'These creatures aren't so suitable as Blood companions.' Noah thought as he stared at the ma.s.sive corpse laid on a brown terrain. 'But they are natural s.h.i.+elds, and I can improve their innate ability with my greed.'

He was inside the separate dimension, making the last preparations for the Body-inscription spell, and he couldn't help but evaluate the prowess of the Lazy whales during the process.

The trio had returned in the tunnel after Noah killed his target, and he had even asked the Demons to let the specimen in the middle tier go. Noah had long since learnt about the drawbacks that accompanied his hybrid status, and he wasn't willing to lower the number of rank 5 magical beasts in the world just to see those nourishments sold.

He was basically preserving the lives of the powerful creatures so that he could hunt them when he was strong enough to face them alone.

Relying on his organization or allies to face enemy groups didn't bother him, but he didn't want to use them even to gather his food. It wasn't only a matter of dragon instincts. Noah simply wanted his breakthroughs to carry an evident mark of his individuality.

'Let's see if this works.' Noah thought before focusing on the insides of his sea of consciousness.

Solid "Breath" rose from his dantian and entered his mental sphere before he immersed it inside the brown sea. His greed invaded the "Breath" and gave to the sharp crystal a suction force similar to his saber-shaped rune.

His "Breath" wasn't something that could change form anymore. It was an energy that was evolving alongside his individuality.

Noah would have to remove his individuality to make it change form like it used to do in the past, but he would never weaken it on purpose just to make it more pliable.

'Now, the rune.' Noah thought as he focused on his ethereal figure.

His half-transparent hands pierced his body and ripped off his stomach, but he didn't smash it to turn it in the dust needed for the creation of a Will-consuming rune. Instead, he decided to forge it with the energy that he had just created.

The ethereal stomach appeared in his palm, and Noah proceeded in imbuing the solid "Breath" that carried his greed inside it.

The Elemental forging method usually required physical materials, but the meanings in both "Breath" and ethereal stomach were identical. The stomach was a raw expression of his hunger, which wasn't refined through the Will-consuming runes method, and his "Breath" contained his greed at its peak intensity.

After all, he used his ambition to bring his meanings to their peak when he prepared the energy to use in the forging. So, their intensity was bound to reach their limits.

The ethereal stomach didn't resist the fusion with the "Breath", and there wasn't any kind of destabilization afterward.

'In the end.' Noah thought while splitting the shard in his palm into two pieces. 'The infusion.'

One piece went for the blood of the whale that the spirit automaton of his ring had filtered when he gathered it from the water. The other went for its heart so that even the core of the beast would carry his meanings.

That was Noah's first success in fusing his two inscription methods.

By applying the basics of the Will-consuming runes, Noah obtained a pure meaning that he could use as a material in the Elemental forging method.

Of course, that procedure was far from optimal.

Noah had to forge the raw rune and his imbued "Breath" before using the finished product with another material, which meant performing two rounds of forging with the same items. That would produce a weaker inscribed item, but Noah wasn't interested in the power of the core and blood during the creation of a Blood companion.

He only needed his meanings to be more intense, and those two rounds of forging gave him that result.

Noah quickly completed the following requirements of the Body-inscription spell. His period spent hunting magical beasts to enlarge his mental sphere had made him extremely fast in creating Blood companions, and even his expertise in the mental battles had increased by a lot.

The ethereal figure of the Lazy whale crumbled and fell on the brown sea after Noah defeated it, but he didn't let his focus waver at that moment.

His mental energy surrounded the minute pieces of the beast's will and attempted to devour them. Still, Noah forcefully held back the capabilities of his mind to complete the Body-inscription spell.

Holding back the properties of his mental waves turned out to be quite easy since he had just severed his hunger to make use of that meaning, but they still struggled to devour the pieces of beast's will. It was as if that was their instinctive behavior.

His mind though had reached the fifth rank, and that breakthrough brought a more profound control on his hybrid features.

An ethereal whale soon appeared near the center of his sea of consciousness and lazily floated above the brown sea.

Noah felt the internal pressure rising, but even the appearance of a rank 5 Blood companion couldn't match the training speed of the Kesier runes.

'I can only store more primary energy inside my mind for the time being.' Noah thought as he evaluated the limits of his mind. 'Anything more effective would have to wait for my expertise to increase.'

Noah stretched his arm, and the whale's tattoo on his chest moved toward his palm. He willed, and the tattoo spread its mouth to use its innate ability.

Noah felt the energy contained in his Liquid dantian depleting at high speed, but a powerful suction force appeared at the center of his palm and stretched for hundreds of meters. The structure of the separate dimension trembled, and cracks appeared on its surface as the pressure affected its stability.

Small pieces of the dimension fell apart and flew toward Noah's palm. His body then turned them into primary energy that was absorbed in a matter of seconds.

'This suction force is stronger compared to the innate ability of the specimen in the lower tier.' Noah though while retracting his arm.

The result of the procedure left him satisfied since the attack of his Blood companion surpa.s.sed the original power of the creature, and he had used it in the air!

Lazy whales usually reached that might with their ability because they made use of the water in the environment. Still, obtaining more potent effects while being in the open clearly showed that fusing two inscription methods would lead to amazing results.

However, that outcome only made Noah sigh.

The creation of a Blood companion signaled the end of the methods that could increase his power in the short period. There was nothing else that could boost his battle prowess more before the exploration of the new world.

'I've reached the point where only long periods of meditations and enlightenments can help me.' Noah concluded in his mind as he moved toward the door that would lead him back to the old continent.