Dungeon of Niflheim

This man was even larger than the three thugs. A vicious burn like scar adorned the right side of his face, he looked intimidating.

“Head chef!” The young waitress spoke with relief in her voice, no longer afraid she poked her head out from behind the head chef and scowled at the three men.

‘Hmph now that the head chef is here, I’d like to see you act out.’ She stuck her tongue out at the three men who were intimidated by the head chef’s stature.

Bonk!

“Owwww!” The waitress cried out in pain; the head chef smacked her on the top of her head.

“At the moment they’re still customers so act with respect.” The head chef had a deep and gravelly voice as he reprimanded the waitress. Knowing she acted a little improper she smiled at the head chef and put on a stoic expression when facing the three men.

.....

The second large man winced when he heard the head chef say, ‘at the moment’. He felt pressured by the head chef, not just from the man’s overbearing large stature but also his background. The phoenix fledgling restaurant wasn’t somewhere they could act without impunity. Unfortunately, the first of the large men didn’t understand this concept and lashed out.

“You’re damn right there’s a problem, don’t you know who we are? who we work for? You should feel honoured that we’re even eating here, let alone willing to open a tab. Yet your damn waitress says that’s not allowed, who do you think you are? Fine then if you’re not going to accept a tab then we won’t even pay.” The first large man squared up right in front of the head chef. His eyes full of scorn he spat on his shoe daring the head chef to do something.

The third large man was originally on the fence but seeing his colleague act so aggressively he joined in. Acting like a thug he knocked their plates to the floor, shattering them to pieces. The second large man who understood the consequences of his colleagues actions was shitting himself, he wanted to stop them, but the damage was already done.

‘We’re so fucked’ he complained internally as a cold sweat dripped down his back.

The other groups eating on the second floor were watching them as if they were fools, someone even whispered.

“Finally, another group of idiots trying to scam this restaurant, this’ll be fun.” The man who spoke eagerly watched while munching on some of his chips.

The waitress hiding behind the head chef had a shocked expression, she couldn’t believe what was happening. These goons weren’t your simple thugs, they entered the restaurant using the status of Baron Adam, the younger brother of the region’s viscount, yet they were acting like this. She felt sorry for the Baron, hiring such idiots. She looked up at the head chef and saw the anger on his face, veins on his forehead were protruding and his jaw was clenched.

‘Ah they’re totally fucked.’ The head chef didn’t care about your status even if you were the emperor, you still needed to pay your bill when in the phoenix fledgling restaurant let alone the hired thugs of a measly Baron.

The head chef took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

The first and third large man believed he was trying to calm himself down before speaking politely and asking for leniency. They smiled in contempt; they wouldn’t let a mere head chef off so easy. The second large man however was trembling even harder than before in fact he took a few steps backwards trying to separate himself from his idiot colleagues. He knew a little about the man standing before them.

‘The mad iron chef, Vaccos.’

Crack!

Suddenly a loud crack was heard and the large man that spat on the head chef’s shoe was sent flying.

The head chef Vaccos opened up his blood shot eyes filled with fury and without warning punched the man in the face, breaking his nose with a single strike and knocking him to the floor.

“Eh!” The thug who smashed the plates on the floor barely registered what happened before he was kicked in the chest and sent flying towards the wall, several of his ribs were snapped.

Crack! Crack!

Vaccos cracked his large hands while walking towards the remaining thug.

“You little shits! You’re not walking out of here in one piece, and that shit faced Baron Adam you work for is hereby banned from this establishment! Sharon call the local guards to recover what remains!” The remaining thug pissed himself in fear before he suddenly received an upper cut to the jaw.

‘But I didn’t do anything.’ The man internally complained as his head smashed into the ceiling.

What ensued was carnage, by the time the waitress, Sharon managed to bring the local guards, nearly every single bone of the thugs was broken. Vaccos was covered in the blood of his victims and along with his natural frightening face it’d be a traumatising sight for most, however...

“Awesome!”

“Yeah, you show them Vaccos!”

“Vaccos! Vaccos! Vaccos!”

The crowd as well as the staff weren’t put off and were in fact cheering Vaccos on as bits of the thugs splashed on his uniform.

Even the local guards simply sighed at the sight as if nothing was out of place, one of the four guards muttered under his breath.

“The mad iron chef, Vaccos former B-rank adventurer, specialising in hand to hand combat.” The guard that spoke was quite a fan, although there had been a few B-rank adventurers and even A-rank adventurers hailing from Furano, very few of them actually remained in their local town. Plus, Vaccos was a spirit chef making him even more rare.

The most senior of the guards walked up to Vaccos who was still mad and patted his shoulders.

“I think that’s enough Vaccos.” Miraculously each and every one of the thugs was alive and conscious. They couldn’t move only capable groaning in pain as they felt the devastation of their wounds.

Feeling the friendly pat on his shoulder, Vaccos calmed down and returned to having a genial smile on his face, regardless of how evil it looked. He turned to the senior guard and nodded before facing his customers.

