As Aster approached the area where those three were, he realized that they weren’t fighting though it seed to be the case, because the girls from the sect were surrounding them while holding onto pieces of wood of different lengths.
His suspicions were confird as Eris’s voice as she spoke to the disciples, reached his ears a second later.
"Make sure to morize your position and write down the na of the weapon you "used" for today’s practice, we have a monstrously efficient blacksmith at our disposal after all, right Aster?", said Eris as she turned around to welco Aster with an amused smile on her pretty face.
’Heh, looks like I’ve been had’, jokingly thought Aster, how could he refuse when dozens of cute expecting eyes were being directed at him at close distance.
"Sure, sure, judging by the sizes of those pieces of wood and the way you are holding onto them, we are talking about spears, regular swords, daggers, bows and though there is no proper "model", I guess shields are included on the list, go and leave your requests with Angela so I have an estimate number of the orders, I’ll have to work in along the girls from the Blacksmith peak", he said which made those girl’s eyes sparkle, sothing that only intensified when Aster added.
"Speaking of which, make sure to finish your missions and chores in an hour or so, if you want to watch my blacksmithing lesson".
"Mm~", those girls nodded in unison and then dispersed in different directions, making Eris bitterly smile.
"That’s not fair, it took hours to make them synchronize properly and you made them forget about all of that in a matter of seconds", she said with a slight pout, to which Aster chuckled in response.
"Who told you to try and play tricks on ", he jokingly said, to then change from teasing to complinting Eris.
"Leaving that aside, that was an interesting training you were doing, correct if I’m wrong but you were teaching them about battle formations, right?", he asked.
"Mm, I’m sure you have your plans to deal with that bear, but I think there is a high chance we’ll have to fight other groups of participants, so I thought of making use of my knowledge about formations to properly teach those girls how to deal with different situations", said Eris.
Speaking of which, Valentina and Layla who were assisting her, couldn’t help but ask the questions that have been in their mind since earlier, now that those girls had left and Aster was present, which would avoid any misunderstandings.
"I don’t an to sound arrogant, but I’m close with two of what are arguably among the most talented when it cos to both rune mastering and alchemy in the four Heavenly Quadrants, and probably the best in their respective specialties, so I consider myself decently inford about both subjects, and both Mylene and you don’t seem to be lacking in comparison".
"And leaving aside the fact that I have never heard of you two before, despite the level of talent you have shown to have, according to what I know and have seen, today’s training seed to be based not in a formation but... an array?", asked the purple lightning princess.
The order when it cos to rune mastering goes like this, the first and most basic are runes which are used to produce a certain simple effect, runes are then organized and applied in a specific sequence to create a formation, depending on the number of runes a formation is capable of complex processes with tid and or conditioned steps triggered by different situations.
So, as you can imagine, the possibilities of a formation are incredibly vast and varied, however formations aren’t the end of the path when it cos to rune mastering, past them there exist "arrays" a term which is used to describe two situations in which formations are included.
First, the one that decently high-ranked rune masters know about, which is when many formations are "reduced" to work as components of a large-scale formation, in other words an array.
And then, a much more obscure and newer aspect of rune mastering in the four Heavenly Quadrants, that is barely spread even within high ranked Stellar Systems, in which living beings work alongside formations, not as in just adding up energies together to create an amplified effect, as that is just a downgraded version of it, also known as "battle formations", but it’s sothing much more advanced than that.
The point is that Valentina as one of the most talented even among the Fey’s family princesses, is well aware of how rare knowledge about the second type of arrays, is within the four Heavenly Quadrants and yet she saw traces of it in the training she gave to those girls.
"Yeah, though I of course only used the basics of the "Five directions, five weapons" array, since we have no access to any kind of energy, transforming it into a tactic apt for mortal level warfare", said Eris.
"I see, thanks for being honest and sorry if I appeared to be intrusive, I just wanted to clear that doubt of mine, since those girl’s safety is involved", said Valentina, it was a valid reason and she didn’t inquire into Eris’s background, since Aster vouched for her.
