Chapter 858: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 11)

Also, in case you think that the dual blue tone haired girl was relying in something as volatile as "luck" given that the poison that the vice-leader was planning to use was a liquid one, but it could have very well been in a powder state, which due to mortal limitations Nerissa wouldn’t have indeed sensed from distance in her current state, then, you are underestimating her.

There is another reason as to why Nerissa with her energy and soul cultivation path, dares to clash head on with Iris who is an energy and body path cultivator whose attacks are overwhelmingly strong too, after all, the physical training Nerissa did is not enough for her to equal an actual body cultivator like in Agnes’s case, as she is not a physical training maniac.

And while Nerissa’s attribute has the "advantage" of having solidness to it as it is water, when compared to Iris’s fire which indeed helps make up for the difference in physical impact that their attacks carry, that would only be enough if Iris was a normal or just decently talented opponent, but we know that’s not the case.

Layla herself stated that if Iris had been raised in equally good conditions as her, she might have equaled her as the current record holder of the youngest one ever to master the first level of the "Sword Hand" technique that every relatively decent ranked sword user in the four heavenly quadrants has heard about, or maybe she would have even broken Layla’s record.

And that is while Iris is not a "pure" Bladeheart, but a mixed of Bladeheart and Fireheart lineages, who didn’t receive a good treatment from neither of them originally, though she was later taken in by Layla and her mother who also protected the three sisters.

So, based on the previous you can directly tell that just the difference in the "solidness" of Nerissa’s attribute when compared to Iris’s fire, as well as the physical training that Nerissa did to better use her attribute, but which wasn’t enough to make her equal to an actual secondary body path cultivator like Iris, wouldn’t be enough for the dual blue tone haired girl to easily clash head on with Iris.

And that’s right, there is another thing in play to produce such a result, and that is Nerissa’s innate senses, which as stated before in cultivator "mode" allow her to detect anything in the state that her formless water attribute is at the moment, it doesn’t have to be one at the time even, which is perfect considering Nerissa usually jumps around between liquid, gaseous and solid water as she fights, so she keeps a full range of detection during her fight, don’t forget that she is also a soul cultivator, so she can further enhance the previous.

Which results in Nerissa basically being able to "foresee" her opponent’s moves, because she can tell in which direction is blood flowing in the target’s body, of course this is not as easy as it sounds, because spirit energy is the counter of soul energy and a cultivator’s body has spirit energy, but her innate ability plus her soul enhancement allows her to even see-through Iris’s movements to a certain extent.

Now, in this place Nerissa is limited to only detect liquid state things and much more vaguely than normal, to the point that instead of "seeing", she "feels" it, making it more of an instinctive thing, but blood is a liquid and unlike in the outside world, there is no spirit energy actively getting in her way here, so "surprise" attacks like the one the vice-leader tried to pull on her were useless, regardless of whether the poison was a liquid or a powder.

From the very beginning, the vice with his ambush and distraction tactics was probably the worst match for Nerissa, since his whole fighting style was useless in front of that fierce dual blue tone haired girl.

Speaking of which, as Nerissa happily walked out of the refuge where her fight had taken place, she couldn’t help but think to herself.

’Mmm, lately I have been feeling a bit weird when I use my senses, perhaps they are getting stronger and the limitation will loosen up a bit, I kind of envy Vivi for having a much more active type of innate ability though’, she thought.

Those whose talents mostly shone through their attributes and energies like Nerissa or Aria before she managed to improve her recovery capacities to an actual level where they could be used for battle instead of just for survival, had it harder than girls like Alice or Mira who while indeed have really strong attributes as well, are monsters thanks to their lineages, or Sarina who even as a mortal can use electricity and fly.

However, Sarina is an especial case, because even mortal animals do have said capacities, though they indeed are not as strong as Sarina’s case, but that’s also normal, she is a very fierce warrior princess from the storm roc lineage after all.

Even producing and controlling toxins can still be within mortal limitations, but producing fire, water and the like is different, mortal beings can’t do so with such external elements, therefore with mortal limitations, Nerissa is in a similar situation as Iris who is resistant to high temperatures and other such support-oriented traits.

