Chapter 876: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 29)

Seeing Blair stealing gazes at one of the furnaces where the special batch of iron was processed, which made her look as if she couldn’t wait to play with the material in it, Aster chuckled to his insides.

"Did you have any problems following the instructions I gave you regarding the material prepared in the marked furnaces?", he asked to which Blair shook her head.

"No, I took out the resulting material, processed it and then added it to the furnaces where steel was being molten instead of iron... but why is it that there is no reaction from the energy in those furnaces?", Blair answered with a question of her own, since curiosity was killing her.

Contrary to what one would believe after seeing how interested that short red-haired girl was in the marked furnaces, the reason wasn’t that the faint energy reaction from the belief’s energy caused by processing the high-quality iron from Guardian’s lair, became stronger, but the complete opposite.

The high-quality iron turning into steel, or the already processed steel which had its energy reacting property stimulated when heated, instead stopped reacting, which sounds counterproductive after all it’s like turning gold into lead, when it should be the other way around right.

But if that was the case, then why would Blair be looking all curious and cute trying to get an answer to her doubts from Aster.

What made those marked furnaces contain a "special" material, is that the shiny energy particles not only stopped reacting to the steel in said furnaces, but that in fact... the area around them was devoid of the energy from the beliefs, or it would be more accurate to say that the energy particles which normally freely moved even through solid objects, similar to how Esmeralda and Nim could adjust their bodies to do the same, was being "resisted", so it couldn’t flow into the furnaces.

"It’s because of the material Nina and Lina collected, like I said, while certainly it’s not a long-term resource given that it won’t renew itself like the thorny bushes and the pomegranate tree, it doesn’t lose in the slightest in comparison", said Aster.

What those two red-haired sisters brought back were quartz crystals, leaving aside the palm sized special ones which reacted to the energy of beliefs, water and fire one to be accurate, they brought a whole bunch of "normal" whitish crystals that had no energy reaction.

Or so they thought, they can’t be blamed for it, because it took Aster reducing his range of sight to the minimum and focus on the crystals, to realize that instead of not reacting, which results in the energy particles moving through an object but not staying inside of it nor being attracted to it, said energy particles couldn’t go past the outer layer of the crystals.

And that reminded Aster of something, quartz though not pure, it’s basically made of silicon, it contains silicon, silicon dioxide and oxygen, and pure silicon is added to steel to make electrical steel also known as silicon steel which has really good electrical resistance.

Now, quartz-like materials exist in the cultivation world and they are indeed used to make equipment that is used to deal with lightning attribute enemies be it cultivators or spirit beasts, however the quartz in this place didn’t resist "electricity" but "energy" instead, you should be able to see where this is going at this point.

Aster thought of making silicon steel, not only because it will have energy resisting properties, but because unlike any other materials that came to mind, silicon steel is engineered to endure substantial amounts of mechanical stress, in other words, he was going to make defensive equipment with this new steel.

"Though I’m a swordsman myself, if you ask me whether one should choose between a sword and a shield first, I would always answer to go for the shield, now that the beliefs have become a thing, I’m a hundred percent sure that participants will go mad over attaining the ability to use their energies, it’s normal since at the end of the day we are cultivators".

"And while the vast majority will focus in making equipment that better conducts energy, at the initial stage having equipment that resists it, is way more beneficial", said Aster.

Just think about it, the trump cards of each and every other camp will be those that can use the energy of the beliefs, in other words those in which the belief was implemented, given that unless we are talking about especial exceptions, like the ligress, other participants won’t be able to use the energy of the beliefs at this stage of the evaluation week.

So, it is only natural that for the next match, "belief holders" as Aster called them, will appear in the enemy teams, the first match didn’t really count, and they only had to face one or two camps, but the next one is going to be an actual fight, where they’ll be outnumbered for sure.

Aster knows this, because the blue flaming board has to fight numerous supervisors at the time, and their participants facing the ones under Blue Sky’s protection appears to be a condition for them to be gotten rid of for good.

