Server Shutdown Part 2

SC Pier City, Sanming Alchemist Guild's Guild Building.

Two elves, a normal and a dark elf, were currently on the guild building's third floor. They were both in one of the many private rooms available for crafting within the building. While it is normal for only one person to be within each private room so that they can completely devote all of their focus on their respective crafting, both elves were sharing the room at the moment.

Naturally, these two elves are Reya and Navi. One was in the center of the room, operating a cauldron. At times, she would throw different plants into the cauldron while at other times she would be making hand signs while pointing at the cauldron. This process is usually kept up until she would finally remove a few pills from the cauldron, which she would then put away in peculiar bottles before starting her process over from scratch.

The other was off to the side crushing a bunch of plants which she then proceeded to separate and mix in with a few other materials before pouring those mixtures into different vials filled with liquid. After the mixtures in the vials finally settled down, she would look at the different potions created. If she was satisfied with her work, she put away the vials in her inventory before moving on to the next mixture. If she wasn't, she would do over the process, using a different mix ratio for the various materials she used in her process until she finally got the mix correct.

Like this, both women operated for over an hour before they finally stopped working. During this time, both women would either make some small talk when the processes they didn't need to focus on as much became boring or offer a bit of advice to the other on how to handle certain plants. Now that they were finished, both women put away their equipment before sitting down next to each other and having a proper conversation.

Reya released a sad sigh while leaning back on her chair before speaking, "All of them turned out to be tier-one pills. I tried to push them to tier-two but I seem to have run into a snag in the middle, preventing me from doing so. Had I tried, the pill crafting would have failed and resulted in an explosion, messing up your work in the process." After saying this, Reya released another sigh.

"I wish that was all I had to worry about." When Navi said this, she too released a sad sigh while slumping on the table between both women. "For every failed potion I created, not only did I lose the materials used during the process, I ended up with a poisonous mixture in a vial that I have no idea what it does, nor what to do with it."

Both women released a sigh at the same time following this. They then stared at each other for a few seconds before they broke out into a fit of giggles. This went on for a few minutes before both women sat up properly in their chairs.

Reya was the one who spoke up first, "Let's drop these items into the guild storage before finishing this quest of ours. We only have to return to Thousand Wood Village after all."

"I agree. Even if they are failed products, we've still managed to produce quite a lot for the guild. This should give us some free time for a while, especially since we don't have to put up with that insufferable a*s anymore." As Navi said this, she stood up from her chair before cleaning up any equipment she missed earlier. Reya joined her in this endeavor and both women were finished less than five minutes later.

Just as they were about to exit the door, however, Navi stopped Reya for a second before speaking up, "There is definitely a spy in this guild for that guy. Be careful after we exit the guild."

Reya responded after a few seconds, "I know, which is why I suggest that we make use of the city's teleport gate. They can't trace us if we leave that way." Afterward, Reya had a wide smile on her face with a crafty glint in her eyes.

Navi looked at the younger elf before lightly slapping her head in realization. She had forgotten about the city's teleport gate as it was expensive to use and people can only travel back to the starter villages with it at the moment. It seems that Reya has been doing her own research on this city while they were separated for a few days.

Both women then left the private room on the third floor together. While this didn't attract much attention since there were many friends in the guild that shared crafting rooms, a few eyes with hidden intent watched their every movement. Both women were ignorant of the eyes watching them but they knew there was a spy or two within the guild so they paid no attention to the crowd and went to the guild storage in the basement, depositing a good amount of pills and potions, before they walked out of the guild together.

After a five-minute walk to the city center, both women entered the building where the teleport gate was located. This attracted the attention of a few passersby as they too knew about the expense and coverage area for the teleport gate. In their eyes, the price wasn't worth it.

Less than a minute later, both women had teleported out of the city, appearing at the entrance of Thousand Wood Village while the spies tasked with keeping tabs on them in SC Pier City had no idea where they went. Since that was the case, all the spies could do was report the situation to their boss before going about their own business.

