Two hours after separating, night began to fall as Claire walked around the house. It was the perfect time to challenge Leon. She had made a miraculous breakthrough and learned not one, but two of the three spear skills in the red crystal. She could even thrust and slash her spear with decent accuracy now.

It felt like she had found her true calling. Learning the spear was surprisingly easy, and that made it so much faster to gain spear-related skills. Although they were only of common rarity, it should’ve taken her a week to learn them both, the skills completely alien compared to Qi Burst and Empower, and yet it took her less than two hours!

She wanted to learn the other skill and practice the rest of the spear moves, but she had to leverage her current strength to beat Leon now before he overtook her. Knowing him, the bastard was still figuring out how to swing his sword before he moved on to learning any of the skills. He was too methodical and thorough in his approach, and that would be his downfall!

Claire walked around the side of the house and stopped dead in her tracks. Leon stood a few metres away from a large tree, its surface covered in criss-crossed blade marks. He hadn’t… No, that was impossible. Not even Sophia was progressing that quickly with her bow.

Peeking out from behind the wall to not disturb him, Claire watched as a thick layer of Qi began to gather on the sword. The blade was sheathed at his side, the movement of his Qi subtle. Still, she could see that it was gathering by the fact that the sheath was beginning to glow and shudder from the raw power.

His eyes opened and he unsheathed the blade. It rang like a bell as he slashed the air, and despite Claire’s fervent praying to whatever God would listen, an arc of Qi flew out from its edge and sliced into the side of the trunk more than five metres away. The Qi dug into the bark and left a line across its surface, cutting deep enough that red sap began to drip out.

While it didn’t sound as impressive compared to slicing down five trees at once, the attack could bisect a panther in half, if not leave it half-dead after the first attack. The fist-sized hole beneath it must’ve been from a sword-thrusting skill. How he had created not one, but two skills in the same amount of time it took her to replicate already made techniques, she didn’t know. Had he also learned the three skills in his sword crystal as well? What about the fighting style?

What was she even doing here?

Her head hung in defeat, Claire turned around and began to walk away when Leon called out to her.

“Hey,” Leon said, his smile so passionate that it began to melt her frosty countenance, “how are you finding the spear? Is it a good fit?”

“Yeah. I’ve already learned two of the skills. I just checked on Sophia and she’s also having a lot of fun. She’s even using Pete as a target.”

“What!?” He said, his eyes widening. “You can’t let her do that!”

Claire chuckled. “Don’t worry. The arrowheads are blunt, remember? And that’s not even mentioning how quick the little bastard is. He moves like a flash of light, I tell you. Sophia hasn’t hit him once, and if you want my opinion, I don’t think she ever will.”

“So it’s like a game then?”

Claire nodded, smiling as he sighed in relief. They continued chatting about what they had learned, even sharing notes on their skills. They swapped crystals for the rest of the night as well. It was enlightening to see how his skills worked, especially since they were basically the same, the blueprint only adjusted for a different weapon. His crystal held sword skills while hers contained the spear-oriented versions. Both of them were common rarity, holding only the basest of techniques, but seeing how they differed while achieving the same function was a good learning experience.

One skill to fortify their weapon with Qi, another to increase the sharpness of the blade, and a third to increase the speed of their attack. Leon had already picked up all three and even learned the sword ‘style’ the creator had left. Really, it was just the basics. Claire wasn’t even sure it could be called a style at all. The crystal held examples of foundational techniques, a simple way to grip the weapon, and a guide on how to step so that you didn’t trip over.

Or simply put, the style was no style at all. It was a guide on how to slash and thrust your weapon that any child could follow. Which was great for amateurs like them, but it would become useless in a few months when they mastered the basics.

After dinner, Claire tried to finish refining her bones. The progress was disappointing. Her heart just wasn’t in it, the lack of focus distracting her from condensing the Qi enough to make a real difference. She was getting better at it, sure, but when she compared her Qi to Leon’s, it was like pouring water on a bowl of honey.

Being useless made her feel sad.

She had never experienced anything like it before, her previous life being relaxed and full of supportive family, friends, and teachers. No one had ever relied on her for anything more than taking out the trash. Even Sophia hadn’t needed her until now, their mother doing a fine job of raising her. Sophia’s mind was so sharp that Claire was the one asking her for help with homework.

