Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen looked at the item in front of him, put neatly together. A wooden ring surrounding a barely sprouted seed; also carved freshly from wood. Mana crystals and different gems were set into the surface of both, as the subtle flow of mana from Eisen's enchantment settled into the object.

With a smile on his face, Eisen placed the, actually quite large, object to the side until he was going to leave to meet with Silber, who this special earring was made for.

Now that this item was done, him and Silber would be able to talk whenever they needed to. The idea of already saying goodbye to Silber even though they had only just been reunited wasn't making Eisen feel particularly great, but he did know that there was no real need for concern.

It wasn't as though Silber was going to leave forever; rather, it seemed like he only wanted to move around a little more independently, instead of being stuck to Eisen like glue. Which, obviously, made sense. They were brothers, and nobody wanted to spend every waking moment with their brother. Especially not after effectively being in a coma for 100,000 years.

Rather, if Silber chose to stay with Eisen all the time, that in itself would be the much, much weirder choice.

And obviously, now that Eisen had the means to contact Silber whenever he felt like it, and vice-versa of course, it wasn't really a proper "Goodbye" anymore. At least it didn't have the same weight to it as it would have in the past.

Just as Eisen was done with this item, he heard some footsteps approach from outside. The door opened up, and two young men stepped inside; Parc and Rouge. The two apprentices looked around the room, soon spotting the old man, but also noticing the other guest that was seated in the corner. After quickly greeting Ambriel, trying to be corteous, they walked over toward their teacher.

"Good morning," they said with an excited smile. After the catastrophe at the giants' capital, they had spent two whole months working extremely busily, trying to support the people who had been injured, lost their homes, or were in need of any other assistance they were able to offer.

It was how Eisen had taught them; to use their skills and abilities to help others out as much as possible, instead of keeping it to themselves. And so, they did. In the past two months, their skill levels rose considerably. Their woodworking, tailoring, alchemy and masonry skill-levels skyrocketing in particular, and in one or two instances, even ranking up for each of them.

This being the case, and considering the level of determination they had shown, Eisen only felt that it was right to teach them a few more specific things.

While their actual skills and techniques were already incredibly high-level considering how long they've actually been learning under Eisen, both due to the fact that Eisen gave them tasks and assignments that would help their specific shortcomings as he gave them specific tutelage, and of course, probably much more so, their sheer, innate talent for craftsmanship.

Of course, their willingness to learn and ability to keep working and learning even in the face of little to no progress, these 'walls' that everyone faced no matter what it is they were trying to learn, was more than extraordinary as well.

Eisen looked over toward Ambriel, who was looking Parc and Rouge up and down both nervously and curiously, and lightly smiled, "You come over as well."

Somewhat startled, Ambriel stood up and walked over without saying a word. So, Eisen quickly explained what they were all going to be doing today, "I know it may be a bit boring for now, but today I want you three to do some woodcarving," the old man explained, and both Parc and Rouge seemed a bit taken aback. They had been doing much more complicated things for quite a while now.

Was it because Ambriel was there, that their opportunity to learn something new was disappearing? But of course, that wasn't the case.

"You two will be learning how to properly... well, 'respect' materials that are far above your skill rank from now on," the old man explained, and Eisen's apprentices seemed surprised, extremely so. That, and excited beyond belief.

"Wait, really? But... you said we should stay at our rank or a rank above, right?" Rouge asked, unable to hide the broad smile on his face, and Eisen quickly nodded, "Mhm, that's right," he explained, before glancing over at Ambriel. Clearly, they didn't know what was going on. As if prompting them, he locked eyes with them. Realizing what Eisen wanted, Ambriel slowly asked.

"But... why? Won't it make a better item if the material's rank is higher..?" they asked in a meek voice that Eisen would have never expected from them just two months ago. Slowly, the old man looked over at his apprentices, waiting for them to answer. Though, he barely had the chance to look over for Parc to answer the question.

"Technically yes, but if your skill level isn't high enough, you can't really make use of the materials properly. In part, it gets harder to actually work the material, in case of Woodworking, the wood becomes far too tough to cut into. At the same time, toward the higher ranks, materials have a lot more pecualiarities that might need some tricks to make use of them.

Like not being able to use a knife that's too warm or cold to carve the wood, or damaging the wood if you're uneven with the pressure you use when cutting. They can get very, very particular, and those traits get much more extreme the further your skill rank is from the material's," he explained, seeming just as excited as Rouge about learning how to deal exactly with what he had just described.

"Exactly as you said," Eisen smiled, "And in the meantime, Ambriel, you're going to start working with some low-rank, practice wood."

With a slight frown, Ambriel looked back at Eisen, "But why would I... I mean, these two are using higher-rank materials, so..."

"Right, but they're also very, very skilled at what they do already. And they've spent dozens over dozens of hours doing exactly what you'll be doing," the old man pointed out. Ambriel didn't seem quite happy with that though, so Eisen turned around and walked over to his shelf. From there, he grabbed three blocks of wood, and also grabbed an additional knife for the angel to use.

Eisen gave Parc, Rouge, and Ambriel each one of the blocks, and watched as Parc and Rouge quickly got out their own carving tools, as though by instinct.

"Alright, just as a small warmup, make whatever small thing you want. This is Rank 3 Oak. Parc and Rouge, for you two, that should be nothing at this point. And Ambriel, if you can make something even nearly as good as them, I'll let you join in on what I'm about to teach them," Eisen pointed out, and Ambriel scoffed slightly, as though what Eisen was saying was the easiest thing in the world.

Parc and Rouge just looked at each other and shrugged. A small warm-up like this to get their fingers ready was something they did a lot on days where Eisen was teaching them new things, so it wasn't anything they weren't expecting. But someone that didn't even seem to know how to hold a carving knife properly would struggle a lot more, obviously, especially with a Rank 3 material right off the bat.

That was why, the outcome was obvious, and they didn't even care how unfair it would have been toward them if Ambriel was allowed to be taught these things by Eisen right away without any experience.

Parc and Rouge, without having to even think too much, carved into the small blocks of wood as though they were cutting through butter. They didn't even have to think about what they wanted to make either, and just did whatever first came to mind. This wasn't an exercise in creativity, after all, just something to get them ready for the day's work.

And by the time that the two apprentices already had the basic shape of their individual pieces ready, Ambriel had barely made a couple of cuts into the provided wood. Their face was flushed in a deep pink that seemed to want to spread all over their body, as they glanced over at what these two next to them were holding.

They already wanted to give up, when Eisen grabbed the piece of wood out of their hand. Wanting to protest, Ambriel looked up at Eisen, but before they could, he already gave them a replacement. Without another word being said, Eisen seemed to promp them to try again. And this time around, it was easier. Much, much easier.

Still not as fast or easy as it was for Parc and Rouge, but compared to what they were doing just a minute ago, Ambriel felt like they were actually going to be able to make something of worth.

"I didn't tell you to start slow to embarrass you. Everyone starts this way, going slow and carefully getting better over time. I didn't suddenly wake up knowing how to do this either. I was taught, I learnt, and got better and better. I nearly cut my fingers off on more than just one occasion, mind you," Eisen said with a smile, as Ambriel seemed to be calming down.

Now that things were going a bit better, Eisen was able to see some actual excitement on their face as they continued on with the exercise that the old man had presented to them.