Taking a Step Back Part 1*

The quartet was naturally stunned at the words of the lizardman. While the girls were stunned by the fact that an armed, bipedal lizard creature was capable of speech, Kirou focused on the words spoken by Draco Blade.

'Great Cave? Could it be that we might have unintentionally entered restricted territory?' thought Kirou as he glanced back at the cave entrance and the current surroundings.

As if thinking that the players didn't hear him the first time, Draco Blade repeated himself a bit louder, "Outsides, have you entered the Great Cave?"

This time, Kirou went to the front of his group as he spoke, "I'm not sure what this 'Great Cave' that you spoke of is, but if you mean this cavern right next to us, then the answer is yes." As Kirou answered, he noticed that the names above all the lizardmen before him flashed red (hostile) for the briefest moment before returning to yellow (neutral).

The lizardmen at the back of the group started raising their weapons, prompting the girls to tense for a moment before raising their weapons as well. This was stopped by both Draco Blade and Kirou simultaneously as both raised their hands to stop their respective group. Both Draco Blade and Kirou eyed each other for a minute before Draco Blade spoke up.

"Outsider... Did you touch any of the glowing stones?" When Draco Blade said this, he had his eyes locked onto Kirou. While his voice has a lisp and came out neutral, a highly observant person would be able to notice the suspicious tone within it.

Instead of answering Draco Blade, however, Kirou took out a small piece of the red stone that resembles a ruby and showed it to Draco Blade. When Draco Blade saw it, an excited gleam passed through its eyes, though it disappeared as quickly as it came. Apparently, that red stone is one of those materials that these lizardmen are calling 'glowing stones'. Kirou noticed this gleam but kept quiet as he waited for Draco Blade to speak.

Draco Blade maintained an even voice as it spoke, doing its best to hide its excitement, "Outsider... Would you be willing to part with that piece of glowing stone?"

Kirou saw the concealed excitement in Draco Blade's eyes and decided to try something. He tossed the piece of red stone in his hand towards Draco Blade without batting an eye, causing the lizardman in question to hastily catch the stone and hold it close as if it was something special. The group of lizardmen behind him all rushed up to see the red stone, only to be told by Draco Blade in their common tongue to stand down. Seeing this reaction, Kirou was now sure that those stones were special and highly sought after by these lizardmen.

Kirou spoke up when the group regained their calm, "You can have that piece for free since I have more." Those words caused the group of lizardmen to stare at Kirou with greed in their eyes but they looked away from receiving a stern glare from Draco Blade. Following this, Kirou continued, "I don't mind trading a few more pieces with you guys, so long as you tell me why you guys find it so special and provide me with a few exotic materials."

Those words caused the greedy eyes from earlier to be filled with excitement as the group of lizardmen started to discuss in their native tongue. Draco Blade took a glance at his group before returning his eyes to Kirou. As for the girls, they had long since gone numb and were now looking at Kirou's interaction with the lizardmen with curiosity.

Kirou waited for the lizardmen's response as a thought went through his mind, 'Whether or not these lizardmen agree to the trade, it's now a fact that there is a tribe of them living in this cave system. So long as I can find them, I wouldn't mind giving away a few stones that I can always mine more of at a later date. It would be a pity, though, if a fight breaks out. Not only would their affinity change to red, but Small Pebble and the others might also get caught in the crossfire.' As Kirou this, he retained his trademark laidback expression on his face, seemingly without any worries at all.

Across from him, Draco Blade was observing Kirou's expression the entire time. Unlike the members of his group, he never once looked down on the small party of outsiders before him. This was especially so for when he stared at Kirou. Just like most beast races, lizardmen possessed heightened senses and sharp instincts as well. Draco Blade couldn't speak for the other members of his group, but when he locked his eyes on Kirou's figure, major alarm bells were going off in his mind. It is due to this why he was hesitant to attack the group of outsiders, even though his group was stronger and had larger numbers.

Having agreed, the group of lizardmen spoke to Draco Blade within their own tongue. Draco Blade nodded before turning to Kirou and spoke, "Outsider... we lizardmen agree to your terms and would like to trade with you for those glowing stones."

Kirou smiled as he heard this before taking a glance at his party. While he would have loved to head towards the lizardman tribe to look over their wares at the moment, he remembered his responsibility towards the Sanming Sect. Since he couldn't deal with it now, he'd come back at another time.

Following that thought process, Kirou removed enough small red stones for every lizardman before him from his inventory and gave them to Draco Blade, with his being slightly larger than the rest. Seeing this, the other lizardman had expressions of happiness on their faces as they listened to Kirou's words, "For now, take these back with you. I won't be able to visit your tribe to take a look at your wares at the moment since I have a prior engagement, but if you can give me directions to your tribe's settlement area, I'll visit it on another day."

Those words caused both groups to murmur amongst themselves for a moment. Draco Blade debated within his mind for a moment before speaking, "Very well, Outsider. The coordinates to my tribe from here are xxx.yyy..." Following those words from Draco Blade, Kirou and his group opened their respective maps and noticed a new location being highlighted on them. Since the group hadn't visited the area before, it was being highlighted with a '???' but the quartet understood that this place 'should' be the location of the Mountain Lizardmen Tribe.

Kirou and his group thanked the lizardmen for the directions before turning around and leaving the area. During this action, never once had Kirou broken the laid back expression on his face, nor had he hesitated in his movements. Seeing this, Draco Blade could only watch as the group left with wary eyes locked on Kirou's figure. He would remember this strange outsider for a long time to come, that's for sure.

