Chapter 15: Chapter 13 – The Valkyrie Shieldmaiden

When they reached the other side of the portal, the shy winged woman was nowhere to be found. She was replaced with a soldier, and her demeanor was completely different. Her shield and posture were at the ready, and she had the appropriate level of focus for looking for threats near the portal. Satisfied that there were no enemies, she looked back to her “commander,” ready for orders.

Jake had eyed the demoness, and she had a satisfied, almost smug, expression on her face, hidden from the valkyrie behind her fan. He pointed over to the hill, and said “The gnolls are located inside of that fence on top of the hill, for which there are over one hundred. We have cleared most if not all patrols, but we will need to keep on the lookout during our approach, in case there are more. I will cast support spells on us, and if you have any you should use yours as well, then you take the front of the formation heading to the hill on foot, and await instructions at the foot of it.”

Jake started casting his buffing spells on himself, to which he now had many. He realized that she did not cast any spells on herself, as she simply just waited on him. He hadn’t had the time to check her status within his [Menu], especially due to the act he was putting on. He figured he would view it while on the march, so long as the demoness was on the lookout, to which she nodded; he would not have to pay much attention to their movement.

He finished casting Haste, Reinforcement, Bolster, and Stamina Regen on himself, then cast it on the battle angel, as well.  She took on a look of surprise, but quickly pushed it down and started their march towards the hill. With her back turned, Jake took a look at his [Menu] and into his [Summon Information] section.

 

 

 

So, it turned out that she had really just come of age. Jake wasn’t sure about what life was really like for those that lived in contested territory, but her mastery of the spear and shield was definitely one that showed she fought a lot, having much more skill than Jake. Jake looked over this [Summoner’s Bond] skill, as it was mentioned when he picked his specialization.

 

Jake just knew by looking at her attributes and her skill of the spear, that she would trounce him if he did not use magic in a spar. Not only is she using a shield, but her use of wings during melee combat could cause bursts of speed at unexpected times for those not used to fighting them, to which Jake is not. That’s not even mentioning if she was able to dive in from the sky to attack, Jake was not confident in dealing with such an ability without some additional practice or training; he had never faced an enemy that had done so.

Her attributes had also proven that Jake was right in his thoughts: that humans just couldn’t compare in attributes to some other races. valkyries appeared to excel in their physical attributes and charisma, plus their ability to use [Runic Magic] was high, as shown by her high wisdom. Really, just everything was better than the bog-standard human, with Jake only being better than her at level 1 in intelligence. He was level 5, had a core that improved his physical attributes, and yet he was still bested by a long shot in physical attributes by the level 1 valkyrie.

He had hoped that he could learn [Runic Magic] from her before he summoned her, as that was of great interest to him. Seeing that her proficiency was so low, he wondered if maybe they could work on it together. He would now guide her advancement, and he would push her to take advantage of her heritage.

They got near the base of the hill, and saw that the gates were once again manned with a set of guards. The valkyrie did not take her eyes off the gate, but she asked, “Your orders, sir?” when Jake arrived.

“One moment,” Jake said. He then cast his [Summon Beast] spell. When the motes of light dissipated, what was left was what appeared to be a dog not unlike a German Shepherd. Jake couldn’t help it, but he looked over at the valkyrie with a look of betrayal, and blame, and noticed that even the demoness mirrored his look. The battle angel had turned to look at the summon, and caught this. “W…What? Did I do something wrong?”

While Jake had chosen the humanoid specialization, that did not prevent him from using other summons, only receiving a penalty for not using summons within that specialization. Summon beast was both outside of his humanoid specialization, and his permanent specialization, resulting in the spell barely being worthwhile. In this case, his badgerdillo was downgraded to a dog. This was very unfortunate; Jake would rather have a single badgerdillo than a half-dozen of this dog, and he was stuck with just this one, for now.  The valkyrie would have some very large shoes to fill when it came to convincing Jake and Fhesiah that she was a better option than the vicious badgerdillo.

Jake shook his head, and he fixed his expression. “It’s nothing. This creature is expendable and can help with providing a target for the gnolls. Do not worry about keeping it alive, as it is not. I want you to head in there with the dog to take out those gnolls, and I will provide support from the rear. Pay attention to my commands, as I may need to call a retreat if we receive more enemies than expected.”

The valkyrie saluted, and replied, “Yes sir!” and began to move towards the enemies, to which Jake used his will to have his summon head in the same direction. The demoness watched on with interest, it was clear she was hoping to see how this new party member did. Jake was not worried. The gnolls had a similar assortment of weapons to the group they faced before, and if the valkyrie got in trouble she could simply fly away, as they had no ranged capabilities.

Keeping the valkyrie permanently summoned had a cost, but it was not very high, about 10% of his mana in reserve and mana regeneration at all times, no matter how much mana he has. Once he has five permanent summons, he would be limiting his mana regeneration to nearly fifty percent in perpetuity. The [Summoners Bond] would reduce this consumption and reinforce the bonuses Jake got for specializing in [Permanent Summons], but Jake was still worried because buff spells such as his stamina regeneration also consumed some of his mana regeneration in order to keep them going.

