The ship that we are travelling on at this moment is called as the "gentle sword" and it used to be a sledder. Well, to put it precisely it used to be the sledder that was gifted to us by cloak.

Right now, my master is in the process of ripping apart every single inch of the ship and replacing it with the formations that you would find in an airship.

Even now the man is running about the ship cutting it open in a way that would make the shipyards down south have nightmares.

Well, the man has probably built more airships than what one of those shipyards can output in an year. I am sure that he must know what exactly he is doing here.

The keyword here is probably. After all, I do not even know why my master has the audacity of claiming that he could convert it into an airship. Airship building is an old and complicated discipline.

On top of that, the damn bastard is trying to modify the airship while the damn thing is still moving. Every time the ship lurches, I can feel my heart plummet to the ground. (Thankfully not literally or my heart would have actually failed.)

I am sure that the bastard would be able to pick me up before the ship was even falling, but it is the principle of the thing. The scariest thing that the pilot of a ship can feel is a ship sinking.

This fear of mine is another reason that he has locked me in this room.

Turns out that I am a bit too nosy for my master's taste and that I really should stop trying to learn stuff that were out of my league. (I didn't even do anything. I was just studying a few of the runes that he had made.)

Anyway, how the fuck am I the careless one when my master is the one that is modifying a running airship. I mean, I could have accepted if the ship was on the ground at least.

On top of that, how the fuck did he even get the damn thing working. He has locked me in this room for about half a day. In that half a day he has somehow managed to change the shape of the ship itself.

Within half a day, the man managed to convert the sledder into a ship. How the fuck does a man do that. I have to strike the ship with my full force to even be able to cause a dent to appear on it and my master managed to do very precise carpentery on it with his bare hands. (My master is not the kind to lug around a lot of tools with him.)

It is with things like this that I realise the power difference between me and my master. Like, I know he is supposed to be powerful but my master is very careful in controlling his power, especially around me.

I wonder why he does that. It is not like seeing him at his full power will harm me. If anything it will only motivate me more to achieve his level of strength.

That is what the soldiers at the legion do to motivate their disciples. If anything, the soldiers like to showcase their power every possible opportunity that they get. It is almost a wonder that the hex mountain is not levelled with some of the things that they like to do.

Regardless, my master has been very careful in showing his power to me. If anything, it is almost like the man is scared that he will do irreparable damage to his surroundings.

Whether that is the truth or not, it is the truth that my master does not like me to grow stronger. The man has completely restricted all knowledge of cultivation from me.

I have not even heard of the stages beyond the foundation stage even in the boasting of the legioners. It is almost like the moment that they hear the word cultivation come from my mouth, they lose all of their confidence.

It is not like I have tried. I have tried almost every trick that I know. I have tried to threaten people into revealing it to me. I have tried to trick people into revealing it to me. I have tried to beg people into revealing it to me.

The weaker ones begin to panic, as if I have tried to kill them somehow. Most of them end up either making me leave whatever room we are in or leave it themselves. The stronger ones look at me with pity and all just advice me to go and ask my master.

How exactly my master has managed to intimidate all of the hex mountain, don't ask me. The man has his means (most of which I have never seen clearly.)

I had hoped that I would be able to find something about it in the snowwind empire but the instant that I got access to the markets of that place, it was clear that I would be finding nothing useful there.

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While they were certainly selling spells and cultivation methods related to their draconic path, it had nothing to do with mine. (They were putting those at such high prices anyway, that I would not have been able to buy it.)

The path that I follow, as I mentioned earlier is the elven path and the only people that have any idea of the cultivation of this path is the elves. Now that there are no elves, their path has been derived in its entirety from their ancient ruins.

Since it is related to magical ruins, you can say with absolute certainty who has a monopoly over it and my master has done a very good job of making sure that I will learn nothing over there.

Therefore, right now there is no place in the continent where I can bother to try and learn about the steps beyond the foundation stage. That is why, every bit of my focus has been on trying to build a class seven formation, after which my master will finally stop this ban on the knowledge. If only building a class seven formation was easy.

