Spending My Retirement In A Game

That was really the thing that Eisen was most confused about right now. Until now, he thought that he would end up being able to find a way of recovering his and everyone's memories after finally opening the puzzle box, but apparently that wasn't the case in the slightest.

This book that Eisen was holding in his hands included numerous maps, notes, and descriptions of items, places and people. It was... weird. Looking at these things, Eisen felt a weird sense of familiarity, but he couldn't stop himself from worrying about everything this insinuated. What was the thing that he was currently storing in his literal soul?

The old man ground his teeth together and opened his item storage, simply placing this book into the bookshelf that he specifically made for things like this.

"Thank you, Asmond. I appreciate your help." Eisen said as he looked back at the half elf, although he had a rather apathetic tone to his voice.

Noticing this, the other originals looked at Eisen with a slightly worried expression, "Is everything alright? Isn't this amazing?" Xenia asked with a light smile, and Eisen slowly turned toward her.

"Yeah..." The old man replied, "It is. It really is. But I just-"

"Hello? Is someone here?" A voice interrupted Eisen's train of thought from downstairs. It seemed like there was someone in the shop. The old man pushed himself off the chair and approached the steps, "Sorry about that. I'll take care of it real quick." He pointed out and walked down the stairs. He looked in front of the counter, seeing roughly half a dozen people already looking through the shop appraising the different items Eisen had already made to be sold in here.

They picked up the swords, ran their hands over them, and rubbed their fingers along the sewn parts of the leather armors.

It seemed like they were all more than just pleased, and one of them immediately came toward the counter after he saw that Eisen was there, "Ah! So y-you're Eisen, right? The one that peaked..?" The man asked with a light smile on his face, and the old man slowly nodded his head.

"That I am. How can I help you?" Eisen replied with a slight laugh. This person was acting like a fan, as far as Eisen could tell. He looked down at the item he was holding in his hands, a simple letter opener, and held it toward the old man.

"This item... Is there a particular reason why you chose to give it such amazing ingravings? As far as I can tell, there isn't really any benefit to doing so, right? They're not enchantments, and it doesn't have any real attack capabilities in the first place, right?" The man asked curiously, and Eisen lightly smiled. He took the letter opener from him and flipped it around a bit, "It's not a weapon, it's simply a letter opener. It doesn't need anything special about it. As long as it can cut through a thin layer of a paper envelope, everything should be fine, right? And because a letter opener will usually lay right there on your desk while working, it should look nice, hence the decorative ingravigns." Eisen explained quickly, and the man slowly leaned forward and took a closer look at the item again.

"Then is there a reason why it has barely any stat benefits? Such an item should be useful for aristocrats, right? Wouldn't some extra Wisdom or Intelligence be useful?" 

"Of course, but it barely has any stat benefits because it simply doesn't need to. I sacrificed nearly all the physical benefit stats and only left a few mental ones and instead tried to make it as easy to use as possible. Low stat benefits, low requirements. But as a rank 5 item, it obviously has higher durability and strength compared to lower rank items, so it can be used much, much longer. Stat benefits only apply if you're actively using an item, except if we're talking about things like accessories, and you don't particularly need extra intelligence while cutting open letters. It was simply not needed." The old man explained, and the man slowly nodded his head as he looked down at it.

"...I see..." He muttered, "You know, I think I'll buy this. It's my father-in-law's birthday soon, and he spends a lot of time trying to write letters to old friends of his. I think he may like it."

The man pulled out his pouch and sorted through the coins, before Komer stepped up next to Eisen, slightly pushing him out of the way, "If you're alright with it, I'll be performing the transaction here-on-out."

"Hm? Ah, of course. So, how much was it again?" The man asked. Meanwhile, Eisen looked at the other people in the store with a light smile. He was happy that this short interaction just happened. He was in a pretty sour mood just now, but having such a genuine conversation about his reasoning for his craftsmanship-related choices with someone that was genuinely interested and knew exactly what Eisen was talking about kind of lifted him up a bit. It was a nice feeling. This was a pure kind of happiness that Eisen hadn't been feeling for a while.

