Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen stood in front of the ruined town, and slowly shrunk back down so that he could see this place properly agai. He stood in front of the gate, of which barely anything was left. Only the hint of an archway could be seen anymore.

Slowly, the old man stepped through, while hearing the sound of metallic footsteps following behind him. The five of them were following closely behind him, as if they were trying to keep an eye on him while he was here so that he couldn't do anything they didn't want. Quickly, Eisen already felt a weak sense of nostalgia, but it most likely wouldn't be enough for him to actually receive a memory through it. At the very least, it showed that Eisen was here before in the past. However, something just felt... weird about this place. It was somehow sinister. Maybe Eisen really did do something horrible connected to this place.

He made his way further through the town, soon reaching what was the town square. Of course, all the market stalls were completely gone, although there were still some traces left here and there. Eisen turned his head, seeing the skeletal, decayed remains of what was most likely a giant mouse, laying within one of the buildings.

'How did the people live in this town when even a mouse is this large..?' He thought to himself, although he felt that these sorts of thoughts were just distracting to what he was actually trying to do. Eisen was making sure to create a model of this city instead of just a map, so that he could take a look at any place he needed to at any time. Maybe trying to reconstruct the town through a model like that would be useful in trying to remember something as well.

However, while his sense of general nostalgia seemed to increase, it was all directed at this town itself. He would only remember the way that this city looked while he was here at different points in time, at this rate. He wouldn't be able to find out why Eisen did what he did. But nonetheless, that sinister feeling didn't disappear from the back of Eisen's mind either, completely intertwining with the sense of general nostalgia. It made him feel nothing but anxiety the more he seemed to want to remember this place. The old man stopped for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts. Maybe he shouldn't just stroll around in this place, but find specific locations that he knew would be more familiar to him than the back alleys of this town. He looked around, and soon found the first of these places. It was a smithy, and immediately, Eisen felt like he had been here while he was still 'young'. At the very least, he was here before he peaked.

He closed his eyes, and dove into his mind, trying to remember his memories of the smithy at least. After a certain point, Eisen seemed to be able to distinguish between certain memories amongst the floating lights surrounding him within that mental space, so he was able to pick the right memory out quite easily.

Eisen found himself in an empty field at the bottom of a hill. From the way the mountains looked around here, he was positive that this was the place where he was standing right now, the place where this city would be built. He saw a middle-aged version of himself building something, that quickly turned out to be the smithy that Eisen found. Of course, it looked quite a bit differently. He probably remodeled a few times, after all. Then, it took a while, and soon Eisen was an old man, even if he hadn't peaked just yet. But soon, someone else found his way here, and settled around Eisen. From just within the smithy, Eisen could practically see this random hut in the middle of nowhere turn into a hamlet and then a village. But even then, that was all. Apparently, this place was where Eisen spent a lot of his time working on more casual, effective products.

He did create other workshops all over the place, but each seemed to have a different purpose. And this? This was where he made everyday items, for everyday people, even if this place started out as an escape for Eisen, where he could work while visiting his own hometown.

The old man smiled lightly as he opened his eyes again, 'This memory wasn't all that bad' he thought to himself. He was also glad that the memory seemed to link into a larger memory of this place. Like a sort of important event in Eisen's past. And that event seemed to be the source of the sinister feeling that Eisen was getting.

While walking through the town more and more, Eisen soon came across another building that seemed to hold some sort of special meaning to him. It was one of the larger houses here in this ruined town. He tried to step into it, but soon felt a hand on his arm pulling him back with an aggressive tug, "Don't take another step." Tank warned in a growling voice, "If you even think about defiling my home like that, I will tear your arm off."

"Go ahead, it's not the first time. Even in my original world I just lost an arm, and that one doesn't simply regrow with a little rest." Eisen said bluntly, as he turned around anyway. If Tank didn't want Eisen to enter that place, then he wouldn't. For now, he would just look around a bit more.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Supp stopped him, stepping in front of Eisen with a confused expression, "What do you mean, your 'original world'?" 

"...I didn't tell you?" Eisen asked with a frown, "I figured I did. Well... I'm originally from another world, and I was trapped here for a hundred thousand years by some lunatic." He explained, "Over there, things like magic don't exist. I'm just a human there, as well. I got sick, and my arm was removed to save my life."

Supp stared at Eisen with a deep frown, before clicking his tongue angrily, "You disgust me. Stop playing around with these obvious lies, and just get going."

Eisen didn't blame them for not believing him. He wouldn't believe himself either, were he in their situation right now. It didn't matter anymore anyway. Although, Eisen really didn't know why they didn't know about this fact. They definitely, absolutely should. Sure, he wasn't able to tell most other people, but if he technically 'owned' those five, then he figured that he told them. They were practically a part of him then, so even Samuel shouldn't have done anything if he told them. Even the guardians knew, but not these five? Something... felt off.

Eisen continued through the town, finding more and more locations that he seemed capable of remembering, but none of them were worth their own memory. They were just building into a single larger memory, it seemed.

After more than half the day passed, Eisen had practically explored every corner of this quite small town. There was just one place that he didn't yet, and that was the place that seemed to give him the most sinister feeling, now that he took a closer look. He wasn't sure if he realized this before, but now he thought that he might have subconsciously avoided coming to that place. But when he actually got there, Eisen was confused. It was just a small well a little bit outside of town. There shouldn't be anything special about it.

He approached it, peaking over the edge into the bottom. It was deep, far deeper than it should be. Eisen formed a rock and set it on fire, using the brightest flames he could, before dropping it down into the well.

It fell and fell and fell, but the light just continued getting further and further away.

And then finally, he could tell the rock hit the ground, and it took far too long for the sound to reach the surface again. Knowing that he had practically no other choice, Eisen placed his foot on the edge of the well, slightly turning his head to look at the five perplexed golems. It seemed like they never paid much attention to this well.

"You can follow me if you want, but... I'm not sure any of us will like what we find."