Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 36: Plans for a duel

“That worked better than expected” Frost muttered with a confused look on his face. He expected the group to be angry and wish to enter but thought they’d at least discuss their actions beforehand.

Frost thought too highly of the bandits, they weren’t disciplined or lacking in restraint. Only a slight provocation was required for them to lose their calm. The cold knight however gave him pause. Unlike the bandits he was rather calm and unaffected, yet he rushed into the monster lair anyway.

“This knight could be troublesome.” That’s what his instincts were telling him. Not only was the knight stronger than Redhawk but it seemed as though he was a lot more methodical and less driven by instinct, a tricky adversary.

“True, out of the group that knight will probably be hard to deal with, considering the dungeon’s current strength.” Maya’s eyes were focused as she examined the cold knight’s demeanour.

“Hmmm?” Frost cupped his chin with his hand while pondering before smiling.

“All the more interesting.” Frost wasn’t one to back away from a challenge. He brought up the DP analysis for the new intruders to get some perspective.

“The smarter looking deputy is giving out 65 DP so roughly equal to that dwarf Thorin. The other bandit deputy is a little stronger giving 70DP.” Frost wasn’t too surprised by these results as they weren’t that much of threat in the first place.

.....

“What of Redhawk and the knight?” Maya asked curiously.

“The bandit leader Redhawk... 100DP, that’s a bit higher than expected.” he thought Redhawk would be just a tad stronger than John but there’s a 20DP difference instead of 5 or 10. But he was still at a level he could handle.

“Finally, the cold knight is.... Wait is that right 130DP that’s almost C-rank.” Frost felt a cold chill as he read that number, an almost C-rank adventurer would be more than enough to take on and even possibly kill his polar bear. Maya was right, taking on the knight with the current dungeon line-up would be risky.

Maya smiled at Frost’s reaction; she wasn’t shocked in the slightest. In fact, she patted herself on the back for her accuracy.

“Isn’t this the perfect chance for young master to experience a proper battle?” Ignoring Frost’s slight panic Maya suggested that he fight against the knight. In her mind this was a perfect opportunity.

Frost’s battle level was roughly around C-rank, a little stronger than the knight so there’d be low chance of serious injury. Plus, Frost most likely had more options given his ability to use magic and chakra. All he needed was experience.

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“Eh! Me?” Frost was caught unprepared and didn’t think Maya would suggest this.

“Yes you, why else have we been doing combat training if not for this?” Maya pointed towards him with her other hand on her hip.

“..... Good point” Frost lowered his head as he mulled over Maya’s words.

‘Me fighting, my first true opponent.’ Images of his battles against the ice golem and Maya floated into his mind as he pumped himself up.

After a few seconds he looked up towards Maya with a smile, he was excited, really excited.

“What a great idea, yeah let’s do that.” His eyes sparkled, and his voice was of a higher pitch than normal when he spoke. He already started imagining how the battle would go down, how he’d move, defend and even how he’d greet his opponent.

“That’s great, young master, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your first battle.” Maya laughed teasingly while covering her mouth, her young master was just too cute.

While Frost and Maya brainstormed on how to separate the group of four so Frost could fight one on one with the knight. Luna and Leo had reached the entrance to the winter forest gaining a substantial lead on Redhawk and the rest.

Luna had recovered enough mana to cast a single healing spell on Leo as they moved, closing up the majority of his wounds, stopping his bleeding and the obvious blood trail that could be used to follow them. His battle ability was still greatly hindered however, merely 50% his usual, no match for Redhawk or even one of his deputies. They were still very much in danger.

“Hu hu hu” Leo and Luna were panting, walking several kilometres in their wounded states and in this weather wasn’t easy, even after some minor healing.

Before them was the entrance to the second section, a large stone gateway sat in the middle of a giant wall that extended vertically by several tens of metres.

“This must be it, where the [Artic Warband] reached before having to turn back.” Leo looked up at the gateway with a slight smile, a minor sense of relief washed over him. On their way they saw several groups of monsters in the distance but managed to remain undetected all the way here.

‘Luckily the monsters in this area seemed to have been attracted to the bandits otherwise who knows how what we may have had to face.’ For a moment, Leo felt grateful to the large number of bandits chasing them.

“They didn’t turn back; they were attacked by frost wolves remember.” Luna leaned against one of the nearby rocks to conserve her strength. Unlike Leo she wasn’t the least bit relaxed, her every nerve was taught with tension. Her ears twitching at every sound and her eyes darting everywhere. She also listened to the details given by the [Artic Warband] and knew full well of the dangers they encountered in this very spot.

“True but it looks like we got lucky, no wolves in sight.” Leo splayed out his arms and looked side to side to prove his point. If there were wolves nearby, they would have already attacked so he felt quite safe.

“Idiot.” Luna simply hmphed and refused to look in his direction.

“You know you’re quite cute when you’re angry.” Leo laughed at her antics.

Luna however turned her head around slowly to face him, her smile was not gentle in the slightest and her eyes were cold. Leo felt a chill on down his back, immediately regretting what he said.

