A new day greeted me as sun shined through the window, painting my back with gold as I kept the light from reaching my beloved's closed eyelids. I didn't want to let her wake up from this beautiful dream she's having, her smile - peaceful, gentle, real.
My mind swirved with thoughts - thoughts I couldn't quite understand... Or maybe I was just still sleepy and my mind is stuck in a limbo like state.
Her eyes opened anyways, her smile remaining the same. "Good morning." She said gently, her voice was of an angel to me, peace filling my soul as if she is sharing hers.
I couldn't help but smile back, my eyes soft, and soft in this way only for her. "Good morning, my dear."
She didn't say anything, instead she closed her eyes and cuddled into me, holding onto me with all her heart.
It made me melt, through the stress of the life I have chosen, through the problems I seek to correct in the near future. This softness, this fulfilment she provided made me quickly fall asleep again, through it though, she didn't leave my side.
After a while we finally woke up, words were unneeded, so we didn't talk much - we did, however, show a few affectionate acts, like a kiss, a stroke, and embrace, of course.
Though, as I looked myself in the mirror, I frowned a bit, I looked down at my belly, wondering if I have gotten fat, I felt a bit heavy.
She crawled from underneath the sheets and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, her chin resting slightly on my neck. "You look fine to me."
"I don't know... something feels off." I said in return.
She chuckled, not in a mocking way. "It's ironic, when you are the one talking to me about my insecurities."
"Not much - you still wear those pads when in your goddessy attire."
Her body stiffened against mine; her blush was visible even in the reflection. "I have a public image to maintain..." she muttered defensively.
"And that's the problem. That's why, unlike you, I am doing this for myself." I said, almost on reflex.
She let go of me and retreated a bit away on the bed, crossing her arms and turning her head to the side. "...I will not argue with you."
An uncomfortable silence settled between us. I realized that my wording was off. I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck before turning to face her.
"Love, I didn't mean for it to come out like that," I said quietly.
She didn't answer, her eyes closed and she shifted in her position/
I moved closer, before kneeling down in front of her, resting my hands gently on her knees. "I spoke without thinking. If you want to wear them - if that makes you feel comfortable - then wear them. I don't mind... What I meant is that I want you to do it for yourself, not because you think you have to."
That made her glance down at me, the frost in her eyes melting a bit.
"And also..." I continued. "I don't want any other man looking at you that way. Yeah, I'm possessive, I trust you, but I feel uncomfortable..." I lifted my hands, raising back up. "And honestly..." I smiled softly. "I think you're far more beautiful without them."
Her eyes softened fully, her arms relaxing before she let out a quiet sigh. "You really are impossible to stay mad at..." she admitted, her lips curving into a small smile.
"Then don't try," I said with a faint grin.
She rolled her eyes but the smile grew wider. "I wasn't really mad, just... hurt. You say things so directly that sometimes they sound sharper than you mean."
"Yeah, sorry about that." I said quietly, genuinely looking ashamed.
She stood up and kissed my cheek, standing on her toes for a moment. "Apology accepted."
And so after this we went to the kitchen, do I fast now or nah? Yeah, it's a nah. She was toasting a slice of bread and also cooking eggs. It's something I wouldn't want to miss.
As she was done, she placed the plate in front of me, her voice soft. "Breakfast." After which she sat across from me.
I cut the egg with the side of the fork before sticking it in one of the pieces. Mid-way to my mouth, something just snapped into place, a solution to this "am I getting fat" situation.
The food inside my stomach shall become information, and that information will be used to make mana for a new system I want to try: bio-report - or in other words: my brain automatically uses my skills to deliver all the necessary stuff directly to my cells, vitamins, minerals, nutrients.
"I know that look... I wonder what's on your mind this time." She said with curiousity.
I chuckled, my voice becoming a bit deeper as I discovered this way of using my power. "Oh, it's something wonderful." I bit into the egg on my fork dramatically, chewing and enjoying it to the maximum, for both my and hers delight. "I have become even more god-like, I don't need to eat food the conventional way anymore. I have transended this. With this I needn't worry about gaining weight, because the food that goes to my stomach is dissolved into information, and not nutrients. My body feeds itself automatically through my astral storage." I felt this familiar rush, the ecstasy of creation.
