Chapter 9: Touring the Dungeon (2)

It took Frost and Maya several hours to complete their journey into the next section. Most of the time was either spent playing with the monsters they came across or taking a closer look at the 'free' features that came with the environment.

"I feel like 2000DP for this was quite a steal." Frost couldn't help but comment once they reached the end of the first section.

"Although it looks like a lot of stuff you need to remember that it's all very common things that could be found anywhere." Maya retorted; throughout their walk she didn't see anything that was very useful except for food. It would be different if the room came with a mine or quarry.

"I guess that's true."

'Maybe there's also some kind of bulk buying discount?' Even if all the free features were common there were many.

"It's a winter forest next right?" Maya asked politely as she gazed at the gateway leading to the next section. The gateway was similar in style to the one at the entrance just a little smaller and less grand looking. DP could be used to create a more epic entrance, but they were on a budget, so they got the basic stonework one.

The gateways needed to be large so monsters could easily move between sections and since the largest monster Frost could currently summon was a polar bear it would suffice for now.

"Yeah," originally Frost didn't look forward to seeing the winter forest, given that it was the cheapest environment and was supposedly just trees, no rocks or even a change in elevation. But seeing all the interesting stuff in the first section his heart thumped with excitement.

'I wonder what creatures will be included or if there's any tasty plants.' Frost found the red berries in the winter highlands fairly appetising even though even he didn't actually need to eat while in the dungeon.

Unable to withstand his curiosity he stepped through the threshold entering the next section, leaving Maya behind. Maya was rather annoyed by his actions, fully expecting to be hand in hand again or for him to at least do the gentlemanly thing.

'Never heard of ladies first I see.'

"Hmph!" She pouted slightly before walking through the gateway but the smile on her face revealed that she wasn't really that bothered by Frost's actions.

In the second section of the dungeon.

Before Frost was another snowy room, this time he was unable to see 50 metres in let alone several hundred. Snow covered spruce like trees covered his entire vision as far as his eyes could see. The trees layout was fairly random, no maze-like routes just a simple forest. But 5 kilometres of the same looking stuff would make it very difficult to know your direction. The trees themselves varied in height at random intervals, ranging from 5 metres to a mighty 20. And some areas were so dense that they blocked out the sky.

Equal to the first section the ceiling or fake sky mimicked the real thing and was approximately 50 metres or so up. This again was something that could be altered for DP. A low-level sky wouldn't do much good for aerial monsters but would suit Frost's current monsters just fine. Even though the arrangement of the trees was fairly simple it would still create many ambush opportunities for his monsters, allowing them to gain the upper hand in battle.

"Amazing" was all Frost could say, the more he saw the more entranced he became. The development of the small cave into these environments gradually felt more and more impactful, his feelings started to mirror Maya's.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Maya responded with a smile, happy that Frost finally understood her meaning. She moved closer to one of the snow-covered trees and gripped it with her hand, caressing and squeezing different areas.

"Common winter spruce indistinguishable from the trees found outside of the mountain." Outside of the mountain where the dungeon was currently inhabiting was a forest that covered most of the area. According to Maya the trees within the dungeon matched those of outside. She continued to inspect a few more trees that slightly differed in appearance.

"Artic maple and some birch trees, all incredibly common in Northrend but all very heavily used, whether it's for building, cooking or firewood." Maya was mumbling to herself after inspecting the trees, she was processing how to get the most out of such common materials. Frost moved closer and placed a hand on her shoulder putting a stop to her mumbling.

"Huh… what is it?" Maya questioned, feeling a little annoyed that she was brought out of her thinking bubble. In response Frost slightly smiled and pointed towards the tree that Maya was currently grabbing. Maya followed his line of sight and where her hand was the tree had started cave in from the pressure. Without realising it she had started squeezing her hand incredibly hard causing the tree to be crushed.

At this point the tree was close to buckling in on itself. Frost wasn't bothered if a single tree became damaged since it would eventually grow back quickly due to the dungeon's built-in mechanics. But he noticed a few distressed squeaks coming from the top of the tree when it started to shake under the pressure.

Living within the half-crushed spruce tree were a couple squirrels that were currently holding onto the tree for dear life. Maya realising what she had done and hearing the squeaks caused her to slightly panic. She immediately let go of the tree and leapt up to catch the two squirrels before the tree finally buckled and fell towards the side.

"Timber" Frost couldn't resist shouting that as the tree quickly crashed against the floor. Once the tree fell, he turned to Maya who was currently trying to soothe the angry and frightened squirrels out of guilt.

"Hahaha," he couldn't resist laughing out loud causing a blush to appear on Maya's face. She couldn't argue back since she was the one that did something thoughtless. The two squirrels looked at one another after seeing Frost laugh and Maya blush unsure how to proceed with their anger. Their house was just destroyed but they couldn't get mad, perhaps they were charmed by Maya's beauty, they placed their paws on her cheek to show that it was ok.

