The rise of the pervert primordial

The previous was strange because at the other side of the forest, when they were at the outer area, while there weren’t any animals, insects were still present here and there, which is the norm, but here one couldn’t even hear a single cricket making any noise.

On the other hand, Aster and the others also had a pleasant encounter, at this side of the outer forest there were trees that produced another edible fruit that could be consumed on the spot, crab apple trees to be more accurate.

Speaking of which, Aster has been wondering what would happen if Nim’s clone were to release its transformation, just like the little wyrm, that chatterbox of a runic oak had the capacity to change the size of its clone at will.

But unlike Espi, it didn’t participate in the trials, because Aster couldn’t think of a way to make it so that the people on Wade’s side didn’t notice large wood whips, smacking the ghosts or the golems around.

Still, the plan was to “bring” Nim back from this gate in the open just like with the little wyrm, the difference being that Nim’s main body will reside in the Valley until further notice, without anyone but his close ones knowing about the one in public being just a clone.

Anyway, the problem with Nim, is that once it released its transformation, chances were that it won’t be able to move anymore, since without its special lineage, talents and capacity to use spirit energy, it will probably be just an oak with consciousness of itself and the capacity to speak with others.

So, for now, Nim remained in its miniature form that stayed within Kana’s pocket, until further notice, to be honest the clone didn’t mind what it happened to it, at most it will be destroyed and the main body will have to take some time and resources to produce another one.

If the “alpha” of the group asked for it, the runic oak wouldn’t refuse to give up on the clone, though that would mean its participation in this mission will come to an end, since the main body remained at the valley, but of course Aster wasn’t going to use a member of his group as a disposable pawn.

‘I guess, we’ll let that decision for after we know what will happen to us, if the camp we have to stablish in this week is permanent, then letting Nim’s clone settle in it, would be a good idea, with its senses, finding the specific plants we need will be a piece of cake’, thought Aster before putting the matter at the back of his head for now, as he said.

“We’ll have lunch here, let’s eat the strawberries and free space for apples instead, we can easily get more of the former at the outer part of the forest that faces our starting point, but getting to this side of the outer area requires to cross the whole thing”.

Alice and the others nodded, after taking some of the apples from a tree with the help of their wood spears, they found a trunk to sit on it and began eating their food, it was a slightly strange meal, considering it consisted in fruits and some cookies and pastries that the girls from the sect had packed for them.

But it was still a satisfying meal after walking for hours, not to mention that resting also helped them get back to their prime state.

“Man, I surely didn’t think there would be a day where just walking a few hours while carrying a backpack would be enough to start making me feel tired”, said Cayden as he took a bite of an apple.

“And that’s only because you are used to exercise physically outside of body path cultivation, otherwise you would have been sweating with less than half of what we had walked so far”, said Aster who was feeding strawberry slices to a pair of dragon girls who were clinging to him.

As in Espi was gently coiled around his left arm to be at a similar height to Aster, while Alice directly sat on his lap, since this was a rare chance in which she had Aster basically for herself.

The blue flaming board was fair, so while body tempering and the reinforce brought by meridians produced thanks to a cultivation manual were sealed away, fitness obtained through regular training was also taken away.

However, while results were restrained, the disposition and knowledge regarding the aspects in which the multiple participants outstood, were still there, so long as they weren’t tied to spirit energy or anything of the like.

In other words, while techniques were not available, a swordsman still knew how to swing a sword, alchemists still knew how to make concoctions and so on, so those that had trained outside of cultivating, would still have better endurance, because they are used to physical work.

After all, it wouldn’t be fair to put “slackers” at the same level as those that had put extra effort in their training, but in this trial everyone has been given the same starting point, so if those that hadn’t done as much as they could, were willing to, they could reach and even surpass their peers, they just had to put more effort to catch up and that was it, their results will be completely up to them.

“Had it not been for the fact that you are training even while sleeping, which allowed you to keep a way better endurance than others in this situation, I would have pressed a complain against that blue flame board”, said Alice as she nestled against Aster’s chest, of course she was referring to endurance for… night activities.

