The rise of the pervert primordial

That feeling was especially strong in Agnes and Valentina who couldn’t help but be reminded of how Aster smirked their way almost unnoticeably, earlier.

"Here, now give it a try again", said Aster as he winked at the little wyrm whose eyes sparkled after she saw a message that only Aster and herself could read appear in front of her.

"Hisss!", with the word "excitement" written all over Espi’s pretty face, she slid away towards a few trees and then jumped to gain impulse and using her powerful muscles as a spring lashed her tail which suddenly had a sharp light reflecting on its pretty white scales that had a silvery line, a sign that she had shock absorbing steel infused into them.

"Crack!", there was a crispy sound as the little wyrm’s tail... cleanly cut through not only one but actually three thick trees that were next to each other.

"Booom!", the ground slightly trembled as the three trees fell the next second at the same time as the little wyrm landed and that was followed by the reactions Aster expected.

"What!", exclaimed, Agnes, Valentina and the sword maniac trio in other words Iris, Nerisa and even the usually calm Lieze.

"Woaaah, that was big brother’s "slash" right, Espi?", asked Kana as she approached Espi who cutely nodded continuously in response.

"Hisss~", that meat something along the lines of "Yes, it was~", Aster found the little wyrm’s enthusiasm rather cute, but more than that, he found the two Fey princesses and those three’s reactions quite amusing.

’We finally got one back at him and he comes and pulls of something like this, that’s not fair’, thought the purple lightning princess as she pouted to her insides.

It was her idea to get back at Aster by telling the specifics of the situation regarding the unique mission to others before Aster did it, she wanted to take him by surprise just like he did with the whole Drage subject before, and it worked they successfully pranked Aster, of course it was an innocent and harmless friendly joke.

Well, Aster’s way to get back at them was also harmless, but obviously their reactions were way more noticeable than his, especially because Aster used Absolute just to tease them, it was their loss.

"Fine, I give up, wasn’t unique bond’s effect supposed to only give "knowledge" about the target’s manual, techniques were specifically not included in it, so what’s going on?", asked Mikaela, she does use a sword but she isn’t a sword maniac like her childhood friend and she also participated in their little prank on Aster, but did so just for the fun, not to get back at him, she had not been specifically targeted by Aster before after all, well until now.

"Well, unique bond’s effect gives the one who uses it, knowledge on par with the target for it, it doesn’t allow them to use said manual’s techniques indeed, but the knowledge about them is there, if the target has reached that level", said Aster to then add.

"So, I thought "If the knowledge is there, wouldn’t they be able to use the technique if they had met the conditions?", and so I thought of trying to overlap unique leadership’s effect with it and it worked".

Unique leadership’s description states that Aster can grant similar "rewards" as those from unique manual related missions he has obtained, in other words the capacity to use techniques, though limited to a single activation.

To use a technique two things are required, first and formal one must study and train with the manual’s methods, that can be translated into "knowledge" and then one must complete a harsh task for which a "reward" in the form of the ability to use a technique that surpasses mortal limits will be granted to the participant.

So, Aster combined both aspects and that resulted in the little wyrm being able to use Absolute’s first technique.

"That has to be against the rules, you are basically doing things a supervisor is supposed to do though in a minor scale", said Tiana to which Aster shrugged.

"It wasn’t easy, I’m combining two unique effects to achieve it you know, without one or the other it wouldn’t have worked and it’s something only one participant at the time might be able to do by obtaining both, chances are that this has never happened before", he said.

"Boring stuff aside, why did the little whip snake not use "field" but "slash" instead, I’m sure it would have been much more impactful if she cut a tree that was dozens of meters away from her", said Alice as she clung to Aster who bitterly smiled in response.

"Apparently results vary depending on the one using the manual, so even if two people were to chose the same one, their techniques may not be the same, in Espi’s case "slash" is way more efficient than "field", because the first turns an object into a masterpiece of a sword, while "field" is able to ignore things like distance, it also completely depends on both having a sword and is limited to one’s range of sight".

"For me, "slash" is a single instance effect, while "field" is both continuous while I hold a sword and single instance for when I cut something, but in Espi’s case, "slash" is continuous, basically her tail became a masterpiece of a sword, in fact the effect should still be active as we speak, but if she had used "field" she would have only been able to cut one thing and her range wouldn’t be as large as mine, right?", he said to which the little wyrm "proudly" raised her head she nodded.

"You little smug girl, did you want to show off that your "slash" is better than mine", jokingly said Aster which made Espi softly smile.

"Hisss~", that meant something along the lines of "I’m Aster’s companion so of course I’m talented with the sword~".

’Where we, though momentarily, surpassed in terms of swordsmanship by that little snake...’, thought the old top core disciples.

’A spirit beast that has not even attained human form is experiencing such refined techniques, her potential when she becomes human will be terrifying and considering it’s that monstrous guy, a Drage we are talking about, she is 100% not a snake race spirit beast, I would bet my sword that she... is a real dragon’, thought Valentina.

