Spending My Retirement In A Game

On their way back to Handor, Eisen let both Stahl and Alnico ’steer’ the carriage for a little while so that they could gain the ’Riding and Driving’ skill, while he stitched Aulu back up again.

And in the meantime, Eisen was also trying to teach his grandchildren a little bit about Mana Manipulation. "Is this it? Is that white stuff mana?" Alnico asked as she looked at the white mist flowing out of her palm, and Eisen swiftly nodded his head, confirming this to be the case with his Mana-Sight.

"Yes, that’s mana. But you’re pouring out a little much, and I don’t think you have that much MP, so better not just let it flow out like that. First, try and change its ’mode,’ so to say. Turn it from a gas-like state to a solid-state." Eisen explained slowly as he finally finished fixing Aulu and let her get in the back of the carriage again while Eisen began to help Alnico out some more.

Slowly, the young girl formed a frown as her face as she tried to do what her grandfather told her to, slowly turning the mana into a somewhat solid state. "Good job! Now, go ahead and shape it into something. Can be anything. You just need to imagine it properly. And don’t try to just imagine the whole thing all at once, but go over every little area in your mind and shape the mana like that."

Alnico nodded her head and slowly formed the mana into a round shape, merely creating a sphere as her eyes seemed to become heavy. Swiftly, Eisen grabbed a potion that he had in his backpack and handed it to his granddaughter.

"Here, drink this and switch with your cousin for a while," Eisen suggested, and Al slowly nodded her head, and she and Stahl did as suggested. "Alright Gramps, what’re we doing now?" He curiously asked before Eisen told him to do precisely what Al just did as well.

"Eh..? But that’s a bit boring, isn’t it? Just shaping mana into random things?" He asked before Eisen sighed loudly. "If you think it’s boring, something’s wrong with your imagination. Right now it may not seem all that interesting, but at some point, you’ll be able to do a few pretty fun things." He explained, and Stahl turned around as he noticed a light tap on his shoulder, seeing a pure-white hand floating in the air behind him.

It was the hand from Eisen’s Mana-Double skill, which he was able to ’summon’ separately to his regular Mana-Doubles. Then the hand shot forward a good bit in front of the carriage and increased in size as a humanoid body grew attached to its stump while it all turned into a Huge, three-meter tall demon made of rock and flames, Eisen’s demonic form before he got the ’Upgrade’ after stepping on the Path of Yin and Yang.

"Something like that, maybe." Eisen explained with a grin, before Stahl stared at the figure excitedly.

"Alright, yeah, that’s pretty cool!" He answered happily, before Eisen simply chuckled and nodded his head, while Stahl looked over at what the old man next to him had in his hands. "But besides that, what the hell are you doing with that piece of metal you’re holding?" He asked curiously, and Eisen held up the small steel scale.

"This? Oh, there’s this big project that we’re all working on, and I want to just try a few things out for one part of it. And I only have a minimal amount of material for that part, so I don’t want to waste anything." Eisen explained and unsummoned his Titan-Demon-Double, and Stahl slowly nodded his head as he took a closer look at the metal piece.

"So you’re enchanting it right now? What do those runes mean again?" Stahl asked, and Eisen looked at his Grandson with a smile before swiftly explaining the meaning of the different runes lined up to form sentences instead of being in the shape of a regular enchanting circle. "I’m just playing around with a few different possible effects, and the runes here are transcribing those effects in a few possible ways. I’m still trying to figure out what the best approach would be." The old man explained while hearing Kyra and Jyuuk speak to each other in Japanese before Eisen got a sudden idea.

He moved his palm over the metal scale and deleted the enchantment, before writing something else. First, in an ornate way, Eisen carved different ’Flames’ into the scale as a frame, and then in the center of the scale cut two different kanji.

Surprised, Stahl looked at them and then up at his Grandfather. "Wait, ’Aka... Ryuu’?" He asked, confused, and Eisen nodded his head with a grin. "Mhm. Red Dragon." Eisen explained as he continued carving the new ’enchantment,’ without it being anything like the enchantments he has ever made before. And even the free-form enchantments that Xenia made were quite different. Because all of them usually included Runes, and not something like the Kanji Eisen was trying to use right now.

There wasn’t an actual rune meaning ’Dragon’ within the Norse runes he knew, and he was quite limited with the small number of runes that he could use with the regular enchanting system. If he were able to use symbols other than runes with enchantments, then that would be more than just useful. He could bring his enchantments to a whole new level. And what Eisen imagined to happen with this enchantment, which was also why he carved the flames at the edges, was that it would merely catch fire when mana was poured into it. That was it. The flames and the two Kanji were all that Eisen added, and when he saw the enchantment as finished, he could see that his ideas were spot on.

[Fake Red Dragon’s Flames Enchantment]

[Quality - Average][Rank - 3]

[Description] A unique enchantment created by the Omni Craftsmaster Eisen. The method of creation was quite different from the usual methods, and signs of another realm’s language have been used. As the creator’s image did not fit what a Red Dragon’s Flames ’truly’ are, the enchantment itself lost out on its supposed quality.

