A few moments of silence passed before any words were spoken again.
Noah casually swept his gaze on the insides of the serpent noticicng details that couldn't be spotted during any initial inspection, while he basked in the glory his words brought.
"You arrived here by yourself," Nathaniel spoke, his voice oozing unfathomable astonishment.
Noahs words sounded unbelievable, causing most to hiss in annoyance even there wasn't anyone to disprove his words.
However, those who dared to even consider the possibility of his words felt their gazes instinctively land on his figure.
Noah clearly wasn't in the middle-stage, but his real power felt confusing and shrouded anyway.
Frowns appeared on the faces of those inspecting Noah, and frustration quickly set in when their trained senses remained unable to discern his real level of power.
This of course laid down a platform of distrust as many weren't ready to associate themselves with strange individuals.
But the fact still remained that he was present there, even if how they didn't believe hus words on how he arrived there.
"I and probsbly many of us fail to find your words truthful. However since we aren't here to argue on such meaningless topics we'll allow you in" Nathaniel explained, gesturing at Noah to walk a bit further into the room of sorts.
"If you claim you got here by yourself, and we found you at the edge of this depth stage, why didn't you go any further." Nathaniel suddely spoke.
"Oh i did," Noah calmly replied, "I simply didn't have enough confidence to get to the seventh depth stage with my strength alone."
"So its only natural that i joined a group immediately i had the chance," he explained, partially telling the truth.
"What would you have done if we hadn't arrived at the nick of time?" Nathaniel questioned squinting his eyes.
"I would have moved on of course," Noah furrowed his brows.
"But you just said you didn't feel confident enough to go further by yourself," Nathaniel replied shooting a glare at Noah, who casually shrugged it.
"I said i didn't have enough confidence in getting to the seventh. I could and can stil easily cross the fifth stage," Noah explained with the most arrogant tone he could produce.
He felt the need to lay out his superiority, since he didn't want to get disrespected.
Nathaniel stayed silent at those words, he couldn't help but feel annoyed by the young mans confident expression. But there wasn't much he could do at that point.
Noah would use them the same way he was using the over one thousand cultivators to arrive at his goal. The rewards.
"I see...." Nathaniel muttered seeming falling into thought. He could sense the familiarity of being a lightning affinity holder in Noah, so he quickly found a task for him.
"It would be appreciated if you helped out on this journey," Nathaniel said tinkering with a series of shining lines.
"Really?" Noah raised an eyebrow.
Multiple thoughts on how to avert that potentially annoying situation rose an fell in Noah's mind.
He didn't want to have to explain why he had yellow energy and couldn't power any devices made for Mana.
A suitable idea eventual arose amid the ones that saw him killing everyone there, courtsey to his killer title, and he didn't hesitate to play that card.
"What do you mean by that?" Nathaniel said, furrowing his brows, while a series of shining lines shaped forming tubes appeared, to attach to his figure.
"There are so many individuals here, and you've been doing fine without me," Noah started, but paused.
"Actually i'm currently exhausted," he spoke lifing his helmet to breathe in the air within that place.
That feature remained the only use the air affinity wielders had inside that place. But why the cultivators still had their helmets on slightly baffled Noah, even if he soon figured out the reason.
'I guess they fear the whole construct suddenly falling apart,' he thought.
"Then what do you plan to add to the group?" Nathaniel asked feeling annoyed. The man named Aiden continued to waste his time.
"I can help you in navigation" Noah stated spotting a particular somebody who was amongst the fify individuals keeping the construct together, and a smile tried to appear on his face at her sight, but he held it back.
"Navigation? I dont think i need help in doing that," Nathaniel announced.
"If you dont want to waste energy, then you do. The fifth stage is on a different level compared to the fourth," Noah explained placing his full focus on Nathaniel.
"Then lets get there first. I can only belive for myself when i see it," the cultivator replied, and the serpent suddenly jerked forward, forcing Noah into crouching.
He clicked his tongue when he saw that the others were unaffected by the serpents movement. Probably because of the seat everyone had.
Eventually deciding to sit on the ground. Noah gazed at the spot available for those Inside to see the outside world.
Actually there were many of such spots. The inside of the serpent was riddled with windows. But they werent noticeable from outdide it's structure.
Due to the fact they were literally at the edge of the fourth stage, they almost immediately arrived in front of the barrier and crossed it.
The serpents structure experienced another powerful jerk at that event signaling the new level of the upward force.
A few seconds into the fifth stage and Noah could already hear gasps. An air of seriousness soon fell on the cultivators, who could only swallow hard at the sight of crackling whirlpools numbering over hundred, and were larger than the ones they had experienced so far.
However, rather than moving forward, Nathaniel limited himself to stare at the sight before him.
A muffuled sigh soon escaped his helmet. But he didn't glance at Noah, rather he opted to talk to the nervous cultivators.
"Do you all think its possible for us to simlpy blast our way through them?" Nathaniel asked, his question catching Noahs interest. And he immediately paired the word "blast" to the explosion that allowed him notice them in the first place. Which hinted at the exsistence of an offensive system.
'With that type of fire-power they should be able to do anything.' Noah thought.
'But it'll waste energy. Which they have to save for the lower stages,' he added, sweeping his gaze on the weird sight of hundreds of people wearing helmets with black suits.
"We should be able to last for a while. But if the whole place is filled with that many, then we'll have to compromise," a female suddenly spoke up, everyone including Noah nodding.
"Exactly," Nathaniel stated, turning to face Noah. "Do not take this as an acknowledgement of your knowledege, but what would you do if you were the one steering this?" Nathaniel asked Noah.
"I spent hours navigating between whirpools alone, I should be considered an expert," Noah joked, getting serious.
"Due to thier size, the whirpools should have really powerful pulling force. So its either slowly swimming around them, but expending annoying amounts of energy in the process. Or directly shooting past them. Seeing the speed you arrived with, i believe only a bit more power would be needed to accomplish your goal' Noah explained.
"So you are suggesting we zoom past them," Nathaniel spoke.
"Precisely. However you'll have to remain really careful to not steer into the whirpools since they would most likely rip this whole thing apart," Noah added.
"You are a crazy man to not even consider reshaping the whole structure to fit our situation, but your idea can work," Nathaniel replied with a deep laughter.