Valentina isn’t dumb, after getting to know that Aster didn’t have a "mysterious background" as everyone believed, the idea that so of the girls that had gathered around him might have co from another Heavenly Quadrant did flash through her mind.
And after she got to know about Divine Firmants, from him, that also beca a possibility in her mind, that being said, the previous only increased her interest in Aster, because he had confird to not have co from one himself, and yet though unconfird, he was leading a group that included people from such a place.
Anyway, this was enough for the responsible Fey princess’s mind to be at ease, and now it was Aster’s ti to ask.
"Was there any inconvenience with the small "favor" I asked before leaving?", he said to which Valentina softly sighed in response.
"I tried to do it when they were distracted, but that damn thing was larger than I expected, so it of course drew their attention, so it was ultimately left in the hands of those girls, that’s also why they haven’t finished even after you had already returned", she said to which Eris added.
"Speaking of which, those girls kept making requests to her, so you better pay her a visit", the noticeable amusent in Eris’s voice made it clear that Mylene faced quite the trouble.
"I kind of expected... oh well, if you have the ti take a look at my lesson later", said Aster as he turned around to leave towards an isolated area at the right of the camp, followed by the little wyrm, Kana and Guardian.
Even now, tornadoes of leaves could be seen into the distance because Iris and the two sisters that stayed behind, as well as other sword users among the elders and girls of the sect were cleaning the trees that Cayden and the others chopped.
And not too far from that, a temporary settlent in the form of a tent big enough for around thirty people, could be seen, there were small campfires with big cauldrons, which contained substances of different colors, being boiled, all over the place, and yet there was no discomfort caused due to any kind of sll, at least in the open, because once Aster and company entered the tent, their noses caught traces of both herbal scents and also a slight scent of blood.
It was still not sothing especially unpleasant, but it certainly made both the lynx and the little wyrm to slightly wrinkle their noses for a second, their slling sense surpassed Aster’s whose specialty was his eyes, well unless won were involved because you know, dragon lineage.
"Heh, if it isn’t our dear leader who tossed studying a weird turkey, potion making, teaching, blood sampling and also listening to the requests of a whole bunch of his fangirls, on ~", said a pink-haired girl with a smile that wasn’t smile on her pretty face.
Inside the tent there were tables full of containers with different materials, so had tal plates with controlled fire as well small pots with different substances, there was also a separate table which had so slight blood traces on the blanket used to cover it, girls from the different Lotus’s factions were moving all over the place but with order.
It’s worth ntioning that while every single girl was using safety asures such as plastic coats, boots, aprons and gauntlets, due to so materials they were working with, only a few had face masks.
"Should we wait outside?", asked Aster to which Mylene shook her head in response.
"No need, there is no risk of anything, the neutralizing agent resulting of all the solutions being burned around the tent, makes it safe to breath here, those who wear face masks did so because they simply didn’t like the combination of herbs and blood, well with the exception of a certain soone who actually needed it", added Mylene as she pointed at a girl with brown hair and green eyes, naturally that was Dahlia.
"Sowy... ughh", Dahlia had her face turn slightly red on the spot, apparently, she turned out to have an exceptionally good sll and taste senses which are extrely valuable talents for soone that works with herbs.
But Mylene played a little prank on her by mixing so stuff that would only be detected by soone with good senses, because she wanted to have an assistant and she did find soone fit for that role, but at the sa ti poor Dahlia’s tongue ended up a bit numb, and the effect hasn’t completely disappeared, she’ll be fine in around thirty minutes, but it just so happened that Aster returned earlier than expected.
While Aster managed to contain his laugh, the little girl and even the little wyrm couldn’t help but giggle, which only made Dahlia feel the urge to dig a hole to hide.
"Ahem, sorry for the trouble, still I passed the ssage that the peacock was safe for consuming though it will still be prepared separately, and served exclusively to a certain soone", said Aster to then add.
"Anything to report about the other subjects?", which made Mylene pout as she answered.
