Spending My Retirement In A Game

Benjamin wiped the tears out of his eyes as he looked at the young man right next to him, "I'm sorry that I showed something like this to you." He said with a light smile on his face, the corners of his eyes just red from crying.

Andrew looked back with a smile himself and shook his head, "Don't worry, man. What're friends there for if not for this?"

With a laugh, Benjamin sat there and closed his eyes, "Of course." He replied, and soon remembered something else of importance, "I wanted to talk to you with the intention of showing you something that might spark some memories. I don't know if it works like this here in the first place, though, and of course, I don't want to show this to you if you don't want to remember anything new for now, just in case it does work."

Andrew looked at the old man and started fidgeting around with his fingers somewhat nervously. He stared at the carpet under his feet before raising his head and turning toward Benjamin, "...Show it to me... I want to remember as much as I can." He chose, so Benjamin looked at him with a light smile.

"I see... And like you said you will support me, I will support you in the same way, Brody."

"Thanks..." Andrew replied with a light smile as he mentally prepared himself to see whatever Benjamin wanted to show him. The old man stood up and walked over toward one of the shelves stood up against the livingroom-wall. He grabbed a small gadget that was laying there and brought it over toward Andrew while he started to turn it on.

He swiped through the settings before activating an important function, and that was the function through which Benjamin was able to see what was in front of Eisen while he was sleeping. The old man made sure that Gran and his mount were in sight, and then held it over toward Andrew.

"I want you to take a look at this." Benjamin said bluntly, and Andrew stared at the screen for a few moments before taking the gadget from the old man in front of him.

"Who... are these two?" Andrew asked with a slight frown on his face, "Both seem a bit familiar to me." He pointed out. Immediately, Benjamin realized what this might mean, "I think it's possible that you will regain memories about both that man and that ground-dragon." The old man suggested, in response to which Andrew could just awkwardly nod his head as he stared at the display.

"...I guess so." He replied. Benjamin placed his arm onto the young man's shoulder with a smile on his face, "Don't worry, if you need to speak about anything later, then just let me-"

"They're dead, right? Where are you? Heaven, hell? Do you know who this man and this... ground-dragon were to me?" Andrew asked instantly, seemingly quite nervous about the possibility that this might be some kind of enemy to him, but Benjamin just looked him into the eyes and shook his head.

"Yes, they are both dead, and I'm in heaven, in Gonor's divine realm. That man is a former student of yours, and that ground-dragon is a mount you seemed to have gifted him. In Gonor's divine realm, basically everyone is fighting to reach the top of some 'category' of combat-arena. This man, Gran, is the head of the arenas that focus on mounted combat. He reached the top before and would have been able to reincarnate, but it seemed like Gran chose to stay in the divine realm and keep fighting there. He became a Heroic Soul, even, although I still don't know what all that means." Benjamin explained to Andrew, trying to calm him down a bit. It seemed to have worked, to an extent at least.

"...So he was a friend. Good." Andrew said with a light smile on his face, "Fuck, and I thought I might've just killed this guy somehow." He pointed out with a wry smile. 

"Actually," Benjamin started, "After meeting Gran, the memory that I personally remembered was a little about everyone's apprentices and students. Well, you four, not mine, actually... But well, I remember meeting them each for the first time, and I remember rough things like what they specialized in at the time. I might be able to meet some more of them while I'm in the different divine realms." The old man pointed out, "I don't know if I can show you all pictures of them or something like that, but maybe I can just speak to them a bit and relay a few messages?"

Andrew looked back at Benjamin with a slightly surprised expression, before he stared back at the ground in thought for a few moments, "Honestly, I ain't even got a clue about how to answer that question. I mean... I guess it would be good to know how they're doing, but in the end, they're still dead, so it might be a shitty question to ask. I guess if they have something they want you to relay to me, I'd like to hear it, though." The young man explained to his friend next to him. He just nodded his head with a light smile on his face.

"I will. And just message me at any time if you want me to relay anything to any of your apprentices that I may meet. I'll let the others know later as well." The old man suggsted, "But I will need to go now again. I only need an hour of rest in the divine realms, and I don't want to waste any time." 

