Not long after the group entered the town again, they made their way back to the stables first to bring Cabarum and Aulu back to the Carriage and then walked toward the Mage's Guild, where the rest were waiting for them.
Once more, they were brought up into the research room by the same guy as before and then met with everyone again.
Just as soon as they saw him, everyone stepped up to Eisen and immediately tried to ask him about what had happened. With a smile, the old man then recounted everything to them. "I managed to fix Kirisho's amulet, and she's completely fine and dandy now, everything worked out properly. And I was told a few things that I wasn't aware of…" He sighed, before Bree tilted her head to the side, "And what things were those?" She asked, and Eisen slowly began moving his fingers through his beard.
"Well apparently, I may have been the one that hatched the Dragon King's egg." The old man said with a slight smile, before the three people in the group that were NPCs and truly knew the extent of what Eisen was talking about looked at him in utter confusion.
"Wait, what do you mean? You hatched Trygan's egg, seriously?" With a surprised expression, Sky closed his book, before the old man nodded at him. "Maybe. Even Bolremgar and Aylrentyrth didn't seem completely sure. In the end, we can only know if I get my memories of that time back, or if we somehow meet Trygan and ask him." Eisen said as he softly chuckled before moving onto the next topic.
"Anyway, that's not what's immediately important right at the moment. I received Bolremgar's Trial for me, and he asked me to become known as a Demon in this town." And now, everyone looked at Eisen in surprise, trying to figure out what he meant, and the old man quickly explained.
"You see, Demons aren't necessarily evil, they're just unique beings in this world that are unlike any other, and there are two paths they can walk on — the Path of Yin, which is evil, and the Path of Yang, which is good. Because of my actions in Ornier, I have become known as a Demon on the path of yin, and now I'm supposed to get known here as a demon on the path of yang. And if I can change the requirements to completely becoming a demon, as described in the title, I'll gladly do so. Well, I guess I'm in a good mood anyway, so that's also why I don't mind." He told them, before the High-Elf Xenia crossed her arms, while still wearing the 'mana optics' Eisen made for her, and nodded curiously.
"So basically what you're saying you're supposed to become this town's hero through some grand action?" She asked before Eisen shook his head. "Quite the opposite, actually. Bolremgar explained to me that it's not necessary to do grand things. As long as a few people truly acknowledge me as a good guy, it should be enough. And for that, I'm going to do the thing that I do best. Say, are there any major homeless shelters in this town?" He asked, and Xenia looked over at Dien, who should be the one most knowledgable about this town out of everyone here, considering that he grew up here.
"Yeah, there are. Or rather, there is a single one. It's officially run by the Lord of this town, as it has been for many generations, together with the orphanage and other charities like that. That are supposed to help people in need. Although, it seems like lately they've all been currently ignored by the Lord, so their condition isn't as good as it should be. If you want a place to help out, that's definitely a perfect fit," Dien explained. Eisen nodded with a smile before stepping over to Bree's backpack and taking out his leather apron and smithing-pants.
"Thanks, I'll go there then. Xenia, after I've changed into these clothes, I need you to help me with another 'Fullbody' enchantment, if you have time."
Quickly, Xenia nodded in response, "Sure, it's a good chance to play around with something like that, after all. You can't make enchantments like that very often." She said with a warm grin before Eisen nodded and stepped behind a bookshelf, where he quickly changed into nothing but the wool-pants and stepped back out toward Xenia.
"Alright, let's get started then, shall we?" He suggested before the High-Elf nodded and asked the old man a bit more about what kind of effect he would like to have through the enchantment.
"If possible, a majority of it should be that it reduces the amount of mana I need to keep the transformation running. After all, I'll be doing that constantly for a while. And then maybe something that enhances my 'Strength' and 'Agility' stats, since those are probably most important. I haven't had any significant problems with my endurance so far. And then maybe something made to strengthen my different crafting skills, although I'm not sure how well we can do that," Eisen explained. As Xenia carefully listened as she began to work on a rough idea, sketching down what Eisen would need to carve on his body beforehand.
"I already have an idea for that, don't worry. Here, carve this into the spots written there." She told him as Xenia handed Eisen the sheet of paper that she wrote everything onto, and the old man quickly nodded before sitting down cross-legged on the ground again, with Xenia moving behind his back so she could work on everything there.
For a while, they continued carving the patterns and runes into Eisen's transformed skin, currently without the horns and wings and didn't stop for even a second, before Eisen carved the last part of the enchantment onto his chest, although noticing that something was off.
"Xenia, isn't this enchantment circle missing something?" He asked, and Xenia quickly nodded. "Yeah, it is. That's how you'll be able to strengthen yourself toward a specific skill. There are specific runes for each skill as well, so it would be smart to 'save' the base enchantment as you did with the other one and then quickly carve that single enchantment into your skin before you start working," She explained. Before Eisen slowly nodded.
"I see, that's quite useful then."
