Chapter 392 Through the Dragon Jungle

For a little while, nothing much happened. They were just driving the carriage through the thick, jungle-like forest, which surprisingly had a relatively well-intact path just running straight through it. And whenever that really wasn't the case, Jyuuk and Xenia would work on that a little bit, Jyuuk using his Plant Control, and Xenia using Fire Magic, which she obviously managed to control perfectly. Eisen could have done this himself as well, but he was concentrating on using all his mana to spread it around himself in as large an area as possible to copy everything around him.

At least, until Eisen's skill ranked up, giving him just a bit of a speed- and quality- boost to his copying. But even then, Eisen didn't stop trying to copy as much as possible, although he concentrated a bit more on the wildlife this time around. It wasn't like he was able to actually feel everything where his mana was, he just had a weird awareness about those parts, but at the very least he could see when something was moving around unnaturally. That would then be copied by Eisen and reproduced for the Half-Dragon Paladin, so that he could tell Eisen if they were any trouble to them or just some critters.

But to Eisen's surprise, even those critters were of draconic nature. While even squirrels or bugs were Golems on the Golem God's island, it seemed like every single creature on here was somehow draconic, or at the very least reptilian in nature. But most of what Eisen had noticed the most so far was that there were a lot of really tiny 'Wyverns' Flying around. Normal Dragons had four legs and then wings on their back, but Wyverns seemed to have either four legs with their front-legs being directly part of their wings, or two legs with wings as a replacement for their front-legs.

Most of those that Eisen saw until now where the latter, and were mostly at the size of Birds. There were a lot of different ones, though, and Eisen thought that they were actually really cute. If they were treated properly, maybe Eisen should suggest to Komer about opening something like a Pet-Shop with this kind of harmless, comparatively weak monster.

Of course, it would be completely different to the Monster-Shop that Merc had in the capital, just something humane like one would expect a proper pet-shop in reality to be. Usually it was illegal to open that kind of shop in a town, simply beause of the dangers that monsters represented, but with Komer's contacts, he could probably figure something out.

Eisen and Komer were actually messaging back and forth during this trip and speaking about this suggestion, and Komer, who was currently on his way back to the mainland and made sure that Koro was there with him as well, actually seemed to be pretty interested in that idea as well.

Of course, he already made a few financial preparations in order to buy a good enough building to set up his first shop in, and it seemed like the Lord of the Town already prepared a place that Komer might like. From the plans he was shown, it was relatively central in the merchant-district, but the actual building was in a more run-down, back-alley area of that discrict.

It seemed like the Lord wanted to make use of Komer to maybe push the worth of that area up a bit more, and the prices of the buildings were extremely cheap compared to other areas, considering that nobody else really wanted to set up there because it was basically riddled by the 'Scum of town'.

And hearing all of these things, Eisen had a relatively fun suggestion, even if Komer himself was quite surprised at it. It was a bit risky, but Eisen knew that it would be worth a try, and would be an amazing investment if everything ended up really working out. And the Lord of the Town should be very happy about it as well, considering that Eisen suggested to Komer that he should buy as much of the same street as the guild could possibly afford.

Of course Komer would be a bit surprised at that, but in the end, after the old man's explanation, Komer understood his reasoning, and was more than just excited about that.

"Hmm... What about this one?" Eisen asked, interrupted in his thoughts as he noticed the movement of what seemed to be another different monster, quickly showing the mana-verson of it to the Half-Dragon next to him. And then, the Paladin opened his eyes wide in response to the Monster-sighting.

"We really need to keep going... Perpendicular to the direction that that monster is moving..." the Paladin explained immediately, and Eisen slowly nodded his head in reply. "Alright, that means either southeast or northwest. Which way?" The old man asked, motioning Jyuuk and Xenia to get ready to get rid of the plants in front of them, and the Paladin quickly tought about it and then answered after just a few moments. "Southeast." He told them, seemingly in quite a rush and fairly frightened, so Eisen was pretty curious about what exactly he was worried about.

"What kind of monster is that? It was pretty small, so we probably could have dealt with it, right? It wasn't that fast either." Eisen pointed out, looking at the raptor-like figure floating above his hand, but the Paladin simply shook his head. "It isn't that one I'm worried about. It is simply a precursor to the actual monster I'm worried about, a Mountain-Drake. They are huge high rank 6 Monster, of which there are only about two or three on this whole island, and these small creatures are in a symbiotic relationship with them, leading the Mountain-Drake to possible prey which it will usually very easily kill, and then the symbiotes will feast on that prey. The Mountain-Drake itself doesn't need sustenance in that form, but simply wants to get stronger by increasing its level." The Paladin explained, and Eisen raised is eyebrows in response, and not only he seemed to be quite interested in that monster.

