Chapter 867: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 20)

"I take it as that our little spar is over now, right, unless you want to follow me everywhere for the next few hours", said Aster as he chuckled at Esmeralda’s slightly complaining voice from earlier, while putting emphasis in the word "everywhere", because unlike when the spirit wind girl was in Kana’s dantian, she won’t be able to close her senses to not see or hear at her will while possessing Aster, to which the spirit wind girl softly sighed as she shrugged in defeat from within Aster’s body.

"Fine, it was my fault for trying to mess with this perverted body of yours", she said, which resulted in the girls from the sect giggling, this time at Aster.

It is widely known that despite not being a body cultivator, Aster is physically a monster, Agnes is a physical training maniac and she has reached strength high enough to rival a body cultivator to a certain extent, for example she would not be able to win against a Genesis Manifestation realm body cultivator just with her body, currently, because once she becomes able to use the second trait of her soul constitution which is not related to her light attribute, but to the diamond part... things might be change.

But Aster is different, he can overwhelm main body cultivators whose realms are higher than his own, just with his body alone, a result of both training, his dragon and Wolfstein lineages and the paragon body constitution which have stacked upon each other and are in the process of integrating.

And the previous is while Aster is not actively using any of the previous, but just his bare physical body, because when actively using them, forget a sea of knowledge main body path which is around the limit of his normal bare body, he could crush a Void Manipulation main body path cultivator head on and if we add up rigel’s and antares’s flame attributes and his half step third level intent, killing law integration cultivators is doable, anything past that would require him to use annihilation to cause damage to it, it’s hard to estimate the peak of Aster’s battle prowess, but Lilia placed him at half step heavenly realm for a stable but short period of time of around thirty minutes at most, or a few single instances of proper early stage heavenly realm before he would completely exhaust himself.

The previous is in terms of offense though, if we are talking about defense, endurance and the like, then annihilation aside, Aster surpasses his usual limit, to be able to damage the giant version of the golden armor which is what happens when Aster goes all out, the enemy needs power akin to a half step heavenly realm cultivator and that doesn’t require any extra effort from Aster, besides going all out, so there is no time limit to that level of defense, so long as Aster can maintain the giant armor, which in case you have forgotten doesn’t require spirit energy as it is an innate ability of the paragon body, it depends on Aster’s physical energy and vitality and he has way too much of that, so if he limited himself to defend, the enemy could attack for a whole day and make no progress.

So, you get why Esmeralda called his body "perverted", because as of current he... hasn’t become able to use the mortal version of the paragon body actively and yet he could take on attacks that could destroy steel easily, with his bare body, the same applies to Alice though, they both have been relying mostly in their dragon lineages, which Aster also hasn’t become able to use at mortal level properly, because there is no proper dragon trait visible on his body, unlike Alice and that pretty black scaled tail.

With those words, Aster allowed it and Esmeralda in the form of a current of green wind came out of his body, to then take the form of the spirit wind girl, before they came down from the jade platform.

"I’ll leave this here, I think that it would be easier for blacksmiths to work with large square shaped pieces of jade rather than mining it from my mountain, so you can take as much as you want, I’ll simply rebuild the platform on a daily basis", said Esmeralda, which earned her a whole bunch of sparking gazes from the girls of the blacksmith peak, Blair included.

"Thanks pretty sister Esmeralda~", exclaimed those girls in unison which made the spirit wind girl clear her throat in response.

"Ahem, just sister Esmeralda is fine", she said, with that the girls of the sect left the vicinity to continue with their activities.

And taking advantage of the "massive" movement that was taking place, Esmeralda stealthily moved away from Aster’s side to then pet Kana for cheering up on her earlier, it’s not a secret how much Kana admires Aster, and yet she cheered up on Esmeralda during the previous spar, obviously it was just a friendly exchange of movements, but it still made the spirit wind girl happy.

"And here I thought I was going to be abandoned by my disciple the very moment I was put against her dear "big brother" but it seems like little Kana is much more of a good girl than what I thought", jokingly said Esmeralda to which the little girl giggled in response.

"I have cheered big brother for a whole week so it was only fair that I played on sister Esmeralda’s side this time~", said Kana, which earned her another head pat from the spirit wind girl.

