Chapter 885: The third day of the evaluation trial (part 2)

"That meddlesome ice princess, can’t we eat at the bed, I’ll be the dessert if we do~", said Alice who was sitting on Aster’s lap inside the bathtub, her large tail was hugging both Aster’s upper body and his right arm.

She was much calmer than before, but the term "enough" didn’t exist for the wild dragon princess when it came to Aster, if she could, she would spend every second of her day with him.

"The others also did their best, so it wouldn’t be fair that only you get rewarded, be good and share", said Aster which made Alice pout, she raised her body using her tail which was wrapped around Aster’s body, as support, so that her lower body was temptingly displayed a few centimeters away from Aster’s face.

"You say that, but I wasn’t the only one who went "wild" earlier~", said Alice as she seductively swayed her body, to which Aster chuckled as he got up, ignoring that devilish invitation from that wild dragon sister of his.

"Good girls that share with their sisters, get to have "fun" later as well, though you’ll have to go last since you already had your turn", said Aster as he hugged Alice from behind, placing his hands on her belly while he gently bit her neck.

"Mmn~", Alice let out a cute sound, earlier she was the one doing the biting, but as soon as the real fun started, she changed to want Aster to be the active one, because Alice was in the mood to be spoiled rotten by him, she wanted all his attention.

Luckily while the wild dragon princess would never have enough of Aster’s caresses, with the previous she finally let go of him, so that they could dry and then change into casual sets of clothes, and then come out of the bathroom.

Aria was sitting on the bed waiting for them to come out, with an "ice cold" expression on her pretty face.

"Finally, I thought you were going to skip dinner and even sleep in the bathroom", said the ice princess as she glared at Alice who smirked in response.

"I wanted to, but Aster said that I get seconds if I share with my sisters, so I’ll be magnanimous and allow you to have a turn as well~", said the wild dragon princess to which Aria softly snorted.

"Humph, you act as if you were the only one that made progress, sure that monstrous brute strength of yours has increased alongside your lineage’s progress, but I also increased the development of my constitution and that’s not all, Mira has become my contracted spirit ice too", proudly said the ice princess.

Aria is normally not the type to "brag", she is quite the calm and kind girl, when she interacts with others, besides that her elegant and aloof self perfectly match that of her nickname ice princess, the only exception is when she is dealing with Alice.

"Oh really, you can make some nice frozen desserts for me and Aster, once we finish rolling on the bed later~", mockingly said Alice as she approached Aria, to which the ice princess got up the bed to then retort.

"Perhaps you need a second bath, one of ice-cold water so that you can control that shameless lascivious lineage of yours".

"Pah!", a loud clapping sound interrupted those two who were about to jump at each other’s throats.

"Hyaan~", followed by a cute startled sound escaping from the ice princess’s pretty lips.

"Ahhn~", while a much lewder one was produced by Alice, they both were spanked by Aster who then jokingly said.

"Perhaps we should postpone today’s night activities, I saw Camila stealing some gazes at me before so she must have achieved something quite amazing, now that her lineage is developing at an incredible speed".

As much as those two were the opposite of the other, there is something in which they will always agree, both wanted to have Aster for themselves and would work together if needed towards that end, it was quite the cute sisterly dynamic.

"That’s not fair, you can have fun with that treasure girl outside of the room, she so shy that a kiss is more than enough to make her lose it after all~", said Alice as she held onto Aster’s right arm.

"Mm, we’ll be good and let Camila have the main seat for dinner, since she’ll look after Kana and Espi later~", added Aria as she hugged Aster’s left arm.

’These two, despite how they bicker on a daily basis, surely are a really good team, how cute’, thought Aster as he chuckled, since they had made up, Aster stopped teasing them and left the room accompanied by them.

Imagine poor Camila’s face when she was lifted by Alice using her tail and then placed her on top of Aster’s lap, well the right side of it, because the little girl took the left one, she was going to leave the room for her sisters and mother, so she deserved this much "compensation", the little wyrm was the same, she rested on top of Aster’s shoulder and cutely hissed as she was fed directly by Aster.

