Dungeon Entrance Under Water

Kirou was currently on his way home via the subway. He had a smile on his face as he thought back to the events that took place during the day, especially when he passed by that familiar girl.

'Hmm, I wonder if I should mess with her later or not. It would be really funny, but I don't wanna blow my cover just yet. Decisions, decisions.' These were Kirou's thoughts while standing next to the doors on one side of the train. While lost in thought, a few threads were dancing around his right hand.

Like that, Kirou spent the next twenty minutes on the train. When he arrived at his station, Kirou got off the train and started making his way out. As he was walking out, however, he noticed from the corner of his eye that someone was heading towards him. Kirou recognized this person as the one who bumped into Secretary Yin earlier that morning. It seems like he noticed that Kirou was the one who took back the items he stole and now he wanted to get even.

Kirou pretended not to notice his approach and continued to make his way through the crowd. As the man approached Kirou and was about to bounce into him, Kirou skillfully and narrowly dodged his approach. This action surprised the man. He thought Kirou was aware of his approach but when he looked at Kirou again, he realized that Kirou wasn't paying attention to him at all. This made the man think that Kirou dodging him was just a coincidence.

Thinking that it was just a coincidence, the man tried to bounce into Kirou, 'by accident' once again, only to end up with the same results. This caused the man to narrow his eyes slightly.

'I refuse to believe that this guy will keep getting so lucky, over and over again,' was the man's thoughts as he kept following Kirou at a distance.

For the next half hour, the man tried again multiple times, only to keep failing. At first, he was suspicious but now he was certain that Kirou was aware of his presence and was intentionally messing with him. He wasn't wrong since Kirou was currently sporting a shit-eating grin on his face.

Kirou then made his way down a somewhat deserted alley. The man paused at the entrance for a bit. He didn't immediately enter as he felt that something was wrong. After waiting a few minutes though, the man ignored that gut feeling and entered the alley himself.

The alley continued for quite a while with a dead-end around the corner. The man cautiously moved in the alley. That gut feeling from earlier was back and it was telling him to flee but his pride as a pickpocket refused to listen. He eventually got to the end of the alley where he noticed that it was empty. During the entire trip there, he never saw Kirou and now that he made it to the end and found Kirou missing, his gut instinct told him to run as quickly as possible. Sadly, he decided to listen when it was too late.

"Hello there, Mr. Pickpocket," came a sound from behind the pickpocket. Immediately, the man spun around, only to find that Kirou was at the entrance of the corner that led to the dead-end. This spooked the pickpocket.

"How did..." was all the pickpocket managed to say before he lost consciousness. Kirou chuckled as he made his way over to the downed man and searched his pockets for some identification.

'It's nice to be able to use my wires again, even if it's only at the basic level.' This was Kirou's thought as he took out the man's wallet from his pockets. As for how the pickpocket lost consciousness, he was hit over the head with a brick that 'fell' on his head, hard.

Looking at the contents of the wallet, Kirou realized that the pickpocket that tried to rob him and failed so miserably was a student and a girl at that. 'Never thought I'd meet a pro at this and disguising that's so young. Will wonders never cease to amaze?'

Satisfied with his findings, Kirou returned the wallet to its rightful place and propped the man, or rather, young girl up with her back against the alley wall. He then wrote a note and placed it in the pickpocket's pocket before leaving the alleyway. As he got to the entrance, he couldn't help looking back into the alley before releasing a sigh.

'I guess I better make sure no one can get to her before she wakes up. I may be a killer but I refuse to have someone kill a person I intentionally left alive. At least so soon.' These were Kirou's thoughts as he made his way back into the alley for a bit. By the time he left, which was just a few minutes later, the alley was covered in a mysterious haze that made people subconsciously want to avoid it.

'With this, that's two things that pickpocket owes me,' was Kirou's thought as he returned home, which took him less than five minutes from the station.

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

Yin Jia Rong or Secretary Yin as the members of the Sanming Gaming Studio address her as was currently sitting on a couch in her apartment. At the moment, she was thinking about what happened to her that day.

Due to her coincidental arrival with Kirou, unfounded rumors had started about the two. Next was the harassment by Shen Jiang. 'Why won't that guy take a blasted hint and stop bugging me,' is what she kept asking herself every time he approaches her. Shen Jiang has bothered her way too much and she can't do anything too drastic against him as the studio has him under contract and doesn't want to lose him.

And finally, the thumb drive with the Immortal Era accounts information. She knew for a fact she had it in her purse when she left her apartment that morning but somehow it ended up being returned to her by an unlikely person.

Speaking of said person, she couldn't help remembering the note he left on the box with the returned items. This caused her face as well as her neck to turn crimson.

'I hope he forgets about the contents of that box soon,' was all that was on her mind as Secretary Yin got up from the couch and went to her bedroom. She already had dinner long before getting home, so now she was planning to spend some time and relax in-game as well.

"I think I'll make a trip to Thousand Wood VIllage later. I need to stock up on those plant harvesting kits for the guild. At the very least, I need to make sure I have them in case something comes up later on." After saying those words, Yin Jia Rong put on the gaming helmet, laid back on her bed, and allowed her consciousness to be pulled into the game.

'It's been a while since I last used Navi just to have fun in Immortal Era,' was Yin Jia Rong's last thought before she entered the game.

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

Kirou was currently at the entrance to Thousand Wood Village, waiting on Reya. Even while messing around with that pickpocket from earlier, he still managed to log into the game ahead of schedule. It seems that something came up earlier at the company.