Amidst the wholesome scene of Kana interacting with Esmeralda in the outside world properly ever since they formed a contract basically, since before this she only came out in the form of a green light sphere and this was after Aster had established a connection with Esmeralda, because prior to that she only came out in the form of a barely noticeable green energy particle, Mira’s voice drew everyone’s attention towards the other green haired "spirit" of the camp, namely Nim.

"Hey dumb tree what are you...", the ligress’s words stuck in her throat as she saw Nim who had approached Aster, suddenly let her body lean against his back.

Luckily, before Mira’s death glare was focused on Aster, the chatterbox runic oak who seemed confused explained the situation.

"Mmm, how weird, shouldn’t I have entered the alpha’s body like Esmeralda did, I thought I had somewhat figured out how to change the structure of my body?", said Nim, who then passed through Aster after lowering the solidness of her spirit body.

It looked as if Nim wanted to hug Aster from behind but she was just trying to "possess" Aster like Esmeralda had done, why, because it looked like an interesting ability and she currently had no access to any of her active innate abilities, though she has gained a human form of sorts, she also couldn’t actively control the energy produced by the belief, outside of her physical and spirit forms.

Which means that she could only alter the structure of her spirit form to become solid or ethereal, reinforce or nurture her tree with said energy which she hadn’t tried yet, and that was all.

After all, Nim wasn’t used to having this kind of existence, unlike Esmeralda, so her starting point was way lower in comparison.

"I don’t mind the closeness but I wouldn’t want to end up scratched or lectured by a pair of strict "older sisters", so let me explain a bit", said Aster as he stole a gaze at Mira and Valentina who were the ones that were glaring at him when Nim casually leaned her body against Aster a moment ago, luckily the girls of the sect had gone away already, so they missed that, otherwise there would be a lot of gossiping going on, not that they won’t learn about it later, probably from Nim herself, but at least they didn’t get more distracted now.

"Given that I had access to Esmeralda’s abilities when she "possessed" me, that ability must have originated in her nature as a spirit element, it’s probably the mortal version of her capacity to enter a contract with someone, and if that’s the case, then she shouldn’t be able to possess anything with which she couldn’t form a contract, right?", said Aster to the spirit wind girl who was still petting the little girl to the content of her heart, answered.

"Yeah, the bases are relatively the same, outside of my mountain and my wind, I can only "possess" living beings and they have to be capable of both rationality and actively moving, so for example I can’t enter a tree like you do", said Esmeralda which made Nim’s eyes shine for a second.

Her body became ethereal and she sank on the ground on the spot, then a second later, the grass in a twenty-meter area gained a pretty bright green glow before it started growing, reaching almost a meter tall in a matter of seconds, creating a wilderness level patch of grown grass instantly.

Which instantly caught the attention of Eris, since preparing stages for the girls of the combat units to train was a hassle, they had to move trees, dig holes, pile or remove grass and the list goes on, which to a certain extent works for merit earning, but when the idea is to do as much training in a single day as possible, it becomes a problem.

"I see, so I can instead possess both stationary living beings which are mostly vegetation, how about "animals" and inanimate objects", mumbled Nim as she came out of the ground to then fly and enter Esmeralda’s jade mountain, only to come out the next second, she didn’t look disappointed though.

"I can’t seem to do anything for inanimate objects now, but I can possess them!", excitedly said the chatterbox runic oak, which was the last thing Eris needed to hear.

"I have a good way to both help you training to master your possessing ability and for you to earn merits and also interact with the girls of the sect, drop by the training area at the western side next to the camp at midday", said the heavenly rose princess.

"Mm, I’ll be there", to which Nim casually agreed, because the previous didn’t affect her plans of spending time with Kana who was going to play with Mira and Lauren for the rest of the morning.

"Grrr", the lynx who was also invited since she was as Aster called them "kitty besties" with Mira, softly growled as she said something along the lines of "I want to see if both can use that ability on me when possible", to which Aster added.

"Perhaps we can try with Esmeralda right now, but I would say for Nim to move onto non-stationary living beings after she has gained some mastery over stationary living beings and inanimate objects".

"Okay", said both Guardian and Nim in unison, they knew that the "alpha" did it for both of their safety’s sake so neither complained.

Speaking of the "alpha", noticing the gazes in the eyes of certain girls, Aster chuckled as he said.

