God Of Crafting

'Now that she's out of it, what should I do next?'

I took a deep breath as I looked down at Claire slumped down atop my lap.

After what very likely was over an hour of intense making out, Claire couldn't care less about her advancement. She just curled up, purring as she dozed off, all happy and satisfied.

'Now that I think about it, I don't really have any real plans for the days ahead,' I thought, finally forced to face the ugly reality of putting all sorts of troubles aside, for later.

Because now that this later arriver… I couldn't help but feel awfully ill-prepared.

'Sure, I've racked up achievements with both the devices and now Claire's breakthrough… But what is it that I actually need to do now?'

There were many possible paths for me to take. In the end, however, only three appeared viable enough for me to pursue them.

First, I had to help Chihiro. An extremely tall order given how…

My eyes drew to Claire's exhausted yet satisfied expression.

She looked truly adorable in her unicorn-shaped onesie, peacefully napping down on my thigh with her body curling up into a ball of fluff.

'But I don't really have the knowledge or the means to do it yet. And even when I learn what Claire can share, I doubt I will be able to grasp everything just like I did today.

There were limits to just how broken my strange ability could be. And if a mere fifth-stage cultivator could somehow figure out the secrets of the highest mortal stages… The world would be doomed!

'Even if from just a few of her words,' I drew my fingers through Claire's soft, light-brown hair. 'She still told me something.'

I didn't forget Claire's short mumble when she rushed to get all the steps checked out before stealing my lips for the next hour or so.

And now, while I still suffered from exhaustion, she happily napped down, her ear resting on my knee while her small yet true smile proved she was rewarded with happy dreams.

'Core expansion, condensation, then new realm, doubled and tripled…' I repeated what I could still remember, taking a mental note of every word I managed to recover.

And now, that I finally located the right topic to pay attention to…

I've noted it down in my mind before moving on.

It wasn't my goal to do something, not for now.

A proper plan had to come first, lest I want to complicate the situation once I grow more aware of my goals and circumstances.

'First, the two of us need to get stronger. Then, we need the business to explode with some sort of product, so that we can grow in wealth, access, and importance. With those, we could easily approach higher realms. And by doing so, I might peer deeper into the secrets of whatever currently restricts Chihiro's growth.

Then again…

'Core expansion, huh?' I thought all the way back to the first word. 'And it's followed by condensation to boot…'

This one word continued to appear over and over again, starting with the second stage of Qi condensation, re-emerging in the fifth stage with the common name being true condensation… And now all the way up at the eighth stage, of core condensation.

'I wonder if the process will be roughly the same…'

I didn't really go through the second stage, save for the little show Claire performed for me during the lesson. The True condensation stage, however, was apparently my current level.

And to a degree, I couldn't help but notice how things were relatively… the same.

In both cases, I simply had to condense the spiritual energy to a tighter state, forcibly refining it under great pressure to raise its quality.

But how was one supposed to condense their core… already it was already a product of condensation?

'No, that's not even the right question. The first thing that I should focus on, is how to expand the core now that she properly established it. That, and…' my face darkened a little. 'That, and I need to find out how to break past this fifth stage myself.'

Was it greedy, to lust for higher ranks right after I've somehow skipped a whole four of them?

Normally, one could say yes, but in my case…

I honestly couldn't care less about my rank itself.

In a certain sense, now that I had Chihiro's financial support, I moved from a world of absolute deficiency to an absolute overkill. As such, even when putting aside everything else, the normal path of cultivation no longer applied to me anyway.

As such, what I once believed I would have fun climbing now turned into nothing more but a necessity, a requirement for me to stand straight by Claire's side as we go through our lives.

But rolling back, for that to happen, I couldn't just focus on Claire's or Chihiro's growth.

If I wanted to keep all my benefits, I had to keep proving my worth. And displaying my personal prowess was the easiest way to go about it.

'Okay then, that settles it,' I thought, taking in a slightly deeper breath before slowly exhaling it out.

'First, I need to grow stronger myself. Second, we need to kick-start the business. And once this allows us to grow stronger, we will use everything we gained and learned along the way to help Chihiro challenge his mortal limits.'

Everything had to follow a certain path.

If I wanted to help Chihiro, I needed both means and knowledge.

This means I could obtain by developing my business while knowledge was barred behind my cultivation rank. And with how a prospering business would only further aid my hunger for resources connected to personal growth…

That was exactly what I should start with!

'But what should we even sell? Neither those Qi condensators nor the Qi purifiers would pass their veto…'

I breathed out a sigh before looking down, at Claire napping down on my knee.

Once again, I couldn't help but fall into the ditch of her soothing adorableness. A feeling of peace emanated out of her calm, innocent face.

'She really doesn't look like someone who raped my mouth for an hour straight,' I thought, allowing a small smile to help my face relax.

'And now that I think about it…'