94 Brains Shutting Down- Sanming Edition

Kirou and gang only had to wait a dozen or so minutes later for the twenty-foot long snake boss finally bit the dust. Although he was originally interested in seeing them in action, Kirou quickly grew bored with how the group fought. That isn't to say that the team of players that the Sanming Sect sent up to deal with the boss were weak by any standard, as Kirou could clearly tell that these were all elite players. That being said, Kirou had no interest in the fight as he could tell that their movements had a bit of the system's guidance in it, meaning that they had set their gameplay modes to semi-auto. Kirou had no interest in seeing people being strong through such a method.

With the fall of the Scarlet Eyed Boa, the mineral resource points in this section of the cave system started reappearing. Many of the sect's harvesters went forward to these resource points and got to work. Kirou only took a glance at this before walking forward to the place where Guardian Knight was currently standing. Navi followed behind him while both Reya and Small Pebble joined the others in working on the mineral resource points.

Now standing next to Guardian Knight, Kirou spoke up in a casual tone, \"May I begin, Sect Master Guardian Knight?\"

Instead of answering Kirou directly, Kirou received a party request from Guardian Knight as a member of the team left the party and joined the others in harvesting ores. It was after joining the party that Guardian Knight spoke, \"Be my guest, Mr. Kirou.\"

Kirou nodded towards Guardian Knight before going forward to the large snake corpse. As usual, Kirou took out his specialized tools. Just as he was about to begin, however, Kirou turned to face Guardian Knight before asking, \"By chance, is there any specific material that you would prefer to obtain from this corpse?\"

Guardian Knight, and the others beside him, were slightly taken aback when they heard this. It was only Navi who knew why Kirou asked that question. Guardian Knight could see the look of understanding on Navi's face and thought to himself for a moment before opening his mouth, \"I'm mostly interested in the scales, snakeskin, and some bones. Will that be a problem for you?\"

Kirou shook his head before turning back around to face the corpse. Just as he got ready to begin, Guardian Knight and the others heard his voice, \"It isn't really a problem. I just wanted to know where I should start with this thing.\" As Kirou said this, he took up a few of his tools and got to work.

Kirou's work on the large corpse had begun quickly and quietly, with only a few eyes following his work. This changed, however, roughly five minutes later as he started moving about various parts of the corpse. Those that took part in the battle had originally been chatting each other up or checking out the others but Kirou's actions eventually drew their eyes with how unique they were. As for the sect members working on the mineral resource points, they eventually stopped what they were doing and turned to watch Kirou work after hearing a few whispers and exclamations from the others.

Navi and Reya looked on at this like it was an everyday occurrence to them, but the rest of the players stared on with wrapt attention. It wasn't every day that they get to see a player, craftsman or not, dissecting a large corpse like this one. They watched on as Kirou skillfully went about removing various body parts from all over the corpse.

While Kirou was busy with his work on the corpse, he was completely ignorant of the fact that he became the center of attention of the entire room. He was currently focusing on the task at hand and moving as quickly as possible since he was currently in a race against that blasted system. The damn system usually started screwing with his harvests after the five-minute mark.

Just as he expected, the moment Kirou removed another material from the large corpse, the entire corpse started glowing. Seeing this, Kirou no longer cared about Guardian Knight's request and started going after the various materials before him. The various players saw Kirou's hand speed increase as the giant corpse started turning into particles of light. Twenty seconds later, the entire corpse vanished as Kirou's hands stopped moving.

Releasing a sigh, Kirou dropped his hands to his side before turning to Guardian Knight and speaking, \"I've done what I can. I would have gotten more but..... that happened.\" Kirou sounded a bit disappointed as he said this.

When Kirou said this, while he sounded a bit disappointed, the other players looked at him as if he was a freak. Everyone saw his swift and precise movements as he originally worked on the corpse while it was still solid. They also saw the increase in hand speed after the corpse started turning into particles. To them, that was a speed that should belong to a player, at least not yet.

Guardian Knight had a wry smile on his face as he listened to Kirou's words. Just like what the others were thinking, even he thought that the speed of Kirou's hands during that entire harvest was too much. Although he had seen it for himself before with those shadow wolves, he can now confirm that Kirou had held back a bit on that day. Now, the only question to think about was how good were the materials that he obtained.

Guardian Knight eventually shook off his stupor and spoke up, \"You've worked hard, Kirou. It doesn't matter if you managed to collect everything I've asked, I'll still fulfill my end of the bargain starting from today.\" After saying this, Guardian Knight, along with Navi and a few others surrounded Kirou and escorted him to another cave. They were about to conduct business and it wasn't something for the elites to know about.