’Somehow, those three are getting quite good at taking advantage of the situation, Camila is too dangerous to be left on that "side" for too long’, thought Aria, even the ice princess has started to think that the treasure girl is an unaware "mastermind".

"So, I trust that everyone is more of less aware of what happened in the warrior hall at this point?", asked Aster as he cut a piece of boar meat to then feed it to Camila.

"Yeah, Mylene and miss Cassandra shared the whole story with us, after they noted down the key parts of the intel that was gathered due to it, and while I have my doubts regarding that "little sister five" they mentioned you suddenly got close to, I’m more interested in that guy from the Freed family", said the purple lightning princess as she narrowed her eyes at Aster.

The previous earned him quite a few gazes, for a change Agnes took her sister’s side and also narrowed her eyes at Aster, while others were simply amused at the situation, like Vivian for example.

"The side event that took place sounds fun, I made more progress in my technique and I can increase my base stats more now, so I would like to go the next time, is that okay, Aster?", asked the white haired girl, which helped Aster to divert the attention from him.

"Sure, for our "play" to advance we’ll need different "actors" for the next session at the warrior hall after all", said Aster which made Vivian smile at him.

"Thanks~", as always that white-haired girl was more than happy to try out new things, back to the conversation Aster proceeded to tell them about that guy with the axe mask, his family and the difference between the natives of his firmament and those of the cultivation world.

"I see, it does indeed sound like they might be the "humans" from the vicinity of the firmament from where the orcrary came", said Mina.

"I also hadn’t heard about a "dragon slayer" family, so I think those hyena head race guys might come from that area, it wouldn’t be surprising since portals to previously isolated firmaments and mortal realms have been appearing here and there in recent years", added Cassandra.

That’s something that Aster was already told by Natasha and Charlotte, recently the solid borders between different places have weakened, which has led to some conflict.

There are "new" territories being discovered and new races that weren’t known in the cultivation world as well.

"Even I hadn’t heard about something like that, after all, a dragon’s lineage is one of the most coveted for cultivators, so why would they choose to remain "humans" if they were able to kill a dragon", said Esmeralda.

It’s not that cultivators wouldn’t kill dragons, they would, just look at the other wyrms trapped in Esmeralda’s realm, they were all hunted, though not all were killed, they were captured and brought back by different visitants over time, only Espi escaped from their scope thanks to her adaptation capacities.

Because for cultivators every part of a dragon is a treasure, their blood, scales, bones, core, fangs and more importantly, their lineage, there are dragon descendants that are born from the union of a dragon that took human form and then had offspring with a cultivator, but a cultivator integrating the lineage of a dragon is another possible and much more common origin.

Or well, that’s what the records from ancient times of the four heavenly quadrants say, since there are no traces of real dragons appearing there since countless millions of years.

Though that might be what’s known on the surface, perhaps the Drage who are considered the strongest dragon descendant force, know more about it.

But the point is that what "dragon slayers" do is not common, they kill dragons but don’t integrate their lineages into them, but instead use them to somehow empower their human lineage, that’s unheard of in the cultivation world.

"Well, that guy made it clear that the "dragons" from his native place are quite different than the ones we know about, from what I understood, the are more like mindless beasts until much later stages, perhaps it’s a racial trait or due to the way they use spirit or divine energies, it’s hard to tell without having seen one before", said Aster.

The dragons at the Gallant firmament might be of a specifically wild race among dragons, which would explain their behavior, don’t get it wrong, dragons in general sure are violent and lascivious, but not to the point where they would be in an eternal war against human powerhouses.

At the end of the day, dragons attain human form and become cultivators as well, so they would normally solve conflict in the same way as other cultivators from the righteous factions, war behind the scenes and securing benefits in the open.

"Maybe they are dragons that descend from one that was an evil cultivator, or something along the lines of it, we’ll inform everyone of the grey-red hair and green sclerae traits just in case", added Mikaela, those were the symbols of the other two ancient families mentioned by that guy from the Freed family, only Aster, Alice and the little wyrm would be detectable by them, but considering that they will attack without even caring whether the other party is an enemy or not, then they will for sure also attack anyone that is in good terms with Aster and those two, so they are now in the "kill on sight" list.

