Inconspicuous Cave

After finally managing to escape the chase of the two elven women, Kirou was currently roaming the outer edges of the Thousand Wood Forest. Beneath his body was a two-meter tall, four-meter long black wolf with blood-red eyes. This was the mount that Kirou obtained for completing his part of the <Traces of the Dark Continent> quest. Kirou himself was quite surprised when he saw the kind of mount he obtained from the random mount token he received.

Mount: Blood Shadow Wolf (Rare)

Mount Species: Shadow Wolf

Mount Type: Combat Mount

Mount Requirement: Level 15

Mount Speed: +180%

Skills: Shadow Movement, Feral Roar (Active), Intimidation Stare (Passive), Blood Tracking (Passive)

Going over the stats of his mount, Kirou couldn't stop himself from thinking that the game was kind of biased towards him. This wasn't the first time that he obtained something random from the system that fits his exact skill set. This was especially so when he thought about the fur coat he received from Tailor Sam with the <Camouflage> skill attached to it, as well as the <Shadow Camouflage> skill he received from Old Wolf's beginner quest.

Shaking his head free of this thought, Kirou continued on his journey around the Thousand Wood Forest. Apparently, he was looking for something but hadn't found it yet. This continued for a few hours before Kirou left the confines of Thousand Wood Forest and returned to the Elderwood Forest.

**********

While Kirou was busy searching for something that was currently elusive to him, Mistaken Fox was currently on the north coast of the Southern Continent. As usual, he was busy fighting a multitude of monsters with the help of his Stone Axe Minotaur.

Both Mistaken Fox and his summoned creature were currently at level 19. Both had been locked in combat for the last few days. Even with the server shutdown on the previous day, Mistaken Fox had patiently waited until the exact moment that the server resumed service before logging in and continuing his mad grind for experience.

It took the man and minotaur duo a few minutes before they managed to finish off the thirteen creatures that had them surrounded. Mistaken Fox collapsed against a tree while the Stone Axe Minotaur just looked at him in mild contempt before staring out at the vast oceans before them.

Mistaken Fox had seen the contempt in the minotaur's eyes but he could currently do nothing about it. Instead, Mistaken Fox opted to join his wayward minotaur and stare into the vast oceans as well.

"Beautiful," was the only word that left Mistaken Fox's mouth while staring at the scene. Similar to reality, it was now the time for sunset in the game. Mistaken Fox and his minotaur were both entranced by the beauty of the sunset reflecting on the ocean surface. This kept up until the sunset finally ended while there was a moon hung in another part of the sky.

Now that they had their rest, both Mistaken Fox and his minotaur decided that it was time to search for another squad of monsters to slay. The duo calmly walked into the forest behind them, leaving behind the perfect spot to watch the sunset in that nameless forest.

*********

Kirou had managed to cover both Thousand Wood Forest and Elderwood Forest, along with a few nameless forests found surrounding both. So far, he was unable to find whatever it was that he was searching for and this caused Kirou to be a bit irritated.

He had just entered another nameless forest when he received a telepathic call request. Feeling the need to calm himself down, Kirou decided to hop off of his Blood Shadow Wolf and rest on a tree when he answered the call.

"Hey, Brother Fox. I was going to call you within a few hours. What's up?" Kirou was staring at the crescent moon currently hung in the sky through the gaps in the treetops.

[Mistaken Fox: I think I need your help, Brother Kirou.]

Hearing this prompted Kirou to raise an eyebrow from his end before speaking up, "What managed to corner a level 19 player such as yourself? Especially with such a strong minotaur as a summoned creature by your side?"

[Mistaken Fox: That's the problem, Brother Kirou. My minotaur is currently under the control of a weird monster and I can't recall it back into its talisman. Whenever I try, the monster would lash out at me, interrupting the process and I have to be in a set range to recall it, which just so happens to be in that monster's attack range.]

Listening up to here prompted Kirou to stand up and start doing some stretches. As he did them he couldn't stop himself from asking, "Is there anything peculiar about this monster or the environment around it?"

[Mistaken Fox: Nothing peculiar about the environment besides it being inside a cave.] This prompted a certain expectation within Kirou as he listened.

[Mistaken Fox: As for the creature itself, it looks like a giant jellyfish with part of its body underwater while the cap is visible and it apparently possesses psychic powers since it was able to take control of the minotaur the moment it stepped with a few feet of the creature.]

Just as Kirou finished his stretches, he asked, "What are your coordinates. I'll head there immediately." Following this, Kirou summoned out his Blood Shadow Wolf and hopped on its back.

[Mistaken Fox: I'm 20km west of SC Pier City on the north coast at coordinates xxx.yyy. Please hurry. That creature looks like it plans on getting rid of me.] When Mistaken Fox said this, he sounded a bit winded from Kirou's end.

"Keep calm and stay out of sight. Report anything you find strange as soon as it happens. I'm on my way now." Following this, Kirou ended the telepathic call and made a mad dash to Elderwood Village on his mount. Kirou made it a point to take advantage of the Blood Shadow Wolf's <Shadow Movement> skill by having it travel within the shadows of the trees, increasing its base speed from 180% to 250% and further increased this speed to 360% for a short duration using the skill's active form.

