The next afternoon, Ace, Maeve, and Gracie were sitting on a sofa, still as a statue while Arte was standing a few meters away from them in front of a canvas while she held a palette in her left hand. Her eye, as she glanced at the trio looked determined and focused. There were no signs of her previous timid, shy, and meek personality. A rather praiseworthy change.
Of course, Maeve's focus wasn't on her but on her nightingale who was seated right next to her with her eye closed, as if focusing on something.
'What a monstrous talent' She thought inwardly.
Any normal mage would have his or her jaw dropped down to the floor if he or she witnessed this scene in front of her/him. It was already quite amazing that Gracie had formed a Magic Core before the age of 15 but what was even more shocking was that right now, she was cultivating!
Yes, she was absorbing Ice Qi without being in a lotus position!
It has to be known that any normal mage is unable to achieve such a thing. Well, actually, it's not like this is impossible but the problem is, it's very time taking and unproductive for a mage to train and achieve this state. It wasn't like he or she can move while cultivating, in the end, a mage has to sit in one place to cultivate. For most of the mage, the position doesn't matter so they don't try to change it at all.
Of course, it can't be denied that it would be amazing if one could cultivate while lying on the bed, but for one to be able to achieve such a level of focus, one has to train at least for 10 years.
Even Ace needed to train for 2 years for him to be able to achieve such a state.
But, here in front of Maeve, was sitting a monster who only needed mere 30 minutes to adjust to the new posture and she started her cultivation. Just a few cookies were enough motivation for her to achieve this feat.
Even though Ace and Maeve already expected that it would be easier for Gracie to achieve this due to her physique, it was still a lot faster than they expected.
Heck, the main reason why the two accepted Arte's request was for Gracie to be able to gain some time and train to achieve this state but who knew that the girl only needed 30 minutes!
Well, nonetheless, Gracie has achieved the state where she can pretty much cultivate no matter where she wanted, it can be said that she was now one step closer to be able to utilize the true powers of her physique.
A power to regenerate Mana while fighting!
How frightening would that be? No one knew.
Anyways, right now, while Arte was painting, Gracie was cultivating and on the other hand, Ace seized this chance to sneak his hand underneath Maeve's top as he teased and touched her soft waist sensually.
Judging by the triumphant smile on his face, it could be said for certain that the man was very happy with his advance and decision to take advantage of the situation.
Maeve, of course, was not a bit uncomfortable due to his advances, on the contrary, she was smiling inwardly, happy that her love loves her as much as he did 100 years ago. No matter how close they are, or no matter how many times they spent their nights together with each other, these small gestures and perverted acts of Ace will always leave an impact in her heart and she would never ever hate it.
Just like that, 6 hours passed by, and finally,
"Haah~ It's done!" Arte exhaled deeply before she glanced at the trio and then glanced back at the canvas, with a nod, she muttered, "It came out better than I expected, I guess it really does help when your models all have otherworldly looks."
Arte kept nodding to herself, and the first one to move was little Gracie, who was the most excited about this whole ordeal. Even Ace and Maeve don't know how she managed to successfully cultivate when all her focus was on the painting.
Well, the two conveniently blamed her physique and didn't think much about it. It wasn't like it was something bad or harmful to Gracie anyways.
"Wow~ Big Sister Arte! This is sooo beautiful! How did you make this?" Gracie couldn't help but exclaim in awe as her eyes fell on the painting. Ace and Maeve also nodded their head in appreciation as they glanced at their own painting.
On the surface, it looked like Arte didn't change anything and just copy pasted what she saw but the more the person looked at it, the more beautiful the painting got. It was as if there was a spell that was cast on the painting to make it look more appealing.
The painting itself captured everything, every little thing, be it, Maeve's graceful posture, to Ace's domineering built, even Gracie's naiveness and cuteness was captured masterfully.
All in all, the painting was nothing short of Masterpiece.
Even Ace and Maeve, who had seen paintings of many top painters in Herferd were impressed by the details and creativeness. Of course, the main reason they were impressed and approved of the painting was little Gracie, who was simply in love with a painting. Her eyes were shining so brightly that even Arte, who was already used to people praising her painting felt proud.
"Big sister Arte, you are so cool!" Gracie praised.
"Thank you, little Gracie"
"Sister Arte, will you make another painting for us? Please?" Gracie questioned with sparkly eyes. One has to be a heartless monster if he wanted to turn down those eyes.
"Yes Miss Arte, we would like you to return tomorrow and paint some more paintings for us. As for the payment… umm… how does 100 Gold coins per painting sound to you?" Ace offered.
"H-Hundred!? For a single painting!?" Arte bolted in shock.