Chapter 581 Hephaestus
The group sat there for a while, simply speaking to the ego-item about the fact that Eisen was actually being genuine when he said that he despised the fact that the former Eisen threw the ego-item away like that. The others were trying to reassure him that the old man as he was now would definitely never do anything like that, and that he really wanted to make sure that he could make up for his past mistakes. After hearing them all speak the things they knew about Eisen and how he treated the others around him, the ego-item slowly turned his eyes toward the three children of the group, Eisen's three tamed monsters. He figured that they would be a good base point for this. They really didn't seem like tamed monsters, considering that they were perfectly humanoid and just acted like the age theye looked, but that was the only real explanation for the fact that more than six people managed to enter this room. And after that suspicion was confirmed after the ego-item asked them about it, he was somehow more surprised, despite already expecting it.
"So you three are really monsters tamed by this old fart?" The ego-item asked, and the three of them slowly turned their heads toward Eisen.
"Yeah, what about it?" Sal asked with a light glare, as if trying to tell the ego-item 'Make sure you think about what you say next'. And that was perfectly accompanied by Caria's response, "And don't call him an old fart!"
"Caria, Eisen is literally the oldest living being in this world, the 'old fart' part wasn't necessarily wrong…" Sal pointed out, but Caria simply glared back at him.
The ego-item crossed his arms and looked away from the two of them toward the younger of the three, Melissa, "Alright, then lemme ask you. Are you happy being with him all the time?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Melissa nodded her head, "It's the best!" She exclaimed, followed by Sal and Caria simply nodding their heads in definite agreement.
After a bit of thought, the Ego-Item simply groaned loudly and looked at the old man with a light glare.
"A'ight. I'll give you one fucking chance, but if you fuck this up, you're dead. Now, how're we doing this? We can't really leave except if either side of us dies? Me being the boss n'all." The ego-item pointed out, and Kiron quickly spoke up to reply, "Actually, that's not entirely correct. One of my close friends and companions also was a former Island Boss. Of this island group's central Island, actually, the first one we went to. In the end, we managed to convince him to come with us, and Jyuuk temporarily tamed him. Because he joined our side, the side of the 'boss' was destroyed, and the fight was done. After that, he was set free by Jyuuk again and everything worked out properly." The half-dragon explained in a straightforward fashion and tone, and the ego-item slowly turned his eyes toward him.
"Ah… that so..?" The ego-item asked, and then turned his head toward Eisen again, "The kid's really that stuck-up geezer's, ain't he?" He pointed out, and Eisen couldn't help but laugh a bit. Trygan and Kiron did have their similarities at times, so he couldn't actually deny that fact.
"But either way, what he said was the truth. I think we could do it the same way if maybe you acknowledged me as your 'user' or 'wielder'. Ego-items have a system like that, don't they?" The old man suggested, and the ego-item looked at the old man with a wry smile, "What a great fuckin' jump… One day I hate you, the next day I have to acknowlede you as my user… fuck off." He groaned loudly, and then slightly shrugged.
"Fine, but I ain't really sure if that's gonna be enough. That system isn't really as strong as taming, it's more like… How those four are your friends. It ain't really supported by any system, just by your feelings. Most ego-items are just fuckin' idiots that can't think of anything but the person that was using them since they were born, so it's stronger than with people I guess." The ego-item explained as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in thought.
"Ah, you guys've been doin' somethin' to my Ego-Structures, haven't ya? Can you do that to me as well for a moment? Like, temporarily?" The ego-item asked, but Jyuuk immediately shook his head, "I don't think you'll want that. That would be literally placing you under the control of one of us. And I don't know how easy it would be to reverse that whole process without damaging you or your soul."
"Yep, fair enough." With a loud groan, the ego-item leaned back, and while everyone was trying to figure something out, Brody got an idea, "Would trappin' you in another dimension also be considered beatin' you?" The demon-orc asked, and the ego-item just shrugged.
"I guess so? I need to be on the same plane as the space inside of this room, so that's that. If I'm not, it might be considered that. But teleportation magic 'n shit doesn't work in here too well. And none of you seem like you can create dimensional rifts yet." The ego-item pointed out, "Obviously, I can't either."
