Dungeon of Niflheim

The frost lizards he encountered were E-rank, spanning anything between 2 and 3 metres in length yet only being half a metre tall. Their usual attack methods was physical, aiming to bite down on their victims with their powerful jaws before thrashing side to side to tear apart the wound. When someone attacked from the side or behind it would swat them with its large tail, buffeting them away, occasionally breaking shields or even limbs. Smarter ones and or those that were finding physical means not working would tense up their tails as they channelled mana. Summoning ice bolts to stab at their aggressors, they could even occasionally cover their tail’s tip in ice to make it more lethal in stabbing. Of course, for Frost, none of that mattered. Since he could use his magic, glaive arts and even chakra without restriction they were not his opponents. Physical monsters such as them had only the most minor of resistance to ice, protecting them from the cold, not much else.

Frost would quickly skin their corpses and store the other useful materials like a speedy professional before carrying on. Many groups gawked in awe when they saw him in action, before wisely choosing to keep their distance. Well, most did, a brave or rather foolish group of four men surrounded Frost once he reached their section of the floor, they desired his clearly abundant loot and thought that with the four of them they could take him.

This sort of situation was nothing new, adventurers weren’t always nice people like the many Frost had met so far. Many would take advantage of the remoteness of the wild or monster lairs for some easy pickings. Fighting against other adventurers was sometimes safer and far more lucrative than hunting monsters yourself.

The wise ones would perform both thus making twice as much and for most of the time actually act like adventurers, reducing the ire from the guild and other parties. The world was not fair and as long as they didn’t go too far i.e., killing other adventurers the guilds tended to turn a blind eye. Of course, as long as there were no witnesses people still died, dead tongues tell no tales and wouldn’t be able to come back for revenge. This group of four were all for that philosophy, shame that they picked the wrong opponent and since Frost was the one being targeted he couldn’t be blamed for killing in self-defence. Basically, these four men were begging to be turned into DP and it would be all above board.

Frost couldn’t help but smile with evil intent when he was called out by the leader of the four men, while the other three slowly surrounded him each showing greedy expressions.

“Well, well what do we have here boys, a little elf that thinks he’s king of adventurers, prancing about here all on his lonesome.” The leader was an ugly man with discoloured blemishes on his face and an oversized nose. Frost couldn’t help but be reminded of a goblin -those wild ones of course not his cute and endearing frost goblins. The man was human though and part of his criminal activities were brought on because of his less than savoury appearance. It gave him a real short fuse.

The other three weren’t exactly lookers either but none were as profound as the leader. Two were beastmen from the rat tribe and the other was a human and all of them were dressed in typical adventuring gear for this environment. Studded leather armour with fur internals though it had seen better days. The defence quality was still there but the original colour had faded, permanently dyed by the blood of their many victims, sapient and monster. The fact that they were here on the 4th floor showed that this group had a decent amount of skill so Frost though excited didn’t grow arrogant. Men had intelligence and weapons, making for much harder opponents than monsters who merely relied upon their instincts to fight.

The three cronies cackled in response to their leader’s comment while silently moving closer and closer to Frost, blocking any avenue of escape. They weren’t new to this routine having performed it a great many times, but it was rare for them to be so lucky. Not only had they hunted a bunch of monsters themselves, but they ran into a solo adventurer, the perfect target. No matter how powerful one was they were still one person. With such a numerical advantage they could not only attack from all four directions they’d be able to outlast their victim in battle. Dealing with four attackers was much more arduous than fighting one after all. Plus given the difficulty of this monster lair there shouldn’t be anyone of peak strength bothering to enter.

.....

Oh, how wrong they were, though Frost wasn’t peak strength his ability thanks to his battles with the yeti families and now the frost elemental his glaive mastery was quite high as was his other skills. He could now be considered mid C-rank and on the upper end of that scale. His power was still below the likes of Rock and Jin, but he certainly wouldn’t be on the back foot after a single attack, he would now be able to give them a better run for their money.

The four men surrounding him were nowhere near that level, likely D-rank at best yet Frost didn’t let down his guard. This was a group who were experienced in hunting other adventurers, with their teamwork and he didn’t know what abilities they held.

Frost’s eyes glanced over the three goons edging closer before taking in the full image of the leader’s appearance, he couldn’t help but let out a muffled giggle. The man was so ugly it was hilarious, being in Frost’s presence must be infuriating.

The leader’s face quickly changed colours to red, then blue and then finally purple before he roared “Bastard! What’s so fucking funny?” He was already severely irritated by Frost’s appearance and wanted to carve up his pretty face to make an example. The man hated anyone who was more handsome than himself which was probably the vast majority of men in Nova. Elves were always at the very top of his list. His cronies understood their leader’s feelings and though it tended to get them into a great many fights they didn’t hold it against him....they weren’t exactly handsome either.

“Hahahahah sorry, sorry I know you want to invoke fear in me by ganging up and cutting of my escape routes but come on with a face like that and one like mine how can I not laugh ahahahhahaha.” Frost no longer restrained himself, laughing out loud while tears even threatened to leak from his eyes. The contrast between him and his attacker was so monolithic that it was almost sad.

Crack! The ugly leader bit down so hard that his teeth cracked, he’d never been so blatantly mocked especially not in such a situation. For a moment he felt that Frost must have something wrong in his head. He was currently surrounded by four large men each with their weapons drawn and no one was around to even hear him scream yet instead of being afraid, wary, bargaining for safe passage or even begging for his life he angered his attackers so directly.

‘This idiot must have a death wish,’ the three cronies stifled their own laughter, but they also felt that Frost was not right in the head.

The ugly human leader’s anger grew and grew, his face pure red with rage and his veins bulged and throbbed before he snapped. With flames pouring from his eyes, he glared at Frost and raised his blade and roared. “Kill this fucking elf! Carve up his pretty face and then let’s see who’s laughing!” With his order given all four of them moved to attack.

The leader was a swordsman, wielding a 3ft steel sword and a 2 star wood shield reinforced with frost lizard skin. Pretty decent equipment for the run of the mill D-rank adventurer, banditry seemed to be rather lucrative.

The other human was an archer, he was armed with a 2 star bow and multiple arrow types, wooden, ice, iron and even a few steel ones plus an extra something special. He’d play the role of support in this battle, similar to what Taka did for Bruno when they fought Frost.

For the rat beastmen one wielded a giant two handed hammer made from steel and the other was a pugilist outfitted with gauntlets made from monster bones. Each of Frost’s opponents were quite well equipped for their levels, making this fight much more.....fun.

He didn’t know what skills they knew or what level of mastery they had for their weapons but the equipment although lower than his could certainly withstand his barrage, at least for a few rounds. Steel in particular was quite hardy, he’d find it hard to slice through it completely even with his quasi 4 star glaive.