Spending My Retirement In A Game

Slowly, Thul grew in size in Stahl’s hands to about double what it was before, but the most noticable change wasn’t just that, but rather what could now be found on its skin.

It was covered in decorative Black Gold, glittering in the light of the Dungeon. With a deep sigh, Eisen rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at Thul with his mana sight, and to his luck, there wasn’t even the tiniest bit of the Inkheart Mana left inside of the Octopus’ body. The black gold, a material which confusingly wasn’t actually black but still had the regular golden color, didn’t have any of that mana in it either, but it was indisputably black gold.

With a sigh, the old man looked at his Grandson with a frown and a light smile as he shook his head. "In the future when you have kids, better try to teach them not to eat random stuff laying around, yeah?" He suggested, and Stahl nodded his head with an embarrassed smile.

"S-Sure... Sorry... But don’t talk about me having kids yet, I’m only 18... And I doubt I’d be a good dad." Stahl protested slightly, but Eisen just shrugged, preparing to turn back around. "Well, you’re saying that now, but once you become a father, that’s going to be different. And on top of that, even if you’re a bad father, Evalia will surely be a good enough mother to take care of your children anyway." Eisen chuckled, before Stahl sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"Obviously she would be, but- W-Wait, Grampa, how...." The young man replied, just now finally realizing what his grandfather actually just said, "H-How’d you know that we’re..." Stahl asked, and Eisen looked back at him with a smile before winking at him.

"It’s a bit obvious, isn’t it?" He smirked and then made his way back to his own Workstation, while Stahl was trying to hide how weirdly embarrassed he was at being seen-through that easily.

"Alright, now... Let’s do this again, shall we?" Eisen said with a light smile and then looked at the mold in front of him. Now that Eisen had the Iridium, he figured he could change a little bit about the process of making the Nib anyway, and quickly heated it up and formed it into a thin, flat, edge for the tip of the nib and then placed it into the mold before pouring some new molten Inkheart-Black-Gold into it as well, once more waiting for it to cool down now.

"I guess I should make the stuff for the Ink now, huh?" Eisen muttered to himself, before once more turning around toward Stahl, "So, can Thul make Ink?" He asked, and Stahl scratched the back of his neck, still a little embarrassed, before nodding his head.

"He has an ’Ink Production’ skill, so I guess... It’s at Rank 1 now as well, actually..." Stahl replied, so Eisen came a bit closer and squatted down toward the creature, turning to Stahl again. "Is it only regular Octopus Ink, or can he make other types as well? More specifically, can he make pure-black Ink?" Eisen inquired, so Stahl slightly shrugged and seemed to open Thul’s status window, slowly reading through some different things.

"Erm... I guess? He probably should be able to. And he has another skill now, ’Omnivorism’... I guess that’s from eating the Gold? But I’m pretty sure that they can interact pretty well with each other." Stahl pointed out, and then began to scratch his chin in thought as he began to mutter to himself, "Cephalopods create Ink through their Ink Gland, and then it’s stored in the Ink Sack... Usually those glands work by taking different nutrients from food and turning it into something else, so if Thul can gain nutrients through things like even metal, then maybe it’s possible to carry those different things through the Ink Gland to create special types of Ink through the ’Ink Production’ skill..." Stahl muttered to himself, and Eisen raised his eyebrows rather surprised at the way that Stahl was speaking about Skill interaction, although he was also pretty interested in whether or not that would be possible.

That would mean that Eisen would just need a few bottles to keep a lot of Ink in, as well as the different small capsules to put the Ink into the pen.

"Hmm... Stahl, are you finished with your items?" Eisen asked him, and Stahl nodded his head with a shrug. "I guess? I have a few smaller bubbles to make, but those are finished relatively quickly... Why are you asking?" He inquired, and Eisen began to smirk. "Well, what would you think about getting a little Quest to work toward instead of the rest of the Glassblowing lesson? You’ll still need to Blow Glass, but different things to Parc and Rouge." The old man suggested, and that seemed to pique his interest a fair bit.

"Hmm, I wouldn’t mind that... What’s it about?" He asked, and Eisen crossed his arms with a smirk.

"I want you to make ten one liter glass bottles, and fill them each with a different type of Ink." Eisen said with a smirk, but Stahl just scratched his cheek. "Ten liters of Ink? Isn’t that a bit much?"

"Of course, that quest won’t need to be finished by today, but I think it’s a good enough punishment for Thul for eating my Gold. It makes him work a little bit instead of just sitting around lazily, and it’s a good way to increase his skill and overall levels. Just work on the glass bottles until the end of the Glassblowing lesson, and then you can also take a break and then continue the cooking lesson as normal." Eisen suggested, and Stahl slowly nodded his head, accepting those ’conditions’, before Eisen officially turned it into a quest for his Grandson.

For now, they had enough Ink to last them all a little while longer after all, so it wasn’t a big issue in the first place. And on top of that, Eisen was pretty sure that Stahl didn’t think about the fact that he had to figure out a way how to split the Ink off of the mucus that would be secreted togehter with it, and Eisen felt like teasing him a little bit.

