Spending My Retirement In A Game

Ari introduced each of the Orginals, following which they stepped closer to her to greet each other properly.

The blond human girl Evalia spoke up first, placing her hand on her hip and looking at the others around them, "How are ya’ll doin’? What did Prime Industries ask ya to teach’em?" She asked with an instantly obvious American-southern accent and a happy grin to accompany it. Since none of the others decided to speak, she sighed loudly and shook her head, "Ya’ll mute or somethin’? Hmm, guess I’ll have’ta go first! I’m an artist by heart, and ya can bet that I’m better at any and all instruments any of ya’ll can play. I studied Art History an’ I earned my tuiton money from painting and sculptin. Prime Industries called me so I taught them what it means to be a true artist!" Happily Evalia began to explain why she was there and curiously looked around to wait for the others to start.

The Monkey-Man, Jyuuk, sighed loudly and scratched the hair that covered his face, something he seemed to not be used to. "Nice to meet you, my name is Jyuuk. I am a Biologist and Zoologist. I helped with the creation of Monsters, Animals and Plantlife in World of Magic. That is why I chose the... erm... Mon-kee. Ari told me that this tribe is more connected to nature and their animalistic parts." Jyuuk tried his best to hide his strong Japanese accent, but even so struggled with the pronounciation of the word ’Monkey’. Nobody seemed to mind, though, and gave him the time he needed. Despite his outer appearance that seemed more brutish than intelectual, Jyuuk acted very gentle and filled with respect.

Since the group now seemed to move counter-clockwise, next it was Brody’s turn. He sighed loudly and played around with his big tusks before beginning to talk, "The name’s Brody. I’m a Martial-Artist, and those guys wanted to know a bit about fighting. Oh, and that God-chick over there gave me this awesome race. I can’t deal with magic, like at all, but in return I’m the perfect killing machine!" Brody grinned excitedly and began flexing the muscles in his arms.

As if annoyed by the mere concept of this guy’s existence, Xenia held her hand to her forehead and shook her head, muttering something to herself in a low voice. "I’m Xenia. I’m a historic researcher that specialized in ancient myths and legends, and largely work with old concepts of magic. Thus, I helped Prime Industries out so that I can experience magic and possibly find a deeper insight into it for my research. Ari allowed me to become a High-Elf, since they have high magical affinities, but in return they have low physical affinities."

At last, everyone in the group stared at Eisen, since it came to his turn to talk about himself further. With a big grin he began to explain. "Hmm, you’re using your usernames, I see? Well, then I’m Eisen. I’m good at using my hands, so I showed that lad, Samuel, was it? Well, anyway, I showed him some tricks and let him in on some knowledge I gathered. The abilities of Dwarves fit me, but it was too small, so Ari made me" After this, he leaned in a bit to Xenia and whispered into her ear so that the others can’t hear, "And you, young lady, maybe should try and be honest with yourself."

Xenia’s face immediately turned into a bright red as she turned her face away from Eisen, "A-And what about you? Why can’t you be honest with yourself?! Putting on that old-man façade!"

"Haha, what façade are you talking about, young lady? Do you think I’m pretending to be an old man?"

Eisen crossed his arms and laughed heartily, and once she notices that someone is doubting the man that her Papa talked so much about, she stepped inbetween the two of them and looked up at Xenia angrily, "Eisen isn’t a liar! He’s old! Like, really old!"

"Erm, Ari, I appreciate it, but-" Starting to feel hurt a little bit by her words, Eisen tried to interrupt her, but Ari just kept going.

"No no, Eisen! You’re really, really old! And I don’t want Xenia to insult the person that my Papa admires so much!" She looked back at Eisen with a stern face, hurting him even more.

Xenia interrupted Ari and looked at Eisen who squatted down onto the ground, playing with the cracks in the marble while sulking, "You’re telling me that guy is actually old? He looks more like some kid who wants to be an adult too badly!"

"No, Eisen is 70! That’s more than twice your age, you dummy! Dummy, dummy, dum-"

"Ari! Stop!" Eisen interrupted Ari when he heard her start to insult Xenia, "Go and sit down on the stairs, young lady! I’ll call you when we need you!" He said and pointed to the stairs near the entrance. At first she tried to fight it, but soon Ari gave in and sulked as she sat down unwillingly.

The rest of the group stared at Eisen without words until Brody cut through the silence with a loud laugh. "Damn, old-man! I didn’t expect you to be able to tame an uptight goddess, haha!"

Eisen tilted his head at the Demon-Orc’s words. Uptight? Up until now, she was anything but uptight.

Like this, talking about different things related to the game and exchanging a few professional tips regarding each of their specialties, they continued talking casually for about half an hour. Then, when they decided it was finally time for them to start playing, Eisen called Ari over to them again.

But before he let her do anything, Eisen had Ari apologize to Xenia about insulting her.

"Now, I’ll bring each of you down to the planet. You will end near a town related to your race, although what town is chosen randomly amongst the low-level areas available to you. You will find a small booklet in your pocket then, it’s going to give you basic info on your surroundings, and where to get to the town. So that the Villagers won’t be suspicious, I think the best idea to tell them you lost all your memories and just found yourself near the town." Ari explained while still sulking slightly.

