Dungeon of Niflheim

“Hisssssss” just ahead of him Frost suddenly heard an aggressive hiss, he’d completely forgotten about the frost lizard, diving straight into that dazed state.

The frost lizard had been trembling in terror for the past few minutes, enduring the entirety of Frost’s overbearing aura, unable to move from its position as sweat poured down its back. It couldn’t even muster the strength to run, and the monster lair core wouldn’t allow that, it was a boss monster, it couldn’t flee this room no matter how terrified it was. Now however the overbearing pressure had vanished, and Frost returned to his regular self, no longer appearing threatening. Its duty as a boss monster instantly took over, it hissed as though letting out its repressed rage before lunging at Frost.

The distance between the two of them was barely 2 metres, Frost didn’t have enough time to swing his glaive and wasn’t completely clear mind wise to make an effective defence.

The frost lizard with its powerful legs lunched straight at Frost’s chest, hitting him hard with its greater mass.

Bang! Frost fell backwards, slamming against the floor and was subsequently pinned to the floor by the frost lizard. Its drool dropped onto his face as its predatory instincts kicked in.

“Fuck, get off!” Frost quickly let go of his glaive and brought both his arms up in a cross block to stop the lizard from biting his face. The lizard however was heavy and quite strong, Frost quickly felt himself get overpowered, his arms drew ever closer to his chest and the lizards teeth closer to his immaculate face. He got the full experience of the things breath, and it made his stomach churn. Thankfully this frost lizard could only bite, it didn’t have any breath attack or acid spit otherwise he’d be a goner already.

The frost lizard continued to gnash its teeth down while pushing its neck and body closer to Frost. In a contest of straight up strength Frost would probably be an even match for the thing but he was currently pinned on his back and could only utilise his arms to hold back the creatures weight advantage. His eyes darted side to side as he thought of what to do but any lapse in concentration almost got his nose bitten off. He couldn’t grab his glaive because the moment he did the weight on his remaining arm would be too much and his face would be bit into. There was magic but he was finding it rather hard to concentrate in forming a crest with this things breath overbearing his sense of smell.

‘Shit shit shit!’ Frost cursed internally as he tried to beat back the frost lizard but was constantly on the losing end. The thing’s legs also blocked any chance of him rolling out of the way. He was truly fucked at this moment unless he thought of something.

.....

He had around 10 seconds or so before his nose would likely end up being lizard chow and for an instant he felt a pang of irony considering he ate frost lizard for dinner last night. But with the seriousness of the situation the pressure didn’t cause him to panic no it made him very calm, and able to think clearly.

There was one method that he could think of and one that was perfectly designed for such situations. Too distracted to create a delicate and complicated magic crest and unable to use a weapon only one option left...chakra. Though Frost primarily used it in creating his cool looking armour he did occasionally use it to make ice daggers for skinning and harvesting and with the recent events of his epiphany, his chakra control had become far smoother and easier to manage.

The moment the idea came to him was the moment he started. Kneading his internal mana, imaging the shape he wished for and where it should grow was far easier in this situation than creating a magic crest and was far quicker.

Frost looked at the frost lizard on top of him with a sharp glare before letting out an evil smirk. “Bye bye,” when he spoke ice developed on his forearms before suddenly forming multiple sharp spikes that pierced into the neck and face of the frost lizard.

“kriiiiiiiiii” the frost lizard screamed in pain, it received multiple puncture wounds all over its face and a few in its neck, thankfully none of them hit its carotid artery but there was still a fair amount of blood. Frost’s ice chakra spikes were nearly as tough as 2 star pykrete and just as sharp. They pierced into the frost lizard’s weak points without much issue but killing the thing would take far more than that. However, it did do the job, Frost was now no longer pinned under the beast, unable to utilise even a third of his total strength, now it was time to show it who it dared to knock onto the floor.

Without even a second to admire his work Frost grabbed the glaive he dropped and jumped to his feet before quickly dashing after the frost lizard. He’d end this quickly and enter the fifth floor. He’d already gotten far more than he expected from this fight, no need to prolong it for long or make the creature suffer. Though it did try to eat his face it also allowed him the opportunity to glimpse the next realm of power, so he considered them even.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]” very proud of his new skill, Frost decided to use it whenever he could, even when a regular [slash] skill would work. The energy from his body coated the glaive blade before forming into three large blue claws of ice, dashing towards the frost lizard still screeching in pain.

Squealch!

Once again this frost lizard was decapitated from the skill, with it so preoccupied by the pain it didn’t even notice the three claws coming its way. If Frost wasn’t limited or in a disadvantageous situation, a D-rank frost lizard is no match for him as clearly shown.

Blood now decorated the room as it spilled from both corpses of frost lizards, once again Frost waved out his glaive to remove a chunk of blood from the blade. He did this to help maintain the thing’s sharpness and blade durability, of course he’d also cast clean up magic for it every so often, but he’d gotten into the habit flicking the blood off as well. It looked quite cool and help him establish a connection to his weapon, lifestyle magic cleaning didn’t have that.

“[Clean up]” he cast cleaning magic on himself and his robes, the monster’s drool was not something he wished to keep on his clothes, the smell was quite powerful. He then summoned an ice chakra dagger and began collecting the worthwhile parts of the two monsters while humming a slight tune to pass the time. He was in a good mood, since every floor’s boss had now allowed him to grow in strength. Entering here was definitely a good decision.

Within 10 minutes or so Frost had managed to carve up the corpses for all the useful materials he could store. The blood and meat would be left since he didn’t have any jars and didn’t want to stink of meat as he journeyed through the lower floors. Shame that it would go to waste, but he couldn’t take everything.

Creak!

As he was just finishing up the doors opened up behind him, another group of adventurers entered looking to get to the fifth floor or just hunt the boss monster.

It was a group of three, one male, two female, roughly in their thirties. Frost recognised them, he passed this group on his way here last night, their strength wasn’t bad, but it wouldn’t have been enough to take on the two D-rank frost lizards.

“Ahhhhhh!” One of the females gasped loudly as she recognised the remains of the corpses as D-rank frost lizards. Her face quickly paled before whispering to her comrades who equally turned white in the face. This floor’s usual boss was meant to be two E-ranks or in some cases a D-rank monster. It was hardly ever dual D-ranks, this was not a good sign for the weaker groups, this group of three included.

Normally they’d try their hands on the fifth floor, hoping to get lucky and really test their skills but if the boss of the 4th floor was much stronger than usual, the same could be said of the floor it guarded. If they had came a little later thinking that someone had just killed the regular boss then it could have ended very badly for them once they reached the 5th floor.

That’s part of the reason they now looked as white as a sheep the other was because of Frost. He was alone, caving up the two corpses, someone who could kill two D-rank bosses and come out unscathed meant power. They’d passed Frost the previous day and didn’t think much of him, but now that they knew his real strength they couldn’t help but feel wary. It wasn’t unknown for conflicts over spoils to start.

Frost turned to look at the three adventurers who had gone silent and looked his way with a mixture of fear and admiration. He let out a slight sigh before giving them a friendly smile, better to make friends that to create potential enemies.