Devouring Dragon Heir-Chapter 28: Ch Frost Fang Dungeon

The Frost Fang Dungeon was not merely a gate, it was a world unto itself, a colossal realm of ice and snow, very carefully guarded by the Iron Guild, one of the top guilds of the country.

This particular gate was one of the guild’s primary sources of income and prestige, directly responsible for elevating the Iron Guild into the top ten guilds in the country.

The dungeon consisted of a vast, unbroken landmass, its true limits unknown even to the Iron Guild’s most seasoned explorers.

It was home to sentient monsters known as Yetis, creatures of formidable strength and surprising intelligence.

These Yetis lived in an organized tribe which considered humans as hostile.

The fate of this dungeon, along with the proud Yeti inhabitants and the standing of the Iron Guild, was destined to change completely today.

Klaus stood before the enormous gate, a shimmering, azure portal that pulsed with cold energy. Its sheer size was imposing,

one could probably fly an airplane or two through it with ease.

He had his Phantom Veil skill activated, ensuring he remained undetected to everyone nearby.

That was why the Iron Guild members manning the outpost near the gate, vigilant as they were, could not see him stepping silently into the dungeon.

Upon entering the gate, Klaus immediately felt the biting cold more intense than his icerealm. His objective was to find the core within a day, ideally.

He knew that as his proximity to the core reached a thousand meters, his Gate Master trait’s detection ability would allow him to sense its precise location.

Klaus had previously asked the system why he needed the Gate Master trait’s specific detection ability when the system itself could presumably locate anything.

To his disappointment, or perhaps surprise, the system had informed him that the core he had absorbed previously was behaving strangely,

emitting unusual energy waves that the system had been able to capture and trace.

If an orb didn’t behave that way, the system would not have detected its presence.

"But why did it behave strangely?

Was it mutating?"

Klaus murmured, the cold mist visible with his breath.

[It can be a probability, but one can’t be certain.

Cores of a dungeon are so well hidden that they are a mystery of the universe with very rare sightings and even in this world no one even knows that a gate core exists, let alone how it behaves.]

[Gate master (S) the most miraculous skill in your arsenal after the divine absorption]

"Well, you are right about that"

Klaus replied, a slight agreement in his tone, as he began to move ahead on the icy, treacherous terrain.

The main difference between the Ice Golem’s Lair and the current Frost Fang Dungeon was starkly evident in its terrain and weather.

The D-rank gate had been more plain, with relatively diverse but navigable environments.

Here, Klaus was currently climbing a steep ice mountain,

and his vision was consumed by an endless panorama of mountainous glaciers filled with jagged ice formations,

stretching as far as the eye could see.

Not much official information was publicly released about Yetis,

primarily because the Frost Fang Dungeon was private property, its data fiercely protected by the Iron Guild.

However, Klaus knew from his research that they possessed a significant degree of intelligence Since they lived in tribes rather than discrete packs far different to the brainless, instinct-driven monsters he usually encountered,

and their builds were humanoid, making them more strategic combatants.

Lost Echo, his sword, materialized silently in Klaus’s hand.

He moved with a confident, almost arrogant stride, as if he owned the place.

Well, he soon would.

But just as he was about to set up a temporary camp near the base of a particularly large ice mountain, a swift, blue-tinged arrow suddenly grazed his cheek.

It had almost struck him, missing only due to the lightning-fast dodge he had instinctively executed.

As soon as the arrow streaked past,

Klaus’s trait the natural hunter activated and the skills Superior Vision and Trajectory Intercept instantly caught onto its source, a small group of humanoid beings,

their skin a deep blue, covered with thick white fur on specific parts of their bodies Yetis.

The Yetis, caught by surprise by Klaus’s reaction, were about to scramble and run, their crude bows lowered.

But before they could even turn around, the Yeti with the bow saw a gush of blue blood from his peripheral vision on both sides.

The heads of his two aides, who had been standing next to him, separated from their bodies instantly, rolling to his feet in grotesque fashion.

Klaus had moved with impossible speed, his sword appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye, striking with lethal precision.

The effect of Haunt immediately activated and its full impact was subtly woven into the young Yeti’s mind.

He didn’t turn around, frozen by terror.

The human hadn’t killed him.

So he was gripped by indecision, struggling to choose between weather he should or paralysis.

Soon, a hushed voice, chillingly close, sounded directly in his ears, audible only to him.

"Run away."

Klaus’s voice was a low growl, a suggestion of inescapable horror.

The Yeti did not understand the exact human words, but he had unmistakably heard the sound ’run’.

It was the same sound he had heard recently when he had personally killed a group of humans who had foolishly ventured into their hunting grounds.

The strong human among them had initially yelled "Run!" to the weak ones, and the weak ones had indeed started sprinting towards their portal, screaming in terror.

Of course, he had personally hunted and killed those humans, and had even tasted their meat, finding it surprisingly palatable.

Now, this human was saying "run." The only thing the young Yeti understood was to do the same.

