Dungeon of Niflheim

“Training, Training and perhaps some more training.” Frost responded bluntly while shaking his slightly trembling hand.

“Ugh! So boring.” Maya sulked clearly unimpressed with her young master’s response.

“Yeah, yeah I know but I’m almost over the threshold, just a little more and I can be considered B-rank, a somewhat entry level powerhouse.” Frost sympathised with Maya’s plight but his own enthusiasm for reaching higher levels of power won out, resulting in a wild smile forming on his lips.

Maya pouted her cheeks but couldn’t stop her eyes from resting on Frost’s face, he looked really attractive with that wild smile of his.

“Well I guess you’re right, at B-rank you’ll be considered beyond the level of the masses, the first step towards becoming an expert.....I’ll also be able to up the difficulty in your training at that point.” Maya muttered the last part as a sadistic expression briefly flashed across her face. B-rank would open up a whole new world of hurt she could unleash upon him.

Nanna and Loki looked at the two of them with bewildered expressions, feeling as though their expressions didn’t quite match their words. However they were used to this by now. The two phoenix kin turned to one another and giggled.

The atmosphere present in the private space was relaxing and peaceful a far cry from the one at the dungeon’s entrance that was filled with the scent of blood and thrill of impending battle.

Frost’s monsters followed Findlay’s orders to a tee. The frost centipedes quickly burrowed through the snow as if it was water and they were fish. Tossing the corpses of the dead frost goblins and artic horned rabbits over the tall walls for the awaiting dismantling crops. Some that were far too damaged were swiftly devoured, spoils of war allowed by Findlay. Frost didn’t expect to get much value from the first several waves given the monsters that would be present but even a little adds up if it happens enough times. Plus it made for good practise.

.....

Frost rested in the private space for a few hours instead of training right away. Now that the building suspense had passed his body was suddenly bereft of energy. Thus he acquiesced to Maya’s wishes, staying with her and the kids, doing nothing more than laying back on the sofa while Nanna and Loki worked on their reading, writing and numerical skills with Maya supervising and grading. A very family style situation, one that brought a very satisfied smile to his face. Sometimes it was good to relax like this and not force oneself, his mind felt much clearer.

“Alright I think that’s enough.” Frost sat up from his laid back position, cracking his neck and shoulders as he did, his body was back in its prime.

“To be honest I’m surprised you lasted this long given your personality, you didn’t even interfere when the second wave arrived.” Maya looked over in Frost’s direction when he spoke, a gentle expression clear in her eyes, happy that Frost listened to her advice.

“Well what you said made sense plus my body was all tensed up from the past few days, training like that would get me nowhere.” Frost cracked his knuckles and let out a yawn before rising to his feet. “Besides Findlay had it completely under control, my input wasn’t needed. It’s good to delegate these simple tasks.” The threat level from the stampede at the moment was minimal at best, none of the invaders would be a threat to his forces at this stage even if something went wrong. However Findlay was a great commander, the second wave was roughly at the same level as the first, a couple more monsters but that was all, just G-ranks and a single F-rank.

Even without the use of arrows the invaders were quickly dealt with, not even making it halfway to the bottom wall. The frost revenants and lesser yuki-onnas were thus unbelievably bored. The frost revenants were ok, their personalities being similar to loyal soldiers but the lesser yuki-onnas were inherently mischievous and energetic, they really struggled with the boredom, only managing to restrain themselves from acting out due to Findlay’s looming presence.

The second wave resulted in close to 6000DP giving Frost now a whopping 11,000 to spend as he wished, something he planned to do now that he was up.

Frost brought up the dungeon menu and immediately set off adding things to the cart, fully intending on spending the entire 11,000 before engaging in training, one less thing to worry about.

“20 frost elementals, 20 frost spiders, 20 frost dwarf quarrellers and two more lesser yuki-onnas so they can switch out more often, can’t have them causing mischief due to boredom.” Though Frost didn’t interfere, the situation was still brought up on the dungeon screen plus he did receive a brief report from Findlay, thus he sought to nip this problem in the bud.

