Serena slowly opened her eyes at the sound of chirping birds. A sharp ray of sunlight hit her eyes, causing her to squint, before her brain finally woke up. She sat up, thinking it was the next day and cursing Alice for not waking her up yesterday.

How can she just leave me at school for the whole night? She thought.

As her foggy brain woke up even more, she realized instead of a different scenery, a different location than where she should be in. She was sitting in bed, in a room surrounded by wooden walls. Not just any wooden walls, but log walls. The kind of walls you'd often see in western cowboy movies.

She looked around her. Above her was a roof made of long grass woven together. The wall on her right had an open window right in the middle, allowing her to see a garden where bean-like plants were being cultivated. Under that window in the same room was another bed made of wood, with stitched fur covering the straw seen poking out from underneath it. Right in front of her was a wooden door, crudely crafted from planks nailed together.

Serena considered it such a bizarre sight that she concluded she was dreaming. After all, she took a nap in her classroom so she couldn't have ended up in a place so bizarrely different. She thought it was possible that she was kidnapped, but if that was true, she would've been tied up when she woke up. Convinced that she was dreaming, she went back to sleep.

"Hello," a voice broke through her dream.

Serena opened her eyes slightly. Through her half-opened eyes, she spied a young girl, not much older than herself. She had shoulder-length dark brown hair, slightly wide mouth to be considered pretty, tanned skin and oval face. But what was most striking about her was her eyes.

It was red, like a ruby placed by a skilled jeweller in the center of white marble. Serena imagined the girl's eyes would glow in the dark if light were to be shone at it. It reminded her of her avatar in AGO, Aelrea of the Divine Arms, she had the same red eyes too. Her avatar's eyes even glowed. This girl's eyes reminded her of the mycra race, that she as the goddess Aelrea created as her kin in AGO.

But that couldn't be the case. AGO was a game. The girl in front of her looked very real. Serena pinched her thigh, winced in pain and figured she was probably not dreaming. So by process of elimination, she came to a different conclusion.

This girl is an albino, she thought.

She completely ignored the girl's dark brown hair and tanned skin.

"Umm, hi there. I bring you breakfast," the girl said.

Only now Serena realised the girl was carrying a plate in her right hand and a mug on her left. She had been too mesmerised by the girl's beautiful red eyes that shined like expensive ruby in solitaire cut to notice anything else. While the girl crossed the short distance to the table beside her bed, she placed both her burden on the table under Serena's watchful eyes.

"Eat up. I know it's not much, but I'm sure you can appreciate a warm meal after your perilous journey."

Perilous journey?

"Didn't you come from outside the valley? Grandpa found you collapsed by the side of the road on his way home from Rycius Watchtower."

Valley?

"Could it be... you don't realise where you are?" The tanned girl with ruby eyes bent over slightly, looking at Serena's face in worry.

“Umm...” Serena could've chosen any reply, but she was too overwhelmed by the vastly different scenery that she couldn't say a single word in response.

Seeing Serena's confused face, the girl said, "You're home!"

"Pardon?" Serena asked. In her mind, she thought this was certainly not her home.

"The Crimson Valley! The land that hero Lasrios tried to lead the mycra to! Oh wait, since you're a 'lost hammer', you probably grew up hearing it's original name, 'Valley of Snakes' instead."

Certainly, Serena have heard the name Lasrios and Valley of Snakes before. However, putting both phrases in one breath, brought into mind a possibility that she couldn't believe could be real. Added to the fact that the girl admitted that her people were called the mycra, it could only bring her to one conclusion. A conclusion which was simply impossible. Not even in fairytales.

So of course, Serena was in denial.

"You messing with me?" Serena asked with suspicion.

"No! This really is the promised land, it is the Valley of Snakes that the hero Lasrios said was prepared by Goddess Aelrea for us. He brought us here following our time of great need,” the girl said with much greater enthusiasm, even her face was flushed and her breath heavy from excitement.

What nonsense is this? I never did anything like that. Wait, this means... oh man, I'm getting a headache.

Serena indeed knew of a Lasrios, but that was in AGO. Lasrios was none other than one of her hero units. Serena had other hero units as well, such as Pegasus Knight Heriane and Guardian of the Forge Maristes. They fought Ukhlar together with her before she died and she could only assume they died as well afterward. Sword Brave Lasrios was the strongest of them all, even more than Spearmaster Gardi.

As Lasrios was the strongest hero, Serena as Aelrea equipped him with an S-class weapon that she created specifically for him, the cursed Blood Forge. It was a blade of immense power that it consumed the souls of its users to become stronger. She then sent him on a long term quest to defeat one of the players from the Theocracy of Lyrica, so he was too far to be recalled when Ukhlar the Scourge of Blood invaded the Aelrean Mountain Range.

Lasrios was deep in enemy territory, accompanied by only a handful of skilled mycras and a company of khalisian mercenaries. They were in a place called the Valley of Snakes. According to the girl, this place was called the Valley of Snakes once. If one were to assume that the game had somehow become a reality, that meant, this was the place he was sent to. If the game had become reality, then it would be safe to assume that just like this girl before her, Lasrios had also gained sentience.

