Working With Wood

After meeting back up with Bree at the Inn's restaurant, the group ate some breakfast before Eisen, Bree, Caria and the two Automata made their way toward the woodworker of the town after splitting up with Jyuuk to see if Eisen would be able to buy some good wood to use for his carriage, while at the same time maybe borrowing space to actually construct it somewhere.

Once he stepped into the workshop after explaining the situation to the owner, he looked around and saw numerous people working on all kinds of things. Some were making shelves, others tables, and then others were making simple decorative wooden statues.

The owner, who was actually quite happy to host a greatly talented craftsman like Eisen, led him to an unused room in the back with a large door leading directly outside toward the street, making the whole room look kind of like a garage.

"Thanks for letting me use this place." Eisen said to the owner with a smile on his face, and the, apparently, human woodworker laughed lightly.

"No no, it's fine. We haven't been using this place for quite a while anyway. And I'm pretty sure you're welcome at any craftsman's workshop in Melroe by now. Ah, let me show you our wood storage. You can go ahead and just take whatever you like, as long as there's no red R-Marking on it. That just stands for it being reserved for something else. If you're worried about the wood's price, just ask anyone in here about it. They should know." The owner explained and quickly led Eisen to a large room filled with a multitude of different wood. Just ignoring the whole types of wood there were in the first places, some of it was lying there in planks in different thicknesses and lengths, or even in the form of whole logs, some that were stripped of the bark, while others still had it on them.

Eisen thanked the owner, who then made his way back into the actual workshop to continue what he was working on, while Eisen started looking around in the storage.

He took small planks into his hands to see their strength and flexibility in order to choose which to use. In the end, he chose a type of wood that seemed quite similar to a variant of white oak, a type of wood that's quite well suited for use outside and was even used in the construction of boats sometimes, so it would be perfect for a carriage.

First, Eisen brought what he would need for the wheels into the room he would be able to construct his carriage in and grabbed some tools to get to work.

What he would first need to make were the center-parts of the wheels, the hub. These were cylindrical objects that would be used as the base to construct the wheels from the center outward.

So, Eisen placed a thick and relatively short part of a log into the lathe that was standing by the wall, stepping onto the small pedal at the bottom to test out the spinning-speed, before preparing to start carving the soon-to-be hub into the shape he needed.

For that, he used tool connection on the sharp wood chisel and activated his crafting space, laying all the different tools he would need down on the table next to him for easy access.

While the piece of the log started to quickly turn, Eisen set the tip of a large gouge chisel onto the wood to first get it into the right base shape to work with it more easily.

After that was done, he used different chisels to more easily get some definition into the wood and make sure it was nice-looking and pleasing to the eye.

Once the base for the hub was completed, Eisen grabbed it out of the lathe and began to carve out the openings where the spokes would be placed into, making sure these openings were the same distance away from each other all the way around. Then, he also added an opening on the side where the axle would be put into.

Eisen repeated this three more times to create the hubs of the other wheels as well, before starting to finish them all off by first washing the surface with some water and then smoothing it down with different grits of sandpaper, at last adding a finishing solution to the wood to make sure it would be protected from the elements even further.

He wasn't entirely sure what was inside of it, since he didn't recognize any of the material names used in its production when the owner of the workshop showed it to him, but Eisen looked at how it affected the wood treated with it beforehand and was quite impressed with it, so he chose to use it as well, es pecially since it seemed to be especially compatible with wood that would be standing outside in different weathers.

Soon after finishing off the last of the four hubs, Eisen finally got the notification that his Woodworking skill ranked up! The only rank-up effect that he got through this was that it would be easier to work with wood now, so it was a nice little extra that would help Eisen while he was working!

Next, Eisen grabbed some nice square planks and set them into the lathe as well to make the spokes, once more starting out with a gouge chisel to give it the rough shape it needed and then detailing it with other, smaller chisels, making sure to get the right shape for the parts that would be used to connect it with the hub as well as the surface on the outside.

Once Eisen created the bases for all the spokes, he once more finished them in the same way that he finished the hubs, first cleaning, then sanding, and at last treating them with the solution he bought from this workshop.

