Once Eisen saw the dark red building as it was described to him by the loan shark just now, he commanded the bees to fly up to the top right window and burrow through the old wood that made up its frame and fly inside to retrieve the second shard. It took a short while, but soon enough the bees came back outside, carrying it. It ended up being pretty easy to get these two, far more than Eisen had thought. Whether or not it was supposed to be this easy was unclear, but Eisen did't worry about it.
Right now he would just need to get that third shard, and then get back to Melroe for a short while and repair Kirisho's amulet. It may still be a while, but Eisen was glad that he was able to get these two within a single day. And Eisen was pretty sure that the town the third shard was supposed to be was the same town he wanted to go to anyway, that coastal magic town where Eisen may be able to find Xenia as well as the second Dragon to take the test from.
Right when Eisen heard some yelling through the new hole in the windowframe, he chose that it would be a good time to leave toward where he and the others said to meet up. He could really use a drink right now.
Eisen hurried away while carrying Caria on his arm so that he couldn't lose her by moving too fast, and asked a few people that were walking around on the streets where he could find the 'Drowned Sparrow', the tavern that Melroe's Innkeeper told him about.
He was actually quite interested in what the Innkeeper could tell Eisen, especially about some kind of skill that has to do with brewing. At first Eisen thought that there would be a simple 'Brewing' skill, but he should have gotten that already through making the mead. Maybe there was some other condition, or he needed to wait for the mead to actually be finished. The latter would especially make sense, since that's how Eisen got some of his other Crafting-Related skills.
Of course it could also be that Brewing was included in his cooking skill already, so Eisen would just need to see and ask that 'Master Brewer' that the Innkeeper Gralmar told him about.
"Although, Gralmar did mention that he was quite eccentric. I'll just have to see what he's like." Eisen muttered to himself while smiling at Caria and Melissa who were both looking at him with worry. It was understandable, since today was the first time these two saw Eisen angry like that, so they both wanted to console him.
"It's fine, you two. Don't worry about it. Ah, we should be getting close to the Tavern… Scouts and Soldiers, come and hide in my backpack." Eisen continued walking and reached to open up the way for the ten bees. It really was about time Eisen and the other Originals found a nice spot to settle down for a while and build a town. If not, it might get hard finding a good spot to keep the bees that Melissa created soon.
Either way, for now it shouldn't be a problem with ten more bees, especially considering their size. Eisen should just make sure that Melissa doesn't lay hundreds of eggs at once for some reason.
With a loud sigh, Eisen continued searching for the tavern, and then ended up finding it in a smaller back alley. From the outside it didn't seem all that special, but the moment that Eisen stepped inside and took a look around, Eisen could already see that especially its collection of alcohol was more than impressive.
Dozens and dozens of bottles of each different types of alcohol, whether it was wine, liquor, or even different bottled beer, this tavern seemed to have everything.
Since none of the others of Eisen's group seemed to be there yet, he chose to step over to the bar and talk to the owner of the tavern. Right now there wasn't anyone there, so Eisen simply sat down at the bar and sat both Caria and Melissa down next to him while calling out that there was a customer toward the room in the back, waiting for someone to come to him.
After about half a minute, someone finally came through.
"So old man, what's yer poison?" He asked while drying his hands and looking at Eisen, who simply smiled lowly and asked for a beer before continuing with his business.
"You are the owner of this tavern, right? I heard that you brewed some interesting things. I myself started experimenting with it as well quite recently, although not even my first batch of Mead is ready."
In response to this, the owner of the tavern simply sighed loudly and smashed the wooden stein filled with beer in front of Eisen. "I ain't gonna give ye any recipes of mine, ya hear? I don't even know ya, so don't even think about it." He explained clearly, and Eisen chuckled while grabbing the piece of paper that Gralmar handed to him on Eisen's last evening in Melroe, handing it over to the owner of the tavern.
"Think that this might change your mind? I actually know a friend of yours, and he told me about you." Eisen explained, and the owner hesitantly grabbed the piece of paper and opened it up with suspicion, before his expression immediately changed toward surprise and he looked back and forth between Eisen and the letter before sighing out loudly.
"So ye were sent by Gralmar? Why didn't ye say so, old man? A friend of Gralmar's is a friend of mine! The name's Gordon, nice to meet ya!" Gordon exclaimed with a hearty laugh, slapping his palm onto the wooden counter between him and Eisen.
With a soft laugh, Eisen smiled back at the dwarf. "My name is Eisen, nice to meet you Gordon. So yeah, as I said, I've recently started brewing as well, so I wanted to ask you a few questions and see if I can learn a few things from you on how to make some more special drinks. Gralmar told me that you're just amazing in that regard."
