Spending My Retirement In A Game

Brody stared at the figure in front of him, the five meter large, completely armored figure. The ’Incarnation of War’, as it was called. Slowly, the Demon-Orc turned around toward Eisen with a wry smile, "Imma guess that you don’t know anythin’ about this? You’re probably the one that made all my armor and weapons in the past, right?"

"You know as much as I know about this, Brody." The old man replied as he looked at the figure and started to think about what exactly it was speaking about. It said that it was Brody’s former armor, but that didn’t really make sense. It was just rank 7, after all, and Eisen doubted that a piece of armor that he needed while he was around the same strength he was now wouldn’t be able to get to the point where it was literally sentient.

And then, the old man realized that that wasn’t actually an entirely correct way of thinking in this world. After all, he himself had two tools that were practically living, and a son whose nature completely changed after a certain point in his life.

"I get it." The old man said, "You were an Ego-Item that reached the peak, right?" Eisen asked, and the ’Incarnation of War’ slowly nodded its head.

"It is as you say. But technically, I was more of an ’Ego-Item Set’." It pointed out, before Brody looked at Eisen with a slight frown, "What d’ya mean? How’d you figure that out?"

"It’s pretty simple. In this world, you are truly rewarded for reaching the peak. The five of us had raw talent and ability that transcended even that of the gods, and on top of that received immortality after reaching the peak, as well as a myriad of other benefits, I’d assume. Monsters that reach the peak may either become Transcendent Monsters or ascend to godhood. My guess is that Ego-Items receive similar benefits, since they have a soul, and all."

The Incarnation of War looked at Eisen before nodding its head, "Once more, it is just as you say. When I reached my ’peak’, as you called it, I found myself in the presence of the god of war, Artger. He gave me his blessing and I was allowed the privilege of life. A sort of it, at least. It is not the true form of life that you have always seemed to search for. I became an incarnation of Artger’s powers. Albeit, I had to start at the beginning, at a mere rank 0 without the capability of even properly using my own body. A young man picked me up and made use of me as a proper armor, letting me raise my level and soon reach rank 1. The essence of life, mana, flowed through my being and I became mobile. I thanked my former user, and then went on my way. And along that way, I found myself here." The incarnation at war placed its hand onto its chest, and seemed to basically be smiling with its whole body while telling its story, although all the originals had just one thought in mind.

A thought that only one of them actually voiced, "The fuck, how am I supposed to believe you? There’s no way you came from me, otherwise you wouldn’t speak like that! I thought ego-items are supposed to be formed by their users!"

"In the same way, children are formed by their parent. And I don’t think you’re exactly like your father, after hearing your stories about him." Eisen rebutted, although he was thinking the exact same thing as the Demon-Orc just now, and Brody looked back at him with a wry smile, "Urgh, fair enough... Well, either way, I guess it’d be fine? I mean, I ain’t gonna lose to my own set of armor."

With confidence, Brody approached the Incarnation of War, although it seemed to have a bit of an opinion on that topic as well. It turned toward the Demon-Orc and slowly spoke, "I think there may be a misundertanding. I am grateful to you, I respect you, and I am honored to be in your presence again, but it has been more than Ten-Thousand years since you have last donned me. I went through my own tribulations and challenges. I found values that may differ from yours. In no way am I your ’own set of armor’. This is why I wish to fight you even more now, to prove this to both you and myself."

Brody looked back at the Incarnation of War while his hands were placed onto his hips, before slowly nodding his head, "Right, sorry about that. Badly worded, didn’t mean any offense. But well, let’s get to it now, then." Brody said bluntly, without making any further comments.

"You sure that it’s the user that forms the ego-item, and not the other way around..?" Xenia asked, seemingly surprised by how calm and understanding Brody was just now, but Eisen just laughed a bit, "Well, technically it is both. Anything you use in any way, shape, or form changes you, even if it is just in minimal ways. Maybe meeting his former set of Armor might have woken something up in him. After me, he is the closest to finding his own self again, after all." Eisen pointed out quickly. Xenia turned her head toward the old man and nodded his head, "Fair enough." She replied, before turning back toward Brody and the Incarnation of War as they were speaking to one another, slowly making their way toward an open space inside of the quite huge camp, which the originals’ had thought to be a town just before.

