Dungeon of Niflheim

118 Chapter 118: Removing the slave tattoos

10 gold coins was more than worth it for two future phoenix powerhouses. Frost and Sebastian shook hands to cement the deal, after which Sebastian gave the nearby servant a few requests, he needed a bunch of materials to be brought over if he was going to deal with slave tattoos. It’d take him several hours to complete, during which he’d need to be incredibly focused and while he worked his magic, the kids would also need to remain stationary unless they wanted their heads to explode.

With the arrangements set, the servants left to fetch the items from Sebastian’s warehouse while Leo asked the other servants to clean up a room wherein Sebastian could operate. Sebastian then took the kids away since he needed to discuss the details of the operation and how serious it was that they remain very still and quiet. The two were a little afraid to leave Frost’s side but acquiesced after seeing him nod and understanding that this was for their benefit.

“Maya, can you go with them just in case? Plus try and gleam as much information about their tattoos from Sebastian as you can.” Frost whispered to Maya. He was keen on any knowledge regarding the Church of Light and their creations. Perhaps in the future he may be able to undo the slave tattoos completely granting the kids freedom.

“Understood, I too would like to know more about these slave tattoos as well as slave contracts in general. I’ll keep the kids company but what will you do young master?” Maya turned around to face Frost. Having another look over his injuries. He didn’t have anything too serious left after health potions and Luna’s healing magic and would be able to heal naturally after a good rest but just in case.

“[Greater heal]” Maya casted a higher level healing spell that removed any remnants of his wounds and restored a fair amount of stamina but even still.

“Thanks, yaaaaaaaaawn,” Frost yawned as his body filled with warmth from the healing magic, he was tired, exhausted even. He’d been fighting all night against superior numbers and superior opponents. Even with health potions, magic, jerky, and that lovely breakfast he just had, his energy levels were drastically low. He needed to sleep.

“I’ll be heading to bed for a few hours in order to recharge. Sebastian said that he wouldn’t need my input until the later stages of the operation so I should be fine for a while.” Frost stretched his back and arms until they cracked, and his eyelids started to droop.

‘I really miss having a constant flow of mana filling my body haaaaaa.’ Frost bemoaned the difference of being out in the real world instead of his dungeon.

“I also need to examine how much DP I made tonight.”

.....

“Hoh did you manage to kill a lot?”

“Yeah, but most of them were pretty weak and only gave out twice their daily DP values when killed, but it should be a fairly decent number.” He still had the almost 900DP gathered from the frost goblins killed the other day, plus whatever the Dungeon’s been able to collect during their absence.

‘I might even be able to generate a second floor.’ Frost had learned a little more about monster lairs from his conversations with Leo and Bastion. Single floor monster lairs regardless of the monsters contained were very common and lacking in value. Even if they didn’t hunt the monsters very much, the lair’s crystal would quickly run out due to its low quality. The area would then turn into empty areas generally used by merchants or bandits. The Furano territory was littered with used up monster lairs. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a single monster lair that was larger than a single floor and hadn’t in decades. This played a major part in why adventurers above C-rank didn’t remain within Furano.

But just creating a new floor would cost 10,000DP, not including the environments, monsters, and traps to outfit it. A large expense but having a second floor would attract far more victims.

“Alright, I’m off Maya see you in a few hours.” Frost waved goodbye as he made his way upstairs to his assigned room. Once there Frost moved to the bed and collapsed onto his back enjoying the comfort of the mattress.

“Still not as good as mine but not bad.” He leaned back in comfort and brought up the dungeon menu albeit with a lot less features.

“let’s see how much DP I earned tonight.” He brought up the DP records for the past 24 hours.

“Ok not bad, not bad at all 4000DP, it’s even more than the amount I gained from that bandit slaughter albeit I did kill far more this time haaaaa.” Frost sighed as he noticed that if these kills were within the dungeon, he’d have raked in 20,000DP.

“Best not to dwell on what ifs.” He shook his head trying to remove those thoughts but with the 900 he already had, 4900DP was displayed in brackets on the dungeon menu.

‘Still a fair ways off from 10,000DP but I’m getting there.’ There was also the fact that he would soon be filled with money, a single gold coin could be converted into 1000DP. It felt a little awkward that killing all those people equated to just 4 gold coins worth, life was cheap.

Happy with his gains Frost collapsed the menu and quicky drifted into unconsciousness.

Four hours later he was awoken by a knock on his door.

“Sir Frost, sir Sebastian requests your presence in the workshop.” A servant relayed Sebastian’s request and waited outside the room, he’d guide Frost down once he was ready.

“Ugh....I’ll be right there,” Frost groaned before replying, he was still groggy from his nap.

‘Being woken up by Maya is much more pleasant.’ Once Frost stood up, he realised he was still wearing what was left of his leather armour and other equipment. They were beyond salvageable, good thing it was free.

Frost removed the remains and tossed it in the nearby garbage can, luckily his robes had a self-repair function.

He opened the door and greeted the servant before following him downstairs to the workshop. Leo had the servants clean out a large warehouse type room with good lighting and wide open space.

“Where’s Leo and Luna?” He asked the servant a few questions so as to not walk in silence.

