Spending My Retirement In A Game

"Wh-What just happened?" the player let out, completely letting go of their act, "Did you just burn off my curse?!"

Eisen used his pinky's nail on his teeth, trying to make sure he got out any parts of the maggots-turned-charcoal that could be stuck in there, "Yes, that is exactly what I did. You children, do none of you know not to pick on guys that are way stronger than you?" clicking his tongue and shaking his head disappointedly, Eisen took a few steps forward, "You know, back in my day, when someone was acting out and pissing everyone off, do you know what we'd do?"

"Y-You'd punch them..?" the player asked, visibly growing more and more nervous.

The old man smiled softly, staring down at the players in front of him. With a single swift motion, as fast as he breathed in, Eisen made sure to increase his size to the max, squatting down in front of them, "Yup."

With a single swift motion, Eisen struck down at the ground. At this point, there was really no need to hide his identity anymore, as he had basically revealed it to them in hopes of getting them to leave. Though, only now did that seem to work. The old man's fist had created a massive crater in the ground. These players could tell immediately that they would never be able to do something against Eisen like this. And sure, to them, it felt unfair, but one after another, they vacated the area.

"This isn't over! We're just here holding down the fort, but when the advance party comes back, you're-" the roleplayer yelled out as he left, but Eisen just rolled his eyes and blew a gust of flames toward him to force him and the other players away.

Once he made sure that there was nobody from their side left in the area anymore, Eisen shrunk back down and looked over at Sal, "Set up some detection magic around the area to make sure we're alerted when anyone with cursed energy comes here."

Sal immediately nodded his head, "You got it."

"Perfect, thanks. Caria, could you create some myconid drones to watch the area and act as the first line of defense in case something happens while we're not here? They just need to be able to persist for a few days at most."

"Hm... that should be doable. Sally, come on, I'll need to link up your magic with my babies~!" Caria exclaimed, quickly holding onto the boy's arm before dragging him away, leaving Eisen with Melissa. Picking her up to be able to move around a bit faster than she was able to on her own, the two of them made their way back to Sky and Bree.

"How'd things go?" Sky asked, though he wasn't even looking up from his book as he was speaking, because he basically already knew the answer.

"It went alright. A bit less smoothly than I'd like, but it's dealt with for the time being. Anyway, have you guys figured something out?"

The twins looked at each other and briefly smiled, before looking back at Eisen and nodding without hesitation, "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Of course, these two weren't just useful as extra muscle or to do small tasks. Sure, they helped out wherever they could, but there was one thing that they both excelled at. Information-gathering. Sky, as a storyteller class, was of course just as adept at gathering and compiling stories and rumors as he was at telling an actual story. And Bree, as a direct information-related class, could take the stories that Sky told and sorted through and narrow things down based on the more tangible information on the area. And with that, they were able to get a pretty good idea of where in the dark forest the black dragon coud be found.

"Perfect, let's head out as soon as Sal and Caria are back. Until then, I'll send out a message to ask for materials and some skilled workers to come and help out the townfolk," Eisen explained, pushing his hand into a nearby wall to grab a pen, a sheet of paper, and some wax from his item storage. Creating a stone pedestal to write on, the old man quickly wrote a message on the paper. Since Eisen wanted to avoid using the system as much as he possibly could, him and Xenia had come up with another method together. This wasn't just any old paper, but it was created with an incredibly complex spell interwoven between each sheet's fibers that would transport the information on the paper directly to another person when magic was put into the paper.

Eisen quickly finished writing the message and then grabbed the wax, which he quickly dropped onto the folded-up piece of paper. Transforming his thumb into the shape of a certain sigil, Eisen heated up his skin and pressed down onto the wax. It quickly softened around his thumb and sealed the impromptu letter shut. Eisen then grabbed the sheet and threw it into the air, watching as it burnt to a crisp as part of the process. The information should have gotten to one of the others by now. Luckily, he had saved all of the different sigils that corresponded to anyone of importance by now and was able to switch between them pretty easily without needing to manually transform his skin every single time.

As the old man was done and the others continued packing up, one of the townfolk approached him. It was one of the older people. Judging from how the other townfolk had treated him until now, he was probably the village chief, or at least held a similarly important position in this place.

"Can I help you?" Eisen asked him, and the village chief carefully nodded his head. His whole body was shaking, though Eisen wasn't sure if it was because of his old age or because of fear of the man he was standing before.

"We would like to know what you are planning on doing now that you took over this town? We do not have much to offer, but if you would like, we can provide you with supplies or money, as we have been until now, and-"

Eisen let out a loud laugh, "Supplies and money? Do you really think you have anything of the sort to give away? No, just don't worry about it. I didn't 'take over' this town either, I just expelled some troublesome kids, and am now taking responsibility for that choice."

The village chief looked up at Eisen, confused and stunned, as if he didn't know what to do now that the 'script' was interrupted.

"I, uh... But then... why would you...?"

"Because I felt like it, and it was the right thing to do."

Even more confused than before, the village chief stepped back hesitantly, "But... are you not searching for the black dragon to take its trial?"

Eisen hesitated. While it was true that he was going to try and take the trial, that was just because he wanted to steal some power from the black dragon, and not because he agreed with its actions. If he ended up feeling like he had the power to, then he would try and take the dragon down once he got the cursed power, anyway.

"What's it to you?"

"Just... the sort that come to look for the black dragon do not usually act out of pure kindness. If there is anything that you would like from us, then please, do not hide your intentions," the village chief practically pleaded, and Eisen let out a loud, frustrated sigh.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Listen, as I just said, this place doesn't have anything I want, beside the black dragon. The only reason I kicked those guys out was because it's a pain to see cocky bastards like that act like they're above others just because they're a little strong," Eisen said in a blunt tone, waving the chief away, "Now go, I will be leaving soon anyway. By the time I'm back, you better have put on some weight, you hear?"

The old man turned around and started to walk away, though he could not ignore the chief's sniffling. Just how horrible were these people treated? That player from before was speaking of some kind of quest... did the black dragon give out a quest that made players act like this? Apparently, black dragons were supposed to be battle maniacs. Though, more specifically, they enjoyed war. Seeing powerful people face off against each other, and joining in on the battle to be a catastrophic, demolishing force. Maybe the black dragon was hoping to cause some kind of large-scale battle using those that passed its trial, so that it could do just that.

Whichever was the case, Eisen was not going to just leave it be.