She blinked a few times, still processing what I just said, "...so your body runs on mana now?"
I smiled proudly and announced. "Exactly... And the best part, this way I can't gain weight. My body has become hyper efficient. This way, I can burn the unnecessary stuff and also eat as much as I want."
"So you still plan on eating?" She tilted her head, curious.
"Of course! Taste is a spiritual experience. I just skip the boring bilogical parts now."
She sighed with a smile, shaking her head. "Good, because I would have taken it personally if you stopped."
"I'd never wish for that, love." I said gently, taking another bite of the eggs. My certainty is clear.
She propped her elbow on the table, chin resting on her hand as she watched me eat with a half-smile.
---
And so came time for me to get back to work. I gave a sigh, satisfied from the food, my stomach lacking the weight it usually does after food. "Alright, I'm off."
She followed me to the door, her hands brushing the wrinkles off my shirt like a wife seeing off her husband before a long day's work. There was something incredibly grounding about it, despite everything else about our lives being anything but ordinary.
"Try not to over do it today," she said softly, her fingers lingering on my chest.
I smiled, taking her hand and pressing it to my lips. "You know that's like asking the sun not to shine."
"Then at least don't burn yourself out." She smiled, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of concern. "You've been pushing yourself hard lately."
This could only bring a smile out of me. I nodded. "I promise to not go over the mark with this."
"I"ll hold you to that." She stepped closed, stood on her toes, and kissed me lightly on the lips. "Now go."
A nice walk to the car through the garden, and a nice drive to somewhere in the middle of the desert. My plan was this: find a nice flat place, dig deep till I reach stone, and then fill in that with concrete... Which I don't have... I believe it's time I start relying more on my factories than my powers, after all, where's the fun in spawning everything in?
Vanir described me quite well, I indeed enjoy the challenge. So now it's time for a detour, I need to make a concrete factory. Because Laying a brick foundation has become inefficient.
I reached into my mind, pulling out an old drum and bass mix and got to thinking while Acat drove on without the need of my input. Then I realized something - just how much metal I would need. So I decided to try something else out... In the Create mod you simply produced cobblestone, crushed and washed it, then you have a chance of getting iron... Chance - I have a great deal of it.
An idea struck me, quantum physics, the 'to be or not to be' type of situation - I could make a rock, a rock which will not be observed, and by not being observed it rapidly switches what's inside. This way, I also save energy, because the quantum state is a natural phenomenon.
I would just need to somehow extract those metals. A crushing wheel, artificial eyes to stop the quantum workings, the rock would then be transformed into mana, and the rest of the metals, which will probably be blobs, are separated filtered, and transformed into masses of information, keeping everything neet in the astral storage.
{-----}
To transform something, the object (the thing being transformed) needs to be transformed as a whole; if a brass and a copper cube merge at a certain point, they are treated as an object.
{-----}
I took my adventurer's card out of my pocket and looked at what skills were available to reedem points for, and there it was: Quantum Rock. 2 points.
And so I closed my eyes and created a rock with my mana, it held a firm shape. I opened my eyes and with precision cut it open, not even a single piece fell - perfect two pieces. I transformed the rock small nuggets of random metals falling in my hands. Staring down at them, I began separating, grabbing the information of every metal I know and using it as a filter for me to transform it. And soon, my hands were free. The conveyor belt will be long, but it doesn't matter, it will filter all the different metals and store them. So now with this information, it was time to knock myself out and dream of a schematic. For a lot of stuff, actually, like: clay farm, brick maker, cement factory, concrete factory, metal factory, concrete shaping factory and everything that is even slightly connected to this, also I had to go back home and make another line in the glass factory for windows.
The hours passed as I connected everything, the stone generator above the conveyor belt, which crushes the stone into smaller pieces allowing me to transform a lot more, similar to programming with threads. Then came the shaping, making joins as well as iron beams.
