The rise of the pervert primordial

The rest of the day went on uneventful, having finished their respective tasks and dinner, everyone was free and since tomorrow they were going to be on alert at all times, the members of the sect used their time to rest and relax.

It’s worth mentioning that everyone was marveled at the sight of having water “delivered” close to where they needed it, with just giving a signal to the one watching over the floodgate, which by the way became a new available mission with its respective rewards given after only five minutes of it.

Which basically meant it was a kind “bonus” mission, that everyone in the sect could do daily, well, except for today since it was rather late when the mission became available.

Anyway, after helping the girls wash and having some small conversation with them, Aster went to sleep surrounded by soft pretty bodies like usual and sooner than what quite a bit of girls would have wanted, the night passed and the very first rays of daylight started shining down upon the camp.

As if he had a set up an alarm, Aster’s eyelids trembled exactly at 6:00 am and after a couple of seconds he was met with the little wyrm’s pretty face, which was only a couple of centimeters away from him.

“Aren’t you too energetic first thing in the morning?”, said Aster, he didn’t have the chance to wake the others up and yet Espi who acted as his pillow, was already up and ready to shine.

“Hissss~”, the little wyrm cutely licked Aster’s right cheek while giving him puppy eyes, as she was asking for permission to get up and go ahead of the others.

“Fine, fine, you can leave first, remember not to go further than the border of the forest okay”, said Aster, not even a second later, the little wyrm slid out of the bed to then rush towards the forest, while happily hissing on the way.

‘I guess it’s to be expected that she is this enthusiastic, considering the role that little girl will be playing today’, thought Aster as he saw with an amused expression how Espi left without waiting for the others.

“Oh well, Guardian is also making sure that there is no problem in the vicinity of the camp, so I’ll just have to bring another set of breakfast with me”, mumbled Aster to then focus in the task at hand, namely, waking up the remaining sleeping beauties, starting with the pair of roc mother and daughter who were laying on top of him.

“Good morning you two”, said Aster to then peck Sarina and Kana’s foreheads, to which those two smiled as they opened their eyes.

“Let’s hurry and have breakfast big brother~”, said Kana as she got up from the bed, obviously she wanted to meet up with Espi as soon as possible.

“Don’t forget to wash your face and teeth”, said the roc blond mother to then properly kiss Aster.

“I’ll go help prepare the breakfast, don’t make us wait too long husband~”, said Sarina as she got up to then follow after Kana.

And now, only the dragon and ice princesses were left, while Aria was easy to move given her soft embrace, Alice was tightly holding onto him and wouldn’t budge, it was quite early and she wanted to keep laying down with Aster even five more minutes, luckily Aster knew how to motivate the lazy dragon princess.

“Sis, the earlier we start the faster we’ll be back and since tomorrow is scheduled to be a day off, we’ll be able to stay up late at night”, he whispered at Alice whose eyes opened on the spot as she immediately kissed Aster.

“What are we waiting for then, get up ice princess!”, exclaimed as she tried to drag Aria away, luckily Aster anticipated this so he pecked the ice princess’s lips just in time.

“It’s been a day only, calm down for heaven’s sake”, said Aria as she sat on the bed before Alice could throw her to the ground, that being said it is also true that Aria’s pretty eyes shone for a second as she went up to the bath to prepare for breakfast.

Aster who softly laughed at those two, stretched his body to then get up of the bed as well, as usual he left the room to give the girls some privacy at the bath and also because he had something else to do before breakfast.

Once Aster was out of the room, he was greeted by Agnes who basically was waiting for him as she finished her morning routine.

“Good morning, Aster”, said the sportsy sun diamond princess as she finished warming up, unlike the usual, Valentina was with her today though.

“Good morning”, added the purple lightning princess, normally Valentina would be making rounds and preparing to manage the camp, however since she’ll have other things to tend to, it was Mikaela the one in charge of the camp today.

“Good morning”, answered Aster as he walked towards the monoliths, before breakfast he had to check yesterday’s result and the respective rewards that came with it.

[The result of the third day’s evaluation is two stars Unique grade, a benefit and a privilege will be granted upon confirmation by the representative of the group]

[The third level of the benefit “One for all” has been successfully activated, from now and onwards, “Team Captains” can be designated by the leader, benefits depending on the number of people commanded by the team captains or the leader for battle will be granted, 3-4 people (10% movement speed), 8-12 people (10% stamina recovery speed), 30-50 people (10% defense), 100-250 people (10% strength) all amounts were adjusted to the maximum due to star rating, additionally natural healing speed will be increased by 20% at all times (proper nourishment to maintain it is required)]

“So, it takes quite a lot just to get a two-star rating for a group focused benefit, it’s worth t though, leaving aside the ones exclusive for battle which stacked up depending on the number of people being led at the same time, just the natural healing increase is more than amazing”, mumbled Aster.

Even if all the other boosts weren’t there, Aster would have been satisfied with the 20% natural healing speed, after all, in a situation where there is no access to the magic-like effects of spirit energy with all that englobes, like spirit herbs or other treasures, the vast majority of the group has to make do with the natural healing of a human body, in case of suffering any wound, pain, sickness, infection and the like, so this just made those girls tougher which is for the better.

