Dungeon of Niflheim

The topic of the federation of knowledge continued to be discussed between the two brothers or rather Frost filling Karrick in on the details Ladius told him.

"Their equipment can feel intrusive and uncomfortable but there's very little we can do to stop them at the moment. You've seen their team, 4 sapients each at the peak of B-rank with their leader being a half step into A-rank. Even if I summoned all my strongest monsters and took part in the battle personally there'd be nothing I could do to such a line-up.

So I strongly advise you to not make an enemy out of this world spanning group no matter how much you want to." Frost warned his brother with a warped expression. He remembered Ladius poking, prodding and analysing every inch of his dungeon, it gave him the creeps but her backing, and security detail prevented him from taking aggressive action.

He just thought it'd be right to warn Karrick of what may come to him in the future.

"Got it, I know I may be rash and rather full of myself at times but even I know that I shouldn't piss off someone like that." Karrick replied confidently failing to notice the smirk on Lapata's face in background. In his guardian's eyes the possibility was actually 50/50.

"Good, good." Frost nodded his head and let out a breath of relief, genuinely worried about his younger brother.

"Why were they involved in our war though?" He could understand the investigation into the dungeons but entering a war between siblings seemed a bit intrusive.

"Oh that's because of a bargain I struck. I wanted their help in setting some sort of precedent for future dungeon wars as well give you a little scare hehehehe." He couldn't forget that little detail, his little brother really did freak out upon seeing a bunch of B-rank sapients slaughtering his invasion force.

"You certainly succeeded in doing that." Karrick openly admitted to being frightened.

"Did you also notice the fact that sapient's can be used as more than just fodder for our DP reserves. In the future we'll likely have more wars between us and by that point our dungeons will be massive. The amount of adventurers delving within will be multiple times more than what we have currently.

Simply killing them all off every time there's a war seems a little wasteful in my opinion plus it'll set a dangerous precedent." Frost was worried about people refusing to enter his dungeon due to the fear of a dungeon war starting and their slaughter being all but guaranteed.

"You're suggesting we use them in our wars to fight alongside our own monster forces." To someone who had little interest in establishing and managing an overreaching territory in addition to his dungeon the idea seemed risky.

"In a manner of speaking yes. I plan to have people dwell within my dungeon on a permanent or perhaps semi-permanent basis so as to improve my passive DP income.

I don't really want to have to slaughter all these people every time there's a war or have to worry about their intentions during one therefore I want to help set up some sort of system to protect and possibly utilise them during our battles.

Without this sort of system cores such as myself, Terra, Aqua and many others won't see much value in taking part in dungeon wars, the negatives would simply outweigh the positives." Frost tried to explain his stance as simply and directly as possible to a dungeon core that followed a different path from his.

"Ok I sort of get your reasoning but what do you want me and our siblings to do.

Do you want me to make a promise not to kill the sapients in your dungeon or something because if that's the case then I'll reject you right here and now." Karrick though having a 2-0 losing streak was keen to take part in more wars, in fact he believed that wars with his siblings were the fastest and most efficient way to develop their dungeons.

Take Frost for example from this war alone he must have raked in several hundred thousands Dungeon points.

"No, no I wouldn't ask for something as foolish as that I just want to set up a warning signal for those within and around our dungeons before a war begins."

"Oh….if that's all you want I can get on board. What did you have in mind?" A simple warning sign wouldn't really cost anything and was likely easy to facilitate.

"Well before our war began I had the group from the federation of knowledge announce that the dungeon was undergoing some sort of transition, so they advised people to stay clear until the transition was complete. Then once it was 24 hours from the start of our war I had the dungeon quake and tremble every hour on the hour before the entrance was sealed with the old man's magic.

Of course some people decided to risk the danger anyway, I killed them and left just the team from the federation alive. Then as thanks for allowing them to take part and study a war between dungeon cores the federation has agreed to spread word of this warning system to the public so I was hoping to rope our siblings onboard to make this something official.

I'll also ask father, but I wanted to keep amongst us first since we'll be the ones doing it."

"Just a few dungeon wide trembles leading up the start of a war… I can agree to that." Karrick didn't find the request too difficult, so he agreed to his brother's request, just 98 dungeon cores to go.

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With that topic covered Frost discussed a few personal things with Karrick, tales regarding their livelihoods while he waited for dinner to be ready.

Unlike him Karrick didn't have a family to relax with, all he had was his guardian who kept him at arm's length and his named monster aides Margo and Kenta who were slowly recovering from their many wounds. He lacked people he could truly bond with. Seeing Frost interact with Nanna and Loki through the holographic screen and the occasional sight of Daki and Maya in the kitchen made him feel lonely.

He had had some interesting adventures and even made a few people he could call friends out with the dungeon but inside well it felt rather cold.

Frost continued his friendly family interactions never picking up on his younger brother's jealously, he was too interested his life in the southern continent. He especially grabbed onto the story about his entry into the blazing flash spear style. He now really wanted to find a school for the glaive but unfortunately Furano was lacking in that regard.

Karrick said that he was studying the style in a monster kingdom found within his local danger zone rather than a local sapient kingdom. Hearing this Frost was inspired to return to the Glacial mountains and reach one of the kingdoms there. Daki did mention a great dwarven kingdom that was a true monarch in the area, perhaps he should find an opportunity to visit.

"Dinner's ready." Maya's enchanting voice was suddenly heard from the kitchen.

"Sorry Karrick we've got to go, it was nice talking with you and I really enjoyed our war. Don't be a stranger little brother, you want to ask for advice or simply want to chat I'll be here. Wave goodbye to Karrick." Frost said his farewells and asked Nanna and Loki to do the same.

"Goodbye Mr Karrick."

"Bye uncle." Nanna was polite as usual whereas Loki jumped straight into calling him uncle, making the red scaled lizardman smile and feel a warmth rise in his heart, he liked the title.

The call ended and Karrick sat back in his seat with a gentle expression on his face. "Uncle huh," saying it out loud made his smile grow larger. Now he really wanted what Frost had.

"That Kameria was rather fond of me, perhaps I should pursue her after all." Since his elder brother had connected with someone outside their inner circle why couldn't he. He remembered the beautiful face of a young lizard woman who was a senior student of his in the blazing flash spear style.

Kameria was kind, gentle and had more than once caught his eye and he hers but it was only after seeing his brother's life that he started to truly think about her.

Lapata couldn't help but smirk silently in the background, pleased with his young master's train of thought. It be good for him to have someone once he left.

Back at the Niflheim dungeon Frost, Nanna, Loki and Kiba who appeared practically the instant Frost mentioned dinner were greeted with a substantial spread. Maya went all out to prepare a lavish feast in celebration for their victory over Karrick. High quality ingredients were used in abundance.

Thankfully the Dungeon's income both passive and from the war was so large that Frost no longer cared about the cost of one of Maya's lavish feasts.

Daki wasn't much of a cook, but she cut up most of the vegetables and helped plate up the food, arranging it in a rather elegant display. Her eyes however were always lingering back to a certain centre dish that was reserved just for the adults. Nanna, Loki and Kiba were forbidden from even sneaking single bite.

Frost's expectation grew greatly upon hearing that, he looked forward to the later evening's festivities.