Chapter 592 Cute girl & Cute snake (part 6)
Aster is a man who can enjoy the simple pleasures of life, during the next couple of hours he caressed Kana's silky blond hair and Espi's smooth scales, to the content of his heart, while those two happily slept while hugging him.
"Yaawn~".
"Hiss~".
Amusingly enough those two woke up at the same time, the little girl cutely yawned while she hid her face in Aster's chest, the little snake on the other hand happily hissed and then used its little tongue to cutely lick Aster's right cheek.
"Good morning you two", jokingly said Aster.
Both Kana and Espi observed their surroundings, after realizing that they were still in the planet where Aster took them, their mood improved, apparently, they were worried that they had slept through the rest of their date.
On the other hand, after the initial happiness that being in Aster's embrace brought them, the two looked a bit down, as they replayed the previous fight in their head, the burns on Espi's scales had disappeared in part because of its wood attribute and in part because its little body was radiated by Aster's yang which helped the little snake replenish its vitality even faster.
In fact, Aster noticed that when the little snake breathed, some of his yang was inhaled by it, he could have stopped it from doing so, but why would he, as Espi's contractor he was more than happy to help the little snake recover faster.
Once the synchronization between them reached a certain level, he as a contractor will be able to directly nurture the little snake with his spirit energy, but for now, the yang that naturally overflows from his body or his blood were more than enough.
Seeing those two not saying anything, Aster softly smiled before saying.
"Why the long face?".
Kana and Espi started at each other before the little girl "confessed".
"We got tricked by a spirit beast, I helped it and because of that, Espi was wounded when protecting me and at the end big brother had to save us, nothing has changed since back then…", said Kana.
"Hiss!", the little snake immediately denied what Kana said, trying to make her feel better as it showed its back which was completely healed at this point, but that only made Kana feel guiltier, the new scales that Espi grew were noticeable since they had yet to gain the exact same shade of white as the others.
Speaking of the little snake, if Aster understood the meaning behind its rushed hisses, it was apologizing for not being able to completely protect Kana, despite being the "stronger" of the two, Espi felt bad because it lost consciousness leaving Kana to fight along with the lizard, apparently just like how Kana didn't seem to remember having used arrow intent to finish off the lizard, the little snake didn't realize it used spirit pressure to suppress the lizard allowing Kana to shot that green jade arrow.
To be honest the two equally contributed to the victory, Espi basically eliminated the majority of the subordinates of the lizard, while also blocking them, its current set of skills was perfect for crowd control, with wide area attacks and also a high stamina for long battles.
Kana on the other hand was perfect for sniping strong single targets, as a proof of it she developed arrow intent instead of bow intent, though both can produce highly skilled archers, they are quite different from each other.
Bow intent users have the best range of attack among archers, they reinforce their weapons using ghost bow which increase their accuracy, arrow intent users on the other hand focus on destruction.
The curious thing about archers is that they don't know what intent they'll obtain until they awaken it, the little girl obtaining arrow intent was probably because she really wanted to kill the lizard for having wounded Espi, an intent developed with a strong desire behind will always be stronger than those generic ones.
Aster knows it pretty well, his sword exists to protect his family after all, his swordsmanship isn't like those pretty flashy ones, but a fierce absolute one, when his sword is insheathed is because someone is about to at least lose a limb or two.
Aster saw those two's teary eyes and inwardly chuckled, he gently wiped the little diamond-like tears on Kana's and Espi's eyes and then changed position to be sitting down cross-legged with Kana on his lap, facing him and the little snake in its smallest size of around thirty centimeters, laying down on top of Kana's head.
"That's not what I saw earlier, I saw two strong little girls who bravely fought against enemies many times stronger than them, that wanted to harm them for selfish reasons, no matter how bad the situation was, you protected each other, which is what a family does", he said before he patted their heads simultaneously.
"How did you felt when Espi got wounded?", he asked to Kana.
"Frustrated, had I not helped that lizard, my friend wouldn't have ended up being harmed… I have decided what my second path will be, I was too slow when condensing my arrows so I want to train in the soul path like big brother!", exclaimed Kana, she wanted to kill the lizard and that led her to obtain arrow intent, but she didn't miss the fact that had it not been for Espi suppressing the lizard, the attack would have reached her first.
"And you, how did you felt when you "failed" to protect Kana?", he asked to the little snake.
"Hisss!", Espi's answer was a single word "angry", it was probably that same anger what made the little snake instinctively awake its ability to suppress other spirit beasts through its superior lineage, like Aster does.
Aster nodded in response before adding.
"Never forget that feeling".
"Saving others is not a bad thing, but one must first be able to save oneself, only the strong have the right to care about others", he said as he caressed Kana's hair.
"Also, don't hold yourself back, if you have the opportunity to utterly destroy your enemy, never hesitate, the only good enemy is a dead enemy", he said as he petted Espi.
