Taking a Step Back Part 2

All three of the girls looked at Kirou in confusion at his question. For them, while they knew about the NPCs having an affinity rating for each player, so far they haven't heard about anyone having an affinity rating of friendly with any NPC, much less a greater affinity rating. Thinking up to here, all three girls responded by shaking their heads.

Kirou had somewhat expected this but seeing that neither of the three had managed to accomplish this, especially Reya whom he had traded materials with the first time, it seems that he should research that later on when he had time. That being said, Kirou displayed for them the stats of his fur coat and spoke, "This is an item I received from an NPC that I had a friendly affinity with, moments before it was raised to intimate. You tell me if it is a good item or not."

Equipment: Camouflage Fur Coat

Equipment Level: 10

Equipment Type: Prototype (Unranked)

Equipment Description: This coat is a prototype made by Tailor Sam during his youth that doesn't grant its wearer any defensive stats. Instead, the wearer will be able to use the skill <Camouflage>, allowing for him or her to blend into their surroundings.

After taking a look at the coat, while they were admittedly disappointed that it didn't give the wearer any stats, but the fact that it granted the wearer the use of the <Camouflage> skill more than made up for any possible missing stats. Just the fact that players could equip it without taking up one of the other armor slots that they would need for any equipment set they might equip in the future was enough to make the girls' eyes glow green.

Small Pebble spoke up after a minute of looking over the item, "Mr. Kirou, this item, would it be possible for you to sell it to me?"

Small Pebbles question caught the other two by surprise. They never expected the dwarven miss to ask such a question. That being said, if they were to claim that they never thought of asking the same question after seeing the item for themselves, they would be lying. All three women now had their eyes focused on the man in tribal tattoos, waiting for his response.

Kirou chuckled at the girls as he spoke, "I'm sorry, Small Pebble, but this coat isn't for sale. That was a nice joke, nonetheless, so thank you for the laugh."

Small Pebble chuckled as well, albeit a bit dryly, as she spoke, "That's right. It was just a joke." Though she said that, everyone present could tell that she was being serious but no one called her out on it.

Kirou then cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. With their eyes now focusing on him again, he continued, "Anyways, this coat is just one of the things I received. As for what I did to receive them, I won't give any specifics as I doubt it will work for you guys. Instead, I suggest you guys should interact with the NPC's more, especially for the things that you guys are interested in and I'm sure you'll be given a surprise of your own."

Having said his piece, Kirou turned around and continued along the path towards the cavern with the boss monster, leaving the girls behind to stew in their own thoughts. Eventually, the girls did snap out of their stupors and hurriedly caught up with Kirou as he leisurely made his way down the path. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally got back to the cavern in time to see the boss monster on its last legs.

*******

Deep in the underground cave system, near the coordinates on the map Kirou had checked earlier.

The group of lizardmen was currently nearby their tribe's settlement area. The air was moist and various insects were moving about in the surroundings. The group paid this no attention as they made their way towards the settlement.

While many in the group were excited about the glowing red stones in their possession, a few of them had hints of greed in their eyes, contemplating the thought of rushing back to the area and tracking down Kirou's group. Draco Blade naturally saw this but prevented any of them from acting on those thoughts as he led the group to the settlement.

Eventually, one of the younger lizardmen went up to Draco Blade and spoke, "Senior brother, why did you allow those outsiders to leave after giving them directions towards our settlement. We could have just killed them off and taken all of the glowing stones within their possession." A few of the other members of the lizardman group agreed with this and looked towards Draco Blade for an answer.

Seeing the expressions of greed on their face caused Draco Blade to release a long sigh before speaking, "Before I answer your question, Junior Pine, allow me to ask one of my own. Did you, or any of you at the back sense anything while staring at those outsiders earlier?"

The one identified as Pine, along with the rest of the group looked at Draco Blade with a bit of confusion before shaking their heads. Seeing their actions allowed Draco Blade to be sure of his earlier suspicion.

Draco Blade stopped before the group and turned around to face them before speaking, "There are only two scenarios in which we lizardmen sense no threat from any being, whether they be man or beast, that appears before us. It is either the creature is too weak for our instincts to react to them or..."

Draco Pine was the one to finish Draco Blade's words, "Or the being in question is a lot stronger than us and is suppressing their power." Even while saying this, Draco Pine and the rest still had hints of confusion on their face, not understanding why their leader was stating something so obvious.