But now she did need Claire. She needed her more than ever, both to guide her out of the pocket world and protect her from the creatures that lingered in the shadows. Hell, who was she kidding? Claire couldn’t even save her sister from a squirrel. She didn’t just feel useless.

She was useless.

Sophia had tried to hide her real feelings over the last few weeks. She put on the big girl act and a brave face, but Claire saw through it all. Whether it was the way she flinched at a rustling bush or the tears she cried when everyone else was asleep, she knew it all.

Claire knew it so well that she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

And what had she done to help her little sister? Nothing. She hadn’t done a single god-damned thing despite claiming to care so much, and when she thought about actually getting off her ass and doing something, she became paralysed by indecision.

What could she do?

Sophia was the sweetest little angel, but she was also prideful beyond compare. Asking to talk would get her nowhere. The idea that she even needed help was probably an insult to her, but who wouldn’t be overly prideful when intelligence was their defining feature? That was all most people knew her as, and it was also the limit of how much they cared to know.

She was the smart one and Claire was the athlete.

But that was wrong, wasn’t it? In this new world, Claire was nothing. She had no talent in cultivation or manipulating Qi, and her ability to defend herself was basically non-existent. Weaker than everyone around her, she wasn’t even good at the one thing that defined her.

Sure, she might eventually find something else that she was good at, but right now she was stuck with the spear. And what if there was nothing better to be found? The polearm had exceeded her every expectation and it still fell short of the two monsters she was travelling with. What if she was nothing more than a mediocre girl with no real talent in anything? It was one thing to not amount to much in life, but it was another to hold everyone else back and maybe even get them killed by your ineptitude.

Claire lay awake in her sleeping bag like she did every night since the squirrel incident, mulling over the last few weeks until she passed out from exhaustion. She had been so rude to Leon from the day they met. And for what? Because he was slightly better than her? She was self-aware enough to know why she competed over every little thing. She was merely using him as a marker for how she judged herself, and while that wasn’t a problem on its own, she also knew that he didn’t deserve her wrath when she inevitably failed to keep up with him.

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He was trying his best just like her.

It wasn’t his fault that her best wasn’t good enough.

Sophia began to cry again like she did every night, each whimper more painful than a dagger in Claire’s heart. She felt lost on what to do until she remembered her talk with Leon earlier today. As the sun disappeared over the horizon, she confided in him her feelings of inadequacy, specifically about taking care of Sophia. And just like a boy, he had laughed in her face before explaining why the problems that kept her up at night were silly.

“So,” He drawled, raising an eyebrow, “you’ve tried everything aside from being yourself?”

She almost smacked him over the head with her spear. It was the most trite piece of advice she’d ever heard, and yet now that her sister needed her, she suddenly understood what he was getting at. If only the realisation wasn’t so unsettling. She rolled over and looked at Sophia, her body uncomfortable despite being nestled in a warm sleeping bag. How had she been so stupid? Claire didn’t need to be a great warrior or cultivation genius to help Sophia.

She just needed to be the loving big sister that she was.

Before she knew it, Claire had unzipped her sleeping bag and slipped out. Sophia noticed, of course, her whimpers going silent as she held her breath. Superhuman senses made it a lot harder to sneak around now, but none of that would matter after tonight.

Sophia tensed up as she tiptoed over, her body curling in on itself with every step, growing smaller and smaller until she all but disappeared. Then Claire unzipped the sleeping bag and slid in, her arms wrapping around her little sister from behind. Sophia shivered at the sudden exposure to the cold, quickly wiping away one last tear before she looked back over her shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

“What I should’ve done weeks ago.”

Pete glared at them for letting the cold night air in. Claire apologised, zipping the bag back up. The cub seemingly understood. He groaned and went back to sleep, content in Sophia’s arms. Claire just hoped that her little sister felt the same way in hers.

“I love you,” Sophia said, relaxing in her arms.

For some reason, Claire didn’t think she would have any trouble falling asleep tonight.

“I love you too.”

***

The next day, Leon and Claire went to a neighbouring pocket world to forage for berries and herbs. They left Sophia to sleep in with Pete. She seemed exhausted for some reason, which was odd considering she was kicked out of the puzzle the least of them all. He was making very little progress so he spent most of his time cultivating, working on his skills, and playing- Uh, training with the sword.

