"What?"

Eve was just as surprised as I would expect her to be if my question was anything else than just offhand murmur. No matter how grand and complicated my plans for the future was, so far they all relied on the notion of joining one of the sects and using its resources to my advantage.

With the thoughts that suddenly started to plague me, I couldn't help but revaluate all my plans.

"Ah, sorry bout that. Just a lingering thought."

So far, I prefer to figure something out by myself before bringing the topic in front of Eve. This time, however, I just as confused about the future as Eve could be about the question.

"Sorry, love. You know I didn't mean anything by that. You just… surprised me!"

Well, considering how novel this approach was even to me, I didn't want to think how ground shaking just sole thought of ignoring the sects in one's growth would be to Eve who was born in this world and could live only according to its common sense.

"I know. I don't really know what to think about it myself. It's just… I can't really see a benefit in joining the sects with our current situation!"

Knowing that there was no way that any of the interested parties would leave our room free from eavesdropping, instead of using fancy spells or methods to speak freely, we just altered the way we communicated. While others would get confused by it and start looking for the hollow hints that I was giving, we already came to an agreement with Eve to use ambiguous terms whenever we wanted to speak about things connected to the system.

"While it pains me to say it, but where else can we find enough girls to sate your lust?"

Formed as an angry remark, we both know that she was speaking about the opportunities to get yin essence. So far, we have yet to reach the point where my yang essence would be sapped dry, but we could judge it only by the experience. With my partners limited to Eve and occasionally Lucia, there was no way we could properly gauge my limits.

But while that held true, it didn't hinder my growth at all. Obviously, if I were to let myself lose and just hunt powerful women with all the tricks from the earth, my personal wealth and even the use of charm, I could rack insane numbers of points. Sadly, there was no free meal in this world. Maybe it's because of my naivety, but if even laying down with Lucia was enough to spark the feeling of guilt in my soul, I couldn't imagine how I would feel about sleeping around with random women!

"You might be right, but it's not like I'm unsatisfied with you and our toy so far. Obviously, I can't speak for my future self, but sticking to the sects only because in the future I might need their help sounds like a foolish course of action!"

The more I thought or talked about it, the less reasonable the whole notion of joining the sect turned out to be.

"How about the resources? It's not like you can get rich just by using your novelty ideas. Even ignoring the point of attracting too much attention, you would still require some backers to prevent ambitious people from stealing the effects of your hard work!"

Once again, while her argument had some valid points, it wasn't anything that couldn't be solved with just a bit of work or act.

"So far, we are making money by promoting small profits but on a wide scale. That's also the reason why major forces hate us. Used to charging as much as they could, fighting against someone targeting a greater market with lower prices is a must for them if they don't want to lose their profits. I think that if we were to figure out something novel and just adopt the strategy that everyone is using, we would be far less harmful to our potential rivals."

As our talk went on, my hands continued to caress delicate skin on Eve's back while my mind was already thinking about whole diffrent set of challenges that would appear if we were to go our own way instead of just following the flow.

Where should we live? How would we procure food? What if I wanted to practice my crafting abilities but lacked both the resources and tools to do so?

Those and many other questions kept popping in my head, slowly turning the entire problem from a great decision that could impact our life into a set of challenges that were simply too bothersome for others, making them just join the sects.

Joining the organisation came with various benefits. It was one of the reasons why earthy corporations were one of the most sought employers for most of the people, despite all the rat's race and stiff hierarchy that scared away the more free-willed part of the workforce.

Thinking about this in these terms allowed me to finally realise the truth behind my strife. I just didn't want to comply with this word common sense! Seeing how my abilities were already far diffrent from what a normal cultivator should be capable off, there was no point in compromising with the natural way of things in any other regard!

What came to my mind when thinking about the mage, wasn't a sect. In fact, before diving deep into the whole wuxia and xanxia genres of the literature back on earth, this word meant nothing else than a small religious group that brainwashed its members for the sake of its upper echelons!

Thinking about magic, I could portrait Gundalf the grey or later Gundalf the one washed with Uxiclean! Enormous mage towers with a burning eye on top of it? Yes, please! An entire city filled with complicated society focusing on various crafts? Pff… fantasy has its own rules! Who cares about the economy when one could simply make everything work with the gentle touch of magic?

Wait, wasn't that the way to solve most of the problems that kept popping in my head in one go? Just make a mage tower in some desolate place that was far enough to be hidden yet close to human settlements to be able to trade with them!

With this sudden idea appearing in my brain, my mind rushed into figuring out all the pros of this solution. Starting from implementing an automatic cleaning system, researching how natural powers like electricity or heat would influence both the world's energy and my own mana…

Recalling the system warnings back from the times when I was on the verge of going berserk, it said something about entropy. Considering how dangerous that event was, how could I postpone researching it for so long?

"I think I might have figured something out. It will require a vast amount of resources and work but will end up in life far easier and more comfortable by living by the rules of some random sect that just happened to share the goals with us. But I don't want to spoil the fun by just telling you about it. The question is, are you willing to trust me enough and abandon the thought of joining the sect for real? But please, keep in mind that it might end up impossible to realise, forcing us to just bend our backs and join heavenly sword sect anyway!"

Firing up in an instant, my mind was overflooded with the projects that would turn every level of my future mage tower into meaningful training or research station. With enough hard work, I was sure I could fix most of the problems that would arise after denying the help of the sect! All that was left, was to receive Eve's approval.

No matter how eager I was to indulge in my fantasies to make them a reality, the happiness of my love was still the top priority! Unless something impossible to imagine happened, I couldn't foresee any future where that would change even a bit!

"Dear, you know that I will follow you anywhere. As long as you are sure that will benefit us, I'm down to it!"

Rubbing her face against my naked breast, Eve's eyes betrayed that she didn't really bother herself thinking hard about this matter. Instead of wasting her precious intellect on such a silly problem, she was trying to figure out a way to make the vitality of a certain part of my body come back!

"I just want you to keep in mind, that I still didn't give up on the idea of having your child as soon as possible!"

These words were enough to create yet another project for my tower's outlook. This time, it included things like washing bowl, hanging toys, cradle...