Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 49: Frost troll

After an hour of Maya relishing in the stories of her ancestors she finally couldn’t talk anymore, granting Frost a much needed reprieve. While Maya nursed her throat with some alcohol Frost teleported into the second section, the winter forest to meet with his newly summoned frost troll.

It was lightly snowing in the room and all traces of battle were gone. All the blood and body parts had been cleanly absorbed by the dungeon whereas the useful materials such as coins, leather attire and some weapons were stored within the core’s spatial storage vault. The core had a similar feature as Maya’s spatial bracelet only far larger and non-portable.

Several pieces of the leather apparel could be used and resized to fit some of the goblins whereas the weapons could be repaired or turned into raw materials for the frost dwarves to experiment with. Currently they were looking to outfit most of the goblins with spears to enhance their reach in battle. Otherwise, unless it’s an ambush they’d be seriously outmatched, like children fighting adults.

Frost admired the scenery that had returned to normal before walking deeper into the section. A place not visited by any visitors as of yet, hidden within the left area of the room was a large glade tens of metres in size. The frost dwarves had outfitted this area with their best possible defences, it was their home. Trenches were dug around the outskirts and sharp, thick wooden posts pointed outward above them making access from any direction other than the entrance incredibly risky.

Intruders would have to destroy several layers of wooden spikes and wild branch overgrowth before gaining access. There’s only one entrance, narrow and easy to defend, as well as an exit that led you under the glade and 100 meters to safety. As Frost admired the work done by the frost dwarves, he couldn’t help but imagine a castle, a forest castle. That was the feeling this defended camp emitted.

One of the frost dwarves noticed Frost standing there in admiration and couldn’t but feel proud before alerting his companions. Frost was then led into the glade by a group of happy and proud frost dwarves. Although they couldn’t speak the common tongue, they had some intelligence.

They cutely pointed out areas that they were most proud of, showing Frost how each area worked, as well as trying to convey to him their roles in defence. They acted like children showing off their grades to their father. Frost smiled gently and listened to each and every dwarf and complimented them on their efforts.

.....

Once his tour of the defences was done Frost brought up the dungeon menu and bought something as a reward for them.

Bang!

A large wooden barrel suddenly appeared beside him, attracting the frost dwarves attention. Frost smiled widely before grabbing the barrel’s lid and twisting it open. A strong smell of alcohol along with the smell of grains escaped the now open barrel. He had bought them a barrel of beer (low quality of course since he’s not made of DP).

From his inherent knowledge he knew that dwarves tended to be great lovers of alcohol and a single barrel of basic beer only cost him 50DP plus he could keep the barrel. It was much lower in class than the stuff Maya drank, so much so she would most likely refuse to even smell it, but it seemed perfect for his monster dwarves.

The frost dwarves sniffed the air, causing their eyes to widen in shock.

‘Beeeeeeeeeeer!’ They all internally screamed before rushing to the barrel, using their hands to scoop it up into their mouths. The frost dwarves just like their regular dwarven brethren loved alcohol, beer especially. It didn’t matter what quality it was as long as they could get drunk, they would love it. The group looked at one another and nodded and then together lifted up the barrel gently, carrying it towards their main living quarters completely forgetting about Frost’s presence.

‘I guess they like it.’ Frost didn’t feel bad about spending 50DP on them, he needed to reward hard work otherwise he’d be a terrible boss. He smiled as he watched the dwarves move the barrel with such delicacy that you wouldn’t think was possible given their frames.

Dong Dong

From another area of the glade a large creature was walking towards him, its large weight causing the ground to shake with ever step. It was the frost troll.

The frost troll was close to 3 metres in height and had dark blue skin. Its body was muscular but not bulky, ideal for quick attacks. Two large tusks protruded upwards from its lower jaw, and it was equipped with a simple loincloth, as well as two pykrete axes. Its eyes contained a trace of intelligence as it looked at Frost.

“M...master.” It spoke.

Frost’s jaw lowered in surprise.

‘It really can speak.’ It also seemed to be much more respectful than the polar bear.

“Yes, I’m your master, my name is Frost.”

“M...master F...Frost.” The troll spoke with slight difficulty as though it wasn’t used to speaking in common tongue. But Frost didn’t care he was full of joy, it was like his kid saying their first words. His eyes examined every part of the frost troll, feeling his arms, inspecting his axes, and even touching his tusks which the frost troll needed to bend over slightly so he could reach.

‘A strong body with tough skin that regular weapons would struggle to cut deeply. Those axes are pretty good but still weaker than forged iron.’ Frost also felt the small single-handed axes didn’t fit well with the frost troll’s large frame.

“Can you use weapons other than axes?”

“....Don’t know master.” The frost troll responded back with uncertainty.

‘Well, it’s not a no.’ Ideas for outfitting the troll with different weapons like he was planning for the goblins filled his mind. Well, the troll did look like a massive goblin after all, he even came with the same armour (loincloth). But that’s a thought for another time. Frost proceeded to test the troll’s intelligence. If he was going to leave it in charge while he was away, he needed to know what it was capable of.

