The rise of the pervert primordial

Seeing the leafy forest ahead of them, Daimon turned towards his teammates to then say.

“Scouts, please take a quick peek at the forest, you can leave your backpacks and just take a weapon each, also…”, Aster crouched while extending his right hand towards the ground, allowing a certain little wyrm who regained its base size as she slid out of Aster’s sleeve, to become visible for everyone.

Apparently, the flaming board didn’t force Espi to regain its normal size, but once she released her shrinking ability, she won’t be able to shrink back anymore, since the little wyrm was counted as a participant as well.

And so, a pretty white snake with green eyes, around four meters large suddenly appeared for all the presents to see, of course some already knew the little wyrm, like Iris as well as Lina and Nina, but there were also some who were new to it, like Cayden and Sandra.

“We found her in the forest and she followed us back, understood?”, casually said Aster, technically the only strangers here were Cayden and Sandra, well there is James, but his life is in Aster’s hands, so he didn’t need to explain what will happen if he opened his mouth about something he shouldn’t.

This is the surprise Aster had in store for Kana, from now and onwards, the little wyrm won’t need to hide anymore, he could simply tell to anyone that asked that they found Espi inside this gate.

Since resources of Immortal grade welcomed them, Wade and the others had become a perfect alibi, it’s not like he couldn’t just lie about Espi’s origins before, but previous to this, it would have drawn too much attention for a completely new race like the little wyrm to appear in the four heavenly quadrants out of nowhere.

So, the distortions that are accessible basically to everyone, were the perfect excuse for the little wyrm’s existence to go public, of course Aster had no plans in telling anyone she is a dragon, she’ll live under the pretense of being from a rare “snake” race found in a place filled with Immortal grade treasures, which should be good enough for the time being.

“Mm”, everyone nodded and then under Sandra and Lina’s surprised gazes, Espi’s scales changed to a mix of brown and green, in a second, she was really hard to notice as she had melded with the ground of the forest.

“Woah, that’s amazing”, said the youngest of the three sisters, to which the little wyrm happily hissed in response, making clear that she could understand what they said about her.

“Hissss~”, apparently while changing the element with which her scales resonated was not possible, since her cultivation was sealed, the little wyrm still retained the capacity to camouflage herself with her surroundings, just like boars didn’t lose their tusks or their ability to charge at enemies just because they had no spirit energy, since that was a function not related to it.

‘You little girl, showing off as soon as you are out in the open, oh well, she deserves to have some fun I guess’, amusingly thought Aster to then say.

“Ahem, you two be on watch for what’s in front and above you, she will be in charge of looking at what’s going on at the ground and alert you in case she finds something, I trust you’ll be able to somewhat understand each other, watch out for any marks on trees specially”.

The most troublesome animal to watch out for in a forest zone would be a bear, it would be nearly impossible for them to kill a bear with just wood spears, so that was the one thing they didn’t want to encounter, and their markings will most of the times be on the trunks of trees.

Besides bears, there might be poisonous snakes as well, but with Espi around the latter weren’t a problem, Aster was sure the little wyrm could detect and suppress them if they showed up.

As for other predators, wolves and pumas did live in forest zones, but while they won’t be easy to deal with, they weren’t as big of a problem as a bear would be, the spears and clubs should be able to drive them away at least.

Both Sandra and Lina nodded to then enter the forest, with the little wyrm sliding on the ground ahead of them, disappearing from plain view thanks to her camouflage the next second.

Surprisingly Cayden didn’t seem worried in the slightest about sending his girlfriend alone into the woods, but it could be because unlike most upper first tier forces, the Wanderer sect is full of free-spirited people.

As their name implies, their members tend to freely roam the world of cultivation, and they only return to their sect when called back, so this kind of survival situation is not strange for both Cayden and Sandra.

As for Iris, she was direct with her opinions as always.

“Thanks for sending that little snake to watch over Lina”, she said to Aster, the three sisters might have been exiled from their original family, but it’s not like they ended living in the wilderness after that, they actually stayed home with Iris until she left the territory of the Bladeheart family to join the sect, since they acted as her maids after all.

And out of the three, Lina isn’t exactly the most… serious one, she is more on the energetic and carefree side.

Still the two of them as well as the little wyrm, perfectly did their job and returned around ten minutes later, after having looked at the outer area of the forest.

