Spending my retirement in a game

chapter 58

"Bree, there's two beds, do you want to stay in here as well? We'll just leave Jyuuk to sleep with the beasts. Yamikuma's fur seems quite comfy anyway. But this way might be good, since I will be getting on my way to finish my quest, and I don't know when I'll be back. So until Jyuuk wakes up, just check up on the beasts every once in a while, alright?" Eisen suggested and sat down on the bed after Yamikuma shook Jyuuk off of his body onto the center of the carpet.

That alone looked quite weird. Jyuuk's body moved still like he just had a normal body, just a lot... weirder and slower, but he still fell onto the ground and ended up laying there like he was sleeping.

Immediately following this, Yamikuma and Tsurishika laid down around him and basically instantly fell asleep, while the Eagles laid down in the empty spaces between Jyuuk and the other beasts.

Bree smiled brightly when she saw this scene and nodded. "Okay~! But be careful tomorrow, alright?!" She exclaimed and sat down on her bed, while Eisen chuckled and laid down on his.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful. Goodnight, Bree!" He said with a smile and quickly changed out of his leather armor under the sheets, and then watched Caria as she laid down on Eisen's chest, using his beard as a pillow.

"Goodnight, Eisen~!" Bree responded and laid down as well.

And just like that, the group spent the first night in a while sleeping without needing to worry about being attacked by a horde of Goblins.

---

"Alright, I'm off! See you later, Bree!" Eisen said with a smile and waved at Bree while walking toward the western gate with Caria on his shoulder and a small backpack on his back, filled with a few provisions and different pills, as well as his Zweihänder over his other shoudler in case he met some monsters on the way to the Cat's lair.

"Be careful, Eisen! See you soon~!" Bree yelled out and waved at Eisen as well as he was taking his leave. The old man took his time walking through the town and then walked through the western tunnel together with the large amount of physical laborers, although Eisen wasn't sure where they would be going.

In the direction of the forest it was obvious, as it was simply to gather lumber, but out in the direction where there were basically just rocks everywhere that was a bit more complicated.

Maybe there were mines, other than the two main ones in town, somewhere around? Since most of the laborers were carrying pickaxes with them, Eisen figured that something along these lines was the case.

This reminded Eisen to maybe buy a pickaxe, or better even make on himself, and try out what mining was like in this game. He did earn a little bit of money a few times through something like that while traviling in the past, so he was somewhat familiar with it. It definitely couldn't hurt to get to know the different materials of this world more intimately in such a way.

Back in the day, the ways that Eisen's father made him train to get intimate with metals were... well... really intimate.

Eisen shook those thoughts away again and simply followed the path in front of him. This morning, he talked to Bree, the Innkeeper and a few other random people to ask them about some local legends or rumors that had to do with a mysterious being hiding high in the mountains somewhere near town, and apparently there was really a case of there being something like that, and all these rumors and legends pointed toward one place. The peak of the highest of the mountains immediately surrounding Melroe.

That was actually the place where Bree was formerly abandoned by her comrades, which, in Eisen's eyes, was only more reason for her not to come along, as it seemed to be some kind of trauma for her.

So, Eisen chose to go there just with Caria by his side. After all, he didn't think that it was really possible for her to be too far away from him, as his tamed monster.

And he also hoped that whatever he was going to meet soon wouldn't mind, especially since this little bean of a Myconid couldn't be a threat to anyone! Eisen obviously hoped to keep it that way! Since there seemed to be different paths for monsters to evolve, Eisen resolved himself to make sure that Caria would take the best path to stay as adorable as possible!

Eisen followed the description he was given as closely as possible and walked up the narrow paths that would bring him up the mountain. At the beginning, they weren't really that steep, so it was just like a nice, relaxing walk. But soon enough, the paths became so steep that parts of it were already carved into steps to make climbing them easier.

After about two hours of climbing these paths non-stop, Eisen stopped for a bit and looked around to take in the scene in front of himself. From this spot, he could oversee all of Melroe! This high up, it somehow looked like just a hole in the ground, maybe something that was literally drilled into a rock.

He could see the Inn, all the places he worked at until now, and even the bottom of the whole town where his 'duel' against Hendrick took place.

With a somewhat sentimental smile, Eisen sat down on a nearby rock and simply took in the sight with his elbow rested on his knee and supporting his head with his hand. Seeing this, Caria tried to mimick him, but instead simply ended dropping forward when she tried to rest her cap on a nonexistent hand.

Chuckling softly, Eisen caught her and placed her back on his shoulder. "Be careful! Don't want you to hurt yourself, Caria." He said and continued looking forward for a while.

Not long after this, Eisen stood back up and slightly stretched before continuing to ascend this mountain.

It also didn't take much longer that Eisen was met with rather serious hurdles, ones that he wouldn't have been able to overcome in his real body, as they required him to actually climb up certain areas that consisted of completely vertical walls. It usually wasn't much, only two or three meters at most, and due to his new strength and agility, it wasn't a problem either, but it was somewhat annoying to Eisen to only be able to walk a few meters and then have to hoist himself up a wall.

But at least this made the climb somewhat faster than Eisen had expected, and it didn't take long until Eisen was met with another simple path.

With slight sighs, Eisen followed that path for a few hundred meters until he was standing on a large platform so high up he could see basically everything that surrounded this mountain for miles and miles on end.

It was truly a beautiful sight! And then, Eisen turned around and looked at the giant cave entrance with a looming darkness at its core.

"I guess this is it, huh?" Eisen said with his face turned to his tiny companion, who seemed to be shaking in her boots! Well, if she was wearing any.

And that was when Eisen was hit with shudders all over his body, and only a single thought took up his mind. A thought that appeared so suddenly, and unexpected, but at the same time was strong enough to hit him like a train! A thought that he simply couldn't help but voice!

"Ah... Caria in tiny boots would be super cute..."