God Of Crafting

Chapter 33: Overwhelming Excess

'They really held nothing back, did they?' I thought as I looked up, trying to have my eyes pierce the clouds in the sky so that I could see the top of the building where I was invited.

It was one of the fancier towers of the town, fitting everything inside. From the shops at the bottom, service, and office sectors in the middle all the way to the hotel and high-class restaurants near the top, one wouldn't be mistaken to call this building the pearl of the city.

Which, by no accident, was also the name of this magnificent tower. And whoever was behind the faint illumination on the tower's walls clearly played into the joke, making the base of the tower look as if it was made from shiny pearls.

Everything about this place, from how high it went into the sky, through the fancy front parking with three separate access points to its underground counterpart, all the way to the ever-present security that ensured the safety of not only the insides but the immediate outside too... Everything about this place screamed luxury, importance, and excess.

And it was the exact place where apparently Claire's dad wanted to have a talk with me to discuss the details of our potential deal.

'All of a sudden, my fit ain't that fancy, huh?' I thought, looking down at what, just a moment ago before taking the corner, I considered to be my best clothes.

I wore no suit, for I never saw the need or had enough free money to spare to get myself a proper one.

Instead, I came dressed in long, black pants and a simple, buttoned shirt, reaching the level of casual elegance at the very most... Which still made me stand out in this place like a sore thumb, for I fit neither the high-class category of the guests who all arrived in suits and dresses nor the casual look of those rich enough to actually take up residence in the pearl.

'Ha-ah...' I let out an internal sigh. 'They really did it now, didn't they?'

It was hard not to get annoyed right off the bat.

Even if the other party wasn't perfectly aware of my financial status yet, they had enough info to guess the rough estimate of my situation.

And what else was an invitation to the fanciest place in town if not an intimidation tactic prepared to limit my ability to speak up, for me to be too overwhelmed to properly advocate my own points and rights?

'Well,' I thought as I breathed out, attempting to push all the emotions aside as I did, 'that's a well-calculated move on their end, assuming getting this sort of advantage is worth the cost of reserving a table in this place...'

Sure, it was no easy task given how the majority of their assets and influences were locked within the cultivator's domain where even governments would find it hard to put their greedy hands on it... But there were just enough scraps for me to piece the general picture together.

And as out of the water as I was on this privately rented floor of one of the most expensive buildings in the entire damned city... It was still well within maybe not my expectations but surely within the realm of what I imagined to be possible.

"So," putting the glass down on the fancy, glass table, Chihiro turned his head and looked at me, finally acknowledging my presence. "What do you have for us?" he asked, outright ignoring my question from earlier.

And so, I decided to have some fun myself, since this bastard felt so free to entertain myself at my expense.

"Do you want to hear the reasonable or the cultivator's name first?" I asked while leaning my head over my shoulder and putting on a small, cheeky smile.

Chihiro apparently didn't seem to mind my approach, even going as far as to allow the corner of his mouth to pull up, forming a small, slightly mocking smirk.

"Let's start with the fancy one, then," he suggested only to raise the cup to his mouth and take a sip of the vibrant red, viscous liquid in his glass.

"Then, allow me to present to you, a rechargeable seed of the purifying tree," I announced, only to reach into my bag and then pull out the end result of all my hard work yesterday.

Now that it was properly dried off, it looked like an actual, oversized seed of some mystical tree or fruit. A seed even slightly bigger than my own head and covered in nothing but solidified leaves.

Chihiro only raised an eyebrow, while Claire leaned over the table to get a closer look at the item in my hand.

"And its reasonable name would be...?" Claire's dad inquired, even going as far as to put his glass away.

And so I smiled, placed the device down on the ground... and opened up my arms only to shake them a bit.

"A rechargeable air purification unit."