Dungeon of Niflheim

In the native kingdom of Glasson where the frost lilies said they hailed from; a large part of the citizens were spirits such as yuki-onnas. They were considered at the level of being able to mingle with sapient races, a far cry from the abilities of their lesser kin.

Lola wanted Frost to compete against the lesser yuki-onna with his magic, to learn from it and if possible take a few hits from its spells. Given that it was only D-rank it was limited to 1st and 2nd circle spells, but its variety was completely different from what he’d faced so far. This would give Frost some much needed experience in dealing with true spell casters such as herself.

The lesser yuki-onna used a fair amount of spells from the spells books Lola had given him to study, enduring them would help hasten his learning. Her smile was incredibly gentle and kind when she gave out her orders, so much that it was terrifying. Just imagine a pretty rabbit woman in her thirties kindly saying, “alright now let her beat on you with her magic a little, it’ll help your training.” She was an absolute demon; Frost could swear he saw the shadow of Maya floating behind her.

The fight lasted for over 45 minutes before Frost was finally allowed to finish it, yes allowed. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t end the battle quickly given that ice magic had very little effect on him but Lola refused to let the fight end until he got to experience the full arsenal of the lesser yuki-onna.

Though he was pretty much undamaged much to Sam and Lola’s shock his beautiful robes were torn to shreds revealing his smooth white skin. Lola didn’t even pretend to hide her bemused expression making it hard for Frost to tell whether the fight was dragged on for him to learn or so that this woman could enjoy a strip tease. The longer he stayed with Lola the more familiar and demonising she became, even to the point that Sam started feeling sorry for him.

But in the end the battle though with possible dubious intentions for the last 20 minutes was very educational. Frost’s ability to deal with magic attacks improved as did his own knowledge of his current spells and the new ones that he was studying. His mana sense grew more sensitive allowing him to better predict when a mage was about to cast magic, an important skill for mage on mage combat. In the higher levels, mages conceal their mana usage, making it that much harder know when a spell is going to be cast.

There was one spell the yuki-onna used that especially caught Frost’s eye, one which unfortunately Lola didn’t know and had no books on. It was a rare 2nd circle spell called [chilling grasp], a magic crest would appear on the targets body and slow them by chilling their body. It was a type of debuff spell that unfortunately had zero effect on Frost given his immunity to the ice trait. In fact, it caused his body to feel lighter and soothed which greatly irritated the lesser yuki-onna who screeched before launching more and more aggressive attacks.

Once Frost had activated the self-healing mechanism of his robes Lola managed to regain focus as did Sam who wasn’t looking any less, clearly a little jealous of Frost’s smooth skin. Occasionally he’d look at his rough hands covered in callouses and sigh. Thinking that if his hands were smooth he could offer his wife better massages, a truly devoted husband.

.....

“Why didn’t the ice magic work on you?” Of course Lola had to ask this question, only Frost’s clothes and armour were affected whereas his body was unmarred, more so that the [chilling grasp] spell held no effect. The ice revenant that they were about to face off against used a similar spell but of a higher rank plus its body gave off a naturally chilling aura, slowing attackers. Sam and Lola moved quickly when they heard the news about the ice revenant meaning their supplies weren’t as expansive as they’d like. Ice resistance potions in particular would be required for aid when facing the ice revenant but they only brought two, both medium level.

Frost didn’t hide his natural ice resistance, stating that it was something he was born with, which was true. His answer brought an intense look of jealousy from Lola, this was practically a god sent ability to have for one living on the Northern continent. She gave him a thorough look over, checking to see that Frost wasn’t a spirit monster in disguise. This ability practically made ice magic and cold based effects useless on him, the perfect opponent for something like an ice revenant. It was almost as if the heavens were smiling down on them, the more time they spent with Frost the more they learned and the higher their chances grew at beating the Ice revenant.

After the lesser yuki-onna died and Frost relished in the DP he earned from the kill, as per normal the barrier blocking the staircase to the next floor dissolved but something else happened.

A chest appeared next to the staircase; this was the first treasure chest Frost had gotten since entering the monster lair. His luck wasn’t that high as neither the 3rd floor boss nor the 4th floor boss dropped one and he didn’t come across one naturally.

With the sudden appearance of a chest, Sam broke into education mode. “Within special areas such as monster lairs occasionally treasures can be created just like monsters. Normally they appear in the form of chests but not always, they can be bare, it’s just a matter of luck. But be careful, at times a treasure chest is not always a treasure chest.” Sam spoke with serious tone towards the end and a grim look adorned his face as though he was remembering something unpleasant.

Frost’s ears perked up and he asked Sam to elaborate, his outstretched hands stalled in place, hovering over the chest.

“Treasure chests can actually be traps, for example what’s contained may not be treasure but poison or even a small monster hell even the chest itself could be a monster, something called a mimic. Nasty things that like to trick their prey, tough and with a voracious appetite.” Sam’s grim expression got worse while Lola giggled at the side. They both remembered the same thing but had opposing views. For Lola it was quite hilarious to see her husband get inked in the face, whereas for him it was a great shaming, the stuff didn’t come off his face for days even with clean up magic.

Frost’s hovering hand trembled slightly, he gulped audibly while looking over the recently summoned treasure chest with wariness, afraid to open the thing. He looked back at Sam hoping for some kind of technique to tell whether it was a real treasure chest or not but was met with a black expression.

It was Lola who spoke up after giggling, “there’s no way to know for sure unless you can cast the 4th circle spell [identify] but even then if the mimic is of a high rank you still won’t be able to tell, you just gotta be careful and test you luck. But don’t worry there hasn’t been a single case of a mimic in this monster lair since its creation and given the location and the timing it’s unlikely for it to be a trap.” Lola nodded her head and urged Frost to open his prize.

Feeling better thanks to Lola’s assurances he moved to open up the chest, the moment he started lifting the lid however Lola couldn’t resist one last jap “unlikely but not impossible” the short statement sent a shiver down Frost’s spine, he violently rotated his neck to glare at her, but she simply whistled innocently while looking the other way. He really was the butt of the jokes when it came to confident women in his life.

Bravely ignoring Lola, Frost opened up the chest to reveal its contents, crossing his fingers as he did so. It’d really effect his ego if his very first treasure chest was a trap.

As the lid opened a bright light exuded from it, temporarily obscuring the contents before dying down. What was revealed was not a trap of any kind, Frost not unlucky in his draw.

There were two items, a health potion of high quality, low level, not something he needed or really wanted but a decent drop. He’d just hand it to Lola as payment for the one she gave him.

The second item was a thumb sized blue gemstone that was cold to the touch. Frost knew what this thing was and given the size and quality, he earned himself quite the treasure. A cocky smile couldn’t help but grow on his lips as laughter threatened to escape his lungs.