Dungeon of Niflheim

“Father, Sam and I’s quest was successful, we’ve retrieved a perfect quality C-rank ice monster core from an ice revenant, and you have this young man here to thank for that.” Lola then gestured towards Frost who at this point had blended into the background. Her actions caused everyone to finally look his way.

“Wow he’s so handsome!” Tulip the oldest blushed a little as she took in Frost’s pretty face. She’d seen a few elves before, but none compared to the looks of the young man standing before her. Ren hid by his father, nervous about the young man he didn’t recognise. Whereas Jasmine the troublemaker tilted her head to the side and bluntly asked. “Is he a boy or a girl?” She really struggled to tell. She’d never seen such a pretty man before. Her image of men were brave and strong like her father. Ren was only cute and adorable because he was still a toddler, but Frost was fully grown.

Frost felt as though a dagger went through his heart at Jasmine’s words. His lips twitched and he even stumbled slightly as he walked forward. It was the first time anyone had mistaken him for a woman, he couldn’t help but take a silent blow. Tulip feeling embarrassed by her younger sister pinched her cheeks as punishment while showing an apologetic look on her face towards Frost, but this made him feel even worse.

“Pfft” Sam couldn’t help but struggle to contain his laughter, pursing his lips and looking away, his entire body spasmed in his struggle. Frost couldn’t get in an argument with children, but he certainly could act against Sam. As he walked to the centre of the group he firmly elbowed his teacher in the gut causing him to cough violently, his mood was uplifted after this.

Yarrow listened to his daughter’s words; a deep frown adorned his face as she spoke of retrieving the core from an ice revenant. Such a monster was beyond the means of his daughter and son in law. Worry and anxiety flitted across his eyes at the thought but quickly vanished since both of them were here, safe and sound. His gaze towards Frost thus changed, not only was it filled with gratitude but with respect since he knew the capabilities of Sam and Lola. He viewed Frost as a true expert likely stronger than the two of them, yet he was so young.

Yarrow adopted his mayoral persona, leaning on his cane with both hands he walked before Frost before giving him a deep bow, full of gratitude. “I am Yarrow, Lola’s father, and mayor of Kranor. I thank you for your assistance young man.”

Frost immediately moved to help the old man up, knowing that to perform such a deep bow at his age and with his body’s current condition must be painful. After which he introduced himself. “My name is Frost and there’s no need for such thanks Yarrow, your daughter and son in law have already more than compensated me for any help that I provided.” Frost spoke honestly, if anything it was still him that owed them. He should be thanking Yarrow for raising such a good daughter.

Yarrow looked towards his daughter and son in law in wonder, curious in what they offered him in payment for his assistance. If it wasn’t up to snuff he would supplement the rewards. This was after all not just saving an old man’s life but the life of the leader of Kranor. Such aid needed to be rewarded well.

.....

Seeing the look in her father’s eyes that showed his desire to know what happened Lola decided to explain everything from the beginning. She ushered everyone to sit down and had a maid bring in some breakfast for everyone since their visit interrupted their usual schedule.

“Well, where to begin.....” Lola and Sam reiterated their entire experience, from their few failed attempts to purchase a perfect quality c-rank magic core and their learning of the C-rank revenant situated within [beginner’s ice magic] to their meeting of Frost. Their agreement and then their grand battle which husband and wife highly embellished since it excited the children.

Everyone in the room looked at Frost very differently throughout the story. From seeing him as a pretty, young adventurer who came with Lola and Sam to a complete noob who was likely some 2nd generation rich boy who never had to deal with things himself to an absolute monster of a prodigy. Even Jasmine who struggled to see anything good about being a pretty boy looked towards Frost with sparkling eyes. Wasn’t he exactly what she aspired to be, a strong and powerful person who could protect her home. Out of the three children she was ironically now the most infatuated with Frost. She still thought that his appearance needed fixing, but his strength won her respect.

Yarrow however was blown away; he understood the difficulty in crossing that step into B-rank far more than even Sam and Lola, so he knew exactly how much of a monster Frost really was. His gaze towards the young dungeon core was very complicated. His daughter and son in law’s exchange with Frost was probably the best thing for the young man given that it was exactly what he lacked but he felt the need to grant him something else in thanks, as Sam and Lola would probably benefit from this student teacher relationship just as much as him perhaps even more.

No matter how high Frost reaches in the future, his daughter and son in law would have played some part in it and have established a relationship with a future powerhouse, the benefits were unimaginable. Yarrow felt it would be best to reward Frost for his aid in fighting the ice revenant separately so as to not sour such a relationship down the line. Kranor may not be the richest place in the Glacial mountains, but they were no slouch either. He’d have to think hard about a worthwhile reward for someone with such great potential. His eyes imperceptibly drifted over to Tulip before he frowned and shook his head.

‘No, their ages are two far apart.’ The idea of arranging a marriage between Tulip and Frost crossed his mind but was swiftly quashed. Their ages were too different -yes but not in the direction he thinks- and using his granddaughter to further rope in such a young prodigy didn’t sit well with him. Plus, it would be a bit too obvious no he’ll have to peruse the vaults or perhaps come up with something unique that he could give him.

As Lola was finishing up her story, the bedroom door opened and an older woman in her late 50s walked in, dressed in a comfortable office dress perfect for working in while revealing a sense nobility. The woman was Lola’s mother and Yarrow’s wife, Chia.

Like her daughter she was very thicc with a butt only slightly smaller than her daughter’s, but she was taller with very long legs. She too was part of the rabbit beastman tribe and looked very much like Lola appearance wise though with a couple wrinkles on her face and white hair though it was obvious that in her youth she would have been quite a catch.

“Grandma” The three kids squealed with happiness as this tall rabbit woman walked in the room. Yarrow also had his spirit’s lifted as his eyes filled with love and affection, he was very similar to Sam, completely devoted to his darling wife. And like Sam he was also human.

It wasn’t strange for mixed species couples to exist within Nova given the amount of differing sapient species. The Dark and Light Gods even made it easy for them to breed amongst each other with a few exceptions. Between a beastman and human for example the children would be either human or beastman not a combination. Tulip and Ren for example were rabbit beastmen whereas as Jasmine was human like her father and grandfather. Though she didn’t inherit her mother’s ears or rabbit tail she did get her figure, so traits are still passed down. The Gods just made it so to eliminate the idea of half breeds among the sapients. Of course, there are occasional exceptions such as breeding between different beastman tribes, occasionally a child can be born with partial traits of both parents thus creating a possible new beastman type.

In regards to monsters a lot of new species have arisen over the tens of thousands of years since Nova’s creation thanks to cross species breeding. There’s less restriction upon monsters on whether their young will be the same as the mother or father. Dragons being a major cause of such cross bred existences. Dragons have always been lusty creatures that were adept with magic, able change their forms to be more humanoid if need be. Thus, many monsters have dragon blood within them due the mass spreading of dragon seed across the world. Even horses can sometimes have modicums of dragon blood within them. They even created the highly populated dragonkin race, a sapient race with dragon ancestry. The phoenix kin Nanna and Loki are very similar to dragonkin but with a phoenix ancestry, however their kind are nowhere near as numerous.

Dark and Light actually admonished the dragons for being too proliferate since over 10% of the known species had some level of dragon DNA in them after several thousand years but it did however create a vast variety of monsters that they may never have thought of, so they didn’t punish them, only bringing the issue to their attention. After which they dialled it back a little but to this day thousands upon thousands of creatures still have bits of dragon DNA within them.