Spending My Retirement In A Game

"A Pillar?" Denmir asked in response once Eisen explained the item to him, and the old man nodded his head in response, "Yes, Morgus has been fighting with a log so far, and his main combat skill is 'Pillar Combat', so I'm making him a metallic Pillar." The old man explained quite quickly, and Denmir slowly started rubbing his chin through his beard, "Hmm, I hear ya... Then what are yer plans for these metals?" The dwarf asked curiously.

With a smile on his face, Eisen just held up some of the Silver, "As I said, I'll be turning this into my own version of Mythril, then alloy it with some of the steel to make it less brittle and retain a bit of the effect the Mythril has, and then cover the main steel body with a thick layer of it. The inside will then probably have a 3D Enchantment core." Eisen told him, so Denmir just slightly whistled, thinking that this was a rather interesting idea.

"Now then, I'd love to see that, old man." Denmir said with a slight grin, and Eisen simply nodded his head in response, "Don't worry, I'll be working on it mainly from tomorrow morning on. For now I'm just infusing the Silver, and getting all the materials ready so that I can get started immediately." The old man explained, and then slightly cracked his knuckles as they started bringing everything to the forge in the far corner of the room that Eisen had been working at all day today, and then set everything up to properly prepare, and Eisen then slowly turned toward Denmir again.

"Could I maybe stay here tonight? So that I can get started directly when I wake up tomorrow." The old man suggested, and Denmir looked at him with a slight frown, "Ya wanna sleep in a smithy?" Denmir asked, and Eisen just shrugged in response.

"It's not like there's any difference to how I sleep no matter if I'm in a bed, or if I'm standing upright. So don't worry about that." Eisen said reassuredly, and Denmir just scratched the back of his head and nodded his head, "A'ight, then ye can stay 'ere. Just don't mess anythin' up, ya hear?" The Dwarf said with a wink, and Eisen just nodded his head with a smile and looked over toward Kiron.

"Could you let Sky and Bree know about that? So that they don't worry?" Eisen asked his draconic grandson, who simply smiled back, "Of course, Grandfather. But is something wrong? You kind of seem in a rush to get to sleep." The Half-Dragon pointed out, and Eisen raised his brows in repsonse.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I am. The earlier I sleep, the earlier I can get started on the items and the earlier we can leave again to meet the next Ancient Dragon, and at the same time it will allow me to level up a lot quicker if we go to areas with higher-ranked monsters than here." Eisne explained with a smile on his lips. Even if this wasn't a lie, it was only half the reason. He rather just wanted  to get out of the capsule and check on the others again, and see if the situation escalated or calmed down a bit. He was especially concerned because of Michael, although he seemed like he wouldn't wake up anytime soon.

"Hmm, I see. Well, we will all do our best to assist you in that task." Kiron explained, before Eisen just nodded his head and smiled at his grandson, being rather thankful to have him around again.

But in the end, since it became incredibly tough to level up now that Eisen became Level 200, he was pretty sure that it would take an immense amount of time to get to Level 300. Maybe a couple of weeks in real life, even. It was a bit bothersome, but it was something that Eisen had to live with, since Level 300 was a place that he had to reach as soon as possible to advance in unlocking the puzzle box.

"Thank you. Now then, the Silver is being infused now, so I'll be heading off to sleep. Should be awake again in four of five hours, and I'll get to work right then. You guys go ahead and head to the Inn." Eisen told the Half-Dragons with a smile on his face, and then looked at the three Monsters-turned-teenagers next to him.

"What about you three? Do you want to stay here or are you going to the Inn together with Kiron?" The old man inquired, and as if Eisen's question was completely idiotic, all three of them looked at Eisen with a blank expression and got started on setting up their own 'beds' for the night, so the old man couldn't do much but just sigh.

"Fine. Alright, then I'll be going to sleep now." Eisen told the others with a smile, before Denmir led the five Half-Dragons out of the smithy and locked the door, before Eisen just closed his eyes and logged out.

---

Carefully, Benjamin climbed out of the Capsule and then walked to his door. His 'attempted' transformation yesterday didn't do his body any good, but it seemed to him that he at least somewhat recovered again. His body was still aching all over, but it was only at the level of sore muscles after working out, so he didn't mind it too much.

As Benjamin stepped out of his room, he soon saw the two people that came here early in the morning standing in the kitchen, speaking to each other. Michael still seemed to be out cold, and the others were seemingly in their rooms, somehow trying to deal with this whole situation a little better.

