With a smile, Eisen stood up from the bed he was laying in, slowly stretching his body as he looked around the room. He went to bed quite early today, so everyone else was still asleep, and as such the old man got dressed in his blacksmithing outfit as preparation for later when he would go back to the Church to make some more food, if necessary, and mainly start on some repairs on the buildings.
Other than that, if Xenia managed to get all the items she needed to break the curses on Kirisho's amulet as well as on the black seed that Eisen picked up the other day, then Eisen would assist with that task as much as he could. And he didn't have the chance to properly talk to Komer anymore before he logged off the last time, so Eisen wanted to see what kind of element he received.
Of course, he would also need to meet up with all of the other Originals, since they were all now gathered in this town.
And it seemed like he would be able to do one of those things quite soon since the young man in one of the beds next to Eisen slowly stood up as his body regained its color. "Hey there, Komer," Eisen said with a smile as he greeted the merchant, who returned the greeting happily.
"Komer, come with me to the Carriage, alright? I don't want to wake the others up." The old man asked of him before Komer quickly nodded, and Eisen picked up the still sleepy Caria and Melissa, and since even Kiron was still asleep, only the four of them made their way to the stables, where they could hopefully talk a bit for now.
Since the stables weren't far away, they got there after a few minutes, quickly greeting Cabarum before then entering the Carriage. After that, Eisen sat down on the bench and put his hand into the jerky barrel withdrawing some of the seasoned and dried meat in order to fill his stomach a bit.
"Alright, you said you got your element now, right? What did it end up as?" Eisen inquired curiously, before Komer nodded his head excitedly. "Mhm! It's pretty interesting, really. It's the 'Coin' Element. I can't do much with it, but some pretty neat little stuff. For example, I can do something similar to what Xenia does with her 'Spirit Sight,' as in when I infuse my element into my eyes, I can see the monetary value of things. I received a skill for it, but it absorbed my appraisal skill though." Komer explained as he began to demonstrate this new skill of his, and his eyes just so slightly changed by turning the coloring of his iris just a slight bit golden. It was nothing that you would immediately notice, though, only when you took a closer look.
"For raw materials, I can see a more definite worth for it, but for finished items just a rough estimate. But that's not the only thing I can do. I also turned into a change machine." He chuckled as he then deactivated his new skill and grabbed one of the gold coins in his pocket, placing it down on the worktable before pressing his palm onto it.
Slowly, as Komer poured his elemental magic into the coin, the young merchant raised his hand, revealing that the gold coin changed into a large pile of silver coins.
"Huh, interesting…" Eisen muttered out, before Komer nodded with a smile, moving the coins closer to each other with both of his hands again before the pile began to shrink and there was only a single gold coin left.
"This is something pretty nifty I've been playing around with, and there's one especially useful thing. Out of one coin, I can take out 100 of the lower coin version, right? But I can also take out single coins, and that will turn the larger coin that I took it out of into something like a placeholder. It's somewhat translucent, and only I can touch it, and only when there are 100 coins in there, will it end up turning into a proper coin. And presto change-o, I managed to 'compress' everything into one of these placeholder platinum coins." He explained, taking out a coin that was, as Komer had described, slightly translucent before he then pushed the gold coin in his other hand onto the coin and combined them.
"Continually doing this is kind of tiring, actually… Xenia took me into the Dungeon with her the other day, so I leveled up a little bit. Not much, but enough so that I can at least keep up my element for a while with my new Wisdom stat." Komer told Eisen before the old man slowly nodded.
"Interesting. Well, that sounds just about right for the magic of a merchant. So you only have one coin with you right now?" Eisen asked him before Komer slowly nodded.
"Yeah, exactly. It's extremely convenient because I don't need to look for coins in my bag. Before now, we were keeping most of our money in the small hidden nooks and crannies around the carriage, and the rest was divided up between everyone, with me keeping the majority. I was always a little worried about thieves, but now I don't need to. Because nobody beside me can touch this right now, thieves can't either. Well, there's probably a bunch of ways to, but this is a lot harder to steal than normal." Komer explained, before Eisen slowly nodded.
"I'll make you something to keep the coin in safely, having your large purse is useless now, isn't it?" Eisen said with a smile as he stood back up to grab a small piece of wood and his carving knife before quickly starting to work on a small wooden box for Komer, as the Merchant continued talking about the possibilities of his element.
"But you see, I was thinking about something. I already mentioned the problem of the many different coins I needed to carry around with me until now, right? Obviously, other people will have that problem as well, if not even more. And at some point, you said you'd get an ability to use other people's skills to enchant stuff, so once you do, should we try to make an item that can use my element to compress people's coins into one?" Komer suggested as Eisen stopped carving the box for a short second to think about that idea.
