"There's actually another thing I wanted to ask you. Could you sell me some yeast? I tried buying some at stores in town, but none of them had any. I could have gone to a bakery, but I wanted to try asking here first." Eisen asked, and the dwarven Innkeeper nodded lightly.
"Sure, I don't mind sellin' ya some. Ye plannin' on some brewing?" He asked before stepping through a door leading to a seemingly small room in the back, before coming back out with a fist-sized bag of yeast.
"Yeah, actually. And I can't really do that without yeast, haha." Eisen chuckled while gratefully taking the bag into his hands and paying whatever the Innkeeper told him.
"Hmm, where exactly are ye and Bree goin' after leaving Melroe?" The Innkeeper asked while crossing his arms, and Eisen frowned curiously since he wasn't sure what this had to do with brewing.
"We're planning on going to Ornier next. Why?"
"Ah, perfect. Bree mentioned it, but I wasn't sure. If ye're goin' to Ornier, you should go to a bar called 'Drowned Sparrow'. The owner is an old friend of mine, and he makes the best of any type of alcohol there is. Beer, Mead, or Spirits, he can make 'em all. He's also figured out some interestin' recipes, so he might be worth a visit just to see his newest creation." The Innkeeper explained, writing down something on a piece of paper which he then folded up and handed Eisen.
"He's a bit particular, so he may not want to talk to ya if he doesn't know ye can be trusted."
"I see. Thanks, Gralmar. I'd be happy if you could join is tonight as well, by the way." Eisen explained, and the Dwarven Innkeeper Gralmar laughed wholeheartedly in response.
"Haha, I won't let ye tell me that twice then! I'll see ya later!"
With that, Eisen nodded and made his way back to his room and sat down on his bed.
He looked over at Bree and smiled. "Are you really alright with going tomorrow already?" Eisen kind of felt like he decided on all of it himself, and Bree simply went along with it. So now was the last time that Eisen would ask to make sure that Bree was alright with leaving the following day. She's been here for quite a while after all, so leaving may be harder for her than she let on.
At least that's what Eisen thought, but it seems like he was worrying for nothing, because Bree instantly replied with her opinion. "Yes! I'm alright with it, really! I'm actually super excited!" She exclaimed loudly, finally convincing Eisen that he didn't force her to do anything.
He replied with a soft smile and laughed lowly. "I'm glad to hear that then."
---
"To Eisen and Bree, so that they may leave on a great adventure!" Denmir yelled out while holding up his cup filled to the brim with beer. He was one of the first to arrive and already had quite a good amount of alcohol in his system, despite still being relatively sober. Now that everyone was there, he decided to voice a toast for the two companions that would be leaving on their first journey together soon.
In accordance to Denmir's toast, the others held their cups up as well, exclaiming, "To Eisen and Bree!" In synchronicity.
After this, the party only really started. For the next few hours, they ate, drank, talked and laughed together, enjoying the last evening they would have together for a while.
And at this point, Eisen noticed something new. This was the first time he has actually been drinking a lot of alcohol besides on the first day that he started playing the game. Back then, he got drunk very, very quickly, but now he was able to drink around as much as during his younger days! Maybe that was because of his endurance stat?
It was truly an interesting stat. It gave him more health and increased his defense at the same time, and at the same time allowed him to work in the sate of absolute non-fatigue that he entered during crafting or combat. And lately, he has been noticing that he needed less and less sleep the higher his stat rose, and seemingly it also heightened his resistance toward things like poison or alcohol.
That was quite useful to know, but especially if Eisen ever wanted to enjoy a lot of alcohol at once. And since his stats would only keep growing, his resistance would only grow with it!
And as such, all in the name of science of course, Eisen set himself the goal to find out the current limit of his body, waving at the waitress currently standing behind the bar, since the Innkeeper who usually stood there was sitting at the table with the group.
"Another round, please!"
---
The next morning, Eisen stood up together with the sunrise, feeling as refreshed as ever! His body was rid of the alcohol he consumed the night before, and his wallet was rid of a lot of its weight, meaning that Eisen didn't have to carry so much anymore! Meaning that this was a perfect start to Eisen and Bree's first journey.