Either way, now that this issue was being taken care of, Eisen was going to fill up one of the small ink capsules that he made up with some regular black ink and then placed it to the side while he waited for the body and cap to be finished by Evalia.

And a little while later, the elementally-infused black gold tipped with Iridium cooled down properly, and all that Eisen then needed to do was create the small hole in the middle of the nib as well as the small slit leading to the tip, before placing it onto the feed, which Eisen quickly connected to the handle, before placing everything to the side, because a certain young Fey-Kin just entered the Dungeon again.

"Ah, there it is!" Eisen exclaimed with a smile, before happily receiving the small piece of cloth from Sky, immediately getting to work on finishing the Book, before Sky tilted his head to the side.

"Wait, that cloth was supposed to be for a book?" Sky asked with a wry smile, and Eisen nodded his head. "Mhm, but not just any book. It’s nearly finished, so you won’t need to wait long to see." The old man chuckled as he finished everything up, and while the glue was drying, he noticed that Evalia arrived with the cap and the body, or barrel, of the pen, having decorated it pretty nicely with the black gold.

"Thank you." Eisen told her with a smile, and Evalia crossed her arms happily, "Don’t worry, I love workin’ decoratively with Gold!" She exclaimed, and Eisen nodded his head with a chuckle before screwing that handle into the body.

Next, Eisen grabbed one of the small gems that he had also infused with Sky’s element before placing an enchanting-marble into the young Fey-Kin’s hand, preparing to enchant the gem with the Inkheart-Magic Skill. Once that was done, Eisen placed the small gem into a small spot in the Nib as a centerpiece, basically directly behind the breathing-hole.

Then, Eisen began to enchant the small Black-Gold nib with something that would allow for better flow of mana through it, before screwing the handle off of the body and placing the ink-capsule into it, setting everything back together, before testing the pen-function out a little bit by writing something onto some paper he had next to him.

A few minutes later, it seemed like the Glue of the Book had dried properly, and Eisen grabbed it with a smile on his face before starting to carve into the leather with a bit of Evalia’s help to decorate it properly, and before he knew it, everything was finished.

After placing the Pen onto the Cover of the Book, Eisen smiled as he acknowledged them as finished and handed both to Sky.

[Inkheart Grimoire]

[Quality - Perfect][Rank - 3]

[Description] A Grimoire created by the Omni-Craftsmaster Eisen, with artistic assistance from the Heavenly Artist Evalia. All the materials used to create this Book have been infused with the Inkheart Element, making it possible for whatever is written into this book to truly come to live.

[Artistic Value] 331

[Effect] +20% Benefit to Inkheart Magic; +5% Benefit to Scribing; +20 INT, +20 WIS

[Requirements] Inkheart Magic Rank 3; Scribing Rank 2; 70 INT, 70 WIS

[Inkheart Wand-Pen]

[Quality - Perfect][Rank - 3]

[Description] A Wand created by the Omni-Craftsmaster Eisen, with artistic assistance from the Heavenly Artist EValia. All the materials used to created this wand have been insfused with the Inkheart Element. While Being a Wand, due to the way it was constructed, it at the same time can function as a Fountain Pen.

[Artistic Value] 329

[Effect] +15% Benefit to Inkheart Magic; +15% Benefit to Scribing; +20 INT, +20 WIS

[Requirements] Inkheart Magic Rank 3; Scribing Rank 2; 70 INT, 70 WIS

With a smile on his face, Eisen looked at Sky’s face as he began to stare at the two items as well as their descriptions, before he stared back at the old man confused. "Wait, what? A Grimoire and a Wand?" Sky asked, and Eisen nodded his head with a chuckle, "Come on, try them out a little. The Ink is the same type of Magic-Ink made by Evalia that we usually use, but I’m on it to create a few different types so that we can use a type attuned toward your element as well. Or rather, Stahl and Thul are." The old man said with a wink, before Sky slowly nodded and opened the book to the first page, slowly starting to write something into it, although Eisen didn’t really know what it was exactly.

And a little while later, it seemed like Sky finished what he wrote onto the Page, before starting to smile brightly as the letters of the page seemed to shift around on their own, and now Eisen finally understood the true reason of why the paper was that way.

Slowly, the letters began to form a shape that Eisen didn’t recognize right away, but once the letters stopped moving so wildly, he could see what it was, and Sky just couldn’t help but smile.

"I figured that at some point it would be possible to create sceneries using my element instead of just characters... All because I wanted to see this place again... I can’t go back, there exist no drawings about it, nothing that might be a good enough replacement. And I’m not good enough at Drawing to create it myself... But I do remember a story about it... So here it is..." Sky explained with a smile that turned more bitter by the second, although in the end, it was simply quite nostalgic in nature.

And while Eisen placed his hand on Sky’s shoulder to comfort him, he looked at the two pages which had turned into a black-and-white, seemingly animated, drawing of a forest, with the leaves of the trees quite literally swaying in the wind, while in the center of the drawing stood a slim, short woman, with two pixie-wings on her back.