Underground Cavern Secret Base+

<Server Announcement: Player ***** has obtained the world boss <Psychedelic Jellyfish King> first kill. This record has been recorded in Immortal Era's History Books. Player ***** has been rewarded Fame +800, 300 gold, rare treasure chest.>

<Server Announcement: Player ***** has obtained the world boss <Psychedelic Jellyfish King> first kill. This record has been recorded in Immortal Era's History Books. Player ***** has been rewarded Fame +800, 300 gold, rare treasure chest.>

The two messages were repeated three times throughout the entire server, causing a few players paying attention to wonder what kind of boss it was. While the system was announcing the first kill for the jellyfish king, Kirou only glanced at the rewards before turning his attention back to the task at hand. Kirou had other things to focus on presently instead of paying attention to the people talking on the world chat or looking at the treasure chest that just appeared in his inventory.

After a grueling twenty minutes of constant work in harvesting materials from the huge corpse, the body of the psychedelic jellyfish king finally turned into a mass of light. On the water surface, Kirou noticed that there was a black object floating on the surface of the water that was left behind by the corpse. Kirou could tell from that that the item in question must be something important. Though reluctant, Kirou dove into the water and swam over to retrieve the object. The moment he placed his hands on it, however, Kirou was given a system message which made him toss the object towards Mistaken Fox without a second thought.

[System Message: You have discovered an object corrupted with <Demonic Energy>]

[Please deliver this object to the nearest Village Head/Vice City Lord within the next 24 hours]

[Timer: 23:59:03]

Just reading those prompts allowed Kirou to know exactly what he picked up and he was not having any of it. He refused to get involved with another part of that quest, especially now since he was so close to one of his short term goals.

Mistaken Fox saw Kirou's actions and was quite confused. Seeing that the object landed next to him, Mistaken Fox picked it up and was greeted with the same messages that Kirou saw and was at a loss as to why Kirou reacted like that. After swimming to shore, Kirou saw the confusion in Mistaken Fox's eyes and could only offer an explanation to ease his concerns.

"Hold up, Brother Kirou. You're telling me that this item might be the start of a world quest chain and you just threw it away like that?" Mistaken Fox was looking at Kirou in agast while asking this.

Kirou could only form a wry smile on his face in response to this question. Only he was truly aware of how much he doesn't want anything to do with Immortal Era's World Questline but surprisingly runs into it more than once. "It's just a hunch on my part, Brother Fox. I could be wrong. Besides, this wouldn't serve me much since I've already joined the world questline." Following those words, Kirou explained how he, along with two other players have already started the world questline and may have unintentionally caused the server update as a response. The latter part was just a theory he came up with based on the timing of everything along with other clues he's noticed.

Listening to Kirou's words, a strange thought entered Mistaken Fox's mind and he couldn't stop himself from making it known, "By chance, Brother Kirou. Could it be that you don't want to be apart of the world questline?"

Kirou went mute for a moment while staring at Mistaken Fox. Mistaken Fox returned the stare and both men looked the other in the eye for a good minute before Kirou finally spoke, "Exactly."

"Why? These are the quests practically every other player in the game would be willing to kill just to join. Why are you so against it?" When Mistaken Fox asked this, he looked at Kirou as if he was a weirdo... a much stranger weirdo than he already was.

"Simple, Brother Fox. Joining the world questline means that my actions, or lack thereof, will result in a few, if not a lot of major changes that will take place in Immortal Era if the official website's words are anything to go by. I'm playing this game to relax, not to join an epic adventure that I don't give a crap about." When Kirou said this, Mistaken Fox had to take a minute to think it over before he nodded his head in agreement, reluctant as he was to do so. "That being said, I'm already stuck on this trainwreck so instead of being crazy and increasing my worth in the eyes of others by handing in things like that item, I might as well give it to people like you who are interested in the questline and its many rewards."

Hearing up to here, Mistaken Fox had mixed feelings on the matter. While he was glad that he obtained an item that could allow him to join the world quest, he wasn't happy that it was at the expense of Kirou giving it up, especially when he was the one who took down the creature that possessed the item. He could only put the object in his inventory with a bit of reluctance showing on his face.

Seeing Mistaken Fox's expression, Kirou could only shake his head before speaking up, "There's another reason why I don't want that object now." Mistaken Fox focused his attention back on Kirou as he said this, prompting Kirou to continue, "I don't have the time to deal with this piece now. I've got some stuff I need to take care of in this place that you've found for me and it should keep me busy for another day or so, by which time that item would have already disappeared from my inventory."

It was only until Mistaken Fox heard up to here that he reluctantly agreed with Kirou's views on passing over the item to him. Following this, he managed to cheer himself up, thinking that this was just another way to help the very strange Kirou.

"Wait a minute. I'm the one that invited you to this area, so how could you have something you need to take care of here, Brother Kirou?" When Mistaken Fox asked this, a suspicious glint formed in his eyes.