Such clear flirting, made the vast majority of the group to chuckle, even Cayden and Sandra who are a couple, aren’t so sticky with each other in public, well, Aster somewhat keeps it on the low side, but Alice has no filter.

There were other reactions in the mix though, for example the youngest of the three sisters blushed on the spot, while Tiana couldn’t help sigh at the wild dragon princess.

“For haven’s sake, I’m starting to understand why Aria stays close to you, it’s to keep you under watch at all times”, said the energy constitution daughter to then take a sip of water.

“Heh, are you perhaps getting jealous “Tia”~”, playfully said the wild dragon princess, calling Tiana by her nickname just like Aster has been doing ever since their date took place, which took Tiana by surprise, making her nearly spit the water she was drinking, luckily she managed to stop herself from doing so, still she was forced to cough a few times, just to be met with a teasing gaze from Alice.

“Humph!”, with a cold snort, Tiana ignored Alice’s provocations and finished her meal, just in time for others to do the same, the group had a small twenty-minute break to let the food they just ate settle, after that, the group filled the spaces designated in the backpacks for the apples and then continued their way.

It was around 1:30 pm when the group came out of the forest, it took them almost six hours but they had finally reached a new area, quite literally, since the environment took a drastic change.

From the all-green area that continued from their starting point all the way to the forest that blocked their view from what lied ahead of it, which stopped a few meters after leaving this side of the forest where the ground lost most of its liveness, turning into a hardened soil of a whitened sand color, as it developed into a rocky area, with a plateau within sight for everyone.

As for Aster, he managed to catch a glimpse of the volcanic area that was adjacent to this rocky valley, far into the distance, he couldn’t see a trace of lava, but the rock at that part was darker, also according to James there should be a desert past the volcanic area.

Of course, Aster wasn’t happy because of the possibility of lava appearing on their way, but because both this rocky area and the volcanic one, were symbols of soil which is rich in minerals, and that is their goal.

In fact, Aster’s attention was immediately drawn towards a small mountain which had a particular brown tone with a tinge of red.

Now, normally one would associate iron with gray color, however that’s refined iron and while certainly there are iron ores that have a color that could be associated to it, there is variety in that aspect, from black to even yellow-colored ones.

However, the one Aster was aiming for is hematite, which is one of the easiest ores that can be refined into iron, due to its high iron content and the lower energy required for its refining process, and it just so happens that hematite has a brown-red color, it’s worth mentioning that hematite is an igneous rock, meaning that the volcanic area is a blessing in disguise.

“That small mountain should have what we need, luckily hematite can be found even on the surface of rocks, and they contain from 60 to 70 percent of iron into them, so we just need to find some good ores and we’ll be good to go”, said Aster as he pointed at the mountain in question.

And so, the group advanced though the rocky terrain, which only had some grass of a yellow tone and thorny bushes as well as plants that could be found in harsher environments.

Their target wasn’t the mountain perse but the area around it which had small rock formations made out of the same material, as those would be way easier and safer to break down with the pickaxe than a literal part of a mountain, besides Aster had seen some natural entrances that led into the mountain, and he didn’t want to make one of those collapse by hitting the wrong place.

Sure enough, the bet paid off, a few hundreds of meters away from the mountain, and an arm sized brown-reddish rock, had appeared in front of them, Aster took the pickaxe and gave the thing a few hits, to crack down a palm sized part of it.

The reason was simple, he wanted to see if it had a decent amount of iron into it, luckily while tools for mining weren’t provided in the exchange monolith, even if the ones needed for refining like the furnace did appear there, there were some easy ways to determine the previous.

The other members of the exploration group, curiously looked at how Aster grabbed a random rock from the vicinity, with a similar size to the piece of the one he had personally broken away, he extended both of his hands and compared the weight of the two rocks.

“Yup, this one is good, hematite has high density due to the iron it contains so it weighs more than other rocks, even if their size is similar, we’ll take this whole rock with us, but let’s find all the ones we’ll be taking home first, before starting to use the pickaxe on them”, said Aster.