"I seem to remember that some among you had some interesting findings yesterday", which made Kana, Nina and Dahlia gaze at the other to then run towards the other log cabin opposite to Aster’s one.

’Those little girls, they actually hid their findings in a "forbidden land" for me, how cute’, thought Aster as he chuckled.

Realistically, the only place in the camp where Aster would be "unwelcomed" at unspecific times of the day is the log cabin where Valentina and the others are living, the last time he entered, he nearly got a glimpse of some embarrassing things laying around here and there, since only girls lived in said log cabin, so if he wanted to set a foot in there, Aster would have to say so ahead of time.

Not like he would casually barge into the rooms of the girls of the sect, because Aster respects their privacy, but they probably wouldn’t chase after him with their weapons and innate abilities pointed his way if he were to do so, very much unlike what would happen if he entered that log cabin opposite to his in such a manner.

"Big brother, this is what I found", said Kana who had returned with a box that contained a few large thorny branches, they belonged to the thorny bushes that were blocking the path towards the platform where the last fight of yesterday’s match took place.

"Hey, is it me or they look and feel slightly different than before?", said Mylene as she approached Kana’s "treasure box" and grabbed one of the thorny branches to then inspect it closely.

"They are different indeed, yesterday they were just strong as steel, but today... they can conduct the energy produced by the beliefs, so you could say that they are the "spirit materials" of this place", said Aster.

As always, the blue flaming board really liked to make the participants earn their rewards, aside from anything related to the match, there were certain especial materials here and there in the stage prepared for the participants.

But they weren’t just given away easily, unlike how it looked since both Kana and Dahlia picked those thorny branches from the ground, literally, because out of all the ones that they picked, only around a tenth part were "presented" to Aster right now and all of those were picked by Kana.

The other branches were still abnormally strong for a mortal material that is not actual steel, but they didn’t react to the energy produced by the beliefs, so as you can see by that, these especial extra rewards weren’t easy to obtain in the slightest.

A team needed both, members with good senses when it came to gathering materials, and also to have the "leisure" to dedicate time and proper focus to side tasks like that while moving under that super tiring area, luckily Aster’s group had both, talented girls and a proper plan of action that allowed them to exert said talents.

"These things will most likely end up in Aster or Espi’s work tables, but I want their bark, if my experiment works, we’ll be able to get something really good out of it", said Mylene who was in alchemist mode now, given how she looked at Aster as if saying "I’m going to bleed you a lot", both in terms of the bark from the thorny branches and because she was going to ask him to "donate" some blood for her.

"I don’t have a problem with it, but you’ll have to "pay" for the bark to the one who brought back the material", jokingly said Aster, which meant that the pink-haired girl had to make some delicious candies for the little girl.

"We have a candy making session already booked though... I know, I have an elixir to help plants grow even if they are on their last breath, it will be helpful for little Kana to use less of them to produce a successful thorny bush to be born in a special area prepared for it", said Mylene which made Kana brightly smile.

"Mm, I made sure to cleanly cut all of the branches and that bush is of a species from which a cut branch can be planted and grow a new one, with sister Mylene’s elixir we’ll have a better result in a shorter period of time~", she said as she cutely hugged the pink-haired girl whose heart nearly melted on the spot.

Next it was Dahlia’s turn, because while her branches didn’t react to the energy of the beliefs unlike a portion of the ones picked up by Kana, she also had a great finding, namely a seed.

"I found this, it’s a pomegranate tree seed, it’s a tree that can grow in both arid and green areas, though normally we would need to put a bit more of effort in a green area to drain the soil out of excessive humidity for it to grow healthy, with sister Nim’s ability that shouldn’t be a problem anymore", proudly said Dahlia.

She had all the right to be proud of her finding though, that seed was reacting to the energy of the beliefs, and a pomegranate is a fruit tree, meaning that it will produce edibles for the camp.

A fruit which as minimal as it would probably be, will contain that energy and can be consumed by the participants, will for sure be beneficial for them, maybe it will help with the hardest part of what Aster judged to be the next big step in the events that will develop in this place, after the techniques from the manuals, namely becoming able to use the energy of the beliefs.

