Spending My Retirement In A Game

For a while, the group stood outside of the base, patiently waiting for something to happen, just anything. Whether it was a sign that Eisen was dead, or that he survived, it didn’t matter which it was. While Komer and Xenia knew that it wasn’t a big deal if he died considering that this was just a game in the end, and even though the others here also knew that he couldn’t technically die, everyone was still somehow worried.

Or even if Eisen somehow managed to get out of the room where Razer was as well, it was unsure if he was somehow able to get through the hordes of cursed-items turned beasts. How Razer managed to create these was quite a mystery in of itself, but maybe it explained why the items were all just on display as if they were some bizarre magical security system.

Slowly it became night, and everything was completely silent before a slight sound appeared from beyond the door leading into the base. It was slow, and calm, while at the same time being somewhat rushed. Nervously, everyone looked at the door, unsure of what to expect. And it definitely wasn’t what they expected to see coming out through the door.

With a grin, Eisen looked at the group of people standing there in front of him as he continued holding his right arm in his left hand together with the last shard he needed to repair Kirisho’s amulet. "Thanks for waiting, everyone. Now, let’s get me to the Inn, shall we?" Eisen said with a hearty laugh while deactivating all of his skills. For some reason, though, it seemed like Eisen’s ripped-off arm was still in a transformed state, but the old man didn’t have any time to pay attention to that right now, because he was immediately jumped at by three people. Caria, Melissa, and Bree who were all more than just a little bit worried about him.

"Dummy Eisen! Caria was worried!" Caira yelled out, before Melissa quickly nodded her head, burrowing herself deeper into the old man’s leg. "Dummy! Dummy!" She exclaimed while Bree was freaking out over Eisen’s wound that was slowly staining the man’s side deep red.

"W-We need to heal you! Quickly! A-And we need a Highest-Grade potion to regrow your arm, or else you wo-won’t be able to-" stuttered the Fey-Kin girl, who was trying to apply healing magic to the wound, but Eisen quickly shook his head.

"Don’t worry. I’m immortal, remember? You think if I can come back to life, I can’t regrow an arm or two? I just need a little bit of sleep before my HP runs out." With a smile, the old man explained this and begun making his way toward their Inn while wrapping up his ripped-off arm in a piece of cloth so that nobody could notice what it was.

On their way back, Kiron quickly stepped up next to Eisen, who kept checking the status of his HP over and over again, quickly taking in a few potions when it got too low to replenish at least a little bit of it.

"M’Lord, I’m... I’m sorry for leaving you behind back there, because of me, you lost your arm. I wish it had been me in your stead when that Violent man attacked." Kiron apologized bitterly, but Eisen quickly shook his head.

"Kiron, I told you to leave. And my biggest condition for making you my Knight was that you wouldn’t give up your life for me, did you forget that already? If I tell you to run away, you run away, without discussion. You hear me?" Eisen told him in a stern voice before the Half-Dragon slowly nodded. "Also, you make it sound like that kid ripped my arm off himself."

Confused at this sentence, not only Kiron but everyone looked at Eisen with a questioning expression, before Xenia finally asked the question everyone else was too afraid to ask. "Eisen... don’t tell me you... yourself..."

Slowly, the old man nodded turning around with a light smile to calm everyone down. "Mhm, I ripped my arm off. That guy placed dozens of curses on my arm, even the fear curse from the shard. Apparently, they all synced together and combined into one curse and then began encroaching on my main body. But before that could happen, I ripped my arm off."

With obvious shock on their faces, everyone dazedly stared at Eisen, while Komer and Xenia looked at each other in something that seemed more like concern. While they were also players and didn’t actually feel any pain in the game, just the idea of ripping off their arms was enough to make both of them experience phantom-pains.

"How can you say something like that so nonchalantly?" The High-Elf asked with a loud sigh, and Eisen softly laughed.

"Let’s just get to the Inn. I really need to sleep. I already let Evalia know what Inn we’re at, so just fill her in while I’m asleep." Eisen told them, trying to ignore what he did just a little while ago himself so that he could go to bed now and be back home when his oldest son arrived.

---

With a sigh, Benjamin got out of the capsule and rubbed his right arm to confirm that it really was still there in real life. He also hoped that his arm would regrow as quickly and as easily as Komer said, otherwise it would be quite annoying. There were other ways to regrow limbs of course, in case you were fighting a strong enemy, you couldn’t just go to sleep to let everything heal, so everything would probably end up fine and dandy in the end, but Benjamin was still quite nervous.

Either way, for now, it was time to wait for the next members of his family. After checking his phone, he noticed a text from Christie, Natsuo’s Wife, telling him when they would arrive, about thirty minutes after Benjamin woke up, meaning that he emerged with perfect timing.

And so, he chose to prepare some breakfast. And there was nothing tasted better and was easier to make for a large number of people, as long as one had the sufficient amount of ingredients than one thing! Pancakes!

With a light, excited smile, Benjamin thoroughly washed his hands and then grabbed a large bowl that he could make the batter in, first he mixed together some flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt inside of the mixing bowl, before making a well in the center, adding milk, lightly cooled melted butter, vanilla extract and eggs.

