Immortal Era's Crafting Master

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. The reason behind this was that he needed to gather even more mineral and ore resources to ensure the creation of the necessary tools that the members of the <Phantom Palace> will need for their mass construction work, as well as his side project. Even though Kirou is confident in his ability to harvest resources from monsters, said ability won't help him when it comes to mining resource points, which are under complete control of Immortal Era's AI.

While said AI cannot influence the number of items that Kirou can obtain from each resource point since that is set in stone, it can affect the quality of the ores and minerals that he can obtain from those resource points. For two days now, Kirou has tested it and realized that whenever he goes to farm resource points, the quality of the ores he obtains is always lower when he's farming by himself, as opposed to when he's farming with others.

To this, Kirou had his suspicions but chose to push them off until a later date since he has a deadline to meet with his work. Having come to this conclusion, Kirou decided to counter quality with quantity, hence why he's constantly moving around to the many resources points that he's aware of.

Whenever he's finished with one, he moves to the next and that cycle continues until he's exhausted them all, only to start the loop again as those resource points have already been refreshed. That said, there are times when he runs to a point, only to realize that someone else is already utilizing it, prompting him to turn away and seek out more.

That just so happened to be what Kirou is currently going through. For the last three or so areas, Kirou kept running into people at the resource points that he was utilizing in his loop.

Having experienced this yet again, Kirou decided to take a break in a nameless town nearby. He would allow himself to relax for a bit and see if he could find some way to entertain himself for a few hours.

The village Kirou stopped in was a fishing village. There weren't many boats to this small village and the population wasn't that big, but the village functioned just as well as any other. The members were a mix between a few races but it could be seen that they got along well enough.

Upon stepping foot into the village, however, a weird feeling washed over Kirou as he looked at the villagers going about their business. Small as it was, every village would have a child or two running around but this one didn't. Weirder still, Kirou had found traces showing that the village did indeed have children, but not seeing any himself put a frown on his face.

'At this point, a quest is definitely here and the objective probably has to do with those missing children. The problem is, should I go for it?'

That was the thought Kirou had as he traveled to the coast. As soon as he got there, he noticed a young child sitting in the sand, staring out at the waves. This prompted a slight raise of his eyebrow but he kept quiet.

A few seconds of this passed before the youth spoke up, "Are you here to take me away as well? Like the others?"

To this, Kirou's eyes narrowed as he stared at the child for a few moments before asking, "What do you mean, 'like the others'?"

This made the youth retract his gaze from the sea and turn to face Kirou. The youth observed Kirou for a few moments before speaking, "Are you really not a member of the group that's been attacking this village for the last few weeks?"

"No, I'm not. I'm a Lycan from a village to the north, currently on a journey across this continent." While his words weren't the complete truth, Kirou chose to keep his story simple for the child.

"Really?" At first, the child was overjoyed at these words, but that joy faded just as quickly as it arrived. Kirou's eye twitched as he saw this, quickly figuring out what might have transpired. As if to confirm Kirou's thoughts, the child continued, "If that's the case, then you should continue on your journey and not worry about this place. You don't have to put yourself in danger for us."

Hearing those words sparked a trace of anger within Kirou, confirming his thoughts from earlier, but he quickly suppressed it as he got down to eye-level with the child and spoke, "You don't have to worry about that. I'm a strong Lycan, and if I can't solve it by myself, I can always call some friends to help me take care of it." .

As Kirou said this, the child could see the confidence radiating from his entire body, causing a trace of hope to reignite in the child's heart. Instead of immediately acting on it, the child continued to look at Kirou for a few moments before asking, "Really?"

*Nods*

"Really, really?"

Kirou nodded once more, more firmly this time with a serious expression on his face.

This made the child break down in tears as he explained everything that has transpired in his village over the last few weeks. He talked about the various raids, the sabotage of the village's fishing activities, the kidnapping of the village's children, and the ȧduŀts' plan to launch a surprise attack on the base of their attackers the following day.

The last two especially caught Kirou's attention. The first one gave Kirou an idea about the kind of people that he'll be going after. As for the second, he realized that he would be working on a timetable. As if to confirm that very thought, Kirou received a message from the system.

