Valkyrie Black

Chapter 8: Thrasher Scath

~ 4 years later. Age 10 ~

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[ System Analysis update ]

Coin: 5840 Dret (Denominations 116 Gold Zon’s, 3 silver, 10 copper Dret)

Strength +4

Perception +5

Endurance +6

Charisma +6

Intelligence +7

Agility (Parkour +2, Rapid Stab +2, Speed +3, Reflexs+2)

Luck +4

Sneak: Stealth +2, Light Foot +2, Backstab +1

Val had grown a lot since Emma first brought her in to see the den leader. The name he gave was Vex. Vex had been hesitant to admit a tiny six-year-old but once it was discovered that Val had basically single-handedly taken out two runners and two enforcers, he had reluctantly given her a shot.

Val avoided the Dockside merchants when she learned about pickpocketing. They had been good to her when she had nothing, and in the last few years, she had developed working business relationships with many of them. Val didn’t want to fathom the disappointment on their faces if she was caught stealing from them.

The Dock Jackals guild wanted 50 dret per day from each street kid if they were to get a meal in the evening. Emma worked with her to distract likely targets as Val slipped her fingers into their coin purses and took anything she could grip.

The first time she had tried, she had nearly been caught. A fast bite to the man’s wrist had been all that stood between her and a jail cell. She could have used her dagger, but Vex had insisted that any more deaths by her would risk attracting too many authorities and questions. She would be targeted with the full weight of the guild if she killed anyone else publicly.

Taking 100 dret per day to cover both her and Emma had become a matter of habit. As long as she got an hour or two each evening to chase shadows, Val could keep the warning lights at bay.

Her ability to pickpocket ability was second nature now that she found herself slashing purses as she walked down the street just to pass the time.

Some only had a few drets but if she made it to the more affluent parts of town, she could normally score a silver shilling worth ten dret. It was rare, but occasionally she was surprised to find a gold Zon worth nearly twenty shillings.

To avoid the guild being suspicious, she always set aside fifty dret per day and anything extra she stashed at Maggie’s bakery.

Thankfully, she had only had to sample the thin broth the guild called soup a few times, mainly when bad weather kept the richer citizenry locked inside.  Maggie was a huge blessing, providing her hand Emma a hot meal if they would brave going out in the storms to deliver goods in the blowing rain to rich patrons who still wanted their morning bread or pastry.

Sometimes Vex had other jobs for her, but she made sure to never take jobs that were in Dockside. Maggie had been too good to her to risk her reputation among the local merchants.

Val ran across the rooftops, leaping from building to building. It was near dark, but the setting sun still gave her plenty to see by. Emma should already be at the bakery. Val planned to join her soon but she wanted to score one more Shadow plasma before the night was out. The day had been slow as the next merchant ship was not expected for another day.

Two years ago, a traveling merchant visited and set up a very odd shop. The lady claimed that her special crystals could heal or grant powers if used in spells. Most people just scoffed at her nonsense, but some took it further by trying to chase the woman out of town.

For her part, Val thought the idea of stones with power was ludicrous until she passed the cart and peered at the various stones and crystals. Most were cheap, but at the bottom of the pile, Val saw a faint glow. She fished out a tiny clear quartz no bigger than her pinky.

“Oh, you like that one? I have some other quartz.” The lady had fished out several smoky quarts but they didn’t give off the same glow to Val’s sight.

“Only clear.”

“Ah well if you like it, how about one dret?”

‘This lady must be a fraud if she was selling something like this as if it was a common rock,’ Val thought as she gladly parted with the dret and told her if she found more clear quartz, she would buy them. Val didn’t know why the crystal seemed so valuable until her next hunt. She had killed another Shadow demon but kept running out of storage.

When the crystal was in her palm, however, a metallic-looking tendril snaked out of her wrist and coiled around the crystal. The next Shadow, or Scath as the runes in her vision called them, turned to the inky black smoke as her blade passed through it just as it had many times before.

Instead of dissipating into the air, this time the Shadow smoke swirled around her hand and was siphoned into the crystal, turning its surfaces a swirling mass of black. Val gasped when it happened, realizing she could now store the plasma for later use in crystals!

Before this, she had all but stopped hunting unless a Lurker was messing with Emma or Maggie. The plasma smoke had been wasted when two of the Lurkers had attacked and she discovered that she had no more storage or current use for them.

Since then, Val had gotten into the habit of going on hunts any time she came across another quartz. She had been working on a decent stash, hiding them in a basket at the back of the bakery. She now had seven crystals as a backup.

She had needed them from time to time for healing, and the available options for new skills presented a continual drain on her stored plasma. With the Lurkers being fewer and fewer around the docks, she had been going farther out for her hunts.

One of her encounters had led her to the rooftops where she discovered a whole new world. While only a few of the smaller kids could manage the heights, those who did were counted among the more exceptionally talented.

They could do a running flip from one roof to another, landing seamlessly into a roll and continuing one. It was thanks to watching these kids escape a constable that Val learned the value of rooftop escapes.

Tonight’s hunt was to take out a Lurker Shadow that had been getting too close to the bakery. For months, the Shadows had been avoiding her little corner of the world, with so many falling to her blade at night.

She sat on a rooftop, looking out beyond the docks, and wondered what might be beyond this little corner of town. She hadn’t dared go more than a half day’s walk from Maggie’s bakery. Life had grown boring when there were no Shadows to hunt.

She had been pissed when a new set of skills had been offered but she didn’t have the plasma to unlock them. Now that she had a way to store and save them, she was intent on making sure she could always take advantage of new options.

A noise in the ally below caught her attention and she scurried to the edge of the roof. As she peered down into the dark ally below, she spotted the Lurker she had been hoping to find for over a week. It was bigger than the others she had seen, standing a full seven feet with several smaller Lurkers around it.

She was startled to see a man dressed in all-black leather fighting the tall Scath Shadow. He had a hood over his face and a mask across his mouth and he stood tall with broad shoulders. He was engaging the Shadow with a long sword.

Unlike when Val had killed several of these creatures, this man’s blade seemed to meet solid matter. The huge Lurker had onyx talons and was slashing at the man before blocking his blows with what seemed to be solid black scales along its forearm.

[Thrasher Scath ] came the runes.

[ Unknown power, unknown weakness, Unknown Plasma output ]

[ Absorb Plasma for further analysis ]

Val patted her side and found the brand new pouch she had strapped there. Just last week the blacksmith had finished her order. He had balked at making anything for a small child, but when she had placed the gold zon coins in front of him, he had shrugged and told her to return in two weeks.

The Blacksmith had crafted a dark black throwing dagger for her. He told her if she could prove mastery over this one, he could make more.

He had also followed the pattern of runes on her mother’s blade and etched them into the side of the new blade for her. On the grip, he had even etched a pair of upswept wings with a downward facing dagger blade between them that matched the mark on her neck.