He also said he was going to the supervisor battlefield, because honestly the participant’s one was not helpful to him currently, but that didn’t mean Aster would leave those cute juniors of his "vulnerable", you already saw an example of how many safety layers he placed in a team where he wasn’t present, through the advancement party led by Mina.

And while Aster doesn’t believe there is a participant’s camp that can be an actual deathly threat to the girls, regardless of whether Esmeralda, Nim or Mira who can use energy, are fighting or not, because there are people who can fight at their level without it, like Alice, Vivian, the little wyrm and the like, the supervisors are different.

Aside from himself and the star maidens, only Esmeralda, Mira and perhaps Vivian would be capable of driving away a supervisor currently, but then, their powers rely in energy that though more refined, it’s based on the one of the beliefs, so equipment made to resist said energy, will also be effective against them.

Yep, Aster was basically going to arm those cute girls to the teeth, with equipment that if necessary, can be used to make a supervisor cry, normally they fight with quality, but quantity is not to be looked down upon if used properly, like in this case.

Especially because while it is true that Aster will be putting more effort in making defensive equipment, that doesn’t mean he has nothing in mind for weapons as that’s what the steel normally processed was for.

"I’ll work with the silicon steel, you, Kana and Espi are in charge of making weapons with the "normal" steel, but there is an extra requirement when compared to normal, swords, spears and daggers will have to have fullers on the flat side of their blades, it’s not necessary to make them too deep since they won’t be used to reduce their weight without compromising the structure, but to have this added to them later", said Aster as he retrieved an arm sized tube-like container from the camp’s storage, which had what looked like molten gold.

With the exception that it wasn’t hot, like mercury, that golden metal was in a liquid state at room temperature, for a good reason.

"Is that the metal which contains big brother’s blood?", asked Kana as she approached the container and touched it with her hands to see if it was hot, to which Aster nodded.

You surely have not forgotten that even at mortal level, his blood’s amplification property can turn mortal level things into something out of that rank, like the elixirs and medicines made by Mylene with it, or the insanely tough reinforced swords he made to use with the absolute field.

Well, this was Aster’s plan for the weapon part, the high quality iron from Guardian’s lair was a pseudo "spirit" material, once processed into steel, it reached the lowest rank of an energy reacting material, and normally even after it was further refined, the previous capacity won’t increase, the same applies even if Aster were to "activate" it with the technique of the galaxy forge.

Since the options it has are either to enhance impact absorption, toughness, flexibility or sharpness, why, because the material used to make the steel in question wasn’t originally meant to strongly react to energy, so the property is too weak, if it was iron collected from the stage prepared for the match it would have been a completely different story.

However, if it doesn’t naturally has the strength for it, Aster simply has to make it so that is the case, by "amplifying" that property with his blood, and depending on the result, it might be possible to further enhance it by activating it through the galaxy forge technique, though today’s activation chances were reserved for the defensive equipment instead.

Also in case you wonder why not do the previous to already existing equipment, the blue flaming board doesn’t like slackers, Aster’s camp might not be the only one who had a "fortunate encounter" thanks to a native especial animal like Guardian.

But even if they have materials that react to energy that weren’t obtained from the match’s stages, only those processed after the implementation of the beliefs will have said property.

That’s probably a measure taken for the sake of "fairness", so everyone has the chance to have especial equipment for the next match, how many of them and their quality depends completely on the skills and decisions taken by the different camp’s leaders, so as you the blue flaming board really made one earn their rewards.

"Yes, this is part of you three’s reward, you’ll get to make equipment with not only one but two "especial" materials today, I’ll instruct you on how to apply it since it’s nothing like what I have shown or taught you so far, just call me before you reach the part when you have to do the heat treatment", said Aster as he patted Kana’s head.

"Mm, I have not crafted things directly before, so show me an example Espi~", said the little girl which made the little wyrm’s eyes cutely sparkle.

"Hisss~", the little wyrm put on that cute "prideful" expression she has shown when she wanted Aster to praise her, as she grabbed her tongs to take out a piece of processed iron and placed it on the anvil to start hammering it, she was more than happy to be the one to "teach" and to her sister and best friend at that.

