Spending My Retirement In A Game

For the next few hours, Eisen and Hephaestus worked together to create as many ’Living Ego-Items’ as they possibly could, simply to inflate their numbers with beings that had special abilities that could come in useful on the Island of War.

Jyuuk already started trying to scout the place out with his eagles, although there actually seemed to be enemies that were shooting at the eagles with bows or crossbows in order to take them down. Of course it didn’t work, as Jyuuk’s eagles had incredible dexterity, but still, it was an issue as there were quite a few units there. It was like a dozen or so shots were fired all at once, continuosly until the eagle left their range.

The biggest problem was something else, however, "So they have someone or something that can actually notice us from far away?" Brody asked, and Jyuuk slowly nodded his head.

"It seems so. There were others birds flying around, but none of the others were targeted. So either they became suspicious because she didn’t fit in with the others species, or there was someone that figured out that she was a tamed beast controlled by someone else. Either way, they seem to be quite intelligent and well-organized."

"Hm..." Brody groaned quietly, trying to figure out a proper tactic for such a large-scale fight, actually being the main-strategist for this. It seemed like those that didn’t know Brody too well were rather surprised at this, but the other Originals and those that knew the stories of Brody as the one that peaked were aware of his prowess as a warlord and war strategist. He maybe wasn’t particularly skilled in keeping in mind things like rationing, wound-treatment, and practically anything that didn’t have to do with active combat in a warzone, but there were others here that could very easily fill in such gaps.

"So, what kinds of monsters were they?" Brody asked, and Jyuuk slowly thought about it while scratching his cheek, "That’s the thing..." He started, "I’m not sure if they were actually monsters."

Immediately after Jyuuk said this, everyone in the room turned toward him confusedly, "What do you mean? Were they people? If that’s the case, couldn’t we try and solve this diplomatically?" Evalia asked curiously. If it came to things related to diplomatics, then she would probably be able to take on a big part of the responsibility, trying to use her words to convince them to stay calm. It would be better if Komer was here, as he was the most skilled at making deals, whether they were financial or political in nature, but he didn’t log back into the game after he logged off outside of the shop.

It was a bit annoying getting him back in the first place, really. Luckily it was possible for them to actually move his body since they were literal ’Friends’ in the system, otherwise they would have either had to wait for him to wake up or they would have had to leave him there.

Either way, it seemed like it wasn’t actually going to turn out to become a conflict resolvable with words after all, "I’m not entirely sure because I didn’t get a close-up on them, but I think they were people. But they didn’t... act like it. There was something weird about them. I sent a ground-worm there so that I could get a closer look without them directly noticing, but it seems like it’s going to take a while for it to get there." Jyuuk explained, "Either way, seeing how aggressive they were toward a simple bird, I doubt that we can solve this with words even if they do end up being normal people."

Brody quietly grumbled to himself while thinking about this, "Well, either way, if they’re just people this just got a shitton easier. It’s hella hard to predict what a monster will actually act like, especially if you’ve never seen it before, but that ain’t the case with people. Groups of monsters usually act erratically, but people act orderly. Either way, if Jyuuk thinks they might be people, they must be humanoids with things like proper weapons, armor, clothes, and tools, meaning they’ll have a structure to them, so they’ll probably fight pretty orderly anyway." Brody whispered to himself while trying to figure out proper tactics.

"Once we figure out the structure of the island, the town, and those livin’ on the island, we’ll be able to properly figure it out." He then announced as he pushed himself off the ground, trying to continue thinking of different tactics and attack or defense patterns that could be used with this particular group of people, monsters, and... items that could move on their own, in one way or another, "Yo, Eisen, I’m raidin’ the bar on the first floor."

"Don’t overdo it, please." Eisen said while Brody stepped through the gate that Sigurd swiftly created for him, and the Demon-Orc just slightly shrugged as he squatted down, already being behind the bar, and picked up a bottle of whiskey, before quickly opening it up. The last thing that Eisen could see before the door was slammed shut and disappeared was Brody pouring him a cup of that whiskey.

