Confused, Eisen looked at Bol with a frown, before the Ancient Bronze Dragon continued. "It seems like you're under the impression that true Demons are all evil, huh? Sure, the majority of them are, because it's far easier to step on the Path of Yin than it is to step on the Path of Yang, but it isn't a prerequisite to be 'evil' to become a Demon. Real Demons are beings with quite Unique abilities and appearances. You basically won't find one that's like another. So, if people encounter something that's beyond their comprehension, they call it a Demon! Pretty easy, right?" Bol explained before Eisen slowly nodded.
"I get it. And because I became known as a Demon through scaring people, I got a title for being an 'evil' demon and stepped onto that Path of Yin, right?" Eisen asked, and now Bol nodded in response.
"Exactly! You see, the principle of Yin and Yang is something quite simple. Yin is bad, Yang is good. You can also call it negative and positive energy, and many martial artists without the ability to use Mana properly use this energy, despite it technically being just a form of mana then again, so their Status will still see it as such as well. But they simply use a different form of mana with those principles. And that principle is also true for Demons. The path of yin is for evil, and the path of yang is for good. So I want you to prove to the people of this town that the Demon known for stepping on the former path, can also walk on the latter." He explained before a notification popped up in front of Eisen.
[New Quest – Ancient Bronze Dragon's Test]
[Description] After passing the trials of the Ancient Gold Dragon Aylrentyrth, you are now taking the trial of the Ancient Bronze Dragon Bolremgar.
He asked you to use your demonic self to become someone known for doing good things, instead of bad ones.
Once you have been recognized by the system to have stepped on the Path of Yang, then this quest will be seen as completed.
[Reward] Become the Champion to a second Ancient Dragon
[Failure] You can not take the test of this Dragon again
[Time Limit] One Month
"So, tell me. Have you completed your transformation yet?" Bol curiously asked before Eisen shook his head.
"Not yet, no. I tried to, but it doesn't seem like it worked properly. Here, let me show you." The old man explained, feeling glad for different reasons at this moment. For one, he still felt the rush of finally helping Kirisho, and then, on top of that, he also found out that he didn't have to become an Evil Demon. If he switched the Path he was on, then maybe he could use this transformation for means other than scaring people. And if that was the case, then that may indeed be something great, wouldn't it?
Quickly, Eisen summoned his Staff from his soul storage and activated the different spells, and then his skin turned into rock form with burning cracks in between and his eyes began glowing in golden flames before his wings, claws, tail, and horns began to form.
With his voice also transformed to show Bolremgar the full extent of his transformation, Eisen began to speak. "This is my transformation so far." He explained, before Bol quickly transformed into a small hummingbird before flying all around Eisen to properly inspect every inch of his body, before turning back into his human form and coming to a conclusion.
"Horrible." He exclaimed, not giving Eisen any chance to defend himself, "I mean, the base is great. The way you transformed your skin can't truly be perfected any further if you ask me, and your voice is quite fitting as well, despite being somewhat fearful already. But what's not good at all are all of those accessories! First an foremost, those claws are definitely the first things to go. I'm sure they're hard to work with, aren't they? The concept behind the tail, wings, and horns is alright, but the shape doesn't suit you at all." He explained, while Eisen quickly took mental notes.
"You're a giant of a man, quite literally! But everything you've attached to yourself is so tiny and…delicate. First, you need to increase the size of your horns considerably. I know it may end up being a bit heavy, but these look like you just took them off a Ram and glued them to your head!" He explained, before pointing to his own head, where two horns similar to Eisen's grew before morphing into a different shape, indeed a lot larger than what they were before, but still in a way that they weren't unnecessarily cumbersome, and simply twisted around a lot more without being in the way of anything.
"Next! Your wings! If you were to actually attempt flight with wings like that, you really wouldn't be able to do that, now would you? They would never be able to carry your weight. So, you just need to make them larger as well, while thickening out all the important structural parts. Realism is important for a transformation like this." Bol told Eisen, before two large wings sprouted from his back, each probably reaching two to three times the length of how tall Bol currently was.
Immediately after Eisen finished imitating the horns on the top of Bol's head, he continued with his wings, of course increasing the size to better fit to his own body. "Now then, take your shirt off. You need to actually connect the wings to your body, or else that's just some random gimmick, and not part of a transformation."
With a nod, Eisen did precisely that, following the advice of someone that seemed to be far more knowledgeable than himself at least in regards to transformation. Quickly, he stripped out of his shirt and moved the wings floating behind his back closer toward himself, before then carefully connecting the wings to his back in the way that Bol had instructed him to. Right now they were still awkward to control, since Eisen basically still had to fully manipulate every little movement of the wings, even if he didn't have to worry about their relative placement to his own body anymore, but Bol told him that this would probably change soon.
