Sabbatical – Chapter 188: Custom Job

GamingWolf

If you are looking for another story to read, I recommend Big Iron by someguynamedted, it's quite good and is already complete. He just needs to post it all.

On his way home from the conclusion of a devastating civil war, monster hunter Blake Campbell encounters dark entities who have made their home in a sleepy mountain town. Big Iron is a short novel set in Alternate Reality America with folk magic, superstition, and Lovecraftian horror throughout.

Caethya moved herself a little closer to Aperio. The lack of mana on this world made her feel a bit queasy, but staying close to her love and simply taking in her mana fixed that. Aperio seemed to have noticed that, as a bit more mana than usual flowed off of her in Caethya's direction, making it quite easy for the Demigoddess to take it all in.

"And why would it be so bad if we just take your stuff from your parents' home?" Aperio asked again, seemingly not satisfied with the answers Adam had supplied when they had first arrived. "You said yourself that surprisingly little time had passed here."

"Because they would report it as stolen or think that I am back, both of which I want to avoid."

"But why?" the All-Mother asked. "We are on the opposite side of the continent. I doubt they would look here for you if you took your things from back home."

Adam shook his head. "They would as soon as I used my phone or the credit card. It leaves a trail."

"But getting new ones does not? Do you not need to provide them with proof of identity?"

How Earth worked still made little to no sense to Aperio. There seemed to be so many rules, but most of them seemed to be simply disregarded. Perhaps this was simply another one of those cases where one should have something, but it was not actually required.

"I mean, yes, you do, but I had hoped you could take care of that."

Her love raised a brow at the question, the magic that surrounded the three of them flickering slightly. "You wish me to break more of your rules? I thought you had said that I should not do that."

"That was more meant for you to not kill people," Adam said and rubbed the back of his neck. "I would not ask you if I knew where I could buy a fake one, but figuring that out will get us into more trouble than having you make some." He cleared his throat before adding in a mumble, "Not like they can track that."

Aperio gave a small laugh, her voice echoing through the small bubble of privacy she had made and filling Caethya with a pleasant warmth as the mana that accompanied it flowed through her.

"Then what do I have to make? Another bit of paper or metal with too many numbers and letters?"

"It's made from plastic, but essentially yes." He shook his head. "My only fear is that whatever you can make won't be enough. The ID is more than just a card and I am not sure how you would go about fooling everything else that goes into verifying that it's legit."

The All-Mother let out a sigh and shook her head. "So what you are telling me is that I could make what you need but since they use another thing it would be useless?"

"Essentially."

"So, why not just continue to pay with the money I already made?" Aperio asked. "If detection is less likely that way, I see no reason to switch. Even if it is annoying to always have to retrieve the wallet in a way that does not reveal my Void."

"Would it be more feasible to produce documents for a foreign nation and have them try those?" Caethya asked. "I'd assume they would have a harder time verifying if those are right and proper."

"Yes and no," Adam replied. "The problem is that all the other countries operate on a similar principle. As for just using the money Aperio made…" He scratched the side of his neck. "There is no real issue with that, but at some point people will notice that it's not real money. Normal money would wrinkle and could be ripped, but what she made is basically indestructible."

Her love stood a bit taller at the words and smiled brightly. "I do try my best when creating things. I will not accept inferior quality."

"The quality is quite literally out of this world," Adam said. "And, sooner or later, that will be a problem."

Caethya could only shrug at the words. "I doubt that people will care about that, and even if they do, how are they supposed to know Aperio made it? If someone asks us how we got it, we can just say that we got it as change from another store."

"I should just replace all their money," Aperio mumbled. "That flimsy paper stuff seems like a pain to deal with."

"Everything is flimsy for you," Caethya replied, brushing her hand over her love's back. "And knowing mortals, they would probably try to make armour or something out of the money. If you give them something that doesn't break, they will inevitably try to use it for their wars." She then looked at Adam. "Unless this world does not have wars?"

Their guide let out a long sigh. "We have plenty of those, but I don't think indestructible money would be the first choice to use for that. It is much more likely to end up in some lab as they try to figure out why they cannot destroy it."

Aperio stopped, cutting off anything further Adam had to say as she stretched her arm out to halt him as well. Not a moment later, one of the Humans carriages raced past, far faster than it probably should inside the city.

///

The All-Mother glared after the car that had almost run them over, a touch of her magic grabbing hold of it and ensuring that it would not go that fast again. At the moment, she did not care that the Human inside would question how their vehicle suddenly slowed. The only reason she had not simply disappeared the car and its driver was the fact that even if it had hit them, nobody but the Human driving would have been hurt. A metal box would have to go much faster to hurt Caethya, and would never be able to so much as scratch her.

"Is your kind always so reckless?" she asked, looking at Adam. "I am fairly certain that the driver would have died if they ran into us."

"They probably do not know that you are more solid than their carriage," Caethya said and shook her head slightly. "Still, the disregard for their kin seems a bit odd. Do they not realise that their mode of transportation is a weapon in and of itself? I'd think that it might have been enough to hurt Adam."

Aperio looked at both her love and their guide, the latter seemingly still in a state of shock. She placed a hand on his shoulder and let some of her mana flow through him while also giving him the gentlest of shakes she could manage.

"I'm fine," Adam eventually replied. "Just a bit spooked. I… felt?" He looked around before he shook his head. "I knew the car was coming, but I didn't really process that fact until it was already past."

