Eisen looked at the space in front of him and raised his brows. This seemed pretty interesting, really. The old man stepped inside of the storage space and could feel the texture of the floor changing to the wood that this space was made of.
Even when Eisen extended his hands toward the walls, they were really there, as if he had just placed this box somewhere in the open. It seemed a little bit unwieldy, though. Maybe Eisen could play around with this some more later.
For now, the old man grabbed a mana crystal out of his apron and placed it onto the ground before stepping back out of the storage space. He quickly made it close, and the 'Box' shrunk down until it disappeared from Eisen's sight within just a moment, taking the mana crystal with it.
When Eisen opened the material storage again, the mana crystal was in the same spot that it was when Eisen closed it.
"Whoa, that's so cool!" Caria exclaimed excitedly as she tried jumping into the box, "Close it again!" She yelled out, and Eisen looked at her with a light smirk and shook his head.
"Seems like I cant, sorry." The old man told her, and the Myconid stepped back out of the material storage and with a disappointed sigh.
"Who knows, maybe in a couple of ranks I can store you as well?" Eisen suggested, which weirdly enough seemed to cheer Caria up.
For now, Eisen just smiled and cracked his knuckles. "Then I guess I should place whatever materials I may need in here, huh?" The old man suggested, before Sigurd appeared right next to him.
"But why? I'm usually there, right?" The core guardian pointed out, and Eisen swiftly nodded his head, "Exactly. 'Usually'. But that also only applies when we're travelling. For example, the dungeon has been near this town for a couple weeks now, so you've been here only half the time when you chose to close it down every once in a while. This is just in case you're not around sometime."
The old man pointed out, and Sigurd slowly nodded its head, simply because it agreed with what Eisen was saying even if it didn't necessarily like it somehow. Eisen looked around and made his way over toward the storage sections of this workshop, quickly throwing in a couple of different types of metal, cloth, leather, wood, and of course gems and crystals, literally stacking everything up to the roof.
Luckily, it seemed like when Eisen actually something into this space, it couldn't drop out of it through the wall that wasn't there as long as Eisen didn't want it to. And on top of that, Eisen could even choose which walls were there. For example, he could completely close the whole thing down, or he could remove all of the walls, including the floor and roof, and just have the materials loosely flow around.
For now, Eisen chose to play around with this a little, and made the box float around a bit so that it was completely closed again, before placing it down regularly on the ground.
And then, he removed the floor and said that it was fine if all the materials left the box, and then just pulled the box up. Of course, like this, all the materials that Eisen gathered just toppled over and spread out on the floor, but at least the old man knew that it could be used this way.
Afterward, there was something else that Eisen wanted to test out. He noticed it a little bit before, but Eisen could apparently make the box move through the walls and floor, and then open it there. Eisen pushed the box against the wall and made it move through all the way until the limit. And it seemed like the limit was until the side of the box that was facing Eisen was aligned with the wall.
And now, Eisen couldn't remove any of the other walls either, but when he slightly pulled the box out, the parts of the box that weren't 'inside' of the wall could be removed anyway. Since Eisen placed the box right next to the door, he stepped outside for a second, but noticed that the box didn't actually stretch out through the other side. So, a bit disappointedly, Eisen had to give up on the idea of using this ability to walk through walls.
But then, Eisen chose to try something else and then pushed the box into the ground while just keeping the top open. Like this, he could just move the box around and gather up all the materials that he spread out on the ground beforehand. It was actually pretty satisfying, somehow.
With a light smile on his face, Eisen placed the material storage box away. For now, he figured it was as good a time to get to bed as any. He played around with this a bit now, and he would be able to play around with it some more tomorrow when they reached that giant tree that Komer mentioned. It seemed like tomorrow, Eisen would get a pretty great chance to level his woodcutting skill up.
For now, Eisen simply chose to let the monster children get in their beds for tonight and then logged off.
The next morning, Eisen woke up and pretty quickly stretched himself, making some of his bones make cracking sounds in response. Eisen quickly made his way over toward the door and walked out into the hallway. It was pretty early right now, but Eisen could already hear voices from the main living area. It was the day where Folmirra, Denmir, Jekyll, Morrom and Gralmar, together with all of their families, would make their way to the islands after all.
