Conquering His Cold Heart

Frost arrived at the entrance of the medical centre through the warping of space. The scent of medicinal herbs, health potions and blood filled the area, and he could hear grunts and roars full of pain. The healers were so busy that they didn't even register Frost's arrival.

'Seems that this place is also in need of manpower.' Frost opened up the dungeon menu and purchased an additional 3 frost troll witch doctors and ice dwarf apprentice priests as well as 10 frost dwarf priests.

The 16 new monsters suddenly materialised a few seconds later from individual magic crests. They all turned to face Frost once they became fully corporal.

"You're all assigned to the medical centre here. Speak with the frost troll witch doctor in charge and do your best to treat the wounded that arrive here.

"Yes master." Both the ice dwarves and frost trolls replied back in common tongue while the frost dwarves grunted with determination before walking into the medical centre eager to work.

"Milord." Khuno spoke through clenched teeth. He rose from his resting area with great difficulty to greet Frost.

His blue skin and gallant white fur was dyed in blood and multiple deep wounds that exposed his bones could be seen. The skin around was starting to rapidly heal and close off the areas, clearly he had received one of mid-level health potions in stock. They were reserved for the most serious of injuries and the upper cast of Frost's forces.

However even with the powers of a mid-level health potion it'd take Khuno sometime to fully recover. The stronger the body of the taker the more potent the potion needed to be. Becoming unbelievable strong had some downsides. If Maya was injured for example a mere low level health potion wouldn't be able to do much.

"Whimper" Following Khuno's greeting was a whimper from Kiba. The big cat was lying prone with deep claw marks spanning across his back as well as gruesome bite marks on his hind legs and wings.

Frost briefly looked over Khuno but the moment he heard that whimper he couldn't help but tremble and feel a tug at his heart. He moved instantly to Kiba's side taking the mid-level health potion from the attending frost troll witch doctor, choosing to care for him himself.

Kiba was barely passed his kitten stage, a young cub with a lot of growth left in him.

Frost petted him gently on an area without injury -which was quite difficult- and made soothing sounds as he slowly poured the potion's contents into his mouth. The potion swiftly went to work, eliminating Kiba's immense pain and healing his wounds.

Kiba looked up at Frost with glassy eyes before his vision went dark, he passed out from exhaustion.

"Kiba really overworked himself in the last wave. Though he wasn't the strongest fighter we had he was the most nimble. He took it on himself to be everywhere at once, thus he ended up like that." Khuno spoke with deep regret. He knew that Kiba was practically still a young cub and that he shared a special bond with Frost, yet his hands were tied, their opponents were unrelenting.

Frost continued to stroke Kiba as he began purring in his sleep.

"I've really pushed him a lot. Thinking that he desired battle experience given his nature and lack of it back in Kranor. An occasional fight is one thing, but I practically dropped him into a war."

"...." Khuno had no reply.

"The battles are only going to get even harder, tell me what do you need?" Frost looked at Khuno with a fiery gaze, the feeling of guilt returning. He shouldn't have engaged in intimate activities with Maya last night well at least not for the entire night and morning, the dungeon should be his number one priority at the moment lest something happens that he'd regret.

He looked back down at Kiba, losing him would be something he'd definitely regret.

"Haaaaaa if you could create another 5 of myself or Findlay we'd be golden but since that's likely impossible we need to at least strengthen what we can summon and those we already have." There was no shortage of monsters gaining experience over the waves, but many died before they could evolve. The C-ranks however were only recently summoned, they'd take some time to evolve to mid or upper C-rank.

"Spill it." Frost was in no mood for waiting, he asked Khuno to speak his mind.

"Weapons would be good for some but more importantly armour. A lot of the wounds we suffer could be deflected or at least minimalised by a good set of armour. That alone would spare us a lot of deaths especially in the lower ranks while the upper levels would be able endure attacks from physically superior foes such as the frost drakes."

"The mage cast could do with specialised spells that help to restrict, slow and divide the horde to more manageable groups. I'd also advise you to radically increase the amount of traps in the sections before our defence line. I know you need to think for the future in regards trap placement, but I believe we're beyond that point milord.

Best to buy them now and deal with our current situation and then use some of the DP we earn to move them to another part of the dungeon and or simply deactivate them creating a sort of fake trap that wouldn't end up in death or injury but would still keep adventurers on their toes." Khuno had been in the thick of battle ever since his creation.

He and Findlay were the two main commanders of Frost's entire forces, so he had ample experience in regards to what work against the waves and what didn't. This knowledge expanded to environmental factors as well as weaponry.

Frost frowned as he imagined the cost involved in achieving each of the steps Khuno mentioned. The weaponry and armour that was still being fashioned by the frost dwarf smiths was suited for the lower ranks only, i.e. the goblins. Outfitting the ronsos, the frost trolls and even some of the beast monsters was beyond the smith's current capabilities.

Frost would have to fork out a hefty lump of DP to purchase 2 and 3 star armours readymade. He just didn't have enough time and resources to create these things in house. The cost for dealing with the stampede was starting to catch up with the income it provided.

Frost felt a headache coming on but if he wanted to survive this event without running from the fight he needed to put every last bit of skin into the pot. Once you ride the tiger it's damn near impossible to get off.

Frost shook his head and let out a sigh before bringing up the dungeon menu.

"I'm authorising you to have greater budget in terms of DP management. You can now purchase traps, armour and weapons with a limit of 20,000DP per day. Spells, monsters and anything else beyond that will still need to go through me but I'd appreciate detailed requests. These powers however are only temporary, my father has put a limit on how much I can delegate to my monsters.

You'll have this budget and the allotted permissions for 5 days, use them well." Frost clicked a few buttons on the screen before the automated voice confirmed Khuno additional permissions.

Khuno was silent for a few seconds before immediately saluting. "It will be done milord." A smile grew upon his face, his master trusted him wholeheartedly, a very moving gesture.

Khuno spend no time at all delving into the dungeon menu looking to spend that first 20,000DP. He was currently still confined to the medical centre while his injuries heal and his stamina recovers somewhat, idle time that could be put to good use.

"In regards to gaining a stronger fighting force I'll be personally training Findlay whenever there isn't a wave and when there is the two of us will be in vanguard position. I won't be squirreling away to 'convalesce' anymore at least not as often or as long."

"…..Sorry" Khuno felt a little guilty as thanks to his talk with Findlay he understood what Frost meant by convalescing.

"It's fine. There'll be plenty of time for that once the stampede is over and we start cracking down on developing the external camp." Frost waved his hand absolving Khuno of any guilt.

"My father told me the reasons for Findlay's lack of evolution as well as the vague method to resolve it. Hopefully with enough brutal training we'll be able to see him rise to his next archetype."

"That would certainly make things a lot easier…..give him my best wishes."

"Will do." Frost then left Khuno to his spending and gently removed himself from Kiba's side before teleporting to the training space. it was time to begin Findlay's brutal training.