"So if all the red notifications are about people we need to meet or places we need to go, then we'll have to go to those places alone?" Xenia asked with a light frown, and Eisen slowly thought about it, "Let's say that's so, then... My guess would be that we'll have to go to each of our homecountries? For example, for me it would be area belonging to the Fire Giant King. For Brody it might be somewhere in the wastelands where Orcs usually live, for Jyuuk in the Beastman forest, for Evalia in the human country, and for you, Xenia, it should be in the north-east of the central continent in the High-Elves' town." Eisen pointed out, "For all of you, it shouldn't be an issue to get there. The only one that needs to be really, really careful is me, because I'll be completely underleveled over there."
"Yeah, but you do have your size-change ability and Askr, so maybe it won't be too bad after all?" Jyuuk suggested, "The only real reason why the monsters in the giant country have a higher level recommendation is because they're far bigger than normal. I'm pretty sure when compared to the actual giants living there, the level recommendation should be pretty much what a normal monster of that rank would be for us."
Eisen slowly raised his brows in thought as he started running his fingers through his beard, "That definitely sounds right." The old man pointed out, "I think we should just consider it a possibility for now. We wouldn't have headed off right away anyway, we'd still need to wait for Xenia and Evalia to reach level 300 as well. Until then, maybe we can figure out a little bit more about the red notifications."
"So..." Evalia then started, seemingly wanting to speak about something else as well, now that it seemed like that part of the conversation was over, "We can found a country now, huh?"
"Seems so." With a light smirk, Xenia crossed her legs after sitting down and leaned back a little, "Pretty exciting, actually."
The group was currently sitting inside of the dungeon's first-floor restaurant and bar area, and Brody slowly stood up and made his way behind the actual bar. He looked around a bit before finding a nice, cold bottle of Whiskey that Eisen made some time ago.
"Sounds like something worth a bit of a drink, eh?" The Demon-Orc said with a broad grin on his face, revealing his tusks even more than usual. He quickly grabbed five glasses with his other hand and brought them over to the table where the five originals were sitting together, before pouring the whiskey in those five glasses.
"You just say that because you want an excuse to drink." Evalia accused, and Brody looked at her before slowly closing his eyes and starting to chuckle, "What are you talking about, Evalia? I'm an adult man currently living in a cellar filled to the brim with alcohol, I don't need an excuse to drink." Brody said, before quickly downing the first glass of whiskey instantly and pouring himself a new one, "I have every reason to drink at literally any point in time." He added, continuosly keeping up a soft smile.
Although, that smile quickly stopped when Eisen gave him a light slap over the back of his head, "Hey, don't down whiskey like some cheap liquor." The old man said with a glare, and Brody just laughed and dropped onto his chair.
With a slight smile, he looked at Eisen and then at the others around the table, "Hah, right, sorry 'bout that. But seriously, I think having a drink here might be pretty good, right? I mean, it's something amazing to become a King just like that. And sure, this was something set up by Samuel, but-"
"Wait." Eisen interrupted, "It wasn't really set up by Samuel, was it? Sure, he gave us the information that there were islands here, but in the end, he didn't give us any direct help. He never had the ability to actually influence things here like that." The old man pointed out with a light frown on his face as he slowly picked up his glass.
"Huh, yeah, fair enough." Brody replied, "Did he actually help us at all? The 'benefits' he gave us were all crap, right? They were all things gained as natural consequences of losing our experience."
"And Eisen was the one that came up with that, right?" Jyuuk muttered in thought, "I mean, he was seemingly obsessed with finding out how to create artificial life, so I doubt anyone else could have found a method before him."
"But why, actually? Why was this place turned into a game in the first place? They could have just gone ahead and used it as some sort of base for research. They could have literally made a hundred thousand years of scientific progress in a day. But they chose to make a game...?"
"It absolutely doesn't make sense." Xenia agreed with Evalia, before Eisen immediately interrupted them.
"Stop. Stop talking about this. Sorry, I know I brought it here in the first place, but I really don't like this topic somehow." Eisen pointed out. It was like he was rejecting this topic with his whole body. Grinding his teeth together, tensing up all over the place, pushing his nails into his arm... Eisen really wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he knew that they couldn't keep speaking about this.
