Dungeon of Niflheim

“Young master, you may be my master, the son of the Dark God and a dungeon core but you are also a person. An entity with their own personality, their own thoughts, and feelings. True, logically you had no need to intervene, you could have simply ignored their plight or erased them, that way you’d protect your identity, but you didn’t... why?” Maya countered back with her own question, this situation was an important development for Frost in maturing, finding his own path and not one set for him by another.

“I....I felt I had to, no, I wanted to, regardless of the risks, I felt that since I could, I should, so I did” Frost stuttered at first but became more confident as he spoke. The cloud covering his heart was beginning to part.

Maya smiled gently; her gaze filled with pride.

“And that’s good enough young master, whether or not your decision was the correct one doesn’t matter. This was the decision you made and wanted” Maya then directed his gaze towards the slumbering phoenix kin. “And look because of it you’ve saved two young children from a lifetime of abuse as well as gained two future powerhouses. Sometimes by not obeying logic and or by taking risks you can come out with something far better. And in my opinion, you made the right one young master, I’m proud of you.” Maya rubbed his head with a little difficulty giving their difference in height, but it was necessary, she was his guardian, his teacher, his elder, she needed to praise him for a job well done.

Frost started to blush a little from embarrassment and his nose grew hot, yet he was smiling and a weight that was in his heart was lifted, he felt more confident and determined.

“Thank you, Maya,” He nodded his head towards his guardian in gratitude.

“It was my pleasure young master.”

For the next two days Frost, Maya, Nanna, and Loki continued to relax and enjoy the town of Furano. Leo was fairly busy as was Ryuu and Bastion, but Luna and Cassandra were quite free and able to join them on their outings. Cassandra was looking far more radiant than before, always wearing a smile and dressing up like she used to. Douglas was still recovering in bed but every hour he looked better. She’d summoned several doctors to check on him and they all said that he’d be able to make a full recovery and that he should be able to get up and around in the next few days. Right now, however he needed rest and food to help the antidote excise the infected tissue and blood clinging to his body. There wasn’t much Cassandra could do or need to do, it was just a waiting game. For the short times that Douglas was awake he stressed that she should go out and be his eyes and ears about Furano. With his recovery he needed to know the extent of the situation in town, god knows his son wasn’t adept enough to give a proper report, not yet anyway.

.....

Thus, under her husband’s instance Cassandra and Luna showed Frost and his group around while they had fun in town. They went shopping, visited the local museum, had lunch at the phoenix fledgling restaurant, Cassandra paid, everything was magical. It had been too long since Cassandra walked through her town and was happily greeted by the citizens. She also visited Kathy’s inn, where the group had some desert. She even wiped off the leftover cake from Loki’s cheeks like an experienced mother, it reminded her of when Leo and Luna were young. She even had the sudden urge of wanting another child and with Douglas on the road to recovery there was no reason why she couldn’t.

That took up most of the first day, for the second Frost decided to have Nanna and Loki register as adventurers under his care. Children under 14 could register as adventurers but they needed to be in a party with an adult adventurer i.e., Frost and Maya. They received a few unusual looks from other adventurers given that Loki and Nanna were so young but that was all, it wasn’t any of their business. All their doubts however were quickly erased when Bastion himself handled the registration, if the guild master was helping out it couldn’t be anything untoward.

This however did crop up another issue, Frost and Maya along with Nanna and Loki were now an official adventurer party and needed a name.

“Although only two of you are technically full adventurers, you’re still a party, got any ideas on a name?” Bastion asked while stirring his coffee. Bastion summoned the four of them up to his office so they could chat in privacy plus it was a good excuse for him to avoid work. Bastion had Kamey bring up some snacks and drinks for the kids to enjoy while he talked business with Frost and Maya.

‘Another name I need to think about haaaaa.’ Frost frowned as he complained internally. He’d only heard of two examples; The Artic Warband and The Glacial Scions and didn’t know if they were any good.

“Do you have any suggestions guild master?” Frost decided to toss the ball to Bastion, he’d have more knowledge on the matter.

“Me, normally this is a personal choice but ok. In my opinion flashy and ambitious is best what about The Fenrir Annihilators or the Dragon bane Phoenix....” Bastion was about to say another gaudy suggestion but thankfully Frost covered his mouth.

‘The Fenrir annihilators are you an idiot?’ Frost insulted Bastion many times of in his head, a damn Fenrir was sitting right across from him. Frost clearly didn’t agree with Bastion’s suggestions, flashy was not the way to go.

Maya giggled at the side, actually quite taken with the name Fenrir annihilators, enjoying the irony.

Frost rubbed his temples while thinking hard, Bastion and the rest simply waited in silence.