Carefully, Benjamin first mixed together the wet ingredients placed into the well together with a wire whisk, and then continued by slowly folding them into the dry powder ingredients, doing so until he had a smooth, thick and creamy batter.

However, this was not all of the pancake batters that Benjamin needed to make. After all, he was going to be making pancakes for nine people, all of which were big eaters, himself included. So, the old man placed the pancake batter into the fridge and grabbed himself an empty bowl to repeat the same actions he did before until he thought he had more than enough batter for everyone to eat their fill.

Now, Benjamin just needed to wait for his son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters to arrive. And the moment that he thought of this, he heard the doorbell ring. Tony had been waiting for this as well, as Benjamin heard someone move around in the bedrooms. As such, he probably didn’t need to wake them up himself, and they would join everyone soon enough.

But first, Benjamin quickly opened the door and greeted his son. "Hey there, everyone! How was the trip?" The old man asked with a laugh as he leaned forward to hug his son and daughter-in-law and then kneeled to do the same for the two twin-girls, Lola and Lyla.

"We had a good trip... but I’m tired... I drove non-stop... I’m going to bed now..." Natsuo muttered as he rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses, making his way directly through the living room toward the bedrooms. It seemed like Christie, Lyla and Lola managed to get a good amount of sleep in the car, and as such weren’t as tired as the man who was basically crawling over the floor to get some sleep.

With a smile, knowing exactly what to say in a situation like this, Benjamin moved his fingers through his beard and chuckled softly. "I see, then I’m going to leave the pancakes in the fridge for you to eat when you wake up again, alright?"

Immediately, Natsuo stopped walking as if suddenly frozen, slowly turning around with a dumb grin on his face. "Oh, you’re making pancakes, Dad? Why didn’t you say so earlier?"

After Natsuo said this, everyone could hear someone rip open their door and sprint out toward the group. "Did someone say Dad’s making pancakes? Oh, hey Natsuo." Tony asked immediately, only acknowledging that Natsuo arrived with a side-comment, and instantly when Benjamin nodded, he turned around to go and get his kids.

"Don’t get started before we’re all there!" He yelled, and Benjamin lightly laughed before making his way to the kitchen, smiling at the three ladies standing confused in the livingroom.

As Benjamin got ready to make the pancakes, Christie looked at her husband with a disappointed look in her eyes. "Grown men freaking out over pancakes? Are they that good?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, obviously they’re good. Everything Dad makes is amazing, but it’s not really about the taste with this one. There’s always this big festival thing in town every summer lasting for a week, and Dad would always try and help out wherever he could, especially at the different food stands, and his pancakes that some of the vendors would sell were always a huge attraction, and basically everyone came just to watch him make them." Natsuo explained as he cleared out the kitchen counter for everyone to sit and eat, while Lola and Lyla climbed onto the stools to curiously watch.

"Are you serious? What can be so cool about making pancakes?" Christie asked, doubting Natsuo’s words greatly, while Benjamin began getting out the pans he needed.

His home was equipped with the best of the best stuff that he could get anywhere. Not necessarily the most high-tech things, but the kind of things that Benjamin may need every once in a while. And that included his kitchen, with a 12-burner stove setup, meaning that he could prepare a lot of different things at once.

And the pans that he had were also nothing to laugh at, considering that he could probably open a retail-shop with these. Usually, in this town, when someone moved away and couldn’t bring all their tools or utensils, or even when some stores were closed down, everything that couldn’t be brought anywhere else was happily taken by Benjamin.

That meant he honestly had more than enough to spare of anything you could think of, although he would usually re-use the items he had an actual use for in some sort of projects, especially when they were made of metal.

And so, Benjamin quickly covered twelve pans with a little bit of butter and heated up all of the burners, placing the pans above the flames, before getting the batter from the fridge and placing it down on the workspace next to the stoves.

As soon as Tony, Benji, Sean, and Katy joined everyone in the kitchen and greeted the new arrivals, Benjamin got to work. Swiftly, before anyone noticed, Benjamin filled out all of the pans with a ladle to make some tasty pancakes, all with hardly any little bit of delay in between each set of four so that he would continuously be working on something once the first pancake was finished.

About three minutes later, Benjamin took a quick look underneath the first pancake with a spatula to confirm that everything was cooked properly, and then began the ’show’. With a swift motion, the old man grabbed the handle of the first pan, and while lifting it up and moved it back and forth quickly so that the pancake flew a little bit out of the pan, landing back inside of it perfectly flipped.

While the first pancake was in the air, he then grabbed the handle of the next pan, flipping it in the same manner as before, and then continued doing this with the pancakes in the other pans, one after another in such swift motions that it looked like golden-brown waves flying through the air, accompanied by constant sizzling noises.

And now even Christie, who was doubtful before, needed to acknowledge that this was the type of thing you just needed to see with your own eyes, and before she knew it, there were multiple plates of finished pancakes covered with maple syrup resting in front of Lyla and Lola, who stared at each other in delight before digging in.

"I hope you’re all hungry, I’ve got more than enough!" Benjamin exclaimed with a smile, happy to be able to do this for his family again, forgetting entirely about the pain that usually assaulted him whenever he used his right arm.