While spinning Yuna around and thinking about how he should spend his newfound wealth Khuno rose from his chair.

"I’m glad you’re happy master but you didn’t even bother to ask how she got all that money." Like a wizened elder he stirred the pot, earning him a sharp glare from Yuna who was enjoying being held by their master.

"That’s a good point; Yuna how did you procure such wealth?" Frost stopped spinning but kept hold of her legs, propping her up to the point she was eye level with her much taller colleagues.

"Don’t listen to Khuno Master he’s simply jealous of my work. That money is 100% legal, procured from investments and donations made to accelerate the process of establishing business within the city." Yuna confidently stated, offended by Khuno’s attempts at accusation.

"....She means bribes right?" Findley asked, sharing a glance with Khuno.

’Did you know already?’

’You mean you didn’t.’

"Donations, DO-NA-TIONS!" Yuna immediately argued.

"No Yuna that’s definitely a bribe." Said Frost already feeling the onset of a headache, his dreams of wealth dancing on a precipice.

"....Donation, bribe, what’s the difference really?" She acted coy and innocent.

"A pretty big one." That headache started coming at him with a vengeance.

"Aren’t they just words Master, what matters is the perspective. A few wealthy individuals wanted to shorten the time needed to establish their business, to jump ahead of the queue so they decided to utilise what they had in excess, money. They donate a small sum as reparations for skipping the queue and in turn we and the Lord’s management budget get an injection of gold which we can use to better the city. A win-win scenario wouldn’t you say?"

"....."

"....."

"....." The men in the room were speechless, wondering where on Nova the innocent, young Yuna had gone because the woman before them now sounded like a slippery eel, a golden hearted businesswoman and or a politician, so easily twisting the facts to make her point sound justified.

"Is it just me or does she have a point?" Frost found himself following Yuna’s train of thought, wondering if there was anything he actually needed to correct about her behaviour.

"No Master she’s clearly twisting the facts." Khuno denied almost immediately, his innate pride was not so dissimilar to that of a knight thus he instinctively felt that Yuna’s actions were in poor taste and a slippery slope.

"Hold on Khuno, while we agree that it can be considered a grey area morally since when does that matter to us. We serve the Dungeon and the interests of our master, anything that benefits that should have our full support." Findley held a different opinion on the matter, failing to understand why taking bribes would be of any issue to Frost and the Dungeon. Their focus in establishing a territory was different from the norm after all.

"...." Frost silently weighed their opinions against his own, recognizing the truth in Findley’s words while at the same time understanding how a simple bribe could be a gateway into something more nefarious.

"Did I do bad Master?" Yuna acted coy again, smiling cutely down at her handsome master, even shuffling a little so his hands would inch closer to her ass.

"Stop the cute act Yuna." Frost unceremoniously dropped the maiden of ice, fully aware of the angle she was playing.

"Boo."

"I won’t punish you as long as that was the full extent of the bribes and if you promise to run these by me in the future." 140 gold coins was 140 gold coins, better in his pocket than those merchants.

"It was and I promise." Yuna wasn’t an idiot she knew better than to risk her master’s reputation within the city-state. She only accepted bribes that would accelerate the establishment of businesses or inductions of new citizens if they had already passed inspection. She would not look the other way regardless of how much money was thrown at her.

"Alright, well done Yuna, I guess that just leaves you Findley." Last but certainly not least. Findley was his literal second in command, the amount of work he had on his shoulders even when Frost was present in the Dungeon was staggering. The ice troll commander was the war Marshall of his forces and the highest ranked manager of his Dungeon. All summons, DP purchases, changes in rooms and or floors, evolution of monsters, erections of structures within the Dungeon itself, monitoring of delving adventurers and management of the floor of peace all fell under his purview. Yuna and Khuno may complain about their work schedule to Frost or the ladies of the house but never to Findley. The depths of his responsibilities sent shivers down their spines whenever they thought about it.

"Oh it’s finally my turn." Findley stood up and lightly coughed, readying his throat for a long monologue before pulling out several documents.