"And now, your tail. Such thin tails are barely useful. They're supposed to help balance for winged creatures, so it really wouldn't help you like that at all. You need to make it thicker, if you keep it at all, that is. Honestly, it's not really necessary, if we're talking about how practical it is." Bol told Eisen, who quickly nodded and quickly made the tail disappear. In the end, rather than looking more flashy, this transformation seemed more natural somehow. And then, Eisen remembered the last part of his transformation.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I forgot about a pretty important part. Since my skin's formed of rock in this form, I thought of enchanting it, so this is an integrated part of my demonic form." The old man said as he quickly activated the enchanted sub-type of his transformed skin, causing all the different runes and patterns to appear on his skin.
Surprised, Bol leaned in a bit closer as he made the horns and wings he made to show to Eisen disappear. "Oh, interesting. Aylrentyrth, can you tell what this enchantment does?" Bolremgar asked his fellow Ancient Dragon, who quickly nodded. "Yes. It seems to be an enchantment that focuses Eisen's will and robs it off enemies. I'm guessing it was made to increase the fear of other people." He summed up.
"That's exactly it, yes. What do you think about this, Bol? Should I keep this enchantment, or should I keep my transformation without it?" Eisen inquired before Bol thought for a few seconds.
"Get rid of that enchantment and make a new one. I didn't think that kind of enchantment was actually possible, but seemingly so. You're a craftsman, so you shouldn't do any majorly heroic acts to step on the Path of Yang, but do what you do best, Craft. So I think you should make an enchantment that's made exactly for that instead of one to scare people." Bol suggested, and Eisen slowly nodded, as this really was a great idea.
"An enchantment to make my work easier, huh? That sounds perfect, actually. Alright, I'll work on that. Thank you for your help with my transformation, Bol." The old man thanked him with a smile before Bolremgar slowly nodded as he stepped back toward the boat in the middle of the body of water in that cave and transformed back into his draconic form before Ailren sighed loudly.
"He didn't even take a look at that wolf in the end? I wanted to show him the magnificent item that was created through my trial, though." Ailren muttered, before transforming back into a dragon as well, and Eisen softly chuckled.
"Well, I'm going to see you two later. Kirisho, are you coming with us already, or do you want me to pick you up for the ritual once everything is prepared?" Eisen asked the Mist Spirit, who quickly responded with a soft smile.
"I'm going to wait here. I want to talk to Ailren for a while," She said before Eisen slowly nodded.
"Alright, then I'm going to see you later." The old man told her before he deactivated his transformations and put his shirt back on, making his way out of the cave together with Caria, Melissa, Kiron and the two automata Aulu and Cabarum.
On their way out, Kiron turned over toward his master with a complicated expression. "It seems that it truly was fate that brought M'Lord and me together. It cannot be a coincidence that you were the one that was a father to mine and that we now met after such a long time," he said before Eisen slowly nodded his head.
"Yes, I was quite surprised myself, to say the least. But I can really only focus on the demon thing right now." Eisen muttered, before Kiron slowly nodded, noticing that this obviously wasn't the only thing he was thinking about, but respecting his Master's choice not to talk about it.
"I see, yes. I was not aware of these energies yet either, not to mention the different 'paths' of demons in relation to these opposing energies. Although I wonder what the actual connection between those usages of the terms is." Kiron explained, as Eisen only nodded.
"Surely, if I'm going to step on that 'Path of Yang', it's got to have some positive benefits, right? Mainly I'm hoping to get rid of the danger of becoming an Evil Demon," Eisen replied.
While continuing these conversations, the group made their way out of the tunnel system and once more sat down on Cabarum's back to make their way over to the city again.
On their way, as they were riding through the sand, Eisen began to think about ways to make people recognize him in his demonic transformation as someone good, as someone helpful.
Maybe Xenia knew some better way, considering that she lived in the town for two in-game months now, but the best way that Eisen himself could figure out was simply to do volunteer work.
Inevitably there were homeless people, or merely those that were in a bad physical condition. Feeding them or helping with emergency treatment would surely be a good start. Maybe he could start working on custom items for people around the town to slowly spread his name. After all, he did have a month to complete the trial he was given.
And after logging off for the day, he would be able to spend some well-deserved quality time with his family, and start preparing for the Barbecue that they would have on Wednesday, to which he invited a lot of people from all around town, even Samuel would be coming for a visit to his house again.
Now that he got through everything with Kirisho, he was finally able to concentrate on other things, and slowly move on from the part that had hurt him so badly in his past again.