"I focused in studying the peacock and developing antidotes, I must say that having that girl’s blood is a huge help for it, I think that by tomorrow’s night I’ll have an all-purpose primary antidote ready, it won’t directly cure, but it will completely block any lethal toxins from spreading and get rid of weakening, numbing, pain inducing and paralyzing effects".
"That toad’s secretions also had a surprisingly wide variety of uses, so I decided to make it our workshop’s pet, since it doesn’t seem to have any desire to escape, as for the peacock there were no physical abnormalities besides its unusual size with the exception of... its heart",
"The size and structure of its heart wasn’t proportional to the increased length of the peacock, by around 20% percent, I thought it might have been a unique trait but the blood of the peacock had incredibly similar properties to the one of the black horses, minus the yin toxins that the horse’s blood carry now", said Mylene to then take out a vial filled with the blood of black horses.
"I see so it’s a condition that involves blood and the heart, but it’s not a contagious disease of any sort, right", concluded Aster to which Mylene nodded.
"Mm, even the horse’s at would be safe for consumption if the yin toxins are neutralized, though it’s taste won’t be anything to look up to", she said.
Aster knew why Mylene was putting such focus in the antidotes she was creating to deal with the toxins found in the horse’s blood, it was because of Vivian, in fact those two will probably be working on it all the day tomorrow.
"Understood, don’t forget to wrap things up fast, dinner will be ready in a few minutes and I’ll be giving a lesson as well".
"So, you want to bribe with dinner and a show, deal~", said the pink-haired girl as she saw Aster and those two leave, not without giving Aster certain gaze as if she wanted to communicate sothing to him.
’I know you would like to ask her for a blood sample, but let’s leave that for later’, thought Aster, Mylene so obviously wanted to get a sample of Guardian’s blood to study it, but Aster didn’t want to trouble the lynx, not after she had already given a proof of goodwill in the form of that excellent quality magnetite.
Speaking of the magnetite, now it was the turn for the girls from the blacksmith peak to receive Aster’s visit, so he headed to the open area where tal barrels and a bunch of girls observing them, with many piles covered with blankets in order not too far from them, could be seen.
"I wonder what are you little girls hiding?", jokingly said Aster, the girls from the blacksmith peak were packed together too closely, so it was obvious that they were hiding sothing behind of them.
"Before that, we want senior brother to decide on the winner of the charcoal making competition!", they said in unison, to which Aster chuckled.
"Fine, let have a look at your results", said Aster as he one by one inspected the piles of charcoal below the blankets, to then do the sa on the tal barrels, those girls put personalized symbols on the blankets that covered their respective piles of charcoal, and also engraved them on the lids of the barrels, to make it easy to know what belonged to who.
"All of you did excellent jobs, in fact even the one who made the smaller amount of charcoal, surpassed the average expected result by around 10%, so be proud of your work, however only one of you can be selected, so to the girl whose mark is a pair of crossed hamrs with a sword in the middle, congratulations", said Aster.
Though all the girls that didn’t win obviously felt a bit disappointed to lose the competition, they still congratulated their fellow disciple, a tall girl with chin-length brown hair with a tinge of dark red color, who was wearing heatproof gauntlets.
To be honest, Aster’s prediction was between this girl who outstood from the rest because she is the tallest among the girls from the Blacksmith peak that are present, because Aster saw her say goodbye to elder Riley before they entered the gate that led to the road.
So, chances are that she is one of Riley’s personal disciples and probably the youngest one, because the other girls that were always with her, were all elders, also she was among the ones that returned from outside of the sect for this mission.
Besides that girl who is actually a recently ascended core disciple from the Yellow Anvil, the other one which Aster considered a possible winner, was the girl who ended up in second place, one from the Silver Anvil, who is actually within the top fifty of the ranking for core disciples.
’I thought the girl from the Silver Anvil had a bigger chance to win, but I guess miss Riley who is know for her "weird" experints and open mind for blacksmithing techniques, had quite the impact on her disciples’, thought Aster.
"If my mory doesn’t fail , you are one of elder Riley’s disciples, Blair, right?", he said to the tall short-haired girl who nodded in response.
