God Of Crafting

"Just how did it do it?"

This question was a lot more valid than it appeared to me when I first thought it out.

Earlier, I just assumed that there existed some sort of AI subroutine that simply fit into the nervous system of those beasts, allowing the AI to manipulate them once those beasts absorbed a sufficient amount of the infested Qi.

But now that I look back on this idea… It didn't make the slightest sense!

'How could an AI, a spiritual energy-anchored consciousness infuse itself into the flesh and bone of those beasts to make them do its bidding?'

A question seemingly with no answer… But as proved by practice, a feat that was certainly possible - because it happened.

Yet, even after taking a moment to think about it, any form of complex and wholesome answer simply eluded me.

'Maybe I should go with the theory that's staring me right in the face, then?' I thought, gritting my teeth at the mere idea of accepting a simple explanation for this extremely complex problem.

In theory… there was a chance that the AI somehow found a way to use spiritual energy to interact with physical matter directly. A method I was more than just interested in given my crafting tendencies and endless thirst for new tools capable of transforming magic into one form or another to use modern technology to improve it before reversing the process.

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But it was that, or…

'Or, this AI never actually controlled the horde but merely manipulated it to a much more limited degree than what it would seem…!'

Bit by bit, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. For now, however, it was still way too early for me to form any sort of guess over the answer. Doing so would only create a bias towards the result, a bias I already had to be ready to combat if any new information or ideas could put my thoughts thus far into question.

"As for how it controlled the beasts, I'm not really sure. My two standing theories are how it either just loosely manipulated them and then made the results appear as its goal, or…"

I gulped my saliva down before I could allow the second, much more dramatic option to pass through my mouth.

"Or it found some way to access the material with nothing more than spiritual, right?" Claire caught on surprisingly quickly as she pushed some of the dishes away and leaned over the table.

Still, while we already arrived far further than what my initial guesses on the topic managed to explore… There was still one more thing, one more leap towards the next potential clue that I had to perform before accepting any sort of summarization.

"Now that I think about it, what are the exact benefits of going to hunt in the zone?"

Normally, I would learn the answer to this question through the experience of my very first hunt. But given how the beast hunt in the zone turned into a manhunt and then into a battle, I lacked the crucial information necessary for me to even finish forming my proper idea up!

"A hunt, you say?" Claire muttered, taking on a rather dreamy look for a moment as she dug into the reservoir of her knowledge. "First, you need to consider it as more of a ritual than the hunt as you understand it," she stated with an absent look on her eyes, as if she was staring at the pages of a book hidden within her spirituality… or even deeper, at the bottom of her soul.

"Let's start with what you know," Claire stated as she fixed her position on the chair only to then reach out and grab a chicken's leg only to then use it as a pointer to make her lecture a bit more expressive. "Normally, a hunt is an activity consisting of several stages, all aimed to gradually corner, tire out, and finally kill off a beast.

Normally, hunts are conducted either for the sake of procuring food or resources or alternatively, as a way of building up one's glory. And in that last regard, your normal hunt isn't all that different from what cultivators consider to be a hunt. But that's also where similarities end."

Even though it's been likely the longest Claire talked on a single breath anywhere near me, I just couldn't stop myself from listening.

In one way or form, she was doing a great job at condensing and simplifying stuff, so that I could get the general gist of the circumstances as opposed to their long, deep, and detailed particulars.

"For a cultivator, hunt begins not with the preparation of tools, but a proper conditioning of their mindset. That part, however, is not uniform across the different hunts, as everyone gets to pick their own imaginery of it.

For example, there are those who go on a hunt in w bid to better understand mortality in order to have an easier time overcoming it, then there are others who purely seek to better understand strength or agility…" Enjoy tales on m-vle-mp _yr.

Claire shook her head.

"Whatever it is that you try to understand or overcome during the hunt, it will also decide the rest of your preparation. But overall, you need to raise your cultivation to your current limits and enter the hunt at your peak state, fully prepared to pay the price of enlightenment in blood and broken bones if not even your very death."

At this point, Claire finally started to tire down a little.

"For most, hunts are less about resources you can obtain from them, but this very act of seeking a better understanding of the world," Claire's lips curved up in a skittish smirk, "to see a world in a droplet of water, you could say."

Hearing those words, my smile only grew further.

"As for the loot itself?" I then encouraged the girl to keep going, sensing how we were finally approaching the point at which I hoped to shed some light on the mystery of the connection between that malicious AI and the monsters it controlled.

"It all depends on the beast, so you generally get a fair amount of energy-rich meat, maybe some durable fur and or shell, a bunch of spiritual cores…" Claire counted the items of only to summarize them with a shake of her shoulders. "Oh, and for every beast that you slay, you will obtain their very own bestial core."