Teleport Gates

After fleeing from Bladesmith's cottage, Kirou now found himself somewhere in the middle of Elderwood Village. Taking a few seconds to look around his surroundings, he recognized that he was now near the General Store Manager, Almia's cottage. Since he hasn't visited her in a while and he still had half an hour to kill, Kirou entered the store and was greeted by the sight of Almia sitting behind her usual counter, with a cookbook in her hand.

Upon hearing the door open, Almia looked up from her cookbook to see Kirou walking into her store. This prompted the woman to smile before speaking, "Ara ara, young one. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"Hello, Manager Almia. I was just in the area and was wondering if I could borrow your kitchen for a bit." Kirou approached the counter as he said this.

Almia looked at Kirou for a bit with a peculiar gaze before speaking, "Sure. I have no problems with that, young one. But you must know that I can't just loan you my kitchen for free." Almia had a strange smile on her face as she said this.

As if he had predicted this ahead of time, Kirou took out an item from his inventory and placed it on the counter before Almia. Kirou watched as a delighted expression formed on her face before he spoke, "Is this enough to rent out your kitchen for half an hour, miss manager."

"Enough. This is definitely enough." That was all Almia could say as she stared at the item Kirou placed on the counter.

The item itself wasn't anything special, just a piece of female wild boar meat. The reason for Almia's reaction is that it's five kilograms of excellent quality female wild boar meat. Unlike the male equivalent that is filled with tough muscle, this piece of meat possessed a bit more fat and is quite tender when cooked. Not to mention that it was currently of excellent quality. For Almia who lives in Elderwood Village, this wasn't an ingredient that she could easily obtain. Hell, she highly doubted it is something any cook outside of the capital cities for each kingdom on the Four Kingdom Continents can obtain.

Kirou saw her reaction and could infer a few things. After thanking her for access to her kitchen, Kirou went in and got busy preparing something from the vast amounts of ingredients currently placed in his inventory. From the counter, Almia kept looking back in the direction of the kitchen and watched Kirou as he worked. While she had no idea what he was making, she could see that he was using a lot of high-grade materials. This distracted her as she was dealing with her customers, making them wonder what was going on but they couldn't see into the kitchen from where they stood.

Like that, half an hour passed and Kirou exited the kitchen with a bit of reluctance. While Kirou could always make better cooking utensils, it kind of defeats the purpose if he never gets the chance to use them due to him not having a dedicated place set up for cooking.

Almia watched as Kirou walked out of the room. She wanted to ask if he had any more of those ingredients but held back as it wasn't her place. As Kirou walked up to her, she couldn't stop herself from speaking, "Was everything to your liking, young one?"

"I'm a bit reluctant to leave but I have a few things to take care of," Kirou said with a wry smile on his face and Almia could hear the reluctance in his voice. Before she could open her mouth to say anything on the topic, however, Kirou spoke up once again, "Anyways, here's another piece of meat for loaning me the use of your kitchen utensils, even though I never properly asked. Also, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I may have left a few items in your kitchen. Have this knife as compensation for cleaning up my mess for me. Thanks in advance, Manager Almia." Following his words, Kirou left another five kilograms of female wild boar meat on the counter, along with a cleaver, and then fled from the cottage.

It took Almia a few moments to properly process what had just happened before her. It was only after a good minute that she grabbed the cleaver and the boar meat and rushed towards the kitchen. In there, Almia found that Kirou had left various cooking ingredients, all at a high grade, for her to make use of. This prompted the general store manager to make a very sweet smile on her face.

'Looks like I owe that young pup a proper meal the next time I see him.' That was her thought as she started to carefully store away the various ingredients, acting as if messing up even a single one would be an intolerable act.

***************

Kirou was currently following his map towards Elderwood Village's teleport gate, he received a message from the system. When he checked it, a smile formed on Kirou's face as he thought, 'Looks like it was a good decision to leave her those items.'

[System Message: Your affinity with General Store Manager Almia has increased to <Intimate>.]

Nodding his head at the message, Kirou continued to walk to his destination, only to realize that it was quite familiar to him. This familiarity became even more pronounced when he saw a certain old wolf at the location, seemingly waiting for his arrival.

"Hello again, young one," Old Wolf said with a grandfatherly-like smile on his face as he stared at Kirou before him.

Kirou, for his part, was still a bit apprehensive since his previous meeting with Old Wolf from half an hour earlier but he returned the greeting before speaking, "Elder, you are in charge of the teleport gate for Elderwood Village?"

"That's right, young one. What would you like to do?" When Old Wolf asked this, he still retained the grandfatherly-like smile on his face, as if the events from half an hour earlier were all an illusion but Kirou could tell they weren't. This was especially so when he saw that happy expression in Old Wolf's eyes.

"Could you tell me about the teleport gates and their costs, Elder?" Kirou asked this as it was the most important thing for him at the moment.

