The rise of the pervert primordial

Chapter 807: Rest, Rewards & Reconnaissance (part 4)

Seeing the message left by the blue flaming board, Aster frowned for a second, not at the fact that their evaluation’s result and therefore their rewards were being held until the end of the development week, because the blue flaming board is quite upright in such matters, so the compensation will for sure make up for it, what got Aster’s attention was the "feeling" of the message itself.

"This feels less "dynamic" than usual, perhaps..." mumbled Aster as he closed his eyes to feel his surroundings, though he doesn’t have spirit sense that doesn’t mean Aster can only rely on his eyes, his instincts are also quite sharp, they can’t cover the massive area that his eyes can though.

After a moment, Aster opened his eyes having confirmed what he supposed, the blue flaming board wasn’t "present" at the time being, that doesn’t mean they aren’t being watched over, the blue flames are making their timed rounds every so and then, however the supervisor itself was not here.

Which is a first, it’s not like the blue flaming board wrote every message that Aster and the others saw in real time, most came from the monoliths and were "programmed" responses, however the blue flaming board’s attention was in them almost all the time, especially when it came to evaluation results, but now that wasn’t the case.

’There must be a lot to deal with after what happened, so we were left with a "dummy" in the meantime, protection wise there is no difference so it’s fine I guess, though it’s a shame since I wanted to ask about what happened to the guy I cut down’, thought Aster to then put the matter at the back of his mind for now.

Chances were that the blue flaming board wasn’t going to answer such a question anyway, it was better to focus in other things for now, like for example the glasses wearing girl who was cutely looking his way from time to time as she watched over a few girls from the sect.

"Good morning Angela, don’t you think it’s a bit too much to be working in construction so early and without having eaten breakfast, especially in a free day?", jokingly said Aster to Angela who softly smiled in response.

"Good morning Aster, we are just making some adjustments to a few log cabins so that our new friends are comfortable, we are only doing some small modifications right now, so it will be done before breakfast is ready~", said the receptionist girl.

Thanks to the building missions, the camp had more log cabins than what the group needed originally, so the animal races could be directly accommodated when they joined, with the exception of horses and the Komodo dragon king due to their sizes, however they wouldn’t be comfortable, which is why they spent the past night under the starry sky which again isn’t a problem because that’s normal for them.

However, for organization sake and more importantly to show the appropriate welcome to their new team members, Angela started adapting the respective places for the animals to live, which like she said wasn’t a big problem for the girls of the sect.

They had gotten used to build things with wood, so just opening large windows so that the birds can freely enter and leave at will, while enjoying more of the breeze they like, or expanding the entrance so that the monitor lizards and Komodo dragons can move without getting stuck, is a piece of cake for them now.

Angela even took into account the natural preferences of the animals at the moment of choosing where to accommodate them, the bird’s houses were placed next to trees since they liked the scenery and used them to rest their wings as closed spaces were only for sleeping in their case.

The group of the Komodo dragon king on the other hand were all placed at log cabins next to the eastern wall, because they like water and that wall faces the lake directly, so if they feel like swimming, they just need to walk a short distance, boars were fine so long as they had space free from obstructions near their living area.

As for deer, they were clearly interested in interacting with the horses because they haven’t seen other herbivores in three hundred years, and the adaptations made for horses worked for them as well, so they were set.

"We’ll make special bathrooms for them later, that will be enough to cover the daily construction missions for everyone~", happily added Angela which earned her an approving nod from Aster, the receptionist girl has perfectly balanced something "easy" not much time consuming and still significative for the girls of the sect to do in their free day while still earning a nice number of merits.

"So, we work while sister Angela gets all the credit, that’s not fair", mumbled the girls that were adapting the log cabins as they approached Aster with "bullied" expression on their pretty faces, which made Angela’s face redden on the spot.

"Y-You little girls were the ones that said you wanted to do something nice for the new members of the group after listening to their story from Kana!", exclaimed the receptionist girl.