And so, the old man had a good chance to speak to Haruo and Jasmin for a while, since he didn't really do so when they arrived. But just when he started seeing Haruo's face, he noticed that something was very, very off.

"Did something happen?" Benjamin asked, and Haruo swiftly turned his face toward the old man before sighing deeply and nodding his head.

"Yeah, something did happen..." The Japanese young man replied, "A former co-worker lit up my research lab. You know, the one I told you about before about... preservation research." Haruo explained, "All the experimental data is gone, higher-ups are considering to shut the project down altogether due to the financial loss that came with all this, and I might lose my job..."

With a slight frown, Benjamin looked at the young man and sighed deeply, "Were you supposed to work there today?" He asked, and Haruo looked at him surprised and nodded. "Yes, usually I would have, but my higher-ups told me I still have vacation days I didn't use, so I had to leave soon, so I figured directly was a better time than ever."

"That choice might have saved your life, Jyuuk." Benjamin told him, before Jasmin looked at the old man confused.

"Saved his life...? You think he would have died if he stayed there?" She asked, seemingly rather nervously, and Benjamin just nodded his head, "Yeah, I do. It's going to make more sense tonight, don't worry..." Benjamin said reassuredly, and Jasmin and Haruo looked at each other with clear worry in their eyes.

"Is everything okay with you? Did something happen here?" Jasmin asked, and the old man sighed deeply and nodded his head in response, "You could say that. But not just here, all over the place. Last night, Brody and his wife were attacked by the Triad, Evalia's house was broken into by armed men that probably were out for her life, and now Jyuuk's lab was burnt down while he was supposed to be working there. A couple of weeks ago, the stalker you moved because of hunted you down and nearly killed you in your apartment, while at the same time being the trigger for me getting my arm literally cut off. Just a bit before that, one of the most despicable human beings who I hate to call my brother appeared here with a loaded weapon, asking for money, brought here by the man currently sleeping on my couch." Benjamin explained, summing up all the things that made him think that something was really off at the moment, and the two Lovers looked at each other confusedly.

"What are you trying to say?" Haruo asked, and Benjamin looked back at them with a sigh and pressed his eyes shut, "Haah... I wanted to show this to you a bit later when Evalia and Brody were here, but I guess now's good as well." The old man started, and then slowly opened his eyes again as his sight became black-and-white, a sign that his Truth-Seeing-Eyes were active.

And the very moment that they did, both Haruo and Jasmin couldn't believe what they were seeing and just stared at the old man silently, before he just de-activated them again.

"Sorry, they're a bit hard on my eyes, so I can't have them active that long..." Benjamin apologized, and Jasmin looked at the old man in shock before starting to speak, "B-But h-how did you do-do that... that's a tr-trick, right?!" She asked, and Benjamin just shook his head and opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Haruo did so for him.

"No, it's not... There is actually a reason why I chose to take my overdue vacation right now..." He stated, and slowly started to unbutton his shirt, before pulling it off of his chest, letting it just hang by his elbows.

And then, Benjamin couldn't believe his eyes anymore either, "That is..." The old man muttered and slightly leaned in toward Haruo.

His relatively pale skin had changed colors in a few spots, as if in the form of patterns. It wasn't that easy to see at first, but once you really compared everything, you could really see that some parts of Haruo's skin had a pink, blue, green, red, or yellow tint and Benjamin soon realized what this all was.

"That's your Beast Storage, isn't it?" The old man asked, and Haruo immediately nodded his head in response before showing his hand, which he had been hiding in his pocket the whole time, as well. He held both of his hands next to each other to show that there really were some changes on his right hand as well, where the storage of his Undead usually took place in the form of Bone-Tattoos.

"They started appearing a couple of days ago. Or rather, I noticed them a couple of days ago... They might have been there a while longer. I went through some simple tests, and the pigment of my skin has not changed at all to what it normally would be according to the values. Despite that obviously not being true." Haruo stated, and Benjamin frowned deeply in response.

"I see..." Benjamin muttered quietly, "I think your skin and my eyes are proof enough, huh?" The old man muttered quietly, and Jasmin turned her eyes away from Haruo's skin and looked at Benjaminm, "P-Proof for what?" She asked with a slight stutter, and Benjamin looked at her with a blank expression, the muscles in his face not moving at the level of him basically being dead. But nonetheless, this gave both Haruo and Jasmin incomparable goosebumps.

"That I'm not crazy, and the 'Game' really is just another world."