While ignoring Merc who was yelling at him as he was leaving the room, Eisen looked around to see what he should do. He may have said that he would kill the monsters, but he felt somewhat bad for them. After all, they were simply taken away from their homes and caged to be sold, so he couldn't really blame them to be aggressive toward people. But nonetheless, they were monsters, beings that were said to be pure evil.
And although Eisen knew that wasn't the case since he knew examples of multiple creatures that were technically monsters but not in the slightest evil, he still felt that he should slay these monsters, at the very least those that didn't seem to have a mind on their own and were pure beasts that couldn't do anything but kill.
It wasn't really hard to find those, if Eisen was going to be honest. The far majority of the monsters kept and sold here belonged to that category, and since they were caged, Eisen only had to stab them through the bars to kill them. Not only did this let Eisen level up a few times until he reached level 79 and added 8 points onto each of his stats, but he could also collect a few mana crystals. He didn't really care for the other materials all that much, since if he collected all of those, he would just have a wild mess of dozens and dozens of different types, most of which would just end up going to waste. However, the materials that he did collect were things that should come in quite useful other than generic materials such as leather.
For example the claws or horns of some creatures, which was the main thing that Eisen ended up collecting beside the mana crystals.
But there weren't only purely aggressive monsters there, some of them even actively attempted to be tamed by Eisen, seeing how he saved them. But each time this happened, Eisen received a notification.
[A Monster has offered itself to be tamed, but as you have already reached the current upper limit of monsters that can be tamed by you, this is impossible. However, this specific Monster will not be aggressive toward you without reason, and can be told what to do to an extent. If the monster will truly follow the command is unsure]
In total, Eisen read this notification about a dozen times, for creatures of all kind. A Lizard covered in metal ores, or a bull that looked to be made of earth, or a fish swimming through the air. Eisen didn't know what to do with them, but he didn't want to kill them, considering that they were quite harmless to him.
After a while of thinking, Eisen ended up opening his chat option and decided to message the one person that might know what to do, Jyuuk.
The moment that a small see-through keyboard apeared in front of him, Eisen began to type.
[Eisen] Hello Jyuuk, there is a situation going on in Ornier, and I could need your help. Are you already in the wasteland you talked about?
As Eisen was waiting for an answer, he continued with the business that he had in the monster shop. This general exhibit was already nearly cleared out, and the only thing that was left was the one filled with 'high-grade products' as Merc called them.
It wasn't especially hard to find that door either, it was just a little bit hidden behind a few empty cages. So, Eisen quickly opened that door up and took a look around. In this room, there were only ten cages in total, and they seemed to be many, many times stronger than the ones he just saw before.
And that also counted for the monsters themselves. Different to the creatures in the room before, these were all immediately calm and simply staring at Eisen without making a single sound.
When Eisen got to the first cage, he saw a young child with dark green skin and pointed ears, with no hair whatsoever growing on its body. According to what his appraisal of it told Eisen, this was called a 'Hobgoblin', and once Eisen figured that out, he did manage to see similarities to regular goblins. This kid didn't seem to be harmful in the slightest, other than normal goblins, and basically instantly tried to be tamed by Eisen. Thus, he opened the cage and told the child to wait by the door.
From its movements alone, Eisen could figure that this Hobgoblin child was seemingly quite hurt, but since it didn't seem to have any actual outer wounds, Eisen figured that he should take a look at the leg that it's been dragging behind itself later.
The encounter with the creature in the next cage wasn't nearly as fun, and the moment that Eisen laid his hand on the bars, it jumped forward out of the darkness of the cage and tried to rip off Eisen's hand. Luckily, the old man managed to pull back quickly enough and then got a good look at it.
Overall, it seemed like a more humanoid gorilla, just slightly smaller in size and with more humanoid proportions. From then on, it did not stop trying to attack Eisen for even a second, and he could feel its deep hatred in its eyes.
Carefully, Eisen stabbed his sword inside of the cage, but his sword didn't fully pierce. All it did was give the gorilla an injury of the level of a papercut.
He continued on and on to stab the creature at the same spot, and soon enough managed to penetrate past its thick skin while he was slowly draining its HP, until it simply dropped dead onto the ground.
[You are now Level 82]
"I leveled up three times..?" Eisen muttered to himself as he opened up the cage and stepped into it while rubbing the surface of the coin around his neck. "Sorry."
Eisen muttered as he cut out the mana crystal out of the monster's chest, which was amongst the largest that he has ever seen up until now, even larger than that of the Goblin King that they killed before.