"Now, now, both of you are equally helpful, keep up the good job", said Aster as he patted those cute girl’s heads as well as Angela’s one making them all happily smile in response.

"Mm~".

"Don’t you have more important things to do in the morning instead of flirting?", in a complete change of atmosphere, the ligress girl who was returning from taking a morning dive in the lake, accompanied by Guardian, couldn’t help but say as they approached Aster.

"Good morning Mira, it’s good to see you getting along with more people", answered Aster, that was the way the cold on the outside but warm on the inside ligress girl said "good morning" so he returned the greet to her.

"Humph", the grumpy ligress girl snorted in response, but she was indeed happy to have met Guardian with whom she got along in a different way than with Eris, Mylene and even Aria, Aster secretly called them "kitty besties".

"I have a little gift in mind to commemorate you finding a bestie, so do look up to it", jokingly said Aster making both Mira and Guardian softly growl in response.

"Grrrr", Mira was just against Aster’s teasing, while Guardian greeted and expressed her interest in Aster’s words, so she even told him what she’ll be doing for the rest of day, which was of course focusing on triggering the mission to obtain her attack type manual’s first technique.

As for Mira she refused to engage in Aster’s "schemes", but it’s not like she was hard to find, her training produced quite the noise, besides that it was going to be either Mylene’s place, Kana’s or Aria’s vicinity which was probably going to be the same today and last but not least, the lake.

Seeing that annoyingly impossible to get really angry at, smile on Aster’s face, the ligress girl slightly pouted as she urged the lynx to continue their way.

"Don’t fall for his tricks Guardian, he is the type to take a mile if you give him an inch...", mumbled Mira as they went to their room to take a quick shower before breakfast.

Aster did the same and was met with one last person before reaching the dining area, a girl who seemed to incarnate the white color, Vivian.

"Good morning~", she wasn’t alone though, the baby cobras and baby Komodo dragons were playing around her, under the supervision of the Komodo dragon king who was surprised for umpteenth time ever since he met Aster’s group.

In this case it was at the strange "being" that was liked by the children of his race, from the very second they met, because unlike with Kana there was no sense of closeness nor of mutual understanding by innate, instead after petting one of them, she straight felt and "looked" like one of them, the adults could still tell the difference but for the children the white-haired female "human" as they got to know the two-legged creatures are called, looked like a white scaled Komodo dragon, one with a stronger aura but absolutely kind and friendly unlike the king who has this stern and strong veteran-like feeling around him at all times.

"So, you are both a big white cobra and a white Komodo dragon now", jokingly said Aster to Vivian who brightly smiled in response.

"This is so fun, I would have never believed that my body constitution could help me get close to others instead of scaring them away, thanks for being my friend Aster~".

Previous to having control over her power, just a slight accident and Vivian would have killed poisonous and venomous spirit beasts through contact... even as a mortal, if her body constitution is calm that’s because Vivian is "safe" with Aster around.

’I don’t even want to imagine what her body constitution would have done before the node was stablished if she was deemed to be in "danger" due to being deprived of spirit energy, perhaps it would have caused a toxic disaster on the spot...’, thought Aster.

If there was someone who had way too much power that ignored realm difference besides Aster, that is Vivian, the difference is that she didn’t want nor needed it to continue growing past its limits on a daily basis like him.

Because unlike Aster, her focus unfortunately is not control, therefore she as of current lacked the capacity to reign in the living disaster that conformed every cell of her body, on her own, perhaps after a few hundreds of years more of suffering later, she would have gained this capacity, but by then... whether Vivian would still be the sweet girl she is would have been a mystery, luckily there was no need to think about such a grim possibility anymore.

"Then how about you stop saying things that would make that uncle of yours declare a purge war against me", said Aster as he offered a hand to Vivian so that she could get up, because everyone was passing on the message that breakfast was ready to be served.

"No can do, I’m already as distant from Aster as I can be~", said the white-haired girl as she accepted Aster’s hand to then tell the baby cobras and Komodo dragons to return with their parents, the camp was absolutely safe so the Komodo dragon king didn’t escort them and instead followed Aster and Vivian towards the dining area for the leading figures, it’s worth mentioning that unlike other members of his group, the king could eat cooked food.

