Chapter 671 - Everwood

Eisen ran Bai over the wood in his hand and shaped it into a handle for some different items and tools that the old man made.

It seemed like Bai was getting a little bit hungry again, so Eisen first finished a couple of tools that he could feed to it instead. Because most of these tools were supposed to be neither for Eisen, nor for Bai to eat. But instead, they were supposed to be gifts for his friends and apprentices.

Tools that he could give them to show them how much he appreciated them. Having tools that were made with materials that could only be found in divine realms that he had gathered over the past few Divine Realms that he's been in, integrating them into the tools and weapons to make them more powerful and generally more potent.

And of course, the fact that these tools were infused with the Divine Energy of Silmos' realm, practically the raw essence of craftsmanship itself, would most likely make the others quite happy as well. The old man held the finished handle in his hand and rubbed his fingers over it as he pushed it onto the metal parts that he had prepared beforehand in Jephas' workshop.

He didn't acknowledge it as finished yet despite how bad he wanted, simply because he still needed to add some leather to all of these handles to properly finish them up. But even then, he was itching to see what this wood was actually like once Eisen acknowledged it as finished. With the bat, he was only able to see a few small parts because most of it was covered in the metallic paint, as such he wasn't able to truly figure out what he could do with this wood and what the extent of this material was.

And so, to just test this out a little bit, Eisen created a number of small wooden knives instead. Training knives, basically, just to test this out as a material. And he didn't even try to make them all that complicated, but they were rather just extremely straightforward, without any Guard or such. He laid the pale wooden knives down in front of him. The old man carved sharp edges into them and even ground them down properly so that they could cut well.

In the end, the only thing that stopped a wooden blade from being at the same level as one made of high quality steel was the fact that wood was softer, and hence dulled or broke incredibly easily. The sharpness of the edge didn't depend on the material, really. And if Eisen managed to create a completely wooden weapon that was on par with metal weapons, then it might be something worth exploring. Although, so far, Eisen didn't find any wood that was better than the metals Eisen could make use of, hence why he was so curious about this.

If it was really as great a material as Dirmon claimed it was, then maybe it was enough so that Eisen would be able to create some new sorts of weapons. After all, while a blade like that would certainly not be incredibly superior to a metal blade, it did have some benefits. For one, a wooden blade was obviously going to be much, much lighter than any metal blade. Except if one enchanted a metal blade with anti-gravity enchantments, of course.

And on top of that, Eisen was pretty sure that a wooden blade would be able to interact with certain abilities in a different way. Nature-based abilities would indubitably receive a bit of a benefit from a completely wooden weapon. If Eisen was able to spread those sorts of weapons, then it might create new Occupations or maybe even special skills and abilities.

But then again... The old man would not be able to take a wood like this with him to the point where he would be able to mass-produce weapons.

Eisen thought about it for a little while and then figured he should test out whether or not this worked in the first place. Otherwise, such thoughts were completely useless. He stretched his hand out to the first of the blades and quickly acknowledged it as finished.

Ignoring the notifications that appeared immediately after, Eisen rather looked at the finished item itself. First, Eisen wanted to test out the actual possible strength of the wood without changing anything else. And so, after the wood became a proper item, the old man picked it up.

To his surprise, the wood really did become incredibly strong. And if he said 'incredibly strong', then that's what it meant. It was definitely harder than some metals. It wasn't necessarily tougher or stronger than steel or something like that, but if Eisen just chose to compress wood like this, then he might be able to achieve it after all. And since enchantments were also a thing, Eisen could try to strengthen the wooden blade itself a little more with that.

Either way, next, Eisen tried to acknowledge the next of the blades as finished. This time, just to figure it out, he tried to make it so that the wood would become as soft as possible after being acknowledged as finished. At first, nothing really seemed to have happened despite the fact that the regular notifications appeared, but when he picked the wooden knife up, the wood practically caved in to his touch.

It became incredibly soft, to the point where he could shape it in his hands like clay. It was a weird senstation, considering that it still had the texture of regular wood.

