The experiments continued. Thirty-seven and Flying Demon worked on improving the formation, while Noah kept on perfecting the fake Bloodline Inheritances and studying the next steps.
A series of buildings soon appeared next to the mansion. They were reinforced quarters that used part of the knowledge behind the Copying technique to restrain the creatures needed for the experiments.
Those creatures weren't only ordinary magical beasts. The Hive had delivered even hybrids of various kinds as a way to invest in the promising project unfolding in the separate dimension.
Noah didn't need to hunt worm-type beasts anymore once the Hive became involved. The heroic assets on the surface would take care of gathering the blood and the brains of those creatures and deliver them to the mansion so that he could wholeheartedly focus on the experiments.
As time passed, the need for a terminology became evident since the fake Bloodline Inheritances obtained different features according to the quality of the will that they contained.
Noah named them Beast Cores, and their power followed the same classification as the bodies of the magical beasts. However, that was only the basic feature of those items. Their real power was in the type of will that they contained.
Depending on the amount of awareness that the will had, Noah classified the Beast Cores into three categories: wild, clouded, and conscious. The wills of ordinary magical beasts would fall into the first category. Yet, those of the hybrids could end up in all three of them. That depended on the level of intelligence that they kept after being contained inside the fake Bloodline Inheritances.
Noah predicted that wild Beast Cores would be easier to control once turned into a living weapon, but they would also have limits since their lack of intelligence would prevent them from adapting to their new bodies.
On the other hand, conscious Beast Cores would learn how to use the living weapons to their full potential, and they could even surpass the limits of their level once paired with the "Breath" of a cultivator.
As for the clouded Beast Cores, the wills inside them were still confused, but they had a chance of becoming conscious since they came from hybrids.
The production of Beast Cores became more streamlined eventually. Noah would only take care of forging fake Bloodline Inheritances, while Flying Demon and Thirty-seven handled the imitation of the Body-inscription spell.
Flying Demon was more than capable of submitting creatures in the fourth rank.
They even approached the creation of Beast Cores in the fifth rank even if only in a limited number since it was hard to find and hunt worm-type creatures at that level. Also, they needed the wills of a rank 5 beast too, which made the creation of their stronger version quite troublesome.
That was expected though. No one would be so deluded to think that they could mass-produce living weapons in the fifth rank.
Those limits depended on Noah's skill too. At his current level of expertise, the Beast Cores with power in the lower tier of the fifth rank were the best that he could achieve.
It took almost three years before Noah, and the others were almost ready to start the actual construction of the living weapons with all the Beast Cores created in that period.
The Elbas family had summoned June some time before Noah declared the experiments with the Beast Cores over. The Royals requested her presence in a political event aimed to solidify the new noble families.
It seemed something that often occurred among the powers that had a fragmented political system, and the Elbas family didn't want to soften its control over the other nobles now that it was busy with its research. Even with oaths binding them, the nobles still needed to see the wills of their leaders, especially in that particular historical period.
Noah and June had to separate, but they both knew that it wouldn't be for long. Even if they still kept their relationship a secret from the other forces, June's home was the mansion inside the separate dimension now. She would return there once she dealt with that political event.
Of course, she left behind the studies provided by Thirty-seven. She had memorized them already, and she would only risk to expose herself if she reviewed them in public. There was no point in carrying them along.
The next phase of the experimentation began, and it quickly led to countless failures. It was time to turn the Beast Cores into actual weapons, but that meant modifying specific body parts of the magical beasts so that they could become different living beings.
Noah had already done far more than that. He had created life from inanimate objects even if he had to pour his individuality inside it and was under the peculiar mental state reached during the transformation.
Yet, he was trying a different approach now, one that would eventually have set rules and requirements. He was creating a new field in the inscription methods, a school that had never managed to succeed.
Noah tore the lungs of fire-breathing wolves, the venom glands of threatening snakes, the feathers of flying beasts able to create wind slashes, and much more. He was basically seizing the organs that allowed such creatures to attack.
Then, he would fuse them with other materials to improve their effectiveness and durability, adding useful features when the body parts allowed substantial modifications.
The other experts of the Hive couldn't help him in that process. The Elemental Forging method was the best when it came to fusing different materials, and he was the only expert in that field. Thirty-seven though stuck with him and used his immense knowledge to suggest materials that were a better match for specific body parts.
Noah had initially planned to create something similar to a Liquid Dantian and fuse it with the body parts to create a complete living being, but he quickly gave up on that idea.
The experiments would only take longer in that case, and giving a dantian to a living weapon was akin to giving it a chance to rebel. Without that center of power, the might of the weapon would be fixed, but it would also be easier to control.
Once Noah succeeded in the modifications, he had to fuse Beast Cores with his creations, matching their level of power and aptitudes to avoid any form of rejection.
Noah and Thirty-seven saw countless Beast Cores falling apart as the fusions failed, or the products were unable to remain alive. They both expected that though, so they simply kept going until Noah managed to forge something stable.
An eagle's scream resounded in an open area of the separate dimension.
The automaton and Noah stared at a fan made of shining gray feathers held together by a series of white strings that helped to spread energy through the surface of the weapon.
Noah quickly grabbed the fan and used the primary energy inside his spherical runes to fuel the weapon that suddenly released a series of wind slashes.