The rise of the pervert primordial - Chapter 723 - 723: The second day of the development trial (part 2)
Seeing those girls cutely look at him with complete disposition to learn, Aster nodded to his insides to then start with the lesson.
“Unlike spirit blacksmiths like us, mortals normally don’t have access to formations in their workshops, or they use them just in very select and special situations, since they don’t have a stable income of let alone spirit jades but even spirit stones”.
“So, they work with devices that have similar effects to the formations we are used to, like the furnace that you all have seen is available in the exchange monolith, but of course to use it we need the appropriate fuel, which in this case is going to be charcoal”.
“That being said, the previous is not the only reason we need charcoal, all the tools that are sold in the exchange monolith are iron ones, they are decently forged and fulfil the roles they were designed to, but not only can they not be used to defend ourselves, but they can’t be used to complement the manuals we have spent so many merits on”.
“For that we need steel, and to make it good charcoal is needed, which is why this is really an important step for the development of the camp”, he said, which made those girls nod.
There is a reason as to why Aster explained things this way, people in the cultivation world has zero knowledge about chemistry, because they have no need to know about it, not when they can just make a formation that transforms a material the way they need it, even mortals are the same, they might know that forging iron with charcoal produces steel, but they don’t know the reason of it.
It also doesn’t help that even the most common ores do still contain spirit energy, so the crappiest iron forged sword a mortal blacksmith could make in the cultivation world, would for sure break even the toughest and most perfectly crafted one from modern earth.
Which might sound like a good thing at the start, they get better results with less work after all, however that lower bar for results is what Aster believes has made their blacksmiths lack in terms of technique, so, this is a good chance to change that ideology with a controlled group.
“We are going to use this metal barrel to create a special atmosphere, which will turn the wood into charcoal instead of just burning it into ashes, like it would normally do, some of you come from families that center in different types of craftmanship, so I bet you must have seen one of your relatives using a kiln with a formation focuses strictly in adjusting the amount of spirit energy that is used to fuel the flames inside of it, right, we are going to do something similar to that but focusing on oxygen instead”, he said, to which a few girls nodded in response.
“Mm, my aunt who works for a large merchant group, makes all kinds of things with ceramic materials and I remember she once telling me that the secret to the amazing vibrant colors in her pieces, is controlling the amount of spirit energy that is infused into the flame of her kiln”, said a girl from the Yellow Anvil.
“But senior brother, does oxygen have the same functions as spirit energy, if so, couldn’t we try to use our techniques if we breath a lot?”, cutely asked a girl from the Silver Anvil, to which Aster chuckled, that question showed how different was the perspective of someone from the cultivation world.
It’s not that girl’s fault, spirit energy is quite a magical mysterious thing, it works as a universal fuel, sustainment, reagent, medicine and even a source of life, all in one, the best comparison Aster could think about from his time back at earth would be the famous philosopher’s stone, which is known to turn metals into other materials, or grant people immortality.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way, oxygen in this specific aspect can be used to replace the function of a formation”, he said, to prevent those girls from trying to increase their intake of oxygen by breathing faster than normal.
Of course, the previous made that specific girl look a bit downcast, thinking that her question was a silly one, but to all the other girl’s surprise and jealousy, she was rewarded with a head pat from Aster instead.
“We won’t deepen too much into the subject given our current situation, but that kind of curiosity is what led me to be the spirit blacksmith I am today”, he said, which made that girl’s face blush on the spot, feeling the piercing gazes coming from the cabin log, Aster ended the “encouraging” with a single head pat and continued with the explanation.
“Ahem, as I was saying, we’ll use this barrel to work like a formation to make steel would normally do, first we have to make some small holes for ventilation just a bit above its bottom”, said Aster as turned the barrel around so that the bottom was facing upwards to then use the awl he had bought before and puncture holes in sequence around the barrel.
“Make sure not to make then too big, but also not too small, we need to limit the amount of oxygen, inside the barrel, but we need to keep the contents burning, so it can’t be completely sealed either”, said Aster as he showed those girls the result.
Aster then grabbed the shovel and dug a bit around the barrel, making a ring and that was all the preparations he needed.
“Now we just need to lit up a fire, use the batches of grass I asked you to cut and let dry as the starter”, said Aster as he placed a hand sized bunch of grass, before piling up some small twigs to form a pyramid above the grass, with a match he set up the grass on fire and then it was time to wait, for the wood to catch on fire, which wasn’t going to take long.
It would have been a different thing if it was wood that was just cut, which is why Aster told those girls to chop the trees yesterday and let the wood dry up for a whole day.
“I will show you just an example, tell you the steps to follow and you’ll do the rest, but don’t worry if you follow the instructions everything will be fine, also you’ll be under the supervision of the elders of the sect”, said Aster to then put on a pair of fireproof gloves he bought from the exchange monolith.
They weren’t exactly required if handled with care, but Aster used them for the example, because he was going to make all the girls use them too, in order to prevent any accidents.
