Conquering His Cold Heart

"Ok 3, 2, 1, go" Frost closed his eyes and told Loki to start scrolling.

After a few seconds "Stop" Frost opened up his eyes and called for Loki to stop. The two then looked at the Dungeon menu to see which environment Loki's finger was pointing at.

Five fingers of Ymir – 19,000DP

A long stretch of landscape that offers significant changes in elevation, five deep valleys spanning horizontally across the room representing Ymir's fingers.

It was a gruelling landscape that didn't even require monsters to pose a threat. The fall from one of the peaks was enough to kill even a skilled adventurer. To descend into the valleys one needed to either physically scale the perilous cliffs or follow the set of narrow and fragile stairs carved into the side of the valley.

"Damn." Frost said after reading through the environment's description. Seems the two of them really hit the jackpot with this little game. The five fingers of Ymir was a little pricier than what they'd chosen for previous floors, but it was definitely different.

"Shall we try for 2 out of 2?"

"Un" Loki nodded his head before closing his eyes, it was his turn to say stop.

"3, 2, 1 go."

Around 12 seconds later "Stop!"

"Alright what do we have this time."

Winter hold keep – 17,500.

An old abandoned keep that has weathered through storms of ice and snow. An arrangement of small and large rooms with built in traps, open walls that grant access to freezing winds and secret passages running through the entire structure. This environment was a sort of an upgrade to the ruined castle (interior) found on the upper floors.

Invaders would first enter onto a snowy plain, the massive keep would then lay ahead with walls spanning from one end of the room to the other. The only way to move forward was to enter the keep through the damaged gate.

Frost found the idea of an old keep lying beyond the five fingers of Ymir environment quite intriguing. He turned to look at Loki and could see a glint in his eyes that matched his own. They both found this combination appealing, it stoked the adventurous spirit in their hearts as though screaming that something mystical must dwell in the following room.

As if in sync the two of them then pointed at the exact same environment for the final room. "That one."

Heart of a 1000 year glacier – 21,000DP

The entire environment is the inside of a 1000 year old glacier. Cavern like paths stretch throughout the glacier's system, leading to open chambers with freezing streams and deadly stalactites. As one draws deeper into the glacier, the temperature drops and pits of what can only be described as spurting ice lava dot the paths. The place is a veritable maze that gradually freezes any who enter.

Currently there wasn't a single environment in the Dungeon that could compare to this environment's ambient temperature.

Both Frost and Loki felt that such a perilous and daunting route deserved something like this at the finish line, none of the other environments seemed to do it justice.

So with complete agreement from his little partner Frost packaged up the new floors and completed their first purchase of the day for a grand total of 106,500DP (new floors =40,000, 3 medium room expansions =9000, 3 environments = 57,500).

Almost a 7th of their reserves spent just like that on something that wouldn't be seen by adventurers for quite some time given their current progress, but still, a fixed asset was a fixed asset.

Following the light-heartedness with choosing environments both Frost and Loki took the rest of their remodelling more seriously. Another 200,000DP was attributed to increasing the output of the mines on floor 5.5 as well as outfitting them with additional frost dwarf spawners to retrieve the extra material.

20,000 was spent on additional traps for the upper floors while 40,000 was spend on the lower floors (upper floors =1 to 5, lower floors = 6 to 10). This was due to the adventurers mapping out most of the current ones thus making them far less efficient.

250,000 was spent on 4 D-rank spawners, 2 being for frost drakes, 1 for lesser yuki-onnas and the last one being for polar bears.

An additional 70,000DP was spent on purchasing individual monsters of both high and low rank. Frost wished to expand his roster through differing evolutionary paths. The slimes in particular were a group he was keen on seeing flourish. A monster with endless potential but with a very, very weak starting point.

Despite him actively purchasing them since the Dungeon began few managed to evolve multiple times. Right now the strongest he could purchase was only E-rank a fair bit off from becoming slimeoids who could alter their form at will and become a true menace on the battlefield.

10,000DP was spent on miscellaneous items, 15,000 was set aside as rewards for his monsters (For their efforts during the war with Karrick) while a final 30,000DP was used to create randomised treasure chests throughout the Dungeon as suggested by Khuno to keep the current adventurers engaged.

The grand total for today's spending thus amounted to 741,500DP leaving a paltry 10,000 in the bank. This was by far the largest purchase Frost had made to date, but did it phase him? No not in the slightest. The Dungeon was currently raking in tens of thousands of DP per day, so this sum would be regained in a month or two, but it could also be spent just as easily.

It was an endless cycle, growing the Dungeon to increase DP income also increased the costs to run the place. Frost was sure that by the time the Dungeon of Niflheim reached 30 floors he'd likely be spending a million DP every month just to keep up.

All this remodelling caused the Dungeon to repeatedly shake with every purchase. The monsters were in the know thanks Khuno warning them beforehand but the adventurers within got spooked thinking that they were going to be locked in again. Only when the rumbling ceased and nothing unexpected jumped out at them did these people finally calm down and continue their delve.

Time moved on in the world. The Dungeon of Niflheim as well as the many Dungeons around Nova continued to develop and display their own unique traits. Some like Frost formed territories around their entrances, attracting permanent sources of DP while others killed and feasted upon their intruders like starving animals forcing up their danger rankings, attracting juicier and far more rewarding prey.

Another group of let's just say more callous Dungeon cores didn't want to manage territory beyond the scope of their dungeon but they also didn't want to lose out on that delectable passive DP, so they set up massive prisons within their Dungeons and captured hundreds of adventurers to serve as caged livestock.

Frost always frowned whenever he heard rumours about this through the Dungeon core sibling grapevine. He wasn't necessarily against the idea of caged livestock as he himself occasionally partook in the practise, but he felt that these siblings were taking a substantial risk doing it on such a grand scale. However to each their own.

The federation of knowledge eventually released several statements regarding Dungeons as well as a short pamphlet that could be purchased either at any of their branches or the adventurers' guild.

Inside were key details, outlining some differences between them and monsters lairs, things to be aware of such as the prewar warning signal and finally some basic suggestions and rules of approved behaviour.

The war signal that Frost suggested had been agreed to by at least 30 other Dungeon cores and rejected by another 15 before Dark stepped in an made the whole thing official. As a reward he was granted a 10,000DP gacha pull which resulted in a 4th circle ice spell called [Icy tempest].

With the federation taking action more and more adventurers swarmed to these Dungeons keen to take a bite out of the new hype. While merchants and businessmen flocked to the areas nearby so as to take advantage of the new gold mines. The Niflheim base camp saw a sharp increase in visitor and permanent residents the moment the federation released their statements.

Everyone wanted a piece of these Dungeons while they were still growing to avoid the rabid competition that would ensue in the future when these Dungeons sported tens of floors.

While Frost and his Dungeon prospered the same couldn't be said for Northrend. The political carnage that was the fight for the throne became more and more fierce as time went on. The crown prince that was originally a sure win for the throne was now without protection.

His actions against Frost as well as several other incidents that the 2nd prince manage to bring to light convinced their father emperor Franz Northrend to even the playing field. He withdrew his support thus isolating Randolph from a large chunk of his backing. He now needed to fight tooth and nail with Sedrick for public support.

Whoever gained the most loyalty from the commoners, noble families and government officials would be crowned emperor. Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr

It was a dark and stressful time for empire of Northrend.