Soon enough the carpet rose high above the ground to the edge of the clouds and I "parked" it.
"Hard to believe I can get a view like this without being in the heavenly realm." she said with an appreciative sigh.
"Yeah I'm awesome like that." I said with a grin.
She rolled her eyes "Alright mister awesome, what did you bring for this picnic of yours?" she asked teasingly.
"Sandwiches and wine, the simplest of fare." I said opening the basket to show off the contents.
She raised an eyebrow at that "Not exactly what I was expecting." she said as she took out a battle boar ham sandwich and the wine bottle with a glass.
I shrugged "It's a picnic, i'm not going to bring caviar and pasta." I said casually as I took out a sandwich of my own and leaned back.
She accepted that answer for what it was and relaxed as she ate and drank her meal. We just sat there enjoying each others company as we ate and that was it. Some might consider this a waste of time but we were satisfied with it. It was a simple type of relaxation and didn't need anything extra to be enjoyed.-
We stayed up there for a couple hours even after we finished the food before coming back down to the ground. To little surprise I returned to several dozen attempts to commission a carpet like mine. I rejected all of them since I wasn't stupid enough to give flying tools to the general public. Especially when you consider the implications of what being able to ignore city walls leads to. I few people tried to be clever about it and try and commission it through Hestia but my goddess wasn't a fool.-
She might technically be the head of the familia but anyone who really knew us understood I was in charge. Sure she could take command if she wanted to but Hestia was a laid back and frankly lazy person if she wasn't on the job and left the familia affairs mostly to me. This was doubly so when it came to the stuff I made, she immediately told these people to talk to me about it and then ignored them. Obviously she knew they had been rejected already but this way she could wash her hands of the matter.-
After that I just worked on crafting a few new sculptures out of bone to pass the time. One habit I made sure not to shake was taking my time with these. I could of course just flex my technique and spit out dozens of them in an instant but I found it relaxing to just carefully shape the material like this. Freya enjoyed watching me do it too as it was literally watching an artist work on a piece. Something about the care and attention I gave the sculptures was attractive to her.-
The day passed by quietly and without any troubles really after that. Freya tried to convince me to let her stay the night but I denied her. She got a few inches but that didn't mean I was going to let her take a few miles instead. The next few days were ones I spent on making those bricks for Ptah and handling a few other minor commissions. For example word of the water rings finally slipped out after Loki spent so long trying to keep them quiet. Apparently one of her familia members on the lower end got drunk and bragged about it in a place he shouldn't have. -
I hadn't made it a secret that I could make the things though I didn't advertise them either. It came as no surprise then that the other exploration type familias came a calling for a ring or two. The price I set for them made most hesitant but the majority ended up buying at least a single ring. The smarter of them asked about what other things I hadn't advertised as well. I introduced my metal compass, the portable and reusable lamp orbs and a few other nifty items.-
Commissions came flooding in once word of these things got out as this was enough to appeal to most familias that delved. Tione showed up to complain a bit about the other familias getting the same advantages as her own since apparently Finn was feeling pressured as a result. Strength wise the Loki familia was at the top but strength was only one aspect of their success. The other was their delving capacity being nearly unmatched, something now challenged. Finn himself seemed have this dream of becoming a heroic figure that would improve the way others saw Pallums but his plan to get there was basically to set a record for deepest delve in the dungeon.-
It was a frankly ridiculous plan in my opinion as strength would always be the first and most important thing someone could have, not achievement. He didn't seek strength like that though so he basically stopped trying to advance his level. Regardless he was feeling like his goal had become even harder to achieve and was pressuring his familia to rush through their expedition prep to dive even deeper this coming up time. That was none of my business though and flat out told Tione I couldn't do anything about his insecurities.-
Creating so many items all at once no matter how easy took time though. Days really since I wasn't going to down potions for this. At the end of it Hephaestus came to get her own slice of my time. Not that I was going to complain about a good time. Turns out Freya bragged about sleeping with me which got the forge goddess all jealous and stuff. What she wanted to do was as a result not surprising at all. It was also a very different experience from railing Freya as Hephaestus preferred being gentler about it rather than so aggressive like Freya.