Arthur woke up early and ran out of the house before his parents went to work. He went to the large building that housed the local GM offices. Every time he went there, the magnitude always made him slow his pace.

The building could be called a modern castle. Two massive towers rose to twenty floors sitting on a base of another thirty floors that made a very large square base. The first floor was primarily a waiting room of various queued lines to different departments on different floors. A non-registered person would need to go through registration that involves getting tested for what aptitude or skills they possess.

There were queues for rental equipment, training classes from beginner to advanced, equipment selling, and repairs. There was also an herbalist onsite. None of which were free. The GM was in the game of equipping and preparing adventurers for profit. They even had an identifier that would check the found equipment and if the adventurer wanted to sell the item, the organization would buy it.

The redheaded young man came in early because it would shorten the wait online. Arthur just wanted to pick up the rental equipment that he ordered. He didn't want to stick around in case he ran into undesirables like Paul and Ben.

He went into the rental line and punched in his order number. The printer spat out a numbered ticket. He glanced at the screen and saw that his number was the eighth in line. He went and sat down.

A brunette with braided hair went to the rental line and got her ticket. She looked at the screen and sat a few chairs from Arthur. She was wearing black leggings under jean shorts that hugged her hips and didn't hide her figure. The tank top left her midriff bare showing off a piercing on her belly that was adorned with a piece of heart jewelry. She appeared athletic and while there was no sweat on her, Arthur thought that she might have walked or jogged to the building.

The woman looked around the seats, aware of everyone in the area. A sign of a warrior's training. The hazel eyes landed on Arthur and she didn't shy away from looking into his eyes. "What did they classify you as? You don't look muscular enough to be a warrior. Mage?"

Arthur shook his head, "They told me to come back when I've run a few labyrinths to see if my skills will stabilize to one classification or another. Right now I have some magical knowledge and some weapon knowledge. My name is Arthur by the way. May I know yours?"

The woman frowned when he couldn't give her a classification but she still replied courteously, "Amy, Adventurer's name is Valkyrie."

"Valkyrie? THE...the...the Valkyrie? The one that saved three groups from the manticore labyrinth?" stuttered Arthur staring at the woman who was highly regarded in the northeast region of the United States.

Valkyrie smirked at the reaction, "Yeah, that's me."

"Why would you be on the equipment rental line? I thought you had gear that was rated A or S!"

She stood up and moved to the seat right beside Arthur, causing him to blush as she leaned close, "Keep a secret? My gear got wrecked on my last outing. I'm renting some high-end equipment to tide me over until I get new gear. I got some being custom made right in this building because they have a lower wait time being out here where the labyrinths are not as powerful."

Arthur nodded slowly and whispered back, "I won't tell."

The screen flickered and their two numbers came up. Valkyrie patted him on the shoulder, "Good luck out there, maybe I'll meet you later on. Don't be shy to say hi, ok? I won't bite... much." She winked as she walked off to the more expensive rental line.

Arthur sat for another minute before the encounter shock faded. He spoke to VALKYRIE!!! He headed to his rental counter and put the ticket down. The clerk glanced at it bored and kept looking towards the VIP counter where the famous adventurer went. The pudgy guy with glasses unceremoniously dropped the sword, bow, and a quiver of arrows on the counter. "Here's your rental. You have seven days to return it. Any damage on the sword and bow will cost you in repairs. Arrows will be charged as per the sell rate of the shop."

Arthur took the equipment and turned around to head out. He barely got three steps from the counter when he heard his name called.

"Hey Arthur, can you come over here and help me carry some of my gear?"

Arthur strapped on the rented sword, slung the quiver over his shoulders, and carried the bow in his left hand. He walked toward Valkyrie. "Sure, what do you need me to carry?"

The braided woman had already worn a brace of five daggers across the hide armor that hid the top of her body and seemed out of place with her short jeans. She pointed at the counter. "Grab the shield for me, it's probably a little heavy for you but I need to carry the rest."

She didn't wait for a response as she secured a backpack onto her shoulders. An axe that Arthur needed two hands just to carry let alone swing. She grabbed the last gear which was thick leather pants and pulled it up over her leggings and shorts.

A muscular warrior walked over while Valkyrie was tightening her belt. "Hey beautiful, I can help you carry your gear."

Arthur reached for the shield and the man swatted at his smaller hands.

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Valkyrie gave the man the side eye, "Pick up the shield Arthur, and follow me out."

Arthur reached for the shield again. The man faced Arthur to block it. "Can't you see that I'm talking to the lady?"

Arthur made a face and then looked at Valkyrie. She looked like she was going to sucker punch the warrior. Arthur took a deep breath and quickly uttered the words to a spell hoping the warrior wasn't versed in resisting spells. The warrior was about to say something else when the redhead flung a handful of sand into the air.

There was a look of confusion before the warrior slumped to the ground snoring.

Valkyrie looked at Arthur and then back at the sleeping oaf and laughed, "You have potential Arthur, keep it up. I might look for you later if you grow into your skills."

Arthur grinned, picking up the shield and braced it with his other arm to carry it. It was as heavy as she said it would be. He followed her outside where she walked to a red convertible Maserati.

