After Kana petted Espi to the content of her heart, Aster unfolded the sleeve of his coat, covering the cute little thing, to let it rest.
Aster didn't expect to find Espi coiling around his arm uncomfortable, he had petted the little wyrm previous to its evolution, and its scales were surprisingly smooth, without having the moist sensation that reptiles back at earth had.
Though Espi looked like a snake, ultimately it was a dragon, the scales on Lilia's wings and Alice's tail, were also way different than whatever reptile Aster had read or heard off back at earth.
Anyway, though he didn't expect to be uncomfortable, he was surprised at the fact that if he didn't pay attention to it, he wouldn't notice that the little thing was coiled around his arm.
Could be because of Espi's adaptation and hiding capacity, which is what allowed it to escape the scope of those who hunted the other wyrms back at Esmeralda's secret realm, or it could be due to the contract between them.
He hadn't read the book that explained the basics of spirit tamers, which Natasha and Charlotte left to him, in part because it is incomplete as to not incur in the wrath of the heavenly law.
Also, Aster wanted to train with the little wyrm at the same time, that was an advice that those two gave him, learning together from scratch makes wonders for the abilities of a spirit tamer, and its first contracted spirit beast, which is why they are always careful at the moment of choosing one.
There is also the fact, that they don't know how many spirit beasts they can contract, they get to know it only after reaching their limit, so they don't know which contract will be the last, or if they will be able to find more than one suitable companion.
Aster already knew his limit wasn't one though, since he had made a contract with Espi, prior to know anything about spirit tamers, it's worth mentioning that Mira isn't his contracted beast, he only was the first one to learn her true name, which would be a way to force a contract upon her, but Aster obviously had no such intentions, since his aim was for her to be contracted by Aria.
Aster couldn't help but smile at the strange sensation of fulfillment that he felt, as he petted the little wyrm, it was time to return to the mansion, he was honestly mentally tired and he wasn't the only one, the other girls and Kana especially wanted to relax, so today's activities were officially over.
"As expected of brother Aster, your charms go far beyond than others hahaha!", Eric who has been having a hard time to keep his mouth shut, rushed towards Aster and smacked his right shoulder as to not startle the little wyrm that was peacefully sleeping around his left arm.
Despite Eric strange phrasing, he was clearly referring to the newest additions to the group, which included Mira, Alexandra and Tamara, naturally he meant no harm, and was just brutally honest, which is one of the reasons as to why Aster got along with him.
"How was your trip, did my big sis give you trouble or a lot of trouble", he said as he thunderously laughed, making Tiana inwardly decide to have a nice "spar" with him later.
Aster chuckled in response.
"It was quite a fun one, speaking of which, keep your agenda free, if possible, we'll take a mission together", he said, which made Eric eagerly nod.
"Sounds good, you must be tired, let's go have a nice dinner!", he said as he followed the others to the mansion.
Aster inwardly shook his head, this friend of his was quite an energetic one, he was planning to have dinner at bed with the girls, but it wouldn't be fair since everyone stayed here, watching over Espi until the end.
He then looked at the valley, which had started to be flooded by different types of spirit energy, Espi's advance came in handy for his plan, soon there will be a way more diversified environment in the valley.
…
After that, the whole group shared a nice warm meal, and only then they each parted ways, this time Kana hugged Aster's left arm which was where the little wyrm slept tonight, no one complained, since that left the main spot free, which this time was taken by Sarina, since Lilia lost the food war once again and instead acted as Aster's pillow, which wasn't that bad.
Soon the moon was replaced by the sun and morning came to the Battle planet, having gotten used to his morning routine, Aster easily noticed the difference, which consisted in the little wyrm changing position, from coiling around his left arm, to be wrapped around his neck.
The previous might sound stressing, but for Aster it was like having a soft stuffed animal acting as a neck pillow, it also helped that Lilia's large breasts guaranteed a good night of sleep no matter what.
"Hisss~", the little snake happily hissed as it moved its upper body upwards, its little tongue licked Aster's cheek, giving him a ticklish sensation.
