Dungeon of Niflheim

Maya at the side had readied herself to act in case anything went wrong but was relieved once Findlay kneeled and showed such admiration in his eyes. He wouldn’t betray her young master regardless of his strength. She released a light sigh before smiling.

Listening to his master, Findlay rose up to his massive height and towered over Frost.

“Let’s take a look at your new status shall we.” Frost brought up the dungeon menu to view Findlay’s new stats. He was very curious as to what monster he became. Unfortunately, however since he was easily C-rank Frost wouldn’t be able to summon another until he reached the required power level. Findlay was a notable exception.

Name: Findlay

Race: Ice troll commander

Rank: C+

level: 8/50

Skills: [axe slash], [invigorating shout], [enrage], [mad charge]

.....

Passive: [war buff], [medium ice resistance], [mild aura], [adept axe mastery]

Magic and chakra: [Ice bolt], [ice stomp], [frost breath]

Remark: Ice troll commanders, veritable leaders of ice trolls, with great potential. Not only are they accomplished fighters in their own right, they have access to many skills that buff allies as well as devasting magic. A very well balanced monster. Findlay a named monster bonded with Dungeon core Frost, surpasses his regular commander counterparts.

Frost’s face was frozen in place, the dungeon menu was showing far more than it used to. Findlay was more than just a powerhouse he was a super powerhouse. Frost didn’t even know what half these abilities did. He looked back between the status page and Findlay, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

‘Do I have divine luck or something?’ Regardless, Findlay’s overpowered status was a good thing. Breaking out of his shock he called Maya over to take a look, she would have a better idea of all these skills and just how much of a talent Findlay really was.

“Wow that’s pretty impressive.” Maya’s eyes opened wide, just a shocked as Frost. Findlay meanwhile gently smiled as Frost checked him out, unable to prevent a bit of cocky pride welling up within his chest.

Maya knew about ice troll commanders and their rough strength level and surmised that Findlay was equivalent to roughly half a rank stronger than his regular counterparts. He also had the skill [war buff] that was normally only found among B-rank trolls and other leader monsters. His potential was incredible.

“Can you explain some of his abilities?”

“I can but why don’t you ask Findlay, he shouldn’t have any problem speaking common tongue now.” Ice commanders were considered fairly intelligent monsters that controlled large tribes of trolls and other monsters. Speaking common tongue was within their abilities but Findlay seemed far more intelligent than just that, his mind likely rivalled that of a human.

Findlay couldn’t help but smile with pride, he rubbed the underside of his nose with his finger. He was happy to explain his abilities or rather brag to his creator.

“Allow me to show you master.” Findlay slammed his arm against his chest acting like a soldier requesting permission from a superior officer. With his evolution he was also granted a brand new axe, this one was made of 3-star pykrete and was a two handed behemoth, larger than Frost’s entire body. It was lying beside the broken bed, Frost and Maya were yet to notice it given their eyes being glued to his new and awesome body. Unfortunately, he wasn’t granted any new armour, still outfitted with a loincloth albeit it being larger to fit his new frame, cleaner looking too but still offered no defensive properties. Findlay was eager to swing his new axe with all his strength, greatly anticipating the devastation he could wrought. They’d need a wide open space to fully test his capabilities and this room wasn’t up for the task.

Frost smiled and nodded his head, his eyes full of anticipation. Findlay picked up his axe and the group of three left the recovery room and were greeted by the nervous stares of all the monsters in the glade. They’d all been staring at the recovery room ever since that powerful blast of energy made it’s way through the trees. Everyone from the goblins to Nanna and Loki were looking their way.

When Findlay left the doorway all of them felt an overbearing presence pressure their bodies. Findlay’s [mild aura] was at work emitting a silent pressure on everyone. It’d take him some practise to control his aura, to not affect his allies.

“Everyone I’d like you to meet Findlay formerly a frost troll he has thus evolved after being granted a name and he’s going to show off his new capabilities so everyone could you give us some space.” Frost stepped forward speaking with his new regal tone he ordered his monsters. They all subconsciously moved backwards creating an open space in the middle of the glade, not taking their eyes of Findlay as they did. A wild array of emotions was going through Frost’s other monsters, curiosity, fear, pride, jealousy, and joy. Each and every one of them felt different but they all followed his orders without question. Even Nanna and Loki moved to the side.

“The floor is yours Findlay, show me what you’ve got.” Frost tapped Findlay’s shoulder, granting him the floor before moving over towards Nanna and Loki to explain the situation, Maya joined him.

