The days passed like a breeze as Wilhelm and the other students of the Siegfried Class focused on constructing their respective Spell Constructs.
Wilhelm began to madly condense the Frost Core, forgoing even sleep in the process.
At last, after two weeks of cultivation, he would succeed.
"You're done?" Hot Pot asked blandly.
"What.." Wilhelm, who was cultivating in his room, suddenly flinched and saw Hot Pot looking at him without a hint of interest.
"I asked if you're done?" Hot Pot repeated, causing further confusion to appear on Wilhelm's face.
"I mean the Frost Core—its first layer has formed, yes?" Hot Pot asked more coherently this time.
"How did y—" Wilhelm was initially surprised, struggling to form coherent sentences due to the immense shock.
Hot Pot frowned, causing Wilhelm to fall silent and only nod.
"Alright, the first core should represent 20% of attunement, making you a 1st Grade True Wizard." Hot Pot's frown vanished as he grabbed Wilhelm's shoulders.
To Wilhelm, the touch felt light and almost weightless, causing him to grow a bit more apprehensive, though he didn't let it show on his face.
"I'll give you a choice: do you want to run through a dungeon? As it is your first time, you will be safeguarded from threats that may result in your death, and you'll be allowed to test your combat abilities," Hot Pot proposed.
Wilhelm was about to refuse when he added, "You'll likely get only a single shot at this, as by the time you've recovered from the run, the others will have formed their Spell Constructs, leading to the commencement of the Combat Classes. Then a long time would go by without a dungeon run. Can you accept that?"
Seeing that Wilhelm was silent, Hot Pot turned to leave.
"Wait! I'll do it! I'll run through the dungeon!" Wilhelmsuddenly answered, causing Hot Pot to pause and, without turning, nodded.
"Alright, let's start."
Wilhelm was confused at first before he realized where they were.
It was a humongous hall with several doors lined up sideways in varying colors.
"This is the Dungeon Observatory, with the doors being gates to the dungeons,"
Wilhelm quietly took in the sight of the hundreds of thousands of doors.
"Who the hell have you brought here?" a hoarse voice shouted from somewhere, causing Wilhelm to flinch in surprise.
"It's Wilhelm," Hot Pot replied.
"Wilhelm? Wilhelm... Wilhelm!" The snappish voice repeated the name before it exclaimed.
"Yes, Wilhelm," he nodded.
"What have you brought him here for?" the voice asked.
"He'll run through a dungeon as a reward for being the first True Wizard of the batch," Hot Pot answered.
There was no reply, and silence reigned for a few moments.
"All right! Which one?" the voice asked.
"L-Scarlet-563."
As he spoke, the sound of a door creaking echoed.
"Done."
In the next moment, both heand Wilhelm appeared before a slightly ajar door, seemingly made out of wood with a rough layer of scarlet paint.
"Welcome to your first dungeon," Old Tallow's voice resounded in Wilhelm's ears.
Wilhelm felt a slight push from behind, causing him to stumble forward.
"Shit!" Wilhelm cursed, trying to regain his balance, but it was futile as he fell through the now fully open door.
"Good luck," a voice whispered as Wilhelm's vision faded to the darkened corridor of the dungeon.
Lesser Grade Dungeon - Type: Scarlet - The Den of Ichoric Wolves!
"Are you sure about sending him to a Scarlet-type dungeon? Especially wolves?" Old Tallow asked Hot Pot.
"The Council needs to see if he has any unexpected gifts to justify continued support for the project. And what better way to test that than a life-or-death experience? He also has that world of his, which I'm sure he'll use, and I'm here, so why fret?" Hot Pot replied in a monotone.
"Weird," Old Tallow remarked.
"Yeah, yeah, now let me watch," Hot Pot shooed him away.
Wilhelm sat stunned and fearful as he heard distant growls.
"They just pushed me!" Wilhelm panted uneasily.
But instead of yelling to be let out, he stayed silent, listening to the approaching sounds. This was his choice; there was no going back.
"Niflheim, come forth!" he whispered, cold energy seeping from his pores as he began to walk.
Only now, as he began to move through the cave, did his surroundings sharpen. The cave walls were slick, dyed in a deep scarlet, and the rancid stench in the air was irritating, even if it didn't provoke an immediate reaction. The growls grew clearer and louder as he advanced through the narrow, winding tunnel.
His vision was limited, forcing his eyes to strain as his brain pieced together a mental image, aided by the faint sounds and sensations surrounding him. The cold of Niflheim helped him keep his emotions in check, though Wilhelm knew that if he didn't finish quickly, the intense chill would freeze him in a few hours.
"Gotta clear this fast," he muttered, continuing cautiously down the path.
Suddenly, his senses screamed in alarm.
With a start, Wilhelm flung himself to the side.
WHOOSH!
A thick gust of wind followed, and something heavy landed on the spot he'd just vacated. Wilhelm could hear the heavy thuds of paws pressing into the ground as the creature stalked closer. His heart pounded as he struggled to stay silent, barely daring to breathe.
Each second of the creature's search stretched into eternity. Wilhelm held his breath, unmoving, as the beast prowled in the dark.
Then, the sounds stopped.
"Did it go away?" he wondered, but after waiting a few agonizing minutes, he exhaled a bit more fully, relieved.
Grrrrr!
A low, menacing growl erupted right in front of him.
