Sera bustled about, her movements creating a rhythm to their small world. The clink of the fire iron, the soft sweep of a broom, the slosh of water as she cleaned the bucket he'd soiled.

  Leo held the crossbow on his p, the holographic skill screen shimmered in front of his eyes. He focused on the glowing words.

  [Do you wish to begin upgrade?]

  Yes.

  The words dissolved, repced by a stunningly detailed three-dimensional schematic of the crossbow floating in the air before him. It rotated slowly, every splinter and worn patch visible. Lines of data tagged each component.

  [Avaible Energy: 500]

  "Forget simple fixes. I'm going to build a god-tier crossbow."

  First, scope.

  He pictured a precision-gss, zoom-capable scope with luminous reticles, the kind he’d seen in modern sniper documentaries.

  A blueprint for a crystalline lens assembly, complete with night vision, snapped onto the side of the schematic. Numbers fshed beside it.

  [Modification: Masterwork Crystal Scope (4x-12x zoom, Night Vision enchantments).

  Cost: 15000 Energy]

  Leo’s breath hitched. 15000. He only had 500.

  Okay. Fine. No scope.

  He focused on the prod. Repce it.

  Forget wood. I want steel. Reinforced.

  The wooden prod on the blueprint dissolved, repced by a brutal-looking recurved bow made of intercing bands of dark metal.

  [Modification: Reinforced Steel Composite Prod.

  Cost: 4850 Energy]

  4850. The number might as well have been a billion.

  This was like being in a candy store with a single penny. However, it didn't dampen Leo's excitement at all. He knew from the start that making big upgrades were expensive. This was just him pying around with a new, shiny toy.

  He tried, and tried again, testing out every crazy possibilities that he could think of.

  Increasing power, full-auto with an attached bolt storage.

  In the end, Leo was satisfied, looking at his god-tier crossbow, with the price tag of over 540000 energy sitting next to it.

  "Alright, alright, think small. Think practical," he told himself, reigning in the gamer-fueled power trip.

  He swiped away the absurd designs with a mental wave and focused on the basic.

  The schematic shimmered. The frayed sinew string reknit itself, looking thicker. The chipped and splintered wood of the stock smoothed over, the grain straightening and hardening. The basic trigger mechanism shifted, grinding away old rust and imperfections.

  The final energy cost was 465, which was almost his entire current saving.

  Leo was about to confirm the upgrade, but he stopped. If the crossbow changed now, Sera would notice it, and he would have to expin.

  He didn't want to reveal his power yet. Not until he understood more, both about his wife, and his newfound skill.

  So he willed the blueprint away.

  "The skill was called 'Upgrade', not 'Crossbow Upgrade', I can choose to upgrade any non-living thing," Leo mumbled to himself, testing it on the bed. And just as he expected, a blueprint of the bed popped up. He dismissed this too.

  "Still, fixing the crossbow is a good first step."

  There was a tooltip about 'energy' on the skill's interface. To gain more of it, Leo had to kill monsters.

  And where could Leo find monsters easily? Dungeons.

  Lucky for him, there was one near the vilge.

  Then he needed a weapon, and a crossbow was the perfect choice in his current situation. He had the knowledge to upgrade it, and the skill to use it, passed over by the memory of old Leo.

  After being bound to the hospital bed for years, Leo now just wanted to live his life freely. However, his family being dirt poor is a big obstacle on the way to achieve that dream.

  "Go to dungeons, earn money, earn energy, upgrade stuff to have a better life. Simple."

  He was quite proud of his pn. Now he just needed to recover.

  The fifth morning dawned with the familiar creak of the door and the soft slosh of water in Sera’s bucket. Leo felt a familiar twitch in his stomach - a mixture of dread and anticipation he’d never expected to feel at the sound of bathwater.

  He resigned himself to it. If this was the price he had to pay for her care, so be it. He could endure a little humiliation. He even managed a smile as she approached.

  "Good morning. You're looking a lot better now."

  "Again, all thanks to you," he replied, his voice still a little raspy. "I feel like I could probably walk to the door and back without colpsing today."

  "Let's not try that just yet."

  A chuckle escaped her lips.

  Cute...

  She knelt, soaking the cloth in the warm water. Her hands moved to wipe down his arms and his chest.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation. After he got over the embarrassment, it felt...nice, rexing. He had the nurses taking care of him on his hospital bed, but that was different. They were strangers, but Sera was...well, she was almost a stranger too, but she also was his wife.

  And with that title came a certain...expectation.

  When her hands moved to his waist, tugging at the string of his trousers, his heart didn't hammer as violently as before.

  Easy, boy. Just get through it, he warned himself. She has seen it already...

  She worked quickly, her gaze firmly on the task at hand as she washed his legs. But as she reached his thighs, her fingers brushed against the sensitive skin on the inside of his leg.

  Leo felt a surge of blood flowing southward. His body, finally healed enough to act on the stimulus, was making its desires known.

  No, he breathed out a silent plea.

  He tried to think of anything else. The intricate crossbow trigger mechanism. The gigantic needle that the nurses used on him.

  It was no use.

  He felt his cock stirring, making its presence known between his legs.

  Sera paused. Her head, which had been bent in concentration, lifted slowly. Her eyes traveled upward, and found it standing up proud, inches away from her face.

  Her hazel eyes widened. Her lips parted slightly.

  She had never seen a man’s erected cock before, it was clear from her expression. Her gaze was locked, fascinated and horrified all at once. The pink that usually graced her cheeks was now a bzing crimson that crept down her neck.

