"Then, instead of adding two more stacks like this one, I will add one more zero instead."
At first, my eyes widened a bit.
Before I could react in any other way, however, my well-developed instincts kicked in, putting me in a state of deep focus.
It was a natural result of the way I've trained and hoped to overcome the wall of meditation, by forcing myself to regain my focus whenever my attention would spike.
Normally, this kind of focus reset would happen whenever I would be in an already deeply focused state and with something extremely minor about to distract me. Right now, however, with my thoughts already agitated, Claire's suggestion…
It was as much of a shock in my already agitated state as much a fly flying past would be a distraction while I tried to focus.
And so, with just a single twitch of my eyes, I've entered this quasi-meditative state, momentarily slowing down my perception of time and allowing me just a slight moment to think things through.
"So, a hundred thousand for a finished design with some slight improvements to how well it works?" I've asked, not for the sake of negotiating the price, but to buy myself more time.
'Should I just get the money and run?'
'Maybe cooperating with her is not the worst idea? Ten big ones are a lot, but nowhere near enough to keep going for long, especially with all the added costs…'
'Am I insane for even thinking I can trust someone I just randomly met?
A thousand different thoughts raced through my mind, each of them helping me to distance myself from the weight of the money the girl offered right away, and the sum she claimed to be willing to pay for a finished product.
Yet, even with all of that said…
"That's right," Claire nodded her head, leaving the neatly arranged wad of cash on the table before pulling her empty hand back. "A hundred big ones for what, a week's worth of work?" she asked with a small smile, shrewd enough to already include the rough timeline in the deal she was proposing.
But after all the thoughts that went through my mind, after all the things I noticed, thought, and processed… This wasn't the course I wished for our discussion to take. Not just yet, at the very least.
"Before I say anything else, allow me to suggest two stipulations," I stated while crossing my hands over my chest and doing my best to put a small, non-committed smile on my face. "From here and out, we are going to be fully honest. No bullshit, no half-truths, no lies of convenience or omitting the important details. Obviously, if there are things we won't have the answer for or we won't feel at liberty to speak about, just a single mention of this stipulation will suffice for an answer," I elaborated a bit before raising the corner of my smile to make it seem slightly cheeky. "What say you?"
Judging by the slight changes on Claire's face, my words managed to take her somewhat by surprise… But not to the point where she would break her persona and show it directly. Just a slight raise of her eyebrow, a twitch of her eye, a momentary lapse of her own smile, those were the hints I had to work with.
But now that I was in my fully focused state, those details could very well be painted in red and have big, neon arrows flashing as they pointed at each and every last one of them.
"Is this the moment that I call the cops or…?"
I laughed out a little before relaxing my hands and stuffing them down into the pockets of my pants.
"It's nothing that grand, I'm just a simple man who dislikes complicated schemes or word games. And yes, I'm aware that only makes me a prime target for a rip-off of the century," I shook my arms while keeping my arms firmly stuffed in my pockets before breathing a slight, exhausted sigh, "but honestly, I can see our cooperation turning long-term as it benefits us both, so I will leave it up to you to set the proper foundation for it today."
Claire wasn't in a hurry to give her answer. Instead, she stared me down from the tip of my head to the very bottom of my feet, all the while hiding behind the solid barrier of her counter.
Just by the benefit of sitting down while she offered me no seat to rest on, she could somewhat claim a slightly better position on the negotiating table… But just like I said before, I had no wish, desire, or energy to deal with small caveats like that.
"Fine, if it's honesty you want, then honesty is the least I can offer," Claire sighed, proving her assessment of my person came out, at the very least, somewhat favorably. "Shoot, what is it that you wish to know?"
I nodded my head a little to express my gratitude for her decision.
"First off, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your ability to teach someone the basics of cultivation?" I asked, only to turn my smile a little bit wider, more welcoming. "And I mean both theory and practice."
This time, however, my words…
My words brought a change that actually caught me off guard. For what I considered to be just an innocent question, even if slightly telling about my wish to find a teacher to bring me through the basics now that I've found my way to meditate…
What I didn't expect was Claire's face suddenly flaring up as if I just asked if I could make love to her grandmother!
Claire's face turned fierce, sparks of ill-hidden rage flashing up in her eyes as she began to stand from her seat. The air in the room tensed up… It actually tensed up, likely due to whatever this girl did to the mana within the shop.
"If this is your way of trying to make me dual cultivate with you…"
'Huh?'
Despite the obvious seriousness of the clerk's misunderstanding… Her rage died down as soon as it came to be.
And I could only guess it was the genuine surprise on my face that made her realize that her interpretation of my words didn't align with my intentions at all!
"That was never my goal," I quickly rebuked the accusation while raising my hands up to my chest and showing my palms as if to show that I was completely harmless - just like my intentions. "I mean, you saw me some hours ago. As embarrassing as it is, today is the very first day that I've touched mana, so…"
I was twenty-five years old.
While it didn't matter all that much in the modern day and age, I've already started between two and five years later than usual. And with how I've only come to accept my absolute lack of talent two years later than pretty much even the worst practicioners were expected to enter the realm of cultivation…
I couldn't really fault Claire for not taking me for a total and absolute newbie!
"Is that why you asked…?" Slightly startled, Claire raised her eyes to my face as he… took a deeper look into me.
It wasn't just her expression.
Just like when the air around her tensed up a moment ago, her stare felt… heavier, deeper than before.
"You actually are just a newbie…" she then muttered before I could even give her the answer.
Still, this girl clearly wasn't the one to dwell on the topic while she pondered over her options.
"On a scale of one to ten… I can confidently claim to be seven. With that said, though," Claire's voice turned lower and fainter as her sentence drew to an end, only for the girl to squint her eyes as her stare, once again, pierced through my eyes. "While I can guess why you ask about it, I'm not really sure what it has to do with your crafting or our deal. With a hundred big ones, you could easily hire…"
"That's what my second question was for," I interrupted the girl, courtly ignoring the opportunity to ask what made her rate herself so relatively high on the scale I proposed. "How much would you prize a device capable of thickening the mana in a room about the size of this shop so much, a newbie like me right now would actually struggle to move?"