With a satisfied expression, Eisen opened the quest information for the level-up quest to see just how much more he had to do.
[Level Up Quest – Road to 300]
[Description] You have reached level 299 and as such, have gained the right to work toward reaching level 300. These are your requirements as calculated by your actions so far:
-Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Enchanting and Alchemy Skills at Rank 5 (true)
-Racial Skills at Rank 5 (true)
-Occupation Skill Crafting Space at Rank 5, Crafter's Mind at Rank 4, Ego-Item Creation at rank 3 (true)
-Mana Manipulation, Flame of the Earth Magic at Rank 5; Mana double, mana copy at Rank 4 (true)
-Woodworking, Cooking, Drawing, Tool Connection, Soul Engineering, Farming, Mining, Masonry, Woodcutting Skills at Rank 4 (7/9)
-All Draconic Gifts at rank 4 (0/4)
-Become a King (false)
-Spend a total of 3 days in flight (true)
[Reward] Level increased to 300
[Failure] Not possible
"Hm, the four draconic gifts are all in the upper 90's for rank 3, so it shouldn't take too long to rank them up. That leaves cooking and drawing afterward. And then I just need to become a king and I'll reach level 300..." The old man muttered to himself in thought, and chose to quickly activate his truth-seeing eyes to get some more proficiency for them.
It was a bit annoying right now, since everything was black and white and incredibly blurry around Eisen, but it wasn't anything that would stop him from doing a little bit of work here and there.
And so, Eisen sat down on the ground, "Sigurd, can you give me a couple of potions? Any kind, and as many as you can." Eisen asked, and the core-guardian swiftly did just that and appeared in front of Eisen while holding a bunch of different potions. There were a handful of different kinds, and a couple dozen bottles in total after a few moments after Sigurd went to get more a couple of times.
"Thank you." Eisen said, and Sigurd quickly nodded its head, "Of course. But what do you need them for?" It asked, and the old man just smiled as he pulled the cork out of one of the bottles and poured one of the potions into a wooden bowl, "A little bit of extraction practice. Extracting the different ingredients out of potions again should be pretty efficient for leveling it up." Eisen pointed out, and Sigurd squatted down in front of Eisen.
"Ooh, nice. But you know we're close to the central island again, right? And you haven't slept in more than a day, so..." Sigurd pointed out with a bit of worry, and at that moment, Kirisho appeared in front of the two of them as well.
"You sleep less and less these days, and stretch out how long you can be up... It is a bit worrying." She pointed out, and Eisen slightly raised his head and smiled at the two of them, "It's fine. I know I'm not sleeping as much as I used to before, but it's so that I can properly rank all of my skills up. Once I'm level 300 I'll settle down for a little while anyway." The old man said, "I just need to have any sort of clue as to what I'm supposed to do next. And I'm getting that once I reach level 300." Eisen pointed out, and then looked at the bowl in front of him.
"It's just six more skills, I'll be fine until then. Don't worry, you two." The old man told them, and then held his hand over the wooden bowl and pushed his mana inside. He concentrated on all of the different materials and slowly tried to push all of them away from each other.
Soon, Eisen could see a brittle clump of plant-based powder in the bowl, as well as a small mana-crystal right next to it. Both of them kept growing while the potion lost its color and volume, just leaving behind a small bit of water after a while.
With a satisfied expression, Eisen pulled the clumped-up powder out of the bowl together with the mana-crystal and then poured the water away before moving onto the next potion. It didn't take long until Eisen managed to completely extract all the materials out of all of the potions that sigurd brought him before. He then had the core-guardian bring him as many more potions as possible, especially some of the more complex potions that had up to a dozen different materials in them in different quantities.
This was really giving Eisen's extraction skill a lot of proficiency, and he could use his truth-seeing eyes' different modes to properly assist the process of splitting everything up since he was able to see the mana properly. And as visualization also became an ability connected to truth-seeing eyes, being a visual ability, Eisen could make use of it as well to help with everything.
After all, trying to concentrate on a dozen different specific materials at once was pretty hard, so Eisen made use of his visualization to at least make it a little bit easier by assigning each of the materials in the potions a different color so that he could just try to split up the colors into their purest possible versions. This was actually a fair bit easier than trying to do the same with some sorts of powders.