RAR!
Wilhelm threw himself into a roll, trying to evade, and a dull thud echoed from where he had just been standing.
He glanced back—and froze. Glowing red eyes glared back at him through the darkness.
Fear struck him, paralyzing him just long enough for the creature to take advantage.
RAR!
The beast lunged, and Wilhelm's reaction lagged, the creature closing in fast. Adrenaline surged as he grit his teeth, instincts firing.
"I WON'T LET YOU EAT MY HEAD, YOU FUCKER!" Wilhelm roared, raising his right arm as the beast's jaws clamped down with a fierce bite.
Wilhelm, summoning every ounce of strength, flung the creature against the cave wall.
BANG!
The beast released its grip, collapsing to the ground with a whimper. Wilhelm, however, didn't let up. He seized the creature's jaws, forcing them open, ignoring the pain as its teeth bit into his fingers. His mind consumed by the battle, he didn't even register the blood dripping from his hands.
Drawing in a deep breath, he forced the cold of Niflheim to well up in his throat, then vomited it directly into the creature's open mouth.
KAAAAAA!
A shrill cry erupted as Wilhelm staggered back, gaining distance. He heard the creature struggling, its movements clumsy as the cold seeped into its body, freezing its muscles and stopping it from standing.
"NOW!" Wilhelm thought, rushing forward and slamming his fist into the creature's head.
BANG!
The beast shrieked as his fist connected, but Wilhelmhad no time to waste. The noise would surely attract others. He kept pounding, striking again and again.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Pain radiated through his hands, skin raw and torn, blood dripping from his knuckles, but still, the creature breathed. Its red eyes glared faintly up at him.
"How?" Wilhelm thought, baffled by its endurance. The creature was gravely injured, barely able to lift its head. Wilhelm's mind raced. He needed to finish it off.
Switching tactics, he raised his foot above the creature's head, now familiar with its shape from all the repeated blows, and brought it down with all his weight.
BANG!
The skull gave way instantly, shattering beneath the force, its head splattering apart without resistance.
"Was that just my full weight, or did something else make it so fragile?" Wilhelm wondered, unable to tell for certain.
OWWWWWWWW!
A chorus of howls erupted nearby, and the ground beneath Wilhelm trembled.
"Did its death attract the others?" he wondered, glancing around.
In the narrow confines of the cave, there was no chance of hiding, and any attempt to flee would be futile. Hot Pot's guarantee echoed in his mind, calming him. Without any fear of death, he crouched low, pressing himself into a corner opposite the fallen creature, and waited for what was to come.
And then he saw them.
Red eyes, dozens of them, all charging, yet not towards him but towards the corpse.
The creatures, with the light from their eyes illuminating as they all gathered, revealed their physical appearance.
Wolves. Malnourished-looking wolves.
Wilhelm was unable to see their fur but guessed they should be similar to the wolves he had seen back home.
The wolves completely ignored him as they huddled around the dead wolf and began to feast on it.
They devoured ferociously, seemingly intent on completely devouring every single part of the wolf.
They had completely ignored him, even though they could detect him through his movements, and were just turning their backs on him to eat?
Wasn't that a bit stupid?
Wilhelm tried to form an explanation inwardly almost instinctively but came out with quite a flimsy one.
"These wolves have been in this cave for a long time, and I am probably the first one to enter it. What if these wolves haven't eaten anything since their creation and so look malnourished?" Although it looked to be a good explanation, it really wasn't.
"Whatever, not the time to think of that now." he shrugged it away and concentrated on the current matter.
The wolves by now had already devoured most of the parts, and only a few more were left that looked like it could—
"Well, I can't win this, so might as well give it my all!" With that, Wilhelm slowly began to release Niflheim.
Niflheim wasn't exactly meant to be some sort of treasure nor inheritance structure but more an accidental construct that formed due to the collection of Polaris's precursor's will, and so it didn't have any limit or module which would limit its power.
When someone used Niflheim's power, they were using it in its entirety, and thus, within an instant, one would be frozen in both body and mind.
Naturally, Wilhelm had long been circumventing this by merely dragging wisps of Niflheim's cold through the connection with his Internal Aether Pattern from his mind and bringing it into physical reality.
But that didn't mean he didn't want to know what would happen if he were to use its full power.
And thus, a plan quickly hatched in his mind.
As the plan developed further in his mind and became more viable, Wilhelm couldn't help but involuntarily gulp in nervousness.
Pointing his index finger towards the horde of wolves, Wilhelm took in a deep breath.
"Burst Forth, Niflheim!" Wilhelm roared as instantly the entirety of Niflheim's cold was summoned into existence and charged towards Wilhelm's index finger, which on contact shattered as a thorn of ice lunged outwards and struck one of the feasting wolves.
The other wolves weren't given a chance to react as the wolf's body instantly exploded, with its blood forming spikes which embedded themselves onto the other wolves.
Shrill cries one after another rang out as the wolves exploded into scarlet spikes which traveled further into the cave.
Wilhelm, meanwhile, was left there stunned and shocked at what he'd just witnessed.
The speed at which everything had occurred was within a few seconds, with Wilhelm left to reel back from the experience.
"Calm down, calm down, calm down," Wilhelm repeated as he suddenly felt something aching in his stomach.
Peering down, he saw a scarlet spike in his stomach.
"Fuck."