The ship apparently arrived a little bit before sunrise, and the shipments on it had to be taken off it before others would need to be loaded onto it before passengers could board it. But even then, it made sense that everyone got up early on the day of their departure.
"Good morning, everyone." The old man said to them, and the greeting was quickly returned by the others.
"Now then, are you all excited to see what the islands are like?" Eisen asked them, and was quickly met with mixed reactions. The adults did seem especially excited, although it seemed like the older children weren't necessarily that happy about it. That even included Koro, Eisen's formed apprentice.
"Some of 'em are worried, because it's just a 'boring island', as they say." Denmir pointed out, and Eisen lightly raised his brows and looked at Morrom, who just shrugged. It seemed like Koro was annoyed for another reason.
"You know, those islands aren't boring at all. The place you're going for is partially inhabited by Guardians like Sigurd," Eisen started and then pointed his thumb to his right before the Core Guardian appeared out of thin air and just waved at everyone, "and then partially inhabited by a couple different humanoid monsters like Goblins, Kobolds, Lizardmen, and so on."
This revelation slightly surprised everyone, and everyone's families stared at Eisen confusedly, "Ah... they didn't mention that?" The old man muttered with a wry smile as he looked at the others, and immediately, Denmir's son jumped up from where he was sitting and crossed his arms as he approached Eisen.
"What the hell?! You're tellin' me that we're gonna live in a place infested with stinkin' monsters? The fuck's with that?!" He exclaimed, although he was immediately pulled backward by Denmir.
"What the fuck do ya think yer doin'? Don't speak to 'im like that!" The father scolded, even if the son didn't seem all that convinced to stop just yet.
"Why should I? There's no reason for us to-"
"Listen here, boy." Eisen said with a light smile as he stared down at the young man with a deep glare, "With the exception of my two apprentices, not a single member of my direct party is a full 'person'. I'm a half-monster. These three are full monsters. A beautiful young ghost is currently sleeping in the amulet around my neck. Sigurd, who you just saw, is a golem. Fafnir is obviously part dragon. Then there's the five half dragons, one of which is my grandson together with his squires. And not to mention the two fey-kin that are sitting right behind you."
Confusedly, the young man looked at the others behind him and tried to figure out what he was talking about, and just saw Sal staring at him. The boy simply smirked, and for a moment flashed his six spider-like eyes that were usually closed and nearly invisible to the naked eye. Denmir's sun slightly shivered and took a step back, but Eisen just sighed.
"I'm not telling you this so you feel threatened by us. I'm telling you this so you understand that just because someone is a 'monster', doesn't mean that they're something to be innately feared. You shouldn't trust all monsters, but a good many of them are just like people." Eisen explained to him, and then slightly scratched the back of his neck as he stood back up properly.
"I'm pretty sure that the majority of them should know how to speak a bit by now, even if it's just in broken sentences." Eisen explained, "They work, they have families, and they live regular lives. At least now that the town has been reconstructed properly. They're even seen as proper citizens of the town through the town core placed there."
Eisen kept explaining to everyone why the monsters there were really no threat in the slightest, and that the main purpose of those in the town was to make sure that others were safe, especially when it came to new arrivals like these guys, who were far weaker in strength compared to these innately powerful monsters.
After a while, they seemed to be mostly convinced, even if Koro's mood was still incredibly sour. He wasn't mad because of the monsters, after all, but instead still pissed off because of the fact that he had to come with Eisen to that island after all, even after the old man threw him out.
Eisen understood that Koro may be pissed about that, but Eisen still was of the opinion that it was completely justified. And it seemed like Koro was growing pretty well under Morrom. Morrom had similar chaotic energies as Koro did when it came to work, and since Morrom seemed to have perfected the art of containing damage from failed items, Eisen was completely convinced that he was the perfect teacher for Koro.
He may not be able to see it just yet, but hopefully in the future. A future that would start on the islands.