Conquering His Cold Heart

Frost and Maya teleported out of the duelling space several hours later after having their fun. And with their departure the duelling space violently shook before erasing all its features, returning to a blank canvas ready to be re-designed for the next duel.

The two arrived back in the private space hand in hand a moment later with their relationship closer than ever.

"Ah Master, Maya welcome back. How did the duel with Lord Indra go?" Nanna who was sitting on the sofa and perusing through the dungeon menu questioned with a beaming smile, her fingers crossed, hoping to hear the gallant tale of her master's victory. Unfortunately she was destined to be disappointed.

"Haaaaa unfortunately I didn't win Nanna. Indra was just too strong. I barely even succeeded in clawing out a draw thanks to Maya's encouragement." His words earned him a coy look from the woman attached to his hip, but he simply ignored it.

"Oh…that's… unfortunate but I'm sure you'll win next time master, don't be sad." Nanna moved from her seat on the sofa to pat Frost's head in a soothing manner which brought a bright smile to his face.

"You're so adorable Nanna what did I ever do to deserve you." Frost picked up the young phoenix kin and rubbed his smooth chin against her like a father to his child. Nanna was of course embarrassed from his actions but said nothing to stop him bar blushing from head to toe.

"Yeah she's far too cute for someone like you isn't that right Nanna dear." Maya couldn't help but steal Nanna away from his arms, holding onto her with even more affection. Their Nanna was just too cute.

After ten minutes of getting their Nanna recharge the couple let the young girl go, smiling from ear to ear after getting their fix.

"How was the dungeon while we were away?" Frost now sat beside Nanna on the sofa as she manoeuvred through the dungeon screen displayed above the pseudo core.

"Perfectly normal master, in fact pretty uneventful." He and Maya were only gone for several hours but that was enough time for a strong party to deal some real damage if left unchecked.

"The regulars repeated their usual delves, some groups made it deeper while others were devoured, same old same old." Nanna shrugged her shoulders with evident disappointment.

"When it comes to losses our numbers were pretty low and restricted solely to those summoned through spawners, overall, a pretty profitable evening." Though dull and basic it was in fact the best result for the dungeon especially when its master and mistress were absent. The actions Nanna, Loki, Daki, Khuno and Findlay could take were still limited after all.

"Fantastic, I'll have to reward you and your brother for doing such a good job in our absence." Frost took over control of the screen, transitioning towards the food section for sweets and desserts. Choosing was actually quite easy whichever picture caused the strongest reaction in Nanna's expression won. In this case it was a strawberry cheesecake.

"Thank you master." Nanna visibly beamed as she dug into the sweet cheesecake, rubbing her cheeks in glee with every bite.

"No problem you deserve it." The small amount of DP he just spent was already paying dividends, she was just that cute.

"What about the camp? How's business and where's your brother and Daki?" Frost gently stroke Nanna's blue hair as she ate.

"Umm other than a couple spats between visitors and the usual troublemakers, some of the more 'privileged' visitors have been complaining about the lack of service and wait times." The camp had been developing at an extreme rate thanks to Frost's substantial labour force and methods but even then it seemed to be too slow for the incoming traffic.

For example the Sleeping Fenrir and other higher ranked hotels were always fully booked, greatly disappointing those who were too late to the party.

"Guess I'll have to increase the camp's development speed." Frost rubbed his chin as he re-examined his initial plans. He really wanted to start work on the 'floor of peace', but the camp always needed the labour teams' full attention.

'That 40,000DP would have been perfect for expanding my workforce. Haaaaaa looks like I'll just need to dip into the reserve budget.' Frost shook his head, refusing to further lament his lack of victory. At least it wasn't it a loss. Though 3000DP was but a fraction of what he would have gotten if he won, it was better than nothing.

As Frost was pondering how to spend his well-earned DP Nanna continued.

"Daki's in her personal forge, churning out as much 2 and 3 star equipment as she can so as to keep up with the camp's ever growing demand while Loki's helping out at the medical clinic. Daki suggested for him to take up education under our witchdoctors and priests whenever he's free given that he has pretty much zero interest in following her craft."

"Good, I'm glad Loki's found something that interests him. What about you, how's your cooking skills coming along?"

