Immortal Era's Crafting Master 68 'A Shipment Of Coal In The Middle Of Winter'

After walking Mistaken Fox safely to the entrance of the cave and seeing him off, Kirou returned to the Underground Cavern. Before him stood an area of roughly a hundred or so square meters of land. Where the land ended, water began and this was a vast underground lake that led out to the sea, if the reflection of the moon at the very edge of the lake is anything to go by. Kirou stared at all of this and new that he found the perfect place to set up his base, but he didn't start doing anything as of yet.

First of all, while there was no monster present, this area was still within hostile territory. If it was the real world then Kirou wouldn't mind setting up shop as is since he would be able to set up defenses from both man and creature alike. Unfortunately for him, this was a game and the only way he could make full use of this entire area was if he claimed the area as his own.

After opening the official website using the in-game menu and searching the forums, Kirou surprisingly discovered two methods in which he could make this area his very own domain. The first method involved him creating his very own guild and designating this entire cave system as his guild area. Naturally, he could only do so one room at a time, depending on the guild's level. The second method was even more direct and just asked for Kirou to purchase a and use the said t.i.tle in this area to claim it as his own.

Both methods had their own pros and cons a.s.sociated with it and Kirou sat down on one of the chairs he created earlier while deliberating on this. Before even attempting to dissect both methods, Kirou decided to ask himself a serious question.

'What is it that I want, this entire cave system or just this room?' While the question seemed simple enough, his answer would lead to a few hurdles he must cross. This wasn't something that he wanted to make a rash decision, only to regret the outcome later. He had much better things that he would like to focus on after all.

If he chooses to follow the guild route, He would have to recruit at least twenty random people as s.p.a.ce holders in order to get the guild up and running. It would be fine if they are casual and don't really care about the guild location but all it takes is just one person to complain about the cave and leave before the guild would disband and Kirou wasn't keen on going through that c.r.a.p.

Next was the cave clearance itself; since he doesn't have many friends and he wouldn't want to deal with those guild members asking too many questions, then that means he would physically have to empty each room before claiming it as part of the guild's land. This would slowly increase the guild's land size and counterproductively give Kirou more s.p.a.ce that he must fortify afterward. This is especially in the case of an enemy guild attack or a monster stampede that the game designates to happen every few weeks on guilds who build their locations outside of established safe zones like towns and cities.

Another issue he would face here was the guild building's integrity which would constantly lower under the monster attacks if he had to defend the place alone and have no time to repair everything afterward. If he did this, not only would he lose out in the long run by not leveling up, should he fail then all his work would have been for nothing and his ma.s.sive investments would be lost. Kirou really wasn't interested in such a means that required so much manpower.

As for the route of buying the land t.i.tle, this method came with a bunch of thorns with difficulties of a completely different nature. Going by the official website, obtaining an official would cost Kirou about 10,000 gold coins. Money itself wasn't that hard for Kirou to obtain since he had over 7,000 gold on him right now from his boss killings and daily pickpocket activities, along with a few discreet sales that he's made to various NPCs in the game. If it was just this, Kirou wouldn't even think twice about this method.

The second problem with this method was that obtaining the can only be done by buying it from the village head, town mayor or city lord of the nearest inhabitable area. Since Kirou was just 20km west of SC Pier City, that means he would have to buy the item from either City Lord Jonathan Pierson or Deputy City Lord Anthony Jameson. This sounds easy but it is an established fact in Immortal Era that the only way to purchase anything from an NPC that isn't a merchant or salesman requires one to have their affinity with that NPC at or above. Naturally, since Kirou only pa.s.sed through the city on his way to the cave, that's not something he can attempt anytime soon.

Even worse was that even if he fulfilled all these conditions and did obtain the deed from either, that would automatically place his base's location on SC Pier City's map due to the special advantage that this area possesses; a pier. Just the fact that Kirou had access to a pier not controlled by the city would mean that countless individuals would be trying to attack his base on a daily basis, not to mention those big guilds that want to build their own navies. This was a concern he would also have to face if he went the guild route as all it took was just one person to talk about the pier to his friends from another guild before everyone knew about it.

After scouring the forums for a bit longer, Kirou discovered that there exists an item called the . Just like the , the allows one to claim an area for their own and further keeps news of the land reclamation quiet from everyone outside of the high ranking NPCs situated in the nearby areas. Not only that, as long as Kirou did it right, he could even ensure his hidden base's security by making use of the monsters naturally found in the cave system. So long as he seals this entrance, his base would be safe. After all, Kirou didn't want to be hunted down just because he had a Jade Ring in his possession.

