Dungeon of Niflheim

Borris couldn’t help but show a friendly smile towards the young phoenix kin, nodding his head in appreciation. “It’s very nice to meet you too Loki, would you like to take a look at some of the children’s equipment in the back?”

Loki’s eye sparkled with desire at Borris’s question before rapidly turning to Frost with a pleading look.

“He’d love to lead the way Borris.”

“Yay!” Loki shouted out in glee as he and Frost followed Borris into the back section of the shop.

Borris led them to a more open area where several training dummies stood in a row, each sporting different material makeup.

“We test our weapons here to make sure they’re up to snuff before selling them to the customers. Our weapons and armours can mean the difference between life and death, so a shoddy product does not enter the shop floor.” Borris spoke with conviction, proud of his testing methods. Regardless of how experienced the smith was or how many times they’ve made the same weapon he’d have it tested all the same, this even included his own work. The failure of a weapon is a blacksmith’s greatest shame.

“Your glaive’s over there, I thought you’d might like to try it out before you leave.” Borris pointed to a counter nearby, Frost’s glaive was set on a stand and covered in a purple cloth, protecting it from the elements.

“I’ll go and get Loki here some choice items to look at from our holding area. Feel free to use the training dummies.” The old dwarf then grabbed Loki’s hands and inspected them like he did for Frost.

.....

“Daggers, interesting.” He nodded his head before heading off to one of their holding areas. Loki was already set weapon wise thanks to Daki, but it was always nice to look and prudent to have a spare.

Loki waited in anticipation of Borris’s return while Frost moved to uncover his glaive and see the changes Borris’s son had made to it. An elemental engraving shouldn’t affect the durability of the weapon nor its balance when being applied and the absorption of mana should be even and controlled so as to best provide the chosen elemental coating without unnecessarily damaging the weapon.

Frost paid for the highest possible wind engraving that Borris’s son could apply, so he was expecting a lot from this addition. It should radically improve his close combat capabilities, especially when dealing with creatures holding high ice element affinity.

As the purple cloth was removed, the glaive was revealed before Frost’s eyes in all its grandeur.

‘Hoh that’s pretty cool.’ Now present along the shaft and blade were intricate markings akin to a magic crest engraved on the weapon. It gave the glaive a much more magical and ancient look.

There was no difference in how the glaive felt however, the engravings were somehow beneath the top layer, keeping the glaive’s smooth finish. Frost showed a wild smile, dying to try the thing out. His eyes drifted towards one of the training dummies.

“Loki wanna see my new and improved glaive in action?” Frost spoke in a teasing tone toward the young male phoenix kin who’s eyes expanded to saucers the moment he caught sight of the beautiful engravings. Loki rapidly nodded his head up and down, dying to see what his master’s weapon could do.

Frost’s smile grew and his eyes showed a fierce glint as he moved towards the wooden training dummy donned in leather apparel.

“Let’s start simple.” He chose the weakest dummy first as it was his first time using an engraved weapon and he was a little nervous about damaging it.

He remembered what Borris told him as well as what Maya revealed when he talked to her about getting his glaive engraved.

‘Don’t fill the engraving with chakra otherwise you’ll cause a conflict, imbue the engraving with unkneaded mana for the best results or use a magic crystal of at least E-rank quality and no higher than C-rank. Any higher and it’d damage the engraving’s intricate detail. Think of it like a person’s mana veins if the power is too dense and powerful the veins will explode. And if the crystal is of too poor quality it won’t have enough juice to provide the intended effect. Using your personal mana however that can be controlled will result in the least amount of damage to the glaive and the engraving when in use. Go slow at the beginning, find the sweet spot before trying it out in combat.’

Frost followed their advice, he took a battle ready stance in front of the wooden dummy, his glaive held vertical before him. He stared at the glaive’s blade edge before closing his eyes and starting.

Frost summoned his internal mana not willing it into any shape like when he uses chakra, simply funnelling it slowly through his hands and into engraving until he felt that sweet spot. With the addition of Frost’s mana that was tinted with the ice element the engraving lit up, the mana flowed through the many channels like water before letting out a hum.

“Hummmmmm” With the humming sound the air around the glaive twisted before coating the glaive’s blade edge in a light green wind blade. Frost opened his eyes; he could feel the sharpness of the wind blade against his eyes and cheeks. His glaive was now coated with the wind element. This one trick pony of a dungeon core could now deal out air based damage.

“Hahahaha” Frost loudly laughed after he touched the sharp wind blade, cutting in finger in the process.

Schwing!

Full of vigour Frost raised his wind coated glaive and slashed downwards sharply, easily chopping into the wooden dummy as though it was made of butter. The wind element was known for being sharp, very sharp, far more than the other elements, even his ice element wasn’t a match in this regard.

The dummy’s wooden arm that was covered in leather dropped to the ground with a light thud. The sliced off area where the glaive passed through was incredibly smooth.

Frost was very satisfied with the results and was feeling eager to test its limits. He eyed the other training dummies. One made of stone another some kind of metal whereas the final one was a kind of crystal that so far had barely a nick on it, clearly the strongest of the group reserved for the highest level of weapons in the shop.

The wind blade surrounding the glaive’s edge remained as long as Frost pumped the engraving with mana. The actual blade edge didn’t even touch the wooden dummy as it slashed down, the wind blade was enough on its own.

Frost moved in front of the stone training dummy and repeated the exact same motion, aiming once again for the arm.

Swhing! Clang! thud

This time the glaive’s physical edge touched the hard stone but none the less the dummy’s arm fell to the ground. The cut area still looking fairly smooth. Next was the metal dummy.

Loki looked on in fascination at his master’s elegant striking form, blown away by the difference between the two of them in terms of strength. He and his sister still faced off against the same unarmed and slow ice golem that Maya would conjure for them. They could barely make a scratch on its ice body let alone chop off an arm.

Frost once again placed himself before the dummy, his glaive raised up high with the wind blade still sharply coating the blade edge.

Schwing! Don!

Frost felt a strong resistance from this blow, his glaive failed to separate the dummy from its arm, leaving a deep gash several inches deep. Seems as though this metal dummy was too much for a single slash dismemberment. Thankfully his glaive was undamaged, its blade edge proving to be of superior durability and still razor sharp. The wind blade however was completely destroyed requiring to remade with mana, a quick fix.

“That’s far sharper than I thought it’d be.” Frost gazed in wonder at his glaive as well as the deep cut inflicted upon the metal dummy. He’d probably only need another strike or two to completely sever its arm, all without using any empowering skills, it was devastating to say the least. Frost wasn’t sure what type of metal the dummy was made from but at the very least it was equivalent to refined steel, a 3 star material.

Realising the strength of the third dummy his gaze of course then drifted towards the fourth and final one, the dummy made out of a light blue crystal. His mana pumped into the engraving reforming the wind blade before he once again took an aggressive battle stance, wanting to test the durability of this beautiful crystal.

A nagging feeling however was in the back of his mind, warning him that this was a stupid idea. He’d already proved the capability of the wind engraving this was just foolishly showing off. That voice however was very minor compared to the other one that kept saying “Do it, do it, do it” over and over again. Even Loki was leaning forward in anticipation, eager to see how the crystal dummy fared against his master’s glaive.

Frost raised his glaive up high, but that nagging feeling was still present so just in case he decided to give this blow everything he had.

“[Shattering strike]” The wind covered blade hummed with energy enhancing its destructive power to the utmost before.