*Coffee Time

Kirou was currently making his way through the busy streets to head home. On his face was a refreshing smile as he thought about the events that took place during the previous night, as well as this morning.

'Though it has been a while, that went pretty well. Then again, I never expected Jane to be that enthusiastic during the entire ordeal. I must have flipped a switch in her during the fight.' The smile on Kirou's face grew even wider as he thought this, prompting a few people in the surroundings to be looking at him with peculiar gazes. Kirou ignored their stares as he continued his trip to the subway.

It was around 11 when Kirou arrived at the subway station. Instead of taking the subway home right away, he stopped by a cafe nearby for a drink. While within the cafe, Kirou finally allowed the smile on his face to fade away as he enjoyed a cup of Blue Mountain Coffee. While the coffee was a bit strong, Kirou found himself liking the Jamaican blend more and more with each sip he took. It also helped that it had just enough sugar and milk in it.

As he enjoyed his coffee, Kirou decided to see if there were any updates about Immortal Era on their official website. After taking out his phone and loading the official page for the game, Kirou skimmed over all the information about the increased level cap, the common class upgrades, new weapon tiers, and dungeons. When Kirou got to the new continents and their respective kingdoms, however, he narrowed his eyes while reading through the information slowly.

Each continent had at least one kingdom on it, being run by specific races. Due to this, while players can travel to any Continent they wish, the treatment they will receive in the kingdoms on those continents varies. Like with the four Cardinal Continents, humans can be found on all four Kingdom Continents, but they receive no preferential treatment outside of the Northern Kingdom Continent, where the only kingdom run by humans can be found. Lycans and halflings based on them, like Kirou, on the other hand, would find it hard to traverse said continent as all kingdoms on that continent are against them and other beastmen races.

Another thing Kirou noticed in his reading was that each continent was indigenous to only one type of monster. Regardless of how each monster evolved and the varied species, all of them can be traced back to just a single origin. It is for this reason why each of the four Kingdom Continents was called by specific names by the members of the four Cardinal Continents.

The northern continent is called the Demon Continent. The reason for this is that it is filled with monsters of the dark attribute that possess either strong magical abilities or swift speed, akin to the Demonic race. It is due to this that anyone capable of living on this continent is gifted in taking down fast opponents and developing a certain degree of magic resistance. With it being split into five kingdoms, the people tend to lean towards a certain specialty in this field, depending on the kingdom they reside in.

The western continent is known as the Insect Continent. This continent is filled with insects of all shapes and sizes, some of which are as big as giants, depending on how they evolved over the years. For the three kingdoms located on this continent, they have each found unique ways to take advantage of this and have either managed to tame said creatures or figure out ways to use them to their advantage.

The eastern continent is known as the Dragon Continent. While 'Dragon' may be the name they used, this continent is filled with serpent, reptilian and amphibian type creatures. So far, only one race has been capable of dealing with these creatures with little effort on their part, hence why this Continent is solely the kingdom for Merfolk.

As for the southern kingdom continent, this is known as the Beast Continent. No explanations are needed here as the name says it all. For this reason, unlike the other three kingdom continents with an isolationist attitude towards outsiders, the two kingdoms on the Beast Continent welcomes any brave and willing enough to enter their borders.

After reading through the basic intro for each Kingdom Continent, Kirou started thinking about where he should go and what he should do when given the choice later on. With the intro as a reference, it seems like traveling to the Nothern Continent is out of the picture since the kingdoms there are against Lycans and other beastmen races. Carefully pondering this thought for a bit, Kirou then decided to shelf this decision for another day as he had better things to do, like making some new weapons to play with.

After ordering another cup of the Jamaican blend and spending another ten minutes to enjoy it, Kirou paid his bill and left the cafe. He then entered the subway and had to wait another five minutes before getting on his train and heading home, all the while trying to decide what weapon he should try to make next.

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

At her apartment, Jane was currently enjoying a cup of coffee of her own. Sitting before her was a bald man with a scar over his left eye, enjoying a cup of coffee as well. Both sat in silence and enjoyed their respective brews for another five or so minutes until the bald man finally broke the ice.

"So how was he?"

Hearing the question caused a blush to form on Jane's face for a moment before she forced herself to calm down. Her father, as usual, lacked all tact when asking her questions. After spending a few seconds to settle her mind and formulate her words, she finally opened her mouth and spoke, "He's an expert, but I don't think he's here for us."

"Oh? How can you be so sure?" asked Carlos with a raised eyebrow.

"Remember those two guys who were bothering me at the club last night?" Carlos nodded his head in response and Jane continued, "They attacked... tried to attack us last night. It didn't end well for them."

