Chapter 350 - World of Ink
Later that night, Eisen took a closer look at the two spheres he had with him, and by now wrapped in some cloth to properly carry it around. The vibrations every ten or so seconds were pretty annoying at the start, but after a while, Eisen managed to get used to it. It seemed like the rate of the vibrations became a bit faster, dropping by a second or so, but Eisen really couldn't say for sure. He had to wait a little longer to be able to say so definitively.
And until then, Eisen would just keep them on his back like he did until now. Since he wasn't fighting on his own but just commanding his Golems, he didn't really need to worry about them getting damaged somehow or him losing them, after all.
But either way, for now, Eisen just grabbed these two spheres tightly and went to bed again.
It seemed like he had a similar dream to a few days ago, with just an empty, black space all around him while he was fully aware of him sleeping, but it didn't really seem like he was able to actually do anything like in a Lucid Dream. It didn't seem like he was in there for the whole duration of his sleep, it was just for an hour or two, but even two hours seemed infinitely long in an empty space without any type of sensual stimulation.
After the two hours were over, Eisen woke back up and quickly stood up on his legs tiredly. And while rubbing his eyes to properly wake up, the old man made his way out of the small 'tent' that was created, seeing that the mist was still all around them. Kirisho seemed to have gone to sleep as well, but the mist luckily was kept up properly even then.
The Golems were still standing around the small camp though, so even if any monsters came through, they might have been able to get rid of them before Eisen even woke up.
With a light smile, Eisen summoned his staff and created a quick fire so that everyone could warm themselves up later. It was incredibly cold during such a moment, after all.
"Hm? Wait…" Eisen muttered to himself, trying to figure out why this was so weird, and after a few moments he simply chose to pinch his arm to confirm if that was it.
"Yeah… I didn't use to feel pain at that level…" The old man whispered, and then just shook his head lightly, trying to just move on, but this weird feeling still kept staying inside of Eisen's stomach the whole time. A lot of weird things happened so far, and Eisen was able to properly move on from them without much issues.
But this tiny thing, the marginally small increase in the level of pain or physical stimulus that Eisen was feeling, somehow messed him up at a level that he couldn't describe. Throughout the whole time that Eisen was working on breakfast, he was trying to hurt himself in tiny ways, trying to figure out if he was just imagining it after all, but each and every time, every small cut, actually hurt.
It wasn't actual pain, but it was pain. Not like this feeling of uncomfort or pressure that wounds usually felt like within the game, but actual pain. The small cut on his finger actually burnt a little bit after a while, and Eisen couldn't be more grateful for the fact that this change happened after he tried to create the Mass of Yang. He really wasn't sure if he would be able to do that if he actually felt pain even nearly comparable to real life.
Either way, for now, Eisen still tried to ignore it to the best of his ability, and continued to make breakfast for the others, who were one after another waking up.
And once they all ate, they took down the tents and continued moving further toward the center of the island, where the strongest monsters seemed to gather.
Eisen didn't really notice when it happened, but at some point, they even seemed to start walking on an old, overgrown road. It really wouldn't have been recognizable for most, but Eisen noticed a few weird parts about the path they were walking.
All of the plants on the path were young compared to the trees around them, there were more flat rocks gathered underneath their feet compared to before or even just a few meters further to the side, and at some parts, mainly when they were going up some hills, it seemed like the path was flattened out in a way that it wouldn't be just as steep as it usually would be.
At the very least, they now had at least some sort of clue toward finding that ruined town!
One after another, they kept encountering small groups of monsters, more and more the further they followed the overgrown road.
And soon enough, both Sky and Komer were at a point where they needed to work on their level-up quest, and Eisen was actually rather jealous at how easy it seemed to be for them. Especially Sky seemed to be able to get there quite quickly, considering that most of his skills were at Rank 3 already. And Komer as well, he only had to use a certain amount of 'Fate Items' in order to get to Level 100 now.
And so, around noon, the two of them already managed to get to a three-digit level, and they were more than just excited about their new skills!
"Whoa! Fate Item Creation!" Komer exclaimed excitedly as he stared at the notifications in front of him, and then looked over toward Eisen. "It absorbed two of my skills though… Do you think that's fine?" He asked nervously, and Bree quickly raised her arm and nodded her head.
"Yuup~! When a High-Grade Skill absorbs other skills, you can use those other skills like normal still~. Which were absorbed?" She asked curiously, and Komer scratched his cheek with a smile. "Erm… Scribing and Enchanting." He explained, so Bree just smiled at him.
