Dungeon of Niflheim

With the potions having been administered Lola stood up before sauntering off back to her seat to wait.

A few minutes later Sam and Frost were pretty much recovered, their blood had been replenished and all that really remained of their wounds was a few scabs and bruises. The two men looked at one another and saw a strange camaraderie between each other that wasn’t present earlier. They shared a conversation with their eyes.

‘You’re wife is an absolute sadistic demon; I feel for you bro.’ Frost’s gaze translated as such.

‘Yeah she can be quite domineering at times.....but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.’ Sam responded back with a slight blush on his cheeks as he remembered the good aspect of having such a strong willed woman. Their little eye chat ended there.

“So how was it you two?” Lola tilted her head to the side and spoke with an unclear tone, not specifying what she was talking about. This little phrase sent a shiver down the two men’s spines, they both turned around to the look at the rabbit woman with accusation in their eyes, but it was fleeting, the two men held no small amount of fear towards her after what she did to them.

Sam broke the silence with a cough “cough cough it was pretty good I think, Frost has vast reserves of mana and a very good head on his shoulders. His glaive mastery is at adept level, but his experience is lacking, same with his chakra control. His armour should now provide better protection and be far more easy to manage.” Sam nodded his head as he spoke, his heart full of praise for his new student. “Fighting him one on one I’ve got a good sense of his capabilities and fighting style; we should have no issue working together as a group.” Sam showed a great smile as he spoke the last part. Frost with his glaive arts and ice chakra usage would make a great addition to their twosome. Where Sam was a real in your face tank type that managed the frontline, Frost suited a role that would have him attack from the opposite side of the tank, a mix between close and mid-range while Lola was of course the rear guard, casting her magic from a distance. Sam was physical power, Frost was speed and Lola was magic, they’d make quite an accomplished party after several excursions, Sam was sure of it.

Lola nodded her head in agreement. She was of the same opinion as her husband after watching their exchange. Finding that Frost was very quick on his feet and able to attack from many angles. With his occasional use of magic, he’d be able to play a very diverse role.

The husband and wife team now knew the rough capabilities of their new student and could prepare an appropriate lesson plan before they confront the ice revenant.

.....

“What about you Frost, did you learn anything from your match with my husband?” Lola asked with a no longer teasing tone.

“Yes I did, there’s lots I need to learn in regards to battle which I can’t get by purely on instinct and as Sam said my main drawback is experience.” Frost agreed with their criticism as it was entirely true, he was less than two months old so how much battle experience could he truly have, that’s why he was here in the first place. The thing he picked up most was the amount of wasted energy he was expelling from his aggressive and flashy glaive movements as well as maintaining his chakra armour. The thing before was a real hassle for prolonged combat and though it would absorb a lot of impact from strong blows saving him from injury, it would shatter and need to be reformed after each blow.

“It’s good that you can so easily acknowledge that, with such a mindset you’ll go far in this world Frost.” Sam laughed in celebration while patting Frost’s back, he and his wife had gotten a great student.

“Thank you teacher,” Frost responded with respect, fully acknowledging their new relationship.

“Gyahh! No need for that, just stick to calling us Sam and Lola, it’s more friendly that way.” Sam declared and Lola agreed with a nod of her head, being called teacher had a nice ring to it but they were not in a classroom.

“Ok, Sam, Lola shall we get going?” Frost was amped, ready to begin his adventuring lessons. His eyes sparked as he spoke bringing joy to the two veterans.

“Of course, we’ve had our fill, learned about your abilities, and worked off some excess energy, it’s more than time for us to head off.” Sam agreed readily but looked towards his wife, she was the de-facto leader of the group.

“Sounds good, there’s several areas that we should pass through on our way to the sixth floor, enemies that would make could practise as well as educational points. This [beginner’s ice magic] monster lair doesn’t have much in the way of complex paths or traps, but it does have areas where herbs grow as well as other useful things.” Lola cupped her chin as she planned out an itinerary. If they just rushed their way through without fighting monsters they could probably reach the ice revenant within 24 hours but that wasn’t the sole aim of their excursion anymore. On the bottom most floors of [beginner’s ice magic] there’s quite a vast array of magic wielding monsters that would make for great practise.

Sam and Lola had entered this monster lair more than a few times and knew their way around the place, getting lost was not a possibility.

“We’ll spend at minimum of 24 hours on this floor, and 36 hours on the final floor and will face off against the ice revenant after 3 days or so. That should give us enough time to garner some experience for Frost.”

With their plans set the group of three thus made their way towards the 6th floor. They weren’t in too much of a rush, as the ice revenant likely wasn’t going anywhere.

Sam and Lola drilled into Frost an insane amount of information over the next 3 days, so much that Frost felt his head would explode. There was so much he didn’t know in regards to.....well everything. His books covered but a fraction but until one was actually doing the physical activity it was all in theory. They trained him up from a greenhorn to an almost acceptable adventurer by their standards. Frost now had a crash course education in pretty much everything.

From Sam he learned about cooking, the different ways to prepare meals, spices, flavours, and most of all the unending amount of ingredients. Sam handed him a book that contained a few of his favourite recipes and whenever they made camp Sam would have Frost prepare the meals with his supervision. While after he’d be forced to read Lola’s books on magic as well as listen to their lectures. They only allowed him 4 hours of sleep before the group would be off again to explore, examine, learn, and of course fight.

In addition to the plethora of lessons in regards to all aspects adventurer and or life, Frost was forced to not only fight alongside Sam and Lola to develop teamwork they even made him fight solo while they watched. Limiting what he could use and or giving him specific targets. Being an adventurer wasn’t just about killing your monster opponent, it needed to be done in the most efficient way possible to not only preserve one’s strength but to preserve the materials as much as possible. For example, Frost’s method of dealing with the great frost centipede was a no go, he wrecked a large part of the carapace, greatly reducing the overall profit he would have achieved. Many monsters had traits and habits that only those that hunted them frequently knew about, and adventurers tended to keep their methods close to their chests so as to profit as much as possible. Books would only provide rudimentary knowledge, which Sam and Lola made abundantly clear.

The 5th floor’s boss was the one it usually was, a lesser yuki-onna. An upper D-rank spirit monster that utilises magic to attack and defend itself. When the group were faced with the boss, Frost assumed that they would fight as a group but both Sam and Lola shared a knowing look before speaking at the same time.

“You handle this one Frost.” They both patted him on the back with smiles. Frost could only nod his head with reluctance before starting the battle. He was effectively their gofer when it came to monster battles, leaving the majority up to him and always saying it was because he needed experience. Usually, Sam and Lola would observe from the side, occasionally giving him a few pointers but after a while they simply ignored him and entered their own little world. More than a few times he came back covered in his victims blood and his hair in disarray to find his teachers, brazenly displaying their affection for one another without a care in the world. This infuriated him to no end but there was nothing he could do; his teachers had no shame and he never won in terms of language.

The worst was when Lola stated that he was simply jealous which hit the nail right on the head. He too constantly had a beautiful woman by his side but couldn’t act on it for fear of death, he had to simply take his frustrations out on the poor line of monsters that chose to impede their path. Which in the end made for a substantial amount of DP.