Preparing them for the travel back was easy, just some physical work and that will be it, however finding the suitable hematite, was going to require a bit more time, since it was all up to luck.

‘It’s such a shame that Camila can’t use her lineage abilities, this would be so easy for her, still her intuition should make up for the lack of the experience I have when it comes to handling mortal ores, so I guess she’ll be in charge of the ore gathering missions’, thought Aster as he tested the rock number 25th.

It actually took them almost two hours to finish finding the rocks they were going to bring back today, Aster even made some specific marks to “grade” the rocks for later, while James drew said marks and what they meant in some paper sheets.

Normal average mortals shouldn’t carry more than 10% of their weight for long periods of time, to avoid backache or muscular pain, but those with experience can go up to 15%, and the group of people that came with Aster are all secondary body path cultivators, who had seriously trained their bodies.

So, they should be able to endure carrying around 20% of their weight without risking to suffer any injury, that is between twelve to fourteen kilograms per each member of the group, maybe more for Cayden whose frame is comparable to Erick’s though he is older than Tiana’s younger brother.

“As a whole we can bring back stuff weighting around 150 kilograms, we’ll reserve a third of that for food, let’s take back 80 kilograms of hematite, the last twenty kilograms will be for the fruits, herbs and other stuff we will obtain from the snakes”, said Aster as he passed the pickaxe to James first.

“I will take some people to gather some herbs of this area, while you mine the rocks”, said Mylene, to which Aster nodded.

“Okay, but don’t go out of sight, that skull from before still bothers me… also if you see this, bring a lot of it”, he said as he showed a sketch to the pink haired girl, who chuckled at the “responsible” Aster in front of her.

“Sure, we’ll be back in a second”.

And with those words, Mylene took Iris and the two sisters as well as Tiana and started looking in the vicinity, she had already caught a glimpse of some useful stuff when Aster was testing the rocks, so she had some areas of interest marked to go through first.

In the meantime, James, Cayden, Aster, Alice and Felicia took turns to use the pickaxe, and soon they had the 80 kilograms of rock, in manageable sizes to be stored in the backpacks, ready for transportation.

‘We should be able to get around 50 kilograms of iron from this batch alone, an average sword will need 3 kilograms of iron more or less, luckily there are many spear users in the group, so the first batch of weapons will be ten swords and a whole bunch of spears, the leftover will be used to reinforce the shields’, thought Aster.

He’ll have to lead at least another exploration in order to gather enough iron for a decent sized group of girls from the sect, who will be safe without his presence thanks to the metalware.

Luckily, he could use that as training for his manuals other than the Galay Forging one, in fact he should have already finished the missions he chose as they overlapped with today’s exploration’s goal, which were movement manual related and generic gathering ones.

He already had a plan for his offensive manual, which will overlap with other objectives he had for the day, but let’s leave that for later, Mylene and the others returned not too long after Aster’s group had started putting the hematite into the backpacks, just in time for them to put the remaining ores in their backpacks.

Judging by the color of the sky, it was around 4 pm so they had to start getting back to the camp, because they still had a couple things to do in the forest, and there should be more or less three hours left of daylight, out of which at least one and a half will be used to cross the forest.

“Time to get back, everyone take your backpack and…”, however, just as Aster was about to give the greenlight to go back into the forest, both Aster and the little wyrm suddenly looked in a certain direction.

“Hisss!”, Espi immediately hissed, urging the group to move out of the open field, a suggestion Aster followed, by placing his index finger in front of his mouth, signaling others to not make noise as he guided them behind a large rock which was not too far from them.

Not even a minute later, a black figure could be seen coming at high speed from northwest, which is also the direction at which that plateau that separates the rocky area from the volcanic one, is located.

‘So that’s why I found the marks on that skull familiar, they are bear claws…’, thought Aster as he saw the quite large animal that was rushing into the forest, at a speed that seemed unnatural given its size.

