The rise of the pervert primordial

"Is that Merkel guy among them!", exclaimed the sister in the middle Lina, as usual her reaction was quite the fast one.

"Calm down Lina, don’t lose your cool", said the oldest Mina, that being said and while her soft seemingly permanent smile didn’t wave in the slightest, Aster could feel the bloodlust emanating from her.

Mina is the very first one on the list after those closest to Aster among the "abnormally outstanding" in this place, outside she is at the same level as Iris and Nerissa as of current in other words after they met Aster, so she used to be stronger than them, after all she is a bit older than them.

But here, she is at the same level as Aria and the others, all the three sisters are secondary body path cultivators so they have good performances at mortal level, but Mina is on a league of her own because her fighting style has never been directed to cultivators exclusively.

Since she was also a young girl when she was left in charge of her little sisters, she learned to fight by taking advantage of everything she could make use of and unlike those whose strength is strategy, the oldest of the three sisters is a genius in terms of battle as well.

"Please take it easy, I don’t mind being stared at by you three, but you are going to pierce holes through me at this point, that guy Merkel is not there as far as we know", said Aster which dampened the mood of those three.

The calmest one was actually Nina, which is understandable, because while she was the most affected by that guy’s energy, the ones who had to watch their sister end up in such a bad state were Mina and Lina, they wished nothing more than ripping his flesh and grinding his bones to dust.

"But, there is indeed a grey skinned orcrary in that camp, from whom we should be able to obtain intel to determine if that guy is here, they are not our first target though, in this place they might be more dangerous than on the outside, so when dealing with them, it will be through a selected elite group".

"Let’s see, those that can go head-to-head against Mina who will be in charge of leading the vanguard team, for a whole five minutes without getting "wounded" will be the allowed to participate", added Aster which made Lina and Nina’s eyes glow for a second.

"Sounds good!", said Lina, the youngest Nina on the other hand remained silent but her eyes were burning with fighting spirit now, at least until she heard Mina saying.

"Heh, so the target for the "love potion" this time is me~", said the oldest of the three sisters, as to why she did so, it’s because she just triggered the mission for her profession type manual’s first technique.

Just like the personality she shows in public, her profession is rather... "unique", well, in a sense her profession could have been Aster’s one too if he wasn’t the appointed leader.

A leader must know where he is needed the most, in terms of strategy and formations there was Eris, administration was in the capable of hands of Angela and battlefield arrangements was for Mina, training was divided between Valentina and Agnes who are used to give public lessons to the girls of the sect, so even without him interfering, the camp would outstand from others in those aspects.

However, in terms of equipment, there was no one besides himself with experience in mortal blacksmithing, which is in part why he went with galaxy forging, also it’s not like he needed the manual to help in other aspects, it’s just that it wouldn’t be his main focus.

Mina’s profession is "Master of the Battlefield" and the name of her manual is "Wicked Mastermind", which has a wide range of focus, from teaching to preparing the girls to face enemies, to direct them in a fight, arranging the battlefield, actual fighting and the list goes on, you could generalize it as doing everything within one’s possibilities to give their allies advantage over the enemies.

There is another difference between Aster’s way of doing things and Mina’s one, she is much more active in the battlefield even after all the other preparations, while Aster prefers to only step into the fights of others if it is really needed, neither are wrong it’s just a difference in personal preferences, which in Mina’s case is understandable, she had to become this protective to guarantee the basic safety of her little sisters from such a young age, at least until they were taken in by Iris and Layla.

"I already told you, putting on a fake front is useless when it comes to me, especially when you are deemed a "wicked" worrywart of an older sister instead of a scheming evil girl", jokingly said Aster not falling for Mina’s mischievous words.

The words "wicked" and "evil" might appear to be synonyms representing the same thing, but that is not the case, evil represents absolute malevolence and corruption without room for doubts, harm that is done just for the sake of it, that’s evil, of course the world is not white and black, in some cases how things reach that point it’s important but once you get there, then evil it is.