"Haha, he ain't wrong, that's for sure. I've got yer regular stuff here, like that beer ye're drinkin', but I also have some other stuff. Most of 'em are just drinks with a few useless effects, like yer eyecolor changing temporarily or your hair becomin' invisible for a bit, but I've also got a bunch of actually useful ones. Beer that raises your regeneration, or liquor that boosts yer stats for a while. Those are borin', so I prefer makin' those with random effects." Gordon laughed out loudly with his fists stemmed onto his hips, while Eisen listened curiously.
In the end, he asked the question that was really on his mind at the time. "Is that so? How did you manage to figure out all of these combinations?"
"Ah, it ain't too hard to be honest, I used ta be an alchemist's apprentice. Once ye've figured out how different herbs and plants work, its pretty easy to brew some things like this. It's very different, and ye can't just do the exact same thing as ye would in alchemy to get the same effect, but it definitely helped when I started out. And most fun and exciting effects are those that ye can't get with any potion, and for some reason are only a thing when brewin' booze."
Eisen nodded in understanding as he basically just got the confirmation that his small test with the Amran and Byron in his mead would at the very least do something.
"And why did you change over to making alcohol rather than potions?" He asked, and the dwarf in front of him began to scratch his beard in thought.
"Hmm, it's just more fun, innit? And I enjoy the happy faces of people when they get shitfaced off of what I brew them, haha!" Gordon laughed out while Eisen continued drinking the beer that was poured for him, only thinking that Gralmar did not exaggerate when he said that Gordon was 'particular'.
"So you were talking about recipes before, how many different recipes did you come up with so far?"
For a short second, Gordon seemed to think about it before quickly responding with a rough estimate. "About 300, maybe? Each has a few different variations, though. And about that, since ye're a friend of Gralmar, I guess I can trust ya, eh? Would you do me a favor then?" Gordon asked while Eisen responded with a nod, and the dwarf continued talking immediately.
"Great! The situation is a bit fucked, to tell ya the truth. I'm not the kinda guy that likes sharin' my secrets with everyone, but at the same time, I want to spread what I've worked on for the majority of me life with the world, ya know? And that's because there ain't many places that sell liquor like this around these days! It seems like ye're a traveller if ye've come here all the way from Melroe, so would ya mind spreading some of my creations around?" Gordon asked Eisen, who looked at him in surprise.
That was really quite unexpected, after all they just met about ten minutes ago. Gralmar and Gordon really had to be amazing friends then.
With that in mind, Eisen smiled at the dwarf with some questions in mind. "I greatly appreciate your trust in me, but how do you want me to do that?"
The moment that Eisen asked this, Gordon silently turned around and went to the back-room, before coming back out with a thick leather bound book.
"These here are my recipes." Gordon began to explain, "It's just a copy of 'em for when I found someone like you that I may ask this of, but if ya think ye're up for it, how about ya take this book, make some of the alcohol in here, and sell it while ye're travelling? That way, people all over the world can find out what real liquor's like."
[New Quest – Gordon's Work]
[Description] Gordon Antrey is known for creating extraordinary variants of alcohol with all kinds of effects. Since he isn't able to leave town due to personal reasons, he instead asked you to spread his work around the world during your travels.
Simply create different liquors out of the book 'Perfect Booze' filled with Gordon's recipes and give or sell them to different people you meet.
[Reward] Recipe Book 'Perfect Booze'; Extra reward according to how far you go to fullfill this quest
[Failure] You have to give the book back to Gordon and he will never help you in any way again
Surprised, Eisen looked at the notification and quickly read through it before waving it away. "Of course, I would love to be able to do something like that. Thank you, Gordon." Eisen said with a smile while picking up the thick book and looking through it.
"Ah, that's good to know then! Finally someone agreed! Most people I end up askin' just chicken out, so ye're the first one that actually wants ta help, haha!" Gordon laughed out loudly, but Eisen could only continue staring at the pages in this book, that one after another showed Eisen simply ridiculous things.
Wine that will get you drunk with a single drop, Liquor that will never get you drunk no matter how much you drink of it and Beer that makes you grow scales or fur, or even both at the same time! Those were just the first things that Eisen read, so he couldn't really blame anyone for thinking that these would just be fake recipes meant to mess with you. But since Gralmar already told him that Gordon was making ridiculous things here, he ended up believing it.
And while most of these may not have excellent uses at first, they would surely come in handy depending on how you can change things around for more defined or weakened effects.
But for now, Eisen had something else to worry about. Gordon grinned and grabbed a few bottles standing all around and placed them on the counter with a loud thud. "Now then! Ye can't properly make everythin' without actually tryin' it, right?"