though something was severed. It caused him to feel nervous and heavy.

“We’ve just past the boundary of the dungeon’s influence. From now on we won’t be sustained by mana. We’ll be required to sleep and eat to retain our strength. It may feel awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it.” Maya patted Frost’s back to comfort him, but it helped only slightly.

He could no longer use any of the dungeon’s features except from checking the current DP levels. Everything else was locked, even the dungeon menu was looking downgraded. He felt as though he was missing an integral part of his body, it was unnerving to say the least.

For the next 24 hours the two of them walked together through the Northrend forest, Maya was wrapped around Frost’s arm for most of the journey, relishing in the romance. At the first sign of people, she forced him to wear the wolf mask and aligned her body next to his as if marking her territory. Frost wasn’t one to complain since a very soft feeling was enclosing his arm. He simply smiled gently towards the group who clicked their tongues in frustration before walking on.

“So, this is Furano.” Frost spoke with admiration and a glinting in his eyes. After walking for an entire day, he felt quite tired and peckish, he planned to find an inn right away.

The two stood before a large gate easily reaching 10 metres in height with the aligning walls not much shorter. Sheets of ice could be seen covering the entire masonry making it even more difficult to attack. Armed guards walked along the top, professionally keeping an eye out for any troublemakers. Frost and Maya were standing in a queue waiting their turn to enter the gates, but they didn’t have any form of ID and would be required to pay a toll.

They were standing behind a group of merchants who were chatting at length with the gatekeepers. Apparently, there was an issue with their permit, and it was causing a delay. Maya along with the other people waiting were getting irritated. The weather wasn’t exactly pleasant enough to be standing idle outside. Too cold for snow but the wind was fierce and piercing. A small child was shivering nearby while grabbing his parents hands, his nose was leaking a large snot ball, he’d obviously catch a cold at this rate.

Frost let out a sigh before calmly walking towards the child, his height and mask unfortunately made him look rather frightening in the child’s eyes as he hid behind his mother.

“[Warmth]” he pointed towards the child and cast a lifestyle magic spell called [warmth]. It surrounds the target in a warm air, heating up their body. The boy was no longer cold and stopped shivering, he was shocked and looked towards Frost with surprise, his eyes wide open as if he couldn’t believe what happened. It was his mother that had to speak on his behalf.

“Thank you mage-dono for your kindness.” She bowed slightly and smiled at Frost as did the boy’s father.

“No need for thanks.” Frost then picked up two small rocks before casting another spell.

“[Heat]” the rocks quickly heated up enough to be warm to the touch, he passed the rocks to the mother and father who were still shivering.

“They should stay warm for an hour or so, hopefully you’ll be within Furano by then.” Frost then turned around and headed back to Maya who was looking at him with a teasing smile.

“Thank you mage-dono.” The parents thanked him again as he walked off.

“You big softie.” Maya smiled proudly as she wrapped her arm around his and leaned on his shoulder.

After ten minutes it was finally their turn to enter.

“Do you have any ID mage-dono?” The guardsman asked with respect, he witnessed Frost’s earlier actions and already felt some goodwill towards him.

“Unfortunately, not, my companion and I came from a rural village in the Glacial mountains and have no proof of identity, is this an issue?” Maya warned him that they may have to pay some sort of fee to gain access.

‘Hopefully, he won’t charge too much.’

“No, it isn’t but you will have to pay a toll to enter, and you can only stay in the town for a maximum of seven days unless you gain some form of ID before then.”

“That’s good, thank you for the information.” Frost reached into his sleeve to pull out his coin purse.

“No problem that’s my job.” The guardsman smiled back joyfully; it wasn’t often people would be so understanding.

“The toll is 2 silver per person so that’ll be 4 silver sir.” Frost pulled out 4 silver coins with ease and placed them within the guard’s hand.

“I welcome the two of you to Furano, please enjoy your stay.” He then gave the signal to his companion to open the gate and allow them through.

“By the way if you register with the adventurer guild, you’ll be exempt from the toll fees.” The guardsman added on a little information as a freebie since Frost was a mage and such a nice person.

“Oh! is that so, where would I find the adventurer’s guild?” Frost asked since that was one of the buildings they planned to visit. In response the guardsman smiled.

“In fact, I’m just about to go on a break, if you’d like I could show where it is, plus I could also introduce you to a good inn.” The guardsman had the look of a savvy businessmen.

‘I guess it couldn’t hurt.’ Frost turned to Maya to get her opinion, she simply rubbed her head into his shoulder, saying that it was up to him.

“Very well, if it isn’t a bother.”

“None at all. Collin I’m taking my break now.” The guardsman yelled to his boss on the wall before leading Frost and Maya into Furano.