He didn’t try it yesterday because his subordinates were still slightly unsettled about such a major change in their lives, so he remained with them at all times, did what they did and ate what they ate, but with Kana and Vivian earning the trust of the reptiles, boars and deer, he could let them mingle with the humans on their own, also the Komodo dragon king really wanted to try that delicious smelling food.

’She already was a rather "dangerous" friend in my case and who knows what did Alice tell her before Aria noticed it... ah, it’s going to be hard to endure Julian’s glare later’, amusingly thought Aster.

Most girls are comfortable around Aster once they know what kind of person he is, but they still treat him as a member of the opposite sex, an absolutely trustable friend maybe, but while reduced to the limit they do still keep the wariness that girls should have around men, Vivian on the other hand is different, she basically lacked defenses of any kind when it came to Aster.

It’s not like she was ignorant, she half-killed that guy who secretly coveted her and doesn’t ignore other people’s private space regardless of gender, only Aster is an exception, it’s not exactly romantic either as she currently considers herself as Aster’s "friend", which is why other girls keep her from crossing that line which she fails to see herself, well, others besides Alice who found it amusing and played some tricks behind scenes.

As for Aster, he didn’t want to take advantage of Vivian’s situation, when she understands that the closeness she wants to "experience" with him is not that of a friend, then they will talk about that, this has already been discussed with Julian privately by Lilia herself, since the dragon mother of course wanted to play matchmaker when it came to such a good girl for her darling.

Poor Julian had a hard time trusting the girl he treated as his daughter to Aster’s "claws", in this aspect in specific since he would trust Aster with Vivian’s life, but let’s leave that aside for now.

"Don’t leave after breakfast, we have some things to do", said Aster to the Komodo dragon king who nodded in response to then look for a place to "sit" while Vivian happily followed Aster to the table.

"Good morning ladies", said Aster as he saw basically everyone he didn’t meet so far, already sitting at the table.

"Good morning", the girls and the couple of male exceptions among leaders, namely Cayden and Erick greeted Aster.

"Yo brother Aster, don’t forget to dedicate some time to sis, otherwise she might kill someone later!", said Erick with that thunderous voice of his, which made quite a few people gaze at Tiana’s direction.

"For a change you are actually right, it’s been a while since we sparred so be ready after we finish breakfast", said Tia with a smile that wasn’t a smile on her pretty face, she did feel like killing someone and Erick just so happened to still owe her a punch to the face so this was perfect.

"Hey Sophia weren’t you all angry when those women approached me, give me a hand here", said Erick which only dug his grave deeper.

"No, I’m in fact joining hands with sister Tiana to beat some sense into you, we have two free days so you’ll be fine to fight by the time the next week starts", she said, sealing Erick’s fate.

As always, having a meal was more than just eating for the group, it was a fun and relaxing moment for the vast majority at least, also the breakfast was delicious, the cooked menu included grilled fish, a simple vegetable soup of wild carrot and potatoes and a side of fruit, it was light but perfect to give everyone the energy needed to enjoy the day, well, for these girls who couldn’t remain inactive for a long period of time it was enough until lunch.

Once they had eaten to the content of their hearts and after resting for a moment, everyone started bidding their temporary farewells and leaving to do their own things, Aster included, however he didn’t leave alone.

"It won’t take long, so let’s evaluate you two at the same time, thanks for your help, Agnes, miss Valentina, Guardian and miss eagle", said Aster, the two he was referring were naturally Fawn and the Komodo dragon king.

Since he was also a member that could make a big difference by himself and he was going to get a manual, just like Fawn did yesterday, his intel had to be especially evaluated by Aster himself, his subordinates won’t be officially joining for now, but their intel will still be recorded by Angela and the girls she chose to assist her in that task and studied by Aster later.

