Spending My Retirement In A Game

"This armor is amazing! It is so... well, different to anything that I’ve seen being produced in this realm." The woman explained to Eisen, who just looked back with a smile on his face, "Of course, I wouldn’t expect that you would find armor like this being produced here. After all, it’s a realm of Combat, so I don’t think there are that many craftsmen here."

"Indeed, only a handful, and most of those learned out of necessity. At some point the ’basic’ gear that was being handed out by the Lesser Gods following Gonor simply weren’t enough. Truly, I never would have been able to find someone that could create a weapon like you made for me... It is not a kind that you see all that often, I’m sure you know that."

"Of course. I never made a weapon like this. It is pretty interesting though." The old man pointed out, and the woman raised her brows with a smile, "Do you think so? There are plenty that simply ridiculed the choice of my weapon. Many of them didn’t get the chance to joke for a second time, however."

"I can’t say that I blame them. At first, even I thought you were joking, considering your obvious stance toward me at the start."

The soul slowly looked down at the ground as she took off the helmet, "I apologize for that. While I am not quite sure I can believe you to be that legendary craftsman, it is indeed true that you are incredibly skilled."

Eisen smiled as he started to clean up the scrap materials that were leftover from the crafting process, "It’s fine, don’t worry about it. But I actually have to say, I expected this to go the other way around, with you and the man from before." After that blunt statement, the woman looked to the side and nodded her head, "Yeah, I did not expect him to be that kind of person either. It is true that we are much more in tune with our former selves, since emotions are an important part of combat, but I still did not expect him to be like that. He did seem quite kind when I was speaking to him, hence why we took the chance to try and practice together here in this area."

Eisen slowly nodded his head as he finished cleaning up and stepped over toward the smithy’s door, and the woman quickly followed him. The two of them swiftly stepped out the door and Eisen packed it up again once they were outside, since the old man would just end up moving on for now to find more people to work with.

The woman looked at Eisen with a light smile on her face, "Again, thank you for giving me this chance to receive gear made by you that is just perfect for me. I will make sure to treat all these items well."

"I wouldn’t want it any other way. So go ahead and practice a little to get accustomed to these particular items." The old man suggested, and the woman slowly nodded her head.

"Of course. Thank you." The female soul slowly turned around and left the area, while Eisen just packed away the portable house inside of his item storage. He then slowly stretched a little bit and then looked over at Ambriel with a cold expression, as if the smile he had on his face while speaking to the woman was simply never a thing, "Come on. Let’s find someone else. I don’t want this to take forever." The old man pointed out.

Eisen looked at the angelic figure that was just standing there with the same blank look on their face, although now that Eisen knew a little more about them, he could feel a sense of contempt in that stare. The old man transformed into his Draconic Demon King form and then quickly lifted off, flying into the direction of town. Immediately as he was getting closer, he was able to see one of the arenas that the woman had seemingly been speaking of.

Eisen could also see a few more in the distance, or at least he thought those were supposed to be the arenas, and they were all somewhat different in their form. To just check this out a little bit, Eisen just flew over some of these arenas to confirm his suspicions, and it seemed like he was absolutely right.

There were some arenas that were just built like colosseums, with a wide, large open area where simple duels would be held, but there were others as well, supporting numerous kinds of terrain.

Sometimes it was just a large lake that was built for ship-based or underwater combat, areas that required a lot of climbing, or areas that allowed for things like sneak-attacks pretty easily.

But somehow, the closer Eisen got to the center of the city, the more impressive the arenas became. As if you had to work yourself up to get closer to the center.

And in the most central part of the town, directly surrounding the huge tower that Gonor seemed to dwell in, were different arenas that just seemed to be the peak. Eisen picked a random one and flew closer. In this case, people were fighting while on horseback. Or well, not only on horseback. There were other creatures as well. Large ostrich-like creatures, or different lizard-like variations that could be used as mounts. Some were running on four legs, others on two, but they were all running on the ground at least.