Over the next few hours, Frost asked the troll many questions and had him perform some rudimentary drills. He planned to have the goblins work under the frost troll, they would report any news and the frost troll would give out orders. In the end however the results were subpar at best.

The frost troll couldn’t understand subtlety or strategy, he could only order the goblins to attack or retreat. The troll himself also lacked much technique when it came to battle, simply slashing with brute strength. But he’d do for the short term. On the plus side like the goblins, he didn’t have much issue following orders only giving them.

“You shouldn’t feel frustrated, he’s only a D-rank monster with low intelligence. Just be grateful that he can converse with you.” Maya’s voice appeared from behind him, giving him a jump.

“Gyaah...Don’t sneak up on me like that.” Frost almost leapt out of his skin in response causing Maya to snigger. The frost troll wasn’t even fazed by her sudden appearance, its eyes only revealed a trace of fear before it bowed submissively.

“Sorry my bad.” Although she apologised her face didn’t look as though she was sorry. Frost sighed and accepted her fake apology.

“I guess you’re right, luckily we won’t be gone long and with the insurance policy as back up he’ll do for now.” Frost couldn’t help but display his disappointment. The frost troll shivered before bowing and walking away.

“Oh, you hurt his feelings.” Maya elbowed Frost, she felt bad for the troll who was trying his best. Frost just expected too much.

Realising his mistake, Frost went to apologise but was quickly stunned in place. The frost troll immediately began training, swinging his axes over and over to improve his technique like Frost taught him, he wished to be better. Frost’s heart filled with pride, and he couldn’t help but smile and laugh.

‘If he isn’t strong enough then all he has to do is train hahaha.’ He very much agreed with the troll’s choice.

All that was left was to inspect the goblin spawner. The two of them teleported to the third section. Now that the desolate artic castle environment had expanded to 5km each way there were hundreds of rooms and connecting hallways of varying sizes. The polar bear still chose to remain in the last room, defending the core and away from the other monsters but most other rooms were empty.

In the far eastern area of the section, along a dead-end path that didn’t lead to the exit, was a large room at the end of a long hallway. Two frost wolves stood guard at the entrance, well at the moment they were sleeping. Behind the large and damaged oak doors was the goblin spawner.

Frost and Maya greeted the two wolves before entering. This room was much like the others only a little larger, broken pieces of furniture still littered the floor, and an olden fireplace was entrenched by the side. However, in the centre of the room was what looked like a large black gaseous sphere. It floated in the air like the dungeon core and was around 2 metres in diameter.

“This is a spawner?” Frost had no idea what to think, there was no picture or description on how it looked in the menu. He didn’t even know how you’d go about destroying something with a gas like body.

“Should be, I believe it’s a simplified version of a dungeon core. It pulls in mana from the dungeon and when it hits maximum it’ll summon a frost goblin.” Maya moved in closer to inspect it.

“Inside the gas there’s a small nucleus like in a slime, strike that with a weapon and it’ll break or overloading it with strong magic would work as well.” Frost moved in closer to see where Maya was pointing. Within the black gas a small grey solid sphere could be seen floating in the centre, it was no bigger than apple.

“Shall we give it a try?” Maya looked at Frost with excitement. The spawner was currently deactivated so they could witness the first summoning in person.

“Sure.” Frost placed his hand on the spawner and closed his eyes.

“Activate.” He spoke a single command before stepping back next to Maya. In response the spawner started to rotate and pulse, they could feel it rapidly absorbing mana from the surrounding.

After a couple seconds the spawner radiated light and a magic crest appeared in front of it. Then a frost goblin was summoned in place of the crest before the spawner returned to its previous dull state, slowly gathering mana. It’ll be able to summon another goblin in 12 hours, but Frost wouldn’t be required to be present, it’d be done automatically.

The summoned frost goblin looked the exact same as the others, it even treated Frost the same albeit with slightly less attachment.

“Let’s take a look at its status.” Frost brought up the dungeon menu.

Race: frost goblin (spawner)

Level: 4/8

Not much detail but it told Frost everything he needed to know.

“Looks like we didn’t get lucky the first-time round, it’s only level 4.” And since they couldn’t gain levels at least the normal way, it’d be stuck at half its max.

“It’s better than being level one, if it was it’d probably be weaker than a slime. At level four it should be equal to maybe around a level 2 regular frost goblin in strength.” Most of the frost goblins were either level one or two after the mass bandit culling so it could be considered a decent addition to the dungeon’s fighting force.

“True.” Frost agreed with Maya before looking towards the patiently waiting frost goblin.

“Head to the second section, meet up with the frost troll he’ll tell you where to go.” Although the third area was in dire need of residents, Frost preferred if the intruders didn’t make it that far, so he ordered the frost troll to bolster the first two sections. The frost troll was in charge of assigning these spawner goblins over the next few days. Depending on how he performs Frost planned to leave the management of the spawner to him indefinitely.