Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 1: Birth

Within an elegant stone courtyard decorated with a simple jade table and two matching chairs, a young man suddenly materialised, confusion clear in his expression.

‘What? Where am I?’ He looked around trying to get his bearings.

Surrounding the courtyard was a very well maintained and dedicated garden. Hundreds of plants of differing sizes and colours filled his vision. Pleasant streams of water could be seen in one direction whereas another had multitudes of insects and plant wildlife, frolicking without worry, a veritable paradise. Even though he had no idea where he was, the sight of this garden kept him calm and at ease.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” A voice suddenly grabbed the young man’s attention, drawing him away from the splendid view. He turned around towards the jade table where the voice originated. Now sitting there was a handsome middle-aged man happily looking his way.

‘He wasn’t there earlier.’ The young man looked over at the table before and could swear that no one was sitting there. He felt rather unnerved about someone being able to suddenly appear without his knowledge.

The young man scrutinised the middle-aged man before deciding to answer. The older man was dressed in a black and gold kimono and had long black hair that stretched well past his lower back. But the most prominent feature was his eyes. They were a deep all-consuming black, the young man felt drawn in whenever his gazed wandered near them.

“Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful garden.” The middle-aged man was giving off a powerful yet gentle pressure that convinced the young man to just respond honestly. After answering the middle-aged man’s question, he was no longer as nervous. The middle-aged man gently smiled at him after hearing his reply.

“You don’t exactly have anything to compare it to, but I’ll accept the compliment none the less hahaha.” The middle-aged man lightly laughed while looking out towards his garden with pride.

.....

“Huh?” The young man however was rather confused, his brow frowned as he processed what he just heard.

“What do you mean by that exactly?” The young man decided to ask for clarification. The middle-aged man once again looked towards him; his eyes still full of pride but aimed towards him instead.

“That’s simple, you’ve just been born, so you haven’t had the chance to see anything yet.” The middle-aged man eagerly anticipated how the young man would react to this information like it was some sort of game to him.

The information obviously gave quite a shock towards the young man. His emotions were clearly being displayed on his face, his eyes were wide open, brow tensed, and head tilted as he questioned what he just heard. He was completely flabbergasted; he was a fully grown man who could easily hold a conversation and identify the objects around him. No new-born should be able to do this, at least none that he knew.

“From your expression I can see that you don’t believe me.” The young man nodded his head in agreement.

“Alright then, how about you try answering two questions. First, what is the last thing you remember? Second who are you?” The middle-aged man seemed to enjoy giving little pieces of information at a time given the eager smile that was plastered on his face.

‘What a weird old man.’ The young man internally scoffed when he heard the two questions. In his mind they were incredibly pointless he couldn’t understand the middle-aged man’s intent.

‘Eh?’ However, once he tried to answer the two seemingly pointless questions, he drew a blank. The last thing he remembered was arriving here in the stone courtyard, anything before that, nothing. He couldn’t recall his name, age, or anything, he didn’t know who or even what he was. He looked towards the middle-aged man with a hint of fear.

“I...I don’t remember.” The young man was quite afraid now, even the serenity of the garden couldn’t subdue his current emotions.

“Relax, you can’t remember because there’s nothing to remember. Come sit down there’s much we need to discuss.” The middle-aged man gestured towards the remaining seat by patting it with his hand. The young man still rather disturbed didn’t reject his offer and moved to take the seat. After he sat down the middle-aged man smiled warmly, obviously trying to calm him down.

“Here, drink this.” The middle-aged man waved his hand in the air summoning a simple jade cup that was releasing steam and giving off a pleasant aroma. He took hold of the cup and inspected its contents.

“I’m quite proud of my tea, hopefully it’s to your liking.” The middle-aged man maintained his warm and friendly attitude as he talked. The young man nodded his head in thanks before blowing on the cup and taking a sip of the green coloured tea.

‘Delicious.’ The tea seeped into every one of his taste buds overflowing his mouth with flavour. It then proceeded to fill each and every one of his muscles and bones with energy, removing any fatigue or stress that had built up. All of his worries and fears seemed to be absorbed by the tea and eliminated, bringing a happy and satisfied smile to his face.

“Well?”

