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Chapter 615  Felicia’s intangible gauntlets & Alexandra’s reflection armor (part 3)

Aster whose eyes had turned into those of a dragon, carefully observed Alexandra who was now facing them, from his point of view a huge amount of spirit energy circulated through her body all the way from her dantian on the lower area of her abdomen, to her extremities.

Interestingly, her spirit energy ran throughout her body to then return to her dantian, making a whole cycle before leaving through one of the meridians on Alexandra\'s right hand, the result materialized as a palm sized black metal sphere and also a reduction in Alexandra\'s spirit energy reserves of around 10%.

Also, though it wasn\'t noticeable on the outside, Aster could hear Alexandra\'s heartbeat increasing as if she just finished doing a harsh exercise routine, after all to tire a peak Mortal Transcending energy realm and Stellar Constellation body cultivator, in a matter of seconds it\'s not easy to achieve.

Before solidifying his conclusion, Aster nodded at Alexandra to then ask the doubt that was in his mind.

"Is that your attribute or the manifestation of your body constitution, or a combination of some sort?".

Alexandra\'s eyes sparkled in response, impressed by Aster\'s sharp eyes, not even her mother and uncle could discern the nature of the black metallic material that was floating above her hand, the first time they saw it yet Aster did, that being said she slightly shook her head to then say.

"Yes and no, unlike the people of the Fritz family whose attribute is metal which produces iron, that is then transformed into a personal alloy of it thanks to the manual they cultivate with, since I was born, I couldn\'t control nor create metal with spirit energy, I can only control these ores of "Heavenly Black Gold" that I produce, in other words by innate my attribute is the manifestation of my body constitution, they are one and the same".

Aster couldn\'t help but raise an eyebrow at Alexandra\'s unique situation, normally regardless of lineage, body constitution etc. Elemental attributed cultivators can produce two results when using their spirit energy, first they can create, gather and manipulate the basic version of their attribute and second, they can do the same but with their specific attribute.

For example, an energy path fire attributed cultivator, by exerting their spirit energy they can create, gather and manipulate normal fire without any specific traits, then let\'s say that cultivator\'s attribute is the most common blue high heat fire, by adding the attribute which is produced in the star core inside their inner universe, they produce said specific kind of fire.

However, having an advanced version doesn\'t mean losing the basic one, if a cultivator could only use the attribute version all the time, then just to execute their techniques they would require an insane amount of spirit energy and apparently Alexandra found herself in that predicament.

\'Any Mortal Transcending realm metal attribute cultivator can tirelessly create mountains of the basic metal they have affinity with, but only that palm sized thing used a tenth of her spirit energy reserves, not to mention it also used her physical energy, that\'s tough… however the result is amazing\', thought Aster as he scanned that piece of black metal floating above Alexandra\'s hand.

Seeing Aster nod, Alexandra then continued with her explanation.

"Though my Black Heavenly Gold can\'t compare in terms of quantity with what other metal attribute cultivators can create, my control over it and the traits and applications it has, far surpass that disadvantage", she said, with a simple gesture the black palm sized sphere expanded until it became a plaque of around a hundred meters tall, fifty meters long and three centimeters wide.

But that wasn\'t the end, as if the metal wasn\'t in a solid state, the plaque bend at Alexandra\'s will, shrinking until it became an arm sized octagonal plate.

"The basic aspects of my attribute are its incredibly malleability which as you have seen, allow me to expand a small ore of it to take such a large shape without diminishing its properties at all, I don\'t need any spirit energy to manipulate it like that, it\'s like an extension of myself, it is also unnaturally resistant and renders any impact null, to the point that I should be able to take on attacks from Void Manipulation cultivators head on with ease, at least until my energy reserves are empty meaning I can\'t create more black heavenly gold…", Alexandra took a second before continuing.

The next was her biggest secret, something that up to this point, only her mother knew about, not even Ulises her uncle by blood and due to Tomas\'s disappearance, the closest to a paternal figure she had in her life, was aware of it.

"The third aspect, is that by innate my attribute has a really low attacking power, even if I shape it as a spike, sword, spear or whatever weapon type shape, and then throw it at others like every energy path cultivator would do, the most damage I can expect it to do, is nearly three realms lower than my current realm".

Aster couldn\'t help but frown at her affirmation, that would mean that when attacking Alexandra could at most produce equal strength to a Star Axys cultivator.

