Various Discussions

It's been a few hours since Kirou and his group, along with the recent additions, returned to the <Phantom Palace>. Kirou only left some instructions with the girls and Mistaken Fox for the former bandits while he invited both Jackson and Cain to follow him to the underground pier.

The trio was currently sitting around a small table, Kirou drinking some tea while both Jackson and Cain stared at him in confusion. This went on for a few minutes before Jackson spoke up.

"Young Master, would you mind explaining why you've brought both of us down here?"

Cain maintained his silence, but he gave a slight nod in agreement to Jackson's words.

Kirou only glanced at the duo for a few moments before turning his eyes to the waters of his underground port. As soon as he finished his tea, Kirou spoke, "I'll be leaving for the <Beast Continent> within the next two weeks."

Those words surprised the two as they never expected to receive such a bomb so quickly. Even then, Kirou's next words surprised the two even more.

"When I leave, I'm going to need both of you to follow me, as you've both got connections to the two dominant kingdoms on that continent." After saying those words, Kirou finally turned his eyes back to both men.

They could see that he was serious with his words. Both men glanced at each other for a moment before turning their sights back to their leader.

Cain hesitated slightly before speaking, "Boss, even if we wanted to, how would we get back? We're wanted criminals on that continent, so stepping foot inside any major town to use their teleport gate would be suicide for us."

After Cain finished his piece, Jackson continued, "And even if we could take the water route, there's no way that we would be able to get on any merchant's vessels without reputation. And those are the only boats big enough to guarantee safe travel between the various continents at this time. Anything less and we're just sitting ducks on the water."

It was only after Jackson finished speaking that the duo noticed something. They could see that Kirou's face both retained the same seriousness from his earlier words while his eyes showed a hint of amusement within them.

As if to answer their unasked question, Kirou spoke up, "Let's assume that I have the means of transporting you both to the <Beast Continent> without passing through any major city along the way, are the two of you willing to follow me?"

This time, neither man took a moment to think about it as they immediately responded, "Yes, Young Master/Boss!"

The two glanced at each other for a split second before their eyes focused solely on the Lycan Halfling sitting before them.

Hearing their responses, Kirou took a sip of his tea, emptying the cup before speaking up, "That's good. That's very good. And let's make this a proper deal; so long as you two help me out with my endeavors on that continent, I'll be sure to aid you as much as possible in settling your old scores."

Both men gave Kirou a profound look for a few moments. Afterward, they stood up and gave Kirou a deep bow as they said, "Thank you, Young Master/Boss."

"Since we've established our goal for the long term, let's discuss our plans for the short term as well as after we get on the continent itself." As Kirou said this, he refilled all three of their cups.

The duo sat back in their seats and started discussing with Kirou the various things they would need to do both before and after their trip.

*******

Elsewhere on the <Southern Continent>, another group was discussing their travel plans to the inner continents. This group was made up of six individuals of varying races and classes. The only commonality among these six individuals was that they each had the same emblem on the back of their respective armor.

This was another team-oriented mechanic that could be found in Immortal Era. This mechanic is for persons that wanted to work together with a greater number than can be accommodated by standard parties but has fewer numbers than what is needed to form guilds. Members would have to register at a Mercenary guild, where they would then be allowed to form mercenary groups. These mercenary groups are given roughly the same amount of benefits that guilds can have, with a few restrictions.

First and foremost, mercenary groups are unable to create their own base, as this wouldn't conform to the type of characters that mercenaries are. Secondly, members of these mercenary groups have to pay a monthly fee to make use of systems similar to that of a guild's, with the only difference being that the shared storage has a limitation placed on it where items above a certain grade can only be withdrawn by the person who placed them within the storage itself. Last, but not least, all members of the mercenary group must have the emblem for the mercenary group they belong to displayed somewhere on their armor. And unlike guilds and sects, this emblem cannot be hidden and is only removed when one leaves that mercenary group.

All in all, while it has its own set of pros and cons, it is ultimately up to the players whether or not they want to make use of this system and so far, it is quite popular amongst the player base.

Back to the topic at hand, the six players were currently in a deep discussion about their next move, which just so happens to be which continents they would be heading to next.

"Is that really the only choice that we have, to split up and search by ourselves?" asked a human warrior with his blonde hair tied in a ponytail. Unlike most warriors that use plate armor, he was wearing scale armor. As for his weapons, two swords were on his back.

