Spending My Retirement In A Game

Embarrassed at this, Komer gulped loudly and tried hiding his face as he began to blush softly. "Erm... I’m sorry, Eisen. I... I didn’t think you were actually skilled like this. I think I should go..." Komer squatted back down onto the ground and began packing up all of the items he had on his blanket.

"Komer, do you stay at an Inn? Let’s talk there." Eisen suggested, and Komer quietly nodded.

So, Eisen, Bree, Caria and Komer quietly made their way toward the Inn that Komer was staying at. After Eisen payed for a room with multiple beds for his party to sleep in, where they then decided to talk.

When they were inside, Eisen sat down on the bed and looked at the young, red haired man. "Bree, could you take Caria for a bit and just go on a walk? I think it’s time for a one-on-one talk with Komer."

"Huh? Sure... Then we’ll be back in about 30 minutes?" Bree asked and tilted her head before walking up to Caria and taking her hand.

"Sounds good, thank you, Bree. And sorry for being so demanding today." With a smile, Eisen watched as Bree and Caria left the room, and then turned to Komer who sat down on the bed directly next to Eisen’s.

"So. Why are you doing this, Komer? I noticed right away that you wanted to trick me, but when it ended up going far worse than I thought, I couldn’t hold back. What you tried selling to me was basically useless, as if you found it in the garbage." Quite harshly and without holding anything back, Eisen looked Komer deep into his eyes. From his reaction immediately after being called out in front of the Merchant’s Guild, Eisen could feel that Komer wasn’t a bad kid deep down.

And so, Komer began to explain.

He was the son of the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world, which was the biggest investor to Prime Industries during the creation of ’World of Magic’ as well, which meant that they got the largest amount of spots for players amongst the investors. It seemed like Komer’s father had a slightly twisted sense of humor, so he made Komer and his two brothers compete for the spot of who could take over the company once he retired. The three of them were chosen as players, and each of them had to build up their own merchant company. The one that would become most successful within one year, would be allowed to inherit the business.

Komer was the youngest out of his brothers, and the only one that didn’t yet finish his college education, and he always had a thing for tricking people into doing what he wanted. So, since he couldn’t rely on business experience like his brothers, he did what he could best. Trick people into doing what he wanted.

And that slowly spiraled into basically becoming a scammer, especially once he gained the Charisma stat through continuosly convincing others of his opinion.

"So that’s why, huh? Alright, let me help you. First off, what’s your current goal?" Eisen asked, and Komer opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"You want to help me? Thank you, Eisen... Erm, my plan was to get funds here in town by selling items, and then buying a carriage, to transport items from one town to another, and re-sell everything there. There’s not much else I can do at this point." Komer sighed out while fiddling with his fingers, looking down at the ground.

Eisen stood up and handed Komer the bow that he made once more. "I have an idea what you can do. Instead of lying about horrible items being godly, make your customers think even better of items that are truly of quality. Sell my items. This way, you can make money and gain business experience at the same time."

"Huh? Wait, really?" Komer stood up in surprise and looked up at Eisen standing in front of him.

"Yes, really. But under a few conditions. No scamming. You won’t tell others that my items are godly creations, you will only tell facts. You can exaggerate those a bit, I know that’s basically normal. But don’t twist the facts arounds. Don’t sell them 100 times their actual value, but find their true market value."

"Okay! I tell you, you won’t regret this, Eisen! With your items, I may actually be able to create a huge merchant company! Well, if they’re all as great as this bow, of course... Although this was only made with random wood, right? So if you made one with actually high quality wood and make some kind of artifact, wouldn’t I be able to actually call the tree it came from holy?" Muttering to himself about different plans, Komer smiled brightly now that he had an actual source of items, although he still seemed to have a hard time letting go of his trickery. But that was fine, one step at a time.

But Eisen still couldn’t let this go. He crossed his arms and frowned strongly, before very clearly stating, "Komer. No. Scamming."

"F-Fine, I get it! It was just a joke... Anyway, you’ve been playing for a while, right? Could you give me any tips?" Komer asked, trying to quickly change the topic. This left Eisen to sigh loudly before nodding.

"Yeah, I’ve played for a little more than a real week, so more than a month in the game. What kind of tips do you need?"

"Erm, how to get an occupation maybe? Or even what an occupation does for you, because right now, it doesn’t seem like there’s any benefit to it. I can just do whatever I want without one, right?"

"Actually, no. I thought so at the start as well, though. Without any occupation, you won’t be able to get past Level 15, and all of your skills will be limited to rank 3. However, with an occupation, you can get to whatever level you want, and you will be able to rank skills up further than 3. And if you want to get an occupation, it seems that you just need to go to a person with the occupation you want, convince them that you’re trustworthy, and they may offer you the occupation."

