Spending My Retirement In A Game

"Do you think he'll be fine?" Bree asked, sitting on top of the carriage. Sky looked up from his book and scoffed at his sister.

"What, you think that Eisen would fail a challenge like this? Didn't you see how well he did against all those artificials? Cursed energy clearly doesn't work well against him," he pointed out, yawning slightly, "Rather, I hope he hurries it up, I'm getting tired."

Looking over toward the kids, Sky jealously stared at the spiderweb hammock that Sal was laying in, "Do you think you can make one for me too?"

Sal responded quickly, though his voice was almost completely muffled by the hat on his face that he was using to block out the glaring evening sun.

"What are you saying?"

With a slight groan, Sal pulled the hat off his face, "Just go in the dungeon and lay down on a proper bed if you're so tired."

"Stop being such a brat. If I go into the dungeon, I'll have to wake up when Eisen is done, because he definitely won't take that long, and I don't like that feeling when you've already gone to bed and you're abruptly woken up and have to immediately go and do stuff, you know?" Sky tried to explain, and Sal rolled his eyes.

"You know you have to wake up even if I make you a hammock, right?"

"Not if you put it inside the carriage. Just like, at the top there, close to the ceiling."

Sal waved his hand and created a wave of spider threads that practically slithered their way into the carriage, creating a hammock at the top that Sky quickly climbed into.

As all that happened, Bree kept staring toward the cave, "Okay, but, are you guys really sure that he's going to be okay? I mean, what happens if the dragon's cursed energy is way, way worse than we could even imagine? I've never seen cursed energy before today, have you guys?"

Caria shook her head as well, "Of course not. But what else are we going to do but wait? Plus, he's not going to die anyway, right? Those weaklings from before all passed the dragon's trial somehow."

Bree slowly nodded, seemingly a bit relieved to hear that perspective, "You're probably right... I shouldn't worry so much. Eisen will be-"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Before she was even able to finish, though, the group was interrupted by something. A massive tidal wave of cursed energy that flowed out from the cave. They were a good distance away, but it was still oppressively dense. While everyone jumped up outside and tried to prepare themselves against this, Eisen was standing inside the cave, staring the black dragon in the face.

The cursed energy was clinging onto his body, practically trying to pull him apart bit by bit. But compared to what Eisen dealt with when he overdosed on the mana potions, this was nothing. Sure, it was a bit uncomfortable, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with.

"Oh? As I thought, you were a bit better than those insects. But what about this?" the black dragon's rotten grin grew wider and more distorted, like that of a cartoonish villain. As he did, more and more cursed energy flowed out of his nostrils and maw. It was a thick, visible black fog. It felt almost sticky, clinging to him like that. Though the God of Comfort made it so that it was easy to clean yourself, Eisen still felt like he had to scrub himself down for a few hours later. That being the case, the actual curse was still something Eisen could deal with. Of course, it was a lot more painful and uncomfortable, like getting stabbed by needles again and again all over his body, drawing blood from everywhere on his body.

He could feel his body growing weaker, and his senses becoming dulled. It was like he was under the influence of some kind of anesthetic. Hallucinations appeared around him; random shapes and auditory phenomena, and some that even appeared to be people. As the weight of the cursed energy only grew stronger and stronger the longer the black dragon breathed out, Eisen was wondering how long it would take until this was going to really start breaking him down.

And then, it just stopped. The black dragon closed its mouth, slightly huffing, "Hm... Well, I guess you really did manage to hold out surprisingly well."

It almost sounded like he was upset that Eisen didn't break down and become a blubbering mess. That was probably what happened with a lot of other players that had to deal with this. But Eisen was, of course, different.

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"That was all? Really?" he sighed slightly, looking down at his body for a moment. He noticed the cursed energy still clinging to him, almost like some kind of mold trying to bury its roots inside of him. That was probably the way that the players were able to make use of it. They were practically infested with the black dragon's curse. But Eisen wasn't going to just let that be.

In the end, since he didn't get an actual 'ability', this wasn't quite what he was hoping for just yet. He would have to fight against the black dragon and become a proper champion to get the corresponding ability. So, until then, Eisen purged the cursed energy from his body, simply rejecting it. The black dragon seemed a bit surprised. Or rather, the dragon seemed quite pissed off that Eisen was just able to do that.

It pushed itself off the ground, staring deeply at Eisen with its half-dead eyes, "So you think you're better than my blessing, huh?"

"Blessing? Hah, no, sorry, I just know that I'm going to get something way better in a bit," the old man scoffed, swinging his sword upward and letting it rest on his shoulder, "You said the next thing was a fight against you, right? Want to get to it?"

"Gladly. You pass if you manage to hit me three times," the black dragon raised its head, taking a deep breath. Its chest inflated slightly, as Eisen could see a concentrated mass of cursed energy gather in its lungs. It was starting with its dragon breath? Seriously?

Eisen pushed his sword into the ground and hid behind its flat side, increasing its size so that he was properly covered. As the black dragon's breath spewed out of its maw, the old man was surrounded by something completely new to before. This wasn't just cursed energy, it was an actually applied curse, taking the form of pitch black flames that seemed to stick to anything they touched.

The fire wasn't actually giving off any heat, though. Instead, it was just breaking apart anything that it touched, crumbling it into dust that it spewed into the wind. This was a curse of disintegration. Realizing that it wouldn't be good to touch this, Eisen pulled back his sword. It was also covered in those flames, but Eisen managed to purge the black flames using his own mana. He kind of got the hang of what he needed to do for that during the first part of the test earlier. This would be a lot easier to do if Eisen could just use the holy magic that he prepared earlier, but he didn't want the black dragon to disqualify him somehow.

The black dragon pulled its head back, trying to see all that was hidden behind its black flames, though it certainly didn't seem to expect Eisen jumping out at him, swinging his sword at its muzzle. And to even Eisen's surprise, he was able to hit it. It was a shallow cut, but he managed to graze its skin just under its mouth. Black, inky blood dripped out from the wound. There was something wriggling inside of it.

What was going on? Why was Eisen able to hit it so easily? And then, he realized, letting out a loud laugh, "You are the one that was cursed?! I thought you managed to rule curses, but you simply hijacked what was shoved onto you," the old man grinned broadly, though that seemed to only piss the dragon off even more.

"What did you say?" its voice reverberated through the caves, and Eisen sighed loudly. He held forward his sword, aiming it right at the dragon.

"Just shut up and make me your champion already, child."