Everyone has their Secrets

Outside the armory for Elderwood Village stood both Kirou and Old Wolf. As usual, Kirou went up to the door and gave it a firm knock.

"Come in," came a voice from the inside. Both Kirou and Old Wolf recognized the voice as it belonged to Bladesmith, the Weapon Master Instructor.

Both men entered the building to find Bladesmith hammering away at another piece of metal. This time, however, Bladesmith stopped on his own as he noticed that along with his usual visiter, Kirou, he was now graced with the presence of the village head, Old Wolf.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of you being here, old man?" Bladesmith said this as he led the two werewolves to the resting area where all three had a seat. After sitting down, Bladesmith started to eye his two guests in curiosity.

In response to Bladesmith's question, Old Wolf adopted a grandfatherly smile before speaking, "You'll have to ask the young one as he recommended that I be present when he passes on a message to us both." Having said this, Old Wolf turned to face Kirou. Bladesmith also used this time to focus his gaze on Kirou as well.

Now that he had the attention of both men, er, Lycans, Kirou first took out the packages he received from both Old Oak and Old Copper. Kirou then presented them to Old Wolf before speaking with a smile on his face, "First and foremost, let's take care of the oldest issue. Elder, these are the items I received from my travels to Stone Mount Village and Thousand Wood Village."

Old Wolf accepted the items from Kirou while Bladesmith looked on in mild curiosity. After examining the items closely and reading the letters that came with them, Old Wolf also revealed a smile before speaking, "Well done, young one. With this, you have completed my quest."

Immediately following those words, Kirou received a prompt from the system.

[System Message: You have completed the quest <Village Head Delivery>]

[You have received the following items: Wolf Carving Knife (Epic), Dwarf Mining Pickaxe (Epic), Elf Plant Storage Kit (Epic)]

Looking over the items he received and the grades they were given caused a smile to form on Kirou's face. The two senior Lycans in the room saw this and knew that Kirou was satisfied, very much so, with the reward he was given. This expression of his didn't last, however, as Kirou releasing a heavy sigh before removing two more letters from his inventory. Both men noted his change in expression and it was then that Kirou handed over the letters to their respective recipients.

Kirou adopted a somber expression on his face as both senior Lycans read their respective letters before forming gloomy expressions of their own. Both men read their letters a few times before they cast their gazes on Kirou as if asking if the contents of the letters were true.

Kirou nodded and released a deep breath before he relayed his encounter with Murloc Archmage Anderson within that dungeons. Both senior Lycans listened to Kirou's story in silence and it wasn't until he finally stopped speaking that both men awoke from their apparent stupors. Bladesmith turned to face Old Wolf, only to see the same gloomy expression on his face. Now that the two have confirmed their thoughts via eye contact, they rose from their seats before heading to the back door, leaving Kirou alone within the main building.

Old Wolf was grateful that Kirou made sure to invite him over to have this discussion with Bladesmith instead of talking to them separately. This saves them some time along with showing his grasp of the situation at hand. This resulted in Kirou receiving a bit of a surprise.

[System Message: Your Affinity with Village Head Old Wolf has increased to Respect]

Seeing this message promptly startled Kirou as he stared at the door both Lycan's went through with bewilderment on his face. He couldn't stop the feeling that rose in his back that told him he just made a mistake. Feeling dejected over the matter, Kirou could only release a deep sigh before he got up from the resting area and went over to the forge section of the building. Kirou then took out his gear and materials before throwing a few metals into the forge. Kirou checked his materials as the metals heated up in the forge and when they were ready, Kirou removed a piece from the forge before he started to hammer away on the metal, completely ignorant of the fact that he was currently being watched by the two senior Lycans from the other room.

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

Both Bladesmith and Old Wolf were watching Kirou's actions as he worked while being in the other room. This was done with a magic sphere that Old Wolf had taken out. They both watched Kirou's actions for a bit longer before Old Wolf waved his hand, causing the display on the sphere to disappear.

