Dungeon of Niflheim

“What’s wrong young master, you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Maya lightly laughed as she said this.

‘God his face right now is irresistible.’ Maya licked her lips as if she was looking at a delicious steak. Frost was right to be a little frightened, she fully intended to test the limit of the room’s walls. She hadn’t forgotten his previous indiscretions against her, just waiting for the right time to teach him a lesson.

“Don’t worry young master I promise to heal you good as new no matter how much you exert yourself.” As long as he didn’t lose any limbs, Maya was confident she could heal almost all injuries.

‘I’m a dead man.’ Frost’s entire body started to tremble, he felt like a rabbit being stared at by a ravenous wolf.

“Clap!” Maya loudly clapped.

“Ok I think that’s enough enjoyment for now.” Her expression returned to normal after clapping.

.....

‘Anymore and I won’t be able to resist.’

“Eh!” Frost was deeply confused, one minute he felt at death’s door and now she was back to normal, his mind was spinning in circles.

“I promised to give you magic training next not battle training, that will happen later.” Maya calmly replied to his confusion.

“So, you’re not gonna beat the crap out of me?” As far as he knew magic training shouldn’t involve a lot of physical activity, but he couldn’t say for certain.

“Not now at least.” Maya tilted her head to the side and smiled while saying this.

‘So, I’m gonna get beat up at some point.’ Frost deeply sighed; he knew deep down that he would be punished eventually for his actions but so soon.

‘Ah forget it, it was worth it.’ The memory of a soft set of objects enveloping his hand came to the forefront of his mind.

“Shall we get started young master?” Maya didn’t know why but the current look on Frost’s face made her irritated for some reason, his face looked very slapable.

“Y...yeah sounds good.” He quickly erased the image from his mind and regained focus.

“Now that you’ve got a spell our first target will be to make sure you can effectively use it. After that we’ll go on to discuss more about magic itself and then move on to chakra.” Maya suddenly gave off vibes of a knowledgeable professor all she needed was a blackboard and glasses.

“Since you’re now able to sense and move your mana let’s just jump right in.” Maya brought up a screen above her arm and clicked it a few times.

As a result, a wooden target suddenly appeared in the centre of the room.

“Fire your [ice bolt] spell at this target.” The target was roughly humanoid in shape and at least 2 metres tall. As long as he could properly form and send the spell in a straightish direction he’d hit it but that’s easier said than done.

Frost’s head switched between facing the wooden target and Maya as if he failed to understand what she just said. He knew that he’d struggle to even form an [ice bolt] let alone fire it at a target.

“You want me to try and hit the target with an [ice bolt]?” Frost asked while pointing towards himself. He lacked confidence in his mana control after repeatedly failing to stop it from running rampant earlier.

“Yes, I do.” Maya replied without hesitation and with a slight nod.

“From here?” The target was about 10 metres away from his current position.

“Yes” she nodded once again. Frost looked at her silently for a few seconds before nodding in response.

“Oh well let’s give it a shot.” The steps needed to cast the [ice bolt] spell quickly filled his head. He first aimed his right hand toward the target and began building up mana. He imagined the magic crest in his mind and tried to replicate the shape with his mana.

“[Ice bolt]” Frost shouted as the magic crest developed in front of his outstretched hand. It was rather crude and messy in appearance, but it was enough. The mana in his body filled the crest allowing it to produce a thin icicle that rapidly shot out towards the wooden target, grazing its left shoulder and shattering.

Frost stood there speechless, his legs frozen in place and his eyes wide open in awe.

“I... I did it.”

“Yes, you did young master congratulations.” Maya happily complimented him. She didn’t think he’d be able to hit the target at all, expecting the icicle to break down after a few metres so she was pleasantly surprised. Of course, he was a long way off from the spell being considered useable, but it was a great start.

“That was...fun.” Frost’s gaze altered between his right hand and the partially damaged shoulder of the wooden target.

‘Magic rocks!’ He clenched his fist and smiled before trying to shoot another [ice bolt], taking the same stance as before.

“[Ice bolt]”

“[Ice bolt]”

“[Ice bolt]”

He became engrossed in the spell, repeatedly firing spell after spell. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky as most of his shots missed the target, some were way off mark, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm as he continued to cast.

After firing the tenth spell or so his accuracy began to improve, with him being able to target different limbs of the dummy. The bolt also seemed to become less rough and narrow the more he cast it.

“[Ice bolt]”

“[Ice bolt]”

‘That’s his fifteenth shot and he still isn’t tired, in fact the bolts look stronger than when he started.’ This fact puzzled Maya as she watched Frost laugh and fire off spell after spell. For someone who just accessed their mana, they shouldn’t be able to continually use mana at such a rapid rate without losing control. He should be struggling to generate a detailed magic crest time after time and the ice bolt should have failed to form by now, but the opposite happened. The magic crest looked more and more perfect after each casting, resulting in a much more powerful spell.

‘Has he already reached beginner mastery?’ Spells were divided into multiple levels of mastery, the higher the mastery the stronger the spell. [Ice bolt] for example would have more and stronger bolts appear as mastery increased. Beginner mastery meant that Frost was able to cast an ice bolt of the same size and strength repeatedly instead of being erratic e.g., sometimes being thinner or longer or weird in shape. Even if he was considered talented it should take at least a few hours or even days after casting the spell dozens of times, but he achieved it within a few minutes after the tenth shot or so.

‘Monster’ was the word that come to the forefront of her mind, even she took at least 30 shots before reaching beginner level in her first spell.

