"Shall we discuss monsters now and after that how about another tea break?" Maya suggested taking a break since she assumed choosing monsters would take a long time, especially without her input.
"Sounds like a plan," Frost's lips turned upward; he quite enjoyed the lemon tea earlier and looked forward to another cup.
Frost turned back towards the Dungeon menu and once again began a long internal debate. Maya stuck to her commitments, refusing to give him any advice on what to choose, whether this was by Dark's instructions or her own personal teaching choice he still found it rather annoying. He had very little idea about how each of these monsters would fare or whether they'd even be worth their initial costs.
After an hour or so he had only managed to pick five different monsters that he wanted with the prime reason being that they looked cool. The main issue was that he didn't know what his monsters would be fighting against. He knew there'd be intruders of some kind but lacked any specific information on who they were and how powerful they'd be.
'Wait a minute Maya said she wouldn't help with the choosing but she never said I couldn't ask questions.' Frost had a lightbulb moment, he needed to know about the general area around his dungeon as well as the level of threat from intruders before he could make an educated decision. If all the intruders were equal to E-rank monsters, then it would be pointless to have lots of G-rank frost goblins.
"Maya, can you tell more about the local area?" Frost raised head confidently with a flicker in his eyes as he asked, positive that this was what she expected.
And he was correct, Maya's eyes lit up in response and her lips formed an enchanting smile. She was waiting for him to ask questions. If he just summoned random monsters without any knowledge, he could end up wasting all of his DP thus making recovery difficult. This style of teaching was her own decision, she didn't want to coddle her charge but push him and test his wisdom.
"Of course I can young master what would you like to know?" She happily replied.
"Everything," he said without hesitation. His eyes fixating upon her, aiming to take in her every word.
Instead of being stymied by his rather open-ended request Maya welcomed it. And being aware that answering such a question would take time she moved towards the table and took a seat before gesturing for Frost to do the same.
"Everything hmmm where should I start?" Maya pondered while tapping her finger against the table.
"Could you start with the Glacial mountains?"
"Ok then, let's start there. The world we inhabit, Nova is split into 5 major continents with the central continent being the largest of the five." Frost nodded along; Dark had already briefly covered a little about the general layout of Nova.
"The Glacial mountains are located at the far north of the northern continent also known as the continent of Yangmir. The massive mountain range spans for tens of thousands of kilometres and is filled with an abundance of ice mana. The deeper you enter, the colder and more dangerous it becomes." Frost remembered the coldness of the cave before deploying the Dungeon core. It was cold but not cold enough to be dangerous.
"The Dungeon you've just created is located within one of the first mountains near the range's southern entrance, any deeper would be too cold to inhabit non-cold resistant humanoids as well as being too far from the nearby towns and villages. Humans and similar sapient races struggle to survive in incredibly frigid temperatures, only venturing within for short periods of time. Although I say that, outside the mountain is a practically constant blizzard and temperatures are below freezing for the majority of the year." Frost instantly thought of the first environment he chose, winter highlands. What Maya described sounded similar to the conditions of that environment.
'So, it'll be an environment they're used to hunting in.' He didn't yet know if that would be an advantage or disadvantage to his own 'hunting'.
"Our location is right on the border of the Northrend empire, which is made up of mostly humans, dwarves and beastmen. There are probably a few villages a couple hours trek from the dungeon, but our main source of intruders will be the adventurers from the town of Furano, at least in the beginning. It's about a day or so away by foot, well within usual travel distance of a regular adventurer."
'Furano, Furano, Furano,' Frost internally repeated the town's name so as to commit it to memory. He was already aware of what certain creatures were such as dwarves and beastmen, so he wasn't surprised. The term 'adventurer' however he only knew that they hunted monsters but not much else, his integral knowledge granted by his father was quite lacking.
"I know that adventurers tend to hunt monsters so could you give any more details about that profession?" If they're going to be his main source of income/enemies he needed to learn more about them. Maya once again looked pleased with his question, making him feel warm inside.
"Adventurers are people who embark on quests, whether that's hunting monsters, caravan protection, bandit destruction or even foraging for plants, as long as someone needs something done there's likely a quest for it. In Furano and pretty much any town and city there is an adventurer's guild which manages the local adventurers and provides them with these quests on behalf of the local populace."
'So, they're like organised mercenaries.'
"These adventurers are ranked -like monsters- from G to S-rank, but a single adventurer would 9 times out of 10 lose against a monster of the same rank, since monster ranks are usually based upon a group of adventurers fighting it rather than an individual. Adventurers often hunt in these groups commonly known as parties, so they can even the playing field."
"To the best of my knowledge in Furano the highest ranked active adventurers are C-rank and there's less than a dozen or so. With the majority being around F or E rank." The strongest monster he could summon at the moment was D-rank and they cost too much to have multiple, so if a C-rank adventurer entered he'd have to fight himself. The thought sent a cold shiver down his spine, he didn't even know his own strength yet.
But on the other hand the fact that the majority of the adventurers delving into the dungeon would be F-rank meant that even G-rank monsters should prove useful, come on Gobbos.
"Considering the strongest monster you can summon is D-rank and that the majority used will be lower, C-rank adventurers wouldn't have much reason to enter but… we should quickly teach you how to fight just in case." Maya curiously inspected Frost from head to toe analysing his potential for the level of training he could endure before breaking. To Frost it looked like she was eyeing him as prey causing him to break out into a cold sweat.
"What about the local monsters?" He tried to sway the conversation away from being looked at like a meal.
