The rise of the pervert primordial - Chapter 766 - 766: The third day of the development trial (part 19)

You might wonder how come Aster came out of the isolated training area and wasn’t greeted by the girls of the sect, nor jumped at by Alice, or hugged by Kana and the reason is simple, the “gaze” in his eyes told them that he should absolutely not be distracted right now.

‘I already thought about it when he cut a tree in half with a tool, but what the hell is the reward given by the nearly impossible missions to give a mortal, powers akin to that of a cultivator… without the need of spirit energy just by achieving a normal action brought to an insanely hard level’, thought the purple lightning princess.

Despite her responsible nature, she is also a Fey princess, thus Valentina also has a curious side to her, so of course she was dying to know how to trigger one of those missions, since so far only Aster and the little wyrm have done it.

Not because of the rewards which so obviously surpass mortal level power, but because she wanted to see if she could overcome such a trial, without noticing a slightly wild expression similar to the one she put when she was sparring with Aster, appeared in Valentina’s pretty face.

“Sister Valentina, don’t you think it’s a bit unfair for you to get all “fired up” like that after you scolded me so much earlier”, said the sportsy sun diamond princess when she saw her cousin’s obviously excitement-filled eyes.

“This and that are not the same you little girl, who was the one that mobilized her whole branch’s influence without any prior notice”, retorted Valentina as she changed back to strict responsible older sister mode.

‘Ughhh, cousin this elixir of yours is such a headache!!!’, while Agnes pouted at being scolded by Valentina, the purple lightning princess was jumping and cursing in his mind, behind that serious expression.

Anyway, back to Aster, he returned to the isolated training area followed by Espi and Guardian whose eyes were glued to Aster, as if they were urging him to show them what the reward was about.

Luckily, Aster didn’t want to keep them waiting too long, so he grabbed three steel billets from the work table and placed them next to each other on the ground in front of the little wyrm.

“Here, I want you to use your tail to attack these pieces of steel, of course you aren’t to use your full strength since we can’t have those pretty white scales getting hurt, limit yourself to an eighth part of your strength”, he said to Espi.

Though the little wyrm had an overwhelming physical strength contained in her relatively small body, that doesn’t mean she can use all that strength the way she wants, at least not while at the mortal level and when being so “young”.

Aster had judged that when using her tail as a blunt weapon, Espi could use around half of her strength without hurting herself, at most she’ll feel a few of her scales numb later, it would have been different if the little wyrm was spirit beast whose talents lied in defense, but adaptation and raw power are her greatest talents.

“Hissss!”, happy to have her scales called pretty by Aster and interested in what he wanted to show them, the little wyrm nodded to then lash her tail at the three steel billets with very difference of time in between.

“Clang!”, unlike what it would happen if a mortal ranked snake used its tail as a whip to clash against steel, when Espi’s scales collided against the billets, metallic sounds were produced, which made the lynx slightly frown.

Not because the noise harmed her, Guardian is also not a normal Lynx, it is still unknown to which extent, but her body and obviously her mind have been enhanced further from the limits of a mortal rank spirit beast, to the point that even the little wyrm, a though young and limited to the mortal rank, still member of the dragon race, adopted a defensive stance when they first met.

What caught the attention of the lynx was the difference in the sounds produced by the steel billets, since her hearing is quite sharp it was easy for her to tell.

“Hissss?”, Espi on the other hand should have made space so that others could see the result, but since she felt the difference directly through her tail, she was the most interested in it, so she cutely hurried to look closely at the steel billets.

The first one had a noticeable mark with the shape of the tip of Espi’s tail, the dent was notorious and the steel was deformed, however the ground below of the thing was completely unaffected.

And in case you wonder why is that important, you ought to see the second steel billet, which actually only had a faint scale pattern mark pressed into it, that’s right the powerful tail lash from the little wyrm only resulted in that, however the ground below of it was quite damaged.

Last but not least the third steel billet which was the weirdest one out of the bunch, since Espi’s tail had basically pierced through it to then also make a crack in the ground, however the billet wasn’t turned into scrap, instead of it, the steel was pushed downwards and to the side on the area where the little wyrm’s tail landed.

