Dungeon of Niflheim

“Ah so impolite of us, this here is my foolish husband Sam Tarnell, and my lovely self is called Lola, Lola Tarnell. Nice to make your acquaintance Frost.” Lola pointed unceremoniously to her still in pain husband before flashing a flirtatious wink and introducing herself.

Frost’s lips twitched slightly from her gesture. ‘Great another strong willed woman.’ He bemoaned his luck somewhat, strong woman always seemed to get the better of him. However, each and every one were quite attractive in their own way, he was yet to meet a strong woman that didn’t have looks and or assets to match her intensity.

Liking Frost more and more, Lola shuffled up next to him, wrapping her arm around his, before giving out an order to her husband. “Honey be a dear and set up a campfire while I have a close chat with our new friend here.” She then waved her hand as though shooing him away like he was some sort of fly. Frost was thus dragged by Lola towards the corpse of the centipede. Her large ass sashayed side to side, occasionally knocking against Frost as they walked, causing a red blush to form on his neck. Her husband Sam however enjoyed the sight even more, he loved watching his wife walk from behind. It allowed him to fully appreciate that big bubble butt of hers. Lola could feel her husband’s intense stare and was used to it, but it always brought a smile to her face. Be so clearly desired by the man she loved was a great source of pride for her. Frost’s cute attempts to not blush was just icing on the cake.

While Sam got to work setting up an impromptu camp in the area Frost started dismantling the corpse of the centipede under Lola’s watch. She didn’t help as touching insects was a big no no for her, but she gave advice on parts that were useful and the best way to dismantle certain bits of carapace. Several times Frost tried to offer bits of the centipede to her and her husband but each time he’d be met with a frosty glare. She’d already refused, and she was not a woman to go back on her word.

Now that the centipede was killed, promptly dismantled, and stored away, this was the perfect place to camp. No other monsters lingered within several 100 metres of the centipede’s lair and the cliff edge provided a half decent shelter. Sam being a very experienced adventurer had the place set up in a matter of minutes, the place was now indistinguishable from a battlefield. Sam probably had some talents in home design.

Once everything was set up Lola finally separated herself from Frost’s side, she’d had good dosage of his pretty face and missed her husband’s manly presence. As Sam was finishing up the last details she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek as a reward for his hard work before taking a seat beside him. Frost sat on the other side of the firepit, that had been lit by Sam. Even though his wife was a mage he purposely learned many lifestyle magics so that she didn’t have lift single pretty finger in setting up camp. It was a quality that Lola really loved about her husband, behind his muscular frame was the tender heart of a chivalrous man.

Her kiss caused the brave looking man to grin with pride, with his confidence boosted, out of Frost’s sight he wrapped his arm behind his wife’s waist and rested his large hand on her ample butt. His hands subconsciously started to knead the plump flesh causing Lola to blush slightly. Thankfully the now roaring fire covered up their actions, but Lola felt her husband had taken a mile when granted an inch. Her right hand shot out like a viper, grabbing her husband’s naughty wrist in a vice grip. She squeezed hard in warning before raising it up to her lower back, demanding that it stay there. Sam smiled happily, more than glad to hold her there.

The two of them had been married for more than a decade yet the fires of passion still roared strongly between the two of them.

.....

With Sam having been put in his correct position they could finally start talking, Lola started. “So young Frost do you have any ingredients on hand that we could use for cooking?” Though she asked that she didn’t expect much. With her being so close to Frost she noticed that his backpack was pretty empty, with the majority of his supplies kept in his spatial rings. Meat and other perishable items couldn’t be stored in spatial rings otherwise they’d spoil. She was only asking out of formality; she and her husband always carried several chunks of meat and vegetables on their excursions.

Frost looked a tad awkward before shaking his head, Lola was right he didn’t have anything that would be worthy of cooking. He finished all his frost lizard meat from last night and willingly forfeited the meat of the D-rank frost lizard bosses to that party of three earlier. The only thing that he did have was the meat from the centipede, but Lola had already made her stance clear about eating insects.

Lola didn’t admonish him for his lack of ingredients and took this as an opportunity to relay some knowledge that she and her husband had learned over the many years of adventuring.

“When you’re out and about you should always store food in your backpack, you’ll never know when you’ll be in dire need of a meal.” she put on the air of a teacher as though it was natural. “Do you have any spices to help improve your meals or at least give some variety if you’re eating the same type of meat each time, what about cooking utensils, broth and soup stock cubes, dried vegetables?”

Frost’s face twisted a little before he once again shook his head, he didn’t have any of them even though he had a chance to purchase them back in the Beta camp.

“Huh? You’ve got none of that.....then what do you have for when you get hungry?” Lola tilted her head, completely gobsmacked that someone went his deep into a monster lair located in the glacial mountains without any food reserves.

Frost had a light bulb moment and quickly removed the dried jerky from his backpack as though to assert that he wasn’t completely useless, he even had a decent supply of the stuff. “I’ve got dozens of strips of jerky and would cook the meat of my last hunt in my wok.” He thus removed the large wok from his spatial ring.

Sam and Lola looked at him in silence before turning to face one another, sighing as they shook their heads. Frost was a complete noob.

‘How is someone so strong and so talented this na?ve?’ The husband and wife both had the same thoughts run through their mind. Thankfully Frost ran into them, not only did they save him from the great frost centipede they could now teach this young adventurer what he needed to know.

Frost hoping to receive even some modicum of praise or recognition was sorely mistaken, in Sam and Lola’s eyes he was completely inept, like a child that needed taking care of. Their expressions were full of pity and Frost felt as though a knife stabbed his heart, those kind of looks really hurt.

“Haaaaaaaaa” with another deep sigh the husband and wife began their lecture, the meal can wait till after this first issue is resolved.

“Ok first off this dried jerky is the very basics of the basics and by itself doesn’t warrant a substantial meal. Even the military provide soup stock cubes to go with this. These are to be honest just snacks by themselves and won’t provide you enough energy for a day of fighting even if you down a dozen strips of the stuff. Second you say that you cook the meat of the last thing you hunted, what if the monsters you encountered throughout the day weren’t edible or that you didn’t come across any at all, what then?” Lola started the rant with a severe wagging of her finger, listing all the shortcomings of Frost’s gear. Frost just had to sit there silently and absorb the lesson; he was too embarrassed to retort. But he couldn’t be completely blamed, eating was a rather new experience for him and usually he had a certain fenrir to prepare his meals. He even rather liked the dried jerky but put no thought into its nutritional value.

“Then let’s see this wok you have.” Lola demanded the wok for inspection. “Not bad this gets you a passing mark, but you should always have a spare in case this one breaks mid adventure, what do you use for utensils?” Seeing that Frost only brought out a wok she wondered what he used to prepare and east his food.

“Oh, I do this.” Frost summoned his ice chakra, willing it into desired shapes such as a knife, a fork or just a long spike. It worked fine for frying the frost lizard last night, though the ice did melt a few times.

“That’s unique I’ll give you that, but you should carry around utensils to help better prepare your meals. Remember an adventurer is only as strong as his last meal, if it was that dried jerky you feasted on last night and not fried frost lizard then we may not have been in time to help you.” Lola sent a strict glare Frost’s way, making sure that her lesson sunk in. Frost simply nodded his head as she and her husband continued to lecture him.