The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 13: The Final Test {4}: A Yeti?

The Frozen Lake.

According to the manhwa, after the ice dragon’s death inside this cave, its blood, mana, and lingering power seeped into the stone around it, forming a lake of condensed frost mana where the corpse eventually dissolved into nothing.

Mana, especially that of powerful beasts, had a tendency to influence its surroundings, hence the reason why the rocks on the wall were glowing and the chill in the air.

But Adrian was uninterested in all that, instead, what he was here for was sitting right on top of the frozen lake.

A lotus with crystal petals The Frost Sovereign Lotus.

Spirits, normally, cannot increase the amount of mana they were born with, which was the reason they contracted humans in the first place.

But there were a couple of exceptions to this rule, and one such exception was this lotus. Once absorbed by a spirit, the lotus allowed it to break past the natural limit of its birth.

Spirits were beings born from mana itself, and as such, their strength was normally determined from the moment they came into existence.

A spirit could refine its abilities, deepen its bond with its contractor, even evolve through certain circumstances, but the amount of mana within it rarely changed.

It was only through their contractors mana, spirits could slowly draw upon that growth and strengthen themselves.

But treasures like the Frost Sovereign Lotus bypassed that rule entirely.

If a spirit absorbed the lotus, the condensed frost mana within its petals would forcefully expand the spirit’s core, allowing it to break through to a higher tier of existence.

It was a treasure capable of turning a common ice spirit into something closer to an ancient one.

The only problem, however, was, the lotus was mana-specific.

Only spirits aligned with ice mana could safely absorb its power. For any other spirit, the overwhelming frost mana would simply freeze them completely. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Fortunately for him, his lady’s spirit was an advanced ice spirit, so this should be the only proper gift to her, right?

He just had to retrieve it.

The cave seemed completely empty, save for the lake and the lotus growing above it, but Adrian knew better.

"Stay here," he said as his shadow suddenly detached itself from him before he started moving forward, towards the frozen lake.

Slowly, he got closer to the lake and yet, there was no danger, it felt as if he was just being paranoid for no reason.

Well, until the moment he got close enough to the lake.

The moment his foot stepped on it,

BOOM!

Adrian was forced to switch places with his shadow as something landed directly where he previously stood, almost crushing him.

"There it is," he calmly stated as he looked towards where he previously was, "I wondered when it’d show up."

Standing where he previously was, is a creature covered almost completely in white fur.

A Yeti.

Its body towered over Adrian, easily twice his height even while hunched forward. The creature slowly withdrew its claws from the frozen lake as it stood up straight, and the cracks formed on it immediately fixed itself.

It then turned towards the intruder, its glowing white eyes locking directly into him before it let out a roar which shook the cave.

Without warning, it lunged towards him, with both its fists folded in an attempt to crush him again.

But as he previously had, Adrian switched places with his shadow just moments before the yeti landed.

The attack sent quakes through the cave floor and created an even massive crater on it.

"It’s strong," Adrian noted, of course the guardian of the lotus to be strong, but this one was much stronger than the one described in the manhwa, which likely meant that the original protagonists had encountered it after it weakened with time or something had happened to weaken it.

Lucky them.

The yeti turned toward him again, letting out a low growl before charging once more.

Due to the cold in the air, regenerating his mana was a lot slower, so he couldn’t just carelessly use teleport again, else, he’d run out of mana very soon.

The creature closed the distance in a instance, before swinging its fist with speeds that didn’t match its size.

But Adrian was prepared for the attack as he twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the fist and positioning himself behind the yeti.

He then formed a shadow spike and drove it straight through the creature’s back, but the shadow froze into solid ice the moment it came in contact with its back, before crumbling.

The yeti turned immediately and swung its other arm, and this time he wasn’t fast to dodge.

Fortunately, he had been able to put a layer of shadow between him and the yeti’s fist, slowing the punch down a bit and avoiding all the bones in his body being shattered at once.

Still though, pain shot through his ribs as his body was thrown across the frozen surface, sliding several meters before finally stopping near the edge of the lake.

For a moment, Adrian simply laid there, staring up at the cave’s ceiling before he slowly pushed himself up.

"...I see," he muttered, as he rolled his shoulder slowly, ignoring the sharp pain that followed, "this might take longer than expected."

Although he seemed outmatched, there was no way the thought of giving up passed through his head.

After all, if he wanted to give Renelle the best gift the Frozen Forest could offer, he would first have to kill the thing standing in his way.

"Do you mind helping?" Adrian turned towards Noctis who had been calmly laying on a rock since the start of this fight.

«Will you let me eat the lotus?» the cat asked in turn.

"No," He responded flatly before turning towards the charging yeti again, already aware of the cat’s response even before it said it.

«Then no,» with that, it went back to sleeping without a care.

The yeti closed the distance between them again, swinging its fist at him, but again, Adrian managed to avoid the attack, causing it to slam into the frozen lake.

Once again, the cracks that had been created on it, immediately started sealing itself, causing him to frown.

The closer they got to the lotus, the faster and stronger the beast seemed, and that’s when he immediately realized something.

The beast wasn’t protecting the lotus, it was the other way around, the lotus was protecting the Yeti.

The endless frost mana saturating the cave continuously reinforced the yeti’s body and froze any attack that tried to harm it.

That was why his shadow spike had frozen instantly, that was why the creature’s armor-like fur was so absurdly durable, and that was why the cracks in the lake kept repairing themselves.

The lotus was the source.

Meaning the yeti was strongest the closer it was to it.

BOOM!

He switched places with his shadow once more as the yeti’s fist slammed into his previous position.

"Alright then," Adrian muttered, making a single guess that he hoped was correct, since the manhwa hadn’t mentioned anything about this, "let’s hope I’m right."