"Not again," Alex yelled in annoyance as he stepped on a twig once again, alerting the direwolf. It immediately lunged at him. It was quite big. Direwolves were actually subspecies of the Jotnar. Alex thought that made no sense. They were literal wolves, just bigger and a lot scarier. According to Gullveig, direwolves were one of the strongest Jotunheim species.
Alex had spent a month learning about Jotunheim and the rest of the galaxy, and getting stronger. He wouldn't admit this, but most of it, he spent procrastinating. Gullveig never made him do anything. She merely helped him when he asked, that too when she felt like doing so. This further made him get lazier. His initial shock and depression had completely been washed away by time, and he was back to being retarded.
Alex groaned as the direwolf seized his prosthetic arm within its jaws. Alex had gotten metallic arm and leg implants thanks to Gullveig. They had apparently been manufactured in Nidavelir, the planet of the dwarves. The dwarves were masters of technology and engineering, Alex had learned. They had been serving Asgard as their vassals for ages.
Alex took the opportunity to stab the direwolf in the eyes with a knife. All of his equipment had been lost and replaced by new Dwarven equipment. He had lost Daisy in the boat attack and Billy in Antarctica. According to Gullveig, his new equipment was actually rather cheap and of low quality. They were, regardless, far superior to his old equipment, which made Alex really excited about going to Nidavelir.
As the direwolf let out a howl of pain, Alex put Billy in its mouth and fired an explosive round, bursting open its head. He had named his new pair of pistols Billy and Valerie, because Daisy "had betrayed him and did not deserve to be respected."
"You're still weak," Alex heard a voice he had gotten accustomed to.
"You're weak! How about you try to kill a fucking wolf five times your own size? Bet you can't do that, can you?" Alex started to whine like an angry child.
"You're the one that said you're here to annihilate my race, and you can barely even take on a mere direwolf."
"Mere? You said they are one of the strongest species out here."
"One of them is."
"What?"
"You'll find out."
"Whatever, I'm hungry."
"Pack up, you're going to the city."
"Don't you mean we're going to the city?"
"No."
"You're kicking me out."
"I'm kicking you out."
"Okay," Alex said calmly as he proceeded to head towards Gullveig's house. He quietly packed some stuff, which included most of Gullveig's rations and every scrap of metal he could find.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Resourceful packing."
"Are you a child?"
"Are you a child?" Alex repeated in a mocking voice.
"This is what I get in return for saving your life?"
"Well, guess who didn't ask you to save his life? M-" he was interrupted by an enormous blast, followed by him being thrown out of the house by a surge of energy.
"You're testing my patience, human. I said it would take a month for you to heal. It has been a month. You have healed. You wanted to get stronger, you have been hunting beasts in the wastelands without any restrictions. I provided you with mechanical limbs as well as a mask because 'it looked cool.' I explained to you how this planet, alien to you, operates. I've done more than enough for a pathetic creature such as you. Now begone."
"Whatever, I have Billy and Dais- I mean Valerie with me. They're better than you," he muttered under his breath as he walked away from her and the house, towards the woodlands. It was time he went to the Coalition's territories by himself, he decided.
Alex had learned a lot about the universe he didn't know anything about in the past month, especially about Jotunheim. The Coalition was very different from the wastelands, he had realized. Gullveig hadn't allowed him to go to the Coalition lands, as she claimed it would draw unnecessary attention to have a human enter those territories. But from what he had heard, the Coalition was an advanced civilization. Their society wasn't too different from the Aesir. The Coalition was, however, a federalism.
Jotunheim once used to be just a wasteland with an anarchist system. Numerous tribes fought for domination until eight influential Jotnar subdued the rest of the Jotnar, forming eight tribes. They then signed a treaty and formed the Coalition, separating it from the wastelands. The Coalition had a king who was "elected" every five years by a death battle. Each of the seven tribe leaders, besides the king, who was also a tribe leader themselves, had the right to challenge the king to a battle to the death with the throne of Jotunheim at stake. The current tribe leaders were called Thrym, Hymir, Aegir, Skadi, Utgard Loki, Godmund, Hrym, and Angrboda, with Thrym being the current king. There was, however, controversy surrounding his kingship. The previous king, Thiazi, had not been beaten by him in the challenge, he had been killed by the Aesir. Thrym actually won using a transparent democratic election, which was used as a placeholder for the traditional challenge. Thrym wasn't charismatic or respectable, but he was powerful, and despite being intelligent beings, the Jotnar valued power above all. This year would be the year of the challenge, and rumors suggested that Skadi, the daughter of the late Thiazi, intended to challenge Thrym for the throne.
The landscape of Jotunheim was quite diverse. It actually resembled Midgard a lot. It consisted of woodland, swamps, rivers, lakes, deserts, plains, and mountains. The planet also had its very own ocean. The so-called "tribes" actually functioned as nations in reality, and the nearest one to Gullveig's residence had been the nation of Hymir. Hymir was the most neutral of the Jotun leaders, making his land a hub for trading. The nation was also a coastal one, making it a hotspot for sea trade as well.
Gullveig apparently didn't live too deep in the wastelands. Alex also realized that the so-called "border" between the wastelands and the Coalition was pretty arbitrary. The nation wasn't too far from Gullveig's house in the woodland. He wondered where exactly the portal had brought him when he first arrived on the planet and how Gullveig had brought him to her house. She had never spoken much about those things. She was a person of a few words. A lot of the time she wouldn't even give a response when Alex spoke to her.
Soon, Alex could see settlements. He knew he must have arrived at Hymir's nation, which apparently didn't have a name. According to Gullveig, Hymir simply didn't feel like giving it a name. The city he had arrived in was definitely a trading port. Alex realized Gullveig must have gotten his limb implants here.
He had been starving for hours now so he got into the nearest tavern he could find. The place was bustling with Jotnar. Alex walked up to the keeper and ordered "give me the best you got," realising he didn't have any money as he spoke these words.
"ዟጀዘገለሸመቀቸገየደተቀዠኸዠጀተገዐከቀየተ"
Alex had a second realisation as he heard these words, he had no idea what the fuck the guy said to him. He suddenly wondered how he had been able to communicate with Gullveig in English, did he really think they spoke English in Jotunheim? Yes he did. But before he could form a response to "ዟጀዘገለሸመቀቸገየደተቀዠኸዠጀተገዐከቀየተ," someone grabbed his neck from behind and threw him at the tavern walls with immense power. Alex had a third realisation as he felt a jolting pain in his body, the tavern walls were made of metal. "A human. The lord was right. There's an actual human in Jotunheim."
"What the fuck man?" Alex got up trying to shake off the pain. He looked at his attacker. It was a towering Jotun who also happened to be quite ripped. He wore a metallic mask covering the lower half of his face and carried a core-powered automatic shotgun on his back.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Skrymir, and fear not, dumb animal. I'm not here to kill you. You're far too precious to die in a place like this."