"Yes, please give your report on the Dungeon’s activities." Frost’s expression noticeably brightened at this point, the Dungeon was his true bread and butter, everything else could be considered secondary.

"Well first off our current daily income averages about 48,000Dp while our costs which include replacing lost monsters, broken traps, rewards and the allocation towards basic overall improvements is tabulated at roughly 19,500DP making our profit just shy of 30,000, a number that’s steadily climbing with every passing day." Findley rattled off some impressive statistics without batting an eye, long have gotten used to such numbers.

"We have a total of 17 floors, two of which are designated as non-combat while another two are blanks, bereft of any monsters, environments and or expansions. The furthest any adventuring party has managed to reach is the 12th floor, forced back due to the excess number of C-rank and peak D-rank monsters dwelling there in mass. I doubt anyone will be able to reach the core within the next six months even if we don’t increase the number of floors."

"As long as nothing unexpected happens?" Added Frost, already feeling that with his luck such a thing was an inevitability.

"Correct, as long as nothing unexpected takes place we should be safe for a good long while. We’re ahead of the curve and with a good margin of error." Of course Findley took into account unknown variables, he was very good at his job after all.

"In terms of our monsters, evolutions have been pretty standard, nothing that stands out all that much but nothing useless either. Frost goblins remain the favourite amongst the lower level adventurers, great teaching materials as Ringwald put it." He felt rather strange about such comments given that he too was a monster of the Dungeon.

"For material gathering the frost wolves and winter boars remain as kings while our spiders albeit being full of useable materials are still the most dreaded amongst our roster. Their efficiency in killing and maiming intruders greatly overshadows their cost, so I highly recommend increasing our number." Findley’s documents outlined dozens of behavioural patterns that he’d collected over the past year.

"Ugh spiders really." Frost wasn’t overly fond of such creatures, their appearances unsettled him to say the least while Maya and Daki outright dreaded them, refusing to go anywhere near their lairs. A trait that was shared by a lot of adventurers, thus making them very rarely the subject of targeted hunting.

"If you want more for your money then yes Master, I support purchasing a lot more spiders." Findley didn’t share Frost’s dislike, seeing only their efficiency as monsters.

"Alright, alright you’ve been harping about them every time we do this, so I’ll acquiesce, I’ll give you 25,000 go nuts." Maya and Daki wouldn’t like it but sometimes what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

"Wise choice, I’ve already prepared a few plans, 25,000 should be more than enough."

"Next topic Findley." He really didn’t want to continue discussing this.

"Evolutions have been continuing apace, nothing unexpected but nothing I would consider useless either." When something like a frost goblin reached their maximum attainable level it would earn the opportunity to evolve into something like a frost goblin fighter, archer, shaman or perhaps even a rider of some sort. Sometimes these evolutions would allow the monster to climb to a higher rank i.e. G to F but sometimes it would be a more lateral shift that would expand the monster’s future evolutionary possibilities, resulting in only a minor improvement in its strength. Given that the Dungeon had been in operation for 18 months Frost and his officers had witnessed dozens of these evolutions and had thus become rather jaded towards the vast majority. The exception being those of the higher ranks or particular monsters that Frost had his eye on such as the slimeoid which unfortunately was still far away from its next evolution.

"I’ve written them all down in that 4th document there."

"I’ll take your word on it for now, but I’ll look over them in depth later on." He didn’t have the leisure to peruse a bunch of highly detailed evolutions right now but that didn’t mean he could just file it away. There could be a diamond in the rough that Findley missed or an avenue he could start exploiting several evolutions down the line.

"Understood."

"Is there anything else or is that it?

"Other than the pattern analysis, equipment recovery and the prison management that are outlined in the documents I gave you there is one other important piece of news." Findley paused for a couple seconds so as to add a little suspense to his reveal.

"Well I’m all ears Findley, lay it on me." His loyal ice troll commander rarely played around so the news must be juicy.