“It might be because it’s the entrance of the forest, but we didn’t run into any signs of animals”, said Sandra, to which Lina added.

“There are some herbs that might have medicinal properties, as well as mushrooms that could be edible, but we don’t know enough about that to determine what is usable and what isn’t”.

“Hissss!”, even the little wyrm gave her “report”, of course out of all the presents, only Aster understood what she meant, explicitly, thanks to their connection as spirit beast and spirit tamer, which wasn’t affected by the restrictions of this place as well, only the beast space inside the emblem was sealed.

“I see, so there is nothing to worry about in the outer area of the forest, there must have been other people taking part in the trials here before, so the entrance of the forest has remained relatively devoid of dangers, since animals should have seen humans coming in before”, said Aster as he translated for others what the little wyrm had noticed.

If there weren’t humanoid races here before, then the animals would have been roaming even at the entrance of the forest, but that isn’t the case, those herbivores that stopped them from taking more resources didn’t live in the forest by the way, they surprisingly lived in the open, near the river and didn’t act like normal wild animals would.

Even as of current, they didn’t attack the girls from the sect and remained near them, acting as some sort of “natural barrier”, since with them around other animals won’t approach, thinking about it, they are probably a part of the welcoming gift prepared for participants.

But to be able to take advantage of it, one had to take the correct decisions, just look at Wade’s side for example, Aster heard them curse at a boar, which was among the ones that luckily survived the ransacking that took place there, the animal probably took revenge on them after they lost the capacity to use spirit energy.

You could argue that they at least got themselves some meat to eat, but that’s not the case, without any way to preserve it, all that meat would spoil in no time, so out of the couple of dozens of animals they killed, they would at most be able to eat two or three, and they lost a valuable source of safety and information in exchange, since the girls from the sect could observe their behavior up close in order to learn how to hunt them more efficiently, so it was a lose-lose kind of situation they ended up with.

Back to the conversation, Sandra agreed with Aster’s words from earlier, but she also had her own opinion to convey.

“Yeah, that’s also the impression we got, but there was also no sign of human intervention, we tried to look for a path which had formed due to people continuously moving in a specific area, but there was nothing of the like either, so it could have been a long time ago”.

“Okay, we can’t avoid crossing the forest anyway so we might as well make the most out of it, Alice and myself will walk at the vanguard alongside Mylene who will be in charge of inspecting and deciding what’s worth taking back, Lina and Sandra, you tell her where did you see most herbs and other plants, Tiana and miss Felicia will be in charge of the flanks and Cayden as well as Iris and Nina will protect our way of retreat, James you help wherever you can”, he said to then add.

“The idea is to cross the forest and stablish a suitable route by today, it would be better if we reach the rocky area at once, but if it starts getting dark too early, we’ll go back on the spot, any objections?”.

Since no one spoke against Aster’s plan, the group followed the arrangement and then entered the forest, it’s worth mentioning that the little wyrm didn’t want to tire Aster, so she remained on the ground instead of coiling around him like she would normally do.

Well, it’s also true that Espi currently was “taller” than Aster, since her whole length nearly reached the four-meter mark, so she happily slid through the ground next to Aster, but didn’t camouflage herself this time, since she had already done recognition earlier and the area was clear.

She might not need spirit energy to change the color of her scales, but it still consumed energy to do so and the only way to replenishing it, was eating, so the little wyrm had to save whenever she could, because she didn’t want to eat her snacks so soon, yes, Kana packed a share for her friend too.

After walking a few dozens of meters, the forest became even more lively, Mylene immediately caught a glimpse of useful stuff, and as if she was in a shopping spree, she started pointing and describing things out, and those who were closer to it, proceeded to harvest them, well, there was also James who was the “errand boy” and moved here and there to help.

It took them a couple of hours to reach the limit of the entrance area, and they had gathered herbs, mushrooms and fruits worth around two full backpacks, of course they were evenly distributed to not increase the weight that only a few people had to carry.

“I think you chose to bring back a bit too much of poisonous stuff”, said Tiana, to which Aster shrugged in response.

“We won’t be able to eat what we kill with poisoned weapons, but it will be helpful in an emergency, in any case what we found isn’t lethal, it has to be properly processed first and at most it would work as a paralyzing or pain inducing agent, nothing more”, he said.

