Chapter 293: 293. Mausoleum

'They noticed.'

Noah thought in his mind as his gaze sharpened.

The Elemental forging method was quite atypical as an inscription method, it was a dying school after all.

Yet, Lisa managed to recognize it, Noah couldn't help but think that she had paid attention to his performance during the war.

"I'm no master, I just know some tricks."

Noah answered with vague words, he wasn't exactly lying though.

His ability in creating inscribed weapons derived from his constant experimentation, he had used the complete knowledge of the previous masters of that method and many efforts to succeed in creating his second stable product, he was far away from the title of "master".

Also, the real reason why he had managed to forge something stable in such a small amount of time was that his mental sphere had improved a lot after absorbing the Bloodline Inheritance, he could control the forging process with far more precision.

The level of the sea of consciousness of a cultivator was the biggest limit to a practitioner of the Elemental forging method, however, in Noah's case, it was actually an advantage.

His mental sphere was stronger than his dantian, which allowed him to freely absorb "Breath" from it, shortening the absorption process by a lot.

He could also have an easier time manipulating the materials since the energies involved would always be on a lower level than his mind.

He had realized long ago that the weakness of his inscription method was mitigated in his case.

"Weapons that can destroy spells in the second rank are interesting tricks. Can you mass-produce them?"

"No."

Noah immediately answered Lisa's question.

Not only the forging process was hard and took a long time, but the materials required for the creation of the Demonic swords were quite rare too.

Also, he was the only one that could wield them due to the proprieties of the black smoke inside them.

"Then, can you create just a few of them for our elite soldiers?"

"No."

Noah refused once again Lisa's request.

Lisa was becoming impatient at the sight of the young man uncaringly closing his eyes to start cultivating.

"Remember that you are our prisoner!"

Noah snorted at those words.

"It's precisely because I'm a prisoner that I can do whatever I want. You wanted me to put some efforts into the monthly game that you call war and, for that, you've given me a spell. Now you want me to mass-produce inscribed weapons when you don't even know if I'm able to satisfy that request. Why don't you just let go of this land and escape with your people? What's even the point of struggling so much when your hopes are in random outsiders?"

He was quite angered.

Since his birth in this world, Noah had always been the prisoner of some organization.

The Balvan family, the Royal dynasty, and, ultimately, the Odrea country.

Every time he took a step toward freedom, he would always find someone able to entrap him, that cycle was starting to annoy him.

That's why he spoke with such sharp words.

What was a country after all?

Was it the ground in a certain area of a continent?

Was it the people that composed it?

Noah had never cared for such divisions, everything was a creation of the humans after all.

You could take a piece of land and divide it into two different countries, but that piece of land would still be one in the eyes of an outsider.

Borders and similar ideas were meaningless in Noah's mind even before his rebirth and his second life didn't change his thoughts.

"How dare you!? The Lord is always thinking about our well-being, she has never stopped caring for us! She is so young and yet she is giving her everything for the country of our ancestor! How can someone like you understand such feelings?"

Luke couldn't withstand Noah's attitude any longer and exploded in a loud reprimand.

However, Lisa had begun to understand Noah's character.

'He is lawless, without any bond in the world. He is living only for himself, lying and cheating on each of his steps, such a lonely life.'

She thought and she couldn't help to pity him a bit.

She was able to endure the situation of the country thanks to the constant support of its citizens, she cared for them and they did the same.

Noah, instead, was alone.

The world itself was his biggest enemy due to his rare aptitude and exceptional talent, he had no one to rely on and he had to make the best out of each situation.

"Come with me."

Lisa broke the silence and began to walk toward the main building of the city.

Luke and Noah were confused but they still followed her, it was needless to say that Noah was quite wary of the old man at his side.

'Where are we going?'

Lisa led him back to the main hall of the castle in the center of the city.

The room was deserted, only Noah, Luke, and Lisa were inside it.

"Our country once was the overlord of the western side of the central part of the continent, our borders reached the mountain range that divides the two areas of influence on the southern side and the mystical fog right before the Papral nation on the northern side."

Lisa spoke with a reverent tone, that was the apex of her country after all, she was extremely proud of its past.

"Yet, we had a mortal enemy, our neighbor, the Shandal Empire."

She reached the back of the room and pressed her hand on the wall, filling a gap in a formation that was placed there.

Luke's eyes widened in surprise and he was about to speak but Lisa promptly shook her head, stopping him from acting.

"Our ancestor lost the race for the divine ranks against the God of the Empire and I believe that you are aware of how things developed after that."

The wall opened, revealing a rocky downward passage covered with inscriptions.

"Cultivators in the heroic ranks need far more "Breath" than you can imagine, an entire country could be sucked dry by a rank 6 existence. That's why they need to create special environments to continue cultivating."

Noah was beginning to understand the meaning behind her words and his gaze started to inspect the end on the passage with interest.

"Welcome to our ancestor's training cave, we call it Mausoleum."