Dungeon of Niflheim

She couldn’t help but frown and instinctively move in close to protect her young master, but she was shot down by a look from Dark. Basically, translating as ‘calm down lass, I’m not that stupid’. Dark then conjured up his divine magic and encased the flame in a seal, as though freezing it in a diamond of solid mana. The temperature in the room swiftly returned to normal.

“I asked the primordial Ice king for a favour; he created this high rank earth flame for me and I’m handing it over to you as your fourth reward. However, as you can probably tell and from your guardian’s reaction this thing is quite impressive and far beyond your current abilities. So as to protect you as well as keep the balance between the Dungeon cores I’m only lending this thing to you for research purposes. It will remain encased in my divine mana, effectively sealing it off from the world.” Dark then carefully handed the entombed flame to Frost with a stern look in his eyes. He hoped Frost would be able to learn from the flame, possibly learn to create his own cold flames and or harness one. It should also help him in terms of magic creation. Frost was the embodiment of ice after all, he had high hopes that his son would surpass even the primordial ice king in that department, but it’d take time.

Frost nervously took hold of the entombed flame, the frigid temperature he felt earlier was completely gone as though it never existed in the first place. He wondered how on earth he was supposed to research this thing if it was encased in divine mana. But from his father’s stern expression as well as Maya’s anxious look, plus his own instincts he knew that he needed to be careful when handling this item. He learned a little about such objects from the vast collection of books he purchased when in Furano.

Flames such as this one were magical in nature and the higher the rank of the flame the closer it was to the primordial element in structure i.e., in this case the cold flame at the highest level would be akin to the purest form of the ice element something that made up the fabric of the Nova and its laws. Deep within the glacial mountains, flames such as this one -albeit weaker- could be found naturally. Whenever an element is dense and without competition, oddities in relation to that element can come into physical existence, such as this cold flame. These oddities are another reason why adventuring is such a highly sought after profession.

“You can examine the flame with your mana sense, given that divine energy is present in your body it’ll be able to pass through the seal without issue. Be careful however, though I’ve sealed off its physical presence it can still affect your mana. If you’re not careful it will freeze it causing a nasty backlash....don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Dark smiled mischievously. Frost was just about to scan the seal with his mana sense and would have likely succumbed to such a situation. Dark for once was on time with his warnings....barely.

If he suffered a backlash in front of his siblings here and now while being rewarded, it really wouldn’t do good for his image. He internally thanked his father for his ‘prompt’ warning. He moved to place the sealed flame in his storage ring, but Maya stopped him.

“I’ll hold onto it young master, best to keep such an item out of man-made spatial dimensions, just in case.” Without waiting for him to agree or disagree, Maya took the flame from his hands without any delicacy and promptly moved away to examine it herself. She wasn’t checking for any danger; no she was studying the thing for her own personal reasons. This was after all a fairly high ranking flame, personally created by the primordial ice king, another God. Of course, she’d be curious, besides regardless of what she did it wouldn’t be able to harm her given her level of power.

Thus, Frost’s fourth reward that was designed especially for him was taken by his guardian. Frost’s brow couldn’t help but twitch as he watched Maya obviously play around with the thing. He couldn’t help but feel that one of his birthday presents was stolen and played with in front of him before he even got a chance to realise what it was. But this wasn’t the time of place to call her out, plus it’s not as though she would break it or ruin it in anyway so after releasing a calming breath, he regained his stoic expression and awaited his fifth and final reward. This reward was also something special so he couldn’t help but get excited.

.....

Dark saw Maya’s actions as well as Frost’s silent acceptance and couldn’t help but grin slightly as he understood the subtle meaning. But then his face warped, it was time for the final reward and even now he was struggling to accept the situation.

“For your final reward again it’s something really, really special!” Dark emphasised the word special and glared at Frost and Maya with accusation before continuing. “So, you better appreciate it!” With an annoyed flick of his wrist the final magic crest summoned the last reward. A bottle slowly appeared from the magic crest. It was undecorated but was made of exquisite material and had a simple label that read “wine of the abyss”. Size wise it was the same as a regular bottle of alcohol perhaps a little smaller, but the moment Maya’s eyes saw the label she almost dropped the entombed flame. Her body instantly filled with desire, her mouth started to salivate, and her cheeks became red as her breathing became laboured.

This was a bottle of Dark’s self-brewed wine, the very peak of the wine world with no set price. Dark brewed several alcohols as one of his hobbies and this wine that he summoned was one of his higher quality bottles. It was the highest he was willingly to go for Frost but even so this bottle could cause nations to fall as they warred amongst one another for just a single taste. His most glorious wine was called “dark matter wine” and even Light only had the pleasure of enjoying such a delicacy a few times, no one else knew of its existence. So, to Maya this was the most legendary, no mythical wine that all alcohol lovers craved. If she wasn’t in Dark’s presence or wasn’t a highly respected S-rank Fenrir she may have collapsed into a puddle of joy at being able to even witness the wine. It took everything she had not to rush towards the bottle.

“Hmph!” Dark hmphed in irritation as he saw Maya’s expression, his hand almost instinctively tried to take the bottle back, but Frost moved quickly, snatching the bottle from mid-air, not allowing his father to back out.

“Thank you, father, for such a glorious and personal gift, I’ll be sure to treasure every last drop.” Frost spoke smoothly as though he was a con man. At first, he didn’t recognise what it was, just a bottle of wine but then he saw Maya’s reaction and with Dark’s reluctance he instantly understood. This was one of his father’s prized personal stash that Maya had him ask for. Knowing his father’s personality, he quickly moved, grasping the bottle in hand before Dark changed his mind. Although he wasn’t nearly as alcohol mad as Maya, over the past month he tried a fair few and became quite a junior connoisseur. Like hell he’d pass up the chance to taste the fabled wine brewed by the Dark God.

Dark looked over at his son who unceremoniously snatched the bottle mid-flight with no small amount of pain, instantly regretting his actions. He had an awful premonition that thanks to this bottle his son would crave more and that for the next several decades he’d need to keep his wits about him, so as not to get cheated out of his stash. But even with that nasty premonition he had his pride as a God and a father, he didn’t recall the reward, simply clicking his tongue and pretended that the wine wasn’t important.

Frost picked up on his father’s mood and promptly pocketed the bottle into his spatial ring bringing the matter to a swift conclusion. His siblings however were staring at Dark and him in utter confusion, all they saw was a bottle of wine, similar to what Indra received from the random reward earlier and couldn’t fathom how this bottle was special. But from their father’s reaction as well as Maya’s it certainly wasn’t normal.

Indra who himself was quite an alcohol fan, didn’t notice what it was, but he remembered the name and swore to ask his guardian Izuna about it when he got back.