Dungeon of Niflheim

147 Chapter 147: Testing the children’s talents

“Good answer” Frost responded back with a bright smile, enjoying the look in their eyes. He discussed a few details with Maya already about their training program. They couldn’t be too harsh given that their bodies were still recovering from malnutrition, but they could start the fundamentals.

“Go and change into your training gear and meet back in the living room then we’ll take you to a special training room.” The kids both nodded before rushing to their room. Frost then turned to his guardian.

“Will the morphing metal work on people so young?” It was very easy for them to discover Frost’s talents; all it took was a severe dose of killing intent. But he didn’t really like the idea of using that method on children even if they weren’t in any real danger.

“Yes, age isn’t a factor but don’t worry I’ll restrain the killing intent to a minimum.” Maya replied understanding and agreeing with Frost’s concerns.

“So, while you’re testing out their weapon talents and having them engage in physical drills what will I have to endure?” Frost spoke with a hint of fear in his voice that didn’t go unnoticed by Maya. She smirked and batted her long eyelashes playfully.

“That’s a surprise”

“Ugh!” Frost groaned as fear filled his body, she wasn’t going to be lenient in the slightest. His body visibly trembled as he remembered the pain, he endured from her and the golem’s beatings. But under that he was also excited, no pain no gain as they say. Fighting alongside Ryuu and Bastion, enduring a blow from Rock and going toe to toe with Shadow and Adam he knew full well that he was weak, pathetically weak. The Glacial Mountains were a harsh gruelling environment, swarming with monsters, some that could chew him up and spit him out. Although Maya’s methods would hurt and would stroke her sadistic side, they certainly worked.

Nanna and Loki returned moments later dressed in durable training gear. Maya had bought them a few of such outfits, each with differing colours since they looked good in pretty much anything they wore.

“Looks good, hopefully they won’t get too damaged today.” Frost nodded and praised their outfits, simple but practical.

.....

Frost then grabbed hold of their hands and transported them all to the training room. Nanna and Loki were in awe once again, multiple hidden dimensions connected via space magic. The two of them may be slaves and have very little education and worldly knowledge but even they knew how magnificent something like this was. Their respect for Frost was now bordering upon worship.

“The plan for today is for you two to find out what weapons talents you have and to get some light exercise before calling it a night. Maya will be in charge of training so if its super hard and painful remember who to blam....ow!” Maya jabbed her elbow into Frost’s unprotected side before he could finish, causing the children to snigger. They knew he wasn’t hurt, that it was just a bit of fun.

“Don’t listen to that idiot, he’s got his own training to endure and won’t have time to worry about yours.” Maya smiled gently yet her words carried a significant chill. Frost shivered and felt a tinge of fear, whereas Nanna and Loki quickly stopped laughing and regained their determined looks. The real work was finally beginning and too be honest regardless of how much Maya planned to push them, they eagerly looked forward to it. Who didn’t want to garner strength and who would be a better teacher than someone like Maya.

On the way to the Dungeon, they had been let in on her secret, the fact that she was a super powerful Fenrir that would put even their original monster ancestors to shame. Practically at the very top of the food chain in Nova and unlike Frost they didn’t make the stupid comment about her not appearing very wolflike. This upped their love points with Maya greatly.

“That’s a good look the two of you have, hopefully you’ll be able to maintain it over the next few days.” Maya nodded, satisfied with their attitudes. With Frost silently standing at the side, no longer willing to tease his guardian any further, she removed the morphing metal from her spatial ring.

“This special substance is called morphing metal and will help us to identify what kind of weapon or weapons suit you best.” Maya demonstrated as she did for Frost on how it worked. She created solid images in her mind of different weapons and the grey blob of metal responded by changing its shape. The morphing metal wasn’t omnipotent and would only grant a solid answer if the subject had strong talent for a specific weapon and they could generate a solid image. Thus, it wouldn’t work for races that lacked a high level of intelligence or those who were either unskilled in using weapons or equal in multiple. In those cases, the blob would remain unchanged if the person lacked no defining skill in weapons. And with being skilled in multiple weapons it would turn into a congealed mass that had characteristics of all those weapons. Frost was a case of perfect solution, he had significantly high skill in the glaive with no deformation.

Seeing that Loki and Nanna understood she literally tore the blob of metal in half tossing a piece to each of them. Nanna and Loki scrambled to catch the blobs of grey metal with a bit of difficulty, they weren’t that strong so when they caught it, they almost lost their balance.

“Now I want the two of you to close your eyes for me, try to empty your minds of all excess thoughts.” Maya spoke with a soothing melodious tone that seemed to cause the children to enter a calm state. They obeyed without question, closing their eyes, and erasing all excess thoughts, feeling the large blob of metal in their hands as they relaxed.

Maya then gave Frost a look in which she received a nod, the next part would be pretty scary for ones so young but the best recourse.

Suddenly the room was flooded with a fierce and violent burst of killing intent, primarily aimed towards the kids but Frost suffered a strong blow as well. His skin broke out in goosebumps, his heart tightened, and his teeth started to chatter against one another. Primal fear of a superior predator, his body was letting him know that he was prey unable to resist. The difference between their strengths was magnitudes more than between his and Ryuu’s. He pitied the maid that had to suffer from such an attack, no wonder she became incoherent.

Though his body was deadly afraid he could still retain his thoughts but what about Nanna and Loki. Against the wishes of his body, he tried to move to protect them subconsciously, this intent felt far too powerful to be endured by ones so young and small.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Nanna and Loki both screamed in dreaded fear as the killing intent washed over them. The two of them couldn’t control their bodies as they evacuated their bladders, staining their training outfits. The fell to the ground as their knees turned to jelly yet their eyes remained open, this wasn’t enough to break them, greatly startling Frost who wanted to admonish Maya for going too far.

Maya quickly withdrew her oppressive killing intent, returning back to her friendly and gentle visage as though it never happened. She only released her killing intent for a few seconds yet for the victims it felt like minutes if not tens of minutes. Nanna and Loki were on the floor beside one another shaking yet in their hands were metallic weapons, it worked. Maya was also genuinely surprised by their capabilities; she purposely used a stronger dose of killing intent than required because she wanted to test something. Nanna and Loki given their past were sure to be able to endure far more fear and pressure than regular children but more than that was their bloodline. From her earlier investigation Maya could tell that their phoenix bloodline was very pure and originated from a very powerful phoenix and believed that she could induce a reaction from their dormant blood with enough pressure.

She was right. Although Frost and the kids couldn’t perceive it Maya could, their phoenix bloodline came to life slightly to combat against her killing intent and what little they displayed was impressive in her eyes.

‘They really are special’ Maya internally remarked with a proud smile. That blood even gave her chills, and she was a Fenrir. Her young master really discovered something special, his luck was definitely through the roof, almost rivalling his looks.

Another interesting feature was the weapons that appeared for the two of them. Luckily, they each had latent skills with a particular weapon and one of them just so happened to match Maya’s.

Within Nanna’s small hands was a large hammer equal to her in size, whereas for Loki. The morphing metal had turned into two daggers that were crossed before him in defence. One could easily learn from Maya given her talents in regards to using hammers where as the other could make full use of the high grade daggers Frost retrieved from Shadow.