Chapter 851: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 4)

Past the initial shock that Nim appearing in such a form caused, not even a couple of seconds later, a few very specific girls turned to see Aster with questioning gazes, namely Mira of course, followed by Valentina and last but not least one of the newest additions, another girl with green hair, in other words Cassandra.

They all had an expression of suspicion in their pretty faces which seemed to say "This was your doing right?", as they stared at Aster who chuckled in response, even if he was guilty, he wouldn’t show it, but since he isn’t, he didn’t have to be afraid of the ligress scratching him, the purple lightning princess cutting him down, or the green haired mercenary girl lashing him with her whip.

"Even if you stare at me like that, the fact that her form has nothing to do with me directly at least, won’t change, ladies", jokingly said Aster to then add.

"Besides, while I understand miss Valentina and miss Cassandra’s doubts, Mira, you also noticed those shinny particles that started appearing a moment ago, alongside Angela, right?".

To which Angela who for a second couldn’t help but also be suspicious of Aster, accommodated her glasses as she said.

"Ahem, I can testify that those "shiny particles" did appear, but what is the relation between them and miss Nim’s appearance, that was only some kind of energy, if I’m not wrong?".

You see, even Angela had her doubts, it could be because well, the runic oak was honestly quite the beauty and even those that know Aster enough to be aware that he isn’t a scum dual cultivator or a shameless womanizer like others paint him to be, do admit that he is always suspiciously surrounded by beauties, one way or another.

Luckily, as someone whose way of thinking wasn’t strictly tied to the cultivation world, Aster was able to "defend" himself in the court of four girls that looked at him with suspicion as of current.

"That "energy" whatever it might be, wasn’t there until a moment ago, so we can safely assume that it started appearing by the effect of yesterday’s match reward, in other words, it is tied to the "belief" we just established at our camp, I only said that "nature spirits exist", and that wouldn’t directly influence the resulting effect on the selected target".

Aster was right, the way he phrased it was carefully thought by him earlier, why, because he wasn’t sure what the repercussions of the belief might be on Nim, let’s put a simple example, with one of the most tragical cases of beliefs doing more harm than good, the birth of twins.

In ancient times, the birth of twins was related exclusively to negative things, such as infidelity, witchcraft or even a punishment from heaven, the result was that twins were outright killed, abandoned in specific places to "cleanse" away the bad omen, which most likely resulted in them dying as well, or in "least" extreme cases one of them was discarded.

The "evil" twin which was always the second to be born among the twins is another belief that appeared as a branch of the previous, while in truth this belief was purposedly spread just because multiple birth would case inheritance troubles, since choosing the legitimate heir would cause conflict in a family were twins were born.

And all of the previous wasn’t seen as something bad by the contemporaneous people, so yeah, beliefs can cause a lot of harm if they are not handled properly, therefore Aster made it so the belief he implemented into the camp wouldn’t be influenced nor influence the will of others directly.

"As much as I would like to keep suspecting him, it is true that the way he phrased it, there is no chance that what came to our minds happened, he did say "nature spirits", which not only refers to nature as in our environment, but also would keep that dumb tree loyal to its existence, as that appearance is its... her nature", said Mira as she gave her "verdict" on the accused black haired dragon youth.

The ligress was right, Aster specifically used the word "nature", instead of the word "tree" because of its secondary meaning being directly related to one’s self, or one’s nature in this context, it was so that regardless of how Nim was affected by the reward being implemented on her, she would still be "Nim" afterwards.

Since the one who suspected him the most retracted her accusatory gaze, the other three also did the same, but that didn’t mean Aster was "exonerated" yet.

"Fine, so she is not a girl because of a certain someone playing some "prank" behind our back, but why... is she so beautiful for human standards, when she was a tree that clearly didn’t understand much about us?", said the purple lightning princess to which Aster bitterly smiled.

’Is she trying to get back at me for teasing her just a bit earlier, how cute’, thought Aster as he extended his hands to beckon at the whole bunch of cute girls that had gathered around the giant tree.

