Spending My Retirement In A Game

Surprised, Komer looked at Eisen next to him, his eyes moving back and forth between the old man and the notification in front of him.

"Another Quest? Are you sure?" He asked, confused, and Eisen just nodded his head with a smile. "Yeah, I’m sure. The effects on the coins aren’t that amazing anyway according to what you told me, so it’s a good practice to use them. And who knows, maybe you can find out some more things about them when using them." Eisen said, and Komer slowly nodded his head with a smile on his face.

"Alright, I’ll try! Although, what with the question marks in the reward section? I know you told Samurai that it’s for ’Bonus Rewards,’ but it wasn’t there on the last quest... so... want to tell me what it is?" Komer asked curiously, but Eisen just smirked and shook his head. "You’ll see when you finish the quest. But don’t rush it, seriously concentrate on the coins and see if you can enhance or influence anything." Eisen said, and Komer nodded his head with a grin before jumping off the bench so that he could walk on the ground and use the coins without either accidentally setting anything on fire or pouring water all over the place.

And once Komer left, another young man stepped up. "So, you explained a lot of stuff already, but what were those figures around you when you were offline? And also, why were you made of metal?" Samurai asked curiously, walking up directly next to the carriage. Before answering, Eisen took a close look at his eyes to make sure he wasn’t recording or streaming and then spoke up.

"When players log-off, they usually turn completely white, right? As if they lost all their color. We originals have a different thing for that. For example, I turn into metal, and Jyuuk grows bark and moss all over his body. I’m pretty sure it’s something similar to how mana works. At first, all mana is completely pure and white, but when you level up and rank your skills up, it slowly gets a color, and at some point even a ’texture.’" Eisen explained, remembering the mana that he saw when he looked at the gods with his truth-seeing-eyes, "I’m sure you won’t just stay white like that, but over time, the stronger or more skilled you become, your form when you’re offline or sleeping is going to change as well. I mean, you won’t see it anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much."

"Huh, that’s cool!" Samurai exclaimed with a grin, before asking something that Eisen just glossed over, because he didn’t understand what Samurai meant. "And what about those figures? A show on the World of Magic channel in TV showed low-level ghosts and spirits earlier today, and they looked somewhat like that." He added before Eisen looked at him with a frown, before remembering the notification he received back then.

"Did you see if they had any equipment on them? Like swords, shields, staffs, anything really." Eisen asked, and after a moment of thinking, Samurai shrugged. "I guess something like that. So, what is that about?" Samurai asked, trying to get as much information as he can, obviously for personal gain. But a kid like him had to wake up early to try and trick Eisen into spilling information like that. Informing another player on general information like prices for different items and materials was somewhat his part in this world as a figure of guidance, but that was something that all players would figure out sooner or later, so Eisen had no quarrels about having Komer tell him about that.

Showing someone like him direct information on his abilities, however, was not something that Eisen just wanted to do without a reason, especially if he didn’t know anything about that ability. "Well, if it looked like people that were fully equipped, then maybe they were actual undead. I heard there’s a monster called ’Shy Ghost’ in this forest, so they might have just run away when you came to the clearing." Eisen said with a straight face, just lying to Samurai to get him off his back.

"Oh! That explains it, I guess!" Samurai answered, and while the young man made his way back to his new ’group,’ Eisen thought about what he said. It was evident that those figures that Samurai saw were the ’Warriors’ that thanked Eisen for killing the Mother of Spiders, at least that was the only plausible explanation in his mind right now.

He would go and ask Jyuuk and Xenia if they knew anything about that later, but for now, he still had a title that he didn’t look at, that might explain everything.

[Title - Soul Whisperer]

[Description] You conversed directly with souls and treated them with respect so that they will do the same for you.

[Effect] Skills that deal with Souls will receive a 10% benefit; Stray Souls may try to speak to you

And with that, Eisen nodded his head, after having confirmed that this was the actual ability he gained through the title. It was a shame that he wasn’t able to talk to the souls of the people from before that Samurai claimed to have seen, but this would inevitably not end up being the last time that he had the chance to do something like this.

But even so, it was good that Eisen had such a title that might allow him to get into many more curious and interesting situations. It was just that before then, it might take a while, and until then, Eisen had a new creature to take care of.

With a smile, he grabbed the black sphere that he found in the dead tree and took another look at it, just confirming that he read right before.

[Albino Spider Egg]

"Alright... I’m sure something interesting will happen when this hatches. But first, what’s wrong with the shell..?" Eisen muttered to himself, before running his fingers over the surface of the egg, noticing that something was off. The ’eggshell’ was sliding around a bit as if it was just something used to cover up what was inside. And in the end, precisely what seemed to be the case.