Now, wicked on the other hand is a word that disguises itself as evil for the vast majority, but behind that there is a wide variety of meanings to it, don’t be mistaken it does still represent wrongdoings, but not due to malice itself, but slyness, mischievousness or playfulness, in fact the word can also be used as a replacement for positive adjectives such as "cool" or "great", or even as a way to amplify other things, for example when Aster said "You were deemed a wicked worrywart of an older sister", he meant it as in "You were deemed a big worrywart of an older sister".

Someone with a good heart but a bad attitude can be called a wicked person but not an evil person, which from Aster’s point of view perfectly describes the oldest of the three sisters and amusingly enough, her manual’s name included that specific word in its name.

"Tsk and here I thought I was safe from those dangerous eyes of yours in this place, that blue flaming board is no fun", mumbled Mina, to which Aster chuckled in response.

"I have to go see those other "sisters" of yours, so good luck with your training", he said as he turned to leave, leaving behind a Lina and Nina who were giggling at their older sister, for a change she was the one on the receiving end of the teasing.

"To think even sis could have the last word stolen from her by someone, now I get why Nina gets so happy when she sees Aster", said the sister in the middle.

"Mm, I have never seen anyone more scheming than older sister~", added the youngest of the three sisters, which made Mina’s smile deepen as she said.

"It’s good that you two are in such high spirits, I was planning to go a little soft on you but forget it, I’ll be sure to "scheme" an especial training for little girls who dare make fun of their older sister".

"Agh, that’s not fair sis!", exclaimed Lina, she nearly twisted her ankle due to a metal sphere making her slip earlier, she could imagine Mina using a real caltrop now, of course that’s only because she knows Lina has fast enough feet to dodge it.

’I didn’t think she would trigger her mission just by being assigned to lead the vanguard in a future battlefield, I guess the effect of lowering the requirements for the unique missions, really is doing its job’, thought Aster as he left the area where those three were training, to go visit their other "sisters".

As for who those other "sisters" Aster mentioned are, that used to refer to Iris and Layla only, but since Iris who was already in a positive rivalry with Nerissa, has gotten way closer to that dual blue toned haired girl to the point of treating each other as sisters, then Mina, Lina and Nina had gained a new sister as well.

And that’s not all, though she is not quite there yet, there is another "sister" in the making, namely Lieze, as Aster can see given how they are having so much fun training in their swordsmanship together.

"Iris, put a bit less of strength in your slash, your sword is about to break after only clashing for a few minutes".

"Nerissa, fluid movements are good but you are wasting too much energy with mobility that you don’t need in a spar of this level when you have two helpers at your side".

"Lieze you... are so good at countering attacks but so terrible at initiating the offensive, if it wasn’t for the fact that you are as talented as those two, you would have been in trouble, though you get a free pass due to your circumstances".

In all three cases the one to speak was a tall girl with red hair and green eyes, who was wielding a single edged wood training sword against a girl with red hair and red eyes, another one with royal blue and sky-blue hair as well as sky blue eyes and last but not least one with black hair and green eyes, the top three among the core disciples, Iris, Nerissa and Lieze.

"Those are some interesting observations I didn’t expect to hear when it comes to those three", said Aster as he greeted Layla who was fighting the three girls at the same time.

"I can’t let these three get distracted in such a harsh training, so let’s have a ten-minute break", said Layla as she lowered her sword.

Under normal circumstances there would be nothing to reproach to those three’s swordsmanship, even Lieze who is experiencing the freedom of not being limited to return the attack instead of being the one to start it, not to mention that she could use any weapon she wanted instead of one that was accepted by her peculiar constitution, which in an amusing turn of events, has been training wood swords, spears, daggers and shields made by Aster so far, since she didn’t participate in the battle.

The vast majority of girls went for a profession type manual different than their weapon usage, because the attack type manuals can cover that aspect, for example, take those girls who were assigned the bows during the siege, they are all archers yes, but neither of them has an archer related profession manual, not even Kana who is the best among archers currently.

