Chapter 849: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 2)

Camila’s popularity among the girls in the same carriage as Alice, skyrocketed after she successfully "tamed" the wild dragon princess, who spent the next couple of hours in her own little world, fantasizing about what should she ask for a reward from her beloved brother after her triumphant return.

"Miss Mina, we are reaching the slightly active part of the volcanic area mentioned by miss Regina, please spray the elixir made by sister Mylene inside the carriage", said a white-haired girl who was happily riding on Selene’s back.

Vivian of course wanted to experience travelling on the mare’s back for a bit, and since they were going to rest before going into the fight, Mina who was in charge of the group didn’t see anything bad in letting her have her fun.

Naturally the "wicked" oldest among the three sisters had a purpose for her decision as well, before reaching the vicinity of James’s former group camp, they had to cross the volcanic area where the bear used to live.

The bear wasn’t affected because, well, he was abnormal, but while minimal and almost timed, some small cracks in the volcanic area became slightly active from time to time and released ash, it wasn’t a quantity large enough to be noticeable from the distance by others, but Aster with his insanely large range of sight, could notice it when they visited the transition rocky wasteland area to gather iron ore before.

So, the route that Alice and the other girls were given, avoided the most active parts of the volcanic area, but right at its end where it transitioned to the next area which is where James’s former camp was located, they had to cross an area where volcanic ash was present in the air, it probably acted as a natural barrier to separate the areas, in fact there was a proper invisible limit there, which is why those guys from James’s camp weren’t bothered by it.

Anyway, Mina’s other reason to allow Vivian to do as she pleased is that as "royalty" for anything related to toxins of any kind, Vivian was a natural detector for the ash screen which might not be lethal in the quantities found on the route traced with the help of Regina and Fawn’s notes as well as Aster’s eyes, but it would be indeed detrimental for the members of the group.

"Okay, pass the message to others as well, the cobras and anacondas are inside the carriages as well so they’ll be fine, but spray the elixir on the horse’s head so that there won’t be any accidents", said Mina to Vivian who smiled in response.

"I already did, I have never seen an active volcanic area before so I’ll be at the vanguard and guide the others just in case~", enthusiastically said the white-haired girl as she left the vicinity of the leader’s carriage and went on ahead.

"Shouldn’t I help with this part as well, I’m used to high heat and ash filled skies so it won’t affect me?", said Iris to which Mina chuckled as she shook her head.

"While for other people being assigned the task to be exposed to such things would be considered targeting, or for those us who remain unaffected by this type of environment it would be normal, that girl is actually benefited from it, so she is the right person for the job, not to mention that I would feel bad to have her trapped in a carriage for hours", said the oldest of the three sisters.

As talented fire attribute lineage owners, both Iris and Mina aren’t affected by the previously mentioned dangers of the volcanic area, the same applied to Alice, though her attribute has nothing to do with fire, but because even as a mortal, her dragon lineage grants her high resistance against toxins and heat.

But they can’t compete with Vivian who instead of being neutral or resistant towards it, gets benefitted by the toxins released alongside the volcanic ash, which instead of messing with her senses and causing her trouble to breath, boosted her eyesight and smelling sense while also improving her respiratory system, which is why the white-haired girl was so "energetic" right now, her blood carried more oxygen than usual.

As "wicked" as it sounded to make use of Vivian’s abilities like this, Mina also did it out of consideration for the white-haired girl, whom the oldest of the three sisters learned was trapped inside transporting treasures such as carriages for most of her life since she couldn’t move by herself due to her own circumstances.

Of course Vivian is a strong girl and she didn’t develop any trauma about it, but it is true that she prefers to wander around experiencing all the things she missed because of that and Mina took that into account for her plans, as one would expect.

Also, in case you wonder what about the others who aren’t resistant to this kind of environment, like the girls of the sect, that’s what the elixir mentioned before is for. ℯ

"Pshhhhh", with a couple of pushes, Mina sprayed the transparent-green content of a bottle she had in her pocket a few times and then the interesting sight of the ash which could be seen approaching them and be close to enter through the windows of the carriage, which yeah, they kept open, suddenly getting stuck to the roof of the carriage, happened before everyone’s eyes.

"Even at mortal level, her blood is incredibly useful for anything toxic related that it’s amazing", said Nerissa as a fresh mint-scent prevented the girls in the carriage from smelling the not so nice burnt and dry scent of the ash on the outside.