Jake’s concern was that between the buffs and summons, there’d be nothing left for him to cast any spells such as heals. That would leave him just standing around, as a living and breathing summon and buff-bot, as they call them in MMO games.

The good news on that front was that the specialization would reduce the cost significantly, and that there were many buffing spells to choose from; Jake could definitely optimize which buffs to use for each scenario, and leave enough mana for him to be effective at some other tasks, but also, he could spread the load. When their party added a true healer type to the group, that party member could handle some of the buffs. They might have some that were unique to their class, but nothing would stop them from learning Haste, for example.

Jake, despite providing adequate healing, especially over a duration, was not a full replacement from a class that specializes in healing. True healers could produce much more healing per second, and had various other spells and effects that could not be replicated by Jake, such as health-buffers that heal instantly when someone takes damage, allowing someone to live through bursts of damage that exceed their maximum health even without a response from the healer themselves. They often have instant heals that can save someone from the brink of death with little more than a thought, something that Jake simply could not do as a summoner.

The gnolls were in a similar formation to what they were when Jake and the badgerdillo had fought previously, where they were two separate groups. This time, though, they were unable to join up before the valkyrie and the dog arrived.

The dog was now in an outright sprint to assault the gnolls, while the valkyrie had taken to using an odd leaping jog, where each step sent them sailing much further than it otherwise would with a flap of her wings. She was going to reach the group of four gnolls before they could meet up with the other group, so they dug in, while the dog headed to the other group. When she was one step-leap away, she sped up even further and smashed into the lead gnolls, shield to shield, sending the two that had gotten into formation sprawling.

While the gnolls had been sent sprawling, she had only slightly slowed, and she leaped and flapped her wings once again to speed towards the nearest polearm user, pushing their spear aside with their angular shield and stabbing them right through the throat. They were hardly ready with their spear for her speed, and she moved on and repeated this same process for the other spear user, as the two downed shield users were still picking themselves up off the ground.

She easily knocked another gnoll’s shield aside and dealt a killing blow after it had just gotten up and was still not quite in a proper fighting stance, and then used her weight and strength on her shield against the other gnoll’s shield to push them down towards the ground. The gnoll was focused on trying to even stay up, and not fall over, and the valkyrie just stabbed the gnoll now that their shield was out of position.

Meanwhile, the dog had managed to keep the whole group of gnolls from providing any assistance or flank Ophelia, so Jake felt like that was a small victory in its own right. The dog hadn’t managed to wound any of the armed combatants, but was able to dart away when they attacked and sprint in when they tried to break off and assist with fighting the valkyrie, so they were forced to turn and ward the dog off.

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One had managed to break away and head towards her, but as she had already finished her group of enemies, that fight was a foregone conclusion. Jake sent some mana bolts in his own flanking maneuver against the ones the dog was harrying, and was able to take the three out before the valkyrie could reach them after dispatching hers.

Jake could feel the satisfaction from the demoness; she was very happy about the valkyrie’s performance, and he was too. Her martial prowess as a level one was quite impressive, and Jake was excited for the future. Jake noticed she was hardly out of breath; this fight was hardly a challenge, and not even her full capability.

Jake sent a silent question to the demoness, to which she nodded. He spoke to Ophelia, “Great work, soldier. You handled yourself quite well there. We will continue to try to thin the enemy out, staying near the entrance of the village and bringing the enemies here to fight; that way we can escape down to the portal if we have a chance of being overwhelmed. Captain Fhesiah here will attract enemies to us, and we will ambush them here.” The valkyrie simply nodded in response to this.

The demoness took off to begin the process of pulling small groups of creatures to the entrance so they can take them on safely, and Jake noticed that Ophelia kept glancing at him, and hesitated, like she wanted to ask him something. “What is it?” Jake prodded. She finally said, “I…was wondering if you also fought with that weapon.”

Jake thought about why she was interested, and thought that it wasn’t just about tactics or strategy, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been hesitant to ask; her demeanor when it was fighting related was that she was not bashful. Several times she had shouted out various combat-related pieces of information, or requested orders and there was no shy girl to be found, then.

Valkyries would often find their mates on the battlefield, just like the valkyries in stories would find their chosen to accompany to Valhalla. By Jake summoning her, he was definitely a top candidate for being her chosen, though it wasn’t exactly like she was forced to choose him. It seemed she had a preference for her hero to be able to get into the thick of things. Jake smiled at the question, and replied “I do. If enough enemies come, you may get to see me do so,” and he winked at her.

She seemed to blush and look away, so it seemed he was right. A month ago, Jake was certainly not able to deliver such a stupid line with a straight face, let alone to such a pretty girl, but the demoness’ teasing had long-since blown away most of his shame, to the point where the demoness just seemed to up her game further and further. It also did wonders for his confidence.

The demoness returned with five gnolls in tow. Once again, he sent in the valkyrie and the dog, and supported them with mana bolts where needed. They settled in for engaging several groups, but Jake called a halt after they had killed just over 30 total. They set out to loot the dead, and they worked together and headed home through the portal.