Their attack type manuals are related to archery but that’s not everything they are interested in despite being from the battle peak, some actually chose cooking related professions, others chose alchemy related ones and the list goes on.

That would have caused a commander to have the urge to scream, after all if a fighter chose a battle related profession, it would be easier for them to become strong assets for the camp.

But like Aster said, they are not soldiers but his cute juniors so he wouldn’t deprive them of the chance to grow the way they liked it, of course this is also because the girls would still have the strength to protect themselves.

Not to mention that just like how some of the battle focused girls chose non-battle professions, the opposite was also true and more importantly there were some girls whose interests were only battle, in said cases their profession type manuals were oriented to their fighting styles, like Alice for example, well, she actually had a another rather unique option in which she would also use her body as a "weapon", which was "Seductress", but since she would never use such a profession on let alone an enemy but anyone besides Aster and because Aria chose a battle related profession, she went with her current choice.

There are those whose interest is more aligned to the weapon they fight with, in which case their professions reflect that like Tiana for example and then you have those three who instead of fighting are interested in the weapon itself and their manual reflects that as well.

Like the good sword obsessed girls, they are, Iris, Nerissa and Lieze’s professions were the same, namely "Sword Maniac", Agnes gets an honorable mention here, because her love and interest for the sword is on par with them, however her interests in physical training as much, so she got a different profession which combines both but we’ll leave that for later.

Now don’t let the wacky name of the profession trick you, their manuals are quite something, unlike what they believed, the key to trigger their unique missions wasn’t to use their swords like crazy like they did for the first four days of the development week, though they would have done it out of fun anyway, especially Lieze who was enjoying not being restricted in that sense.

Anyway, to trigger their first missions they had to find "major" flaws in their swordsmanship and train to fix them, something they discovered during the battle of the siege, well to be more accurate Iris and Nerissa discovered it and then told Lieze about it, while their manuals themselves are different their profession is the same so it applied to her as well.

But then how could there be major flaws in those three’s swordsmanship, even with Layla and Agnes’s helping them review their swordsmanship, they couldn’t find any "major" flaws after watching them for an hour and it was then when Valentina entered the scene, "Your technique is basically flawless, however even a perfectioned technique may not be the best depending on the scenario", she said.

This put those three to think, Iris’s fighting style while not reckless in nature just like her rather calm and expressionless usual self, explodes with insane power, as a side effect, she was the one who used the highest number of spears and trashed the ones she used the most too, an honor that probably would have belonged to Alice if she fought with spears instead of the set of gauntlets and protectors that Aster had to especially make for her ahead of time.

Nerissa on the other hand, consumed more than thrice the stamina than the others in the abnormally outstanding list while dealing with barely twice the same number of enemies in average, true she was impossible to block in the battlefield and always found a way to "flow" even when surrounded, but her energy consumption was too big, especially since she is not a secondary body path cultivator unlike Iris, had she not trained her body somewhat even prior to meeting Aster, she would have collapsed due to her own fighting style in this place.

And then there is Lieze whose case is both strange and simple, she chose to remain in the camp because some strong members of the group were needed to guard the rear but it was also because she doesn’t know how to be on the initiating side of a clash, if it came to counterattacking, she could even block both Iris and Nerissa’s attacks at the same time, but if she was the one attacking her level dropped all the way to the bottom of the normally outstanding list.

Which again it’s not horrible, but like Layla said it’s thanks to her talent not losing when compared to those two mostly, and there you have it, the aspects that made their swordsmanship strong could also be major flaws seen from a different point of view and that was the meaning behind the "maniac" in their profession’s name.

"Mmm, I would say to give Iris a lighter sword one on par in terms of weight with the ones used by Lina, Nerissa can use one of the spare pair of metal reinforced shoes I made for Alice, as for Lieze, well, to balance the "handicaps" of her teammates and keep up the same level of fighting, she will be forced to go on the offensive more, pair that with a guard-less wood training sword to make counterattacking especially hard", casually said Aster.