Findlay felt a little nervous being stared at by so many of his comrades but eventually made his way to the centre of the glade with his massive axe in hand. There were dozens of wooden posts dotted around the glade, either for defensive purposes or training, Findlay wasn’t the only one who liked to practice and train.

“I’ll go through my active abilities first then.” Findlay faced up against a nearby wooden post, easily half a metre in diameter. He raised up his massive axe overhead in preparation.

“[Axe slash]!” He tensed his arms and energy flowed into his axe, causing it to shine pale blue before viciously slashing downward. A pale blue beam of energy howled from his axe cleaving the wooden post in two along with many trees dotted behind it. Even the ground was carved up sending dirt everywhere. The range wasn’t too far given that it was an axe, roughly ten metres or so but damn was it powerful. Frost couldn’t help but get riled up, the desire to spar against Findlay growing.

Findlay released a restrained breath as he lifted his axe, very happy with the result.

“Next, I guess would be [invigorating shout], it’s a support skill that increases the strength of nearby allies for a short period.”

“Rahhhhhhhhhhhh” Findlay roared activating the skill and some of the nearby monsters felt their bodies swell with power and vigour. It was as though they were suddenly pumped up with a burst of adrenaline, increasing not only their physical strength but their capabilities to endure damage as well. Even Frost was affected by it. Findlay had quite a few benefits for those that fought beside him, very commander like.

“Next [enrage], another buff type skill.” Findlay took a wide stance before activating this skill.

“[Enrage]” suddenly Findlay’s muscles tensed up, his veins protruding, and his eyes turned red as he was filled with aggression. [Enrage] was self-explanatory, it filled the user with anger, increasing their strength and numbing their pain at the expense of reasoning.

“Hu hu hu hu” Findlay breathed rapidly as he tried to contain his anger and aggression. His last skill required him to be within the enraged state to utilise its full power.

“[Mad charge]” energy flowed over his body, covering it in a thin veil of red light. “Rahhhhhhhh!” roaring with madness Findlay charged towards a nearby tree over a metre in diameter.

Boom! The resounding clash created a powerful booming sound, bits of wood flew everywhere, and the once powerful tree was turned to dust. Findlay was unscathed, just out of breath as the enrage skill withdrew its effects. The combination of [enrage] and [mad charge] was a very powerful finisher but came with risks. The user would be significantly exhausted after using it.

Clap, clap, clap

Frost started clapping, generating a round of applause throughout his monsters. He was greatly impressed with Findlay’s active skills; they were very powerful indeed. If Findlay had to fight against the Sanguine Snakes once again, he’d likely come out unscathed.

Findlay felt his strength slowly return, now he just had to explain his passive skills and magic.

“For the passive skill [war buff], it activates when fighting an enemy. It grants me and allies within a 100 metre radius a small boost to strength and speed. The rest are self-explanatory and nothing special.” Although this passive buff didn’t seem like much, when in a grand melee with dozens or even hundreds of monsters taking part, a mass increase in strength could easily turn the tide of battle. Leader like skills have always been craved and sought after by people, having one almost guarantees a leadership role in any war, regardless of your other abilities.

“Agreed I can work out what the others do, what about your magic?” Frost knew what adept axe mastery granted as well as the limits of a mild aura. He could feel it right now after all, just, unlike the rest of his monsters he wasn’t pressured by it.

“Well....[ice stomp]” Findlay skipped over ice bolt since he knew Frost already knew that magic. In response to his words, he stomped down with his right foot, generating a blue magic crest on impact. A road of spiked ice then grew from his foot towards a nearby wooden post, piercing it and encasing the lower half in ice. It was a more physical type spell, usually not used by the regular wizards given their body’s strength. It could be considered a mixture of magic and chakra since it was used by a monster and was equivalent to a 2nd circle spell.

Finally, was his unique monster ability, usually common to those of the lizard type i.e., drakes and dragons. It utilised his mana but didn’t require a magic crest. He didn’t even need to use a command word for this one.

Findlay simply took a deep breath, nurturing a special gland within his body, mana filled this gland, causing it to glow blue and expand, forcing his chest outward.

“Haaaaahhh” then suddenly, Findlay released the built up energy generating a freezing cold breath attack that froze the area in front of him, turning a wooden post into an icicle. This was a powerful AOE attack that lasted 3 seconds or so before Findlay ran out of energy. He’d have to wait a while to use his breath gland again given that he wasn’t a dragon.