Jake felt like he had an excellent idea of the valkyrie’s capabilities. She was fast and strong, but had low endurance to keep her fast movements with her wings for very long. Thankfully, Jake’s [Stamina Regen] spell countered most of this, but he could tell she was flagging near the end. She adapted well to Jake’s commands, and she did well to maintain her battlefield awareness. If a new enemy appeared, she would catch onto it and adjust herself well, rather than be blindsided; she did not have a tunnel vision problem.

All in all, Jake was quite happy with the demoness’ choice, though he couldn’t help but feel the Centaur would be even more overpowering. The demoness looked over and once again it seemed like her eye might have twitched, but he was sure it was his imagination.

They started their post-dungeon run ritual, and Jake realized that he would need another coat, or armor rack, for the valkyrie. He took down some of the other items that were attached to bring them over to his room, and let her load it up for now. When he returned, he was quite surprised at her figure, now that it was no longer armored and could actually see it.

She was wearing what Jake would consider a sports bra and some boy shorts underwear, and her back was to him, as she loaded her armor onto the rack. She was struggling, because it was not really made for the purpose of armor and was difficult to maintain balance with such heavy objects; Jake would definitely need to buy one now, he may do that in just a moment.

Her back was well-muscled, and if she were human Jake would have guessed she lived at the gym. Her shoulders were especially muscled, and it appeared it was due to her wings, which very much appeared like angel wings or what appeared to be giant dove wings. She had long muscled legs, and her pony-tailed hair reached to the small of her back. She turned to him, and it seemed she had a shy smile on her face. It seemed she had some confidence in her body, or perhaps was just used to being dressed like she was in front of others.

From the front, she had just the right amount of muscle while maintaining her femininity. A shadow of a six pack with a slim waist, and Jake guessed her breasts were average or above average in size. Her arms were muscular, perhaps more muscular than most men would want, but he felt that it fit her well. Overall, she was quite beautiful, her wings adding to her allure.

He smiled back at her, and said “I’m going to have to make some purchases, now that we have you staying here. I can certainly add some clothes to the order, if you help me pick out what you want.”

She seemed a little embarrassed at him needing to purchase her clothes, he thought, but she nodded. So, he motioned for her to join him at the computer, and took a look at what they could get on the [Alliance Shop] and the [Multiverse Market]. Jake picked a functional armor rack.

He then looked into adding some extra space, even an extra room, and realized that he could afford it, along with a bed and a few other things, with about half the funds they earned just today. It was a small room, but it was better than nothing. Jake was about to place her room next to where Jake’s lead out of the living room, but Fhesiah pointed to the opposite side of the living room, and he complied.

Even the demoness got in on the shopping action, though she seemed to hesitate to make the purchase. It was not a regular mana crystal, but when Jake read the description, he found that it was a crystal containing heavenly energy, or Qi as it was otherwise known.  If Jake had to guess, this was what the demoness actually needed, from the beginning. It all started to make a lot more sense, Jake forming some sort of core with her help, her clothing, she was a cultivator the whole time. However, it became obvious why she was only buying the mana crystals, up to now: this was the cost of twenty of them, at 2,000 credits, and they simply could not afford that purchase until now.

The gnolls were worth a little more than the frogmen at over 125 credits each, so they had earned more than enough from just today alone for all of Jake’s purchases, but for once they had an almost net negative day. Still, some of this was a one-time setup to help Ophelia feel at home. He would later spend some more on her room, as it was smaller than his, as small as that was already.

When Jake confirmed the purchase of everything, a door shimmered over to where he added it, and a few boxes slid out from the portal. They set about setting things aside, and Jake set about setting up the armor-stand and transferring things from the clothing rack, and cleaning them.

They settled in, and Jake for the first time set out to cook dinner for two, with the demoness’ help. The meal was much subdued and Jake felt it was awkward, but it seemed the demoness wanted to continue with the act, at least for now. The valkyrie seemed to enjoy the food very much and said as much, in addition to thanking him profusely for his purchases for her room, to which Jake just nodded and dismissed it like it was a matter of course.

He felt like he was nearing his limits with treating the valkyrie in such an odd fashion, even if the acting was helpful, and the demoness reassured him that it wouldn’t be that much longer. Jake then helped Ophelia with how to use the shower, and it turned out that this was not a challenge for her as they reproduce similar-styled fixtures using enchanting instead of technology on her world.

He was dying to ask a lot of questions about her past and what her life was like; from Jake’s perspective, she’s an alien from another world, how would her life be nothing but fascinating to him? Of course, he had so many of those same questions burning to ask the demoness.

Showers and dinner done, they retired early to their rooms. Jake was exhausted, and it was hard to act like you were a commanding officer as you watched comedy reruns in your living room, at least for Jake. As he lay down attempting to sleep, he felt a burning determination from the demoness. This crystal was important, and he was dying to know what was going to happen, but she made no move for the crystal. So, he did what he could to think of other things, until he fell asleep.

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