Aster then softly poked those two's foreheads, before adding.
"And more importantly, don't forget to ask for help, there is no such a thing as being a "burden" between us, okay?".
"Mm~".
"Hiss~".
Kana and Espi both nodded, Aster decided to stop here today, Kana has now experienced the consequences of helping someone without properly thinking about if the other party is worthy or not, the little girl training in the soul path is perfect too, Esmeralda can help her reinforce her physical body anyway, so she already has certain traits of the body path, but her energy path required a much faster processing, which the soul path will allow her to obtain.
Espi on the other hand, has been holding itself back because it didn't want to look wild and dangerous in front of Kana and Aster.
Ever since they met, the little wyrm always showed how smart and human-like it was, it probably wanted to impress Aster, since it was obvious how happy it was, when it was allowed to follow him.
Dragons are violent and lascivious, Espi is obviously not lascivious as its stage of growth made it as mature as Kana, but as a spirit beast that survived in the wilderness by itself, it's normal for it to have an aggressive side.
Espi could have used that flame stream earlier and the fight would have probably ended sooner and they wouldn't have been in such a tough spot after killing the lizard, but it hesitated to do so, only when it felt that the situation was getting really dangerous, it listened to its instincts and let go of the brakes.
Aster understood Espi though, being a dragonkin isn't as easy as it seems, the temptation of their bloodline is always there, the little snake was afraid of losing itself, which is normal, it is extremely rare for it to have wisdom at its level and age.
However, with Aster around, the little snake had nothing to fear, he has "tamed" other troublesome dragons, like Lilia and Alice, his focus isn't control which is quite flexible for nothing after all, it is so that he can be the "strength" they might need at some point.
So the little snake could safely deepen into its bloodline's memories and instincts.
Now that those two had cheered up, Aster smiled and then with a snap of his fingers two different jade cases appeared next to him.
"Now, do you happen to know about two little girls who have been training hard that deserve a reward?", jokingly said Aster only to see those two's eyes sparkling, which he found cute.
Aster couldn't resist their puppy eyes, so he immediately handed each one of those two, their respective gifts.
Imagine Aster's surprise when he saw those two playing, rock, paper, scissors to see who opened their gift first, Kana was luckier this time so she won after two ties and happily opened the jade case which Aster gave her.
Kana's case, was a large flat one, she opened with an expecting expression on her pretty face.
"Woaah, what a pretty bow~", she exclaimed, what was contained inside the case, was a longbow made of a mixture of golden and green metals, the string was entirely green and the moment Kana opened the case, wind spirit energy immediately gathered around it, forming a soft breeze around it.
Seeing Kana's lovely eyes brimming with happiness made Aster laugh and then say.
"Look below the cushion".
Kana carefully grabbed the cushion that was placed below the bow and removed along with it, to then place it next to her, revealing a couple of ornaments, one was a golden metal pin shaped in the form of a dragon and the other was a belt and a wristband, both beautifully decorated with green gems.
Seeing Kana's cute amazed expression, Aster inwardly nodded, he didn't take much to decide what to give her, but he did put a lot of effort in making it as good as his skills allowed him to, as of current.
The result was a set three spirit treasures, the longbow which was the first thing Kana saw, the dragon pin and the emerald belt, there was an extra surprise he asked a couple of girls help him make as well.
Aster didn't know whether Kana was going to obtain bow or arrow intent, so he simply made both a bow and arrows for her, but he only made a total of ten arrows, for a good reason though, each arrow took him a week to make in the mind space.
It all paid off when he saw Kana's pretty eyes sparkling as she saw the arrows, each one had an array engraved into it, and were made out of the same material as the bow, which perfectly channeled wind, wood, fire, poison and earth related spirit energy.
How did he make such a material you might wonder, well, he still had some blood left from the members of the Tempest family, which he mixed with his own to then refine and add it into peak Stellar grade metals and wind attributed spirit gems.
The result was so good, that he had to ask Eris to put a limiter on the bow, since it was almost a half Heavenly realm weapon, since those two also got a bit too excited when helping Aster make it, as it was a gift for the little girl, so as of current the bow was a low-grade Stellar treasure, meaning that at most a Sea of Knowledge realm cultivator could fully exploit its potential.
As for those ten arrows, each were a spirit treasure on its own, and they all contained a little "gift" from Aster and those two, in other words they were life saving treasures, meant to be used like talismans.
Aster grabbed the pin and put it on the neck of Kana's blouse, he also helped her put on the belt and the wristband.
"There you go, it fits my Kana perfectly", said Aster with a little nod, which made the little girl blush a bit.
"Put spirit energy into it", said Aster which Kana did, the next second she was marveled at the sight of the pin extending and adapting until it became a golden and green light armor that protected her upper body.
