Eisen applied the last layer of the thick, opaque paint to Khan's petrified skin. It was a mixture made up of multiple different types of crystals and gemstones that were infused and liquified into high-mana ink. Though the ink was originally a deep black, it was now a pale white. Mana was flowing through the paint as it connected with Khan directly.
The patterns that the old man had now painted onto the stone skin should make it so that every part of Khan's body was able to change size together with him; even the parts affected by the giants' curse.
"Alright... give it a try, but be careful," Eisen instructed the old man. The paint lit up slightly as Khan's body shrank, and the stone quickly reduced in size at the exact same time. There didn't seem to be anything pulling on Khan's healthy skin either.
Relieved, Eisen smiled, pressing down the top of the large barrel of paint that he had to prepare for this, "Try to still change your size slowly, and once we're inside the dungeon and brought you to a good spot, maybe stay in your regular size for the most part. And if for some reason the pain becomes scratched up, let me know immediately.
If I'm not there with you, just call out for Sigurd, the dungeon's administrator. It will come to me and tell me about what's going on."
However, Khan didn't seem to be listening all too much. He acknowledged it with a nod, but just carefully reduced his size to roughly a human's scale. Clearly, it's been more than just a little while that Khan hasn't been able to do this.
"Thank you, Eisen. I appreciate it," Khan said, slowly approaching the harbor with unsteady legs. The strength that it took to move your body when you were at a giant's scale versus at a human's scale was quite different, so if you've been stuck as a giant for a while, it was easy to make overly large and exaggerated movements even if you didn't want to.
One's body just felt a lot lighter and more agile like this. So, Eisen quickly guided Khan along, helping him up the ramp onto the ship's deck, and then into the dungeon. He looked around curiously. In particular, he seemed quite interested in some of the furniture. Most giants' furniture was rough and hard, since it was far too expensive to make cushions using cotton or wool at that scale.
The only thing they had was the fur of some giant monsters, and while they were soft to an extent, they weren't soft in the same way that pillows were. Usually, giants' furniture, and their buildings in general, were carved out of stone or massive trees, or were just whole trees that were carved into massive planks that could be used to some degree.
It was the only way to really make things for giants. That was also why, these days, a lot of giants lived at a human's scale. If the settlement wasn't built into an ironbark forest or a mountainous terrain, it was hard to come by enough materials to really build housing at the giants' scale.
Especially as more and more non-giants lived and spread throughout the giants' country, many non-giant goods spread through the country as well, and especially ones coming from the central continent had the tendency to increase one's quality and easy of life if you were able to make use of them.
And, being stuck at a giants' scale the whole time, unable to even test any of those amenities out for probably more than nine thousand years now, Khan must be more than just a little curious and excited now.
However, Eisen sadly had to make some things very clear to Khan, "You can take a break here first, but keep an eye on your mana.
That's what fueling the fact that you can stay this small; I can give you some potions if you want to extend that time, of course, but if you run out of mana, your body's petrified sections will return to their regular size, potentially before you can react to it," he tried to warn Khan, who slowly nodded his head in response, "I know, I know, I'm not a child...
pah!" Khan replied, sitting down on one of the couches in the dungeon's entrance area. Even if he was saying that, he did seem to have some childlike excitement as he was looking around, so Eisen didn't really know what to say to him. Considering that Khan was ten thousand years old, Eisen wasn't sure how to treat him.
Technically, all things considered, Khan was 90 thousand years younger than him, but just considering the lifetime that Eisen was consciously aware of, Khan was more than 9900 years older than Eisen was. Frankly, all that Eisen felt toward Khan right now was a certain sense of guilt. One that seemed to have been carried over from the former Eisen.
There was little that the old man could really do to change that right now. If Eisen had carried that guilt ever since Khan reached Rank 7, and with that the point at which giants' bodies changed according to the curse, then that wasn't something that he could get rid of just because he didn't want things to be awkward.
For now, Eisen stepped over toward the bar near the dungeon's entrance, starting to prepare some tea for Khan. His body was basically moving on his own at this point, as if he was remembering Khan's favourites without even having to think about it.
"Sigurd," Eisen said in a low voice, and the dungeon core's guardian quickly appeared beside him, "At your command!"
Eisen looked at it and chuckled lightly, "Where'd you pick that one up?"
"Ehh... Evalia was telling me about a bunch of stuff while the other originals were here... Did I say something bad?" Sigurd asked in a worried voice, holding its hands in front of its mouth worried, but Eisen just shook his head immediately, "No, no, everything's fine," he said, rubbing his hand through the guardian's metallic hair.
"You can track people's mana, right?" Eisen quickly asked, and the guardian quickly nodded in confirmation, "Yup. Want me to make sure he won't run out without noticing?"
"If you could, yes," the old man replied.
"I don't think you need to worry about that, honestly. He's got a ton of mana for a swordsman, and the array you drew on his stone parts seems pretty efficient... right?"
Eisen let out a slightly nervous sigh, "Usually I would think so too, but... I'm not the most comfortable about my skills right now.
Building a physical monument is one thing, but using magic, and especially ability-enchantment, which I had to use to make that paint, makes me a bit uncertain at the moment," Eisen explained, and Sigurd's face quickly turned to worry, "But it's probably going to be alright. I'm just trying to be three times as careful as normal.
If you see anything wrong with the flow of his, or the paint's, mana, you'll tell me, right?"
"Obviously," Sigurd replied, looking up at Eisen, "...you'll be fine, right?"
Eisen nodded his head, trying to calm the guardian down, "Of course I'll be fine. It's just something I have to get used to a little more."
"Does it have something to do with the fact I've been feeling my connection to you weaken for a while now?" Sigurd questioned. Eisen figured that lying to it would be stupid, so the old man slowly nodded, "Yes, I think so. But really, our connection is still there, I'm sure of that. It's just a bit less tangible. If anything's wrong, I'll tell you immediately. Alright?"
Sigurd nodded. It jumped up into the air, giving Eisen a quick salute, and then disappeared into a puff of smoke to take care of some matters elsewhere. The old man, who was still waiting for the tea in his kettle to properly infuse into the water, slowly glanced to his side at the 'system' window stuck around him.
In the past month, while Eisen was working, it had ranked up one more time, and by now Eisen figured it should be around the mid-40's or 50's level-wise within Rank 2. That non-skill's level was rising very, very quickly. But at the same time, Eisen was also getting used to its effects quickly.
He was getting more and more used to not having the system assist him in things; and frankly, from this old man's point of view... it was a ridiculously freeing feeling.
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