Spoils from the Large Snake*

Kirou and Navi walked in silence as they headed to the entrance of the underground cave system. It was a fifteen-minute trip but the duo spent the time walking. As they walked, Navi couldn't stop herself from asking, "Did you have to do that to Guardian Knight? Considering the focus and speed you employed, I'm sure you harvested a lot of materials."

Kirou shrugged as he responded to her, "Your sect was lucky. I was able to obtain some extra materials mainly due to the size of the boss and setting up a few things ahead of time. It's not something that can be repeated too many times, especially now that the system caught me doing it already. If I had to guess, if I try that again, the corpse will directly vanish instead of slowly turning into particles of light."

Navi covered her mouth in shock as she listened to those words. Although she should have been used to it by now, Kirou somehow still managed to pull off something to surprise her. She could only shake her head at his antics. While she was busy dealing with this, the duo arrived at the entrance of the underground cave system.

Kirou turned towards Navi and spoke, "Be sure to remind them to avoid combat with the lizardmen if possible. Your sect will have more to gain from those NPCs if you establish a trade agreement with them, as opposed to your guys turning them into hostiles."

A serious expression formed on Navi's face as she nodded at Kirou's advice. Seeing this, Kirou started walking away from the cave entrance. He never made it far before he could hear Navi's words, "Thanks again for helping us out, Kirou. Let's team up later."

At those words, Kirou raised his hand and gave Navi a 'thumbs up' without turning around, followed by him waving his hands goodbye. As soon as his figure entered the shade of a nearby tree, his body quickly sank into the shadows, completely disappearing from the area. Navi stared at where he left for a few moments before rushing back into the cave. Right now, she was curious as to the number of materials that Kirou had harvested and to see if she can procure some resources for her branch from this ordeal.

*******

Navi had just returned to the defacto conference room when she saw the dazed expression on the various members. Besides Guardian Knight who was currently making some calls, if his current actions were anything to go by. Navi waited by his side until he was done with his conversations.

While this was going on, the dazed members in the room finally awoke from their stupors. They each gave Navi a meaningful look before walking out of the room. As one of the two people remaining in the room, Navi stole a glance at the busy Guardian Knight before thinking over the possible implications of those looks that she received earlier.

Roughly three minutes later, Guardian Knight had finally finished making his calls and had now released a sigh. Upon noticing Navi's presence, a wry smile formed on his face as he spoke, "I truly am fortunate to have both you and Reya at my side, Navi. I seriously don't know how to thank you for introducing Kirou to us, even if we can only work with him on a contractual basis." Guardian Knight had a sincere expression on his face as he said this.

Those words caused Navi's lips to twitch. She's been working for Guardian Knight for many years now. During that time, the times in which he would show such a sincere expression while expressing such thanks were few and far in between. She could actually count the number of times on her hands. With Guardian Knight making such an expression, Navi couldn't stop herself from asking, "Chairman, just what kind of materials did Kirou obtain for you to react in this way? Even the reactions from the group from before seemed a bit exaggerated over this."

Guardian Knight looked at Navi from head to toe. After doing this for a few seconds, Guardian Knight gently shook his head as he spoke, "See for yourself, Navi."

Following that, Guardian Knight sent Navi a message. After opening the display, Navi could only cover her mouth with one hand while looking at the display while using the other to slowly scroll down.

[10x Black Scales (good quality), 6x Black Scales (great quality), 4x Black Scales (excellent quality), 1x Reverse Scale (great quality), 6x Black Leather (great quality), 2x Black Leather (excellent quality), 20x Sturdy Bones (good quality), 13x Sturdy Bones (great quality), 4x Boa Fangs (excellent quality), 1x Boa Skull (great quality), 20lbs Snake Meat (great quality), 2lbs Snake Meat (excellent quality), 5x vials of Snake Blood (good quality) and 3x vials of Snake Blood (great quality)]

Navi, admittedly, had to look over the list a few times before she released a sigh. Before her eyes laid roughly eighty materials. Obtaining so many materials from a boss, so early in the game seems highly illogical, even if one considers the fact that the boss dropped no equipment with Kirou's work on it. It seems that Kirou wasn't joking when he said that he wouldn't be able to pull this trick off anymore.

Hell, just her looking at this list, she would have intentionally sabotaged his work from now on if she was in the place of the system watching over the game. Kirou's gains were just too much. Besides that, she could also understand why both Guardian Knight and the group of players ended up in such a state after seeing this list. In fact, if she wasn't already used to Kirou's knack of pulling off some amazing stunts, she too would be lost in a daze right now instead of just being mildly shocked.

Shaking her head free from such thoughts, Navi looked up, only to come face to face with Guardian Knight's stare. Seeing his gaze, Navi could only release a helpless sigh as she spoke, "It's like this, Chairman. Both Reya and I are already used to Kirou pulling off stunts like this. If we had to be shocked over every little thing he pulls after knowing him for a while, I'm afraid that we would have already stopped playing this game due to medical reasons."

Guardian Knight could only stare at her for a few more seconds before releasing a sigh as he spoke, "It's fine. For now, I won't interfere with yours or Reya's dealings with him. That being said, be sure to let me know ahead of time he needs help in obtaining certain resources and I'll do my best to provide aid. The same for trouble as well. I won't stand for anyone setting their sights on an ally such as Kirou."