Agnes is aware of Espi’s origin, but the purple lightning princess has yet to receive the "update" on everything she is missing about Aster’s group, because it hasn’t been that long since Aster went honest with her, so Valentina hasn’t had the chance to make Agnes spill everything she has kept from her now that there is no reason to hold anything back anymore.

"Due to the nature of my Absolute, I needed to have a rough idea of the time at which the evaluation trial fights started, there should be enough time for Espi to recover to her prime before we start, though I highly doubt all of us will be sent", said Aster.

While he talked with others, the little wyrm cut a few more trees until the effect of "slash" disappeared, while Kana cheered on her, this counted as wood gathering for her daily missions anyway, so it was fine.

"Hisss~", Espi climbed through Aster’s lower body and rested her head on his shoulder as she cutely hissed, there was a tinge of tiredness on the little wyrm’s face, it was understandable, Absolute’s techniques have high prices.

"Rest for a bit, you can accompany me on the smithy for the next hours until the blue flaming board informs us about the events of this week", said Aster as he petted the little wyrm’s head a couple of times.

His caring expression was then replaced by a teasing one as he gazed at the others.

"Since this requires a usage of unique leadership’s effect, there is a limited number of chances for this special "reward", therefore if you want to experience using not only someone else’s manual but their techniques as well, you’ll have to earn it, let’s see, I’ll have Angela calculate the contribution and the ones that come on top will get it, for now there are only a few choices for techniques anyway, it’s either mine, Vivian or Espi’s ones", said Aster to then jokingly add.

"Of course, this task already puts Angela ahead of most of you, so good luck", the receptionist girl had started to write on her notebook of the day the moment Aster mentioned it, she was giving points to Espi for the trees she fell, and she didn’t forget to give points to herself for starting this report by the way.

"Does "servicing" the leader counts as contribution, if so, I’m sure I’ll be the absolute winner by lunch~", said Alice, the usually lazy dragon princess was actually interested in this little competition, because she has heard about Vivian’s "Heavenly Benevolence" technique.

And while Alice is not absolutely immune to poison like Vivian nor has basically complete resistance against it like Aster, as a dragon she has high resistance enough to boost herself with poisons that don’t mean instant death without any problem, more than that and she’ll end up with an upset stomach as a side effect.

"Humph, that sounds more like Aster would be the one contributing to the camp by keeping a nuisance like you occupied", said Aria to which Alice smirked as she retorted.

"Heh, you were "contributed" to a lot yesterday if I remember correctly~".

"Ahem, I’ll let you know that Espi can help blacksmiths just with her presence and she’ll be with me for a large part of the day, besides I don’t think she minds experiencing my Absolute or Vivian’s Healing the world’s manuals today", said Aster as he changed the subject before those two jumped at each other’s throats.

"Mmm, I’ll go help the sisters who are training their riding and archery skills", mumbled the little girl, she actually wanted to experience Aster’s galaxy forging manual, because that way she could join him in the smithy, a perfect excuse to spend more time with him, also she was interested in crafting, as she has done some simplified versions of it by looking and testing different material combinations into the set of spirit equipment which Aster made for her, which worked as a storage and a "printer" for her special arrows.

Nothing like a healthy competition to motivate the group, it was limited to leading figures though, mostly because with the exception of Espi’s manual whose reward is incomplete, the other options have quite high prices, which would put a strain on the girls of the sect, therefore they won’t participate in this.

It was enough for them to be able to experience knowledge about other manuals, in fact Aster who could see the messages of others with his leader’s privilege, knew that many were choosing him for their first usage of unique bond’s effect.

Anyway, with that sorted out and since there were a couple of hours before 9 am, Aster bid farewell to the others and walked into the tree agglomeration where his private smithy was placed.

Speaking of trees, the miniature runic oak which usually spends its day inside Kana’s pocket and sleeps on Mira’s bed at night so long as it limits itself to not ask more than two or three questions before sleep, Nim, accompanied Aster this time.

"You said you were going to root yourself during the past week at some point, but remained in this form until now, did something happen?", asked Aster to the miniature runic oak who was "sitting" on his left shoulder while the little wyrm rested on his right one.

"Mm, I felt that if I did so, I would be missing something amazing, perhaps it’s because of the manuals I chose, in any case I think what I have been waiting for will happen today", said Nim.

It might seem as if the runic oak has not done anything during the past week, but Nim has been completing missions as well, it’s just that it didn’t have the same plethora of options as others.

After all, in its miniature form, Nim couldn’t do much physical effort and if it grew, it would automatically lose the ability to move and would be limited to stay static like other trees.

But the runic oak helped with other things, like signaling the trees which had the wood of the highest quality and the type of wood that suits the needs of specific projects like the large rafts and the aqueducts for example, guiding the way to the maple trees which had become a source of desserts for the girls of the sect.

And more importantly, depending on who you ask since those cute girls really liked sweet things, Nim was on watch at all times, as it could use other vegetation as its eyes so long as it was in contact with the ground.

If Aster could watch over the whole camp with his monstrous dragon eyes, Nim could watch over all the green area surrounding the camp, so the runic oak’s main mission was that most of the time.