Most of the time, he had been making things for people that didn't understand much about the craftsmanship-aspect of things, and they were simply impressed by the cool-sounding description and the high stats, as well as the way the weapon looked. But they never actually took a closer look at the item and chose to ask Eisen why he did what he did. Not even the four grandmaster craftsmen really did that too often, especially after finding out who Eisen was. They simply accepted Eisen's choices as right, and never really asked him about anything.

This was a really nice feeling, he should really try and set up shop in town on this island more often. Afterward, Eisen continued speaking to some of the customers about the items that they wanted to buy if they were interested, and he was continuosly asked things by craftsmen that simply wanted to get better at their own craft and wanted to get any benefit that they wanted.

Any tip, any piece of knowledge that they could get was useful to them. Once more, it simply felt nice. Komer took care of the actual sales for him, so Eisen also appreciated that quite a bit. More people came in over time, and it actually became rather busy at some point, but soon this excitement died down again and the store was empty at some point. They locked the door and hung up a 'closed' sign so that nobody would come in and then made their way back upstairs.

"You feeling better now?" Brody asked, having seen Eisen's expression the whole time, and the old man simply nodded his head, "Yes, I'm feeling much, much better." The old man replied. He had a bit of time to think about everything with the book just now, so he slowly turned toward Asmond.

"But well... Either way, about before... You didn't really properly answer my question. How much do you know about my past?" Eisen inquired, and Asmond slowly opened his eyes apologetically and nodded his head, "Right, excuse me. I just had to make sure that it was truly you before I accidentally reveal such a truth to everyone here. The people know about it, right? About the other side."

"Of course they do. Seems like you do as well."

"Yes. It is a secret I have tried my best to protect my whole life."

"I really appreciate it. Thank you." Eisen said with a smile on his face, and the dark elf in front of him quickly nodded, "Of course."

Eisen slowly looked around at the others, and the people from this side were already aware of what Eisen would explain next. He had touched on this topic a few times before, but he never truly explained it in-depth all too much.

"Alright... The thing about the other world, the side where all Artificials and us Originals come from is that it does not have elves, orcs, demons, humans, or magic. The only race of 'people' that exists there are Humans, and we have nothing beyond animals. We don't have a system, levels, skills, or 'occupations' in the same way as you have experienced your whole lives so far." Eisen explained bluntly.

They had already heard the beginning of this just before when Komer told them, but it still seemed rather surprising to them. Once more, Denmir asked the question that he asked before, "Did... Did yer humans on that side kill all other races? Kill all monsters?"

"No." Jyuuk started, "They were simply never a thing. Sure, there are things that may be comparable to monsters that used to live on our world, but it's nothing compared to how things are here." The Beastperson asked, and Brody looked at him with a light frown, "You mean those cryptid stuff? That ain't real, is it?" 

"Brody, I said 'that used to live'. I was talking about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals." 

"Ah..." The Demon Orc muttered quietly, and Xenia took over with a slight sigh, "Instead of magic, we simply have science. Sure, there are plenty of people that believe magic is real over there, but if it is, it barely has a fraction of the power a child can use here."

"A while ago, my body became filled with mana even over there. Mana comes from the soul, and since I spent a hundred thousand years in this world, my soul had been changed so much that it produces mana even in a world where mana doesn't exist. When I tried to use or manipulate it in any particular way, my body was actively fighting against me. Magic is not only not a thing there, but it's directly against our laws of nature."

With that, Eisen sighed slightly and scratched the back of his neck, "Well, although it's not like that may not be able to change." Eisen pointed out with a sigh, "Just imagine, all of a sudden having magic over there. That would make life pretty useful, huh?"

All of a sudden, Xenia ripped her eyes open and stared at the old man, "What... what did you just say?" She asked, and Eisen raised his brows, "That having magic over there would be pretty useful? Don't pretend you never wanted to have magic there, Xenia." Eisen laughed, and just then realized what Xenia was getting at.

They never really thought of this possibility before, but...

"What if this is all happening not because they want some power trip in this world... but because they want the power they have here over there?"