On the other hand, that wasn’t neither the only nor the most unnatural thing about that bear, given the black tone of its fur that should be a black bear, however black bears should go from 1.4 to 2 meters of size, and that one which Aster and the others just saw, towers to almost 4 meters, which surpasses the size of a polar bear. Discover more novels at novel-fire.net

And that’s not all, black bears are supposed to eat more vegetables than anything, and they are not as aggressive as other species, not to mention they are quite intelligent, but that one directly destroyed a tree it could have perfectly avoided on its way into the forest.

But more importantly, it was covered in a lot of dried stains of blood, which should be from this same day, because they would have been washed away if that wasn’t the case.

Seeing the disturbance in the trees of the forest, and listening to the sound of things being thrown around, which was getting quieter with every second, Aster determined it was safe to talk again.

“It must have come to grab something for dinner, which means it comes to hunt early in the morning and then late at evening, luckily it didn’t notice us”, he said.

“I guess that explains why even if it’s a part of the outer forest, there are no signs of any living being in the vicinity, that thing is probably the overlord of this area and it’s not in its right state of mind”, added Cayden to which Aster shook his head in response.

“No, I don’t think it’s sick or anything like that, we have already seen an animal whose behavior doesn’t match the one of its race and it also just happens, that there are signs of interaction between it and that black bear”, said Aster.

“That lynx, you mean that the scar on its face was…”, mumbled Iris.

“Yeah, that lynx and this bear are similar, they both had surpassed what’s normal for their race and their behaviors also don’t align with how they should be, while they still don’t have an ounce of cultivation, the difference is that the lynx seems to have changed in a more mind related way, and that bear seems to be all brawl and no brain”, concluded Aster, to then indicate his teammates to be silent once again.

“Crack!”, with a tree being toppled in the process, that bear came out of the forest as it had found what it came for, it was… dragging the corpse of a deer with its right paw, while there was also a wolf which it was holding onto with its mouth.

That was probably a lone wolf which had hunted a deer, just to had it stolen by the bear who also turned it into a part of its dinner, luckily the bear was too concentrated in its own business so it didn’t stop here and rushed back from where it came, a dust cloud could be seen advancing far into the distance, as the bear made its way towards that plateau.

“Now that I think about it, we didn’t see any toppled trees all the way through the inner side of the forest, they started appearing at the second middle area where we found that skull and they were really common in this outer part”, said Lina as she made memory.

“That’s a good thing, it seems like this bear doesn’t go to the inner part of the forest, maybe because that’s where the lynx lives, that also explains why the snakes hadn’t heard or seen anything that matches the description of a bear, while there is one which is also quite active in the vicinity, it doesn’t go past this part of the outer area”, added Sandra.

“Let’s leave in case it returns, we’ll rush all the way to the toad pond area, since there wouldn’t be other animals there, we can catch our breath and catch the toad Mylene needs as well, before continuing our way”, said Aster.

With those words and after making sure it was safe, the group entered the forest, remaining on the southeast side, which pointed at the starting point, and was also not the entry point for the bear, just in case.

And soon they had reached the middle area where they had found that skull, and sure enough there were signs of a big animal which had stormed around not too far from it, apparently while the bear entered the forest through the northwest side, it changed directions as it deepened into it.

“It walked around the area where that skull was buried, maybe it’s not the one that killed that person, but it surely knows about it, so it’s a bear that has an ancestor which has eaten human meat before, damn it”, cursed Aster.

Bears normally don’t see humans as prey, but once one has eaten human meat, that might change, which is why when that happens, mortals sacrifice said bear, and here they had one that has inherited that taste for it, so that means they will have to deal with the bear whether they want it or not.

And it has to be within the first half of the week, because otherwise they won’t be able to come obtain the ores safely, which means Aster’s plans had to change, as in he will have cut his hours of sleep to advance more in his movement and offensive type manuals, to get results before he previously calculated they would appear.

And the same will apply for the ones he was already planning to draft for the hunt, starting with that wild dragon sister of his, as well as Tiana.