Chapter 167 - 167. Rivals
It took Noah an entire day to reach the limit of what his mental sphere could handle.
In the end, a big black boulder of "Breath" was formed over the sea.
Noah felt that his head was about to split, the pressure from that "Breath" coupled with the two blood companions was stressing his mind to no end.
Yet, taking the "Breath" directly from his dantian vastly increased the speed at which he accumulated it.
'Now, refinement.'
Noah focused, he endured the pain and forced his mental state to remember the image of the saber flying undisputed in the sky.
When he felt that he was ready, he immersed the "Breath" in the sea.
It took a long time to refine it.
The "Breath" stayed in the sea for four entire days before coming out in a different form.
It resembled again the blade of a saber but its color had more shades of blue than the last time.
'The headache hindered my mental state, I should not force myself so much next time.'
Noah judged and prepared to start his forging.
He first ate and rested, he had to stay completely still during those days in order to achieve the best refinement possible.
As he restored his energies, the leg of a Night panther appeared in his hands.
Noah carefully ripped off the flesh from the leg until only the bone of the beast was left in his hands.
A piece from the "Breath" in his sea of consciousness detached from the saber form and slowly entered the bone.
Noah immediately created an incubating membrane to contain the process.
The bone seemed to accept the "Breath", there wasn't the same rejection as with the Sun tigers' bones.
The two substances began to merge and Noah manipulated them to transform their shapes.
The bone became darker and denser, its tip slowly morphed into a sharp pointy head.
Then, a crack appeared on the body of the item which caused a chain reaction through the whole bone.
'Failure.'
Noah threw the item in his hands toward a corner of the basement where it exploded.
The might of the explosion though was way stronger than when he used the liquid "Breath" in the forging and the inscriptions flickered to no end to contain the tremors of the room.
"What the fuck is happening?"
June appeared on top of the stairs leading to the underground room and was surprised by Noah's appearance.
He had disheveled hair, bloodshot eyes, and a deep frown.
"Are you ok?"
June asked with a concerned voice.
"Yeah, I just exaggerated a bit. Why did you come here?"
Noah answered, he was so focused on the forging that he had almost forgotten that June was living with him.
"Well, the explosion? Also, I wanted to ask if you were willing to resume our sparring, I feel that my technique is getting rusty."
'That's not a bad idea, solitary training has its limits after all.'
"Sure, just give me a couple of weeks, I'm in the middle of something and I'd prefer to remain alone for that time."
June nodded and returned to the upper floor.
'I should reduce the time spent in the forging too, I'm neglecting my training.'
Noah checked the rune on his arm, during these days it had surpassed his elbow and was moving toward his shoulder.
'It's getting faster, I should spend more time with her to be certain that she won't be an enemy in the future.'
As he thought of that, he stopped his experiments and rested.
He resumed a normal pace of training, attempting to create only one inscribed item every day.
That way, he could slowly reduce the pressure on his mental sphere without interrupting the growth of his other centers of power.
There were no explicit improvements in his forgings, even though he felt that he was becoming better after each attempt, a new problem always appeared which made his creations explode.
'Even without the elemental rejection, I still can't manage to create something stable. And what is the deal with my dantian? I should have reached the limit of the first rank by now but there always seems to be more space.'
He had slowed his cultivation to focus on the inscription method but that didn't mean that he had slacked off.
He felt that he was close to reaching the peak of the first rank but that time seemed to never arrive.
'Well, I'm not in a rush to leave anyway.'
He decided that it was time for his fight with June.
Noah went to the first floor and found June calmly cultivating in one of the rooms.
Her silver hair was everywhere over her face and she seemed to have sweated a lot since her clothes were wet and stuck on her skin.
Her toned form was clearly exposed by the state of her outfit.
'She must have just finished her training, I'll just go to sleep.'
Noah turned to leave but then he sensed something with his mental energy.
His hand shot out and firmly held a spear that aimed for his head.
"How can you never be surprised?"
June stood with a disappointed expression on the other extremity of the weapon, she had attacked him as soon as he had turned.
"How can you think of nothing but fighting me? You are clearly exhausted and yet you attempted to sneak on me."
Noah shook his head but his grip stood firm on the spear, blocking it in its position.
"A hunter attacks when his prey is at its weakest."
"Am I a beast in your eyes?"
June then released a small laugh and retracted her weapon, Noah didn't let his guard down though.
"You are right, I'm quite tired, I think I'm done for today."
She sat on the floor and supported her back on the wall of the room.
Noah stared at her for a while lost in his thoughts.
"What?"
June didn't like his constant gaze and became irritated.
"Say, what kind of relationship do we have? Are we friends?"
Noah broke his silence and asked that question.
June snorted and replied loudly.
"What friends! We are rivals!"