"You're the one that made it...?" The barkeeper asked confusedly, and Eisen slowly raised his head again and placed his hand down onto the table, realizing that something he didn't actually want to say slipped out just now, "Nevermind that. Just bring me that bottle. If you say it's not really worth that much, then there's no reason not to sell it to me for this price, is there?" The old man pointed out, and the barkeeper slowly nodded his head.
He turned around and made his way into the back room, a couple minutes later coming back out with a small, purple-tinted glass cube, which he then placed onto the table.
"The Liquor is in here. This is a special spacial item." The barkeeper explained to Eisen, who slowly nodded his head and poured his mana into the cube, before it slowly started to fold open as if it was just a hollow box. But instead of just staying flat, it kept folding open before it turned into a 50 centimeter-diameter disc.
And out of that disk slowly rose a glass bottle with a light blue tint, in the shape of a dragon's leg.
"Is this it?" Eisen asked, and the barkeeper slowly stared down at it confusedly before nodding his head, "Yeah, it is, but how did you open it..? You're supposed to recite a spell while you do..." The barkeeper explained, but Eisen just slightly shrugged in response as he looked at the draconic leg in front of him.
"Really? What is the spell?" The old man asked, and after thinking for a while, he went into the back-room again, seemingly not having it perfectly remembered after all, and then came back outside.
"The Dragon King calls upon you, calls upon you so. The time is prime, the time is now, the time is ever, the time is never." The barkeeper explained, and Eisen slightly raised his brow in response to hearing that 'spell', "Really? That's the spell that was supposed to open it up?"
"It is, that's how we were able to confirm it, anyway." The Barkeeper explained, and Eisen slowly raised his brows as he looked at the bottle, trying to inspect it.
[Dragon Liquor]
[Quality – Perfect][Rank – 7]
[Description] A Bottle of Liquor made by the Dragons. It was created in a mysterious manner.
It has been gifted to the town founded by the third that peaked. It has to have the option to be sold in the Inn 'Summertime's Bar. It is to be sold at the price of 2 Platinum Coins.
[Effect] <Protection of the Dragons> Ability for 24 Hours; <Dragon's Sight> Ability for 24 Hours; <Dragon's Body> Ability for 24 Hours; <Dragon's Magic> Ability for 24 Hours;
[Requirements] <Champion I> Title or above
"Hmm..." Eisen hummed quietly. Sure, it was a pretty interesting drink with seemingly great effects, but he was surprised that there were rules of how it was to be handled inside of the description. Although, just as Eisen was thinking that, something else popped up in front of him.
[A fake status has been seen through. The real status will now be displayed]
[Message in a Bottle]
[Quality – Divine][Rank – 10]
[Description] A bottle created by the ??? Eisen. The liquid inside is truly the <Dragon Liquor> of the fake status, and will have the effects as seen there with the same requirements. However, the hidden reality of this is quite different.
It is a message created by the ??? Jyuuk directed at himself. Only the ??? Jyuuk will be able to see the true message. Not even the creator ??? Eisen can learn of it on his own after.
[Effect] Receive <A Message to Myself>
[Requirements] Be ??? Jyuuk. Carry <Jyuuk's True Token>
As Eisen read through this notification, the old man started just grinning broadly, "Well, well, thanks a lot for this. I feel like giving you a little tip, even..." The old man muttered quietly, and pulled out another third Platinum coin out of his apron, handing it to the barkeeper.
"Use this to cover as much of Brak's future tab as possible. He can drink on my name for a lifetime." Eisen pointed out, simply pushing his mana back into the purple glass disc, making it fold back up while pulling the bottle back inside of it. And just when Eisen wanted to stand up, Brak grabbed his arm.
"What are you talking about? Are you really just going to waste a platinum coin like that?" Brak asked, and Eisen slowly raised his brows before nodding his head, "You're right, that is a bit of a waste, isn't it? But well, I don't really care too much. Although, I'm in a pretty good mood right now, so I'll make you an offer, since you're a friend of Jyuuk's. We're founding a country. I'm sending Jyuuk back here to explain it to you some more, but I think it might be a good idea to ask you to come with us." Eisen pointed out as he pushed the glass cube into his apron, and then just left, leaving the waitress, barkeeper, and bear-beastperson guard utterly confused.
