One hour later.
Ryan looked at the massive primitive canyon before him and fell silent.
After a while, Ryan's eye twitched. He looked at the Frost Giant beside him, who had the air of a lackey, and asked, "Shit, this is the palace of Laufey you were talking about, and my future palace?"
He wasn't swearing; the lackey Frost Giant beside him was actually named Shit.
This Frost Giant was also the first one to submit to Ryan, kneeling down at lightning speed earlier.
Because of this, Ryan took a liking to him and temporarily appointed him as the new King's assistant.
Facing Ryan's incredulous question, Shit nodded repeatedly:
"That's right, King. This is your palace. Not only will you live here, but the Queen you inherited from the former King Laufey, as well as Laufey's other Royal Concubines, are all here. You can enjoy them to your heart's content, hehe..."
(In some versions, Frost Giants have no gender distinction and are hermaphroditic, but in most legends, there is a gender distinction. This Universe is set to have gender distinctions.)
Ryan:... "Damn it, what a dump. I'm quitting. I want to go back to Earth. Where are your spaceships?"
Asking him to live in a cave and sleep with Frost Giant women whose bodies could swallow his head? Forget it!
Whoever wants to be this new King can have it!
Shit didn't understand why the new King's face suddenly darkened when faced with such tempting, top-tier conditions, but he hurried to grab Ryan and pleaded:
"King, you can't leave! Now that His Majesty Laufey is dead, if you just walk away, the Frost Giant race will lose its backbone. Civil war will surely break out, leading to internal division and countless casualties!"
"Are you dissatisfied with something? The palace? The women? We can rebuild everything for you and re-select whatever you like!"
Seeing Shit pulling him back when he wanted to leave, Ryan couldn't help but sigh. The Frost Giant philosophy of 'might makes right' was truly deeply rooted in their hearts.
Even though he was an outsider, because he was strong enough and his brutal methods aligned with the Frost Giant culture, they really couldn't bear to let a powerhouse like him leave.
However, Ryan now understood why Odin, despite defeating Laufey and even seizing the Frost Giants' ultimate treasure, the casket of ancient winters, didn't station troops in Jotunheim like America would, or simply rule the Frost Giants himself.
It was simply because... the living conditions of the Frost Giant race were way too damn miserable!
He previously thought that these Frost Giants only wore leather loincloths because their special constitutions made them immune to the cold and they just preferred dressing that way.
But now it seemed it was purely because the Frost Giant race was too poor!
In his life, he had never heard of a royal palace being in a canyon, let alone a king living in a cave!
Never mind Odin, who was used to living in a magnificent golden palace; even an Earthling like him, who lived in an ordinary small house, couldn't stand it one bit!
Seeing Ryan fall silent again when faced with a difficult question, Shit couldn't help but get anxious:
"King, our people truly revere and need you. With just one word from you, we would even conquer Asgard for your sake. We only beg that you please do not abandon us and leave, okay?"
Ryan rolled his eyes. Conquer Asgard? Yeah right, in your dreams... However, Ryan still patted Shit on the shoulder, retracted the small amount of Symbiote parasitizing the other's body, and felt that his words just now were entirely sincere. He sighed:
"Originally, seeing these crappy conditions, I really didn't want to bother with you anymore, but who told me I'm so kind-hearted..."
"So, go. Go and gather everyone of the Frost Giant race for me. I'm going to implement reforms. As my subjects, you can be bloodthirsty and warlike, but you absolutely cannot be backward, and you certainly cannot live like savages eating raw meat and drinking blood!"
His earlier talk of leaving was just an angry outburst.
Having finally conquered a race of super-soldiers, how could he just up and leave?
Seeing that Ryan didn't plan to leave, Shit's face became excited. He nodded like a woodpecker and issued orders to the army of Frost Giants that had returned with them, sending them off in different directions to gather all their clansmen.
Naturally, the Frost Giant race didn't just consist of the army Laufey led on the ice plains, nor did they all live in this canyon.
Aside from Laufey's royal line, there were many tribal branches of Frost Giants distributed in different locations.
In fact, on this legendary Planet of giants, Jotunheim, there wasn't just the Frost Giant race. On the other side of Jotunheim, in a warm region where it was like spring all year round, there existed another giant race: the Mountain Giants.
However, compared to the bloodthirsty and warlike Frost Giants, the Mountain Giants were more peace-loving and disliked conflict.
Additionally, the individual strength of Mountain Giants was no weaker than that of Frost Giants, and the spring-like region they inhabited was completely unsuitable for Frost Giants. Thus, although the two races shared a Planet, they rarely interacted, minding their own business.
After hearing this news from his lackey Shit, Ryan had already planned to find time to visit the Mountain Giants.
Since he was now the King of Jotunheim, there naturally couldn't be two tigers on one mountain. The 'Ice Tiger' Laufey had already been killed by him, so there was no need to keep the 'Mountain Tiger' around either, right?
But there was no rush for that.
He had just begun ruling the Frost Giants; he had to set the reforms for them in order first, then head back to Earth for a bit.
After all, he only intended to use the Frost Giants as his super-soldier breeding ground; he didn't plan to actually stay here forever as a native king!
One month later... At the site of the original canyon, the primitive canyon that served as Laufey's palace had vanished without a trace, replaced by a massive, magnificent ancient European-style ice-crystal palace!
The palace was constructed from a special ice crystal found only in Jotunheim, called 'Frost Divine Ice'.
Although 'Frost Divine Ice' lacked the hardness of Asgard's 'uru metal' (which was even stronger than Vibranium) and its magical properties...
...Frost Divine Ice was still as hard as iron and had an extremely high melting point. Most importantly, it wasn't as precious or rare as uru metal; it was abundant!
It was essentially everywhere in the mountains and underground!
And this palace was built using the Frost Divine Ice contained within the original canyon.
The palace covered a full 100,000 square meters, including a Grand Hall, a Royal Hall, and dozens of sleeping chambers.
The Grand Hall was for councils, the Royal Hall for his work, and the sleeping chambers, naturally, for sleeping... As for why there were dozens of them, the Frost Giants building the new palace said, "Dunno, the new King told us to build it this way, so we did..." And despite the many chambers, this massive palace was actually inhabited by only two people, who mostly shared just one chamber.
One was, of course, the new King of the Frost Giants, Ryan Parker.
As for the other...