"So we really killed the Island Boss by stuffing it into a big-ass bottle?" Brody asked with a wry smile, and Eisen slowly nodded his head with a broad grin. "Seems like it. Well, for now, it just has to stay like this. Probably should be good enough to serve when I'm back on the mainland." Eisen muttered to himself quietly, moving his fingers through his beard as he did so. And in response to that, Jyuuk looked at Eisen surprised.
"Oh, right, you wanted to leave relatively soon, right?"
"Mhm, maybe today, even. We just need to bring this bottle to the ship, and then I should be good to go." Eisen pointed out, before closing his eyes in thought as he was doing so. "Are you four coming along as well, or do you want to increase the amount of towns we have while I'm gone?" The old man asked them, and Xenia quickly replied.
"Well, I should probably come with you at least... I still have the Trial with Bolremgar open." She pointed out, and Eisen slowly nodded his head in response. "Sounds good. What about you three?" Eisen asked.
For a little while, they continued thinking, before they came to a quick conclusion.
"If Xenia is going back, I'll go with her." Jyuuk explained swiftly, and Brody nodded his head as well. "The Island of the Combat God is the only one I really wanna go to, because there might be some interesting people or techniques to find, but it's a pretty tough Island, apparently. So I'll just get back to the mainland as well and travel there a bit more, do some quests, that kinda shiz." After the Demon-Orc spoke, Evalia also nodded her head.
"Yeah, I don't really think being here all the time does me any good either. It's not like I'm a combatist, so it should be better to just travel around in more comparatively safe areas on the mainland and complete quests for more Charisma as well... Level up my skills a bit by performing in front of people... And I was talking to Stahl as well, they all apparently want to get back to the mainland again as well." She pointed out, and especially in response to that, Eisen looked at her surprised.
"Oh, really?" He asked the young artist, who swiftly nodded her head. "Mhm. It seems like Stahl, Alnico, and Kyla started..." Evalia said, noticing that the six dragons were looking at her rather curiously as well, so she quickly came up with some way to speak around it, "Doing the same thing as Kyra and Samurai, and it seems to be going pretty well for them. But they want to go back to the Mainland, because they really haven't gotten the chance to do any quests or do things for some of the Guilds, which they all really wanted to do. I figured I could tag along at least a little bit." Evalia pointed out, and Eisen nodded his head in response.
"Sounds good. Then that means that everyone is coming along, huh?" The old man chuckled. "That's good to know. Well, we just need to let the others know that we're coming back to the central island in a few days to pick them up." Eisen suggested, before turning around with a happy grin as he looked at the giant bottle behind him.
"I bet they'll really love this one here as well, huh?" Eisen asked as he slowly placed his hand onto the giant glass-bottle, before once more looking at the Dragons in front of him. "Let's bring this to the ship first and then get back to town, alright?" He suggested, and the Dragons slowly nodded their heads, happy that all of this would be over soon.
---
After the Steel Dragon finally let the bottle down onto the giant ship, the group immediatly moved on back to town so that they could pick up everyone that they needed to and then return with the help of the carriage, and possibly a bit of a Dragon-Escort through the different 'Territories' of town that the Paladin Half-Dragon spoke about on their way to the village after they first got to the island.
But once they arrived there, Eisen was met with a bit of a surprise.
"You... Want to stay here?" The old man asked as he looked at the Half-Dragon in front of him, who swiftly replied with a nod. "Yes, but of course only temporarily." Kiron explained, "I just want to make sure that this town can progress properly, as is my duty as its Lord, and I want to learn more about my Dragon side as well. Like this, I can also properly train my new Squires as they prepare for their name-giving trial as well."
With a slightly bitter expression, the Crystal Half-Dragon explained this to his Grandfather, as well as the Lord that he swore to protect. And now just letting Eisen leave alone like that was rather the opposite, wasn't it?
"I see..." Eisen started, smiling softly as he placed his hand onto Kiron's shoulder. "Don't worry about these things. Stay here as long as you want, and then return to the Central Island. From there, you can just take one of the regular ships that will be coming back to the mainland." The old man told him, just smiling at him.
"Hmm, but you'll need to be properly prepared for that... I can make you some cloaks... And then you should be able to get to one of Komer's shops relatively easily. He should be able to give you a good, safe connection to wherever I am at the moment. Of course, we will just be able to message each other as well, because you're my Knight. Hmm..." The old man muttered quietly, starting to think about how to deal with this kind of situation the best, before Kiron quietly chuckled in response.