'We should probably take care of the fishing quests today. I still have to head over to Stone Mount Village to complete the quest Old Wolf gave me. Then there is the fact that I'll need to start making space for other materials as well. It seems that I'm losing out by selling my materials to the villagers as opposed to the players, but none of these starter villages have an auction house for me to put them up in.' Many thoughts crossed Kirou's mind as he stood by the village entrance. Many players passed by while pointing and whispering while the villagers only took a glance before moving on. Even if Kirou noticed these actions, he would have ignored them, much less now that he was thinking about stuff.

In his current state, he failed to notice a familiar looking dark elf walking past him. The dark elf stopped and took a scrutinizing look at Kirou before shaking her head and walking away. If Kirou wasn't currently in his Lycan form and was actually paying attention, both would have recognized each other. Sadly, such an event will have to take place another time.

After another ten minutes of waiting, Reya finally showed up and found Kirou staring off into space. Feeling a bit mischievous, she didn't immediately call out to him but snuck around him. She was planning to startle him. Alas, the poor girl would never succeed. While Kirou was completely oblivious to his surroundings, he set up a barrier of sorts around him. It was a countermeasure he normally employed when in foreign territory or surrounded by hostiles.

The moment Reya got within a meter of Kirou, a slew of wires wrapped around her limbs, trapping her in place. This sudden movement caught Kirou's attention and he immediately pulled his hand back, causing the wires to pin their target on a tree behind him. The sudden restriction and pinning to the tree caused Reya to release an 'EEEP' sound from her mouth.

The movements were so sudden that by the time the surrounding players turned to check what happened, they found a Lycan pinning an elf to the tree. Some were wondering what was going on while others were questioning how Kirou was able to do it.

As for Kirou himself, he was both surprised and somewhat embarrassed at the turn of events. Looking at Reya's face and hearing the words from the surrounding players, Kirou figured out what happened in a split second. Instead of releasing Reya right there, however, Kirou touched her shoulder and both sank into the shadows of the tree they were under. This caused another round of exclamation to take place as the players were now wondering where the hell both players went.

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

"Sorry about that," was all Kirou could say while looking at the pouting face of Reya. Apparently, she felt Kirou wronged her with the trap she was just released from. All he could do now was to try and pacify her.

"How could you? All I wanted was to give you a surprise. Who knew you would set up such an insidious trap to get back at me for being late." Reya said all this through fake tears. Kirou noticed this but didn't point it out and instead continued to apologize.

"Again, I'm really sorry. I didn't expect anyone would try to sneak up on me like that. It was something I made to deal with thieves if they approached me while I was lost in thought. I never thought you would trigger it," explained Kirou while 'trying' to show sincerity with his words as a response. Reya's eyes lit up slightly when she learned that it was a skill Kirou had developed and Kirou noticed this.

Reya didn't immediately act, but instead continued her play, "No. I won't forgive you, Mr. Wolf. You had me tied up and pinned me to a tree. I won't forgive you, unless...."

Kirou decided to play along with her, "Unless what? Just name it and I'll try my best to accomplish it."

"Then..." started Reya as she stared at Kirou with tears(fake) in her eyes. "Then, you've got to teach me how you control those wires." She looked at Kirou's face to see what his reaction would be. Instead of the uneasy or hesitant reaction that she expected, Kirou had a smile on his face.

"I can teach you the skill..." started Kirou. The smile on his face started to widen, which caused the initially happy Reya to narrow her eyes slightly. "Just that, it requires you to master another skill first, and to do both, you'll have to be constantly using manual mode." Kirou finished with a very wide Cheshire cat-like smile on his face.

Hearing the conditions, Reya immediately declined without a second thought. 'No way in hell am I subjecting myself to hell just because of one interesting skill,' she thought while releasing a sigh.

Seeing the reaction he expected, Kirou then spoke while maintaining a simple smile, "Is there anything else I can do to get you to forgive me, Lady Elf?" As he said this, Kirou extended an out to help Reya up off the floor.

Reya accepted the gesture and got up before giving Kirou a polite curtsy. "Since I cannot learn that skill..." Reya looked at Kirou meaningfully before continuing, "Then I'll have you accompany me to a dungeon nearby."

Hearing those words caused Kirou to tilt his head to the side. Since he was currently in his Lycan form, he looked like a wolf tilting his head in thought, which was surprisingly cute in the eyes of Reya. "There's a dungeon nearby? Wait, we have dungeons near the starter villages?" Apparently, it was news to Kirou that dungeons could be found near the starter villages. He knew about the ones near the port towns for each continent but this new info surprised him.

Reya had a somewhat smug smile on her face when she said, "Of course there are dungeons near the starter villages. It's just that these dungeons are hidden in weird places that no one normally expects."

Listening to her words, Kirou nodded his head in understanding before posing a question, "So where is this dungeon you want help with?"

Reya had a weird smile on her face before saying, "Follow me." After this, she led Kirou to a section of the river that passes through the forest that houses Thousand Wood Village a few kilometers away.

Seeing that she stopped in front of the river, Kirou was momentarily stunned. He was about to ask her where the entrance was when he remembered her earlier words. Looking at her weird smile and where she was, a thought entered Kirou's mind, prompting him to say in disbelief, "No way."

"Yes, way," was Reya's response before pointing to the river beside her. The weird smile on her face never went away as she spoke, "The entrance is a few meters from here. Let's go."

After saying her piece, Reya dived into the river, creating a splash. Kirou watched her actions for a few seconds before shaking his head.

'Just what were those developers thinking when they put it here?' was Kirou's thought as he also dived into the river, creating another splash.