Noah wouldn't bother to list the many dangers connected to the fusion with a magical beast before hearing what the skeleton could offer.
As far as he was concerned, the only valuable assets in that world were the Kesier species and the metal that isolated the sky. Anything else was appealing only for its historical value, but it couldn't compare with the resources of the piece of Immortal Lands.
"Is it possible?" The skeleton said with her aged voice.
Noah was beginning to understand in which moods the powerhouse would switch voice. She was using her mature one now, so she was taking the negotiation seriously.
"It is," Noah said as his eyes skimmed through her bones to evaluate their status, "But I think you understand the dangers connected to such procedure. Your status will make it quite dangerous."
"It's fine!" The skeleton said with her childish voice. "Take out everything from our inventory and show it to our guest!"
The cultivators shot a warning glance at Noah before leaving the hall to follow their leader's orders. They didn't want to leave him alone in the throne room, but they were too loyal not to follow her directives.
They came back a few minutes later, carrying a pile of sheets and broken inscribed items with various power before laying them next to the throne.
Noah didn't ask for their permission. He patted Snore that lowered its body to encircle the goods and give him a better view. The Divine Deduction technique activated as his eyes skimmed through the pile of items. He didn't want to miss anything valuable due to his lack of expertise or the goods' poor conditions.
Nevertheless, he didn't find anything worthy of his attention even after a few hours of thorough inspection.
'I can obtain better versions of any of these items on the surface,' Noah thought as he put down the last scroll of the pile. 'These might be good in a second-rate force, but the Hive can provide them freely.'
The offer didn't move him at all. Performing the fusion wasn't a process that required many resources on his side, but he wasn't going to give away his expertise in exchange for resources that didn't help him.
"This is worthless," Noah said without even trying to be polite. "These resources don't even come close to a satisfying price."
"This is everything in our inventory," Ana complained. "We accumulated these resources in countless years of oral transmission and exploration of underground structures."
"It's nothing compared to what we have on the surface," Noah explained.
"Do you want to rob us because we are ignorant about the inscription methods of the surface?" Ana continued. She had begun to suspect that Noah was trying to exploit their situation to his advantage.
However, that was quite far from the truth. Noah was the only inscription master capable of performing the fusion between a magical beast and a human. Every other organization had even asked for his advice when they were approaching that specific field.
He didn't perform the fusion to anyone other than himself. The skeleton would be his first commission, and the natives of the hidden world didn't even know how unique that chance was due to their ignorance.
"I've invented this procedure," Noah said, and his figure began to express the pride that he felt about that accomplishment. "To this day, I'm the only one capable of performing it."
The rank 5 cultivators around him had no proof that Noah was speaking the truth, but the steadiness of his aura made them believe him. They even felt temporarily dizzy as his pride became more intense. It was as if Noah's mental waves were trying to affect their minds.
Still, no one gave that event too much weight since the powerhouse decided to step in the negotiation.
"Come with me," The skeleton said in her aged voice.
The powerhouse was different from her underlings. She had seen the surface and lived among experts. Her knowledge concerning the inscription fields was old, but cultivators had tried to harness the magical beasts' innate abilities since the dawn of cultivation.
Noah was an astonishing rank 5 cultivator, and she had never seen anyone wielding so much power at his level. Even if she were to consider his hybrid status a fluke, there was much more than met the eyes in her guest.
When she added his ability to accomplish what even the experts in her past couldn't do, Noah appeared as an unparalleled monster.
The powerhouse's underlings understood her silent orders and moved to the edges of the throne to lift it. They then moved toward one of the corridors, and Noah followed closely behind them.
Noah had no idea where they were going, but the corridor went downward even if they were already on the ground floor. A red light shone on his face as they neared the point where the lava lake began, but a heavy aura came together with it.
Noah felt some familiarity with that aura, but he couldn't recognize it. It was as if his mind couldn't comprehend the signals that it was receiving.
The rank 5 cultivators carrying the powerhouse stopped moving after the last trace of the black metal disappeared, and drops of lava reached their position in the corridor. They gently dropped the throne on the floor and turned toward Noah as they waited for their leader to speak.
"You can lift this alone, right?" The skeleton said, and Noah shrugged his shoulders as he neared her. His hand went under the throne and lifted that large chunk of metal easily before putting it on his shoulder and proceeding down the corridor.
The aura became heavier, but it wasn't hard to withstand. It seemed unable to affect the mental spheres in that state.
"I forgot my name," The skeleton said with a mature voice before resuming with a childish one, "But you can call me Skully!"
Noah ignored her and continued to carry the throne down the corridor until he reached the lava lake's underground shores. There was a whirlpool at the beginning of the lake, and a large chunk of black metal became visible after it.
"You want to take only a glance," Skully said. "Leave me here. I don't want you to break what remains of my body."
Noah finally felt interested in that force's resources and left the throne there before venturing farther into the tunnel. His walk turned out to be short since white lines soon appeared on the large chunk of metal.
The lines appeared harmless at the beginning. Yet, a sudden pressure invaded Noah's mind and threatened to make it explode when he saw the first corner.
Noah promptly closed his eyes and buried his head on the ground as he condensed his consciousness inside his mental sphere. Everything trembled in his view, but he managed to shout one line to the powerhouse before losing his connection with the outside world. "What was that?!"
Skully replied with an aged voice. "An authentic divine item. The patch of the fur containing the Seventh Kesier rune of the Ape God."