Eisen looked at the notifications in front of his face with curiosity, trying to figure out what was going on. The first thing that he noticed was that this staff had requirements like a regular Rank 3 item should have, despite it technically being something that broke through some skills. The only reason that Eisen could currently see the requirement for the staff was that he was also using Rank 3 skills, alchemy and enchanting while making this.
But like this, Eisen was able to see an ability that he hadn't known of before! The creator of an item can use anything that they have made no matter the requirements. Although Eisen was somewhat surprised to see that the Requirements could actually be higher than the crafter's stats in the first place.
However, in the end, what interested him most was something else, it was the 'Soulbinding' that was mentioned in the last notification that popped up.
Confused, Eisen then turned over to the group, where each member was watching with incredible curiosity. "Does one of you know what 'Soulbinding' is?" He asked into the room, and immediately, Kiron slightly raised his hand while the others were somewhat confused. That is, with the exception of Komer, who seemed to have heard the term in other games he had played.
Slowly, the half-dragon began to explain. "Soulbinding is a rare ability that you may acquire, M'Lord, and there are different ways you can achieve it. For one, if you have an excellent tool or weapon that is connected to you every time you use it through the corresponding skill. Once that connection rises to a certain height, it is possible to bind that item to your soul. Another way, a far more uncommon one, is if you have the ability to manipulate souls themselves. As you just now asked this, I expect the latter of these cases to be true for this staff you made?" Kiron asked as he looked at the item that the old man was holding in his hands before Eisen slowly nodded.
"Yes, that is exactly the case. The notification told me I can bind one item to my soul… Is there any benefit if I do this?" Eisen asked before Kiron closed his eyes and began thinking about the question for a while, trying to remember what he knew about soulbinding.
"I have only ever spoken to one person who had a soulbound item in their possession, about such things, so I can only answer your question from what I know. But it happened about fifty years ago, so my memory is slightly blurry, sorry." With a somewhat uncomfortable smile, Kiron apologized, but Eisen simply sighed out loudly and shook his head.
"No, don't apologize. You were the only one here that knew about it in the first place, so literally, everything that you say is more than helpful."
"…Thank you, M'Lord. First and foremost, no other person will be capable of wielding anything that is bound to your soul, and you can store that item within your soul, as long as you 'Will' this to be the case. You can cancel the soulbinding, but then you will never be able to bind that same item to your soul again, and the item's 'trust', so to speak, will be lost, so the items effects will diminish."
"Huh, I see… So, since I can manipulate souls, can I do that soulbinding thing with anything? For example, with this carriage?" Eisen asked with curiosity. He wasn't precisely sure what Kiron meant with 'Storing' it in your soul, but he figured that it meant something like that 'Inventory' system that other games usually had, meaning that he would be able to take something and like 'get rid' of something and then make it 'appear' whenever he wanted. If that were really the case, it would be far more convenient to store the carriage away than this staff.
But in response to Eisen's question, Kiron simply shook his head. "I'm afraid not, M'Lord. As far as I am aware, not everything can be soulbound. This staff has been made with your element, is that not so? Your element is the personification of who you are in this physical realm, as such, that staff seems to be like a physical representation of that element, so it can be stored in your soul."
"Ah… I see. Well, I'm sure it can't hurt to do this. At the very least, I'll be able to find out how soulbinding works." The old man chuckled with a loud sigh, disappointed that he wasn't able to do what he had in mind, but still curious to see what would happen if he soulbound the staff to his soul. Not many other people would be able to use this staff anyway since you needed to use it with the flame of the earth element already infused into your mana. Considering that Eisen didn't know of any other people with this element, although he knew that there were such people, he was the only person that could use this staff at the moment anyway.
So, Eisen looked over at the notification telling him about the soulbinding, slowly nodding. "Alright, bind this staff to my soul." He said in a commanding voice, and immediately, he felt something change.
From one second to another, he felt utterly empty, hollow, as if someone simply took all the air out of his lungs. On the other hand, he felt the staff that he was holding in his hands grow more substantial and heavier, before it seemed to melt in his grip, at least in some sense in Eisen's perception. The actual staff didn't budge even a millimeter.
That was so until suddenly, the staff began forming cracks, different from those that were created through Eisen's element, before those cracks covered every part of every surface on the staff. For a few moments, nothing happened, and then, the staff simply shattered along the cracks into a fine powder, that seemed to be sucked toward the center of Eisen's chest before simply disappearing with a loud gasp coming from the old man.
"Well… That was pretty uncomfortable…" Eisen muttered quietly as he held his hand in front of his heart, the place that the staff seemed to have been absorbed into, while the group surrounded him with worry. After all, an old man suddenly grasping at his heart after trying to catch a breath of air was something to worry about.
"Eisen! Are you alright? Do you need a potion?!" Sky asked with worry as he looked around himself to find the red, life-saving liquid, but Eisen simply shook his head.