"Indeed. The races we chose for ourselves basically decided which continents we would be able to visit during the middle stages of this game. Even worse, even if we knew about the various issues that each continent has with our races ahead of time, we wouldn't have been able to change our choices as we need to have someone visit each continent," said a bespectacled elf shaman playing around with a strange-looking totem.

"It doesn't change the fact that this is still too soon. I mean, we barely just got back together and now we've got to split up again. Even if it's for the mission, this still sucks," said the human warrior.

"Are you sure it's because we're all splitting up after only just managing to meet up in-game and not because you won't be able to spend some quality time with our boss and his lovely feline-looking daughter," said a female dark elf wearing mage robes with a scepter in her hands.

Those words caused the warrior to choke on his words and a small blush to form on his face. This blush grew when he took a side glance at the feline lady in question, only to see her looking at him.

Doing his best to get his emotions under control, the warrior cleared his throat before speaking, "Does it really matter? It still doesn't change the fact that we need to split up again in order to carry out our own missions. And it doesn't help that due to our respective races, four of us will have to be split into groups of two in order to infiltrate the North and Eastern Kingdom Continents while the boss and his daughter will have to investigate the other two continents by themselves. Unlike the rest of us, they will have to face all the troubles of those two continents by themselves."

While the others could see his words as an excuse to hide his embarrassment, it doesn't change the fact that he brought up a valid point. Even the dark elf mage had to agree with this point, albeit slightly.

It was at this point that another member of the group spoke up, "His personal reasons aside, he does have a point. Both of you going solo on a continent by yourselves isn't all that safe or convenient in the long run, Boss. How do you plan to deal with any issues that crop up which require you to have some backup?"

The rest of the group was now staring at the identified boss. The boss was a well-built weretiger wearing leather armor with a pair of claws hanging by the sides of his legs. He gave the group a once over before speaking up, "I have no plans in personally dealing with those problems at all."

"Wait, what?"

"What do you mean by that, Boss?"

"Exactly as it sounds. If you guys can see an issue with this scenario, then clearly it's one that my daughter and I have already anticipated. And there's clearly no method that either of us can employ to take care of this issue by ourselves."

"Then that means..."

"Having said that, since we all need to take care of our assignments during the same time period, I decided to recruit a few people to help us with this endeavor. I don't expect to find any players with skills that can match the four of you, but their knowledge of the Kingdom Continents might prove to be an asset on its own."

After speaking up to this point, the weretiger player paused for a moment before a wolf-like expression formed on his face as he spoke, "that said, if we do somehow manage to recruit some players with proper skills, I don't mind inviting them to join our little mercenary group."

Upon seeing the boss's expression and hearing his words, a sudden chill swept down the backs of the four players. As for the boss's feline daughter, she could only shake her head slightly while saying a silent prayer for whomever just so happened to be recruited by her father in the near future.

With that part of the discussion out of the way, the group now focused on the specifics of what they had to do and how they would go about doing it. All while this was going on, the feline-like player couldn't help thinking of a person whom she believes may be of utmost help to her on her trip to the Beast Continent.

She couldn't help but think to herself, 'I wonder if he's playing this game? And if so, I wonder what class he took?'

That was all she could think about while playing with a pair of exquisite daggers in her hands. If a certain Lycan was nearby, he might recognize those daggers as items he's sold a few days back.

*******

*Atchoo*

"Bless you, Young Master/Boss," said both Jackson and Cain at the same time upon seeing Kirou sneeze.

"Thank you," said Kirou as wiped his nose. While doing so, he thought to himself, 'I wonder who's planning to cause me trouble this time?'

With that thought out of the way, Kirou spoke up, "Now that we've covered all the information that needed to be discussed, let us get back to work. We've got a lot of stuff to finish within the next month."

Following those words, Kirou rose from his seat, beckoning for the two men to follow him. As the trio made their way through the tunnel that led to the surface, each had their own thoughts to sort out.

Jackson was currently thinking about the friends and family members he had originally left behind before he became a bandit and how he would be able to face them when the time comes.

Cain was currently thinking about the time he got betrayed and about all the parties involved in it.

As for Kirou, he was currently thinking about the kind of materials he should be using to make his new vehicle, whether or not he has enough materials to use, and where he would need to go to farm the required materials, should the need arise.