Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah didn't leave the mountain chain immediately. His stash of magical beasts' corpses had grown thin in the last period, and that danger zone was the best place where to refill it.

Also, Snore was still becoming used to its body. Coupling its training with his hunts would settle both issues faster.

The Demonic Sword had advanced too, which meant that Noah had to test his battle prowess once again.

Noah spent weeks hunting in the mountain chain to tune his battle style to his new assets. Still, his mind was elsewhere most of the time since he had yet to decide what he would do next.

There were many projects available in front of him. He had yet to create a training method for his sea of consciousness, and he didn't even begin to fuse spells and martial arts.

There was a lot to research with the dark matter too. Noah had only started to use his higher energy as a material, but it contained too much power to be limited in that single field.

The most exciting aspect of the dark matter was how easily it imitated the world. It wasn't just something that could improve Noah's success rate and ability as an inscription master.

Yet, knowing that it had the potential for more incredible things wasn't enough. Noah would have to put years of research in that energy to learn about all its properties and limits.

The main issue was that he had just come out from two long experiments and only the last one managed to improve his battle prowess. Creating the higher energy had opened many paths for him, but that alone wasn't enough.

Cultivators would often lose themselves in their projects. It was normal to ignore the world and its political matter for centuries to complete a technique or an experiment that was vital to their journey.

Noah had done that too when he had to create his darkness. Failing at making his own "Breath" would have stopped him from growing.

Noah knew that he had it easier than most cultivators. The Divine Deduction technique shortened the time required by all his experiments and allowed him to continue focusing on his actual power even if he was secluded to research something.

Of course, he had never felt once that he didn't earn his current strength. He had started to create even before the events in the Coral Archipelago, and that was the very reason why he had managed to seize Divine Demon's inheritance.

His growth would have been slower without the Divine Deduction technique, but Noah was sure that he would have reached his current state anyway. It would have just taken more time.

The core issue in his indecisiveness was that he didn't know what he needed to prioritize right now. Noah had always gone after what gave him power faster, leaving the projects that would provide benefits in the long run as last.

However, each one of his experiments could take decades now that he was a rank 5 cultivator. His choice was among projects that he could complete in ten years and others that could even take a century!

Anything involving the dark matter as energy would even take more time since there didn't seem to be a limit to what it could do.

Nevertheless, a war was coming, and improving his power as much as he could appeared to be the right choice in his mind.

On the other hand, he wasn't sure that he could complete even his easiest projects before the war resumed. After all, it was about to start again anytime by then.

His choice ultimately fell on creating a training method for his mental sphere.

Inventing a new type of technique in that short time was impossible, and improving his centers of power as fast as he could help in that matter. A stronger mind meant faster reasoning, which would give him an easier time when dealing with the issues connected to his many experiments.

As for his higher energy, Noah wasn't even sure that he could understand the entirety of its potential before his body harmonized his burning heart with the other centers of power.

Also, he would need to remain in seclusion for decades performing tests based on hunches. It was better to focus on his mind and deal with those time-consuming problems after his foundation had grown again.

Noah decided to return to the new continent at some point, but he didn't spend much time in the neutral city anymore. He still executed his tasks as ambassador, but he would often go in the wilderness to hunt.

June had also started to being summoned more often in that period, so he wouldn't gain anything from remaining there.

Noah didn't need a training method for his mental sphere. The devouring abilities of his mental energy could provide him with all the improvements that he needed.

Yet, the drawback of that ability was quite annoying and forced him to spend long periods focusing on recovering the usual sturdiness that the walls of his mind had.

That was the reason why Kesier runes were so unique. They improved the power of the sea of consciousness without weakening its stability. They even enhanced its sturdiness.

Any other training method felt underwhelming when compared to the Kesier runes. Still, that was only normal, and most experts in the fifth rank or above had eventually learnt to accept it.

Noah had accepted that too, but he didn't give up on finding a better alternative training method.

It soon became clear to him that his spherical runes were the best tool for his intentions. They were still helping him modifying the nature of the walls of his mind, and they generated internal pressure, which was good when it came to a lack of sturdiness.

They were similar to the Kesier runes in that sense. Yet, they couldn't match the Kesier runes when it came to their efficiency.

'A pure expression of power,' Noah repeated Thirty-seven's words in his mind as he wandered in the sky above the central territories of the new continent.

He had already asked to the automaton information about the inscription method used to copy the Kesier runes. However, he had only obtained a series of inconclusive answers and a pile of books that described all the procedures involved in that field.

It turned out that copying a Kesier rune required multiple inscription methods which had been partially lost through time. There were formations, a school of runes called Copying Runes, and a vague talent for the Attunement method.

Noah could see himself spending time to learn another inscription method, but creating a copy of the Kesier runes might not be worth the effort.

There was a high chance that he could he would obtain the same results if he spent that time training his mind instead of researching for a method that did that.

So, he had begun to focus only on the core of the Kesier rune. If he couldn't copy them, he would create an item with similar purposes or build something that would focus on the sturdiness of his mind.