aster left without bothering to look at the board which detailed the performance of the participants, there was a section completely dedicated to those who have entered for the first time, then there was another section for the ranks which updated in live and also a historic record for clearing time of each level, and the top scorer of each level in general as well as a whole row reserved for the current first ranked.

the participants of this monthly trial were anonymous from default, of course there were some who declared their identity to gain fame, but there were also those who remained unknown.

no one knew in which room each group or person was sent, and for the ranks the board only took the first letter of the name of the participant.

right now, there was a commotion ongoing because two of the ranks have changed, the previous first-time top scorer, the historic top scorer and the historic faster clearing time of the level one was replaced, by "a".

for the first time top scorer and the historic top scorer it''s not that rare, the ranks change from time to time, since no one has been able to fully clear all the traps at none of the levels, that and you get only one chance to do so, once you cross to the next level, the traps you didn''t discover disappear for you.

but the fastest clearing time record is different, the previous record has been there for a long time, since it belongs to one of the top five of the heavenly ranks, the current first ranked to be more accurate.

the previous first time top scorer had 500 points since it only counts the first three days of one in the secret realm or a day in the outside world, the historic highest score for the level one was of 10,000 points which equaled more or less to one thousand traps found and cleared, as for the fastest clearing time it was of two weeks, that last record means how much time one took to reach and beat the tiger looking trap.

and now, suddenly the top scorer and the historic highest score were the same, 30,000 while the fastest clearing time was one day, three achievements made by the same person, which is known because the letter has the same color as one''s spirit avatar, which can''t be repeated.

oblivious to the commotion that his date with felicia and tiana as well as his casual idea of using all the traps he felt in the jungle to train them caused, a couple of seconds later aster and the pair of mother and daughter appeared in the living room of the castle.

the girls were already waiting for them so as soon as they returned, everyone welcomed them, naturally they noticed that unlike the others who were way closer to aster after the date, felicia and tiana weren''t grabbing his arms, but they still were holding onto his shoulders, not to mention alice who approached tiana, slightly wrinkled her nose and then a wild smile flourished on her face.

"heh, i wonder why i can smell aster on you, perhaps your date was more intense than what you expected~", she playfully said.

tiana remembered that weird sound she made and her face reddened, but she still defended herself.

"o-of course not, that is because of the body tempering session i got as a reward!".

alice chuckled and then hugged aster from behind before saying.

"what''s up with that proudful expression, let me tell you that at this point i can directly "endure" the effect of my body tempering without any kind of clothes in the way".

tiana was in awe for a second, she couldn''t help but admire alice determination a bit, to endure that uncomfortable but at the same time pleasant feeling at a double the intensity, it was crazy, not to mention aster told her that the normal would be to use it once she has reached the genesis manifestation in a cultivation path.

felicia who knew the true, in other words the fact that alice didn''t have to resist the urges cause by the body tempering session and instead treated them as a nice dessert after a bath, giggled but she didn''t say anything.

after that little interaction they all went to the dinning room to enjoy a nice dinner prepared by sarina and kana, helena and dahlia also accompanied them, which was good because aster had something to ask to the elder.

while they were eating their food and alice was enjoying teasing tiana, aster turned to see helena before saying.

"miss helena, did the materials i asked for, arrived already?".

helena took a sip of her cup as she nodded.

"yes, a couple of them were a bit hard to get, but as soon as i offered the products of the store as part of the price, many providers approached by themselves".

mylene softly snorted as she heard that.

"humph, of course they did, since they have the stupid idea of trying to steal the secret behind my potions and eris''s formation composition".

aster laughed, whoever tried to do that was bound to get disappointed, high ranked alchemists add materials to their recipes which have just one effect on the resulting pill or elixir, to make it more complex than it needs to be.

brewing or concocting aren''t as simple as just adding ingredients and water and boil it as if you were making soup, the ingredients have to follow an order, an specific temperature, an specific type of mixing, way of bottling and the list goes on, the number of possible results is so large that unless you own the recipe, it will take you hundreds of years to decipher it, but that is for people on the mortal realms, and mylene came from a divine firmament where they use beast flames to act as their original sign, so unless someone were to find the same beast from where she got hers and with the exact same characteristics, whatever they try will be futile.

the same applied to eris''s rune mastering, even if they imitate the meanings of the runes used to it, they can''t decipher the patterns unless the one who created them explains them, since they are created based on the rune master''s experience and understanding.