“It’s delicious, I feel much better now. Thank you.” The young man closed his eyes and gave a slight bow.

“Hahaha that’s good, very good.” The middle-aged man laughed and sent a very caring look towards him. The middle-aged man’s gaze made the young man feel warm for some reason.

“Now that you’ve got a cup of tea and managed to calm down, we should get down to business.” The young man nodded in acceptance; he was ready for answers.

“First off let’s do some introductions, I’m known as Dark, but you can call me father, dad or papa which ever you prefer.” A bright light started to radiate from behind Dark, as he said that, obviously aiming to increase the dramatic effect of the bombshell he just dropped.

The young man however didn’t react much, just calmly accepting it, replying with a slight smile. He didn’t know if it was due to the effects of the tea he was drinking but all he thought when he heard the word ‘father’ was ‘ah that sounds about right.’

“Eh! I just said that I’m your father and you’re just sitting there without any reaction. I wasn’t expecting you to run into my arms crying papa but still, you didn’t even blink in surprise, so not cute hmph!” Dark was clearly very disappointed with his response such that he started pouting and mumbling stuff like the girls were much cuter or he’s just like his brother.

Dark continued to pout and mumble for a good few minutes before finally looking back at the young man. He waved his hand summoning another cup of hot tea, this time for himself. He needed to drink some tea to help him get over his disappointment and continue with their discussion. However, he clearly wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Ah! Hot.” He forgot to blow on the tea to cool it down resulting in him burning his tongue. The cup dropped to floor as he started to hand fan his tongue in an effort alleviate the pain.

“Hahahahaha.” While Dark was in pain the young man started to laugh. The juxtaposition from seeing his father transition from having a regal aura to his tantrum was difficult but bearable, but this was too much. Dark’s clumsy mistake pushed him over the edge resulting in him loudly laughing. And it took him longer than he would have liked to calm down.

“Sorry father, that was mean.” He felt pretty guilty laughing at his father’s pain. Dark however was smiling, his tongue was no longer hurting nor were his feelings. Seeing his son laugh without restraint -even though it was due to him hurting himself- made him happy.

“No need, I’m glad you laughed, it was pretty funny hahaha.” Dark proceeded to laugh at his mistake as well, creating a very harmonious atmosphere between the two of them.

“Your eldest brother didn’t even laugh once when I spoke with him which worried me.” Dark’s eyes showed a sad expression as he mentioned his eldest son.

“Perhaps you just weren’t funny.” The young man himself didn’t want to laugh but couldn’t restrain himself, perhaps his eldest brother just had more restraint or Dark’s jokes were bad. He pictured his elder brother being a cool silent type.

“Eh... you could be right.” Dark tried to remember his discussion with his eldest son and realised what the young man said could have merit. ‘I guess I’m not that funny, seems I was worried for nothing.’ He no longer worried about his eldest son’s attitude but still believed that his daughters were better.

“Anyway, since I’ve introduced myself, I guess it’s time for me to tell you who you are.” Dark then proudly smiled towards his son. The young man’s ear’s twitched in anticipation, he suddenly felt incredibly excited, his heart started to strongly thump.

‘Who I am.’

“You and your siblings are something I’ve worked incredibly hard on and are my proudest creations. All together there are 100 of you, all of which were born at roughly the same time, just a few minutes between one another.” The young man smiled as he imagined the many brothers and sisters he had, 99 was a big number.

“You my son are number seven and your name......is Frost.” Dark pointed towards Frost’s chest as he said that.

‘Frost...Frost...Frost,’ Frost kept repeating his name in his head, carving it into is heart so he wouldn’t forget. He smiled kindly towards his father.

“Frost greets you father.” Saying his name out loud made his smile grow bigger. He felt complete and at ease.

“Hahaha, happy birthday my son.” Dark patted his son’s shoulders with affection, accepting his greeting and congratulating him.

“That should do for introductions don’t you think.”

“Yes father.”

“Good, next I’ll tell you what you and your siblings are.” Dark couldn’t stop a smirk from forming as he mentioned that. Frost however was just eager to learn more about himself and didn’t notice this.

