Spending My Retirement In A Game

[Koro, Parc, and Rouge asked to become your apprentices]

Surprised, Eisen waved the notification away, before the old man crossed his arms with a frown. "You want to become my apprentices? After only one day of knowing me, and without truly knowing what I can do?" Eisen asked before the three young men looked at each other before nodding.

"Yes, we do. And we have a rough idea of what you can do. In less than an hour, you created that ’Walk-In’ thing with a complex enchantment that fuels itself with mana. How...How do you even do that?" Koro pointed out, and Rouge and Parc quickly nodded.

"Exactly! And look at you, you’re a literal Demonic Craftsman! You are a Demon, right? Not the race, of course, but a true Demon..." Rouge then asked before Parc scratched the top of his head.

"Eh? There’s a difference?" The tall young man asked, confused before Eisen sighed loudly and nodded.

"Of course, there is. True Demons are unique beings. You’d have a hard time finding one that looks anything like another. And they aren’t born that way either; they have to work toward it. Anyone from any race can become one. Elf, Human, Dwarf, doesn’t matter. And just to let you know, I’m not a full true Demon yet. I’m just starting to work toward it, so you shouldn’t use that as a reference of how skilled I am." Eisen told them. He didn’t have anything against having apprentices per se, and he loved how these boys had such passion, but since he was leaving town soon, he needed to make sure that they were dedicated enough to keep after it, even in his absence.

Eisen and his companions would leave for a pretty dangerous place in a few weeks, and he didn’t want to force anyone to come along by making them his apprentices. And even then, he was told that his training course for apprentices was rather tough, although it was nowhere near what Eisen’s father had him do when he was a child.

But either way, Eisen never accepted apprentices just like that, and it wouldn’t be the case this time either. With a loud sigh, Eisen ended up nodding to the three young men. At first, they thought that meant he accepted them as his apprentices, but they were greatly surprised at what Eisen said next.

"Fine. But you won’t be my apprentices just like that. First I’ll have you show me what you can do. All three of you are good at multiple different things, right?" Eisen asked before the three of them nodded in unison, and Koro spoke up.

"Yes, we are. We’re like Jacks of All Trades or something like that." He explained, and Eisen slowly nodded.

"I see. Then I’m going to test you in five skills, the crafting skills that I learned first: Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Alchemy, and Enchanting. I’ll be back in four days, so I’ll test you then, prepare accordingly" Eisen told them before the four of them nodded and smiled brightly as their eyes seemed to focus on something else. And at the same time, something popped up in front of Eisen as well.

[Quest "Demonic Craftsman’s Approval" given to Koro, Parc and Rouge]

Confused, Eisen looked through the notification again and again, before another one popped up. This announcement was of a different kind, of a ’System’ notification. These notifications had a different feel to them as if they were ’layered’ on top of Eisen’s sight. Those were the notifications that were player-exclusive, it seemed, as they usually contained something that referred to everything as a ’Game’ or as the one that saw the information as a ’Player.’

[Giving out quests as a player is a privilege given only to the Five Originals, as they can help guide those with less knowledge than them through the world]

With a sigh, Eisen waved these notifications away, surprised at this but at the same time somewhat curious at what the requirements for handing out quests were, but was happy that he learned that he could do this now.

"Whoa! We even got a quest? Awesome!" Parc exclaimed as Eisen chuckled softly.

"Well, now it’s official, isn’t it? Now, come help me clean everything up, and then I’ll get going back to my Inn." Eisen told them as he drank another mana potion to supply his body with the mana he needed to keep up his transformation, and grabbed the nearly empty pot with the rest of the stew in it to bring it inside.

It took a little while, as they brought everything back to the Kitchen and then cleaned up the used bowls and cutlery, which didn’t take too long since the majority of it was being washed off with a little water. It was quite convenient, really.

And then, Eisen walked back to the dining area, where Kiron, Sky, Caria, and Melissa were waiting for Eisen, and Noa also, as she stood directly next to them and brightly smiled as she laid eyes on the Demon walking toward them.

"Again, thank you so much for your help. I don’t know how we could repay you for this, really." Noa the nun told Eisen as she held her hands in front of her heart, and the old man laughed softly.

"Don’t worry about it. I said it before, but I do have some selfish reasons for doing this as well." Eisen told her, before she slowly nodded, simply feeling incredibly happy and gleeful right now.

And it seems like she wasn’t the only one that wanted to thank the old man. One after another, everyone, Homeless and Orphans alike, came up to him and thanked him. Some of the younger kids even gave him a few flowers that they picked, and some of the nuns told him that the patients in the hospital also wanted to thank him even more, now that they got to have such a great meal after being treated by Eisen beforehand.

With a smile, the now surrounded Eisen continued to talk to everyone for a short while, answering a few questions they had and simply conversing with others about the situation in the church.

And after that was over, Eisen and his companions made their way back toward the Inn they were staying at, and the old man immediately went to bed after taking a look at the time in real life, because he was once more planning on making breakfast for his family.

