Valkyrie's Lament

Chapter7

Inn of Desires II

Silver woke up still bone tired. She did not know what time of the day it was, until she look at the digital clock: 8 AM. With a groan, she covered herself up with the blanket. Morning time wasn’t one of her favorite times of the day, even though she had trained her body to wake up early, she still hated it with a passion.

Just five more minutes….The words were like a lullaby in her head. She fell asleep for another thirty minutes when she was forcefully awaken by a sweet smell of food that was drifting into the room from outside. Looking over towards the watch it was 8:30 AM, her body would not allow her to go to sleep and her mind was still sluggish. The only time she enjoyed such days were when she was sleeping at the inn, she never acted so spoiled with herself when she was outside, though right now her body was not used to waking up so early in the morning. All that supposed past training from her memory was gone, and instead she was where she was at right now.

Getting up, she noticed Jasper sleeping on the chair with his head bent over on a table. She could tell that he was not comfortable sleeping on his arm with his head slightly bent in a strange angle. Just watching him gave her a stiff neck and made her rub her own neck as she got up. The cold wooden floor shocked her awake from the little amount of sleepiness that she had. Walking over to him, she gently scoops him up and brought him towards the bed.

She couldn’t help but feel like she was taking care of a little brother. This feeling brought back old memories that she had forgotten, but seeing Jasper made her realize of those broken memories that she was buried deeply in her heart and mind. Such memory was of her little sister, twelve years old, came into this messed up game and was ruthlessly killed.

The thought made her heart cringe and she vowed that she would find her once again. This time she would be strong enough to help her sister safely pass through the games. Pulling back the covers, she gently placed Jasper underneath the cover allowing him to rest peacefully until they were ready to go out and explore.

Silver headed out the door and walked towards the front desk. She noticed that there were a large amount of people present in the morning. They were all sitting around the dining tables that were scattered around on one side of the inn. Some were looking at the quest, while the others were huddled together, talking loudly among themselves.

“Hello again.” Archarzel and Angelzel cheerfully replied. “How can I help you?”

“I would like to rent out the six days and a menu for the skills please.”

“Sure, that would be 10 Angel Coins.” Archarzel took the angel coins from her and a hologram appeared with all the skills that she asked for. “Please remember you are only allowed one magic slot and up to five free passes to stay out of the main games.”

People who were nearby turned towards in curiously when they saw the transaction between the angel and Silver. Nobody had a single Angel Coin on them, and when they saw some young women walk over with money, it made everyone wonder who she was. Some watched with envy and suspicion, others curious how she had gained so many, while a few were thinking about robbing her for what she had bought, but was quickly thrown out the window when one of the two angels stare straight at their faces. Somehow, they knew the dark thoughts rampaging in a couple players.

Silver was completely oblivious to the people’s gaze. She knew that she was being stared at, but none of them had strong enough ill intent that would spring her into action. In the beginning when she was trading, she felt the prickly sensation in the back of her mind warning her, but it was quickly disappeared when one of the two angels casted their gaze out towards the group of people. Instead, she took this time to look at the digital list in front of her.

1 Magic- page 1

….

250- Beginner Level Fire Magic (Z)

250- Beginner Level Water Magic (Z)

250- Beginner Level Earth Magic (Z)

250- Beginner Level Wind Magic (Z)

250- Beginner Level Sound Magic (Z)

250- Beginner Level Fire Void Magic (Z)

320- Dual Elemental skill Tree (Chance of succeeding is low. Once tried you will not be able to get an Elemental Skill Tree if failed. Z-)

…..

Silver looked up towards the angel and tapped at dual magic that she wanted. “This one please.”

“Are you sure customer? If you fail you won’t get another chance.” Archarzel frowned. “I suggest the higher single Elemental Tree.”

“No. It’s fine.” Silver knew from her memories that the first person in this group to buy the Dual Elemental Skill Tree would always succeed. One of the top ten human players told her of this secret. The single Elemental Skill that she got last time was Water Magic. It was a great skill, but she felt as if it didn’t bring out her true characteristics at all. She didn’t waver from her decision and took a chance.

“Okay then. I wish you luck.” Archarzel brilliantly smiled that could warm a dying man’s heart, but for Silver it did the opposite. Trusting an angel meant death, so her views of them weren’t in high favor.

Silver took out her ID card and placed it on the table. Two white orb appeared in front of her and melted inside her body. At the same time all the Angel Coins that she had were taken out of her ring and flew towards Archarzel. “Thank you for your patronage. Your skill set has been ingrained into your DNA. Every skill path is different for each person, you can see what you have gained in your ID Card. Please note, to upgrade your power and skills, you will need to either gather Red Crystals outside or buy them from this shop.”

