"Hmm, are you sure that Koro actually went here..?" Sky asked with a slight frown, and Eisen just nodded his head in response. "Yes, I'm positive. I put an enchanting on the letter I gave Koro that you need to be very specific with to activate it, and you usually wouldn't see it either. It was activated a week or two after Koro left, and sent me a small 'signal' to a receiver so that I could know it was actually activated." Eisen pointed out with a wink. Of course he would try to make sure he knew whether or not Koro finally listened to him for once.
Of course, there was always the possibility that Koro somehow managed to find and figure out the enchantment himself, but the old man doubted that, really. There was little reason for him to try and do so, after all.
The activation of the enchantment required proper research of it, although a Grandmaster such as Morrom should have been able to figure it out with a glance, and it would reveal its purpose. So except if Koro really went rogue and wanted to throw Eisen off, the old man figured he should really have found his way here.
And in order to confirm that, Eisen hurriedly made his way over toward <Everything Magic>, although especially this shop was really swarming with people, it seemed.
It made sense, considering that this was the only Magic-Item-Based Shop in the whole town, and Magic was most likely the most interesting topic for any players. And so, Eisen figured he should try his best to just get through there without any trouble. And Eisen also had a pretty good idea for that as well, turning toward Bree with a smile on his face, before properly explaining the 'plan' that Eisen had to get rid of these players.
He managed to inspect all of them properly, and most of them seemed to be relatively low-leveled, so Eisen figured there was a pretty good bait he could go for. "Alright, you got what you have to say?" The old man asked, and Bree nodded her head with a bright smile and extended her hand forward to give him a thumbs-up as she stepped into the shop and Eisen hid a little bit so that none of the players would recognize him.
And as soon as the door closed, Eisen started paying attention to what was going on in there, and soon heard Bree's voice coming from inside.
"Hello! Are there any Artificials here? There's someone down at the mines that's giving out quests to every artificial that's there! A Level 20 Craftsman took it, and instantly jumped to Level 100! It was super cool!" She exclaimed, and considering her personality, it wasn't hard for her to pretend to be extremely excited.
It wasn't really the most well thought-through plan Eisen had come up with so far, but he doubted that at this early stage of the game, players would consider not listening to an NPC in such a situation.
And to his luck, he knew people pretty well, because soon a literal horde of players ran out of the door and down the spiral to find whoever this young girl was just talking about. Not all of them fell for it, or rather they were more hesitant, but it still made it easier for Eisen to go into the shop without being recognized by anyone, and most get a chance to talk to Morrom in a quiet environment.
Just like that, the very moment that Eisen heard a surprised Dwarf-Elf Halfling yell Bree's name, the old man stepped through the door and smiled broadly. "Not only her, buddy." The old man said with a grin, making Morrom just stare at him excitedly.
"You're back already! I didn't expect you this soon!" Morrom exclaimed, and Eisen just chuckled in response as he walked forward and gave the short man in front of him a hug as Morrom himself stepped up from behind the counter.
"Well, we have some business to take care of around here anyway. Now, from the way you're speaking, it sounds like you knew we were coming. Koro got here, huh?" Eisen asked, and Morrom slowly nodded his head.
"Yup! But as you said, he's pretty troublesome sometimes... He nearly blew his worktable up with an enchantment he made... I apprecitate the help he's been, though!" The Half-Elf replied immediately as he stepped up to the door to the workshop in the back, but Eisen just slightly smirked at him. "Morrom, on one of the first days that I worked here with you, you compressed more than half of your workshop into a fist-sized ball. He's the perfect apprentice for you." The old man said, and Morrom just slightly laughed in response.
"Haha, well, it seems like he is more passionate about Magic-Based Crafting than other, more physical types of it... So I guess so. He has been helping out at the other guys' places though." He pointed out, before looking up at Eisen's face.
"Well, it seems like there's a lot to catch up on, considering how many new faces I'm seeing here, but..." Morrom added, "Koro mentioned you have two other apprentices? Where are those..?"
"Oh, nothing to worry about. After we came back from the Islands, I told them to go back to Handor for a few days. I think Koro did the same, at least I advised him to. All three of them are Orphans, so I wanted them to go see their parents' graves again before they're literally travelling and staying in places all across the continent. They should be on their way over here, though." Eisen explained, so Morrom slowly nodded his head.
"Makes sense." He said acceptingly, and then quickly stepped to the other side of the room, and Eisen could already see the young man he was looking for sitting there. "Hey, Koro, there's a guest for you." The Dwarf-Elf said with a grin on his face, and his apprentice slowly turned around and opened his eyes wide as he instantly spotted Eisen standing there.
"Eisen?!" He asked surprised as he jumped up from his work, currently grinding down some herbs, and the old man nodded with a chuckle. "Mhm, here I am. Just wanted to check up on you a little. Seems like you're doing well here." Eisen pointed out, and Koro slowly nodded in response, although he really didn't have much of a smile on his face.