After what felt like hours yet was just a couple minutes Frost opened his eyes and looked ahead before mumbling something.

“Ni....hm” a spark shone in his eyes as he spoke.

“Sorry Frost what did you say?” Bastion even with his adept hearing didn’t catch the name.

“Niflheim, the [White Claws of Niflheim].” Frost smiled as he spoke, a good name, memorable but not gaudy or ambitious.

“Niflheim hmmmm the mystical realm of ice and the white claws, indicative of the Northrend empire....I like it ahahahah.” Bastion laughed out loud, loving the name. Niflheim was rumoured to be a magical realm of primordial ice, where the element was said to first originate. Frost didn’t know much about Niflheim, but it suddenly came to him when he was thinking about his background as well as Maya’s. The white claws was actually a homage to Maya given her identity as a Fenrir but there was no need to correct Bastion’s thinking.

Nanna and Loki repeated the name to one another with smiles of their faces, clearly, they liked the name as well. Maya gave a hidden thumbs up that only Frost could see revealing her support of the name. And thus the [White claws of Niflheim] was formed starting off as a standard E-rank party they’d go on to become one of the most feared and respected groups in all of Nova.

With the party name settled and Nanna and Loki receiving their adventurer licenses Frost took them out the city for their first quest, hunting for 10 red dwindle stalks. Frost and Maya would observe and protect them, but Nanna and Loki would need to find and retrieve the plants themselves. Frost took on the permanent quest hunting of frost goblins quest as well since they’d be searching in a goblin dense area.

It took them roughly 3 hours to retrieve enough stalks to compete the quest. Nanna and Loki damaged a fair few plants resulting in them having to search for more. Meanwhile Frost managed to kill 7 frost goblins, completing the quest twice over. Unfortunately for Frost and Maya to rank up they’d need to complete 10 E-rank quests which would require travelling a greater distance.

Frost casted some clean up magic on the two kids before leading them back to Furano to collect their bounty. Frost received the money from the receptionist with a smile before handing Nanna and Loki each a small coin purse with their earnings bringing a confused look to their faces.

“Haaaaaa this is the money you earned from working.” Frost sighed while holding out the coin purses.

Nanna looked towards her young brother before looking back at Frost. They’d never been given any money no matter what they were forced to do. They were slaves after all, property, all their earnings went to their masters. Receiving nice food and clothing was one thing but being granted the right to money and being able to use it how they choose was something they’d never encountered. Not wanting to cause a scene Frost and Maya brought them out of the guild and into a nearby alley so they could explain.

“Nanna, Loki, the two of you aren’t slaves while under my protection, although you are bound to me thanks to that tattoo, I won’t treat you as such. If you work, you’ll receive payment just like anyone else.” Frost spoke sternly making sure his point came across. He didn’t expect them to turn into regular kids right away, but he needed to correct any misguided notions. Although he would have, them keep his secret Nanna and Loki would be free to live how they chose.

Nanna and Loki heard what Frost was saying but struggled to accept it, they had been slaves for a very long time after all, it’d take time to adjust.

“Here take these coin purses, they’re yours now. If you see something you want to buy you can use the money in those purses.” Frost forced them to take hold of the coin purses and only stopped staring them in the face when they placed them within their pockets.

“Good, now I guess it’s time for me to get paid for the work I’ve done.” Frost smiled as he turned his head towards the direction of the Lord’s mansion. It had been roughly two days so Leo should have tabulated a rough estimation of Adam’s estate and be prepared to divvy up the rewards. After that it’d be time for them to head back to the dungeon, he had DP to use and a family gathering to prepare for. The family meeting was scheduled to happen in less than 3 weeks and given his father’s personality something interesting was bound to happen. He needed to advance his dungeon in preparation.

The group made their way towards the Lord’s mansion, as there was nothing left for them to do. Nanna and Loki were now also adventurers, granting them ID cards so they could easily leave Furano and travel. Frost had seen pretty much all the major sights around town, and they’d managed to spend multiple gold coins in the few days they’d been here. Most of which was useless clothes, but some were important, the large stockpile of books in particular as well as Frost’s glaive.

When they arrived this time before the mansion, the atmosphere was far friendly, even the once stoic guards at the gates couldn’t hide their joy and pride, greeting Frost and the rest as they passed with smiles on their faces. Even the run down mansion was beginning to look like its old self. The young servants hard at work to restore its former glory, repairing the windows, repointing the cracks in the walls, trimming the overgrown weeds and ivy crawling along the walls. It was hard work, but the servants all had joyous expressions as they toiled away, only briefly stopping to greet Frost, Maya, and the kids.