99 Weapon Update, Secret Meeting

While Kirou was busy facing the grind that is his weapon mastery, that doesn't mean that he was the only one within his group currently doing so. On the northeastern end of the Southen Continent currently finds a player and his pet doing combat against a group of orcs. What was special about this combo was that the pet was a five-meter tall minotaur wielding two stone axes and the player was a mage with a medallion for a weapon. Naturally, this duo was the Arcane Summoner Mistaken Fox and his summoned creature, the Stone Axe Minotaur.

Unlike his usual style of combat where he is on the front lines, Mistaken Fox was now standing at a distance, chanting continuously in an unknown language while the Stone Axe Minotaur was on the front lines, tanking the damage and occupying the attention of all five orcs. As the orcs struggled to deal with the Stone Axe Minotaur, Mistaken Fox kept launching arcane missiles in their direction, dealing large amounts of uninterrupted damage. This kept going on for three minutes before all five orcs were unable to withstand the missile barrage and finally succumbed to their injuries.

With the five orcs now dead, the Stone Axe Minotaur holstered its weapons before turning to look at Mistaken Fox. It was now looking at its master with an expression that showed mixed emotions. On one hand, it still considered its master to be a weakling, but on the other, now that he had access to his Arcane Summoner skills, along with his original thief skills, the Stone Axe Minotaur now had to grudgingly admit to itself that its master was now indeed a threat to it and this made it somewhat proud. For now, the Stone Axe Minotaur's feelings would be best described as complicated.

Not noticing his summoned creature's current mindset, Mistaken Fox was now looking at the epic grade medallion within his hands with an excited expression. Just now, he got a feel for what most mages experience while playing the game and to him, it felt great. That said, Mistaken Fox quickly regained himself as he felt that his usage of this new weapon of his felt off. He had no idea how to explain it himself, but he felt like his previous actions during that fight was not how he should be fighting. With that in mind, Mistaken Fox had absentmindedly released his grip from the medallion, which 'should' have caused it to fall to the floor. Instead of falling, the medallion just floated right next to Mistaken Fox while he was lost in his thoughts.

It wasn't until a minute later, from the probing of the Stone Axe Minotaur, that Mistaken Fox had finally noticed the floating medallion. Mistaken Fox looked at the medallion with a bit of bewilderment within his eyes but that bewilderment was quickly replaced with a tinge of enlightenment as he stared at the medallion.

After moving around a bit and seeing that the medallion followed his every move, a small smile formed on Mistaken Fox's lips as he found the shade of a tree to rest in. Looking at the floating medallion before him, a thought occurred to Mistaken Fox before he started speaking under his breath, "Come to think of it, you still don't have a name." As he said this, Mistaken Fox adopted a contemplating expression on his face for roughly a minute before speaking up, "I think I'll just call you the 'Gorgon's Eye'. Based on your looks and what you can do, Gorgon's Eye seems like the perfect name for you."

As if agreeing with Mistaken Fox's thought process, the floating medallion released a golden pulse of light before a beam of light escaped from the golden jewel in the centre and entered Mistaken Fox's head. Following this action, the stream of light disappeared and the golden pulse receded as the medallion fell into Mistaken Fox's hands and he received some messages from the system.

[System: You have given the nameless epic grade medallion the name 'Gorgon's Eye.']

[System: The weapon, 'Gorgon's Eye', has had its information updated to reflect this name change.]

[System: The epic grade weapon has unlocked its hidden stat.]

Seeing those three messages prompted Mistaken Fox to immediately bring up the information for the Gorgon's Eye in his possession, giving him a pleasant surprise.

Weapon: Gorgon's Eye

Weapon Level: 25

Weapon Type: Epic (Soulbound)

Weapon Requirements: Traits(Medallion Mastery/Master-At-Arms), 250 Intelligence

Weapon Attack: 50-75

+150 mag attack

+20% Passive MP recovery during battle/100% outside of battle

+15% chance of capturing and sealing the spirit of a monster before death. Soul Count [1/100]

+Mind Link effect (Allows the owner to control the weapon with just his mind, freeing up his hands to use another weapon should the need arises.)

Description: This is a new item created by the player [Kirou] after studying a monster medallion. With the naming process done, the weapon has unlocked its hidden attributes and become soul bound to the owner, similar to a regular monster medallion. Gorgon's Eye has shown signs of being able to be strengthened. It is highly recommended that the cheap materials used during its creation either be purified further or the item scraped and rebuilt using better materials, whichever works.

Mistaken Fox released a hearty laugh after reading the updated information of his new weapon. It looks like he owes Kirou once more when it comes to this weapon. This weapon has given him too many surprises for him to not feel the need to repay the debt.

With those thoughts in mind, Mistaken Fox rose to his feet and charted a course in a random direction. Right now, he had to familiarize himself some more with this new weapon of his before he heads to the northern kingdom continent. As he walked, Mistaken Fox spoke under his breath, "I wonder if I'll be able to find another hidden area during my trip to the north. If I do, I will make sure to pass the information on to Brother Kirou. Even if he has no use for it personally, I'm sure he knows someone who would."

While Mistaken Fox was speaking to himself, the Stone Axe Minotaur cleared the path for him. It still had conflicting feelings when staring at its master but for now, it had a job to do. Naturally, since Mistaken Fox was currently able to make use of Gorgon's Eye, it proves that both he and the Stone Axe Minotaur have been quite busy as of late. Right now, Mistaken Fox was at level 25 while the Stone Axe Minotaur was at level 24.

*******

SC Pier City, Sanming Assassins Branch HQ.