Leo unable to endure her cold stare coughed twice “we should probably move on now.” His eyes continued to avoid Luna’s as he spoke.

“Yes, we should.” Her expression still cold Luna responded robotically. She hated being called cute.

The two then walked together through the stone gateway, entering the dungeon’s second section, the winter forest. Unlike the 1st section it wasn’t snowing in this one. Before the two were snow covered trees and bushes but very little wind, a much more hospitable environment.

“So, this room has trees and shrubs in it, the weather’s also a lot more pleasant.” Leo moved forward to caress one of the trees.

“It’s a spruce tree like in Northrend forest.” Luna identified the tree’s species almost instantly. She then moved towards a bush covered in white flowers.

“White bells...interesting.” Luna was a magic user and quite the study bug, she could identify lots of plant and wildlife with a single glance.

“Are they edible?” Leo’s stomach groaned as he asked.

“Not for humans no, you’ll end up vomiting your guts out.” Luna replied as she plucked one of the white bells, offering it towards Leo.

“No thanks then.” He held his stomach in disappointment while keeping his distance from the delicate looking flower in Luna’s hands.

“It’s not all bad news, if this area is similar to the Northrend forest then there should not only be edible berries like acai and winterberries but perhaps even dwindle flowers.”

“Dwindle flowers? Aren’t they used to make low level health and mana potions.”

“Yes” Luna stood up and began searching the area.

“What use are they when we aren’t alchemists.” Leo felt slightly panicked, they needed to keep moving. Luna however ignored his questions and pleas as she continued to forage around.

Around 15 minutes later.

“Found some!” Luna was currently squatting down over a group of bushes with red leaves and nearby was one with blue leaves. Her dress was covered in snow and tears from the branches, but she didn’t seem to care. Her eyes glistened as she plucked off several leaves and ran over to Leo.

Leo had quickly given up on convincing her to move and decided to lean against a tree in wait. When he saw Luna running towards him with a bunch of leaves in hand, he initially felt quite angry, but her happy smile melted that away.

“Here” Luna gave half the red leaves to Leo before throwing the remaining half into her mouth in a very unladylike fashion.

Leo looked blankly at her as she chewed before staring at the leaves in his hand. Red coloured leaves they certainly didn’t look very appetising.

‘Oh! well bottoms up.’ Leo believed in Luna, so he followed suit, tossing his half into his mouth, and chewing.

‘Bleurgh so bitter.’ Fighting the urge to spit them out he clenched his nose before swallowing. The moment the leaves reached his stomach his entire body started to heat up and he felt refreshed. He regained some stamina and his wounds even hurt slightly less.

Leo was in shock as he felt the effects of the leaves, he stared at Luna as though she was some kind of miracle worker.

Not leaving him in suspense Luna answered under his fiery gaze

“Red dwindle leaves are the main ingredient for health potions which help to regenerate stamina, energy and heal wounds. Of course, preparing them in a potion is much more effective, but eating them raw works as well.” After explaining Luna dashed off towards the blue dwindle leaves, devouring a bunch like with the red.

“The blue ones make mana potions and have a reduced effect when eaten raw. I should be able to cast a couple more spells once these leaves run their course.” Although she spent around 15 minutes searching, finding, and eating these leaves saved multiple hours of healing time.

Leo could already feel his strength returning.

“Great detour Luna, I won’t question you next time.” Leo bowed his head admitting his faults.

“Hahaha the great and proud Leo bowing his head to little old me, how honoured I am.” Luna laughed cutely.

Now feeling much better thanks to the red and blue dwindle flowers the two set off deeper into the trees, hoping to find a place they could safely take shelter until help arrives.

The previous day, on the outskirts of Furano the [Artic Warband] party had successfully reached safety after a long gruelling march.

“We made it,” John smiled in relief. Although they had successfully made it to the interim camp within the Northrend forest he didn’t consider them safe until he could see Furano. John gave a cursory glance towards his teammates following behind him. Their wounds had vastly improved leaving only their torn clothes as evidence of their difficult battles within the dungeon.

“We’ll head straight to the guild hall to report, hopefully the guild master is in.” John subconsciously looked towards Thorin as he spoke.

“That’s not an issue, that old man’s too busy to leave.” Thorin lightly laughed. The guild master was his uncle on his mother’s side and taught him most of what he knew about being an adventurer. Normally you’d think that having a family member in a position of power in your workplace would be an advantage however Thorin never believed that to be the case. His uncle was incredibly strict and by the book when it came his job, even more so towards Thorin and his party.

Hearing Thorin’s response, John nodded before leading the [Artic Warband] into Furano. They showed their adventurer cards to the local guards, entering through the northern gate without issue and after some typical small chat along the way they reached the guild hall.

The adventurer’s guild hall was incredibly large, made of mostly hard wood and stone and containing three stories not including the basement. The design itself was fairly simple but the entrance was massive and imposing allowing large parties to enter shoulder to shoulder with ease. Every time John saw this building, he couldn’t help but feel proud of his profession.

He placed his hands on the door and pushed with a great deal of force alerting the occupants inside.