Chapter 697 Stronger
Eisen sat there on the ground in the place where he chose to sleep for tonight, but somehow, he felt like something was a bit... off. It wasn"t that he felt like something was about to happen the moment he fell asleep, but it was rather about the fact of what would happen within Eisen during his sleep.
He would remember a new memory, which in this case would actually be the 40th memory. He held himself back from doing this for quite a while now. When he reached 30 memories that he actively remembered, Eisen felt like his body in the other world had gone through an immense s.h.i.+ft. Eisen hadn"t particularly changed all that much, it"s not like he grew horns like Brody did or something.
Rather, his body had recovered from the fatigue that had met his body over the past few months. No, years even. Ever since he became unable to work over there, his body had started slowly declining. As if the harsh physical work that he had done finally caught up to him the moment that he was forced to take a rest.
It was as if Eisen simply shrunk in a bit over time, his muscles losing their ma.s.s and his bones becoming more frail. He even had a quite bit more fat covering him everywhere on his body than he was actually used to.
And then... Once he remembered 30 of his former memories... That changed. The next time he woke up, he was drenched in sweat as if his body was overheating. He had trouble to get a good footing when he stepped out, and not only because the underside of his foot became slippery due to his own sweat..
Eisen had suddenly lost a bit of his weight and his muscles became more p.r.o.nounced again. Usually your body would be used to changes like this, since they would be happening gradually, but in Eisen"s case, it happened within a couple of minutes, probably. He could even see something like steam rise out of the capsule after he opened it up.
The others didn"t really notice it at first, especially after Eisen quickly took a shower, but when he explained what happened, they did seem to realize the slight differences in Eisen"s body. Eisen was rather nervous about what was going to happen this time around.
He slowly closed his eyes and dozed off into sleep, seeing the dozen or so memories that he could still recover and had to do rather soon. Eisen couldn"t push this off forever. And so, the old man grabbed one of the random memories floating in front of him.
They were the memories of Silmos that had been lost to the old man until now. It seemed like at some point in time, they had a relations.h.i.+p that was a bit more than just friends, although he himself had a hard time explaining it. It"s been around sixty thousand years though, and since then, they"ve been nothing but friends, a similar experience as Eisen seemed to have had with the other G.o.ds that he visited in Heaven.
Overall, it was a rather pleasant memory for him, that was undeniable. It was a nice start into this sudden change that was bound to happen. The conversation that he was able to have with his former self wasn"t all too bad either.
Eisen was even given a couple of tips about how he might be able to get through the tasks here in h.e.l.l more easily, although his former self wasn"t able to tell him anything all too specific, probably because he simply didn"t know anything.
And then, after recovering this memory, Eisen chose to take a break. Every fifth memory seemed to be incredibly taxing on Eisen, and it was even worse every tenth memory. It wasn"t that he was in pain or anything, but just that he didn"t have the energy to recover any other memory for now.
Just like that, Eisen logged out.
---
The moment that Benjamin opened his eyes while laying inside of the capsule, his body was in pain. It wasn"t any sort of specific pain, just pain altogether. His body was cramping up, and he could literally hear parts of his body rip apart. As if some worms were crawling through him underneath his skin, between his muscles.
Benjamin stared down at his arm, seeing it nearly "bubble up". It was a rather disgusting sight, truthfully, since this was something you would usually just see in horror movies. This old man"s body was spasming around completely, and he was no longer really in control of his own body.
Soon, this was no longer happening just in his limbs, but even all over his torso. His throat closed up because his muscles forced this to happen. At some point, Benjamin couldn"t see anything anymore either because his eyes were closed shut so tightly.
But that wasn"t all. Even his internal organs started being affected like this. It truly felt as if Benjamin was about to die. He wasn"t in excruciating pain or anything, but it was something that Benjamin had never felt before. It truly was like he had stepped past a point he wasn"t supposed to reach, and the world was punis.h.i.+ng him for it.
For a few moments, Benjamin felt his heart cramp up. He didn"t know how it was possible, but even through that, something that was akin to a heart-attack, Benjamin"s state didn"t change in the slightest.
