Chapter 299 Friend
Aster noticed it was going to take some time for Rigel's flames to finish purifying the fang bone, probably because of the huge gap between his cultivation and the one of the spirit beast from which the fang originated.
With a wave of his hand, the fang floated away from the table until it was next to one of the corners of the dining room.
"It should be done in an hour or so, later I want to see how you use it", said Aster as he looked at Erick's hand which still had the image of a bear's paw floating above it.
Erick nodded, he was excited to see the result of assimilating the fang, like his sister said, it was a good acquisition considering they'll be going to a higher ranked stellar system, and so far, the best ranked material he has used was gifted to him by Tanner and was a torso bone from a middle stage Sea of Knowledge spirit beast.
Sarina, Kana and Felicia returned a couple of minutes later with a literal feast for everyone, of course they noticed something as eye catching as a fang being enveloped by blue flames at the corner of the room, but only Felicia asked what was happening.
While the dishes were placed on the table, Erick told his mother what Lilia explained to them earlier, about the fang being poisonous after a certain amount of exposition, and how Aster offered to purify it for him.
As expected, Felicia was terrified at the thought of her son dying without knowing the reason, she couldn't help but give Lilia a thankful gaze.
"Miss Lilia, as a mother I can't thank you enough, please accept this bow from me", said Felicia as she slightly bowed her head, while also making her husband do the same.
"Ladies, we are at our home right now, so there is no need to keep wearing these things", said Aster as he took out his mask.
"Mm?", Felicia already supposed that was the case, but even as a woman she couldn't help but be surprised by the beautiful women that were sitting on the same table as her, she was quite attractive herself, and this was the first time in her life that she felt slightly jealous of other people's appearances.
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There were specially two of them that stood out, which were of course Eris, Mylene but the winner was definitely Lilia, not only her appearance but even her aura was a notch above the others.
Once she recovered from the surprise, her eyes then gazed at the black-haired youth which was her son's friend, and she raised an eyebrow, as a mother of someone whose physical appearance doesn't match his true age, she could tell Aster was the same.
'He… is younger than Erick', she thought as she looked at her daughter.
Ignoring everything, Kana took her rightful seat on Aster's lap, while Sarina also sat near Aster, and then everyone dug in.
Baron and Erick soon let themselves lose as they tried the food which looked rather delicious, only now Aster understood why Felicia offered to lend Sarina and Kana a helping hand, not only father and son, even Tiana had a rather big appetite.
Tiana and Alice stared at each other before they each hoarded some plates for themselves, earning a scold from their respective mothers.
While Aster was giving Kana a piece of the Sea of Knowledge grilled meat, Erick suddenly stopped munching on a leg of some kind of bird spirit beast to casually say.
"Ah right, Mom, Dad, brother Aster is also going to the Myriad Occupation sect at Galatia, and I will go with him".
Needless to say, but, the first one to object was none other than Tiana.
"Erick, we already made an agreement with senior Agnes, you know how hard was for me to convince her of taking you with us".
Erick scratched the back of his head, he knew his sister would be against it, those who aren't brought by an elder have to go through the process of admission and the Myriad Occupation sect as the guardian sect of a whole stellar system only allows each people to try to enter once.
The old friend of Tanner is an inner elder and so she has the authority, to directly grant one person the status of inner disciple and a couple of external disciples, in this case the inner disciple is going to be Tiana while Erick will be an external disciple.
Seeing that her brother didn't seem to take things seriously, Tiana turned to see her mother.
"Mom, senior Agnes already explained to us that the admission trial isn't like here, we are going to the battle peak where they motivate the applicants to fight and kill each other, out of the thousands of applicants only a couple of hundreds are selected".
Tiana's worries were genuine, with a whole stellar system from which they could select their disciples, of course the sect will only accept the best of best, and reality was quite cruel sometimes, those who were considered geniuses often lost their will to advance after realizing they were insignificant in the bigger picture.
Tanner's old friend started as an external disciple and after a lot of hardships she managed to gain a decent position as an inner elder at the battle peak, all the elders searched for a worthy heir and gave them the right to skip the massacre of admission trial, that was upheld every ten years.
Aster gazed at his mother, since if she wanted to, she would have been the backer of the battle peak, also known as the master of the peak, the highest rank within the sect, but Lilia shrugged as she answered through their mental connection.
"I didn't set those rules darling, but I agree with them, your godmothers and me started that sect to build a force that belonged to us, and we don't need trash, not in the meaning that people with low cultivations are trash, talent is meaningless if there is no courage, you'll see once we get there~".
