Chapter 263 New Idea
"Alright, I'll hurry up and bring this to Jyuuk so that he can unsummon some of his Undead. And then, I think we should stop here for the day. It's getting pretty late, actually." The old man said with a smile, and the group of five nodded their heads.
"Okay-Dokey!" Bree exclaimed with a grin and jumped up immediately with her fingers joined together behind her back, while the others followed her example and stood up as well, before Eisen looked at Sky. "Tomorrow morning, I'll show you the basics of Bookbinding, okay? So try to sleep properly so that you're ready for that!" Eisen grinned, in response to which Sky nodded his head excitedly.
"And as for you… Kiron, please don't come down here tomorrow." Eisen said as he moved his fingers through his beard, before the Half-Dragon looked at him confused, and in a little bit of a panic. "G-Grandfather? Did I do anything wrong? If you-" He started, but Eisen immediately interrupted this small misunderstanding.
"No, no, it's not like that. I'm going to work on some items for you tomorrow, and I want them to be a surprise." With a wink, the old man unsummoned all of the things that he created inside of the room with his element, while Kiron calmed down again. While Bree, Sky and Kiron made their way to their sleeping quarters, Eisen picked up Caria and Melsisa and made his way over to where Jyuuk was most likely to be found at the moment, the large training room where he spent most of his time on this ship with his beasts, just trying to practice different things with them and improve their skills.
At the moment, he was actually standing in front of the undead Mother of spiders, trying to improve her body a bit more. When he turned her into his undead in the clearing, he really just made it so that the rough shape of a spider would be kept up, but now he really thinned out some areas of it while planting different seeds in certain places for different effects, like some that would be useful as replacements for the eyes, and some that would be useful as replacements for the different organs that the group took out of her. And when Jyuuk saw the old man approach him with the large black book in hand, the beastperson smiled excitedly.
"Ooh! Is it done already?" He asked with a grin, and Eisen nodded his head, swiftly handing the deep black book with bone details over to him. "Yes it is. I used the Necromantic Mana Crystals you gave me as Magic String to actually construct the book, while I used the bones on the front, as you can see. I want to start properly tanning some leather soon, and Caria is also getting interested in paper, so I might be able to give you an improved version sooner or later." Eisen explained, and Jyuuk gratefully nodded his head.
"Thank you, Eisen. This is a truly amazing item." He said with a smile, before the Beastperson read through the different information and notifications, before grinning broadly. And before the grin even came to full fruition, the Necronomicon had already disappeared into thin air.
Surprised, Eisen looked at Jyuuk curiously, before the young man swiftly made the book re-appear in his hands. While moving his fingers through his beard, the old man then began to chuckle. "So you were able to put it into your soul storage, huh?" He asked, and Jyuuk nodded his head with satisfaction.
"Yes I was, luckily. My Soul Storage is full now, but I don't really have anything else to put in there anyway." Jyuuk said with a grin and Eisen just nodded.
"I'm sure our Soul Strength will gradually increase over time when we get to the point where we have Rank 4 or 5 skills and we can store more items. So there's no need to worry about that." He pointed out, before Jyuuk inevitably nodded his head and smiled.
"You're right with that. Anyway, thanks for the Necronomicon, I'll treat it well. For now, let's go to bed though. You were planning to do the same thing, right?" Jyuuk asked, before Eisen nodded his head.
"Yeah, I was. I think some of the others are already asleep as well. Is Xenia still up?" Eisen asked, and Jyuuk nodded his head. "She is, but… why are you asking me that?" Jyuuk answered, his cheeks blushing a little bit, but Eisen could only respond with a laugh.
"Oh come on, you have to wake up earlier if you want to trick me! I know you two have a thing going." Eisen chuckled, but Jyuuk immediately began to look around nervously. "Eisen! We're not really a thing-thing yet, you know? We're a thing, but we're not a thing! So please don't tell anyone about it, I really don't want to ruin this…" Jyuuk explained with a sigh, also looking at Caria and Melissa as he was saying so, because he was aware that they were a larger threat at yelling out such secrets compared to the old man that was carrying them on his shoulders.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." The old man said with a smile, before turning around and slowly making his way back to the door, stopping just before closing it behind him again. As if he forgot the most important thing in the world and was beating himself up for his idiocy, Eisen slapped his forehead and turned around again, looking at Jyuuk with a serious expression. "Oh, just before I forget, but what are your and Xenia's ring sizes again?" He asked, and even from a distance, Eisen noticed that Jyuuk's face immediately turned red out of embarrassment. But before he could complain, the old man already turned around and closed the door behind himself.
"Ah, how fun it is to mess with young people." Eisen chuckled as he looked over at Caria, who was trying to somehow manipulate the plant fibers from the paper while obviously just forcing herself to stay awake, and then at Melissa, who was already taking a nap on Eisen's shoulder. "Let's get you two to sleep for now, I'll talk to Xenia in a bit." The old man said with a smile, before, with his increased size, grabbing the two young girls and cupping them in his arms to give them a 'bed' of sorts.