Then I moved on cement, i needed to focus, I knew I have seen how it's made before... Some lime and rock mix?... Man, why do I always forget when there is an important ingredient. The previous time it's easy cuz Vanir told me what I had forgotten, but now I'm on my own. I play with the lighter as I think on the answer. Lime and what...
Clay! Clay!
Yes! I knew I haven't forgotten.
Those two get crushed and heated. Then for cement it's just gravel, sand, cement and water... Though I might need to spend sometime working on the recipe, eh, I have got time till sunset.
No, i didn't, I managed to build the factory with the help of my extensions, but the sun was telling me it's time to go home, so I made Acat a checkpoint and teleported home, because I intended on continuing after dinner.
As I made it to my home and opened the door, a fresh sent of herbs, bread and cut vegetables hit my nostrils. "I'm home!" I announced, walking in the kitchen where I saw Eris, her sleeves rolled up, as she cut vegetables with precision and dedication of a saint during a ritual. She stopped for a second and looked back at me. "Welcome back, my love."
Man, that smile gets me everytime. All the tensions of the day seemingly relaxing.
"Long day?" She asked, setting the knife down.
I chuckled. "You could say that. A few factories, a new skill, tricked rocks into giving me metals."
She smiled with a gentle anusement only she could manage. "So, a normal day then?"
"Want some help?"
She glanced at me, pretending to weight the offer. "Do you want to help? Or do you just want to feel useful?"
"Yes."
And so we worked, side by side. It was faster this way.
"I haven't felt this good in a long time... My body has all the nutrients it needs... But I kind of miss hunger. Does it make your work less valuable, in your opinion?"
"It's value is given by you." She said gently after a moment of thinking. "On its own it's worthless..."
Those words struck deep, and not in a bad sense, it played with my heart strings.
The dinner that came after felt more worth it, but it didn't feel as good, my humanity... Immortality, alright, that's acceptable, but completely getting rid of half the meaning of food - no.
After we were done we went to the bedroom, I looked myself in the mirror and felt the urge to go back out, to teleport to Acat and continue my work. I didn't want to delay it any further. She crawled to me and hugged me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. "Is everything alright?"
"I need to do a few tweaks to the recipe, and also place a schematic so it builds while I sleep." I replied quietly.
"But you promised to not overdo it." She said.
"I'm not, it's just a few more minutes of thinking... How bad can it be?"
She clung to me tightly.
"Love?"
"I'm not letting you go." She said defiantly.
I chuckled, "c'mon, just for a bit..."
"And how long is that 'bit' going to be?" Her tone was skeptical, her arms still wrapped strongly around me.
I genuinely had no answer for this question.
Her silence filled the room, heavy but not hostile - just full of love and stubbornness.
I sighed and smiled, leaning my head back and to the side against her own. "You are impossible, you know that?"
"I learned from the best."
After a moment, it was obvious neither of us were backing down. "If you are going, then I'm going too."
"Eris-"
"No," she said, her voice soft but final. "I'm not going to stay, when you will work anyways. At least I can be there with you."
"You are really serious about this?"
She smiled faintly. "I'm your wife. of course I am."
I smiled widely. "What can I say... Best wife ever."
I could tell this brought her satisfaction, this praise was deserved.
And so we teleported back, straight in Acat, where we looked at the half-finished concrete/concrete shaping factory.
Her presence here made me feel better. The recipe quickly became perfect. This way the little workers had materials to work with - glass, iron, concrete. Perfect.
As quick as we arrived we teleported home, I let Acat rest before the slowly rising tower of concrete, and sweets. Cuz what says candy more than a depressing building in the middle of the desert.
We walked in the bedroom where I looked out the window. Glancing into the slowly rising metal beams. "You know... sometimes I feel like I'm trying to build the world faster than I can live in it."
Eris looked at me, soft and knowing. "Then live first," she said, "and build after."
Moment by moment. Understand then proceed.
"That's what I'm here for. To remind you when to stop." She added.
"Then I'm stopping for today, I need sleep..."