Spending My Retirement In A Game

"So... How does this work, exactly?" Komer asked as he took a closer look at the machinery that Eisen set up in the space that Komer suggested for it, before the old man started to explain everything in detail before actually placing some of the different materials into everything to show the process to Komer.

"Mostly, it does everything on its own, the only steps that you need some people for are the initial step of providing the materials, as well as the final step of getting the finished items out." Eisen pointed out, and then poured his mana into the setting-menu crystal for the Printing Press.

"Here, you can type in whatever you want and have it printed in magic Ink. You can then save some different formats in here and print however much you want of it as long as there’s enough mana and paper." He said, before turning toward the Potion-Brewer with a smile, placing his hand onto one of the bowls. "This one here might seem unneccessarily large right now, but this was the best way to ensure a high-quality product coming out at the end. By the way, because the potion is pretty concentrated, I added another step at the end to give the potions a bit of a better flavor."

"Oh? How that, exactly?" Komer asked curiously as he stepped up to the bowl that Eisen was speaking about, and the old man swiftly crossed his arms and explained.

"Do you know how to make juice?" He asked, and Komer slowly scratched the back of his head. "Just smash fruit?"

"Basically, but usually, you add water to the fruit beforehand so that the actual fruit-juice isn’t as strong and can properly be pulled out of the pulp. Just instead of water, we’re using the potion here after it’s been liquified. After that, one potion is going to a bit smaller, a little more potent, and tastier than a regular potion." The old man explained, "And then after you properly extracted all the juice that you can use, the pulp can be used for other things like pastry or candy, even."

"Ahh, that’s pretty smart... Hmm... Speaking of, do you coincidentally know any good bakers or candy-makers? I tried to make an offer to a popular Candy shop near the plaza to open a larger one in the Mall, but they declined... Seems like a lot of the people here are pretty sceptical about it." Komer pointed out, letting Eisen move his fingers through his beard with a slight frown.

"Actually... If you don’t mind a few old men gathering here, I might know some people. The son of a Candy-Maker I worked under for a while, he’s a little younger than me... It’s not food-related, but a friend of mine is a great Barber, and he seems to be thinking about playing as well, his hands aren’t in a good enough shape to work anymore..." Eisen muttered quietly as he moved his fingers through his beard, and Komer looked at the old man surprised.

"A Barber? I mean, I did notice that hair keeps growing at a regular rate... Actually, even faster as I was leveling up... Maybe that would be a good idea... The only barber around here is pretty small." Komer pointed out as he cupped his chin, and Eisen raised his eyebrows.

"Then I’ll let him know that there could be some work waiting for him. And his skill is to be trusted, I went to see him for the last 40 years whenever I needed a haircut. Well, as long as I was in town."

"Perfect, I’ll set something up then. This block is pretty big, so there’s space for a ton of shops." Komer pointed out, while Eisen immediately nodded his head.

"Definitely, I was surprised, really. Sure, the buildings don’t seem to be in that great of a shape because nobody has been caring for them, but you can see that the Workers you hired are doing a great job in the restoration."

"Thanks, I hand-picked them, actually." Komer admitted with a smirk, before he and Eisen shut the machinery down again and headed out of the space they were in right now, which was in a bas.e.m.e.nt area, back toward the open, central space in the center of the block of buildings, where Kirisho had been waiting with the others.

"Ah, and do you think Evalia and Jyuuk can come over soon as well? I wanted to ask both of them for some help with this place. I was thinking about an open glass roof above here for some natural sunlight, and then have some grass and different plants like trees or bushes here for something like an ’Indoor Park’. I could use their opinions."

"Sure, just message them and ask. We spoke about it, and the latest that we’re going to leave is when the last wave of ’Artificials’ starts." Eisen explained, so Komer slowly nodded his head with a smile. "Good, good. So, you said you wanted to open a shop for Alcohol as well? I mean, obviously, considering ’That’ thing there." Komer said with a wry smile as he pointed at the Giant bottle in front of them, and Eisen just chuckled.

"Mhm, if that’s fine with you. I’m not sure what plans you had for this place." Eisen pointed out, and Komer shook his head immediately.

"Just pick whatever shops you want, you’re technically the one paying for ALL of this. There’s enough space for everything anyway. But my question was rather leading up to another one. Meaning, if you wanted to open up something like a Bar that also sells the alcohol bottled, just a shop that sells regular alcohol, or a shop that sells the ’special’ stuff in that book of yours."

