Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen set Caria down next to the small wooden flower-pot that he made and placed a bowl filled with mana potions next to her so that she could continue practicing with her mana as much as possible. At first, she was quite confused, but then later figured out what her master wanted her to do.

And Eisen wasn't entirely sure if this would work, but mana was such an amazing thing that it couldn't hurt to try, right?

Anyway, Eisen continued his short break and then decided to continue not too long afterward. Now, he would start preparing the carriage's frame. He had some ideas for it already, so he would immediately start with that.

First, Eisen carved a part of a log into a really thick pole, large and sturdy enough to easy carry the roof as one of the six main base pillars. Once he had that base, he grabbed some of the more art-oriented carving tools and started carving different shapes out of the wood, to make it look slightly like tools and materials, such as hammers or things like rolls of string, were simply stacked on top of each other. He didn't want to make it look too overwhelming, so he carved these things in a way that they wouldn't be too deep in, and you would only really notice it if you actually looked at the pillar. It should look like a regular pillar most of the time, but at second glance you should be able to see that it belonged to the Original of Mechanical Arts. Eisen just felt like it should have such a style.

Anyway, Eisen made sure to carve an edge in a 90 degree angle onto the pillar so that it would be easy to attach different planks to it on the inside. He repeated this four more times, not five, since he only needed to split one of them in half vertically to create the two 'pillars' that would be placed in the center parts of the sides.

Once Eisen carved what he wanted into those pillars of wood, he cleaned and sanded everything before applying the same solution as before onto them, setting them aside to let them dry.

For most of the rest of the carriage, he could simply use the planks that were already provided, so he would be able to take a break from preparing the materials for now. It would just be a waste of time if he instisted on making literally every single part of it himself.

But due to the size of the pillars, it already took him until early evening to finish his preparations, which also meant that the wheels could now be assembled! And then tomorrow, he would make whatever he needed to use as connectors between all parts, as well as the outer metal rings for the wheels, at Denmir's smithy and bring it back there, meaning that he would be able to assemble the carriage!

Then all that was left to do was to make some containers to keep things in for the inside, such as different barrels and crates, as well as create a worktable with enough space to do small crafts on like carving small statues, experimenting with enchantments, or simply to come up with different ideas for future items.

But for now, Eisen grabbed all the pieces that he would need for a wheel and began punching the spokes into the holes that Eisen made for them, by placing a small piece of wood at the end and hitting that with a mallet to make sure they would properly move inside as far as possible.

After that was done, Eisen did basically the same when he added the wooden outer ring, hitting it with a mullet to push it onto the spokes and into the other parts of the ring that were added beforehand. This on its own didn't really take that long, and after making sure that each wheel was properly put together, he decided to simply go to the storage and see to grabbing all of the wood that he would need in the form of different planks, and then quickly paid for it. It was somewhat expensive, but Eisen wasn't surprised considering the quality of the wood.

For the next few hours, Eisen didn't do anything but saw all the different planks into the right lengths and placed them down in a way that would make it relatively easy for him to remember what was supposed to go where, before he, Bree, Caria and the Automata prepared to make their way back to the inn. But first, Eisen looked at the Horse Automaton with a slight frown.

"What should I name you?" He muttered to himself, thinking about possible names. He could go with the same kind of theme as with Aulu, so that would be Aueq. "Nope, that does not sound good. Then how about not using 'equus', but rather 'caballus'? Alright, got it! Cabarum!" Eisen said out loud and nodded in satisfaction. That was when he noticed something interesting!

Aulu, now that she was a few days old, started to act different to a regular golem! It seemed like the beast gem and the mana crystal brain finally took effect, and instead of simply standing around like a statue, Aulu was kind of slightly swaying left and right just a tiny bit, and even moved her head toward Eisen when he began talking.

And to Eisen, that simply seemed baffling. This was basically just a machine made out of gears and tubes, but because of those mana crystals, it was actually able to learn and change over time. So, being more than just happy about that, Eisen kneeled down and pet her back with a smile, moving his hands through her brass fur, feeling the soft vibrations caused by the gears moving inside of her.

And while he was doing that and happily talking to her in, well, the way you talk to your pet, something else changed and she suddenly began leaning into Eisen's hand, as if she was enjoying the feeling of being petted.

