41 Teaming Up?

Kirou was currently standing by the entrance to Stone Mount Village. The previous events that took place in the village head's stone cottage had Kirou thinking about the seriousness of the situation he currently found himself in.

'Even when I try to stay away from trouble, trouble still finds me, huh.' This was Kirou's thoughts as he released a long sigh.

Kirou's first trip to Stone Mount Village has left him with a bad taste in his mouth, even though it's a haven for blacksmiths and armor crafters. He could only shake his head as he turned around and walked away from the village.

"Now that I'm done with this place, I've got three days to make it back to Elderwood Village where I can complete Old Wolf's quest and gain my items, along with passing on the Old Oak's message to both him and Bladesmith," Kirou said this to himself as he walked the trail leading to West. Along the way, the clone that was messing around outside the village with its wires caught up to Kirou. Instead of dissipating like normal, it maintained its form while following Kirou, still practicing its usage of wires in the process.

Kirou recalled his trip to Hammerton, the Blacksmith Instructor for Stone Mount Village briefly. He remembered that after passing on the letter to Hammerton, Hammerton also exhibited a similar reaction as to Old Copper, showing off another dwarven technique. Since Kirou already obtained the technique from Old Copper, Hammerton passed on another skill to him, . As Kirou traveled with his clone, he couldn't stop himself from looking at the two new skills he obtained.

Skill: Metal Sense

Skill Level: 1/10

Rank: A (S+)

Cost: 50 MP (Active)

Skill Creator/Generator: Hammerton

Description: This skill allows the user to sense the location of various metals and metallic objects. As this skill levels up so too do the ranges of both the passive and active abilities.

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Passive- The user will be able to sense metals within a 10-meter range but will be unable to tell the rarity or amount.

Active- The user will be able to sense the rarity, amount and type of metal (as long as the user has seen it before) within a 20-meter range of the user. The information shown can be adjusted based on the requirements of the user.

Skill: Thousand Metal Hammer Strike

Skill Level: 1/10

Rank: S+

Required Item: Great Hammer

Cost: 150 MP for sight/20 MP per hit

Skill Creator/Generator: Old Copper

Description: This skill grants the user two abilities; Metal Impurity Sight and Hammer Strike.

Metal Impurity Sight: This gives the user the ability to see the points on the metal ore that contains impurities. Hammering away at these points will allow the finished product to contain little to no impurities and the weapon made from this metal will be stronger by an entire grade. It is recommended that the ability be used in tandem with this skill to grant better results, though it is not necessary as long as the user has enough strength to surpass the metal's threshold. This skill can be used in combat to grant the user the ability to see weak points in the target's defense. When a weak point is attacked, the damage dealt to the area is 225% that of the original damage. This skill stacks with other weak point identifying skills.

Hammer Strike: This skill substitutes the user's MP for the strength needed to hammer on the impurities found within metals during production. This skill can only be used on raw ores or semi-processed metals. This skill can be used in combat as well, as long as the user is equipped with a great hammer. When used in combat, this skill grants the user the ability to deal from 200-300% of their base attack as damage and there is a 50% chance of this attack ignoring the target's defense.

Looking over the two skills, Kirou couldn't stop the seed of doubt that sprouted within his mind. While he was thankful to both dwarves for giving him such amazing skills, Kirou knew for a fact that it wasn't for free. Regardless of whether it was it past life or now, Kirou knew that there are no free meals in the world. With the two skills he just obtained, Kirou knew for a fact that he'll have to repay the favor within the near future. He only hoped that it wouldn't be too soon.

"It seems that my lazy lifestyle is flying away from me. I've got to do my best to catch up to it before it is too late." Kirou said this to himself while tightening his hands into fists. He then turned towards his clone and gave it a look before the clone nodded, then dissipated and returned to Kirou's shadow. Following that, Kirou summoned out his pet spider and they both started speeding down the path leading West.

