Spending My Retirement In A Game

With a heavy step, Eisen climbed up the stairs of the next workshop that he would end up working at for today to distract himelf from the memory that he had recovered after resting just a while ago. It wasn't something he truly wanted to remember, but he still had to in the end. It was part of him, and even though it was painful, it was important to him that he knew the way that his lovers in this world died.

And so, after he woke up from such a horrid memory, Eisen chose to just get to work instead of dwelling on it. He would have plenty of time to deal with something like this in the future.

This time around, Eisen made his way to the workshop of the lesser God of Woodworking, Dirmon. Luckily, Jephas quickly gave the old man all the locations of the other lesser gods' and goddesses' Workshops, and he could quickly choose which ones he should head to first and foremost. And for now, he chose to go for a Woodworking workshop, so that he could create the handles for all of the different tools and weapons that he started creating at Jephas' smithy.

He made a few items that were completely made of metal as well, even making some that had metallic handles just to test out the comfort of them for a little while. But for the most part, Eisen still preferred wooden handles, if not for the comfort, then for the aesthetic.

And the moment that Eisen stepped inside, he was overwhelmed by the atmosphere that he found in here. In some parts, it was the same as Jephas' smithy, but in other parts, it was utterly different. The greatest thing that they had in common was that there were numerous people working, trying their best to make sure they could create the best items that they could now that they no longer had any restraints on how much they could work and what materials they could work with to fulfill their passions. Eisen expected all of the different workshops to have this sort of atmosphere in common. Those that were at the head of their craft, simply doing what they loved to do.

And then, the greatest difference of course were things like the actual air. In a smithy, some could say that the air was rather stuffy, and that you often couldn't breath properly due to the smoke and the blasting heat that you often experienced there. But this woodworking workshop had a cool, fresh air to it. It was a rather dry air, since humid air might mess with the wood a bit here and there, but it was refreshing nonetheless. It was a pleasant place to work in, and the air was filled with the scent of freshly cut wood.

It was the same kind of place, but the vibe was different. Eisen thought it was great here, just as great as in the smithy he was just in. However, there was someone with Eisen that seemed more pre-occupied with something else.

"Just to make it clear, just because Jephas enjoyed your company does not mean that the other deities will as well. Be respectful this time, do you hear me?" Ambriel said to Eisen in a threatening tone, and the old man turned his head toward the Angel with a light glare in his eyes, "Mhm."

And to immediately follow up on this half-assed 'promise', Eisen walked through the workshop toward the place on the other side of the room, that was once more eerily similar to some sort of church, with that one workstation being something like an altar or shrine. Eisen raised his hand and waved at the man that was standing there, seemingly just having finished an item. Otherwise Eisen obviously wouldn't have done this and let him do his work, but since he didn't seem busy, the old man thought he'd shove it in Ambriel's face a bit more like this. 

"Hey there, Dirmon!" Eisen exclaimed, and the God with a dwarven figure turned his head over toward Eisen. Well, Eisen thought 'Dwarven Figure', but it wasn't really like that. It was more like he was a half-dwarf, maybe. It was hard to tell with Gods sometimes. They could come in all shapes and sizes, after all.

There were the few gods that came into being because they ascended from being regular mortal creatures, like Trygan for example, but there were also the sort of gods that simply came into being because of the forces of the world or because they were created by another god. Sometimes they took on the form of regular races that existed, sometimes they would take on the form of halfling races, and sometimes they seemed as if they hand-picked certain aspects from different races as if they were assembling their own body like at a build-a-bear. And of course, sometimes they didn't look like any actual race that truly existed in the world, or mixed aspects of their own holy domain into their form.

In the case of the lesser gods, it was usually the case that they were either directly created by the god that they served, or they were half-gods that ascended to full godhood at some point or another. Those were the only 'people' that were allowed to ascend to godhood somehow, and they didn't even need to reach the peak. They just had to prove their worth to the other gods, probably in a similar fashion as Eisen was just now. By being acknowledged by them.