’It could be that the reward from the official fights of the evaluation trial will be helpful for Nim, I do wonder how it will work though, mortal trees are alive and everything but they can’t actively communicate nor interact with other living beings, on the other hand even the native animals here are not exactly normal’, thought Aster to then say.

"I’m going to be working in a high heat environment though, you can stay but it will be better if you look from a safe distance, Espi is more interested in wood and bone crafting than blacksmithing, so once she has rested you can accompany her up-close if she has no problem with that".

"Hisss~", the little wyrm was all happiness right now, so she carelessly accepted to "play" with Nim, it wasn’t her fault though, Espi has not spent much time with the chatterbox runic oak so she didn’t know how annoying can her constant questions which stem out of honest curiosity, can be, something the little wyrm is about to learn.

"Okay", and with that the miniature runic oak jumped out of Aster’s shoulder and watched from one of the many work tables of the smithy, while Aster lit up the forge to start working in the special equipment which the girls of the sect would have trouble to do, like a certain pink-gray eyed girl’s lance, Alice’s reinforced protectors and his most recent project, which was meant to take care of the girls of the sect in the incoming fights.

’I’ll have to ask miss Valentina and those who made the nets to help with the final steps though’, thought Aster as he looked at a large box filled with small metal plaques as he hammered a piece of light chest armor.

...

A few hours and a little wyrm who had recovered after using Aster’s "slash" only to feel much more drained due to the constant questions that Nim made to her while she was carving some bone and wood ornaments later, Aster put his hammer down for a moment.

There were a few works which needed to cool down for the tempering process, which was perfect because the blue flaming board should be giving information regarding the evaluation trial’s events in a minute.

"Let’s go back to the camp and check on the monolith", said Aster, whether they continued in what they were working on, or changed plans depended on the news from the blue flaming board, even if the fight didn’t start on the spot the details will help Aster know what to prioritize since he was working in generic improvements and pending projects for the time being.

"Hisss", the little wyrm nodded as she left the carving knife which she was using on the work table to then jump and land her upper body on Aster’s shoulder, Nim had given Espi some rest at Aster’s petition before the little wyrm got too annoyed, but it was still allowed to observe Espi working up-close, in fact the miniature runic oak as if to make up for the incessant torrent of questions, helped the little wyrm chose the best piece of wood for her desired result, so Nim was now sitting on Espi’s back, it was an amusing scene.

Back at the camp Aster saw that basically everyone, official member or not, had gathered, Angela, Valentina and Mikaela’s work without a doubt, they were waiting for Aster to check on the monolith.

"I appreciate that you waited for me, but miss Valentina and the other next in line authorities could also receive the message", said Aster to which Mikaela softly laughed at her friend.

"Apparently those two still haven’t recovered from the fact that you gave a free try of Absolute’s technique to that little snake, just to get back at them for that little prank", she said as she pointed at Valentina and Agnes.

"Ahem, let’s not get side-tracked here, Agnes told me that the blue flaming board seems to be open to actively communicate with you, so I thought that it would be better if you were the one to open the message, that’s all", said the purple lightning princess in her defense.

Aster didn’t want to tease those two more, so he directly placed his hand on the monolith and a blue flame board large enough for every member of the group to see appeared in the sky, naturally such a thing startled quite a few of the animals even though they had been told in advance about the "beings in the sky" by Guardian and the other kings, but they regained their composure a moment later.

Not only because they couldn’t feel any danger from the blue flaming board, but also because Blue Sky made it so that temporarily everyone, human or not could read the message as the dim blue light which shone in the animal’s eyes, suggested.

’That’s helpful... well, if you weren’t planning to use members of other races as cannon fodder or things like that’, thought Aster.

As always, the blue flaming board’s actions tested the participants, because this way information couldn’t be kept under wraps from those that couldn’t read human language, of course there was a positive aspect as well, the animals now felt assured that they were a part of the "pack".

Whether the blue flaming board’s actions affected the group positively or negatively, depended on the human participants, for Aster this posed no problem for example, Guardian, Selene, Ember as well as the old king cobra and the young anaconda leader already read intermediate and basic reading skills respectively, because Kana and Vivian taught them at their request anyway, so this saved time the kings having to explain from zero.

[The evaluation trial week has officially started, starting from today each camp must select thirty of its members before midday, to participate in the event of the day which will consist in a special match between two camps randomly selected to face each other, there will be three matches in total with a day of rest before the next one starts (once selected the participants can’t be changed, groups with less than thirty members will be randomly assigned together with other groups and given a few hours to know each other and adjust their lineup, the matches will start at 4 pm and will last a maximum of two hours]

That was the "automatic" message that came from the monolith, but next there was one message personally delivered by the blue flaming board, which could be seen as a "coach" giving advices to their students.

[The matches won’t be limited to test battle skills and different approaches to victory will grant different rewards; death is also a possibility so pick your team carefully]

’Three fights instead of two and only one day of rest instead of two in between, that must be those guy’s doing, either there are too many participants this time around or they simply want to get rid of most of us, ah this is going to be a pain’, thought Aster.