The only downside to this method was that news on how to obtain the was scarce. The official site made no mention of where it can be bought or if it is a monster drop and apparently any player that found it has tacitly agreed to keep the method of obtaining one quiet as well.

For now, Kirou could sit at the table he built and stare out at the dark waters of the underground lake stretched out before him. After a while, Kirou took out a tea set from his inventory and started to brew a pot using some medicinal herbs he's obtained during his travels.

Roughly twenty minutes later after Kirou had finally finished brewing his tea and enjoying a cup, an idea suddenly popped into Kirou's mind.

"Why didn't I think of this earlier?" spoke Kirou after slapping himself on the head. After releasing a sigh and shaking his head, Kirou spoke aloud once more, "It seems that the answer to my troubles was just as obvious as the first question I asked and I never even noticed."

Following this 'eureka' moment for Kirou, he put away his tea set and left the table and chairs as they were before leaving the underground cavern and sealing the entrance from the wide cavern's side with his own special methods. Immediately after doing this, Kirou snuck out of the cave system under and made a beeline for SC Pier City on his Blood Shadow Wolf.

***********

After another hour or so of traveling and using the teleport gates to cross vast distances, Kirou was now standing before the overly conspicuous stone house within Stone Mount Village. Like before, the moment he approached the door to knock, a loud voice was heard from the other side of the door.

"Hurry and get in here already. I noticed you coming a mile away." Hearing those familiar words, Kirou just shrugged before entering the stone house.

As he expected, Old Copper was currently busy in the forge section of the house. Instead of joining him, Kirou went over to the lounge area and had a seat and took out his tea set from earlier, this time preparing a cup for Old Copper.

Old Copper spent another ten or so minutes hammering away at the object before him before he tossed it into a bucket of water to cool down while he went over to the lounge area and sat down on the couch opposite to Kirou. Seeing that Old Copper was now ready to speak, Kirou filled the cup before Old Copper with his personal brew.

Old Copper watched Kirou's actions without saying a word and took a sip of the tea after Kirou was done filling the cup. After basking in the taste and fragrance for a few moments, Old Copper sobered up and spoke, "The tea's not bad, lad. Anyways, what's yer business so far east? I doubt it's just to serve me a cup of this tea."

Kirou smiled at Old Copper's direct approached and calmly took a sip of his own tea before speaking, "Elder, by chance, do you know where or how one can obtain a ?" Kirou stared at Old Copper in expectation after asking that question?

Old Copper listened to the question and looked at Kirou with a queer gaze before asking, "Why would you need a , lad?"

Kirou seemed to not have noticed the queer gaze as he responded to Old Copper's question, "Well, Elder, I've recently found an area that I would like to turn into my secret base. I know about the that I can buy from Village heads such as yourself but the location for this base of mine is within the SC Pier City territory on the north coast of the island. The location possesses a peculiarity that would put its presence on SC Pier City's map and I would rather not have to deal with trouble from rogue youngsters such as myself if it can be avoided."

Old Copper listened to the words that came out of Kirou's mouth. While he was surprised that the young Lycan found a good location and realized the dangers a.s.sociated with letting its presence be known to others, Old Copper also realized that Kirou misunderstood his previous words, which prompted the queer look on his face to become even more p.r.o.nounced as he stared at Kirou.

Kirou now noticed how queer the look Old Copper was staring at him with but before he could even say anything, he was beaten to the punch, "I understand and applaud you for being able to think about this at such a young age. That being said, you misunderstood my words from earlier so let me rephrase them. Why do you need another when I have already given you one during your last visit?"

The moment Kirou heard those words, his mind went blank for a moment. Old Copper watched this but said nothing, as he took another sip of the tea that Kirou had prepared for him. He had to admit that the tea was quite delicious, even though he was more of a wine fan.

After a good minute of staring off into s.p.a.ce, Kirou's mind returned to his body and he instantly opened up his inventory and searched for the item that Old Copper had given him back then. Back then, due to the issues a.s.sociated with the quest Old Oak had given him, Kirou forgot about the package that he received from Old Copper before he told the story. Now that he remembered about it, however, Kirou searched for the item as if his life depended on it.

After searching for a few minutes, making sure he missed nothing, Kirou finally noticed an inconspicuous parcel within his inventory. After taking it out and unfolding it, Kirou was greeted to a few surprise system prompts.

[System Message: You have obtained a ]

[System Message: You have obtained a ]
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[System Message: You have obtained a ]

Kirou looked at the three system prompts and once again had a blank expression on his face. Old Copper sitting off to the side was enjoying the tea that Kirou brewed while chuckling a few times after staring at Kirou.