\'I would be inclined to believe that is the downside to have a defense tough enough to somewhat rival the one of my Paragon Body, if not for the fact that her strength output doesn\'t really on temporal boosting but it is a fixed and solid 86%, surpassing that of Camila or Sarina who spike up to that same number but are currently at 84%\', he thought.

Sarina surpassed the 80% limit when her lineage awakened, then she became a Star Maiden recently which made her go all the way to a fixed 84%, unfortunately also she has only recently restarted cultivating due to the time she spent bedridden, so while using the power of her star and her Storm Roc\'s lineage, she can spike up to 86%, it is not permanent, something similar applies to Camila, the difference being that she isn\'t a Star Maiden, but in comparison with Sarina she never stopped cultivating and she also awakened her lineage and with her latest application of Treasure Aura being capable of furtherly exploiting the materials of equipment, she also became able to reach 86% of strength output.

Of course, compared to Sarina, she\'ll have it harder to surpass the later half of the 80 percentages, while the motherly blond woman should reach a fixed 88% without any problem, just by gaining experience with the power of her star, before she makes a major advance.

The point is that, if Alexandra\'s offensive power is as low as she claims, her strength output would be way below what Aster\'s eyes calculate it to be, taking into account her body path cultivation and physical strength as well as her high realm at a young age, she\'ll still be at seventy something which still enough to consider her a talented cultivator, but not the monstrously strong genius on par with Alice and the others, which Aster considers her to be.

"Luckily I found a way to solve that problem, or more accurately my mother did, back then I was a single path energy cultivator, with an insane defense but close to none offense, so she suggested me to train in the body path, claiming that the talent for it in my "blood" should be really high, I thought she referred to my Fritz\'s ascendence but it also applied to my Atria blood, thanks to my father", said Alexandra as she sent the black octagonal plaque flying towards Aster at a really high speed.

Aster could tell Alexandra\'s intention so he played along and punched the thing, compared to what would have happened usually, not only there was no impact, Aster felt as if he had punched a marshmallow, not even a sound was produced by the clash.

"Hoh?", Aster felt interested on the fact that the more he pushed against the metal plaque, the more the thing pushed against his fist, had he not been a proud owner of the Paragon Body, his hand would be bleeding.

\'It\'s like attacking yourself, how interesting\', thought Aster as he retracted his fist, Alexandra made a gesture with her hand and the metal plaque returned to her side, only for her to point at a rock formation, making the thing fly at it.

"Boooom!", this time there was an explosion, even with the incomplete atmosphere, there was enough of it for sound to travel and the impact was strong enough to reach Aster and Felicia\'s ears.

The surprised expression Alexandra expected to see on Aster\'s face didn\'t appear, instead she was met with a nod from him.

"So, the reason as to why there was no reaction due to the clash is because the attack was absorbed by it, to then be released at will as some sort of attack", he said, it reminded him of Alice\'s tail ability, but there is a difference which was confirmed by Alexandra a moment later.

"Something like that, the moment I became a body path cultivator my attribute gained another trait and I gained the sole offensive type technique I can execute with it, "Mirroring" and "Heavenly Reflection", the first imitates the strength behind the attack of my enemies which means that the more strength they put into it the stronger the obstruction would be this of courses wears out the piece of black heavenly gold and might even need me to infuse spirit energy into it to make up for the difference in strength, the later transforms any impact into power that it is stored in the black heavenly gold, which I can release at will… couldn\'t you at least feign to be surprised, not even my father knows about this humph", mumbled Alexandra, which made Aster softly laugh.

"Don\'t misunderstand, I am surprised by the capacities of your body constitution, but I could see the process behind of it from the beginning to the end with my dragon eyes earlier, also your innate ability shares some resemblance with Alice\'s tail one, with the difference that she can store an enemy\'s attack as a whole while your attribute only keeps the strength produced by it", he said.

Naturally, as someone who is used to interact with beauties on a daily basis like Aster, he is fully aware that praising a girl in the presence of another one, is a grave mistake, so he wouldn\'t commit such a newbie mistake, the previous statement was needed for the following one.

"However, unlike her, who is limited to one at the time, if my eyes didn\'t fail me, you can keep on stacking the impacts produced by blocking the impacts of your enemy\'s attacks, as much as you wish so long your black heavenly golden attribute holds in, to then release it in a single exhibition, in other words you can produce an attack that ignores realm limitations, right?".