---

However, it seemed like Benjamin’s plans wouldn’t work out as he wanted them to, as when he woke up, he already noticed the sound of someone going through different pans and pots in the kitchen. And after standing up from the capsule, getting dressed and stepped toward the source of the noise, he saw Melody standing in front of a pot in the kitchen, stirring something around.

"Good morning. I thought I said I’d make breakfast, didn’t I?" Benjamin asked as he walked up to his daughter, who swiftly turned around with a frown as she looked at the old man.

"You did, but you need to rest, and I’m sure you wouldn’t make anything overly healthy, right?" Melody pointed out, as Benjamin looked into the pot and saw a gray goop inside of it.

"Porridge?" Benjamin asked as he grabbed a small spoon and had a little taste of it before he looked at his daughter with confusion. "Didn’t you season this with anything? It tastes great with some Vanilla, Cocoa powder, or Cinnamon, or anything you can put in there. But This tastes like nothing..." The old man pointed out, opening his seasoning cabinet and quickly grabbing the three things he just mentioned before Melody immediately closed the cabinet doors again as she shook her head.

"Oats and Milk are enough, aren’t they? I always make this at home, and Sophia and Michael love it." Melody told her father, who stared down at her in obvious disbelief.

"Mhm, sure. If you say so..." The old man loudly sighed as he walked over to another cabinet and grabbed the bag with his coffee beans and his coffer grinder as well as his Chemex. He was told by his grandson Benji that making coffee this way was incredibly showy and unnecessary, but quickly shut his mouth when he drank some of it over the past few days.

And as he began grinding down the coffee beans for a nice pot of this godly brown liquid, he noticed that Melody was giving him another one of her patented ’You better don’t’ looks. But this time around, he ignored her, he won’t have his daughter tell him not to do what he wants.

Luckily enough for Melody, she didn’t even have to!

"Hmm, Benjamin, I don’t think you should do that. Coffee isn’t good for the body or belly, after all." Michael exclaimed as he stepped out from the hallway with an already perfect look as if he didn’t sleep at all and just spent all night getting ready.

"Good morning to you too, Michael. And I’m of a different opinion, so I’ll drink my coffee in peace, thank you very much." Benjamin told him with a bright, genuine smile before Michael nodded slowly and sat down by the counter, albeit slightly annoyed.

"That is fine. ’Live and let live’ as you always say, isn’t that right?" Michael said afterward, while Benjamin slowly nodded and continued grinding down his coffee as he began boiling up some water.

A few minutes later, it seemed like the porridge was ready, as well as the hot water, so Benjamin began slowly making the coffee while Melody and Michael started to eat the porridge. With a sigh, the old man looked at the porridge in the pot, while at the same time Benji, Kyle, and Sophia came toward the Kitchen after waking up just now, sitting down by the counter, before Melody quickly gave them a bowl of porridge immediately afterward.

Confused, Benji looked at the grey, unsightly food in this bowl and looked at his grandfather. "You didn’t make this, did you?"

Slowly, Benjamin shook his head before Benji looked over at Melody and slightly smiled so that he didn’t offend her. The three teenagers each ate a little bit of the porridge, and now Benjamin could confirm that not even Sophia liked it, different to what Melody exclaimed before.

With a sigh, Benjamin took the bowls of Benji and Kyle to change the porridge up a little bit, while saying sorry to Sophia with his facial expression, since he knew that neither Melody nor Michael would let him feed anything they didn’t approve of to their daughter.

Now, quite quickly, Benjamin poured the bowls making up the porridge for himself, his two sons, his daughter in law, the four youngest children here, and these two teenagers together into a bigger mixing bowl and quickly changed it up a little bit. First, he added some vanilla extract, sugar and cinnamon, to give it some flavor and at least not make it as bland and swiftly mixed it in, and then set aside bowls for Lola, Lyla, Sean and Katy, since he knew they wouldn’t like the ground-down coffee that Benjamin put into the porridge next.

He was using pretty strong coffee beans as well, so he didn’t put in all that much, but it was still enough to change the taste up quite a bit. And after putting the new porridge in a few different bowls, the old man quickly put some berries on top of it that should go pretty well with the taste.

"Here, you two go. Not everyone has to eat like this." Benjamin said with a wink, while his daughter shot him a dirty look.

"Dad, I just said it’s not good for you to put in all that stuff, why don’t you ever listen to me?" Melody protested as she tried taking away the bowl Benjamin mixed for himself, but her father quickly held his hand up higher into the air, which made him confident she couldn’t reach it.

"Melody, I think I know best what’s good for me and what’s not, right?" Benjamin exclaimed as he brought the bowl over to sit next to Benji and Kyle, the latter of which was awkwardly looking at these two tall hunks now sitting next to him, together with a cup of coffee for himself and these two teenagers.

"Now, let’s enjoy our breakfast, shall we?"