[System: You have received the optional quests, <Rescue the Children> and <Destroy the Child Trafficking Ring>. Do you accept? Y/N]

Quest: <Rescue the Children>

Rank: C (B)

Level Requirement: 23+

Description: This village has been under attack for the past few weeks by members of a human trafficking ring. They have kidnapped almost all the children within this village and are about to move on. The child of the village head has asked you to rescue his friends from the hands of the human trafficking ring.

Objectives:

Rescue the children- 0/20

Escort the children to safety- 0/20

(Quest difficulty will increase if the human traffickers are alerted to your presence at any point during this operation. For this quest, <Stealth> is the key to success)

Rewards: Fishing Skill Book (Uncommon) x1, Fishing Boat Blueprint (Uncommon) x1, Token of the Village Head (Broken) x1

Time Limit: 22:43:34 (Hours: Minutes: Seconds)

Quest: <Destroy the Child Trafficking Ring>

Rank: A

Level Requirement: 23+

Description: This village has been under siege by a group of human traffickers for the past few weeks. This group has affected the village's livelihood and has even kidnapped most of the children from the village. You are tasked with finding and destroying this group of human traffickers. Besides this, search for any information that may lead to the mastermind(s) behind this group

Pick up the trail of the human traffickers - Incomplete

Track down the base of the human traffickers - Incomplete

Destroy the base of the human traffickers - 0%

Kill all the human traffickers in the base - 0/???

Capture/Kill the leader of this human trafficking - 0/1 (Changes the difficulty of completing the following objectives)

*Recover documents portraying the list of clients - 0/5

**Obtain clue behind the mastermind of this trafficking ring - 0/3

Rewards: Fishing Spear Blueprint (Unknown) x1, Fishing Net Blueprint (Unknown) x1, Sensitive Information (Rare), Fishing Skill Book (Rare) x1, Token of the Village Head (Broken) x1

Time Limit: 22:43:34 (Hours: Minutes: Seconds)

The child took roughly ten minutes to calm down, during which time Kirou figured out his game plan and accepted both missions. Kirou then parted ways with the child before walking back through the village. Now that he's accepted the quests, his vision of the village changed, as he could now see that the villagers were acting as if they were going to war. Kirou just took a brief note of this before making his way towards the village head.

Kirou managed to find the village head sitting on the stairs to his home. He was staring in the direction of the coast, so he was aware that Kirou was heading his way. As soon as Kirou arrived, both men were locked in a staring contest.

The village head looked into the eyes of the Halfling standing before him, completely aware of Kirou's race due to the wolf tattoos that were visible on Kirou's torso. As for Kirou, he stared into the eyes of the village head that looked like a bipedal tiger.

The duo continued their staring contest for a few moments before Kirou spoke up, "Which direction?"

It was just two words, but the village head near exactly what Kirou was asking. Instead of giving him a straight answer, however, he spoke up, "Instead of going on your own, wouldn't it be better to work with everyone here? That way, we'd be able to handle things more efficiently that way."

While Kirou did see the logic in what the village head had said, the quests he was given weren't obtained from the village head, but rather his son. So at best, while Kirou was showing the village head some courtesy, he doesn't have to care about him. And it is for that reason why Kirou repeated, "Which direction?"

The weretiger village head could see that Kirou had no plans in joining the other villagers and himself in waiting for the next day to launch an attack on the human trafficking ring. This disappointed him but he could only release a sigh before pointing in a specific direction.

Kirou saw this and made note of the direction before walking. After walking a few feet, he stopped for a moment and turned to face the village head before speaking, "You have a good son. He's a bit mȧturė for his age. You should keep an eye on him for the next few hours."

Following those words, Kirou continued walking, leaving the village head to ponder his words. Whether or not the village head followed his advice, Kirou planned on doing the tasks he was given. As for the warning itself, Kirou just had a hunch that something was going to happen to that child now that he's accepted these quests.

'It wouldn't be a surprise to find out that a member of this village is keeping tabs on the rest and reporting to that trafficking ring. It also wouldn't surprise me that said ring already knows about the 'surprise' raid on their base tomorrow and that they'll be making their move tonight.' Those were Kirou's thoughts as he quickly started rushing in the direction that the village head had given.

As if to confirm Kirou's thoughts, he suddenly received a message from the system, which prompted a scowl to form on his face.

[System: Quest timers have been updated.]

[Time Limit: 22:43:34 -> 12:34:10]