"Urgh… I still feel super weird right now…" Sky muttered quietly as he looked toward the edge of the path, which led straight down into the deep gorge below the group, and Eisen just slowly placed his hand on top of the boy"s head and smiled at him. "Don"t worry, Sky. I already told you, nothing will happen to you. And on top of that, we"re nearly there, so just hold out a little longer." The old man explained, and Sky slowly nodded his head in response and tried his best to just keep looking at the path in front of him.
Usually, the Fey-Kin was reading while he was walking, but this time around he didn"t even feel close to confident enough to do that… Considering that one wrong step may as well mean his eternal demise.
In the meantime, while Sky was contemplating what he needed to do to best stay alive as long as possible, Eisen was looking around to see if he could already notice any clues to where the entrance to the place the Silver Dragoness Marcear settled down at was.
He did have the map right in front of him, but it was still a little tough to properly figure everything out, especially because the terrain here was so confusing and interwoven. Soon enough, however, the old man noticed something… weird.
It felt like he had seen this exact sight sometime before, so what exactly was going on? They walked through something like a tunnel, because that was the only path out, and then they followed the path at the end of the tunnel again…
"Whoa! Look Eisen, another one! Do you think a monster dug these?" Bree asked curiously as she looked up at the old man, and Eisen just slowly shook his head in response as he sighed deeply, staring at the entrance of the tunnel carved into the side of the mountain.
"Not really, I don"t think so. Just a second…" Eisen said with a bit of a frown as he activated his Truth-Seeing Eyes with his Ability to see through lies, and as such could quickly see that something was amiss. The whole tunnel itself seemed to be something like a spell, and it most likely just led them to a part of the path they were on before.
And while this tunnel was fake, there was a part that was simply hidden. Right next to the tunnel, the path continued, a part of the mountain wall was just made invisible so that you wouldn"t normally be able to notice.
"How bothersome…" The old man sighed and swiftly took a step forward onto the spot where the invisible path was, and he immediately felt resistance underneath his foot, although there was something else he noticed more.
"Eisen! What are you doing?!" Sky asked as he tried to grasp the old man"s arm, because to him, it looked like he simply was about to take a walk off the edge. With a wry smile, Eisen started to chuckle and moved his fingers through his beard as he shook his head. "Don"t worry, Sky." The old man said and pushed his weight on the foot that was on steep, invisible path and grabbed the wall next to him for balance as he turned around with both his feet on the ground, making it seem as if he was floating in the air.
"H-Huh?" Sky muttered confused as he took a closer look at Eisen, before he himself just laughed quietly and took out his staff, putting a layer of his element onto the invisible path.
"Probably another part of the Dragon"s Test. Just step on the rock I made, it"s placed on the real path." The old man said rea.s.suredly, trying to turn the rock into steps so that they could climb it more easily, and the others slowly nodded before following the old man.
And it didn"t take that long for them until they managed to find the end of the invisible path, just roughly five minutes by foot, and the path continued on normally like that. "Make sure you pay attention to your surroundings, everyone." Eisen suggested, "That probably wasn"t the last test that Marcear prepared here. But for the most part… It seems to be related to trickery and magic, both of which I can see through." He explained, and just like he thought, soon enough they were met with something else that was quite troublesome.
At a larger, flatter area that was seemingly artificially excavated to allow for some rest while ascending the mountain, there was a half-dead traveler laying on the ground, his blood covering nearly the whole area.
In his hand, he was holding a map similar to the one that Eisen already had, and once the old man stepped up in front of the traveler, he slowly looked up at him and quietly grumbled.
"P-Please, h-help me..! I wa-"
"Yeah, you can"t trick me, Marcear. I can see this is just an object disguised as a person through magic… Hmm, seems like an explosive… You want to blow us up if we do something to this guy?"
"I-I don"t know what you are talking about… I came here t-to find honor and treasure an-and ended up pursued by a mon-monstrosity…"
With a deep sigh, Eisen shook his head and picked the figure in front of him up by the collar. It seemed like a pretty intense and high-tier illusion. "Got it… And what is the reason behind this all? If we don"t go pursue the monstrosity immediately, we"ll end up dead?" Eisen asked, and the fake traveler stared the old man in the eyes completely baffled at what he was seeing.