Due to the, possibly a little rash, movements of Eisen’s fingers, the thin layer outside the egg ripped apart, revealing what was underneath. A completely translucent, glass-like sphere, with a crawled up a little white spider in the center, floating in a slightly milky liquid. Immediately, Eisen covered the egg up again, because he was sure that direct sunlight, of which there wasn’t all that much in a part of the forest as deep as this, wasn’t that great for the unborn spider.

"So that’s why it has that, huh?" He thought to himself as he looked at the black, paper-like substance in his hand that was probably supposed to protect the egg from any light.

From the brief glimpse that Eisen got of the tiny spider, it was very tiny, the same size that a regular spider one would find under their couch would be, large enough to maybe, barely reach every corner of Eisen’s thumb’s nail.

"Let’s just keep it safe for now." The old man quietly said as he placed the egg back into his bag, completely wrapping it up with beautiful, smooth cloth so that nothing could go wrong. And from then on, the trip back to the city was uneventful for the most part. Every once in awhile, Komer would ask for a health potion because he hurt himself because of the effects of the coins, but other than that, nothing was going on.

Soon, they reached town again, and the group then made their way to the ship, with a few people splitting off to get a few last-minute things done, like Komer going to get the money from the Merchant’s Guild or Samurai grabbing all of the items he left at his Inn. And of course, they also had to make sure that Jyuuk’s undead were at least somewhat hidden, just as they spoke about before.

But the hardest part about all of this was getting onto the ship again, because there were a lot of people around it, especially players that were trying to get onto it to take a look around. And then, in the front, there were even some people that Eisen recognized, and wanted to get away from there before a certain someone in his group returned.

"Come on you dumb lizard, I told you, you’re mine! That Moron that stole you from me isn’t here now, so you can’t do anything about it." A particular dark-red haired combat merchant yelled out, and Eisen signaled everyone to be quiet as he stepped off the front bench of the carriage, stepping closer toward the young man who was standing at the bottom of the planks leading up onto the ship, where Kiron was trying to get him to go away.

With heavy, slow steps, Eisen moved closer as his steps became heavier and heavier the more Eisen increased his size before a large shadow began to cover the wooden pier as he activated his demonic transformation. Slowly, the old man squatted down directly behind the merchant, which brought the two of them to an eye-level of each other, while Kiron began to smile brightly at his appearance, and the people on the ship that was with Eisen’s group were slowly gulping nervously at the sight of that, although those that were actually close to the old man were scared shitless.

Noticing the looks of everyone, the man slowly turned around, instinctively taking a step backward when he saw the giant face of this giant demon that became even more frightening since they last saw each other, and Eisen just looked at him with a smirk.

"Well hello there, Merc." He said, and Merc immediately pushed his hands into his gauntlets that he had attached to his belt, grasping them tightly.

"Wh-What do you want?" Merc asked nervously, before the old demon in front of him, just chuckled. "What do you think I may want?" He asked with a serene smile, but Merc didn’t know what to do or say and looked around so that someone may help him.

And in the meantime, Eisen inspected Merc.

[Player - Merc][Occupation - Combat Merchant][Level - 99]

"How’s your Level-100 quest going?" Eisen asked, pretending to be sincere, and Merc looked at him completely confused. "Wait, you didn’t Appraise me, so how did you-"

"You think I need to appraise you to know how strong you are? Please, you’re nothing but a kid trying to get back at someone that took away his toy." Eisen said with a grin, now moving from a squatting position to a cross-legged one, as he figured he didn’t need to be as prepared to move as he thought, before looking at Kiron who was still standing behind Merc. "Just that the ’toy’ in this case is not a toy, but my Grandchild. And as any good grandfather should, I take care of my grandchildren. I protect them from any danger; I make sure they are feeling well and have eaten enough. And most importantly..." Eisen slowly muttered as he extended a hand toward Merc, his enormous hand directly pressed against his throat, although he didn’t grasp it before the old man continued to speak, "...I would kill for my grandchildren."

With a light smile, Eisen then slowly closed his hand and then continued, while Merc was trying to get Eisen to let go. But prepared for something like that, Eisen had already used his element to completely connect his fingers and thumb so that they were a closed circle around Merc’s neck. "And I don’t only take care of my actual grandchildren, but those that I can see to have been my family in another life. Like your brother, Komer, for example, he’s a good kid, you know? So you shouldn’t bully him that much." Eisen said with another smile, before slowly picking Merc up off the ground by his throat and moving him over to the edge of the pier, holding him above the water.

"And now, if you’re smart enough to see that you shouldn’t cross me or anyone I care about again, you better stay underwater until we leave." He said with a smirk, before letting go of Merc and letting him drop into the water, before turning his head and looking at the second person that this was addressed to; Samurai, who had just caught back up with the group after hurrying to his Inn, but was now staring at Eisen completely terrified.