‘It must be due to that [One with ice] skill he’s got.’ Refusing to acknowledge her inferiority to Frost she chocked his speed up to the inherent skill that Dark gifted him.

“[Ice bolt]”

“[Ice bolt]”

After thirty shots the wooden target was completely wrecked and covered in shards of ice. Only now did Frost feel a little strained by his constant use of mana but nothing to serious.

‘I could probably cast it another 30 times before passing out.’ Frost roughly estimated the amount of mana left in his body. He stopped now to admire the remains of his work moving towards the target to closely inspect the damage.

Most of the wooden dummy was broken with some areas having holes all the way through. The last few ice bolts were strong enough to pierce through it and continue flying.

“Are you quite done young master?” Maya suddenly spoke from behind him resulting in him flinching in surprise. He completely forgot about her and didn’t notice her sneak up behind him.

“Ugh... yeah.”

Maya moved past him to touch the wooden target causing the top half to collapse and fall over. Maya released a deep sigh at this.

“You really went all out.” She shook her head in dismay.

Frost didn’t know whether to feel proud or guilty about wrecking the target she provided.

“Yes ma’am,” Frost responded with his head down.

“Good looks like you’ve got a real knack for magic.” Maya turned to face Frost nodding in approval.

Frost blushed and rubbed under his nose in pride, getting praised by Maya made him feel really good.

“Since we’re lacking in DP that’ll conclude your magic lesson, just practise the spell in this room to help improve your mastery.”

“Eh! That’s it” Frost felt rather let down, hoping to have an in-depth discussion about magic or learn another spell.

“Yeah, you don’t really need any guidance on a basic spell, and you’ve already reached beginner mastery so that’s enough for now.” Frost had already reached the desired level for magic required before the dungeon opens. He still needed to learn about chakra as well as combat techniques. More in-depth magic lessons can take place after the fundamentals have been taught.

“But?” Frost was quite fixated on magic and wanted to continue.

“There’s a set number of things I need to teach you before the dungeon opens. After we’ve done that, we can do more magic training ok.” Maya took on a tone as if coaxing a child.

Frost found her tone incredibly annoying and held back the urge to argue, simply clenching his fists in anger and glaring. Maya saw the anger in his eyes and released a light laugh in response, she loved messing him, his reactions were always so honest and cute.

“Anyway, now that you can feel and use your mana freely let’s try using chakra.” Maya suddenly moved her mana towards her hand allowing it to escape like Frost had done before but with much more control. The escaped mana didn’t dissipate or escape far before it started to cover her arm like some sort of armour.

“This is a good example, changing the shape of your mana into armour to protect your body.” Maya raised her arm up high and suddenly punched the ground with incredible force releasing a huge bang as the chakra armour clashed against the floor.

She raised her arm up before Frost revealing the lack of damage to the armour and her arm.

“When you reach my level, your armour can rival or even exceed that of the hardest of metals, fully protecting the body from damage and even the feeling of impact.”

Frost watched in awe; the entire floor shook when she punched it showing how much force she used. If Maya covered her entire body in that armour, she’d be invincible regardless of how many ice bolts he fired at her. His eyes sparkled at this realisation.

‘Maybe learning about chakra ain’t so bad.’ From the knowledge he knew about chakra it came off as something used by those inept at magic but now, well looks like he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Maya shook her hand dissipating the ice chakra surrounding her arm.

“Another useful feature for chakra is this.” She placed her hand out into mid-air as if to grab something and almost instantly ice mana exited her hand and took the form of a massive hammer.

“It can take the form of any weapon you desire as well as the strongest of armours well at least when it comes to ice based chakra.” Maya spun the massive hammer around as if it was weightless, erasing and re-summoning repeatedly to advertise it’s speed.

“I’m not sure how other types of chakra work but ice chakra certainly shines when it comes to physical manifestations such as weapons and armour.” She waved her hand again causing the hammer to disappear.

“Your turn young master.” She nodded upwards.

“Ok what do I do?” Frost was very impressed with her display of chakra completely overturning his narrow viewpoint.

“You need to have a clear image of what you want your mana to do and then will it into that shape. I can’t explain it much more since it’s more of a feeling than step by step instruction. Remember when I told you to create a wall to seal up your mana.”

Frost nodded his head as he remembered, the wall kept breaking and breaking until he created one of multiple layers.

“The process is similar to that but more detailed, try to make a simple shape first of all.”

“Alright I’ll give it a try.” Frost closed his eyes and pictured the stream of mana within him. he found it much easier to connect and move it after using the [ice bolt] spell over and over.

‘Simple shape simple shape.’ He thought of objects he could try and will the mana into. A cube, a sphere or perhaps something more elongated. His mana had now started to become more active, rapidly flowing around his body similar to when he was about to cast a spell. An image suddenly jumped into his mind after he felt the change in his mana.

.....

‘That’ll work,’ now that he had a solid image, he just needed to mould the mana into shape.

After 20 minutes of incredibly focused effort Frost successfully managed to produce an icicle from his hand. The image he used was that of the [ice bolt] from the spell. It turned out a lot smaller and edgier than planned but he did it, he moulded his mana into shape without the use of a magic crest.

The reason it took so long was that the shape continuously broke down while forming causing him to have to start over. By the end he was panting heavily and lying on his back completely exhausted.

“Huhhhh uhhhh I...I...I did I...it.” barely catching his breath he managed to declare his success and raise the icicle towards Maya in anticipation for her approval.