Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 37: Tracking

With the large doors opened a cold wind rushed into the building, quickly dropping the ambient temperature by a few degrees.

“Ah! Dammit close the door already it’s freezing.” One of the older adventurers sitting at a table near the entrance shouted in anger towards John and his companions.

Slightly embarrassed John ushered in the rest of his party before slamming the door shut and apologising to the older adventurer. The old adventurer simply scoffed in response before turning back to his friends.

The four then walked up towards the reception desk where a young female dwarf was lazily lying with her head on the desk.

“Jaina wake up!” Thorin smashed his fist onto the desk giving the female dwarf a harsh wake up call. Shocked by the sudden sound near her ear the receptionist jumped up violently and was prepared to batter the offender black and blue.

“Who the fuc.... Ah! Big bro Thorin.” The instant she saw who the rude person was all her angry suddenly deflated, replaced with a bright smile.

“Sleeping on the job again I see.”

.....

“It’s not like there’s anything to do at this time anyway so what does it matter.” The young receptionist pouted slightly. At this time there’s only a few older adventurers who occasionally come in for the warmth and booze, so she frequently took a nap at this time.

“Well, there’s something now, is the old man free?”

“Dad? Yeah, he should be upstairs doing paperwork why?” Jaina tilted her head to the side, slightly disappointed that Thorin was more interested in finding the old man instead of talking to her.

“We found a new monster lair.” It was John that spoke this time. Although his voice wasn’t loud it was enough to be heard by the older adventurers present. The entire guild hall suddenly became silent, even Jaina was quiet before suddenly becoming very professional.

“I’ll go and call the guild master.” Jaina stood up from her seat before quickly dashing upstairs to the top floor.

John, Thorin, Fen and Jack didn’t have to stand around for very long before Jaina quickly came back, slightly out of breath.

“The guild master requests for you to come to his office immediately.” Her words caused multiple murmurs to start amongst the present adventurers. A new monster lair meant big money for Furano and them, so they were incredibly interested.

“Thanks Jaina.” John thanked her before walking up the stairs with the rest of his party. Reaching the top floor there was only a single large room, the guild master’s office.

Knock, knock, John knocked on the door twice.

“Enter.” A deep grizzly voice sounded from the other side in response.

The group entered the room in an orderly fashion before closing the door behind them. Sitting at the end of the room at a large wooden desk was a middle-aged dwarf similar in appearance to Thorin although with a much larger beard and more angry appearance.

“Sit,” the dwarf looked at them briefly before telling them to sit down and wait.

“Jaina mentioned that you found a new monster lair, is this true?” The guild master’s voice was deep and imposing sending shivers down each of their backs. Thorin being the most used to it answered first.

“Yes, uncle it’s true.”

The guild master sighed before standing up and giving his nephew and his friends a more intensive inspection. When he saw the remnants of their wounds and their badly damaged clothing, he couldn’t help but grow angry. He glared towards Thorin and John causing them to not dare look his way.

“So, you thought that it’d be smart to investigate it on your own am I right, E-rank adventurer party [Artic Warband].” He said their party’s name one syllable at a time causing the group to develop a cold sweat. Forcing them to endure his pressure for a short while, the guild master then smiled.

“I’m glad that you guys returned safely, but next time be more careful. You’re still young don’t recklessly attempt something in the name of profit.” He placed a hand on John and Thorin’s shoulders nearly causing them to break into tears. He then proceeded to do the same for Jack and Fen.

“Now that that’s over with, tell me what you’ve found.”

Back to the present time with the kids Luna and Leo entering the second section, the bandits and the cold knight quickly entered the dungeon attempting to find the frost wolf which taunted them. However, the blizzard was still roaring on and with the frost wolf’s white coat it’d be easier to find a needle in a haystack than find it.

“Fuck!” Redhawk stomped the ground in anger, they lost sight of the frost wolf almost instantly and were now stuck in the middle of a blizzard not knowing their north from their south.

“Calm down Redhawk it’s just a monster, remember your job.” The knight looked coldly at the rampaging Redhawk. But how could the bandit boss calm down after being so humiliated, the knight’s words just infuriated him further. Redhawk stomped even harder causing plumes of snow to burst out in all directions before roaring at the sky. The knight watched on in contempt. Redhawk only stopped after his deputies calmed him down and he’d thoroughly battered the snow.

Now more calm Redhawk faced the cold knight, his eyes filled with malice. “So what do you propose we do now then Alex?”

Suddenly the cold knight released an intense burst of killing intent. His name was known. The bandit deputies blanched and stumbled backwards but Redhawk stood his ground against his fury, giving him no quarter. He’d already lost so much for nothing, he no longer cared about the consequences of angering the knight and the one behind him, so he directly called out his name, revealing it out loud to his deputies.

‘Arrogant little shit, I should have killed him and his group long ago.’ Alex felt regret, he should have just done this job himself regardless of possible suspicions. His hand moved towards his sword, ready to cut down them down.

The tense atmosphere continued for several seconds with Redhawk refusing to back down and his deputies frozen in fear.