Obviously, this made Eisen even happier, and he kept playing around with both Aulu and Cabarum for a little while to see if he could increase their intelligence and wisdom even more. And to his surprise, he really did! Cabarum now also started slightly swaying while he was standing like a regular living creature.

After this, Eisen walked back over to the table where he had Caria practice her magic, and saw her napping while laying down against the small wooden flower pot.

It seemed like she wasn't able to really make anything grow at first glance, but once he took a closer look and burrowed a slight bit through the soil he made with his magic element, he saw that one of the seeds actually began sprouting some roots, meaning that Caria really managed to do it!

The old man excitedly opened her status to see what had changed.

[Caria]

[Race- Myconid Child(Amanita Muscaria)][Owner – Eisen]

[Rank – 1][Level – 19]

[HP – 150][MP - 560]

[STR – 6][END – 8][AGI – 8][INT – 34][WIS - 37]

[Skills]

-[Mana Manipulation][Rank – 1][Level – 16]

-[Plant Control][Rank – 0][Level - 3]

"Oh? Good job, lil' girl! You're really growing up to be a real little dryad! But Plant Control, huh? If she got that skill, then it should be easier for her to do all of that stuff from now on!" Eisen said with a smile on his face and placed Caria into one of the pocket on his crafting outfit while gathering up all the stuff that he didn't want to leave somewhere like this overnight, meaning basically everything beside the materials for the carriage.

Once they had everything, Eisen, his creatures, and Bree made their way out of the Woodworker's workshop and back toward the Inn, where they had dinner together and then went to bed.

---

"Dad? Are you okay? Are you still playing that stupid game?" Melody, Benjamin's one and only daughter, practically yelled over the phone the instant that he answered the call.

After letting out a silent sigh paired with him shaking his head, Benjamin finally responded. "Hello, Melody. Good morning to you too, honey. And yes, I'm still playing that game, but please don't call it stupid. It's actually really amazing."

"But it's just some random game, right? You've been doing nothing else but play that for more than a week!" While quite obviously just being concerned for her father, Melody did what she basically always did when it came to other people's decisions. Benjamin knew that she meant well, but if someone did something she didn't agree with, she told them immediately. And she wouldn't back down either. So, in Benjamin's experience, it would be best to just try and change the topic.

"Yes, I have been playing that non-stop. I can show you why I think it's so amazing when everyone comes here, don't worry. I think you'll understand then. Anyway, how is Sophia doing? I haven't talked to her in a while." Benjamin asked while starting to make himself something for breakfast, noticing that he was actually kind of running low on food. He looked at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall, and thought about how long it would take him to go to the store and be back with enough time left to finish the carriage within one in-game day. Luckily, he lived in a small town, and the nearest grocery store was usually quite empty around this time. He could just go to the closest Wawa as well to see if he could pick something small up to eat for lunch.

"Sophia is doing pretty well for herself! And I actually think she secretly has a boyfriend!" Melody exclaimed excitedly, and in response, Benjamin nearly choked on the cup of water he was just drinking.

"W-What? A Boyfriend?" He asked, utterly confused, but trying not to show that in his voice. Although apparently, Melody could see through her father.

"What's that reaction about? Sophia is super cute, right? I'm more surprised she didn't have any boyfriends yet!"

"Y-Yeah, of course she is… We should have her introduce us to him sometime, then…" Benjamin muttered out, trying to play along, but feeling completely unsure what to do. There was something about Sophia that only Benjamin Senior and Benjamin Junior, Benjamin and his grandson Benji, knew about.

And because of that, he knew that Sophia couldn't have a boyfriend.

Sophia had a girlfriend. She was gay, and simply didn't have her coming out yet. The guy that Melody thought she was dating was most likely just a simple boy-friend, not a boyfriend.

"Definitely! Maybe I can ask her to bring him to the family reunion! Yeah, I'll do that!" Melody exclaimed happily, obviously excited at the idea. And before Benjamin could tune in to shut her down in a way that wouldn't expose Sophia's sexuality, Melody already continued talking. "I'll ask her right now! I think you should be excited, you'll probably be a great grandpa soon! Talk to you later, love you dad!"

"Wait, Melo- and she hung up. Great… I should probably call Tony to talk to Benji for a bit then…" Benjamin sighed loudly and started eating his breakfast while dialing Tony's phone number.