PROLOGUE: New Friends and Old Tricks
Little Valhalla was as grand as the gods themselves. The ultra exclusive restaurant had often come up as the as a talking point for newbie adventurers. After all, the building stood out as a marvel of construction compared to its surroundings. Even though the district it resided within was collectively known as 'the rich district,' Little Valhalla stood out. The outside of the building was a skillful mixture of both the baroque and the traditional. Constructed purely out of wood that was foreign to Orario, the ornate carvings that covered each plank and log had been further amplified by a foreign mystique. But to most adventurers, the architectural and artistic merit of the building had very little to do with what people spoke of it.
What was important were the regulars.
Consisting entirely of second and first class adventurers of those inside and outside the Odin familia, one needed to be invited directly to participate in the banquets by the miserly god. Well, not directly in the sense of him meeting you face to face to invite you. No, Odin was much too busy of a man for that. Instead, he got one of his employees of Little Valhalla to directly invite you. Valkyrja, he called them. To get invited to the restaurant was a great privilege reserved for only the strongest adventurers. For anyone who was under level 4 to be invited was an impossibility.
And for some reason, a small selection of level 1 adventurers had been invited to join the great feast this evening.
The great door of Little Valhalla awaited those who had been invited. Constructed out of what seemed to be a single piece of wood, it was larger than any tree one may have known. Just as intricate as the rest of the building, it was carved with hundreds of bands that twisted and overlapped with each other. Each band took the form of a monster in the dungeon, almost all of which were unknown to level 1 adventurers. Outside of the door stood a warm looking woman. Well, warm in the sense of being physically cold. Draped over her head and body were dozens of layers of a thin, translucent fabric. With all of them stacked together, her womanly form had turned into an indeterminate blob of white. It was impossible to tell who was under all of those cloths. Upon seeing one of the novice adventurers arrive at the entrance, she would reach through the fabrics with one arm and push open one of the massive doors.
Instantly, the warm air would envelop those newbie adventurers. The wonderful smell of ale, mead, beer, wine, meat, and spices instantly beckoned them inside. The only light came from a mixture of cleanly burning pyres and torches, giving the inside a dimly lit and warm atmosphere. The inside was just as ornate as outside. Thick red rugs formed a path inside of the restaurant reaching each and every table, but not to the extent that it could be called a carpet. The rugs also retained an almost infinite amount of fluff. Each barefoot step was as though you were stepping on clouds. For the more rugged adventurers, the stone tiles gave an uneven yet satisfying feel, massaging their weary muscles every step on the way. Some of the regulars had even given up the self control required to wear shoes, haphazardly tossing their shoes wherever they saw fit.
Every single bit of Little Valhalla was a testament of his wealth and power. Alternatively, it was a show of how big Odin's dick was.
The newcomers were not expected by most, however. Most of the regular patrons looked at the novices in one of two ways. Either they had a look of confusion on why these intruders had entered their sanctuary, or they cheered the novices on as they must have been special. Besides the occasional hollers of those enjoying their flagons of mead and legs of meat, the patrons mostly kept to themselves. One, however, didn't. Standing in the centre of the restaurant was a short-haired woman with stars in her slate eyes. Her outfit was modest, at least compared to some of the other adventurers in the room. After all, she wore a thick wool sweater that covered her neck, shorts, and kneesocks that covered most of her legs. In her hands was a thick black book with silver decorations for both aesthetics and to protect the book's binding. She was familiar to some. Mostly known by massive nerds, though. Some novice adventurers would have remembered seeing someone exactly like her in the first few levels, brutally tormenting and eviscerating monsters as she wrote notes in the book.
As the novice adventurers arrived one by one, she greeted them.
"Ah," she said as a restrained smile appeared on her face, "you must be one of the guests of honour this fine evening? I'm sure your god may have told you some information about this before hand. Well, maybe. Some of them are... Not the most reliable?" A wince came over her face when she politely insulted a few of them. "I'm sure that you have plenty of questions, and I would be honoured to answer any of them! I'm sure that some of the other adventurers here would be glad to answer any question you may have. Odin will arrive here shortly after the rest of you arrive. He's always been one for efficiency," she paused. A quizzical look began to form, "well that and he's also a jerk. In the mean time, feel free to order anything your heart desires from one of the valkyrja. Enjoy your time you have here!"