Mylene had used Vivian’s blood to create both a solution that trapped ash and one that kept the air clean in a small range, and that was applied to the roof of the carriages since earlier and sprayed inside the carriage, respectively.

In the horse’s case, they had it applied the first solution to the collar and girth used for the horses that were pulling on the carriages, and on the support-saddle from which backpacks hanged in the case of the non-pulling horses, and Vivian sprayed the elixir on their heads, so you see everyone was being protected by Vivian right now.

"Not to mention that Vivian likes to help around unlike a certain lazy dragon princess who has been giggling to herself and fantasizing for the past three hours", added Tiana to which Alice smirked in response.

"You say that, but Vivi is also looking forward to getting a reward from Aster, since I gave her a few new advices about how to get "friendlier" with him~", she said.

Surprisingly enough, there was actually a girl out of which Alice didn’t feel jealousy when she spent time with Aster, and that is Vivian, probably because the wild dragon princess finds Vivian’s lack of "guard" when it comes to Aster, rather amusing, so you see the wild dragon princess actually gets along with Vivian quite nicely.

"Hey, don’t corrupt Vivian’s mind with those weird ideas of yours", said Tiana.

As you can see things were quite lively in the advance party, despite this being the first time these specific girls were paired together, it’s worth mentioning that while Cayden willingly stayed with the cobras and anacondas in another carriage, his girlfriend Sandra stayed behind with the other leaders.

’They sure are having fun despite this being a mission to go and exterminate an enemy group’, amusingly thought the girl in question.

With Vivian leading the "caravan" as if there wasn’t a screen of ash increasing the danger of falling into a crater our losing their way, they easily and safely crossed the active part of the volcanic area and after passing through an invisible wall of some kind, which for Aster’s camp was useless as a part of their rewards, the group entered the next area where James’s former camp was located.

Of course, those guys as mercenaries didn’t settle right at the border with such a dangerous environment as a volcanic area, remember that they have been here for more than a month, so they had the time to look for a decent spot to settle.

That being said, similar to the part from which the forest transitioned to the volcanic area, what lied ahead during the first couple of kilometers was a rocky wasteland, at which’s distance a greener area could be seen.

"Miss eagle found us a nice spot to spend the night, everyone advance towards that tooth-looking rocky formation, there is a natural cave there where we will be protected from the cold air of the night, even without lighting a fire", said Mina as she looked at the map drawn by Fawn with Regina’s help.

Since they were going to take those guys by surprise, they of course couldn’t lit a fire which might alert them, also the attack couldn’t be launched at night when the surveillance of any group with a bit of common sense would be at its highest, especially during the first shift of watch duty.

The best moment to attack would be during the last shift of watch duty, right before the members of the camp start with their daily activities, why, because everyone else would have the fake image of this being a day like any other else settled in their minds by that moment, the same applied for the ones watching over the camp right before the sunrise, therefore an ambush will surprise them with their pants down, quite a wicked plan as one would expect from Mina.

"Agh what a bother, can’t I just go and kill them all already, that way we can return now and I might still be able to get some "dessert" before the night ends", complained Alice as she jumped out of the carriage once they had arrived at their sleeping spot, to which Tiana threw a couple of bedsheets and a pillow to the wild dragon princess.

"Stop being a pain in the ass, eat your dinner and go to sleep", said the energy constitution daughter, to which Alice softly snorted.

"Humph, just wait until you fall in Aster’s arms, this "big sister" will surely take care of you in the future".

"Don’t worry, I promise you’ll be the first one to fight tomorrow, so take it easy for now at least", added Mina who had climbed up to the top of the rock formation and was using a spyglass to look at the camp which was located not too close but not too far from them.

This little instrument was something she asked from Aster, in truth making it wasn’t that hard, using the silica rich sand from one of the rivers than run through the forest mixed with ashes from plants to reduce the melting point, and putting it inside a crucible which went straight into the furnace, to then be shaped in two lenses a convex one and a concave one, which were then encased into a sliding metal tube and that was it, Aster took it as a little side project.

Of course, since those were normal glass lenses without any magnifying properties, the result was not outrageous, but it fulfilled its purpose, it wasn’t that late into the night right now and the moon produced enough light for it to work decently not to mention that the oldest of the three sisters had good eyesight, so Mina was able to easily double-check in order to make sure that watch duty and other important aspects that could affect her plan remained as previously detailed in the report made by Fawn.

"Also, if you sleep early, you can go dream with Aster all you want, and also spend less hours away from him, right", added the oldest of the three sisters, which made Alice’s eyes sparkle.