"Beliefs are "shaped" and maintained by the collective "will" of people, that doesn’t mean they specifically gave Nim this appearance, but all of these juniors of mine are used to be around "beautiful older sisters" or "cute little sisters", so following that trend, they would of course imagine new female teammates with whom they want to get along and are within the respective range of age, to fit into that description, if Nim was younger she might have fit a description that could be used for Kana, it just so happened that she is older instead", said Aster as he teasingly gazed at the "beautiful older sisters" to whom he was referring to, among which girls like Sarina, Mylene, Eris or Felicia, are included.

Some took it as a compliment and were happy about it like the afore mentioned, and then there were those who knew Aster was messing with them, like Mira, Valentina, Alexandra and since she also doubted him, Cassandra as well because Aster couldn’t just leave that go "unpunished".

"By the same logic, if Nim was a man, then her appearance would have been described as something that would refer to me, mister William, Erick or to old Salazar who are also respected by them", said Aster referring to the old punishment elder who alongside William were the sole male figures of authority in the sect.

Well, there was Julian who is an honorary ancestor, but the girls of the sect really haven’t interacted with him, while William and Salazar are quite more active, albeit William being most of the time threatened by his older sister in other words Aster’s Talis godmother to not laze around and find something useful to do, if he doesn’t want to get his ass kicked by her.

"Hahaha, I’m not as famous as brother Aster, but indeed a lot have seen me going around in the sect!", said Erick with that thunderous voice of his, the amusing part is that he was included in the same category as William, because appearance-wise they look close in age, despite Erick being obviously younger than William, given that his constitution makes him look to be in his middle to late twenties.

Being fair, William probably also looked older than what someone his relative age given his cultivation realm, should look like, for a change Sophia didn’t have anything to reproach to that boyfriend of hers, well you know besides his really loud voice.

"On the other hand, those were more "guidelines" rather than "molds", because the description of the reward mentioned that the result will be affected by the selected target as well, so while the "beautiful older sister" vibe was established by the collective will of the camp, I don’t think it would have resulted this well, if Nim didn’t "look" and "perceived" herself like this from the very beginning", said Aster to which the ligress softly growled as she added.

"I find that hard to believe though, that dumb tree was pretty much genderless and if it had perceived itself in a way, it should have been a guy, given that it handled yang energy from the very beginning".

Mira was right in that, while Nim was rather neutral, not showing any clear signs of being neither a man nor a woman, the fact that as a tree it had the capacity to handle immense amounts of yang energy, which is why its predecessor was used for the formation that trapped Mira, would lead others to think that it had a predisposition towards taking a male shape when it gained human form, in this case it was the ligress who was tricked by the whole yang energy thing.

But if that was truly the case, Aster would have outright put some limits, like not letting the chatterbox runic oak shower with Kana and the other girls for example, and if Nim was considered a woman by Aster, then it wouldn’t have been allowed to stay in the room with them.

"Oak trees are monoecious which means that they grow both male and female flowers separately, however, Nim lacked both from the very beginning, her constant questioning regarding human relationships was probably caused by an "incomplete" existence, which should come from the abrupt situation of her birth, the change that her instincts alerted her of, was most likely to complete what she was missing through the reward of the match".

"And unlike other runic oaks who are both, she was probably presented with the unique opportunity to decide what she wanted to be, so, her own choice plus the collective will acting as a guideline, is what gave this result, as for the yang energy inclination, that’s also easily explainable, that capacity comes from her race and while rare, there are women born with yang body constitutions, so it is the same as that", concluded Aster to which Nim who had remained silent since earlier nodded.

"Mm, it is as the alpha says, I honestly didn’t really understand the difference between genders, was it physical, mental, spiritual, it all seemed the same to me, which is why I wanted to observe lots of interactions between humans, but only when I was selected as the target for the reward, I could picture a clear distinction between the previous and ultimately I decided that being female fitted me the most".

"After doing so, my general appearance appeared in my mind, this included my hair and eye color as well as my face and skin tone, this wasn’t affected by the "suggestions" coming from the other members of the camp, only my height and body shape which are aspects that are much more influenced by age and lifestyle I would say, were affected by it", said Nim.