Those words prompted Carlos to lean in a bit closer to Jane as if asking her to continue with her deduction. Jane only shrugged at his eagerness to hear the story.

"I had asked him to keep one of them occupied for a bit while I took down the other. It seems me taking down his partner triggered something in the other guy as he lunged at Wang Xu with the knife, with the intent to kill." When Jane said this, she took a moment to stare at Carlos's expression.

"Don't keep me in suspense, woman. Tell me what happened," said Carlos, a bit impatient for Jane to continue.

"Keep your panties on. I'm getting to it," said Jane before she took a sip of her coffee. She could see that Carlos was getting irritated so she finally opened her mouth, "You could say that him lunging at Wang Xu was a mistake. A snapped wrist and a heavy elbow strike to the abdomen were what that guy received for attacking him. When the guy started to scream in pain, Wang Xu silenced him with a kick to the head."

Hearing her words caused Carlos to nod slightly before leaning back in his chair. He then frowned a few seconds later before opening his mouth, "That just tells me he's a good fighter. What makes you think that he's an expert."

"It's his eyes, pops." When Jane said this, she finished the rest of the coffee in her cup and placed it on the table before her.

"His eyes?" Carlos asked in confusion.

"His eyes." When Jane said this, Carlos looked at her for an explanation. Jane finally opened her mouth after a few moments, "During all of the actions he took against that guy, there was no emotion in his eyes. In fact, he took care of that guy as if he was dealing with trash. His eyes were completely indifferent. I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a few bodies under his belt."

Having heard this, Carlos nodded his head again, this time with more confidence. As he sat there, his eyebrows were furrowed while he was lost in thought. This continued for a few minutes before he spoke up, "And how are you so sure that he isn't here for us? So far, your words have proven that he's quite capable and doesn't put common people in his eyes. What makes you think we're safe?"

"Not counting the fact that he held back from killing those guys in my presence, which I could see from his slightly annoyed face after putting both in that alley, he even tried to cheer me up after walking me to the apartment." When Jane said this, she shrugged before leaning back in her chair, thinking about what had happened earlier that morning. When she thought about what they did after she invited him into the apartment, a slight blush formed on Jane's face.

Across from her, Carlos saw the blush on her face. At first, he was a bit clueless as to why she'd start blushing while talking about Wang Xu cheering her up. It was only a few seconds that a proverbial lightbulb went off in his head, prompting him to look at Jane with a strange smile. When Jane finally recovered from her memories and saw her father's smile, she immediately realized what happened and the blush on her face returned full force, this time in embarrassment.

"Any.....anyways, he's not here for us," Jane said in a flustered manner as the smile on her father's face got even more pronounced. Feeling too embarrassed, Jane left the table and ran to her kitchen while Carlos started laughing at her reactions, finding them very entertaining.

When he finally had his fill, Carlos then waited a few moments for Jane to return. When she did, he opened his mouth and spoke, "Since you are so sure, then I'll take your word for it." Carlos had a wide smile on his face while Jane had her head hung down. "That being said, I suggest you be careful from now on when going out. While I doubt many people in this city can take you on, I don't want any of those guys sniffing us out through the locals. If you need to cause trouble, do it in the game. At least there, no one will be able to find you."

Seemingly having been reminded of something, Jane immediately went to her bedroom and retrieved her laptop and returned to the living room with it and turned it on. After finding the official page for Immortal Era, Jane then looked over the new updates to the game with her father, When they finally got to the section with information on the continents, both Jane and Carlos frowned while looking at the information.

"It seems that we can't head to the Demon Continent with their views about beastmen." When Carlos said this, he had his eyebrows furrowed.

"The Dragon Continent is out as well. Our race doesn't do well in marshlands. So that leaves us the Beast Continent and the Insect Continent." When Jane said this, she tilted her head to the side in thought.

Both sat before the laptop screen for a few moments before Carlos spoke up, "I'll take the Insect Continent. The items I can get over there will be worth quite a bit on the other continents."

"Hmm. I guess that means I'm going to the Beast Continent then. I wonder when we'll be able to find a decent blacksmith to work with. It doesn't make sense for us to keep looking for these materials and get a blacksmith to make weapons out of them when the blacksmith's skills aren't that good. We won't be able to make any good money from that." Jane released a sigh when she said this.

"Don't worry. We just have to find the materials for now. Worst case scenario, we join a top guild and sacrifice a few pieces to get a competent blacksmith to work on them."

The duo kept their conversation going like this while looking over the new updates, not know that both are already acquainted with such a good blacksmith.