Noah didn't want to pick a defensive item nor a weapon.
He was a maker. He created what he needed, and that ability would increase once he succeeded in his project with the higher energy.
Also, he didn't want to use that chance for something meant to help him survive future threats.
It didn't often happen that he could choose from such a large variety of items, and he didn't want to pick something that was only meant to keep him alive until he reached the divine ranks.
His body already offered him insane survivability, and he would risk relying too much on the divine item. After all, he would use it to take by surprise and kill strong enemies so that he could seize their dantians.
In his mind, it was better to pick something that could improve his growth since that would give him long-term benefits.
Yet, his interest still lingered on three items even after he had cut away many promising weapons and defensive methods from his possible choices. Of the three, two of them were divine items, while the other was something with power in the heroic ranks.
The first one was one of the items that lacked a complete description. It was a complex diagram that seemed capable of producing different effects depending on unclear factors.
Through the years, Shandal had discovered that it needed "Breath" of the darkness element to work, but he had never managed to activate it. The few features that he had recognized came from his knowledge of spells and formations.
According to the will's description, the diagram didn't have an upper limit in its power, but human cultivators would lose their minds if they happened to look at its lines. It was what appeared to be a spell that only heroic cultivators and above could hope to activate.
The second one was another divine item. It was a mirror capable of predicting the outcome of experiments or similar procedures. Noah only needed to place the materials in front of the mirror as he watched his reflection to know if a process would succeed.
The mirror even gave a detailed description of its prediction. That would help a cultivator to point out the mistakes in the procedure and fix them without wasting materials in countless trials.
Noah's ability to create would rise even further if he used the mirror together with the Divine Deduction technique. Still, that item had its limits, especially when it came to atypical inscription methods.
The Elemental Forging was one of the atypical methods, and the mirror couldn't understand it in its entirety. Its results would be slightly imprecise when it came to similar practices, and Noah wasn't sure if using such a miraculous item suited him, especially since his creation would assume different forms once he gained the higher energy.
As for the last one, it was a whiff of dense dark gas that seemed to contain many laws in its fabric.
Shandal had already studied it and confirmed that it was a rare material capable of expressing many different shapes of the "Breath" of the darkness element.
The item would be quite useful to Noah since it could expand his knowledge of the darkness element and give him ideas on how to proceed in his journey. Also, it would be beneficial in his meditations.
All three items were good tools to have in the heroic ranks. Noah could find a worthy usage for each of those resources and gain benefits from all of them.
However, he had to make a choice.
The cultivators had already talked about the division of the resources. The Ghostly Snakes gave them access to two free items, which meant that they had to decide who would get more than one reward.
The group had decided to award Noah and the Hive with the items initially meant for the hybrids.
"Come," Shandal said as he neared Noah, who was still struggling to decide. "Let's talk."
Noah inspected the will for a few seconds before deciding to stand up and follow him the hall where he had discussed the individualities with his companions.
That hall was smaller than the others, and it didn't have any unique item. There were only a bed and a table with a peculiar chessboard that had six sides instead of four.
There were also a series of chess pieces lain on top of it that were divided into three different colors. There was black, white, and gray, but there didn't seem to be anything special about them since they weren't inscribed items.
"There are three major factions in the Immortal Lands," Shandal said as he sat on one of the three chairs around the table and began to reorder the pieces on the odd chessboard.
"You can find the ever-hungry beasts, whose population can't be controlled," Shandal said as he placed the black chess pieces on the board.
"The scattered humans," The will continued as he moved his attention to the white pieces.
"And the lonely hybrids," Shandal began to deploy the grey pieces at that point.
"As far as I know," Shandal continued to speak as he watched the chessboard with a satisfied expression. "Not all humans decide to go against Heaven and Earth. There are a few organizations, but the population up there is too thin to affect the higher plane."
"Who are They?" Noah asked to remind him of the questions that he had dodged earlier.
Shandal shook his head at that question and started to move the pieces in a seemingly random way. Then, he decided to address the matter that he had revealed just a few days ago. "Your existence is even more unique than the others. I couldn't believe it when you used a magical beast to become a hybrid. I didn't even know that something like that was possible."
"Did you keep track of me?" Noah asked with a tinge of surprise in his tone.
"Yes," Shandal replied, "I've been keeping track of you since you appeared in this world."
"Did you ever influence anything?" Noah felt the need to ask since he had to make sure that all his achievements were his.
"No," Shanald said as he resumed moving the pawns. "You needed to find your path. Spoiled cultivators are useless against Heaven and Earth. I must say that you surprised me multiple times, but I had to expect it from someone that has lived two lives."
Noah ignored his words. His previous life didn't influence his current one, and he didn't carry any meaningful information anyway.
"Why did you call me here?" Noah questioned the will after that initial conversation.
"I've learnt to understand the individualities of those surrounding me after spending countless years seeing cultivators rise and all," Shandal. "Yours is vast, incredibly vast. I don't think I've ever seen someone else so driven and ambitious. However, are you sure that you can elevate it to the divine ranks?"