Changes to the Environment

Having collected the scrap... (cough cough) new gear that dropped from the destroyed wasp corpses and harvested the materials from the rest, Kirou was now on his way to SC Pier City. He needed to make his way back to Elderwood Village quickly to talk to Bladesmith and he could stop by the auction house on his way to sell a few of the gear he just obtained. During this brief trip, Kirou took a look at his current stats.

{Name: Kirou}

{Race: Werewolf(Lycan/Human)}

{Class: Weapon Master}

{Subclass: Crafting Master}

{Traits: Lycan Transformation(Minor), Keen Senses(Minor), Adaptability(Minor), Information Analysis (Minor), Man-at-Arms(Class), Forge Your Own Path(Class), Fast Hands(Class), <Chimera Creation>(Incomplete)}

{Weapons: Gunblade Tonfas, Wolf Claws, Enchanted Steel Chain, Threaded Wires, Metal Spike Boots, Fighter Gloves}

{Armor: Basic Leather Armor, Shadow Cloak, Mysterious Bead(???)}

{Level: 20}

{HP: 444/444 (444)}

{MP: 370/370 (370)}

{Str: 86 (36+<50>)}

{Int: 34 (34)}

{Def: 86 (36+<50>)}

{Const: 37 (37)}

{Dex: 32 (32)}

{Agi: 82 (32+<50>)}

{Luck: 55/100}

{Stat Points: 51}

Looking over his current stats, it was only now that Kirou realized that he was still equipped with a few outdated gears. Besides the mysterious bead and the Shadow Cloak he received from Tailor Sam from back then, his other five pieces of armor were gear that he had taken from a few of those hostile players he's met from the last ambush, whose stats he's completely ignored.

Apart from that, Kirou also remembered that he had promised both Reya and Navi a set of armor as well. With those thoughts in mind, Kirou now increased his speed towards SC Pier City by taking advantage of <Shadow Teleportation>. He had to sort out his experience bar quickly so that he can start on his massive crafting binge. Unfortunately for him, however, was that the moment he got to SC Pier City, he received a message from Navi about the agreement he made with the Sanming Guild.

With a sigh, Kirou spoke under his breath, "I guess I deserve this. Who told me to go messing around with those wasps when I had other priorities for the day?" Having said this, Kirou made his way towards the meeting area for the Sanming Sect in a dispirited mood.

*******

Half an hour later, in a mountainous area on the west side of the Southern Continent.

Kirou had just left this random village and was making his way into the nearby mountains. The coordinates given to him by Navi pointed in this direction. The area was relatively devoid of player activity. Kirou chalked this up to the fact that the area was relatively low on monster density, along with the fact that the monsters present were all level 25 and above. While this was just a slightly higher difficulty area for Kirou, this was a death trap waiting to happen for normal players as they lacked both the levels and the equipment to effectively deal with the monsters here.

Having said that, Kirou had neither the interest nor time to deal with any of the creatures he was fortunate to cross paths with so he made the entire journey using <Shadow Teleportation> and made use of his double stealth in places where he could. And like that, Kirou got to the meeting area just ten minutes later.

Seeing the entourage of players already present, Kirou showed no expression on his face as his body materialized before the group of players. While a few were admittedly startled and placed their hands on their weapons, the rest kept their cool while staring at him. That being said, those very people were inwardly shocked by Kirou as they never expected him to arrive this quickly.

Within the group of players, a few of them walked out and stood before Kirou. These players were Shiroa, Navi, and Guardian Knight. Kirou took a quick and covert glance at the group, noticing the presence of both Small Pebble, whom he borrowed the comically designed war hammer from last time, and Reya, both of whom were doing their best to remain hidden in the group. Kirou only made note of their presence before turning to face the trio now standing a meter away from him.

Guardian Knight had a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face as he spoke, "I'm sorry about the incident that took place yesterday. I've already reprimanded all those involved and I hope you won't take it to heart." When Guardian Knight said this, he had an apologetic expression on his face, something that most of the players present have never seen before. This shocked them as they wondered who Kirou was and what had happened to cause the big boss to react like this.

Kirou looked at Guardian Knight and released a sigh. It seems the matter from yesterday had already gotten to Guardian Knight's ears. Kirou adopted a wry smile on his face before speaking, "It's already fine, Sect Master Guardian Knight. Haven't I already said that the matter has already come to a close? Why bring up such an unimportant matter at a time like this? I've personally already forgotten about it, after all."

Guardian Knight and Shiroa seemed to have been relieved at those words. This was especially so for Guardian Knight since he would rather hear it from the source directly instead of from someone else. As for Navi, she already knew from the start that Kirou hadn't kept the incident in mind as he would rather spend time hunting down monsters for materials.