"Umm pretty good I think but there's a limit to what I can learn simply through books and Maya's tutelage." Maya could teach her house level skills but for her to truly advance as a chef she needed a proper tutor.

"You want to learn from a professional?"

"Un, If I really want to improve then yes."

Frost cupped his chin in thought. Currently the dungeon had no monsters with cooking skills, nor were there any available for purchase, though a few had personal interest like Nanna none were particularly gifted.

"I'll look into finding you a good teacher."

"Thank you master." Nanna reached up over and pecked him on the cheek before digging back into her cheesecake.

"Muhmuhmuh" Maya grumbled with jealousy from the nearby table, she wanted to be fawned over by Nanna too. She also regretted the fact that her skills were only at the home cook level, she lacked the necessary qualities to raise Nanna as a spirit chef which was her dream.

After hearing Nanna's full report Frost spoke with Khuno and Findlay before joining up with Loki and finally Daki. Like Nanna they all tried to comfort him after hearing about his failed victory, Daki's comforting being particularly pleasant.

He brought up the promise Maya failed to uphold as well as the one Izuna promised his brother and fortunately unlike Maya his green enchantress was much more daring, in fact she was quite enthusiastic with any lewd scenario her lover came up with.

Despite a fair amount of difficulty and even pain, that night was by far one of the most magical experiences he had ever experienced.

"Ahhhh this is the life." He said while leaning back in bed with Daki and Maya resting peacefully by his sides. Any anguish he felt over his draw with Indra was thus vanished, replaced with far more pleasant memories.

Life in the dungeon of Niflheim continued unabated. DP continued to be raked in thanks to the populace passively residing in the camp as well as the daredevils delving into the dungeon itself. The many businesses operating within the camp grew both in size, and popularity as word spread throughout the Yangmir continent.

The Dungeon of Niflheim was quickly becoming the place to be for any active adventurer below B-rank. Coins flooded in, to the point that Frost was able to safely start transforming his gold into extra DP which he then spent on further expanding the dungeon.

A little over 3 months since the duel with Indra the once 10 floor dungeon (Not including the floor of peace) was now sitting at 12 floors. Not that much deeper but far wider than before. Most of the DP was used to add new sections to the existing floors.

The first floor was now effectively 3 times its original size as was the 2nd and 3rd floors given that they were the most popular. So many young and ambitious E and even F-rank adventurers flocked to the dungeon hoping to dip their feet into the waters that was dungeon/monster lair delving.

It was too dangerous for these groups to delve below the 3rd floor thus Frost focused on expanding the areas that could be accessed by this plentiful majority.

After that the following floors were each given at least 2 or 3 extra sections, thus greatly expanding the dungeon's total size. The floor of peace aka floor 5.5 where no aggressive monsters resided was now home to some makeshift camps that catered as rest stations for those in need of sanctuary. There was still a lot of work to do but the foundations were there.

Daki's forge which was also present on this floor had been expanded upon her request and attached to an additional 3 mines which she had full reign over, much to her delight.

Excess iron and other low rank materials that couldn't be turned into equipment or used in the camp's construction was thus used as trading materials for the trade caravans that journeyed between both Frost's territory, Kranor and Furano. Gems, magic stones, and monster materials were also part of the outgoing trade resources.

The Dungeon of Niflheim was slowly coming into its own as an established territory. Soon they'd be able to truly delve into unique trades, offering items that couldn't be found anywhere else in the surrounding area.

Frost's frequent interactions with his siblings through the dungeon menu granted him never-ending insights into unique products. Aqua had created and designed a new fish monster that lacked much fighting strength but was absolutely delectable once cooked.

Her Abelina fish had taken the nearby underwater kingdoms and coastal territories by storm thus providing her more than a pretty penny as well as fanatical customers.

Indra discovered a special type of gemstone that reacted uniquely with lightning chakra to create mesmerising colours across its surface. Acting swiftly upon this discovery he purchased multiple gem mines for his dungeon and started exporting the brand new fashion trend.

Opposed to products that brought coin income Void and Chronos started selling scrolls of their unique spells to their siblings while Damascus accepted orders to forge personal weapons. Even with the 4 star glaive [wolf howling at the moon] at his side Frost was tempted to request a weapon from his younger brother who'd already reached the same level as Borris, a 4 star blacksmith.