“We’ll build up “layers”, starting from the smaller twigs to the thickest branches and pieces of wood I instructed you to cut before, don’t just throw them into the barrel, we’ll follow a pattern to make sure there are gaps so that the heat can efficiently reach the highest parts of the pile of wood we’ll be making”, said Aster as he started putting thin pieces of wood around the original fire that was started, and then stacking more word on top of that, making sure there were spaces in between, but also making use of the vast majority of the circumference of the barrel.
Once Aster had finished making the layer the way he wanted, which raised to around a third part of the barrel, he stopped and then took off the gloves before saying.
“After making the first layer, you need to wait until the wood has burned enough to start turn ashy, then you can add the middle-sized pieces of wood until another third of the barrel is filled with it and then repeat the process but with the larger pieces of wood”.
“The fire will burn the freshly added fuel instead of the charcoal at the bottom this way, which is good for us, after that you just need to let it burn until the last load of wood starts getting ashy and seal it with the lid, then make use of the dirt that was dug around the barrel to cover the holes at the bottom, the residual heat will do the rest of the work for us”.
“That’s all from me, the number of barrels, and how much wood you try to fit in them will be up to you, what’s more I’ll give you a little extra “motivation”, the one who makes the most amount of good charcoal will receive a reward”, jokingly said Aster, which made those girl’s eyes sparkle.
Now imagine how their pretty faces lit up when they received a message from the blue flaming board, directly in their minds.
[You have received a hundred low grade merits]
And before they could react, a message visible for everyone on the side of the Myriad Occupation sect appeared on the sky.
[The first level of the benefit “One for all” has been successfully activated, from now and onwards, all the participants from this camp will be able to freely trade low and middle grade merits, additionally group missions will award 10% more merits as a bonus]
“Woaaah!”, the girls from the sect who were eating their breakfast and preparing for their respective duties, all exclaimed in unison, before turning to see Aster at the same time.
How did they know he was the one that caused the previous you ask, well, he was covered in the dark blue light which symbolized the blue flaming board.
Of course, it’s not like Aster was actually the one that did it, he just made the benefit Rya mentioned they had obtained, which he got to know about when he touched the monoliths earlier, activate when he transferred merits to the girls from the Blacksmith Peak.
Apparently, he was now officially designated as the leader of the group, because he had to be the one to activate it.
“Ahem, use those merits to buy all the materials you need to make the charcoal”, he said to which those girls nodded in response.
“Mm
~”, having gotten all fired up, those girls sat down to finish their breakfast, before putting hands to work, they actually even ignored Aster after bidding him farewell, they were that focused in their task.
Aster who was walking towards the cabin log to reunite with the girls that were going to be in the exploration group of today, was welcomed by Valentina who was also returning to the cabin, saying.
“That was an interesting lesson… have you perhaps met a “strange” random woman around my age, the hair color could vary, but she would for sure have black irises, sometime before?”.
It was a strange question for Aster, but it made a certain dragon mother, giggle within the mind space.
“No, I had met some interesting girls before, but not one with that description, why?”, answered Aster with his own question, to which Valentina cleared her throat to then say.
“Ahem, nothing, it’s just that the ideology you are using to teach those girls from the Blacksmith Peak, made me remember of… my older cousin, in other words the Ancestor from the Alchemy Peak”.
“I see, unfortunately that’s not the case, she does sound like a good teacher”, said Aster, to which Valentina bitterly smiled in response.
“Well, she has a… “peculiar” personality, but certainly her dedication to her profession is something I really admire, and you reminded me of her with that, so I thought you had met her during one of those times she vanished from the sect to do who knows what, like it happened to elder Helena”, she said.
‘What an interesting godmother I have…’, amusingly thought Aster as he remembered the dynamics from the items obtained at the Treasure planet during his date with Camila back then, they tested the ones that obtained them with multiple layers of tricks, and only if they were successfully seen through, then one would benefit, otherwise the result would be a headache.
That explained the giggles Lilia was letting out even as of current within the mind space, apparently that Fey godmother of his, had this strange habit of going out in some sort of disguise to mess around with people she found interesting.
And if they satisfied her curiosity, she always gave something in return, she had done it with Dahlia and her aunt, their abilities to cultivate spirit herbs satisfied her expectations, and they obtained that store with a secret private space thanks to it, only after Helena climbed up to the position of an inner elder, she got to know that she had met one of the elusive ancestors of the sect.
Leaving his growing curiosity for his Fey godmother, Aster arrived at the cabin log where all the girls, as well as Erick and Sophia, Cayden and Sandra were having their breakfast together.
It’s worth mentioning that Erick and Sophia could have stayed at the cabin log the past night, but they instead slept together in a shelter that Erick had made for the two of them, out of their own choice.
“Good morning brother, I hope you don’t mind us tagging along this time!”, said Erick with his usual loud voice as he raised his cup at Aster.
“No problem, I was going to ask Cayden and miss Sandra to stay in the camp this time and Alice won’t be going either, so another pair of body cultivators will come in handy”, said Aster.
“That’s good, feel free to throw all the heavy stuff my way, and I also get to see how sis does when she is alone with you hahaha!”.