Others may see it as a little risky to just enter a place like this where they were surrounded by enemies on all sides, but none of the originals were bothered by it in the slightest. There was no reason to, after all. The incarnation had complete control over every single member of the army, it seemed, and if there was one thing that it definitely took on from Brody was that it didn’t lie.

Really, Brody liked to mess around every once in a while when it didn’t matter if one made jokes or not, but that’s all it was limited to. They were merely jokes. If it came to anything serious, Eisen had never witnessed Brody lie. How trustworthy, determined, and actually quite honorable he was, especially when it came to keeping promises, was just shown by the fact that Brody didn’t marry anyone else, or even got romantically or physically involved with anyone at all, in the amount of time that Brody was alive in this world, which seemed to exceed 80-Thousand years. There was only one reason why Brody may ever lie during serious situations, and that would be if that was the only way to achieve a specific goal.

There was little reason to believe that an item that most likely spent quite a lot of time with that kind of person would end up deceitful in any sense of the word. And that was just shown in how easily he gave up, and how he seemed to have been trusted by the literal gods to honor the traditions of war. So, that’s why none of the originals were nervous.

Well, it’s why Eisen wasn’t nervous, the old man wasn’t actually sure if the others had a similar mental reasoning.

Either way, the Incarnation of War and Brody made their way over toward an open place, which seemed to have been used as training and practice areas before. Some of the monsters cleared the area out, as there were a few things like training weapons, dummies, benches, chairs, and so on littered around there.

Both Brody and the Incarnation of War stood in front of each other. The former was going through his Armory to pick out the right weapon, while the latter stood prepared with his spear in his hand. And soon, Brody made his own choice as well. It seemed like especially recently, Brody was interested in beating others in their own game. He chose a sword that may become huge somehow while fighting Kiron, and now, he pulled a spear out of his Armory storage-ability. And it wasn’t even one that was made with the special Maroon alloy that would dissipate any mana in the place the opponent was struck.

It seemed like the Incarnation of War could basically only move by supplying its whole body with mana, like a Golem, and Brody most likely thought of it as an unfair advantage to have, if he went ahead and used that kind of weapon against such an oppoent.

He would obviously use it against common enemies or monsters, but this time it was different. It seemed like he wanted to respect the Incarnation of War as much as he could.

"Let’s get this shit started, my man." Brody said with a grin on his face, and the Incarnation of War slowly nodded its head, "Of course." It replied.

And just like that, the fight started. The two of them started to circle around each other for a little while, seemingly trying to just figure out each others’ movements. Something that already made Eisen a little bit surprised. He knew first-hand that Brody’s movements now were similar to the past Brody. That was the only reason why Eisen was now capable of beating Brody this easily.

Something that was literally on Brody’s body whenever he fought should know his movements perfectly. ’Well, maybe it is just trying to see if his movements are the same after all...’ Eisen thought. That could be, but he already felt like there was more behind this than just that.

The old man watched all this happen, and before he knew it, both the Incarnation of War and Brody jumped forward. Their movements were incredibly similar to each other, but of course, the Incarnation of War was roughly five meters tall. It had more reach, strength, and consequently speed.

But even then, the tips of the two spears hit each other perfectly. They didn’t even slide to the side. It seemed so improbably, but it happened. Because both of them seemed to want to do this on purpose. Just to test their strength against each other, apparently.

The Demon-Orc ground his teeth with a big, broad grin while the Incarnation of War seemed to give off a similar aura. His armor didn’t change to give him something like a smile or anything, but from the way that he was carrying himself and the vibe he gave off, it became more than evident.

The former armor was just as battle-crazed as the one that used to wear it.

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