Settling The Villagers and Back to the Phantom Palace

The Garuda player and his squad from the <Beast Kingdom> guild have finally returned to the Seaside Village. Unlike the trip to the pirate hideout that took 5 hours, the return trip only needed half that time.

The Garuda player mainly returned here instead of continuing his hunt or returning to his guild as he was curious to see the results of that quest he never got the chance to finish. He was also interested in seeing if he would be able to meet that strange Lycan player he had initially pursued.

Unfortunately, his second wish would go unanswered for quite a time.

Upon entering the location of the Seaside Village, what greeted the Garuda player and his squad was essentially a ghost town. The village lacked any sign of life and it looked like its inhabitants were in quite the rush to leave.

At this point, one squad member, a Lycan, spoke up, "Looks like these guys wasted no time in making themselves scarce as if wanting to avoid us like the plague. What say you now, Boss?"

The Garuda player only gave this Lycan a side-eyed glance, to which the Lycan player lazily shrugged his shoulders.

Seeing the current state of the village, the Garuda player surmised that it would be a waste of time and effort to search the village, so he just led his squad away. As the group went further away from the village, a thought went through the Garuda player's mind as they traveled.

'Now I'm even more curious about this strange Lycan. To have spirited away the residents of a village of this size couldn't have happened unless everyone agreed. With that thought in mind, I wonder what he did to make them so cooperative and where did they go?'

As those thoughts went through his mind, the Garuda player had unknowingly formed a smile on his face, anticipating his meeting with the mysterious Lycan in the future. Sadly for him, that will be a good way off, and said meeting won't be as pleasant as he expects.

*******

Currently out at sea, Kirou was once again seated on the ship with nothing to do. Unlike the return trip to the seaside village, all three ships were now filled to the brim with villagers.

Since the ships were in such a state, he wouldn't be able to run around and question any of the crew members as he wished as he would just be in the way. That, and he had some things to take care of on his end, so he was holed up inside the captain's cabin.

He was looking over the items he currently had on him, as well as reading through the notebook Tailor Sam had gifted him. He was trying to cross-reference the designs he found within the book with the materials he had on hand, while also thinking of ways to improve on the designs themselves.

So far, he's found half a dozen designs that he can use for the girls and a few for himself, but the material requirements to craft them weren't met with the materials he had on hand. That isn't to say that he couldn't make the prototype gear with the materials he has, but that if he was going to craft the proper sets, he needed materials at a grade higher. This was especially true for his own armor as he doesn't plan to change the set he crafts this time for a while.

While Kirou was busy scrutinizing the various designs in the book, he suddenly came across a strange entry within. This entry, unlike the others, had no set design for armor but instead steps to design a unique armor set locked to a specific class. The steps listed for an armor design called the 'Chimera Armor Set'.

Name: <Chimera Armor Set>

Type: Armor

Set Items: Shoes/Boots, Pants/Skirt, Shirt/Jacket

Requirements: A minimum of 3 full armor sets, all at the same rarity. Armor sets can made from different materials and have their own set effects, but MUST match the same class.

Set Effect 1: Stats for the chimera set is the average of all sets devoured + 25% increment for the final set rarity.

Set Effect 2: Other items can be added to strengthen the set bonus for <Chimera Armor Set>, but they must be either unique in nature or be of high rarity with their own effect.

Set Effect 3: <Chimera Armor Set> will be soul-bound. The player only has 3 deaths with the set equipped before the chimera set penalty is activated. Following the 4th death onwards, every death has a 5% chance of a piece of the set being destroyed, with each further death doubling the chances should a piece of equipment fail to be destroyed.

Set Effect 4: New armor sets must be fed to the <Chimera Armor Set> every time the player level is at a multiple of 10 to update the stats of the armor to reflect the new level range.

Set Effect 5: The effects of Set Effect 4 resets Set Effect 3.

Set Effect 6: The abilities of the <Chimera Armor Set> will be based on the abilities of the armor sets used in crafting and updating the <Chimera Armor Set>.

Restriction 1: Each <Chimera Armor Set> is unique. No two sets, even for the same class, can have the exact same abilities. Should this be attempted, the second set will be destroyed upon completion.

Restriction 2: The lower limit of rarity for the <Chimera Set Armor> is [RARE].

Restriction 3: Rarity of the <Chimera Set Armor> can be increased so long as armor sets of a higher rank, all at the same rarity, are fed to the <Chimera Armor Set> during the Set Effect 4 process.

Build Requirements: <Chimera Armor Set> can only be constructed by a Tier 5 or above <Blacksmith > with the <Tailor Armorer> Subclass or by a <Crafting Master> capable of crafting equipment or materials of [EPIC] rank.

Looking at the information recorded in the design book, Kirou was admittedly at a loss for words. On one hand, this armor set met and even exceeded the expectations he wanted for his long-term armor. On the other hand, he was completely dumbfounded at the build requirements which he surprisingly met, albeit just barely.