"No problem", said Agnes representing the group of four some of which were tagging along to help evaluate them while some were here for a different purpose.

Under Aster’s guide, the Komodo dragon king placed his right frontal paw against the monolith and was bathed in a dim blue light for a second, like previously stated though the blue flaming board wasn’t "present" here personally, a non-interactive replacement was left behind to look after them.

[Calculation completed, the result is "Perfect", which can be converted into five hundred middle grade and fifty high grade merits]

The result was quite good, as a king animal he got a perfect grade similar to Selene due to his war focus, it’s obvious that the Komodo king would get more high-grade merits than her, that doesn’t mean fight is more valuable in the eyes of the blue flaming board, but fight-related merits require less time to be earned, of course there is a lower limit to them as well.

"Let’s see what options you have for your profession type manual", said Aster to the Komodo dragon king who nodded in response, feeling a strange but subtle change in his body.

To no one’s surprise, he had the "Warrior" option, next was a new one "Amphibious Guard", which surprisingly didn’t appear for the anaconda young leader, meaning that for them it might be a lower graded profession apt for the average members of their race, which makes sense because in terms if aquatic adaptation anacondas are superior in water to Komodo dragons.

The third option was actually "War Ride" probably because of his large size and strength focus which was similar to Selene and Ember and the fourth option was also a new one "All-Round Master Hunter".

Komodo dragons are quite the skilled hunters, contrary to what their size and imposing figures would suggest, they are actually ambush predators who patiently wait for hours for their prey, they are good at camouflage, can move in both ground and water, have a really good smelling sense among animals, strong claws and serrated teeth as well as a venomous bite, they might not be the "best" in neither of the previously mentioned aspects, but when all of that is combined in a single animal, it truly is worthy of being called "all-round".

As to why the Komodo dragon king didn’t receive a venom related option, that’s probably because he as the king doesn’t hunt nor fight like other members of his race, who after a powerful bite prefer to simply track the target and wait for it to die.

No, the Komodo dragon king rips his enemies to shreds directly, not really relying on his venom, a change in his nature caused by the role he took upon himself.

"Both the third and fourth options are good, if you want to mainly cooperate with someone else, war ride is the way to go, but I personally believe the fourth option will fit you better, that being said, choose the one you feel it’s the best for you, that’s the most important thing", said Aster to which the Komodo dragon nodded to then after a moment of contemplation go with the fourth option.

Though he could imagine himself fighting with Vivian on his back, he thought that was possible even without the manual, however if his hunting abilities were to be improved, wouldn’t he be able to track down and kill the sworn enemies of his race, at the slightest trace of them, and so all-round master hunter was the winner choice.

The Komodo dragon king also chose his attack and movement type manuals and was clearly interested in this "power" he could obtain, animals didn’t fight with "technique" but with instinct, after all.

"Okay, with that out of the way, I want to see you demonstrating your fighting styles, miss Valentina will assist the king while Agnes assists Fawn, no need to go all out during this part of the test, I’m more interested in your habits and styles", said Aster.

Later he’ll let them show him their strongest moves, but first he wanted to see how they fought which would determine their position in a large-scale fight, also unlike Fawn, the komodo dragon king will for sure need more time to start implementing the knowledge of his manual into his strength, because he is an animal, which is why Aster didn’t bother giving him a manual as soon as possible.

"That being said, I would suggest you to fight as serious as you can without going for the kill, if you don’t want to be beaten black and blue, that is", said Aster as he moved to the side accompanied by Guardian and the giant eagle, while the pair of blond Fey princesses stretched their bodies and took a whole bunch of sparring wood weapons from a bag which Aster carried here.

’Now that I think about it, Fawn fights in a similar way to Aria which is not really weapon dependent, so I haven’t seen her weapon of choice’, thought Aster.

During the whole fight to decide the ownership of the main spatial disruption which led them here, Fawn didn’t let alone use a weapon but even engage in close combat, the few enemies that tried to attack her were crushed by giant boulders she threw their way, which is why Aster completely lacked information of her fighting style.