"Thank you, Chairman. I'll do my best." Following those words, Navi nodded her head before turning around and leaving the room. For now, she had to go find Reya and share the good news. As for Guardian Knight, he remained behind in the room alone.

He was currently lost in thought, 'If these materials are just 80% of the items he obtained, and are the ones closely related to what I asked for, I can't help but wonder what the remaining 20% looks like? Based on the kind of feeling he emanates and the information about him given by both Navi and Reya, I know he's not the type to work at a loss so something within the remaining 20% must have been enough to cover all those excellent quality items he gave up. Kirou is definitely someone my sect should never antagonize.' With those thoughts in mind, Guardian Knight resolved himself to personally handle any dealings in the future where Navi and Reya are unable to take part in. This was all for the rise of his sect.

*******

Kirou was currently riding his wolf mount and making his way back to the small village on the outskirts of the mountain area. While he would have loved to stay and deal with those lizardmen from now, he had more pressing concerns to deal with. With his experience bar being currently locked on 99%, he had no choice but to see an expert on the matter. And who would be a better choice than his own class master to explain the kind of situation that he was facing? With that in mind, Kirou had to make his way towards Elderwood Village in order to speak to his class master there, Bladesmith.

Along the way, Kirou also thought back to an item he obtained from the boss monster. Just thinking about it puts a cheeky smile on his face. 'Who would have thought that I would obtain materials like these while randomly rushing at the end. Should I think of it as the system's way to compensating me for removing the corpse in such a fashion, or should just consider myself extremely lucky that these two materials just so happened to be placed near where I was at the end?'

With those thoughts in mind, Kirou took a look at the materials in question. Just like Guardian Knight had suspected, Kirou wasn't the benevolent type of person that would be giving away excellent quality materials for no reason. The fact that he did so proved that he had obtained something of greater value from his harvests. For Kirou, his look from the boss monster went like this:

[5x Black Scales (great quality), 2x Black Leather (great quality), 2x Snake Spine Bones (excellent), 3x Snake Meat (good quality), 2x Snake Meat (great quality), 2x vials of Snake Blood (good quality), 1x vial of Snake Blood (great quality), 1x vial of Snake Blood (excellent quality), 1x brick of Mysterious Alloy (excellent quality) and 1x Pet Egg (Snake-Epic)]

Kirou's portion of the haul was quite generous considering all of these belong solely to him while the 80% obtained by Guardian Knight belonged to the Sanming Sect. Be that as it may, since the deal had already been struck and he was the one who obtained the extra materials, these were all materials that Kirou had rightly earned, especially when you consider the extra gift he had left them in the form of the lizardmen.

That being said, if Kirou had to choose between the mysterious alloy and the pet egg over the rest of the items on the list, Kirou would have easily and quickly disposed of them as he was more interested in those two after all. Putting the pet egg aside for the moment, the mysterious alloy caught Kirou's attention for two reasons; the first being its grade and the second being the size of the brick in question.

Let this be known, Kirou had no part in the creation of this mysterious alloy. It was already in the shape of a brick when he found it next to the pet egg and all he had to do was take it up with his hands to retrieve it. With that being said and done, Kirou obtained a material of excellent grade without any work on his part. As for the size of the brick, it was roughly half the size of a normal metal brick. The fact that Kirou read its description and it's being classified as a brick instead of half a brick, that gave Kirou a thought, 'It's either the system making a mistake with this things description or the process to make this alloy is so strenuous that just this half is treated in a similar fashion as bricks made from other metals. With how the system has been going on lately, I'll be damned if it isn't the second option.' With that in mind, Kirou had an idea of how he would go about using the mysterious alloy but that would have to wait until after his trip to Elderwood Village.

Now that the mysterious alloy is out of the way, let's return the focus back to the pet egg. Unlike creatures in the wild that can only be tamed by any advanced Archer-class, summoners and now Weapon Masters, pet eggs allow ANYONE, regardless of their class, to obtain a companion of their own. That being said, obtaining a pet egg isn't easy as their drop rates are abysmal in the early stages of the game, or so the forums say. Kirou had originally researched this topic during the time he had tamed Shadow Arachne and it seems that such a situation remains true until now. Not only that, but this pet egg was also at epic grade. That was the equivalent of an orange named creature, which are usually bosses at this stage in the game. The fact that Kirou obtained such a thing had to be kept quiet, which is another reason why he was in a rush to leave the area.

While Kirou had no problems with fighting, he would rather not take a chance and fill the minds of those in the room with greed, forcing him to have to fight his way out. Kirou was at least confident in escaping the cave system alive but all relationships with the Sanming Sect would end at that point and he still has some use for them. Besides, they haven't made good on their end of the deal yet, as far as he knows, so Kirou would rather not take any unnecessary chances.

With all that said, Kirou sped his way towards the village at top speed and left the mountains behind him. After another two or so minutes of travel, Kirou finally arrived at the small village, where he immediately rushed to the village head to make use of their teleport gate.

As the village head chanted and moved his hands, causing a beam of gold light to surround Kirou, a thought flashed through Kirou's mind, 'Senior Bladesmith, I believe it's time we had a heart to heart.'

Following that thought, Kirou's figure disappeared within the golden light. His destination, to the far south of the Southern Continent, Elderwood Village.