Chapter 869: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 22)

Lieze’s confusion was understandable, from having close to no options when it came to weapons as well as having a fighting style basically decided for her since she was born, she now had complete free reign on how to fight and what to fight with.

Thoughts about whether she should continue using a single-handed long sword or try out a different type had even crossed her mind, don’t forget that just like Iris and Nerissa, Lieze is a sword obsessed girl and she obtained the "sword maniac" profession as well.

Therefore, you should expect her to go to lengths such as questioning whether she should continue using the same type of sword she has used through her whole life, since that was technically decided for her instead of by her.

That sword which she used alongside her helmet were treasures that she inherited, though the helmet was indeed an incredibly precious Immortal grade, meaning that it didn’t lose when compared to Nerissa’s blue jade sword, the helmet was more of a symbolic thing, unlike her sister, Lieze could use other equipment if she wanted to, so long as it wasn’t a weapon, she would be unable to bring out all of its power unlike other cultivators, but she had that option.

And while that sounds like something positive it is for that reason that she was chosen as a scapegoat instead of her sister and was abandoned by her family who had joined the Stall, even when Lieze is far stronger than said sister, currently.

This is because that bit of extra "leisure" which seemed as something good, for their mother and the elders of her family meant that in terms of future potential, Lieze lacked when compared with her sister.

It’s not something that rare, some cultivators advance fast early but that doesn’t mean they are guaranteed greatness, which is why while current strength is important, so is "potential", the higher ranked forces favor "potential" more than current strength in fact, because they already have a solid base for the present, so what they worry about is their future, and so, Lieze was tossed aside.

Of course, after cutting ties with her family when they took away her helmet and sword, she didn’t leave with them so that the Stall could "judge" her, and with Mikaela whose status doesn’t lose when compared to Valentina, as in she is a princess from a force at the top three of a heavenly quadrant, and the top three forces of every heavenly quadrant are on equal standing with the ruler forces, except in terms of influence and the heavenly conqueror watching over them.

So, her family didn’t dare to force her to leave with them, her helmet and sword technically belonged to the family and not to her though, since while it was her late father the one who passed them to her, they were ultimately created with the resources and money of the family, so there was no justification for her to keep them, but she was now free from them.

Anyway, the important part is that unlike the helmet which was taken by the family for greed as it is an Immortal grade treasure, the sword’s case was different, that was a peak Stellar grade spirit treasure and while that is nothing to look down upon, there were a few of them in Lieze’s family treasury and all were compatible with her sister, but not with her, so they only took the sword to block Lieze’s path.

’I had never questioned the sword type I used, it was keepsake of my father and every time I wielded it, I felt as if he was fighting alongside me, but... would he truly want to see me hesitating so much about a decision that is for my own sake’, thought the girl from the white sword.

Changing one’s weapon type can be both incredibly easy or stupidly hard, depending on compatibility and talent, for example Tiana went from using a normal spear to a glaive flawlessly without the need to really do much adjustment, even her intent smoothly transitioned and more importantly improved way faster than before, after she did it and Lieze was now facing a possible similar situation as that.

"For someone with such a calm and neutral personality, you turned out to be quite a stubborn girl", half-jokingly said Aster to Lieze as he changed from clashing fists with Alexandra to hold onto her wrist to then... throw the pink grayish eyed girl into the air by grabbing her from her arm.

"Hey, that would have hurt if I didn’t have my armor", said Alexandra who was thrown ten meters into the air and around thirty meters into the distance as she landed without any problem because she covered her legs and knees with black octagonal metal plaques which reinforced said areas so the impact wouldn’t even reach her body, though to begin with, she is a secondary body path cultivator and her constitution granted her a tough body, so it wasn’t needed, but with her armor she could have a much more "graceful" demeanor when she landed.

"Sorry, I just saw a good chance to help a friend whose mind has been filled with so many things that she has been unable to found the answer she wants, when it is not "hard" to solve her problem", said Aster as he reached to his back and then retrieved a second sword with his now free left hand.

"Clang!", Agnes who saw Aster slashing a second sword at them stopped clashing with the first sword and slashed her own at the incoming second sword, which resulted in sparks and the sounds of metals colliding.

"So, while they look the same, the swords in your back are not of the same "type", amazing~", happily said Agnes as she felt her feet being forcefully pushed backwards a couple of centimeters due to the impact.