And then, while Caria was slowly joining her younger sister in her nap, Eisen made his way to the Meeting room, where Xenia liked to spend a lot of time because it was usually pretty quiet there. Although at the moment, it was rather loud. Koro, who was receiving private lessons from Xenia, and the High-Elf in question herself were currently fighting quite loudly.
"All I'm saying is that it would be quicker and easier to do it my way! Free-Form Enchantments are a thing already, so why can't I just turn the base shape into a free-form and remove the base lines?!" Koro asked in an angry voice, before Xenia could be nearly heard audibly grinding her teeth as she responded.
"And all I'm saying is that you're a moron! There's a reason why enchantment circles are the norm! Even free-form enchantments have rules to them!" She answered in a voice even overpowering the young man's, but Koro continued yelling even further.
"And why the hell aren't you telling me that reason then? All you're saying is 'There's a reason' without telling me that damn reason!" The oldest of Eisen's apprentices complained, before exactly that apprentice's mentor spoke up.
"Both of you, zip it. The kids are sleeping." The old man said with a frown, and immediately, Koro and Xenia's attention moved over to him. Now more quiet, as they didn't actually dare go against what Eisen told them especially after that relatively 'brutal' display at the pier in town earlier today.
"Eisen, tell your little rat of an apprentice that he should listen to what I say!" Xenia demanded, while the 'rat' in question simply clicked his tongue, "You should rather tell this old hag that she should explain things to me better!"
With a loud sigh, Eisen looked at both of them. "Koro, listen to what Xenia says. I know you don't agree with her all the time, but she's far, far more knowledgeable about any of this than you can even dream of." Eisen said immediately, and just when Xenia looked over at Koro with a smug smile, while Koro was trying to complain again, Eisen continued to speak. "And Xenia, knowledge doesn't make you a good teacher. Please try to explain it to him in a way that you would want me to teach you craftsmanship. In a simple, step-by-step manner. Listen to his complaints, but don't let him rule over the lessons." The old man added, and Xenia's smug smile immediately disappeared before she nodded her head.
"And now, Koro, get to bed, it's late. You'll continue some other time, and when that time comes, try to be more open to what the 'Master of Magic' tells you about Magic theory." Eisen said with a frown, and Koro slowly nodded his head, turning to Xenia to swiftly apologize before leaving through the door, leaving Eisen and Xenia alone, if you excluded the two monster girls sleeping in Eisen's arms.
"So… I guess I'll go to bed as well then… Talk to tomorrow?" She asked, trying to change the topic as soon as possible, but Eisen didn't let her off that easily.
"Yeah, not that quickly. Xenia, try to be at least a little considerate, alright? There's a reason why I made him a Craftsman apprentice, and not a Magicraftsman apprentice like Parc and Rouge. He has issues with his temper that make him resort to dangerous means if he's under pressure. So try not to knowingly increase that pressure anymore, alright?" Eisen asked her, and the High-Elf slowly nodded her head.
"Y-Yeah… Sorry about that…" She apologized, but Eisen simply responded with a loud sigh. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. You're not 'Knowingly' doing that, I know you wouldn't provoke anyone to do something dangerous. Just be careful from now on, okay?" The old man asked, before Xenia nodded her head quietly.
"Erm… I meant to ask you something, actually. You seemed pretty interested in what I showed you earlier about mixing the glass for your glasses with enchanted mana crystals, and I was wondering if you were interested in helping me come up with a new metallic alloy." The old man asked, before Xenia raised her head and looked at Eisen surprised as he sat down in his chair so that he could at least let Caria and Melissa lay down on his legs properly.
Excitedly, Xenia nodded her head, the sadness and nervousness in her expression immediately disappearing. "Oh?! Really? What kind of alloy? I mean, obviously it would be something magical in nature, otherwise you wouldn't ask me, but what exactly is it? Do you want to figure out a new way to infuse metal with mana?" She asked, but Eisen immediately shook his head.
"No, no, that's not what I mean. In the first place, infusing metal with mana makes it really brittle. Even mythril is really not useable for anything other than magic items or specific areas in weapons. It's got an incredible defense against blunt damage, but strong pressure can still bend or even crack it quite easily. What I mean is something different, I just don't have a broad knowledge about different concoctions and potions like you do, so I need your help." Eisen explained, and Xenia tilted her head to the side in a bit of confusion.
"Wait, potions? Why are you talking about potions now..?" She asked, before the realization finally hit her. "Is that what you want to do?" Xenia added, growing more and more excited at the idea before Eisen nodded his head.
"Exactly. I want to make potions, just instead of using water as a base, I want to use metal as a base."