When their paws touched her cheek, Maya instantly felt happy breaking into a large grin.

'They're so cuuuute!' She rubbed her cheek against the little squirrels before placing them in another nearby tree. Frost at this point had managed to restrain in most of his laughing but still let out a little snigger every so often.

Once she placed the squirrels safely into their new home and waving goodbye, she turned to face Frost albeit with a gaze that could burn through him.

"Are you quite done young master?" She looked incredibly irritated while stepping closer towards him. Frost knew not push his luck, so he stifled his laughter before responding.

"Yes, yes I'm done." He finished but he wasn't going to apologise, Maya noticed this and ground her teeth.

"So, I'm guessing you came up with a few ideas for the trees?" Frost casually asked as if nothing happened.

"Yes a few, the lumber could be used for buildings either in the dungeon or people looking to harvest it to use outside. Even though it's fairly common the wood itself is fairly strong and a good building material blah blah." Maya went on to explain a few different uses that may be beneficial to the dungeon in some form, the tree wasn't crushed for nothing it seems.

'Considering the dungeon would regrow the trees much faster than they would naturally, could that mean an endless supply of lumber? But would people really tread into a dangerous dungeon just for wood? The main use for lumber would probably be more for the dungeon's monsters. I'm guessing more intelligent species would like a proper house to live in, maybe the frost dwarves could use it?' Frost thought about the frost dwarves that he hadn't seen yet, a few of them lived in this section of the dungeon.

Frost dwarves weren't like the sapient dwarf species that were found throughout Nova that could speak and have their own countries no, they were monsters and a fairly basic type. They were quite a bit stronger than the frost goblins since they were E-rank, but they still couldn't speak the common tongue or be called gifted in terms of crafting like their regular dwarven counterparts. Sure, they were better than your run of the mill monster, but their works wouldn't be shop worthy, making some crude weapons or shelters would be their limit.

"Other than the trees I also noticed a few plants growing nearby." Maya pointed a small patch of red flowers that were growing underneath one of the bigger Maple trees.

"That should be red dwindle."

"Red dwindle?" The name sounded familiar to Frost but other than the fact that it was another common plant he didn't recall anything else.

"Along with other secondary ingredients it can be used to make low-level health potions. This might actually be incredibly attractive, especially if there are larger and more areas of it in this section."

'Health potion' knowledge flooded Frost's mind at those words. low level health potions are always highly desired, they can assist in healing minor cuts or bruises making them recover almost instantly making them incredibly useful to adventurers, hunters, soldiers well anyone really. High level potions can even regenerate limbs if you can afford them.

"That's… quite the bonus." According to the knowledge he just received, low level health potions were constantly in demand so having one of the main ingredients present in the dungeon could be an excellent lure.

"Only if there a large patches of the stuff, even though health potions are in high demand the ingredients are still very common so unless there's a large amount of the ingredients here, the danger may outweigh the reward." Maya presented the key problems with using it as a solitary lure.

"Hopefully, we find more as we travel then." Considering they found some right at the entrance of the 2nd section the chances of there being more was likely.

"Shall we head on in then?" Maya was back to her regular excited self and wanted to get back to their walk.

"Sure" Frost quickly answered back before taking a step deeper into the forest. After a few steps however he suddenly got an awkward feeling. Turning back, he saw that Maya hadn't moved. She was just patiently looking at him waiting for something. The awkward feeling in his stomach only continued to grow the longer Maya stared at him.

'Ah!' After a few seconds he suddenly remembered. Frost walked closer to Maya and reached out his hand.

"Shall we go Maya?" He remembered that he asked for her hand in the first section, and that she rather enjoyed it.

Maya looked towards his hand and smiled.

"Yes, young master" This was what she was waiting for, she liked Frost acting like a gentleman, it suited his handsome appearance. Frost smiled in response thankful that his action was correct.

The two of them wandered through the second section much like they did in the first, investigating each and every nook and cranny that seemed interesting as well as greeting the monsters that came up to them. It wasn't until they were near the end of the winter forest that they came across the frost dwarves. All four were currently sitting in a protected glade chatting (grunting) over a campfire.

'They must have put some thought into choosing their base.' The glade was quite sheltered by the trees making it difficult to attack, a fairly decent natural defence. The dwarves had even cut down some tree branches to make spikes, reinforcing the entrance.

Frost and Maya looked at one another slightly impressed with their work before walking towards the campfire. The dwarves reacted quite quickly, picking up their weapons and entering battle positions.

  Their weapons were far superior to the goblins, one was armed with an iron battle axe; another had a hammer whereas the last two had maces. Their weapons looked to be made of iron that was well past its prime but still solid and each of them were outfitted with some animal hide amour making them look quite ferocious.

Frost imagined that if he was an adventurer that accidently wandered into this glade, he'd be dead in seconds, luckily, he wasn't. Once the dwarves saw his face, they instantly dropped their weapons and looked quite distraught, they had effectively pointed their weapons at their father, they felt ashamed.