Chapter 713 - What a bother

Eisen walked through the streets of . The players that had started following him slowly started to disappear when they noticed that all he was doing was greet the people of this town, doing simple small-talk.

Of course, there were still a few more people steadily following Eisen. A lot of them were using tamed Monsters to keep an eye on the old man, although none of them noticed that they had a couple pretty strong Assassin Bees following them around. If any of those tamed Monsters came to close or tried following Eisen anywhere where he didn't want them to, they would die immediately.

Of course, tamed Monsters could be easily resurrected by the Tamer, so Eisen didn't hesitate in the slightest to do so if it was necessary. The old man continued walking through the streets with a smile on his face, before he noticed a few of the Guardians running toward the same direction in the distance.

There were a few Monsters and People among them as well. They all seemed to be guards.

"Melissa." The old man said as he looked into the direction they were running, before the Empress Bee slowly nodded her head. A few moments later, she explained the situation to Eisen, "Another 'Artificial' causing trouble because of one of the citizens." She explained in a quiet voice, and the soft smile on Eisen's lips immediately disappeared.

"I guess this is as good a place as any to properly announce my return, don't you three think?" The old man suggested, as he stepped forward, casually making his way where the trouble seemed to be waiting.

Eisen didn't expect that this town would be completely peaceful, of course. No place was ever perfectly peaceful, especially not if it was a town that was growing as rapidly as Prototype currently was. It didn't take Eisen long to see the people that were causing the trouble either. They seemed to be just average Players, though. After a quick appraisal, it was shown that they were just a bit above Level 100. They probably only recently made their way here.

That's what Eisen figured from their words as well. It was a party of three with a rather normal set-up. One Spear-user wearing mostly leather-armor with a few metallic parts in his armor. Next to her was a tall-grown man holding a tower-shield and a war axe that seemed rather hard to lift for regular people. And behind the two of them was the mage, who was being the most quiet out of the three. He seemed to be the party leader, at least that's what Eisen guessed just looking at them.

There was a group of monsters in front of them. From what Eisen could judge, they were just a normal family. A female Kobold and a male Goblin, as well as two Koblin children. The Goblin, seemingly nothing more but a farmer, had a heavily bleeding cut on his shoulder. And the blood was on the blade of the spear of one of those three players.

A couple of Guards had gathered to apprehend them, but the Wizard drew some form of magic circle on the ground to stop them. How bothersome. Sure, technically all these Guards were individually stronger than these three combined, but they wouldn't be able to do anything against a powerful magical element. And in this case, it was an incredibly powerful one. One that was capable of creating a strong barrier, but probably not only that. The Skill-name didn't have 'Barrier' in its name, but Eisen had never heard of it before. 

It was a 'Title' Element, like Eisen's was as well. You wouldn't be able to instantly figure out what it was, because the name was often rather misleading, often not being a descriptor, but rather a name that would make it unique and show its power.

What a shame. Eisen would have liked to borrow this element for a while, maybe show it to Xenia to see what she thought about it. But he figured that wouldn't be happening now.

The guards were swinging their weapons at the barrier without being able to do anything about it. The surrounding people and monsters were unable to do anything as well, even if they were trying to help. Most of them had production occupations anyway, so it would be hard for them to force their way through a barrier like this.

So, it seemed like Eisen really had to step in, like he had somewhat hoped. What better way was there to show he was back other than by getting rid of a group of three pests bothering his people.

With a heavy step, Eisen walked forward, slowly placing his hand onto the shoulder of one of the Guards, "Thanks for your hard work. But don't worry, I'll deal with this now." The old man suggested, and the Guardian turned around a bit startled before seeing the old man's face.

"Y-Your Majesty!" He exclaimed, and Eisen simply winked at him with a smile on his face. The surrounding people immediately turned their heads toward the old man, and even the players inside of the barrier were focused on him now.

"Majesty? What, this guy's supposed to be 'Eisen'? Doesn't look that impressive to me." The heavy warrior inside of the barrier pointed out with a bit of laugh, before the old man in question could feel a slight tingling sensation all over his body. His eyes turned toward the Mage, who suddenly held his hand to his forehead in pain.

"It's kind of rude to appraise people without asking first, you know?" Eisen pointed out, assuming that this mage already lost about a quarter of his total HP. It was one of the effects of the armor he had fused with this suit.

