Spending My Retirement In A Game

The male player swiftly swung the battered wooden club in his hand down toward Sky, but the young Fey-Kin just sighed and closed his book, quickly using it to defend against this weak attack.

"I just said we don’t want any trouble, didn’t I? Just leave, or you’ll feel regret in a few seconds." Sky pointed out to him, but the player just looked at him confused, although he didn’t have much time to think about what just happened, because he soon had a small boot in his face as the player was kicked away, sending him flying a couple of meters away. It seemed like that alone drained most of the player’s health, but it luckily wasn’t enough to kill him. The lucky part about that was that Eisen could see this unfold further.

"Wh-What was that?" The female player asked, staring at her friend confused, before Sky slowly turned back to his book and started slowly flipping through it with an annoyed expression. "That, you dimwitted fool, was regret."

"Hell yes it was!" Bree exclaimed immediately, pulling her foot back to the ground after kicking the player in his face. Although then, Bree turned around toward her brother and tilted her head to the side. "Wait, what was it?" She asked, but Sky just shook his head and smiled back at her.

"Don’t worry about it, sis." He replied, and then placed his hand onto the current page of his book. "The Titan Porter, come out." Sky said, clearly activating a specific story, as black letters popped off the page and came together in front of the two players, creating what seemed like a large hand-pulled wooden cart as well as a four meter tall figure, which Eisen figured to be the ’Titan’ of that story.

And so, Sky closed the book and pointed it at the two players who were trying to understand what exactly was suddenly happening just now, before the blue-haired Fey-Kin boy just ended up slightly smirking. "Those two need to be delivered a few miles along this road. If you would please take care of that, that would be great." Sky asked of his own Inkheart Summon, before the Titan held his middle and index fingers against his forehead in a salute-like motion, and then swiftly stepped up to the two Players, grabbing them quite swiftly before placing them down into the large cart, which the Titan then stepped in front of with a big grin on his face as he started walking.

Sky would have just left it at that, but the tied-down players, as they had to be properly fastened so that they wouldn’t fall out during the transportation, both had quite loud mouths... Especially the male player, who said something he shouldn’t have. "C’Mon you goddamn bitch! You’re like eight, respect your elders a little!" He yelled out, and immediately, Sky snapped his back toward them, who were being pulled along the road in the direction of the Merchant town that Eisen’s group came from, and smiled brightly.

"Ah, Porter... This is an urgent delivery. So, Godspeed." Sky said with a smile, which was obviously just hiding extreme annoyance and anger, before the Titan immediately nodded his head and started literally sprinting along the road as quickly as he could, leaving the group’s sight within just a few moments.

And now, Eisen simply couldn’t help himself anymore, starting to laugh out loudly. "Well, well, well, that was handled pretty nicely, wasn’t it?" The old man asked as he returned his size to his regular state and deactivated his Demonic transformation, before both Bree and Sky looked at Eisen surprised.

"Y-You were there?" Sky asked him, and the old man just nodded. "Mhm, I was. Thanks for ending it with, well... Minimal... violence." Eisen told them with a wink directed at Bree, who buried her face in her hands, before Eisen climbed up onto the bench to sit inbetween them while he placed his sword and Multitool into the Carriage’s actual interior. He would take a look at that later, but for now, this would be fine. They should get out of this area first before moving onto taking a break, after all.

And so, the old man chose to take his time for a little longer and just drive the carriage for now. It would be about a one to two week trip to Melroe at the very least, not taking into account some prolonged breaks to set up a shop or a dungeon in some towns, or the time that would be needed to bring Cabarum to an acceptable Rank when replacing his Golem Core.

As Eisen didn’t necessarily have all that much to do for now, he figured that moments like these were nice enough.

Just like that, the group made their way to an area where a lot less players should be at the current time, considering the average Rank of Monsters, at roughly 4 or 5 at the moment, which in Eisen’s opinion was simply perfect to let Cabarum and Aulu level up a while.

For now, the old man just switched Cabarum’s Golem Core out with the one that he had prepared beforehand, and then watched as the Large Metallic steed turned much more life-like than it had ever been before. Now, he seemed to actually have a proper Character to him instead of being just something that looked like a horse on the outside.