But that's not all that Eisen found inside of its chest. There was a small orb, just a little larger than the tip of Eisen's pinky, and when Eisen inspected it with his Truth Seeing Eyes, he found out that it was something he didn't know about before.
[Soul Stone][Apex Gorilla][Rank – 5]
"A soul stone? Huh… I'll have to take a look at that later then…" Eisen said, before starting to make a detailed mana copy of this 'Apex Gorilla' for his copy library, which he had been one after another filling up with the corpses of the monsters he killed in this shop so far.
After killing this Monster, Eisen continued on, slaying the rest of the creatures left in the room beside a single one, collecting their mana crystals and soul stones.
The creature that seemed to be the 'Top Seller' that Merc mentioned before was still sitting ever so quietly in its cage, staring down onto the floor. Similar to the other creatures in this room, this one was also a humanoid, seemingly some kind of reptilian creature. It's scales were glittering in the little light that was coming into the room, and when Eisen laid his hand onto the cold metal bars, the creature looked up.
"Oh, are you going to kill me in the same way as you did those other simpletons?" A deep, mature and raspy voice asked, and Eisen stepped backward. He didn't expect it to be able to talk, so Eisen began to frown strongly.
"If you're aggressive, I may try, but I'm not sure it will be as easy as with those others. If you don't mind me asking… What are you?" Eisen asked quietly, and the monster in the cage stood up.
"I am a half-dragon. Son of a race like yours, while at the same time being that of a dragon. The latter side was far stronger, so I ended up as a Monster, and here in this run-down place as a main attraction. They all thought I was some kind of lizardman, because none of them could appraise me to see for themselves." It explained, before holding its hand in front of itself while bowing forward. "My name is Kiron, pleased to meet you. As I can see, you have already been encountered by one of my full-blooded brethren and have gained an ability of a dragon's eye."
Kiron looked closely at Eisen's face, who then slowly nodded as he opened the cage up. He didn't seem to be a bad person, and if he was a halfling race, then he shouldn't look at him like he was a monster. And there was something else about him.
Eisen looked Kiron up and down as he was leaving the cage. "Your scales… If I had to guess, you are the son of a crystal dragon?"
Kiron looked down at himself before slowly nodding. "That is so, indeed. I am not a regular half-dragon, but the son of the Dragon King that ascended to the heavens and became a deity. But my powers have been sealed, and as such I am not much stronger than what I was believed to be, a 'rare Lizardman'. Otherwise I wouldn't have been caught like this." Kiron explained angrily as he was grinding his teeth out of bitterness.
"But I will not forget this. I am in your debt, dear Sir, and I will pay that debt back for as long as I live." Kiron said as he kneeled down onto the ground, leaving Eisen to do nothing but chuckle.
"I don't know what to say… That means you are a half-god, basically?" Eisen asked confused, and Kiron slowly nodded his head. With a loud sigh, Eisen then continued to talk. "Let's talk about that later, you are the last one here, the monsters that I freed are waiting in the front. Let's get out of here, alright?"
After explaining this, Eisen walked back to the door, closely followed by Kiron, and the Half-Dragon chose to wait with the monsters while Eisen walked to the front of the store to grab the keys that Merc mentioned.
It didn't take long until he found them, and he immediately walked back into the main display room and then into the special room where he left Merc.
But instead of finding him yelling at Eisen again, the young merchant was instead apparently logged out, as his whole body turned completely pure white. Seeing this as a chance to just get out of there as quickly as possible, Eisen made his way into the cell where the Fey-Kin boy Sky was still just sitting completely terrified.
"Hey there, kid. No need to be scared, I just need to take that collar off of you, okay?" Eisen asked with a light smile while Sky was backing off into the corner. So, instead of simply trying to convincec him further, Eisen squatted down in front of him and simply grabbed the slave collar around Sky's neck, simply opening it up. "Don't worry, I said I just needed to take that collar off. I won't hurt you, so just come with me, alright?" The old man said with a smile, before Sky slowly touched his own neck as he started to cry.
"Thank you…" He slowly muttered out while wiping the tears off of his face, and Eisen grabbed the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry. Just come with me, alright? You'll be safe."
Sky slowly nodded as he followed Eisen outside the cell and just immediately avoided Merc when they walked past him by making a large circle around him.
"It's fine, he can't hurt you." Eisen smiled, and Sky gulped loudly before nodding and kept following the man that freed him.
The moment that the both of them stepped into the large room filled with many different monsters, Sky stumbled backward once more, but after a short smile from Eisen managed to build up the confidence to follow him as he was walking toward the creatures in front of them.