[Material Growth has reached level 100 in Rank 3, upgrading to rank 4]
Far, far earlier than Eisen expected, this notification appeared in front of Eisen, leaving literally only one task to be completed to get him to level up to level 300.
But somehow, Eisen couldn't get happy about this, he just still felt that seething anger from before that made him want to reject the topic from before so badly.
"Since when've you been scratching yourself like that..?" Brody asked, and Eisen's anger suddenly disappeared as he looked at the Demon-Orc.
"What do you mean?" Eisen replied. With the glass in his hand, Brody simply pointed at Eisen's chest, "You've been scratching your chest every once in a while now. For a couple weeks, actually. And in a pretty aggressive way too, as if you wanted to rip yourself open or something."
"...Have I really?" The old man asked, and the others immediately nodded, "Yeah, it's like you mentioned with us before... It's just one of Eisen's habbits. With Brody it's his obsession with his horns and tusks, for me it's when I wiggle with my ears, with Jyuuk it's when he moves his tail around in different ways depending on his mood, and with Evalia it's that she sometimes randomly starts whistling some sort of tune."
Eisen slowly raised his brows and took a sip of his drink, "I really didn't even notice. Have I really been doing it for that long?"
"Yeah, I think so. I first noticed it only when we were on the ship though." Evalia pointed out, "At the same time you were speaking about how one of your skills ranked up or something."
Immediately, Jyuuk nodded his head, "Right, yeah. When we were at the farming plot you did that after ranking up your farming skill as well."
"And I just ranked up my Material Growth skill... Guess it's just some kind of habit I had when ranking up a skill in the past. Maybe it had to do with some kind of ability I had then." Eisen pointed out, "That's a pretty weird feeling though, having a habit you don't even know about." The old man slightly laughed, and Jyuuk loudly groaned.
"You can say that again, I was actually so embarrassed when I found out about the thing with my tail. If I don't specifically think about not doing it, there's no way that I can stop it..." Jyuuk pointed out, and Xenia just smiled at him, "Hehe, I think it's actually pretty cute, you know? That you're actually a pretty bad liar."
"I'm not a bad liar! This body is, sure, but I'm actually a pretty good liar."
"Oh really? Did you lie to me before?" Xenia asked with a light grin as she looked at Jyuuk, who just froze up immediately while trying to find some kind of way out of this. But before he knew it, Xenia's eyes ran down toward Jyuuk's back end, and she raised her brows surprised, "Oh, you just wanted to lie to me? Come on, tell me, what were you about to say?"
"...I'm not getting out of this, right...?"
"No you're not~." The High-Elf said with a light smirk, and the mood was finally lifted a bit more again after Eisen brought it down a notch like that.
---
"Alright, so just like normal, I have to pour my mana inside? No special methods?" Eisen asked as he turned toward Prototype's Town Guardian Serio, who simply quickly nodded his head.
"Yes, just like with any sort of core. Now that you fulfill the requirements, it should be properly activated and guide you through the process." Serio explained, and Eisen slowly nodded his head. He placed his hand onto the large crystal in front of him inside of this large underground room.
"So that's a country core...?" Morrom asked curiously. After the group had met back up with them here in the town, they came with them to watch Eisen actually make a country, and Morrom took more than a slight interest in all the enchantment-based processes in this place.
Eisen slowly pushed his mana right into the country core with a slight laugh, "Yeah it is, Morrom."
[You have fulfilled all requirements to form a country led by your Guild <World's Peak>]
[In order to form a country, you need the agreement of all still existing founding members of the Guild <World's Peak>]
"You guys, come here and pour your mana inside as well." Eisen said as he looked at the other four originals, who quickly did as Eisen asked them to and placed their hands onto the country core before pushing their mana into the large crystal.
[With the agreement of all founding members, you have formed a country]
[As the Guildmaster, you will be assigned as King]
[As founding Members, Xenia, Jyuuk, Brody and Evalia will be assigned as Dukes and Duchesses]
[Are you sure you want to form a country?]
"Yes." Eisen said immediately before another notification replaced the rest.
[Name your country]
"Asgard."
[You have formed the country <Asgard> under the guild <World's Peak>]
[You are now the King of <Asgard>]
[King of <Asgard> title gained]
[The <Draconic Demon Transformation> ability has been affected by your royal nature. It is now the <Draconic Demon King Transformation>]