Hello everyone so quick change to note. I'm changing the Ice Maiden's name from Crystal to Sigrid. While writing chapter 15 Crystal just doesn't feel right (why I shouldn't pick names when I'm in a rush and tired and I'm bad at names o.-) The new name's meaning fits a lot more.
Second thing is I'm sorry about any grammar issues. Sadly my time to write this everyday is very limited so I don't really have the luxury of letting them sit and then go back to check them until the weekends. Even then my grammar is still pretty bad so there will be things I miss (and also since I created the story it some time just make sense in my sense even though it make no sense to everyone else.) If anyone is interested in helping with editing please read this http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=81863&pid=725655#pid725655
Now enjoy chapter 15! Also 2404 average views <3 almost halfway to the dream of 5000 by end of month!
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“Ice Maiden?” Sage said questionly toward Alice.
“An Ice Maiden is a special kind of Ice Fairy. They are much more human like than normal Ice Fairies and are also much more powerful.” Alice responded.
“That is correct, however I’m currently injured so my power is even weaker than your current dungeon boss.” Sigrid paused for a moment then said “However I’ll slowly recover as long as I have time and the dense mana in the dungeon will help me recover faster.”
“So what is this contract Alice?” Sage finally asked the question he wanted to ask since the whole thing started.
“Normally a dungeon only have monster that the dungeon cores summon. This has many limitations like certain monsters can’t be summons, certain monster require very special condition, and amount of boss monsters you may have. However a second way of obtaining dungeon monster is to form contracts with monsters from the outside. The upside to this is that you can obtain powerful monsters to serve you and allow you to have more bosses than normal but this method isn’t easy. Powerful monsters won’t just become servants to dungeon cores for no reason, most of the time there is a price to be paid for the monster to serve you for certain amount of time. Contract like the one you just made with Sigrid is very rare as most monster wouldn’t offer an eternal contract. The fact that she offered an eternal contract shows how determined she was which is why I urged you to agree.”
“I see.” Sage pondered for a while and said “So Sigrid what happened to you?”
Sigrid let out a big sigh and said “This all started about a month ago. Normally I live out in the snowy mountain range to the north. Suddenly a month ago a strange creature suddenly attacked me. It was a hard battle and after a whole day of fighting I won. Just I was going to head back to my home to recover I was surrounded by those Demonic Lava Golems. From that point on I have been on the run from them until now. My original power is that of a lower tier rank A but I have suffered too many heavy injuries over this month and my power dropped to that of a low tier rank D.”
There was an awkward silence and just when Sage was about to speak Sigrid suddenly continued “I would like to inform my lord that the mastermind behind the attack on me is still out there so I would suggest strengthening the defense of the dungeon to prepare for an even larger attack than this time.”
Just as Sage was about to reply Alice suddenly said “Oh I won’t worry about that to much. Soon they won’t dare to come to here at all so you can relax.”
Sage was very confused by Alice’s confidence and asked “What do you mean?”
However Alice only let out a mischievous smile and winked “You’ll what i mean soon.”
Sage felt helpless about this and decided to trust Alice for now but he still decided that he should be prepared for an invasion.
“So what happened will happen to Sigrid when she fights as the dungeon boss? The Kobold Lord can be summoned again when it dies but what will happen to Sigrid?” Sage was curious on how this contract monsters work.
“Normally with a timed contract the monster are not considered part of the dungeon so when they die they die. But an eternal contract means she give her soul to you and are now bound to you. This way you can rebuild her body if she were to fall in battle inside the dungeon. However if she is outside of the dungeon then the only way for her to revive is to bring her soul back to you somehow.” Alice’s response was a delightful surprise to Sage, he began to comprehend just how serious the contract Sigrid offered was.
“Wait you said if she does outside? So she can move outside like the normal monsters?” Sage quickly asked Alice.
“Yes she can, only summoned boss monsters are restricted in their boss room unless special circumstance occurs.” Alice replied.
Sage began to process everything that has happened, after a while he suddenly said “Does that mean I can sent Sigrid to mix in with the adventurers?”
Both Sigrid and Alice shouted “What?”
“Right now we lack information from the outside and can only wait here for people to come. Since Sigrid looks basically the same as a human it should be easy for her to mix into the crowd and gather intelligence for us.” Sage explained.
“Ummm.. my lord it is not that simple…” Sigrid began to speak
However her voice was quickly overpowered by Alice’s “Sage you dunce! Let us ignore the fact that her aura makes her a beacon to anyone who ranked higher than her but how can you look at her and say she will just mixed in? Have you looked at her? Do you have eyes? Have you seen just how beautiful she is?”
Sage was completely caught off guard by the sudden change in topic, originally he wanted to ask about what this aura is and why it would make her a beacon but now he suddenly had to take a closer look at Sigrid. She was indeed very beautiful, someone worthy of being the treasure of a small to medium sect but to Sage this doesn’t seem to be such a big deal. He have meet woman who were basically goddess so comparing to them Sigrid is just beautiful.
Sigrid felt very awkward by all of this and after seeing Sage in silence she finally spoke up “Before I could attract any attention with my appearance my aura would already have attracted it. The fact is I’m a monster who is used to living in extremely cold areas, because of that and identity as a Ice Maiden my mana give off an very distant feel. The feeling of the mana someone emits is consider an aura, normally only people stronger than me can detect it but right now I’m injured so I’m very weak. However once i reach rank S I’ll gain control over the mana in my body and then even people stronger than me won’t be able to easily notice me.”
“Hmmm” Sage began to ponder, he really wanted to be able to have someone mix into the outside world so that he can learn more about it. Just as he was about to give up he suddenly remember “That’s right there is that!” With that he suddenly summoned a skill book.