After mulling over their words in silence for a few moments, Bladesmith was the first to speak up, "Who'd have thought the lad would have gotten himself mixed up in something like this when you sent him out on that little errand of yours." Bladesmith released a helpless sigh as he said this.

"Oh, hush now, Bladesmith. How was I supposed to expect him to run into such a being so early? I expected all these recruits would have at least gotten to the pill stage before those people started making movements on the other continents. It seems like the members of that continent are in just as much of a rush as we are." As Old Wolf said this, he too released a helpless sigh, wondering just how it all happened.

"If it's any consolation, at least we now know that those demon bastards have the means to travel between continents and are secretly moving around as we speak. It would have been hell to have discovered this when we are supposed to go to war with them." As Bladesmith said this, the helpless expression on his face changed to that of a sharp one as he thought about the members of the Demon Continent, primarily a certain Murloc Archmage that Kirou would be sure to recognize if he saw him again.

"That's true. For now, we should make sure to contact the others and see what plans they are making. We can't be the only ones working on this and I don't want us to come up with a plan, only for it to clash with the plans from the other villages. That would do us more harm than good right now." When Old Wold said this, he waved his hand over the sphere once again. This time, the image displayed was split into two, and beings that were seen on each screen were elves and dwarves specifically. If Kirou was present, he would recognize the elves as Old Oak and Redwood, and the dwarves as Old Copper and Hammerton.

As all three sides connected via their respective view devices, they each saw the others' reactions. It was Old Oak that spoke up first, "With this meeting taking place, it seems like that young Lycan had managed to make his deliveries on time." When Old Oak said this, he had a smug smile on his face, as if hinting that he knows something that the others didn't.

The others saw his reaction but paid no attention to it for now. Bladesmith and Old Wolf slightly narrowed their eyes when they heard Old Oak's words but they filed that away for another time as they had more important things to worry about now.

It was Old Copper who spoke up next, "Ho ho. The lad made it back to Elderwood already? It seems like he's a lot more than meets the eye, ain't he."

"I'll have to agree on that," said Old Wolf with a proud smile on his face. It was quite obvious that Old Wolf was proud to have Kirou as his inheritor for the <Crafting Master> class. "Old Copper, how goes the production these days? Have you managed to craft that weapon you've always been wanting to show off?"

And like that, the three groups went about talking about quite a few things, as if forgetting about their main purpose for the group chat. That being said, all six individuals knew this was a ruse as it wasn't yet time to start discussing what they had in mind.

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

On the northern side of the Southern Continent, within a forest near SC Pier City found a dark elf currently locked in combat. This dark elf was dressed in leather armor and wielded a rare knife in hand. This dark elf was currently fighting an ogre along with a group of goblins in tow.

The dark elf was engaging these creatures up close but if there was someone else present to witness the fight, they would be quite shocked. The reason for this is simple; all the monsters were currently surrounding the dark elf, trying to mob her to death but the dark elf kept dodging their attacks by a very thin margin. In fact, there are even traces of the dark elf causing the creatures' attacks to land on each other.

Naturally, this dark elf is Navi. After another ten or so minutes of fighting, all the monsters around Navi have been turned into corpses while the woman in question sat down on the floor, exhausted. The woman's face was currently covered in sweat while her eyebrows were furrowed. Clearly, this woman had something on her mind.

'Just taking on a few monsters has reduced me to this state. How on earth will I be able to close the gap between me and that beast, Kirou?' These were Navi's thoughts as she sat on the floor in exhaustion. It's become quite clear that she's become inspired by Kirou to get better but the wide gap in abilities has left her frustrated.

Navi eventually took a deep breath and stared up into the sky before speaking in a voice only she could hear, "I guess this is what he meant by 'it all comes down to one's own experience.' I should probably just keep practicing in the meantime." With that thought in mind, Navi got up and started handling the over half dozen corpses currently around her. Unlike Kirou who could harvest anything he wanted from corpses on manual mode, Navi was still making use of semi-automatic mode to do her harvests. This was one field she herself knew not to compete with Kirou in.

