Lesley gave me a small, awkward smile as he thought over my proposal. A moment later he replied, “I’ll do one better than that. If you can get me everything I listed, I’ll not only teach you to use magic, I’ll also teach you how to craft jewelry and use magic to enchant it.”
After agreeing to the new terms of our deal, I tied the pickaxe to the empty backpack, slipped it on, took a written list of the gemstones I needed to collect, and left for the goblin cave. According to Lesley, it was about fifteen miles west-northwest of Melodia. I made my way out of Melodia, not entirely sure what I’d gotten myself into.
Lesley had said that the cave was a single corridor which twisted around on itself as it burrowed deeper into the earth. This meant I couldn’t get lost, but it also meant that entering the cave would mean monsters in front and behind.
I ran in the direction of the cave and noticed that my character design made my movements even faster and more flexible than I’d planned. My running speed was around triple the speed I could run in real life. I was a little winded after a while, but my light frame and athletic character design kept my breathing steady. It took about thirty minutes to reach the cave and when I arrived, I nearly vomited at the sight that awaited me.
The Goblin’s Lair
I had arrived at the cave just in time to witness the massacre. It was the middle-aged man I had encountered in Tutorial Village.
Anger boiled within me as I watched the onslaught. The man was racing around, killing any goblin that crossed his path. The goblins were completely unarmed, except a few who’d picked up kitchen knives to defend themselves. Goblin women and children were falling by the murderer’s hands, screaming as he split them open like watermelons. Many died on their knees, pleading for him to stop. They offered pottery, necklaces, food, or anything they could grab to get him to leave, but to no avail.
When I entered this game, I knew that players would be killing monsters, but these weren’t monsters. The scenario I’d expected was monster attacks player, player defends herself. This was an unmitigated slaughter of innocents. I saw only one monster at the mouth of the cave.
In that moment, I made a decision I never thought I’d make. Tears ran down my eyes as I made my way toward the onslaught. The man saw me and smiled.
“It’s good to see you again, beautiful. Would you care to join me?”
The intense glee radiating from his curled lips enraged me to the point of madness. My instincts took over and I found myself practically flying toward the man, leaning forward as I ran, my fingers hovering over the buttons which would eject my daggers.
The smile died from the bastard’s face when he realized what was happening. He quickly tugged his newly acquired rapier out of the nearest goblin’s hide and turned it on me, stabbing at my chest.
I crouched down, too fast for him to see, feeling the rapier pass over my head, causing my hair to flutter. A press of my fingers, the scraping of steel, and my daggers were free. I swung one over my head before the monster had a chance to move his outstretched arm. A scream flooded the air as my dagger sliced through his forearm, just above the wrist, and his hand flopped through the air. My other dagger was pointed straight at his throat from my crouched position. Still screaming, he turned his pained and furious eyes down toward me in time to see me unfold my legs and pounce like a cat. His painful screaming cut short as I punched into his larynx.
His eyes popped, and he tried to speak, the only sound a gurgle. Finally, he mouthed one silent word, “Why?”
“I’m just hunting monsters,” I said with as much ire and disdain as I could muster.
I ripped my dagger from his throat, splattering the rocks with his blood, and retracted both blades as his lifeless body cracked against the stone floor. I knew he wouldn't come to retrieve his body because when you died in the SRU you reappeared at the last town you had visited and a thief like him avoided towns as much as possible. He would most likely restart at Tutorial Village and then begin his looting anew. He would also expect that I would loot his body anyway. I was technically a player-killer now.
Well, at least I wouldn’t disappoint his expectations. I stripped his coin purse from his corpse. It felt like the perfect punishment for this demon, taking what he treasured most. I left his body for goblin food. As I was searching his body for anything that might be useful, I heard a soft, gurgling moan to my left. One of the goblin children I’d taken for dead was still alive, but barely.
I rifled through the man’s belongings until I found his small stock of healing potions and bandages. Once in hand, I rushed to the child’s side. Pulling the cork from one of the small vials with my teeth, I lifted the child up in my arm and pressed the vial firmly to his lips. The other goblins looked on hesitantly. Some were gathering weapons, if they could be called that, in case I decided to attack. Others watched me skeptically, wondering at my actions.
A few seconds after drinking the potion, the child’s wounded chest healed over. He wasn’t in perfect condition, but he’d live. It would take a lot of rest before he completely recovered. I moved on to the next nearest goblin. She was dead. Then another. Dead.
The man had been thorough in his attack. Most of his goblin victims died quickly, but I did manage to find six who were still alive and heal them with the potions. Among the surviving goblins were a few injured. They watched me warily, afraid to approach. They had been lucky in this pointless assault, sustaining only minor cuts to their arms and legs. I attempted to approach them slowly, but they retreated slightly with their makeshift weapons pointed at me. They were visibly trembling with fatigue and fear.
I had to try another tactic. I sat down on a rock and motioned for one of the injured to come to me. He had a cut on his arm. I took the bandage and made sure he was watching as I wrapped it around my own arm in demonstration and gestured again. Slowly, cautiously, he crept toward me, knife still held high.