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

It's been a few hours since Kirou had left Stone Mount Village with his pet spider in tow. Unlike the initial trip from Thousand Wood Village, located a few kilometers West from the center of the Southern Continent, Kirou return trip can be taken a bit slower since Elderwood Village was a much closer distance to travel to. Besides, he still has over three days to make the trip and if he rushes over similarly to how he did on the first trip, he would need only a day at most to make the trip, freeing up a bit over two days for himself.

Seeing that he had two days to spare, Kirou decided to make his return trip as slowly as possible. He was planning to harvest, mine and uncover as many materials between Stone Mountain Range and Elderwood Forest as humanly possible, along with gaining some levels if the need presents itself.

At the moment, Both Kirou and his pet were moving through treetops. They were in one of the many nameless forests scattered over the Stone Mountain Range and both Kirou and Shadow Arachne were currently locked in a race to see who could get to opposite end of the forest first. While Kirou could take advantage of his Lycan form and completely leave Shadow Arachne in the dust, every time he made an action to transform, he would feel a weird sensation in the back of his head, warning him against using it. Kirou naturally had an idea what this sensation was so he followed the advice given and just competed with his pet spider in his human form.

That being said, the race was quite fierce as both master and pet kept trying to sabotage each others paths. Shadow Arachne would spew intricate spider webs to block Kirou's route forward every once in a while. This resulted in him having to waste time going around such obstacles. During this time, Shadow Arachne would always seize the chance to pull away as much as possible in order to escape Kirou's counter-attack. Sadly, Shadow Arachne never made it far before facing a few pitfalls of its own in the forms of false footings, dead ends and wire cages. If it wasn't for the fact that all of these instances had traces of Kirou's wires in them, the poor spider would have sworn there was some being out there making fun of it. Hell, Shadow Arachne still doubted that it was Kirou causing all of this as it kept a few eyes on Kirou at all times and he never managed to escape his sight. Naturally, all these traps were made by Kirou's clones whom he sent ahead.

As the two were racing ahead, they eventually came across a loud explosion that rocked the forest that the duo was racing through. Feeling the shockwaves, both master and pet stopped on their respective trees before facing the direction where the shockwaves originated. Kirou gave his pet a glance before hopping from treetop to treetop in that direction while the pet spider moved its mandibles a few times as if cursing at the being that interrupted its race with its master before following along. It swore to itself that if it was something stupid then it would sink its poisonous fangs into the creature for this offense.

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Having arrived at the area where the shockwaves originated, both Kirou and Shadow Arachne were greeted to the sight of a player that appeared to be a mage taking on a minotaur. Seeing how the mage was fighting caused Kirou to raise an eyebrow. The reason for this was that the mage was currently taking on the minotaur in a melee fight with two daggers in hand. Kirou then took a look at the monster's details before shaking his head at the mage's antics.

Monster: Stone Mount Minotaur

Level: 18

HP: 7650/17950

Skills: Reckless Charge, Stomp, Reckless Blow, Stone Skin

Kirou could tell that this mage has been fighting the minotaur for a while from the sight of its remaining health but Kirou could also tell that the mage wasn't doing so hot either. Both Kirou and his spider looked at the fight for a bit longer before they decided to turn away. Just as they were about to leave, Kirou narrowed his eyes while gazing at the face of the mage.

'Wasn't that the guy who gave me directions to Old Copper's house back in Stone Mount Village?' was Kirou's thought as he gazed at the familiar figure of the mage. Kirou, who was originally planning to leave, now decided to wait for a bit longer while also making his presence known to both the mage and the minotaur.

With this action, the minotaur took a look at Kirou and Shadow Arachne before snorting in contempt then returned its ferocious gaze back to the mage. As a monster, it could instinctively tell when there was a level difference between it and its opponent. When it looked at both Kirou and Shadow Arachne a second ago, it could tell that it was at a much higher level than them, hence why its show of contempt at their arrival. In its eyes, they were just fodder to munch on after dealing with the weird mage before it.