As of current Aster has yet to find a girl who doesn\'t like to receive honest praises, and Alexandra was no exception, her previous slightly sulking expression improved on the spot.

"Mm, if I combine a hundred pieces of Black Heavenly Gold made by using my whole energy reserves at once, it is limited to one at the time but the result is a single ore capable of storing strength enough to equal a Peak Law Integration realm attack, which aligns with the second trait I obtained for my attribute when I started cultivating in the body path "Permanence", meaning that unlike other people\'s attributes who will disappear some time after they stop receiving spirit energy to sustain them, the ores of black heavenly gold I create, won\'t disappear as long as I follow a certain condition".

And with those words, Aster saw a few black metal plaques leave Alexandra\'s body, some came out of her arms and others from her legs and the like, Aster already noticed it earlier when he saw the process she needed to create her attribute, those pieces of it were somehow stored around her meridians.

Just like it happened for Aria whose body constitution origin was her pretty jade-like bones, or Vivian whose heart seemed to be made of white translucent crystal which shone in a plethora of colors like a rainbow, Alexandra\'s body constitution\'s origin was apparently her meridians.

"If they are kept within my body, their existence will be infinitely extended without absorbing a single drop of my spirit energy, also I can take them out to use them and then return them, as long as I don\'t release more than 75% of the power they have absorbed, otherwise…", before she finished her words, the black plaque which Aster had punched earlier that had returned to Alexandra\'s side not too long ago, crumbled apart turning into black dust that then disappeared leaving nothing behind.

"I see, certainly becoming a dual path cultivator practically solved all the downsides your very unique attribute came with, while at the same time enhancing its overall strengths", concluded Aster.

While Alexandra can\'t create large quantities of her attribute on the spot, unlike other energy path cultivators, with preparation she can produce the same result, without the need to use spirit energy during a fight as she has all that black heavenly gold stored in her meridians.

"Is there any specific reason as to why you didn\'t take out the ore stored on your heart\'s meridian?", jokingly asked Aster, which made Alexandra\'s face redden on the spot, as she covered her chest with her arms.

Aster laughed at her reaction to then say.

"Relax, my eyes are adjusted to see the meridian net, not what is below your armor and clothes".

This time even Felicia couldn\'t help but steal a gaze at Aster from the side, one of the stapple runes that are ALWAYS engraved on each and every woman\'s clothes are "conceal", "visual obstruction" and "block", which as you can easily guess prevent other people from seeing through them with either eye techniques or spirit sense.

But apparently Aster could not only ignore that, but go as far as to see one\'s meridians, something that a soul cultivator like Felicia knows is an ability normally only seen on Soul Kings, and even they are limited to only see the most superficial ones, unless we are talking about a "Vision King" who would be able to further look into other people\'s bodies, of course such experts are too few and too busy to randomly peep others, so that isn\'t a thing to worry about.

Anyway, Alexandra slowly retrieved her arms but didn\'t stop herself from mumbling.

"That just means you could see if you wanted to, regardless of how pricy were my clothes and armor".

Aster chuckled in response to the shrug.

"You\'ll have to trust in me regarding that".

Alexandra inwardly sighed, she already wrongly accused him once, so she chose to believe this time, it\'s not like she could do anything about it anyway.

\'Whatever, if he wanted to, let alone taking a peek I would have… ughh what the hell am I thinking about\', her thoughts were interrupted by she seeing Aster\'s mischievous smile.

\'He did it on purpose!\', she inwardly exclaimed, but then she also realized that Aster chose to reveal his eyes had such an outraging ability, why would he have done that if he had ulterior moves, not to mention that he trusted her enough to tell her about his trump cards.

Ultimately, Alexandra cleared her throat to leave aside that subject as she said. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Ahem, the ore stored on my heart\'s meridian is the one that I told you about, I created it by combining a hundred pieces of black heavenly gold, as to why I don\'t take it out like the others, it is because I used a lot of the power stored inside of it back at the Silicon Forest to insta-kill that bastard elder, so it\'s barely past the crumbling apart point, I\'m still on the process charging it to a stable point".

"I see, in that case let that be my gift for you, to celebrate our first date I\'ll help you with recover to your prime", said Aster with a calm smile.