That idiot probably misunderstood my reasoning for ordering him to come here. He probably thought I sent him here to invade it for the mycra's future expansion. I actually gave him that quest because the player who owned this land was weak. Oh Lasrios, there should be a limit to your achievements.

Serena was impressed at herself for creating such a resourceful minion. The actual reason she sent Lasrios to the Valley of Snakes was not to take the valley for her use, but to raise Lasrios's level by defeating a weak god. Then when he would be a lot stronger, she'd kill his character and have his soul consumed by the blade. This would hopefully raise the blade's level from S-class to SS-class. How could she have known he would misunderstood her intentions?

Of course, instead of using such a roundabout way to create an SS-class weapon, she could've forged an SS-class weapon from the start, just like how she forged the spear called, Drill of the Universe. Unfortunately, creating an SS-class weapon from the start had a very low chance of success, even for one of her skills and she wasted a tonne of resources to craft a successful one. When she crafted the Blood Forge, she no longer had the resources to spare.

"Didn't your parent teach you?" the girl asked again.

"Pardon?" Serena almost forgot about this girl standing next to her bed.

"Didn't your parents teach you about the Valley of Snakes? Even if you're a lost hammer, you must have heard them talk about it, right?"

"You kept talking about 'lost hammer'. Is that some kind of insult or something?" Frankly, it sounded racist in Serena's ears. She really hate racist people.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. It's just what we call the mycras who have never set foot inside the Crimson Valley."

"What did you say?"

"We call people like you lost hammer because-"

"No, did you just call me a mycra?"

"Aren't you? What are you other than a mycra? Your red eyes that shine like ruby is telling enough."

Wait, my eyes are red? I'm a normal girl! My eyes are blue!

"But the real proof is in your blood," the girl said as she touched Serena's hand.

Hey, overly friendly girl. Just because I'm sitting helpless in bed, doesn't mean you can touch me so casually.

The girl wrapped her fingers around Serena's, before jolts of energy pass through the palm of Serena's hand, up to her arm then into her heart. As if in response, a stronger jolt then fired out of Serena's heart and transmitted through their linked hands into the girl. Both of them reacted to that pulse of energy in different ways.

"Ahhhnn, nooo..." the girl moaned while making a blissful face that could easily be misunderstood as something lewd.

As for Serena, she made a muffled moan and panted while thinking, I didn't know I swing that way too.

"What was that?" the girl asked while panting.

"How would I know?" No, I'm not gay.

"That was amazing!"

The hell are you saying?!!! Serena scolded in her heart.

"I never knew another girl could make me feel this way." Serena lamented this realization that everything she knew as fact was a lie. Cake. Her mind suddenly created an image of a cake.

"You must be someone talented!" The girl said with flushed cheeks covered by the fingers of her hands.

"This can't be real, I can't be bent." I'm not gay!!!

"I've never felt something so wonderful!" The face she was making could be easily misunderstood as something euphoric.

"Ai, it seems like life is not so straightforward as I'd like to believe," Serena said to herself as the cracks in her heart started to make way for acceptance.

"I think if you work hard, you can even be a master craftsman!" The girl exclaimed in a loud and excited voice to Serena who was in her own world.

"I may need to redefine my sexuality," Serena said as the cracks in her heart grew bigger.

"With your talent, I think you have a shot. What have you made so far?" The girl asked, totally unaware of Serena's inner turmoil.

"Excuse me? Were you talking to me?" Serena asked as she finally snapped out of her self-destructive thoughts.

"... Who else is here?"

"I thought you were talking to yourself. What were you saying just now?"

"I said your magic is so strong, you probably have the talent to become a master crafter. That pulse of energy just now was proof. All mycra can exchange energy that way, but your energy was amazing!"

"You mean that feeling just now, it wasn't love?" A ray of hope shined through the cracks of Serena's heart.

"Love? Why would you suddenly ask that?"

"Thank god! I thought I've become a lesbian!" Serena breathed a sigh of relief. Slowly, little by little, the cracks in her heart mended itself.

"Yes, thank Goddess Aelrea for your talent. There are many magic crafters from the hamlet, but you're far above them! You must be blessed. I think you should join the crafter's competition this year!"

"One thing at a time, my excited tanned... uhh... acquaintance. What do I call you?"

"Oh, sorry, I was too excited, I forgot my manners. My name is Iina."

"Serena," Serena introduced herself.

She entertained the thought of introducing herself as Aelrea, but considering Aelrea was the mycra's goddess, they probably wouldn't take kindly to someone using their goddess's name. Even though she was Aelrea in the game, they'd probably expect her to perform some kind of miracle, which Serena had no idea how to do at the moment.

Iina smiled wide, which, with her big mouth should've made her look like a clown. Instead, it made her look sweet and cute. "Then Serena, let me be the first to welcome you to Clear River Hamlet."