After laying them to the side to let them dry properly and make sure the solution was properly pulled into the wood, Eisen began working on the outside ring, which he would create by making three different pieces which he could then later push together to complete the circle. But since he couldn't use the lathe for this, Eisen instead simply carved everything by hand without the help of such a tool.

Of course it took longer than making the other parts, but that was to be expected. Eisen finished those parts and then let them dry together with the others, before starting with the rest of the base for the carriage.

First, he would make a simple axle, in this case just a simple wooden rod, and then something like a long box to put around it to ensure nothing could get stuck around the axle while the carriage was moving. The wheels and axle in the back would be stationary, while the front would be attached to something that would let it move.

Eisen carved the two rods first, finished them off, and then created the boxes for them as well. Since the parts needed to dry first, Eisen continued making the parts for the base before assembling it. Usually, it might take a while until the wood fully absorbed the solution, but in this game, processes like that were usually sped up quite a bit, so it wouldn't take too long until he could start putting everything together.

After finishing the boxes, Eisen created a sort of 'spine' that would be used to connect the front and back axles. It really was only a simple plank that Eisen carved in order to make it fit into a slot in the boxes properly. At the front of that connective plank, where the front axle would be added to, Eisen carved the wood so that would let him insert a central piece of the front axle in a way that would let it turn.

The finished carriage would have a wooden rod at the lower front to which the horse automaton would then be connected in order to pull the carriage. That part would be connected to the front axle itself so that it would properly follow the horse's movements. Again, this wasn't really that complicated to make, as Eisen only needed the simple wooden rod as well as three connector pieces for that, which were quite easily carved.

On the other hand, this was all the type of work that took up a lot of time, even if it was quite easy. Eisen already entered early afternoon, despite only having finished the most rudimentary base for the carriage, without even preparing anything to be able to create the actual structure that would be the carriage's body.

And although that was the case, Eisen didn't mind working on one thing for a long time. He actually liked the change of pace that it brought, which is also why he enjoyed making his Automata so much!

The feeling of satisfaction you would experience when finishing something you worked on for days or even weeks was incomparably greater than finishing something within a few hours.

Overall, this game was an incredible treasure to him. With his 70 years of life experience, he never would have thought to be able to learn whole new crafts again that would open up completely different ways to make things. Just thinking about what kind of enchantment you could put on different items to see what would happen made Eisen feel like a child on christmas morning nearly every single time. And he absolutely adored that feeling.

It didn't matter which craft it was, Blacksmithing, Tailoring, or Woodworking, Eisen managed to grow to these heights due to his pursuit of new things he could make in order to feel that special satisfaction. And now, he was making something that would allow him to continue that exact pursuit in a whole new world.

Thinking about everything like that, Eisen only sped up even more compared to before, when he was already working at an incredible speed.

He actually managed to finish this part of his work earlier than he planned in his mind, so he allowed himself to take a quick break. Eisen looked over to the side, where both Bree and Caria were watching quite curiously, although Caria especially seemed to be slowly getting bored of simply watching Eisen do the same thing over and over again, which made sense. After all, Caria was barely a week old, so nobody could expect her not to act like a young child.

But at least Bree was still watching Eisen with awe, in a way that only grew stronger after the whole thing with Denmir talking about Eisen being one of the 'five that peaked'. Since her already seemed to grow a sligth bit weaker, Eisen decided to just wait it out, and talk to her about it only if it didn't stop. It was fine to look up to one of your friends, but this was basically just Bree putting Eisen on a huge pedestal that he didn't want to be on. He wanted them to be friends, not have her be his fan.

Either way, if Caria was feeling bored, he should probably look for something that she could do. Maybe having her practice her magic would be a good idea!

After thinking for a short while, Eisen looked over at the bag containing the different health and mana pills, until he got an idea. He still had a few Amran flowers left over that weren't really suitable to either hand in for the request at the guild, nor for using them to make potions. But maybe the seeds were still fine!

So, Eisen walked over to Bree's backpack and got out a few of the leftover flowers, carefully removing the seeds from the flower head, cleaned them with some water, and then asked Bree to use a spell to dry them quickly. Then, he made a small wooden cup to use as a flower pot and filled it with soil from his 'Flame of the Earth' element completely turned into earth, placing the seeds into that soil.

"Alright Caria, how about you try to let these seeds sprout?" Eisen smiled while looking at the small Myconid on his palm.