The Guard turned around and led the group further into the hill. For now there was simply a bit of a tunnel beyond the door, but it seemed like there were some steps at the end of that tunnel. Eisen was actually rather surprised to see Evalia's rather simple words work so effectively. It was kind of scary what she could do with just a few words. Granted, this man's mental stats were probably not all too high so he didn't have any sort of resistance again things like charisma and general mental manipulation, but that same thing applied to the vast majority of this world's population.
Evalia seemed to be quite literally capable of controlling most people if she put her mind to it. Luckily, Evalia just wasn't that kind of person. And it wasn't like she really fully controlled this man, she simply calmed him down a little and convinced him that they were telling the truth, which they were.
They probably would have been able to do this after just a little bit of conversation with him, but this definitely sped up the process quite a bit.
The group followed the man further through the tunnel and soon stepped down some relatively simple stairs right into the space where the townsfolk now seemed to live.
And to Eisen's extreme surprise, borderlining on shock, what the old man found wasn't just a system of caves, tunnels and smaller rooms that were interconnected like an anthill or something like that, but it was a giant hollow space that was created underneath this hill. They had bright light in here and they were even able to see the sky through the ceiling of this large hollow space.
The one that made this happen was probably the same person that created the entrance with the parts that were hidden by illusion magic, or at least that's what Eisen figured for now.
Eisen expected a gloomy, dirty, dark place, but in reality it was just like this whole village had simply been built on a flat plane and let down a few dozen meters. That's all it seemed to be. There were regular buildings in here, as well as gardens, farms, workshops, houses that people lived in, and even a small school. It seemed slightly overpopulated for the space that all these people had here, but nonetheless, they turned this place into something genuinely liveable. And that just within a few years.
This was the power of the craftsmen of this island. They turned a horrible situation into one that they could easily survive. This was truly perfect.
"Jefferson, who are these people?" A man asked as he came up to the group, looking at the guard that led them inside. The guard simply smiled back at that man, who was wearing a similar set of armor to the guard, albeit a little bit more decorated.
"Ah, Sir!" The guard exclaimed, "These people said that they took over town, and that this island is now part of their country! Those are good news, right?" He pointed out.
The man that was being spoken to stared back at the guard and the group behind him with a rather hateful expression, "Part of their country? Part of their... country?" He asked, "The only country that we belong to is that of the great five that peaked! Who do you think you are to claim that you took their place after that great kingdom was disbanded?!" The man exclaimed.
Eisen was a bit surprised to hear that, and some of the others couldn't really hold back their laughter at hearing that, but the old man simply stepped up in front of the one that pointed out these facts so passionately.
He placed his hand onto the man's shoulder and slightly pressed down, "Come on, son. Let us speak somewhere more private. That sounds like a good idea, don't you think?" Eisen asked with a light smile on his face, and the man glared back at him. He noticed the obvious strength in the old man's grip and the fact that he would definitely not be able to fight back if he were to attack.
With a deep glare, the man nodded his head. It seemed like he thought that Eisen and the others were part of some sort of dictatorship, but in reality that wasn't the case at all. He probably didn't expect Eisen himself to be the king of the country in question. And it wasn't surprising that he didn't recognize them either. He seemed to be a human in his late 20's or early 30's, and it seemed like everyone amongst the originals was just travelling all over the place all the time.
Eisen figured that at least he would have ended up travelling to this island every once in a while, but it probably didn't matter if Eisen didn't have a direct reason to come here. There were two main reasons one wanted to come here.
One, as a person that wanted to have items made for them. And two, as a craftsman that wanted to get better. And Eisen and the others didn't have either of those reasons, so there was probably little reason to come here. It wasn't surprising that such a young man like this wouldn't be able to really tell who Eisen and the others were in the end.
He led the group through town, making numerous people look at them as they were doing so. It seemed like the man was going for a detour, either to buy time or to simply 'embarrass' the group amongst the townfolk, as if to show off the fact that they were not good people by hinting at the fact that they made their way in here by force.
But Eisen didn't mind. This misunderstanding would be cleared up pretty soon anyway, and like this he would have the chance to take look at all of the workshops of the different craftsmen in this town. There were quite a few skilled people here. Some were specialized on a single thing, others were working with different kinds of skills, but either way there weren't many people that didn't know how to craft things. Even children were running in and out of the workshops to play around with the materials and tools rather than toys. It seemed a little dangerous, but as there probably was someone in the workshops at any time, it would probably be fine. Eisen himself let his children play around with a few tools as well and showed them how to sew or smith if they were curious about it as long as he was there to intensely watch them do it. Luckily they were never injured.
It seemed like not only Eisen, but the four Grandmaster craftsmen and Eisen's two apprentices were more than simply curious as well. Those six were on the verge of just running off and heading to some kind of random workshop to take a look around.
Soon, the group reached a specific, rather simple workshop. There didn't seem to be anything special about it, but as far as Eisen could tell, all the items and materials in here were of the highest quality of their rank, without any sort of exception.
There were quite a few people working in here, on all kinds of different projects. This place didn't seem to be specifically meant for any kind of craftsmanship skill, but rather anything and everything that came to mind while building this place.
Most people stopped working for a bit after seeing this large group of unfamiliar people enter, but some otehrs simply continued their work undisturbed. Amongst the latter was one particular man. He seemed to be an Dark-Elf Craftsman, something you didn't actually see too often. Even for an Elf, this man seemed to be rather old, approaching the end of his life. And any sort of elf simply aged incredibly slow, so much that even once they reached the end of their biological life, they would often still look like they were in their 50's, early 60's at most. Their internal organs and processes would still fail like with 'normal' old people, but they simply looked much younger than expected. But this man physically seemed to be in his 80's or 90's, which just showed that he was an extraordinary elf.
A higher level usually meant that your lifespan naturally increased due to your stats being far higher. But those changes weren't noticable just from a couple of points, but rather from a couple hundred points. This was an extraordinary person, and everyone that was aware of how an Elf's physicality worked was immediately aware of that.
The same could be said about the man that brought them here. He probably thought that this old Dark Elf would be able to overwhelm them due to his high stats, but he, and not even Eisen and the others, really expected what happened next.
The Dark Elf slowly glanced around the room and ended up spotting the group. For a few moments, he stared at Eisen deeply, then at Xenia, then at Evalia, Jyuuk and Brody. He let go of the knife he was holding in his hand that he was using to cut a piece of leather into shape and with weak knees slowly stepped toward the group. The man next to Eisen simply smirked broadly as he slowly stepped away, thinking that the Dark Elf was shaking in anger after understanding the situation somehow.
But no, the Dark Elf approached Eisen and the others and dropped to his knees as he stared up at the old man in front of him, "Oh how wonderful it is to see you again, teacher!" He exclaimed, and Eisen immediately raised his brows in response to looking at him.
"Teacher? You were my apprentice?" Eisen asked, and the dark elf looked around at the others with a shocked expression. Eisen felt a slight shiver on his body, before the dark elf smiled broadly and let out an audible sound of glee.
"So you were able to accomplish your goal and fulfill your idea! That is wonderful, oh so wonderful! What an honor it is to be able to see you again, teacher!" The dark elf exclaimed, "Yes, I was your apprentice. One of the last you took on, and one of the last that still lives. Nonetheless, the honor of seeing you again is immeasurable." The dark elf pointed out, smiling softly. He stood back up and turned around, pointing toward a door at the back of the workshop, "Please, come somewhere where we may be able to speak amongst ourselves."
With that, Eisen slowly nodded his head and followed this elderly Dark Elf into the room he had pointed at.