When Eisen left the Inn again, Sigurd and Fafnir had already prepared the carriage so that they could leave, so Eisen immediately got on Fafnir's back while all the others were in the carriage, even the three monster children, and Kirisho slowly appeared sitting in front of Eisen.
"What is it that made you so excited in there?" She asked him confusedly, and the old man rode Fafnir over to stand right next to the carriage so that he could explain it to everyone at once, "I think that we originals before we lost our experience left messages to ourselves in the places we ended up waking up. I just found Jyuuk's. I'm letting the others know immediately to get their own messages, and I'll ask Jyuuk to see if he can find mine in Melroe." The old man told them, and Sky looked at Eisen with a curious frown, "And what made you THIS excited about it?" The Fey-Kin boy asked, and the old man just smiled back at him.
"I don't know, really. I just felt like this was a new clue. We've been trying to figure things out for a while now, so getting new things like this is pretty nice in my opinion." Eisen pointed out to them, and it seemed like nobody could really say much against that.
But there was something else that Eisen noticed on top of just that message, "And the thing it, the message is inside of a bottle shaped like a dragon's leg. But the upper side has a rather weird, angular shape, so I think it can slide into other parts. When we have all five messages, I think we can put some kind of figurine together out of them." Eisen explained, "I think that's going to be pretty important as well."
"But why did you make it so complicated?" Morgus asked from inside the carriage with a deep frown, "Don't you already have that puzzle box that you need all five of you to open? Couldn't you have just placed those messages in there?"
"Probably, yes." Eisen pointed out, "But there were surely reasons behind not doing that. We'll see when we manage to open the puzzle box." The old man explained, and then looked down at Fafnir, rubbing the dragon's back.
"You ready for the trip, bud? Sorry that you won't be able to sleep that much." Eisen told him, and with a quiet groan, he simply started walking forward toward the town's exit.
And so, Eisen and his group got started on making their way toward Ornier again.
---
Seven in-game days later, a huge crowd had gathered just outside of the walls of Ornier. Thousands of players, amongst them some from the official 'World of Magic' news station, while others were simply trying to record or stream this even for views.
And in the center of the huge crowd of people stood three people. One of them, a tall-built, bearded, muscular man in thick metallic armor. And the other two, standing on the opposite side of the field, had bright red hair and confident expressions. One of them wore extravagantly decorated gauntlets and armor, while the other simply carried a large staff twice his height while wings of light spread out from his back.
Just when the crowd started to seemingly get a bit bored of just watching the two parties stare each other down, a man stepped up inbetween them and announced an official duel between these men.
And from a distance, Eisen was watching this all unfold, unable to properly contain his laughter.
"Is it really that funny?" Evalia asked him with her brows raised, and Eisen just nodded his head, "Of course it is, just look at that ridiculous fake of me. Why are so many people just wearing armor that's obviously just made for decoration?" The old man chuckled, and Evalia looked at him surprisedly.
"Aren't those gems and stuff just there for enchantments?" She asked, but Eisen immediately shook his head, "If all those gems were enchanted, then a warrior wouldn't be able to feed them enough mana for even a minute. And sure, it works as an armor anyway, but the focus was made on using expensive, not durable materials. They obviously just want to make people think the armor is something amazing, to make the effect of seeing him beaten even greater." Eisen explained to her, and Stahl looked into the distance with a deep sigh as he walked up to his grandfather.
"Sounds about right. That's what we've figured as well, at least." The young man pointed out, still wearing his disguise that he was using to trick Merc and Cial, and then looked back at his grandfather, "So, what's your plan?" Stahl asked, and Eisen just lightly smiled back at him.
"I don't really have a full plan, per se. I'm just going to use this chance to fulfill one point that I need to become a True Demon." The old man pointed out, "Those should be more than five thousand people, right?"
"Definitely. A bit more than that I'd say, even."
"Perfect." Eisen smiled, and slowly increased his size to the maximum while activating his demonic transformation.
"They should be trying to fake the duel to stretch it out a bit, right?" The old man asked just to make sure, and Evalia siwftly nodded.
And so, excited to show those two how weak they really were again, Eisen jumped down from the wall and used his wings to keep his body as elevated as possible as he tried to fly over there. Over the past week, he had been practicing to try and keep himself to float in place for a while, and now he managed to at least do that pretty well now.
With that, Eisen just started to float high above the crowd, ready to drop down at any moment.