Dungeon of Niflheim

Elemental gemstones such as the frigid tourmaline before Frost are considered magical oddities similar to Frost’s high rank earth grade cold flame but of the mortal rank. They’re filled with ice aspected mana and in the hands of a skilled craftsmen can be fused to equipment to enhance one’s resistance to the gem’s element.

Frost had pilfered a lot of gems from Adam’s vault, but he never came across any with elemental aspects otherwise he would have made a hell of a lot more money. The truly rich nobles would have their jewellery made out of elemental gems, far more pricey and offered enhancements to the wearer. It was common to turn such gems into necklaces, rings or bracelets allowing one to benefit from the effects of an ice resistance potion as long as they wore it on their person.

The one before Frost was of decent quality and could easily be turned into a beautiful piece of jewellery if he took it to a skilled jeweller.

With a wide grin Frost took the two items and turned to face his teachers, dying to show off his luck.

“Well from the annoying smirk on your face I can see that it wasn’t a dud.” Lola slightly pouted, wanting to see something fun happen, while Sam let out a breath of relief before curiosity overcame the husband and wife. Frost stood before them all silent, building the suspense.

“Well then don’t keep us in suspense show us the goods.” Lola demanded with a smile, she and her husband had no intention of robbing Frost, they just wanted to see.

Frost removed his hand from behind his back and first revealed the health potion. “I got two items, the first is this high quality low level health potion, it should be of similar quality to the one you gave me so here.” He passed the potion over to Lola erasing that debt.

Lola wanted to refuse since the spar was their idea and the fact that a teacher should take care of their student’s health, but Frost’s gaze showed that he wouldn’t accept no for an answer. Sam patted her shoulder and gave her a look. “Thank you Frost,” he simply thanked Frost and took the potion in his wife’s stead. He understood Frost’s intentions, he too was a grown man who didn’t enjoy being in one’s debt.

.....

Next Frost pulled out the frigid tourmaline, the cold aura suffused before them and anyone else would probably find it hard to hold the thing with their bare fingers, but Frost had no problems. “I got a frigid tourmaline as the second reward, with this size and quality it’d make quite a fine piece hahaha.” Frost’s smile continued to grow as a chuckle escaped his lips, he could have someone make it into a nice necklace in Furano, a perfect present for either Maya or Nanna back home.

“....”Lola looked at the frigid tourmaline with envy, her eyes filled with desire as well as nostalgia. Within the Glacial mountains instead of diamonds being a girl’s best friend it was these cold aspected gems. Her darling husband Sam worked really hard to provide her with a frigid tourmaline necklace when he proposed, it was one of the happiest memories of her life. Unfortunately, she lost it years ago while they were out exploring, she cried for days and looked desperately for it, but it was gone, never to be seen again.

Sam had tried to replace his wife’s necklace a few times, but she’d always reject it, with their C-rank ability it wasn’t out of their price range to afford another, but Lola’s guilt never went away. He eventually stopped but seeing the desire in his wife’s eyes once again his determination was rekindled. He wouldn’t ask for Frost’s gem but once they got back and he put his plans for his restaurant into action he’d search for a new frigid tourmaline necklace.

‘Our anniversary is coming up, perhaps then would be a good time, we could even redo our vows.’ A beautiful plan started to come together in Sam’s mind. After this last quest he was going to be very busy.

“Lola, are you ok?” Frost didn’t receive the shock and awe he was expecting and now his new teacher was growing red in the eyes. Sam placed his hand around his wife’s lithe waist and pulled her to his side, allowing her head to rest of his broad chest, comforting her.

“She’s fine, just a bit of nostalgia, a frigid tourmaline is a very rare find in this monster lair, that’s some luck you’ve got Frost.”

“Hehehe” Frost rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, though he wanted jealous looks and a bit of praise actually hearing them out loud was rather awkward.

Gotten what he wanted Frost stored the gemstone in his spatial ring for safe keeping before manoeuvring over to the lesser yuki-onna’s corpse while Sam attended to his emotional wife.

After Frost retrieved the lesser yuki-onna’s core, its long ice cold nails that were used in potions as well as the remnants of its robes and Sam had soothed his wife, the group made their way to the 6th floor.

Like planned the group stayed on the sixth floor for roughly 36 hours, practising against the final floor’s enemies and drilling as much information into Frost’s head as humanly possible. On the lowest floor the monsters were in abundance and the majority were high level D-ranks, even more dangerous than the great frost centipede Frost struggled against.

In the last 2 sections they came across frost revenants, the lesser versions of what they were about to face. A large amount of their time was spent practising their skills against such foes. After fighting them Frost was more and more inclined to add them to his dungeon roster, they would make fine additions to his team. And surely after killing a bunch and learning about them so intimately they should have been unlocked.

Other than the frost revenants, Frost added another couple monsters to his wanted list, namely an ice bomb, a type of elemental that would suck in mana and let out a freezing explosion, which he found really cool and exciting. In addition, there was a really cute monster that was a must have, since unlike the artic foxes he could summon, this thing packed a wallop and it was only a cub; ice coeurl cub, D-rank. The thing was fast, and adept with magic like the majority of the monsters dwelling in [beginner’s ice magic].

Sam mentioned that coeurls are quite rare and are quite highly desired. Not only for their beautiful pelts and other materials the creatures are highly prized pets or mounts, if raised properly they can be rather docile, just like pet cats. Sam said that he’d only come across an occasional cub in a monster lair but unfortunately those born in monster lairs can’t be tamed, and those found in the wild will always be guarded vehemently by their parents. Minimum upper C-rank monsters, not something Sam and Lola could contend against.

Frost however may not have that problem, he killed one so there was a chance he could have them in his dungeon. Of course, that would only unlock the cubs, but it was a start and would certainly be a large draw for adventurers.

The grouped rested after the 36 hours were up and aimed to face the ice revenant on the 4th day. They’d ran into a few other groups of adventurers down on the final floor and each of them confirmed the intel about the boss monster being an ice revenant. These groups weren’t affected by the situation as there was nothing beyond the final floor’s boss room bar the monster lair’s core. No other group currently on the floor were seeking to test their metal and those that already tried were dead.

The group of three rested well and filled their bellies with a scrumptious feast so as to utilise their full strength in the battle to come. Even with Frost’s extensive training and their practised teamwork, facing off against a C-rank monster was quite daunting.

“Are you ready Frost?” Sam questioned his young student with slight trepidation in his voice, his fists were trembling from a mixture of excitement and fear. He and his wife had fought against C-ranks before, even against one that would be considered more powerful than an ice revenant, but they weren’t alone at that time but part of a six person party. Now they wished to fight against a mid C-rank monster with just the three of them.

By his side his wife Lola wrapped her hand around his, gripping it for comfort, her face was rather pale, she was nervous. Their objective was not just to defeat this monster but to retrieve its spirit core and with minimal damage, making their challenge that much harder. She bit her lips as she tried to steel her resolve.

Frost stood by Sam’s other side unlike his teachers there wasn’t a shred of fear in his eyes. “More than ready Sam, I’m dying to cross blades with a C-rank monster.”