"The mind is usually faster than the body," Caethya said. "It’s probably worse for you, as your jump in power was anything but gradual."

"Would you not have the same problem?" Aperio asked as she nudged both Adam and her love to continue walking. "You have come far since we first met."

"You'd think that," her love replied, "but my body has always been lagging behind what I could perceive. If anything, that gap has closed a little."

"How peculiar," the All-Mother said as the three of them came to a halt in front of another store. This one was still closed but featured more than a few things Aperio had not yet seen. "Those are the things we have come to purchase?" She squinted at the little tags that hung next to a few of the rather unremarkable bricks. "Seems expensive."

A thought let her aura provide her a more detailed view of one of the objects. It was filled with things she did not understand, but many of them bore a slight resemblance to the structured madness of her System. There were no runes, just minuscule machines that were comprised of even smaller parts. So small, in fact, that the All-Mother failed to understand how a Human could have made it at all without the aid of magic. A hair is bigger than that…

"Yes," Adam replied. "Those are cellphones and we want one."

Aperio tilted her head before closing her eyes. The noise and smell of the city was banished from her mind as she drew from depths of her well and began to force it into the shape another part of her mind was still observing. Perhaps it was a bit much on her part to will into existence a phone for them to use, but the All-Mother did not want to wait for the mortals to decide whether they could have one or not. It also helped that the simple act of imparting her will onto physical reality brought a sense of joy that few things could match, most of which were not available on Earth.

Another pull on her well caused reality to twist apart between her hands, removing everything that could influence her recreation of the object she was observing. It was not strictly needed, but it was still the correct thing to do. Overlooking something and breaking her newest creation was not something Aperio wanted. Especially when she did not know what a big part of the device actually did. Her gut feeling was that it was an energy storage of some sort, as she could see tiny bits of her creation move inside it. A quick glance around her showed that it was the same for the other phones, and the ones that appeared to be on even had a noticeable increase in that activity. Maybe I can replace that?

Mana was fairly universal when it came to powering things, and Aperio had little doubt it would work here. It would most certainly be better than whatever the Humans had come up with, mainly because it would never run out of power.

The All-Mother expanded the view of her aura slightly, looking at mortals who were currently using the phone she was trying to replicate in order to determine how she should go about making that improved part of her replica. While everything looked fragile to her, the inner workings of this device seemed to be just a little more susceptible to even the smallest thing going wrong.

Aperio opened her eyes again, Adam barely having finished taking a breath. She opened her hand, looking at the device she had created for a moment before holding it out to their guide. "I hope this will suffice."

Adam simply stared at it for a moment before taking it from the All-Mother's hand. "Did you just make one or did you take it from somewhere?"

"I made it," Aperio replied, gesturing towards the biggest phone on display. "I took that one as a template as it actually fits my hand." She hesitated for a moment as Adam pressed one of the buttons on the side of the device. "I also took the liberty to replace what seemed to be its source of energy with something better."

"Better?" he asked as the phone came to life in his hand, flashing through symbols and names Aperio did not truly recognise.

"From what I could see, these things only have limited usability as they seem to run out of energy fairly fast." She held out her hand, a blue and silver crystal appearing in her palm. "I replaced it with this. A minuscule fraction of my mana, given physical form and instructed to mimic the output of what existed before. It should last longer than the average Human's life."

Adam's gaze wandered from the phone in his hands to the All-Mother and back before he shook his head. "It works, that's what counts. Just need to get a sim, now."

"Of course it works," Aperio rebutted with slightly narrowed eyes. "I had thought that you would trust in my abilities by now."

"I do," he replied. "I just find the… jumps in your decision making a little confusing."

Caethya's laugh caused a smile to bloom on Aperio's face, one that widened a little more and turned just a touch wicked as her aura caught sight of a small group of Humans she could only describe as unsavoury. Perhaps it was wrong for her to find a measure of enjoyment in the fact that they were currently following another mortal for what were likely nefarious purposes, but Aperio also very much knew that nothing would happen to the potential victim. Their groups would be passing by one another shortly, and she would have some words with the unsavoury lot.

"We will have guests in but a few moments," Aperio said, wanting to point in the direction the mortals would come from with one of her wings before realising that that was not an option and using her hand instead. "The ones that follow seem to be very interested in the lone Human coming our way." She tilted her head, recognising the arms of the following group as the guns Adam had told her about. "Is it normal for your people to carry their weapons tucked in their belts?"

Adam stared at the All-Mother for a moment, the Goddess simply smiling down at him as she waited for his answer.

"For some people it is," he eventually admitted, stealing a few glances in the direction Aperio had pointed. "And those are also people we should not encounter."

"Why?" Aperio asked with a shrug. "It is not like they can do anything." And I want to know how these Mortals fare in a fight…

She doubted they would offer any challenge, but she still wanted to see what the average Human of Earth could do. What did magicless weapons actually look like when they were used? What would they think once they saw that they had no effect? Aperio had no answers to those questions but she wanted them, almost desperately so.

"I am still more worried about what you will do to them," Adam mumbled, shaking his head. "But I guess I won't be able to persuade you to leave."

"You will not, no," Aperio affirmed. A small flex of her mental muscles caused a barrier to form around both Adam and Caethya. While she did not expect the other Humans to be able to do much, she would not risk anything.

"Just let her have some fun," Caethya said. "It's not like simple bandits deserve any better."

Adam held his breath for a moment before he shook his head again and let out a long sigh. "I guess not."

GamingWolf

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