A Part Time Job at Wiz' Shop:
The next morning both Aqua and Maximus laid in bed after enjoying last night's hurrah which started in the baths and moved to their bedroom. The two laid within each other's embrace. Aqua laid her head on his chest and her legs around his waist. The small glimmer of light seeped through the small crack of the thick curtains hanging around their bed.
The next moment a loud explosion erupted upon the barrier that surrounded the castle. Both of them were not fazed by it as they knew all too well who was casting the spell. Megumin had made it an everyday chore to blast her spell upon the shield. She annoyingly convinced Maximus to allow her to cast explosion magic at the castle every day.
His eyes slowly opened up feeling his annoyance grow by the second. Aqua laid still not wanting to respond with her usual banter towards Megumin.
"Why does she always have to cast that stupid spell every morning, unless told we were heading on a quest?" Maximus asked out loud feeling annoyed as he slowly stretched his arms and legs.
"I am starting to feel as though you should have told her to cast explosion elsewhere." Aqua replied and tried to move but found her body from the waist down still feeling numb from last night. "Besides, I can barely move sleeping like this all night."
"Well, you should have moved off me after we were done." Maximus chuckled a little.
He moved his right hand on her lower back and used his magic to allow her nerves to flow through her legs and hips again.
She felt the tingling sensation within her body and she moved her legs to be straightened out, stretching them along with her arms. She yawned and repositioned herself to his side while still resting on his chest.
"So, what say you to the idea we stay in for today and we can wrap ourselves in each other's arms and be lazy for a change?" She asked drawing a circle on his chest and looked into his eyes.
"I like that idea, unfortunately I promised Wiz the other day I would help around with her shop. She said something on the lines of working part time through the winter will help us out. That way we will not have to go on any other quest unless we want to. Besides, we still need money to help us until spring arrives. Plus, I also promised to give her some pointers on running a shop I learned from my friend on my home world, although I feel as though it will not take." He informed her.
She felt angry after he told her what he was going to do and hugged him a little tighter. "I don't want you to go anywhere today, I wanted spend more time with you again, like the time we did on vacation, even if it was because we were on the run."
Maximus chuckled once more. "As I said earlier, I like the idea, however, a job's a job and we need money to pay off our debt. Not to mention, the Headman of the town is trying to say I owe property tax and what not. Which is a load of horse manure, because this castle does not even rest within the town's walls. How annoying that little twerp is turning out to be. Oh well, perhaps I can persuade him to leave that matter alone and never bring it up again." He said out loud as his mind trialed off for a moment.
"Alright," She pouted momentarily. "But I am coming with you. I might as well get a job there to bring in the customers." She said sitting up with excitement in her voice.
"Alright, just promise me you will behave when you are around her." He said knowing how last time went.
"Yes sir." She saluted to him and began to get ready.
The two later arrived after getting breakfast and entered the shop. The bell ringed to indicate their arrival and Wiz popped out from the back.
"Hello, welcome to my shop," She paused seeing the two and felt a little nervous with Aqua nearby. "Oh, you are here and you brought Lady Aqua as well."
"Yeah, she insisted on helping us gain some customers by handing out flyers once I have the right products which would help out more than the things you have." Maximus said as he looked around at all the merchandise. "I forgot how much stuff she has that's great to have but is totally useless for people in a town for new adventurers." He said to himself.
"So, what are we going to do with these items I have?" Wiz inquired looking at some of the items.
"For now, we will have to store them in the back or leave them out and replace them with the items, I know will be worthwhile. There are some I believe will be quite the turn out once I give some people a demonstration." He replied. "I should probably change it up a bit on the overall design and function. I will also need to come up with the necessary substitute which will help from having to manufacture too much product." He said to himself as the image of the first product came to mind. "Yes, that should do and we can start by selling it to the Kingdom first to gain a very profitable venture. I will need to find the right type of gem to act as a mana storage."
"Hey, Maximus, what's going on in that head of yours? Is there something you already have a plan for?" Aqua inquired after he had been silent for a few moments.
"Huh, oh, nothing is wrong I was in the middle of viewing out how the first product would appear and how successful it will be." He responded with a smile and winked at her. "I should come up with a few other things to add alongside that item, our debt will be erased for sure. On top of selling them these merchandise, I will have to train some of their men to know how to handle and operate them. From there they can in turn teach others. However, should I really go through with this, I mean, giving them these items will surely change the course of their way of life as they know it." He paused his thoughts once more.