I held my hand out in invitation when he’d reached me. I gave him an encouraging smile so as not to appear threatening. His gaze pierced into my eyes for a long moment, trying to judge my sincerity through the window to my soul. When satisfied with what he saw, he placed his arm in my outstretched hand. He continued to point his weapon at me with the other as a precaution. The kitchen knife didn’t bother me. I knew from their actions that these were not violent people. They wouldn’t hurt me so long as I gave them no cause.
I casually wrapped his arm as he cringed in pain. When I was finished, I smiled up at him reassuringly and gestured for someone else to come up to me. All the injured rushed to me without restraint, dropping their weapons as they came.
When I’d finished bandaging the injured, a male goblin larger than the others came up to me and spoke for the first time, “Thang-ru.”
Just as I’d thought. They couldn’t speak English, but I was sure they were an intelligent race. Their tents, use of weapons, and strange clicking-based speech told me as much. But it seemed the chief, at least he seemed to be, had some vestiges of English in his knowledge.
“You’re welcome,” I told him as a fresh tear fell from my cheek. “I’m only sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” I looked around at the carnage surrounding me. “So many dead for no reason. I’m so sorry.”
It was then that I realized the chief knew more English than expected. He couldn’t speak it very well, but he understood everything I was saying.
“Is not rur fort,” the chief said. “Ru saiv us. Re graitfur. Is anyfing ru needu?”
“Thank you, but I can’t ask for your help. I need to go deep into the cave and gather some gemstones. It will be dangerous.”
“Guemstohnes? Pritty shtones?” To my surprise, the chief’s face lit up with joy. “Re hab pritty shtones. Heru. Re shhor ru.”
The chief was practically bouncing as he brought me into the cave entrance. We barely went ten feet before stopping. The chief pointed at a plain cave wall. He gave a w
eird growling command to the few goblins who’d accompanied us into the cave and they began pushing on the wall. There was a loud clicking noise as the wall began to rise into the air, opening up a hidden cavern filled with wooden chests.
The chief entered, and I followed. The other goblins remained at the door, standing under it to hold up the stone slab. The chief raced around the room flinging open box after box. The room practically glowed in a rainbow of colors. Chests full of rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, chrystavite, topaz, quartz, jade, onyx, and a plethora of other stones cluttered the cavern.
“Wow,” I breathed. “Where did you find all this?”
“Re vind in kaive. Pritty shtones, rait? Ru hav?”
“You’d give me some of them?”
“Ar ov dem, if teik.”
“Oh no, I can’t take all of them. They’re yours. But...could I fill this backpack with them?”
The chief smiled warmly and nodded. I got all the gemstones I needed, making sure to take more sapphires, rubies, and emeralds, than diamonds and chrystavite. I only took a small amount of diamonds and a few bits of chrystavite to make it appear like I was in a hurry and couldn’t gather much. After all, they were supposed to be in the most dangerous part of the cave.
When I was finished, I followed the chief back out of the cave just in time for dinner. The chief offered to let me stay, but I politely refused when I saw they were eating meat. Some of the goblins were wearing the murderer’s armor. I swore never to tell anyone about the goblin’s ‘pretty stones.’ I knew all too well what such knowledge would bring to these people.
“Thank you again for the gemstones,” I told the chief before leaving. “My name is Valkyrie. Feel free to contact me if you need any help in the future.”
“Thang ru Balgyree. Ai am,” the chief growled a couple of times, a name I’d never be able to pronounce, and we said goodbye.
I found myself wondering who was smarter, humans or goblins? At least they could learn to understand and even speak our language, sort of. I don’t know a human on Earth that would be able to understand or speak theirs.
After leaving the goblins, I took out the dead man’s purse and counted the coins. He was a monster, but a rich one. He had seven hundred gold coins in his purse. Now I was no longer poor. I could head back to Melodia, learn magic from Lesley, and get myself some better equipment.
The Avengers
It was a lot harder to find proper equipment than I’d expected. I went shopping for armor at Warrior’s Wear, but everything I tried on was either too heavy for me, too noisy, making me clunk around like the knights of old, or too constricting. I decided against armor in the end. Perhaps I’d be able to create some custom-built armor that protected me without detracting from my new-found beauty. I’d spent hours making my body and wasn’t about to cover it up with ugly chainmail or plate armor.
The next place I went to was Clive’s Cutlery. It was a combined weapons shop and cooking supply store. It had everything from potato peelers to broad swords. I found the katana I’d seen for fifty gold coins, but when I picked it up it felt wrong. I would have been able to use it easily with all the martial arts books I’d read, including books on mastering combat weapons, but it felt wrong in my hands. It felt like holding someone else’s child and wishing I had one of my own.
I put the katana back and began searching for another weapon. That’s when I found them hidden in the corner. I could feel my heart racing with excitement at the sheer elegance of them and licked my lips in ecstasy as I ran my fingers across the warm, enchanted titanium blade release mechanisms which ran along the backs of the gloves. They were gloves similar to my own; white silk that called my name.