After around ten or so minutes, Navi had finally cleaned up the battlefield. She was about to leave but then she instantly approached the shadows of a tree before activating the skill <Stealth>, a trick she learned to maximize the use of the skill while minimizing possible exposure. As for who she learned this trick from, she would rather not say at the moment (*cough cough* a certain beast).

As Navi waited in the shadows, eventually a group of players entered the area she was recently fighting in. This was a group of over two dozen players, roughly four or so parties together. This party consisted of various mages and priest classes making up over two-thirds of the group while the rest were the odd classes such as rogues, warriors, and archers.

A few rogues walked around the battlefield, looking at the ground as if searching for something. This went on for a few moments until one of the rogues spoke up, "She was here until a few minutes ago, boss. It isn't clear whether she knew we were coming but she didn't linger around after defeating the group of monsters she was fighting." The other rogues nodded their heads as well, agreeing with the words voiced by their companion.

The boss of the group was a man in plate armor. If Kirou was present, he would recognize this man as the person talking to the group of attackers he and the two female elves took care of after they left Thousand Wood Forest that day. In fact, Navi herself recognized the boss, and her face morphed into a scowl as she stared at the group. The boss was quiet as he contemplated the words of the rogue player for a bit before he opened his mouth, "Continue searching. We must retrieve that blueprint, regardless of costs. We cannot have her return to the guild with it in hand as we need to suppress the Alchemist Branch." Following those words, the group of players left the area under the direction of the rogue squad. They were going to search this entire forest if they had to to find Navi.

Navi waited until the group was long gone before she decided to leave. Following a bit of advice from Kirou that she had received during their travels, she decided to play it safe as she wasn't sure if this was all of the group. Kirou made sure to drill it into her head that <Stealth>, while a great skill to possess, can lead to a person's downfall if they don't know how to properly utilize it. One of the downfalls he's shown her with the skill is that while it makes the user invisible, it doesn't hide the trail the person takes so anyone with tracking skills could easily find and track an invisible rogue.

Navi made sure to move quickly and quietly to escape the forest. As soon as she got close to SC Pier City, however, she immediately had to duck into a corner before entering <Stealth> once again. The reason for this is because the entrance to the city was currently being patrolled by a bunch of players. Navi recognized these players as members of the squad that tried to kill her along with Kirou and Reya within the forest that day.

Navi could only bite her lips before speaking under her breath, "It seems Kirou was right. I really should be careful in my future travels." After Navi said this, she released a breath before a wry smile formed on her face. Navi couldn't stay outside the village for too long as there was the danger of running into that mage party from earlier. She has only heard rumors so far but apparently, both mages and priests possess a skill capable of revealing invisible targets and she didn't want to get caught like that. Conversely, she couldn't approach the city as she was now as those players would end her life long before she made it close to the city gates.

Left with no choice, Navi opened up her menu and went to the traits section. In this section, she looked at all of her traits before selecting and activating one. If Kirou were present and able to see this, he would be shocked. The reason for that is because Navi possesses five traits and that he recognized the one she just selected. This trait was called <Elf Transformation>.

Following the usage of the trait, Navi's body, while under <Stealth>, changed from that of a dark elf in leather armor to that of an elf. Following her transformation, Navi swapped out her rogue equipment for shaman equipment. She donned a mage robe and had a small totem in hand. Immediately after the transformation had ended, Navi's <Stealth> had become undone and she was now as she appeared to be, a shaman player.

With a quick change in hairstyle. Navi approached SC Pier City and walked by the group of patrolling players. They were completely unaware of the fact that their target had just waltz right past them and they would never know. After entering the city as a shaman, Navi sent a quick message to both Kirou and Reya before logging off. It seems like she was done with Immortal Era for the night.