The dual blue tone haired girl can move with quite ease under water as if her body wasn’t obstructed by it, which is why she is often swimming in the lake alongside the ligress and other girls of the sect in her free time, and she can also hold her breath for abnormally long periods of time, which are not abilities to look down on, but are indeed much more situational when compared to what girls like Vivian or Alice can do.

Even without that, be it Nerissa or Iris, are not weak in the slightest, they have their polished swordsmanship, but the lack of the previous is what prevented them from being "monsters" like the wild dragon princess, or the ligress girl, well, from the point of view of Aster’s camp, because the vice-leader can vouch that for him whose scope also includes knowledge from a decently high ranked divine firmament, that dual blue tone haired girl is a monster.

"Oh well, I’ll be able to train my way into obtaining something like that through my technique now, what’s more I captured a vice-leader, it should be enough to ask Aster for a one-on-one swordsmanship spar, maybe not to experience using his "absolute field", but it should suffice to have him use it against me!", said Nerissa with a tinge of excitement, she who is usually calm and relaxed while still being serious, can become cutely energetic and carefree when it comes to sword related things, as one would expect from someone whose profession is "sword maniac".

That’s one of the best things about the mentality of the girls of the sect, they might admire and even feel a bit of jealousy of things others can do, but instead of wallowing in inferiority or becoming angry and hate the one from which said feelings originated like the vice did for example, they turn that into motivation to grow stronger.

While Nerissa rushed into the distance while easily carrying the wood container and the fainted enemy with one of her arms, let’s change to the last remaining of the three-girl team in charge of dealing with the enemy camp’s leading figures.

...

Speaking of which, you might have noticed that three girls were prepared to deal with one enemy each by Mina, but then, the chain of command of James’s former camp, was of the leader and the two out of the three who were close to him that had survived being punished by the blue flaming board.

And Alice destroyed the new third in command, so that should only leave two targets, which would be the leader that was dealt with by Vivian later, and the vice-leader that we just saw being defeated by Nerissa, in other words who was Camila supposed to fight then.

The answer is simple, things have changed since James was a part of this camp, because the guys who were captured before ended up becoming a part of the camp as well, and of course they chose someone to represent them and demanded for him to have a position of "authority" in the camp.

But of course, the leader wasn’t stupid enough to give him a direct position in the chain of command, like he did with those that had followed him for a longer time, and so the position of "treasurer" was created for him.

And the representative of the five former prisoner group was put in that position, what’s more he couldn’t object to not being directly called the fourth in command of the camp or something like that, because said position made sense.

He was after all a blacksmith and was given some of the accessories that the girls they captured and that the mercenaries wore, to use as material to make something.

Yeah, the leader of the camp actually used what in the outside were spirit treasures, as scrap metal, making the treasurer melt them to turn into something else.

As to why this was allowed, it’s because when entering this place, whether the blue flaming board was in charge or not, anything past the size of a normal bracelet, was sent into the spatial treasures of the participants.

And the blue flaming board judged that if the participants could bear eating the loss, of turning a whole bunch of spirit treasures into scrap metal to use as a forging material, then it had nothing to say about it.

Besides the result was a metal agglomeration that was of worse quality than the roughest wrought iron that could be produced by normally working with proper iron ore that could be found in this place by a blacksmith who was completely inexperienced in mortal methods.

Not to mention that a lot of accessories were needed to make anything, as a proof of it, the treasurer using all the things that were gathered by the leader, only managed to make two five-centimeter knives, and no they couldn’t have been turned into a single ten centimeter metal weapon which would make for a decent spearhead rather than two too short knives, because the materials didn’t mix together properly, so more than that and the thing would pretty much crack at the first impact, it was that bad of a metal, after all Blue Sky wouldn’t have let it pass if it wasn’t incredibly stupid to resort to that rather than to look for iron ore which was abundant here.

And here you might wonder, where the hell where those knives when the leader and vice were destroyed by Vivian and Nerissa, and the answer is quite amusing, as the sole metal weapons in the camp they were kept in a place where only the leader and vice-leader could find them indeed, yeah, they were kept in the secret storages prepared by the leader, instead of being carried by them at all times.

One in each of the two separate places, so the leader would have access to at least one even if he was betrayed by the vice, or at least that should have been the case.