Seeing the “Aster, what is happening!”, expression on the little wyrm’s pretty face, Aster proceeded to explain by telling them first what the message he read at the monolith was.

[Congratulations for attaining the level of “Apprentice” for the Galaxy Forging school, from now and onwards you will be able to bring out the results of up to two variations when working with minerals and organic byproducts]

And now Aster proceeded to tell Espi what he saw when he looked at the seemingly equal-looking steel billets.

[Shock Nullifying Steel (Human and Dragon variations): a material initially processed by though inexperienced, hard-working enthusiast blacksmiths in training with great potential, increasing its malleability by 5% per every kilogram of material and further refined by a spirit beast with incredible raw talent for craftmanship increasing its hardness by 5% per every kilogram of material, graded as “Intermediate” and with the potential to rise up to one rank depending on the expertise of the galaxy forger working with it]

That explained why the result of Espi’s tail landing on the first billet was a noticeable dent shaped as a tail, while the ground remained intact since the steel nullified the backslash, it’s worth mentioning that the steel billets selected by Aster weighted roughly two kilograms each.

Next was the steel billet in the middle, the one that remained the most “intact” but the impact reached the ground below of it, breaking it in the process.

[Strong Scale Steel (Dragon variations): a material both initially and further processed by a spirit beast with incredible raw talent for craftmanship increasing its hardness by 10% per every kilogram of material, graded as “Intermediate” and with the potential to rise up to one rank depending on the expertise of the galaxy forger working with it]

Though the second billet remained mostly unchanged, the impact which couldn’t move through it was redirected to its surroundings, also while hard to notice, Aster could see some thin gray dust on the ground, in exchange for its improved hardness, it lost durability.

Based on the previous the little wyrm could already tell what the description for last steel billet should be like but of course she still waited with sparkles in her eyes for Aster’s explanation.

[Friendly Steel (Human Variations): a material both initially and further processed by though inexperienced, hard-working enthusiast blacksmiths in training with great potential, increasing its malleability by 10% per every kilogram of material, graded as “Intermediate” and with the potential to rise up to one rank depending on the expertise of the galaxy forger working with it]

The last steel billet which by the way had a funny name, focused in malleability so it was quite flexible which allowed it to avoid suffering the type of damage a blunt weapon should cause, it was instead divided and judging by its properties it should be easily combined back to its original form with little effort, it lacked in terms of defensive properties in exchange for that though.

“There used to be an extra part of the message which basically asked me if I wanted to “activate” the material, which of course I accepted, after that the description changed from a lifeless grey to a bright blue tone”, added Aster, that meant that even if the billets had these obviously mortal surpassing properties, they wouldn’t count unless Aster did the previous, which just like how using the power with which he cut the tree, tired him out though in a smaller amount.

“It’s quite interesting right, five percent sounds like a small number, but just like five percent of one and five percent of ten is not the same, if the property in question is already high in the steel, then the effect will be much more notorious, not to mention that according to the manual, once I reach the next level as a galaxy forger, I’ll be able to add a third variation, as of current depending on how I work in the billets the effects might change, though they won’t increase in total, what will happen if I combine two or the three of the steels, sounds interesting right”, said Aster to which the little wyrm nodded.

“Hissss!”, Aster had to deflate the excitement of the little wyrm by reminding her that they had reached the end of today’s activities, since she seemed to want to test the previous right away.

“You little girl, don’t forget that tomorrow we have a busy day waiting for us, especially you”.

Since the little wyrm looked a bit gloomy due to the previous, Aster didn’t forget to add something that he knew would cheer her up right away.

“Don’t worry, there is a lot to test about this, what will happen if you work in iron processed by me and what if I work in iron processed by you for example, or what if we change the method used to process it, so after we hunt down those annoying guys, you’ll be assisting me in the forge every day”.

