Now that the Dark Elf agreed to try and convince the villagers to come to the town with him, the group chose to just take a walk around the village to see what exactly they could find here. Maybe they would be able to spot some promising craftsmen or talents that they could make use of in the town.
"But really..." Jyuuk started muttering as he looked around this place, "It feels kind of weird to call this place a village, doesn't it?"
"It does, definitely." Xenia replied to the Beastperson, "But that's just how it is. This place doesn't have a town core, so it's not an actual town yet despite obviously having the dimensions of one."
"But still, I get what Jyuuk means. From what we're used to, this is definitely a town, ain't it?" While holding his hands behind his head, Brody turned around toward the couple, "I mean, it's bigger than the place Eisen lives in right now, and that's definitely a town as well."
"The town Eisen lives in..." Sky muttered quietly, "I'd really love to see that place someday." The boy pointed out.
With a slight laugh, Kiron just came to agree with him, "Truly, being able to walk through those streets sounds fun."
"Heh..." Komer laughed slightly, "I think people are really gonna freak out if that were to happen." The merchant explained, and Kiron looked at him with a slight frown.
"Why is that?"
"Hm?" With a slightly surprised look, Komer turned toward Eisen and the other originals, "I thought they told you. We don't have things like Monsters there. And the only race of 'people' we have are Humans."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Denmir asked with a deep frown, "Why're there no others? Did humans over there kill 'veryone else?"
Eisen sighed slightly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Could we talk about this somewhere beside literally out on the streets where someone might overhear us? Asmond is literally 10 meters behind us." The old man pointed out, and the others slowly nodded their heads, before Eisen pointed something else out, "And to top it off, the only one that made that deal with Gonor was me, if any of you go and tell others about 'that side', I don't know what's going to happen."
With that in mind, Eisen slowly stopped and turned around, making his way closer to Asmond who was currently speaking to some of the villagers. He was apparently telling them the whole story, including the fact that these guys here were really the five that peaked. Some of them took a few steps back in shock or nervosity, and others were just staring right at them in disbelief.
For now, Eisen figured he should just ignore it, "Asmond, is there any free plot of land in here?"
The dark elf slowly raised his brows and then rubbed his chin to think about it, "I think we just demolished a building somewhere around the center of the village, if that's alright with you."
"That's perfectly fine. It just needs to be big enough." Eisen replied, and the others quickly understood what Eisen was talking about, although Asmond and Hephaestus were both pretty curious about why Eisen needed so much space.
Asmond led them to the right place, and Eisen quickly activated his 'scan' visual ability so that he could immediately figure out whether or not this place was large enough, and then opened his item storage. Eisen took a step inside and pulled out a small box out of a shelf made to perfectly fit these sorts of items, although most of them were empty.
Eisen made the item storage disappear while Sal quickly used his threads to pull some of the leftover rubble to the sides while Xenia flattened the ground with magic.
As far as Eisen was concerned, this spot was actually perfect to set up a shop. It was central in the village, but this place wasn't so overrun that it might get noisy, but overrun enough so that there should be a steady flow of customers coming in just out of curiosity. There were a few different similar shops and workshops here, but most of them were focused on one thing each, so a shop that dealt with basically any type of item should do well here.
With a satisfied expression, Eisen held the key-box forward and pushed his mana inside of it while twisting the key around. The boy around the key started folding open and a door appeared in front of Eisen. At that point, the old man pulled the actual key out of the door and opened it up. As he stepped inside, the floor was currently being formed and folded further open. When the others came inside as well, the large main room of the shop was already properly constructed.
Hephaestus and Asmond in particular were more than just surprised at this sight. They were practically shocked. Eisen smiled lightly as he walked up to the back of the building, the smithy. He tapped his foot on the ground a few times and waited for one of the walls to finish being constructed, and then smiled as the set of stairs appeared in front of him. Eisen walked up them and waved to the others to follow behind him.
They were now in the 'living area' of the building, and Eisen pointed toward the couches and chairs he made for this place that everyone could sit down on. Once everyone was in place, Eisen looked at Asmond first and foremost.
