Chapter 714 - Craftsman Duo

Eisen looked at the ground in front of him. After forcefully destroying the barrier with the special effects placed onto the staff he fused with his walking cane, the flow of mana became rather irregular here. Something dangerous would happen if Eisen wasn't careful. Luckily, however, he had a rather skilled Mage right here with him.

Sal waved his hand to the side and erased the magic circle by taking it over with his Marionette element and making it his own, just to then destroy it outright. Eisen looked around the crowd around him with a bright smile on his face, "I truly apologize for the actions of these wicked people. We will make sure that something like this will cease to happen in the future." The old man said, voicing his genuine feelings.

Sure, making a promise like this was usually not a great idea, but considering the abilities that Eisen and the others had, it didn't feel like some form of empty promise to him. The old man stepped through the crowd that was now making way for him, happily greeting the old man.

Most of the monsters here knew him, and every single one of the Guardians did. Eisen was the only one that was really capable of repairing them, after all, so he had met each of them. The ones that Eisen didn't know yet, and the ones that were treating Eisen the most like a 'King' out of everyone gathered here, were the NPC people that immigrated here from different islands or from the mainland.

Eisen felt a bit embarrassed by this, but he figured that there was no reason to deny such reactions. After all, he was really a King now... He had to act like one. Of course he wouldn't reprimand those that didn't treat him like a King as long as they didn't outright disrepect him in any way, but he would try his best to be as dignified as he could be.

He hoped that this was something that his people were picking up on. Eisen didn't want this whole thing to have been in vain.

And just then, a small bee landed on the old man's shoulder. It was a special kind that Melissa had created based on the 'Message' spell that Xenia had taught Sal a while ago. They were able to save specific messages and relay them to another person. Melissa had made them to become part of the Guards so that they had a proper system to contact each other without worry.

Eisen was a bit confused as to what sort of message was reaching him here, but soon, he heard the Bee's voice as it relayed the information it held within itself, "We greet your Majesty upon his return."

The old man felt a bit disappointed to hear that it was just a generic message from the Guards, it seemed. He hoped that it was one of the others, but that clearly wasn't the case. Kiron would just use the System's message function, just like Xenia and Jyuuk would. Sky would send one of his Inkheart Summons instead, and Bree would come rushing to him to throw herself at Eisen by now.

Nonetheless, he had still hoped for it to be the message from one of them. The old man looked at the Bee on his shoulder and said, "Thank you. I will be coming by for a quick visit soon, if you don't mind."

With a short buzz, the Bee lifted off to send this message back to the one that sent it here in the first place, just like Eisen wanted it to.

At this point, the old man found himself in an area of the town he found to be quite pleasant. It was the craftsmanship district. It was rather close to the outer parts of the town, and it was adjacent to the area where he just killed those three players. Eisen came here since he figured he would find a certain two young men here, working according to the tasks that he had given them before leaving for the Divine Realms.

And as the scent of burning charcoal filled the old man's nose, he knew that there was someone currently working around here. The smoke was being heavily moved around, after all, it was not just passively floating around here.

Something told Eisen that he would be able to find them here, so he went inside the smithy that had the strongest scent of smoke pouring out of it. And he was right. There they were. The two young men that he took under his wings.

Parc was swinging his hammer down heavily as Rouge assisted him, the two of them working on an item together. How he knew them, Rouge would end up taking over the lead for the details, while Parc would continue as long as it came to the basics. It wasn't that Rouge wasn't skilled with the basics, he was simply a lot better at details than Parc. In turn, Parc was better at the basics and creating the bigger picture than Rouge. They were a great team when it came to most things, which is why there were such amazing friends as well. Brothers, nearly.

The owner of the Smithy, a Guardian in the form of a Dwarf, was surprised to see the old man and was about to loudly greet him, but Eisen didn't want to disturb the work of his apprentices. Hence, he raised his hand before then and made the Guardian quiet down as the old man took a seat in the corner of the room, waiting for Parc and Rouge to finish their work.

