The third year in the academy was generally used by the students to specialize in their future profession.
There were no lessons unless someone requested for private ones, and the academy ground was mostly empty as all the students focused on their duties.
Most of the students were almost twenty after two years of enrollment so the few exceptions like Noah could use that time to increase their cultivation level in that favorable environment.
Noah was currently inside the bas.e.m.e.nt, attempting in the forging process.
Two weeks had pa.s.sed since his first attempt but he still had to obtain some successful results.
"f.u.c.k!"
Noah threw away the bone of a Sun tiger.
As the piece of magical beast flew, it crashed with the wall of the bas.e.m.e.nt and exploded, making all the inscription on the room flicker.
"Another failure, I even exhausted all the "Breath" that I refined."
The Elemental forging was quite different from other types of inscription methods.
Instead of "writing" the meaning of the quality that they wanted to reproduce, the pract.i.tioners had to use the "Breath" that they had acc.u.mulated in their sea of consciousness as one of the materials of the item that they had to forge.
The meaning was imprinted in their mixture of "Breath" and mental energy after all, that compound had to be one of the core materials of the inscribed item.
From that, it originated the appellation "forging".
However, that compound was not enough as a material, it had to be put together with other appropriate ingredients.
From that, it came the appellation "elemental", as it was strongly advised to use objects that fitted the element of the pract.i.tioner.
The bones of the Sun tigers were definitely not suitable with Noah"s compound but he decided to gain experience with them anyway since finding a creature of the darkness element required him to leave the academy.
He would rather do that when two months pa.s.sed from his last mission in order to optimize his time.
Noah sat on the floor, he was quite tired.
"Apart from the conflicting element, there is also the problem that my control over the process is lacking. I guess that I can only become better as I gain experience."
He had to shape the item through his control over the compound that he created in his sea of consciousness and that required an incredible amount of concentration since he had to use it to modify the shape of the other materials too.
"I need to absorb "Breath" again."
His daily life didn"t change much in the new accommodation.
He would always cultivate body and dantian at night while he used the day to train his mental sphere and in his other various activities.
One of those was exactly the forging.
Noah spent five days to refill his mental sphere with the same amount of "Breath" that he had previously, as he became more used to the process, he had increased his absorption speed.
That time though, he didn"t refine it but simply limited on rendering it harmless and without a will.
A black lake stood over the sea in his mind when he closed his eyes to concentrate on the meaning that he wanted his mental energy to convey.
"Strong emotions, strong emotions."
He initially thought that he could use his vengeful feelings for the Balvan family to empower his will but, even if the results were better than during his first refinement, they still didn"t meet Noah"s standards.
"It seems that those feelings are not selfless enough to reach Ivor"s level. He would have gladly sacrificed himself to obtain what he wanted while I want to be alive and well after I kill Rhys. My wellness was one of Lily"s wishes after all."
Noah searched inside himself for stronger emotions and could only find one thing more powerful than his anger for his father.
"I wonder if my ambition will work."
He focused and remembered the sensations that he felt the first time he gazed at the s.h.i.+ning stars during the test for his nature.
He remembered when his most powerful attacks that he spent so much to learn were completely ineffective against a magical beast in the heroic ranks.
He remembered the King of the valley, able to block the exit for its entire pack with its breath.
He remembered Kevin, withstanding uncaringly the spells of the water mage with the might of his body.
And, in the end, he remembered the event that signed the beginning of his journey as a cultivator.
A dragon, a mighty beast that he had only seen in fantasy books, spat a lance made of flames toward him.
He remembered how marveled he was when he first saw the flames shaping themselves to form a piercing attack.
Then, an old man, without any apparent quality, calmly appeared in the air and blocked that attack with one hand.
Thomas Balvan, the first cultivator that he identified in his new life, was the picture of what he imagined as divine in his mind.
"That was when my ambition was born."
Noah couldn"t notice it but his eyes begun to s.h.i.+ne as he reviewed those memories, a faint light was emitted through his closed eyelids.
He focused on the emotions that he had felt in that moment and that had accompanied him through all his life.
Then, he imagined a saber, flying horizontally in the sky.
It had never happened nor Noah had ever seen it, it was all his imagination.
The saber ran through the air, cutting everything that dared to step on its way.
Dragons fell from the sky cut in half, mountains were severed, seas were divided.
At some point, even the matter of the same sky could not withstand the saber"s sharpness.
It split, showing a black s.p.a.ce filled with small s.h.i.+ning dots in the distance.
The black lake in Noah"s mental sphere was immersed in the sea at that moment.
After three days inside Noah"s mental energy, it emerged in a different shape.
It was still black with some shades of blue in its color but it was impossible to consider it a lake anymore.
It was thin, with sharp tips on both sides.
It resembled the body of a saber without its handle.