"How in the heavens- You received those from that d.a.m.ned Aylrentyrth, did you not? Fine, you can continue on to meet me, you have already proven your worth…" The fake traveler said as it just disappeared, before a small, round, pitch black bomb appeared in its stead. It looked like one of those cla.s.sic cartoon-bombs, really. With a slight sigh, Eisen chose to pick it up and for the rest of the way up inspected it.
When he stepped forward to continue on moving, he slowly turned around toward the others who were looking at him rather surprised, or maybe "astonished" would be a better word, and the old man just smiled at them. "Are you all coming? Seems like the rest of the way will be rather easy and straightforward." Eisen pointed out, and just like he thought, they were practically allowed to go up the mountain in a straight path without any more interruptions or tricks being played on them.
And soon enough, they found themselves in front of a large cave entrance that Eisen couldn"t help but just smile at. "Oh, this looks just like Ailren"s cave…" The old man muttered quietly, and before he knew it, from inside of the cave a loud voice yelled out. While it was relatively deep, it was still pretty feminine and even a bit melodic, if Eisen had to be honest. It simply sounded like an older woman"s voice, really.
"Don"t you dare say that name in my home!" That voice yelled out as with heavy steps, a large Dragon stepped out of the cave. Compared to Ailren and Bol, this one was much smaller and slimmer, but it was obvious that this was the Ancient Silver Dragon that Eisen was looking for right now, so with a bright smile, the old man just smiled at the figure.
"Sorry about that. Marcear, I a.s.sume?" Eisen asked as he increased his size to the maximum that he could to at least somewhat bring him closer to her eye-level, although she could still quite easily glare down at him.
"Such I am, yes. So you are a man that has pa.s.sed that useless fool"s trial?" Marcear asked with a stern expression, while Eisen slowly turned toward Bree and winked at her, the signal to make her bring out the small box where Eisen placed a rather special item.
"I have, yes. And I have to admit, his methods were a bit… rough, for my liking, but in the end I can"t complain too much. He gave me a rather nice ability, after all. I also pa.s.sed Bolremgar"s trial." Eisen explained with smile, and Marcear scoffed in response at what Eisen was saying.
"Don"t think too highly of yourself just by pa.s.sing two fools" trials. You were able to see through my Magic by sheer luck, so-"
"Sorry to interrupt you, but I would actually like to get this over with rather quickly, so it would be kind of you to stop acting so high-and-mighty in front of me, alright?" Eisen said with a smile as he was handed the box by Bree, and just when he could see that Marcear was growing rather angry, he opened the box up and pulled Trygan"s Scale out of it.
"This is one of your King"s Scales that he has gifted me for a single reason. My name is Eisen, I am the first that peaked, and as such raised Trygan the Crystal Dragon King as my son. I am many, many, many times older than you, and if you were speaking to the me from a few months ago, you would be trembling in fear. So if you please, just give me your trial." The old man suggested with a bright smile on his face, and Marcear stared deeply at the scale in front of her, before she immediately transformed her body into a humanoid one.
She was simply an old woman like this, although one that kept her body in shape quite well. She was wearing a witch"s hat and had long silver hair, as well as silver robes on her body. She quickly hurried over toward Eisen and bowed forward. "Sorry for my impudence… That truly is my King"s scale…" She said quietly and then stood up straight again.
"But… Do you truly need to take my trial, if that is so?" Marcear asked confusedly, and Eisen slowly nodded his head in response. "Yes, actually. All my experience was robbed of me a few months ago, so now I have to rise to strength anew, and right now, I am traveling through this continent to meet five different Ancient Dragons to become a true Champion." Eisen explained, so the Silver Dragoness slowly nodded her head in response, nervously looking at the scale that Eisen was still holding up.
"Th-Then shall we enter the cave? The Trial will be held there…" She explained, and Eisen slowly nodded his head as he shrunk his body back down and placed the scale back into the box it was in before, before the group was quickly brought into the cave.