Tiana who was munching on a piece of an apple, nearly choked upon listening to the previous, she stared daggers at her brother, making Sophia sigh, had it not been for all the other people having their breakfast, Erick would have taken a punch to the face.
“I guess that means miss Felicia is staying behind today, it seems like you already decided on taking turns for the exploration team, that’s good”, said Aster.
Mira was going today, so it was fine if Felicia stayed behind, Sophia could fill in the empty spot left behind by Alice and Erick replaced Cayden, so far so good, he still needed some people to be the scouts, besides the little wyrm who was a fixed member of the group, because of the snakes and also because she wanted to be out in the open with Aster a lot, now that she could.
“Iris and those two had their turn yesterday so we’ll be going this time”, said Nerissa, referring to herself and Lieze who was sitting not too far from her.
“Well, that fills in for one of the scout spots”, said Aster, Nerissa might not focus in speed like Lina, but she has great maneuverability thanks to the fluid movement techniques she has trained in due to her manual, so she’ll excel in the obstacle filled forest area.
“The other one is also already filled in, because that little girl refused to stay behind at the camp”, added Nerissa as she pointed at the youngest of the three sisters, Nina, who hid her face by drinking from her cup.
And that completed the group, so after eating his breakfast with the others, Aster came out of the cabin log, at this point all the girls had already started with their respective duties, even the girls from the blacksmith peak could be seen buying metal barrels from the exchange monolith.
“Boss, what will I be doing today?”, asked James who was just arriving, he overslept a bit and was finishing his breakfast in a hurry, but he was lucky since Aster wasn’t taking him to explore today.
“You are in charge of working with the skins, use ash from the campfires and a stick to remove the hair, clean them again and make a support that can be used to rotate the barrel, put them into the solution I made yesterday and prepare to process more skins later”, he said.
James turned out to do a decent job when handling the skins, so Aster put him in charge of the process while he wasn’t here, as for his job as the one drawing the map, he already had someone to fill in.
Namely, Vivian, yup that white haired girl who was practically blind most of the time until not too long ago, since she didn’t rely on just her eyes to see, she was perfect for the job, her other senses were more developed than usual and so she could take note of things that would normally escape others, another of the multiple talents she possessed.
As for the overseer of the group, it was Agnes instead of Mylene and she was very clear about her desire to participate in the exploration.
“Let’s go”, having prepared the backpacks since yesterday with the same items they used before, but more food than just some cookies and pastries that the girls from the sect donated for them, the exploration team set off not without Aster telling them to not enter the forest until he said it was fine.
The reason is simple, though they had confirmed that the outer area on this side was safe for the girls of the sect to go as long as an elder accompanied them in groups, the first goal of today’s exploration is meeting and trying to have a talk with that strange lynx which was the crazed bear’s equal.
So, if things went south, Aster didn’t want the girls from the sect to be caught in the battle, who knows that lynx might be able to order the other members of its race, similar to what the little wyrm can do, on the other hand Aster has a very fierce and much scarier ligress on his side, but a bit of extra precaution didn’t hurt, in any case they had enough fruit for at the rest of the day, thanks to yesterday’s harvest.
And their focus will be fishing with the nets and rafts anyway, since they needed a stable source of meat for their meals.
“We’ll go straight to the area where we met the lynx yesterday to look for its traces, I’ll leave the route to follow to you, Mira”, said Aster, to which the ligress girl nodded.
And so, the group entered the forest and following the route they traced yesterday, easily reached the middle area, surprisingly there were snakes already waiting for them, despite how early in the morning it was.
Also, there were more snakes than yesterday and the most important part is that some were noticeable larger than those young ones Aster had dealt with before.
“Tell them that the same deal stands, if they provide us with the materials we ask of them, we’ll pay them with meat, also I want to know if they have hints about where to find the lynx with the scar on its face”, said Aster to the little wyrm who has been sliding next to him since earlier.
“Hissss~”, Espi nodded and then translated Aster’s swords to the snakes, it was a bit amusing because the “elders” from the snake group, were still more than one meter and something, smaller than the little wyrm, so it was as if she was talking to kids, despite she being the youngest one of the two parties.
The snakes hissed between each other and then they hissed back at the little wyrm, who frowned for a second to then communicate the message to Aster.
“Oh, so they have a target they want our help with and in exchange, they will tell us the areas they know the lynx like to frequent”, said Aster to then nod.
“Tell them that I need to know who the target is and where to find, before we talk about accepting their request or not”, he said.
“Hisssss!”, the biggest of the snakes, hissed at the little wyrm while lowering its head, something that Espi translated to Aster.
“A peacock which has led a group of turkeys to hunt their young ones many times before huh”, said Aster.
That sounded feasible, peacocks do actively hunt snakes and small lizards, also the snakes had given Aster turkey feathers yesterday, so a peacock leading them didn’t sound too crazy.
“Okay, tell them we accept but I want the information about the lynx right now, we still have to locate it first”, said Aster, to which the little wyrm nodded.
