Dungeon of Niflheim

“If you’re talking about Leo the lord’s son and Luna his fiancé then yes, I did help them out recently.” He responded honestly.

Hearing Frost’s confirmation, Bastion stood up and bowed towards him.

“Thank you for saving them, they’re like family to me, if something had happened, I don’t know what I would have done.” Bastion clenched his fist tightly as he spoke. When they needed him or Ryuu they were nowhere to be seen, they had to rely on the kindness of a stranger. Bastion felt deep remorse about this failure and even more gratitude towards Frost for saving them.

“It was my pleasure, they’re good kids.”

Bastion released a deep sigh before sitting back down.

“Have you been in Furano long?”

.....

“We just entered this morning.”

“Good, good, have you met up with Leo yet?”

“No, we planned to do that tomorrow or the day after.” Frost looked towards Maya.

“I see, he hasn’t stopped talking about you since he returned so the sooner the better if possible. Do you know where the lord’s mansion is?” Bastion looked over Maya as he spoke, Leo and Luna never mentioned anything about her in their report.

“No, we don’t actually, I planned to either ask the guild or the local guard.”

“No need for that, if you come over tomorrow, I’ll take you, I need to visit anyway.”

‘Being escorted by the guild master himself, how lucky.’ Frost smiled internally.

‘Being taken by him would save us from any trouble with gaining entry.’ Leo had mentioned that his father was currently sick so it was most likely that Adam would have some degree of control in the premises.

“Thank you for the trouble.” Frost thanked Bastion with a genuine smile.

“It’d be my pleasure... now on a different topic I hear that you registered with the guild today and completed your first quest.” Kamey walked through the door with tea the moment the topic changed as if Bastion timed it perfectly.

‘He’s strong as well.’ Even Frost didn’t notice Kamey until she was opening the door. Once Kamey placed the cups of tea down, she stood behind Bastion, acting like a secretary. Maya decided to speak this time.

“Yes, guild master, we registered shorty after finding an inn to stay at, Kathy’s inn have you heard of it?” Maya felt good about the inn, especially the food and felt like giving it some good promotion.

“Ah yes I frequently dine there with my daughter or the guild staff.” Frost and Maya grimaced at the mention of his daughter but returned to smiling almost instantly but it was caught by Bastion.

‘Damn what mess have you caused now Jaina.’ He found dealing with his daughter difficult, ever since his wife passed, he’d been reluctant to punish her in anyway leading to her spoiled attitude but looks like it was time to stop. Bastion shook his head, putting the Jaina issue till later.

“It’s a good inn to stay at, cosy and great food.”

“The best,” Maya smiled agreeing whole heartedly.

Kamey then handed Bastion some documents over his shoulder.

“You accepted a red dwindle stalk gathering quest as well as the frost goblin kill quest right and according to this you not only submitted perfectly intact stalks but twice the required amount.” Frost delicately used an ice chakra dagger to remove the plant from its roots leaving a clean cut not damaging them in the slightest. Any damage could reduce the medicinal value of the stalk and or even kill the remaining roots. Most rookie G-rank and F-rank adventurers would leave some sort of damage with their rough and or incorrect gathering skills. But Frost and Maya supplied twenty perfect stalks. Bastion was more impressed by this than the goblin kills since he knew of Frost’s strength already.

‘They must have some knowledge of botany.’ Bastion knew that someone without any prior knowledge could never procure such materials. Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong, Frost knew a decent amount about red dwindle since it grew in his dungeon, in addition to the information Maya related to him he could be considered fairly knowledgeable. To preserve the stalk’s medicinal quality, cutting must be done a single fluid motion with a razor-sharp blade, the leaves and branches must not be torn or broken in anyway, they must be gently eased away from the stalk before cutting. Then stored carefully for transport, they can’t rub or grind against other stalks or tough items otherwise the quality will reduce.

Luckily, Maya had the storage bracelet to ease in safe transportation and the bag Frost bought had individual sections for each stalk, helping to preserve their perfect state.

“Not to mention the fact that as G-rank party you killed over 20 frost goblins, 22 to be exact, more than 7 times the minimum.” The guild staff had been examining their bags as they spoke to Bastion, the documents Kamey gave him contained their findings.

“With this alone I can rank you up to F-rank immediately, I wouldn’t even have to pull any strings.” Bastion smiled as he waved the documents in his hand.

‘Eh I thought we needed to do at least 10 quests, that was only two.’ Frost remembered what Jaina said about rank ups.

“But we only did two quests?” Maya asked also a little confused.

“Technically yes but also no. You accepted two quests however you supplied way more than required and every time you meet the minimum it counts as a quest completion. In this case since you brought back 20 red dwindle stalks it counts as two quests whereas the frost goblin kill quest counts as seven for a grand total of nine.”

“That still doesn’t add up?”

“Correct but since you two supplied 20 stalks of PERFECT quality the quest number is doubled, making it 4 so in theory you’ve completed 11 quests on your first day, a record for this branch and possibly the fastest rank up in history.” Bastion laughed as he spoke, he planned to use his position to forcefully rank up Frost and Maya at least once given their abilities and Frost’s contribution to Furano, but they went and did it with their own power.