"Not that you..." He muttered quietly to himself so that the old man could barely just overhear him, and Eisen raised his brows in response although Koro then swiftly shook his head. "Nevermind. Good to see you all again. But I have to get back to work, sorry..." The young man said quietly and instantly sat back down, before Morrom instantly stared at the back of his head and then at Eisen's expression.
"What happened between you two..?" He asked with a whisper, and the old man simply smiled. "I'll explain later. It seems like you're busy, no matter how much we could lure the Artificials away... How about you come to the Inn's Bar later tonight around sundown? Koro can come as well, of course, but only if he wants to. No need to force him." Eisen suggested, and Morrom slowly started scratching the back of his neck.
"Alright, sounds good. Then I hope you'll properly introduce everyone here." The Half-Elf said as he looked at the group of people behind the old man, and Eisen himself just smiled back at him.
"Of course, don't worry about that. Well, I guess I'll see you later tonight then, bud." Eisen said, just as he turned over into the direction where Koro was currently sitting. "See you later, Koro. Work hard!" He exclaimed, and then slowly stepped back out of the Workshop into the front of the shop.
"So what are you going to do for the rest of the day?" Morrom asked while he was walking the group to the door, and Eisen just smiled back at him. "We'll set up a stall and a small surprise right outside town." Eisen pointed out, "I'm sure you'll at least hear news of the latter."
And so, with a slight grin, Eisen left the Dwarf-Elf halfling standing there more than just curious, and made his way up the spiral to get to the marketplace area, which luckily was right next to the area with all of the guilds. For this town, as it was rather small and narrow, they did need a permit as well, and this time around Eisen hoped to be able to get it a little more easily than before.
To his luck, he could go right in, waited in line for a little while, and the receptionist quickly got everything to work with priority treatment because of the Prince's Seal, and then, as the others made their way to the spot that a guild worker led them to where they can set up the stall, Eisen made his way over to another guild instead, to meet some people he thought were quite nice and could fit into Prototype, at least judging from what he thought the few times he actually met them.
And so, he stepped into the still not all that busy adventurer's guild. There were a lot more people here, as expected, but in the end, Melroe was still a Crafting town that mainly drew players with crafting occupations here anyway. There were some rare and unique monsters around here though, and the Dungeon wasn't anything to scoff at either, so at least a couple of players were in here right now.
To the old man's pleasant surprise, he already saw one of the two people he wanted to speak to. Garon, the Guildmaster of Melroe's Adventurer's Guild.
"Hello there, could you possibly help me?" Eisen asked with a smile on his face as he stepped up to the young man, who turned around surprised. "Hm? Sure, what can I do for you?" He replied, and then squinted his eyes together for a moment. "Wait, aren't you that pretty impressive old guy from a while ago? The Limitbreaker?" He asked, and Eisen just nodded his head in response.
"That's me. Good that you remember me, Garon. That's because I would like to talk business with you." Eisen pointed out, but the Guildmaster just crossed his arms and shook his head.
"Sorry, I'm pretty busy right now. Please speak with one of our employees about such things." Garon replied, apparently feeling troubled by this, but Eisen quickly stopped him and pushed his hand into his pocket, before pulling out a single small coin out of it and held it in front of Garon's face.
Immediately, the Guildmaster recognized it as what it was supposed to be, and just stared at Eisen confusedly. "W-Wait, how..?" He asked, "Is that real?"
"Of course it is. Now, do you feel any more inclined to speak with me?" Eisen inquired, and Garon scratched the back of his head. "Argh, fine... Come with me, my wife is taking care of paperwork anyway, so it's good timing..." Garon sighed and turned around as he stepped up to the stairs.
On the next floor above them, they then made their way into the office, where Eisen swiftly recognized Jaz, Garon's Wife, sitting by the desk.
And the first thing that Eisen did was of course to activate his mana-sight to see if there were any troublesome devices in here, although that luckily didn't seem to be the case.
"Alright, perfect, now that I have both of you here... My name is Eisen, I am the first of the five people that Peaked in this world. My experience was taken by a certain group and then used to create the Artificials currently appearing all around this world. Now I'm undergoing to process of founding a country on the 'God Islands', and I want you two to be the heads of the Adventurer's Guild in that Country." The old man said, before either of the two could even offer him a seat or something to drink, and just when Garon was about to throw Eisen out for the ridiculous things he was spouting, a certain other person stepped through the door that Eisen sent here to scout Garon and Jaz. She was actually the one that let Eisen know about the situation with Koro as well, but he didn't really want to tell that to the others, who weren't even really aware of her existence.
"Don't worry, you two." A young woman chuckled as she opened and stepped through the door, wearing the uniform of this Adventurer's Guild, as she was a recently employed Receptionist, "I can reassure you, he is telling you the truth." Raziel the Angel said as two large wings spread out from her back.