After a little while, Benjamin finished talking about all the things that needed to be talked about with the Doctor, like what would happen next, and what would need to be done afterward.
Once that conversation was over, Benji and Tony stepped into the room again and the old man spoke up immediately. "So, bad news, but it seems like I'll have to stay here for about two more days. The doctor told me he would prefer if I stayed for at the very least a week, but that's only for regular checkups. I'm going to call Samuel real quick and let him know about the situation, because I'm pretty sure that the capsule can be used to monitor basic physical functions at all times" Benjamin explained, and both Benji and Tony nodded their heads.
"Melody and Natsuo said they're going to call you in a bit. They can't come over again at the moment, but they at least want to talk to you." Tony explained tiredly, and Benjamin nodded his head before looking at his grandson. "You please explain to everyone that I'm not going to be able to play for a while. I should be back a little while before we get to the islands, though, so I'll catch up on everything I need to do then. And don't worry about what you tell them. They don't know much about what's going on, but I trust them enough to let them know about what's actually happening with me, and what happened with me before."
Slowly, Benji nodded his head as he scratched the back of his neck. "Are you sure you don't need to rest any longer?" He asked, but Benjamin shook his head. "I don't really think so, no. There's just going to be some checkups for a while, and while they're at it, they're going to figure out the situation with my arm. But other than that, I really feel absolutely normal, so you don't need to worry about me." The old man said reassuredly, before continuing.
"Oh, and please don't be too harsh on Jasmin. The situation is far more complicated than it seems to you right now." Benjamin asked of his son and grandson, who both looked at each other a bit confused. "Jasmin? Who are you talking about, Dad?"
"Sorry, Benji called her Xenia before. The young woman in the wheelchair. And don't be surprised when you tell her about this. I told her I'd be joining her in the game later, but I obviously can't do that for now." Benjamin smiled, and Benji once more slowly nodded his head.
"Fine… I'll talk to her, don't worry…" He answered, before the old man chuckled in response. "Thank you. Now, please, get home and properly explain everything to Sophia, Katy and Sean as well. Tony, could you stay here a little longer?"
"Of course, Dad. I'll stay here as long as you want me to." He immediately replied, and Benji also nodded his head and grabbed the keys from his father, before he made his way out the door and to the exit of the hospital.
And when Benjamin was sure that Benji couldn't hear him speak, he told Tony the truth. "Son, please don't let any of the kids come visit me in the hospital over the next few days." The old man asked of him, before Tony looked at him confused. "What do you mean? Why not?"
Slowly, Benjamin ran his fingers ever so slightly over his arm, immediately feeling the pain connected to it, before he turned to his son again. "The situation's a bit harsher than I expected."
---
Tiredly, Benji stepped into the cold car and stared at the steering wheel in front of him. For a few minutes, he just sat there, trying to figure out what was going on, and when he finally managed to calm down, Benji started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, before driving back to his Grandfather's house.
There, he was immediately met with Sophia, Katy and Sean, all trying to figure out what was going on. And so, Benji explained what happened. Katy began crying, and Sean nearly did as well, while Sophia was just looking at Benji scared. "Is Grandpa really alright?" She asked, and Benji soon nodded his head.
"At least he told us he is. But you know Grandpa, he's great at hiding that stuff… But for now, let's all just try to get to sleep, alright? We'll go see Gramps tomorrow morning." Benji said reassuredly, and everyone slowly nodded, although Sophia looked at Benji with a frown.
"I think I'm going to stay with these two tonight, they seem pretty upset so I don't want to leave them alone." She explained, so Benji just smiled at her and then made his way to his room, quietly sitting down in his capsule.
---
Stahl woke up on the top deck, just where he had logged off last time, leaning against the wall. The ship was slightly waving around, and the sun shone into his eyes, while one of the overgrown skeletons that were in charge of the ship looked at him with a frown, despite not having eyebrows, as well as a bucket filled with water and a mop.
"H-Huh? Sorry, am I in your way?" Stahl asked quietly, and the Skeleton immediately nodded its head, before Stahl jumped up and stepped away to let the skeleton do its job. And the first place that Stahl went was the meeting hall, where he immediately saw a few, still sleeping figures. Jyuuk, with his tree-like overgrown form.
Or Evalia, who looked like a colorfully painted marble statue. Then there was brody, whose body seemed to have just turned into a rock for whatever reason, and of course Xenia, whose body became like a crystal-structure completely covered in random runes.
And at last, of course also the Titan-version of his grandfather's metallic body, while two small metallic girls were sleeping on his lap. Quietly, Stahl sat down on one of the empty chairs, and chose to just wait for someone to wake up. In the meantime, he continued doing the magic practice that he'd been doing all the time, which seemed to calm him down a little.
