'What the fuck is that?'
The girls had an excited smile when they looked at him.
One of them gathered her courage and stepped toward him.
"Ehm, dar-, Lord Vance, would you like to accompany me on a trip to Arolyac forest? I'm willing to give all my merit-"
She couldn't finish her phrase since Noah interrupted her with a cold answer.
"No."
Silence enveloped the area.
Noah uncaringly passed the girl and moved through the crowd to reach his habitation.
Yet, he couldn't help but hear the whispers of the girls as he walked through them.
"Kyaa, have you seen how cool he is! It's the complete opposite of Lord Daniel!"
"Yes, but Daniel was unreachable for us. Lord Vance doesn't care about noble status."
"I want him to scold me so badly but I can't even face him, I feel like fainting every time I look into his eyes."
'These girls are crazy!'
Noah thought as the unlocked the door of his house.
"Dark prince! Would you mind if I came inside and served you some tea? My family is famous for-"
Noah didn't wait for the girl to finish her speech and closed the door behind him.
His irritation grew as he heard the girls screaming again in excitement and commenting on his last rejection.
"Ah, you youths are so lucky to be able to savor these moments."
Ivor looked at him with a complacent smile and nodded proudly.
"My disciple took everything from his Master. Your charm is irresistible to such naïve girls."
"Old man, if you don't stop, I will throw you outside with them."
Ivor paled and shut his mouth while turning to leave the room.
"Wait, I want you to see something."
Noah stopped him and took out a diary from his space-ring.
It was Uriah's diary, the one describing the Body-inscription spell.
"I applied the theories behind the Elemental forging method on this spell. Can I have your opinion about it?"
Ivor's interest was immediately piqued.
Not only it was the first time that Noah explicitly asked for his help, but he was also interested in the experiments of his student.
Ivor sat on a couch and began to read the diary with interest.
Meanwhile, Noah sat in a corner of the room and focused on the energy accumulated by his Blood drain spell.
He manipulated that energy to near his dantian according to the Yin body technique.
His dantian refined the energy and redirected part of it on his bones.
When the process was over, he analyzed his body to understand his advancements.
'The "Breath" absorbed this way equals to less than an hour of actual meditation. The spell is really not fit to strengthen my body.'
He was quite disappointed by the results but he expected much, if there was really a spell that could use magical beasts to increase the rank of the body of a cultivator, the magical beasts would be already extinct.
"This is really interesting."
Ivor finished reading through the diary and handed it back to Noah.
"What do you think?"
Ivor pondered for a while before giving his honest opinion.
"It definitely resembles an inscription method but it is used as a spell with heavy requirements to be activated. Can I see the companion that you created?"
Shadow came out of Noah's body and Ivor inspected it with interest.
"What changes did you notice?"
"Faster refinement of its blood, easier to tame in the sea of consciousness, and some of my will remained in the companion."
Ivor nodded hearing Noah's words before turning to his student.
"I think that there is a lot of room for improvement. Once you become more skilled in inserting your will in the "Breath", you should be able to empower their innate abilities."
'He had my same thought.'
"Have you tried forging its center of power?"
Noah's eyes widened hearing Ivor's words.
"Should I?"
Ivor nodded, moving his gaze back on the panther.
"If you can obtain these results just by refining its blood, what would happen if you directly refine its core? You should obtain more evident results."
'That makes sense. However, I don't think I have the ability to handle the center of power of a beast yet, I should go back to forge.'
Noah stood up and retracted Shadow.
At that moment though, a loud knock sounded from the entrance door.
'Don't tell me that it's still those girls.'
Noah went to open the door and was surprised to find June looking at him with her brows furrowed.
"Can you put a leash on those girls before I end up killing them?"
Noah moved his gaze behind her and found the same crowd of girls staring at him in silence.
He then noticed that he was shirtless due to the exposure of Shadow to Ivor.
"Dammit, come inside before I do that."
He dragged June inside his accommodation and hastily closed the door.
He wasn't fast enough though and an excited scream reached his hears.
"When did you became so famous?"
June asked after sitting on one of the couches.
"How should I know, it's not that I enjoy the situation. What happened to you?"
June had never come to his accommodation before which made Noah curious.
June snorted and moved her gaze away from him.
"Apparently, since we have been sparring partners for over two years, they thought that we were in a relationship. Once they knew that, they harassed me to no end, it didn't matter how much I denied that. I even asked Master for advice but she just said that it was normal for the strongest student to have followers."
Noah sighed and massaged his temples.
He didn't really care about the crowd in front of his door but he didn't think that the people that he knew would be involved.
He sighed again before coming up with a solution.
"You can take the first floor. The scrounger usually sleeps on the ground one while I'm always in the basement. Just don't disturb me during my training."
He then turned toward the stairs that led underground.
"Wait, what do you mean by that?"
Noah shrugged his shoulders as he replied to her.
"I can't really kick them away and they don't have concerns when bothering you. So, you can just live here."