"Now then... You guys can go ahead and take another break, I’ll be going for a bit of a hunt for now. The Monsters around here have quite useful ressources with, on, or in them. I’ll be back soon enough, should just take an hour or two." The old man pointed out as he continued caring a bit for the two Ego Automata’s bodies to make sure they were ready for combat, and then cracked his knuckles excitedly.

He already switched out some of the sensory Organs he put into them a little while ago with ones infused with the same Element he used to make Ranger’s sensory Organs, just so that they could properly use their bodies like they were still alive.

And so, Eisen swiftly sat down on top of Cabarum’s back, as he would use Aulu as a Bloodhound of sorts, and smiled and waved at the others as the old man made his way deeper into the Monster-riddled forest which was surrounded by a few cliffs to turn it into what was basically a self-contained area with quite Unique Monsters, as the old man had heard before.

This place might be a proper Field Dungeon as well as far as Eisen knew, but he didn’t really care all that much right now. It was a good chance to let loose for now. Aulu wasn’t just large enough to hold his body properly while his size was 100% increased, so Eisen adjusted his size to the perfect point for the Gargantuan steed underneath his bottom, riding him into the forest.

"Aulu, let me know when you found something." The old man said with a smile on his face, and the Metallic Wolf just stared at him and wagged her tail, which Eisen just took as an ’Alright!’. And so, she soon reacted to a nearby Monster right ahead of them, the presence of which Eisen soon confirmed through his Mana-Sight.

The reason that these monsters here were unique was quite simple. They were Rock Monsters, basically like small, actually living Golems. Whether they were kept together by magic or some other means was unknown to Eisen, but he was pretty interested in them, anyway. Especially because some of them were made completely of Ore, or some even were Geode-Like, meaning that they had crystal formations inside of them.

And as most of them were quite slow, they were suitable targets for hit-and-run tactics so that Aulu and Cabarum could level up a little through that as well. It seemed like Aulu was just gaining experience by finding enemies already, but Cabarum would gain experience through a rather special means. The old man was attacking the Rock Monsters, he was still seated on Cabarum’s back, and as he was a Golem he was seen directly as a tool, meaning that he gained a fair amount of experience through that.

So of course, it made sense that Cabarum was leveling up a fair bit quicker than Aulu. And so, Eisen then soon tried to just get to the ’Rank Up’ stage with Cabarum quite swiftly. He wasn’t sure how exactly he was supposed to do this, but Eisen figured that he should just put the extra soul in there with the other one while bundling the two of them up.

Eisen guessed that this would be enough for now, and to his surprise, he could already see that Cabarum had become Rank 1, albeit still level 0. That ’Level 0’ probably meant the phase of the two souls actually connecting, and figured that experience should help with that, quickly hurrying on to continue giving Cabarum more experience.

Soon enough, the two souls combined and Cabarum became Level 1 again. But there was something that Eisen was noticing, now that he had been using these two Automata in actual combat for the first time. They were actually seen as ’Tools’ to him, despite him not seeing them as such.

And considering that this was the case, Eisen should be able to use things like ’Tool Connection’ on them. Although most importantly, there was something else that Eisen wanted to try with the two Ego-Automata, which would surely help him level the two of them up.

The old man placed his hands on them and then slowly concentrated on a technique that he had only learned to make use of quite recently. By thinking of them as extensions of his own body, Eisen was able to have them seen as such in a certain situation.

While his Demonic Form was active. As the old man’s body slowly grew a thick rock skin and cracked up to reveal dark flames with a slightly golden base, wings sprouted on his back and horns rose up from his forehead, similar things happened to the two Automata.

Their metallic fur turned to stone with a slight shine as it cracked up and showed the same flames as Eisen had over him. Their eyes turned into a dark, muddy golden color while things similar to small horns appeared on their foreheads. They were just tiny, barely noticeable really, but they were definitely there.

Eisen somehow waited for them to grow wings as well, but he figured that was a bit too much then. And so, the old man sat back down on the back of his now Demonic Steed, holding the pitch-black sword in his hand as it, too, was affected by Eisen’s demonic Transformation.

Just like that, Eisen started a truly Demonic Hunt.