Dungeon of Niflheim

Druakai professionally removed each and every frost drakeling from his employees, being very careful not to hurt them and preserve their 'fragile' teeth.

After using his [calm] skill on each of them the vicious little demons stopped trying to eat the ranchers though they still growled and occasionally swiped at them whenever they tried to get close. There would be no picking up and cuddling these babies.

"Alright how about we get you brats some food." Druakai clapped his hands drawing the attention of the drakelings before calling for Ruby. A moment later the red-tailed snow leopard appeared from behind with a chunk of blood dripping boar meat in her mouth.

The 6 drakelings quickly redirected their attention to the boar meat. Its tantalisingly meaty smell caused their stomachs to rumble with desire and their mouths to salivate. They couldn't resist such flagrant temptation.

"Ruby" Druakai softly called Ruby's name when the six kids suddenly started clamouring over one another for the meat.

"Grrrrrr" Ruby growled threateningly in response, causing the drakelings to stop in their tracks. Their primal instincts warning them of danger.

Druakai smiled and nodded his head towards his partner who proceeded to lower the meat to the floor all while keeping up her intimidation. The drakelings needed to learn who was in charge and follow orders.

Druakai waited for a few seconds, stretching out the limits of the drakelings patience before ordering Ruby to step aside and retract her intimidating presence. He then muttered the golden word "eat". In response the six drakelings charged ahead and began ripping apart the bloody boar meat with their razor-sharp fangs and claws.

The two young monster ranchers winced at the sight, if they weren't wearing their improvised soft armours they'd be no different from that chunk of boar meat.

"Stopping them from eating food when it's directly in front of them helps to create order and places me as the alpha, the only position they can understand." Druakai knew how to be intimidating when he needed to be. The drakelings wouldn't respond to kindness or affection at this point in their development, it just wasn't in their nature. Only by being the alpha could a bond be established.

Unfortunately it was clear that his two subordinates lacked the necessary qualities to be alphas.

"Raising wild monsters seems to be far more labour intensive than I first thought it'd be." Frost recognised that he'd had it easy when it came to his monster populace. The dungeon system automatically made any monster he created loyal to him, preinstalling a defined and strong bond that clearly categorised him as the master and them the servant.

All the usual time consuming and patient demanding work that monster breeders such as Druakai needed to do in order to instil these two traits was thus unnecessary. It certainly saved a great deal of time and effort but at what cost?

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"Yeah it can be, but the results are more than satisfying." Druakai rubbed Ruby's head with affection. He loved his job and wouldn't change it for the world.

"I'll need you and Kiba to act as alphas so these two can do their jobs without worry." Druakai disappointingly pointed to the two monster ranchers with his thumb. He thought that hiring more employees would decrease his mountainous workload but so far the opposite held true.

These young rancher weren't quite up to his professional standards therefore they required supervision and or aid when it came to the more demanding jobs.

"Daki managed quite well so I'm sure you'll be fine, Kiba should also know how to behave. This wouldn't be his first rodeo in dealing with aggressive pups after all." Upon hearing Druakai's praise, Kiba puffed out his chest and donned a leave it to me expression.

While Frost enthusiastically responded with "I'll do my best."

Over the next few hours Frost assisted the two young monster ranchers in taking care of the 6 drakelings, work which turned out to be no easy task for the young dungeon core. Despite his strength the little monsters hardly listened to him, paying no heed to his orders. Unless he actively used some of his aura they simply looked at him as if he was an idiot.

Just because Frost was strong and occasionally scary it didn't mean that he could order them around willy nilly. It was clear that in their minds there was a stark difference between himself and Druakai. The latter imposed respect and order whereas he could only inspire fear with his superior strength.

'Am I just not cut out for being a monster alpha or is it because of his profession?' Frost tried many different methods throughout his shift but none of them seemed to match Druakai's influence. Kiba who was a supposed pro at handling arrogant brats actually fell flat on his face during their first interaction, 2 drakelings even dared to bite his nose when he tried to threaten them.

Frost had to physically restrain his partner when he moved to dish out some corporal punishment in revenge. Eventually however Kiba regained his honour and ended up commanding the drakelings' respect. He had grown a little too domesticated during his time with Frost and his family, losing some of wild flare. Once he dusted that off the baby drakes started to respond in an appropriate manner.

"Well now that you've gotten to know them a little better what do you think? Cute right?" Druakai returned with Ruby a few hours later to relieve him of his duties.

Frost gave Druakai the stink eye. "We'll have to agree to disagree on that matter." All he saw was a group of little devils that had only two things on their minds, eating and killing. They were a far cry from the developed Kiba and Ruby.

"Hahahahaha perhaps I set the bar a little too high, 1st generation spawners are always a little more wild than their later generation counterparts." Druakai scratched the back of his neck, feeling a little guilty. He practically tossed Frost into the deep end when it came to monster breeding.

"Anyway, thanks for the help brother, you really lightened my workload." The giant orc nevertheless patted Frost's shoulders and thanked him for his efforts.

"No problem, happy to help brother."

"Yarrow sent me a message a few minutes ago saying he's finished clearing your visit with the school's headteacher. They're more than happy to welcome someone as accomplished as you for a visit."

"That's great, guess I'll head there next then." Frost really looked forward to visiting one of Kranor's highest ranked schools. The amount he could learn from such an honoured institution would certainly help his own designs in the future. Seeing Sam and Lola's kids again was just an added bonus.

'I wonder what I should talk about.' He was expected to impart some wisdom onto the students in exchange for his visit. He could talk about his battle experiences or his training schemes but given that they're still children he'd have to censor some of the goriness while also keeping hold of their interests. 'I manage to keep Nanna and Loki entertained so it shouldn't be too difficult.'

"Here, take these with you. I'm sure you've gotten rather peckish after dealing with the drakelings." Druakai handed over a few slices of dried jerky. "I smoked and seasoned these myself, a speciality of sorts here at the monster ranch, hopefully they're to your liking."

"Thanks, if the taste is as good as the smell then I'm sure they'll be delicious." Kiba who was waiting at the side had already started slobbering, he used to love eating Druakai's jerky. Thankfully his adoptive father didn't forget about him.

"And here's your portion Kiba." He pulled out a much larger helping of jerky from behind his back. A few slices were immediately inserted into the young tiger's mouth while remainder was given to Frost to hold.

"Say hi to the kids for me." After those parting words the massive orc turned around and headed back to work. He still had a lot to do if he was going to be able to attend the grand celebration later today.

Keen to visit the school Frost leaped onto Kiba's back before taking a bite of his jerky.

"Mmm that's some pretty good stuff." He quickly devoured an entire slice before pulling out a second.

"Garow"

"You've finished already, fine here but go slow." Kiba had finished his mouthful of several Kiba sized pieces and demanded that Frost hand him another helping. The two partner thus slowly made their way towards the school on the fourth floor while eating their jerky.

Though it couldn't be considered a lunch or even a meal it was a pretty filling snack, they wouldn't have to worry about running out of energy anytime soon.

They easily made it up to the fourth floor but navigating through it was rather difficult. The vast majority of people lived on this floor after all so the amount of traffic and built up areas was obviously going to be much higher than other floors. Kiba struggled to move gracefully through the streets even in the lanes designated for carriages and monster mounts.

Thankfully those passing were understanding and more than helpful when he asked for directions.

"So that's Kranor's elementary institute of education, or Kranor elementary for short."