God Of Crafting

"If I'm correct, he should be down below the deck, doing nothing but shoveling coal into the bus' engine!"

Hearing this, I turned my eyes and locked them on Claire's face, not sure whether to take her words as a joke… or some sort of cryptic message designed to prevent those not in the know from understanding it.

But…

Now that we were up in the air, driving on some sort of invisible path, who could be there to listen to what we randomly talked about?

"Don't give me that look," Claire laughed it off as she rose from her seat pretty much the moment the bus reached its cruising speed, allowing us to freely move around it once again. "It was a joke, just a joke," she waved her hand to dismiss the entire point. "Him shoveling the coal, that is," she then quickly added as her lips quivered into a small smirk. "Then again, he's the one powering the bus, and he does so from a special station below the deck, so while a joke, what I said wasn't completely devoid of truth."

Hearing all of this, I couldn't help but look uneasily down towards the very wooden floor we were now standing on, the floor below which, according to Claire's words, her father toiled away without rest to keep this whole weird-ass ship flying.

"Is this some sort of test?" I asked to confirm the very first theory that came to my mind. "Because if it's not, then why not just take the plane all the way over to the border, and then get this bus flying from there?"

I raised my eyes to the girl, only to see Claire cross her arms over her chest while nodding her head with a knowing smile.

"You said it, it's a test," she admitted before dropping the act and leaning her back against the side of her chair's backrest. "Only those who properly reached the peak of mortal cultivation, those truly worthy of stepping into the spiritual world, can keep this vehicle flying for as long as it takes to reach the city beyond the border."

Turning her eyes down, Claire stared at the floor, as if trying to somehow have her eyes evolve the ability to see through whatever stood in her eye's path and observe the point of her interest directly.

"Wait, why are you talking about flight when we are clearly just… driving?" I asked, only to then squint my eyes as I came up with a much better, much more fundamental question. "No, how is this bus even operating to begin with?" I changed the question, only to then look around before locking my eyes on the pristine emptiness of the sky outside, just several layers of glass in the bus's window away from my reach.

"Once again, you are right on the money. When I said we were flying, I meant it as a simplification, not the honest-to-God truth," Claire smiled playfully as she admitted to the truth. "As for how this whole thing works…"

This time, the girl hesitated for a second.

"I don't really know how each of the parts works, but the outer part of the wings keeps us in the air, the middle part houses the bulk of all the formations, while the innermost parts of the wings have two purposes," she explained, only to then reach out, grab my hand, and start pulling me back the way we came from.

"First, it's through the innermost part of the wings that the spiritual energy gets fed from within the bus proper to the spiritual machinery in the other parts of the wings," Claire continued to speak as we crossed the cockpit's corridor and left the place, getting right back to where we started our small bus-glider journey from.

"The other task of that part of the wings is to produce a track for the bus to drive on," Claire continued to explain as she dragged me all the way to the back of the bus before pushing the doors to the outermost bedroom open and leading both of us inside.

"Makes a track…" I muttered as I sat on the edge of the bed, torn between the mystery of how this weird vehicle operated and the sight of Claire just… going around her small tasks as she emptied out her pockets and dropped all of her personal items on the surface of a small, window-equipped hybrid of a nightstand and makeup station.

Then, after taking a few moments to digest everything that I knew, everything that I'd just heard, and everything I could somewhat guess…
Your journey continues on mvl

"Do you mean to say that this bus creates its own path to drive on?" I asked, not sure if I actually heard Claire right.

It wasn't because what she said was unlikely.

I questioned my own hearing because what she said made absolutely little to no sense.

"Because manifesting spiritual energy into a physical form is an arduous task, even for those at the very top of mortal cultivation," Claire stated, as if pulling the words out of my mouth to vocalize the very thought that flashed in my mind just a moment ago.

Then, however, rather than following through with the vibe of her response, Claire nodded her head to actually agree with the point she just made!

"Normally, that certainly would be the case. Back before his breakthrough, Dad could hold the manifestation for several tens of seconds. After advancing to the peak, this time extended all the way to several minutes, putting him on par with the geniuses of the rank and those who are only a step away from advancing beyond mortal limits," Claire happily explained, only to then start taking her outerwear off, throwing each taken-off piece down to the floor without the slightest care in the world.

"Isn't this travel supposed to take over ten hours, though?" I pointed out while fixing the pillows below the back of my head so that I could spectate Claire's casual striptease in absolute comfort and with full attention. "Wait, maybe it works on some sort of overcharge interplayed with power breaks…"

"No, it does not," Claire laughed out, only to pull her long-sleeved shirt off, revealing a cute tank top just long enough to reach above her belly button. "The system that allows this kind of travel is why this bus alone is worth nearly as much as half of the clan's town," she revealed, only to pull down her sweatpants, revealing the kind of clothing I'd never seen her in before—hot pants just long enough to spark a debate over whether they were actual pants or just panties made out of fancy material and cut to mimic proper short pants.

"Now you are getting me all bothered…" I admitted while rolling my eyes when Claire leaned toward the mirror, pretending as if she was checking some sort of fine detail on her face while actually just leaning down to give me the perfect view of her shapely ass.

"Are you that curious about how it works?" Claire asked while looking over her shoulder with a satisfied, knowing smile.

At this point, we both knew that neither of us meant the topic we actively discussed anymore.

Then again, just for decency's sake, Claire straightened her back before turning on her heel to face me and closing her arms over her scantily covered chest.

"I'm sorry, but I actually have no clue about the principle behind that system. All I know is that it stretches one's spirituality? Or maybe it amplifies it? Who knows, maybe it's some sort of spiritual algorithm that makes it just THAT much more efficient than doing it normally?"

Wasting no time out of the precious few hours we had left to enjoy ourselves in peace, Claire moved over, approaching the bed not from its side as any normal person would, but opting to approach it from the direction I had my feet at, only to then climb on top of it on all fours and continue climbing up the bed, all the way to the point where she loomed directly above me, looking down at my face while she enjoyed watching me struggle not to let my eyes get drawn to her dangling chest.

'At this point, what's the use of even wearing clothes?' I thought, doing my best to pretend not to notice how she wasn't wearing a bra or how her position made her boobs nearly fall out from underneath her tank top.

"Either way, regardless of how it works, it works," Claire shrugged her shoulders a bit, sending her entire upper body into a quick, endearing jiggle. "What's important is how it gives me all the time in the world to give my promise another try."

For a moment, I could adore Claire's beautiful, confident, and determined smile… only for her to suddenly collapse down.

Yet, rather than falling directly atop my chest, Claire shifted the balance of her body to stumble down to my side instead, ending up in a position I'd expect her to be in when we hugged each other to sleep.

"This…" Claire's voice struck directly against my brain as her breath carried her words into my right ear from so close, her lips nearly brushed against the lobe of my ear. "I hope that… this makes it clear…" she continued to whisper, keeping her voice at just the perfectly soothing level, loud enough for me to clearly hear it while silent enough not to break my sleepy immersion in the experience, "which of my promises I want to fulfill tonight."