Present Delivery (Merry Christmas)

It's been a few days since Kirou returned to the <Phantom Palace> with his new residents. During this time, both old and new residents worked hard to turn the shallow and empty area into a proper village. With the initial houses Kirou had built as a base and starting area, the village extended a bit into the forest, with the goal being to recover land for both farming and extending the village even further in the future.

Unsurprisingly, all residents decided to keep living above ground, leaving the passage that led to the pier being the only path they trod. In contrast, the remaining floors were left for Kirou's purposes after all the excavation work was complete.

Speaking of the excavation work, Kirou was given a surprise earlier that day when he explored the two floors situated above the pier and below the village on the surface. It seems that during the time that he was away from the village and holed up in the pier area after returning, his residents had come together to fully excavate those 2 floors. Well, fully in the sense that both floors are now in the perfect condition for Kirou to have a starting point for when he's ready to design those floors to suit his needs.

It seems that the addition of the beastmen villagers and craftsmen that came along with him from the <Seaside Village> allowed the work speed to increase exponentially, resulting in the quick work needed to clear both floors. Besides that, quite a few of those villagers were now on the lower floors, building up the required facilities that were needed for the pier area to run smoothly.

As for the materials obtained from excavating both floors, roughly a quarter were just ores and minerals and they were stacked up in a pile next to Kirou's work area, waiting to be converted into useful materials. As for the rest, they were mainly dirt and they were divided into a few piles sitting on the surface in the village. Facing this, Kirou could only release a helpless sigh and slump back onto his stool as he went back to work on processing the pile next to him. As for the piles on the surface, he had his clones and pets working on converting those into stone slabs and bricks to be used for the construction work taking place all over his territory. For now, his base was in a constant state of operation and Kirou had no idea when this work was going to slow down.

*******

It was another week or so before Kirou could finally sit back and relax while looking out at the various boats either docking or leaving the various piers in the basement of his base. The boats themselves were quite small, mainly for 2 or 3 persons each but they were all fishing vessels, so they had enough space for their respective catch.

Besides these boats operating in the lake, Kirou also looked over the rest of his underground harbor and even passed his eyes over the shipyard that was currently in operation. All in all, Kirou was quite proud of the work that had gone into his base and was happy that the people working for him had done such an excellent job.

Off to the side, Kirou's eyes locked onto his friends currently finishing up their own work, with the two elf girls making various potions and pills, Moon Lily was sitting at an empty pier with a fishing rod in hand, and Mistaken Fox was busy sparring against Tank, getting knocked into the air like a ragdoll whenever he wasn't paying attention.

This went on for another hour or so before Kirou decided it was time to get back to work. And by work, it means it was time to give everyone their gear so that they can move on to the <Kingdom Continents> with peace of mind, and also face the music for what he's done.

With that said, he called over both Moon Lily and Mistaken Fox first. When the two got close, Kirou gave them both a <Rare > leather armor set suitable for their respective classes. Mistaken Fox also got a cloak inscribed with a magic formula to aid his <Arcane Summoner> skills. Both looked at Kirou with surprise and thanked him profusely for the gear, but Kirou just waved it off as something he did in passing. Even then, both still gave him their thanks and walked away with a bright smile on their faces.

Seeing the smiles on the duo's faces, the two elf girls turned their sights toward Kirou who was staring at them with a sheepish smile on his face. While both were confused about this, they still walked over to Kirou. As for Kirou himself, he then led them to the side cave where he usually held his private talks with others. This further confused the girls, wondering what Kirou was up to but they followed him all the same. Meanwhile, Kirou had many thoughts running through his mind but the one consistency with all of them was that he was playing with fire and was genuinely in danger of being burnt.

*******

The trio were now seated at their usual place in the cavern with the large lake that previously housed the jellyfish king. As usual, Kirou gave them a cup of tea to start with but both women ignored the cups and stared at Kirou with wrapt attention.

Seeing that they aren't falling for the bait but still wanting to push it off as much as possible, Kirou gave them both class-specific weapons, a short bow for Reya and twin daggers for Navi, both of which were ranked <Rare >.

Weapon: Moon Bow

Weapon Level: 20

Weapon Type: Rare

Weapon Requirements: +70 Att, +30 Dex

Weapon Attack: 275-350

+70 dexterity

+5% chance to generate a <Mirror Arrow> that deals 75% damage of any arrow skill used. <Mirror Arrow> has a 30% chance to deal critical damage on impact

Description: A short bow made to honor the moon, generates a mirror arrow to signify the moon's reflection within a lake. Suitable for archers and rangers.