Having obtained more than they expected, the group of lizardmen entered 'Great Cave', retrieved a few things before hurrying back to their tribe. Today was a day of festivities for them.

*******

Roughly thirty minutes later, back at the intersection.

The quartet was leisurely making their way back to the large group battle. Kirou had long since returned Asura to the pet space and was walking at the head of the group. The three girls were walking behind him, each with their own thoughts.

It wasn't until the group was back on the path that led to the cavern with the large snake that someone spoke up, "Mr. Wolf, why did you give away so many of those red stones that you spent time mining earlier?" The one that spoke up was Reya.

Kirou never slowed down, nor turned around to address her as he spoke, "I said it before, you know. I'm interested in the exotic materials that members of the lizardman tribe would possess. That being said, I'm sure you weren't asking about that reason and was instead speaking about my other reasons, right?"

To that question, Reya replied with a 'yes', along with Navi and Small Pebble as well. They too were curious as to why Kirou just gave away materials that may be precious for just a bit of information, especially when they saw how excited those lizardmen were to receive them.

This time, Kirou stopped and turned to face the women. His eyes went over all three, scanning them from head to toe. The women felt that Kirou's gaze was seeing right through them but said nothing as they waited for him to speak. After doing this for a minute or two, Kirou finally spoke, "I had two other reasons for doing it. The first was to leave their affinity towards us unchanged from neutral. As for the second, it was to make sure all three of you could escape without injury."

The girls were admittedly a bit confused about the first reason but the second one had them narrowing their eyes. Navi was the most clear-headed amongst the three so she was the one who spoke up, "What do you mean by that, Kirou? Please explain to us."

Kirou could see the hidden emotion in their eyes but he cared not for the hurt they felt as he spoke, "I'll start with the second reason then. Tell me, ladies. Looking back on the number of lizardmen that were in that group, can you honestly tell me that if we started a fight with them, you three would be able to survive until the end?"

The girls lowered their gaze a bit at those words. If they were being honest with themselves, they cannot say with 100% confidence that had a fight between the two groups broke out, they would have survived to the end. This was especially so for Small Pebble. That being said, being told this so matter-of-factly did sting them a bit.

Kirou saw this but decided to continue without giving them a chance to answer, "Let's look at the scenario from another perspective. Let's say we decided to flee from the group, are you three confident that you would be able to escape the lizardmen tribe that has made these mountains their home? Or let's say that all of us truly did manage to escape. How are you so sure that our actions wouldn't have inadvertently caused problems for the group currently battling the Scarlet Eye Boa ahead of us on this path?"

Those words caused all three girls to visibly pale. Kirou saw this but allowed the information to sink into their minds. After digesting this information for a bit, Small Pebble was the one to speak up this time, "Mr. Kirou, while I admit that it wouldn't be possible for all of us to escape that group, would you mind explaining how that would have affected the group battle ahead of us?"

Kirou looked at Small Pebble before glancing at Reya and Navi to see them with pleading eyes as well. Kirou released a sigh as he spoke, "While I am confident in the fact that I could have fought and escaped the group whenever I wanted due to my unique skill set, the same cannot be said for you three. Even if the three of you died, the lizardmen would have continued their search for me. If by chance all of us had escaped, this effort would have been even more pronounced and they would have scoured the area that we fled in thoroughly. Considering that the path we took when we found them led to an intersection, what do you think would happen when the group of lizardmen arrived at said intersection?"

This time, all three women had the color drain from their faces as they unintentionally spoke up at the same time, "Split up/Split."

Kirou nodded his head at this as he continued, "Exactly. I'm sure I don't need to explain what would have happened when the few that take this route got to the cavern would do, do I?" The girls shook their heads slowly at this. "That's right. This was never me thinking of you three as weak women or any other similarly silly thoughts you three conjured up in your heads." To that, the girls lowered their heads to hide the blush that had formed over their embarrassment at being seen through so thoroughly by Kirou.

Kirou sighed as he stared at the ceiling of the cave as he spoke, "Even if I was alone, the results would have been the same. And that isn't counting the fact that the lizardmen had the home-field advantage, nor the fact that they had an average level of 24 or higher. Since that was the case, why not give up a few precious stones that I can harvest once more within a few days and get some precious information in return."

The girls could hear the hint of self-loathing in Kirou's voice. It was only now that they realized how foolish they were for thinking that Kirou was looking down on them (he rightly can and should do so since he's a beast, but still) when even he wouldn't have been able to prevent such a situation even if he was alone. This caused them to keep their gazes focused on their feet.

After another minute or two of this, Kirou clapped his hands and shrugged off the negative mood over the group as he spoke, "Anyways, that was just one of the reasons I did it. That was just the worst-case scenario that I was trying to avoid and we've pulled it off so that's good news for us since it directly affects the other two reasons I gave earlier."

Reya was the one to speak up this time, "You said it earlier but we sort of skipped it due to the second reason you gave us, but what does the lizardman tribe affinity has to do with us, Mr. Wolf?"

Kirou smiled at Reya as she asked this. They were now asking the correct questions. Seeing the smile caused the three women to look at Kirou in anticipation as he asked something else instead of answering directly, "Have any of you three ever raised an NPC's affinity beyond friendly?"