Completely ignoring the look that Mistaken Fox was giving him, Kirou was examining the giant cavern that he was currently in as he answered, "Since I logged on today I've been looking for a specific kind of area to set up a secret base of sorts. So far, I've scoured both Thousand Wood Forest and Elderwood Forest and haven't found a suitable area. Either it would take me too long to develop the area to suit my standards or there isn't much in the way of security, on the off chance that I end up having to flee to this area from a group of professionals."

Having said up to there, Mistaken Fox nodded in agreement as he too has been all over both forests and a few unnamed forests without finding such an area himself, even if he wasn't specifically looking for one. "So what's so special about this area then, Brother Kirou."

"Well, Brother Fox. This is a completely natural cave with many forks, turns, hidden paths, and dead ends. If it wasn't because I had your exact coordinates and was carefully examining this place for your tracks as I entered, I don't think I would have found this Cavern so quickly." After saying all of that in a single breath, Kirou nodded his head in satisfaction while taking out a few items from his inventory. "Not to mention, most, if not all of the other caverns in this cave are bound to have a few of those smaller jellyfish occupying them, keeping other monsters at bay. Should a random person enter without knowing about this, it will most likely end up being a one-way trip back to the previous village or town that they recently left, making it the perfect hiding spot for a secret base."

Mistaken Fox quietly stood to the side and watched Kirou take out a bunch of items from his inventory while he finished his speech. At first, Mistaken Fox thought that Kirou was joking, but that quickly changed after he saw Kirou take out a few things and couldn't stop himself from asking, "Brother Kirou, don't you think that it's a really bad idea to be setting up such a thing in this cave system, specifically this cavern? Don't you realize that next time you'll probably have to take on that boss alone when it respawns and the boss itself would just wreck your secret base after spawning in the middle of it?"

Kirou stopped what he was doing and turned to face Mistaken Fox as he said this. He stared at Mistaken Fox for a few seconds before responding, "I know, hence why this isn't the main room of my secret base. This will be the entrance."

"Pardon?" asked Mistaken Fox in confusion.

"Do you see that small entrance over there," said Kirou as he pointed towards the right side of the room. Mistaken Fox looked over and noticed the entrance, feeling shocked as it was only now visible to him even though he's been in the cavern much longer than Kirou. Seeing the reaction he wanted, Kirou continued, "That's a natural hole in the wall that you didn't notice until I pointed it out. I only discovered its location by accident during the fight and me examining the entire cavern was to make sure if there are any more entrances hidden in the cavern."

"So what does that have to do with this cavern being the entrance?"

"Follow me, Brother Fox." Following those words, Kirou stopped taking stuff out of his inventory and walked over to Mistaken Fox. Kirou then led Mistaken Fox to the hidden entrance and both went in and what they saw on the other side prompted Mistaken Fox to exclaim out loud.

"Amazing."

Before the duo was a much wider cavern than what they were in previously. Besides that, from where Mistaken Fox was standing, he could see a large body of water, extending from a few dozen meters away from him and leading out to an area that opened up where he can vaguely make out the reflection of the moon on the surface of the water. Remembering where he was, Mistaken Fox subconsciously turned to Kirou before speaking.

"Brother Kirou, am I imagining things, or is this..." Mistaken Fox never got the chance to finish as Kirou spoke up here.

"It is an underground cavern that's connected to the sea surrounding this continent. While I'm not too sure about other matters, I am positive that it is impossible for a creature as large as that jellyfish king to just show up in a cavern like the previous one without traveling from somewhere else and this is the route. If I had to hazard a guess, there's a path underwater directly below us that leads to the previous cavern. That jellyfish king was poisoned so it probably couldn't leave the cavern and venture out into the sea where it could better pray to recover. Then again, these are all my guesses so you do not need to pay any attention to them." Having said his piece, Kirou returned to the previous cavern and started setting up a few things, leaving Mistaken Fox to bask in the beauty that the cavern had to show him with the glowing walls at certain locations.

*********

Kirou finally returned to the large cavern roughly half an hour later to see Mistaken Fox moving around the place while stopping to pose a few times. Kirou looked at him in confusion for a few moments before he took out some tools and materials from his inventory and started making something out of them.

Mistaken Fox eventually noticed that Kirou had returned, so he started scratching his chin and stopped what he was doing before heading over to Kirou. When he got close, he noticed that Kirou assembling a simple wood chair. Upon noticing Mistaken Fox's approach, Kirou put the finishing touches on the chair before placing it down.

When Mistaken Fox finally got close enough, Kirou turned towards him and asked, "What were you just doing that had you running all over the place?"

Mistaken Fox blinked a few times while staring at Kirou before answering, "I was just taking some pictures."

"Oh," was all Kirou said as he assembled another chair for Mistaken Fox to sit on.

Mistaken Fox stared at Kirou for a few moments before carefully asking, "Brother Kirou, you do know how to take pictures in-game, right?"

Kirou's hands paused momentarily before he continued, "Nope. I think I've read up on how in the gaming set's user manual but I've never had the chance to try it."

Mistaken Fox just stared at Kirou as Kirou completed the second chair and further took out the materials to make a small table with.