They were like him in some ways, one of them being that they were able to completely immerse themselves in their work, forgetting everything else that was going on around them.

To an extent, they did this a lot more than Eisen did. The old man was incapable of something like this whne he was working with other people, since it was always important to him to meet their pace and work together with them in a way that caused the best possible outcome, but Parc and Rouge didn't need to worry about that.

They were at the same level of skill and completed each other perfectly, as if they were meant to be one person. Either of them knew what the other was thinking and trying to do without having to think about it for even a moment.

Eisen loved seeing these two boys work due to this quality they had. There was beauty in the work that one craftsman was able to do, but seeing these two work was like some form of neatly crafted performance in itself. The old man didn't expect to be able to see something like this when he chose to take them as his apprentices, but it was something that he accepted without a second of hesitation.

It took them a little while, but they soon finished the item they were working on. Judging from the sort of item it was, a sword that had specific and unusual materials, most of them coming from monsters, integrated into it, Eisen figured that this was a commissioned item that the master of this smithy was asked to make.

And the task that Eisen gave Parc and Rouge before leaving was to help out some of the different workshops here in town in such ways. He thought they would end up just being assistants to the fully-fledged craftsmen though, and not that they would be allowed to work on even commissions themselves. That came to show what incredible craftsmen they were, despite being just apprentices at this point in time.

Rouge turned around as he rubbed the sweat from his forehead just before it was about to drip down into his eye, before stopping abruptly the moment he laid eyes on the man that had been observing them for a while now.

"Eisen!" Rouge exclaimed with a broad smile on his face, no longer caring for his exhausted state as he rushed up to his Teacher, "When did you come back?!" He yelled out, pulling Parc's attention to Eisen as well. These two boys were standing in front of Eisen with bright smiles now that their teacher returned.

With a loud laugh, Eisen placed his hands onto the top of their heads and rubbed over them for a moment, "I came back only recently. And I must say, I'm quite impressed with your work, you two." The old man explained, before Parc and Rouge turned around to look at the sword they just finished, "Thank you! We're really proud of that one as well!" Rouge exclaimed, although Parc seemed to have something else he wanted to say, "H-How long have you been watching..?"

The old man thought about it for a little while as he moved his hands through his beard, "Ever since you finished the rough shaping, I'd say." 

"For that long?" Parc asked with a wry smile, feeling weirdly embarrassed in retrospect, although Eisen couldn't help but laugh in response, "I've watched you work for hours at a time. What difference does this once make?" 

"Well..." Rouge muttered quietly, although he as well had a hard time explaining it. Eisen understood what the issue was, though. It probably felt a bit weird to work while not knowing that Eisen was watching them the whole time. But either way, Eisen figured that he should give these two a bit of a reward for working so well while he was gone.

"Come on, you two. Finish up here, and we will head to the Craftsmanship Guild to set up proper sigils for you two." The old man suggested, and the boys looked at each other surprised, "Sigils, but-"

"Yes, I'm allowing you two to take on your own commissions from now on. You are more than skilled enough, so I don't see a reason to worry about it at all." The old man explained.

With broad smiles on their faces, Parc and Rouge nodded their heads as they started to clean up their workspace after finishing the sword. Eisen looked at the Guardian whose workshop this was and thanked him for letting these two work here, while apologizing for suddenly taking them away without warning again.

Of course, the Guardian didn't have any issues with it at all. He was glad to help, and to have this extra help as well, obviously.

And so, Eisen and his two apprentices made their way out of this workshop soon and made their way to the Guild District that was still in the process of being properly set up. It took a while to get in contact with the Grand Guild Masters of the larger occupational Guilds. They were able to get the license to set everything up already, but they could only start working on processing everything once that was really the case.

Luckily, they were set up well enough to at least be connected to the guild-internal system, so that Parc and Rouge could properly set up their Craftsman-Sigils to place on the items they themselves worked on.