At the end, when Eisen really physically couldn't continue anymore due to exhaustion, the old man had managed to gain a fair amount of proficiency for not only his extraction skill, but also his truth-seeing eyes. For now, that was great progress, but he really just had to head to bed now.
---
Benjamin pushed himself up inside of the capsule and opened it up, making the light flood into his face. He quickly stepped out of the capsule and rubbed his eyes a bit to get rid of the slight stinging feeling in them after he just looked basically directly into the light, and then made his way toward the door.
Benjamin pulled it open and then stepped outside into the hallway before heading directly into the bathroom in front of him. The old man brushed his teeth and took a quick shower before looking at himself in the mirror. Over the last little while, Benjamin had been trying to eat more, get a bit of a simply workout routine in. He couldn't do much at the moment, because he was still quite weak, but he could do enough so that he didn't look as sickly anymore.
He still was a lot thinner compared to before he first sat down in the capsule. With a slight sigh, Benjamin put on some clothes and stepped out of the bathroom before heading over toward the Kitchen, where the old man soon spotted Andrew and his wife sitting next to each other to eat something.
"Good morning." The old man said with a smile, and Andrew slowly raised his head, "Mornin'." He replied, "So, how's it going for you over there?" Andrew asked, and Benjamin thought about it for a little while.
"It's going pretty well, I just need to rank up half a dozen more skills and then we need to establish the islands as a country. After that I'll level up." The old man pointed out, even if it felt a little weird to say 'just' in that scenario, "But what about you two? How are you doing? In general, I mean."
"We're..." Andrew's wife started, "We're alright. Of course it was really hard for us the past little while, but as long as we have each other, it's going to be fine." She pointed out, and Andrew slowly wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her toward himself to give her a light kiss on the head, "You said it."
With a light smile, Benjamin stepped into the kitchen to pour himself some coffee all the whilst a thought popped into his head, 'After all that time, he deserves to have someone like that'. It was a thought that appeared in his head instantaneously, and the moment after it did, Benjamin knew that it wasn't his own thought either.
Rather, it was Eisen's. Of course, it wasn't like it was a bad thought. Benjamin and Eisen alike were genuinely happy that Andrew had such an amazing and strong wife. Eisen's thoughts usually aligned with Benjamin's own, but they were just from a different perspective. They included details that Benjamin may know about, but would never speak about in that sense.
That thought just now was completely filled with Eisen's emotions, someone who saw Brody have to be alone for a hundred thousand years. And Benjamin really felt those emotions connected to the thoughts, so he knew it wasn't his own.
These kinds of things happened every once in a while. Benjamin managed to get a clearer and clearer grasp on the mind of Eisen, even if there was never anything specific to keep hold of. And he wasn't able to control it either. Whenever Benjamin tried to force some kind of knowledge that Eisen used to have to come to him, nothing happened. But in random moments where Benjamin was happy to be himself, Eisen came through.
That was the only thing that didn't change whether Benjamin was in this world or the other. Eisen always came through every once in a while, and Benjamin didn't notice any change between those places.
For now, Benjamin tried to chase Eisen's thoughts away and poured himself a cup of coffee and then made his way into the livingroom to turn on the TV a bit, "You two don't mind, do you?" The old man asked, and both Andrew and his wife shook their heads, saying they were fine with him turning it on.
The channel that the TV was on most of the time lately was the 'World of Magic' news channel, and the same was the case right after turning it on. And it seemed like it was rather perfect timing as well. Because the scenery of the news-shot was one that Benjamin knew quite well, and the news connected to that shot really were not good ones.
"We're in Melroe, a small dwarven mining town right at the Dwarven country's border. A few weeks ago, players gathered here to meet one of the four Grandmaster Craftsmen that lived here. But all of a sudden, they just disappeared. They sold their workshops and are heading off to live somewhere else." The reporter started, "This mysterious event drew many new players here that were searching for clues. One of them found an intriguing clue. At the top of one of the mountains overlooking Melroe, a dragon built its nest. Is it the reason for the Grandmasters' disappearance? Were they too scared to keep living in this town, and chose to move somewhere else? This is what many are thinking, and are now gathering together for World of Magic's very first large-scale Raid. Tomorrow at 8pm PST, they will attempt slaying that dragon in the hopes of getting the Grandmasters to return."