Dreaming Demon's question hinted something that Noah didn't fail to understand.
The sixth Kesier rune was a rank 6 item even if rank 5 mages used it.
Its rarity was akin to rank 6 techniques and methods, which meant that there couldn't possibly be many copies of it in the Mortal Lands.
However, Chasing Demon was a complete rank 6 cultivator, so Noah was reasonably sure that he had it.
"Ten?" Noah tried to answer, but Flying Demon's snort made him understand that he was quite off from the truth.
Dreaming Demon decided to explain. "Fourth Kesier runes are quite common in the world because there are many experts able to copy them. Yet there are less than a hundred copies of the fifth Kesier rune around, and maybe five of the sixth one."
Noah couldn't help but be surprised when he heard those words.
Still, he was able to understand the reasoning behind that explanation.
Every organization that wanted to strive for power wanted the fourth Kesier runes to nurture their human assets.
So, they would just invest a lot of resources to purchase copies and build a vast stash of them.
There weren't many experts in the inscriptions' fields able to copy an item in the fourth rank, but even that small number was enough to supply the most powerful organizations.
Of course, that changed as the rank of the item rose.
Only experts in the fifth rank specialized in that field could copy the fifth Kesier rune, and most of them were busy striving for the higher ranks.
After all, why would they use their time to create training methods that only other cultivators could use?
There had been the necessity to do that during the worldwide hunt of the Kesier species.
Still, that had happened far in the past, and the organizations that had witnessed that event had long disappeared.
Copying the Kesier runes was considered a lost art since they weren't a necessity back then.
However, many millennia had gone by, and the number of sheets in the world had inevitably decreased.
Some cultivators would just carry them when they ascended in the higher plane, but most of them had simply been lost in the various danger zones or on some battlefields.
That led to the current situation where the available Kesier runes weren't enough to satisfy the high number of cultivators.
"When did you obtain the fifth Kesier rune?" Noah asked the two Demons when he understood how harsh the situation was.
"Rather quickly. After all, the demon sects were one of the ruling forces of the Papral nation back then. Yet, it still took me sixty years to become a rank 5 mage." Flying Demon answered before moving his gaze toward his lover.
Dreaming Demon smiled before answering. "I had to work on my individuality for a while before focusing on my sea of consciousness. I reached the fifth rank in forty years, but I was already a rank 5 cultivator by then."
Flying Demon showed a proud expression at her words, but Noah could only fall deep in thought at that point.
He knew that cultivators trained their minds for last, which always put them decades behind the rank of their dantians.
Yet, he had needed less than thirty years to reach that level!
The reasons for that achievement were apparent in his mind.
His cultivation technique was the most evident reason apart from the incredible sturdiness of his mind and his early advantage.
Noah didn't need to spend time focused on absorbing "Breath", which allowed him to focus solely on his mind.
Also, he spent his days pushing his mental sphere to its limits even after he was done with the Kesier rune.
The constant usage of the Divine deduction technique, his experiments with the inscription methods, the translation of his spells, and the devouring ability of his mental energy pushed his training speed to unseen limits.
He was spending every second of his life enlarging his mind!
Ordinary cultivators would divide their days between the training of their centers of power and would even neglect their minds, but Noah was the total opposite.
"Sixty years, rank 5 mage. Prince, there are no words to describe this achievement." Dreaming Demon added when she saw that Noah had fallen silent.
Noah simply ignored her compliment and brought the discussion back on the previous topic. "So, who has the sixth Kesier rune?"
"Chasing Demon has managed to salvage the one in possession of the demon sects during the escape thanks to Charming Demon. However, the rank 5 mages of the Hive are already sharing it. They exchange turns every year." Flying Demon explained the helpless situation, but he decided to add something else when he saw Noah's confused expression. "We are waiting for the previous cycle to be completed before claiming some rights over it. Meanwhile, we'll keep on using our alternative methods."
Noah's morale could only turn sour when he heard those words.
The Hive had seven rank 5 cultivators, and Noah would have to wait years for his turn even if some of them were still rank 4 mages.
That was troublesome, especially for him, since his mind had always been a core part of his superior battle prowess.
Also, his Demonic form spell used the Kesier runes.
Learning about the state of the Mortal Lands though made him wonder about another aspect of that field that he had never considered before.
Noah asked. "What about the seventh Kesier rune? How does a cultivator reach divinity without it?"
The two Demons could only shake their heads at that question.
The seventh Kesier rune was a divine item, which meant that it couldn't exist in the Mortal Lands.
The elders didn't need to explain that detail since it was an obvious conclusion once learnt about the scarcity of those items.
Silence fell in the area at that point.
The joy felt for Noah's breakthrough slowly turned into helplessness toward the lack of resources of the world.
However, cultivators were resilient beings.
The Kesier runes weren't the only training method for the seas of consciousness, and Noah knew that too well.
'I might not reach the same enlargement speed given by the runes, but I can stay very close to it with my many methods. I'm not ready to give up to my advantage yet!' Noah thought as the air around him fell apart as a natural reaction to the determination that his aura radiated.
"Notify the Hive. I want my turn too. Meanwhile, our role remains the same: Destabilizing the Utra nation. Study the reaction of the nobles and prepare more tunnels for specific locations. We will attack the Balvan family next if the situation allows it." He ordered.
The elders nodded when they heard him.
They knew how important that matter was to him, so they were set on preparing the field for his vengeance.
Meanwhile, Noah simply closed his eyes to focus on his body.
His mind had finally started to understand the kind of entity that he had become when he came out of the chrysalis.