Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 3: Meeting his Guardian

Frost travelled within the black sphere for at least an hour or so before it abruptly stopped. He could no longer feel any magic or movement from it.

“Guess I’m he......!” His sentence was cut short before turning into a yelp. The bottom of the sphere suddenly opened up, dropping him without warning onto a cold hard surface a couple metres down.

Boof! He fell right on his ass looking incredibly comical.

“Hahaha not the most elegant of entrances young master but certainly entertaining.” A beautiful, charming voice started laughing at his current pose. Frost stopped rubbing his backside and looked towards the voice.

Seeing the owner of the charming voice Frost was speechless, his jaw dropped open in awe. Before him was the most beautiful woman you could imagine. A breath-taking face armed with a cute button nose, silky long white hair, deep blue eyes, and prominent curves in all the right places. Wolf like ears and tail matching the colour of her hair only added to her appearance and it was all wrapped up in a beautiful red and white dress. Frost wasn’t the only one in awe, however.

After the woman stopped laughing and witnessed Frost’s face, she had a similar reaction. In fact, she even started to drool as she ogled his features.

“Damn Dark God-sama really went all out when creating you, I’m almost jealous.” The woman wiped away her drool while attempting to regain her composure. Her words shocked Frost.

.....

‘She’s jealous... of what?’ Frost was still unaware of his own appearance so he struggled to understand why such a beautiful woman would be jealous of him. He tilted his head to show his confusion.

“Eh! You don’t even know how dangerous that face of yours is.” The woman was gobsmacked and slightly irritated. She fumbled around her dress patting different areas in attempt to find something.

“Here it is.” Once she found the item, she tossed it over to him without so much as a warning. He reacted quickly, managing to catch it with both his hands.

The item was a foldable mirror, perfect for applying or adjusting makeup. It was black all over except for a few golden wolves adorning the lid. Frost understood the woman’s intentions and proceeded to open the mirror to find out what the big deal was.

Once the mirror was open and reflecting his face he was once again speechless. The woman’s claims were justified. Early twenties armed with a perfect, brave looking face without a single wrinkle or blemish in place. He looked like some kind of elven deity; smooth white skin, slightly pointed ears, beautiful long pale blue hair with streaks of white and finally his eyes were a gleaming silver colour.

Witnessing his eyes in the mirror, they gave off a chilling aura similar to ice. Even though his appearance differed from Dark’s, there were still areas like his eyes that bore a strong resemblance. After a long inspection he closed the mirror and gently tossed it back to the woman with a smile on his face. He still felt that the woman had nothing to be jealous of but was very happy with his appearance.

The woman almost fumbled her catch as she bore the brunt of Frost’s smile making her lose focus. While the woman was putting away the mirror, he took a look at his current attire, wondering if it matched his looks. The mirror was too small to judge clothes. He was dressed in a white and pale blue kimono similar to Dark’s, just a different colour scheme, it helped make him look noble.

“Yes, yes you look good from every angle Mr narcissist.” The woman was staring at him in annoyance as he twirled around looking at his clothes. Frost developed an embarrassed blush as she said that.

“Cough cough.” He coughed lightly to gloss over his embarrassment and returned to normal.

“Thanks for the mirror umm.... Sorry, what’s your name?”

“It’s good manners to introduce yourself first before asking a lady’s name.” The woman retorted still in a rather annoyed mood.

“Ah!... yeah, you’re right sorry, my name’s Frost nice to meet you.” Frost held out his hand in greeting. The woman at first gave him an evil sort of look, she looked up and down his body before releasing a light sigh. Her face changing into a large smile, she thrust out her hand confidently and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you Frost, you can call me Maya; I’m your assigned guardian so please treat me well.” The woman or Maya had completely regained her composure. She moved in close and looked straight into Frost’s eyes while showing a mischievous glint.

“Y...yeah nice to meet you M...Maya.” Frost was a little embarrassed having her so close and looking right at him. He turned away from her first as a red blush filled his cheeks, Maya lightly laughed in triumph and released his hand before taking a step back.

