Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen slowly strapped the special leather-strips to Buldor’s body in the places that he thought woud be best, framing the ground-dragon’s feathers. The old man was proud of this, he thought it looked quite beautiful, and it would have a lot of defensive prowess. It was what one would hope from an armor-set.

The old man turned toward Gran, "Now, what do you think?" He asked curiously. Gran took a step closer toward his mount and knocked on the leather-strips that Eisen attached to its body, "Hard! Good defense!" He exclaimed with a broad smile on his face, and the old man in front of him crossed his arms, happy that this part of this realm was over now. He finished the third set of gear that he was supposed to make here... Only another seven to go.

"Now, fight Gran!" Gran exclaimed out of nowhere with a loud laugh that made Eisen’s ears ring a little, and the old man turned toward him with a frown, "...What?" He asked, and the Warrior looked back at Eisen with a dedicated, serious expression.

"Fight Gran!" He repeated once more, and Eisen couldn’t help himself but return a blank stare combined with a wry smile, "Are you serious right now?"

"Gran always serious!"

"...So you really want to fight me, then?" Eisen replied, before Gran nodded his head, "Aye, Gran want fight!"

Eisen looked back at the huge Warrior in front of him, and didn’t really know how to react. Why did he want to fight, and why should Eisen accept that request? He wasn’t here to mess around, he was here to get acknowledged by the gods.

"Sorry, I can’t-" Eisen started, but just as he did, a notification appeared in front of him.

[Quest Conditions Updated – Gonor’s Acknowledgement]

[Description] You are seeking to be acknowledged by the gods of heaven and made your way into the realm of the God of Combat, Gonor. As you are a craftsman rather than a fighter, you have been given the task to create full gear for ten different souls that fits them perfectly.

Alternatively, Gonor has allowed you to still show your combat prowess as a replacement for at maximum half the gear you were supposed to create for the souls of Gonor’s realms. If you manage to beat the champion of an arena, it will count as a replacement.

[Condition] Create Gear for up to 10 Souls in Gonor’s realm, or beat up to 5 Arena Champions (3/10)

[Reward] Gonor’s Acknowledgement

[Penalty] None

"..." Eisen silently read the updated information written down inside of the quest and let out a deep sigh, "Of course this would happen. Make it a little less obvious that you’re watching my every step next time, alright?" The old man asked with a loud groan as he looked over at Gran.

"Fine. I will fight you." Eisen told Gran. He might not beat him, but at the very least the fight wouldn’t take longer than an hour or so. It would be a lot quicker than try to find someone to make a full set of gear for, before then actually making that full set of gear.

With an excited expression, Gran stared deep into Eisen’s eyes, "Come! To arena!" He practically screamed, as the flames of passion were burning in his eyes. He climbed right onto Buldor’s back and rode the mount over toward the exit, before Eisen followed him after packing up his portable shop.

He activated his Draconic Demon King transformation and shrunk his body down a bit so that he could properly maneuver through the cave-like entrance, following Gran back to the arena where these two first met.

Gran burst through the entrance of the arena, practically interrupting a fight that was currently going on inside there. The onlookers that were sitting around the arena couldn’t help themselves but stare at the figure of this Champion on his mount, both of which had an incredible makeover, the latter of the two in particular.

Eisen landed behind him and increased his size to normal again as he folloed Gran further into the Arena as the Warrior announced what was about to happen. Of course, he let the other two finish their duel, although they were obviously feeling a little tense right now after being interrupted like that.

But a little while later, the fight was over, and it was time for Eisen and Gran to start their fight. But with a slight sigh, realizing what was going on, Eisen looked at Gran, "This arena is for duels between two mounted combatants, right? Wouldn’t it be unfair if you were on a mount and I had to fight without one?" The old man pointed out, and Gran tilted his head to the side as he shook his head, "Use crystal! Weak magic make mount appear." Gran explained, pointing his halberd toward the center of the arena, where a crystal appeared out of basically nowhere after the last duel had been finished.