"Clang!", while continuous but different metal striking sounds could be heard coming from different anvils, since Blair was also working, Aster focused in his own thing, namely the energy resistant steel.

"Mmm, though silicon steel can endure impacts, it’s not as good as shock nullifying steel, also the energy attacks won’t be too strong currently, so it will be enough to add new thin plaques of it to the existing brigandines rather than making new ones", said Aster as he placed a piece of the energy resistant steel on his anvil.

There was not enough time to make a lot of defensive equipment, but adding an extra layer to the brigandines was easy, he just needed plaques of the energy resistant steel, and it was not a "rushed" result, because shock nullifying steel was better for the outer layers anyway.

Currently, he most "dangerous" aspect of energy attacks is that damage caused by them might ignore physical defenses, based on the fact that the energy particles of the beliefs can pass through solid objects.

That’s something Aster confirmed after his spar with Esmeralda, after all, while she created a jade mountain indeed, the efficient amount of something she could make while fighting even with the support of energy, is around twice adult human sized, for "solid" things like her jade, for wind which is "gaseous", the amount doubles, but at the same time the impact or strength behind of it diminishes, as a special mention liquid elements would be in the middle of the previous.

Even among spirit elements, Esmeralda is incredibly talented so she can use wind at the amount of her jade, to cause similar damage, disregarding the difference in solid and gaseous states, but most if not all other belief holders would be considered outstanding if they can use a third of that while in active combat.

Therefore, direct impacts from energy using enemies won’t be common if one has good spatial awareness and decent speed, but regardless of the state of the element used by them, Aster noticed that there is "splash" damage caused by said attacks.

Because even if they don’t land on the target, the vicinity of the trajectory they move through and the spot where they land, have those energy particles active in them for a brief moment, especially at the moment of impact where said energy particles expand through the nearby area.

Though it’s not high damage, if it accumulates it can be a problem, not to mention that normally it would "hurt" to have those energy particles enter one’s body, Aster was fine because his body is monstrously tough, so without any protection he used his bare body to block Esmeralda’s attacks and didn’t feel any pain due to it.

But for others, aside from the numbing effect that blocking a high impact would bring, there would be "discomfort" caused by the energy damage, ow add to the previous the fact that the vast majority can’t directly see the energy particles, though many might "feel" them through their instincts, and you now understand how important belief holders who can see them by innate, are.

As you see the "civilization" level was in the middle of taking a drastic step for the participants, since there were new important aspects to be taken into account, and like in any conflict, the one who grasped the concept faster and better is the one who will have the advantage.

Not even an hour had passed and Aster had already given form to dozens of thin metal plaques which he was preparing to start with their heat treatment, when he felt a tug on his right sleeve.

"Hisss~", it was the little wyrm who cutely used her tail to draw Aster’s attention, to then point at hers and Blair’s anvils, were a couple of daggers and spearheads one step prior to heat treatment where placed.

As for Kana, she was only midway through shaping the piece of equipment in which she was working currently, which was a single one in comparison to those two, but it’s worth mentioning that not only the little girl started later but she had no experience in blacksmithing.

Kana got interested because she kind of did craftmanship when she used the set of light armor, belt and storage for her arrows which Aster created for her, but the little girl hadn’t touched a hammer before.

That being said, the little girl is like a sponge when it comes to learning and she has been watching not only Aster but also the girls of the blacksmith peak, and lastly even Espi, so she was doing quite well, what’s more she decided to challenge herself by going for a sword as her first creation.

’I wasn’t planning on having her making equipment to be used, unlike Espi who will be helping me while Blair imparts this method to the other girls of the blacksmith peak, but she is good enough to participate too, how cute’, thought Aster as he said.

"Okay, since you two are ready, let me show you how to use this "Molten Dragon Steel" properly", said Aster, the golden steel in liquid state inside the container which he had shown to those three earlier, not only has a high amount of his blood mixed in it, but it was also activated with his galaxy forge.

"Mm!", both Espi and Blair nodded with eyes full of interest as they gazed at the molten dragon steel, to which Aster chuckled to his insides.