And in case you think the other effects don’t live up to a two star Unique grade result, take into account the fact that if Aster, Valentina or the others who are qualified to lead the whole group of the sect, take command in a battle, they’ll obtain a whooping 40% boost in total, it’s a huge advantage on the enemy.

It’s understandable though, like Aster said, it took both him and the little wyrm completing one of those seemingly impossible missions, having the horses joining, Kana becoming proficient in horse riding in a single day, the girls from the sect making all those spears in a single day, not to mention all the projects led by Valentina, Angela, Eris, Mylene and the others to improve the camp, for the previous.

‘I do wonder though, when I got my “Unique” grade, there was a momentary error which meant that it didn’t exist before, so does that mean that it should be considered a five-star rating or was it a one star one?’, thought Aster with an amused smile as he read the second reward consequence of unique grading, in other words the privilege.

[The Privilege “Emergency Supply Storage” level 1 has been activated, an exclusive space within the exchange monolith will be created, up to ten times a day, regardless of distance, with the approval of the leader or the authority in charge of the storage, members of the group will be allowed to remotely retrieve items from it (free of charge due to star rating) additionally up to three different objects can be remotely sent to the group’s vault for one hundred low grade merits per meter of length and kilogram of weight (price reduced due to star rating)]

Aster nearly laughed out loud, remote exchanging from the monoliths and also remotely storing things up is surely quite the privilege, it’s a decent replacement for not being able to use spatial rings, though with a limited number of usages per day.

You get an idea of how hard it is to get this privilege, since it’s only at its first level despite having been obtained thanks to a two star Unique grade daily evaluation, it does make sense though as it is an space-related privilege.

‘Be it for emergencies or gathering purposes, this is quite good…’, thought Aster as a few interesting applications for the previous appeared in his mind, before he put she subject aside for the time being, because breakfast was ready and everyone had started to gather for it.

…

After enjoying a nice warm meal, all the ones that were selected for the first group which would be led by Aster to leave early to the forest, gathered, said group consisted in a total of sixteen members, Aster included.

Namely, Aster, Alice, Aria, Sarina, Kana, Espi, Camila, Eris, Tiana, Vivian, Agnes, Dahlia, Nym, Guardian, Cayden and Ember, well the little wyrm and the lynx were currently not present but they were also a part of the group in question.

“Is everyone ready?”, asked Aster to which the others nodded as they looked at the spears as well as wood shields and small backpacks filled with medicines, antidotes and food on their backs, besides that, the filly Ember had a couple of empty bags hanging at her sides, while Kana was riding on top of her.

“Yes”, they answered in unison to which Aster nodded, to then gaze at Valentina as he said.

“We’ll see you guys in a bit”.

“Leave the camp to us”, answered the purple lightning princess before she left alongside the others, they still had a lot of things to do since time didn’t stop just because they were going to fight, food, construction and missions had to be taken care off.

“Tsk we should have brought that mule, I bet we could just load all the backpacks on that guy, besides a meat shield would be useful where we are going”, said the wild dragon princess as they entered the forest.

“It can’t be helped, big horses are easy to spot, also Kana and Ember were here in case we need to send someone back originally”, said Aster to which Alice ultimately shrugged, she just wanted to entertain herself at the expense of the black horse.

“It hasn’t even been five minutes since we left, if you are bored why don’t you take the role of scouting”, said the ice princess as she saw Dahlia and Tiana waving their hands at them far ahead into the distance, telling the group that it was safe to advance.

“Heh, so you want to have Aster for yourself, dream on~”, casually said the wild dragon princess as she clung onto Aster’s right arm, making Kana pout, she was riding on Ember so she couldn’t stick to Aster as much as she would like, on the other hand after reaching the area where Tiana and Dahlia where, there was something equally good waiting for her.

“Like I said, these weird things keep happening when one is around you”, said Tiana as she looked ahead of them, where besides Espi and Guardian, there were around a hundred adult wood stripped snakes gathered.

“Hissss~”, the little wyrm welcomed Aster and the others, before jumping towards Kana.

“Espi, here I brought breakfast for you and sister Guardian~”, said the little girl as she took out some pieces of cooked boar meat and grilled fish.

“Looks like everything went well, but just in case did you run into any signs of either black horses or the snakes coming this way?”, asked Aster to the lynx who approached to both give her report and receive her breakfast from Kana.

“Grrrr”, with a soft growl, Guardian shook her head in response, after inspecting the route they had previously discussed, there were no signs of the enemies, so they were good to go.

“I can already tell given the “fired up” gazes in those guys eyes, but they agreed to come, right?”, asked Aster to the little wyrm who “proudly” nodded to then gaze at the dozens of snakes that had gathered here.

“Hisss!”, with a single gaze from the little wyrm, all the snakes hissed in unison, they had sworn to follow Espi, which is why the little wyrm came ahead of the group, she was gathering all of them.