"If I'll be honest, that sounds like a great idea. Until then, I'm sure I can lower the size of Soul Generators or even find a new way to power enchantments autonomously, so it could end up being pretty small." Eisen answered, as he then continued carving the small, flat box with a simple wooden hinge and lock, large enough to hold just a single coin.
"Here you go, use that for now. I'll make something better and safer at some point, but that should be more easy to use than your purse for now." He told him as Komer slowly nodded, and the two of them, plus Caria and Melissa, made their way out of the carriage. With a strict face, Eisen then looked at the two little girls he was carrying around right now.
"And, you two, I'm going to ask Xenia to help you with your magic later. You still haven't reached Rank 2 in Magic Manipulation, for some reason." He told them, as both of them quickly nodded. Eisen was slightly confused as to why their skill proficiency wasn't rising all that much anymore. After all, they were using mana quite a lot, weren't they? Maybe Xenia had some idea as to what the cause could be, and if not, then they would simply need to keep going and see what happened in the future.
Now, the group made their way back to the Inn, because Eisen got a message from Jyuuk that everyone had gathered in the restaurant for breakfast, including the last member of the Originals that Eisen was yet to meet, Brody.
Last time they talked, he seemed somewhat overly excited and aggressive, so Eisen was curious about what he was really like, after all, it was quite apparent that Brody was just a bit nervous, at least from Eisen's perspective it was quite easy to see.
So, when Eisen, Komer, and the two tamed monsters entered the restaurant, the old man took a look around and noticed the four people he was looking for sitting at a table in the corner, while the others were seated at another table. As such, Eisen asked Komer to take Caria and Melissa with him to sit at a different table, so that the five originals could talk amongst themselves.
After seeing the old man approach, Jyuuk and Brody quickly stood up to greet him after not seeing him for a while. Once Jyuuk and Eisen swiftly said hello, the old man looked at Brody, who was, as expected, a lot calmer than the last time they met.
"Nice to see ya again, Eisen." He said in a respectful tone, before Eisen himself slowly nodded as he began to smile lightly.
"Likewise, Brody." He responded before Eisen looked to the side and saw three unfamiliar people sitting next to Eisen's group. First, a healthy young man with dark green skin and somewhat awkward proportions, as in a larger head, feet and hands than usual, and slightly pointed ears.
Then, there was one person that was apparently one of the Demon race, and he was built quite tall. He had a large tower shield leaning against the wall behind him and was wearing parts of heavy armor, while his horns ended up flattening down and somewhat covered the sides of his face.
And next to that large man sat a woman with pure white hair and black eyes, wearing a robe that seemed made of different plants that were woven together, at least outwardly so. Eisen couldn't tell what her race was, but it didn't seem like she was human.
"Are those three your companions?" Eisen inquired, before Brody looked at the three people the old man was talking about. "Two of 'em are, yeah. The big guy is Horan and the lady there is Jiina. The other kid belongs to Jyuuk though, doesn't he?" Brody said as he turned to look at the monkey standing next to him, who swiftly nodded.
"Yes, and you have met him before, isn't that right, Gobu?" Jyuuk said with a smile before the green-skinned man perked his head up as he heard his name being called, before jumping up with a smile as he saw the old man that saved his life. With a bright smile, Gobu then stood in front of Eisen, unsure of what to do, before looking at Jyuuk standing behind him and remembering what he was taught.
Quickly, Gobu slammed his upped body forward and bowed to Eisen as to say 'Thank you'. And now, Jyuuk began telling Eisen a bit more about Gobu.
"After I left Ornier, I kept Gobu outside for a bit longer because his injuries still weren't properly treated, and he still seemed pretty unhealthy no matter what I gave him to eat or drink, but then he began helping me fight some monsters. And the more he leveled up, the healthier his body became. He kept growing, and his stats naturally improved beyond what should have been possible with regular level-ups." Jyuuk explained with a smile, placing his hand on the boy's head.
"My theory is that his body had simply degraded over-time after spending so long in those cages in the monster shop and that the level ups mainly fixed him after some time. Either way, he's doing pretty well now, and he's picking up a few useful skills quite quickly." The Monkey-Beastperson explained before Eisen smiled brightly at Gobu.
"Well then, I'm glad that you're doing better now, kid." With a kind of happiness that one could only understand after feeling it, Eisen sat down next to the other originals at the corner table, as Gobu returned to the table with the other companions where he was sitting at before, as the five originals began talking in a group for the second time ever.