Spending My Retirement In A Game

Chapter 949 Betting Trickery (2)

Eisen took out the small item from his pocket, and felt it in his hand. It was a small metal orb not larger than a fist. On its side were numerous engravings and patterns and sigils that correlated to different settings. This here was a more advanced version of the mass produced frost sphere that Eisen started to make.

There were a few things that he could do with this orb. For one, by twisting the their parts around vertically he was able to adjust the strength of the magic that was going to be given off by the orb. By pressing some of the buttons that were scattered around the outside of the orb, he was able to actually define the specific effect of the magic that he wanted to create. It was a simple thing something he had thrown together in his free time. Actually, he had only just finished it earlier while walking. Since Eisen only took on a supportive role, he had the free time to make a few items here and there. Of course most of the time this only ended up in him making some more spare potions or fixing items that had been damaged during the battles so far, but even then every once in a while he did choose to continue working on an item like this that could be useful in other ways.

Eisen press down on two of the symbols near the equator of the orb, choosing the form of a long straight line wide enough for five people to walk next to each other. With a little bit of mana that he then fed into it, this exact line was then being created. The hope was now linked to him and would continue draining him of mana for as long as the effect persisted floating through the air independently and creating the long line that people could then walk over. Of course, that didn't change the fact that they were going to have to fight the monsters that wanted to intrude onto this line, though the space was already a good enough deterrent for at least some of the weaker beings that could only be described as a bother.

As the group continued walking down this line now, Eisen continued interacting with the orb to change its settings slightly so that it could adjust to the changing and winding path that was the most effective routes through this floor of the dungeon. And while this space didn't have the cooled air like the personal frost Lanterns did, and wasn't able to directly damage any of the monsters that did come into the line, it did make the path easy to walk on as it continued through the floors the ground became less and less even in the sense that the ground was beginning to melt more and more.

Even with the frost lanterns, it was hard to walk through this. Sure, the items that the soldiers were wearing where enchanted with magic that could protect them from these environmental factors and they wouldn't get burnt even through this liquid molten rock. If one of them got stuck in the magma they would, for one, have their mobility completely locked away and could fall victim to one of the approaching monsters, but if they were stuck in there for a while longer it was possible that their flesh could simply be cooked. It was as though their boots would turn into pots.

To avoid any unnecessary danger it was instrumental to create a safe path very one which was the task that Eisen now took over. And while this did certainly speed up the travelling time quite a bit , it was unlikely to speed things up two degree where it could make the difference between a won and lost bet. Rather, it would simply make the traversal of this dungeon floor much safer, rather than faster.

For the areas of this floor that were hotter, Eisen adjusted the strength accordingly and change the exact shape off the path created by the orb. And so before long, within just a few more hours, the group had made their way to the next floor.

Of course this floor wasn't the end of the volcanic area, and as such the group has to continue fighting their way through this entirely hostile world. Through the entire travelling time Eisen and Brody continued quipping, and whenever it seemed as though Brody was going to win, Eisen tried to come up with small ways to make things easier or faster, or continue searching for a faster route with Bree's help. And of course, whenever it was the other way around, Brody would try to do what he could to have the others take more and longer breaks. And obviously this wasn't anything that Eisen could stop because he did want everyone to take breaks. The only thing he was able to do was to make sure that everybody was going to continue and do their best wherever they could.

That didn't mean that he wasn't extremely annoyed by the slightly petty tactics that Brody was employing here.

"You really are a son of a bitch, aren't you?" Eisen asked, staring at his friend with a smile on his face. But Brodie simply responded with a shrug, looking back and pretending like he didn't do anything at all. It was still another five hours until the others were going to catch up at the current rate they were going. And Eisen was going to win if they only caught up after 6 hours had passed. That meant that I even had to somehow speed up this group by one hour, or do something that he figured could be a little mean.

During one of the breaks they were taking where Eisen actually stepped out of the capsule, he had approached one of the other's capsules. For a number of reasons, the capsules were installed with a messaging function function where a message could be sent to the player sitting inside of them. And since Jyuuk, Xenia, and Evalia were still in there while Eisen and Brody took their breaks, he was able to send each of them a small, tiny little message that he figured could make them want to stick behind at least a little while longer.

"The monsters on these volcanic floors were made to fit the environment in quite peculiar ways", "The innate magic that some of these things have seems pretty interesting to me. You should try and have a look", or "The reverberation off the carapaces of some, off the volcanic beetles sounded weirdly pleasing to me. You have been looking for some new instruments to play around with, right?"

Now, Brody and Eisen had agreed not to tell the others off the bet itself. But they didn't say anything about talking to them at all. Rather, Brody seemed to have been doing that exact same thing as well. Though it was harder to get them to speed up even more in the first place, especially considering the innate curiosity that each and every one of them had, of course including this pair itself.

The only difference between what the two were doing was that Brody was actually able to do it all the time right now, but since Eisen was trying to use his system as little as absolutely possible, the times when he did go out of his way to message them by accessing their capsule on Earth, his words carried a lot more weight.

The three of them probably figured that something was up by now, though it really didn't matter to them. They knew what kind of things Brody and Eisen tended to do when they were alone, and making small, inconsequential bets was pretty far at the todp of the list. By the time Eisen and Brody were continuing their journey throughout the floors, and Brody started checking in with the others to see where they currently were, and how long it seemed it would be until they finally caught up, the gap seemed to start widening more and more.

Finally, he realised what was happening, "...What'd you do during our break earlier?"

Eisen shrugged, adjusting the metal orb to continue changing the path ahead of them, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"... You bastard," Brody clicked his tongue, and Eisen laughed a bit.

"Don't be a sore loser. We've still got a few hours until the bet is over."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Brody groaned, "Anyway, we've made it close to the end of the zone. You want to wait for the others to take down the boss, or do you want to rush through?"

Eisen actually hesitated. It would be safer for everyone if they just worked together and then continued rushing further down into the dungeon, but... that would mean it was much more likely for Eisen to lose the bet. He would have to completely rely on his friends' curiosity.