Feeling relieved by his words, Guardian Knight had a smile on his face as he spoke, "Thank you for that, Kirou. You've removed a weight from my shoulders. Now then, how about we head deeper into the area. When I had Navi message you, I never expected you to arrive so soon, so the creature still has plenty of health left. Why don't we head over and let me show you the boss we are after in action?" When Guardian Knight said this, he made a gesture signifying 'this way' to Kirou.

Kirou followed that up with an 'after you' gesture as he spoke, "I'll take you up on that offer and will look forward to it. Please lead the way."

Following this, the group of two dozen players made their way deeper into the mountains. As the group traveled, they naturally assume the position of surrounding Kirou with a few warriors at both the front and back of the group, followed by the mid and long-range classes such as the mages and archers. In the center of this group was Kirou and the trio from before. Both Small Pebble and Reya were acting as members of the security detail, escorting these important people to the battlegrounds.

*******

Roughly twenty minutes later, after various twists and turns, the group was now deep within a cave system, whose entrance was hidden somewhere in the mountainous region. Without the party escorting him, Kirou doubted that he would have been able to find this area so easily. After another minute or two of walking, the group exited a long tunnel and arrived at a large clearing, where a large group of players was currently fighting a large snake.

It was a large and menacing creature with jet black scales and scarlet red, slitted eyes. It was over twenty-five meters long and three meters wide. What stood out even more on this giant snake were the two protrusions behind its head; two large wings that were folding and unfolding as the battle progressed. From Kirou's observations, he could tell that this was a winged serpent, and from the looks of it, quite an ancient-looking one at that.

Kirou turned to his left where Guardian Knight was currently situated and asked quietly, "How did you guys manage to find something like this? This creature doesn't seem like the type that players should be able to meet on this continent."

To those words, Guardian Knight gave out a low chuckle before responding, "You are right, this creature definitely shouldn't be here. We have one of our normal sect members to thank for this find. Originally, the entire mountain area was a place that this player occasionally visited for harvesting materials. After the update last week, however, that player came once again, only to find that all the material harvest points were missing and that this large creature was present. So far, we've managed to kill it a few times, which resulted in the material harvest points returning but we haven't been able to harvest many decent materials from it. We've only been blessed with a few above-average materials from our hunts so far." With that last statement, a wry smile formed on Guardian Knight's face.

Hearing those words, Kirou could imagine what happened to the area. It seems that the update from the previous week introduced some new monsters to certain maps. This got Kirou into thinking about the jellyfish king he and Mistaken Fox had slain within the previous week. He wondered if the huge jellyfish was a normal one before that got strengthed or one that migrated to the area after the update.

Seeing Kirou go silent, Guardian Knight took this as his cue to signal for Navi to entertain him while he and a few others go join the group taking on the giant snake. Kirou watched as Guardian Knight left with a few others, Shiroa included, to join the battle. Since he was only here as an outsider, Kirou had no problems sitting on the sidelines to watch as the Sanming Sect players did all the work.

At some point in time, two female players had gotten close to Kirou; one being an elf and the other being a dwarf. With the large scale battle currently going on, the other members of the group didn't notice this as they were focused on the giant snake currently thrashing about. As for Kirou, he noticed their movements from the corner of his eyes but made no motion to greet them and was instead focusing on Navi who was right next to him.

Seeing the approach of the two women, however, Navi decided to try and pull a fast one on Kirou, the operative word being 'try' in this case, as she whispered, "Mr. Wolf, I bet you wouldn't be able to guess the little surprise I managed to put in place for you?"

Kirou looked at her with a raised eyebrow before speaking, "Hoo? And what kind of surprise are we talking about here?"

"Due to recent events, I was able to invite a few players that would normally not be able to join this kind of operation so that they could see you in action," said Navi with a smile on her face. She was preparing to spring the two's presence on Kirou, not knowing that he had spotted them from the moment he arrived.

True to those words, Kirou spoke up, "If you are talking about Reya and that dwarven girl, Small Pebble, I've already noticed both of them already making their way over here." Kirou said this just loud enough for the two women who were now behind him to hear, prompting one to be stunned while the other made a helpless expression on her face.

Seeing Kirou turning around to greet them, Reya could only speak while still showing the helpless expression on her face, "Just as I told you, Sister Navi. It just isn't possible for us to sneak up on Mr. Wolf, no matter how much we want to try it."

"I admit defeat, Reya. I knew better but still wanted to try, hoping that we would be able to do it. I guess I'll have to take this lesson to heart," said a Navi who released a helpless sigh at this outcome.

As for the dwarf female, Small Pebble, she went up to Kirou and gave him a polite bow before speaking, "Um... thanks again for what you did last time. And also for agreeing to help out with this."

Kirou smiled while facing Small Pebble and spoke, "No problem. I'm sort of glad I joined as well. I mean, it's not every day that I get to carve up a giant snake." As Kirou said this, he took a look at the giant snake that the group was fighting.