She had a much more athletic vibe in her mind by default, her skin was still on the pale side, but it was a tone or two darker as if it was exposed to the sun just enough to gain a healthy shade, then she looked a bit "rougher" rather than having the gentle and soft features of a "beautiful older sister", those were traits that originated in her innate capacity to control yang energy, which remained the same by the way, as her bright yellow eye color suggested.

But Nim liked the "suggestions" made by the collective will of the girls of the sect, so she accepted the slight changes and well, you are seeing the result.

"I still can’t believe that dumb tree which was always making those ridiculous questions is her, but I guess it’s fine given that her own sense of self was respected and all", said the ligress.

"More new sisters to play with are always welcomed right, Espi?", said the little girl to which the little wyrm nodded as she hissed in response.

"Hisss".

And as if to prove that Nim was still that weird runic oak, she who was standing next to her tree, jumped a dozen of meters to then land close to Aster as she said.

"I must say that now that I have taken this form, I find the alpha indeed pleasing to the eye, I don’t understand why you hadn’t become one of his mates", said the chatterbox runic oak at Mira, as she opened her arms and then did her best imitation of a "hug", naturally Nim wasn’t used to have human form, since even her secondary bodies and projections were always trees, so she looked rather clumsy and robotic while aiming to "jump" on Aster.

"That confirms it, she is that dumb tree for sure", said Mira as she softly growled at the previous.

Also, Nim trying to hug Aster while also wearing those light clothes she had on her, which though not noticeable outright, didn’t include underwear by the way, would have caused the ligress and a few others to stare daggers at Aster for not even trying to dodge or stop her, if Nim’s "body" didn’t outright passed through Aster and then since she had lost balance, fell frontwards, only for her to sink into the ground the next second.

"The belief was just established, and I did say "nature spirit" so of course that body of yours isn’t one made out of flesh, I do believe you can gain a bit more of solidness by concentrating on it though", said Aster, to which the runic oak who emerged out of the ground nodded in response.

"Mmm, something like this perhaps...", mumbled Nim, she looked the exact same as earlier, but Kana’s little nose cutely twitched a couple of times as she approached Nim to then poke her arm.

"Wooah, sister Nim’s body feels as if it was made of cotton~", said the little girl who had caught a thin honeyed scent the moment Nim’s body became solider.

Cotton flowers have a really thin and barely perceptible subtle and mildly sweet scent, but never underestimate Kana’s smelling sense when it comes to flowers, or sweet things.

"Hisss~", the little wyrm agreed, she wrapped her upper body around Nim’s leg and seemed to enjoy the fluffy and soft sensation against her scales.

"How interesting, looks like depending on how I use this "energy" I can make a lot of things, my actual body won’t be able to move anymore, but I can interact with everyone in this "spirit" form", said Nim, then she who was being "hugged" by Kana and Espi, actually started floating, because well, she is a spirit.

"Mom, you can train with sister Nim now, so please let us climb to her top later please~", said the little girl as she gave Sarina puppy eyes.

"Hisss

~", an action that was replicated by the little wyrm.

"Fine, now you two little spoiled girls, let go of Nim, she still has to learn how to control her body after all", said the blond roc mother, who could basically read the minds of all the other young girls of the sect thinking "That looks fun!".

"Let’s have breakfast for now, we still have another chance left to establish a "belief", and I would like to discuss it over with miss Valentina and others later", said Aster as he chuckled to his insides, to which everyone nodded.

This little episode had slowed down the usual start of the day, though on the other hand it caused the girls of the sect to come out from their rooms earlier, so things were pretty much the same as usual, minus a new "girl" joining the camp suddenly.

Now, in case you have forgotten, based on how that young orange haired badger girl had helped Aster locate the direction at which their former camp was located, just like at earth, the sun came up from east in this place.

So, the first rays of light appeared earlier for Aster’s camp which was placed at what could be considered the start of the eastern zone given that the camp was located right close to the gate placed on the wall that reached high into the sky and extended further than what even Aster could see into the distance, when compared to other places.

Simply put, morning came earlier for Aster’s camp, than let’s say a certain other camp placed towards the west, like the one from which James came from, and thus, the sunlight had yet to reach them, which is why there was still more than an hour left for morning there, and so it was the time for their last watch duty shift by now, that being said, we still need to go back in time to around an hour ago for what comes next.

