Fenrir

“Such an interesting creature…” I mutter to Dawn while studying the pattern for the void serpent – which actually turned out to be its name. “It’s extremely weak physically but makes up for it with its magical prowess.”

Although the fact that they are automatically considered mana infused monsters by the System is rather annoying. So I have a limit on the number that I can actually spawn.

But it makes some sense at least. After all, they do have mana and are of the void element already.

I turn my attention away from the two void serpents that I have spawned in front of me to look at the territory I have claimed in the void.

Out of nowhere, a thought comes to me, and I decide to compare how each of my monsters do in the void compared to how they do on Midgard. Because if they’re like the void serpents at all, then this might get rather interesting.

I quickly move my attention down to a lower floor, the ninth floor to be specific, before carefully creating a portal and having one of the mana infused monsters of the floor go through it. And just like with the void serpent, the instant the void direwolf gets through the portal, it suddenly goes through a few changes.

To start things off, a few sparks of black flame begin to trickle out of its eyes and the creature seems to start moving at a much faster speed than before. It also appears to grow stronger, assuming the strength of which its feet are hitting the ground of the void is anything to go by.

But what interests me the most is how the creature seems to grow curious about the area around it, leading the void direwolf to begin walking around without any directions from me.

I watch it out of curiosity until it suddenly leaves my territory, making me shout, “What the heck?”

However, before I can start freaking out due to this, the void direwolf quickly reenters my territory.

“What is it?” Dawn asks, turning her attention towards what I’m doing. But I ignore her to instead focus on the direwolf.

Surprisingly, when I inspect its body, I don’t actually find anything wrong with it. Which is weird considering how its life force should have started burning away at a rapid pace the moment it left my territory.

I continue inspecting its body for several minutes before I eventually give up and ask Dawn, “What’s up with this void direwolf? It left my territory and came back but is still perfectly fine!”

Dawn – who had stopped paying attention due to my lack of answering – returns her attention towards me and says with a straightforward tone of voice, “It’s because it was in the void when it left your territory.”

A few seconds pass in silence after her words and I ask, “Why would that matter?”

This seems to take her by surprise for a moment before she seems to realize something and turns a faint pink out of embarrassment.

“What haven’t you told me?” I ask her with a hint of suspicion in my tone.

Dawn seems to focus rather intently on Fang – who she is currently playing around with – for a few moments before eventually answering, “Well, the reason dungeon monsters can’t survive outside of the dungeon is because the dungeon – you – unconsciously provides them with a pure form of energy. This energy is radiated from your core itself in the form of the light that constantly comes from it.”

I stay silent as she pauses, waiting for her to continue speaking.

She turns to look at the void direwolf again and continues, “But if a mana infused dungeon monster enters an area rich in the specific type of mana it was infused with – such as that void direwolf entering the void – then it can survive off of the energy in that area.”

I stare at her for a few seconds before asking, “And you only tell me this now?”

Dawn seems to fidget for a few seconds until she says, “Well, I forgot about it after my trip…”

Hmm… forgot about it…

Actually, she still hasn’t spoken much about her trip now that I think about it.

Although that might be my own fault for being too busy to ask her.

But before I do that…

“So I can send a few void infused monsters into the void to do some scouting for me? Is that what I’m hearing?” I ask her again with a little bit of excitement entering my voice.

Dawn quickly bobs up and down, likely excited to be able to change the subject from her bout of forgetfulness, and says, “Yep!”

I turn my attention back to the void again to find the void direwolf once again missing from my territory before I ask out of curiosity, “Is there anything in the void of interest to find?”

“Of course, there is,” she says rather quickly, flying straight off of Fang’s back and surprising him in the process. “There’s a special type of ore called void ore, quite a few interesting void monsters, and even a few herbs that only grow in areas filled with void energy. In fact, the void is known amongst the strongest people in Midgard as the best place to go when searching for powerful resources.”

Oh? That does sound rather-

“Although each of the resources themselves are rather rare, and the void itself is extremely large,” she continues while calming down and lowering back to Fang’s back. “So it’s not very likely that you would find anything for a while. Not unless you’re lucky.”

I stare at her for a few more seconds before focusing on the void again.

“Way to bring my hopes up,” I mutter in disappointment, only to find the void direwolf trying to leave the territory again. However, before it manages to do so, I give it an order to search for something before returning to my dungeon again.