"Toss the shield in the back and get in. I'll give you a lift," said the Viking-like woman.

Arthur listened to her orders and put the shield in the back seat. He was careful not to damage the car and put his equipment back there too.

The red car peeled out of the parking lot when the GPS was guiding the driver to his place.

"So Red, did you join up with a group? Are you doing any more labyrinths?"

"Yeah, I am grouped up with a warrior and a healer. We are going to return to one of the cleared labyrinths to kinda go over what happened the last time we were there."

A car honked the horn at the speeding Maserati that ignored the red light. The driver yelled an obscenity. Valkyrie flipped him the birdie and responded without pause, "What happened?"

"We grouped up with a couple of bullies. They pushed me into a crevasse and later they let my friends and other party members fight the enemies while the two assholes went and stole choice loot and left."

"There will always be opportunists. You and your friends need to man up and have more confidence in yourself. It is a cruel world out there but it doesn't mean you let people walk all over you."

Arthur flushed, "Yeah I know. I just wasn't much of a conflict resolver. I tend to be an observer. I react more than be proactive. With licensing as an adventurer instead of going through the workforce route, I need to be better." Arthur felt something pulse within him. It was an odd sensation, almost like a second heart

The erratic braided driver hit the brakes and screeched to a halt on the service road. Arthur looked over to see why she stopped. The woman leaned in and kissed him full on the lips. Unable to react to stop it from happening, he fell into the feeling of her lips until he tapped her arms that had locked onto his neck. He tapped harder because she wasn't letting him breathe! She let go of his neck and released him from the kiss. He took deep gulping breaths before he realized what just happened and stared at Valkyrie.

Valkyrie grinned, then slammed her feet on the gas. The GPS was the only thing talking in the car while the wind whistled around them whipping his hair around. Arthur's face remained red until his front door.

Arthur got out and retrieved his equipment. He looked at Valkyrie, trying to find words but none came out.

The woman still had a grin on her face. "Don't go dying on me ok? There's something about you that I feel will grow into something great."

Arthur just nodded as he watched Valkyrie spin the red car around. She stopped right in front of him. She reached out and handed him a business card. "Feel free to call me when you need help deciding which classification to go to."

She didn't wait for a response and sped down the street, one hand on the wheel. One hand waving at the redfaced redhead standing dumbfounded on his driveway.

Arthur shambled into the house like a zombie. The slow steps up the stairs made it sound like he was exhausted. He dropped his equipment right in his room and fell onto the bed.

"I met Valkyrie... She KISSED ME!!!!!!" He yelled in his head.

It took hours for the euphoria to calm down. He recounted meeting Valkyrie to his parents and grandma leaving out the driving violations and the kiss. They were happy to hear someone who had a famous reputation saw potential in him.

Arthur went back to his room and looked at the laptop. He checked through the modifications that he had done to the program a few times then transferred the compressed file into the cellphone. When it was complete, he turned the phone off and took out the battery.

He had a spare battery ready in case the experiment didn't work. He grinned and cast Lightningdart at the battery on the table. He hoped that because it is a magical electricity, somehow the mana would infuse and charge the battery. He made sure it was only one dart since he had practiced the spell and his usual was two darts.

The electric-charged magical dart slammed into the battery and the arcs of electricity ran around it a couple of times before it disappeared. He tentatively touched it to see if it was hot. Feeling that it was normal temperature, he plugged the battery back in.

He turned the phone on and immediately put it on airplane mode even though there was no SIM card in it. He stared at the program and then focused his thoughts on Kelrick and mentally thought about a connection between the elf and the phone. He imagined himself as a metaphysical external hard drive and the program was a peripheral device to allow Kelrick to speak. He felt a surge of mana within him.

He turned the program on. "Kelrick?"

"Arthur? Wait, am I speaking on the phone? What did you do? I don't want to be stuck in a program for the rest of my existence!" the elf yelled angrily.

"One sec, I have to test something." He let go of the phone and left it on the table. "Can you hear me?"

There was no response. He picked it back up, "Can you hear me?"

"Ok, that was weird, one second I can hear you then I can't. What's going on?"

"I made modifications to the program. I put it on the phone and as long as I hold the phone, I can talk to you while I'm awake."

"Well, that's one way to make sure you can ask me questions as needed. How long does..."

Arthur called out to Kelrick but no response. The Lightningdart was a very minimal magical charge. He would need to find a small mana crystal next to test that out. He cast the spell again to charge the battery so he could inform Kelrick about the results and told him that he would test it again when he found a mana crystal.

He sent out a text to Moonglow and Argent. "We are returning to the animated doll labyrinth tomorrow. It might be marked clear by the GM, but I think we are all missing something. I'll fill you in tomorrow."

Lying in bed, Arthur thought about the Shieldtusk labyrinth. " If ownership is possible, what is the status of the labyrinth that was cleared? What happens if someone claims ownership over it? Are people allowed more than one ownership? Does each labyrinth have a key like the Shieldtusk one? What if we need to find the key, claim ownership and there is a special dungeon? And the real loot has always been in the dungeon that spawns from being the owner of the labyrinth?"

Arthur didn't go to meet Kelrick that night and fell asleep pondering the possibilities of what was not commonly known about the labyrinths.