Conquering His Cold Heart

Karrick with a grin adorning his lips and a reignited fighting spirit left the confines of his hallowed command centre with his most powerful subordinates for the final blockade, the barrier erected on the 9th and bottommost floor.

"Hmph guess I'll have to thank that Frost for showing my little lordling the right path." A large, winged man with bright red skin muttered under his breath as he watched Karrick leave. This man was his guardian, Lapata, a magma devil who was a hairs breadth away from reaching S-rank.

Lapata was considered somewhat of a prodigy as were the majority of the chosen guardians and decided to take on a less personal approach when it came to his interactions with Karrick, choosing to serve solely as a temporary teacher and supervisor.

There was no close relationship between the two of them like there was between Frost and Maya or Indra and Izuna, but it wasn't negative either like how Gobuske used to be treated. Lapata was here to do a job nothing more, nothing less, he acted professionally and never over stepped, leaving Karrick to find himself even if it meant going down the wrong path.

He became a guardian for his own benefit, not because he deeply wished to be of service to Dark or that he was overly curious about his new creation no, he wanted the promised reward as well as the opportunity to observe and feel divine energy in action on a regular basis, as doing so would likely allow him to reach the vaulted S-rank and truly become one of the blessed entities that were above all but the Gods.

This was Lapata's official stance but over several months of close proximity with Karrick, it was difficult to prevent some level of attachment developing, thus his true feelings broke through for a brief moment…shame that no one else was free enough to hear it.

Karrick quickly arrived at the final blockade, greatly inspiring the soldiers who were there and prepared to lay down their lives for their creator. His strongest and most battle worthy forces made up the final barrier, with him and his aides joining them in the upcoming carnage Frost would have no choice but to make some sacrifices… but that was still a few hours away.

"Master, Karrick's forces have successfully breached the second floor and conquered the first section." As Frost was moving through the corpses of Karrick's sixth defence line Nanna quickly contacted him through the dungeon menu system.

"Hoh I thought he was struggling during your last report."

"Yes he was but his tactics have changed, and more monsters have entered through the spatial connection, even the commander was altered to someone who's less head-on in their strategies." Nanna gave her report calmly though there was a subtle hint of surprise.

Karrick's tactics so far could barely be called such, brute force that relied on their elemental advantage nothing more, the worst match-up for someone as experienced as Frost.

"Interesting seems my young brother isn't stupid enough to stubbornly stick to the same method even when it no longer works." Though such a change was naturally disadvantageous for him given that he was the enemy it still brought a smile to his face. These wars were meant to test a dungeon core's ability to manage their dungeon and their military forces against one another.

If there was no learning and improvement involved then what was the point. It seemed Karrick understood that and decided to learn from his opponent despite his initial arrogance.

"Seems there's potential for my younger brother yet hahahahaha." Joy as well as battle lust filled his heart as this dungeon war just became that much more fun. "Khuno time to move."

"Yes milord!" Khuno shook the bloodstains from his halberd before following after his master with their intact forces bringing up the rear.

'You may have reach my second floor Karrick but unfortunately what waits for you there is another lesson. I hope you don't descend into complete despair hahahaha.'

Second floor, final section.

"So you're saying that the opposing dungeon's forces will be here within an hour."

"Yes Sir and as agreed to by our master we will not interfere with your actions unless it causes direct harm to our own defences." At the second floor's final defence line multiple walls had been reconfigured to create kill boxes and limit access to the stairs from the ice cavern labyrinth.

And tucked safely behind these defences was a group of sapients pleasantly interacting with the surrounding monsters and environment with one in particular beaming as she took dozens of energy readings.

A ronso who was placed in charge of the federation of knowledge's investigation team informed Terrance of the situation, boldly warning him not to betray their lord's trust lest they wished to meet a gruesome end…subtlety of course but bold none the less.

Terrance couldn't help but lightly chuckle as he and his colleagues released a snippet of their aura causing the ronso to tremble instinctively.

"Relax ronso we have given our word and the federation does not break its promises. We won't interfere in your defences but will defend ourselves when necessary and retreat when we see fit.

Fight as you normally would without us here." Terrance could feel that though he and his team were welcomed by Frost and that he ordered his monsters to work alongside them there was still a strong sense of unease among them. Of course he couldn't exactly blame them he'd be the exact same.

Without their master or Khuno present there was hardly anyone who could put up a decent fight against them if things went south.

"I hope so Sir Terrance for both our sakes." The ronso refused to be fully cowed even if it meant his death, he'd uphold the dignity of their master. He left a moment later to attend to his regular duties.

"Tensions are already high enough Terrance, are you sure you should be acting so confrontational?" Ladius who finally managed to curb her curiosity for a damn second questioned her security team leader.

"Trust me he'd be more on edge if we didn't stand our ground to some degree, I know how soldiers think miss Ladius especially during times of war."

"Very well, I'll continue to leave our interactions to your discretion." Ladius trusted in Terrance's expertise over her own. She was an investigator while they were effectively the federation's military. "By the way I'm quite interested in seeing the other dungeon as well as that spatial corridor connecting th…"

"We'll see miss Ladius, depending on how hectic the war between the opposing forces gets as well as their strength you might need to curb your curiosity for once.

My job is primarily to protect you and get our previously gained data back to headquarters, anything else we gain during this so called war is a bonus not a necessity am I clear." Terrance quickly took a stern approach, knowing exactly how reckless his charge could be when her interests took hold.

"Hmph spoilsport." Ladius was of course displeased with his response but was powerless to do anything about it, she was under strict orders to follow Terrance's lead during this little excursion.

40 minutes later Karrick's newly reformed invasion team reached the boundary of the second floor, giving off a far more deadly feeling than they did previously.

Instead of heavy hitting minotaurs and chaff leading the pack recklessly their forces were far more structured, mimicking Frost's. Military lines were clearly divided into frontline hitters, cavalry, ranged attackers, support and magic users, making this war far more real and devasting.

The worst change was the mass addition of flame serpents, fast, agile monsters that were not only capable of moving through all manner of terrain but could spit dollops of fire based venom that made short work of defensive ice magic as well as ice based structures. Catching them wasn't easy either given that ice restraining magic was nothing more than a tickle on their fire scaled bodies.

The new commander was a C-rank fire serpent who unlike the flaming tusked minotaur was patient. The moment their forces reached the defensive line and made away with the finicky traps on the outskirts it ordered for a deluge of fire to rain down on the enemy softening them up before charging in, far less reckless and casualty prone.

"Raise shields, protect the ballistae and key areas of the walls. Magic corps weaken the fire as much as you can. Quarrellers and archers aim for their mouths, you can miss but at least they'll be unable to spit fire." Another frost troll lieutenant was left in charge of the second floor's defences and reacted well to change in the enemy's tactics.

He may not be the strongest combatant on the field, but Frost's troll lieutenants were akin to Findlay mini-mes focusing on leadership and command skills rather than personal strength thus making them ideal officers. Unfortunately Karrick's soldiers were getting better and better at utilizing their natural elemental advantage, there was limits to how much he could neutralise.

"It's a nasty match up but that frost troll lieutenant and the forces under his command are durable and pretty well trained for such a young force." Terrance judged the war effort with respect as did his colleagues. They were well and truly impressed with how a young group of monsters managed to achieve something that would take a well-oiled military battalion years to achieve.

Frost was growing more and more impressive in his eyes.

Ladius wasn't the only sent to evaluate the capabilities of the young dungeon core.