Chapter 873: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 26)

After a couple of seconds underwater, Aster surfaced and was directly met with the ligress glaring and softly growling at him.

"Grrr", to which Aster chuckled as he swam to "hide" behind of Aria as he said.

"Luckily tigers love water, otherwise those growls would be actually angry ones".

Amusingly enough unlike tigers who love water to the point that they actually visit ponds, rivers and the like just to splash and lounge around for fun, not to mention that they swim kilometers without any problem, and even have partially webbed paws, lions on the other hand are quite the opposite they would only enter water if they have to and they don’t like to swim, nor relax and play in it.

So, as a ligress there was a 50 percent chance that Mira liked water or not, and considering she spent quite a bit of her free time in the lake, it’s obvious that her tiger part won in that aspect.

"I like swimming indeed, but I nearly swallowed water because a certain tease loving annoying dragon dragged me into the lake by surprise", said Mira as she opened and slightly tensed her left hand, it looked as if she was preparing to slash Aster with her claws, but of course that wasn’t the case.

"Aria, don’t cover that guy, I’m going to get back at him today", said the ligress as she "clawed" the water, Mira is as much of a monster as Alice in terms of physique, so that obviously not serious slashing motion, raised quite a strong wave which reached Aster the next second given that Aria totally agreed with Mira so she sneaked underwater to avoid getting caught in the middle.

"Splash!", Aster is not as strong as Mira and Alice in this place, but his body is insanely tougher, so the wave of water thrown his way broke down upon contact, splashing water all over the place, without making Aster move a single centimeter, nor dragging him into the lake as Mira wanted to.

’Ah, I forgot about that perverted tough body of his!’, inwardly complained the ligress as she saw Aster mockingly smile at her as he answered in kind.

Of course, Aster didn’t make a wave to "attack" Mira, he simply splashed some water her way, but he did so in a way that her hair which was neatly accommodated despite having being taken by surprise and dragged into the lake earlier, got messed up.

And now, the ligress had that pretty white-silver hair of hers half covering her face, she looked cute, especially because she was clearly fuming after being bested twice in a row.

"Come here you slippery dragon pervert, Aria get him!", exclaimed the ligress as she saw Aster swimming away, to which the ice princess who had just surfaced laughed as she chased Aster, it didn’t end until they managed to catch and completely splash water at him, this took almost an hour by the way, after which the three swam to the dock to rest and half dry with the breeze and the sun.

It might have looked like a silly waste of time for others, but Aster enjoyed seeing those two happily having fun, and getting closer was actually beneficial for them, though that wasn’t the reason as to why they played around in the lake, they genuinely just wanted to have some fun.

"On a much more serious side note, can you actually stablish your contract with Aria while in this place, you were unable to use abilities related to your spirit ice part as a mortal after all?", asked Aster to the ligress who was accommodating her hair now that the playtime was over.

Mira’s abnormal strength, her capacity to understand Guardian, super sharp senses and fighting instincts, not to mention her terrifyingly strong and sharp claws, all came from her spirit beast side, in this place at least, at mortal level she only had easy access to her lineage related abilities.

And not to all of them, because like most girls with talents related to elements, she couldn’t use her ice, unlike Sarina who did have access to her lightning, to a certain extent.

But basically, and similar to Esmeralda, at mortal level she had no access to the powers related to being a spirit element, aside from inactive support aspects such as basically immunity to cold, high mobility in water dominant places like the lake and similar things.

"It would have been a hassle before, but now...", said the ligress as she placed her hand on the lake.

"Hssss", a soft crispy sound could be heard as a one-meter circle shaped layer of ice appeared on top of the water with Mira’s hand as the center.

Then, those familiar shinny particles from before, though they were light blue colored this time, and in a smaller quantity when compared to both Esmeralda and Nim, descended upon the ligress, gathering on top of Mira’s head and around her lower back, until they formed tiger ears and a tail.

It’s worth mentioning that those weren’t Mira’s beast traits, as the tail moving through the solid wood dock since it was slowly and gently swayed, unconsciously to the ligress girl, as she was happy, suggested.

