"So your plan for now is to find those adventurers and get those shards back?" Jyuuk summed up after Eisen told them about the situation. In response, the old man nodded and began to scratch his beard.
"Yes, basically that's it. But I don't really know where to start, since all I know about them is that one of them had this tag. And before then, I'll have to do a few other things in preparation for traveling. But what about you, Jyuuk? What will you be doing from now on?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. I was planning to just see if I can make some friends here and there, and have my beasts rank up a lot. And I hope it won't sound rude, but I was planning on going on my own somewhere. My sleeping pattern will probably not fit well with yours either, so it's better to just split up from here on out." The Monkey Beastperson explained with a complicated smile, and Eisen nodded.
"I see, I understand what you mean. We'll be basically travelling non-stop for a while, so that really doesn't fit well together. But find me in case you need something." Eisen said and then turned to Bree.
"I hope that you still want to come with me, and that you won't mind pursuing the shards."
"It's fine! I would love to help! What those adventurers did is absolutely horrible!" She exclaimed and formed her hands into fists angrily.
"Yeah, I think so as well. Then let's go and get those shards back as soon as possible. Do you have any idea where we could start?" Eisen asked her, since she would be the one that might give the best ideas out of the three of them.
She looked like she was thinking for a while, and then grabbed the iron dog-tag that Eisen was holding in his hand. "We can ask at Melroe's adventurer's guild. This tag has the adventurer's mana signature, so they might be able to identify it. Although I don't really know if they'll give us a lot of information…" Bree suggested.
"It's better than nothing. We might be able to at least find out where we need to go to have any chance at finding them. Let's go there tomorrow morning, then. Ah, I wanted to ask something else as well. But do monsters also only level up through combat, like us?"
In response to Eisen's question, Bree tilted her head to the side. "Huh? What are you talking about? People can't only level up through combat!"
This made both Jyuuk and Eisen respond with a confused look, before Bree started explaining. "Well, combat is the easiest way to level up, since you take a small part of the experience of another being into yourself, but you can also get experience by doing things! For example, you can level up through quests! And there are some special actions that give you experience as well! It's not a lot, but better than nothing! So monsters can level up like that too~! A little bit easier than people, actually, and they can get a lot of experience through some actions depending on their race." The Fey-kin explained.
As expected of a walking library!
"Right, that's true… I didn't think of that. So does that mean that Jyuuk and I can level up our tamed beasts without having them fight?"
"Ah, yeah! That's the case. It seems to always be easier to level them up through combat, but for example, I went out to the forest with Tsurishika today and we trained a bit. He's close to ranking up soon, actually. And I've seen a few non-combat monsters before, actually. There weren't many, but every once in a while I saw those that simply ran away from me when I got to close to them."
"I see… then Caria should be able to grow without having to fight, then." Eisen said while holding onto the small Myconid in his hands.
"She should be able to, yeah~!" Bree exclaimed.
"And what route do you want her to go?" Jyuuk asked curiously.
"Ah, I would definitely want her to stay in an area that befits what she is. Basically, she's a sentient plant, isn't she? So I would like it if I could have her grow and take care of a few different plants and herbs and things like that. Something like that is about the gist of it." In response to Eisen's explanation, Caria was happily nodding her head. "And for that, I guess something like teaching her how to control mana would be a good idea. Maybe she can learn some kind of magic for what I had in mind."
"So you want her to be a Myconid Druid?" With an excited smile, Bree looked at the tiny figure of the animate mushroom in front of her, before Eisen nodded. "A Druid is someone that's strongly connected to nature, right?" He asked.
"Mhm~! There's more to it than just that, but yeah!"
"I see.. then that should be the area I would like her to go, yeah. But who knows? Maybe she's super talented at something else. I can't make her be a druid if she rather wants to be a sorceress or something like that. But we'll just have to see. Do you two mind if we go ahead and practice for a bit?" Eisen asked, and both Jyuuk and Bree told him that they were fine with it.
So, Eisen properly sat down on his bed and placed Caria down in front of him before also grabbing a few mana pills that he then liquified again and placed in a small bowl. Although Caria didn't have a mouth, she was still able to absorb liquids simply through her skin. And considering that she had pretty low stats, she would really need the mana potion.
But luckily, it seemed as if a magic-oriented path was truly perfect for her, since her INT and WIS stats were two to three times higher than her other, more physical stats. This made Eisen hope that he could properly communicate the ways to manipulate her mana to her.
