Dungeon of Niflheim

Ignoring Maya, he turned around to face Nanna and Loki who were sitting at the kitchen table. They were in the middle of a reading lesson, but promptly closed their books when Frost arrived, ready to assist their master in any fashion. Unlike Maya the two of them could take part in this war and Frost intended for them to play a large role.

Over the past couple weeks not only had the two of them been learning to read, write and train, they’d become quite adept with using the dungeon menu. Although they still didn’t have access to DP, they could like Findlay view the map and communicate with the monsters in the dungeon. They were no longer afraid of the monsters under Frost’s command and even made a few close friends, the Santa like frost dwarf in particular. Though they still couldn’t really understand its grunting the two of them frequently hung out with it during their downtime and used the dungeon menu to communicate while in the private space.

“Nanna, Loki we’ll be facing off against my younger brother Gobuske in an hour. It’ll be a battle wherein our monsters need to reach the opposing teams dungeon core; you know the special room at the end of the dungeon. I want the two of you to take part.” Frost spoke up, explaining what was going to happen. He’d have them take command of a small group of monsters to defend a room or area within a room. A perfect chance to gauge how much they’ve improved.

Maya opened her eyes and frowned when Frost mentioned wanting to involve the kids but when she heard that they’d be safely contained in the private space, she closed her eyes once again, drifting off into fake slumber. At their current strength they’d just about manage to kill a goblin when working together, hardly a worthy addition to the war effort. But if using their intellect and ability to harness the dungeon menu it’d be different.

Nanna and Loki were a fair bit nervous at the mention of a war but hearing that they’d only be required to command from within the private space, their moods were lifted, and they accepted with eager smiles. Before being unable to hold back their curiosity any longer, dying to ask Frost about the gathering and all his siblings as well as Dark. Frost smiled gently before giving a quick description of what happened to the two of them. Mentioning his conflict with Pyro and his new friendship with Indra who was his neighbour as well as his eldest sister Aqua and her rubbing of his head. He even said a little about their future opponent Gobuske before finally mentioning Dark’s promise of candy, which had them almost bursting in excitement, candy from a God should be quite impressive.

Maya opened her eyes and few times in curiosity, once when Frost brought up Indra’s guardian Izuna, another when he mentioned Aqua’s behaviour towards him and finally a third time when he mentioned Dark’s promise. With the third look her eyes met Frost’s and they contained a significant amount of irritation. Knowing the reason, she promptly shut them again and faked snoring eliciting a giggle from the kids.

He still had around 45 minutes or so until Dark connects his dungeon with Gobuske’s, so he had the kids tidy up the place to make it more command room ready while he teleported to Findlay. He’d be the other major player in this war, he wanted to get his advice as an ice troll commander. Mainly to work out who to send on the offensive and who on the defensive. Findlay was a powerful C-rank monster with high intelligence but there was only one of him.

Luckily there wasn’t many intruders in the dungeon at the moment so if needed he could rearrange a great many things. If even a single intruder was in a section, he couldn’t make any changes.

.....

He quickly teleported to the heavily fortified glade, this would serve as a command outpost and bastion during the war, wherein monsters could retreat to and receive orders. Currently as usual there was a light contingent of frost dwarves and goblins, with Findlay at the heart, dealing with reports and or training.

Findlay too had been hard at work over the past two weeks, even successfully learning the skill [axe throw], making him even more of a force to be reckoned with. Though he could also use a little magic he was clearly built for physical combat as was his personality. He liked to use his body fight, not so much his mana.

When Frost arrived, he was in the middle of practising his new ranged attack [axe throw] against a couple training posts. The massive axe was tossed with great accuracy, shining lightly as it flew through the air before splitting the training posts apart. Thankfully these training post would regenerate over time, the frost dwarves just cut a large tree into shape, damaging them was in fact a necessity to prevent them becoming full blown trees again.

“Findlay” Frost spoke up to get his prized monster’s attention. He was always filled with pride when he saw Findlay hard at work.

“Master!” Findlay turned around, a joyful expression on his face.

“We need to talk.” Frost gestured towards a quiet area in the glade, wherein they could discuss the situation in private. Frost would of course tell his monsters shortly, but after he devised a plan.

Findlay nodded like a loyal solider before grabbing his axe and following his master.

They entered what was once Findlay’s recovery room, now his own personal bedroom or office. They both took a seat.

“Let me give you the quick rundown.” Frost then quickly explained the events of the gathering, about the upcoming dungeon war and its purpose. Findlay listened with rapt attention the entire time, cupping his chin in thought, similar to that of his master.

“I see, so you want to discuss our plan of attack against your brother’s dungeon?” Findlay spoke like a military man, blunt and concise.

“Yes, I know little about our opponent other than he’s likely adept with goblins given his appearance plus I’m not sure about our plan of attack.” Frost could see that Gobuske was rather timid and cowardly, but he wouldn’t let that influence the threat his monsters posed. He knew full well that goblins as long as they had an intelligent and capable leader, they’d be a force to be reckoned with. Plus, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of Gobuske having a C-rank monster like Findlay under his control. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think he was the only one to name one of his monsters. Surely other cores have taken advantage of this enhancement to give them a power boost. But he was most worried about Gobuske’s adaptability. If he had access to a wide range of goblin archetypes such as archers, mages or even healers it’d be like fighting a well formed army with very little weaknesses.

Findlay frowned as he pondered his master’s question, hundreds of possibilities running through his mind. His troll commander race showing its full capabilities.

“Do you mean whether to have me on the offensive or defensive?” Findlay got straight to the point. This was the major question; he was far stronger than any of Frost’s other monsters and a major play piece.

“Pretty much yeah, should I focus your efforts on defending the dungeon, whether that be protecting the core room or fighting here in the glade. Or have you on the frontline, cleaving through our enemies in order to reach the Gobuske’s core room?” The details of the rest of the attacking force and defending force was too much hassle, pretty much planning to go half and half.

“Will Nanna and Loki be taking part?”

“Yes, they will be using the dungeon menu to monitor the situation and relay commands alongside me in the private space since Maya’s forbidden to interfere and unfortunately, I can’t join in the battle. This is purely a test of our management capabilities.”

Findlay thought for a while before crossing his arms and leaning back “I see....if that’s the case then I think you should be the one to decide master. I’ll help out in planning the forces, but you should be the one to position me.”

“Eh?” Frost looked at his monster commander in confusion, this was why he was here, to get his opinion on where to place him yet Findlay simply tossed it back his way. He looked at Findlay with a pronounced frown clearly not too pleased with his answer, but Findlay was quite stubborn with his decision, this was a test for his master, a good servant would not impede the master’s growth, so he kept silent.