Chapter 171 - 171. Break
Noah spent the following days forging the other Moon needles, exhausting his stash of Moon owl's beaks.
The seven inscribed weapons were then carefully laid in a casket and stored in his space-ring.
'I will sell these once I move to Elbas city, now I should focus on my dantian.'
He had some other random materials left but he felt that it was pointless to experiment more on things that he didn't need, he would rather wait to reach the Royal city and resume his forgings when he had access to better materials.
Also, his dantian was nearing its limit, once he became a rank 2 cultivator he would have access to a stronger "Breath" and rank 1 inscribed items would lose their appeal to him.
'Yet, no matter how much "Breath" I absorb, I'm still unable to reach the limits of the first rank.'
Even if he had focused more on the forging during the last period, the increased density of "Breath" of his new accommodation should have covered that diminished time spent in training.
However, he seemed to have miscalculated the time required for his advancement so he chose to momentarily focus on it.
Noah began to cultivate even during the day with his Dark vortex technique.
Many of his future plans required for him to have a rank 2 dantian so he decided to hasten its enlargement.
According to the teachings of the general cultivation course, the differences in power between stages in the first rank were only marginal while they would be more accentuated in the higher ranks.
"Vance, you are returning to the state when you had the "Breath" blessing in front of you."
June said with a smile as she peeked from the entrance of the basement.
Noah opened his eyes and released a soft sigh before laying on the floor.
"You are right, maybe what I need is just a bit of rest to stabilize my gains."
Too much training could be detrimental, rest was needed to maximize the growth.
'Maybe my dantian is too stressed and keeps on enlarging without noticing that it has reached its limits. Now that I think about it, there were cases of cultivators that trained so much that their bodies fell apart due to the pressure applied to them.'
June saw that he had stopped his meditation and happily went down the stairs to stare at the youth on the floor.
She then crouched next to him and pulled his arm.
"C'mon, come upstairs, I found where Ivor keeps his wine."
Since they began to spend more time together, Noah and June would appreciate being accompanied by Ivor's wine.
Yet, that didn't please the old cultivator and he began to hide it in random places in the house.
"Why does he even hide it, I pay for it after all."
Noah said, rising from the floor and letting June pull him upstairs.
As their relationship improved, June slowly lost all her mental barriers and began to treat Noah in a friendly manner.
Once she lowered her defenses, she became a simple young girl that didn't care about the behavior that a noble lady should have.
She was not even nineteen and she was already living together with two men after all, it was pointless to say the number of gossips that spread through the whole academy.
"Look, look! That geezer actually made a secret drawer in the wall."
She brought Noah to one of the rooms and strongly pushed on one spot on the wall.
The wood moved and a small hole was revealed behind it.
"I don't even know how he did that without us noticing!"
June exclaimed looking at the hole.
It was one of the accommodations of the academy, its sturdiness couldn't be underestimated.
'That scrounger must have used his knife! He really cares so much about his wine.'
In the cavity, there were about five jars carefully stored.
Noah took two of them and smiled toward June.
"Let's just laze around for today."
She giggled and moved to the first floor, followed by Noah.
"Your followers are becoming more daring! They actually waited for me outside of my Master's building when I went out today."
June complained as they arrived in one of the rooms.
She sat on one of the couches and took out two glasses from her storage device.
"Why are they even bothering me, this is becoming annoying."
Noah said while sighing, sitting next to her and pouring wine in the glasses.
They had become used to conversing like that, there was no awkwardness in their actions.
"The strongest student in the academy who has no ties to any noble family. Did you really think that you would be ignored just because you act grumpy? I bet that if they knew your element, they would go crazy."
"Those girls are already crazy enough due to your presence here. Sadly, they don't realize that you are just a battle maniac."
"Hmph! These words coming from someone addicted to cultivation have no value. For your information, I am rather popular among the male students, Master even said that there are girls interested in me…"
"I bet that if Professor Megan didn't say that to you, you would still be ignorant about it. Poor students, idolizing a wild beast."
"Oh, shut up. Look at you with all the mysterious halo. If I didn't know you, I would have thought that you were shy for real."
Noah snorted but a slight smile was present on his face as he sipped the wine.
June too seemed at ease and would lightly poke Noah every time he said something about her behavior.
That was their usual conversation, simply spending time together and joking with each other.
"You know."
June's smile vanished and was replaced with a bitter expression as she sat straight on the couch with both her hands on her glass.
"I know that you have your reasons for hiding your past but it can't be too beneficial to keep everything in your mind."
Noah's expression became complex as he reminisced his past.
"Are you saying that I can trust you?"
June nodded with her gaze fixed on her glass.
Noah sighed.
"I believe you will know it at some point anyway, I'm just trying to avoid loose ends."