Basically, he created tiny mana figures that roughly seemed like humans without any discernable external features, which he just controlled to do different things. Sometimes, he just copied what another person was doing, so he seemed to have become more proficient at doing just that. He even got a skill just through doing this, and it helped his mana manipulation out immensely as well.
So now, Stahl was just playing around and trying create copies similar to the figures that he was seeing around himself at the moment. And once the people were done, he created a copy of the room he was in. And since nobody woke up at this point either, Stahl continued expanding the small model-like copy of the ship made of pure mana. At some point, it seemed like someone woke up, but Stahl was just far too caught up in the creation of this model to notice it.
Soon enough, Stahl finished the ship made of mana and then looked around the room, noticing that Brody, Jyuuk, and Evalia were standing directly next to him, just quietly watching what he was doing, while Xenia sat on the other side of the table, just staring at the sleeping Eisen the whole time, as if she was waiting for him to come back.
"O-Oh, you're up… Sorry, I was waiting for you, and I just kind of got caught up in this…" Stahl muttered to himself, acknowledging the notification that let him save the Ship in a 'Model Database' or something like that, and then swiftly made the ship disappear with a wave of his hand.
"Everyone, I need to tell you something…" Stahl said quietly, and Brody crossed his arms curiously. "What's up kid? Anything up with your Gramps? He's usually the first one up!" The Demon-Orc halfling laughed, intending for this to be a joke, but Stahl slowly nodded his head. "Yes, actually…" He replied, and now immediately, everyone looked at Stahl with worry, most of all Xenia of course.
"What do you mean? H-He told me he's okay!" The High-Elf exclaimed, which confused Brody, Jyuuk and Evalia even more, but Stahl just nodded his head. "Yes, he's okay, but he won't be able to play for a few IRL days. He said he should be back before we reach the islands, though…" He explained, before he slowly scratched his arm nervously, before slightly looking at Xenia. "He's in the hospital right now. Earlier today, he was stabbed in his messed-up arm, so that really, really must have hurt."
"No, no! He-He said th-that he d-d-doesn't ha-ave any fee-feeling in his arm!" Xenia exclaimed feeling even more guilty than before, but Stahl immediately shook his head with a frown. "No, that's not true at all. At the slightest contact, his arm hurts like hell and his whole body collapses." He said, slowly getting somewhat annoyed to have to explain something like this.
"Wait, what's going on here? Xenia, what do you know about all of this?" Jyuuk asked with worry in his voice, hurriedly stepping over to the young woman as he tried to calm her down, before Xenia slowly stopped shaking. And then, she explained the rough situation of what happened, and while Jyuuk was simply holding her so that she would manage to relax, Brody turned to Stahl.
"You and the geezer live in the same town as her?" He asked surprised, and Stahl just shrugged. "Well, my Grandfather lived there for more than fourty years, I'm just there to visit him… But I guess…" He responded, and Evalia tried laughing a bit to at least somewhat calm the situation down.
"What a coincidence, huh?" She chuckled obviously uncomfortably, before Stahl just smiled at her a little bit. "Just don't worry about it. My Grandfather is the strongest man I know, so he's going to end up fine. He's obviously a bit sick, but that just means that his lifespan of 1000 years was cut down to around 300." He laughed, trying to engage how Evalia attempted to light the situation up. This situation was complicated, and Stahl felt just horrible sitting her laughing while his grandfather was literally in the hospital, but he truly believed in what he said. Benjamin Theodore Joyce would without a doubt live through this, there was no doubt in his mind that that was the truth.
"For now, let's just think about it like he's on vacation. He's coming back in a bit, so let's not act like he's dead." Stahl suggested, before crossing his arms with a broad grin, before the others nodded their heads.
"Geez, you're really that guy's Grandson, huh?" Brody laughed loudly, and Stahl simply followed his example. "Of course I am! You should have noticed from my Devilish Good looks!"
"So I guess for now that means we should do what we would have done normally, right? And we need to figure out what to tell the NPCs." Evalia muttered, before Stahl simply shrugged.
"Let's just go with 'He told us he will sleep for a while this time around last night'." Stahl suggested, and everyone seemed to be at least somewhat okay with this. And after a long sigh, Stahl thought about how to word everything correctly.
"I actually have a request from you guys… I know it might be a bit selfish, especially in this situation, but…" Stahl started saying, trying to ask for something he wanted to ask about for a good while now, and the others looked at him with a bit of surprise.
"Of course, kid. Shoot." Brody said with a smile, before Stahl scratched the back of his head with a wry smile.
"Erm… Could all of you maybe teach me everything you know?"