“Young master Leo and young miss Luna woke up an hour ago and left the manor to deal with the fallout of Baron Adam’s execution. They should be currently meeting with the town’s council members in the government district.” The servant spoke with pride as he spoke about his future lord and lady.

Frost raised his eyebrows in surprise not expecting Leo and Luna to be back to work so quickly, he suddenly felt guilty about sleeping in.

The servant led Frost down into the basement wherein Sebastian was working on the two children’s slave tattoos.

“Sir Sebastian requested that you enter as quietly as possible so as not to jeopardise the operation.”

Frost nodded silently before pushing open the door

What greeted him was a clean open space, all items that were originally stored here were pushed up against the wall, giving Sebastian enough room to work in. In the centre of the room the two phoenix kin children were lying on separate tables with Sebastian standing between them. The kids had their eyes closed but were frowning and appeared to be in no small amount of pain, sweat could be seen dripping down their faces and their fists were clenched yet they didn’t make a peep. Fully obeying Sebastian’s instructions, staying as motionless and silent as possible.

Maya was sitting a short distance away on a wooden chair, her eyes were wide open and strained as she took in every movement that Sebastian made, noting it down internally. However, that wasn’t all, her lips were bitten hard, and several parts of the chair had cracked due to excessive gripping. She had to restrain herself from acting out whenever she saw the children trembling in pain, it was hard for her to watch. Her motherly instincts were on full whack.

Sebastian himself was incredibly exhausted, his old body was really limiting him, not to mention the occasional bursts of killing intent that Maya sent his way instinctively. The slave tattoos on the kids was also far more complicated than he suspected.

‘Damn you Adam what kind of man did you find to make these malicious tattoos?’ He fully expected it to be a challenge given their phoenix bloodline, but this was something else. His arms were trembling, and his eyes were completely bloodshot. His breathing was erratic, gasping for every breath and he could only keep his balance by leaning on the operating tables.

The person who applied these slave tattoos was of equal skill to him perhaps in some regards even better. Sebastian was out of the slave game for a few years after all. He was bound to be a little rusty, but still up to the task. It’d just be a little more difficult.

“Hu hu hu” Sebastian breathed heavily as he tried to regain some stamina. Swiftly he pulled out a vial filled with red and green liquid, downing the thing in a single gulp before he noticed Frost entering the workshop, shock evident in his eyes.

“Frost perfect timing, get over here while I still have the strength to complete this operation.” Sebastian’s eyes were filled with urgency, the operation was at a very dangerous and fragile point, he couldn’t lose focus even for a second. One wrong move and they’d all be blown up.

Frost quickly glanced towards Maya the moment he received Sebastian’s order. He wanted to know how he was faring.

Maya gave him a curt nod and a distressed look, telling him to move quickly.

Frost obeyed, moving with purpose towards Sebastian.

The moment he arrived he could see the desperation of the situation. Sebastian was truly barely hanging on; the old man’s entire body was trembling, and his face was as white as a ghost’s. The kids were sweating profusely, and the pain was evident on their faces.

Frost suddenly remembered that this operation had a chance of failing and the results would be catastrophic.

Frost frowned, his expression becoming serious before looking at Sebastian.

“What do you need me to do?” He moved to support the old man before he fell but was quickly stopped.

“No don’t touch me, you’ll break the connection!” Sebastian shouted out desperately, the situation was dire.

“Move behind the kids and gently place your hands over their heads.” Sebastian gave out instructions in which Frost obeyed without hesitation.

“Now what?” Frost held his hands on the kids heads, it was hot nearly burning his fingers.

‘What the hell?’ It felt as though mana was burning through their bodies and was on the verge of exploding. Frost wasn’t exactly far off the mark. The slave tattoos were reacting to Sebastian’s actions in an incredibly aggressive manner. The tattoos started flooding their hosts body with all their reserved mana, aiming to burn them from the inside, a painful death.

‘Young master their bodies are overflowing with rampant foreign mana, burning their blood and organs. Sebastian’s been doing his best to slow the progress as best he could, but the pain is still there.’ Maya spoke telepathically to Frost explaining the situation.

‘No wonder the kids look so pained.’ Frost sighed and looked gently upon their faces, rubbing their hair with affection hoping to alleviate their pain even slightly.

“Now here’s the tricky bit Frost, you need to channel your mana into their bodies, slowly and carefully. We need to establish a connection between you and them, and if it succeeds the rampant mana will recede back into the tattoo and be disabled.” Sebastian spoke as smoothly as he could.

Frost frowned and started to channel his mana into the two children, he took it slow and careful, as instructed. His natural ice element helped to bring the kids some solace, cooling their foreheads but it made the reaction for Frost much more volatile.

“Owwwww!” Frost exclaimed in pain as a surge of the rampant slave mana pushed against his own and rushed up his arm, causing significant pain.

“Frost you need to remain strong and constant, the moment you pull back your mana this is all over, endure the pain otherwise... they’ll die.” Sebastian spoke in a serious tone; his face was twitching as he tried to keep the entire thing stable. If he wasn’t there, then the kids would have already exploded, and Frost would have no way of forcing back the slave mana. This was something designed by the Church of Light after all.