"Hahaha, you see sis, if you don’t hurry and catch brother Aster, someone might "slay" him before you... ouch!", Erick tried to make a joke about Tiana’s "dragon slaying spear arts" only to have his ear pinched by Sophia for raising his voice too much.

"There were some decent materials put up to sale and we immediately bought them all, but nothing of the "special" category appeared", added Angela as she accommodated her glasses.

"It’s understandable, they are quite valuable so even if others were to sell them, it wouldn’t be before getting an idea of the type of price they can set for them, I think we’ll see a few on sale after tomorrow’s match, so let’s have a new task to have someone refreshing the listed items at all times", said Aster to which the receptionist girl nodded.

"We also got back quite a few of the spent merits, thanks to miss Sarina", said Valentina, they put rye bread up for sale and it sold like hotcakes, even when the price was quite "high" all the units were gone in seconds.

It’s normal, other participants have been here for months and they haven’t eaten anything but fruit, vegetables or meat, so those with deep pockets directly bought the bread.

"Oh, perfect, our cover is that of a sect that’s led by a "useless silk pants" so it’s normal to have put efforts into developing "mundane" things such as diverse food instead of anything battle related, I can "accidentally" admit that our camp is the one selling it at the next session too, nice one Sarina", said Aster which earned him a sweet smile from the blond roc mother.

"I taught those little girls how to prepare it, but we’ll limit the ones put to sale so that it stays a "luxury", in exchange, we can have other things that they won’t be able to replicate listed for sale, like salt or sugar for example", said Sarina, they weren’t uncommon on the camp now, but that’s because Mylene is monstrously talented as an alchemists, she learned about refining methods used at mortal realms and by mortals too, and she has access to cheat level ingredients like Aster and Vivian’s blood too.

As always everyone had a nice time sharing their day with others while eating their meal, but since tomorrow there was a match, things were cut short and after finishing their food, everyone started to leave to their respective rooms, well, except Kana, Espi and Camila instead went to the other log cabin in front of theirs.

Speaking of which, there was a little scene caused by the chatterbox runic oak, Nim had been staying at Aster’s room, technically, since she was in her mini form and slept in the pocket of Kana’s clothes.

But when she said that she was going to stay there to sleep, the ligress directly told her that she was sleeping with them from now and onwards, which was supported by everyone else.

Nim even said that she would dispel her human form and return to be a tree, but her offer was of course rejected, even if she wanted, she can’t do "anything" in her current body, but it’s a matter of "mentality", after all, she is a girl now.

And when she tried to use Kana and the little wyrm as her entry ticket, since they also stay with Aster while they aren’t his lovers, Nim was shot down by Esmeralda who is also staying with Valentina and the others now, directly stating that those two don’t look at Aster in the way she does.

Nim might be kind of clueless in terms of human emotions, but she clearly is interested in Aster as a man, her situation is slightly similar to Vivian’s one, as in she has no defenses when it comes to Aster, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine to just cross the line with him, nor would Aster agree to that, since it would be like taking advantage of them, if once they perfectly understand what romantic love is about, then things can be discussed.

Seeing Kana who was happy to have Nim and Esmeralda going with them, meaning that she had two new sisters to spend time with during this small slumber party sessions she had when there were night activities, Camila sighed to her insides.

’I guess I can’t complain since I was "bribed" earlier, but... I hope they don’t finish too late, I want to cuddle with Aster for some time before sleeping’, cutely thought the treasure girl.

She wasn’t as excessively shy as before, she still didn’t feel ready to take another step, but she could better enjoy some intimate time with her boyfriend without feeling as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest now, though she honestly enjoyed both experiences.

....