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

It's been roughly twenty minutes since Kirou started working on his new weapon design. At first, neither Bladesmith nor Old Wolf had any idea what Kirou was trying to make but that changed roughly ten minutes ago. That just so happened to be the time Kirou had started hammering a piece of metal into a shape that the duo recognized.

The item was a circular medallion with a hexagram carved in it. Following that, Kirou also carved in another circle and a square in the hexagram, along with carving a few symbols here and there and left space in the center of the diagram for something to be slotted there. After that was done, Kirou then put the incomplete product back in the furnace before going over to the pile of materials he was working on earlier.

Kirou searched through everything there but he wasn't satisfied with what he found so he then checked his inventory. After a minute or so, he took out a small gem from his inventory. The gem was naturally squarish, was lustrous yellow in color, and above average in quality. Satisfied with it, Kirou then took out the incomplete medallion from the furnace, compared the gem's size and the slot on the medallion, and then shaved off part of the gem so that it could hold.

Instead of just slotting the gem as it was, Kirou then took out a container just big enough for his needs, crushed the gem fragments into dust, and mixed it with a bit of silver, getting the reaction he wanted as it glowed before he placed the medallion within the mixture in the container. Kirou allowed the mixture to work its magic and after a minute, the mixture was gone and only the medallion, now silver with bits of yellow in a few places, was left. Following this, Kirou then placed the gemstone in its slot and watched as the medallion floated before him while giving off a golden glow.

Both Bladesmith and Old Oak looked on in surprise. While both noticed that Kirou was creating something similar to jewelry, they never expected his creation would react like this. What followed next surprised them even more as the medallion released a golden pulse wave within the room. Both were shocked as they never expected Kirou to create an item of this grade just yet. This forced them to adopt wry smiles on their faces as it seems like they would have to take out even more or rarer items to appease this monster before them.

Unaware of the thoughts of the duo watching him, Kirou watched as the item released the golden pulse wave within the room before it finally descended into his hand. Kirou stared at the item before him with a smile on his face, not expecting his results would be this good. The smile on his face got even more pronounced after he read the item description.

Weapon: ???

Weapon Level: 25

Weapon Type: Epic

Weapon Requirements: Traits(Medallion Mastery/Master-At-Arms), 250 Intelligence

Weapon Attack: 75-100

+50 mag attack

+25% Passive MP recovery during battle/100% outside of battle

+10% chance of capturing and sealing the spirit of a monster before death. Soul Count [0/100]

Description: This is a new item created by the player [Kirou] after studying a monster medallion. It has yet to be named but has shown signs of being able to be strengthened. It is highly recommended that the cheap materials used during its creation either be purified further or the item scraped and rebuilt using better materials, whichever works.

Kirou looked at the weapon in his hands and couldn't stop the chuckle from escaping his mouth, especially when he read the last line. It may not be intentional, but it seems that Kirou had created another upgradeable weapon. Kirou didn't know if he should laugh or cry at such a result when he was just experimenting.

While Kirou was lost, staring at the weapon, the duo behind him had serious expressions on their faces. Old Wolf signaled with his eyes while Bladesmith nodded before approaching Kirou. It was only after Bladesmith approached that Kirou became aware of the duo's presence in the room. Apparently, he was too focused on his work to notice.

Bladesmith pointed at the medallion in Kirou's hand before speaking, "Where did you find out about this weapon design?"

Kirou was surprised at the question for a moment but spoke up regardless, "I became acquainted with another new recruit that lacked a weapon. His class is that of Arcane Summoner and all of his skills are weapon locked. I agreed to help make one for him to ease some of his burdens since he's practically struggling at the moment. Why, is something the matter, Senior?"

