Dungeon of Niflheim

Maya would only be with him for another 10 months or so and couldn’t fight herself, Loki and Nanna were still children. He didn’t plan on taking them anywhere dangerous, so it was left up to him. He had no plans to join another adventuring party, well not at the moment. Perhaps some of his siblings would like to group up, but for now he needed to find a way to deal with such opponents by himself.

Frost’s gaze then drifted towards his glaive. It was of great quality, sharp, strong, durable, and supported his ice magic but other than that it was plain. It contained no runes, speciality gems, magic crystals, or unique materials. A solid quasi 4 star weapon with the strength and durability to take on even B-rank monsters but that was all.

“Perhaps I should visit Borris next time I’m in Furano or an artificer, if I can’t supply the magic needed then my weapon can.” His frost dwarven smith was nowhere near capable enough to work on his prized glaive, he needed a professional and who better than the glaive’s original forger.

Weapons such as Frost’s glaive could be enhanced in a great many ways, currently it was in a vanilla state, neither enhancing or detracting from his current skill set. It facilitated his ice magic as well as his chakra without issue. If Frost came across wraiths or other ethereal monsters, he could use his ice chakra on the glaive to slice into them like any other opponent. But if they had ice resistance on top of that he’d need a different element to deal damage. Ideally and the most sought after in Northrend and the Glacial mountains was fire enchantments and crystals.

Such enchantments would be engraved upon the weapon and with the supply of mana they could encase them like chakra or the fire enchantment spell that was used by Adam and Luna. Such enchantments granted people a distinctive edge against monsters born in cold climates but given the lack of fire element materials they were anything but cheap. Plus, people would rarely enchant weapons lower than 3 star since they’d struggle to endure the enchantment, quickly wasting away the weapon and enchantment both. In Furano it was already rare enough for one to own a 3 star weapon or higher let alone paying for an enchantment on top of that.

But given Frost’s current coffers money was not an issue, the element was. He was the embodiment of ice; would a fire attributed weapon really match him well. True in practical terms there could be nothing better, he’d be able to fight against those with weakness to ice and fire, leaving very little opponents that could cause issue. But then again it might also interfere with his chakra supply and casting of ice magic. He didn’t know enough about enchantments, but he already knew he didn’t want a fire based one. The very idea made his stomach churn, and the idiotic face of his barbaric brother came to the forefront of his mind.

Bang!

Overcome with sudden anger he stomped down with his left leg, cracking the floor even more before taking a deep breath and shaking his head, to erase the image.

.....

“Tsk, I’ll deal with it later, thankfully this monster lair shouldn’t have anything at C-rank.” After letting out a stomp Frost felt a lot better, he stepped over the many puddles in the room and descended the stairs to the 4th floor. If possible, he planned to reach the end of the monster lair, the room beyond the 6th floor’s boss and view the core but he knew his limitations now. Even if he didn’t come across a C-rank he may not be able to reach it. An upper D-rank elemental or something similar may be enough for him to call it quits.

The fourth floor like the first three had the exact same environment but there was slightly more E-ranks than the 3rd floor and areas where special herbs and plants grew. Frost passed a few areas on the 3rd floor that had blue dwindle and frigid daisies, but most had already been plucked, leaving just new buds or the damaged ones.

Down on the 4th floor the adventurers here were a clear cut above the rest, not a single person below E-rank hunted here, with the majority being D-rank. It was also quite busy compared to the last floor, and there was a specific reason for that....frost lizards.

From the 4th floor and below frost lizards dwelled in large numbers, ranging from E to D-rank. These creatures were incredibly lucrative with nearly every part of the creature being desired. Its skin made great armour, clothes, and other textiles. Its meat was tender and juicy, great in stews and curries. Its bones were tough yet supple, great for making bows and or ballista ribs. Its gallbladder and blood were useful in creating ice resistance potions, truly a very profitable monster.

However, it wasn’t exactly easy to hunt them. In the wild they are really hard to find in abundance, liking to avoid people and then there’s their tenacity in battle. They’re agile on their four feet and their tails can pack quite a wallop, easily breaking bones. Their teeth are long and sharp, their jaws able to crush rocks plus if that wasn’t enough, they can cast magic.

Monster lairs such as [beginner’s ice magic] solved the issue of finding them but defeating them wasn’t any easier. The trick learned through extensive hunting was to use numbers and loud sounds to defeat them. Though they were agile, frost lizards tended to struggle with rotating and the loud noises disorientated them further. All around the fourth floor groups of adventurers could be seen hunting them in such ways but not all ended in success.

People could be seen and heard screaming in pain, their loud banging attracting other lizards and monsters to surround them. And others who were too cocky and or too impatient getting whacked back by the lizard’s tail or even having a chunk taken out of them by its powerful jaw.

To Frost such opponents wouldn’t threaten him in the slightest, his glaive would make short work of them and even his magic would work but the promise of profit couldn’t be denied. With an eager smile Frost lunged forward, ready to fight some lizards. Unlike the ice snakes these lizards contained no venom so there was nothing to fear. Their skins would be great for his frost dwarf smith to experiment with or perhaps he could try his hand at tailoring. Perhaps Nanna or Maya would appreciate a lizard skin purse. There was also another major commerce that against his will Frost was made aware of....the makeup and beauty industry.

Maya herself wore very little makeup, she was just naturally beautiful, and her high realm helped supplement that beauty, especially her skin however even she wasn’t against occasionally applying lipstick or eyeshadow. But when he was dragged around by her, Luna, and Cassandra he was forced to listen to all their girl talk, makeup was repeatedly brought up, they even dragged him to a few stores solely for such products and the price shocked him as did the number of customers.

Woman everywhere and even many men loved to appear beautiful, whether that was too attract a certain someone or just to boost their own confidence it was a massive market. The Northrend empire made massive amounts of money from the makeup industry, shipping products across Nova, the reason. The Yangmir continent, especially further north where the temperature is cold contains a plethora of herbs and plants that were ideal for making makeup, perfume, and other beauty products. For example, the frigid rose, a fairly common flower that grows in the Glacial mountains has no medicinal properties and only looks pretty with its white petals. But when ground up it makes a beautiful pigment for foundation, giving the applicator snow white skin without a blemish. It even makes for good powder to rejuvenate the skin and comes with a mild yet pleasant aroma, desired by woman around the world. And that’s just from a common flower, higher ranked plants have been used to make royal versions and many say that it takes years off their ages, eliminating wrinkles and tightening the cheeks.

Other flowers in the glacial mountains that seemed to serve no purpose eventually did and each one brought with it a substantial boon. Douglas and Cassandra recently ordered a special concoction made from such herbs, dubbed the heart’s embrace. Though it sounded romantic and came in a pink vial, the thing would be better suited in red or perhaps black. Given that it provided a more physical boost rather than emotional. Douglas needed a little help to keep up with his beautiful wife’s desire that had been put on hold for the past couple years, let alone her fervent desire for another child.

Frost felt like banging his head against a wall whenever the girls started talking about all their makeup, but he had to admit it was a very lucrative business and one he had to take into consideration. Douglas mentioned that to truly govern a successful territory one needed income, and it usually needed to come from something special within the territory i.e., Furano’s vast supplies of monster materials thanks to the frequent monster stampedes and their close location to the Glacial mountains.