You might wonder why bother gathering a few dozens of at most two meter something large snakes, which weren’t even venomous, but the strength of the snakes wasn’t the point here.

“To think we are staging a coup d’état against an anaconda…”, mumbled Tiana to which Aster chuckled as he said.

“It’s not the weirdest thing that you have seen happening anyway”, unfortunately poor Tiana had nothing to say about that, there is a talking miniature tree hiding in Kana’s pocket in case of an emergency after all.

“Just to confirm, we just need the support of two of the four major snake races to ask for a duel with that anaconda, right?”, said Aster to the lynx who nodded in response.

There were different snake races within the forest, however four of them were the ones occupying the area at the center of it and ruling over all the other snake races with the king of water beasts above them.

The reason is simple, that anaconda is not the king of “reptiles” or the king of “snakes” but the king of water beasts, thanks to its amphibious nature while it also controls the reptiles since it has the four major snake races who are the strongest out of the reptiles in the forest, under him.

This was the idea suggested by Guardian, under her watch, full scale wars between the animals of the forest are not permitted, so to prevent that, she set up a “duel” kind of tradition when she first took the responsibility to watch over the forest, as to why this was passed down to the current generation, that’s simple, the lynx might not be able to win head on against a whole race, but she can bypass the subordinates and directly kill those who went against the rules set up for the prosperity of the forest.

Which she did quite a few times at the early days, so even nowadays the way to rise to the throne remains the same, an animal has to get the support of half of the representatives among the subordinates of a king and then defeat said king.

“Hissss?”, before Guardian could answer, the little wyrm who had finished her breakfast jumped towards Aster to then ask for a “favor” from him.

“You want to help those guys settle a debt from the past?”, asked Aster to which Espi nodded before looking at the lynx who softly growled in response.

“Grrrrr”.

“I see, so the race that forced these guys to leave their ancestral home is in the way to the first of the two major races we’ll be paying a visit to… okay, you are our “champion” so we of course have to support you with everything we have, right Kana”, answered Aster which made the little wyrm smile.

Now imagine how Espi’s eyes sparkled as she saw Kana taking out a black banner with a white snake emblem, embedded into it, a little something in which Sarina and Kana worked in secret for the little wyrm.

“Hissss~”, Espi smiled at Kana who treats her like a sister and Sarina who has treated her as her own child.

‘From the outside this whole “royal” thing might appear as a simple game, but Espi also led the group of wyrms back at Esmeralda’s place, unfortunately she was the only one that escaped being captured, which might be why she is putting this much effort in helping the snakes, it’s probably something engraved in her dragon lineage’, thought Aster.

He could understand the little wyrm even better than herself, Espi might think this is just a game since she is still young, but Aster knows it’s related to her growth as a spirit beast, which means that he is to fully support the little wyrm in this, well, he would have done so even if it was actually just, she playing around.

With Ember carrying the flag at the back, the little wyrm led the group through the route signaled by Guardian who moved through the branches of the trees until they reached the first hostile area.

Naturally, it was hard not to notice nearly a hundred snakes moving in a group, in areas that weren’t in the inner part of the forest which were way more spacious, so by the time the group arrived, the ones living here were already waiting for them.

The animal race that welcomed Aster’s group were a group of around forty, four-meter sized snakes, which were menacingly glaring at them.

“Those are keeled rat snakes, they are rather large but don’t have venom, I guess they fit the requirements to own a space at the border of the middle and inner areas of the forest”, said Aster.

The stripped wood snakes looked intimidated for a second, but then their eyes became bloodshot as they saw the disdain in the eyes of the keeled rat snakes, as well as the carcasses that obviously belonged to members of their race, this place was originally their home, but when the race of the king changed some generations ago, they were forced to leave to the outer part of the forest.

The little wyrm boldly stepped out, approaching the enemy group, which made an older and slightly larger keeled rat snake to do the same, that was the leader of their race and the disdain in his eyes as he saw the white “snake” in front of him was obvious.

That snake probably thought that Espi was a mutation from the stripped wood snakes, based on Espi’s barely three-meter size, which made Aster laugh to his insides.

‘Fool, Espi’s eyes aren’t even lateral positioned like wood stripped snakes, so he judges simply based in size’, he thought.

Espi is a dragon, despite her current appearance, she is a predator among predators within the reptile races, therefore like most predators she has eyes that face forward, which are designed to help with hunting prey, as the snake was about to find out.

“Hiss…”, just as the snake was in the middle of insulting Espi calling her something along the lines of “shorty”, the little wyrm used her tail to grab the snake from its neck to then smack it against a rock.

“Crack!”, the impact was so strong that the head of the snake split like a watermelon hit with a hammer, thus killing the snake on the spot, which after a moment of shock of course resulted in all the other keeled rat snakes to charge towards Espi.

“Hissss!!!”, the little wyrm however simply narrowed her eyes to then fiercely hiss at the incoming snakes, which resulted in all the nearly forty of them to freeze due to fear.

Their instincts were telling them that if they moved… they were all going to die.