"Alright, now... while you were my apprentice, how much did I tell you about my origin?" The old man asked, and Asmond slightly smiled in response. He had a sharp look in his eyes, as if he had been expecting this.
"You didn't tell me much about your origin, but you told me about that bakery in your hometown at least. You said you liked their 'cinnamon rolls'." Asmond said with the corners of his mouth curled up happily. The others seemed pretty confused at that random comment, but Eisen felt something stinging him in the center of his chest.
He looked at his right hand and soon saw a layer of metal appear on his fingertips as his whole body became more stiff, "Huh? Eisen, what are you doing?" Brody asked with a frown, "We're in the middle of a conver-"
But Eisen didn't hear more than that. Instead, he found himself in that same pure black space as he did last night and had a golden sphere of light float in front of him. But right next to that golden sphere of light floated another one, just that it was a white one again.
Eisen extended his hand toward it, and soon, the white light of the sphere spread around Eisen and replaced everything else, before Eisen found himself on a simple forest road. Not too far away from him, he could hear two people speaking to each other. After Eisen approached the source of the voices, he could see the two of them, himself and a young dark elf standing right next to him.
Obviously that was the 'old' Eisen, and the other one was probably Asmond, as far as he could tell.
"So you want me to mention 'cinnamon rolls'? Why 'cinnamon rolls'?" Asmond, who physically seemed to be in his teenage years, asked.
Eisen slowly shook his head as he looked down at the dark elf, "It's not just about the cinnamon rolls. It's like a passing phrase, so say the whole thing. You can change it to fit the situation a bit more, but say something along the lines of 'You told me about that bakery from where you're from. You liked their cinnamon rolls, right?', and then I'm going to reply with 'Last time I was there, they were all out'. Then you have to say-"
"Yeah, yeah, I understand that, but I still don't understand why you want me to say that? It's so random..." Asmond pointed out with a wry smile, and Eisen sighed deeply.
"That's the point, it's supposed to be random so that other people can't guess it."
"But you have abilities that literally let you see through any kind of tricks, so why do we need a passphrase to make sure I'm the right person?"
With a deep sigh, the 'old' Eisen rubbed the bridge of his nose, "For one, because someone may pretend that they're me when talking to you. And two, because it's not about now. It's about the future. Something may happen then, and I need your help for that time. The 'cinnamon rolls' are more of a trigger than anything, a trigger to-"
But just when the old Eisen was speaking, he stopped in the middle of the sentence while Asmond froze up as if time had stopped for him, "I don't think I'll have to say anything else, now do I?" The old Eisen said as he looked at the current Eisen just standing there, watching, "Lucky you found this one so quickly. Should make it easier for you in the future. Good luck from now on as well."
And with those words, the world around Eisen started to shift around and disappear. Once more, Eisen found himself in the black space, and now had two spheres of golden light float in front of him.
Next Eisen knew it, he woke up again and noticed the others staring at him in confusion and worry, while Asmond just looked at him with a smile of satisfaction.
Eisen could still see the metal parts of his body disappear, and noticed that his finger even completely regenerated just now. "Seriously, what happened? You were gone for like five seconds, and in that time your finger regrew... is something going on?" Brody asked with a deep frown, but Eisen just took a deep breath as he stared back at Asmond.
"Yeah... but last time I was there, they were all out." Eisen replied to Asmond, and the others were even more confused now, but Asmond simply continued, "What a shame. Then how about we make some ourselves? I have the ingredients with me."
"I would love to, but it's been a while since I've made them. Will you show me how?"
��Of course, I have this recipe book with me." Asmond said, and with a flick of his wrist, a thick leatherbound book appeared in his hands. He stood up and handed it to Eisen. With a genuine voice, Asmond said, "Eisen, I am truly glad that you have now remembered me. Or at least, part of me."
The old man smiled lightly as he flipped the book open, looking at numerous notes about different places that Eisen should visit. That seemed to be all that the book was speaking about really.
It was a detailed guide for how Eisen should recover his memories. He was glad about this, but he still had to wonder... if he was able to recover his memory like this, then what was inside of the puzzle box?