Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Chatting with Leo and Luna

Leo then started to explain about how he and Luna survived the ambush and then escaped to the dungeon. The tale was quite impressive, Luna and Leo put up quite a fight. However, it seemed more likely that the red hawk bandits severely overestimated their own strength thus giving the two of them a chance to escape.

“Luckily we heard about this new monster lair from the [Artic Warband] otherwise I don’t know what would’ve happened.” Leo then felt rather strange, he looked towards Frost with a questioning gaze.

“How did senior end up here?” It finally dawned on him that someone being here was strange.

“Me? Oh, I entered this monster lair out of curiosity early this morning. I was just heading back after reaching the next section when I sensed movement within this glade.” Frost lied his pants off with a completely straight face as though he was a master.

With this answer all of Leo’s suspicion was washed away, he even thought that the reason they didn’t encounter many monsters was due to Frost thinning them out, which wasn’t exactly wrong.

“So, from what you’ve told me you’re the son of the local lord and are being targeted by the bandit group called the red hawks and you believe that you were set up by that Alex fellow.” Frost summarised the situation into the key points.

“Pretty much yeah.”

.....

“Why?” Frost knew the reason couldn’t simply be money, something else must be going on. Leo subconsciously turned towards Luna as if asking for permission to continue. Seeing her nod, he continued, “Most likely it was under the orders of my uncle.” A mix of disgust and shame appeared on Leo’s face as he mentioned his uncle.

“My father is currently bed ridden due to ‘illness’ and my uncle is an insidious and ambitious person who isn’t adverse to using underhanded methods to achieve his goals. He’s always desired the title of Furano viscount and now with my father being weakened only I stand in his way.” Leo was the only son of Douglas Furano making him the next heir, without him the title would legally be passed to his uncle.

“Your uncle is eliminating the competition, quite a mess I volunteered to get involved in.” Frost spoke in a sarcastic tone, causing Leo and Luna to feel nervous.

‘Of course, he’d feel reluctant to involve himself in such a battle.’ The kids lamented their fate.

“So, what exactly are we up against?”

“Eh?”

“Who do I need to fight, what’s their strength and numbers?”

“Y...you still want to help?” Luna nervously asked but her heart couldn’t help but hope.

“I already said I’d help so I will.” His answer caused both Luna and Leo to be speechless before they to quickly laughed.

“Thank you .... Ah! Sorry I just realised that we don’t know senior’s name.”

“You may call me Frost, it’s nice to meet you Leo, Luna.” Frost stretched out his hand in greeting to which Leo smiled and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you Frost.” The three laughed and smiled completely forgetting the impending danger.

“Tell me about the red hawk bandits first.”

“Ok” Leo then described all he knew about the red hawk bandits, such as their crimes and the known details spread within the adventurers guild as well as by the town guard. Redhawk himself was known to be at least equal to the average D-rank adventurer and wielded a giant great axe as his weapon. He controlled a large group of bandits roughly 50 members strong alongside three deputies each equivalent to high E-rank adventurers. They were considered one of the strongest bandit groups in the county.

“According to a recent report by the town garrison, they manged to ambush the red hawk bandits culling at least 20 of their numbers as well as one of Redhawk’s deputies however the rest escaped without injuries.” Luna added on an important piece of information.

“When we were ambushed in the forest, we killed another 5 or so before escaping but we didn’t fight against Redhawk himself.”

‘Obviously, if Redhawk was involved in the battle there would have been no chance of you escaping.’ Frost internally laughed however the news about the town garrison’s raid was important, Redhawk wouldn’t be receiving any reinforcements.

“What about that Alex fellow?” Frost didn’t even put the red hawk bandits in his eyes, but Alex was a different story. “Since the bandits failed in their initial ambush, he’ll probably take part.” During the initial ambush Leo and Luna never saw Alex again.

“True, he most likely kept watch at a distance to reduce any chance of his involvement being linked backed to my uncle but now he’ll definitely take to the field himself, my uncle doesn’t appreciate failure.” Just Redhawk and his bandits were bad enough now that they needed to wary of Alex, Leo couldn’t help but despair.

“Alex is one of my uncle’s knights and unfortunately I don’t know too much about him only that my uncle uses him often, so his strength will not be weak.” Leo sighed; he truly knew nothing about this enemy only that he’d be stronger than Redhawk not weaker.

“What weapons does he use, can he cast magic, what about chakra?” Frost fired of question after question, hoping to gleam even the slightest bit of information on his first opponent.

“When Alex was travelling with us he was garbed in the standard dress code for a knight and carried a one-handed sword but never used it. In regards to magic or chakra I’ve got no idea, but it’s unlikely for him to have skills beyond using lifestyle magic.” Luna gave her thoughts.

“Oh, why not?”

“Someone with physical abilities and magic or chakra is rare, especially in this remote area. If Alex really did have those abilities Leo’s uncle wouldn’t be able to afford him.” Luna gave practical theory unaware that Frost was one of those rare people.

“Ok, so to clarify there’s about 20 low level bandits, two E-rank deputies, Redhawk who is D-rank and this Alex fellow who is at least upper D-rank, and his weapon and methods are unknown. Is that about, right?” Frost spoke as though the numbers didn’t affect him in the slightest filling Leo and Luna with confidence.

