Conquering His Cold Heart

It took roughly 3 hours for Kiba to carry Frost and Maya back home. they took a more careful approach thus delaying their arrival slightly but thanks to that there were very few incidents.

"A glorious sight, our home." Frost smiled and visibly relaxed as his connection to the dungeon core was re-established. The power thrummed throughout his body filling him with energy and a sense of safety. Here he was unstoppable.

"Yes, it certainly is." Maya agreed while looking up at massive mountain ahead with fondness. This was also her home.

"Seems Khuno and Findlay have been hard at work in my absence." Frost's gaze gradually came across the makings of a sturdy ice wall stretching beyond the mountain and around the surrounding area, marking Frost's new territory.

The ice wall looked strong and resilient though it was rather short and unfinished at the moment it revealed strong potential. His monsters clearly adhered to his instructions to focus on quality when it came to the protective wall.

Width wise it was currently 2 metres but Frost planned to make it at least 3 perhaps even 4 so as to withstand the charges of a herd of mammoths. Height wise it wasn't anything impressive at the moment as Frost could even gleam over the top without standing on his tip toes but that was something that could easily be improved over time. It was the foundation that mattered most.

The wall was scheduled to encompass a square area roughly 5 kilometres in length and breadth. Right now only 40% was complete which was rather impressive given that Frost had only been away for a week and the feral monsters were still abound in the area. To be honest Frost would have been impressed if only 20% was done, this was a happy surprise.

"Of course they have, they wished to prove their capabilities in areas other than battle thus they worked their subordinates hard and even took part in building the wall personally." Maya answered with an obvious tone.

"I'll have to reward them all then, good thing I made quite a windfall from fighting in Furano." Frost made a whopping 50,000DP during his time guarding the northern wall. It was less than what the dungeon made during the more intense waves but this was all made solely by him and with an 80% loss of DP per kill. The amount of lives he snuffed out personally could overfill a standard cemetery.

"They'll be glad to hear that, more than a few worked extra hard just for that possibility." Maya had noticed that several monsters under the dungeon's purview were developing their own individuality regardless of their intelligence. It was an unusual sight, quite mind-blowing in a way. The dungeon core was changing monsters, developing them in a way that normally took generations of improvement.

She wondered why the Dark God designed the dungeon cores in such a way. Did he want to show off the potential of monsters along with his newest creations?

With that reveal Frost hallmarked a few thousand DP for rewards before ushering Kiba forward.

As the group grew closer they could see swaths of monster squads hard at work developing the nascent wall as well as planning out the first bunch of buildings. Barely a single monster was left out in this duty, from the minor goblins and slimes all the way to the mighty Ronsos, all were involved in some way or another.

Along with the ice mined from the glacial mine, the abundance of nearby trees and generous helpings of iron the mighty protective wall was being fashioned. The ingredients were combined into a form of mighty pykrete serving as the core of the wall.

Furthering its prowess squads of magic inclined monsters built up ice around the pykrete before a ronso would use their inherent ice fire chakra to strengthen the 'alloy' and remove impurities, leaving only the strongest combination. It was a great undertaking but one that would certainly prove useful in the future.

Everyone was made sufficiently aware of how important a solid defensive structure was in regards to the monster stampedes. Their rather half assed approaches during the recent war saw them constantly retreating deeper into the confines of the dungeon every few waves once the danger escalated. With the camp being in service such actions wouldn't be proper come the next stampede.

Abandoning it would undo all their hard work and put those living within in great jeopardy, thus their highly focused and enthusiastic response when building the wall. Any part that didn't meet the strict quality control demanded by the squad captains was shattered and remade then and there.

Of course after a week of work such things didn't happen nearly as much anymore but Frost just so happened to come across such a scenario.

"Not good enough, scrap the last 3 metres and start from scratch. A wall is only as good as its weakest point. A single opening is enough to invalidate the entire structure. Goblins and slimes bring more trees from within the dungeon and avoid the previous area. It's likely that the wood caused the fragility.

"Grunt!" Multiple monsters grunted in understanding before following the ronso squad leader's orders to dismantle the work they'd just finished.

Frost smiled from ear to ear as he overheard the words of the ronso squad leader. Pride filled his heart as he silently sanctioned another 1000DP to be spent on rewards.

"How impressive, you certainly haven't let me down during my absence." Frost revealed himself atop of Kiba and loudly proclaimed causing nearly every monster in the vicinity to turn his way. At first, they were wary, thinking that a bunch of sapients had encroached upon their domain. They prepared their weapons but then quickly sheathed them the instant they caught side of Frost's visage.