They both decided that it would be best to wait until Jyuuk woke up, so that they could properly say goodbye to him as well. An interesting thing that they discovered, though, was that his beasts were slowly starting to become overgrown as well, and moss was woven into their fur as they slept next to their master.
Eisen wondered if something similar would happen with him and Caria as well at some point, and whether or not she would just turn into a small metal statue of herself.
But until then, they really didn't have too much to do. And since Jyuuk could wake up at basically any time now, Eisen didn't want to go the long way to some shop to craft something. Instead, he chose to practice his mana manipulation a bit more, while he would have Caria continue practicing hers together with her newest skill 'plant control'.
So, Eisen took the wooden flower pot he made before and once more filled it with the soil coming from his magic element, setting the small Myconid Child down next to it.
"Alright Caria, let's practice again, alright? Show gramps here how good you are at it already!" He exclaimed while putting some of the flower seeds he bought into the slightly warm earth. Caria nodded happily and burrowed her hands into the dirt concentrating strongly as she poured her mana into the seeds hidden inside.
While she was practicing her own magic, Eisen starting doing the same with his own. There was a part about it that he hasn't actually tried yet, which was to directly push out his Flame of the Earth magic without needing to first use his actual pure mana and then infusing it with his element. Instead, he always took the long route around.
So, Eisen grabbed the book about mana manipulation and began reading through the part about the task he wanted to try out.
It described the process quite simply, actually. The best way to use his magic for now was to try and infuse it into his mana while it was still inside of his body. Apparently he would be able to push out the pure elemental magic at some point, but that was still a while off considering his current skill rank.
And since that was the case, Eisen simply followed the instructions. First, Eisen gathered some of his mana in his hand and formed a ball, of course still inside of his body, and then slowly moved his magic element toward it, slowly pushing it inside of the small sphere.
For a while, it seemed as if the mana was completely rejecting the element, but once Eisen willed it to more strongly than before, it really changed! As Eisen looked at his hand in response to the weird feeling underneath his skin, he noticed a small change. A tiny spot, the part of his skin closest to the sphere of infused mana, began to faintly glow like a flame behind a sheet of paper, while it also turned slightly brittle like dried earth.
In response, Eisen was obviously surprised, and immediately tried to push the sphere of mana out of his hand, resulting in it breaking through his skin and shooting forward. Luckily, Eisen didn't change the state of the element yet, so it simply dissipated the moment it hit the wall since it was neither truly solid so that it would break or crack the wood, nor was it hot enough to scorch it in any way.
When the old man looked back at his palm, he saw that his skin changed back to normal. But this kind of thing made Eisen quite curious about something.
This time around, Eisen filled out his whole hand with his mana, then slowly infusing it with his element. As the infusion spread through the space occupied by his mana, his hand began to change. It was as if it turned into earth and then cracked open to reveal the flames underneath. But at the same time, his skin didn't seem to have changed into earth, as it was slightly shifting with his movements, which meant that it was simply like the pure state of his flame of the earth magic, albeit a slight bit more shifted toward its earthen state, while the crack inside of it seemed to be shifted a slight bit more toward flames.
For some reason, Eisen thought he might have figured out part of the reason why his element became 'Flame of the Earth'. He burrowed through Bree's backpack until he found his hammer, then took it into his hand together with a small iron ingot that Eisen wanted to practice transmutation on for a bit.
But now, Eisen wanted to do something else. Immediately when he grabbed his hammer, he activated tool connection, and it seemed as if the state his hand was in shifted toward his hammer, enveloping the whole handle together with some of the metal part of the hammer in the cracked earth. Excitedly, Eisen began to hammer onto the piece of iron. He knew that this wouldn't allow him to actually forge anything, but it was enough to slightly dent the metal, which the system seemed to count toward Blacksmithing considering Eisen's intention.
And as soon as the shape of the iron slightly changed…
[Congratulations! You found the true use of your Magic Element.
You are a craftsman by heart, and as such were appointed the element used by many of the greatest craftsmen amongst all the races, the Flame of the Earth Element. The Earth that created all, and the Flames that destroyed all became one in this element.
Now that you found its use, combat damage will drop significantly, while its usefulness during any type of craftsmanship will rise in return.]