Dungeon of Niflheim

Even with Frost’s words they still trembled but did their best to look up towards the array of grunting monsters.

At this point Maya spoke to him telepathically.

‘Young master, did you notice the strange looks in the monsters’ eyes?’

Frost still couldn’t reply back with his mind, so he simply nodded.

‘I think when they registered with the core, they instantly became allies. They probably see these two as similar to you and me, albeit at a lower level of importance. The monsters shouldn’t show any aggression to them even without me or you here.’ Maya explained her hypothesis, the looks in the monsters was too unusual. They were monsters after all, and usually behaved as such.

“That makes sense,” Frost nodded his head in acknowledgement, but his words garnered a strange look from Nanna and Loki, they couldn’t hear Maya after all.

“Nanna do you think you could try something very brave for me?” Frost kneeled down to Nanna’s height and looked into her eyes as he spoke. Nanna instantly got a horrible feeling, and regardless of how gentle and friendly Frost’s appearance appeared to be, at the moment she felt she was looking at the devil. Instinctively she took a few steps back, rejecting him subconsciously. Frost frowned but didn’t push the issue but before he could stand back up.

“I’ll do it,” Loki the one who normally hid behind his sister when afraid, spoke up loudly. He stepped forward protecting his elder sister behind him, yet his legs were shivering and his teeth gnashing together. Even though they were with their master and the gentle and strong Maya, both Nanna and he were incredibly afraid of the monsters surrounding them. It was instinctual combined with the natural stigma that monsters (rightly so in most cases) were vicious and aggressive, even though a large group currently watched them with smiles on their faces.

.....

Loki had no idea what Frost wanted his sister to do but seeing his awesome big sister afraid he felt it was his duty to step up, he couldn’t cower behind her forever.

Frost’s eyes opened in surprise.

“Good, brave boy hahahaha.” Frost laughed as he patted Loki’s shoulder. Loki welled up with pride, stepping closer and arching his chest out.

“Come over here and introduce yourself, I promise nothing will go wrong and there’s nothing to fear.” Frost ushered Loki in front, towards one of the nearby frost dwarves. The goblins may be a bit much to start with, but the frost dwarves at least looked more like their civilised counterparts.

Loki’s bravado crumbled quite quickly but he had to keep a brave face, regardless of the trembling of his limbs. Frost kept a hand on his back while waving for one of the more friendly looking dwarves over. This one was a bit chubbier than his compatriots, fluffier beard, and a jolly smile, almost Santa like.

The Santa like dwarf waddled over full of smiles at being picked by Frost.

“Loki introduce yourself and then you do the same, I’ll help translate.” Frost gave instructions to the frost dwarf, who nodded in response and moved in close to Loki. There wasn’t too much height difference between the two of them so they were both looking at one another’s face.

“H....Hi...I...m...Loki” Loki bravely locked eyes with the dwarf. Being encouraged by the large hand on his back he raised out his hand for a handshake, though his arm was shaking.

The frost dwarf tilted his head in confusion wondering why Loki was so afraid, ‘am I really that scary’. Trying to be even friendlier, the dwarf smiled wider before grasping onto Loki’s hand with a firm grip and shaking.

“grunt gruu gruntttt”

“He says it’s nice to meet you Loki.” Frost whispered gently into Loki’s ear. Loki’s body stopped trembling with Frost’s whisper, he felt less afraid and returned the dwarf’s handshake. With every rise and fall of his hand, his fear dissolved somewhat, and his body began to relax, allowing him to enjoy the moment.

“Gruuunt grruunnnntt?”

“Eh? No, he can’t he’s still a kid.”

“Gruuunt” the dwarf’s voice sounded despondent this time as did its expression.

“What’d he say? What’d he say?” Any semblance of fear seemed to vanish in Loki as he curiously asked for a translation.

“Haaaaa he asked if you’d like some beer.” Frost answered while rubbing his temples.