It was 'Appraisal Defense'. Not only did it stop others from ever possibly appraising him, but it would damage them quite a bit as well. Appraisal was a sort of magic, technically, since it worked by instantly sending a quick pulse of mana to the target and using the information it brought when bouncing back. It was a special sort of magic, making it easy for basically anyone to make use of, even those that weren't really capable of using magic at all.

Even Brody could use it, since it used a special sort of ���Mana'. Anyway, due to this, it was possible to find the source of the appraisal and send back another violent pulse to give a mental injury to the appraiser. Most people in high places and their escorts had this sort of effect on any one item they were carrying, to make sure they couldn't be appraised, since information was something incredibly important in warfare.

Of course, at the level that the former Eisen lived, he had to make an item that didn't just stop others from appraising him, but also showed them 'I know what you did'. For most people that could be even a remote threat to the former Eisen, of which there were only a handful of factions in the first place, the 'return damage' from the appraisal defense was so miniscule that it was only enough to show them that Eisen was really aware of everything.

But for weak people like this mage... It was enough to be a quite heavy blow. Of course, Eisen was able to control who this really damaged. He didn't want random inexperienced players or even children of his country to play around with appraisal and suddenly die when appraising him. They still wouldn't be able to see his information, though, instead displaying a message that Eisen could choose himself.

Eisen stepped toward the barrier and slowly raised his walking cane toward it. He pressed the tip against the smooth surface of magic, while the two fighters were scoffing at the old man. Meanwhile, the mage realized how dangerous this situation really was. He waved his hand to the side, trying to make the barrier disappear to apologize, but before he could do that, the barrier already shattered into pieces.

Eisen stepped toward the Goblin and placed his palm onto the wound on his arm. The healing properties of Eisen's armor could be transferred to others for simple shows of kindness like this. The wound immediately closed up, "Hm... The shirt is still ripped up. Come by the castle later, I will give you something new to make up for this damage. Would that be alright?"

The Goblin looked up at Eisen and slowly nodded his head silently. Most monsters here still had a hard time speaking, but they at least understood others fully now. And meanwhile, the heavy warrior chose to take this chance to attack Eisen for some reason, probably seeing that he would die otherwise, and tried to get the upper hand. But all that the old man did was briefly swing his cane to the side. The tip hid the shield and it dented as if Eisen pushed onto a soda can.

The warrior was pushed to the other side of the street, hitting a rock wall that Eisen created there close to instantly. As his bones could be heard shattering, the Player's body disappeared into a bright light as he died instantly from a single hit to the center of his shield.

Only the mage was level 100, both of the fighters were at about Level 60. So of course they would instantly die. But seeing that the tank of the party instantly died, the Spear-user took a step back and tried to run. Of course, that didn���t happen, because all that Eisen had to do was to slide over the ground a bit and tap the center of her back. Before she even hit the ground, her body went up in a bright yellow light.

And then, there was only the mage left, "Now then. Now that these two bothersome children are gone, would you explain to me why you would attack my people for no reason?"

The mage looked at Eisen a bit confused, "Your 'people'..? We didn't attack any people, we attacked the monsters! And then all of a sudden everyone yelled at us for no reason!" 

Eisen looked back at the mage with a deep glare, linking eyes with this angry young man, "You know, we have laws here. They are similar to the laws in other places, really. Any citizen or traveller gets a fair trial. That is, with the exception of Artificials. All of you will die before anything else happens. You will wake up in the prisons, everything has been set up that way. Then, we'll see what happens with you."

"Wh-What, you can't just kill me for no reason! All we wanted to do was level up by killing some monsters!" The mage exclaimed, "If you don't shut up, I'll report you to the Admins of this shitty ga-"

Before the player could finish the word, Eisen pushed his cane through his forehead to kill him instantly, "What sort of administrator would care about such a trivial matter?" The old man asked with a deep sigh, trying to act as if what the player was about to say was complete nonsense. 

He slowly turned toward one of the Guardians near him and leaned forward to him, "We've got another loose tongue this time around. Make sure to educate him properly." The old man whispered so that only the Guardian could hear. Of course, the Guardians, being technically 'items' belonging to Eisen, were all informed of the situation this world was in. Which is why the only guards in the prisons were Guardians that wouldn't be able to be dragged down by players like these that would even go as far as to reveal information about the game in random ways like this.

Either way, it seemed like Eisen's plan worked. Word that he was back was spreading rather quickly now. Just like he wanted.