"Hey, if you knew how to ger her off my shoulders, why didn’t you do it before?", asked Tiana as she ate her dinner, to which Mina giggled as she answered.

"That wouldn’t have been fun~", poor Tiana nearly chocked with her food on the spot, making Iris apologetically gaze at the energy constitution daughter.

"Sorry, "our" older sister is a bit playful but she doesn’t mean any harm", said that frank and straightforward red-haired girl.

"Ah whatever, I’ll keep my complains for the one who caused all this to happen", said Tiana obviously referring to Aster who assigned her to this group, that being said leaving Alice aside, the energy constitution daughter did have fun chatting and travelling with others.

Luckily, once Alice realized that if she went to sleep early, the time she would be aware of not being with Aster would be diminished, things pretty much calmed down, after eating some of the precooked meals prepared by the girls of the sect, the wild dragon princess hit the sack early and the others could have a nice night of rest as well.

....

The next hours went on pretty much uneventful for both the camp and the advance party stationed close to James’s former camp, besides changing the one in watch duty for both groups, and making sure that nothing suspicious happened in the camp of their target in Mina’s group case, no other event developed and soon morning started to approach.

And here we’ll make a small pause on Alice’s side, to go back to the camp, given that Aster was really looking up to the incoming rewards which should be different in nature when compared to the ones of the development week.

But before that, we find the black-haired dragon youth comfortably sleeping while surrounding by those cute girls who had one of the most peaceful nights of their lives in Alice’s absence, very much the opposite of what happened at the advance party’s side.

Those four were having a normal and slow nice morning, until a rustling sound came from the shorts Kana wore yesterday, out of which a miniature oak tree came out to then float until it was above Aster’s head.

"I’m deeply sorry for interrupting the alpha’s morning ritual, but what I have been waiting for, has finally arrived, so I would like to use the "rewards" Kana mentioned about, which I had saved so far to ask for the alpha to check on the monolith a bit earlier than normal", said the miniature chatterbox runic oak.

Which made Aster whose eyelids trembled for a second as he opened his eyes, chuckle to his insides.

"I was about to wake up anyway so it wouldn’t be fair to count this as a reward for all your efforts so far, that being said, you’ll be in a lot of trouble if you don’t wait until these sleeping beauties get their morning kisses", he jokingly said to which Nim nodded.

"Mm, understood, I’ll wait at the door", said the runic oak as it floated away, leaving behind an amused Aster, since this was indeed an interesting situation.

You see, besides subjects related to human "behavior" which the chatterbox runic oak kind of mixed with those of animals, given that, it had lived surrounded by only spirit beasts since it had use of reason, well, there was Mira too, but the ligress girl was hidden inside that ice liger, so in Nim’s eyes Mira was a spirit beast too, nothing really had made the runic oak to show such "enthusiasm".

Aster could tell it was restless, despite the pretty much emotionless voice of the runic oak, which was amusing to see.

"Now, you four already had me all to yourselves since Alice wasn’t here, so be good girls and wake up", said Aster as he gently scratched the little wyrm’s throat, making Espi open her eyes.

"Hissss~", the little wyrm cutely licked Aster’s right cheek as she greeted him, to then give him puppy eyes, clearly wanting to cuddle a bit more with Aster.

"Don’t look at me like that, don’t we have new "materials" to work with at our workshop, you are going to spend most of your day with me", said Aster which made Espi’s eyes sparkle, if there is something she liked more than spending time with Aster, was spending time with Aster while acting as his companion.

"Hisss!", so with that, the little wyrm was successfully bribed and unwrapped her tail from Aster’s body, to then happily slide to the side of the bed, since she had to wait for her "sister" in other words Kana, to wake up as well.

"If a certain someone doesn’t wake up, then we can’t have a four-member exclusive candy making lesson with Mylene later", said Aster as he pecked Kana’s forehead making the little girl open her eyes on the spot.

"Mm, sister Mira also invited me and Espi to play with that orange haired new sister~", said Kana as she brightly smiled at Aster, to then jump out of the bed alongside the little wyrm, as usual those two were bundles of energy.

And now, Aster made a certain ice princess "melt" on the spot.

"I also need to have a look at my ice princess’s technique later", he said as he leaned to softly kiss Aria.

"Good morning~", said the ice princess as she smiled at Aster to then take the initiative to kiss him back, she looked in a really good mood, whether it was because she didn’t have to fight with Alice for Aster’s attention, or because she was praised by him, will remain a mystery though.