The ears and tail were created by gathering the energy of the beliefs, to further prove that, Mira made them disperse the next second, as she noticed Aster’s gaze on her ears.

"Even Nim had not understood how to use that energy and you already can do it, being a spirit element is a bit of a cheat in this place, huh", jokingly said Aster to which Mira softly snorted in response.

"Unfortunately, you are too much of a monster for this to be enough to suppress you, considering how you blocked Esmeralda’s wind and jade with your bare body and rendered "possession" useless too", said Mira to then add.

"But the important part is that this way, Aria will have access to freezing abilities even in this place, though, I can’t create large quantities of ice without the support of this energy, so Aria who can’t use this energy for the time being, won’t be able to create ice out of nowhere, with a water source close or the water floating in the air, would be enough to increase her battle prowess drastically".

Aria has been unable to access her ice creation related to her lineage, but apparently once the contract with Mira is stablished, she would be able to create ice derived from Mira’s powers, though the ice princess can’t use the energy of the beliefs by "innate" as she is not a spirit element, so her capacity to make and use ice will be "degraded".

However, similar to how Agnes was inspired by Alexandra, the previous would do more than give Aria a drastic increase in battle prowess, but it might also help her obtain ice-related abilities of her own.

"That’s an interesting side benefit of being in a contract with an ice element, but I guess it’s not something as easy as that, right, after all Kana didn’t become able to use wind even when Esmeralda has a much more advanced control over that energy than you", said Aster to which the ligress nodded.

"There are conditions indeed, to begin with "compatibility" Aria will obtain a weakened version of my ice making ability through our connection, because her attribute is also ice, also and this is why that little girl didn’t outright became able to use a weaker wind and jade due to her contract with Esmeralda, a "strong" physical vessel is needed at mortal level to use this ability as a contractor instead of a spirit element, and Aria’s physique is strong enough for this ability to not become a burden but a benefit for her now", she said.

It might come from someone they have a strong connection with, but this weakened ability is ultimately an external power, so, at mortal level, using it will put a strain in the contractor’s body.

Kana is indeed not fragile, but she is also not especially "tough", her physical talent lean towards strength and unlike Sarina, her lineage doesn’t directly reinforce her body, as she is not from the warrior branch, which is why Esmeralda didn’t establish the connection needed to grant the little girl that ability, for the time being.

Aria would normally be in a similar situation, sure, she has done quite a bit of physical training as a part of Aster’s plan to mix aspects of the three paths, and because Aria is especially compatible with said plan, given that her body constitution allows her to be in her prime forever, even if she is not a body cultivator.

After gaining physical strength, endurance and the like, that new state becomes permanent for her, she wouldn’t need to train to keep it, as if she is a body cultivator too, since that’s her new "prime" and "pristine" state, only positive aspects are considered for this trait of her body constitution too, in a sense, the ice princess is the one with the highest potential to mix aspects of the three paths without cultivating in the three of them, but at the same time she can only do so through a slow process.

And now that she can recover before the damage even gets to her, Mira judged granting this weakened ability to her as a benefit without side effects, in fact this would accelerate her training so it’s a win-win no matter how you look at it.

"Last but not least "maturity" or "development" is also necessary, that little girl is a monster as far as talent is concerned, but her lineage and that unknown trait which makes her loved by the world, which probably comes from a constitution yet to be awakened are still too young, when compared to Esmeralda’s so the connection would be unstable, Aria has taken a step ahead so it’s safe for her to be given this ability", added the ligress.

For lineage the term was "maturity" but for constitutions it was "development", it represents the same though, infant, adult, elder are the stages for lineages, early, middle and peak are the stages for constitutions, that is also probably not the limit, but is what’s known in the four heavenly quadrants.

And as you have probably already guessed, unlike Alice or Sarina for example, who were lineage owners and gained constitutions through the power of their respective stars, body and soul ones to be accurate, Aria and the little girl were lineage and constitution owners before that.

It’s just that in Aria’s case her lineage had been dormant while her constitution was active, and Kana was the opposite her lineage is active and her constitution which is related to her being loved by the world is the dormant one, as for the power of their stars, in Aria’s case Rigel integrated with her lineage, but for the little girl, the star that resonated with her back at Esmeralda’s realm seems to have involved with her constitution instead, opposite cases.