"Lastly, there’s one thing I need to tell you..." Ari built in a dramatic pause into her last words to them, then looked at them with a gentle smile, "...Prime Industries wishes you to have the best of fun playing World of Magic."

The Artificial Intelligence Ari waved her hand to the side with those words and the world around Eisen slowly began to change. Every time he blinked his eyes, something was different.

First, all of the others were gone.

Then, plants began growing inside of the big hall.

After that, the marble disappeared and turned into the sky above him or the grass under his feet.

And lastly, the air was filled with the smell of a forest, his white hair began slightly swaying in the strong wind and all around him the sounds of small critters filled the environment.

"I’ll never get used to this kind of stuff..." Eisen muttered to himself and turned around a few times, trying to figure out if he can see any sign of civilization in his sight. But sadly, he was out of luck and instead leaned against a tree that stood behind him.

There was one thing he wanted to try out before doing anything else. He concentrated and did what Ari explained to him before, trying to think of a display to appear in front of him to show his Status.

[Eisen]

[Race - Giant-Dwarf Halfling][Occupation - None][Level - 1]

[HP - 100][MP - 100]

[STR - 10][END - 10][AGI - 10][INT - 10][WIS - 10]

[Titles]

None

[Skills]

None

"Ohoo? So that works. Good to know how I can do that, then! Those numbers aren’t any use to me yet, though..." He muttered out while leaning slightly forward to look at the blue screen that popped up in front of himself. After a little bit, he thought about closing that screen, and at his command it disappeared instantly.

Next, he looked at his body. He was wearing the same, bland brown and beige clothing as everyone else was in the hall before. Connected to his simple leather belt was a small bag, which Eisen quickly bound off and opened up. Inside, he found a total of 17 coins, made out of three different materials. Ten coins made out of copper, five coins out of silver, and two coins apparently out of gold. All of them were grandly carved with different patterns.

"Is this money? How much is that, I wonder... I’ll have to check at the town once I get there." Disregarding the money, since he doesn’t need it just yet, Eisen placed it back into the small leather bag and bound it back onto his belt. After that, he rummaged through his pant pocket and pulled out a small, leatherbound book.

He flipped it open and looked at a short description of the area. By going west through the forest, he would find himself entering a mountain range, where he should be able to find a small dirtpath. By following that path, he should get to a tunnel, on the other side of which he will find the first town.

"I’m surprised... All of these things may be made of low quality materials, but the quality of the items are extraordinarily high for what they’re made of..." Before following the instructions, however, Eisen trailed off shortly and flipped the book around in his hands, trying to find any major mistakes made during the book-binding process. After about a minute, he was done checking and nodded his head in approvement, since the developers seemingly worked to the tiniest detail. Once he finished his inspection, a surprising window popped up in front of Eisen.

[Appraisal Skill Learned]

Eisen thought about what this skill could do, and before he had to guess, another window popped up.

[Name - Appraisal]

[Rank - 0][Level - 1]

[Description]

[The Appraisal Skill will let you see the details of things around you. A higher rank will allow more information to be displayed, and a higher level per rank will allow higher level objects to be appraised.]

"Huh, pretty simple. So do I just need to think about it again?" Eisen wondered and looked at the book in front of him, concentrating so that he would notice an effect.

Book

"What?" Surprised at this quite obvious piece of information, Eisen sighs and tries it with one of the copper coins from his leather bag.

[Coin]

"This is practically useless! I can find out more than that by just guessing!" Eisen yelled out annoyed and pushed the coin back into his bag. He grumbled to himself and finally decided to follow the instructions in the book. While walking, he once more checked his Status to get used to the feeling of pulling it up, and noticed something unexpected next to the name of his new skill, Appraisal.

[Appraisal]

[Rank - 0][Level - 2]

"Wasn’t it level 1 just now? So, using it simply increases its level... Then maybe after a while I can actually find a use for it!" Excited after figuring this out all by himself, Eisen walked forward to the first town, all the while Appraising everything in his way.

[Tree]

[Apple]

[Rock]

[Pebble]

[Leaf]

After walking for the next thirty minutes, Eisen got the level of his Appraisal skill all the way to 87, although the amount of information displayed did not change in the slighest. But he took a break of doing this, when he finally found the tunnel that he read about in the book.

Filled with a feeling of excitement he hasn’t felt since traveling on foot in his younger days, Eisen slowly stepped into the dark tunnel, at the end of which he could only find a bright light.

The moment he stepped through, Eisen’s senses were attacked by different things. His ears were filled with the sound of people walking around the streets in front of him. His nose smelled a number of delicious foods of which he couldn’t figure out its source. And lastly, his eyes saw the beautiful townscape in front of him.

The town was completely surrounded by steep cliffs and the only entrances and exits were a handful of tunnels scattered across the area. The buildings, some of which seemed to be shops while others were simple houses belonging to the residents, were wooden fronts set against the cliffs while their interior apparently was dug into them. The roads led along the cliffs in a spiral shape, coming together at the bottom at a stone platform, parts of which traveled into the darkness below, while others traveled back up to join into the platform.

While Eisen was staring around the town, a grumpy-looking man with stumpy arms and legs, seemingly a Dwarf, walked up to him and looked him up and down, before speaking in a strong accent with a rough, deep voice.

"Hmm, ye’ seem to be new around here, eh’ Gramps? Well, welcome ta’ the town of Melroe."

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