“Thanks.” Silver nodded. “Can you show me the list for some camping items and first aids?”

“Sure.” She opened up another window that floated above the counter allowing for Silver to see.

Items- page 4

….

1- Sleeping bag

1- Soap (24 bars)

1- First Aid Kit

1- Lantern

1- Coal-

1- Fire Starter

1- Rope

1- Toilet roll (six pack)

3- Cooking Set

3- Tent

…..

And the list continued on with a couple more pages.

“I would like a tent, First Aid Kit, soap, two sleeping bag, and a rope.”

“Sure.” A blinding light appeared in front of Silver as a large amount of items were placed in front of her. She exchanged the Angel Coins and quickly stored away the items.

“Would that be all?”

“Yes, Thank you.”

“Have a wonderful day.” With a smile both angels bowed gracefully towards her.

Silver left the front desk and headed straight towards her room. Three men followed behind her and reached out to grab her shoulder.

“Well, hello pretty little lady.” An burly man with thick red beard stopped in front of her with a mischievous grin. “I was wondering how someone pretty like you were able to get so much Angel coins. Why don’t you share some for an old man like me?”

Silver sighed. She should’ve bought all her things the first time they came in the inn, but she wanted to wash up first and was to tired to come back out last night. She should’ve known something like this would happen.

“If you tell us, we would be glad to help protect you from now on.” The man glanced her up and down. He lightly licked his lips as if she was some kind of delicious food.

“Kill an Imp. Sell the horns and there you have it. You get Angel Coins.” Silver roughly spoke. She started to walk past the three man to the point of bumping them shoulder-to-shoulder. They were suddenly pushed back at her sudden intrusion and was quite surprised by her strength.

“Hey. Hey. Hey.” One of the grabbed her shoulder, but she did not budge nor turned around towards him. Instead, they were surprised by the amount of strength that she possessed. They had to pull her with more power than they usually do to get her to turn around.

“What the hell is going on?” One of them look over towards her, confused at the how his friend didn’t budge.

“Are you even trying?”

“I am.”

“You wuss. Let me do it.” The burly man pushed the skinny man’s hand aside. Just when he was about to grab onto her shoulder, Silver spun out from under his grip. Stumbling forward, the man caught himself before he hit the ground.

“Miss Archarzel!” Silver called out towards the angel. “These man are trying to harm me!” She feigned her plea towards the Angels. Her lips tightened, she glared at the three in front of her.

The three stood still in surprise, looking around to see if the twin angels made any move, but so far nothing like that happened.

“Why you little minx. You think you could trick us?”

“If I were you, I would run away now.” Silver calmly spoke.

Archarzel appeared out of thin air in front of the three men and Silver. Her smiling face was strained to the point where it look more diabolical than kind, when she stared down at the three men before her. Even though, the Archarzel didn’t reach up to their height, all three men felt a cold shiver run up and down their back. They all knew that one wrong move, and they would be overpowered in seconds.

“Well missy. You shouldn’t be standing in our way.” The burly man tried to cover his fear, and tried to act strong in front of her. He chuckled and reach over to try to move Archarzel out the way.

“Please, do not forget that there is no violence allowed here in this inn.” Archarzel glowered and stopped the man from touching her shoulder. Her hand wrapped around his thick calloused hand in a soft grip, but the man cried out from sheer pain. The other two eyes became wide, their body tensed, and they stepped back out of fear.

“If you fail to adhere to this rule you will be automatically transferred into Gate 6 for a day.” She let him go and with a push, he stumbled back towards the other two.

“G-gate 6?” The man coughed and massaged his hand. Fear lit his eyes when he look upon Archarzel. They knew that the angel strength weren’t normal and could be seen as a monster.

“Yes, it’s the highest level Gate that we have to offer at this moment.” Archarzel sinisterly smiled, her smile made everyone who was staring at her shudder. Even Silver felt unease and a bit of fear, she was glad that Archarzel’s smile wasn’t directed her way.  “Having a stroll, at your level, will get you killed.” She coldly replied.

“Let’s go.” The burly man pulled back his friend. He glared at Silver and spat.

Silver ignored them, she pushed down her fear as best as she could, and showed them an indifferent expression. “Thank you Miss Archarzel.” She curtly bowed, even though she disliked angels in general, it didn’t stop her from saying her thanks to her savior.

“No. No. I just don’t like to see violence here in my inn. Now, please do not cause trouble in the future.” Archarzel turned towards her and softly spoke. Even though she had spoke with kindness, Silver could hear the words being stressed out towards her, warning her that there were no second chances.