"Good morning to you too", said Aster, making Espi smile as it returned to be wrapped around Aster's neck, apparently it had no intention of leaving Aster, not that he minded though.
Aster then gave each one of the girls their morning kiss and then got up before them this time, well, almost before most of them, because Sarina went out of the bedroom at the same as him, since she wanted to prepare the breakfast.
"Have you all finished deciding this time's order?", he asked to the blond mother, who was walking next to him, while hugging his arm.
"Mm, not completely but the first two are Eris and Mylene, you should have seen Lilia's expression~", said Sarina as she softly giggled.
Aster laughed, ultimately that mother of his was experiencing quite a few "setbacks", like losing against Sarina when it came to cooking, and since she complained that last time, she couldn't participate in the little contest they held to decide the turn order to spend a day with Aster, this time they did a completely luck-based contest.
That being said, today was her lucky day, because even if it wasn't going to be her date, she will still participate, but to be fair, he won't tell her right now, but until it is her time to shine, otherwise, she will for sure occupy those two's turn.
Naturally, since both of them knew about it, Eris and Mylene were already waiting at the dinning room, Camila was with them too, as they were happily chatting, it brought joy to Aster's heart, seeing three beauties getting along like that.
"Good morning you three", he said as he took a seat in front of them, while Sarina put hands to work, Aster offered her to help, but she kindly refused, Tamara and Felicia were also up, since they wanted to help prepare breakfast for their children and husband in Tamara's case, since Tomas will be leaving in a couple of days.
Since today's schedule was a bit tight, Aster and those two had a quick breakfast before the others got up and left the mansion.
"Now that I think about it, I never mentioned I'll be taking you two out at the same time, I guess besties like to share quite a bit", jokingly said Aster which made those two laugh.
"Well, Eris almost didn't let me sleep by bragging about how much fun she had, so she had no option but to agree with my petition~", said Mylene as she softly pushed Eris.
"Humph, who was the one saying "I can't wait to show him my aura" with a dumb smile while giving me a lecture about body cultivation, I wonder", naturally Eris got back at her friend right on the spot.
"Hey, that was dirty!", exclaimed Mylene, just to see Eris mockingly giggling at her, Aster watched from the sides, those two had really become close, Eris didn't mention it, but she recollected quite a few ingredients for Mylene's alchemy, and Mylene was the same, she got some nice quality base for the ink used in formations, in the form of the blood from some of the members of the Tempest family.
"Ahem, did you find the best places for the modifications to the valley?", asked Aster which put an end to those two's arguing.
"Yes, the area near the river is perfect for the yang star, that Runic Oak completely agrees with me, with it we'll be able to create a nice "summer" area that will be available all the year, also it won't disturb the other areas of the valley, but it will help nurture the forest, since the water of the river flows underground through the whole valley", proudly said Mylene, though she isn't an expert in formations like Eris, she did know a lot about balance, since that was an important part of alchemy.
After witnessing the wonders of the silicon valley, Aster decided to start modifying the valley, the territory was quite vast and he will be expanding it in the future, but that's a subject for later.
What's important, is that he wanted to create a paradise for his family, and thanks to the "donations" from the Frozen Valley, he now had the means to further increase the quality of his territory.
Of course, he can't just jump to create a sacred level land, like the silicon forest was, all of a sudden, but they can prepare a solid base for that.
"As for the yin star, the mountain range at the northwest area of the valley is perfect, since it's mainly a rock type landscape, there isn't vegetation that will die due to the decrease in the temperature, in fact we can use the hard soil for spirit herbs that only bloom in harsh environments", added Eris with an enthusiastic voice.
She was still amazed and excited to study the possibilities of the mind space, to the point that her eyes were sparkling as she observed Aster, with an expecting gaze on her eyes.
"Woah, you look like a little girl in a candy shop", said Mylene as she giggled.
"Shut up, you put the same expression whenever you are experimenting with Aster's blood, you even said that you were going to one day capture the "magical being", that produced such a priceless material", said Eris.
Aster nearly tripped after listening to that, which made Mylene's face blush, she was carried away by the miracle-like properties of Aster's blood, that she said some embarrassing stuff when she didn't know the origin of it.