Which contrary to what a "normal" person would expect, that one being Lieze in this case, earned him a smile from Iris and a thankful gaze from Nerissa, despite how they were basically laying on the ground while panting due to exhaustion.

’He just raised the difficulty from hard to hellish and they are happy... because it is for our sake’, thought the girl from the white sword faction who has started to understand the seemingly strange interactions of the group to a certain extent, at least she thought so until Aster added.

"Leaving aside sad stuff, I originally came to tell Iris and Layla that orcrary were confirmed to be our neighbors at east and there is a grey one like the one we found back then, but I’m sure you’ll all be more interested in knowing that... Mina just triggered the mission for her profession manual’s first technique".

The moment Aster finished those words, it was as if three different swords were unsheathed at the same time, Iris, Nerissa and Layla’s eyes shone for a second, it wasn’t a real feeling like the danger Aster radiated with the absolute field, but they felt "sharp" as if all their focus was targeted in a single point, in this case Aster.

"Woah, take it easy ladies, I was nearly stared holes at earlier by those three so I better leave before you "cut" me", jokingly said Aster as he left their training area.

"Humph, that scheming guy, he did that on purpose", mumbled Nerissa, contrary to her water attribute which is supposed to be soft in nature, she is more of a fierce girl outside of her swordsmanship which seeks to embrace all aspects by being formless.

"Mm, let’s go get the things Aster mentioned and continue with our training", added Iris, she was the opposite of her friend, her calm and expressionless usual attitude was the contrary to the explosive nature of her attribute and swordsmanship.

"Wait, I’ll go too, I need a few dozens of single edged wood training swords", said Layla as she joined those two, leaving behind a Lieze who was lost in her thoughts.

’What is this sensation, am I actually feeling the desire to initiate "conflict" by clashing swords with Mina?’, she thought to herself.

...

Now that two of the "serious" visits were taken care of and since Aster had a decent amount of time before lunch, he decided to make a "fun" one, and so he walked towards the workshop of a certain pink-haired alchemist girl.

"Aster, you came quite early", said Mylene as she saw Aster entering the workshop while feigning to be focused in whatever concoction she had on her table, until Aster said.

"Well, I didn’t want the girls from the alchemist peak to sulk because their "supervisor" shushed them away from the workshop and told them to not return until she had her fun with their senior brother".

"H-Huh, I just sent them to gather ingredients!", exclaimed Mylene nearly spilling the content of a crystal tube she was holding while feigning to be seriously focusing in her project.

The other reason as to why Aster decided to come visit Mylene early is that he noticed that basically all the girls who spent most of their time in her workshop, were leaving the camp with "bullied" expressions on their pretty faces.

To have their senior brother all for herself, their "evil boss" had sent them on a gathering assignment that could extend for hours, of course Mylene wasn’t selfish, in truth they should be finished at lunch in the worst-case scenario which is the normal duration of a serious ingredient gathering session for an alchemist.

It’s just that those girls were used to receive the ingredients obtained with the collective effort of the camp, every member did all the available missions not just the girls from the alchemist peak, so there was never a lacking of any herbs and the like.

"Of course I told them that their older sister Mylene wouldn’t deprive her cute juniors of their beloved work space and that since this assignment wasn’t a daily mission of the monolith and it was the first time they were told to do so, it was probably beneficial for them, as in it would be of help to trigger their profession manual’s mission or something along the lines of it, after all you have quite a lot of respect for alchemy considering your profession manual", said Aster as he approached Mylene to then stand next to her, earning a bright smile from the pink-haired girl, until he added.

"Well, that would be the main reason, but it is also true that their teacher clearly played favorites and wanted to give their senior brother a private lesson with just the two of them alone".

"Ahh, thanks to you I’m so going to get bombarded with gazes and giggles later!", said Mylene as she took the large crystal container on her table to then... make Aster take a sip of the liquid it contained.