The next couple days passed in nearly the same fashion as my first battle, though I didn't get any more trophies. Apparently they can be quite rare. And strangely enough i was very quickly enjoying myself and looking forward to the dungeon crawl.

Asgard had many areas that had to be patrolled and the roots of Yggdrasil. And that was our dungeon. Very rarely in the area we were going to did anything very powerful occur. Mostly just lesser creatures found their way into these roots as the opening are more narrow than some others.

I had taken to just carrying the axe with me and so there i was everyone else had armor of some kind and weapons. I had an axe and a red checkered bathrobe. When i played DnD this would have been a horrible group for most things. No healers, no one doing magic at all. But then if we died we were reborn at the hall every night.

The Root we entered looked more like a cave than a root but in the land of myth who am I to complain. Inside it was hollow, the root material was as hard as stone with small pieces sometimes breaking under our steps. It was somewhere around 8 foot and mostly round. Giving us barely enough room for one person.

Thomas the man who had killed me on the first day in Valhalla would be in the front carrying a massive shield like 4 foot around massive, beside him was Gregg the man I'd killed on my first day. The next 2 would be walking behind Them carrying spears ready to annoy anyone silly enough to confront us. I was in the rear. Since I only had the axe, spatula and my bathrobe, i was going to be in the rear. I had a backpack that was filled with food, drink, and various items the team thought they might need on the trip. Yes, I was deemed to be the pack mule.

We moved slowly forward. Taking it literally one step at a time. Everyone else had been down through here. The inhabitants of this area were warriors who didn't show respect in life. Not necessarily to Odin but to anything in general. Odin I had learned didn't require you to be bound to him. He respected many things. Wisdom, a strong arm, and thankfully a joke. The joke was why I was let in. I had made Odin laugh.

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These cursed warriors were the slain who had defiled corpses or caused harm to others without care, these were the rapists and murderers of my world. They had been given external punishment by the gods in general and part of that was to be used as training practice for warriors. Allowed to defend themselves but not given any training themselves.

This is also how we got our improved weapons and armor. Training grounds like this. Everything from sharpened sticks to advanced fire arms were available in various dungeons. When you entered you were only allowed to carry the weapons that you had shown you had the right to carry. Thomas and Gregg were both computer programmers in their mortal days and like me had never earned the right to carry more advanced weapons. Some who had been active military in their former lives could just automatically go to these dungeons to claim fire arms. Me. I'd never learned to use anything better than a kitchen knife in my mortal days. And so unless i picked up a rifle on the battle field or as a rare drop in a dungeon I'd never get the opportunity to train with one.

Shuffle, clang, shuffle, clang that was the only sounds that I could hear, so I started to sing.

That is the sound

Of the men working on the chaaaaiiinnn gaaannggg

Four heads rotated toward me and smiled and I kept on.

As I sang I could see their backs straighten. They appeared to be slightly less tired so I sang on.

Just as I had finished that song from around a bend I could see several zombies start to charge us. I needed a battle song. The first chant seemed to help them. Why not another.

Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise

Playin’ in the streets gonna be a big man some day

You got mud on yo’ face

You a big disgrace

Kickin’ your can all over the place

Singin’

The shields got a blue aura, the spear points gained a red hue. Where they hit the wounds started to split open and blacked. And I sang on.

As I finished the first I continued on into “We are the Champions”. I always considered them one song anyway. By the time I had completed it the spears where driving home and nearly obliterating the zombies they impaled.

I don't know how much time passed before we completed the dungeon I got lost in the song. But in this world I had found my place. As we left they told me about skalds. These warrior poets could turn the tide of a battle with their words alone.