"Very well, young one." When Old Wolf said this, he made a mental nod of acknowledgment of Kirou's question. After a moment of silence to gather his thoughts, Old Wolf started, "The teleport gates allows one to teleport from one gate to another, regardless of where it is, as long as the user has the coordinates of the gate or is one of the many teleport points made known across all continents. As for the costs, they vary based on the distance the user wants to travel. An example of this is inter-village travel and intercontinental travel. While it costs as much as 50 silver to travel between villages on the same continent, to travel from one continent to the other requires the user to fork out 5 gold. The original price for the intercontinental teleport was originally that figure multiplied by 100 but with the opening of the Kingdom Continents' borders, the price has dropped to allow easier access. Also, while teleporting between villages can be done from any village, teleporting between continents can only be done in the many pier cities on each continent."

Kirou allowed Old Wolf's words to digest in his mind for a few moments before speaking up, "I see. So that's how it works. It seems like a pretty decent system to make use of." Kirou nodded his head in understanding. Just as he was about to speak up again, however, a thought flashed through his mind.

'Wait, coordinates. Could it be?' As soon as the thought went into his mind, Kirou looked at Old Wolf with a peculiar gaze. Seeing his gaze, Old Wolf said nothing and waited in anticipation for Kirou's next question.

"Elder, by chance, is it possible for a person like me to create my own teleport gate?"

Hearing the question caused a smile to form on Old Wolf's face as he answered, "Yes it is, young one. The only requirement is that you have the proper materials, the knowledge of how to create the gate, as well as a secure place to set it."

Hearing those words prompted Kirou to analyze the information he was given before he spoke up once more, "To obtain said knowledge would probably require one to go through a series of tests to obtain it, right?" Old Wolf nodded to those words. "Elder, could it be that the reason why one can only travel from one continent to another via the pier city has to do with it being next to the ocean?"

Those words caused the smile on Old Wolf's face to grow even wider as he nodded before speaking up, "Strictly speaking, it allows you to teleport to the closest pier city in a straight line distance. Since there is no obstruction to be found in the ocean, it's best to do it from there as it creates fewer problems in the long run."

Kirou absorbed the knowledge and thought it over a bit before speaking once again, "Teleporting via the teleport gate from pier cities is probably just the easiest and safest way for travel between continents. That being said, would it be possible to ride a boat between continents?"

Old Wolf broke out in uncharacteristic laughter when he heard this. It seems that Kirou's words touched on a topic even he didn't expect and found quite amusing. "That's right, young one. You can take a boat between continents. The only downside to this method is that you would be facing monsters in the open waters on their terms and there is a high chance of them destroying your boat. That being said, should you be able to cross the ocean on a boat, you can travel to any continent without worry about problems at the respective pier cities for each continent."

Kirou listened to Old Wolf's words from start to finish and was quite satisfied with the information he obtained from his inquiries. It seems that he should add a few things to his short and long-term goals.

"Thanks for the guidance, Elder," Kirou said this while giving Old Wolf a polite bow.

Old Wolf places his hands on Kirou's shoulders and spoke, "This was nothing, young one. Now, where would you like to go?"

Kirou stood up and took out 50 silver and spoke, "I'd like for you to send me to Thousand Wood Village, Elder."

Old Wolf waved his hand at Kirou, prompting him to turn into a mass of light slowly fading away. As Kirou was disappearing, he heard Old Wolf's voice, "Consider this one free of charge for entertaining me, young one."

Before Kirou could even respond, his body had already disappeared and his vision was momentarily black.

*****************

When his vision returned, Kirou was now standing at the entrance of Thousand Wood Village. He looked around and noticed that there were many people like him, appearing in a mass of light by the entrance before hurrying to enter the village. Instead of rushing inside like the rest, Kirou decided to inspect his body. He was quite curious about the phenomenon he just experienced.

'That reminds me of my use of <Shadow Teleportation>, except instead of me entering the shadow world and moving around before returning to the proper world, space folded on itself and created a momentary gate where my body was forcefully pulled through before closing. Hmm, I'll see if I can find a way to experiment with that later.' Following those thoughts, Kirou once again added something to his already long to-do list.

Having found no anomaly while examining his body, Kirou decided that it was time for him to search for the two elf women waiting for him. Before he could even take a proper step, however, he heard someone calling out to him.

"Hey, Mr. Wolf."

Hearing the sound, Kirou turned around, only to see both Reya and Navi walking up to him. Kirou could only shrug at how convenient it was to find them so quickly.

"It's a good thing we waited for you out here. We weren't sure if you would take the teleport gate or not. Either way, you would have to pass here so we came here as soon as we could." After the duo came close to Kirou, this was what Reya said.

"No worries. I seemed to have learned some things about it so I'm glad I used it." When Kirou said this, both women looked at him in curiosity but shrugged it off.

"Anyways, let's get out of here. We have that favor to ask and here isn't the best place to discuss this." Following her words, Navi pointed in the direction of the Thousand Wood Forest.

Both Kirou and Reya nodded before following Navi as she led the way. As usual, Kirou created a shadow clone and had it hide within the shadows as a lookout for a potential stalker. While he's traveling with these two, he always seems to run into one or two trying to get the drop on them and they aren't even aware of it.