Weapon: Twin Fangs

Weapon Level: 20

Weapon Type: Rare

Weapon Requirements: +90 Att, +25 Dex

Weapon Attack: 250-300

+30% Critical Damage chance

+12% chance to induce laceration/bleed on target, forcing the target to lose 3% health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

Description: Twin daggers made from the canines of a mutated wolf monster. Suitable for both rogue and assassin-type players

Looking at the stats for both weapons, it can be said that they are great weapons, especially at this point in the game. That said, both girls ignored these weapons and stared directly at Kirou, their eyes practically screaming a slow and painful death if he didn't stop playing games and deliver on his promise already.

Seeing those eyes and feeling the intent behind them, Kirou could only release a defeated sigh as he sent both women the armor he made for them.

Having received their respective armor, both women looked at them and back at Kirou, wondering what was the reason for him to be reacting all mysteriously with it. From their perspective, both armor sets looked like standard leather armor for an archer and rogue player. The only difference between them was that one of them had a skirt and stockings instead of pants.

Not understanding what the big deal about the armor was, both opted to stand up and try them on before taking a look at each other's outfits to give their respective comments.

Seeing both Reya and Navi doing this, Kirou cautiously activated the recording function for his account, planning to not miss a single moment of what was about to transpire next.

Honestly, Kirou knew for a fact that he was playing with fire. He acknowledges wholeheartedly that what he's about to do will get him into some trouble. That being said ....... whether it was during his youth, years after he started working as an assassin, or even now that he's living as Wang Xu, one thing that has never changed was the fact that there were times when he wanted to stir up chaos within his own life for no other reason beyond that he could and it would be entertaining to him. This was one such moment.

*******

Kirou was currently dodging for his life. Behind him, attacks of varying types kept going off, such as explosive arrows, arrow rain, and throwing knives of different varieties. Along with those, he also had to look out for the sudden appearance and disappearance of the rogue who kept making use of her stealth to get close enough to him in order to stab him in the back.

All the while that this was going down, Kirou's laugh echoed throughout the entire cavern, prompting the ones chasing after and attacking him to increase the frequency of their attacks, regardless of what consequences they may face later. At some point, explosive potions had appeared in between those attacks, nearly catching Kirou off guard but he kept dodging skillfully with the usage of his wires to either redirect those attacks or pull him out of danger. Even then, these attacks kept closing in on him.

This ultimately went on for another hour before both women collapsed from exhaustion and Kirou himself fell into the lake. All three were tired, to a degree, but that didn't stop the women from shooting glares of hatred in his direction. For his part, Kirou was slowly floating on the lake's surface trying his best to keep some distance between himself and them while laughing maniacally like a madman.

Now, as for the reason why both women were trying to stab and shoot Kirou, the answer is both simple and obvious: their new armor. As for the reason, Navi is currently wearing the bunny-girl equivalent of leather armor. As for Reya, she was in the leather armor equivalent of a dominatrix's bondage outfit. Looking at both outfits, it can be seen that the creator went out of his way to make those outfits look both functional and practical, but it doesn't change the fact that both are hugging the elf women in just the right places, making them both a meal for Kirou's eyes.

Now, as bad as all of this sounds, that isn't the reason why the girls are so mad. If anything, they could have just removed the armor, cut ties with Kirou, and be done with it. No, the reason why both are practically livid and out for blood is the fact that both armor sets are <Epic > rank armor, with three set effects. Combining such shameless outfits with such amazing stats forced the girls to be in a situation where they hate the fact that they are currently dressed like that but if asked to give up the armor, they would refuse without hesitation due to the stats and set effect the armor sets currently contain.

With that in mind, they chose the third option: trying to maim Kirou for going out of his way to stir up chaos in such a manner. And try they did, for they exhausted all of their saved-up munitions and expendable items trying to drop Kirou so both women could mob him to death. Sadly, Kirou had long been prepared for their retaliation for days now. If anything, it would have been quite strange had they managed to catch him since he was genuinely contemplating this for so long. That said, both elves came dangerously close to cornering him this time around. Had it not been for the fact that they ran out of munitions already and had enough to go another ten or so minutes, Kirou would have been a prisoner to their torturous whims. With that thought in mind, Kirou felt a chill travel down his spine, prompting him to re-evaluate whether or not he should curb such an impulse in the future, and if he doesn't, figure out how prepared he needs to be to survive such an ordeal.

With a few moments to settle his mind and for the girls to simmer down (hopefully), Kirou carefully made his way to the shore of the cavern. Both women got up and were ready to pounce on him but Kirou spoke up quickly.

"I'll tell you how to change the appearance of your outfits, so please wait for a moment."

That prompted both women to stop but their eyes were cold as they stared at Kirou carefully climbing out of the lake. Kirou could see that he was being given a chance to explain, so he stood up and spoke.

"To change the appearance you've got to...."