Leon and Claire moved in silence through the empty forest. He enjoyed the morning chill, leaving him with ample opportunity to ponder on his decisions the day before. He had made a new skill inspired by a technique in Sophia’s purple crystal. While it wasn’t perfect yet, basing it on a concept from an epic skill seemed to make it unusually strong.

He even had ideas for another. He just needed to convince Claire to spar against him a little so that he could practice it.

Even though he knew how to fight, doing so while incorporating skills was a whole different beast. He had learned that the hard way when he began his training as a child. Fighting had its own cadence, and if you didn’t follow that rhythm, you would learn why everyone else did the hard way. Inventing a useful skill was difficult, but if he could just get a bit of sparring in, he would get a better idea of how to make the skill better.

Leon walked over to Claire. She was kneeling beside a bush laden with ripe blueberries, picking them with a smile on her face. Leon knelt down and began helping her, giving them a chance to chat. Even after apologising for laughing in her face, she had been colder than usual, making him a bit nervous to ask in case he upset her again.

They made some small talk before he asked for her help.

“I have a technique I want to try but I need some help with it. Do you mind sparring with me later?”

“Of course!” Claire said, her smile light and relaxed. “I’m having some trouble with a skill myself, actually. I just can’t figure out how to increase the speed of my arms without tearing a muscle. You wouldn’t know how, would you?”

“I think I can help. I haven’t learned the skill yet, but I have a solid idea of how to pull it off.”

“Wonderful! We can figure it out together then.”

Leon blinked. This was an entirely different person, wasn’t it? Where was the grumpy, disbelieving teen he knew? If he asked her for help yesterday she would’ve lamented his ability to create skills and maybe even called him a few names. Not that he was upset at her sudden good mood, but he couldn’t help his curiosity as to why she had changed.

Was she doing really well with the spear, allowing her to put her inferiority complex aside?

“You know,” Claire said, stretching her back as she sat up. “I never did thank you for saving my sister’s life.”

“Well, I’m sure you know the saying. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best is right now.”

Claire smiled, and not in a snarky or condescending way he expected.

“You’re right,” She said, smiling in relief. “Thank you, Leon, for saving my little sister’s life. I appreciate your help more than you could ever know, and I’m sorry it took me so long to admit that.”

***

Still a little frazzled, Leon quickly cleaned up after breakfast as Sophia moved to start her puzzle attempts. They worked in a rotation from best to worst. Sophia would practice for an hour or two, followed by Leon and then Claire. That left the others cultivating or working on skills while someone did the puzzle most of the day.

They would usually take a small break and then eat an early dinner, skipping lunch entirely. The rotation would restart after their headaches had faded. Leon sat down while he waited for Claire to finish her attempt, cultivating side by side with Sophia. She was about to enter into middle Foundation Forging even faster than he had, the pressure helping him to finish refining his bones.

He only recently broke through, the next stage focused on his organs.

He called it the Viscera Forging stage. According to Sophia, the word meant ‘inside’, making it the perfect word for what the stage entailed. Essentially, one used their Qi to nourish their inner organs. It included basically everything internal from his heart to his kidneys, leading him to believe that the next stage would be all the external organs such as the muscles, skin, and tendons.

As he had expected, it took twice as long as the previous stage. His current estimate was about a month to complete the Viscera Forging stage and two months to break out of the next and reach late Foundation Forging. He had tweaked things a little thanks to his improvements in controlling and condensing Qi, but he didn’t have an exact estimate on how much time he had shaved off.

Leon stopped meditating when he heard a cheer.

“I did it!” Claire cheered, jumping up and down. She’d been stuck on the first door while Leon and Sophia had started working on the timed puzzles in the basement. “I finished the first puzzle door. I can control five strings of Qi now!”

Claire ran over and bowled Sophia over in a hug. Pete meowed as he jealously tried to crawl between them, but Leon picked the little guy up after lightly reprimanding him. Best to let the sisters have their moment.

“I thought you said it would take you a week or two if you were lucky?” Leon said, smiling as they sat up. “Why the sudden breakthrough? Did you gain some new title or skill?”

“Nope! I think I just slept really well.”