Once again, Kirou was staring into the roof of his apartment after exiting the game. While his body was well-rested from the gaming system putting it to sleep, Kirou's mind was currently exhausted to a terrifying degree.
Contrary to what Kirou normally does after exiting the game, which is basically him meditating a bit to rest his mind before getting up to exercise for a bit, this time, Kirou just went ahead and set up an alarm system before quietly falling asleep. It seems he's missed having dreams ever since he started playing this game. Then again, he's always doing something crazy inside it so it's bound to happen that he doesn't sleep properly.
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As Kirou slept, he dreamt about his previous life, as he was growing up. He remembered the times when he was a child, having to do various odd jobs a day just so he could earn a loaf of bread to eat later that evening. He remembered the times when he shared that l
It was just another day for Kirou at the office. He had rounds to make in the morning and was on camera duty after lunch and finally a patrol around the building during the evenings. That was Kirou's daily routine at Sanming and he's found it quite relaxing with the simplicity of it all.As a gaming studio, Sanming doesn't need to stick to the daily 9 to 5 grind as all the employees could meet up inside Immortal Era at any time they decide on a meeting. The reason for Sanming operating like this, based on Kirou's personal observations during his daily patrols, is to keep an account of important players and staff for when something important pops up during the days. Should an emergency take place that needs players to head to the office or should an important member discover something that needs to be brought up with the higher-ups of the guild, instead of sending messages through the guild channel where spies can be watching, the person can just log off and aler
Kirou was currently walking out of the subway station when he caught sight of a familiar silhouette just outside of the crowd of people. The person seemed to be looking for someone but was dejected as they couldn't find them. Seeing the person, Kirou only looked on with a raised eyebrow before deciding to approach them unseen. He had a feeling that he was the one that person was on the lookout for.As Kirou approached the person, he couldn't stop a thought from entering his mind, 'I wonder why she looks so dejected? It doesn't look like she's out for revenge so what's up with her?'**********Leaning against a wall, roughly thirty meters away from the entrance of the subway station was a girl with short, red hair. She was currently dressed in a navy blue T-shirt, black jeans that went all the way to her ankles, showing off her tall legs, and a pair of comfortable running shoes. All in all, this was a trendy college stude
Kirou was currently online and rushing through the treetops of Elderwood Forest. After his "research" on the guild operations and their relationships, Kirou spent some time looking over a few details for Immortal Era from its website. One of those details happened to be the 'World Map'.From his findings, Immortal Era is divided into nine continents. So far, players have only been given access to just four of them and even then, these four continents have a few places that players cannot access via normal means as they are either sealed or the monster level cap is far above their own. The four continents that the players currently have access to are called the 'Four Cardinal Continents'. Each continent is named after the cardinal directions North, South, East, and West, and these continents form the outer layer of all nine continents, showing off a greater landmass together than the remaining five continents combined. This was the main reason why it took Kirou s
Outside the armory for Elderwood Village stood both Kirou and Old Wolf. As usual, Kirou went up to the door and gave it a firm knock."Come in," came a voice from the inside. Both Kirou and Old Wolf recognized the voice as it belonged to Bladesmith, the Weapon Master Instructor.Both men entered the building to find Bladesmith hammering away at another piece of metal. This time, however, Bladesmith stopped on his own as he noticed that along with his usual visiter, Kirou, he was now graced with the presence of the village head, Old Wolf."To what do I owe the pleasure of you being here, old man?" Bladesmith said this as he led the two werewolves to the resting area where all three had a seat. After sitting down, Bladesmith started to eye his two guests in curiosity.In response to Bladesmith's question, Old Wolf adopted a grandfatherly smile before speaking, "You'll have to ask the young one as he re
Within the forge area of the armory, Kirou had just finished creating some new tools when he turned to face the door that both Bladesmith and Old Wolf had entered. He had a feeling that both men were currently busy in discussion and that it wasn't a good time to disturb them. That being said, Kirou currently had nothing to do.With that being the premise, Kirou decided to enter the door that led to the training area behind the armory. Since he lacked a short term goal at the moment, Kirou decided to work on one of his long term projects, this project being to get his body to learn all of his former skills.When Kirou entered the training area, he opened up his pet menu to check up on his pet demonic spider. After taking a look at his pet still in subpar health, Kirou could only shake his head in regret at the stunt he pulled earlier.'I guess I deserved this. Sigh, what am I going to do now? I really need to fight someth