Either way, after that came the third test. And that was how rapidly and how strong the changes in strenght within a singular item can be. For that, Eisen tried to make it so that there was bascially a checkered pattern on the blade. One field would be as weak as possible, and one part would be as strong as possible.

And when he finished this, Eisen ran his fingers over the surface of the blade and pressed his finger down as hard as he could. In the softer areas, the wood was pushed in a little and in the harder areas it simply wasn't. Like this, Eisen was able to easily figure out the gradient change of this sort of material.

"Pretty good... Not like a clean edge, but there really is just a small gradient. Good to know." The old man muttered to himself, and then quickly moved on to the next sort of small tests he wanted to go for. Instead of trying to change something on the strength, he did it with their appearance instead.

He managed to make the blades completely white without any sort of grain, and he could make them neon green with a wild, strong grain. Eisen even managed to make a wooden rainbow blade with a grain that got gradually stronger the closer it was to the handle. 

To him, it seemed as if Eisen managed to figure the capabilities of this wood out pretty well for now, although he wasn't entirely sure how it worked. With a curious expression, he wondered if it would be possible to somehow take a seed for this tree with him and then breed them down in the mortal realm. Or maybe there were already some of these just randomly hidden there.

As if he was able to read the old man's mind, Dirmon started to laugh, "Oi, don't'cha even think 'bout it. The only way it can exist is cause of this divine realm. Otherwise it's just gonna become a completely random tree that you'll have to deal with, ya know?" The lesser God of Woodworking pointed out.

Eisen turned his head toward him and thought about what Dirmon just said, piecing together this information with the facts about Divine Realms that he had learned over the past little while.

"Ah... So that's how it works. This wood is basically a combination of all types of wood there are, right?" The old man inquired, and Dirmon nodded his head surprised.

"Ya remember?" 

"I don't. Just a lucky guess. How does this work, really? I'd assume you know." Eisen said curiously.

"Aye. Dunno how ya two did it, but at some point, ya came here with some seeds in tow you wanted to try out, grew 'em 'ere, and then we kinda started usin' it. But the way that ya explained it was just like ya said. Another name for this is 'Everwood'. Ya can choose any sorta qualities from any sorta tree, mix 'em together, and boom, you've got a unique sorta wood that fits yer every need." The lesser God explained in a smug tone, although he was technically speaking to the one that originally created this wood in the first place.

With a light smile on his face, Eisen realized what this meant, "So basically, wood that's as strong as this does exist?" The old man inquired as he handed Dirmon the first dagger that he made. He looked down at it with an analyzing gaze and soon nodded his head.

"Aye, 'course it does. Called 'Kirmon'. It's too hard to work with so it's never really used, but it's out there. Actually, it should be native to yer home country!" Dirmon exclaimed, and Eisen raised his brows surprised, "Oh really? Kirmon, huh? Interesting..." The old man muttered to himself. This was wood that was strong but flexible, wood that wouldn't chip or dent easily. It was exactly what Eisen was hoping for.

"Alright then, that's good to know. Guess I should keep that in mind." Eisen smirked as he made a mental note about this. And then, vitalized after hearing this amazing news, Eisen continued his work. He looked at all of the items that he had laid out in front of him that he still had to finish the wooden portion of. For some of them, he couldn't even attach those parts, mostly some of the handles, yet, because there was a step that he had to go through for these before then. For these, he would just finish all the parts until he was ready to set everything together.

Either way, with a satisfied smile on his face, Eisen continued his work with Dirmon standing beside him, curiously watching his former teacher work again. Of course, they were no longer simply 'Teacher' and 'Student'. Eisen didn't have any sort of authority over someone that came so far that he was able to ascend to godhood for his talent in his craft, and he certainly couldn't act like he was superior to Dirmon.

Currently, while Eisen didn't get back all of his memories yet, Dirmon was obviously superior in skill when it came to Woodworking. For now, all of these lesser gods were superior in skill than Eisen in their specific areas of expertise.

Eisen eagerly waited for the day that would no longer be the case.