Bladesmith looked between Kirou and the medallion before releasing a sigh at his words. It seems that both his and Bladesmith's paranoia was unfounded. Bladesmith then explained to Kirou his and Old Wolf's worry. Apparently, the medallion is a weapon that's popular among demons as well for sealing the souls of people they fight. The Arcane Summoner class came about as a means to counter this since they are capable of releasing trapped souls along with being able to create new creatures as well. All of this is due to the use of medallions. Due to this, they are oftentimes discriminated against by other classes, resulting in them barely having any resources to use or a market to obtain anything they find useful.

"Like us, Weapon Masters, they too opt to become blacksmiths, not because their ideas are radical likes ours, but because normal blacksmiths refuse to make anything for them." When Bladesmith said this, Kirou could picture what Arcane Summoners normally went through. In fact, he was slightly disgusted with how the other classes treated them when they came about as a means of protection but Kirou kept his cool.

Like any story, there are always two sides. He was sure that there must be other reasons why Arcane Summoners were persecuted but he had neither time, effort, or interest in looking into such things as they don't matter to him. He knew that Mistaken Fox was a decent person, at the very least, and that was all he needed to know in order to help him out.

Just as Kirou was prepared to ask about the results of the duo's talk within the room, Old Wolf took out a crystal ball from behind him and looked at it. Kirou had no idea what the village chief saw but he was sure that it wasn't good, especially since Kirou could make out the snarl forming on his wolfish visage.

Seeing this, Bladesmith turned to Kirou and spoke, "Kid, me and the old man got work to do. Come back here tomorrow to pick up your rewards and your next assignment." Following those words, Bladesmith tapped Kirou on the shoulder before he disappeared in a mass of light. Before he could even comment, Kirou was now standing at the entrance of Elderwood Village.

Just as he was about to step back inside, a red message was blasted on the world channel for all players to see.

<Server 12 Announcement: Immortal Era's server is about to be shut down for hours facilitate a mass update. Please log out within the next ten minutes prevent any data loss.>

<Server 12 Announcement: Immortal Era's server is about to be shut down for hours facilitate a mass update. Please log out within the next ten minutes prevent any data loss.>

<Server 12 Announcement: Immortal Era's server is about to be shut down for hours facilitate a mass update. Please log out within the next ten minutes prevent any data loss.>

...

Kirou saw the message flash over ten times. It seems that something big went down while he was busy making his weapon. He could only count himself lucky for being able to finish the medallion before it happened. Wasting no time, Kirou opened his menu and selected the option to log off, disappearing from the game.

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

Meanwhile, in Thousand Wood Village.

Both Navi and Reya were staring at the same message that Kirou saw and had a look of astonishment on their faces. It seems like they had managed to benefit by going around the village and doing some shopping before heading to turn in their quest with Old Oak.

"It seems that I won't have to waste one of my rewards now," was all Navi said while a smile formed on her face.

Next to her, Reya had a smug look on her face as she spoke up, "I told you we should wait. No use throwing away such a reward, even if it's from a World Quest."

"Fine, you win. Let's go. No need to take any chances." Following this, both Navi and Reya logged out from the game, along with many players around them.

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

Somewhere within Thousand Wood Forest.

Mistaken Fox was currently looking at the server announcement. He could only shake his head at what was happening before he quickly harvested all the corpses around him. He could only thank his lucky stars that the announcement came up now instead of a minute earlier, or he might have died mid-combat.

Following the harvests, he quickly climbed up a tall tree in the area. Since he was far from any form of a safe zone like Kirou and the two elves, he had to make use of the environment. He had to make sure that when he logged out, he was in an area that wasn't directly next to where monsters can spawn in Immortal Era and the best place to be in a forest, under those circumstances, is in a tall tree. At least up here, he wouldn't face death immediately upon logging in.

After making sure that he had enough space to stand and no creature could reach him, Mistaken Fox too made sure to log out. Unfortunately for him, what he didn't know was that he was no longer in a tree belonging to Thousand Wood Forest, where the high ground would be a safe haven for him. Instead, he was in a neighboring forest where flying monsters inhabit. Oh well, that was something he would have to deal with when he logs in later.