"As you both know, my blood has the property to amplify basically any existing aspect of something, depending on the "rarity" of the aspect in question, the amplification rate varies, and my galaxy forge allows me to "activate" especial effects for things, at my current level it works one time and in things up to "processing" stage, but after today it should allow a second activation for things in "refined" stage, meaning that finished works will get a second special effect, different than the first one", said Aster.

The activation technique of Aster’s galaxy forge, unlike with Absolute, didn’t grant him a second different application when he reached 20% progress, but instead it increased the strength of the special effect granted to them.

For example, shock nullifying steel originally granted 5% extra malleability and 5% extra toughness per every kilogram of it used, for it to count it had to be in a single piece by the way, which is why Aster used to make the weapons and reinforce the shields.

However, once he reached 20% of progress in his galaxy forging, not only was the extra malleability and toughness increased to 10%, per every half a kilogram, but the condition that it had to be in a single piece was eliminated, it became "stackable" instead, which is why Aster finally decided to make brigandines with the shock nullifying steel as the standard instead of hard armor.

Each brigandine used around two kilograms of steel in the plaques sewn and glued into them, plus the from two or more kilograms of steel used for the weapons of the girls, and basically they are using equipment with a 100% extra toughness and malleability as a whole because this effect is given to every equipment made of shock nullifying steel, so as you see though it wasn’t a different application, the reward for reaching 20% in galaxy forging didn’t lose in comparison with the one for Absolute.

The little wyrm was the one benefited the most out of the previous, because she could integrate the steel into her pretty scales due to the "compensation" she received from the blue flaming board, and now that she had started using her tail as more than a whip, if she was given a weapon, she’ll stack more of the effect, it’s a case of both increasing defense and offense for her.

And now Aster was about to reach 30% and he could already tell what he would gain for it, but let’s leave that for later since he is still missing 2% for that, and in any case, it will be a second activation that is to be used in finished equipment instead of on the material used to make them unlike before.

"For staters I used my blood to amplify the "compatibility" that steel has, which is already quite high given that numerous different alloys can be made with it, and then activated the special effect of "adaptivity", so if you simply pour some molten dragon steel over other metals, it will fuse with them", said Aster which made Espi and Blair’s eyes sparkle.

For a good reason, that didn’t sound like a mortal material at all, and they were right, Esmeralda has said that even for dragon standards, at mortal level, Aster’s lineage far surpasses mortal limits.

Seeing those two looking at him expectation as they saw their works which were ready to start their heat treatment, Aster added.

"Of course, doing it like that would be considered a "rough" method, but that’s what I first devised and what I used to make the swords for my absolute field, now I have created a much more refined way that will give us better results, and that is to make a designated space for the molten dragon steel to be contained, and then further integrate it through heat treatment".

"I see, so that’s why we made "fullers" on the flat sides of our works, that’s where the molten dragon steel will "reside", right?", asked Blair to which Aster nodded.

The short red-haired girl was in a bit of a loss over that instruction given by Aster earlier, because he said that they weren’t making the fullers to reduce weight without compromising structural integrity, which is the whole point of making them.

Asides from that, the only other reason for them would be for aesthetics, but Blair knew that Aster absolutely prioritized functionality over "beauty", don’t get it wrong, equipment made by him in this place was clean and it still had decorations that completely made them outstand, but they were all mostly simple details.

So, suddenly being asked to make fullers that would only work for aesthetics was strange, and now she knew what was the actual reason for them.

"Here you can pour the molten dragon steel on the designated spaces yourselves, don’t worry it won’t instantly solidify, you have five minutes while in contact with other steels before it initially integrates, so you can properly fill and accommodate it into the fuller, once you see it solidifying you can start the heat treatment process".

"As for the improved results, we’ll see them later at the end of our blacksmithing lesson", jokingly said Aster which made Blair pout to her insides.

’He is teasing us by not telling what the result will be like, right?’, she thought to herself.

"Hisss~", the little wyrm didn’t mind though, Espi scooped a spoon of the molten dragon steel and happily hissed as she poured it into the fuller on the blades of her spearheads while cutely thinking.

’If I use this steel for my scales, will I get closer to Aster?’.