What happened is that while the first sword Aster used was pretty much a standard single handed long sword, just like the ones Lieze and Agnes were using, the other two mounted on his back, while looking the same, differed in weight.

The second sword Aster was wielding with his left hand was a heavy sword, which is why Agnes was slightly pushed back even when Aster is dividing his strength to face both the sportsy sun diamond princess and Lieze right now.

"Clang!", with a swift maneuver Aster pushed Lieze away with the sword in his right hand which he then stabbed into the ground to then reach to the other sword mounted on his back.

With a "swoosh" the third sword was slashed at Agnes but a black armor cladded arm got in the way, as Alexandra who had rushed back into the fight, intercepted it.

"Humph, don’t praise this sneaky guy, the third one is a light sword for swift swordsmanship", said the pink grayish eyed girl as she glared at Aster for having thrown her away like that earlier, which made the latter chuckle as he dodged a black armor clad foot aiming at his feet.

"Booom!", which resulted in Alexandra’s foot leaving a crater on the ground and debris flying in the vicinity, Esmeralda didn’t make one because her attack had landed on the jade platform, but Alexandra ended up attacking the normal ground, also, unlike in the outside world, while she couldn’t access her special abilities to reflect, store impact and the like, her black heavenly gold had gained a "new" property, namely it could be used for offense means as it is, and so, it didn’t only protect Alexandra’s body, but the reinforcement increased her strength too.

"You surely will get along with Esmeralda, considering these "heavy" attacks you both use in friendly spars like these", jokingly said Aster as he saw the result of her stomp landing on the ground, he had already realized it when he clashed fists with her, but Alexandra had reached base Alice strength.

Which might sound like not much, considering Kana can pull that off for short periods of time with her arms given her insanely high grip force, but you are forgetting that Alexandra’s talent isn’t focused in attack power, so this a big feat just as it was for Aria to achieve the same, because her innate ability focused in recovery.

Speaking of which, the ice princess wasn’t forgotten, she quietly left after Esmeralda’s evaluation, to the lake, because she is waiting for Aster to go and "reward" her, but we’ll get to that later, for now, Aster returned the light sword to his back and wielded the standard and the heavy ones as he charged towards those three.

"Leave the heavy sword to me~", said Agnes, all her worries seemed to disappear when she was training either her body or her swordsmanship and when the previous was done with Aster, it wasn’t limited to that, she couldn’t help but keep a bright smile on her pretty face, it’s a hard to describe feeling, but just his presence made her happy from the bottom of her heart, something she used to confuse with the strong interest that originated in her Fey lineage, but now understood is what one would call "to be in love", in any case, she liked it and Valentina who was observing Agnes clashing swords with Aster, instantly noticed it.

’Genuinely falling in love is as rare for a princess of the Fey as it is dangerous, aside from us from the Lightning Amethyst branch who in exchange for experiencing a strong "rebellious" phase at a young age, become pretty much unaffected by our natural extreme curiosity, or those from the Ocean Aquamarine who can forcefully calm themselves down, the others emotions grow quite more intense due to the previous after all’, thought the purple lightning princess.

Leaving aside Valentina’s own interest in getting to know why did that tomboyish little sister of hers, who hated the subject of looking for a partner, fell for Aster, the reason as to why she was "strictly" watching over their interactions, is because some princesses grow extremely attached when they fall in love.

To the point that they wouldn’t hesitate to do "anything" that the other party asks of them, and with that I mean "ANYTHING" in capital letters, there have been cases of it in the history of the Fey family, where they got involved in bloody both inner and also external conflict was started because of that.

And here you probably are thinking something along the lines of "Wait, couldn’t they somewhat see through the intentions of others, so how come they fell for someone that would ask such things from them" and the answer is simple, people change, the fact that someone is "good" currently, doesn’t mean that will always be the case, also that ability to see through the intentions of others depends on the talent of each princess, so it’s not the same for everyone.

And yet, not only they are not forbidden from looking for a partner but they are even encouraged to do so, especially those highly talented like Valentina, Agnes or Aster’s godmother, because their lineages and constitutions have been observed to develop at a crazy fast speed due to the previous, the most accepted theory behind the previous is that love is a much stronger emotion than their innate curiosity and interest, so it causes that reaction in them, of course this is a theory because it doesn’t happen every time, some experience that boost while others don’t.

