Noah was sure of one thing: A strong will could only be born and shaped through hardsh.i.p.s!
The will of a cultivator was the most important ingredient in the Elemental forging method which meant that Noah's will was weaker than Ivor's.
He could accept that, Ivor had been willing to throw away his life in exchange for a way to reclaim his lover while Noah wasn't willing to go that far.
He would do anything for power but he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life for it, power was useless if he wasn't alive after all.
'I can either wait for my mind to reach the fourth rank or actively seek more experience. Well, I can do both of them at the same time.'
Those were his thoughts when he asked Elder Iris for the available missions.
Gathering experience and merit point would benefit both him and the Hive, that seemed the best options since he didn't seem to be able to improve his training speed more than that.
It didn't take much for Elder Iris to complete her task, she quickly gathered information through her methods and handed a small shining orb to Noah.
Noah took it and inspected its contents with his mental energy, a series of information appeared in his mind which listed all the available missions that the Hive had issued.
The less important ones concerned the hunts on the peripheral islands while the most important ones mostly implied the continent in some way.
Escorting valuable shipments back and forth from the continent, becoming envoys to set favorable trade connections, infiltrating specific nations to set escape paths for their rebels, the most rewarding missions were also the most dangerous ones of course.
It was at that point that Noah noticed a familiar name that he had stopped thinking of for a long time.
'Creating a tribe in Efrana nation to use as a foothold on the continent… Is this a coincidence?'
Efrana nation had been Noah's target after he escaped from the Utra nation.
Then, the matter with Odrea nation forced him to travel to the Coral archipelago where he joined the Chasing Demon sect and ultimately fought with it for the independence of the islands.
He was just a lone rank 2 cultivator back then and he only wanted a safe place where to cultivate, he felt somewhat strange when he realized that he wanted to abandon what he had searched for such a long time.
'To think that peace might be the very reason why I'm unable to take this last step… I guess I won't have anyone else to blame for my troubles this time.'
Noah sighed internally when he thought about those matters.
The truth was that he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life to obtain a stronger will but he was more than willing to risk it for that.
If peace weakened him, he would simply run away from it.
If hardsh.i.p.s were the method to become stronger, he would simply jump toward them.
"I wish to join the mission in Efrana nation, I believe there is no one more fit than me to lead the creation of a tribe."
Noah spoke as he handed the shining orb back to Elder Iris, she, on the other hand, seemed quite conflicted about his request.
"We can't protect you on the continent, not as well as here at least."
She gave voice to her complaints as she stored the orb back in her ring.
"The nobles of the Utra nation would be the strongest cultivators of the continent if power could be born in a prison. Instead, a nation constantly at war takes two big nations to be contained. Protection might be what is slowing me down."
Noah answered her, he uncaringly spoke about putting himself in danger on purpose.
Noah knew that he would become strong even if he decided to stay in the archipelago.
However, he was attempting to create his own path, something that even heroic cultivators found difficult.
He couldn't take the safe path when attempting to do something that difficult, he needed to further forge his will under the hardsh.i.p.s that the world put on his way.
It was when she realized how determined Noah was on pursuing that path that Elder Iris gave up on making him change idea.
"I'll arrange everything then. Remember, the main focus of the mission is to create a stable foothold and not to join the battles on that front. This is a long-term plan that would eventually lead us back to the Papral nation but we can't hurry these kinds of things too much, we must look quite harmless or the agreements reached when we won the war won't offer much protection. One elder will oversee your group, it will be your connection with the archipelago so you won't lack your usual stream of resources."
"What about my mansion?"
Noah asked after listening to Elder Iris' arrangements.
"We can handle its transport or you can do the same if you have enough space in your storage device. It was built for you after all, you can do whatever you like with it."
Noah nodded, he wasn't willing to abandon such a good training area because of his reckless intentions.
He then left Elder Iris to her matters, she had to organize the group and to choose an elder for the mission, Noah thought that it was better to leave her alone at that point.
A few days had to pass before he was contacted, the group had been formed and the elder appointed to oversee the mission was a heroic cultivator that belonged to the branch of the Hive once called "Resistance".
Apparently, the elder had volunteered when he heard that a heroic cultivator had to be sent to the continent.
The members of the Resistance had ties with the Shandal Empire, this elder wanted to use the mission to recruit more rebels and send them to the archipelago.
Of course, Noah knew about that only because his status was quite peculiar and it could be said that he agreed with that behavior.
The Coral archipelago had become the perfect land where lone cultivators, criminals, and rebels could escape, the only problem was that it was hard to reach, especially in secret.
Setting specific transport areas for those kinds of cultivators would be beneficial for the human assets of the Hive, the idea of the elder was quickly accepted and authorized by the central power of the archipelago.
Like that, a group of less than a hundred cultivators sailed from the peripheral islands of the archipelago, their destination was the continent!