Chapter 415
Maya had already recovered from their first night together and like him was quite keen to experience such bliss again, hopefully without the agonising pain this time.
Frost exited the space warp and appeared in the living room. Maya was hard at work in the kitchen alongside Nanna who was wearing her unicorn apron as she played the role of assistant.
The young girl was quite encouraged after her success a few days ago. Volunteering more and more often to prepare the family meals, turns out she had a real passion for cooking. Whenever she was in the kitchen preparing and cooking the different ingredients, a large smile could be seen on her face.
Frost and Maya had discussed this change in her demeanour at length as they laid beside one another at night. They loved seeing her animated expressions and childlike innocence, cooking seemed to bring that out of her, so they agreed to promote such opportunities.
Frost even thought about taking Nanna to visit Sam in Kranor. If she really wanted to go down the path of being a chef he was more than happy to help facilitate it. Children should always follow their passions, that was their right.
While Nanna helped out Maya in the kitchen Loki was left in charge of monitoring the dungeon. Multiple holographic displays could be seen around the large floating orb present in the room. Each one displaying different areas of the dungeon. One showed Findlay and Khuno organising the battle teams for the next wave while another displayed the situation at the medical centre. From the living room Loki was able to witness the dungeon in its entirety.
The young phoenix kin sat on the sofa with a notebook and writing utensils splayed out on the coffee table. He was taking notes in regards to the many situations taking place, hoping to increase his management capabilities and thus increase his value in the eyes of his master.
A soft smile adorned Frost’s face as he saw this before he walked up behind Loki and ruffled his hair.
.....
“Thanks for your hard work Loki. You can take a break now; the officers will take care of the recovery work.” Frost sat down beside Loki on the sofa, glancing at the notes he took.
“It’s no problem master, I quite like monitoring the dungeon.” Loki looked up at Frost and smiled from ear to ear. He enjoyed being helpful.
“Alright then.” Frost leaned back against the sofa; he was still quite exhausted after all, so he simply let Loki continue his work.
Frost then opened up the dungeon menu above his wrist, he had promised to shore up the dungeon’s forces.
’10 ronsos, 5 ice revenants, 5 yuki-onnas, 20 frost revenant knights, 10 ice dwarves, 3 frost troll lieutenants and.....’ Frost quickly entered the monster section and added a diverse range of upper ranked monsters to shore up the dungeon’s forces. DP cost was not an issue as he currently had north of 150K.
Over the past few days the income had been anything but low so not only did he frequently add more monsters thus creating more battle teams for the shift rotation he also outfitted the entire 8th floor with the glacial steppe environment, added an additional frigid iron mine as well as a duram mine which cost no small amount given its high quality. 64,000DP for 50kg a day, the same price as the ice borne titanium which was his alternative choice.
In the end he chose the duram mine since duram combines into alloys with other metals far easier and is less elemental in nature.
These two mines were added to the sixth floor, the safe floor designed for monster and external inhabitants alike. Now however it was mainly reserved for the ronsos while they rested as well as the frost and ice dwarves working in the mines.
Kiba also seemed to quite like this floor but was mainly positioned on the fifth floor along with the other beast type monsters. They hadn’t seen too much action given that the recent waves took place within the ruined artic castle sections -not very beneficial for their tactics.
The cold flame traps had also been finished during the past 3 days, each of which cost a minimum of 1500DP, a much higher grade than the basic ones Frost started with, far more devasting as well. If an E-rank or even D-rank adventurer was unlucky enough to be struck by one of these cold flame traps their lives would be forfeit.
Currently they had developed 3 types.
One which shoots bolts of cold fire, similar to the regular bolt shooting trap just with different ammunition. The second was a derivation of the frost mine. Frost altered the structure to release cold flames that were at the mid mortal rank, more than enough to rapidly freeze and burn unsuspecting prey.
The third trap was quite elaborate in appearance, a phoenix head – decided by Frost and Maya- would breath out cold flames across the surrounding area whenever an intruder stepped on the floor trigger. These traps could appear just like statues or simple masonry works of art, catching adventurers by surprise. A suitable form for the ruined artic castle environment.
Frost added several of such traps to the former tertiary defence zone. Such contraptions would serve to thin the herd slightly as it made its way through the dungeon.
Frost was just about to confirm his massive purchase when he realised that he had forgotten something. With a wild smile he returned to the monster section hoping to find a certain species.
‘Bingo’ now present among the list of monsters were the drakes they’d just fought against. A species of monster that Frost found quite incredible. Powerful attacks, incredible defence, long and wide ranged breath attacks, resistant to magic and of course a tenacious life force.
Drakes had very little weaknesses given their dragon ancestry. The only faults Frost could see were their lacking agility and inability to fly but in the grand scheme of things that was negligible. Hardly any of his current monsters could fly and low agility wasn’t a death sentence especially when they’re covered in scales.
At the thought of the drake’s scales Frost’s smile grew, such materials were always highly sought after and would grant him a substantial profit as well as serve as great lures. A monster lair or in his case a dungeon that held anything with ties to dragons would see its attraction to adventurers, merchants and even local towns and villages become irresistible.
Dragon materials were by far one of the most sought after regardless of their rank. Armour, weapons, magic devices, clothes, building materials, alchemy ingredients you name it dragons and their lesser kin were walking gold mines. Of course their danger levels were also unbelievably high but when money was involved that aspect always seemed to be forgotten.
The C-rank option wasn’t available probably due to Frost’s strength restriction but the lesser drakes which were at the peak of D-rank could now be purchased for a substantial 1100DP a piece. Equal to the frost revenant knights which he had become enamoured with at first sight.
‘Let’s add 5 of the lesser drakes for a trial run.’ Frost silently added 5 lesser drakes to the already massive shopping cart.
And with a simple click of a button Frost saw his over 150K dwindle to a paltry sum of less than 20,000. Frost decided several days ago that he wouldn’t let his DP ever fall below 10,000 anymore -unless absolutely necessary. This level would serve as his safety buffer.
The longer this stampede went on the more he saw his massive income being spent like running water, it was never enough to satisfy the black hole that was his dungeon and its future plans.
‘Once this is over and the chaos has died down things will change.’ Frost shook his head and let out a slight sigh as he wished those days would arrive soon. Adventurers flocking to his dungeon in search of treasure and materials. Battling against his monster forces in the name of profit and strength, not a massive, frenzied war like they were currently faced with.
His external camp would also be up and running at that time, granting passive DP from those who choose to reside within the confines of the camp. The many materials retrieved during this war would serve as stock for the many shops attracting more and more residents and adventuring customers.
Daki could set up her shop and train his ronsos and ice dwarven smiths in regards to weapon and armour forging, materials would never be in question. The future looked bright in Frost’s mind, they just needed to survive through this stampede to make it there.
The mid stages were nearing their end, the late/final stages would follow. There the numbers would be lower but the average quality and the control in which the monsters conducted themselves would be a stark contrast to the earlier waves. Frost both feared and looked forward to the late stages. His Dungeon, in theory shouldn’t be as much of an attractive target to the hordes at that point, allowing his monsters some rest as well as the chance to develop the external room.