I've made a free plugin which solves this problem!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-nav-menu-extended/
This plugin extends the native wp_nav_menu function and adds additional options:
- level : (integer) (required for this plugin to work) The level of the navigation menu to show. If no child_of parameter is passed, it shows all the items of this level
- child_of : (string|integer) (optional) Either the title or menu item ID of the parent in the menu whose direct children are to be shown
Sample Usage:
$defaults = array( 'theme_location' => 'main_menu', 'level' => 2, 'cihld_of''child_of' => 'About Us', );
wp_nav_menu( $defaults );