But enough of that for now, the ligress stood up and extended her right arm frontwards with her palm opened as she nodded at Aria.

"I hope we get along even better from now and for eternity, though your "likings" are a bit strange for me, Aria", mumbled Mira as she gazed at Aster which made Aria softly laugh.

"Mm, I’ll be in your care, Mirajane", said the ice princess as she pressed her right hand against Mira’s one, which resulted in both being enveloped in a soft sky-blue light for a couple of seconds, it was quite the beautiful ceremony until Aster added.

"You are younger than Esmeralda so why is your contract process that of an "old lady"?", he jokingly said, which earned him a soft growl from the ligress.

She couldn’t deny his words though, the vast majority don’t make such a "ceremony" when making their contracts, but she followed a rather traditional method which is what she learned from her parents, for which the contractor and the spirit element mention the name of the other as a sign of trust, of course since

"Humph", ultimately unable to say something but also not willing to just let Aster tease her, the ligress girl softly snorted as she looked away.

While Mira was bickering with Aster, the ice princess jumped from the dock but instead of sinking into the lake, she landed onto a solid ice small platform, to then walk through the lake which of course drew the attention of the girls that though remained at some distance from the dock to not bother their senior brother and those two "big sisters", still had some tasks to do around the like, like fishing.

"Woah, sister Aria can create ice!", exclaimed a couple of girls who were sitting on a raft while fishing.

"But she is not using that energy unlike that pretty green haired sister from earlier", added another one referring to Esmeralda.

Mira couldn’t help but be a bit surprised, because she didn’t expect Aria to be able to use the ice making ability derived from their contract right away, which made her eyes sparkle for a second, this was both a proof of Aria’s insanely high talent for ice attribute and their compatibility being as high as possible.

"Go, I’ll leave you two ice princesses to have fun", said Aster as he got up only for the ligress to actually hold him back by grabbing Aster’s hand and use it as support to also get up and after measuring the distance between the dock where only Aster and herself were, and the girls in the relative vicinity, she spoke in a low voice.

"I firmly believe that Aria is much more compatible as my contractor than you, even if you also have those blue flames, so I can’t be your spirit ice but... I’m also part spirit beast", mumbled Mira as she also jumped towards the lake landing thirty meters away from the dock, on top of a solid ice platform as she moved towards Aria and the girls on the rafts, leaving behind an Aster who was taken aback for a second.

Mira didn’t directly say it, but her words made it clear that while Aria was her contractor, she was open to the idea of becoming Aster’s contracted spirit beast, given that he is a spirit tamer.

Of course, that is a subject for the future, because Mira is a spirit beast descendant unlike the little wyrm who was born as a spirit beast and is advancing towards obtaining human form, the ligress girl needs to recover to the point where she can take spirit beast form and then she’ll have this conversation properly with Aster.

Normally, for spirit beast descendants to have full spirit beast form, their lineages have to be at the peak of the adult stage, but that’s for "average" people, a monstrously talented ligress like Mira, can will probably be able to take spirit beast form, even if it is for a short period of time, as soon as she reached the initial part of the adult stage.

This also fulfills another function, which to give Aster time to grow closer to the stage where Mira is, since he follows the ancient and proper method for spirit tamers, which is to grow alongside their companions.

It’s worth mentioning that Mira is like Lilia, at the advanced part of the infant stage currently, but she of course used to be way ahead of that, it’s just that her lineage was worn out since she used its power to maintain the ice in which she had sealed herself to endure the torture of those bastards from the Yin Azure Palace sect.

’Truly a cold and harsh on the outside but warm and gentle on the inside ligress, how cute, besides I bet Espi would be more than happy to have a "big sister" visiting her in the beast space from time to time’, he amusingly thought as he turned around to then leave towards Mylene’s workshop, with a smile on his face.

Not due to the idea of having a possible second contracted spirit beast, which would increase his power and potential as a spirit tamer, no, he is happy to see that the ligress has completely overcome that bad experience she had, since she is willing and happy to have a contractor and a tamer with which she will share her live and death.

