Noah had created a working prototype, now it was time to perfect it.

The first challenge was to use a weaker core for the Instability, the reserves of the Odrea nation were incredible but even those couldn't sustain the ma.s.s production of disposable items.

The outer layer of the inscribed item was made from the spikes of a rank 4 creature, the rest of its body remained untouched.

Instead, the core needed the skin of the Magmatic whale which was its most precious part, the rest of the corpse would become almost worthless after it was skinned.

That's why Noah wanted to use its rank 3 version, the proprieties of the skin were the same, only its durability was affected.

Noah managed to recreate the Instability using the rank 3 material after a week of tests, he had ultimately decided to diminish the "Breath" contained in the sphere to solve the issue.

The item forged in that way came out as a weaker version of the first prototype but the depletion of the materials became far more sustainable.

After all, it was obvious for the inventory to have more beasts in the human ranks, there were simply more of them in the wild.

Also, some of them could even be hunted in the nation.

The formation prevented the creation of danger zones but magical beasts in the human ranks still appeared, it was impossible to completely halt their birth.

'Theoretically speaking, the outer layer can be formed from any kind of spiked beast, I would only need a few days to become used to the new composition.'

Noah judged, a.n.a.lyzing the new Instability in his hands.

The issue with rank 4 materials was that they were fewer in number, there was a limit to how many of them the inventory held.

Yet, since Noah simply needed sharp and resistant materials, he could freely replace the spikes of the Brown hedgehog with any other beast with similar proprieties.

'Now, I need to tune the delay before the explosion. Ideally, it should go from a minimum of one instant to a maximum of twenty seconds.'

The second challenge consisted of setting the internal structure in a way that could make it possible for a cultivator to control the speed of its destabilization.

The "Breath" was the trigger for the explosion but the quant.i.ty injected in the item had to decide the speed of the internal destabilization: a small amount of "Breath" for a delayed explosion and a large amount for a quick one.

That wasn't hard to accomplish.

Noah had already more than one month of experience with that type of item and, since its composition had been weakened, he discovered that it had become easier to manipulate its structure.

Only one last challenge remained.

'The main quality of every disposable item is the uniformity between each of its copies. The Instabilities have to work all in the same way and with the same requirements… I can only surpa.s.s this hurdle with constant practice.'

Each creation couldn't be exactly the same as the previous one, Noah was only a human, not a machine.

Yet, he was also a cultivator, his mind had long surpa.s.sed the limits of a simple human, he could work with far greater precision.

That's why he didn't give up and reduced the differences between each product to the minimum until, during the last week, he managed to produce a batch of fourteen Instabilities that were almost identical.

'Next month, I should be able to start the ma.s.s production. Now I just have to test them in a real battle.'

His eyes shone with a cold light at the sight of his finished products.

They were still brown and covered with spikes but their size was smaller than the first prototype, they were just slightly bigger than a man's fist.

'Power in the middle tier of the second stage, their explosion shouldn't be able to injure a prepared red cultivator but they should do some damage if they catch him by surprise. Also, the explosion is not meant to kill but to shoot the spikes.'

He didn't lose track of the pa.s.sage of time that month, he was aware that the battle was held in the following day.

Luke arrived in the afternoon, he wanted to warn Noah about the incoming battle and was relieved to see his robe being intact as he entered the room.

"I suppose that this month went better than the previous one."

He smiled seeing that Noah was getting ready to rest, which meant that he had not forgotten about the battle.

"I have a finished product, I will personally test it tomorrow. If everything works as intended, I will start to arm your soldiers."

Noah explained.

The forging had been perfected, he had reached the limits of what the closed-door testing could show, only a real battle could expose any eventual flaw in his creation.

"Oh? Will you show us another amazing performance?"

Noah smiled at that question and his aura was enveloped by a chilling battle intent as he answered.

"They won't even know what hit them."

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.

.

The next day, the soldiers gathered again in the valley after the main road of the Odrea country.

"Beware, the hooded devil is joining the battlefield!"

Logan mocked Noah as he wore his hood and entered the ranks of the blue soldiers.

'Well, I wonder what they will call me after today.'

Noah sighed, he couldn't control the t.i.tles that his enemies gave to him but he didn't care much about them either.

A t.i.tle was simply the proof that his performance had put him on a higher level compared to the other blue soldiers, it meant that his battle prowess deserved some sort of recognition.

The line of blue soldiers was deployed and the battle began.

The exchange of long-distance spells occurred again, the battles in the valley always started with those attacks.

Then, just as the vanguard of both armies was about to clash, Noah jumped ahead and made his way between the enemy lines.

He was barging in the enemy's army alone for the second time!