‘I’m surrounded by alcoholics.’

“Eh? He likes beer?”

“Yeah, they all do.”

“....They really are like regular dwarves.” Loki gently smiled towards his new friend, no longer feeling afraid, he began laughing, as relief washed over him.

Seeing her younger brother acting perfectly normal with a frost dwarf, a monster, Nanna couldn’t help but feel the same way. Her trembling stopped and she moved forward with grace, her head raised high and eyes focused, she appeared before the Santa like frost dwarf.

“I’m Nanna, nice to meet you.” She presented her hand out towards the dwarf with a happy smile. The dwarf smiled back and shook her hand.

“Gruuunt grrrruunntt” the dwarf spoke with expectation while gazing towards Frost.

“Ahhhhh no she can’t drink either you idiot! She’s a child too!” Frost roared in frustration, knocking the poor frost dwarf on the head in admonishment. This action caused everyone around to laugh, well except the poor frost dwarf who was rubbing his head in pain, not knowing what he did wrong.

Once the laughter died down, Frost left Nanna and Loki to get better acquainted with their new group of friends, who were eager to show off their handiwork during the past few days, defences wise. Frost took Maya to see the frost troll to gain her opinion on its situation and hoped she could cast some of her higher level healing magic.

When Maya entered the blood soaked room, she had to cover her nose in reflex. One of the downsides of being a legendary Fenrir, super sense of smell.

The frost troll was still in a terrible state, his wounds on the cusp of festering. Some of the goblins fetched red dwindle flowers and created infused cloths to cover the worst of the injuries in order to reduce infection. The low health potion barely helped, just staved off death for a while longer. Maya frowned as she took in the extent of the trolls injuries.

‘I’m surprised it’s still alive.’ She then looked towards her young master, following the gaze that the troll sent his way.

‘Ah now I see, strength of will.’ The troll was hanging on to make his creator proud, she knew the feeling. It was unfortunate however that she could not help.

“I’m sorry young master I can’t help heal any of your monsters, only you. It goes against my restrictions and unfortunately, without a high level potion, or healing spell he’ll remain crippled, if he even survives the next few days.” The troll’s outlook didn’t look good, and Maya wasn’t one to sugar-coat the situation. She respected the frost troll’s attitude and actions but couldn’t help it. With the expense being losing the ability to protect her young master the frost troll likely wouldn’t even agree to be healed if that was the cost.

Frost frowned; his heart became heavy. He felt powerless, and guilt ridden. He failed to protect his monsters when they needed him most. All he had on him was medium health potions, they would save the troll’s life but not recover his battle capability.

“Haaaaaaaaa” he released a deep sigh struggling to accept the situation. He needed something powerful to heal the troll, it’d be a pity to lose such a useful right hand.

‘Hmmmm wait a minute.’ Coming up with an idea, Frost dragged Maya over to the side of the room out of earshot.

“He basically needs a strong burst of mana or energy in order to heal right?”

“Putting it bluntly yes, that’s how the dungeon heals them overtime with its abundant mana, but to heal such extensive injuries it would have to be a pretty major dosage.” Maya responded back unsure at what her master was thinking.

“Good...then what if I grant him a name? You said before that by naming a monster, I’d create a bond with it, increasing its abilities. Could that also work to heal a monsters injuries?” Frost asked with fervent eyes.

“Eh?....” Maya exclaimed in surprise before thinking deeply about her young master’s suggestion.

“....I guess it could work, in theory anyway, but there’s no guarantee. It may heal his injuries enough to prevent death but battle ready, it’s a long shot.” Maya wasn’t confident in the outcome. Although the frost troll certainly earned a hefty reward for its bravery and handling of such a risky situation. Granting his first naming to a severely handicapped monster seemed like a waste, regardless of its contributions to the Dungeon. Frost however didn’t care.

“If there’s a chance, I’m taking it. If he can’t fight that’s fine, as long as he can still use his mind, he can be a commander like before.”