God Of Crafting

"Then, how about that air purification thingy?" Claire continued with her questioning, although the slight change in her intonation suggested that she was nearing the end of it.

"Extending the pattern from earlier, I would say the sixth stage?" I guessed, no longer able to use my earlier line of thinking to come up with any sort of reasonable estimate.

At that point, Claire smiled widely before casually moving all the way back to my chair until her knees were just an inch away from mine.

"Dear, if what you said was true, my father would never allow me to put myself as a part of the deal," Claire smiled, too engrossed in her own line of thinking to realize the weight of what she just said.

'Do I mention it?' I thought while trying to stop the warmth spreading in my lower body from affecting my face.

After all, she just said that it was her own idea to include herself in the deal, not something her potentially calculative father did. And with that in mind... wasn't she the one most interested in getting closer to me?

That thought, as potentially poisonous as it could be... For someone like me who lived pretty much a life of failures was...

A weird thing to hear, but by no means an unpleasant one.

"So, allow me to fix your misunderstanding," Claire said as she leaned forward with her serious expression defeating her smile and making an unexpected comeback as she rested her hands down on my shoulders, once again giving me the dilemma of whether to keep up the etiquette and look up to her face, or give in to my instincts and go back to inspecting the quality of her chest through the deep cleavage of her loungewear.

"That first device of yours, cultivators of the first three ranks would kill for. In fact, it would still be of use to the fourth and fifth ranks, albeit to a limited degree. As for the improved version, even the fourth stage cultivators would go crazy after it, with fifth level ones, just like me, still being able to greatly benefit from its effects."

That was... unexpected.

But what made my soul enter the state of turmoil wasn't Claire's revelation, but the meaning hidden behind it.

Still, before I could even move to process the chaotic mess of thoughts inside my brain, I still had to hear one more thing.

"What about the air purification unit, then?

Claire smiled again, making herself look for a second as if she considered the idea of climbing back on my lap. Yet, rather than answering directly...

"Did you know that even though my father bought all of your things, he actually left that fancy device of yours in my hands, so that we could both properly benefit from its effects?"

I squinted my eyes a bit.

"That's the first time I'm hearing about this, but what does it have to do..."

"Then, why do you think he didn't leave that seed of yours too, but opted to take it directly to his cultivation cave instead?"

Hearing this, my eyes widened as I finally figured out where Claire was going with all of that.

And finally, the question that continued to ring at the back of my head has found its answer.

"He took it back because it still is of use for him?" I suggested the answer even though I was pretty confident I'd got it right by now.

Then again, with how little I knew about cultivation, it wouldn't be surprising if I had it totally wrong.

"That's right," Claire didn't waste any time to let my anxiety linger. "he took it back because he still can get some worth out of it. In fact," Claire averted her eyes, "I wouldn't be all that surprised if it was better than most of the artifacts he bought before..."

For a moment, Claire kept her eyes averted, finally giving me pretty much a free session of watching how her boobs moved up and down along with her breathing pattern.

The next moment I knew, however, she slid her hands down the circumference of my arms, locking her fingers at my armpits before stepping back and pulling with all the strength of her body to drag me out of the chair.

'Hmm?' Not really sure what her end goal was now, I simply followed her lead and stood up, slow enough to make her believe it was her dragging me up yet fast enough not to make it seem like too much of a challenge.

'Strange...' A sudden thought befell my mind, 'aren't cultivators supposed to be... stronger than that?'

Either way, the very moment I stood up, Claire instantly dropped a bomb that pushed all the other thoughts out of my head.

"Now, while I'm not going to put you through the wringer yet if you are that eager to prove your worth, how about we start with the basics of cultivation?" she suggested with a light, charming smile that then quickly evolved into a mischievous grin.

"Now, strip."

My eyes turned wide.

'That escalated rather quickly, didn't it?'

Using the fact I was already standing up, I took a step back... only for the edge of the chair to block my shins, nearly making me fall back into the cushions.

"Excuse me?"

Claire's grin only grew wider.

"What, pervy thoughts already filling your head, huh?" she asked, only to then slowly drag her eyes down towards my crotch and widen her smile even further.

Claire then took a step forward and placed her open hand over my chest while getting close enough to make herself look all the cutter when she looked up and gave me a great view of her upturned eyes.

"If you need it to relax and calm down, I'm down for a quickie. It's better than having you suffer while I need you to focus on the lesson..."

Claire moved even closer, now openly pushing her breasts against my chest while her deep cleavage left pretty much nothing to the imagination.

But...

"You are right," I nodded my head... Only to reach out and grab the girl by her shoulders before gently pushing her to the edge of my personal space. "I am desperate to prove myself to both you and your father so that neither of you will ever bother rethinking the validity of our deal."

With that said, I slipped out from between Claire and the chair, quickly grabbing the edge of my shirt before pulling it up and taking it off, only to throw it on the sofa nearby.

"Should I take the pants off too?" I asked, turning just my head to look over at the girl.

I looked over... Only to catch her pouting a little, an expression that vanished the very moment she realized I had my eyes on her.

"Since you are hard already..." Claire rolled her eyes with a hint of dissatisfaction on her face, "You can leave your underwear on. Once you are done, sit down and wait for me to join you."

I took a step in the direction Claire pointed out, only to stop after this single step.

"Out of curiosity, are you going to..."

Once again, I caught Claire's stare. This time, however, she was... surprised?

"And why would I..."

Just like me before, she cut her sentence short when she saw the look on my face.

"Since you really want me to spell it out," I turned back to face her again before quickly conquering the distance between us and bringing my hands down to her waist. "You know how it goes, duty before pleasure and all," I stated before leaning in even closer, bringing my lips as close to Claire's ear without actually touching it.

"So, I really wouldn't mind having some sort of reward to look forward to if I do my best to work hard."