That’s why Valentina is closely watching Agnes’s development even after she was absolutely sure that Aster wouldn’t harm her, as her older sister if Agnes starts to go out of control, she wants to be there to help.

’Well, he can handle that scale tailed girl, so I doubt a princess of the sun diamond family poses a problem to him... I do wonder what would happen if it was someone from cousin’s disaster onyx family though?’, amusingly thought Valentina.

"Clang!", back to the fight, while Aster’s heavy sword was blocked by Agnes, his standard sword was smacked to the side by Alexandra and then Lieze was given a chance to attack him, or at least that was the idea until Aster skillfully stabbed the standard sword which was deviated by Alexandra, into the ground to then grab onto the light sword and swiftly slash it at Lieze’s sword.

"Crack!", contrary to what one would expect, while the third sword Aster used was light, it wasn’t fragile in the slightest, due to the clash, the edge of Lieze’s sword was the one that chipped, which made the girl from the white sword, steal a gaze at the sword which Aster had stabbed into the ground.

In a surprisingly bold and "aggressive" manner, Lieze actually let go of her now damaged sword and reached for the one Aster had left momentarily aside, naturally Aster didn’t limit to just watch his sword be snatched, he reached to it, but Alexandra softly snorted as she threw a kick at his sides, forcing Aster to dodge by moving his right side back just enough to not be kicked by the black armor clad right leg of Alexandra.

And that combined with Agnes continuously slashing her sword at Aster’s heavy sword, while she was having a blast, bought Lieze precious fractions of a second enough for her hand to reach the hilt of Aster’s standard sword which she held onto to then continue with her assault.

"Clang!", the very first thing Lieze realized is that Aster tricked them, more than Agnes and Alexandra realized, his "standard" sword was also a heavy one, he had wielded it so that they wouldn’t notice it, but now that she was holding onto it, she instantly knew it.

’Miss Agnes’s is as dedicated to the sword as we are and sister Alexandra has sharp senses and yet he managed to deceive them, and I’m the "sword maniac" here?’, thought Lieze as she retrieved the heavy sword to then slash it again and again at Aster’s light sword.

Midway through the exchange of movements, Lieze realized that... she was not only not doing it any worse with a heavy sword, but in fact she was even doing it better than when she used a single-handed long sword.

Without she noticing, she had held onto the heavy sword with both of her hands, which wasn’t uncomfortable because that sword was made with Aster’s measurements in mind, it was a single-handed sword for him whose hands are bigger than that of Lieze, but for the girl from the white sword, the hilt was large enough for her to comfortably wield it as a two-handed sword.

But the important part is that the previous happened unconsciously, and it wasn’t because of the heavier weight of the sword, Lieze is a main body path cultivator, her physical strength is on par with Agnes’s one in here, despite she hadn’t done any mortal training before and her constitution having nothing to do with physical strength either, she simply changed to double handed wielding naturally.

"Ha!", even her neutral vibe wavered for a moment as she let out a slightly loud sound accompanied by the strongest slash she has used ever since they entered the trial road.

"Crack!", as a result Lieze managed to break the tip of Aster’s light sword, which made the latter nod to his insides as he decided to put an end to the spar, how so you wonder, by snatching his sword away from Lieze and then slashing both at the same time at Agnes.

"Clang!!!", the impact was so strong that the sportsy sun diamond princess was forced backwards a couple of meters, but that didn’t mark the end of the spar, because while Agnes’s sword crumbled apart the next second, Alexandra was still in the fight and her fist was about to land on Aster’s chest.

At least until he moved to the side to then make a quick turn and then hit the back of Alexandra’s knee which made her stance unstable for a second which Aster used to... place his hand on top of her head.

"And that’s game over", he said as he petted the pink grayish eyed girl.

"That’s unfair, they also lost so why am I the only one being "punished" here", mumbled Alexandra as she actually made black metal octagonal plaques cover her head, creating a helmet which got in the way of Aster’s teasing, very much to his amusement.

"Well, in part because they wouldn’t consider a head pat a "punishment" and also because you contributed more than what you believe in this little spar", jokingly said Aster to which Alexandra softly sighed as she dispelled her "helmet".

"Forget it, I genuinely can’t get angry at you for something like this", said the pink grayish eyed girl as she thought.

