Chapter 359 Prototype

"Hmm, so that was it, huh?" Eisen muttered to himself in response to the 'Big Reveal' from Raziel, and the Angel looked at the old man with an involuntary sigh.

"That's it? What, did you figure that out already?" Raziel asked with a frown, and the old man just shrugged his shoulders in response. "Kind of, but not really. I mean, there's items here made by me, for example those blank cores over there or even this Core Helper. And those other mechanical figures you spoke about are probably also Helpers like that. And considering that some of the parts of the castle have been constructed like I would have done it, that made me guess it already. But you just confirmed it, so thanks for that."

"Hahh… Really now?" Raziel asked with a frown and crossed her arms, "Well, all that I know is that you were the first to settle here, and then afterward the islands of the Gods came and surrounded it. I don't know why, but that's what happened." The Angel explained, so Eisen slowly nodded his head and quickly summoned his staff, creating a workstation right then and there, and the Angel looked at the old man confused.

"Wait, what are you doing?" She asked, so Eisen just smiled at her and placed one of the ingots that he had picked up into the flames of his forge. "Preparing to repare this Helper here, of course. I don't know if it's going to be able to properly function, though. There seem to be some other bigger damages that I can't directly see just yet." Eisen told her, and Raziel just shrugged. "Gotcha. Well, I'm off again. Cya, old man. Next time, it's your turn to tell me some more again." Raziel exclaimed as she began to walk up the stairs again, just before Eisen actually properly took a look at everything inside of the Core Helper's body, because he could now properly concentrate on it.

And for that, he used a skill that he really didn't use for quite a while. Mana Copy. Quite swiftly, Eisen poured his mana into the body of the Core Helper and began to reconstruct each and every part of its body with ease, and then compared it to the visualized version of the blueprints that Eisen still had saved.

"Hmm… Seems like there's a few pieces missing, huh?" Eisen muttered to himself before scratching the back of his neck. "But most importantly, there's got to be some kind of hole in its body… All the 'Blood' is gone…" The old man whispered and quickly moved the Mana-Copy around a bit more, before soon finding something that seemed quite off.

"There it is… Well, it's small enough, so I guess I can patch it up… The place is pretty peculiar, though." Eisen pointed out to himself, because it really was a peculiar place. It was a small hole directly in the center of its neck. It wasn't a rough hole either, but one that seemed to have been made with proper tools, and even in a way that the glass tubes didn't shatter but simply ended up letting whatever tool, which Eisen guessed to be a simple needle, into its interior.

"So someone extracted the potion, huh..?" Eisen muttered quietly and began to frown while he grabbed the ingot out of the forge and began to shape it into the right plates for the body to replace what had to be replaced.

And after that was done, Eisen created a small batch of glass and just patched the hole in the tube up, before starting to move his fingers through his beard. "Too bad there isn't an Alchemy set down here…" The old man whispered and carefully let the Core-Helper down to the ground, just so that it wouldn't somehow end up falling to the ground and breaking even more through the natural deterioration of Eisen's element while he wasn't nearby that would destroy the table the Helper was laying on.

Once that was done, Eisen quickly made his way up the stairs and opened the secret door up again, and then stepped back into the hallway before activating his mana-sight.

He didn't bring any Alchemy Set with him on the trip to this town, and it would take far too long to go grab it at the Harbor. As such, Eisen hoped that he would be able to find the workshop that had to be in this castle if it really was Eisen that constructed it.

"Hm?" The old man muttered involuntarily as he noticed something different to what he was looking for, which was that somewhere on the second floor, a lot of people seemed to have gathered around something. So, Eisen figured he should go take a look at what that was as well. Once he found the stairs, he rushed up them and made his way over toward the group of people, before immediately seeing exactly what he was hoping for.

"Ah, is that the Town Guardian?" Eisen asked around as he looked at the others, although they all were kind of unsure whether or not it was. "Well, we found it laying here on the ground at the very least… And it looks a bit different to other Guardians, right?" Jyuuk asked, and the old man swiftly nodded his head, because it did.

Instead of a short, immature body, this Guardian here was rather tall and thin, and judging from the clothes it seemed more like a Butler than a Guardian, but with his Truth-Seeing Eyes, Eisen was able to confirm that this was supposed to actually be the Guardian.

"Did any of you find a workshop here in the castle?" Eisen asked, and Bree swiftly jumped up from amongst the crowd and spoke up. "Yup~! Well, not in the castle directly, but outside!" She exclaimed, and in response, Eisen just raised his brows and then swiftly picked the Guardian up.

"Well, show me there, if you can." Eisen said, and at the same time mentally ordered Fafnir and Sigurd to go to the spot that Bree was leading them to as well, before the old man turned to the people in the group. "If any of you found any Guardian-like figure here, or any of their parts at all, let me know as quickly as you can." Eisen told them and then hurriedly followed Bree out of the building into the Garden area.