“Mm, and with some adjustment the results could act as analgesics and energizers, but the process will be a bit more complicated”, added Mylene.

Of course, the one behind the trial wouldn’t make things so easy for the participants, if they were to randomly find a lethal poisonous plant on the first day of the development period with such ease, then they would face no danger and that’s not the idea.

At this point it was obvious that the flaming board was evaluating how they faired at both personal and team aspects, and so they couldn’t have a single person becoming overwhelmingly stronger than others, with something like a deadly poison.

“I’m more interested in these fruits, they look and taste like strawberries but they grow to the size of a palm”, said Alice as she bit a red fruit she was holding with her right hand, to then offer Aster a bite.

Normally they wouldn’t have eaten anything found in the forest before returning to where the others were, because even if they looked like resources described in records, there were some slight physical differences, so it could happen that something edible might give them a stomachache. Google seaʀᴄh nοvelfire.net

However, those giant strawberries, were a thing on Mylene’s Divine Firmament, and they looked exactly the same, without any differences, so they were safe for consumption, it was the only thing that fell in that category for now though, but well, at least they’ll had something to snack on.

‘Those foodies will be happy to have something they can pick up by themselves to eat, so long as they move in groups with an elder to supervise them’, thought Aster, they had found a staple food on their first day of exploration, just with that the trip was worth it.

That being said, they had reached the end of the outer area of the forest, meaning that what they had found was everything they could safely obtain, and while there certainly were valuable resources, like those strawberries and the poisonous plants that in a high dosage could be used as paralyzing and pain-inducing poisons, and in controlled amounts can act as analgesics and energizing drugs, according to Mylene, that wasn’t near enough to help them develop in the incoming seven days.

The reason as to why the rocky area was Aster’s optimal goal, is because there should be ores there, if they obtained metalware, their survival will be practically guaranteed, since normal flesh can’t beat metal.

“The middle area of the forest starts right there, you can see that the vegetation is greener and the trees are wider and taller, this is where we stopped earlier”, said Lina as she pointed at the area a few meters ahead from where the group was standing as of current.

With his sharp eyes, Aster could already see some slight movement between some bushes, far into the distance, meaning that they’ll start seeing animals from this point onwards.

“Everyone have a spear ready, scout unit you’ll move ahead of us, but we’ll follow from a short distance, your directive is to retreat at the slightest sign of danger, the same dynamic from earlier applies”, said Aster.

This time he didn’t send Lina, Sandra and Espi alone to scout, the whole group was going to move alongside them, normally he would be on the vanguard with them, but he already has survival experience, the ones who need to learn are the others, since there is a limit to the time he can use to accompany the others, he still has to learn and practice the techniques from his manuals after all, in fact most of his time was probably going to be used for the forging manual.

And just as they took a few steps into the middle area of the forest, the group had their first encounter, a fox which was eating some small berries that grew in a bush, that was probably what Aster caught a glimpse of from afar earlier.

The animal raised its ears and turned its head towards Aster and the others, before running away, or at least that was the idea, but a few growls and a violent shaking behind a large bush later, an actual predator made its appearance, it was a wolf which had its mouth around the neck of the fox.

“Look, that wolf is wounded”, said Tiana as she pointed at the multiple scratches the wolf had on its sides and the blood spots that dyed some parts of its fur.

“Foxes are cautious animals, if they are in the open eating, that means wolves aren’t common here, so that one must have been exiled from its pack”, said Cayden.

“In that case, we shouldn’t have a problem dealing with it, right?”, asked the youngest of the three sisters, to which Aster shook his head in response.

“Nope, when it comes to wolves, loners can be more aggressive, smarter and stronger than average ones, still it won’t attack anyone that is in a group because it’s alone, so we’ll just let it be, let’s change our route to avoid it, if a lone wolf is hunting here, that means there shouldn’t be stronger predators in this area, foxes and other animals on the same level should be the norm here”, he said.

That didn’t mean it was safe, foxes might look cute and they don’t live in groups but they could still attack humans if they feel cornered, so if a group of girls from the sect happened to bump into their burrow, they might get bitten.

“Also, if there are foxes, there should be rabbits as well, and they would be a not so hard to prepare, source of meat given their size, though they might not be that easy to catch”, added Aster.