“You’re so cute young master, this is going to be so much fun.” Maya’s comment only served to increase his blushing.

“What did you mean by guardian?” Frost attempted to change the subject by asking a question.

“Huh? Didn’t Dark God-sama tell you about me?” Maya brandished a rather puzzled look. Dark was supposed to tell him about her but obviously ran out of time.

‘Ah she must be the girl he shouted about before the sphere closed.’

“He didn’t get the chance to, we ran out of time. He shouted something about a girl while I was being whisked away but nothing about guardians...wait did you say Dark GOD?”

‘That old man’s a God.’ Frost struggled to believe that his father was a God given the personality he showed. But then again, he did say he created the world of Nova as well as many species, so it does fit.

“Yeah, Dark God-sama, one of the two creation Gods.” Maya answered back like the knowledge was common sense, cementing the fact of him being a God.

“He just said he was my father.” Frost welled up with pride, finding out his father was such a big deal would make any son happy. Plus, the fact that he didn’t brag about it said a lot.

“Eh!” Maya froze and exclaimed in shock from his answer, puzzling Frost.

“What’s wrong?” The look in Maya’s eyes had changed. She looked at him with confusion, awe, and a slight pain. Tears even started to form at the edge of her eyes causing Frost to panic. He didn’t know what to do, a beautiful woman was starting to cry in front of him and he didn’t know why. Maya seeing his panicked state, wiped the edge of her eyes and regained her composure and apologised.

“Sorry, you’re the first of his creations that have been allowed to call him father and not Dark God-sama or Lord Creator... I’m happy that he truly has people he accepts as family.” Maya smiled slightly while saying that however, she couldn’t fully hide the pain she felt. She was truly happy but was also jealous of Frost’s position in her Lord’s heart. Frost picked up on her pain and made an internal promise. Whenever he’d go see the old man, he’d make sure to bring her along.

“Since he didn’t have time to tell me everything would you mind filling me in on the rest?”

“I guess I have to, hahaha,” Maya lightly laughed regaining her bright appearance.

“I’m the guardian that’s been assigned to watch over you while you adjust to the world and your abilities, think of me as a teacher and protector. Each of the dungeon cores such as yourself have been assigned a guardian. Though we cannot physically interfere with the dungeon’s defence unless absolutely necessary, we can advise on management, combat skills and about the world of Nova. Our purpose is to help you become independent within a year. After that we will leave, so let’s make the most of it.” Frost felt uneasy, his knowledge was limited, pretty basic, far from being able to establish his independence, was a single year enough?

“Sounds like fun Maya.” Although the time he’d have with Maya felt short, he planned to enjoy it.

“Alright now that we’ve got introductions out of the way let’s get down to the real stuff.” Maya grew passionate and sent a determined look his way. Frost responded in kind; great minds think alike. He also wanted to start making his dungeon as soon as possible. Maya touched a pretty silver bracelet on her wrist causing a small book to appear above her hand. Her actions were similar to Dark’s when he summoned the cup of tea. She held up the book so Frost could see.

“This is the guidebook that Dark God-sama gave me when I was assigned to be your guardian. It gives the basics steps on establishing your dungeon as well as some rules.” Frost nodded his head while listening along. Maya opened the first page of the book.

“First we’ll need to deploy the Dungeon core that’s inside of you and then turn this area into your dungeon.” Frost looked around finally taking in where he currently was. They were in some sort of closed off cave no bigger than 60m2. The ground was a mixture of loose gravel and rocks hardly screaming dungeon worthy. He frowned at Maya asking if she was serious.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, all of this will change once you create your dungeon, trust me.” Although sceptical Frost decided to trust her.

“What do I have to do then?”

“Place your hands on your chest.” Frost followed her instructions.

“Good. Now picture your core and once you have a solid image say, ‘summon core’.” Frost tried to imagine his core; he remembered the floating orb that his father showed him.