’Especially when I had fun too, Agnes suddenly had this interesting "solid" aura around her hands for a second there and that head pat... didn’t transmit anything but innocent care and praise for me’.

The whole head pat thing might look "forceful" when the receiving end is a girl like let’s say Mira, Valentina or Alexandra who don’t actively seek to be "rewarded" in such a way, but the truth is that Aster perfectly knows and respects the limits of each and every girl around him.

If he noticed that they were actually uncomfortable, didn’t end up amused over him doing as much as teasing them or had no interest in participating in such things, he would outright not do it, he also doesn’t really have any ill intention behind this kind of interaction at all, otherwise fierce girls like Mira or Valentina would have told him off on the spot instead of simply glaring or softly growling at him like they usually do, not because they don’t like it, but because they are against of how much fun he has by messing with them.

Unlike on the outside world where he radiates yang energy which is beneficial for those around him, in this place Aster can’t do that as a mortal... without direct contact.

So yeah, a head pat is actually beneficial for the one receiving it, it helps the other party to relax and even diminishes some fatigue, it’s not as noticeable as it would be in the outside world, but that pink grayish eyed girl is going to have the best rest ever since they arrived at this place, tonight.

As Esmeralda has stated, he can’t be considered a "mortal" even for the standards of a dragon due to things like that.

"Aster, you noticed it too, right?", said Agnes as she looked at her hands while observing the destroyed sword which she was using until a moment ago.

"Yes, you were indeed forced backwards by a heavy slash of mine when using two heavy swords, but you felt no impact, I didn’t even see the tips of your fingers shake", answered Aster which made the sportsy sun diamond princess smile.

"Mm, I imagined a solid "layer" covering my skin just like how Alexandra did it with her black metal armor a few times during the spar and right at the end my hands felt different~", said Agnes to which Aster patted her head as he thought.

’It wasn’t just her hands, it might have looked like I stopped my slash midway, but the base of her sword which was closer to her hands looked as if it was reinforced by "something", so her ability is similar but also different to Alexandra’s one, these two and Camila will surely have a nice time playing together’, amusingly thought Aster.

As for Lieze, instead of a head pat she was given one of the heavy swords Aster used for the spar alongside congratulations.

"I think you are going to need this for your unique mission which was just triggered", he said to which Lieze nodded as she accepted the sword as she said.

"I thought a head pat was coming my way too", to which Aster shrugged.

"I kind of had to give you too big of a hint, so a reward in this situation might be a bit too much, we’ll talk about it after you succeed in completing your unique mission", he jokingly said which made the girl from the white sword softly laugh.

"I see, that sounds fair", she said, there was a tinge of "sadness" in her voice alongside burning fighting spirit in her eyes, as she realized that a heavy two-handed sword fitted her better than the single handed standard one, she has used her whole life.

Because while certainly she approached Aster with Mikaela’s help to see if he could make her a sword, her goal was to recover the one that her family took away from her, as it was a precious keepsake from her father.

"I have not seen that white sword you used to use, but I already knew something as "obscure" as mortal blacksmithing before coming to this place and with galaxy forging, changing a single-handed sword to a heavy two handed one without altering its properties or appearance noticeably, shouldn’t be a problem, you have to bring it to me for that to happen though, but that is the easy part, after all, the Stall will continue to be a bother for us in the nearby future", said Aster as he added.

"The hard part will be to find the correct materials to upgrade it to Immortal grade or above when it is needed, but that’s also a part of the fun, and in such cases, you could use other swords created by me".

"...", Lieze’s eyes slightly opened wider for a second, before she smiled as she said.

"Thanks", that wasn’t from the girl that originally approached Aster with the idea of each taking what they needed from the other, that was genuine gratitude that came from the bottom of her heart.

Cultivators rarely keep the same weapon after breaking through, normally they discard what fell behind their realm and simply get new and stronger spirit treasures, that’s also one of the reasons as to why spirit blacksmiths as well as alchemists if they are any good, are filthy rich, their creations are always in demand.

Lieze would be considered "weird" because even after she outgrew the limit of her sword, she didn’t want to turn it into a family’s inheritance or mount it on the wall to exhibit it, like cultivators who had their previously used equipment in high regard would, she wanted to continue her path with her white sword in hand and Aster understood that, some things are fine never leaving one’s side, like his family in his case.