Dungeon of Niflheim

“As we travel we’ll work together to take down same opponents while others I’ll have you practise your magic on so as to improve your skills. Your idea of solely using your ice golem magic and your ice bolt spell against the 1st and 2nd floor both respectively was a good idea. Their battle levels were enough for you to take such risks and clearly it helped, particularly with your [ice bolt] spell. The [summon ice golem] spell not so much, you’re still a long way off before successfully generating a full sized golem, equivalent to E-rank.” Lola nodded her head while praising and pointing out Frost’s short comings but overall, she was quite impressed. Frost had a good head on his shoulders and knew his own weaknesses and strengths quite well, shame his arrogance and hubris got the better of him with the great frost centipede. However, Lola looked at this as a good thing, she and her husband arrived in time to prevent any serious damage and from it Frost learned humility, a trait always best learned the earlier the better.

“In terms of glaive combat we can’t teach you much, but Sam will do his best, he can also utilise a little chakra, but his element is metal so that too will be limited. But that’s not the prime aim of our education, your fighting prowess is already high, just needs a little more refining to deal with the plethora of monsters you’ll come across. Our focus will be on regular skills needed to become a truly skilled adventurer such as cooking which Sam relayed to you earlier. The famous saying ‘an adventurer is only as strong as their last meal’ is a very real statement and in many cases the defining factor in close knit battles. Other than that, there’s the items you should always have on hand when out on a quest and or travelling, how to deal with specific quest types such as capturing, scouting, or tracking. Weapon and equipment maintenance, budgeting, and cost analysis, will the quest you’re about to undertake pay enough to cover the damages incurred or time taken for the excursion? Is it worth the risk? After that we have habits that need to be second nature or completely removed from practise as well as monsters too avoid either for their lack of materials or the fact that their natural resistances counter one with your capabilities.” Lola spoke at length of the things they needed to go over in the short amount of time they had, she used her fingers to cross off all categories but quickly realised she didn’t have enough. The amount of knowledge she and her husband had gathered over the years was not a small amount. They could spend weeks drilling their reserves into him and still it may not cover everything. But they didn’t have weeks only days, some things would have to be either cut from the program or summarised.

“At the same time, we’ll practise our teamwork in battle, have you ever worked with anyone before?” To finish Lola asked this question, Frost was here in a monster lair all by himself, so it was unlikely he had many friends.

“I’ve worked with a group once on a special quest, our enemies weren’t monsters but underworld goons and bandits.” Frost replied after a few seconds of thought. He hadn’t really worked as an adventuring party as of yet since Maya didn’t do any work and the kids were too weak for tactics to be involved. The only case was operation ‘new dawn’ wherein he worked together with Leo, Luna, Bruno, and Taka to fight the goons protecting Adam before confronting Adam himself. His experience in teamwork was certainly lacking.

“Alright its not the best but its something, how were the power levels spaced out, how many were at your level, and did you fight mainly together or separately?” Lola continued her questioning; all her queries were specific and on point. Unless Frost was far, far superior to them in combat strength then having someone unskilled at working with others was a determinant not a boon.

Frost frowned and thought back to a few weeks ago before answering to the best of his ability. “In our small group no one was at my level, two were B-rank who only got involved against specific opponents. Two were upper D-rank whereas the last two were E. For some battles we worked together but now that you mention it, most of my battles were solo. I’d take down as many foes as possible without their aid.” Frost spoke from memory, though he occasionally received an arrow or spell his way to lend assistance most of his fights were solo. Only his battle with Adam could really be considered as working as a team against a superior foe but then again it was Leo and Luna that showed better teamwork and worked to his tempo.

“Ok we’ll probably need to work on that a fair amount before the main fight.” Lola took a mental note. Fighting a C-rank monster especially one that wasn’t simple like an Ice revenant was no walk in the park. Individually the thing was stronger than all of them, Frost or them could not simply rely on individual skill, they needed to work together to multiply their battle prowess instead of simply adding or subtracting.

Lola and her husband had no problems working as a team, in fact their teamwork was almost seamless. Adding in an unstable force could jeopardise that fluid system and even cause their battle strength to degrade. Sam and Lola wouldn’t have the spare focus to mind Frost’s positioning and attack patterns, one wrong move and it could spell the end for this couple, that’s how dangerous this foe was.

.....

Thankfully Frost appeared to be a quick learner and now that he understood humility and respected the two of them they should be able to form a rudimentary bond in battle. It won’t be as perfect as Sam and Lola’s but shouldn’t bring them down in strength. Thankfully due to the monster stampede it wasn’t just the boss that had been changed, the many monsters present on the bottom floors were more plentiful and stronger than usual. They’d have plenty of targets to practise on.

One in particular that was housed on the 6th floor even during regular times was the frost revenant, a smaller weaker version of the ice revenant, usually around mid D-rank and showed similar traits. Making it the perfect practise monster to warm up with before the main fight.

Frost revenants were around half the size of ice revenants, about 2 metres like a regular humanoid. Their shape was the same as well as weaknesses and strengths just weaker overall. Its armour and weapon being equivalent to perhaps to 2 stars and it didn’t know any 3rd circle spells. They are considered quite a tough opponent among D-ranks.

When Lola brought up frost revenants Frost couldn’t help but perk up his ears. Even if he killed a C-rank monster it was unlikely for him to unlock it in the dungeon menu given his aggregate power and size of his dungeon but there was always a chance. However, what he really needed at the moment was strong D-rank monsters. Considering the dungeon’s current size and clientele, a frost revenant would be a perfect solution if its known power was to be believed.

So far the main monsters Frost had added to his definitely want pile was the frost lizards and the ice elementals, but they were lower D-rank and E-rank respectively. The frost revenant however was likely more powerful than anything he currently had access too and given that it was truly synonymous with ice he’d probably gain access to a decent amount of evolutionary paths like with the frost dwarves. Frost’s lips couldn’t help but curl up in anticipation.

“Alright I think that covers everything but if something else pops into my brain I’ll let you know, anything to add dear?” Lola felt as though she’d regurgitated most of her knowledge base and asked her husband for his opinions.

“Nope I think you’ve covered everything, but I’ll go over a few things in regards to monster lairs, mapping as well as herb gathering that could prove useful.” Sam tilted his head to the side in thought before replying. Lola had covered the majority of what needed to be drilled into Frost’s head if he was to become a truly accomplished adventurer, Sam just wanted to add a few specifics.

Herb collection was actually quite a large part of being an adventurer, it wasn’t just the low rankers that harvested herbs no, high ranking herbs only grow in mana rich areas which are usually infested with monsters. Handling such herbs and knowing how to properly store such things was key to preserving the quality and in return the profit gained from hunting them down. Frost already had a delicate hand and utilised a chakra blade to removed herbs but that would only get him so far. The higher ranked the herb the more complicated it became to harvest; some even had the ability to protect themselves against such actions. Sam along with being a great cook was a big fan of botany so his knowledge in that department was quite expansive, far more than a regular C-rank. Frost was truly receiving a great boon from the two of them.