Jyuuk himself was also more than just curious.

"A Giant Drake..? C-Can we maybe go and take a glimpse..?" The beastperson asked curiously from inside the carriage, but the Paladin just immediately shook his head. "Don't be mad! We cannot afford getting seen by the symbiotes, or else they will hunt us until we're dead." The Half-dragon replied, and Jyuuk's head just started drooping disappointedly, so Eisen just chuckled in response.

"Don't worry, Jyuuk, you'll be able to see some Giant Monsters at the very latest when we head to the Giant's Country, right?" Eisen asked, and he immediately nodded his head. "Oh, right! Of course! I completely forgot about that~!" He said excitedly, and Eisen slowly moved his fingers through his beard, "Although I am interested in how it's able to survive without eating..." The old man muttered to himself. He would surely be able to make a great survival item, or at least something like a potion with whatever part of that Drake made it so that it could live like that without issue.

"Well, even then, I'm happy that we found a place with a steady supply of Soul Stones. Although my Soul-Strength is way too low to handle them for anything but mana-batteries..." Eisen said with a slight laugh, before Jyuuk raised his eyebrows in response to what Eisen just said. "Right, Monsters are only supposed to have them at Rank 5 normally, huh?" Jyuuk muttered quietly, and then, Eisen could hear him get up from his seat to walk around inside of the carriage a little, and Eisen guessed it was to take a look at the souls that he had given a form to already, which the old man stacked up inside of soul-stone cubes in the corner.

"That reminds me... What are you going to do with these?" The beastperson asked, taking one of the cubes and bringing it to the window in the front of the carriage, and Eisen slightly turned his head to take a look at it.

"Oh, I'm going to use them for Ego-Item practice. I wasn't entirely sure back when I made them, but now I know that that's probably one of the most important reasons to making them. For example, there's one that's kind of like a necklace, so if I make a piece of Ego-Jewelry using it, for whatever reason, the growth potential should be a bit higher." Eisen explained, before chuckling slightly, "At least that's my guess, I'll have to test it out when I actually have the skill." The old man said with a laugh, and Jyuuk nodded his head with a whistle.

"Then I'll get you a bunch of souls for that... The Scythe makes it pretty easy, actually. Although I really do look a lot like a Death God now..." Jyuuk explained, and Eisen once more just laughed, "That was kind of the idea behind me making you a Scythe, to be honest. I thought it fit with your image." He told him, and Jyuuk just laughed back in response.

"Eh, makes sense. So... Any idea when we'll be there? It's been about five hours since we started moving, right?" Jyuuk asked as he turned toward the Half-Dragon Paladin, who didn't need to think long about it.

"We were able to get through the forest a lot faster than I expected, so... We should be there in around an hour, I think." The Paladin explained to them, trying to ignore the fact that they were speaking so casually even though such a strong and dangerous monster was in the area.

"Huh, sounds good. Oh, by the way, is the village a properly-established town? Or is it just a regular settlement?" Eisen asked, already pretty sure to know the answer, and the Half-Dragon swiftly shook his head, "It's just the latter. We do have that 'Town Core' in our possession, but we were never able to establish a town without creating a 'Guild', which we weren't able to do without knowing what it even was. But with your help, we should be able to do so very easily, right?" The Paladin asked, and Eisen nodded his head immediately.

"Of course. I also have another Core Guardian for all of you, so your village will most likely experience rather rapid growth. Building-Repairs can be handled very easily as well, roads can be created without an issue, and most importantly, there's always someone watching what's going on inside of town and directly around it, so you will all be warned when something is attacking." Eisen pointed out, and the Half-Dragon slowly nodded his head in response, just smiling broadly.

"I see, I don't know how to thank you. This was part of the reason why I left the Island, if I should be honest with you. I wanted to see if I can find out what a 'Guild' is so that we can make use of the crystal." The Half-Dragon explained, before Eisen nodded his head in reply.

"Well, don't worry, you will be able to from now on." The old man explained, and from then on, he simply started explaining the benefits that the Town Core really gave to them, and how they should handle all of that. They probably shouldn't need to worry about protection, considering that they have a few Dragons living with them in or near their village, and they seemed to always come to help when they were needed.

And before any of them really knew it, the Paladin stood up on the footing of the bench and extended his hand forward into the distance.

"Over there, that's my village!" He exclaimed happily, his tail wagging back and forth while he was at it. Although, before they could even approach any further, a large creature approached them in the distance, with Bronze Scales shining in the light, while the Paladin's tail immediately stopped moving and his whole body froze up.