God Of Crafting

Chapter 245 Just before we go back...

"before we go back, do you want to see just how far we can travel up this path now that we've cultivated for a bit?" i suggested pretty much as soon as we picked ourselves up from the garden's floor with the clear and articulated intention to leave. "i know we've been here for quite a while now, but a few minutes more in this place shouldn't hurt, i think."

clarie took only a moment to think through my question.

"i guess it wouldn't hurt to check," she replied with a small smile forming on her lips as sparks of competitiveness fired up in her eyes. "and i refuse to believe it's still going to be as hard to move here as it was before, now that we've improved by so much!"

even though we didn't really get the chance to test it in practice, we could both feel it.

the power brimming in our cores, the surges of it between the supercritical center of our cultivation and all the anchors we set up, the ease with which we could move our limbs...

all of those small, fine details, while not as accurate as the results of extensive medical check-ups combined with rated exercise, were more than enough for us to guesstimate the limits of our current strength.

and while we didn't really have anything reliable enough to compare our current limits to, when it came to the state we were in before entering the garden and now that we were finally ready to leave it...

'i wonder if we will have the problem of crushing the handles of the doors we simply want to just push open,' theo thought, gulping his saliva down at the mere thought of doing something like this only to then deal with all the mocking and ridicule that was bound to follow.

this wasn't the modern world where pointing that kind of thing out was considered to be a faux pas, something only those uneducated would engage in.

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no.

in the modern world, the phenomenon of failing to properly control one's strength, for as long as it didn't come at the cost of harm to others, wasn't something to be ashamed of. in fact, as a sign of near-certain growth, it was deemed to be a badge of honor that many liked to wear for as long as possible.

the whole mess around the concept of one's cultivation pushing their strength above what they were able to naturally control grew to the point where there were even some people who would pretend to be affected by this happenstance, all to elicit certain types of reactions from those around them.

but here? in the spiritual part of the world? where cultivation was taken much more seriously than back in the modern world?

"should we cultivate just for a little bit more?" claire suggested while giving me a slightly concerned look. "not to advance but just to... you know," she cutely leaned her head over her shoulder, "restore our fuel tanks?"

"didn't you claim that we were already lingering for way too long?" i winked back at her, only to lightly shake my head and turn around, open my arms and then step into claire, collapsing my arms over her as i brought her into a bear-like hug.

normally, to cultivate in this place, we would take our time to sit down, get in the position we were habitually most comfortable in, and then take some time to regain proper focus before finally allowing ourselves to focus on the task.

right now, however, was different. for as we had no designs to try to push our cultivation status any further than it was right now, we simply hugged to make small use of our bond, sinking into each other's warmth to soothe our minds and regain whatever little focus we could on the spot.

what followed didn't fall out of the norm we established in this place, with us stirring our cores to induce an attractive force on the spiritual law energy present in this place, sucking it into our bodies only to immediately cast it down upon the face of our cores, giving it even more fuel to burn through and thus accelerating the flow of energies within ourselves.

this process, while not instant, didn't last longer than just a few moments, a few minutes at the longest and roughly half a minute at the shortest.

'in here, it's pretty damn hard to judge how much time is passing, all the more when we focus not on counting seconds but cultivating,' i thought, taking note of this problem to later verify just how off my natural sense of time was when compared to the actual passing of time one could check with a simple clock outside.

"okay, i think we are ready."

a few moments later, we pulled away from each other, with our bond strong enough to indicate what i'd just said was pretty much the same thing that claire just thought herself.

"shall we go back, then?" i suggested as i courtly offered claire my hand, more than happy to keep up physical contact with her, even if it was to be something as simple as holding hands.

a motion that would be overly romanticized in fiction, but also an option that allowed us to keep in literal touch while strolling back to where we came from.

"oh, with pleasure, my good sir," claire chuckled a little but still played her part as she did a small yet dignified curtsy before slowly bringing just the tips of her fingers down upon the open palm of my offered hand.

the fingers that she quickly collapsed as she pushed them between mine and tightly grabbed on my hand only to then add a tight squeeze to the mix.

"something wrong?" i asked, puzzled by this slightly out-of-character moment from claire.

"not really," she smiled back at me before shaking her head and sending her hair flying, turning it into a messy, chaotic, brown flurry. "i just thought that we don't really go around holding hands all that much. heck, i think i held your dick for quite a bit longer than i did hold your hand," she then added, clearly trying to land a joke... only to fail miserably at it, given the awkward moment of silence that followed.