The belt also changed to form a secret compartment, that appeared on its right side, Aster also put the wristband on her right hand, and Kana received the message on how the belt and wristband worked.
An archer cultivator normally didn't use a quiver, they simply stored arrows in a spatial ring, however Aster went an extra mile, the belt not only was able to store arrows, but also make them, Kana just needed to fill the numerous separated spaces with materials, then use the command in other words the wristband, to select the ones she wanted to use to create an arrow, the result will be sent to the storage of the belt and then taken out to the dispenser at the side of the belt.
Of course, those arrows were generically engraved with simple formations, unlike the ten special arrows created manually by Aster, Eris and Mylene, but she could make as many as the materials stored in the belt allowed her, not to mention she could change the composition of the arrows to fit different situations, it was perfect for the little girl.
And judging by Kana's sparkling eyes she loved it, which was the whole point of it, while the little girl was examining till the last detail of her gifts, Espi gave Aster puppy eyes, in a rare occasion the little snake was showing jealousy towards Kana.
Aster chuckled, he extended his arm towards the little snake, which happily slid towards Aster and then coiled around his hand.
"Don't look at me like that, here I made it especially for you", said Aster as he opened the case to reveal its content which was a set of a collar, metal rings and gem ornaments, Aster took the many pieces and then carefully helped Espi put them on, the main parts were all made of golden metal and each ring had different gems embedded into it.
Aster took out a mirror and showed its reflect to the little snake, who was marveled at how good the accessories looked on it, but being pretty decorations wasn't their only function as Aster showed to Espi the next second.
He grabbed rock from the ground and then placed it close to the collar which absorbed it, taking the little snake by surprise.
"Hisss?", seeing the slight confusion on Espi's eyes, Aster further explained.
"The collar is a special spatial treasure, you can store any unanimated thing in it, the space isn't that big but it should be more than enough for now, the other rings have a variety of materials that you can use to change the composition of your scales".
The surprise of the little snake was understandable, the saying that the "heavens are fair", sometimes applies, just like how spirit beasts had to obtain the abilities a cultivator takes for granted, a spirit beast can't use spirit treasures until it has gained human form.
It's like it always have been, beasts have their superior bodies while humans have the craftiness to create things to make up for the difference.
No matter how he tried, Aster was unable to create a spirit weapon for the little snake, spirit blacksmiths have devices that emulate the energy firm of the one to whom the thing they are working on, will be destined to.
In the four galaxies, there have been some experiments in order to strengthen the spirit beasts that are used as guardians of those strong families and sects, but they were all fruitless efforts.
It was stablished that until gaining human form, spirit beasts can't use any sort of spirit treasure, because the heavens don't recognize them as cultivators until that point.
So, imagine Eris and Mylene's surprise when after purifying a spatial crystal with Rigel's flames and his own blood, Aster accidentally discovered that the crystal worked on a dummy with the little snake's energy firm.
After further investigating the situation, Aster realized that it was not only due to the crystal being purified and improved with his blood, but it was also due to Espi, because he couldn't make the crystal work with the energy firm dummy of other spirit beasts, and he tried it even with peak Transcending samples that he obtained through Julian.
So, there were two possible options, first it only worked with dragon subspecies or second, the little snake was special, maybe both, it was going to be hard to confirm it, since dragon subspecies aren't easy to come by not only in the four Heavenly Quadrants, but also at the Divine Firmaments
In fact, at the level of middle ranked Stellar Systems, they didn't know how to identify a real dragon subspecies from those snake and lizard like spirit beasts that once reaching a certain level, start taking a dragonish shape, heck some fish and even centipede races have the chance to obtain a dragon-like shape, but they are all classified as fake dragons.
That being said, there is chance for them to evolve if they devour a real dragon subspecies, hence why the lizard and its subordinates were blinded by greed after feeling the superior lineage of Espi, despite not knowing it belonged to a dragon subspecies they instinctively sough to consume it.
Anyway, that's not what's important right now, Aster saw the little snake happily taking out and then retrieving that rock into its collar spatial treasure, like a child with a new toy and he couldn't help but laugh at its reaction, which made the little snake cutely hiss at Aster.
"Hisss~", Aster let Espi down and saw the little snake try its collar with random objects like leaves and twigs, while Kana also put some random materials into her belt to create arrows and he simply observed them.
'It's good that they liked their gifts, but I can't believe they ended up aligning even better than what I expected', thought Aster.
Kana obtained arrow intent, which complemented the fact that the bow was a master piece of Stellar grade, even the life-saving arrows weren't as high ranked as the bow, but they could be used by Kana regardless of realm, since they were one-time treasures.
As for Espi, though a spatial treasure didn't require its owner to have a strong spirit sense, it helped at the moment of looking through it, and maybe because the little snake had just obtained spirit pressure, despite its young age and low realm compared to what a spirit beast usually requires to obtain a cultivator ability, but Aster could feel Espi's soul and mind had gone up another notch.