"Hey, what are you thinking of, come on tell us." Aqua said tugging on his coat sleeve.
"I have a few ideas on the first round of items we can make quite a fortune with." Maximus replied.
"Oh, is it some type of item we can buy in mass to sell to customers?" Wiz inquired enthusiastically.
"There are some items we can go ahead and sell around town to get our finances in order and from there buy some much needed equipment. But first," He paused to snap his fingers and a tray of various potions appeared hovering in midair. "Aqua, I need you to take these and sell them to anyone at the Guild Hall or around town with me. These are various types of potions that can effect ones physical abilities I learned from the Arch-Wizard a while back. He told me about the various herbs needed to make these after I informed him how to effectively use mana consumption." He explained.
"Is this all we are going to do?" Aqua inquired.
Wiz walked up to him and looked at the various jars. "What can these potions due exactly?" She inquired as she curiously picked one up to look at them.
"Depending on which one you grab, they can increase a person's strength, stamina, speed, and refill ones mana supply. There are other types I will be working on in the future, but for now we will stick with these and use them as a sampler to get the ball rolling. By the way, for my previous venture, do any of you know anything about gemstones?" He asked.
"Now that you mention it, there used to be a gemstone mine not far from here, but it was shut down because a bunch of monsters invaded and now inhabit the mine. I do not recall what type though, but with someone like you I am positive they would give you no trouble at all." Wiz informed him.
"Well, we will have to go there once we sell these potions." He said.
"By the way, we should not invite Darkness or Megumin on that endeavor, considering Megumin has already cast her one spell a day and she could cause the cave to collapse on us. Not to mention Darkness would more than likely run away from the group and could get lost." Aqua said.
"You're right about that, we should leave them out of this one." He stopped and snapped his fingers and more potions appeared next to the counter. "This will be when we run out at the Guild and send others to you. They are all labeled and ready to go. Well, let us be off Aqua." He turned around and opened the door.
She nodded her head and they went about their day. The turnout at the Guild Hall was successful, more so than Maximus had originally anticipated. Aqua was holding the tray and calling out everyone to come try the new potions. He found out no one else was selling potions of these types and began to think about abandoning the next idea for a moment, but quickly dismissed the gesture.
The turnout was very profitable which yielded them a hefty amount of money. They were back at Wiz' shop not long after first arriving at the Guild Hall with more people behind them. Eventually, they were able to serve all those who initially turned out to buy some more. After they were sold out Aqua and Maximus left to visit the old gemstone mine.
Several hours passed and the two of them arrived at the entrance of the mine. They began to survey the area to investigate any clues at the entrance for what beast could be waiting for them inside. After seeing nothing which could indicate what wild animals were around, they began to head into the mountain.
"Are you sure it is a good idea to go in without first sending your familiars to clear the way?" Aqua asked him, standing at the opening of the mine.
"As good as that sounds, I will have to take a pass on that for the moment. I would like to have all my mana on hand at my disposal and not waste any. Besides, we could end up running into a foe that may require all my magical power. Plus, there is no need to worry about dangerous creatures harming you. As I said before, stay by my side and I will look after you. Now, let us proceed, if the type of gemstone I am hoping for is in here, we will soon not have to worry about our financial situation anymore." He said motioning her to join him.
"Okay." She said with a little fear in her voice. "By the way, what idea do you have for taking care of our debt?" She inquired, latching onto his right arm.
"What I have in mind is creating a new invention I had just thought of while at Wiz' shop. I will essentially create revolvers, rifles, and cannons to sell the Kingdom. Before I can do that, I first need to make some adjustments to the firearms. It may take some time to work out the functionality of everything, but if I can make it work without the use of gunpowder, it will be quite the transaction." He explained.
"Wait, I thought gunpowder is essential for firearms to work. How are you going to bypass that?" She asked to know a little more.
"Well, with the gemstone we are going to mine here, I may be able to use it as a substitute for the powder and bullet. I am still a little shady on the exact details, so I may have to do some trial and error runs. This could prove to be a slow take, but with the sales we will get from the potions, which I am surprised no one else has thought of that, we will still be okay money wise." He explained a little more.
The two continued down and when the light was barely visible, Maximus made a glowing orb appear to light the way. He kept the ball behind him so his vision would not be overwhelmed by the brightness in the dark cave.
After traveling for several minutes, a hissing growl echoed towards them. Aqua got behind him and ducked under his right arm. She squealed with fear and waited to see if something would appear.