But one of the people here stuck out in particular. Because he wasn’t actually fighting, but was sitting on something like a balcony overseeing the combat-area, as if he was some super important person. But quite obviously, this was also a combatant. This was a soul from someone that died without doubt, this was not an angel or divine being of any sort, but just a regular soul.

He was sitting there on the balcony, and was looking down at the fights currently happening. He had something like a scuffed-up halberd propped up against a pillar next to him, and was just leaning up against his mount that was sleeping.

It was something like a red ground-dragon, but it was pretty unique in its own sense. For one, it was the only one of the mounts Eisen could see around that had any sort of battle-scars and that seemed simply aged as if going through countless battles on its own. While it was mostly covered in scales, there were parts of its body that were covered in feathers as well, as if they were simply something like decoration.

And most importantly, it was about 1.5 times the size of all the other mounts around. But not only the mount was quite large, the man leaning up against it was as well. He was large, around 8 feet tall probably. Bulky and mountainous, as if he would be able to tower over even others of his race.

With a slightly curious expression, Eisen chose to just go ahead and fly down there, stopping right on the edge of the balcony. The old man stood there, his wings spread out as he squatted down and looked at the man that was simply laying there, trying to watch the ’show’.

"Well, hello there. It’s quite nice to meet you." The old man said with a broad smile on his face, and before he knew it, he had the tip of a halberd pressed up against his throat, nearly piercing into it. But of course, the old man tried to stay calm as the figure in front of him spoke up with a loud voice that simply screamed out ’barbarian’ in his choice of words and the rough, aggressive tone that he took on.

"Who are you, bird man?!" He screamed out, and Eisen looked back at the soul with a smile on his face, "Someone that doesn’t particularly enjoy having a weapon pointed at their throat."

"Then bird man no sneak up on Gran!" The man exclaimed, before Eisen just smiled a bit, "Sorry about that, I didn’t want to sneak up on you. I just figured you appreciate someone being straightforward, so I came straight to you."

With a slight glare directed at Eisen, the soul squinted his eyes, "Gran does like that... Why bird man here? To fight Champion Gran?!"

Eisen raised his brows curiously as he looked at the soul, "I’m not here to fight, no. But you are the champion of this arena? Wouldn’t that mean you can reincarnate?"

"Hah!" Gran yelled out, "Gran no want rebirth! Gran want fight legends! So, Gran ask Gonor to let him stay!" He exclaimed smugly, and Eisen slowly turned around to look at Ambriel, waiting for an explanation, and the Angel quickly did his job, "Gran here was allowed to ascend to being a Heroic Soul, gaining special privileges and tasks. In this case, he was most likely allowed to bring his mount over from when he was still living, and in return has to be the ’final hurdle’ of this arena."

"Yes! Gran is a hurdle! Hold out an hour with Gran, and you can get rebirth! Does bird man want rebirth?"

"Sure, once it’s my time to die, I’ll come to you."

"When is bird man time to die?!" Gran asked excitedly, and Eisen quietly laughed, "Never, actually. But nevermind that. I’m not here to fight you. I would like to create some gear for you. A new weapon, some armor, and if you want, some armor for your friend over there." With a slight smile, Eisen looked over at the creature laying behind Gran, and the warrior stared at him with a bright smile.

"Gran likes! Bird man, come! Make thingies for Gran!" He exclaimed, and Eisen jumped down from the railing and deactivated his transformation. The figure that was a fair bit taller than Gran until now suddenly became shorter, and the Heroic Soul looked at him with a frown, "Bird man tiny! And no longer bird! Just boring man!"

"Yes, yes, just call me Eisen. And if you have an issue with my size..." The old man said, and quickly increased his size to the maximum he could without hitting the ceiling, which was actually around 10 meters, so Gran stared up at him excitedly, "Man huge! Giant man!"

With a wry smile on his face, Eisen mentally prepared for the process of creating full gear for Gran.