"Mm, I look up to assist a blacksmith whose work master kept speaking about", she directly said, quite like her appearance would suggest, Blair was a rather straightforward person, she was probably one of the few girls that showed the least reaction to Aster among the female disciples of the sect.
Though she still had admiration for him in her eyes, it was not because of his feats, but purely because of his blacksmithing skills, which she had an idea about due to Riley having dedicated a class to inspect weapons bought from Aster’s shop as well as the destroyed pieces of the weapons used by Edward, the guy who was scouted to join the Stall family later on, but got killed by Aster.
Of course, the mass-produced weapons sold in the shop were not at the level where specialized ones like the weapons used by Edward, would outright be overwheld with a couple of clashes, but Riley used their incredibly good standard for generic products alongside the decent price, aning that the production was rather cheap, to make an estimation of the real mastery that Aster should have for blacksmithing.
"Very well, since we got that out of the way, now can you show what are you hiding?", said Aster to the other girls who giggled in response as they moved aside, revealing the object behind of them.
It was the furnace that was available in the exchange monolith, a bloory furnace to be more accurate, which is an early model of furnace used to slt iron, though inside there were different components to it, form the outside it basically looked like a chimney with a pipe at ground level to feed it with air.
That being said, the furnace was actually bigger than what he expected surpassing the two-ter mark, the only reason as to why those girls could hide it behind them is because they actually had dug a bit on the ground so that the furnace looked smaller than what it is.
But that’s not all, they had another "surprise" for Aster, as in they had already filled it with charcoal which was burning but at a controlled temperature, which is sothing Aster found interesting, because contrary to what one would expect elevating the temperature as much as possible is not the way to go with a bloory furnace, because that would only make the iron lt and escape alongside the discarded slag.
"Hoh, so you girls skipped the first part of the lesson, that’s fine since it saves us a lot of ti, but how co you knew about it?", asked Aster to which the girl from the Silver Anvil who ended up in second place, answered.
"The furnace has a thermoter with a green mark that signals the area between 750° and 900° degrees, so we used the bellows to charge air into it like we would have done with spirit energy, while being careful to not go out of the green area".
"Besides that, we already put so of the ores that senior brother Aster brought into it, after crushing them of course, not much because we didn’t want it to take too long for it to be processed, around three kilograms only", added Blair.
’Would you look at that, we haven’t even started and they are already thinking outside of the box, not bad’, thought Aster as he nodded in an approving way.
"Perfect, normally using a normal bloory furnace like this to process the ore and obtain the tal we need, would take around 18 hours, but this one is not made of clay but refractory bricks, not to ntion that it’s made of a material I don’t know about, but it perfectly contains the heat, so I think that the ti can be reduced to a fourth of that for a large load of ore to be processed".
"And you only put in a small quantity of ore, not to ntion that the impurities contained in the hematite were not that many to begin with, judging by how much has the tal travelled down the furnace, the "bloom" will be ready to go in twenty minutes or so, so let’s prepare all the materials we’ll need", he said to then wave his hand in the direction of the exchange monolith.
As a result, Cayden, Erick and the other guys from the Wanderer sect as well as Jas started bringing tools, tables, and with everyone’s cooperation a couple of anvils and even a second furnace.
"I wanted the black horse take care of this kind of stuff, but Alice kind of half-killed it with work, so thanks for the help", he said to Erick and the others.
"No worries brother, sis and mom are looking up to the "show" later so if it was slowed down because of , I would have taken a beating hahaha!", loudly answered Erick, which made Tiana glare at him from afar.
Speaking of the show, a delicious sll started travelling through the vicinity, which signaled the end of today’s activities for the girls of the sect, they all had to go wash their hands, because it was ti to get in line in order for the dinner to be served.
Seeing those cute girls almost drool over the sll of Sarina’s food, Aster chuckled to then give them the greenlight.
"Go ahead and get your dinner, I’ll still explain the process from the very beginning, only for learning purposes, to make use of the ti that the bloom will take to descend", said Aster.
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