Conquering His Cold Heart

After several minutes of warm hugging the family of four broke off with cheery smiles, the pall brought on by the assassination attempt becoming a formless breeze, lost in the wind.

Frost then proceeded to ask Nanna and Loki about their lives over the past week which they were more than happy to regale. The two children spoke of their progress in terms of their education, their roles in regards to helping out with the construction of the newly minted camp as well as the fun times they had playing with the monsters during their downtime.

Each tale widened Frost's already ear stretching smile, he couldn't be prouder and more enthralled by their words. Just hearing about their daily lives brought warmth and joy to his heart. He now understood his own father a little better.

After talking the four of them prepared for an early night so as to be up at the crack of dawn ready to work. Frost had a hefty schedule to uphold after all, so much work to do in preparation for his future customers and residents. Though the dungeon wouldn't likely see another sapient for the coming weeks the amount of construction needed to meet his minimum requirements was staggering.

The fierce war where his and his monsters lives were in jeopardy was over but now a new chapter promising to be no less exhausting was underway.

Maya joined him for the night, sleeping peacefully entwined at his side, providing the two of them a sense of ease. Frost had the first peaceful rest in quite a while, even his dreams were rather comforting and soothing thus when the sun finally rose over the mountain where the dungeon resided, he awoke with a spring in his step.

His body feeling limber, supple and full of strength, ready for a hard day's work.

Maya was still more of late riser, so she cutely groaned as he shifted off the bed. She had no need to get up so early and never would if she had the option. Frost gently placed a peck on her forehead before leaving the bedroom as quietly as possible. It was time for him to shift gears and make do on his many plans. Adventuring time was over, now it was time to be a dungeon core.

Frost made his way to the sofa and plopped himself down in front of the pseudo dungeon core that allowed him to view and control pretty much every faculty of the multi-floor spanning dungeon.

"Guess I should take stock of the dungeon's current state before taking any action." Frost proceeded to bring up a 3d hologram of the dungeon, allowing him to view it as a whole.

The first floor was still a winter highlands environment followed by a winter forest and then the ruined castle interior to finish. There was the addition of a few spawners that still continued to churn out monsters every 12 or 24 hours as well as the iron mine connected to the winter forest.

It was rather unusual for a monster lair to have differing environments especially after every room, but Frost decided that there was no need to change it. The three rooms worked fine as is and would help set his dungeon apart from the rank-and-file monster lairs plus having changing environments helped shore up an adventurer's skills thus increasing their survivability.

The second floor consisted of a continuation of the ruined castle interior for the first section whereas the following two were ice cavern labyrinths that were to be honest a little simple and could be easily mapped out after several delves but since it was only the 2nd floor he didn't care much.

He planned to increase the difficulty of the dungeon as it descended both in regards to monsters and environments.

Most of the temporary changes enacted for the purpose of the stampede had already been removed thus returning the focus back onto adventuring parties rather than waves and waves of maddened monsters.

After the second floor the dungeon began incorporating the same environment for the entire floor. The third floor was a winter forest whereas the fourth was a glacial steppe, an environment very similar to the one he saw in the [beginner's ice magic] monster lair. Ice everywhere in all manner of crystal-like forms, a very beautiful environment though quite deadly if underestimated.

Two mines sections were also added to this floor, a second iron mine and a 2-star glacier mine. The two floors also contained multiple monster spawners thus making them a step up from the first two in terms of importance. Frost envisioned the 3rd and 4th floor handling the bulk of his initial visitors. Not too dangerous but also not too easy to be a worthless endeavour.

Solid E-ranks and perhaps new risen D-ranks would be ideal in this area.

Beyond that was the fifth floor, the first floor with a boss monster that prevented anyone from proceeding to the next floor unless defeated. Right now a Lagombi seemed to be the perfect choice, an average D-rank monster that could take a real beating. The Dungeon was at the point now that it could simply summon a new Lagombi whenever it was killed, 500DP was a very minor expense.

In regards to the environment the entire floor was a winter highland similar to the one found in the dungeon's first section/room. Wide open plains with a recurring blizzard perfect for beastlike monsters.

The lagombi would be stationed at the very end of the floor where a pseudo ice arena barred access to the sixth floor which was designated as the safe floor. Previously Frost planned on having the ursa he bought serve as the guardian of the fifth floor but considering the level of adventurers he'd likely get in the coming months, something weaker was more apt.

For the sixth floor the environment was far more pleasant than the previous ones with the temperature not even being in the negatives, something called a winter prairie. The flora and fauna contained within weren't of very high quality but were numerous and beneficial for long term living.

Rather open plains with multiple gentle rivers, lakes and occasional rolling hills, a pure paradise compared to the dangerous environments of the upper floors.

The plan was for the sixth floor to be a separate space from the regular dungeon aiming to provide a resting space for the adventurers as well as his more sapient like monsters. On this floor the first internal camp or outpost would be established.

Frost had learned a lot from his books as well as through word of mouth from his acquaintances. Monster lairs that spanned tens of floor would be far too challenging to complete in a non-stop delve therefore areas would be carved out within to serve as rest stops.

More popular monster lairs would even have several of these outposts manned 24/7 and armed to the teeth with defensive armaments that could put even Furano to shame, all in the name of profit and adventure. Frost planned to copy this treatment to make his dungeon even more appealing and practical.

The higher quality mine rooms were also on the sixth-floor branching left and right from the second section. A kyanite mine, two frigid iron mines as well as a duram mine all of 3-star quality thus making the sixth-floor resource rich.

Beyond that all the proceeding floors -of which there were currently four- held 2-star environments that were hazardous to intruders and of the same strain, Glacial steppe. These floors looked almost identical to the floors found in the [beginner's ice magic] monster lair, beautiful, majestic and filled with an abundance of ice-based flora and fauna.

Thanks to the abundance of DP gathered during the stampede all ten floors had been fully expanded and outfitted with environments before he left for Furano leaving the dungeon in a fairly good position to welcome a vast range of intruders. All he needed to do now was improve a few features, develop the external and internal camp as well as decide the placement of his monsters.

For the 10th or rather the 11th floor the future plan was to have a more complex ice maze that spanned the entire floor, one that had shifting walls and a vast array of traps and punishments before leading to a more elaborate arena that would house either, Findlay, Khuno or himself as the last bastion but then again it was unlikely any adventurer would make to the final floor before he had enough DP to further expand.

"The dungeon itself is in quite a good place and actually doesn't need much improvement, at least in the short term." Frost analysed while cupping his chin in thought. He could expand a couple sections or add more spawners but that could wait until the customers return.

"Haaaaaa 120,000DP used to be such a massive number, now it only serves to purchase a few assets. Developing my dungeon is truly an endless money pit." Frost sighed as he reminisced about his early days, missing the cheapness of low-ranking monsters and materials.

"The external camp will take up most of the dungeon's labour over the next couple weeks. After that we can work on the internal outpost for the sixth floor, further promoting long term tenants. Terra really does have the right approach.

Passive gains will surely overtake active gains in the long run, thankfully I'm taking action early rather than late." Frost had no wish to lose his current 4th place ranking and in fact wished to ascend to 3rd perhaps even 2nd or 1st but the latter two were just a dream at the moment he knew that Yami and Aqua were truly in a class of their own compared to him and his other siblings.

Surpassing Pyro however was not only a feasible goal but also a very satisfying proposal.

Confident with the Dungeon's internal situation he manoeuvred the 3d image to the external camp where hundreds of small figures representing his monsters could be seen moving to and fro. Thanks to shift patterns and the benefit of night vision work on the camp was 24/7.