Somewhere within the borders of Thousand Wood Forest, a man in a mage's robe was battling a few wild bears. If there was anyone else present, they would find it strange as the man in the mage's robe was fighting these bears using two daggers. Along with the man was a five-meter tall minotaur wielding two stone axes. Naturally, this man is Mistaken Fox.After he parted ways with Kirou the night before, Mistaken Fox had rushed all the way to Thousand Wood Forest. Apparently, there was something there for him to do. It's been a few hours now since he's arrived and since then, he's been taking on all the high leveled monsters that he's run into.As Mistaken Fox was taking down these monsters, so too was his ax-wielding minotaur. In fact, the minotaur was actually killing monsters faster than Mistaken Fox himself. Mistaken Fox could only form a wry smile on his face as he used his knives to take down the monsters before him while the minotaur too
Within SC Pier City, the elf shaman looking Navi was now sitting in a restaurant situated before the guild building for Sanming's Alchemist Guild. She didn't enter immediately as there were a few things she had to keep in mind.First was that she was currently in the form of an elf instead of the dark elf that everyone in the guild knows her to be, along with a completely different class. Considering the lengths she had to go through to unlock this trait, as well as the sacrifices she's made along the way, she couldn't allow anyone she didn't trust to find out. And even then, she wouldn't show to just anyone she trusts either. As Navi thought of this, the image of a certain man with tribal tattoos and a certain elf archer flashed through her mind before she shook her head clear. That was a thought for another time and place.The second was the fact that she was sure there are a few spies in the alchemist guild that had their eyes on her loca
Around the same time that Kirou was busy, having a man to a minotaur boxing match with Tank, both Reya and Navi were currently walking towards the guild building for Sanming's Alchemist Guild while quietly laughing with each other. The two were without disguise so they were easily recognizable. Upon seeing their approach, the group of players standing before the guild building's entrance became alert and started eyeing the duo.As soon as the duo got close to the building, they were stopped by a group of players. Following this, the warrior with dashing looks approached the duo and spoke, "Well well well. If it isn't the illustrious guild master of the Alchemist Branch. How are you doing on this fine day, Guild Master Navi?"Both Navi and Reya stared at the man before them. Reya even went as far as to have contempt for the man blatantly showing in her eyes as she did so but she kept quiet as Navi spoke up, "I'm doing just fine Guild Master B
It's been a few days since Kirou returned to the 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 ex
The Garuda player and his squad from the guild have finally returned to the Seaside Village. Unlike the trip to the pirate hideout that took 5 hours, the return trip only needed half that time. The Garuda player mainly returned here instead of continuing his hunt or returning to his guild as he was curious to see the results of that quest he never got the chance to finish. He was also interested in seeing if he would be able to meet that strange Lycan player he had initially pursued. Unfortunately, his second wish would go unanswered for quite a time. Upon entering the location of the Seaside Village, what greeted the Garuda player and his squad was essentially a ghost town. The village lacked any sign of life and it looked like its inhabitants were in quite the rush to leave. At this point, one squad member, a Lycan, spoke up, "Looks like these guys wasted no time in making themselves scarce as if wanting to avoid us like the plague. What say you now, Boss?" The G
Returning to the moment the Garuda player and his squad had entered the Drarven Village turned pirate camp, Kirou and the former captives have now arrived at the shores of the Seaside Village. He had already guessed what had happened when he found the Village Head's son as one of the captives on the pirate ship, but seeing the current state of the Seaside Village forced a deep sigh out of Kirou's mouth. Even then, he still had a job to finish, so he shook his mind free of their random thoughts and focused on what was ahead of him. Seeing the pirate ships coming close, the remainder of the village was once again arming themselves for combat. Sadly, there were a lot fewer able-bodied persons capable of fighting this time, so morale was at its absolute worst for the villagers. Even the Village Head, the fiercest fighter in the village in the previous bout, was now struggling to raise his weapon in the face of the returning pirate crew. From a glance, it was quite apparent to these vill