And Eisen could immediately see the building that was most likely what Eisen was looking for. "There it is! Well, I didn't go there yet, but I could see some parts of it that looked like your forge or other tools that you use through the windows…" She explained, and Eisen nodded his head with a smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that's it. Although I wonder… This used to be a Hedgemaze, wasn't it?" The old man muttered to himself as he began to step through the heavily overgrown path, all the whilst the two spheres that he was still carrying with him were starting to vibrate like mad, and the rate was only accelerating more and more the closer that they got to the structure that seemed to be Eisen's workshop.

It didn't take that long to find the right path to the center of the hedgemaze, and once they got there, Eisen was relatively surprised to find something there. And that something was just as surprised to find Eisen there.

"M-M-M-M-Master Eisen?!" It exclaimed, taking a break from trying to cut the already pretty-evenly cut lawn, and immediately rushed over toward the old man.

"I-I-I-It's an H-H-H-H-Honor to see you ag-g-g-g-ain!" The Core Helper exclaimed with a bright smile, and Eisen just looked at it confused. From the way it looked outwardly, it should definitely not be able to actually move. Half its face was gone, and it was missing an arm and a leg and was using an old branch as a replacement for the letter.

"Hey there… What are you doing here?" Eisen asked, and the Core Helper proudly held its remaining hand against his chest. "I-I-I-I-I was prep-ep-ep-eparing for your return by cut-cut-cut-cutting the Lawn!" The Helper excliaimed excitedly, and Eisen raised his brow confused once more.

"I see… Can we speak inside?" The old man asked, and immediately, the Core Helper's Half-Expression immediately change to one of pure horror.

"I-I-I-Inside, you a-a-a-a-ask?" The Helper asked, and Eisen nodded his head as he approached the door of the run-down building that seemed to be his Workshop, although he soon stopped when he heard the Helper yell out.

"O-O-Of course you w-w-would want to speak in-in-in-inside! D-D-D-Dumb Consta-sta-stant…" The Helper muttered to itself, even slightly hitting its head because it was annoyed at itself due to the mistake it made. And while it was doing so, Eisen simply opened the door to the Workshop and stepped inside, letting out a deep sigh at seeing just how run-down everything was. Everywhere was dirt, cobwebs covered all the corners, and some of the equipment was broken.

"Were you supposed to take care of the Workshop?" Eisen asked the Helper, Constant, and in response it quickly nodded its head. "Y-Y-Y-Yup! Well, th-th-th-the whole garden, incl-cl-cl-cluding the workshop." Constant replied, so Eisen slowly nodded his head and sat down on one of the chairs that seemed to be at the very least somewhat stable enough to properly sit on.

"Constant, come here." Eisen said after letting the Guardian down to the floor, and the Helper hurried over toward the old man with a nod. "How can I-I-I-I-"

"You can't help me, I'm helping you." Eisen told it and quickly took a look at the state its body was in. And quite swiftly, Eisen found the source of the greatest issue at the moment. "I know that I'm not familiar with all those terms, but I doubt this is what people mean when they say something is buggy…" The old man muttered to himself with a sigh as he slightly largened the hole inside of one of the glass-tubes making up Constant's brain, and then quickly just tried to force the tiny bug that had crawled inside of it out again.

And when it was outside, Eisen swiftly closed the hole back up with a little bit of extra glass, cleaned the patch up a little, and then looked back at the Core Helper, who was just standing there as if petrified.

"Constant?" Eisen asked, and in response, Constant quickly blinked a few times and then looked around. "Oh no, what a terrible state this place is in. I'm sorry for letting it decline this far, Master Eisen." Constant apologized with a slight bow, even if that meant that it nearly fell over forward, seemingly not having noticed that it was missing two limbs.

"Don't worry about it. I'll repair you real quick, and then I want you help me out in the repair of the Core Guardian." Eisen told the Helper while trying to figure out if it had any major internal injuries, but was glad to see that it seemed to be mostly external.

"Master Eisen, would Sir Fuul not be a better choice to repair first?" Constant asked as this was happening, but Eisen shook his head.

"Not really. As I said, I need your help. And you're the first one that I found that might be able to help me figure out what this town is, or rather was." Eisen explained, so with a slight nod, Constant accepted the old man's choice, while Eisen himself just started slowly detaching the most broken-down and rusted metal parts on Constant's outer hull before also smoothing out the edges of the parts that were still useable to make it easier to attach new parts to the hull.

"I hope it's not uncomfortable?" Eisen asked, but Constant immediately shook its head. "Of course not, Master Eisen. But once more, I truly have to apologize for the state that I have let this place decline to. I know how much you value a clean and orderly workspace." Constant apologized, but Eisen just shook his head.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault. You had a little guest in your head. I'm glad that you're still functioning though, all of the others have had their blood taken from them."

"Blood..? Then it surely must have been that wretched Failure…" The Helper muttered quietly, and Eisen just formed a frown. "What do you mean, Failure? Sorry, my memory isn't what it used to be. What is that Failure, and why are there so many Guardians or Helpers in this town?" The old man asked, and Constant slowly nodded its head.

"I see… Well, I guess I should explain then. About how this town, , came to be."