Anyways, there has been enough complaining from my side. It is not like I will be able to do anything until my master let's me out of this room.

Anyways, it would do me good to rest. My body is aching all over and my head still feels like a well used anvil but I have not slept as well for what feels like a few years. All of this is the side effects of the death trance.

I do wonder why the legion speak of this experience as if it is something divine. The only thing that I can say about it is it is quite a crappy experience. I won't say anything beyond since the legion tends to be quite sensitive about this. It is supposed to be a matter of pride that you have experienced the death trance among the legion, you know. They boast about it.

Still, even before the death trance there was always a pressure and a stress that I did not even notice until I stopped experiencing it. There was a while even in this crappy time when the pressure of my work did not threaten to overwhelm me. That was when I had completed the formation. Even that was snatched from me almost the instant that I completed it.

Now that I am left without the pressure, I realise just how crazy the things that I have done actually are and how exhausting they are.

(After a day.)

Right now I am in the formation room to the gentle sword and the only thing that I can tell about the ship is just how much the damn place has changed in a matter of a couple days.

My master has managed to change the shape of the entire ship and the first thing he as done is throw away all the cushions.

Right now he is standing in front of me, messing with one of the sensory formations I think.

"Well, you really should learn to act a bit more natural while recording that log of yours.", my master speaks. "I can tell without looking at you that you are recording."

"I am in the process of learning exactly that. What can I do if my mastery of the magic is bad.", I reply.

"Well, it would still be wise to manage that now. Not everybody will take your recording at the face like I do.", he speaks. "Anyway, your skill at mind magic is not why I have called you here. I have called you for three things mainly. First is that I am gifting this ship to you."

"This ship?", he asks.

"Well, what other reason do you think that I would have to spend the last couple of days to work on it. I have been working my ass off to give you the best ship here.", he speaks. "You are my disciple after all. Anyways, the ship is both a gift to you and a challenge."

"Well, I did not expect anything else. you need not worry.", I reply. "You are not one to give gifts."

"Well, this challenge is something that you are going to enjoy.", he speaks. "After all, if you complete this challenge you will get your hands on the knowledge beyond the foundation stage. The challenge is simple kid, I will be leaving an incomplete formation on this ship. Complete it and I will provide you with what you need."

"Wait a second, is it going to be a class seven formation?", I ask.

"Well, how do I put it, it is going to be a class six formation.", my master replies. "That is why you only need to achieve minor completion of the formation to get your reward."

"You bastard, I can't complete a class seven formation and you want me to complete ten of them.", I scream at the man. (Inscribing the ten spells into the formation is called as the minor completion of the formation. I can't believe I forgot to mention that.)

"Well, it is a bit insensitive but that is only because you do not know of the ability of the formation I have left.", he replies. "It will be worth your effort, you brat."

"Fine, go on.", I reply.

"Well, the material of this ship is a druidic material known as heartwood. It is a pretty precious material and that is due to a single ability that it has.", he speaks. "It is called as memory regeneration. Once this ability of heartwood is activated, then anything made of it will not be able to lose its shape. For example, a sword made of heartwood will never lose it's edge. You could break that sword into two and the sword will regenerate to it's proper shape."

"And this formation of yours, will it be able to activate that ability of the ship?", I ask.

"Something like that.", he replies. "That is something that you are better off trying to figure out on your own. Words won't do this justice. As for the formation itself. I will leave you with all of my notes on it. I am sure that you won't have a particularly hard time with it."

"Fine, what is the second thing then.", I reply, I have discovered that there is no use arguing with my master on certain matters.

"Well, that is going to be a bit more harder to tell you. You will have to swear to me that you won't lose control.", he speaks.

"What did you do now, you old bastard.", I speak, my master doesn't take that tone unless he has seriously ended up screwing up something.

"Should you really be taking that tone with your master, you little brat. You don't even know what I have done.", my master speaks. "Well, it is tradition. My master has done it for me. His master for him."

"Just out with it.", I snap at the man.

"Well, I might have had to destroy every single formation of yours except your sword.", the man speaks.

The world blacks out around me as I find myself swinging a fist at my master.