"Then I'm not gonna stop ya, man." Andrew replied, and Benjamin looked at him with a genuinely thankful expression, "I'm glad to have you around, Brody. Thanks for talking to me just now."

And so, the old man returned to his capsule and laid back down inside of it.

--- 

Eisen woke up to the sound of loud snoring, although it really wasn't all too hard to find the source of that snoring. He was looking right at it, after all.

Not only did Gran fall asleep, but so did his mount, Buldor, and both of them seemed to be each other's representation in another form, considering that they were both snoring loud enough to give someone a tinnitus if one wasn't careful. The old man sighed.

He walked up to Gran and without a moment's hesitation kicked him in the stomach. With a loud crash, both Gran and Buldor were pushed back a few meters.

Gran opened his tired eyes with a loud yawn, "Aye, mornin'..." He said as he slowly pushed himself off the ground and stretched, his bones cracking a bit in response.

"Come, I'm getting to work on Buldor's armor now. I need you to tell me what you want him to wear." The old man said bluntly, but to Eisen's surprise, Gran immediately declined the offer, shaking his head, "Gran no tell." He exclaimed with a light frown.

Eisen looked back at him, wondering if that kick somehow annoyed Gran too much after all, "So you don't want me to make armor for Buldor anymore?"

Somewhat startled, and even a little scared, Gran turned around to look at the mount behind him and then back at Eisen, "No! Err... Yes? Make Buldor armor! But Gran no tell, Buldor tell!" The somewhat simple warrior explained, and Eisen swiftly understood what he was trying to say. He wanted Buldor to tell Eisen what kind of armor he wanted himself.

The old man rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You know that Buldor can't speak, right?"

"Hah!" Gran exclaimed with a weirdly smug expression, "Gran no speak right! But understand Gran!"

"..." The old man looked at Gran and stayed silent for a few moments, "You've got a point. Fine, I'll try my best." 

Eisen gave in, since it wouldn't help trying to convince Gran otherwise anyway, most likely, and the old man stared at the large, scaled red figure in front of him. In particular, he took a look at the rather beautiful feathers that were decorating Buldor's body beside the scratched-up, scarred red scales. To begin with, Eisen figured he should try and integrate the feathers into the design. From what he could tell, they were somewhat metallic in nature and seemed to be quite durable. When the old man tried to run his hand over them, he could feel that they were a lot more dense than it seemed at first glance. They probably had an immense natural defense on their own, although the rest of Buldor's body was already painted in scars to such an amount that it would be impossible for him to fight with them uncovered.

Immediately, the old man came up with a quick, basic design for the ground-dragon armor where the most injured places were covered up by metal plates as per Gran's request. The only thing that he wanted was that Buldor's body would be properly protected.

But somehow, when he showed this idea to Buldor, the ground-dragon actually 'replied' to an extent. He stared at Eisen and started to growl, as if he didn't like it this way. The old man looked back at him with a wry smile, "Then what do you want? If you can somehow convey that to me, then I'll make changes."

Immediately, Buldor raised one of his paws and used it to hit the Visualization that Eisen created in front of him and Buldor. Repeatedly. As if trying to get rid of it in general.

"...You don't want any armor at all?" Eisen asked, and Buldor somewhat nodded his head and seemed somewhat calm and happy even. The old man looked back at the ground-dragon and shook his head, "I can't do that, you know? Gran asked me to make armor for you, so I'm making armor for you."

With a deep huff and a slight growl, Buldor seemed to disagree with that statement, as if trying to say that Eisen really shouldn't make any sort of armor for him. The old man sighed and placed his palm on Buldor's forehead, "Fine, then I'll have to do it this way." The old man said. He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to use his title, 'Soul Whisperer', to figure out what Buldor actually wanted, while combining it with an aspect of his Soul Engineering skill, where he was able to figure out what souls wanted to be. Eisen figured it could be used to simply figure out what souls wanted to have, instead of what they wanted to be.

And so, the old man started to try and figure out what kind of armor the ground-dragon wanted to have.