UNLIMITED SPEED

"So you're scared of dying?" Noah asked, intrigued by her statement.

"No," Elder Sarah replied. "My fear of death, died many years ago, and I focused on harnessing power," she explained honestly.

"The real issue here is just how out-powered we are as a force. I'm almost starting to lose hope that we won't lose the battle and lose our nation in the process," she sighed, sipping wine that was brought to her.

"I understand," Noah commented. "I've seen the prowess of the elves and it's obvious the average cultivator stands no chance. And even the geniuses amongst us still have limits."

"The oath was made to set the scale of the battles on fairgrounds but we're still losing. We need something new or completely outrageous or we might as well reserve our forces for the last battles which will occur after they take most of our lands." Elder Sarah emptied her cup to refill it.

"No point in wasting lives if the end goal is the same," Noah commented understanding her logic far too well.

"This almost feels like a joke. Albeit a cruel one. I feel we've been cheated. Badly. Or are being played right into the schemes of the order," elder Sarah stated, revealing her frustration bit by bit. Noah calmly listened.

"Our forces are being snuffed out with such pace, it's scary. They're intentionally lowering our forces. More tier 4's rise, but the death rate makes those additions pale in comparison."

"Still, what can we do that we're not doing already? According to what I heard the royals are mass-producing tier-4 dummies in the hundreds. We have inscribed giants and potions are being provided, even weapons."

"We're essentially doing what the order is doing…" she paused.

"But they are just better," Noah completed her words and she nodded, opening her mouth to speak.

"Better than dummies, they have the krets. Better than inscribed giants, they have vine giants capable of regrowing and repairing wounds as long as there's mana which is all around them." She explained when Noah also opened his mouth to speak.

"Better than mere magical weapons, they have items capable of messing with the very powers of the cultivators," his account visibly sent shivers down elder Sarah's spine.

In truth, she had felt real fear when her mana refused to respond to her appropriately. Sure the effects of those items had time limits. But when those items were occasionally sprayed upon the battlefield, there wasn't much they could do.

"Yes…" The elder responded falling into a bit of thought.

"You should rest, master," Noah suggested at some point and she sighed, but nodded in response.

"York." She summoned her butler, turning to face Noah while it approached.

"Will you be doing anything?" She asked.

"Yes," Noah responded. "There's a project I need to complete. Might take me a few days, give or take," he explained nodding his head.

"Will I see you during those days?" Elder Sarah questioned, certain thoughts flowed through her mind.

"Most likely not. But I'll try to take breaks during them, seeing as relations need to be mended," he replied, addressing Jane's issue.

"Thank you," she responded, turning to address York. She left at some point, leaving Noah alone. Who simply drank wine for about half an hour. Their talk had spanned two hours already.

"The war might feature more than I thought," Noah muttered sipping a bit more wine before standing. He had a few things to do before the month ended, one of them which included upgrading his daggers.

Noah teleported into his cultivation room and allowed Erolia to shoot out of his chest in a cerulean streak. Her figure unfolded into its giant form, but he simply expanded the room till it was a few hundred meters in size.

"Master," she called out having been fully healed already. Her eyes shone with curiosity when she saw waves of essence coming out of Noah's figure and out of the room's walls.

"You can just watch," Noah commented finding her company almost necessary. There was no reason to leave her in her space if he was the only one. They would be together for a long time he needed to get to know her more. The same for her.

Noah allowed the daggers to appear in his grip, after which he placed them on the ground and sat cross-legged. Speed essence surged around him as he informed it of what he intended to do.

Unlike the first time, Noah had simply submerged those blades into speed essence for days. Now he planned to do what he would consider proper blacksmithing.

Thanks to the memories he gained from assimilating Ersha's core, Noah could gain access to a substantial amount of knowledge concerning that topic.

Unfortunately, Ersha herself hadn't been much of a weapons smith, but she knew just enough to aid Noah in his quest. At least the portions of her memory he was capable of accessing.

With those two things down, Noah waved his hand and allowed huge chunks of metal to fall to the ground.

They were the bodies of the metallic beasts he had killed.

The moment those three chunks of metal landed on the ground speed essence rushed toward them to envelop them in their power.

Noah allowed soul energy to seep out of his soul core and that multicolored energy appeared around him as a glowing multicolored sphere.

He needed that essence for something very important, it would be the inner structure of his smithing item.

Silver essence rushed towards that multi-colored sphere of spectacular energy and merged with it, whilst its structure transformed until Noah got what resembled a forging hammer.

The chunks of metal began to shrink at that point. Noah strengthened his will in the essence around him.

He desired to improve the structure of the daggers. He had studied them before and had been able to find suitable places for improvement. But more than just improving their structure he desired to bring their power up.

Mana-cores appeared around Noah at that point. It didn't matter that many of them were in the third tier, he still had enough in the fourth tier present. Combining his essence and mana would only lead to his essence growing more dominant. This would be able to albeit; aggressively, increase the power of daggers.

He just needed to improve their overall structure, sharpness, combustion ability, withering, and pulling force. The withering ability would need a patch-up later when he found a poison-based plant. For now, he focused on pushing those blades as high up into the fourth tier as he could.

Noah held onto the silver hammer emitting multicolored wisps. That mass cost him 100k worth of soul energy and 10 million points of speed essence.

The hammer would be capable of almost; if not certainly, one-shotting the average middle-staged expert.

With Erolia's eyes calmly watching the process, Noah caused the mana cores around him to shatter and converge on the daggers, while silver essence also followed.

Streams of liquefied metal carried by speed essence also joined that array of substances and the moment Noah smote the daggers, an explosion of stunning power as a result of the collision of those substances unfolded into the world.

A weird but intense heat rose into the environment and those substances started to burn, but Noah struck again, and a boom just as powerful as the first unfolded. Erolia moved away to not get caught up in the process but kept her eyes on that fascinating scene.

After all, the daggers started to glow resplendently, bathing the area in their intense radiance.