Draco Blade nodded his head at Draco Pine's words before he continued, "Good, so you do know this. From the looks of it, none of you had sensed anything off about those outsiders earlier. With that thought in mind, some of you had greedy thoughts and wanted to track those outsiders down after I lead you back to the village. Allow me to knock some sense into you."

Following those words, Draco Blade proceeded to give each lizardman in the group a proper ass whooping, whether they be innocent or guilty. Some tried to run but never made it far, and those who tried to fight back suffered a heavier beating. This went on for a few minutes before he stopped and now stared at the injured lizardmen lying on the floor, writhing in pain.

Draco Blade looked over all of them with a severe expression on his face as he spoke in an icy tone, "It's fine for you lot to pick on targets weaker than you, but you must remember something; always pay attention to the leader of the group. The leader is normally able to see things that you lot can't. I'm sure you're thinking that me attacking you is an abuse of power but let this sink into your heads; had we attacked those outsiders, most, if not all of you would be dead right now."

At those words, all those lizardmen on the ground did their best to silence their moans of pain as they listened to Draco Blade. He had no idea where, but Draco Pine found the courage to speak up at this point, "But senior brother, none of our senses noticed anything about that group of outsiders, plus we had the numbers advantage. Why do you say that most of us would have died?"

Draco Blade glanced at each lizardman in the group before finally focusing his eyes on Draco Pine. Following this, Draco Blade spoke in a slow yet clear voice with an icy chill laced within it, "Simple, Junior Pine. While the rest of you sensed nothing from your instincts while facing that group, my instincts were telling me to abandon all of you and flee the area immediately. This was especially so when I locked eyes with that halfling."

Those words were like peels of thunder going off in each of the lizardmen's ears, stunning them. This was especially so for Draco Pine. Like all beast races, the lizardmen were a race that possessed keen senses and sharp intuition. If they met an enemy they knew they should never provoke, their intuition would scream at them to vacate the area, even if it was to be done in vain. This was especially so for the stronger members of the race whose intuitions have grown with them. While weaker members were incapable of sensing a certain level of threat above their own power, the stronger members would be able to pick this up and promptly lead the weaker members to safety.

Draco Pine was the third strongest member of the group of lizardmen. Because neither he, not the second strongest Draco Wing was able to perceive this danger while Draco Blade could sense it showed just how dangerous their situation was. Draco Pine and the rest were now sweating bullets of cold sweat or the lizardman equivalent as they stared at the incensed Draco Blade. Forget the fact that he just beat the crap out of the entire group, even if he broke some limbs or directly killed a few of them as an example, it would have been fine considering what they just escaped.

Looking at the group with realization now dawning on them, Draco Blade released a sigh as he sat before the group. He looked over each one of them as he spoke, "You lot are my juniors that have been raised with me in this underground system. I would rather beat you senseless and have you stay holed up in the village than allow you to make the mistake of provoking such a person."

Those words caused the group of lizardmen to face the floor, feeling ashamed of themselves. They could tell that it took Draco Blade everything he could to stay with them and speak to the outsider when even his own instincts were screaming at him to leave. This caused most of them to sincerely apologize and thank Draco Blade for stopping them. A few even went as far as to willingly break an arm as an apology, forcing them to have to rest within the village for a few extra days.

As for the rest, they apologized with the first set but were secretly sneering at Draco Blade, thinking that he's a coward. This set includes both Draco Pine and Draco Scale, the third and fourth strongest warriors of the lizardman group respectively. Draco Blade could tell that these few were going to do something but since he had already given them a warning and secured the safety of the rest, he would not say anything more. He has already gone against his instincts for them once; he won't be doing so again.

Draco Blade released a sigh and stood up as he spoke, "Those outsiders will probably be visiting the village within a few days. Let's hurry back to the village for now and inform the elders about this. We can also show them our harvests, as well as these glowing stones." Draco Blade had an excited expression after saying this. This expression was equally shared by all the lizardmen within the group. Even with all their injuries and pains, the group of lizardmen excitedly made their way towards their settlement, bypassing all the traps laid around the area to ward off threats and unwanted beings.

While they were heading into the settlement, Draco Pine, Draco Scale, and a few others started formulating plots on how to deal with Kirou and his squad when they did show up in the settlement, For now, however, they would lay low until the time was just right.