It took a few minutes, but soon, this process, whatever it was, started to subside in his fingers. Over time, all the pain disappeared and Benjamin sat there, completely numbed. He didn"t know what he was supposed to feel, but this experience was far more aggressive than what happened when Benjamin reached 30 recovered memories.
Benjamin reached for the b.u.t.ton he had to press onto so that he could open up the capsule, and slowly stepped out of it. Just with that, he could feel that something was off, although he couldn"t really put his finger on it. He stepped out of his room and made his way to the livingroom exhaustedly, rubbing his face with his hand as he sat down on the couch.
"...Everything alright?" Andrew asked as he sat down next to the old man with a hood over his head to hide his evergrowing horns, and Benjamin looked at him and let out a deep sigh, "Just got to 40." The old man explained, and Andrew"s expression immediately changed, "What happened to ya this time..?"
"I"m not entirely sure... At 10 memories, our bodies started changing and developing racial traits that we had in the other world. At 20, nothing much actually happened, I just felt a bit more energetic than before. At 30, my body became incredibly healthy... And now at 40, I think... My body started changing from the ground up..."
A bit nervous, since he was most likely the next one right after Benjamin to reach this point if none of the others happened to get lucky and get ahead rather quickly, Andrew looked the old man next to him up and down, "I ain"t really seeing anything different on you, though."
"Mhm, that"s what I meant with "from the ground up". I"m pretty sure my muscles were ripped apart and put together numerous times."
"...You"re saying that you might"ve become as strong as Eisen? The other one, I mean."
"...We can"t really deny the possibility, can we?" Benjamin pointed out as he scratched the back of his head, slowly pus.h.i.+ng himself off the couch, where he had noticed another difference. Either the seat became quickly used up because there were so many people in this house right now, or the old man started suddenly weighing a lot more than he used to. That"s what it felt like when he sank into the cus.h.i.+on, at least.
Andrew stood in front of him, seemingly understanding what Benjamin was trying to do as he stretched his hand out forward. Somewhat nervously, Andrew grabbed onto the old man"s arm as Benjamin raised it up and Andrew pulled in his legs.
Usually, that would mean that Benjamin"s arm would be pulled down immediately, but in this case... The old man was able to lift Andrew up with ease. It wasn"t the same level of strength that he had over there, but that would probably be something that was going to develop over time.
Either way, Benjamin had suddenly become capable of easily lifting the weight of a grown, tall, muscular man with just one arm.
Suddenly as both Benjamin and Andrew were trying to figure out if they were seeing this correctly, before a voice came from the front door, "...Of course you two are never doing anything normal whenever I enter the room. Are you trying out some kind of new trick or something?" Benji pointed out with a wry smile. He took on the task of going grocery shopping, and he just came back from that, having to be faced with this sort of weird sight.
Without hesitation, Benjamin locked eyes with Andrew and then shook his head as he let the other man down gently. Benjamin looked at the couch and walked over toward one end of it, lifting it up with his left arm while Andrew lifted it up with practically his whole body.
The two of them then tried to balance everything properly, until Benjamin was holding the couch on his left shoulder as if he was carrying a bag of cement or something like that. And the old man then proceeded to walk around the room as if there was nothing there to bother him.
"It"s not a trick. At least it"s magic though, right?" The old man figured as Andrew proceeded to help him put the couch down gently again. Benjamin stared at his reflection in the TV and squinted his eyes, "Did I really just do tha-?"
"Why the f.u.c.k are you asking me?! How did you do that? Is it another thing with your abilities? Oh, did you reach 40 memories now?!" Benji asked immediately, completely perplexed at this situation, and reasonably so, really.
Benjamin looked back at his grandson with a smile on his face and nodded his head, "I think so, yes. My body is becoming more like that of the true "Eisen" the longer time goes on." Benjamin explained to Benji, who was still just really d.a.m.n excited about all of this. The old man could understand it, although he himself was still in quite a bit of disbelief over everything. After all, how did he become this much stronger in such an unreasonable amount of time? It felt off to be able to do this here in this world.
As if he was becoming an existence that wasn"t supposed to be here.