Why wouldn’t he be happy and feel proud. These were people registered in his guild bringing glory to him and the Furano viscounty. However, Bastion still felt that this wasn’t enough, he knew that Frost had the strength of at least C-rank whereas he couldn’t even begin to guess at Maya’s strength. At times he’d feel as though she was a weak and innocent young woman but is instincts would occasionally send a signal of danger. He couldn’t read her at all.

“To be honest if I could I’d rank you up to D-rank considering your abilities however rules are rules, I can forcefully make you E-rank given the fact you scouted out the new monster lair and the saving of Luna and Leo. Any higher would need confirmation by central and some kind of proof which would take a long time. And you’d probably be faster just completing ten E-rank quests.” As adventurers reached higher ranks, the politics involved grew. To become B-rank you needed to have some kind of noble (could be a B or A-rank adventurer) advocate on your behalf.

Frost was stunned, he only just registered yet the guild master wanted to bump him up to D-rank, that’s the same rank as Chase and John. Frost knew that he was stronger than them but still he had no adventuring experience and Bastion barely knew him.

‘Is he really so trusting?’ Frost felt that Bastion was getting to emotionally involved with his decision.

“No, no there’s no need for that E-rank is more than enough, we’re still newbies after all even if we have strength, we lack the experience of adventurers.” He didn’t know much about camping, the local area, how to fight and dismantle certain monsters and he knew nothing about traps and tracking, there was still a lot for him to learn.

“Haha modest and humble, no sign of arrogance, you’ll go far Frost haha” Bastion laughed greatly pleased with Frost’s response.

“Kamey their guild card’s please and the licensing device.” Bastion ordered Kamey to fetch the materials required for the rank up.

“Yes, guild master” Kamey was smiling and was already prepared, she passed their guild cards to Bastion as well as a small intricate box with a slot machine for the cards.

“We’ll rank you up to F-rank first since that’s simple.” Kamey had already gotten the guild cards updated with the completion of their quests. Bastion stamped the two cards with a seal before slotting them through the licensing machine which gave off a ‘bong’ sound to show it was finished. The two cards now showed that they were F-rank.

“Now for the unorthodox method.” Bastion smiled, he loved breaking the guilds rules for a good reason. He opened up part of the licensing device revealing a keypad. He then entered a six-digit code along with the desired rank before sending in a stream of his mana.

Bong! The device accepted the information.

“Perfect now we just need to do the first part again.” Bastion repeated the same process changing the guild cards to E-rank this time. He handed the cards back to Frost and Maya once he was done with them.

Name: Frost

Rank: E-rank

Registration: Furano, Northrend

Quests completed: 11 (g-rank)

Weapon: Glaive

Magic: Ice

Name: Maya

Rank: E-rank

Registration: Furano, Northrend

Quests completed: 11 (g-rank)

Weapon: Hammers

Magic: Ice

“Is everything in order?” Bastion asked to make sure the device didn’t erase or add anything unnecessary.

“Everything’s in order with mine, Maya?”

“Same here” Maya nodded and smiled before slotting her guild card into her chest receiving a thumbs up from Kamey. The card completely disappeared in between the two mountains of flesh causing Frost’s mind to run wild for a second.

“Cough cough” Bastion lightly coughed to erase the suggestive mood between Frost and Maya, it made him uncomfortable as well. He became nostalgic about his deceased wife; she also had a rather large chest.

“I guess now we just need to pay you for your services.” Bastion turned to Kamey who had already brought up the required amount in a coin purse. Receiving the go-ahead Kamey placed the coins on the table generating a clinking sound.

“With the red dwindle stalks being of perfect condition, the price per stalk jumps up to 7 coppers and since there was twenty that makes 140 coppers or 1 silver and 40 coppers.” Kamey placed a silver coin and forty coppers to the side.

“For the frost goblins it’s 8 coppers per right ear as well 2 copper for each magic crystal. You supplied 22 goblin right ears and 16 magic crystals making 208 coppers or 2 silvers and 8 coppers.” She then added 2 silvers and 8 coppers to the previous pile yet there was still a few coins left over.

“In addition, anyone successfully ranking up to F-rank receives a reward of 50 coppers each.” She added another silver coin to the pile.

“And for ranking up to E-rank there’s a reward of 1 silver each.” Kamey passed the remaining two silvers towards the pile.

“For a grand total of 6 silvers and 48 coppers.” Kamey announced the total and looked towards Bastion to make sure she didn’t forget anything. In turn he nodded since she did everything correctly. Kamey then poured the now counted coins back into the coin purse and passed it to Frost.

‘Wow that’s way more than I thought.’ He wasn’t expecting to actually make a profit today given that he already spent over 4 silvers on food and lodging. G-rank adventurers normally only have very simple meals and live in very cheap inns or still at home with their parents. It wasn’t until E and D-rank that the payments really started in silvers.

‘The rank up reward was a nice touch as well, guess that’s there to help promote self-improvement.’ While Frost was analysing and Maya was thanking Kamey as she placed the coin purse into her sleeve, since it would be uncomfortable to place in her chest given its shape. Bastion stood up and walked to his desk. He pulled out a locked chest from one of the drawers and brought that chest over to the table placing it before him.

Bastion channelled some of his mana into the lock resulting in it clicking and the lid opening. A golden and silver light escaped the box as it opened, this was Bastions personal safe.

Ignoring Kamey’s awkward and shocked look he proceeded to remove 2 gold coins from the chest and place them on the table.