Spending My Retirement In A Game

Eisen looked at the woman in front of him. She had, somewhat awkwardly, followed him into his workshop and was looking around at what he was currently doing. Before he even had to explain anything, she already knew, "You're making wine?"

The old man raised a brow, "That's exactly what I'm doing, yes. Just a few different fruit and flower wines."

"Huh? Flower wine?" The woman replied, looking at three of the large fermentation containers that were already busily bubbling away. With an excited expression, she walked a bit closer, taking in a large breath of the floral scents surrounding the containers, "It's been a while since I've had flower wine... it's not really that popular, so it's not worth making it, especially with how rare good ingredients are..."

Eisen raised his brow, "Is that so? Well, I guess that makes sense. Most flowers you have here are potion flowers, so you probably didn't try using them."

"Of course, potion flowers are for potions... not wine. It seems a little dangerous to make wine out of them," the woman pointed out as if it was obvious. Eisen just chuckled and looked at her with a smirk, "What's your name?"

"Ah, I'm sorry... It's Millicent. My daughter's name is Luciérre, but we just call her Lucy," the woman said, looking down at the girl that was standing in front of her curiously, before looking back up, "And you are...?"

"I'm Eisen. It's a pleasure to meet you," the old man replied, before walking up to the wall in front of him. He summoned his storage space and walked inside, quickly grabbing the small vial that he was looking for, handing it over to Millicent, "Go on, try it."

Confused, she grabbed the vial from Eisen. She knew she probably shouldn't do it, but her curiosity got the better of her, and Millicent quickly drank the contents of the vial. A subtle warmth spread through her body, but nothing much happened.

"What was this..?" She asked, slowly becoming nervous after drinking a random bright yellow liquid she was given. Eisen crossed his arms and smiled, "It's a detoxification potion. A rather weak one, though. It's only really good to bring you from blackout drunk to decently buzzed, but if you concentrate it a little more, it can probably go further than that, though I wouldn't reccommend it either."

"And so..?" Millicent replied, still confused.

"It's a potion made with Dandelion. Just regular old, generic Dandelion," he explained, "Practically every plant has certain uses in the field of alchemy, it just so happens that some have stronger natural effects than others. That's why, if you use a flower with little mana like dandelions to make wine, all the mana is going to simply dissipate naturally in the fermentation process, and it won't achieve any particular effects. But stronger plants have the tendency to absorb mana more actively, so it's going to stay in the wine longer, so it definitely is more dangerous to go with the more common 'potion flowers' to make wine, but if you know what to expect, you can use anything at all to make wine. Though sometimes you might have to do some special things to it, so... you know, let me jsut show you."

Eisen was ready for the next step of making the flower wines. They had spent a little time fermenting already and formed some alcohol, but they still were far from ready. If they just kept fermenting like this, not only their effects, but also their taste would turn out rather... unsavory. To counteract that, Eisen would add a few things. Millicent followed Eisen as he opened up the fermentation containters, and poured in some finely-ground mana crystals.

"Wait, why do you do that? They're... poisonous, right?" Millicent asked, whispering the last part to make sure her daughter wouldn't hear her say it, but Eisen just raised his brow, "You know that potions are largely made using mana crystals, right? It's the one central ingredient that's in 99% of all potion recipes. You can't just swallow them without repercussions, but if you have an alchemist treat it, you'll only be left with the beneficial aspects, and don't have to worry about those sorts of things. It's the same concept here. What I'm doing is basically combining techniques of alchemy with brewery."

Eisen used transmutation to properly infuse the ground mana crystals into the fermenting wines, before slowly starting to adjust the temperature inside of the fermentation containers. The Golden Morningbellow wine had to ferment at a higher temperature than normal, while the Morxica needed a slightly lower temperature.

"Isn't that a little... cold?" Millicent asked, feeling the air around the Morxica wine, and Eisen quickly nodded, "That's what I thought. But the person that made the recipe knows his stuff, so I'm trusting his guidance."

"You didn't come up with these?"

"Me? No, I wish I had, they're incredible! I've stuck more to other areas of alchemy. The one that came up with these is a dwarf by the name of Gordon Antrey, he lives in the central continent," Eisen quickly explained, and Millicent looked at him more surprised than after anything else she had been told so far, "You're from the central continent?"

"Technically I'm from this country, but I've spent a while in the central continent, yes. Is that an issue?"

Millicent slowly shook her head, "No, no, not an issue, but... aren't we going to war with a country from the central continent soon..?"

It seemed as though Millicent was concerned about what it would look like to spread the work of someone from an enemy nation if a war were to start, but Eisen quickly tried to calm her down, "That war isn't going to happen, I can assure you of that. There are some people that want to avoid this by any means, and they're currently in the process of making sure that such a war will never come to fruition."

"Right..." Millicent replied, not seeming particularly convinced, before Eisen just turned and walked over to the large crates of fruit pulp. He turned to look at Millicent, "Mind helping me out a bit here?"

"Huh? Are you sure?" She asked, and Eisen immediately nodded, "One of my doubles is going to set it up, but please make sure to press the juice out of the skinned grapes and the rock peaches. You just have to keep turning the wheel until you're done."

Before Millicent was able to say anything, she watched the ethereal copies of Eisen cover the boxes that they turned the fruit into pulp in with another contraption. It wasn't anything much, it was just a flat board that fit perfectly into these containers, together with a vice system to press the board down deeper into the container. What Millicent probably didn't see was that there were some enchantments on the underside of the board to make the juice extraction more efficient, so it wasn't a hard job. Eisen just figured getting her help might be useful for other means.

As Millicent was turning the crank of the vice, he could see the grapes' juices flow out through the faucet at the side of the container into the one that the juices would be fermented in later. As for the rest of the masses of fruit pulp, beside that of the peaches which would receive the same treatment as the skinned grapes, Eisen was currently mixing in some ground mana crystal powder. The ratio was slightly different for each fruit, but overall, they were all mixed with at least a 1:5 ratio of mana crystal powder to fruit pulp, up to a ratio of 1:3 at the most. It seemed like quite a lot, but Eisen knew he should just trust the recipe. Gordon probably knew what he was doing, so there was no need for Eisen to get cocky and adjust the recipe already.

Once the pulp and crystal powder were mixed, Eisen was ready to move the pulp over into the containers that everything would end up fermenting in. For some of them, he already added a few different herbs and light spices as per the recipes, but before he knew it, he was already done. At this time, Millicent had finished pressing the juices out of the fruit, and Eisen could start with the initial fermentation with these as well. With these, he would again mix in some mana crystal powder after a short while before the fermentation would continue.

"Alright," Eisen said with a smile on his face, looking at the large barrels filled with currently-fermenting alcohol that was rapdily bubbling away due to the help of Jyuuk's unique element.

"Are you boiling them?" Millicent asked curiously, since she was hearing nothing but the bubbling, but Eisen quickly shook his head with a laugh, "No, I'm not. They're fermenting using magic. They'll be done in a few hours already."

"...They'll be what?"