As for the mage, when he saw Kirou and his pet spider, he was a bit apprehensive at the thought of them wanting to steal his kill. It was only after he realized that they were just watching that he lowered his focus on them and continued to attack the beast before him. He couldn't afford to pay any attention to those two individuals. In fact, the mage was going to completely ignore their existence until he heard Kirou speak.

"Hey thief in the mage robe, would you like some help?" When he heard this question, the mage momentarily blanked and accidentally missed his attack and had to dodge a harsh attack from the minotaur he was facing. Though he dodged it, he still took some damage as the wind from the attack was quite strong. Looking at his remaining health, the mage went on to steady his breathing. Even he could tell that he won't win this battle if it continues in this trend.

Seeing that the mage was not responding and that he was trying to focus on the fight, Kirou released a shrug before turning around to leave. Before he could take a single step, however, the mage shouted back at him.

"I want to tame this minotaur. Would you be able to hold it down for a bit while I recover some of my missing health?" When the mage said this, he narrowly dodged a heavy punch from the minotaur, which once again dealt some damage to him. Looking at his health, the mage was quite panicked.

"No worries. We can do just that." Following those words, both Kirou and Shadow Arachne rushed towards the minotaur.

Sensing their approach, the minotaur snorted in contempt before turning towards them and threw a heavy punch at them. Within its mind, this punch was all it needed to get rid of the two new pests. Sadly for the minotaur, it had no idea who or what it was facing.

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

The mage stood to the side, watching the fight taking place with his jaws slack. In his eyes, what was happening before him now was a scene straight from his imagination.

Before him stood the ferocious minotaur he was facing earlier now covered in many wounds from head to toe and was bound by both spider thread and wires. It was still rampaging about, trying to break free from its bindings, only to fail miserably and cause his bindings to tighten. As this was going on, that half-meter spider was sitting on its back, sinking its fangs into the minotaur's neck, causing it to scream out in agony. As for the spider's master, he was now approaching the mage, which caused the mage to take a step back in turn.

Seeing his reaction, Kirou stopped in his tracks and addressed the mage, "The minotaur is now bound so you are free to try and tame it if you want." Following those words, Kirou stepped back to clear the path for the mage. He also made a sharp whistle sound, prompting the spider biting into the minotaur to release its fangs and back away.

Now that the path was clear with Kirou and his spider standing off to the side and the minotaur was currently bound and not moving, the mage approached the minotaur and starting whispering and moving his hands. Kirou looked on at this in intrigue while Shadow Arachne sat to the side, playing with its spider silk. After a few minutes of this, the minotaur gradually turned into a mass of light which was then turned into a medallion with the minotaur's face on it. Kirou looked at this and equated it to be another form of taming method found in the game.

Now that his taming was successful, the mage approached Kirou and gave him a deep bow before speaking, "I'm really grateful for your help in taming this minotaur. I'm not really used to this class yet so I had a hard time doing this myself."

Listening to his words, Kirou picked up on a hidden statement but shelved that thought for another time before speaking up as well, "No worries. We had nothing better to do since our race was interrupted by that minotaur's skill so it's all good." After saying this, Kirou wanted to turn around but was stopped by the mage.

The mage looked to be hesitating over something before he finally made up his mind and spoke, "My name is Mistaken Fox. I'm a level 17 Arcane Summoner. Would you mind partying up with me for a bit? Just a few hours is fine and I'll be sure to compensate you for your efforts, Mr....."

"Kirou. My name is Kirou," said Kirou to the now identified Mistaken Fox.

"Yes, Mr. Kirou. As long as you help me I'll be sure to compensate you for your time and efforts in the endeavor." When Mistaken Fox said this, he had a look over anxiousness written all over his face. Seeing the look, Kirou raised an eyebrow in intrigue, wondering what a level 17 arcane summoner would need his help with.

"For now, why not tell me about your situation, Mistaken Fox." After saying this, Kirou gestured for Mistaken Fox to follow him towards a tree where they both sat down.