The Companion of Valhalla

A man falls into another world and finds one house willing to hire him: Valhalla, a spear hall that ranks its companions in public. The regulars laugh. The crossing has changed him, and the house rules pay anyone who turns that change into rank. / He is stuck on the lowest tier. Every client is a move on a board he does not understand. If he learns the hall's game, the people who mocked him must face him as an equal. If he fails, Valhalla keeps him.