Conquering His Cold Heart

"Looks as though they've got their work schedule down to a tee." Frost eyed the movements of his many monsters and compared it to clockwork. At first it looked like a hodgepodge of messy paths where accidents and collisions could happen every other minute but in fact there was a very established flow or at least the makings of one.

Several groups showed some difficulty in performing their work exactly as ordered but not to the point of causing a complete collapse.

Findlay was the general currently on shift and could be seen in the centre of the camp standing before a large ice table that displayed a rudimentary plan of the envisioned camp including the minor changes Frost discussed with Khuno yesterday.

"The wall will do for now, there shouldn't be any sign of another stampede for at least a few years and the only other threat will be from the opportunistic bandits and profit hunters, a minor inconvenience even if they do bring a substantial force." Frost wasn't simply being arrogant he took great stock in his potential enemies and prepared for them and then some.

The camp's walls may not equal the defensive strength of Furano's but lying behind it were dozens of C-rank monsters, two B-ranks and hundreds of D and lesser ranks. The camp would not be easy pickings for those looking to take advantage. Plus having the Ronsos act as the face of the camp alongside himself prevented any untoward sabotage or coercion. Khuno and the rest would never betray him.

"Within two weeks at the earliest the wall needs be at least 8 metres high and cover the entire perimeter of the camp, the rest areas, medical centre, food services, toilets, smithy as well as a couple basic vendors also need to be established so as to meet the basic criteria for an official camp.

Specialist stores, high quality rest areas, bars etc… can wait until the traffic flow becomes more developed and those from Furano, Kranor and anywhere else decide to toss their hat in the ring." Frost nodded at his own plan, finding it ambitious but not too ambitious.

Out with the necessary development of the camp there was the future development of the outpost on the sixth floor as well as the space and materials fit for the two high ranking smiths that would soon grace the dungeon with their presence. Borris was a 4star blacksmith with decades worth of knowledge under his belt as well as ample teaching experience.

He expected his chosen ronsos as well as the ice dwarven smiths to take full advantage of his time here. Of course the old dwarf would still be kept in the dark about most things, primarily being restricted to certain areas and kept separate from the dungeon's daily processes. The same however couldn't be said about the other smith.

Daki, a beautiful orc woman with succubus ancestry who's appearance and voluptuous figure gave Maya a good run for her money. Unlike Borris she was not being scouted simply for her blacksmithing capabilities but would instead join Frost's inner circle like Nanna, Loki and of course Maya.

She was to be part of the family, a lover who was kept abreast of the inner workings and helped out in their grand ambitions. Of course Daki was currently in the dark about all this only knowing that Frost held a rather impressive secret and background, but the young dungeon core had a strong feeling that the truth wouldn't faze her.

He occasionally talked to her over the magic crystal every couple of days, keeping her up to date on the stampede and his current situation.

Frost still needed to finish setting up quite a few things and reserve a large chunk of DP to suit her tradeswoman wishes but she'd already packed up her stuff and sold off her shop, diving all in on this relationship despite their short interaction. Their connection was something instinctual and deep regardless of time. For Daki there seemed to be no other than Frost.

Her many years of searching appeared to be over, Frost was the man for her.

He planned on heading over to retrieve his woman in a week or so. By then a good chunk of the camp's foundation would be finished and the stampede would officially be over. At the moment there were still small groups of ravenous monsters affected by the mana vein's corruption trolling around the external regions.

But the DP being released by the mana vein was gradually diminishing day by day, clearly heading back to normal levels.

"Though the plans are in place there's still lots of work to be done." On top of handling the camp and preparing his abode for its new arrival he also needed to facilitate his own growth and improve his dungeon through more creative means lest he fall behind the other remarkable dungeon cores, Frost wasn't one to rest on his laurels.

There just weren't enough hours in the day but thankfully he no longer needed sleep.

"Let's get down and dirty then." With a confident smile on his face Frost rolled up his sleeves and teleported from the private space to the external room. He'd take part in the construction personally. If he truly wanted to know what the dungeon lacked he needed to talk to its inhabitants and be actively involved in the construction process.

Frost disappeared into a space warp as if the process was as natural as breathing, he no longer felt even the slightest bit nauseous or discombobulated by it.

"Hey Findlay, how's it going?" He teleported within spitting distance of his right hand man who looked right in his element commanding legions of monsters.

The large, athletically built ice troll lord looked up from the table with a growing smile.

"Master, it's good to see you again." Findlay replied back with a poorly hidden sense of exhaustion.

"Haaaaaaa seems I've put a lot on your shoulders with my absence." Frost shook his head and sighed, partially regretted being away from the dungeon for so long and so often.

"No, no Master it's nothing I can't handle." Findlay tried to emphasise his energy levels with a muscular display but the bags under his eyes were as clear as day.

"Well I'm back now and ready to go to work. Why don't you run me through the schedule you've arranged today and highlight any areas you've found lacking." Frost tapped Findlay's shoulder in a reassuring manner before manoeuvring to his side so as to get a good look at the set up outlined on the large ice table.

"Gladly master." Findlay replied with an enthusiastic voice, happy to share his heavy workload. "At the moment I've assigned 8 ronsos to oversee the wall's construction along with our more capable dwarven smiths. Our current rate of section failure is about one in twenty but it's improving every day.

At the start we failed to produce an acceptable section of wall perhaps 20% of the time so we're definitely getting better with our craft." Findlay pointed out the many teams in the distance as well as where they coincided on the table plans.

"I've already communed with Khuno and adjusted our material formula to include more frigid iron in the wall's construction and at our current rate we'll probably finish the full foundation within ten days and complete the 2nd stage within 3 weeks give or take a day or two.

In regards to the camp's buildings we've outlined their foundations but haven't really started building them up given that the wall takes priority." Frost nodded his head along as Findlay spoke, agreeing with his assessment.

"In terms of problem areas we could use more labour appropriate monsters. Goblins, slimes etc… can help carry things but we need dwarven smiths to specifically create the slurry of pykrete and metal, yuki-onnas to enhance it with ice magic and of course our ronsos to add the final touch with their cold flame chakra.

Our construction speed is integrally linked with these three groups so only by adding more of them will we be able to increase our pace though too much would also cause overcrowding."

"I guess I could assign some DP for more of these monsters if you believe it will speed up our progress. Ideally, I'd want the 2nd stage done in two weeks rather than three."

"If that's the case then we definitely need more labourers. 3 ronsos, 6 yuki-onnas or 18 lesser yuki-onnas and several dozen ice dwarven smiths would be appropriate to meet such a deadline if only just." Frost brought up the dungeon menu from his forearm and added those monsters to his shopping cart.

"There is one other issue that I'd like to specifically bring up."

"Go on."

"By building a wall to protect the camp we've ended up isolating us from the wayward monsters and beasts that were occasionally drawn towards the dungeon's mana radiance.

Overtime it could add up to a staggering amount of DP considering there's far more monsters in the world than sapients." Findlay noticed this blaring issue when a couple raiding monsters were stopped and killed beyond the wall thus greatly reducing the amount of DP they rewarded.

In the future when the stampede's madness completely dissolved large monster packs wouldn't be so dumb as to assault the high walls of the camp, choosing to instead pluck more low hanging fruit.

"That's...a problem."

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