Aster nodded, Lilia already told him, that she wanted him to experience the real world of a cultivator, only by experiencing hardships one can become strong, and while Lilia is temporarily able to deal with anything that may try to harm them, she was well aware that, that would not always be the case.
In other words, this was a trip in which not only Aster but even the other girls would finally enter the world of cultivation, Eris and Mylene included as their surnames won't help them at all, and in Lilia's case it would bring more harm than benefits.
"Sis, I know you have good intentions, but I don't want to leech of you, I need to walk my own path and Sofia will come with me too, it's not like I'm going to let myself get killed easily anyway", said Erick as he drank a bowl of soup.
Tiana looked at Aster, while she wanted to get angry at him using his appearance as an excuse for Erick behaving like this, she knew that wasn't the case, and for some reason it was hard for her to have any negative impression of him.
Her parents also didn't say anything meaning they agreed with Erick's decision, so ultimately, she could only sigh in defeat, before saying.
"Fine, but I will go with you too, while the groups are split using their cultivation realms and age as a reference, everyone ends up in the same place at the trial, and those who are stronger hunt the weaker in exchange of rewards".
Felicia frowned, her daughter already accepted to become the seeded candidate of the patriarch's friend, so rejecting now might cause some troubles, but she knew that one her daughter decided on something, it was impossible to make her change it.
She secretly stole a gaze at the black-haired youth and saw that he didn't seem to be worried at all, and that made her feel at ease.
Now that everything was settled, the stay at the Barbarian Heart sect was limited to this single day, but instead of hurrying to organize her luggage, Tiana was eager to a spar with Aster, as he wanted to know how strong was the friend that her younger brother admired so much.
But she was stopped in cold by Alice saying.
"Forget it, you are around mine or the ice princess's level, and to fight my brother head on we both needed to join hands while being in the strongest state we can achieve right now, you'll see what I'm talking about while we travel".
Tiana had a hard time believing that there could be such a big gap between her and Aster, but again she saw him easily negating her attack back then, still she looked at Aster with the fire of competition burning in her eyes.
"Fine, but I want to train with you all while we go to the sect… is that okay?".
Aster nodded, it was a good idea, with the three of them he would be able to fight more seriously.
'Speaking of that, seems like Sarina es getting a spar partner too', thought Aster as he looked at Camila.
After everyone had their fill, Baron "willingly" offered himself to clean the table, while the rest were curiously looking at the now white jade like fang of about five centimeters that floated above Aster's hand.
Although Aster didn't know to which beast it belonged, according to Camila's treasure related senses, it wasn't anything special among other things in the same grade, after being purified, its grade was reduced to the low Void Manipulation realm, but it still had no uses for forging or alchemy as it didn't have any spirit energy remaining.
Luckily Erick's ability didn't need it, he accepted the fang from Aster and then a pattern with the form of a paw appeared on his left hand, before a finger bone was expelled out of it.
Of course, it wasn't his finger, but the one he used to temper his left hand and which he was currently replacing.
"Richard Veluri had the same constitution as me, and this manual was left behind by him… it's called "Beast Skeleton", my Barbarian King body allows me to temper my body with the materials from beasts, even if they are higher ranked than me, of course I only get the portion of strength which my body can endure, but the potential is there, since I'm in the second major division, I can only integrate two bones, so I will replace the one in my left hand".
As Erick finished his explanation, the fang entered his hand, it was weird how it didn't seem to affect him, as his skin wasn't teared nor he bled, the only external change was that paw pattern which now turned into something similar to the head of a reptile.
Erick extended his hand and the pattern illuminated before the image of a reptile's head appeared above his hand, looking at it, Lilia recognized the beast and understood why her son wasn't interested in the fang.
'That's a poisonous desert lizard, a beast which can easily level up but will never develop wisdom, even if it reached the heavenly ranks, it's power would be way less than other spirit beasts, still it should be enough to be a trump card for a peak middle ranked stellar system'.
After thanking Aster, Felicia told Baron to reimburse Alice the spirit jades she paid for the fang, before they excused themselves as they had a lot of things to prepare for tomorrow.
Outside of the palace, Tiana felt curious about why Erick admired Aster so much, so she directly asked him about it, only to be speechless at his answer.
"I'm supposed to become a king, and that's why all those who surround me tend to become my subordinates, but brother Aster isn't like that, he is my first and sole true friend".
Erick then imagined all the adventures that he will be able to live following Aster and he laughed, before continuing.
"Your constitution will probably make you stronger than me no matter what sis, but mine gives me better instincts, and thanks to that I can assure you with every cell of my body that… brother is the one that will someday rule above everyone".