Dungeon of Niflheim

“Donggg owwww!” He didn’t realise that he was still holding onto the metal glaive resulting in it bashing against his skull. He dropped the glaive in response and rubbed his sore forehead while muttering some profanities.

Once the glaive left his hand it quickly turned back into a metal lump and crashed onto the floor.

“Ah! she forgot the morphing metal.” Frost announced in realisation, Maya had lent it to him for the battle but left to sleep before he could give it back. After the repeated bashing it received from the ice golem, he had to constantly feed mana into it in order to reform its shape otherwise he would have been fighting with a deformed metal stick instead of a glaive. Without the constant stream of mana, it was just a solid lump, useless for fighting.

He was still rubbing his head in pain

“Perhaps I should buy a proper weapon.” Even if Maya allowed him to keep the morphing metal, he felt that it wasn’t a very good option. He’d find it nearly impossible to utilise chakra or magic while at the same time pumping mana into the metal to retain its form.

“I wonder what I can get for 250DP” he could wait until the end of the day to receive another 30DP but a mere 30DP shouldn’t make much difference. On this thought he brought up the dungeon menu to scroll through

.....

“Let’s see, weapons, weapons ah here it is.” He cycled through the menu until he found weapons. The list was fairly extensive and neatly divided into different sections depending on the type and quality of the weapon. Frost only had access to the first two sections, with the others being locked, most likely due to his lack of strength or the menu being incomplete. Anyway, it wasn’t like he could afford the higher rank weapons in the first place and with his current mastery he’d only bring shame to the weapon if he did.

“Let’s see the first section is classified as one-star weapons and the second as two star.” Similar to magic, weapons were graded on their strength. Basic iron weapons fell under 1 star whereas steel was considered 2 stars.

“An iron glaive costs 150DP and a steel one costs 350DP so obviously a 2-star weapon is out of the question.” Even the cheapest 2-star glaive was still 300DP so even after waiting for the day to end wouldn’t be enough. There was also a special material probably unique to Frost called pykrete which was predominantly made of ice along with sawdust or wood pulp to create a fairly solid structure. A pykrete glaive fell under 1 or 2 star quality, by using older and stronger ice and or wood the weapon became higher in quality. Since the other sections were locked, he couldn’t see if pykrete was available as 3 star or higher weapons.

Frost looked gloomily at his options, going for an iron glaive would probably be the wisest choice but remembering how easily the morphing metal was dented in his battle with the ice golem filled him with doubts. Maya mentioned that the consistency of iron and the morphing metal were similar, at least with the morphing metal he could reshape it with mana but with iron it would become scrap metal, requiring to be reforged. It’s a shame that the frost dwarves lacked the required skills and equipment to repair it if it became damaged.

He was at a loss on what to do, he felt that he really needed to have some form of weapon even if it was of low quality before the dungeon opened. The more he looked at the iron glaive the more annoyed he got.

“Isn’t 150DP a bit much, it’s the same price as a frost wolf.” Frost was unsure how iron would hold up against a frost wolf, but it still felt a little pricey. He had planned to use weapons as lures or rewards for intruders to keep them coming back but he felt price wise it would be rather costly in the long run.

Frost didn’t know too much about the state of weapons in the local area but within the nearby villages and even the town of Furano, receiving an iron weapon would be a very nice reward. Most adventurers rely heavily on their weapons and constantly have to repair or buy new ones after every quest or so, resulting in large expenses.

Iron weapons may be rather weak and simple compared to others but it’s the primary material used by adventurers under D-rank. Receiving a brand new, undamaged iron weapon would be a very nice surprise for low ranking adventurers. Even D and C ranks would probably appreciate it as they could sell it or keep it as a backup weapon. Adventuring may sound like an exciting and noble occupation, but it takes a lot of preparation and money to do it properly otherwise you won’t last very long.

As Frost was weighing his options going back and forth trying to note the pros and cons of buying an iron weapon.

“Hmmm perhaps it’s because it’s a glaive.” Frost went out of the glaive section and into swords to see if there was any price fluctuation. Since the glaive would be at least 6ft long and a regular sword would be half that, it should cost less no?

“So, it is cheaper.” Frost’s guess was correct, though it wasn’t half the cost it was certainly cheaper. An iron sword cost 100DP and a steel one cost 250DP. This meant he could currently afford to buy a 2-star weapon as long as it was a sword. It’s a shame though that his talents suited a glaive. Frost didn’t know if he was talented with any other weapons but felt it’d be best not to waste money on what ifs especially for his first weapon.

“Haaaaaa looks like I’ll be buying an iron glaive then.” Frost released a deep sigh of resignation before he spoke. He wasn’t exactly pleased with his decision but felt it was the most appropriate. After clicking confirm on his purchase and seeing his remaining DP dwindle to a meagre 100 points, a magic crest appeared on the floor in front of him.