More often than not, these ascended half-gods would end up serving their parent in some way or another, but there were rare cases in which that ascended half-god was more fit to be the part of the domain of another deity. In the case of Dirmon, this was the case.

Eisen actually only found this out when he was in the realm of the God of Nature, Ohm. Dirmon was the child of Ohm, a god that took the shape of a Dryad-like man whose body could be compared to a hollowed-out tree that different animals lived in, as well as a Dwaven Craftswoman.

And now, Dirmon looked mostly like a Dwarf-Human Halfling, just that he had more Dryad-Like aspects to him as well. His skin looked like a somewhat sickly dark gray with a brown-green tinge to it, and his thick beard and hair was slightly overgrowing with moss and branches. But somehow, this didn't seem unhygienic at all, to Eisen it just seemed natural when he looked at this man on the other side of the room.

Eisen would nearly say that he looked more god-like than some of the other gods that Eisen had seen before... Especially Jephas just looked like a normal human woman. There was nothing wrong with that, she simply didn't seem all to divine to Eisen.

When Dirmon spotted Eisen approach, he looked around in confusion, "Wait, but- Ye're Eisen, right?"

"The one and only." The old man replied as he could practically feel Ambriel staring daggers into the back of his head, and Dirmon stepped down the stairs in front of his workstation with a hearty laugh as he opened his arms wide.

"Aye, great to see ya again!" He exclaimed. Eisen actually specifically remembered Dirmon, because he was one of the three lesser deities of craftsmanship that didn't approach him back when Eisen and the others met all of the gods. And there was a reason for that, a reason that Eisen had remembered together with the vague knowledge that he had about his own apprentices, as well as the students of the others.

That's right, Dirmon was one of Eisen's former apprentices. Eisen could feel a slight tingling in the back of his mind, meaning that he would most likely end up remembering a few more things about Dirmon when he went to sleep tonight, "What brings ya 'ere, ya geezer? Wait, ye ain't dead, are ya?" The lesser god asked, his expression suddenly turning into a worried one, but Eisen shook his head immediately.

"You know as well as I do that that's literally impossible. I would like to speak about old times, but I'm afraid that I really can't right now. After all, I-"

"Lost yer memories, aye. No way I wouldn't remember. 'Tis all the others ever speak about, those old farts." Dirmon pointed out, and Eisen laughed slightly, "You're not exactly the youngest yourself, you know?" 

"Aye, but compared to them, I am. I'm barely 90 thousand years old. I'm a youngster 'ere!" The lesser god said with a smug expression, and Eisen just looked at the man with a light smile on his face, "I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself."

"How couldn't I? I became the god of the thing I love most. Nothin' better than that." Dirmon pointed out smugly. Eisen looked at him with a smirk, "And that's all 'cause of yer guidance. Figured I'd say it again since we haven't spoken in this 'life' of yours."

But before Eisen could respond this time, he could hear a scoff from behind him, quite obviously coming out of a certain cocky's angel's mouth. The old man tried not to pay them and heed, and instead just focused back on Dirmon, "If you want to really show me your gratitude for my guidance, how about you let me work at your station for a while?" 

After the old man's question, Dirmon raised his brows for a few moments, looked at his workstation behind him, and then started to laugh, "Aye, should've expected that yer 'ere for that! C'mon over, ya can get right started. Use any tools ya want, I've got plenty. And if ya want materials, then there's some I could give ya too. Some that I'm sure ya would die for." 

Eisen immediately raised his brows out of curiosity, "I'm good on tools for now, but those materials are another story... Anything interesting?"

"Of course, of course. Well, it's actually a sorta tree that ye'n that monkey boy introduced to use at some point. It's what we make most of our tools out of these days, cause it's just perfect for 'em. Even Silmos' tools have this wood used for 'em." 

"Oh?" The old man replied with clear interest in his voice, "True, I didn't really recognize that wood from that handle..." Eisen muttered quietly to himself, thinking back on the handle that Jephas had attached to the hammer-head she made when the old man arrived to her smithy. Since Eisen obviously was unable to resist such an offer, he looked straight at the lesser god in front of him and nodded his head, before being led to the infinitely large material-storage.