Kirou was currently making his way back to the Seaside Village via the ships used by the pirates. He needed a secure way to transport all the women and children that were captured back to the village without injury and in a timely manner, and .... it's not like the previous owners had much use for these ships anymore. As for controlling and navigating the ships themselves, Kirou had no part in that as he lacked the necessary experience and skill needed to do so. Instead, this job was taken over by the captured women that were previously held captive in the resting area of the camp by those pirates. Apparently, they were part of a crew of sailors that got captured at sea. Their ship had recently gone through a bad storm and most of the crew got injured in the process. Those that survived the storm thought that things would be fine when another ship passed by in their time of need. Sadly, their hopes were dashed as this ship was filled with pirates. When the pirates found and boarded
While all that was going down back at the Seaside Village, Kirou was already making his moves in the enemy stronghold. It's now been fifteen minutes since Kirou initiated his plan. Stealth and subterfuge were the game's name, and Kirou had to make severe commitments to follow through on his plans. He started out by summoning two clones, which he then sent to specific places to hide until he gave the signal. Following this, he rushed back to the cave where the kids were being kept captive. Unlike his prior visit where most of his was spent searching for their location, this time he would be able to deal with them without as much trouble. That said, he remained hidden in a dark spot while watching the actions of the captors and their captives. As he did this, he silently retrieved an item from his inventory. It was a small canister-like object that almost anyone would recognize if they saw it. Besides the main body in this cave, his clones pulled out similar objects, a few of whic
After leaving the village, Kirou has been heading northwest for roughly two hours. During this trip, he made multiple adjustments to his heading after using his skill to investigate his surroundings. The downside of this was that he had to chug down multiple potions to replenish his quickly spent [MP] after each trip. It was at this time that Kirou slowed and silenced his steps. This is because the stronghold for those human traffickers was within his sights. Having stopped behind a tree, Kirou calmed his breathing and steadied his heart rate. After doing so, he peered from behind the tree, gazing at his targets going about their business in the large base. The base itself was an abandoned seaside village that seemed to have been occupied initially by dwarfs. Along with a few lodging houses, there were a few paths dug into the hill directly behind the houses. The houses themselves were spread out and made in a style similar to inns, but the size of the windows
A few weeks have passed since Kirou had the discussion with both Cain and Jackson by the underground lake. Unlike the empty and somewhat desolate space that it was before, the underground lake was starting to look like a proper workspace for ships and people alike. More buildings had been constructed on the land area, with one side set up to properly reflect a shipyard and the other to reflect an underground harbor for ships. As for the water, multiple ports had been erected for both ship and civilian use. Hell, a few small boats were already making use of the new docking facilities that were recently created. As for how this happened, Kirou could only say that he got extremely lucky with his excursions outside the <Phantom Palace>. *******Flashback******* *Three days after the discussion with Jackson and Cain* Kirou was currently farming mining resources points.
It's been a few hours since Kirou and his group, along with the recent additions, returned to the <Phantom Palace>. Kirou only left some instructions with the girls and Mistaken Fox for the former bandits while he invited both Jackson and Cain to follow him to the underground pier. The trio was currently sitting around a small table, Kirou drinking some tea while both Jackson and Cain stared at him in confusion. This went on for a few minutes before Jackson spoke up. "Young Master, would you mind explaining why you've brought both of us down here?" Cain maintained his silence, but he gave a slight nod in agreement to Jackson's words. Kirou only glanced at the duo for a few moments before turning his eyes to the waters of his underground port. As soon as he finished his tea, Kirou spoke, "I'll be leaving for the <Beast Continent> within the next two weeks." T
Kirou and Jackson took a few minutes to work out the finer details of the <Blood Oath> that they wanted Cain to make. During this time, Cain genuinely contemplated committing suicide multiple times. The reason behind this was that neither Kirou nor Jackson bothered to lower their voices during their discussion, allowing Cain to hear all of their depraved ideas to include in the oath. The thought of escaping entered Cain's mind multiple times, only to be dismissed almost immediately. Not counting the fact that he was injured at the moment, even if he wasn't, he still had to contend with the creatures surrounding him. And even if he could somehow get through those creatures, there was still a large group he had to fight through, not to mention both Kirou and Jackson. With those thoughts in mind, Cain resigned himself to the whims of the two bastards holding him captive. Both Kirou and Jackson could see that Cai