"Alright Caria, you need to look into yourself and see if you can feel the flow of your mana. It's an energy that you didn't have until today. Can you feel it?"
Eisen asked, and the small myconid shook her head in response after staying still for a few seconds. "Hmm… then how about this… I'll pour some mana into you, and then you concentrate on that feeling to see if you can then use it on your own mana, okay?"
Shortly after this, Eisen placed the tip of his finger on the top of Caria's head, slowly pouring a tiny bit of his mana into her small body. It seemed like she slightly shuddered at this sudden new feeling, but soon relaxed and took Eisen's mana into herself. After a few seconds, he removed his finger and asked her to repeat trying to find her own mana.
And as such, Eisen led her step by step through different tasks that would allow her to use her mana more easily, until he could finally confirm that she got the Mana Manipulation skill.
"Great! Now, let's keep practicing for a while, alright?" Eisen asked, and Caria nodded her head excitedly at this new ability that she gained. But it wasn't only Caria that gained something through this. While they were practicing mana manipulation, Eisen's taming skill ranked up and gave him an extra INT and WIS stat.
After a while, they got Caria's new skill high enough to rank up relatively soon, although for now it was time for everyone to go to sleep. So, they would continue practicing the next day.
---
[Announcement! It has been a week since you five Originals came to the World of Magic! Now, it's time for another wave of players to follow behind you!
After you, those that helped create the world, are those that helped finance it! They are players chosen directly by our largest investors. In total, 100 players joined you in this world!
These players are not called 'Originals' like you, but they are called 'Omegas'! Two more waves in total will follow within two weeks, before the world opens up to the general player base in three weeks!
Enjoy your time!]
The moment that Eisen opened his eyes after waking up the next morning was this notification. After reading through it, he opened his eyes in surprise but tried to keep his voice down so that Bree wouldn't notice that something was going on.
He waved the notification away and smiled. With new players, this world might become more interesting! Eisen just wondered about the story they would go with… would they also have lost their experience somehow? Or was there some kind of other reasoning for their sudden appearance?
Once Jyuuk woke up, he would talk to him about it, and they could keep in contact to talk to each other about what they find out about the Omega Players. Eisen was quite interested in how Prime Industries connected the Originals' appearance with the Omegas' appearance.
Either way, now Eisen knew that it wasn't only in three weeks from now that the players appeared. This world would slowly be filled out with more and more players, and Eisen couldn't wait to see what this would change about this world.
The old man stood up and looked at the beds beside him. One of them was empty, and that was the bed that Bree was sleeping in the night before, while Jyuuk was lying on the other one in his wooden state with his beasts sleeping tightly in the center of the room. They were even joined by Caria and Aulu for the night, who were lying in the middle of the other beasts.
Eisen quietly walked over to his tamed beast and his automaton to get them before exiting the room to look for Bree. And it didn't take long, as soon enough he found her standing in front of the front desk, talking to the Innkeeper. The moment that she saw Eisen, she once more began to smile brightly waved at him. "Good morning, Eisen~!" She yelled out.
With a soft laugh, Eisen walked toward them and greeted her as well as the Innkeeper.
"I wanted to get to the Adventurer's Guild to see what I can find out. Do you want to come with me?" He asked, and Bree quickly nodded her head. "Sure! Is Jyuuk awake as well?"
"No, he's still asleep. I'm guessing that he'll be up soon, though. Ah, could you tell our friend where we went in case he comes out of our room before we're back?" Eisen asked after turning to the Innkeeper.
"Ah, of course I will, don't worry about that. See ya two later, and have fun at the guild." He said before Eisen and Bree made their way out of Inn and toward the Adventurer's Guild.
It actually didn't take all that long to find this guild, as it was in an area where all different guilds in Melroe settled down. Amongst the buildings lining the stone cliffs were of course the Adventurer's Guild, the Merchant's Guild, and even the Crafter's Guild.
Eisen had no idea that the last of these was even a thing! And so, he decided to check out what it was about once he and Bree finished their business at the adventurer's guild. It may also be a good idea to go to the Merchant's Guild as well. After all, Eisen might want to try and sell some of the items he makes in the future, so the Merchant's Guild may be able to help him with that.
Either way, first, they had to go somewhere else. And that place was the Adventurer's Guild.