“Actually, there’s probably less bandits, when we were travelling through the first area, we encountered a bandit, but he was swiftly taken down by a group of frost goblins. It was actually quite cool one of the goblins even smirked before walking off casually.” Frost couldn’t help but swell up with pride when hearing Luna praise his frost goblins. “After that we heard several screams from all directions of dying bandits, the monsters probably culled a good amount.” Viva le monsters.

“Understood” Frost’s gaze lingered on their bodies causing both Luna and Leo to blush. Frost’s appearance was dangerous to both genders.

“The two of you are already injured.” Frost frowned as he spoke, “we’ll need to find a safe area for you to hide.” They’ll only get in the way and restrict the use of monsters. Frost already thought of a good area where he could stuff the two while he hunted down his prey.

“We can fight too!” The two kids instantly shouted in disagreement.

“No! You’ll only get in the way.” Frost sternly argued silencing the two of them. They felt ashamed and frustrated, they truly would be of no help. In their current condition they’d be no match for the deputies let alone Redhawk or Alex. Frost was right they’d only drag him down. Leo stomped the ground in anger as he was unable to refute Frost.

Luna felt unreconciled but agreed, “We understand Frost we’ll not get in your way and follow your instructions however you don’t need to beat them only stall. Hopefully in a few hours a group of strong adventurers will arrive to perform the monster lair inspection. If we can survive until their arrival, we’ll win.” Luna faced Frost with a determined look. Stalling was a lot easier than killing, even if Frost was weaker than Alex, he should be able to delay them without endangering himself.

Frost eyes opened wide in surprise he didn’t expect the adventurers to arrive so quickly, perhaps he underestimated the importance of a new monster lair. But it didn’t matter, he planned to kill them all the same, there will be no stalling only death.

“Got it, let’s head into the third section, the layout there is vastly different, and the temperature is much warmer, it’ll be easier for you to rest there.” The artic ruined castle (interior) had dozens of small rooms with doors. Hiding them there would keep them out of sight and earshot of the battle.

Frost planned on having the polar bear as well as some frost wolves take part in the fight so with having Luna and Leo hiding in an enclosed room, they’ll be clueless on how the battle progresses. It’d be really hard to explain why the monsters were aiding him in battle after all.

‘Wait maybe I could pass as some sort of monster tamer or conjurer... nah too complicated besides, I doubt my fighting style would match those professions.’ Frost cemented the idea of having Luna and Leo far away from the battle.

“Alright we’ll follow your lead Frost.” Both Luna and Leo nodded and smiled before following closely behind Frost as he led them out of the glade.

As they were walking Luna and Leo continued to ask questions, some about the dungeon but most about Frost himself, especially Luna she seemed overly curious much to Leo’s frustration.

“Where are from? How old are you? Are you an elf? How did you get so handsome?” Frost developed a headache with the number of questions being fired his way. He didn’t want to answer but Luna never let up. Eventually he reached his limit and physically covered her mouth to shut her up but that shifted her focus onto how soft his skin was, she even licked his hand. There was nothing he could do, he looked towards Leo for aid, but he simply shook his head and sent a signal with his eyes saying ‘you’re on your own’ as he walked on ahead ignoring his plight. Unable to ignore her enthusiasm he reluctantly answered some questions.

“My home is in the Glacial mountains (technically true). My age doesn’t match my appearance (also true) and I was born this handsome (a bit cocky but also true, even Maya agrees). In regards to my race...that’s a secret.” He wouldn’t tell her he was a dungeon core and he refused to lie about it.

‘Hopefully, that’s enough to keep her quiet.’ Frost sighed however as his answers only fuelled Luna’s urge for chatter, this must be her base personality. Over time Leo began to feel guilty and forced himself into the conversation making it more bearable and rather pleasant to a degree. These two kids were the first people that weren’t either his father or guardian that he talked with, it was quite refreshing.

By the time, the three reached the entrance to the third section they were laughing and acting like old friends. Frost managed to learn a lot about their lives and the nearby town of Furano. Apparently, the land ruled by Leo’s father Douglas Furano is the northern most province of the Northrend empire and is comparable to a duchy in size, making Leo’s father quite powerful.

Unfortunately, even though the land is huge it’s also beset with many dangers, the Glacial Mountains being one of them.

Every few years massive tides of monsters stampede out of the mountains crushing everything in their path. It takes a large amount of manpower and resources to combat this and rebuild the destroyed territory. This results in the viscounty being behind in economic strength, so they are frequently shunned as country bumpkins.

Yet ironically, it’s the province with the least poverty rates, it’s very rare for a family to die of starvation. This is mainly due to the constant hard work of the Furano family, all except Leo’s uncle are just, brave and forsake riches for the betterment of their populace making them very well-liked by their citizens. If it wasn’t for the massive expenses incurred by the monster tides the viscounty would be more prosperous than the capital.

All this information was much more detailed than what Maya could possibly give him. Thanks to Luna and Leo, Frost gained a much clearer image of the local area and the people he’d have to interact with in the future. He also felt a great desire to meet this Douglas Furano, perhaps he could give him some tips on managing territory.