Spending My Retirement In A Game

Carefully, Eisen reached into the tree stump and grabbed the pitch-black egg that he found in there. After pulling it out, the old man removed the cobwebs that were stuck to it and then placed the egg into his backpack before returning to the group.

"So, what were you doing there?" Alnico asked again, and Eisen crossed his arms with a smile. "I just grabbed something interesting. I’ll show you later. We have everything from the spider that can be useful, right?" Eisen confirmed before he looked around at the others. And since they didn’t seem to have any complaints, he nodded at Jyuuk, who appeared to be eagerly waiting for this chance.

Jyuuk grabbed a bag out of his backpack and threw the contents onto the dead Mother of Spider’s body that was taken apart for most useful parts. After that, Jyuuk closed his eyes and extended his hands forward, before the space in front of those hands began to slowly shift around as a sign that mana was being used.

But not only that, but the air also took on a slightly grey color, which Eisen figured was because Jyuuk was using his element for this to speed things up and heighten his chances. Soon, the things that the Beastperson spread out on the corpse cracked open, and roots began to extend outward from the seeds, grasping onto any free space that was available to them, before pitch-black flowers started to bloom all over.

This sight alone was quite impressive already, as the somewhat gruesome scene that was going on before actually turn somehow beautiful, but what then happened was even more so. The flowers withered after a few seconds, and in an area spread around where they had sprouted before, new ones grew and then did the same. Only the petals ever withered, while the roots stayed in place and intertwined with everything else, while the Spider’s sternum pulled what was leftover from its legs against it again and filled out all of the space with roots instead.

The legs soon began to slightly move under the control of the roots and necromantic energy that Jyuuk poured into the corpse, before the front and back of the bodies connected again. After only a few minutes, the mountain that was just leftover goop turned into a fully-fledged spider made of pitch-black roots and spider parts.

Once completed, the whole creature began to crack all over, and Jyuuk pushed his hands up in excitement.

"Yes! Finally! I resurrected a Boss!" Jyuuk exclaimed with a broad grin before that grin turned into a sour expression instead. "Ah, shit..." He said with a sigh, and Eisen slightly tilted his head to the side.

"What’s wrong?" The old man asked with a bit of worry, and Jyuuk scratched the back of his head. "Well, because of the strength of the undead, I either need to completely ’delete’ the undead I have stored right now so that I can store the Spider, I can have all the undead on my hand out all the time until you make that Necronomicon you talked about for me, or I can have the spider itself out. Both of the latter are going to be pretty bothersome on the way back." He explained, but Eisen still didn’t understand the problem.

"I thought Necromancy isn’t condemned, so I’m sure you can keep the undead you have around you. I can see the problem with the big girl right here, but not really with the other undead." He pointed out, but Jyuuk shook his head. "It’s not condemned, but people don’t like to see it either. I mean, who would want to see a dead body walking around? And I have two zombies with me, and even if they’re Overgrown and most of the grossest areas are covered up, they’re still not nice to look at." Jyuuk answered, "Especially not in a big crowd."

With a frown, Eisen began to move his fingers through his beard. "Then let’s just keep the ’Grossest’ Undead in the carriage, and then we’ll all walk in a circle around the others so that they can’t be noticed that well," Eisen suggested before Jyuuk just shrugged. "I guess that’s fine," Jyuuk responded, and while that conversation was going on, a new group of five that had just now formed spoke amongst each other.

"Holy fucking shit, what did that Monkey Dude do just now?" Samurai asked, and he soon was met with a glare from another Monkey Beastperson. "Hey, that’s my Onii you’re talking about!" Kyla exclaimed with a pout before she crossed her arms, and Samurai scratched the back of his head apologetically before Stahl spoke up to answer the question.

"That’s Jyuuk’s ’Overgrown Necromancy.’ That’s what he calls it, at least. It’s a combination of the plant control skill and necromancy. He enhances it with his element, though, so it’s probably not something that everyone can do." Stahl pointed out with crossed arms, and Samurai slowly nodded his head in wonder.

"Yeah... That’s really fucking dope though, gotta admit. Can’t wait to have my Mana Manipulation rank hit two so that I can choose my element." Samurai said with a bright grin, before he scratched his cheek, turning to everyone curiously.

"Actually, what would you guys want for an element? I heard that there’s basically an infinite amount of unique elements for everything." He said with a grin, and Alnico was the one that answered first.

"Hmm, I’d like something that has to do with Music. I’ve been working toward a Bard-like occupation, so I’m sure I can get something like that." She explained, and next Zyra opened her mouth. "I think something that lets me use lots and lots of cool magic arrows might be interesting."