"Well, in the immediate area there's a large forest which contains winter boars, frost goblins, artic foxes and several other low ranked monsters. If you head on deeper into the Glacial mountains there'll be frost wolves, yetis as well as other higher rank monsters the further in you go. There's even rumours of ice dragons and frost giants near the central belt." Excluding the possibilities of dragons and giants the rest of the monsters were featured on his list of possible summons.
Maya continued to explain many other features so as to answer Frost's request for 'everything'. She lectured for close to 2 hours and Frost was still as focused as he was at the start. Maya however seriously needed a drink, she talked so much that her voice had become hoarse, and her throat was irritated. Luckily, Frost had more than enough information to choose his first monsters allowing her to enjoy a short respite.
"You work out what monsters to summon, and I'll start making tea." Maya roughly said while rubbing her throat. As she stood up to walk Frost watched her with gratitude before walking over to the floating core in the centre of the room. He planned to summon about 4500DP worth of monsters, leaving 2000 to spend on items, spells etc… secondary stuff to running the Dungeon.
The menu had a rather useful feature which acted like an online shopping cart, he could add or remove choices before completing the purchase, his environment choices were still sitting there just waiting to be finalised.
By the time Maya finished preparing the tea and placed the mugs on the table he was finished. Thanks to the abundant level of information Maya provided it was now easy for him to choose his first summons. He even had enough time to decide what section to place each of them in. A prideful grin adorned his lips as he moved to pick up his cup.
"Well, well someone's happy." Maya playfully mocked him and smiled in return. She'd already started drinking her cup, so her throat was feeling much better.
"Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, almost bang on my 4500DP target." Full of pride Frost grabbed his tea and took a swig not noticing Maya's mischievous smirk. The instant the tea touched his tongue however he was hit strong dose of mint, the complete opposite of the sweet lemon flavour he was expecting. Much to Maya's dismay however he quite enjoyed the flavour and quickly went in for a second taste.
"Tsk" Maya clicked her tongue, obviously expecting a more entertaining outcome. Her tea was the lemon one like before only his was different. Frost knew the reaction she wanted and quite enjoyed seeing this side of her.
'Mischievousness suits her,' he thought while quickly finishing his tea, revitalising his energy levels.
"Well, don't keep me in suspense." Irritated with Frost's smile Maya brashly demanded. Her annoyed frown and scrunched up nose looked incredibly cute to the smiling Frost, so he acquiesced to her demand. He showed her the menu's purchase cart, all he needed to do was hit confirm.
His choices were as follows:
[Monster] [Rank] [Cost] [Quantity]
[Frost goblin] [G] [30] [20]
[Frost slime] [G] [20] [10]
[Artic horned [G] [30] [10]
rabbit]
[Artic fox] [F] [60] [4]
[Snow owl] [F] [60] [5]
[Winter boar] [F] [90] [10]
[Frost dwarf] [E] [120] [6]
[Frost wolf] [E] [150] [5]
[Polar bear] [D] [500] [1]
And his section arrangement:
[sections]
[Monster] [1st] [2nd] [3rd]
[Frost goblin] [10] [5] [5]
[Frost slime] [6] [4] [0]
[Artic horned [5] [5] [0]
rabbit]
[Artic fox] [4] [0] [0]
[Snow owl] [2] [3] [0]
[Winter boar] [4] [6] [0]
[Frost dwarf] [0] [4] [2]
[Frost wolf] [2] [2] [1]
[Polar bear] [0] [0] [1]
He clearly put more monsters in the first and second sections given their larger size plus if all went well intruders shouldn't even make it to the third section for quite some time. Frost planned on having the last and largest of the castle's rooms house the polar bear. It should have ample room to run wild while also limiting intruders' escape paths. The grand total came to 4510DP just 10Dp off his target.
Maya scrutinised the chosen monsters and their layout hoping to find something to comment on but there was nothing. It wasn't perfect but considering his limited budget and experience with the chosen monsters she felt he did exceptionally well. Reluctantly she needed to praise him on his effort.
"Tsk, you did great young master I couldn't have chosen better myself." Even though she clicked her tongue it was followed up with a proud smile, Frost received her praise with delight. He then proceeded to finish his cup of tea before continuing their conversation. Maya found this to be rather cute.
After a short respite
"So, will you look at traps, items or spells next?" After finishing their tea Maya was in a much better mood. Happy with Frost's previous decisions she suggested spending the rest of the DP today.
"I think I'll look at the trap section next so I can finish off the rooms before looking at the spell list." he had a little bit of innate knowledge when it came to magic and looked forward to trying it out himself.
"But first, I think I'll purchase the environments and monsters I chose." Frost immediately went to click the confirm purchase button completely oblivious to the sudden shocked appearance on Maya's face.
Maya's eyes shot wide open, she quickly tried to shout 'stop' all while moving towards him however she was too slow. Frost confirmed the purchase causing the dungeon core to suddenly light up and rotate. He was so excited that he didn't notice Maya quickly appearing behind him.
At almost the same instant Maya reached him, Frost's vision suddenly went dark, and he collapsed, falling into Maya's arms that were ready to catch him.
Maya wiped the nervous sweat that accumulated across her brow then moved Frost down so that his head was lying on her knees.
"That was a close one, any slower and he might have landed on his head." She was aware that this situation would likely happen, Dark already warned her that when Frost first used the Dungeon core's power to summon multiple items the sudden influx of creation energy could knock him unconscious. That was why she was so panicked at his purchasing trigger finger; she wouldn't make a very good protector if she allowed him to crack his head open on the first day.
Frost meanwhile was completely out of it, unaware of Maya's complaints that soon followed his collapse.