"What was that, please tell me that was your stomach growling because you are hungry, right?" She asked shivering from the fear.
Maximus kept his gaze ahead, trying to guess what creature made the sound and readied himself for a confrontation.
"Why are you not answering,"
"Shh," He placed his hand over her mouth and kept concentrating on the sound from earlier.
The next moment he barely could hear the sound of small claws screeching and scratching upon the stone floor. She became more nervous as sweat was running down her face. The sound became louder by the second as it drew closer rapidly.
Maximus quickly took her in his arm and shot out the ball of light forward. The orb erupted its rays forth, blinding a small creature and it tripped over its own footing. The moment it came to a stop, he snapped his fingers and a stalactite stretched down from the ceiling, impaling the creature through the heart.
The small animal was visible under the light and Maximus was confused at what was before them. It had long white hair fashioned like a mohawk, with red catlike eyes, and mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The skin was rough with small amount of scales on the back and sides, leaving its front torso with no hardened flesh. The ears were abnormally large and the claws on the hands and feet were long.
"What is this thing?" Maximus asked her as he walked up to it and inspect it a little more.
Aqua felt relieved when she saw it was dead and walked up behind him. "It is a Gremlin, a low-level demon that lives in cold dark caves or dungeons. They usually travel in packs, so we should be careful from here on out." She informed him.
"Agreed, no telling what else could be down here. I think it will be worth allowing a pack of my familiars to hunt down and slaughter whatever else is ahead of us." Maximus said.
He began to form magical familiars in the form of wolves and sent them forth. After waiting a few moments to give them a head start at hunting down all within, the two continued on. They both heard the sound of many Gremlins and other animals being overwhelmed.
After walking a little further, the pack of familiars stopped within a large chamber. The two caught up and saw the many glittering lights of gemstones upon the walls.
"Whoa, it almost looks like the night's sky in here." Aqua said feeling amazed at the sight.
Maximus had a small grin and wrapped his right arm around her, pressing his cheek against hers. "Aye, it sure does or an entirely new sky neither of us has ever seen."
After a few moments they returned to collecting and Maximus walked up to a wall closest to them. He snapped his fingers and the familiars disappeared.
"So, how are we going to collect these gemstones? I recall you not bringing a pickaxe, so how are you going to do it?" She inquired.
"Simple," He paused placing his hand on the stone wall and soon it began to melt away. "I will use my magic to have the wall be able to let the stone go by softening it up. From there I will be able to take it out of it. At the same time, I cast a spell in order to preserve the gemstone itself as to not damage it." He explained.
The next moment the gemstone floated out and took hold of it. He turned around and immediately noticed several pairs of eyes standing behind Aqua. She had not noticed them as she was still amazed by his use of magic.
"Huh, what is it?" She inquired and before she could say anything else another Gremlin jumped at her.
Before either of them could react, Maximus instantly appeared beside her with the gemstone falling to the ground. He took her in his left arm and held out his right.
"Heaven's Blaze!" He shouted.
The magical attack blasted forth engulfing the closest creature in front of him along with several others behind it. The whole ordeal happened within a split second; she was confused as to what happened until she saw the ash ridden floor. The burnt corpses littered the air with their smell and the two were having a hard time breathing.
"Ew, that stinks something fierce. Also, how come there was more of them, I thought your familiars cleared them out?" She asked as he let her down.
"I thought the same, there must have been a secret cavern that we passed. On top of that, my familiars only went into this chamber, there was other pathways to choose from. It is reasonable to guess they originated from one of them. Which means, we will have to be careful when exiting from this cave. Come, I got what is needed for now." He said taking hold of her hand.
"Okay." She said nodding her head.
They both made their way back to the entrance without any troubles and eventually back to their home. He sent a familiar to Wiz, informing her they were done for the day and will return the next with other items to possibly sell to people within town.
Maximus inspected the gemstone closely while sitting in the front room and Aqua sat there silently observing. Soon Darkness and Megumin arrived in time for dinner. When told about the little adventure within the mine the two had, both of them had different reactions. Darkness complained about not being there to act as a meat shield or unable to run after the Gremlins herself. Megumin was glad she was not pulled along for the little venture saying she would have been useless.
Maximus moved to another room he had made himself for a magical workshop. He used his magic to slice off a piece of the gemstone and formed it to a small ball, the size of a bean. He took a sample of metal he had bought a while ago, forming it into a shell casing to fit in a revolver. The small ball was placed at one end and extended into the shell and on the other side was only an opening.