“I will try my best.” Silver whispered under her breathe. She knew that Archarzel had heard her.

“Great. Then have a blessed morning.” Archarzel disappeared and reappeared back in front of the counter.

Silver turned around and walked back to her room. She stretched and yawned, trying to get that uncomfortable feeling that she had just gone through a moment ago. When she entered, she noticed that Jasper was awake and eating.

“Silver? Where have you been?”

“Went to check out on something.” Silver walked over and sat on the opposite side of the table. She pulled out a couple of fruits and granola bar from her inventory and started to eat.

“Did you already have any thoughts of what mini-game to do?”

“Mini-game?”

“Well, I call them mini-games. I thought it sounded better that request or quest. I’m not into RPG types of games, so it doesn’t really stick with me.”

“I see…”

Silver was silent for a moment. She took a bite out of her granola bar. “Yea, I’ll be doing mini-game #3. Storm the castle and bring back the blue crystal. Did you figure out what you were going to do?”

“Is that a serious question?” Jasper stared at her strangely. “I’m going where ever your going.”

Silver frowned. “You do know where I’m going you might not survive.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“Are you sure?” Silver drawled out her words, hoping that he wouldn’t follow her and do something else. She didn’t even know why she even stuck with him still. “This is your last chance to back out.”

“Yep.” Jasper bite into his carrot and swallowed. “Wherever you’re going. I’m going.”

Silver clucked her teeth. She was going to tell him to go and kill Imps by himself or something more easy for his level. At the same time, she did kind of foresee this happening. Helping him out did cause him to be more dependent on her, she wasn’t the type to give out her help so easily.

“Did you cluck your teeth in disappointment at me?” Jasper squinted his eyes and furrowed his brow. He frowned and threw his carrot that he half eaten towards Silver. Silver dodged it before it could smack her in the face.

“Hey, you’re wasting food. If I were you. I wouldn’t waste them needlessly.”

“That carrot needs to smack you in the face, because you cluck your teeth at me.”

“So?”

“Seriously?” Jasper was looking at her, telling her she was the whole problem in what she just stated.

“So?”

“Ugh. I give up.” Jasper threw up his hands. “Let’s just get on with these mini-game. We have what, six days before our next big game?”

“We’ll be finished far before then.”

“You sound so confident.”

“It’s my nature.”

Jasper chuckled and he took a bite out another baby carrot. Pleased that he was with someone like Silver.

Silver shrugged her shoulder and smirked. Jasper reminded him of a baby bunny eating away at the carrots, it was adorable on how he held the carrot in his hand. Both Jasper and Silver was finished eating. She took out her ID card to check what she had gained.

Name Silver Frost

Gender Female Average Level Z

Race Human Body Status Healthy (Infected)

Age 18 Health 95

Height 5 ft 9’ Mana 150

Weight 124 Ib Stamina 100

——–

Strength 10 Agility 11

Vitality 9 Dexterity 11

Intelligence 14 Wisdom 15

Leadership 5 Luck 8

——

Magic Ice/Dark

Abilities

None

Items

Comet (X-), Millionaire Inventory Ring (A)

“Dark and Ice.” Silver muttered and smiled. This was totally different from her memories. In respect they were other elemental skill trees out there, but getting them were difficult. She on the other hand had gotten the skill easily with just trading the Angel Coins. She was glad that she had enough to get it in the first place. Though the problem was figuring out how to use magic again. She knew magic was not easy to manipulate in the beginning stages, especially because she wasn’t as strong enough to manifest it. She knew her body to well, her magic skills were considered useless, until she grew a bit more stronger.

“Dark and Ice?” Jasper tilted his head in confusion. He look towards her for an answer, but she didn’t give him anything.

Getting up, she walked past him and ruffled his hair. “Let’s go.”

“Wait! You didn’t answer my question!” Jasper ran after her with outrage. He was busily pushing back his hair, trying to untangle the knot that Silver had just created. Both Jasper and Silver left the Inn and stepped out into a bright sunlit type of area.

“You know this place is so weird. There is even a day and night system built into this cave. I wonder where we are.” Jasper curiously gazed up and blocked his eyes from the blinding light.

“The best answer is that we have been ferry away by the Angel’s to go through with a crazy game that pits our lives on the line to use us as guinea pigs.” Silver replied without care in the world that she was belittling the angels. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be worrying about where we are, but how to survive until the end. This is no walk in the park type of game.”

They began to walk towards the Gate that they needed to enter.

“I know, but I don’t think Angel’s aren’t all like that.”