Everything can come after initially obtaining that capacity after all, and unlike Nim and Esmeralda the other members of the group won’t be "directly" imparted said capacity, which is also why Mylene was planning to study the centipede, because while the pieces of his exoskeleton that were brought back remained tough and a good material for crafting, they didn’t react to the energy of beliefs, the same applied to his poison.

He "suffered" from the same problem as Espi, Mira and other spirit beast related members of the group, as in when things that originated in the centipede were separated from him, they lost a lot of their capacities.

"Making this seed and that bush grow will be put in the top priority list, I leave it in your hands Angela", said Aster to the receptionist girl who accommodated her glasses as she nodded.

"Mm, I’ll have them planted, watered and watched over before lunch time, if miss Nim and the girls of the green lotus look after them in rotation, I’m sure they will grow in the next few days given that they react to that energy, so...", as always that hazel eyed girl was already finishing the preparations for the tree in her mind in a matter of seconds.

With Dahlia walking to the side to patiently wait for her reward alongside Kana, it was now the turn of the youngest of the three sisters, it was also amusing that Lina had handed her finding to Nina, so that she had two different things to "brag about".

"This is what we found", that being said, the youngest of the three sisters didn’t take the credit for Lina’s finding, which earned her a head pat from Aster as an extra "reward", making Nina happily smile as Aster observed the two different "gems" in her hands.

On Nina’s right hand, there was a bluish palm sized crystal while on her left hand there was another crystal of the same size but this one was orange toned, Aster who was around one meter of distance from Nina while he patted her head, felt a fresh and humid sensation coming to the right side of his body while there was a dry and hot sensation coming at the left side of his body.

"Originally we picked some small crystals on the sand but these two large pieces were found in completely opposite positioned small rock formations on top of that mountain, they used to be whitish transparent like all the others until today though", explained the youngest of the three sisters.

"They are quartz crystals and these two are reacting to the energy of the beliefs, in a much more "direct" way than the other materials I would say, one seems to be fire related while the other is water related", said Aster.

In case you think that it’s weird for a water related special material to appear in a desert, remember that deserts at night get incredibly cold, so this finding is justified, as to why Nina and Lina were the ones whose attention was caught by it, that’s also normal, they have fire related lineages and have similar basic innate abilities as Iris, their eyes caught the noticeable difference in heat produced by those two crystals at the top of the mountain, which is why they asked Aster to let them climb the thing to go and fetch them.

Also, the energy of the beliefs didn’t limit itself to the "attributes" of the ones in which they were implemented, unlike what one would believe considering that the first two materials presented by Kana and Dahlia were both plant-related so they would have fallen under Nim’s influence.

The crystals might have fallen under Esmeralda’s influence as well, because well, she can create and control jade, but the elements that those crystals were showing were unrelated to the spirit wind girl, at least directly, since Esmeralda has some relation to poison which is a liquid and also to fire, as in her wind instead of being "weak" towards it, could be used to easily put out fire, something in which Esmeralda took pride, as she had overcame a natural vulnerability that she was born with as a spirit wind.

Also, it was unknown whether it’s because Aster implemented the belief with the phrase of "nature spirits" and well, all elements are present in nature, or if by innate the energy of the beliefs was applied to everything, perhaps the way Aster phrased it, simply helped for said energy’s influence to present itself faster and stronger than it would have normally done, a reward for his careful way to implement the belief maybe.

The point is that similar to spirit energy, everything could be influenced by it as those crystals proved.

Seeing Nina looking slightly downcast, because while their finding was quite eye-catching, it was the least "resourceful" out of all, given that there were only two palm sized crystals, Kana’s thorny branches were at least a dozen they were quite large and they could turn into a new thorny bush as well.

Also, unlike the seed presented by Dahlia which probably had the highest "potential", their bark was more than enough for what Mylene had planned and could be used right away, to produce a result, their crystals on the other hand will be gone once they are used in whatever way Aster might think.

"Don’t put that face, you four’s findings are way more important than what you think and all will be an incredible help for the camp, Kana and Dahlia’s ones are long term usable resources, but the crystals you found not only these two, but even the "normal" ones, would be worth a ton of gold per each gram of them in mortal standards, if used correctly, be sure to pay attention to Camila’s reaction when she sees them later", amusedly said Aster as he retrieved his hand, finishing evaluating their findings.