Eisen began explaining these types of things one after another, including how most skills worked and the way that he figured out interaction with the inhabitants of the game world influenced your whole game experience.

Then, Eisen also began to explain who he was, since Komer told Eisen so much about himself as well. Of course, the young man was quite shocked to hear who the Originals actually were to the game, and that Eisen was skilled in basically every craft there was, and not just woodworking.

At first it seemed kind of hard for him to believe, but in the end,

"I’m sorry for thinking you’re just a random old man, Eisen. And thanks for basically insulting you to your face."

"Don’t worry Komer, you’re still young. You’ve got plenty of time to learn." Eisen laughed out loudly and waved at Komer to have him leave the Inn’s room together with him, and then quickly locked the door.

"You’ve been here for a while, right? I’ve heard that this town supplies a nearby mining town with different foods, so there must be a large merchant around. Let’s see if we can get someone to give you a merchant occupation there." Eisen explained, and then made his way to the front desk to ask the innkeeper to tell the Fey-Kin they were with earlier that they made their way to the stable, and that they should meet up there.

"A stable? Didn’t you just say we’re going to the merchant?" Komer asked confused, tilting his head to the side. With a soft laugh, Eisen nodded.

"Yes, we are. But not right away. I can see that you’re not wearing your basic clothes that you wore when you started, but these still aren’t good enough to conduct business in. And I’m going to tell this to you once, and only once, but I’m lending something to you. Only lending. Not gifting, you’ll have to give them back once we’re done at the Merchant." Eisen explained with a serious expression, and Komer gulped loudly before nodding.

"Erm... Should I be scared?" He asked, but Eisen simply chuckled. "Only if you don’t behave."

After only a few minutes, the two of them were already at the stable, and Eisen walked up to his carriage after greeting Cabarum properly.

"Oh, you’ve got a wagon and a horse too? How much did they cost?" Komer asked curiously, but was incredibly surprised at the answer.

"Ah, I couldn’t even give you an estimate if I wanted to. I only bought the raw materials, and built everything myself, so it was a lot cheaper than usual."

"Wait, you built this whole carriage yourself..? You really are an amazing craftsman then, huh...? But what about the horse? How much do these cost?" Komer asked, leaning in closely toward Cabarum’s body to investigate the weird noise of gears that he started hearing when he stood next to him.

But Eisen simply began to laugh once more. After all, there seems to have been a misunderstanding. "Komer, I was talking about both the carriage, and the ’horse’. His name is Cabarum by the way. He’s an automaton."

"Wh-What..? An automaton? Isn’t that something like a robot?" The young man asked in confusion.

"Basically, yes. But he’s made with magically powered gears rather than motors, and can actually somewhat think for himself. This wolf lady here is also an automaton, so don’t be surprised."

"Wow... wouldn’t these be amazingly expensive if you began selling these?" Komer whispered to himself, starting to think about whether or not he should try and build up a robotic empire together with Eisen. That might really be quite profitable, after all. But Komer tried to refrain from asking such a question, since Eisen was currently trying to help him with something else.

After searching through the carriage for only a few seconds, Eisen came back out carrying his suit over his arms. "Put this on. As I said, it’s only borrowed. I made this for me, so I don’t know if it will look as intended on a body like yours, but it should fit quite well at the very least."

"Wow, you can even make suits like this? Wait, then would I even be able to build up a brand with all these different types of items?"

"Don’t worry about that for now. First, you have to actually become qualified to sell items in the first place. Now go on and change, you can leave your clothes in the carriage if you want, I doubt anyone will steal them." Eisen explained while Komer stepped through the back door and closed it behind himself.

The old man waited outside the carriage for a few minutes, simply talking to his pets Aulu and Cabarum for a bit, before the door opened up again, and out came a young man wearing the black suit with red details that Eisen thought to be quite well made and stylish. And considering that Komer’s hair wasn’t a natural red, but rather the type you can only achieve by dyeing it, and its tone was quite similar to the red Eisen chose for the details such as the tie, the suit fit even better to Komer than Eisen expected.

And luckily, he was able to figure out how the size-fitting system of the game worked as well. It seemed to change its shape to roughly fit the general size of the person, but in this case for example, the pants and shirt seemed to be ever so slightly too long.

But it wasn’t anything major, so it shouldn’t be a problem, especially considering that it would give Morrom another ten points to charisma.

"Now, shall we go get you your occupation?"