Spending My Retirement In A Game

Just as Eisen had expected, whenever he tried to unwrap one of the Magic circles of the second layer, he was attacked in some way by the Magic Circle itself. Usually it was just something generic like flames that shot out against him, or lightning that was meant to stun him, but there were also the occasional debuffs there that he had to somehow deal with.

In the end it wasn't that big a deal, considering that he could very easily avoid all of the attacks by just placing a Mana Double there instead of himself. That meant that it took a bit longer to actually unwrap the Magic Circles, but it was still easier than doing so while fending off such bothersome attacks.

Other than that, the system was really mostly the same, and Eisen had to figure out the right order to properly get rid of all of the Magic Circles, which wasn't that hard considering that he already got the hang of that during the first layer.

And so, the second layer broke down completely just around three hours later, and Eisen was met with the last of the layers. This one here seemed a bit more complex than the other two, however.

This time, he had to seemingly do something else to properly unwrap everything, because every single one of the Magic Circles was 'Shattered' in a way that it still functioned. That meant that if a magic circle was split up into two pieces, then those pieces could be on completely opposite sides of the room.

The Magic Circle wouldn't be able to cause an effect in that case, but these magic circles didn't have an effect anyway. They had the 'defensive' parts that still worked even now, and they could still send on a signal that Eisen unwrapped the Magic Circles in the wrong order.

The most annoying part about that was that he had to somehow pull the different pieces along the capsule-shaped surface they were placed on that was containing the last part of the trial. Because he could only unwrap the magic circles if the Magic Circle was currently put together... But that caused another problem.

Because the 'effect' of the Magic Circles was a 'Timer'. If Eisen didn't unwrap them quickly enough, they would still send the 'failed' signal along to the others and the whole thing would collapse and probably blow up around him.

"How annoying..." The old man muttered quietly as he turned around toward Marcear with a wry smile, "Are you sure you guys aren't the evil ones? Because this here seems really bad..." Eisen sighed as he slightly laughed and went around the layer of Magic Circles while mentally marking them to figure out the proper order as quickly as he could.

"Hmm... I see, then I need to first..." Eisen whispered, "And then pull that there, and..." Slowly, Eisen began to be deeply absorbed in his thoughts before slowly nodding his head in satisfaction, and then placed his hand in front of a piece of a magic circle, quickly encapsuling it with his mana to make it that he could move it around without activating anything. And just like that, the old man started putting the first Magic Circle together and immediately started trying to unwrap it with the help of his Mana Double while frozen spikes shot out from certain parts of the Magic Circle to attack Eisen.

"Son of a..." Eisen grumbled as he dodged one of the spikes, albeit just barely, and continued unwrapping the Magic Circle. And so, the old man started to slowly unlock the third layer of these Magic Circles, moving different parts of them around as if to simply solve numerous small puzzles.

But in the end, the rest was once more the same as the others, he was just under a bit more pressure while unwrapping each Magic Circle, that's it.

Soon, maybe five hours later, Eisen also managed to make the third layer completely shatter, revealing the very last part of the trial.

The moment that the third layer broke open, numerous three-dimensional Magic Circles started spreading throughout the room, and from what Eisen could tell on first glance, most of them were 'shattered' magic circles as well. But something seemed different about it this time... Slowly, Eisen started mentally putting all of the different pieces together, and then had a collection of numerous different three-dimensional shapes in front of him, ranging from pyramids to tubes. And weirdly enough, it seemed like not even these large, 'complete' shapes were actually properly finished Magic Circles, and could then be put together again afterward.

And when Eisen did that with his Visualization, he was surprised to see what this ended up as in the end, although it was a rather pleasant sort of surprise, even if he felt a little bit confused behind the reasoning for an magic circle like thise.

With his pearly white teeth showing due to the big, broad grin on his face, Eisen just got to work and tried his best to somehow move the different parts of the large Magic Circle together properly, and it seemed like especially Marcear was surprised at the order that Eisen was putting everything together through.

"How does he know what it is supposed to be already?" She asked herself confusedly as she watched the old man work in an unusual manner. Instead of first putting the different parts of the three-dimensional Magic Circle together in the obvious order and then moving those large pieces around, he just started immediately adding the three-dimensional Magic Circles into the final shape they were supposed to take.

And that shape was that of a Workshop. Including Forge, Anvil, oil-barrel, everything that was needed, really. In the end, it wasn't just a smithy, though, it seemed like there were other types of workstations around as well.