"Yeah, it is. It's not a huge increase in skill efficiency, but it should do a few percents at least. If you want more than that, we have to make different full-body enchantments specialized for different skills." Xenia suggested, but Eisen shook his head, saying that this wasn't necessary.
"I don't need a huge increase in everything. Every little bit helps, doesn't it? And we can work on other things at a later point, but it's not extremely necessary right now. It's just supposed to support me as a Demonic Craftsman." Eisen explained to Xenia, who shrugged and continued working on the last bit of the enchantment covering Eisen's back.
And this time around, the full-body enchantment looked even more impressive than before. And that was because one extra person was helping out, Evalia. She advised both Eisen and Xenia on the best shape of things like these to truly get a specific image across to others and even made them add some technically useless decorative parts, making everything truly pop out the vision that Eisen wanted.
And as such, a notification popped up in front of Eisen again.
[You created the Fullbody Craftsman enchantment in collaboration with Elemental
Spirit Summoner Xenia and Heavenly Artist Evalia]
[Fullbody Craftsman Enchantment]
[Quality – Perfect][Rank - 2]
[Description] An enchantment created in Collaboration between the Omni Craftsmaster Eisen,
the Elemental Spirit Summoner Xenia, and the Heavenly Artist Evalia after being placed on Eisen's own body to strengthen different crafting-related skills and stats.
The enchantment broadly strengthens the transformed skin underneath it and makes the transformation easier to sustain, while the arms and legs of the user have been enchanted to increase agility and strength directly.
On the back is an enchantment acting as a core for the whole system, connecting the different effects, while the enchantment on the chest is for spreading the effect of skill-strengthening throughout the body. Directly above the heart, a free spot has been left to define a specific skill to be strengthened later.
Due to the artistic counsel of the Heavenly Artist Evalia, this enchantment even has a small amount of artistic value.
[Effects] -20% Mana Consumption for Flame of the Earth Transformation; +5% Efficiency of Any Crafting-Related Skill as directly defined; +10 AGI; +10 STR
[Artistic Value] 10
[Do you want to save the Fullbody Craftsman Enchantment as a variation of the Flame
of the Earth Transformation?]
With a smile, Eisen quickly saved the Fullbody enchantment in his spell library. Then Eisen quickly stood up, placing his Leather Apron onto himself, and promptly set his most essential tools for his different professions into the small pouch in the front of the apron. Holding his hammer in his right hand as he infused his mana into every part of his equipment, including the apron and his pants themselves, as well as the hammer he was now holding.
Eisen chose not to wear shoes in this form since he somehow always liked the freedom of movement he had while working in that way, he strengthened the underside of his feet by transforming them fully into rock, and then quickly made his horns and wings appear.
And that wasn't the only thing that appeared.
[Possible complete Demonic Transformation found. Do you want to accept this as your Demonic Form?]
Quietly, Eisen nodded his head, which was enough for the notification to then be replaced by a new one.
[Requirement of 'Golden-Eyed Demon' Title fulfilled. 'Complete your Demonic transformation'.]
[You have acquired the Transformation 'Demonic Craftsman']
[Wings and horns have been accepted as part of the transformation, and as such as part of your alternate body]
[In order to activate your demonic transformation, simply actively supply your body with enough energy and activate it as if it were a skill]
Slowly, Eisen heard a few cracks come from different sources all over his body, as his flames suddenly surged and caused high heat surrounding himself momentarily, as his body became more 'refined,' as is all the parts that were uneven about him had fixed themselves.
Not only that, but a layer of rock crumbled down off of his horns, as they were genuinely replaced by an actual horn-like material, and his wings also became slightly more true to nature. He suddenly felt all their weight pulling on his back, as he was somehow able to instantly control them now with nothing but a thought, instead of having to focus and control the specific areas of his elemental mana.
Slowly, he folded his wings behind his back so that he could adequately walk around and turned to look at his companions.
"Now then, you see the body of a Demonic Craftsman in front of you now," Eisen said, only now growing a slight bit nervous about pursuing this path. It wouldn't be the first time an ancient dragon lied to him, so this may all be some kind of sick joke. But Eisen chose to trust Bolremgar since he was still feeling ecstatic about the other things he had been doing today.
"That's kind of… wow. You really do look pretty demonic… and you got rid of some parts compared to last time, huh?" Xenia said, seemingly slightly disappointed that Eisen didn't fully stick to her tips, but the old man simply laughed softly.
"Yeah, Bolremgar is something like an expert on transformation, so I thought it would be best to listen to his advice. And he did have quite a few good points." Eisen explained, seemingly making Xenia accept this quite easily before everyone else continued to observe Eisen's current body further, while the old man himself kept trying to control his wings to an extent, but it was still tough for him to do, and it felt quite sluggish overall.
After a few minutes, Eisen then chose to step toward the exit, so that he could now make his way outside and work toward his new goal, in stepping on the 'Path of Yang.'