Eisen turned around toward Ambriel, waiting for an explanation, and the Angel soon did their job, "It is as the Heroic Soul is implying. If you interact with this crystal, an exact copy of your mount of when you were living will be recreated for you. It is only temporary, however. Oh, and if you do not have a mount, it will choose one that is a perfect fit for you." Ambriel swiftly explained, and Eisen shrugged. That would definitely make it a fair bit easier, then. And it made sense... In this realm, Eisen didn’t see anything like the souls of monsters or even animals, so it would be hard to find a mount here. The people in this arena had to fight somehow, after all. Eisen placed his hand onto the crystal, and without him even needing to pour his mana into it, it reacted to the old man’s touch.

It started to glow brightly and nearly blinded Eisen, before the Crystal slowly started to change its shape. It took on a different form, and slowly warped itself before turning into a golden steed standing in front of the old man.

"Oh? Interesting, it can even recreate Cabarum, huh?" The old amn asked with a smile on his face as he ran his hand over the automata’s snout. He could immediately feel how fake this was, however. It didn’t really act like Cabarum did, and it didn’t feel like him either. It was a bit disappointing, but what should he expect?

The old man looked down at the ground with a slight sigh before he climbed on top of this fake Cabarum’s back. His Draconic Demon King transformation extended to him and the fake increased in size as its body slowly took on a similar form as Eisen’s, simply covered in rock with cracks spread across them and golden flames burning underneath.

At the same time, Eisen pulled out his Black Demon sword out of his soul storage, which was quickly affected by Eisen’s transformation as well. But of course, his current form wasn’t the best for combat, so he tried to force a change toward the yin-side of his Demon-Form again.

Slowly, the golden flames on Eiro’s body, his sword, and the fake Cabarum were turning darker and darker until they were pitch-black. The whole vibe that Eisen was giving off changed to a rather sinister one, and a lot of the souls watching him were starting to mutter amongst themselves about this very fact.

Eisen let out a deep sigh after ’locking in’ his changed transformation for now, meaning that he tried to make sure that it would keep steadily at this spot in his transformation. And as he did, he looked at Gran, "Then I guess we can start now." The old man pointed out. It felt a bit weird sitting on this fake Cabarum’s back, but at the very least it was listening to what he was telling it. Cabarum had a few more quirks than that... and often did his own thing, simply following whatever he wanted to do a lot. Especially after this sort of transformation took place, the real Cabarum was simply a lot wilder than this. This here was nothing but a doll, something akin to the way that Cabarum was like at the very beginning, when Eisen did nothing but create a simple golem core for Cabarum, and when Cabarum didn’t even start forming his own personality along with the retention of memories Eisen enabled for him.

It was kind of sad, but this was probably enough for this fight. Or so Eisen hoped. Well, he did remember a few things about Gran, so he knew his rough combat style. While Eisen only remembered briefly meeting the others’ apprentices for the most part, he did learn a lot more about Gran directly. And not only by his own memories, but also through the memories of the pendant that Eisen was allowed to see.

He hoped that this would be enough to actually beat Gran. If not, Eisen just had to keep trying with other things until he gained Gonor’s Acknowledgement.

Gran was sitting atop Buldor’s back and held the halberd tightly in hand, just pointing it forward at Eisen as Buldor started to dig into the ground to get a bit of a hold in it, just like Eisen had seen before already.

The old man looked at the figure in front of him, and ran his hand over the fake Cabarum’s mane, "Let’s get started as well, buddy." He said, and the fake started to slowly trot through the arena while Eisen kept a good eye on Gran and Buldor.

And then, all of a sudden, Buldor ran forward while Gran held his halberd pointed behind himself. They were running straight at Eisen and the fake Cabarum, and right when they reached them, Buldor stopped and slid over the ground to stand parallel to Cabarum. Gran used the momentum to swing the halberd at Eisen, but the old man blocked the incoming attack with his greatsword and made the halberd slide off, before slashing the sword to the side at Gran.

Of course, this wasn’t enough to beat the Warrior, and he hit Eisen’s sword to the side with his halberd, swiftly moving it around as if it was a whip that he had full control over. The old man and the warrior started to ride alongside each other, trading blows with each other although none of them actually made contact with the other’s skin. At some point, Buldor suddenly stopped and jumped over toward the other side of the arena with the movements of a wildcat, before digging into the ground again.

And as Gran had a broad grin on his face, the ground-dragon sprinted forward at an incredible speed.