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The appearance of the skill book shocked Sigrid greatly. She stared at the book and was unable to speak for a very long time. Finally she muttered “No wonder she said don’t worry…”
“Here Sigrid learn this skill book. If you master the content inside then you should be able to hide your aura from being detected.” Sage said to Sigrid as he pass the book to her.
Alice look at the book and suddenly shouted “Oh, is that the skill you taught the kobolds to help with their ambush? That’s so smart Sage, maybe with this Sigrid can really mix into the outside world.”
Sigrid was startled by what the who was saying, a skill that can help her hide her aura? But more importantly her lord taught kobold’s this skill? Does that mean he wasted precious skill books on kobolds? Everything about this dungeon has been abnormal since the moment she entered here but it is too late to regret anything now. She focused on the book and the book turned into a ray of light and entered her forehead. Soon information rushed into her consciousness and the skill was imprinted into her memory.
“This skill is amazing, I have never seen anything like this! With this I might really be able to hide my aura from almost anyone!” Sigrid became very excited, she has been forced to stay by herself in the mountains because she wasn’t strong enough to hide her aura to explore the human world. Now even though she was weaken down to rank D but she might finally have a chance of exploring the human world.
“That’s right since the evaluation party took away that skill book I should make another one to replace it.” Sage suddenly remembered that he hasn’t replenished the final boss reward.
“No!” Alice quickly shouted “And here I was just praising you for being smart. Sage just because you can easily summon the skill books doesn’t mean you should be causally handing them out. You need to understand that skill books are a big deal and normally they appear very rarely. I only made you put that last book out as a reward so that we can get the attention we need from the kingdom we are in. From now on it is best to limit around a max of 1-2 rank F and G skill book dropping from the monsters a month. When you reach 5 floors you can put a rank D skill book into the reward for defeating the boss but only be there like 10 day out of the year. You have to know that we want attention for protection and to attract people here but the wrong attention can get us killed.”
Sage was startled by how serious Alice was and remember this to heart. This however made him even more determined to have Sigrid gather information for him. He knows far too little of the world and because his current power is completely out of the norm if he just active normally sooner or later he would attract unwanted attention.
“Oh, take this Sigrid and learn practice it well. It should help you recover faster.” Sage decided that since Sigrid was now bound to him forever she is basically the same as the Kobold Lord and thus decided to give her a cultivation method to help her improve. Afterall the stronger she is the safer he will be and safer she will be when gathering information outside.
Sigrid received a skill book and looked at it curious and asked “What exactly is this?”
Sage slowly said to Sigrid “Just learn it and practice it well. This should suit your body type. Sadly I’m too weak to create anything better but once you have reached the peak and are in need of something better I’ll be strong enough to make it.”
Sigrid used the book and information poured into her head once more. Her eyes lit up and shined brighter and brighter as she read the information entering her head. “Ice Flow Cultivation Method… what a wondrous skill. I have never seen anything like this before…”
“Cultivate hard and soon you will be able to recover.” Sage then looked to a wall and began to dig. He quickly created a private room for Sigrid and changed the room to a cold environment that Sigrid would feel more comfortable in and would help her in her cultivation. “When you have time spare with the Kobold Lord, it will benefit you a lot.”
Sigrid nodded and entered her room. With that The Sage Dungeon gained a new boss without any of the adventurer outside knowing.
*In a hidden location*
“What! How did we loss contact with the Demonic Lava Golems!”
“Sir, their life stone has shattered just a while ago!”
“What was their last report!”
“They said they chased the Ice Maiden into the newly formed dungeon and then soon after that they died sir!”
“Damn it! She must have made a contract with the dungeon. ARG! We must capture her no matter what as she is vital to our plan! Quick gather all the troops and we head for that dungeon. That dungeon is going to learn that you don’t ever get in the way of Demon Lord Zoar!”
*Few days later*
“Damn it, the humans have already fortified the area. Sir it would be impossible for us to get inside that dungeon without being notice by the humans.”
“ARG! You get to live a bit longer for now dungeon core but we will be back and we will get that Ice Maiden! Everyone fall back and continue your task, I’ll personally take care of this.”
*Sage’s Chamber*
After the eventful night where Sigrid joined them everything returned to normal. Soon after a few days Sage finally understood why Alice was so calm about all of this. The Kingdom’s elite troops have arrived to help police the dungeon town that is going under construction. Aside from that there is also always a squad of 5 elite soldiers always camped at the entrance of the dungeon to prevent unsavory characters from going in.
Sage has been slowly finishing up floor 2 and will be ready to open it up by next week. Once he opens up floor two the dungeon size will double once again allowing more adventures to come in at once. He decide to place a Bear Breathing Technique book with a goblin hidden in the second floor for the lucky person to find when the second floor opens up.
However side from this Sage also began to create a secret section of the dungeon that is not accessible to adventurers. Here he decided to house his own personal army that will be used to defend himself in a time of crisis. He decided to train only elite monsters here because they get the most benefit out of it and the lower monsters is really only good for cannon fodder even after being trained. Throughout the week Sage ended up summoning 30 goblin elite and 10 kobold elite. He have taught them all the Iron Skin Cultivation Method to increase their survival rate and raw strength. He wanted to have them take patrol in floor 2 in rotation but thinking about the danger of them dying and having all that effort wasted made him hesitate. Even though death was common on the road of cultivation but these monsters were simply too weak compared to the danger they constantly face.
Sage thought for a long time and could help but muttered “Only if there was a way to have them fight adventurers but not get killed…”