Aster came out of his daze when he saw those two suddenly turn around with knowing smiles on their faces, the next thing Aster knew was that those two tackled him.
"Thanks, big brother~", said Kana as she pecked Aster's right cheek.
"Hisss~", Espi also thanked Aster while it cutely licked his left cheek.
Aster limited to smile and pat their heads, which made those two giggle, Aster was about to ask them what they wanted to do, when he heard their stomachs rumbling.
Seeing them blush, Aster laughed.
"I nearly forgot you two little gluttons used up all your energy reserves earlier, I'll treat you to everything you want before we return to the valley, what do you say?", he asked.
"Yes~".
"Hisss~".
'Perhaps you should have just gifted them food', jokingly said Esmeralda to which Aster could only laugh in response, to be fair he was sure those two would have been happy regardless of what he gifted them though.
All in all, this was a success in Aster's eyes, Esmeralda had opened a bit with him, to the point that she hadn't returned to Kana's body and was using that green wisp to remain outside and talk with him.
Kana matured a bit after seeing the consequences of helping without having the strength to back one's kindness, and at the same time she used intent for the first time, she still couldn't voluntarily manifest ghost arrow, but she'll be able to with enough training, the hard part was obtaining it and she already did it.
The little snake was now learning to not be afraid and instead take advantage of the benefits that its special lineage had, as for Aster he was the biggest winner, as he got to see those three being happy and all.
…
The rest of the day went on pretty uneventful, besides those two little gluttons surprising the food stall owners of the East Sky city, with how many different dishes they had before they ended up getting sleepy.
It was normal, that fight had gotten them tired and now that they relaxed and even ate to the content of their hearts, the two yawned and easily fell asleep when they were sitting at the last restaurant, pretty much to the delight of the staff and the girls from the Black Sword faction that were also eating there, who found their sleeping expressions cute.
Aster carried those two in his arms and then used his authority to return to the valley, they still lasted till the end of the day, since the sun was just leaving the sky of the Battle Planet, in other words, those two didn't allow themselves to be completely out until their date was over.
The others saw Aster arriving with Kana and Espi already sleeping, and they softly laughed, Sarina sweetly smiled at Aster and then took them from his arms to place them on the bed, before returning.
Aster sat down on the couch, physically he was perfectly fine, but he felt rather mentally tired, not because of those two wanting to play neither them asking to go through a lot of food stalls and restaurants earlier, but because he had to sit and watch them fighting against the lizard while fighting against every cell in his body which was telling him to go and rip the lizard to shreds.
"It seems like everything went well, darling~", said Lilia as she hugged Aster from behind using her soft body to comfort her beloved son.
Aster felt a curious gaze from an unexpected source, the ligress girl Myra, who couldn't contain the urge to ask.
"Was I seeing things or did that little lindwyrm had obtained the ability to use spirit pressure, just how much did you advance in synchronizing in a single day…", she mumbled just to be in awe at Aster showing her, the backside of his right hand, which had a golden dragon shaped pattern shinning on it.
"C-Contract emblem!", she exclaimed, Eris and Mylene's eyes sparkled, since they were the only other two who knew what that meant, well, besides Esmeralda but she has been surprised enough today to show more disbelief.
"I don't know what that means, but I didn't expect less from my darling~", said Lilia as she brought Aster into her embrace, which made the latter chuckle.
He was also surprised, according to the book that Natasha and Charlotte gave him, it should have taken him at least a couple of years to reach the level where the emblem of their contract would appear.
What was so special about it you ask, well, those special rings that could contain spirit beasts which Natasha and Charlotte used, were created for two things, first, newly awakened spirit tamers and secondly those who spirit beasts that aren't under a contract yet.
Because when a spirit tamer obtains the emblem, the respective spirit beast can be kept inside of it, it's one of the innate abilities that are unique to those with talent to become spirit tamers, and it is also one of the reasons why most can only contract one spirit beast, since their bodies are unable to endure more than one emblem.
Aster laughed at the ligress girl's surprised expression, she might not admit it to Aster, but according to Aria who has gotten a bit closer to her, she had started to believe that having been contracted by Aster wasn't a bad deal at least from her spirit beast side, because her compatibility with Aria as a spirit ice was as good as it could be.
Aster looked through the living room and based on the one girl who was missing, he was easily able to tell whose date was next, even Agnes was here, despite her face blushing every time her gaze met with Aster's.
'Mm, a visit to the Treasure Planet sounds like a good idea, specially now that aura has become a focus point for our household', thought Aster as he planned what to do tomorrow.
As for the next "victim", Camila was isolated in her room, rolling on her bed while using the gift Aster gave her back then, her face had a mix of nervousness and expectancy which made her look rather cute.
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