...

A dozen of minutes before Nim flew to ask Aster to pay an early visit to the monolith, in a cave that was formed inside a tooth-shaped rock formation, the last girl on watch duty climbed down the top of the rock formation to then approach Mina who was sleeping and shake her up a bit as she said.

"Sister Mina, it’s a few minutes before 5 am, I just checked on the enemy’s camp and everything looks clear", to which Mina who opened her eyes nodded as she got up.

"Good work, you can go rest a bit alongside the other girls who were in watch duty, I’ll take care of waking up the others", said the oldest of the three sisters.

"Wake up everyone, we’ll have breakfast and start our briefing before attacking the enemy’s camp", said Mina to Tiana and the others who woke up and went to wash their faces on the spot, besides Alice who was clearly having a sweet dream with Aster, considering how she was smiling and gigging in her sleep.

Which required Mina to resort to say.

"How unfortunate, if Alice who is in charge of the first step of the plan stays asleep, we’ll have to return to the camp at a later time, so maybe there won’t be enough time to enjoy rewards today", which made the wild dragon princes instantly open her eyes and get up.

"I’ll go murder them all right now", said Alice as she changed the scales of her tail from cuddly to killing mode, which made Mina softly laugh as she handed Alice her breakfast.

"That won’t be necessary, here breakfast", said the oldest of the three sisters, to which Alice pouted as she bit on an apple.

"Come on, it will be faster that way, if it’s because you want to obtain intel from them, I’ll only turn the scarred ones who all are confirmed pieces of trash into shreds and limit myself to break the arms and legs of the others, so you can do your "magic" on them", said the wild dragon princess, making Mina giggle as she said.

"While that is very much appreciated, I also need the leader of the pieces of trash alive once the battle ends, but that’s not the reason as to why while you’ll be the vanguard, won’t be doing all the fighting", to which Tiana who had washed her face and joined them to have breakfast, added.

"Yeah, this is the first time our side deals with an enemy camp, what’s more we are the attackers, and those guys despite being a bunch of pieces of trash, have indeed developed enough to not be considered "weaklings", this a valuable source of experience for everyone, so don’t be selfish for a change and cooperate with the group", said the energy constitution daughter.

Camila had learned the important lesson of mediating before Alice started bickering with Tiana, so she stepped at the right time by adding.

"And while this doesn’t count as an official "encounter", meaning that we won’t directly receive rewards from the blue flaming board, it is part of the two front mission, so our group effort will surely be noticed by the blue flaming board at the time of deciding what reward we’ll receive for completing the mission, since it seems to value group effort more than personal strength demonstrations".

"And more importantly we can get double rewards from Aster, one for helping training the girls of the sect and the non-human members of the group now, and another one for improving the rewards of the mission later", said the treasure girl, which made Alice’s red eyes glow in the dim environment of the cave.

"Fine, so what do I have to do then?", asked Alice as she used those strong teeth of hers to munch on a piece of meat, which wasn’t exactly cold as it was kept in a tightly closed container, but wasn’t burning hot as she liked it, and that only made her wish to rip the enemies to shreds again, because they were not allowed to lit a fire and warm their meals, in order to not alert said enemies.

With Alice being successfully convinced by Camila’s words, the briefing took place and in less than half an hour, everyone was informed on what to do by Mina, who one last time checked that everything was normal in the enemy’s camp, before giving the green light to start with the plan.

And that leads us to the scene of a single solitary figure, covered from head to toe with light armor, a brigandine and an extra piece of equipment which Mina had requested from Aster specifically for this fight, yeah, that wicked red-haired girl made Aster craft something the very day before it was going to be used, namely a full head helmet.

Not to mention that unlike usual, Alice had actual "weapons" on her, aside from her gauntlets and tail which was itching to kill some poor bastards right now, as in she had a shield and a dozen of spears mounted on her back, while a sword hanged at each of her sides too, all that equipment would normally cause trouble to move, but for the wild dragon princess and her monstrous strength, it was as if she wasn’t using anything but light clothes.