[Effect] Fake Red Dragon’s Flames,

[Requirements] 60 INT, 60 WIS

With a frown, Eisen looked at the description. It worked, but he wasn’t happy with the Quality and the fact that it was downgraded. Maybe he would go and revisit Bolremgar to ask him if he could somehow show him what a Red Dragon was supposed to be like so that he could adequately create some good enchantments for the Homunculus’ body.

Either way, Eisen quickly poured his mana into the enchantment, and incredibly hot, yellow-orange flames appeared around the metal. "Hmm... In what way are Red Dragon’s Flames different to this..?" He muttered to himself, while Stahl moved slightly to the side and looked at Eisen confused. "Holy sh- Grampa, what are you doing! Aren’t you taking damage?!" He asked, confused, but Eisen immediately shook his head.

"I’m not. It’s a Dwarven passive ability, and my hands don’t take damage from high heat or pressure." He explained as he cut off the mana-flow and deactivated the enchantment, still trying to figure out what could be wrong with it.

"What, that’s awesome! Maybe I should have chosen a Dwarf as my race..." Stahl muttered out quietly, and Eisen looked over at him and Alnico, remembering something he hadn’t asked them about yet. "Actually, what race did you two choose for your characters?" Eisen asked before Stahl crossed his arms with a smile.

"Well, we’re both one-eighth Giant and Dwarf, although that doesn’t show in any skills. But story-wise and how different people might react to us, it could reflect. Like, an ancient Giant could see us as their ’Kin,’ according to the angel that helped us make our characters. Other than that, I’m just human. I couldn’t choose between anything, so I just went with this." Stahl explained, and then Al spoke up.

"Ah, and I’m a Half Sky-Elf and quarter Human although that quarter is like half in my case. As Benji said, it’s just story-wise that we’re 1/8th Giants and Dwarves." She added before Eisen lowly chuckled.

"Please call him ’Stahl’ while we’re playing. The people here can’t know that we’re players, after all. But anyway, that’s pretty interesting. A Sky-Elf, huh?" Eisen asked, and Al responded with a nod.

"Yup, really interesting. There’s like dozens of variants for races like elves and beastpeople. Sky Elves have a naturally strong voice and lung-capacity and are swift and nimble in general. They aren’t necessarily physically strong, though, but I thought it was a good fit." She explained while Eisen nodded his head.

"I see, that’s good to know. The people in our group are actually a pretty diverse bunch, so you’ll be able to see a lot of fascinating people." Eisen explained, before basically giving them a few examples.

"I think I mentioned a lot of them already, but there’s, for example, two of them that are Half-Fairy, and look like they’re about 9 or 10 years old max while being in their mid-twenties. Then there’s, of course, the priorly cursed mist-spirit, or the possible Heir to a multi-billion dollar company who tried to scam me. And then I can’t forget the literal son of a God that became my knight a while ago or the Chimera-Elf Halfling. And the other originals are nothing to laugh at either." Eisen explained with a laugh.

"When I first met Evalia, she sang to a crowd and made all the items we had sell-out completely. Jyuuk has a small army of monsters and skeletons that he’s keeping on his body. The first thing that Xenia did after starting to play was to write a book about Magic Theory and then moved on to summoning meteoroids to fight against a giant golem. And just yesterday, Brody sat down inside of a fire to meditate." Eisen quietly laughed, and neither Stahl nor Al knew what they were supposed to say, but Eisen just realized something else.

"Brody, come here for a second." The old man said as he turned around to look through the window into the carriage, and the Demon-Orc Halfling nodded his head before stepping up to Eisen.

"Yup, how can I help you?" He asked as he leaned through the window, and Eisen asked the question that was on his mind. "What kind of benefits does your Meditation skill give you again?"

"Oh, it accelerates any regeneration immensely, except for stamina, which is just ’paused,’ basically. Other than that, I guess it helps me practice the control over my Energy. I’m not sure, but I think it synergizes with mental, soul, and inner magic skills pretty well, at least from what I’ve heard here and there." Brody explained, and Eisen slowly nodded his head

"I see... Hmm, Jyuuk, Evalia, Brody, would one of you guys mind coming to the front for a while and take over for us?" Eisen asked, and Brody immediately volunteered. And after stopping the carriage for a second to switch spots with Brody and his Wife, Eisen didn’t take a seat inside the carriage itself but climbed onto the top just like Kiron always did.

"Grampa, what are you doing?" Stahl asked, confused as he saw this, and Eisen smiled at him. "I’m just going to meditate for a while. Don’t worry; I won’t fall off or anything."

"Sure, if you say so..." He replied, and Eisen smiled back at him. "Yeah, I say so. If you want to know a bit more about magic, then go ahead and ask Evalia and Jyuuk, they both have their element already." He explained and finished climbing up the roof before properly sitting down on it and closing his eyes while crossing his legs, starting to let his thoughts fade away.