"Alright, then it should be fine! You might not be able to create enchantments that are at the power compared to before, but making Coins of Fate should work better now~! And you can obviously just write like normal anyway, but maybe you can make something like… Fate Contracts?" Bree suggested with a slightly wry smile toward the end, not sure what it might let him do, and Komer slowly nodded his head.
"Hmm… Yeah, maybe… I'll just have to try, I guess." The Fate Merchant said with a bright on his face, before the young Fey-Kin turned over toward her brother.
"And what about you?" She asked happily, and Sky looked over toward her as if surprised, and then just chuckled. "Oh, it's… It's an Element-Based Skill that needs to use up elemental mana to function… So basically a more powerful spell…" Sky explained, and Bree looked at him with a curious smile.
"Oh! That's awesome!" Bree exclaimed, and Eisen slightly raised his eyebrows, curious at what that skill was like. "So? What can you do now?" He asked, and Sky just smirked and flipped his Inkheart Grimoire to the first page, where the depiction was still showing the Queen of Fey, just floating there, in the center of the…
"The Queen of Fey." Sky exclaimed as he placed his hand onto the page, and the letters on it immediately popped off of it before starting to float around the area, seeping into the grass and trees around them, before everything slowly began to change and morph around, before a figure appeared in the center of the completely black-and-white space.
On the page, she seemed quite short, but now, the Queen of Fey was truly anything but short. She was actually about three meters tall. If she was shrunk down to a size where her limbs were at a regular size, she would probably be quite short, however, so maybe that's why Eisen thought so.
But nonetheless, it seemed like one of the things that Sky wanted to happen, did actually happen. Just a few days ago, when Eisen gave him the Grimoire, Sky spoke about wanting to be able to pull the scenery described in the stories out and create it around him, and now he was able to do just that.
"My new Skill is called 'World of Ink'. For now, it seems to only change the physical surrounding, and in a very obvious way, but at some point it might be able to replicate everything properly. In the colors of the actual Fairy Forest." Sky explained, wiping away one of the tears in the corner of his eye. It seems like even if this was all created through magic, it was a good enough representation of the place he grew up at to make him react like that.
Eisen wanted to comfort him somehow, but it seemed like his sister already did so without hesitation and quickly hugged Sky.
A few moments later, Sky turned back around toward the others with a light sniffle while the black ink that seeped into every part of the area moved back toward the book, "Well, either way, this should be pretty useful. Maybe when I have even higher mana than now, we can use this as a replacement for a camp when I find a story that includes one. Erm… But right now, I already have a story that should be some help for stronger opponents." Sky pointed out, and then flipped through his Grimoire before showing it to the others, and especially Eisen ended up smiling lightly.
"Oh? Interesting. Yeah, keep that in mind. If we encounter a boss, that story should be more than just useful." Eisen said with a smile on his face, placing his hand onto the top of Sky's head before cracking his knuckles as his smile became a grin.
"Now, let's go ahead and properly start through with this." Eisen suggested, and everyone else nodded their heads as well before following the old man further along the path they were walking on until now, and soon enough, they started to see some ruins in the distance. Nothing much at the start, but some small destroyed structures, and a rather large mass of them beyond those few.
"I guess we're here now." Eisen said with a smile on his face and looked over toward Ranger. "Take a look at how many there are." The old man told him, and for a little while, Ranger's eyes lit up again while he stared into the distance, and after a few moments, Ranger turned toward Eisen and raised his hand.
First, he held up one finger, then four, and then two.
"Hmm… 142 just within sight here, huh? Alright, all of you are alright with doing things we planned yesterday, right?" Eisen asked with a smile on his face, but it seemed like some of them were rather unsure about it, and especially Kiron was feeling like it wasn't a good idea.
"Grandfather, I'm your Knight, are you sure that I shouldn't stay with you?" He asked, but Eisen quickly shook his head. "Without you, these guys don't have any front-fighters, you know? And if I need your help, you'll get a message from me. I'll just be a minute or so away from you anyway, so you can just rush over to where I am." Eisen told him, and Kiron slowly nodded his head.
"…Alright… But on some of the other islands… Can we fight together?" Kiron asked with a light smile, and Eisen swiftly nodded his head. "Of course we can." Eisen told him with a smile, before looking to his shoulder, where Sal was currently sitting. "Come on, you go with your big sisters, Sal." The old man said with a smile and picked him up, but instead of letting go, Sal instead just grasped onto Eisen's hand as tight as he could.
"Hey, the three of you have to be able to be independent a little bit as well. So just go with the others for a bit… We're meeting back up in a little while anyway." Eisen said, and slowly, Sal let go and climbed onto Caria's shoulder, although rather sadly at that.
And then, Eisen turned around and went ahead toward the ruined town on his own, while the others went a bit further east first before doing the same.