This discovery made Kirou contemplate his next course of action carefully. While contemplating, Kirou also realized that he had a choice to make as it pertained to this unique armor set. He could either forge the armor sets himself first and then use those armor sets to construct the set, buy the armor from the auction house in SC Pier City, or farm for the armor from various locations.

Kirou immediately shot down the third option, as that would take up way more time, time which he already lacks due to his other various commitments that he has to keep. As for the second option, that would only work for the mainstream classes like warriors, thieves, archers, mages, etc. This could work for the ladies and Fox, but not for him. For a weapon master like him, his lack of a restriction on armor selection type works against him in this manner as the amount of options he has to select from is absurdly high.

As for the first option, this ultimately brings Kirou back to his initial issue of figuring out what kind of armor he should design for himself. This issue plagued Kirou for the entire boat ride home. After a while, he just gave up on this and switched his thoughts to other things, like how the design for the armor that's going to be worn by the elves will look.

A lot of interesting designs flashed through his mind when thinking of this, prompting him to let out a small laugh. For those who passed by the captain's cabin and heard this, they felt a chill run down their spines. Of course, Kirou was ignorant of this and even if he knew, he would just laugh it off and go about his own business.

*******

Roughly half a day later, three fully loaded ships docked on the northwestern section of the Southern Continent. This area lacked a proper harbor and dock for the ships to utilize, so they had to cast their anchors close to a beach and use smaller boats to get to land.

As for the general location, the entire group was just a few kilometers away from Kirou's <Phantom Palace>. Then entire group would be covering the rest of that trip on foot within the next few hours.

After multiple back-and-forth trips by those small boats, everyone was finally on land, taking in the new area. Around this time, sounds started to come from the nearby bushes, throwing everyone on alert.

When Kirou noticed this, he raised an eyebrow while looking in that direction. A few seconds later, a group of armed men and women who looked like bandits appeared, startling the group of villages. Their appearance made the already tense group almost buckle from pressure. They've only just managed to get off the ships after leaving their homes and already they've met trouble.

While the villagers were tensed and tightly holding their weapons, the bandits glanced around the group for a moment before focusing on a specific location. Following this, the leader of this group of bandits started walking towards that location, leaving his people behind and ignoring the alert villagers.

A few villagers played with the idea of jumping this leader now that he was surrounded but gave up on it when they saw their children mixed into the crowd. They couldn't risk the lives of their recently rescued children on a possibility where they weren't even guaranteed to come out on top.

While the villagers were busy with their own thoughts, the leader of the group of bandits stopped walking after reaching a certain location. Following this, a large smile formed on the leader's face as he spoke up,

"We've come to escort your new residents back to the base, Young Master."

"Very good, Warrior Jackson. Is it safe to assume that you took so long to arrive as you were clearing a path for these villagers to safely travel?" queried Kirou with a quirked-up eyebrow.

"That's correct, Young Master. I also had some boys transport the leftover materials back to the base for storage until you return." Warrior Jackson patted his chest as he spoke.

"Since that's the case, we better start moving before things become a pain, especially since it's already dark out," said Kirou with a careless shrug.

Following those words, Kirou introduced Warrior Jackson and his men to his new residents, allowing them to calm their tense nerves and share their respective greetings. Warrior Jackson and his men then took position around the group to protect them as they made their way towards Kirou's base, with Kirou and Warrior Jackson taking the lead.

As the group traveled, the adults kept glancing at Warrior Jackson's men, wondering how Kirou had managed to get acquainted with such a rough-looking group of men and women. As for the children, they were busy either being fascinated with the forest around them or admiring how these scary-looking men and women looked cool while acting as guards for them.

*******

With Kirou and Jackson as the vanguard, the group eventually made it to the base after an hour or so of walking. It wasn't that the distance itself was long but that with such a large group traveling, everyone had to move at the pace of the slowest individual to avoid any possible complications.

What greeted these new villagers upon arrival were a dozen or so simple houses on the surface that Kirou either had a hand in building or tasked a few members of Jackson's people to build in between excavating the <Phantom Palace>. These houses were practically no better than simple huts to Kirou, but each hut was built to house a family of four, and since they were made from reinforced stone, it can be said that they are quite sturdy.

Kirou considered these accommodations on the surface to be a temporary measure until the various floors of his base were fully excavated, but his new residents would be free to decide where they would rather live. If they chose to remain above ground by that time, Kirou had no problems upgrading their "huts" into proper housing for their use. An issue for the future, as it were.

After settling his new residents for the night and greeting the rest of Jackson's men on the upper and middle floors, Kirou was now sitting at his workbench in the basement of the <Phantom Palace>, looking out at the water by the pier.

He was currently trying to decide what he should do first: start making the various armor sets for himself or focus on making the ones for the girls. Kirou gave this some serious thought for a moment before a peculiar smile formed on his face.

With that peculiar smile, Kirou spoke up in a voice only he could hear, "I know what I'm gonna do today."