"Alright, nothing against that dude, but seriously? He’s supposed to be some amazin’ war strategist?" Hephaestus asked, and Eisen slightly started to chuckle as he used the Ego-Tool in order to cut up some leather, "Brody is the best combatist there ever was, really. I don’t think there’s a weapon that he can’t use, and there’s nothing that he can’t turn into a weapon, albeit in another way than me. To him, a towel can be as lethal a weapon as a greatsword. And to him, soldiers are a weapon."

"Eh, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?" Hephaestus asked, and Xenia looked at the knife Eisen was holding and lightly scoffed, "Sadly, it’s not. This isn’t a story of this world, but in the other world, Brody was a professional martial artist. Basically, he fought in duels for a living, but they weren’t duels till death, just until one gave up or couldn’t fight anymore. Well, one time, some guy was so desperate to win the prize money and fame that came with it that he rounded up roughly a dozen super strong fighters, gave them knives, and then tried to jump Brody in the showers after practice once. He literally beat up those dozen people with just his towel without a single scratch, while completely naked, wet, and on a slippery floor." Xenia explained quickly, but it seemed like Hephaestus still wasn’t entirely convinced.

"So what? Then Brody’s level was probably like a hundred or two hundred levels higher than those guys’. If that’s the case, you can basically kill small-fries with a single breath." The ego-item pointed out, but Eisen slightly squeezed Hephaestus’ grip a little bit, "If I can remind you, levels and stats aren’t a thing over there. In raw, physical strength, some of those guys may have been actually stronger than Brody. Brody solely relies on skill, and not on raw power. Well, he does have raw power on top of that, which makes his skill even more impressive and effective."

"I’ve heard stories about Brody before, but he really is amazing, isn’t he?" Morrom added with a wry smile, although the next moment, Jyuuk added something else, "True, but just imagine how amazing that makes Eisen. In the comparatively ’little’ time between his and Brody’s birth, he managed to build up so much strength and ability that it took Brody more than 50 Thousand years to finally be stronger than him."

"Well, to be fair, I probably did have a few advantages over him. For one, I could use magic to an extent, I could actually make use of enchantments, and through my size-changing ability I had an advantage in size, raw strength, and reach all at once." The old man replied quickly. He actually didn’t believe that it was as straightforward as he was told before, and was quite sure that Brody had been able to beat him long before the ’official’ time Eisen was overtaken by him, but Eisen couldn’t be 100% sure either.

Although, just when he started to think about that, he actually remembered something. He didn’t really look through the book that Asmond gave him yet, at least not properly, but he had a vague feeling that he read something about fighting Brody, even if he didn’t consciously do so at the time.

With that, Eisen quickly finished up the throwing-knife that then turned into a small silver bird with an incredibly sharp beak. Without even trying to see if its body properly formed, Eisen opened his item storage and stepped over toward the bookshelf, quickly pulling out the book with the tips of how Eisen could recover his memory.

He quickly flipped through it trying to glance at every major topic that the memories were sorted by, until he reached the ’People’ category, and then found Brody. And it didn’t take him that long to find one specific overarching topic that Eisen would need to try out.

"Fight Brody with your fists. Fight Brody with magic. Fight Brody with swords... with bows, with spears..? Ah... ’a single instance should not make the memory-recovery possible, but multiple different instances should’. I see..." Eisen read quietly, and then placed the book back into the bookshelf before stepping out of the item storage.

He waved his hand to the side and quickly created a gate leading him to the bar that Brody was in the midst of raiding. The old man stepped out of there, looking at the Demon Orc with a broad grin on his face. Brody looked back at him rather surprised, "What, I’m just having a little..." He pointed out, placing an empty bottle of liquor to five other empty ones, "Don’t judge me, it’s hard to get drunk in here these days..."

"Brody. Fight me." The old man said immediately, without a moment’s hesitation, and Brody slowly stood up and put the glass he was holding to the side, "Listen, I know you can sell this stuff for a good sum of money, but c’mon! Let me at least have a little, you can make stuff like this in a couple of days with Jyuuk��s help!" Brody exclaimed, but Eisen immediately shook his head.

"That’s not what I mean. I need you to fight me so that I can remember my fights with you in the past. Who knows, it might end up triggering this whole memory thing for you too!" The old man suggested, and Brody really didn’t have to think long about it.

"Heh, nice. Never made anyone remember anything by fighting them. Usually they forget a bunch of shit." The Demon Orc pointed out, "Alright, let’s get to it then."

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