And that workshop filled out practically the whole room, making use of the extra parts of the magic circles hidden between the rocks on the ground and ceiling that appeared after Eisen broke the third layer.

"And that in such a time..." Marcear muttered quietly to herself. Eisen had only spent maybe 12 hours working on this trial so far, and he was already nearly done with it. Or rather, he was done with it, because when he the Dragoness was thinking just that, the last piece was placed and Eisen started to spread his mana around the large three-dimensional magic circle to start unwrapping it, although he was immediately stopped by the Ancient Silver Dragoness as he tried to do so.

"Wait, wait, wait!" She exclaimed, and Eisen turned around toward her surprised. "Hm? Did I do something wrong?" He asked, and Marcear slowly shook her head in response. "No... Not at all... You just finished your trial... Congratulations..." She said quietly, and the old man raised his brows as some notifications appeared in front of him.

[Quest Completed – Ancient Silver Dragoness' Trial]

[Description] The Ancient Silver Dragoness Marcear has given you a personalized trial to become her champion. Correctly unwrap the the complex array of Magic Circles to pass, or you will face a heavy backlash.

[Reward] <Champion III> Title, Marcear's Gift

[Failure] You will not be able to take any more of the Dragons' Trials

[Time-Limit] 24 Hours

[You have finished the trial of the Ancient Silver Dragoness Marcear and have become her Champion]

[Title <Champion II> became <Champion III>]

"Already..? But isn't the Magic Circle still here?" Eisen asked confusedly, and Marcear slowly nodded her head. "Yes, but you aren't supposed to unwrap this one... Sorry, this is maybe the first time that I have given this test to someone, so I didn't fully think about my wording perfectly. This here is part of the demonstration of the Gift I am giving you." Marcear explained quite clearly, and Eisen raised his brows in surprise as he looked around the Magic Circle curiously, trying to figure out what it does.

"Oh... So basically the area that the Magic Circles fill out can actually be turned into a solid material? Meaning that this can become a proper Workshop?" Eisen asked, and Marcear slowly nodded her head in response.

"That is so, yes. And the reason for that is that you will be learning a new method of craftsmanship today. You seemed to be specialized in Smithing, so that is the most prominent part of this Magic Circle." Marcear explained, and with a smile, Eisen just shook his head.

"Sorry, I'm not actually specialized in smithing." The old man pointed out, and Marcear raised her brows surprised. "What do you mean? That is a Blacksmith's outfit you're wearing, and a hammer on your waist, is that not so?" She pointed out, and with a quiet laugh, the old man picked the hammer up and quickly pushed his finger into one of the gaps in the hammer-head to make it so that the parts could be moved, before he quickly turned the hammer into a pickaxe.

Then he simply popped the large-tool-head off to reveal the knife, and then the chisel underneath.

"I'm not specialized in any field of craftsmanship." Eisen pointed out, before he thought about what he just said and shook his head, "Sorry, rather, I'm specialized in every field of craftsmanship... That should fit it more closely."

"Is... Is that so?" Marcear asked slowly, "Are you truly the first of those that reached the peak?" Marcear asked nervously, and Eisen nodded his head with a sigh.

"Yes, or at least I was. I'm missing the vast majority of my memories from back then, and I'm not even close to having a fraction of my old power." Eisen pointed out, and Marcear slowly nodded her head.

"I see... Then please, excuse my for my rudeness before." The Ancient Dragoness said, although she still didn't seem to be particularly nervous around Eisen after hearing this. It was understandable, really, neither Aylrentyrth nor Bolremgar really treated him any differently, so there was no reason to expect it from Marcear.

"Ehem, now then, let's begin, shall we? There are still other places to work beside a Smithy." She explained in a clear voice as she stepped up to what seemed to be the activation point for the Magic Circle and then simply did what one would do with that activation point. Use it to activate the extremely complicated Magic Circle.

And before Eisen knew it, the whole room had changed immensely, and it had basically become the type of perfect, seamless clean Workshop that Eisen usually preferred and loved to work in. With an excited smile, he looked around and then cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, then tell me. What is your Gift, and what Materials are we using?" Eisen asked curiously, and before he knew it, Marcear held her palm upward and instantly created a small Magic Circle that had some flames floating above it.

"The Material we are using is this. And my Gift is the ability to do that."