"No, you don't have to worry about me. I'm feeling better already. And even if not, I can't die in the first place, right?" The old man laughed lowly as he looked around, noticing the notifications in the corner of his eye.
[Flame Of The Earth Staff has been Soulbound to Eisen]
[Current Maximum limit of two soulbound items has been met, no more items may be soulbound until Soul Strength has been increased]
"Huh? What? Two soulbound items?" Eisen asked in surprise as he looked as closely at the screen as he could, trying to figure out where the hell the second item came from, while even ignoring the questions suddenly coming from the others around him, as a sudden feeling of unease crawled upon him.
Carefully, Eisen attempted to look into himself so that he could find the staff, to figure out how to take out items from that 'storage'.
And it was actually quite a lot easier than he had expected it to be, as he now simply 'felt' the item in his core, at the same place where both his element and his mana originated. Similar to how he controlled that mana, he was now capable of bringing that item out. As such, he slowly moved that item through his arm and directly into his palm, where the staff quickly formed, surprising the others once more, while they were merely confused. But right now, Eisen was worried about something else.
He placed the staff to the side and once more looked deep into himself, trying to find the item he was looking for. The other item that was bound to his soul already.
But for some reason, he wasn't able to find it as quickly as he did the newly created staff, as if this item was hidden somewhere deep inside of his soul. Even pulling it out was harder to do than the staff, but soon enough, Eisen held a small ornamental box in his right hand.
As he was staring at this item, Bree called out to him. "Hey! What's wrong? Where'd that box come from?!"
Slowly, Eisen snapped back to the moment and looked at the small Fey-Kin girl. "Oh, sorry. Erm… it seems like I still had an item bound to me… Probably from before my experience was stolen…"
"H-Huh? How's that even possible..?" Sky asked, confused, but Eisen simply shrugged.
"I have no idea. I just really want to know what this thing is, and why it's so important." With those words, Eisen activated his Truth-Seeing-Eyes and tried to inspect this item, and soon enough, the information popped up, baffling Eisen completely.
[Treasury of ???]
[Quality - Divine][Rank - 10]
[Description] This is the peak of what can be achieved by any one's hands, created by the ??? going by the name of Eisen, in order to protect what is most precious to him. It cannot be destroyed even by a god's hands, and it is forever bound to the soul of its creator, and not even he will be able to easily destroy that bond.
It is unknown what it holds, but the puzzles and riddles that need to be solved in order to open it are above what a regular person may ever wish to solve.
"Holy- What the hell?" Eisen exclaimed in complete surprise. This was a Divine quality item, something only achievable at the highest rank that skills could have. He wasn't able to read what was hidden behind those question-marks, but that wasn't important right now.
Curious at what those puzzles may be, Eisen tried opening the box, but nothing happened. The lid didn't budge even the slightest amount, so Eisen flipped and spun the box around a few times to see if there were any hints, before he saw some writing in a language he didn't understand. So, he turned to the three people that might know.
Bree, the living database of general knowledge, Kiron, the person that spent the longest here in this world amongst this group, and Sky, the one that spent literally every passing second reading.
"Does any of you know what this writing here means?" He asked with a slight frown, and one after another, the three of them took a look at it, but none of them could really say what the writing was, although it seemed to be lying on the tip of Sky's tongue, he just couldn't fully remember what it was. Then, the one that Eisen least expected to have an answer for this particular question answered.
"Erm, Eisen? I think I know what that is." Komer exclaimed with a wry smile as he began scratching the back of his head before everyone looked at him in surprise and the young merchant continued talking.
"Ah, erm, while I was researching different regions of the world for the best type of product sold in each region and what kind of materials are more common where, I also came across some documents that were talking about the languages spoken in each of those regions, especially in the past. They basically speak what is called the 'Common Language' everywhere in the world these days, but that language is… well, I think it's what was spoken in the country of Giants, Jötunnheim-"
"Iötum." Sky interrupted Komer as he spoke, finally remembering what the language was called as well. However, he then continued on, seeing a difference in the writing as well. "But it's not just Iötum. I think I remember it now as well… Komer, did you also read up a bit of the ancient Dwarven language, Dvergun?"
The young merchant scratched his head before slowly nodding. "A little bit, yeah. I only know the rough way the system there worked, I don't know any words or anything. I don't even really know the letters all that well…"
"That's fine, just confirm with me for a second… While the letters are certainly written in Iötum, isn't the structure of the words and sentences rather of what Dvergun is like?"
"Hmm… maybe? I'm not 100% sure…"
"Erm, Eisen…? Did you make this? You're a Giant-Dwarf halfling, right?" Sky asked with a confused expression, but Eisen simply nodded.
"Yes, I definitely wrote this. This is supposed to be a riddle, apparently. Now we just need to figure out how to translate it, and maybe we can make some sense of it…" The old man sighed out loudly as he continued staring at the inscriptions on the side of this small, ornamental box.