And so, he ran.

He ran with desperate speed, directly towards his tribe, his mind convinced as he followed an instinct of self-preservation.

As the Yeti sprinted away, Klaus turned back towards the mountain base.

He summoned a few Ice Golems from his Ice Realm to set up a camp.

Surprisingly, the golems, composed of ice, appeared with splotches of red in some areas, resembling dried blood.

"Probably blood,"

Klaus muttered under his breath, a familiar face coming to his mind.

Klaus used his basic Ice Manipulation to create a simple chair of ice.

But then, a thought struck him, and a small smirk played on his lips.

The ice chair slowly, majestically transformed, growing in size and intricate detail, until it became a huge, ornate throne, shimmering with internal light.

Klaus almost chuckled at his own antics, a rare moment of humor, but he was undeniably excited to sit on this self proclaimed seat of power.

As he settled onto the throne, another Ice Golem dutifully brought forth the bodies of the two young Yetis he had killed.

He had deliberately let one of them escape, knowing that unlike the simpler, brainless monsters, the sentient Yetis would surely come to seek revenge for their fallen kin.

This was not a passive wait, this was a calculated provocation.

Klaus had discerned that the Yetis’ sentience meant they would act on tribal loyalty and a desire for vengeance.

Why would he bother going to the tribe when the tribe would willingly present itself to him?

He looked at the digital panel, where information about the deceased Yetis was displayed.

***

RACE: Yeti (youngling)

RANK: B

TRAITS:

- Natural Armour: Thick fur and hide provide resistance to cold and physical blunt force.

- Claws & Fangs: Sharp natural weapons for melee combat.

SKILLS:

- Freezing Roar(C): A terrifying roar that can disorient foes causing minor frost damage.

- Ice arrow(C): Generate ice arrows to hurl at the enemy.

- Frost Breath(B): Exhales a cone of freezing air that can slow and damage enemies.

- Ice armour(A): Forms a temporary armour of solid ice

***

"Hmm... as expected, as a youngling, its strength isn’t much,"

Klaus mused aloud, leaning back on his ice throne.

"But since the elders and warriors will surely come to take revenge, I’ll have better skills and traits to harvest."

Klaus didn’t immediately absorb the Yeti corpses. He wanted to keep them visible, a clear provocation to the vengeful Yeti tribe.

He had considered making immediate use of his Ice Golem army, but their current rank was too low to be genuinely useful in a direct battle against A-rank or B-rank Yetis.

He could make them do laborious physical tasks, but battling such formidable foes was just a waste of his mana resources.

Klaus looked at his wrist-mounted watch. He needed to make this operation quick since he only had a day to find the core and conquer the dungeon before his permit expired.

However, he wasn’t overly worried about the time constraint or the daunting task of searching such a huge landmass.

He had recently gained a powerful new skill related to speed, a skill that promised to redefine his understanding of movement.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SKILL: Apex Velocity (A)

This skill grants the user unparalleled acceleration and movement, multiplying their base speed by a staggering 1,000 times.

EFFECTS:

1,000x Speed Multiplier: The host’s base movement speed, reaction time, and attack speed are all increased by a factor of one thousand. This applies to both physical actions and the speed of mental processing needed to perceive and react to such high velocities.

Blazing Swiftness: When activated, if the host’s base speed stat is greater than A RANK, the host becomes a blur, moving with such incredible speed that they can appear to be in multiple places at once or even vanish from sight in an instant. This effect also generates a noticeable visual distortion, like a heat haze, around the moving body.

Frictionless Movement: At extremely high velocities, the skill automatically negates atmospheric friction to prevent self-immolation or physical damage from air resistance, though prolonged use is taxing on the user’s stamina and mana reserves.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With this incredible skill, Apex Velocity,

Klaus could probably cover the entirety of this vast dungeon, even given its immense size, in about an hour at max.

This dramatically reduced his time pressure. He felt a surge of confidence.

However, he felt he still needed a tracking skill for efficiently searching every area and, more importantly, making sure he didn’t repeatedly search areas he had already covered.

That would be a waste of his precious time and energy, even with Apex Velocity.

He looked at his available draw points (DP).

He had just received about 10 DP for each B-ranked Yeti youngling he had killed, giving him a small addition to his left points.

"Well, I guess I’ll draw later after the dear Yetis help me harvest some more points," Klaus said, a predatory smirk widening on his face.

Just as he finished saying out loud for the forest to hear, a rapid, fast ice arrow, shimmering with frost, suddenly materialized out of thin air from a nearby ice tree,

streaking directly towards his head.

Klaus, without even consciously reacting, merely tilted his head slightly,

catching the projectile effortlessly between his thumb and forefinger as if plucking an insect from the air.

His reflexes had gotten a major boost after the skill he got. He looked in the direction the arrow came from, ready for the next wave of his "guests."

------------------------------

AUTH NOTE:

if you have come so far congratulations this novel will now be fast paced from here on.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l