“Summon core,” in reaction to his voice, a magic crest formed on his chest. It lightly glowed as a white coloured orb the size of a basketball slowly protruded from his chest. After a few seconds the orb was fully separated and floating before him. Frost touched his chest in awe, in disbelief that that thing was inside him. He felt no pain or discomfort as it came out, yet it came out his chest, how magical.

“Great now we can get some more information before the main event, touch the core and say ‘status’.”

“Status,” similar to when Dark handled a core, a holographic menu appeared above it displaying all sorts of information.

Status

Name: Frost

Dungeon number: 007

Guardian: Maya (Fenrir)

Element/core type: Ice

Skills/talents: [One with Ice]

Location: Glacial Mountains

Dungeon points: 15,000

Frost read through the short list of text occasionally mumbling what was said.

“Well, what does it say?” Maya asked after becoming impatient. Frost turned to face her with a queer look.

‘It says Fenrir’ Frost was looking closely at Maya’s furry white ears and her bushy white tail. From his limited knowledge he knew about Fenrirs, they were some kind of legendary wolf monster equivalent to dragons in strength. Maya however looked to be far shorter than him and her only wolf like features were her ears and tail as well as slightly sharper than normal teeth. He couldn’t help but frown towards her.

“W...what’s that look for?” Maya was taken back by his scrutinising look, unsure what caused it.

‘Did Dark God-sama put something bad about me on that screen?’ Maya grew quite nervous thinking that was the case. She went over the multiple possibilities of what could have been written. Her fondness of alcohol, her violent temperament or even her bad sleeping habits the list went on. Her thinking was luckily stopped early by Frost.

“You’re a Fenrir?” Frost questioned with a puzzled look.

“Umm yeah.” Maya answered while rapidly blinking, not expecting that question?

“Aren’t Fenrir’s massive wolf like creatures?” He continued to ask unable to understand.

“Yeah.” Maya was now the one looking strangely towards Frost. She couldn’t understand his confusion.

‘So, it wasn’t anything bad but what’s the problem with me being a Fenrir, does he not like wolves or something.’

Frost however understood the fact that stronger creatures could appear in humanoid form but still. He couldn’t connect a massive and powerful wolf to Maya who barely stood at 160cm and looked as cute as she did.

“Sorry I don’t have anything against you being a Fenrir just that... I can’t really picture it.” She’s looks more like a bunny rabbit than a wolf. He let slip a slight laughter at that image.

At his laugh Maya’s lip started twitching and a vein protruded on her forehead. She clenched her teeth and balled up her fist attempting to restrain her anger.

‘This again!’ Frost wasn’t the first one to mock her appearance as a Fenrir. Many over the years especially her brothers made fun of her calling her the rabbit wolf. Even in her wolf form she lacked that wild and dangerous look.

No matter how strong she got it never changed, it was the main cause of her having a short fuse and developing a rather violent reputation. But ever since she was offered the position of guardian, she wanted to change that aspect of herself. However, a few minutes into the job she was ready to flip out. At this point steam was practically coming out of her ears and her face was turning red.

Frost quickly felt a sense of danger a strong aura of blood lust was being emitted from her, resulting in his body filling with a great sense of fear. As though he was suddenly face to face with an overbearing predator and he was the prey. Maya’s anger was clear as day and he immediately realised his mistake.

“Ah sorry Maya sorry!” He waved his hands in the air and took a step back hoping to calm her down. A cold sweat dripped down his back as he saw her about to blow. He didn’t mean to offend her in any way, it’s just that she’s so damn cute and adorable. He didn’t know what to do as Maya started to slowly move towards him cracking the floor as she moved.

‘Shit!’ He couldn’t think of an answer, so he listened to his instincts. He dropped to his knees and kowtowed towards her firmly knocking his head against the floor and shouted.

“Sorry!” He remained facing the ground after shouting, hoping that it would be enough.