I quickly removed my steel gloves with the concealed daggers and slid the silk gloves up my arms. They were perfect. So much lighter than the steel gloves and so elegant. Shivers of pleasure rose along my body as the fabric caressed me skin. The silk fabric stopped just below the elbow. Once the gloves were in place, I simply had to think about my swords extending and they obeyed. No more having to worry about pressing a button in battle. A single thought was all it took to control these enchanted weapons.
There were multiple enchantments on the gloves. The first was an enchantment that made the silk as hard and strong as titanium. The second made the titanium blades and blade release mechanism as light as silk. The third changed the size of the blades so that they were small enough to fit inside the release mechanism when retracted and large enough to do some serious damage when engaged, roughly forty inches from the end of my knuckles to the tip of the blade. The final enchantment kept the blade sharp and clean. Blood would slide off the blade like water from a leaf.
The downside to the gloves were their price, seven hundred gold coins. I could get them, but I’d be broke. Still, I really didn’t need the money for anything else at the moment. I wasn’t going to buy any armor and Lesley had promised to teach me magic and jewelry crafting for free. The only thing I’d need money for would be food. Even in this world you had to eat, though it was only once every twenty-four hours. I debated for only a few seconds, until I looked back down at the gloves, and my mind was made up. I went to the cashier, sold him my beginner’s weapon for five silver coins, and spent the rest of my money on my new gloves.
Well, at least I wouldn’t go hungry any time soon. Still, the only thing five silver coins could buy was five small loaves of bread. Five prison meals for a rash but well-armed and stylish maiden.
I was anxious to try out my new weapons, but it was illegal to fight in towns, villages, and cities owned by Aurora Eventide. Only towns built and owned by players could allow fighting. They were able to create their own laws, so long as the laws were posted in a visible location at the town’s entrance, didn’t contradict the laws which were enforced outside the SRU, and didn’t infringe on a person’s inherent rights.
My desire to test my new weapons was too great to ignore and I still had plenty of time since getting the gemstones hadn't taken nearly as long as I’d expected. I rushed outside Melodia to a small lake halfway between the goblin's cave and Melodia. Actually, it was more like a swampy pond full of vines and reptiles.
After what I’d seen with the goblins, I had lost all desire to hunt monsters. In that moment, I’d made myself a promise. I wouldn’t attack the residents of this world unless it was in self-defense, defense of another, or necessary for other purposes. I had no problem hunting if I was in the wilderness and needed food or if I needed animal parts for a potion or something, but I wouldn’t kill needlessly, and I would always show proper respect to my victims.
I felt connected to this world in a way I knew other players didn’t. Perhaps it was the looks in the eyes of the goblins that did it. The fear when they first saw me and their gratitude when I’d helped them. In that moment, I felt like I belonged here. It felt like Valkyrie was becoming the real me and Lisa Hampton was turning into an illusion.
I began mentally running through the martial arts moves I’d studied when younger. Lisa Hampton hadn’t possessed the physical prowess to do martial arts, but Valkyrie did. I was about to start my first sequence of attacks when a snicker and the sound of multiple people walking caught my ear. I spun and crouched down like a lioness on the hunt, preparing for what might come.
“Hello, bitch,” the man from the goblin lair called out. “Where’s my money?”
It hadn’t been very long since I'd killed the man. He must have been quicker than he looked or maybe there was another city nearby that he'd been to prior to the goblin raid.
Behind him stood two other men, not nearly as old, and a lot tougher looking. I felt intimidation for only a few seconds before I remembered, the worst they could do to me was kill me, sending me back to Melodia...without my new weapons. Hell no! There was no way I’d let them get these gloves.
“Hey there, ugly,” I taunted. “How do you like my new gloves? T
hey were a great bargain. Only seven hundred...”
“You spent my money on gloves,” the man interrupted, puffing out his chest indignantly. He was beyond furious now. I saw his hand twitch toward his weapon slightly, but he kept his composure and didn’t attack. “What about my stuff?”
“Let’s see,” I said, feigning ignorance. “I think I may have used your healing potions and bandages to help the goblins who survived your little massacre. You’re weapons and armor? The goblins have more use for them than you do. It gives them a little protection from others like yourself, you know? And your body…let’s just say you were the goblins' main course.”
The man’s face grew redder by the minute. His head seemed about to burst when the sound of metal scraping metal signaled the drawing of his new weapon, a short sword I was sure he’d stolen. The two men behind him remained calm in composer, not moving a muscle.
“Don’t just stand there,” the man bellowed. “Get her!”
The men behind him exchanged glances and smirked. They seemed to be communicating with nothing but facial expressions. Their eyebrows lifted and furled at one another, lips twitching from smile to frown, tight to loose, noses twitching, jaws waving from side to side. It looked strange from my perspective, but whatever they were doing, they understood each other perfectly. They nodded at the same time and answered in unison.
“No.”
The man was incredulous and opened his mouth to retaliate, but before he could the taller of the two accompanying men held up his hand for silence.
“We’re here because you told us you needed help to get your stuff back from a player-killer, but you didn’t tell us she was a fellow Avenger.”
“Avenger? What are you talking about?” The man was hysterical now. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
Virtual Me- Valkyrie Page 4