Leaving aside the "war" that broke out on Aster’s bed between Sarina, Aria and Alice, once night activities ended and those three returned to the room, the night went on pretty uneventful, at least on the outside world, Aster visited the mind space and he was jumped by the charming dragon mother and the sword empress who also wanted some attention, especially Lilia.

And a few hours later, the sun appeared on the sky and morning came to this place, normally Aster would take his time for the morning kissing ritual, but he had work to do in the smithy, since he won’t be participating in the match with others this time, so he wanted to prepare everything to make sure the girls are safe.

"Let’s go Espi, we have a lot of work to do", said Aster after kissing the sleeping beauties.

"Hisss!", the little wyrm was more than happy to spend more time with Aster, so she wrapped herself around his body and right arm, probably imitating what Alice did with her tail, which made Aster bitterly smile.

"Now, don’t learn "bad things" from your sister Alice, remain a good girl forever", he jokingly said to which the little wyrm nodded.

"Hisss~", Espi cutely licked Aster’s cheek as they walked towards the smithy, after listening to how the fights went for the girls of the advance party, and since Mira was now open to the idea of accepting him as her spirit tamer too, Aster wanted to advance more in that path as well.

Originally he had put this on hold since he had to wait for more time before he could noticeable make an advance as a spirit tamer, that’s another one of the reasons as to why he chose a blacksmithing related profession type manual, but things have taken an interesting turn recently.

Mina made sure to squeeze till the last bit of intel from those guys regarding key subjects after all, so Aster got to know that there were proper spirit tamers in this place, as well as "fake" ones which were just people without the talent of spirit tamers, that hold other types of contracts with spirit beasts.

’Our start and development speed was way lower when compared to others, normally since it would have taken us from five to ten years of close interactions to reach the entry point of "Integration" since we are following the ancient method, but thanks to the perfect compatibility between Espi and me, it was reduced to two years and that should have been the limit, but this little girl is incredibly talented’, thought Aster.

The ancient method for spirit taming became less and less popular not only because most tamers have a low number of contract slots, but also because it takes from five to ten times the amount of time to develop in comparison to the modern ideology of simply changing the contracted spirit beast when the tamer’s realm surpasses it.

Not all the spirit tamers who follow the modern ideology are scum who just use the spirit beast and then toss it aside when it is no longer useful, some do care about compatibility so even if they are to change their companion, they don’t cause harm to the beast and also use resources to keep said companion in good health and to prevent their potential from being destroyed.

Of course not all do so out of goodwill, but because they contract beasts with decently ranked lineages, the fact that they are young doesn’t mean they can just be used and discarded, if allowed they will grow and will become future partners for other tamers that might emerge from a family with a true spirit tamer in their genealogy, whichever the case that’s better than the other option which are the scum that use and ruin the spirit beasts they contract with, since the only care about the boost they get due holding as much contracts at the same time as they can.

"There are two abilities that a spirit tamer at the mortal realms can use, the first one is the one in which the modern ideology focuses, namely "Boosting", with it, the tamer gets a certain percentage of the "strengths" of their contracted spirit beast, this boost increases or decreases depending exclusively on the compatibility of the spirit beast with the tamer".

For example, a tamer with high physical strength will have high compatibility with a spirit beast that is physically strong.

"The second ability is "Integration", which was originally considered the advanced ability of a tamer at the mortal realms, because it requires not only the spirit beast to be compatible with the tamer, but the tamer to be compatible with the spirit beast which is harder, after all that means that the spirit beast must be "similar" to a human and even those that take human form early don’t have it easy", said Aster to then add.

"But you are quite the little monster, by consuming my blood the development period was cut in half and then after you took interest in the same fields as me, namely swordsmanship and craftmanship, you have once again cut that in half another two times, the limit even for the most compatible tamer and spirit beast for the ancient method should be of two years you know", to which the little wyrm "proudly" raised her head wanting to be praised by Aster.

"You smug little girl", said Aster as he gently scratched Espi’s neck with his index finger making the little wyrm happily hiss in response.

This is something she achieved herself, because the little wyrm hasn’t had a star react to her, so she didn’t become as compatible as possible with Aster through that method.