The dungeon core hummed and glowed as it processed the DP and created life, sending a wave of pleasure throughout Frost’s body as it did, a great way to wake up. He was no longer overwhelmed or shaken by using such large amounts of DP.

“Maya are you almost done with your lesson?” Frost asked once the dungeon core became dormant once again, the summoned monsters already within the dungeon, heading towards where they needed to be.

“Pretty much yeah, you want to receive some corporal punishment as training.” Maya responded back with a glint in her eyes, her sadistic side glowing.

“No but I’ll need you to supervise in case anything goes wrong.” Frost ignored the glint in his girlfriend’s eye, knowing of her dark nature.

“Hmmm.” Maya tilted her head to the side in confusion, wondering what could be more dangerous than her tender touch.

“I plan on training my magic and for that I want to study the earth rank cold flame father rewarded me with.” The high earth rank cold flame, the main reward (excluding the wine of the abyss) that he received from winning the first dungeon war against his younger brother Gobuske. Until now it’d been kept safely tucked away in the dungeon vault, Frost’s level wasn’t high enough before to investigate it without repercussions plus Nanna and Loki were instinctively drawn to it whenever it appeared before them.

To reach B-rank his weapon mastery or magic had to reach the next level. However Frost being a multi user wished to focus on all paths not just one. His glaive mastery had been making great strides over the past few days thanks to Maya’s loving touch as she put it and he’d long gotten used to wielding the new wind engraving placed upon the weapon, masterfully enhancing his attacks against the onslaught of ice golem she summoned.

His magic however had hit a wall. Frost only knew a single 3rd circle spell [summon ice golem] the rest were only 1st or 2nd circle, a far cry from the repertoire commonly held by B-rank mages. The fastest way for him to breach the gap would be to purchase some 4th circle spells and study them, but he currently only had access to 3rd circle spells in the dungeon menu, eliminating that option.

However Frost wouldn’t use that method anyway, that method created a shoddy foundation. Relying upon a created spell rather than developing your mana veins and flow naturally was akin to taking a shortcut and could limit ones future potential.

Thus the best choice was to study something primal, natural that had no impurities, the high rank earth cold flame more than fit the bill. Hell even an A-rank mage wanting to reach a higher level could learn a lot from it let alone Frost.

Normally at his level handling something so high level would be a death sentence however Frost was the embodiment of ice granting him some substantial resistance to ice mana plus the seals placed on it by Dark would make sure the worst wouldn’t come to pass....injuries however were still a good possibility. Therefore it was left alone until Frost felt he was ready to handle it.....now seemed like the right time.

He needed inspiration and knowledge, not just for his mana but also for his monsters. For the past few days or even weeks he’d had a few ideas in regards to what species of monsters he wanted to design, the cold flame may help complete that picture.

Maya’s eyes opened wide at Frost’s statement before a look of deep thought appeared on her face, she was analysing whether or not he was ready.

After a few seconds of silence she nodded.

“Alright you should be able to glimpse into the top layer of the flame at your current level and you’re quite right something like that should be more than helpful in getting you across the gap in terms of magic...is there anything you need to take care of in the meantime because knowing you once you start delving into it you’re likely to not come out for hours at the very least.” Maya knew Frost’s personality thus she had to ask.

“No everything’s fine, I’ve already handed control to Findlay for the first few days, I only need to check in at the end of the day as a formality, nothing dangerous shouldn’t happen during that time and even if it did I just added a boatload of new monsters, the dungeon will be fine without my guidance.” Frost nodded his head, completely confident in Findlay’s abilities given his knowledge and what the first and second monster wave contained.

‘The lesser yuki-onnas and the frost revenants haven’t even got into the action yet let alone the ballistae or Findlay himself.’ Frost worked extra hard over the past few days all so he could focus on his own training during the early stages, now it was time to make could on that promise.