They soon arrived at the area near the river which Nim had selected to habit with its main body in the future, water and yang got along pretty well, water nurtured life and yang in the correct amount was the best thing to complement that property.
Eris immediately put hands to work, Aster took out some yang radiated stones and placed them on the ground in front of her, they will be the peripheral nodes of the yang part of the formation they will be creating today.
Since Eris just got to know about the formation used by the Yin Azure Palace, they won't start with the stars, right of the bat, instead of that they will be making small scale tests, in part to make the adjustments that were necessary and in part because Eris still needed to recover more of her soul cultivation, to be able to draw such a complicated and large formation, even at a planetary scale instead of a galaxy one.
Which is why she was so enthusiastic about this whole idea, she was granted full access to the knowledge regarding the mind space, as it will be part of the project, though Aster was going to tell her about it anyway, since he had a lot of ideas on how to use it.
While Eris sat down and started engraving the runes needed on the yang radiated stones, Aster and Mylene didn't slack around, they weren't teaming up just because they were besties, Mylene will be fulfilling a role in setting up the formations, which happens to go along with her eagerness to teach Aster what she knows about aura, well the part that doesn't go against the limit of knowledge of this mortal plane.
"Eris told me you suddenly learned how to use a strange aura, could you explain about it to me?", said Mylene.
Aster nodded in response and then proceeded to tell her about what happened with the Blood Despair Sovereign, and how easy it was for him to amass an insane amount of murderous aura, if he kills things with annihilation.
And how his lineage reacted when the black fog, created by the evil spirit, tried to contaminate his body, which retaliated by itself, and also mentioned that after that he just instinctively learned how to produce Dragon Aura by burning murderous aura.
Needless to say, but the more Mylene listened to Aster's explanation, the more curious she got, once he finished telling her what he knew, her eyes were sparkling.
"Seriously what kind of mythical creature are you…", she mumbled before clearing her throat.
"Ahem, normally those that descend from spirit beasts or other races with high amounts of vitality, find it easier to learn aura, for humans the ones that cultivate in the body path are prompt to learn how to use aura, which often create the misconception that aura is exclusive to body path cultivators".
"The truth is that aura can be learned by anyone who is "alive", but the difficulty does increase depending on the path one chooses, maybe because of the relation between the three paths, but for those who cultivate the soul it is insanely harder to develop aura, to the point that it is considered nearly impossible".
"That's in part why I choose the body path, my teacher in other words my grandmother, is an aura expert, and her alchemy technique involves its use, but that's beside the point".
"There are two ways to learn aura, the instinctive and the artificial way, the second one is not only the easiest but the less efficient, it basically consists in another aura user to give you aura for a long period of time, until you learn how to produce it by yourself".
"Naturally this produce a half-baked aura user, with a steel cast of a concept, that won't differ much from the one who taught it, many lie to themselves calling it a "school", but they are just cowards who didn't have the guts to improve the technique of their predecessors", she said with a disgusted expression on her face.
"By the way, Mylene crushed all the members of "schools" she met, whether it was in an alchemy competition, or an aura clash~", jokingly said Eris, who didn't stop doing her job, to tease her friend.
"Humph, of course, they dared to disrespect my grandmother with such trashy skills", said Mylene as she continued.
"Leving those cowards aside, we have the real aura users, aura comes from one's will, which is formed by one's emotions, to naturally awaken aura you have to go through dangerous situations without faltering at all, which is why it is hard to achieve it".
Mylene then extended her left hand, which then lit up in pretty pink flames, her right hand was instead covered in a colorless "blur", she then clapped her hands and surprisingly her beast flame was repelled out of her left hand.
"I obtained both my beast flame and my aura at the same time, as I had to hunt a beast that was stronger than me, during a whole year in which I didn't receive any external help, in the wilderness, I was able to kill that beast because I manifested my aura at the correct moment".
"And the property I learned was "Impervious", which basically allows me to isolate anything I touch with my aura, curiously is completely opposite to my attribute which is "Decadence", and apparently your case is similar", she concluded.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