"Thank you for worrying so much, Grandfather. I will let you know when I am on my way to the mainland, of course." The Half-Dragon explained, and Eisen slowly nodded his head in response.
"Thank you. But still... You should be careful when coming back to the mainland. You and the others are technically monsters, after all." Eisen told him with a bit of worry, considering that the first time he met Kiron was when the Crystal Half-Dragon was sitting right in front of him in a dirty, small cage after being captured by people.
Of course, that would probably be hard to do now considering how much stronger Kiron was now than back then, and especially with the help of four more Half-Dragons, they would probably be fine. But Eisen still wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible, mainly because he didn't necessarily trust Players not to do anything against them.
So of course Eisen was worried, but as long as he could make sure they could get to Komer's shop safely, it should end up completely fine. "Alright... Then, I guess this is it, huh? We won't be seeing each other for a little while." The old man said with a soft smile, and Kiron slowly nodded his head.
"Seems like it. Do you... Want to accompany us back to the Ship?" Eisen asked the Half-Dragon, who just slowly nodded his head in response to the question his Grandfather asked him.
"I would love to, thank you." He replied, and Eisen just smiled at him.
It seemed like there wasn't necessarily all that much left to do in this town for now, so Eisen figured it would be best for them all to leave as soon as possible, because they really needed to hurry up if they wanted to get back to the Merchant Town before the regular playerbase started the game.
"Is everyone here?" Eisen asked while Fafnir was already setting up the Dungeon inside of the carriage, before everyone from the different groups slowly made their way into the carriage, with the exception of Eisen and Kiron. Although, Argonthur was also sitting right next to them on the front-bench of the carriage, because he ended up being chosen as the group's 'Escort' back to the beach. And on their way there, Eisen started trying to play around with his element a little more so that he could properly level it up for his level-up quest.
In the end, what he chose to make were relatively simple 'Path-Markers' that, as the name implied, marked a path.
This was supposed to be for new people that would come onto the island in the future, so that they were able to find a safe route through the forest as long as they entered the island from the same beach that the others did.
These 'Path-Markers' weren't that complex either, just Clay-Pillars, made from the earth part of his element, that Eisen then fast-baked with the flame part of his element. It was of course possible to miss the red-brown pillars amongst all the trees, but they should still be at least a little bit of help. Although in the end, Eisen really just made them because the creation of items using his element gave him the most proficiency in his skill out of anything that he tried so far. It cost him more mana to actually make a proper item that can be seen as an item out of his element, but it turned out fine as long as Eisen properly watched his mana and chugged down some potions whenever he ran too low.
In the roughly three hours that the group was on their way back to the beach, Eisen managed to increase his proficiency by roughly five whole levels! This was a pretty major increase, considering that this skill of his was rather stagnant in its proficiency-gain lately.
Eisen also managed to make good use of some of the Mana-Copies he made, managing to create small figures on the top of each small 'Path-Marker' to show what kind of monster was most prominent in the area.
These Markers really didn't have any other reason but to make Eisen get used to speed-building fine details with his element, though. It was rather easy to create his forges and workstations now, just because he had them saved as spells, but these pillars were all made without the use of any spell, even if he had been given the chance to turn it into one.
But it seemed like skills leveled up easier if you used them without too much assistance, so Eisen figured that he should really do it like this more often from now on.
Maybe he would be able to actually just passively level the skill up like that, then. Although, even if that wasn't necessarily the case, it would be useful practice if Eisen wanted to come up with new things that he wanted to, or could make using his element.
Although, it did seem like none of the others noticed that Eisen was even doing this, considering that he left the pillars behind the carriage each time they made their way along the path, and nobody was actually looking to the back of hte carriage, so it made sense.
Either way, soon enough, after a bit of casual conversation between Kiron and Eisen, as well as a pretty nervous Argonthur sitting right next to them, the group made their way back to the Ship and then started to haul the carriage onto that ship.
And then, only the old man and Kiron were left on the beach, while the others were already waiting for Eisen to join them so that they could get going soon. With a bright smile on his face, Eisen gave his grandson a deep hug, "See you in a little while, Kiddo." The old man told him, and Kiron slowly nodded his head.
"See you in a little while." He replied, before Eisen activated his Demonic Transformation and jumped over toward the ship, waving at Kiron while they started to depart.