“My apologies for showing you such a gruesome sight, everyone can order a glass of D-rank wine on them for the trouble.” He pointed with his thumb behind him to the remains of the thugs, who were crying.

His ‘generous offer’ received rounds of applause and smiles; they weren’t put off by the sight in the slightest in fact some of them even felt famished seeing Vaccos expend so much energy.

The guards took control of the situation from then, after receiving statements from Vaccos, Sharon and the customers they made their judgements. The goons were the ones in the wrong and will be arrested and if their superior Baron Adam doesn’t pay back their debt of 6 gold coins (includes the damages to the restaurant and the D-rank wines) they will be sold into slavery to pay back their debt.

The three goons couldn’t even argue their case only able to groan a little louder. The guards then with little regard for delicacy carried the thugs to the local garrison to be imprisoned until their sentence is decided.

With the guards taking control Vaccos looked down at his blood covered uniform.

“Tsk I just washed this uniform, Sharon come.” Vaccos walked towards the workers quarters along with Sharon the waitress.

Frost and the rest were in the dark about these events since they entered their carriage and drove off.

The group were heading towards an area of the western zone commonly referred to as the ‘money pit’. It was a large block of shops ranging from grocers to armour vendors. 80% of the sales done in Furano happen in this block ergo the moniker money pit as all the money ends up there. This didn’t mean that the shops were all incredibly expensive in fact the majority were reasonably priced, they just had massive amounts of customers.

As the carriage entered the so called money pit, they were forced to stop. The amount of people shopping here made it impossible for a carriage to be ridden, in fact Douglas Furano had made it a pedestrian only zone to prevent accidents. Carriages had to wait in one of the two parking lots depending on what side you entered from.

“Edwin park the carriage we’ll be a while.” Leo tossed Edwin a silver to pay for the parking and for him to get something to eat. Carriages parked within one of the parking lots were protected by security allowing drivers to enjoy some relaxation as well.

“Thank you master.” Edwin bowed slightly and thanked Leo with a stoic expression before guiding the horses away.

Luna shook her head, she worried about Edwin. He was a kind boy but didn’t express himself very well, usually only speaking when spoken too. He’d be a perfect fit for another noble house since he acted like the perfect servant, but the Furano’s preferred to have a closer bond with their servants, for them to see themselves as part of the household.

‘At least he’s better than a few years ago.’ She put her worries about Edwin to one side as the group walked into the ‘money pit’.

The shops inside were separated into different areas depending on their type e.g., clothes area, weapons area, household goods area etc... the question was where to start.

Leo took out a coin purse from his satchel, it looked pretty full. He then handed that full coin purse to Luna with a twitch in his lips. This was her spending money, Leo simply had to carry it due to its weight.

“Thank you” Luna took her coin purse with a smile and placed it in her own bag. It was mainly full of silver and coppers; she wasn’t as wealthy as Leo was but under his mother’s orders, he added 2 gold coins to the purse.

“Frost-senpai if it’s alright with you, I’ll guide you round while Luna guides Maya.” Leo planned to split up since he didn’t want to be dragged around to shop for clothes with Luna.

Frost looked towards Maya and gave her a nod.

‘We won’t be too far apart, so it’ll be fine.’ He wasn’t worried about anything happening while shopping and he too didn’t want to be trapped carrying bags again, so he agreed with Leo suggestion.

“Sounds good.”

“Perfect, come on Maya let’s leave these boys and go have some fun.” Luna grabbed Maya’s hand and led her towards the clothing shops. Maya wasn’t one to argue, happily following along. Frost had already given her a coin purse with a gold coin and dozens of silver to spend as she wished. Well perhaps given wasn’t the right word, Maya demanded, and he complied.

As the girls were quickly lost in the crowd Leo patted Frost shoulder

“Let’s head to the weapons and armour district.” Leo then proceeded to lead Frost through the busy streets.

“By the way Frost-senpai, what kind of weapon do you use?” Leo had never actually seen Frost fight nor was he carrying a weapon on his side or back as an identifier. He and a quick look at Frost’s hands and examined his frame. He didn’t look like a pugilist and didn’t have a staff to help with magic.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you, I’m a glaive user.” Frost felt it would be awkward to constantly carry around his massive glaive, especially when shopping so he had Maya store it in her storage bracelet. In emergencies he could still make a pseudo weapon out of ice chakra.

“A glaive user, how rare.” Leo’s brow rose at Frost’s response.

‘I don’t think I know a single glaive user; I know spear users.’ Leo tried to think of anyone he knew personally. Of course, he’d heard of the glaive but never actually seen someone use it.

“We might have to go to a specialist store to find a good one.” Leo didn’t know the quality of Frost’s glaive, but he was confident in the weaponsmiths of Furano.

“Hoh I’ve already got a 2 star glaive made of pykrete though.” Frost replied. He didn’t have too much interest in purchasing a weapon in Furano due to the items produced by the Dungeon core being of high quality and probably cheaper. He wouldn’t mind browsing though.