Frost purchased a bottle of high C-rank sake -as well as a C-rank fruit juice for the kids and Kiba- in celebration. It was right to reward the efforts of his subordinates if he was to be a competent leader.
The adults and children toasted to Findlay before drinking with relish.
Following that Findlay returned to the dungeon's forces letting them bask in his achievement as well as allaying their fears of the coming waves.
Frost, Maya and the kids teleported to the private space where they fell back into their regular schedules. Nanna and Loki worked hard on their reading, writing and numbers with Maya's occasional oversight while Frost sat on the sofa and began planning his external camp plans in earnest.
Maya quietly warned him of his overconfidence when they returned, warning him about planting flags with his 'Let the late stages throw their worst at us' statement. He took her warning to heart well at least on the surface, it was hard to not be overconfident when Findlay the ice troll 'lord' was now by his side.
14 hours passed until the next wave arrived, a stark difference compared to what they had to previously deal with. With such a wide time frame Frost and his monsters were more than able to get some much needed rest between the waves meaning they would always be a full strength.
In the winter highlands section where over half a day ago blood dyed an area of several hundred metres squared and corpses stretched as far as the eye could see. That disastrous battlefield was once again a beautiful white.
The dismembering corps had more than enough time to take care of the corpses, storing the valuable materials -which given that the majority of monsters were high D-rank was pretty much the entire thing- and shuffling off the leftovers to the side for the dungeon to absorb naturally resulted in a clean plate.
Frost stood with Findlay, Khuno and Kiba by his side. The dungeon's C-ranks and upper D-ranks stood behind them creating a wall of people. There was no ambush planned this time, just a straight up mud fight. Frost as well as Findlay himself wished to test the limits of his new archetype.
"The wave like the last one contains roughly 80 enemies primarily made up of upper D-ranks. There's no upper C-rank monster this time but there's 4 mid C-ranks and 6 entry C-ranks." Frost announced the waves composition with a light-hearted tone, not worried in slightest. In fact he even sounded a little disappointed.
"That's perfect, without a higher levelled leader we can better rely on the ronsos and ice revenants and test how far my buffing capabilities can go." Findlay however was more than happy with the wave composition finding that it suited their experiment better.
"Alright then I'll leave the entire command to you, Khuno and I will go where you tell us." Frost slammed his glaive against the snow, readying himself for battle.
"Understood." Findlay responded back with a small smile before turning around to face the monster forces stationed behind them.
"They've all been enhanced to the very peak of entry C-rank so despite their smaller numbers they have no problem smashing through the horde's charge." Khuno explained the reasoning behind such a situation.
"It also helps that the monsters in this wave aren't bears, boars, drakes or other hard hitting species though to be honest I think the result would have been quite similar just not as dramatic."
The ronsos and ice revenants madly swarmed over the horde killing monster after monster. After less than a minute of combat already 10 of the original 80 had been killed with nothing more than a bruise and a few scratches on their side.
The enemies this time were made up of wolves, lizards, frost trolls and worms. Unfortunately the frost trolls and even the 3 entry C-rank ice trolls were highly frenzied, negotiation was off the table just like with all the previous monsters.
For the mid C-ranks 2 were demon spiked zillas, while the last two were a giant frost ape and a frost mouth raptor (think a dinosaur carnivore, large velociraptor).
The ape had a lot of physical power and was far more nimble than it looked but its defences couldn't be compared to the other three. It also lacked claws, dozens of razor sharp teeth and a spiked tail. It did however come with a rock club that was more than enough to break the bones of some ronsos and send ice revenants flying.
Findlay smiled evilly as he witnessed an ice revenant skid across the floor after blocking the ape's mighty swing.
Though it wasn't necessary for Findlay to actively take part in this battle given the boons he granted the ronsos and ice revenants he had just achieved a new level of power. Not testing his new strength was impossible.
"Looks like you're the lucky one." He sarcastically muttered under his breath while staring at the giant frost ape. Gripping down on his battle axe -that unfortunately didn't go through a metamorphosis along side himself- he prepared to move out, signalling for the ronsos and ice revenants to focus on other areas -which they were more than happy to do.
A void was suddenly created around the giant frost ape causing it to be momentarily confused but that confusion quickly melted away when Findlay marched before it. Instead its skin trembled and its heart lurched as instinctual warning signs blared off throughout its body. Fear was evident in its eyes, fear that grew more and more prominent with every step Findlay took.
"Hoh well at least you're aware of the difference between us." Findlay tilted his head to the side, looking quite terrifying. If this was in the wild the giant frost ape would have fled for the hills, thankfully Findlay didn't have worry about that due to the monster stampede's frenzied state. His prey had no choice but to attack.
In but a few moments he could see the change in its eyes, the red tint growing more and more evident as the seconds passed before.
"Roooaaaaaarrrrrr!" Overcome with aggression the giant frost ape roared out and raised it mighty stone club overhead. A grey coloured energy covered the weapon, making it sturdier and heavier before it viciously cleaved downward, aiming to turn Findlay into an ice troll pancake.