Alex sighed before releasing his sword’s handle and withdrawing his killing intent. “If you still want to get paid the job’s still the same. Find and kill those two brats!” Alex decided to allow them to keep their lives...for now.

“Ptuh!” Redhawk spat on the ground, dropping his subservient act.

“And how do you suggest we do that? Even with 20 of my guys we didn’t find them and now that we know there’s frost wolves here, we can’t exactly split up and search.” Redhawk was annoyed, he had no idea how large this monster lair was, and the weather made searching even more treacherous.

Alex smiled before taking something out of his coat. It was a small metal cube covered in unusual markings. Redhawk had never seen anything like it, but his smart deputy had, and his face instantly grew warped.

“You mean you had a tracking device this entire time.!” The smart deputy spoke through clenched teeth. If he knew that Alex had access to a tracking device, then there was no point in sending their underlings in to haphazardly search the lair, only to die.

‘Bastard!’ He instantly knew that Alex wished to weaken them by any means necessary and unfortunately it worked. Only the three of them were left and even together they may not be a match for the knight.

Alex noticing that Redhawk’s deputy realised his intentions simply laughed in contempt. “What of it, do you mean to say that I should have told you about it or let you use it.... fuck off this thing is worth more than your entire bandit group twice over! What would be the point in hiring you in the first place. Even if I have more magic devices, they have nothing to do with the job you were hired to do. I’m only using this now because I’ve had get personally involved due to your incompetence.”

“You!” The smart deputy’s face turned livid, Alex was just spouting bull shit, he knew exactly what he intended, and it filled his heart with fear.

Redhawk feeling some danger put his arm in front of his smart deputy “what’s done is done.” He looked into Alex’s eyes coldly “now that you’re willing to use a magic device it’ll make this job much easier.”

“But boss!” The smart deputy was reluctant to accept but Redhawk gave him a stern look causing him to swallow his next words. How could Redhawk not realise what Alex did but so what, there was nothing he could do to change it, and this wasn’t the time to fight amongst themselves.

Alex looked over Redhawk with slight shock not expecting him to be so ‘understanding.’

‘Perhaps I underestimated him.’ Alex held out the tracking magic device before closing his eyes and funnelling his mana into it causing the markings to light up. Once enough mana was given, the device vibrated before displaying an arrow on its top face, resembling a compass only that the arrow was slightly moving. Seeing this Alex smiled and looked in the direction the arrow was pointing.

“This way.” Alex moved forward into the snowstorm. Redhawk and his deputies reluctantly followed behind him. With such a device no matter how well the two kids hide they’ll be found.

“Well, that’s rather annoying.” Frost grumbled as he saw the bandit group easily heading straight towards the winter forest.

“I didn’t think he’d have a magic device for tracking.... The person backing him must be very rich.” Maya was quite shocked when Alex brought out the tracking device. As far as she knew, tracking magic devices were incredibly expensive and rare. Plus, the one in Alex’s possession appeared to be of high quality, not something the average rich man could get their hands on.

“What can you tell me about this device?” Frost’s knowledge was lacking in this regard.

“Magic devices are created by artificers or found within special areas such as monster lairs and come in a range of possibilities. The device in the knight’s hand is a fairly high-quality tracking item, most likely from a monster lair or secret realm given its quality. It should be able to register an item or person to be tracked over a span of at least 20 to 30 kilometres.” Maya told Frost everything she knew about the peculiarities and limitations of such devices.

“Why would he only bring out something so useful now?”

Maya shook her head and raised her hands. “Who knows, perhaps he felt it was a waste to use something so precious or he was wary of the bandits being blinded by greed.” As good an explanation as any and also quite accurate.

“Now that they’ve got a tracking device as well as their combined strength it changes things. Most likely they’ll catch up to the kids in under an hour without interference....” Frost tapped away at the arm of his chair as he thought of his next move. He still hadn’t fully formed his plan in isolating the knight Alex in a one-on-one battle nor had he decided on what to do about those to kids.

“Maya, you said that such a tracking device would be very expensive?”

“Yes, young master they’re very rare and usually bought up by the government for use in the military, so they’re quite difficult to get hold of.”

“So, the owner must be someone very important and or very rich.... Why would someone like that be so determined to kill two young adventurers?” He continued to tap away as he drew closer and closer to a plan.

“Why don’t I just ask them?”

“Eh!”

“I said why don’t I just ask them; they’ve got to know why they’re being chased so why not hear it directly.” Frost grew more sure of his decision the more he talked.

Maya stared at him blankly, Frost was going to talk with them in person and from his tone he wasn’t going to kill. The whole point of them being up in the private space was to avoid any link between him and the dungeon being discovered. It’d fine if he planned to kill his targets like the bandits and knight since dead people don’t talk.

“Don’t worry I can just say that I entered earlier and finished exploring the next room, they’ll just think I’m another adventurer. Besides wouldn’t it be good to have some people we know when visit the Northrend empire in future.” Maya couldn’t argue, everything Frost said was logical and reasonable.

‘Am I just worrying too much, Dark God-sama did say to be careful but to also encourage interaction with the rest of Nova.’ Maya was confused and unable to agree or disagree simply remaining silent which Frost took as an acceptance.