"that''s good, i''m going to need those materials tomorrow after all, they can try to play their tricks, since it''s not going to work anyway and we get some free stuff for nothing", said aster with a smirk.

naturally lilia who could punch a hole through a planet was everything but fragile, but she knew how to get her beloved son''s attention better than anyone, her ruby-like eyes even got teary as she was caressed by aster.

aster felt his heart skip a beat over this charming mother of his.

''damn, i can''t... she is so damn pretty'', thought aster.

"fufu~", having achieved what she wanted, lilia licked her lips and then pressed them against aster''s, only after she kissed him to her heart''s content she pushed aster down on the bed and then snuggled with him as she drew little circles on aster''s chest.

"so, what do you have in mind for our date darling, i don''t mind staying here with you the whole day you know", she said with a cunning smile on her face.

aster shook his head, giving in to her now would honestly feel amazing, but immediate pleasure couldn''t compete with what he would achieve if this date succeeded.

"nope, this date isn''t only about us, rya will also be participating and the destination is... the mind space", confidently said aster.

lilia''s eyes sparkled, though she pouted since she will have to share her date with rya, the second part sounded interesting, because as far as she knew, they had no idea on how to voluntarily enter the mind space.

so if what aster said was true, then he found a way to do that, which meant there was a chance for her always being at her beloved son''s side.

aster saw lilia''s red eyes glowing in a bright red light and he didn''t know whether he should laugh or cry, this was needed for his idea to work, so he had no chance but to get lilia seriously interested into it, which was a double edged sword as she is quite obsessive sometimes.

''ah, whatever, worst case scenario i''ll be chained to this bed with her for a couple of days, it''s not like i lose in any way'', thought aster as he entered the mind space since he also had to wake up the other participant.

inside of the mind space, aster flew towards the highest point of hyperion on which his bridal room resided, as soon as he arrived the first thing he saw was the beautiful figure of rya sleeping on the bed.

he let his body fall on the bed from above and then tightly hugged rya, as he rubbed his face against hers, until she opened her eyes.

"good morning, how did my cute empress, slept?", he asked with his usual smiling expressions.

rya laughed, lately she has been getting more "human" due to her regressing age and appearance, which at first she thought it would be a hassle, but honestly she has been enjoying it a lot, even before listening aster calling her "my cute empress", made her heart drown in sugar, but now that feeling was even more intense, her maiden''s heart simply couldn''t help but skip a beat every time he gave her such a treatment.

"fine, i''m feeling way better since your soul has gotten stronger than before, that helps me accelerate the process after all", said rya.

aster nodded, happy to hear that, after she helped aster send a message to the divine firmament, she was a bit tired, but now she is perfectly fine.

"i''m glad to hear that, since today we''ll be having a little date".

rya''s eyes shone as she heard that, she has been observing the dates aster had with the others, and though she will never admit it, she felt jealous of them, she cursed the fact that she couldn''t leave the mind space, she who has taken the decision of being the main wife.

but then, aster''s next words made her pout.

"by the way mom will be coming with us, so you two get to spend more time together".

but then rya understood what aster was implying and she raised an eyebrow.

"wait, how come she''ll be participating, did she entered the mind space again?", she asked as she looked at the starry sky to see if orionis was doing something again, but soon noticed that wasn''t the case.

she then turned to see aster just to see him dangerously smiling at her.

"you, that smile again... what kind of impossibility are you trying to pull off this time?", she cutely asked.

every time aster had that expression, she was about to get a life-endangering shock, like when she realized his soul was able to coexist with annihilation, or when he became a soul cultivator despite being a dragonkin.

"now, if i tell you directly then our date won''t be a surprise, right, just put on some nice clothes and wait here for my triumphant retu said aster, he patted rya''s ass a couple of times and then left the mind space, leaving behind a flushed rya.

"that''s cheating...", she mumbled.