“You and your siblings are the first of your kind, a unique existence, something I’m calling...Dungeon cores!” Dark paused to add dramatic effect but that was lost on Frost who just looked at him with a puzzled expression since he had no idea what his father meant by ‘Dungeon cores’.

“Dungeon cores?”

“Yes, Dungeon cores!” Dark repeated ‘Dungeon cores’ back with gravitas hoping Frost would understand and feel the magnitude of what was being said.

“...You’re going to need to say more than just Dungeon cores.”

“Ah!... yeah sorry.” Dark’s eyes stopped twinkling and he visibly deflated from his self-built hype.

“It’s probably going to be easier to show you than explaining it, come.” Dark proceeded to stand up and walk to the centre of the courtyard. He gestured for Frost to join him there. Frost nodded his head and acquiesced to his father’s request, joining him in the centre of the courtyard.

Once his son stood by his side Dark waved his hands summoning out a dull white orb the size of a basketball. The orb floated by itself in between Dark and Frost at chest level.

“This is a Dungeon core, you have something similar to it within in you, think of it as your other half.” Frost placed a hand on his chest trying to picture the core that was within him.

“The purpose of this orb is to allow you and your siblings to harness the power of creation and it’s what sets you apart from everyone else.”

“Creation?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna love this.” Dark lightly touched the floating core causing it to react. The dullness disappeared, replaced with a gently increasing white shine. Once the core fully activated, it displayed a holographic screen that floated above it.

“This is the Dungeon menu; it’ll help you navigate and utilise the powers that the core provides.” Dark’s right hand then started to be covered in a black aura. The aura was then absorbed by the floating core causing it to release a slight shine as if it was happy.

“To use the power of creation you’ll need Dungeon points or DP for short, I’m converting my mana into DP to show you an example, but you’ll need to acquire it another way.” After pumping some mana into the core and revealing a proud smirk, Dark cycled through the menu until he came across a section with the heading [monsters]. The menu now showed a long list of different so called monsters, which were divided into ranks. Dark scrolled through the list until it showed a monster called [goblin].

“One of the most important abilities you’ll have is summoning monsters, this will be integral to your survival.” Dark made sure to empathize the word ‘survival’ to Frost. He then clicked on the menu causing a glowing magic crest to appear on the floor. A creature quickly grew from the crest.

What appeared was completely green in colour and reached roughly one metre tall. Its frame was somewhat humanoid, but its appearance was very ugly, especially its teeth which were all yellow and crooked. It also came armed with a short rusty dagger and wore nothing but a dirty looking loincloth.

“This is a goblin, and it costs 30DP. It’s one of the weakest and cheapest creatures you can summon however, if used wisely can be very useful, especially in large numbers.” Dark gave Frost some time to inspect the summoned creature.

The goblin stood still, occasionally releasing a few grunts as it stared towards Dark as if waiting for instructions. Frost moved closer to the goblin checking out its frame and weapon. He felt that weak was a very apt description. Its size was no more than that of a human child and a starved one at that considering the width of its limbs. The rusty dagger looked like it could cut flesh with difficulty but would easily be repelled by any sort of armour. Plus, since it was practically nude even a sharp stick could kill it.

Frost stepped back after completing his inspection, he nodded towards his father. Dark waved his hand once again causing a magic crest to reappear beneath the goblin, this time consuming it. All that was left was the goblin’s right ear and a few of its fangs.

“Monsters are usually hunted for their materials. Different monsters have different uses. With a goblin its fangs are used in alchemy and the right ears are used for fertiliser as well as being a kill confirmation. Whereas with a wolf monster, its hide, fur and even meat would be desired.” Frost intently listened to his father, afraid to miss out a single detail. He felt nothing as the goblin vanished only curious about the magic crest it arrived and disappeared with. He picked up the left-over fangs and right ear. There was still blood left on the ear and saliva on the fangs.

‘Pretty disgusting, what use could there be for these.’ He thought while squeezing and rubbing the fangs. After he was done critiquing the materials, he placed them back on the still glowing crest. The crest then devoured the ear and fangs before completely vanishing.

“When a monster you’ve summoned dies like so, you’ll recoup 10% of its cost. With the goblin I summoned, the core received 3DP, it’s not much but it’ll add up over time.”