It\'s not like he didn\'t have a present for her, he did, but it\'s not an equipment specially developed for her, like he has done for Alice, Aria, Sarina, Camila and the others, not because she isn\'t his lover, as he made that dress for Vivian, the glaive for Tiana and soft armor for Nerissa.

But because he didn\'t have enough information about Alexandra to work with, this is their first date after all, not to mention that similar to what happened with Vivian and Agnes whose gifts required a lot of work, as Agnes\'s sword which is still under construction suggested, making something that truly fits Alexandra would be a decent challenge.

The next time he\'ll have something special for her, for now a "small" detail and fulfilling her cutely obvious desire to measure how would her defense fair against his, would be on point.

As Aster expected, Alexandra\'s eyes sparkled on the spot, she took some distance from Aster, which made Felicia softly laugh.

"You are way more dangerous than what I thought, perhaps is because my perspective is different this time since Tia isn\'t accompanying me~", she said as she flew away to a comfortable distance, knowing that those two monsters were about to turn this place upside down.

Aster limited to bitterly smile in response, given the troubled start of their friendship, he has tried to kept his teasing bad habit in check, but unconsciously he ended up doing it, like earlier with the heart meridian and his sharp eyes, he still explained since she\'ll learn about it anyway, his dragon eyes are too much of a help for the growth of the group to not use them over a possible misunderstanding, so it was better to fix the problem at its root.

And as expected, Alexandra responded in kind by trusting him this time, it might seem insignificant for others, but for a girl who grew to despise dual cultivators and everything they represented, it holds quite a bit of weight, that she is willing to believe in Aster who though isn\'t one of them, doesn\'t fall short when compared at all.

Aster who could feel Alexandra\'s fighting spirit filled gaze, craned his neck, next the golden armor manifested around his body, there is no need to rush it, so he decided to start with a simple punch, since he wants to see how much of the enemy\'s attack can be converted into power for Alexandra\'s ability.

Seeing Aster charging towards him, Alexandra gestured with her right hand a few black ores flew out of her arms and legs, in preparation for the incoming clash, she played along with Aster and didn\'t take out her trump card either.

With a small nod, Aster\'s image blurred and the next thing Alexandra knew was that her instincts screamed her to block at her left, strangely just as she affirmed without the need for her to use spirit energy or anything to control her attribute, and without any lag as if she had an advanced control thanks to soul energy, the black ore floating near her shoulder moved to intercept the golden cladded fist that aimed at Alexandra\'s left arm.

Just like before there was no impact nor explosion, the black ore which had turned into an arm sized octagonal plaque nullified the attack, but Aster didn\'t stop there, with a "swoosh", he flashed to appear in front of Alexandra using his right leg to kick her right side just for the black ore near her abdomen to block his attack once again.

\'The ores may appear to be floating randomly, but she has one of them guarding every part of her body, it is thoroughly thought system, she is basically wearing an armor just like me\', thought Aster.

"The conversion ratio isn\'t a 100%, in a rough calculation I would say that is around 80% of the attack unlike the mirroring which does indeed perfectly imitate the strength produced by the attack", said Aster as he flashed and continued punching and kicking, while Alexandra focused on intercepting his attacks, while occasionally throwing a black plaque his way, only for Aster to dodge or slap it away with one of his hands.

She couldn\'t help but inwardly pout at the fact that he could casually talk with her, while keeping up with their high-speed exchange of blows, she on the other hand had to put more focus on the fight, so it took her a while to find an opening to answer.

"Mm, a part of it is lost when converted, I still can\'t find a way to take advantage of that leak", she said.

Aster who dodged her last attack, took some distance to then say.

"I\'m rather interested in what would happen when you reach the Sea of Knowledge realm".

Alexandra was baffled for a second, she had stopped focusing on the energy path to increase her body cultivation as that\'s what brought the changes that helped her to far surpass her peers at the Steel Tower sect.

But certainly, the next important advance in the body path would be the Karnal Disaster realm, equivalent to the Star Tribulation and she is two whole realms below that as she is only an early-stage Stellar Constellation, sure a minor advance should be coming her way thanks to her adventure at the Silicon Valley and having finally met worthy sparring companions in the form of Sarina, Camila and the others, but perhaps her focus was wrong.

Seeing Alexandra immersed in her thoughts, Aster smiled, his golden dragon pupils shone as he saw her previously flawless status, waver.