Dungeon of Niflheim

“Munch, munch”, sounds of him eating was all that could be heard at this moment, no sounds of battle or raging blizzard could be heard as though even the monster lair was resting for the night. The atmosphere was almost calming and soothing if you forgot where you were.

“That’s good stuff, a bit tougher than beef but with a sharp bite of meaty flavour, its even a little spicy but not too much.” Frost relished every bite of the meal, shovelling it down with gusto. It could certainly be improved but given the situation and the extent of his hunger it didn’t matter.

After swallowing the last bite of frost lizard meat, he summoned water (another lifestyle magic) to put out the fire and rinse the wok before casting [clean up] on it. With magic cleaning was a really easy process, not sixty seconds went by before the wok was packed away and all semblance of cooking removed. Only the residual smell lingered in the air as evidence.

Frost patted his now full belly and licked his lips and teeth, savouring the lingering taste with a smile on his face. Now it was time for some shut eye, to satisfy his other need.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwn” Frost let out a long yawn as sleep started to take over, the large amount of meat was threating to knock him into a food coma. Thankfully he set up his tent before eating. Up here on the ice cliff he didn’t need to worry about danger, he was out of sight from the majority of monsters and there were no flyers but best to not take risks. Frost decided to do one last thing before succumbing to night’s embrace.

“[Ice come together, form a core and establish a body to fight, summon ice golem].” Frost channelled his mana and said the aria for his only 3rd circle spell. A large intricate magic crest appeared at the very edge of the cave and shelf before a large ice golem grow from it. roughly 1.2 metres in height, still not at the level of a standard E-rank golem.

“Stand guard for me tonight, right there, don’t move unless provoked.” Frost gave a command to his newly summoned golem before zipping up his tent and drifting off to sleep shortly after reaching his pillow. The golem couldn’t speak but obeyed its master without hesitation, manoeuvring its sturdy body to the edge of the cave, blocking Frost from anything that may attack him, the weather included.

Though it wasn’t a great warrior it did well to obscure him from the rest of monster lair and given the connection between the two of them, he’d know the moment it engaged in battle. Since he had given it a simple command and unless it was in battle the continual mana drain was minimal, well by Frost’s standard anyway. He wasn’t worried about running out while he slept, another benefit given by his all-powerful father.

.....

The night passed without incident, although a few times the loud noises of the rest of the lair roused him from sleep a couple times, the rest was smooth sailing. His stalwart defender hadn’t moved a single inch, guarding its master throughout the night without complaint. Frost yawned and stretched his back causing his shoulders, neck, and spine to crack. It was not that pleasant a sleep given the luxurious bed he’d grown used to, but it was sleep none the less. He felt refreshed and ready to face another day. Given that there was no sun in the monster lair he didn’t know how long he was out for, but he guessed around 8 hours or so, a little more than he wanted but clearly what he needed. His stomach didn’t forget to growl in protest shortly after he rose out of the tent. He just stuffed it last night and the thing was already hungry.

Breakfast would not be as glorious as dinner, water and biscuits was the menu and to be honest he wasn’t complaining that much. It was all part of his training, being independent of his dungeon and guardian. Braving against the world on his own with his own skills and preparation. There was much he needed to learn if he was to make adventuring a pleasant experience out of battle.

One thing in particular that he wished he bought back in Beta camp was dried soup stock. Arguably one of the best food sources to have on hand, simply add water and boil and there you go you’ve got a nice soup with a wide variety. But no that didn’t even cross his mind, you live and learn as they say.

What greeted him when he exited his tent was the sounds of the local fauna, particularly the frost lizards hissing away at one another or aggressors. The sound brought a smile to his face, as did his stalwart defender.

“Good work last night, you can rest now.” He patted the head of the golem in praise before disconnecting the connection, causing it to crumble and evaporate back into mana particles. After packing away his camping gear and munching on his dried biscuits, Frost performed some rudimentary stretches to get the last of the kinks out of his body before jumping down from the ice shelf, using his glaive as an anchor to slow down his descent.

“Alright lets see if that boss monster has respawned or if it’s been taken again.” Given that it’d been close to 10 hours he fully expected the thing to have respawned otherwise gaining entry to the lower floors would be to easy. Parties could just arrange to follow after one beats the boss easily avoiding a hard fight. Frost just hoped that he wasn’t late to the party, another group could have beat him to it again.

Thankfully this wasn’t the case. He arrived once again before the boss room, without getting a warm up unfortunately. What was present in the room was not a single boss but two, both D-rank. An incredibly lucky or unlucky draw. Occasionally during high periods of mana such as the monster stampedes the bosses can sometimes change, resulting in stronger versions being summoned. This was one such case.

Guarding the entrance to the fifth floor were two huge frost lizards each looking particularly ravenous. Like their E-rank counterparts their frames were much the same only bigger and deadlier. The tails had sharp spikes on the end, appearing like a mace. Their legs were a fair chunk longer as well, enhancing their agility and jumping power. With their skin being tougher too, lower rank weapons would struggle to pierce them, a pair of deadly foes, slightly stronger than the regular D-rank frost lizards encountered on the fifth floor. Whereas the 3rd floor boss required either elemental attacks or aggressive and accurate strikes to reach the core. These two only really needed pure destructive force, no specialty needed.

Frost couldn’t help but frown in disappointment, though these two would likely offer a great amount of money from their corpses Frost was looking forward to another thrilling fight. To him these two were incredibly dull and simple, he equated them to roughly equal to his former polar bear, and with his current strength not much of a threat.

“Haaaaaaaaa all that hope gone to waste.” Frost shook his head as he entered the room, full of disappointment. His emotions it seemed were noticed by the two frost lizards who instantly got mad, feeling slighted by this intruder, they hissed and revealed their sharp fangs, but Frost wasn’t impressed. He wasn’t even going to limit himself in this battle, just kill them quickly, nice, and simple.

Twirling his glaive in one hand as though it was an extension of himself he walked towards the soon be prey without fear. Not one to take such an insult lying down the two lizards moved to strike.

One raised it large tail in the air and channelled mana to cast its magic. Four ice bolts formed around its tail and swiftly launched at Frost with great speed.

“[Ice bolt],” with a quick reaction time, Frost flicked his hand and cast his own version, also summoning four ice bolts to combat the opponents. With that one attack taken care of he now needed to deal with the other lizard that opted to go for a close combat assault.

Taking advantage of its powerful legs and large frame the other lizard dashed towards Frost with its jaw ready to bite down and take a chunk out of this arrogant prey. A wrong move on its part.

Since it didn’t have a liquid or ethereal body, Frost’s glaive would work without issue. The thing was based on speed and magic, its defence though greater than a lot of E-ranks was nothing compared the sharpness of Frost’s glaive.

“[Claw of the ice wolf],” with elegant mastery Frost slashed his glaive towards the neck of the rapidly oncoming frost lizard. He activated his skill to enhance its killing power.

Squealch!

Before the lizard’s teeth could reach Frost, its neck was severed in one clean motion, killing it almost instantly.