“Hissss~”, while Espi cutely jumped to land her upper body on Aster’s shoulder to then lick his right cheek, there was an interesting idea that had appeared in her mind “So, if that snake, the horse and the bear are gone, I’ll have more fun playing with Aster”, is what the little wyrm was thinking.

Aster on the other hand was praising both the little wyrm and the girls from the sect in his mind, the blue flaming board is quite strict when it comes to grading results, those girls just learned about mortal blacksmithing and yet their first results without having been refined into a proper piece of equipment, were already “Intermediate”, there wasn’t a single mediocre result.

Before leaving the training area for the good, Aster cleaned and accommodated the things a bit to make the life of the one that will come to properly do it, a bit easier.

“Okay, let’s go back, dinner will be ready in an hour so we’ll make a round to see what have the others been up to so far, how about we start with Kana?”, said Aster to which Espi cutely nodded continuously.

“Hissss”, of course she was happy to reunite with her sister and best friend, as for Guardian she was looking at the steel billets with interest, which gave Aster and interesting idea for later.

…

After coming out of the isolated training area, Aster was welcomed with the sight of the girls from the sect moving here and there, they were rushing up a bit in order to finish their assigned tasks and duties in preparation for dinner time, while Sarina and the ones helping with cooking had already started preparing the food, today they had to sleep early so everyone was doing their best to have some free time after dinner.

“Big brother, over here~”, Kana who saw Aster and those two, waved her hand to greet them.

“Hisss~”, the little wyrm who was resting her upper body on Aster’s shoulder jumped to then land on Kana’s lap, the little girl was riding on Ember so it might appear to be rude of Espi to do that without prior notice, but the filly didn’t seem to mind so everything was good.

“I also missed playing with you”, said Kana as she hugged the little wyrm, as always, those two are inseparable, still before she used the remaining time prior to dinner to goof around with Espi, she took a moment to explain the advances regarding the riding lessons she and Ember gave to the girls of the sect and the horses.

“Look big brother, out of the twenty sisters that were interested, ten can already do things like surpass obstacles at relatively high speed, while the remaining half just finished synchronizing signals with the commands”, said the little girl as she showed the results of her helping the other members of the sect to interact with the horses.

With a bit of help, some logs were placed in a straight line, both horizontally and vertically, creating two different obstacle areas, one after the other, then at the end a low fence meant to be jumped over was also placed.

‘Hard terrain to move over, maneuvering ability as well as reaction time testing, it’s a simple set up but with high benefits for new horse riders’, thought Aster to then say.

“Did someone help you with the obstacle area?”, to which the little girl cutely nodded in response.

“Mm, I told sister Angela and sister Eris what I wanted to train with Ember and they designed and asked sister Tiana’s brother and the other tall strong brothers to make it~”.

“I see…”, seeing the “praise me” gaze in Kana’s eyes Aster chuckled as he patted her head to then say.

“I doubt you two did the same training as the others, right?”, which made Kana giggle.

“Ember said we should be the example so while we trained in the same aspects, I added “balance” to it!”, said Kana with enthusiasm to then place Espi on the back of Ember as she… got up.

With a soft tap of her food, the filly started moving at normal speed to then move through the logs placed on the ground which of course caused some movement on her back, but Kana skillfully remained standing through the first part of the obstacle area.

Next were the logs placed vertically, the filly increased her speed to then zig-zag while making sure to dodge the logs which were placed at specific distances, which decreased the more one advanced, that being said and while Kana still managed to remain mostly unaffected, they stopped the demonstration here.

“Sister Ember and I ended up rolling on the ground when we tried jumping the fence, so…”, mumbled Kana, which made both Aster and Guardian nod in approval, she obviously wanted to show her skills to Aster, but she put Ember and her own safety first, that was quite praise-worthy, specially from a young pair of rider and ride.

“Good work, if you manage to do the fence jumping while standing without neither of you losing your footing, I’ll give you a reward”, said Aster which made Kana’s eyes sparkle before a cunning light shone in her eyes.

“Can sister Ember get one too?”, she asked while looking at Aster with those pretty blue eyes of hers, which left Aster no choice but to agree, though to be honest he was going to make something for Ember as well, since for what he has planned Ember getting stronger equals Kana being safer.