There should be fish in the river, but there weren’t fishing rods nor fishing nets ready to be used in the exchange monolith, there were linen, network needles as well as line and hooks available though, so they could make them themselves, as for bait, one just had to dig around a bit to find maggots and other insects, but preparing all that will take at least a day.

And just some improvised fishing rods at the shore won’t be enough to get fish to feed more than two hundred girls, as for the nets, a raft was needed to go further into the river in order to throw them, and before that, they had to see if the river was safe to navigate, so chances were that tonight fruit will be the main dish.

Anyway, the group continuously advanced through the middle area of the forest and as Aster expected, besides some foxes on the ground, squirrels on the trees, and other small animals like that, they didn’t catch a glimpse of anything that could be a problem, at least until the little wyrm suddenly stopped advancing, to then look in a certain direction.

“Hissss”, the little wyrm hissed and a fraction of a second later, some fallen leaves a dozen of meters to the left, moved before a few snake heads peeked out of them, the owners of said heads came out of the leaves, the result were four snakes of a meter of size each.

“Those are striped wood snakes, they aren’t poisonous and they barely grow past a meter without the influence of spirit energy, so they aren’t that much of a threat, we could eat them though”, said the saber young master.

“Hissssss!”, as if they could feel Cayden’s intentions, the snakes all hissed and lowered their heads towards the little wyrm, in response the little wyrm turned to see Aster to then hiss at him.

“Hissss~”.

“Hoh, so they will take us to a place where we can find food, in exchange for their safety”, amusingly said Aster, it was quite a comical scene to see four snakes negotiating with them, but it was understandable.

Even without an ounce of spirit energy, Espi is a dragon, the suppression she can excel on other reptiles is still there, she is a noble princess for them and even without that, just in terms of size, the little wyrm is four times larger than those common striped wood snakes, in her base form.

“If I remember correctly, they eat amphibians as well as rodents, and while we aren’t interested in forest rats, there might be a creek running through the forest, ask them if they can take us to somewhere like that”, said Aster, to which the little wyrm nodded before communicating Aster’s words to the snakes, who immediately nodded back.

And so, they got themselves a deal, under Espi’s authoritative watch, as she made sure the snakes didn’t try to play any tricks, the group advanced in a specific direction they would have missed if they continued the way they were going earlier.

The forest is quite big and the vegetation past the outer area is incredibly lush, a bush could cover a possible path behind of it, not to mention the large leaves of some of the trees here and there, so it was better to have someone that knew its way around the area.

Naturally, those snakes while being predators, weren’t near the top of the food chain, so they only moved through the middle area of the forest, and their knowledge ended there, the little wyrm had already asked if they knew how to cross the inner part of the forest and they not only shook their heads, but there was fear in their eyes as well.

After walking for a few minutes, the sound of running water reached Aster’s ears, and sure enough a creek lied ahead of them, there were some frogs which should be one of the sources of food of those snakes, but Aster wasn’t interested in them.

If one wanted to for sure find animals regardless of the environment, approaching a body of water was the easiest way, all animals have to drink water, and following that principle, right now, there were rabbits and even a deer drinking from the creek.

Just with that those snakes had earned their keep, but there was also another benefit, they could now follow the creek and walk upstream, which should lead them to the inner part of the forest.

“There were no traces of a creek at the outer area of the forest, so it probably goes underground before reaching it, that would explain why there are basically no animals there, their source of water starts at the middle area”, said Lina.

Unfortunately, it was a bad idea to carry around something that smelled like blood in a forest, without the intention of leaving as soon as possible, so right now it wasn’t the time to secure meat.

“You took notes on how to reach this location, right?”, asked Aster to James, he had memorized some key parts that could be used to ubicate himself and even made a few marks on trees which should be of help, but the map was James’s task at the end of the day.

“Yes, I counted the steps and wrote in which direction I took them with the help of the compass, everything up to this point is in these notes”, said the mercenary as he showed a few paper sheets to Aster, earning a nod of approval from the one who had his life in his hands.

“Alright, ask them what the large animals they know or have seen before, are like”, said Aster to the little wyrm, it was better to have an idea of what could be waiting for them at the inner area of the forest, besides wolves which have been pretty much confirmed to live there.