...

The little spar with those three, that conversation he had with Valentina and then Felicia, as well as the time spent playing around in the lake with the two "ice princesses", took Aster a couple of hours, so at this point the flying training session had already finished.

That doesn’t mean it had stopped, since cute a few curious girls had approached and were giving puppy eyes to Sarina and Esmeralda so that they could experience flying as mortals, not like they really were bothering those two, since they were going to spend most of their day flying and practicing possession, respectively, anyway, the same applied to Nim, though she will be moving to other parts of the camp for her possession training later.

But the girls who were being "rewarded" were indeed now gone from the vicinity of Nim’s tree and Esmeralda’s jade mountain to do their own things, or wait for their bigger reward in Kana, Dahlia, Lina and Nina’s case.

Speaking of which, now it was time for something of the previous, namely the candy making session, which technically was Kana’s reward, but Mylene and the little wyrm were also participating, the same applied to others, for example the picnic that will take place later was Sarina’s reward, but those two little girls and Mylene will be assisting too.

And the little wyrm’s reward which was to participate in Aster’s work in the smithy later, will have Kana and a "surprise" visitant also participating, but for now, Aster who arrived at Mylene’s workshop was welcomed by bunch of giggles and happy hisses.

"This cold apple juice is delicious, thanks sister Mylene~", said Kana as she drank from a cup.

"Hisss~", the little wyrm agreed with Kana as she slightly dived her mouth into her cup to drink her juice to then cutely lick her lips with her tongue, this is something Mylene prepared and cooled using quite "archaic" methods.

Namely, the evaporative cooling method with a porous clay vessel which using heat exchange cooled the things inside of it, that were then put into an underground storage that used earth insulation to prevent spoilage, the more fragile edibles were directly kept in the camp’s storage though.

"As always you two really are weak to sweet things", jokingly said Aster as he entered Mylene’s workshop

"Big brother~", exclaimed both the little girl and the little wyrm as they jumped from their seats and handed from Aster’s neck and shoulder, respectively.

Like Aster had stated if he didn’t have this "monstrous" body, it wouldn’t be easy to deal with a whole bunch of energetic girls as he does on a daily basis, those two aren’t especially heavy, but a normal human wouldn’t be able to stay completely unaffected by having Kana hang form their necks and Espi casually landing on his shoulder like they always do.

"Sorry for the delay, but I come with a little "gift" for you three", said Aster with a "mysterious" voice, which earned him the full attention of not only those two little girls, but also of Mylene who was preparing the necessary materials for the candies they will be making.

"Our camp now has access to an easy and strong cooling down method, through ice making abilities, and not only from Mira but also from Aria", said Aster as he petted both Kana and the little wyrm whose eyes were sparkling, the same applied to Mylene though for a different reason.

Those two little gluttons were imagining cold sweets like frozen sweetened strawberries becoming a common dessert, while Mylene was thinking in the refining methods she will be able to use with the help of an assistance that can diminish temperature at will.

Just like that, Aster had just "sold" the ligress, since Aria wouldn’t mind helping Mylene with the serious stuff, but Mira will have no option but to accept when she is given puppy eyes by that pair of gluttonous little girls asking her to freeze some fruits for them, Aster had a different and slightly more elaborated but not hard to do, dessert in mind for them, but they’ll have to wait for later for that.

"You little gluttons can continue to imagine frozen sweets later, if we don’t prepare candies and snacks now, there won’t be any for the picnic", said Aster as he saw both Kana and Espi almost drooling while they were lost in their little worlds, which made those two softly laugh as they nodded.

"Mm, we have to make a lot of chips too, mom and sister Mylene cooperated to prepare a new dish, so we also invited sisters Dahlia, Nina and Lina to join us~", said Kana which earned her a head pat from Aster, good girls that share deserve to be rewarded after all.

"Hisss", of course that made the little wyrm "complain", because she also invited someone to join them, namely the orange haired badger girl, Lauren, apparently these two had gotten quite closer with them, which is normal as they are the ones closer in age to Kana and Espi either biologically or in terms of lineage maturity.