“Please. They are monsters in there own way.”

Jasper shook his head.“I believe that there is a higher purpose to all this. I mean to be thrown here there must be a reason. Plus, so far we saw three types of Angels that we have seen so far. One that announces the game that bears dark news, the other one is like the Angel at the inn that helps us, and the final are those baby angels that brings us the rewards after we beat the game.”

“I’m not quite sure that would be helping. We are thrown out in the wilderness to fend for ourselves. We kill the monsters and bring it back to gain a Angel coins that can be converted to be used on special items. If I remember correctly, I thought Angel’s would be the one coming in to save you when you are stuck in those type of problems, but it seems such ideas was wrong like always.”

“I’m no angel expert, but that would be counter productive. Constant Intervention between an Angel and the will the humans would upset the balance. Their way of helping right now is more of an equivalent exchange, so far that I have seen, this is their way of allowed intervention.”

“An interesting though for someone so young. You must’ve been picked on for being different.”

Jasper turned red as he bowed his head down to the ground. “I well…yeah..” His voice became smaller.

“No matter. The only thing i’ll tease you on is being a kid.”

Jasper bite his lips  in disbelief. “I’m not a kid! I’m seventeen years old! I just haven’t gone through puberty yet!”

This time it was Silver who literally stopped and turned around to stare at him in complete disbelief. She thought she heard him wrong when he shout out such words. “What nonsense are you spouting?” The words just left her mouth without thinking.

Jasper pouted. “I’m just a late bloomer. All my family members grow up completely at the age of eighteen and I’m only a month away from my birthday.” He proudly stated, puffing out his chest. For a moment there, Silver thought he look adorable.

“Show me your card. I don’t believe you.” Silver brought her hand in front of him, motioning him to give it to her.

“What! I’m being truthful here.”

“From my point of view you’re a kid. Now fork it over.” Silver threatened him like a gangster. Jasper eyes twitched at Silver’s behavior, appalled at how she switched one eight..

“You serious? You taught me that I need to say no when someone ask me for my ID.”

“This is different. We’re talking about proof here of your age.”

Jasper sighed. He took out his ID card and reluctantly handed it over. Silver took it to check it.

Name Jasper Luther

Gender Male Average Level Z- *

Race Human Body Status Healthy

Age 17 Health 60

Height 4 ft 8’ Mana 110

Weight 94 Ib Stamina 120

——–

Strength 4 Agility 7 (+10)

Vitality 8 Dexterity 5

Intelligence 13 Wisdom 14

Leadership 7 Luck 10

——

Magic None

Abilities

None

Items

Swift Feet Necklace (H)

Asterisk? Silver seen Asterisk in other ID before. This meant they were a unique abilities or edges that a person was born with and it was even just as rare as magic.

*- Increased in one’s mental ability by three folds than a normal human. Also one has a natural ability to quickly pick things up quickly, giving their mental and physical ability a huge boost.

What is with this ridiculous intelligence and cheat like body existence? She knew that Jasper was intelligent but to the point of where it rivaled her. Not only that he had a natural mental fortitude to learn things quickly and efficiently. This was a huge plus in surviving, giving him an edge from everyone else. This made sense how he was able to quickly adapt and possible even become stronger than her in the future. She felt a bit defeated at her own predicament, knowing that someone like him could be truly amazing later on in the game.

The question was did he make it to the end, because she never heard of a guy name Jasper near the end of the game. The only possibility was that he died early on like the rest of the people in the game. What was even more shocking was that he was exactly seventy years old just like he said.

“One years younger than me?” Silver frowned quietly whispering underneath her breathe. She handed it towards Jasper and felt as if the world was tricking her. How in the world does this boy look so adorable like a child? It was ridiculously scary how his genetics were superhuman, she couldn’t help but wonder what his father and mother would look like.

He must be a family of dwarves. She nodded silently to herself. That was the only answer that she could think of even though it sounded ridiculous.

“Now you believe me?” Jasper placed his hands against this hips and tapped his foot impatiently.

Silver pushed the card back to him. “You’re still a kid in my eye.”

“Come on. Can’t you see the truth before your eyes?”

“Kid, be glad that you’re alive.”

Jasper stomped his foot in frustration not liking how he was being treated.

Silver laughed heartily as she started to walk once again. She didn’t expect at all that Jasper was one year younger than her. The way she treated him were like sibling.

Younger brother. She thought. She liked the sound of that.

Her life was going to be a little more interesting. Whistling cheerfully, they arrived in front of the large numbered metal gate. In front of the gate, they were eight people standing, trying to figure out how to get in.