When they got to the other cave, Kirou took a look around and noticed that it was furnished with a few seats. Kirou then took a glance at Guardian Knight before speaking, \"When did you guys have time to set this up?\"

Guardian Knight gave Kirou a shrug before answering, \"We've practically made this area a farming zone for out sect so setting up a few rooms like this isn't much. Having said that, have a seat, Kirou. We've got some business to take care of.\"

Kirou nodded at Guardian Knight's words before taking a random seat and speaking, \"You're right, Sect Master. Let's get down to business.\"

Following those words, the rest of the group took a seat. Navi sat beside Guardian Knight but kept quiet as it wasn't her time to join the conversation. With everyone now seated, Guardian Knight spoke up, \"As I've just stated, regardless of whether you had managed to obtain all the materials that we required from that boss within just this session, my sect will fulfill our end of the bargain by introducing you and your work to our allies. That being said, it will be up to you to convince them of your worth.\"

While Guardian Knight was saying this out loud, a thought flashed within his mind, 'If those guys fail to see Kirou's strengths or decide against working with him, I'll be sure to remember them. I won't be wasting my time with people who's eyes aren't working.'

Hearing his words, a smile formed on Kirou's face. This smile was a genuine one, as opposed to the usual smile that he normally makes when talking to people. Kirou cupped his hands towards Guardian Knight as he spoke, \"I'll thank you ahead of time then, Sect Master Guardian Knight.\"

Guardian Knight waved it off as he spoke up, \"Don't worry about it, Kirou. It's the least I could do after seeing your skillful work from early. Enough about that at the moment. I've heard from Navi here that you've found another mineral resource point during your travels while we were busy with that boss monster. Since my sect normally has people in the area, would you like for us to secure that mineral harvest point for you?\"

Kirou raised an eyebrow at Guardian Knight's words before taking a look at Navi, who gave him a shrug for his efforts. Kirou also shrugged before answering, \"I highly doubt I'll be coming to this area all that often so I don't mind your sect just taking it. That being said, I highly advise that you inform the players that head to that area to avoid touching the lizardman tribe that would occasionally visit the area. You can have Navi inform you of the reasons after we are finished here.\"

Guardian Knight nodded his head in agreement at those words before speaking, \"On behalf of my guild, I'd like to thank you for handing that area over to us, Kirou. I'm sure you know just how much it means for us to have another flow of materials.\"

\"I do, hence why I don't mind just giving you the route to the area. That being said, I'm afraid that I'll have to cut this meeting short as I need to rush back to Elderwood Village to clear up an issue. So for now, I'll hand these over to you, Sect Master Guardian Knight.\" Following those words, Kirou sent a trade request to Guardian Knight, which he accepted, and started to load in all the materials obtained from the Scarlet Eyed Boa, minus the 20% he was entitled to as part of the arrangement.

Guardian Knight spoke up while facing Kirou, completely clueless about the materials currently filling up his trade window, \"I'm sorry that you have to leave so soon. I would have liked to host...\" Guardian Knight's were stuck in his throat as his eyes casually landed on the trade window. While his eyes could see everything clearly, his brain stopped short of the task and was currently processing what he was seeing.

Kirou could see Guardian Knight's reactions and knew what happened, so he spoke up, \"Don't forget to press confirm now, Sect Master.\" As Kirou said this, he had a mischievous smile on his face as he saw that Guardian Knight followed his instructions. With the trade now confirmed, Kirou stood up and spoke, \"Well, ladies and gentlemen. I believe it is time that I took my leave for the evening. Be sure to inform me of the next job roughly an hour ahead of time.\"

Following those words, Kirou turned around and started walking away. Navi rose from her seat and escorted Kirou from the room, with a ghost of a smile on her face as well as she had an idea as to what happened to Guardian Knight. As the duo left, the rest of the room had question marks above their heads as they wondered what Guardian Knight saw for him to react like that.

As for Guardian Knight himself, it was only after another two minutes had passed before his mind sobered up and he slouched on the chair he was sitting on. One of the more curious members of the group decided to bite the bullet and speak up, \"Um... Chairman? Would you mind informing us of what happened to result in your current actions?\"

Guardian Knight had a distracted expression on his face as he heard those words. Instead of answering, he just sent a screenshot of the materials he just received from Kirou. Guardian Knight did all this without even looking at the screen before him, or the other members of the room. These people saw this and had a foreboding feeling before they took a look at the screenshot. What the group saw gave each member a scare as they too felt their minds shutting down, trying to slowly process what their eyes were seeing.

As for Guardian Knight himself, he was currently staring at the entrance which Kirou had just left from with a helpless expression on his face as he thought, 'Just who or what are you really, Kirou. You most definitely are NOT a normal player, that's for damn sure.'