Last but not least, Aster looked at the blond roc mother whose wings were neatly spread on the bed, she kept them hidden in the open so far, but the same didn’t apply in private.

Not only because she needed to exercise them a bit on a daily basis, but also because this way she could... mess with Lilia who is the one that normally uses her wings to keep Aster to herself, the difference being that Sarina’s fluffy wings hugged everyone and not just Aster.

"And now, a little "offering" to my Sarina so that she doesn’t eat me", jokingly said Aster as he brought the blond roc mother into his embrace, while also gently stroking her wings.

"Mm~", Sarina let out a cute comfortable sound which was extended as Aster pressed his lips against hers while caressing her pretty wings.

"I’m going to do some flying training, so, if you massage my wings later, then I won’t eat you~", jokingly said the blond roc mother as she pecked Aster to then get out of the bed, not without giving him a seductive gaze while making sure to proudly show her backside to him, a pretty Lilia-like tactic which earned her a complain from the charming dragon mother.

’That’s not fair darling, you didn’t enter the mind space yesterday and she was imitating me all the night!’, said Lilia, to which Aster bitterly smiled, he didn’t enter because he had used the absolute field and didn’t want to cheat in his recovery resting time.

"Today there is no match, so I’ll pay you and Rya a visit later, since I’m going to need some extra rest from the "fun" I’ll have once Alice is back", jokingly said Aster as he got up the bed to then change into his daily clothes.

’Yeeei~’, exclaimed the charming dragon mother while Rya softly snorted at her, not without also smiling at the idea of having Aster come over to see them.

"I’m ready, let’s go to the monolith", said Aster to the miniature runic oak who was floating close to the door, which resulted in Nim landing on Aster’s shoulder as it nodded.

"Okay", said the runic oak, Aster left the room to give Sarina and the others some privacy and was met with the amusing sight of Agnes not doing her usual morning routine but sitting on the floor in front of her room with a board that had the message "I won’t keep secrets from sister Valentina again" hanging from her neck, all this while the purple lightning princess was sitting on a chair observing her.

"At least let me do some squats or stretching in the meantime, sister Valentina", mumbled the sportsy sun diamond princess to which Valentina shook her head.

"No, it wouldn’t be a punishment if you had fun, so, no morning routine for you today, so that you will think it properly at the time of hiding secrets from me", said the purple lightning princess.

Naturally after having another little "conversation" with Agnes, Valentina learned that there is someone always watching over Aster, though Valentina wasn’t told about Rya’s existence in specific, of which Agnes was aware of since Aster had told her about it, the purple lightning princess instead thought about Lilia, which wasn’t wrong either given that the charming dragon mother spends a lot of time in the mind space to be close to Aster even when they are apart.

So, Valentina decided to give Agnes a little "punishment" knowing that she was seen in such an embarrassing situation from one of the idols for those of her generation such as Lilia.

After all, Lilia and her two sisters were a source of despair for those of their same generation, given their unparalleled strength and talent, a source of worries for those of older generation than theirs, since they were catching up with their seniors too fast, but for the younger generations she was mostly a source of motivation and a legend.

Especially for those like Valentina who also didn’t like to be subjected to the whims of their families and forces of origin, Lilia who never bent to the Drage’s will was worth of their admiration, you can already imagine it, but Valentina had no idea of what was Lilia like with her close ones instead of the indifferent and aloof self she maintained in public, but that little surprise will have to wait until they officially meet as Lilia and Valentina later.

"Good morning, don’t be too harsh with Agnes, she probably just forgot to mention a few things which she had originally kept a secret for my sake, I share a bit of the blame, so let me tend to you for the rest of the day as "punishment", what do you say?", jokingly said Aster to which Agnes softly laughed while Valentina felt the urge to cut him down with her sword.

"Humph, don’t think you can walk away after pulling that little prank on me in front of basically the whole camp, as a punishment I want you to make me a really good sword", said the purple lightning princess.

’Heh, I told you that she was tough, that’s also cute in a sense though, right darling~’, said Lilia from within the mind space to which Aster nodded to his insides.

"Sure, I’ll take "responsibility", so, pay a visit to my workshop later, and we’ll discuss the details of your reward", jokingly said Aster which made the purple lightning princess react like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

"It’s a punishment, I’ll make you work in my sword from dawn to dusk!", she exclaimed to then stand up from her chair and leave towards her room.