The magic crest glowed, and an iron glaive slowly rose up from it reaching up until it stood at 7 feet tall. The design was fairly simple no adornments or engravings. The shaft appeared to be made of pine wood with the butt and blade being made of iron. It came already sharpened and polished, light was reflected and bent when it struck against the blade making it look quite pretty. It may look simple, but it was certainly a weapon, once swung it would deal a fair amount a damage, what use would adornments have in battle other than for aesthetics.

Frost grasped onto the hilt lifting the glaive from the ground and entering a battle stance in order to get a good feel for it. Once the glaive left the floor the magic crest disappeared.

Frost twirled the weapon smoothly and took several swings from different angles, overhead cuts, side sweeps, upper cuts, and stabs. The more he swung the happier he became; a smile quickly adorned his face. His initial negative view on purchasing an iron weapon was overturned, he felt that the glaive was perfectly balanced, the weight was just right and the gleam from the blade revealed its sharpness. Even a highly skilled blacksmith wouldn’t be able to create such a masterpiece. Although its base was still simply iron it was made to the highest of standards, Frost now felt that 150DP was too cheap.

‘Hopefully, it holds up in actual battle.’ Regardless of how well balanced or sharp it was, if it didn’t perform well in clashing against enemies then it’d be useless, a mere decoration.

“Actually, I might get a few of these in future to decorate the castle interior room, they should fit in nicely.” He stopped swinging the glaive and closely admired its simplicity, imaging the third section being decorated with iron glaives on the walls. He pictured it especially placed above a roaring fireplace next to some sort of hunting trophy.

“Guess I’ll practise for the next few hours at least.” Coming out of his decorating mood Frost remembered that he needed to do something for the next several hours until the dungeon opens. He felt that Maya would probably like to nap for at least 2 or 3 hours, so he won’t disturb the private space until then.

For the next 3 hours Frost practised battling with his iron glaive, shadow fighting the ice golem from earlier as well as practising his chakra control. He repeatedly improved the speed in creating chakra armour, unfortunately his control didn’t reach the level in which he could create an ice glaive, just slightly better daggers. He didn’t improve too much with his magic either, just increasing his speed but unable to create an extra ice bolt. He was unaware of how much time had passed until Maya teleported into the training room and snuck up behind him.

“Boo!” Maya shouted and grasped his shoulders from behind.

“Ahhh!” Frost got the fright of his life; he was currently sitting cross legged going over the fight with the ice golem for the umpteenth time when Maya suddenly shouted and grabbed him. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn’t even notice her approach.

“What the fuck was that for? You scared me half to death.” Maya currently had an extremely shocked expression. She expected to give him a scare but not such a big one. Frost had jumped several feet into the air and his chest was heaving up and down due to his raised heartbeat. She even forgot to laugh she was so shocked.

Frost noticing that Maya was silent and frozen in place allowed him to calm down. All his shock and anger vanished, he overreacted and could honestly say that he’d probably do the same thing to her if the positions were reversed.

“Uhhh well that was a let-down.” She wanted to give him a playful fright and have a little laugh, but her target acted like he saw a ghost.

“Haaaaaa” Frost let out a sigh.

“I guess you’ve finished your nap?” He said with slightly annoyed tone.

“Why yes young master I have, and it was great. A lot of beauty sleep is required to maintain these looks.” Maya pridefully pointed to her face while bragging.

“Yes, yes you’re beautiful, I get it.” Frost shook his head in resignation, he had no counter argument.

“That I am,” Maya grinned proudly.

“Are you here for a specific reason or just to annoy me?”

“Hmmm probably the latter hehehe.” Frost staggered almost losing his balance at her reply.

“We’ve got less than 10 hours left so what do you want to do?” Ignoring Frost’s stumble Maya asked without hesitation. She was all hyped up after having her beauty sleep and wanted to do something fun.

Frost restrained his frustration, adjusting his rapid breathing before thinking.

“I think I’m done with battle practise so something else.” Frost had been in this room for hours and hours constantly pushing his limits and he was rather exhausted physically and mentally. He felt that he wouldn’t improve much anyway with the time left so doing something more fun and easier would be best. He continued to think and run down options, there was nothing he needed to do but he didn’t really know what he wanted. Maya patiently waited at his side.

“Alright first off a break in the private space, I’ll figure out what to do after that.” Luckily his clothes had some sort of self-cleaning feature that helped clean his body and clothes of sweat and bloodstains. Maya said it resembled the lifestyle magic spell called [clean up] when she first saw it.

Lifestyle magic is non-combat magic also considered unranked magic since their power is too weak to be considered 1st circle. Anyone with even the smallest amount of mana should be able to use lifestyle magic with a little practise. Frost planned on learning a few in the future but for now the dungeon takes care of most of his needs.