After the troubles caused by Blade Warlord recently, the entire branch was currently under the control of the vice branch leader. At least, that's how it looked on the surface. In actuality, Blade Warlord had already turned the majority of the upper brass for the Assassin Branch into his followers, so while it appeared that he was demoted in the eyes of the other branch leaders, nothing had truly changed in reality.

Currently, there was a meeting going on in the conference room for this branch. All the top brass for the branch, Blade Warlord, along with a few others were currently in the room. Besides these players, there was also a few players standing behind each 'important' member within the room. Their presence was naturally unnecessary but they were still there nonetheless. One of these players just so happened to be a gnome, thief player wearing leather armour with a crocodile-like headpiece. If Kirou was present, he would recognize the armour since it was his personal creation, naturally making the player wearing it Summer Shade.

Due to his change to the Swampland Leather Armor, Summer Shade's abilities saw a sharp increase in power. This resulted in him attracting the attention of one of the top brass for the Assassins Branch, resulting In him being present during this conference meeting as that top brass's escort.

As per his current role, Summer Shade stood behind his charge and kept quiet as the meeting progressed. While it wasn't an intentional action on his part, the fact that he was able to join such a confidential meeting proved that his current job as a spy wasn't without reason. And him being in this meeting proves that Kirou's instincts were correct.

From the other side of the room, a handsome warrior in plate armor leaning back on his chair was currently speaking to the rest of the room, "I'm sure all of you are well aware of this mysterious player that the sect is currently working with in order to obtain the necessary materials to craft equipment for the sect's main team. This player is strong enough to take on the elites of this guild with apparent ease and according to my source in the team that went into the mountains, his harvesting skills are so great that the sect master is willing to fulfill our end of their bargain before the player finishes his. I'm sure all of you can tell the ramifications of this action, right?" The player speaking was naturally Blade Warlord.

The other members of the room were silent. Even without Blade Warlord speaking about it, they too had heard the news from the team in the mountains. Some of their men had participated so it was only a matter of time before the news got back to them, after all. With that in mind, they knew all too well the importance of this mysterious player to the Sanming Sect. If they managed to convince him to join the sect, this branch would benefit greatly, especially if he was assigned to work under them.

Seeing that everyone understood this, Blade Warlord spoke up once more, "This player is someone without a guild and so far there has been no reporting of him partying with anyone, outside of the duo that belongs to the Alchemist Branch. With that being the case, blackmailing him using his associates seems to be out of the equation when it comes to dealing with him."

These words caused the group to burst into murmurs amongst themselves while Blade Warlord just watched. Eventually, someone in the room spoke up, "Hey boss, since it's only those two players from the Alchemist Branch that works with him, why don't we just target the girls? I mean, don't we already have enough spies in their guild to make use of in keeping track of them, except this time we'd just send a few squads to deal with them in the wild."

Blade Warlord just gave this man a look before pinching the bridge between his eyes and releasing a sigh as he spoke, "That plan won't work. In fact, it's already been tried and the results have been disastrous for those involved." After saying this, Blade Warlord explained briefly about the incidents that took place before the server update during the previous week. Blade Warlord had initially only used a few squads and had them keep quiet about the mission details so it was obvious for most of the room not knowing about the events that took place. Once everyone was caught up, Blade Warlord spoke once again, "It would be suicide for our men to face the duo if they are out with the player and finding them operating alone at the moment is quite the feat since they are opting to team up with members of the main branch when leaving the safe zones."

The room broke out into murmurs once more before another person spoke up, "Why don't we target the Alchemist Branch itself then, Senior Warlord?" At those words, the entire room turned to face the player that spoke. This player just so happened to be a thin human male with shady looking eyes. It was as if the thief class was made for him with how perfectly he looked in the garb.

Blade Warlord looked at the thin man with shady eyes before speaking, "Explain your idea."

The thin man looked at the entire room with a cheeky grin on his face as he spoke, "Since the duo is acutely aware of our eyes on them and are going out of their way to avoid us, why don't we just ignore them and focus our sights on the other players belonging to that branch. As long as we target and kill enough, the duo will have to start investigating and the moment they break away from the protection of the main branch, we can just focus our sights back on them and then take them hostage, forcing the hand of that mysterious player. Of course, the girls can always choose to stay hidden away and we go a bit overboard with the attacks, which might result in the Alchemist Branch losing some members. It's a win-win situation for us either way."

The rest of the room actually started to run the simulations through their heads and they could see the feasibility of it. As long as they made use of their hidden forces and make sure to get away without leaving any evidence that it was their branch that did it and pins the blame on someone else, they'd be able to take care of three issues instead of just the original two. The rest of the room now looked at the thin man with admiring gazes, thinking that his shady looks weren't misleading.

Blade Warlord leaned forward in his chair and now had his elbows on the table with his hands crossed before him as he spoke, "I'm sure you've already thought this out thoroughly, right? Why don't you share your plans with the rest of us and we can see if it needs any modifications before the big execution."

"Certainly, Senior Warlord." As the thin man said this, a crooked smile formed on his face as he started sharing his plans with the room. After the full disclosure, the other members of the room pitched in at a few points, giving their own insights on how to make parts of the plan even better.

As for Blade Warlord, he had long stopped talking and was now just listening to the discussed with wrapt attention. There was even a crooked smile on his face, hidden by his crossed hands as he thought, 'I'll be sure to take out my anger caused by that blasted player on you and your friend, Secretary Yin. I hope you are prepared to face my wrath.'

All while this was going on, no one noticed that on one side of the room, there was a certain gnome thief staring at the group having the discussion with an impassive expression. Summer Shade looked at these people with an expressionless gaze while inwardly thinking that they were quite stupid, all while recording the meeting. For now, it seems that he can start showing his worth to Kirou, proving that Summer Shade is someone worth keeping in his camp.