Dungeon of Niflheim

Schwing!

The glaive slashed down with immense fury towards the crystal dummy’s arm aiming to sever it completely, Frost put his entire strength into this blow, confident that the crystal dummy was not something to take lightly.

The wind blade made contact with the crystal first and practically exploded apart when it did, leaving not even a slight blemish. Then came the energy coating from the [shattering strike] skill that enhanced his glaive’s destructive power rather than the cutting edge.

Boom!

The resulting contact generated a powerful sonic boom yet still the crystal didn’t sport even a single blemish. Finally it was the actual physical edge of the glaive, a sharp weapon that was close to 4 star quality.

DON!

A horrible sound was released when the two physical materials made contact. The surrounding air was blow away by the devasting impact, even the earth that supported the dummy and Frost shook, vibrating a good portion of the store.

Borris who was heading back with some choice items for Loki couldn’t help but let out a wide smile.

.....

‘I knew he couldn’t resist trying it.’

Frost stood still; his glaive outstretched with the blade leaning on the crystal dummy’s arm. His swing was brought to a complete halt by the target, the blade edge didn’t even leave a tiny cut on the crystal, nothing more than a slight change in the crystal’s tint at the point of impact.

“Owww” Frost groaned in pain, his arm suffered a fair amount of blowback from striking something so incredibly hard and was visibly trembling. The flesh between his fingers even split, leaking a few drops of blood onto the floor.

Loki shocked by the situation remained in place for a few seconds before rushing to Frost’s side to make sure he was alright.

“Master are you ok?” The young boy asked full of concern, his eyes focusing on the drops of blood leaking from Frost’s hand. But occasionally his gaze would drift towards the crystal dummy in amazement. His master’s strike was so powerful that the shop quaked, yet this crystal dummy didn’t even have a scratch. He really wanted to know what it was made of, as did Frost.

Currently Frost didn’t care about the pain in his arm and hands, his attention was focused on two things. His glaive’s blade edge and the crystal dummy. Striking against such a hard target he was sufficiently worried about chipping his recently repaired and upgraded glaive. Thankfully however it seemed there was no damage, the sharp edge continued to perfectly reflect the nearby light, still in pristine condition.

‘Haaaaaaa that was close.’ Frost let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that his weapon was undamaged, his respect towards its forger Borris sharply increasing.

He pulled back the glaive, moaning slightly as he did so as to better inspect the crystal that he recklessly attacked.

“Dammit not even a slight crack after all that!” Frost felt his pride take a harsh blow. His strength was supposedly half step B-rank, yet he couldn’t even cut into an immovable object when armed with his mighty glaive, a real gut punch.

“Hahahahahaha” Borris appeared at that moment with a box of equipment. “I’d be more surprised if you could leave a cut on that dummy. It’s made from polar chasm crystal an upper 5 star material with incredible durability hahahaha.” Borris spoke out, explaining the dummy’s composition.

“Polar chasm crystal?” Frost had never heard of such a material, but if it truly was an upper grade 5 star material then it was understandable. His glaive wasn’t even 4 star, nowhere near being a match, however....

‘How did Borris get his hands on such high quality materials and why use something of such quality as a training dummy?’ Frost looked at Borris in confusion to which he got a playful smile in reply.

Borris placed down the box of children’s equipment and walked towards the crystal dummy, slapping it hard while his eyes showed a fervent expression.

“This piece of polar chasm crystal has been passed down through the generations, my teacher handed it to me when he could no longer wield a hammer as did his teacher to him. It is the highest grade material I’ve and my blacksmithing predecessors have ever seen and handled yet not a single one of us has managed to utilise the stuff. Our skills being far too lacking.” Borris showed a look of regret as he caressed the crystal. He was the 7th generation blacksmith granted control of this material, yet he was already way past his prime. His chance at fulfilling the goal of his predecessors was beyond his capabilities.

To properly forge with such a high grade material one would need to be at the very least a high ranking 5 star blacksmith, ideally 6 star and they’d have to have access to an upper earth rank flame. Two things that were way beyond Borris, hell the entire Northrend empire only has a two 5 star blacksmiths and neither of them are upper grade. The upper earth rank flame was even harder to get a hold off. Borris couldn’t think of a single empire or country on the entire Yangmir continent that had such a flame, at least none that openly broadcasted it.

The wish for Borris’s predecessors was for one of their decedents to be the one to finally forge with the polar chasm crystal. Selling it to an outsider was strictly forbidden unless that person themselves was a 6 star blacksmith. In such a case the material should be given freely so as to honour such a high grade material.

As of yet Borris had had many offers, but no one ever met those standards. His great, great teacher was a 4 star smith but even she was unworthy and passed the crystal down when she hung up the hammer.

Borris knew he had no chance of succeeding nor did any of his children, so instead of letting it go to complete waste, gathering dust he decided to take advantage of its near indestructible durability as a testing dummy. And so far it’s worked wonders, providing a super difficult test for the upper rank weapons. As long as they don’t chip from a full strength blow against the crystal and kept their sharpness Borris felt they were sufficient to enter the shop floor.

“Since my children and I are highly unlikely going to be able to fulfil our progenitor’s dream in forging such a high rank material I decided to use it as a training dummy, so as to better test the weapons we can forge. Having it out in open also helps to keep the dream alive, a constant reminder of our goals whenever we walk by it or test a weapon against it.” Borris’s eyes no longer showed regret but intense passion. His muscles tensed and a fire ran through his veins, he wasn’t dead yet, he still had the strength to wield the hammer and chase his passions.

“Well ignoring the polar chasm crystal dummy it seems you really did a number on the other three.” Borris looked at the other 3 dummies, two were missing an arm and the third had a severe gash several inches deep. He looked at Frost with accusation making the young dungeon core avoid his gaze out of embarrassment.

“So then would do you think about the engraving?” Borris swiftly changed to a smiling expression, not holding the damage to his dummies against Frost, they were there to be attacked in the first place. He wasn’t surprised with the wood and stone dummies but the deep cut on the metal one was impressive. That was a refined steel and duram alloy, a mid-grade 3 star material yet a single slash caused that much damage. He didn’t know whether to attribute such promise to Frost’s strength, his son’s engraving or his own forging capabilities.

Frost showed a wild smile before rapidly reforming the wind blade around the glaive’s blade so as to show it off. “It’s perfect Borris, your son certainly has talent.”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that hahaha.” The two men then chuckled, happy with such a positive outcome. Loki meanwhile struggled to remain in place, his eyes darting between Frost and the box of equipment Borris brought with him.

Frost smiled warmly before giving Loki permission to dive right in and choose something for himself. Borris brought a range of different equipment, ranging from 1 star to 2 star weapons and armour as well as training equipment that served to solely increase the weight of the user. Loki was quite drawn to these items as they could be shared with his sister.

Frost and Borris spoke at little about maintaining the engraving to ensure a longer life expectancy and Frost once again subtly promoted his growing territory as well as Daki’s skills as a smith. He even withdrew Loki’s daggers to show off her talents, causing the old dwarf to be even more keen to meet her.

When Loki had made his choice, a pair of weighted leg attachments, Frost told Borris that he had a sister so he likely picked something they could share. Loki blushed slightly from being caught red handed.

Borris simply laughed and said he could take two pairs, one for him and one for Nanna and he’d only charge Frost for one of them. This brought a smile to both Loki and Frost’s faces. Saving money was always a good feeling.

‘I should bring one of the kids along every time I shop, their cuteness seems to bring about bargains.’