Dungeon of Niflheim

“[Ignition]” Frost cast the ignition spell and a small flame floated onto the corpse, setting it alight, turning it to ashes. Once it was fully burned the two of them continued their hunt for frost goblins as well as the red dwindle plants.

As the sun started to set turning the sky a brilliant red, Frost and Maya exited the Northrend forest and were heading to Furano’s northern gate along with their bounty.

Maya looked immaculate without a single scratch or bit of dirt on her -mainly because Frost did all the work. Frost however was covered in bits of twigs and mud marks that he got when pulling up the red dwindle stalks. One of the frost goblins even tossed mud at his face as it tried to escape. He was far from the elegant looking young man he normally appeared to be.

Maya struggled to hold back her laughter every time she looked over. At the start Frost would use [clean up] to remove the dirt and stains however he’d get dirty again 10 minutes later, so he eventually gave up.

[Clean up], [clean up] Frost casted the ‘clean up’ spell twice to make sure, returning his robes to their pristine white and blue finish, the minor tears had already regenerated themselves. Ignoring the dirt and mess he got covered in, their hunt was incredibly successful.

They successfully retrieved 20 stalks of red dwindle twice the required minimum. Whenever they saw one plant there’d be at least another two nearby making it fairly easy to gather ten. The frost goblins however were heavily culled by Frost, they could have left hours ago but he wanted to keep hunting, and with the mad look in his eyes, Maya wasn’t going to argue. His reasons were partially due to the DP he’d get from killing but it was majorly due to that one goblin tossing dirt in his face resulting in what could only be considered a mass slaughter. Frost hunted down over 20 frost goblins gaining more than 800DP. All their right ears and magic crystals were stored in Maya’s storage bracelet ready to be processed at the guild.

.....

The two walked in silence to the northern gate, where Kato was currently on shift.

“Ah Frost and Maya, I didn’t know you were outside.” Kato greeted them happily with a wave and smile. Which Frost and Maya returned.

“We registered as adventurers and left for our first quest.”

“Hoh is that so, how’d it go?”

“It was a success?” Frost replied with his lips twitching, while Maya giggled at his side.

“I, see? That’s good then.” Kato didn’t really get their response, but they succeeded so it couldn’t be that bad. He took their guild cards and waved them over some sort of pedestal which glowed. Apparently, it’s to confirm if they had a registered quest or not otherwise, they’d have to pay a small toll to enter.

“Everything checks out, welcome back.” Kato passed their guild cards back and patted Frost’s shoulder.

“I’ll be heading to Kathy’s inn once my shift is over, allow me to buy you to a drink as a celebration for your first quest.”

“Drink! As in alcohol?!” Maya’s eyes lit up at the mention of drink.

“Ughh yeah,” unnerved by Maya’s sudden outburst he stumbled his words.

“Yahooooo alcohol, alcohol.” Maya started to brightly smile and hum a happy tune with repeating the word alcohol. Kato was completely shocked, he looked at Frost in confusion, but he was sighing and shaking his head.

‘Ah so she’s that type.’ Kato knew of a few female friends who were alcohol obsessed but they were all dwarves. He looked towards Frost with sympathy and then worried about his own wallet.

‘She wouldn’t drink too much right?’ He started to regret his offer as he led the two into town.

Once they cleared the gate area and started to walk to the adventurers guild Frost spoke sternly.

“One cup no more.” His words caused Maya to shudder, she froze in place and turned towards Frost with tears forming in her eyes. Frost’s words were torture to her, she felt her world crashing down.

‘Are you seriously about to cry?’ Maya was almost breaking down completely, her eyes had grown misty and red.

“Ah! Shit two cups then and not a drop more.” Frost was defeated by her and could only compromise. If she started crying right in the middle of the street, he’d be lost on what to do.

Although it wasn’t much the offer was enough for Maya to stop her crying, but she was still miffed. Luckily, she brought some sake from the dungeon and could drink that to supplement the two cups.

Once they arrived at the adventurers guild, they followed the evening rush. The guild was quite busy at this time due to the gates being shut soon; people were returning to submit their successful quests. Frost and Maya had to wait in line, thankfully there were more receptionists working and the female dwarf Jaina was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, when it was their turn, they were greeted by a young female dog beastman. She had long floppy ears and looked rather cute.

“Hello, are you here to submit items for a quest?” She asked politely.

“Wow big sis you’re so pretty.” Before Frost could answer however the dog girl was drawn to Maya, instantly praising her.

“Why thank you, you’re pretty cute yourself.” Maya replied in a friendly tone, she liked honest people. The young dog girl blushed from being called cute by such a pretty woman.

“Cough cough,” an older female colleague coughed twice in the background to help her junior regain focus. She was quite young and new to the job, yet her outgoing and friendly personality made her quite popular.

“Ah sorry about that it’s business hours.” The young girl, Kamey awkwardly smiled struggling to look directly and Maya and Frost.

“No problem she is pretty after all.” Frost didn’t mind the dog-eared girl’s actions and instead agreed with her assessment. Maya couldn’t help but blush and pinch his side. Frost ignored Maya’s pinching and spoke of why they were here.