  Sera stood up so abruptly she nearly knocked over the water bucket. She backed away, her hands wringing the corner of her apron, unable to meet his eyes.

  "I… If you have the energy for that, you should focus it on getting better. I should go. Make you some broth. For healing."

  She turned, a desperate flight already in motion.

  "Sera, wait."

  The word came out firmer than he intended, but Leo wasn't about to give up now.

  Sera had been gncing at his cock for days. She was obviously curious.

  She was also his wife, and now that he had recovered enough...

  Sera froze mid-step. Her back was rigid, shoulders drawn up tight. She didn't turn around.

  "You're not finished."

  "I checked the wounds," her voice was strangled. "They're fine. I'll come back when you've... calmed down."

  "You haven't cleaned me."

  A pause. He could see the tension in her spine, and the way her hands had curled into fists at her sides.

  "You can clean yourself."

  "I'll pull the stitches."

  Silence. Her shoulders rose and fell with unsteady breaths.

  "That's...It's not fair..."

  "You've cleaned everywhere else," Leo kept his voice calm. He wasn't sure where this boldness was coming from. "You can't leave only that pce dirty."

  Sera turned.

  Her face was scarlet. She looked at him - at his face, then at his erection standing proud between them.

  He could see the war happening behind her expression.

  Embarrassment. Indignation.

  Curiosity.

  "Fine," she finally said. "Fine. I'll...I'll finish."

  She walked back to the bed with careful steps. Her chest heaved with breaths that were too fast and shallow. Leo watched the rise and fall of her beautiful breasts beneath the worn brown fabric.

  She knelt beside the bed again. The basin of water sat on the small table. She reached for a clean rag, dipped it in the water, wrung it out with trembling hands.

  "I'm just..." She cleared her throat. "I'm just cleaning. That's all."

  "Please do."

  She reached for him.

  The first brush of warm, wet cloth against his cock made them both flinch. She held the rag against him, frozen, like she'd forgotten what came next.

  Her hesitation only served to arouse him even more.

  "Sera."

  "Don't," her words was barely a whisper. "Don't say anything. Just...let me..."

  Her hand moved.

  Sera's face was turned away, staring fixedly at the far wall, her jaw clenched. Only her hand moved, dragging the cloth along his erected cock in short, awkward strokes.

  The rag was warm and wet and not nearly rough enough to hide the shape of her fingers beneath it. Leo felt every press and drag, every hesitant squeeze when she reached the base.

  His hips twitched from the pleasure. He thrusted up as her hand went down. A grunt escaped his lips.

  "Sera..."

  "Ah...!?"

  Sera made a small sound - something between a gasp and a whimper - and the cloth fell away.

  Her bare hand wrapped around him.

  Leo almost exploded. Her fingers were warm, slightly calloused from housework, moving up and down his sensitive shaft.

  "Is this...Am I doing it right?"

  "Yes! Yes, that's...keep going."

  She found a rhythm. Her thumb brushed the head on an upstroke and he gasped.

  She did it again, deliberate this time, and his hips jerked up into her fist.

  "Nnh..."

  She was learning what he liked, and getting bolder in the process.

  Leo could see her eyes sneaking a look at her hand wrapped around his cock, then away again like she'd been burned. Her blush had spread down her neck, past her colr.

  She's so cute, and sexy at the same time.

  She sneaked another gnce. Watched her own hand slide up his length and the way his stomach muscles clenched when she squeezed. Watched the bead of wetness that welled up at the tip, slicking her palm.

  Leo heard a rustle. Sera's thighs were rubbing together beneath her skirt.

  "Faster," he breathed. "A little...yeah, like that..."

  Her hand sped up. The wet sound of skin on skin filled the small room. Her fingers were slippery now, coated with the moisture leaking from his tip, and each stroke came easier than the st.

  In the end, she was no longer pretending. Sera was now staring at his cock, with its flushed head appearing and disappearing in her fist.

  She was fascinated.

  Her hand moved even faster, grip firmer, and her eyes took in everything, from the way his hips twitched with each upstroke, to the dark hair at the base and the heavy sac that had drawn up tight against his body.

  "You're enjoying this," Leo teased.

  "I'm not..."

  "You are...It's okay. You can look."

  She didn't reply, but her hand didn't stop moving.

  Her hand squeezed. Stroked. Twisted on the upstroke in a way that made his whole body jerk.

  "Sera..." His voice broke. "I'm close. I'm..."

  "What do I...where should I..."

  "Just keep...don't stop...fuck..."

  His back arched off the mattress. His hands fisted in the rough wool bnket beneath him. His cock pulsed in her grip, and then he finally gave up, spilling over her fingers in thick, white ropes that painted his stomach and her wrist and the bnket beneath him.

  "Ahhn...hah..."

  Sera's lips were parted. She watched every spurt, feeling his warm cum on her fingers, and she couldn't stop looking at it.

  Sera's hand was still wrapped around his softening cock. Her fingers were slick with his release. She stared at the mess on his stomach like she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

  "I should..." She swallowed. Her voice came out hoarse as she let go of him. "I should get a fresh cloth."

  When Sera returned, she didn't meet his eyes. She just cleaned him up, properly this time.

  Her cheeks were still flushed. And when her fingers brushed his softened length, she lingered for just a moment too long.

  "There," she said finally, tossing the rag aside. "You're... clean."

  "Thank you."

  Sera stood, smoothing her skirt with slightly trembling hand and turning away. There was a wet patch on her wrist where his seed had smeared, and she scrubbed at it absently with the hem of her dress.

  "I'll make lunch," she said. "You should rest."

  She was out the door before he could respond.