"Now, if I made my best guess, this should act as a suitable primer substitute. I may need the hammer to have a sliver of the same gemstone. Both filled with mana will cause a spark inside the shell and to form into a concentrated mana bullet. From there, the reaction should shoot forth like a bullet. Now to give it a more proper test." He whispered out loud.
"What are you doing with that, what small device could come from this?" Darkness asked looking over his shoulder as her curiosity was past its limits.
"Shh, you should let him work, he is in the middle of constructing something which will get us out of debt." Aqua snapped at her. "Now, why don't the two of you help me out by fixing dinner while he works on this project."
"But I want to see what he is doing." Both Darkness and Megumin protested the idea.
"You should leave him alone, he needs to concentrate, now come on!" Aqua snapped at them and pushed them towards the kitchen to prepare dinner. "Don't you worry about cooking tonight Maximus, we got it all taken care of." She giggled.
Maximus placed his hand down after observing the first shell and sighed. "That is what I am afraid of, without me to watch over her, she is likely to burn down the whole castle like the last time. Not to mention, I have no idea what skill level the other two have for cooking, perhaps it's best to ensure no one burns the food."
He got up and helped out in the kitchen to Aqua's protest. The group finished preparing the meal and ate.
After dinner Maximus returned to his magical workshop and began to make a magical pistol. The others watched him carefully with awe as he took a large brick of metal and used his magic to form and carve it to the necessary form. They looked on in wonder as they saw the firearm was a curious and foreign design. It was an object they had never seen before and leaned a little closer to see it. The pistol had formed into a revolver with only a single chamber instead of the usual six chambered cylinder.
"Alright, now to test it out." Maximus said as he took hold of it and walked outside.
The others followed him closely and once outside he used his magic to conjure up a target post five yards away. He placed the shell in the slot and maneuvered it to lock in place.
"You all might want to cover your ears." He told them in a commanding voice and they followed without question.
He raised it up to aim at the post and pulled on the trigger. The next instant the revolver's barrel exploded, splitting apart into four pieces, each had bent backwards.
"There is too much power within these pieces, I will need to make them smaller for a revolver such as this one. I wonder if this will be alright for a rifle, not to mention I will need to make the right calculations for cannons. This may take a lot longer than I first anticipated, however, with a little more trial and error, I can get through it. I may need some more gemstones when the time comes. I think I will have my familiars dig them out. Also, I wonder if I can essentially use the Mirror Reality as a way to have an unlimited supply of things. This will warrant an investigation, but it should since it is a copy of reality itself. Even if it is not able to, I still have plenty of materials to work with." He said to himself looking at the damaged firearm.
"Maximus are you okay?" Aqua inquired running up to him after they noticed it was over.
"There is nothing to fear, I am alright. However, I cannot say the same with this." He said briefly turning to her before returning his gaze upon the pistol.
"What sort of item did you just create?" Darkness inquired.
"Something which will change things, either for the worse or the best or both, time will tell when I get the right measurements." He replied.
"It sure does not look all that amazing. I will say it has a loud ring to it, but nothing else is impressive about it." Megumin said, feeling unimpressed.
"Well, it was my first attempt to create this type of firearm that uses gemstones, so, bear with me as I perfect the overall design and function. Plus, I figured it would be a better idea than using more metal to use as bullets which are projectiles that can strike an opponent to certain distances. Anyway, let us all turn in for the night and see what quests we could take on the morrow." He said turning around to head inside.
They all nodded in agreement and followed after him.
Later on, Aqua and Maximus were lying in bed and she had the failed demonstration he was doing earlier on her mind.
"By the way, I wonder if it's a good idea you are creating something that is beyond this world's capabilities to handle and ultimately accelerate their understanding of technology." She said looking up.
"Changes come for every world, good or bad is decided upon one's own view. Besides, it might help the Kingdom in the long run." He responded.
"But what if you end up creating a tyrannical state?" She quickly asked.
"Relax, I will have failsafe built into these weapons I am creating. Since the gemstones all have mana within them, all I have to do is cast Anti-Magic and they would cease to function. I do not think only one step ahead at any given time. I always try to think up to ten steps ahead like I always tell you to do." He stopped to yawn. "Now, let us rest the night away and welcome tomorrow's first light." He said kissing her forehead.
"If you say so." She said closing her eyes and the two were fast to sleep.