"I just want a cute, fluffy, explosive element!" Kyla added, and Stahl smiled wrily. "Well, one of those things is not like the others..." He muttered quietly to himself before continuing. "Honestly, because I don’t know where I want to go with everything yet, so I don’t know what kind of element I want either. I mean, something flashy would be cool, but I’ll probably get some sort of a supportive element that I can use passively with my other skills." Stahl explained, and then Samurai nodded his head immediately.

"Oh yeah, I get that! Right now I have a swordsman occupation just so that I can level up beyond 15, but I want to get something Samurai-esque. So anything that fits with that would be pretty dope." Samurai said, and then Stahl noticed something as well.

"Well shit, I don’t have an occupation yet... Didn’t get past level 15..." Stahl muttered to himself, wanting to slap himself for not noticing earlier. A good portion of what he and his grandfather were doing in the forest was just a waste, then.

"Oh, do you want to get a warrior type occupation as well just as a placeholder until you know what you want to do? I can introduce you to my trainer in town." The streamer offered, but Stahl shook his head.

"Nah, that’s fine. I don’t want to limit myself to that. If I do, I can’t get a full type of different occupation, after all." He answered before Alnico nodded her head as well. "Yeah, and even then, we don’t need to meet some trainer and go through random occupation training. The Originals can give out occupations as well. That’s something that anyone can learn, though." She added, and Samurai turned around and looked at the originals in wonder.

"Oh, really? I heard about how players can get that Trainer title as well, but I wasn’t aware they could all do that to start it off..." He muttered, before noticing something else going on. About a dozen different overgrown undead had gathered around the group of originals, and currently, a black mist was coming out of Jyuuk’s hand as it tried to cover the Overgrown Spider Zombie’s body before that mist swallowed it whole and it just disappeared. And then, Eisen called out to the group.

"Hey everyone, we’re done here. We’ve got to get going." The old man told them, before the small group of the five of them swiftly approached, and Eisen then turned to Samurai.

"Well kid, nice meeting you. And thanks for the help, and letting us use your stream thingy for advertisement." Eisen said, but Samurai seemed to have had a different idea.

"Erm, Sir... could I maybe come with all of you?" He asked before Eisen looked at him with a frown that was perfectly matched with a cold glare. "And why do you want to do that?"

Immediately, a shiver ran over Samurai’s spine, and he swiftly shook his head. "It’s not like that! I’m not going to stream anything you won’t allow me to! I was basically streaming after the launch; for the most part, I publish cut videos. So even if I record things, you can have me cut out anything you don’t want to have others see!" He explained, and Eisen looked over at Zyra, as she was the only one that knew him before this.

"So, do you trust him more than me?" The old man asked, and Zyra just shrugged. "Eh, 1:1."

"Well, I guess that’s that. But why do you think we should take you with us? Is there anything in it on our side?" Eisen asked, but Samurai just responded with a dumb smile, unsure what he should say before Brody pulled the old man to the side and the other originals followed.

"Actually, I think that’s a pretty good idea. Since the ’Alphas’ in our group are all so low-leveled, we wanted them to hunt a bit on their own, right? With a bit of supervision here and there, of course, but overall we wanted them to go off alone every once in a while? They were missin’ a tank and primary damage dealer anyway, and I think that fits Samurai pretty well." Brody pointed out, and Eisen looked at the other three, who were all also more experienced in games than Eisen was, and they nodded their heads.

"To be honest, that’s a pretty good point. I mean, none of us necessarily have the time to babysit the ’Alphas’ and pull them to our level. For one, at least Jyuuk, Brody and I have to work every day, so we’re not there a lot in the first place. And then, only you and Evalia are left, and you’re technically non-combatants. You have to deal with other stuff as well, especially after we take over the first city on the islands." Xenia pointed out, and so, Eisen was left with no other choice but to call over the four that would end up working together with Samurai to ask them.

"So, would you mind forming a party with him?" Eisen asked, fully ready to say ’No’ if any of them were entirely against it, but to his surprise, they all were completely up for it, even the quite cynical Zyra.

"He’s a bit of a dick sometimes, but other than that, he’s a pretty nice guy." She explained, and then Stahl and Alnico nodded as well. "Yeah, he’s actually one of the few super down-to-earth streamers. Most act super high and mighty all the time, but he doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything and just wants to play games." The Green-Haired boy added, so Eisen ended up sighing loudly, now having little reason to say no.

"Alright, Samurai, you can join us. We’ll explain everything on the way, and then you can choose whether or not you want to come along. Oh, and on the whole way to our destination, no streaming or recording. We want to keep where we are a secret for now." Eisen explained, so Samurai nodded with a bright smile.

"Nice! Thanks!" Samurai yelled out, and Eisen sighed loudly before stepping over to the carriage to get everything ready for the departure from the forest, before remembering one thing.

He still didn’t look at the notifications that appeared before he logged off last time.