"Well, it ain't really a dimensional rift, but Eisen's item storage thing works in here, right? Isn't that stored in some kind of extra-dimensional space? It's different to soul storage, right? That's how storage skills work, right?" The Demon-Orc asked, and everyone immediately turned their head toward Xenia, the expert on anything magical or supernatural in this group, and she scratched her cheek in thought, "I guess, maybe? It's worth a try, at least. I don't really know how it works, now that I think about it…" She pointed out, but that was already enough for Eisen. The old man quickly stood up and waved his hand to the side, creating the item-storage space right in front of him.
With a loud sigh of annoyance, the ego-item took a step inside and crossed its arms, "Fine. Do it." He said, and Eisen slightly smiled, "Alright, then I'll see you outside." The old man said, and then quickly made the item storage disappear. The next moment, a notification appeared in front of the group.
[The island boss has been defeated]
Everyone quickly waved their notifications away and turned around toward the simple wooden door that opened up on the other side of the room again. Most of them made their way over there and out of the room, although Eisen was still staying behind to try and find the town core. Until now, it was always directly inside of the boss room, so he was rather positive that he would be able to find it here this time as well. Of course, Melissa's bees helped the old man out a bit as well.
In the end, they simply found it buried by a bunch of swords. Eisen was a bit worried that it was damaged or scratched up because of that, but it didn't seem like anything actually happened to it.
Afterward, Eisen followed the others out of the room. The wooden door shut behind him, and Eisen could practically hear the changes happening to the space behind it as it probably returned to its normal state. It was the same with other boss rooms. They often changed their size and shape to be more advantageous for the boss in question. Basically, it was supposed to somewhat fit their personality and their fighting style to make it so that they could more easily win.
Either way, to start it off with, the group of six tried to figure out if the ego-castle was still rampaging on its own or if it calmed down now that the island boss has been beaten.
Unfortunately, the latter was the case. The group made their way to a place where there was enough space for everyone and then Eisen held his hand in front of himself, creating the item-storage room right there inside of the wall.
"About time. It worked, eh?" The ego-item pointed out, and Eisen slowly nodded his head, "So it did. Can you control the ego-items in this town?" The old man asked, and after a bit of thought, the ego-item in front of him just shrugged, "Probably. I'll just need to try. Kinda feels awkward not being a boss all of a sudden. More pleasant, but still weird as shit." He pointed out. Eisen slowly noted that down in his mind. It seemed like a lot of bosses really didn't want to be bosses. They should try and figure out if it would be worth it to end the boss fights without anyone having to die at all if possible.
Of course, there were some crazy beasts and legitimately evil beings that were acting as bosses as well, but like Argon and this ego-item here, there were ones that obviously were neither of that. And getting beings that were capable of being acknowledged as an island's boss on their side would realy come in handy at one point or another, as far as the old man was concerned.
"By the way…" Evalia started, "What's your name?" She asked as she turned toward the ego-item, but he just slightly glared back and shrugged, "Don't have one." He replied bluntly, and Evalia looked at him rather surprised, "Really? But shouldn't you be pretty old? And you never thought about some kind of name or nickname you'd like to go by?"
"Yeah, why should I? Not like I was ever around people. The ego-items I made were too dumb to really refer to me as anything but 'Master' anyway, if they were capable of speaking at all, that was. Pretty fucking annoying if you ask me." He pointed out swiftly, and everyone slowly turned their heads toward Eisen, as if anticipating him to do something about it.
"What, you wanna name me? Right, good luck coming up with a name I'll like. I'm kinda picky, and I won't take any sort of name that I don't approve." The ego-item pointed out, and Eisen slowly turned his eyes toward him.
"Hephaestus." He suggested, and the ego-item raised his brows with a smug smile, "Sounds kinda weird. What kind name is that s'pposed to be?"
"In our world, we also have myths of gods, although I don't think they're real there. The gods of one culture there include Hephaestus, the god of fire, metalworking, and forges. Basically, he was the blacksmith of the gods and made any weapons the gods of that culture needed." Eisen explained, and the ego-item slowly let his arms droop by his sides.
"…fuck off…" He muttered.
And so, the ego-item was named Hephaestus.