In truth, while Vivian had signaled the spots where the secret storages were hidden, neither of them was unearthed by the girls of the sect, one was dug out by the vice and the other which was close to that tree against which Vivian was leaning during her fight with the leader, was actually found by the treasurer, which leads us to the current scene.

’Those two surely thought that the enemy was using a weapon like a catapult or something along the lines of that, but that’s stupid, the components needed for a device and the way to make it work with such strength are not easy to obtain and devise, so the enemy side must have someone that still has access to spirit energy’, thought the leader of the former prisoner group as he rushed through the camp towards a certain tree.

He is a blacksmith, so his conclusion was quite different when compared to that of the leader, vice and the third in command, that being said he still failed to discern the truth precisely, because well, Alice is indeed an abnormality that most if not everyone wouldn’t expect to meet.

His theory was closer to reality indeed though, and that’s why he decided to go all out and aim to take over the group to then start at another area, how so you wonder, well, he made exactly two knives not only because of the limitations of materials, if he really went all out with what he could do, he could have made three though one centimeter shorter and with lower endurance, knives instead.

But he chose not to do so, because he knew that with two, the leader wouldn’t put them together in his hidden storages, whose locations were unknown but their existence wasn’t.

Of course, the treasurer knew this not because he was told by others, the members of the original group didn’t really consider the former prisoners as a part of their team, so none among them would willingly share even the slightest bit of information to them.

This guy just happened to listen to a conversation between Maurice and the vice of back then who were in high spirits after being given the green light to play with those girls by the leader, which included something along the lines of "I thought the leader was going to hide them away like he does with his usual treasures" and so got an idea about the leader’s measures.

"Luckily, he didn’t notice the thin metal powder I left on the ground after finishing the knives... it still took me almost two damn days of looking around through every place where the powder could be found before finding out this tree’s secret, but while that vice guy is too close to the fight which means he might be caught by that strong enemy, I’ll go for the safe choice, perhaps those two will die at the enemy’s hands", said the treasurer as he kneeled down to then remove the dirt close to the tree, only to nearly suffer a heart attack when he heard an unfamiliar voice saying.

"So, you expect us to do your dirty job and get rid of those two, in order to take over their camp, it’s not a bad idea, if you wouldn’t have willingly joined hands with those pieces of trash, that is".

"Who is there!", shouted the treasurer as he kicked open the wood container and took out a small crystal bottle and an object wrapped in a piece of cloth out of it, besides that there were packed dried branches and leaves inside of it, as well as a dozen of storage rings, but the treasurer didn’t pay them any attention.

Because there was a beautiful copper-auburn haired girl calmly walking towards him, while holding onto a spear with a proper steel spearhead mounted on it, which instantly made the treasurer realize that the ones attacking them were on a completely different level.

’Damn it, where the hell did, they find the materials to make such a weapon, I didn’t notice her approaching, does she also have access to spirit energy, what’s more their blacksmith should be the same, damn bad luck!’, thought the treasurer.

Just when a chance for him to take over had appearance, he was busted by an enemy, still, he directly put on a pitiful face as he said.

"Wait, me and my group were captured by these guys, we had no other choice but to side with them to survive, so whatever feud you have with them has nothing to do with us, in fact I can tell you where the other mercenaries ran to and what their plans are, I just want me and my friend’s safety to be guaranteed by your group", said the treasurer with a "respectful" voice, which was met with disdain.

"I see, so that’s how you pieces of trash got those poor girls to trust you, it would never work against even the younger on our side because they know how actual sincerity from a member of the opposite gender looks like, given that a coward like you can’t be called a "man", but I do admit that your acting skills are quite good", said Camila as she rolled her spear to then add.

"Unfortunately, that also means that unlike your "teammates" as you called those four, you are for sure going to die".

The treasurer could lie through his teeth like nothing and he was also rather cunning as seen before when he tried to pass as a victim of James’s former group, and how he devised a plan to discover where was the leader going to hide one of the two knives, not to mention that it was him the one who earned the trust of those girls, so that they would consider them their allies.