“Sure”, getting the answer she wanted the little girl softly smiled to then leave towards the area where the other horses and girls from the sect were, alongside the little wyrm who wanted to play with Kana.

“They sure are quite lively, even after training the whole day”, said Aster to which the lynx nodded.

“Since that little girl is gone why don’t we move onto a bit more “serious” stuff”, said Aster to which the lynx softly growled in agreement.

The next area that Aster wanted to visit was the most noticeable change that the camp has gone through for the day, so Aster and the lynx walked towards the border of the camp where two watchtowers as well as a tall wall made out of logs which were tied together with ropes and sharpened extremes pointing upwards, connecting them, stood.

It’s worth mentioning that the fence around the immediate area of the camp was still there, so this was the beginning of a secondary defense line, a much more serious one, which was explained by the one managing the “outer wall” project, in other words the responsible purple lightning princess.

“Our new teammates don’t like small closed spaces so realistically building a cabin large enough for them would be counterproductive, still we can’t let them be out in the open at night when enemies could charge at us, so we’ll instead will build a proper wall, with enough space for them to move around”, said Valentina as she pointed at the certain areas where decently big twigs where shoved into ground acting as markers to show where the corners of the wall will be placed.

“I see, so you decided to build a fortress with a moat and all”, jokingly said Aster to which the purple lightning princess softly laughed in response.

“That doesn’t sound bad either, in any case we have enough sword obsessed people to process the logs used for the wall, not to mention enough “muscle” to move everything around”, she said referring to Agnes, Nerissa, Iris, the three sisters, Layla and Mikaela who were now sitting on the ground next to a large line of logs with sharpened ends that were placed on the ground.

Feeling the competitiveness coming from the whole bunch of sword user girls, Aster could already tell that they were trying to trigger the same mission he did.

‘How cute’, he thought to then say.

“Don’t overdo it, you’ll need wrist strength for tomorrow…’, before Aster could finish speaking, the sportsy sun diamond princess interrupted him by saying.

“That’s why we asked Mylene for a relaxation and anti-inflammatory topical medicine”, having no more arguments Aster nodded to then leave them finish their tasks of the day, since their training was over.

The next stop was of course Mylene since she was already mentioned and also because the “muscle” mentioned by Valentina is currently assisting there, the direction which Aster took was a familiar, as in it was another of the tree agglomerations in the vicinity of the camp, the one at which Aster gazed back when he came for lunch.

“Hurry up and pull unless you want to turn into a pile of grilled meat!”, Alice’s loud voice could be heard coming from the center of the tree agglomeration, as well as some slight trembling and the sound of trees falling to the ground.

The wild dragon princess went from tyrant of hell to clingy love-deprived mode in a fraction of a second the moment she saw Aster arriving to this area, she who was threatening the black horse to “motivate” it to pull onto a large tree which had its base width reduced with an axe in order to make it fall, rushed towards Aster to hug his right arm.

“Finally, I was starting to feel like beating someone if I had to wait even a few seconds more~”, said the wild dragon princess as she rubbed her face against Aster’s shoulder, which made Aster bitterly smile.

‘Sis, it was just a day’, he thought to then say.

“Tomorrow we’ll spend the whole day together so take it easy”.

“Humph, you can’t trick me, the ice princess and the others will be there as well”, she said, as she refused to let go if Aster’s arm, which left him no choice but to continue looking at today’s results with the dragon princess stuck to him.

“Ahem, so what brings you to my outdoor alchemy lesson?”, asked the pink haired girl Mylene as she cleared her throat to draw Aster’s attention towards her.

She, Vivian who was waving her hand at Aster, as well as some girls from the green, orange and purple lotus were working on some strange metal objects that protruded from the ground, surrounded by nearly dying fire.

That was the origin of the interesting scent that Aster caught a wind of, earlier, besides that, the larger rafts that the girls of the sect had made were here, but they looked a bit different, as in their color was darker now.