With a laugh, Eisen nodded his head immediately, crossing his arms with a smirk. "I would like both, really. But it’s hard to sell them in a single shop together, so I was thinking of maybe splitting up one space into two with another wall in the middle, sell Gordon’s Creations from one half, and more serious stuff from the other. Including a Bar might not be a bad idea either."

"Sounds good to me, really. Just give me some plans for the shops, and I’ll let you know when it’s done. And then about the clothes you showed me, we’ll just have to see which are most popular, I can’t really say yet. We should get a small selection of everything together and then go from there. Now, what about Weapon and Armor Shops? The Potion-Shop is going to be a sub-area of the Magic-Item Shop, I reserved a pretty big space for that, but right next to that is another pretty large space that I thought fit there pretty well."

"I could make some items for that, but maybe we could make that something that’s a little more of a ’Buy-and-Sell’, where we can get some of the items the new Artificials will be making to be sold there? Those kinds of items are harder to mass-produce, after all." Eisen pointed out, before Komer immediately nodded his head.

"Of course, of course, I was thinking that we should try and work on a ’Buy-and-Sell’ basis for most places. Of course, depending on the shop it’s going to be a bit different, but I would like to turn this into a good place for Crafter’s to make some good money as well." Komer pointed out, and then as he looked over at the three young Monsters next to Kirisho, he remembered something else.

"Right, what about that Pet Shop? I mentioned it to the Lord, and he didn’t necessarily seem happy about it. But depending on the monster, he said it might be fine. We’ll need to set up another contract for that, though. Even here, the only trading of living creatures that’s allowed is the trading of Lifestock like Cows, Sheep, or Chicken, as well as animals like Horses to pull carriages. But the types are heavily limited for those as well."

"Then we should tell someone trustworthy to go around and bring some of the Monsters we’ve seen here. They’re pretty cute in my opinion, and some of them are supposed to be even good as Mage-Familiars." Eisen said with a smirk, and Komer raised his eyebrow surprised.

"Oh, aren’t those pretty rare?"

"Mhm, they are. Mage-Familiars are a few very specific, critter-sized Monsters with a high amount of Magic in them. If I hadn’t tamed Sal already, he probably could have been a Mage-Familiar as well." The old man said and rubbed his hand over the small, eight-legged boy’s head.

"Neat. Well, anyway..." Komer said and then slowly started to scratch his cheek, seemingly waiting for something, so Eisen just laughed loudly when he realized what was going on.

"Right, right, let’s turn Starlight into a Guild-Branch, shall we?" Eisen asked with a light smile, and Komer excitedly nodded his head.

"Yes, please!" He exclaimed, grabbing the contract from his bag before handing it to Eisen.

"Prepared as always, huh?" The old man asked and chuckled, swiftly creating a table with his element that he could write on.

"Now... I’m pretty sure I could do this on my own without the others." Eisen muttered quietly and then quickly took a pen to write the different information down, before swiftly signing at the bottom. Then, the old man handed the pen to Komer, who swiftly signed the Magic Contract as well. And when both of them saw the contract as completed, the piece of paper started to catch fire at the corners and then completely burnt up.

[Guild-Branch has been established. Appointed as the Branch-Head]

[Guild-Branch can merge with Merchant Company ]

With a bright smile on his face, Komer then got out the next Contract, which seemed to be the one meant to properly connect the Branch to the Merchant Company. "This one here’s a Magic Contract as well, but we’ll need to get it approved by the Merchant’s Guild before signing it as well. Should we head over there? This place here is pretty protected, so we can just leave everything here without an issue."

"Alright, sounds good to me." Eisen replied with a smile on his face, and then looked over toward the others. "Let’s go, then. After we go to the Merchant’s Guild, we’ll set up the Dungeon for the public for the first time." The old man explained with a smirk on his face, and the others slowly stood up, although Caria, Melissa and Sal ran toward the old man, simply because they were pretty clingy.

"I guess I don’t have anything specific to do today." Eisen chuckled slightly and picked the three of them up, and with his fully-increased size, he was able to carry all three of them at once, although it wasn’t like they gave him any other choice at the moment.

And so, the group swiftly made their way over toward the Merchant’s Guild to set Starlight up to belong to the Guild-Branch.