He was really good at it and for a good reason, he is an evil cultivator, which would make it weird that he was captured so easily, if it wasn’t because he isn’t a battle focused one, evil cultivators also need weapons, alchemic products, formations and the like, so of course professionals of other paths besides the battle one, exist among them too.

In other words this guy was an evil spirit blacksmith, evil because he used living beings to create spirit treasures, but he wasn’t strong enough to capture the materials he needed without drawing unwanted attention which could lead to him being discovered and hunted down by the righteous faction sects, nor did he have a strong background or high status to have others secure materials for him, so he instead resorted to schemes to trick people, capture them and then use them as materials, which is why his acting skills were quite good.

He also really didn’t play with his materials in any way or whatsoever, not because he didn’t want to, but because it’s not like they were in abundance for him in particular, so he also didn’t have the disgusting feeling that the average evil cultivator who use others people as cultivation ingredients or to satisfy their own desires, would have.

At most, he had a somewhat strong killing intent, but that didn’t relate him to be an evil cultivator really, so it wasn’t hard for him to get others to low their guards around him.

’Damn it, they might have already captured someone and made him talk, what’s more they know about those girls, fucking loose-lipped bastards!’, inwardly cursed the treasurer as he threw the bottle had retrieved in "secret" earlier and then also threw a rock at it, he was an expert with throwable small weapons, though battle wasn’t his main occupation.

"Crack!", the crystal bottle exploded upon being impacted by the rock, which resulted in its content, a black, green and purple liquid to spread all over the air as it aimed to soak the copper haired girl.

’Even if it doesn’t make direct contact with your body due to that leather jacket, the fumes that will be produced by the poison staining it, will be enough to...’, the inner thoughts of the treasurer were interrupted by the sight of the poison indeed being blocked by Camila’s brigandine, only for it to "bounce" upon contact to then fall to the ground without leaving as much as stain on the treasure girl’s clothes.

"What!", the treasure had an expression of disbelief as he saw the previous, deep in his heart he wanted to believe that he wasn’t as unlucky as to be met with an enemy that obviously knew about his real self, and who also had access to spirit energy, but as if the world was mocking him, it happened.

Or at least, that’s what he believed, because Camila of course didn’t use spirit energy to achieve the previous, no, what happened is that she after two days of training, managed to use her innate ability at mortal level.

And what is said ability you ask, well, it’s more accurate to say that she managed to use the active part of her ability now, because you see, even when they first arrived, the treasure girl conserved something that would put her in a different level than the usual participant too.

Camila could detect valuable materials and evaluate them with a single glance, though it was mostly limited to inorganic ones like ores and the like, since only the mortal version of immortal grade herbs that could be found in this place, entered her radar, which is also why it was Nim the one in charge of selecting the wood of the highest quality, while Mylene, Vivian, Kana and Dahlia were the authorities when it came to herbs and other similar things.

Still, with Camila’s help, even if Aster wouldn’t have had knowledge about where mortals could find iron ore, the camp wouldn’t have lacked the precious material for steel making, so as usual she was a treasure akin to a good luck charm for those around her.

But, as happy as Camila was to be of help in that aspect, she was a bit downcast given that her battle prowess was quite lacking in comparison to when she fights as a cultivator, because while she has only recently started cultivating a secondary path, with her treasure aura, she can even destroy main body path cultivators in head on clashes in the outside.

But here, while she is not physically "weak" at base, like Vivian for example, she is not close to be outstanding either, what’s more while her senses regarding precious materials remained sharp, which is also why Camila easily knew that the enemy was a piece of trash whose words and intentions didn’t match, she doesn’t have the especially fast reaction time and reflexes, that someone who has advanced in the soul path and is talented in it can retain in this place, like Felicia for example.

Such were the worries in the mind of the treasure girl, until recently, her lineage had grown stronger and she was closer to Aster as the extra shyness that always afflicted her, being reduced proved, so while Camila couldn’t manifest a lineage trait yet, she gained something she really wanted to.

An active innate ability which she could use for battle, the ability to "reinforce" equipment, of course not like she does as a cultivator, but she could produce copper, silver or golden toned "oil" that if applied to equipment could produce some interesting results, you just saw one of the effects of the copper "oil" having been applied to her brigandine, which made it waterproof.