“We registered as G-rank adventurers today and accepted two quests, we’re here complete them.” Frost was smiling gently, the dog-eared girl Kamey was much better to talk to than Jaina.

“Ah! I see, can you hand over your guild cards first please.” Kamey turned back into her professional mode. Frost and Maya handed her their guild cards.

“Frost and Maya both G-rank, just registered and you accepted a frost goblin killing quest and red dwindle gathering quest. Do you have the items?”

“Yes” Frost now had two bags at his sides, since they didn’t wish to reveal Maya’s storage bracelet, they quickly bought a couple bags from a store they passed on the way to the guild. One for the goblin ears and one for the red dwindle stalks. He took off the bags and handed them to Kamey.

“There should be 20 red dwindle stalks and at least 20 frost goblin ears”.

“Ok 20 red dwindle stalks and 20 fro....wait what?” As Kamey was about to start counting and checking for quality she shouted in surprise. The 20 red dwindle stalk wasn’t that unusual since it was simply gathering but Frost and Maya had killed almost 7 times the minimum amount of frost goblins. That’s way above the abilities of G-ranks. Kamey held her head, rubbing her temples as she tried to focus.

‘These two are way above G-rank.’ She wondered if she should bring this issue up to the guild master, keeping Frost and Maya at G-rank was a waste. Her older colleague was just as shocked, people had certainly brought in more than the minimum requirements before but not seven times and most definitely not on their first quest.

“Sorry would you mind waiting here while I go and speak to the guild master.” Kamey was flustered and didn’t know what to do, she needed to speak with someone higher up.

‘Shit’ Frost inwardly cursed, regretting his earlier decision to continue hunting frost goblins. He told Maya multiple times that they should remain low key, yet he was the one to draw attention to themselves.

Before he could disagree, Kamey was already rushing up the stairs, all they could do was wait. Kamey’s shout had drawn some onlookers who were surprised but they became incredibly shocked when others who were present for Frost and Maya’s registration told them that it was their first quest. All the adventurers present looked towards them with admiration, having such strong and young adventurers was a boon for Furano. Many were full of smiles and nodding as they gazed in their direction.

Frost and Maya didn’t have to wait long before they could see a middle-aged dwarf with red hair walk down the staircase along with the young, dog-eared girl Kamey.

“Kamey you’re not pulling my leg here are you?” The middle-aged dwarf whispered to Kamey as he descended the stairs. He was incredibly busy as is and didn’t have time to help out a newbie with their job whenever they didn’t know what to do.

‘Ever since little Leo and Luna were attacked my workload’s skyrocketed.’ Bastion the guild master of the Furano adventurer’s guild complained internally but he didn’t resent it. Leo and Luna were also like a niece and nephew to him, even after their party disbanded Bastion, Ryuu and Douglas remained strong friends and often met up, so they were quite close with one another’s families.

“Yes, guild master I’m not lying, these two adventurers Frost and Maya just registered today, and they’ve already completed their first quest far beyond the minimum requirements. They killed 20 frost goblins!” Kamey loudly whispered in Bastion’s ear feeling oddly proud.

‘That is impressive, 20 frost goblins when you’re G-rank, perhaps I should allow them to skip to a higher rank.’ Kamey had come to find him about whether or not they should stay at G-rank. Even though technically they were required to complete 10 quests before moving on the guild master had the power to ignore this rule if he had sufficient reason.

Suddenly however his legs stopped.

‘Frost? Where have I heard that name before.’ Something was in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t think what, he shook his head and continued to follow Kamey down the stairs.

It wasn’t until he was standing directly in front of Frost that his mind started scream telling him he was forgetting something. Since Frost was wearing the wolf mask his face couldn’t be seen but anyone could tell that he was handsome.

“Frost, Maya this is sir Bastion the guild master of the Furano adventurers guild.” Whenever Bastion was introduced, people were required to add ‘sir’ at the start due to his former B-rank adventurer status making him a noble.

“It’s nice to meet you guild master, I’m Frost and this is my companion, Maya.”

“Nice to meet you.” Maya did a slight courtesy to show respect.

“Ah! Now I remember you’re that Frost!” The guild master shouted in surprise, he finally realised who was in front of him. Frost however was shocked.

‘Have we met before?’ He’d never seen the guild master before, and they hadn’t done anything of great merit before this. The only thing he could think of was Jaina the person supposedly related to Bastion. Frost frowned worried that Bastion would be same type of person.

“Quick come with me to my office there’s much I need to say to you.” Bastion however was full of smiles and looked at Frost with gratitude.

‘Looks like it’s not about that then but what?’ Frost remained confused but since Bastion was acting friendly it gave him no recourse to refuse. Bastion led Frost, Maya, and Kamey into his office with a spring in his step before asking Kamey to fetch his guests some tea.

With the three of them now sitting down in Bastion’s office and the door closed to prevent eavesdropping Bastion finally spoke.

“You’re Frost, the one who rescued Leo and Luna aren’t you?”: