:: Kai ::

The two of us walked side by side down the large dusty road. The road wasn’t made out of stone or cement; it was merely hard compacted dirt.

‘I guess they cheapen out the farther it gets from the capital…typical slave king.’ He thought angrily.

Shaking my head I decided to strike up a conversation with Shiroe. We still had a bit of a ways until we reached Lachlin.

“So what’s Lachlan like?” I asked.

She jumped for a second and I realized that I must have scared her. She must have been zoning out because of the long walk.

“Lachlan…umm. Well its nice. You’ll find out when we get there.” She blushed as she turned away.

I was puzzled by her reaction and her words.

Recently, she is a lot less outgoing than she was before. Ever since she heard about my class she has been…shy? I’m not sure how to describe it.

“Okay.” I muttered somewhat sarcastically in response to her vagueness.

We walked another few minutes in silence until another question popped up into my head.

“So what’s the dungeon like?” I exclaimed.

She jumped again at the sound of my voice. Seriously, what’s with this girl.

“Uhh…uhh. It’s nice, I guess.” She spoke softly.

I stopped sudden and turned to her. Grabbing hold of her shoulders I took the chance to look straight into her eyes.

“Alright, what’s wrong?” I asked quickly. I held onto her so that she couldn’t pull away.

Her face lit up like a Christmas light and she started to stutter.

“I…uhh…dd…don’t…I’m…f…fine.”

I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say and just as I was about to ask…I noticed the glint of steel flashing towards me.

“Unhand the Valkyrie, YOU BEAST!” A female knight roared.

I threw my arms around Shiroe and the two of us rolled away from the woman’s blade.

“W…what are you doing now….YOU ANIMAL!” The female knight grew flustered.

I had no idea what she was talking about until I looked down and noticed that I was right on top of Shiroe.

“I’m sorry.” My face was flushed as I pulled myself off of her.

“You shall die for taking the Valkyries chastity, YOU FIEND!” The female knight kept yelling things as she ran after me with her sword.

I wasn’t exactly looking forward to being hit…so I ran in the opposite direction.

:: Shiroe ::

Kai and I were walking side by side on our way to the trade post, Lachlan. I couldn’t bring myself to look at his face anymore…every time I heard his voice now. My face went beat red.

“So what’s Lachlan like?” He asked.

I jumped at the sound of his beautiful melodic voice. The sound of him singing reverberated in my head.

“Uhh…uhh. It’s nice, I guess.” She spoke softly.

I couldn’t think of what to say to him. I felt like an idiot and I had to look away out of sheer embarrassment.

I pretended to look at the tree’s that ran along the edge of the road like they were the most fascinating things in the world, but in reality my head was full of thoughts of Kai.

“So what’s the dungeon like?” He exclaimed.

I tensed up…this was going to be a long journey. Something like this had never happened to me before.

I was the one that made boys fall head over heals for me. I made them stutter and blush…this was humiliating.

“Uhh…uhh. It’s nice, I guess.” I spoke quietly.

‘Damnit…damnit. His fricken voice is like a vacuum that sucks all the thoughts out of my head. And those adorable facial expressions.’ I thought to myself.

Suddenly I felt hands on my shoulders as he pulled me around.

‘Whats going on…is he going to kiss me and whisper sweet nothings into me ear…no my heart isn’t ready.’ I thought as my mind swirled with chaos.

“Alright, what’s wrong?” He stated.

My mind was still reeling and the only words that came out of my mouth were, “I…uhh…dd…don’t…I’m…f…fine.”

I was so entranced by him that I didn’t even notice that we were being attacked. One second he was holding my shoulders and the next he was riding on top of me.

‘I’m not ready for this…please be gentle…no wait I can’t…but look at him.’ My thoughts battled with each other…it was like a civil war in my mind.

I took a deep breath and a few seconds to collect myself. Looking up at Kai…he suddenly jumped back and I saw the flash of a steel blade.

“What the…” I noticed the interloper and she seemed somewhat familiar.

Kai was avoiding the knights attacks as he backed away…that female knight, why does she seem so familiar.

I heard her yell for the first time and suddenly it all made sense.

“Zrelda…STOP!” I screamed as I stood up. Zrelda, a.k.a. the female knight, turned towards me with a confused look.

“I’m just trying to kill this man that was touching you?” She phrased it like a question.

“That man is my friend, Kai. My party was looking for a fourth member…remember?” I retorted.

:: Kai ::

I was finally able to take a breath, because Shiroe started to yell at the female knight and was able to clear up the situation.

I found out by listening to the conversation that Shiroe knew the female knight named Zrelda.

“This is Kai…like I said before.” Shiroe motioned towards me as she was introducing me.

“Kai, this is Zrelda. She is a knight of Valkyria.” Shiroe stated.

“Its nice to meet you, sort of. I’m not usually a fan of people who try to kill me.” I muttered the last bit of my sentence.

Zrelda gave me a cold and menacing look before she spoke.

“I’m sorry that I mistook you for a vagabond…although you look the part, fiend.” Her apology to me was barely an apology at all…I could tell that she didn’t like me.

Zrelda sheathed her sword and turned back to Shiroe. “I can’t believe you are going to allow such a weak looking man to be in your party. A Valkyrie should maintain a better image.”

I was getting pissed off, because of her words and Shiroe started to take notice of my facial expression.

“Its fine…and he’s incredibly strong, despite his attire. Can you guide us back to the town Zrelda.” Shiroe said.

I was still angry, but even I knew that my clothing was a little torn. I needed to pick up some new gear before we took on that dungeon that I came here for.

I had quite a few questions…like what the hell a Valkyrie was and who was Valkyria. I had a few ideas, because of the info I had from my own world but I didn’t want to risk stirring anything up with Zrelda. So I decided to wait until I was alone with Shiroe again.

We walked in silence for about an hour until we approached the large town…or should I say small city. The distinction between the two was unclear.

Approaching the gates, I noticed that the two guards were female. I wondered if this so called Valkyrie thing was based in Lachlan. Most normal towns would have male guards or at least that’s what I’ve read.

Zrelda and Shiroe easily passed through the gates, but the two guards crossed their pole arms in front of me.

“Where is your identification, pig!” One of the female guards yelled.

Shiroe quickly turned around and said, “He’s with me…Greta…Hyr. Lower your weapons.”

The two guards look confused. “But he looks like a homeless vagabond. You shouldn’t spend time with one such as him, Lady Valkyrie.”

Zrelda was smiling wickedly because of how the guards were treating me.

“I said its fine. Now let him through.” Shiroe was starting to get angry and the guards finally gave in…unwillingly.

The two guards looked at me with hate filled eyes as they let me through.

“What was that about?” I asked Shiroe.

“Oh, right….you wouldn’t know.” Shiroe muttered as she forgot to bring it up during their travels together.

“A stupid little boy like you doesn’t know of the great Valkyria?” Zrelda insulted me as she spoke and my patience was starting to wear thin.

“Ignore her, but that is the typical reaction to men in this region. Once you pass through the Bog of the Barons you leave the Kingdom of Asterot. We are now in Valhalla. Valhalla’s military consist mostly of female knights who serve the goddess Valkyria. Since we serve a female goddess and woman are mostly in power. Men are considered second-class citizens. Almost like slaves.”

‘This country is even stranger than the one I just came from.’ I thought depressed.

“That’s pretty messed up. What is Valkyria the goddess of?” I asked. I didn’t want to talk anymore about how badly men were treated as I could already picturing my time here being…terrible.

“Valkyria is the most powerful goddess. She is the goddess of equality, beauty, and strength.” Zrelda chimed in with her superior attitude.

“A goddess of equality that belittles men…sounds like she’s the goddess of feminism.” I joked.

Shiroe just rolled her eyes, but Zrelda seemed to get really pissed off. “What is this feminism…it sounds as if you disrespect our goddess!”

She drew her sword to attack, but Shiroe stepped in the way again. “He doesn’t know about the customs and culture here. Give me some time to tell him about it before you gut him in the street.”

Zrelda scoffed before she returned her blade to her sheath. The female knight turned and stomped off down the street.

“You shouldn’t make comments like that here. You might end up getting executed or even worse…enslaved. The laws of Valhalla mostly support woman.”

“What’s this Valkyrie business about then?” I asked finally. It was a question that I had wanted an answer to for a while.

The people in the street were all stopping to gawk at the man who spoke openly with one of the Valkyries.

“Not here.” Shiroe spoke quickly as she tugged on my leather vest.

She pulled me along and into a nearby tavern. The tavern was mostly empty since it was the middle of the day.

We took a seat in one of the corner booths. It allowed us a little more privacy than it did outside.

“So?” I asked again.

“S…sorry. To many ears outside.” She stuttered again.

“Phoebe, Hilda, and I ended up running into a small platoon of Valkyran Knights when we left the Elven Forest. We ended up staying with them for a while and we gathered some fame and increased our reputation a bit. But it wasn’t until we came to Lachlan that we got the Valkyrie title. We figured that we could get some skills and good weapons if we joined up with the Valkyran Order. During the ceremony instead of just being blessed by some purified water, the goddess descended in human form. I was as shocked as you are right now….trust me. Anyway she bessed us directly and gave us a title. The Three Valkyries.”

Shiroe stopped to take a breath and it gave me a few seconds to take in and process the information that I was hearing. They had met with a real goddess…and gotten a new title and blessing.

“The title gives us a few stat boosts, but mostly it gives us a good reputation and authority in Valhalla. Similar to that of a Knight. It’s a growing title. The more good things we do for Valkyria…the more authority we gain.” Shiroe added on.

It was my first time hearing of a title that gave someone so much power. My previous two titles gave me nothing in comparison.

Though they still considered me as Thak, even though I lost my apprentice title.

“More importantly…who are Phoebe and Hilda?” I presumed they were Jillian and Gwen, but I didn’t know which one was which.

“Is that all you got out of that?” She looked at me angrily.

“Uh…no?” I said sheepishly.

“Baka.” She hit me in the side of the head again.

“I’m glad to see your back to your old self.” I grinned as I rubbed the side of my head.

Shiroe seemed to blush red again before answering my question. “Hilda is the healer of the group…although she likes to be called ‘Battle Priestess’. She wields a large war hammer.”

Shiroe put air quotes around the term battle priestess and then rolled her eyes. “Hilda’s name is Jillian and she’s well…not really the quiet beauty that people think she is in real life. She’s really eccentric here.”

“Phoebe is Gwen as you could of guessed and she’s a dual wielding assassin. Although she dabbles in Alchemy. Jill calls her the Alchemic Assassin. She’s pretty much the same here as she is in school. Aloof and tends to not understand peoples actions that well.” Shiroe laughed.

“And lastly…well you already know I’m a mage who wants to specialize in fire, but you haven’t told me much about how you fight?”

“Uhh…okay. I’m a bard. I specialize in singing and I stab stuff. That pretty much sums it up.” I spoke mildly.

“That’s not….” Shiroe was cut off before she had the chance to finish her sentence.

“SHIIIIROOOOOOOOO!” A high-pitched and loud female voice interrupted the middle of our conversation. The moment I heard that voice I knew that I was about to meet another ‘interesting’ person.

Shiroe rolled her eyes. “Kai meet Hilda.”

Chapter 18: Status

Status WindowName:KaiAlignment:NeutralLevel:20Class:BardRace:CherubGender:MaleTitlesSongscryerFame:120Infamy:950-Health:500 / 500Health Regen:4.5 / SecMana:650 / 650Mana Regen:6.0 / SecStamina:750 / 750Stamina Regen:6.0 / Sec-Strength:44 (+47)Agility:53Vitality:58Intelligence:59 (+5)Wisdom:69 (+5)Endurance:78Luck:37 (+47)-Attack:10-15Defense:40 (+70)Physical ResistancesSlashing:25 (+42)Piercing:25 (+42)Crushing:30 (+42)Elemental ResistancesFire:10%Water:10%Wind:10%Earth:10%Light:10%Darkness:10%

Skills/Abilities:

Spoiler : Iron Skin: Intermediate Lvl 4 (8%)

Willpower III: Intermediate Lvl 3 (33%)

Seven Pathways Meditation: Novice Lvl 9 (88%)

Mana Manipulation: Intermediate Lvl 1 (74%)

Voice Manipulation: Novice Lvl 6 (13%)

Music Mastery: Novice Lvl 7 (42%)

-Song of Renewal: Intermediate Lvl 2 (4%)

-Song of the Slumbering: Novice Lvl 6 (45%)

-Song of Sorrow: Novice Lvl 3 (26%)

Sword Mastery: Novice Lvl 6 (45%)

-Rapier Mastery: Intermediate Lvl 2 (73%)

+Rapid Thrust: Novice Lvl 6 (12%)

Illusion Magic Mastery: Novice Lvl 3 (47%)

-Disguise: Novice Lvl 3 (13%)

-Glamour: Novice Lvl 3 (17%)

-Clone: Novice Lvl 1 (0%)

Equipment:

Spoiler : Swift Iron Rapier (10-15) Atk – (16/30) Durability

Torn Leather Vest (+10) Defense (-2) Luck – (11/15) Durability

Mangled Cloth Pants (+5) Defense (-1) Luck - (5/10) Durability

Rugged Leather Boots (+7) Defense (+3) Agility – (9/12) Durability

Necklace of the Black King (+10%) Magic Resistance – (25/25) Durability