***********

A little over an hour later, Kirou now found himself standing before a cave on the north side of the Southern Continent. At first glance, the cave entrance looked inconspicuous which prompted Kirou to wonder why Mistaken Fox had entered in the first place and further, why was it that there was a creature capable of mind control hiding within such an area.

Kirou entered the area under a double cloak of camouflage using the skill attached to his black fur coat and his personal variant. As Kirou walked deeper into the cave, his eyebrows started to furrow as he sensed that there was something wrong with the area. The cave was too quiet. Had Mistaken Fox not told him that there were no monsters along the route, Kirou would have assumed that they were recently killed and hadn't respawned yet, but even then, Kirou could tell that there was something wrong with the area.

Just as he finally managed to get to a somewhat open clearing, under the effects of his keen eyesight, gifted to him by his racial trait, Kirou was greeted to the sight of a bunch of monsters currently throwing themselves into an underground lake, where said monsters were being devoured by what looked like a bunch of small jellyfish. Kirou watched the entire process of this go on for a few minutes before leaving the area quietly, now completely focused on avoiding any such openings from now on.

It seems that the creature Mistaken Fox had run into was the big boss while these smaller jellyfish were the underlings. If the underlings were already capable of this, it stands to reason why Mistaken Fox's minotaur was taken away from him.

After another ten or so minutes of walking, Kirou was now standing by the entrance of a very large cavern, with a giant underground lake shown in the middle. From where Kirou was standing, he could see the giant jellyfish within the lake along with the five-foot-tall Stone Axe Minotaur currently patrolling the lake.

Kirou could only release a sigh at this sight before he started examining the area for Mistaken Fox's presence. After a solid ten seconds of this, Kirou approached a certain section of the passage before tapping something before him.

While it looked like he was just tapping air from his perspective, he felt solid contact when he did so, along with the hidden person currently hiding in a crouch spinning around in shock.

"Easy, Fox. It's just me," whispered Kirou as he too crouched beside Mistaken Fox's now visible but startled form.

"Please don't do that, Brother Kirou. It's not good for the heart," Mistaken Fox said this while patting his chest, calming down his heart as it threatened to burst out from its confines.

"Anything different happened while I was on my way here?" Kirou asked this while taking out an item from his inventory and passed it over to Mistaken Fox.

"Nothing new. It just had my minotaur patrol the area, as if worried that more people would be in the area," after whispering this, Mistaken Fox accepted the item in his hand with slight confusion. As he felt the item in his hand, he turned to Kirou and asked, "This is?"

"Your new weapon," was all Kirou said as he saw the change in expression currently taking place on Mistaken Fox's face.

Mistaken Fox rubbed his hands all over the medallion before he brought it up to his face and checked out its stats. He was quite surprised as he never expected that Kirou would have already finished making the weapon he had promised him, nor did he expect that it would be an epic rarity weapon at that.

"Why is the name section blank, Brother Kirou?" Mistaken Fox finally asked this after fondling and studying the new medallion in his hands for a while.

"I couldn't think of a decent name, so I'm leaving that in your hands. Since you currently lack the level to make use of it, I suggest you put it away for safekeeping and focus on the problem before us. I'd rather take care of this quickly before this thing starts copying the smaller ones." Kirou said this while equipping a few weapons and taking out his own minotaur medallion.

"Smaller ones? What do you mean by 'smaller ones'? There are others in this cave?" When Mistaken Fox asked this, he started looking around the cave in a slight panic.

"Don't worry. From the looks of it, they can't leave the water. That being said, there are many more to be found in this cave. You seemed to have been quite unlucky, bumping into the big one first. If you had run into the small ones first, this probably wouldn't have happened." After saying those words, Kirou entered the underground cavern and traveled along the walls.

Both men swapped over to telepathic chat while moving. Mistaken Fox was the one to speak up first, "I guess this is what I get for being conceited. I thought it would be better to fight in a large area and take advantage of my minotaur's size in slaying whatever monster could be found here. I just never expected it to turn out like this."

"Well, this is a lesson to learn from. Just don't repeat this mistake in the future and you'll be fine." Following those words, both Kirou and Mistaken Fox were now roughly fifteen meters away from the underground lake with the giant jellyfish. Kirou stopped there as he noticed that the creature was currently on guard as he got closer and he felt that if he took one more step, double layers of camouflage or not, the creature would be able to spot him instantly.

"On the count of three, I'll rush at the creature while summoning out my minotaur to block yours. Use that time to get close and to try to regain control of your minotaur and turn it back into a medallion. Are you ready?"

"Ready!"

"Three...."

"Two..."

"One....."

"GOOO!!!" Following this, Kirou broke out of camouflage and summoned Tank to block the Stone Axe Minotaur while he started running towards the giant jellyfish. Mistaken Fox waited a few seconds before he started approaching the Stone Axe Minotaur under stealth.