"Master!!!" Those who could speak common tongue screamed with glee while the others grunted and or made animated gestures to show their joy. Several goblins and other lower ranked monsters even dropped what they were doing and rushed to his side, acting like children seeing their father for the first time in ages.

Though their actions damaged the strong working image they had just made Frost didn't reprimand them. He smiled genuinely and placated his monsters, finding a sense of comfort in doing so, something he really needed right now. For too long he was thrust into the heat of war, adding on the assassination attempt he was near breaking point, desperately in need of some R&R.

"Yosh yosh I'm happy to see you too." His smile became more and more genuine as he patted and stroked the endless amount of heads demanding his attention.

"Master" After a minute or two of pampering word reached Khuno who was overseeing the entire wall operation today. The mighty Ronso captain made his way towards his long absent master with a smile on his face and a haggard look in his eyes.

Though a great deal of progress had been made and the monster squads appeared to move almost seamlessly in their work this level of efficiency took a lot of supervision. Getting monsters or varying species and personalities to work as a unit without Frost's presence proved to be a rather arduous task even for someone with his strength.

Khuno was greatly relieved upon seeing his master for the first time in a week.

"Khuno, it's good to see you." Frost moved through the clingy goblins, frost dwarves and slimes to stand before Khuno his second named monster. He looked at his pride in joy in earnest and noticed the exhaustion in his eyes.

"You worked hard Khuno, allow me to take it from here." He patted the taller ronso's shoulder while speaking in a soothing yet reliable manner.

"Master." Khuno felt a sense of relief at Frost's words, his body visibly trembling and standing a little straighter as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders. He actually missed the days of war, commanding monsters in battle and straining himself against worthy opponents was in many ways easier.

"I'll return to the kids, I'm sure their quite worried after my sudden departure." Maya announced before teleporting herself and Kiba into the private space. Though Nanna and Loki were made aware of the possibility of Maya vanishing without warning actually experiencing was another matter.

Frost nodded his head in understanding before refocusing back on Khuno. He'd been away for an entire week and needed to brought up to speed with the current progress as well as amend a few of his plans.

Khuno thus guided Frost throughout the entire camp, highlighting their progress as well as giving his own suggestions. Some things could only be realised once you started the task.

"Though our plan for the wall is quite sturdy and ensures the possibility of widening and heightening its parameters to a certain degree it has its limits as a territory's external wall. It'll pale in comparison to the defensive strength of Furano's outer walls even with an additional metre in thickness." Frost relayed to Khuno some of the aspects of the war in Furano as they walked and talked.

"True but it's the best we can do given our current materials." Khuno agreed with his master but didn't find the prospect detrimental. "The next stampede won't come anytime soon. By then we'll likely have expanded our reach and or had sufficient time to remake the entire wall from scratch.

Its current capabilities are more than enough to constitute the defence of a new budding territory and them some."

"True, but I'd like to see our defences taken up a notch sooner than later." Frost no longer wished to take any chances, best to be prepared and not have the danger come than to be unprepared when the danger does.

"I'll pass the order down, do you want it thicker? Taller? And or change the materials. If it's the latter you'll need to spend some DP to build a higher quality mine with a decent output." The dungeon currently had four 3-star mines in operation, two frigid iron mines, a kyanite mine and a duram mine.

The frigid iron was already being infused into the wall's mixture, but the percentage was rather low.

"Make it an extra metre wide and increase the amount of frigid iron used in each batch to double, I'd rather use the duram metal for equipment given its preference in the market. Buying a 4 star mine however is out of the question not only does it cost at least 300,000 DP for the worst one we don't have any way of properly utilising the stuff.

Our smiths still struggle with 3-star materials let alone those higher." Frost quickly shot down buying a high quality mine at least for now.

"Understood, anything else?"

"Don't bother with any of the internal buildings until the wall is complete, we're not going to have to entertain any guests for quite a while after all." Though the stampede brought a massive influx of DP the following month or so would see the dungeon make pittance. No adventurers had any reason to travel beyond the gates of Furano.

Their work during the war would see their coffers bursting with coins thus eliminating the urgent need for work. Of course there'd still be people needed escorts and whatnot but very few would be going hunting in the new dungeon.

Frost relayed a few more plans to Khuno and the other squad captains before teleporting to the private space, a strong feeling of anticipation growing in his heart as he did.

"I'm finally home."

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