Right now, my head is pounding as if somebody is hitting it with a hammer. I can feel the blood trickle from my nose like a tiny stream. I can feel my head take on the quality of a chewing gum stretched for too long. My thoughts are forming so slowly that it feels like I am moving through a swamp. I can feel the start of a headache that is not going to leave me for a few weeks at least.

  All of this is due to that damn book in front of me. If I could move, I would have burned that book to ashes. Well, I won't be getting to do that. The book has already begun to collapse back into individual runes. It disappears into motes of light even as I am recording.

  I guess that I should first explain what opening that book even felt like. Well, it is certainly one of the more unique things that I have felt in my life.

  The moment that I opened that book, it felt as if all the words in the book began to flow into my head. It took me a moment to realise that these were thoughts, much like the thoughts I am recording right now. The unique thing about these thoughts is that they are recording cultivation.

  They are thoughts of people making their first, second and third foundation slab. It is like a collage of cultivation from the first rune to the last rune. Except in this case, it is not just a single thought.

  How do I describe how it felt? Well, think of it like a thousand people screaming in your head. I can hear the thoughts of thousands of people as they form the runes needed to make a slab. Only if they were all actually screaming, I would hear it as a garbled mess. I would hear maybe one or two voices in this mess. Even that should have been a big if.

  Nothing like that happened here. I could see every rune made by every person as if I were standing next to them. Even when my head felt like it was ready to explode from everything that I saw, it continued. Like a hammer striking a metal, each rune penetrated my head.

  It did not stop until every rune that was present in the book entered my head. Each rune meant to make the foundation slab repeated thousands of times in my head. Every possible variation of a rune that could have existed is repeated multiple times. Each possible mistake that could be made with every rune is repeated in my head like a sore tooth.

  There is so much information that I am already beginning to forget all of the runes formed in my head. Well, forgetting would be the wrong word. I can feel these memories in my head slipping into the unconscious. I know that if I could make the first three slabs again, I would be able to make them significantly better.

  Even thinking about my creation of the slabs, I can think of every mistake that I have made in making them. I turn my attention inwards as I look at the three completed slabs in my mana core. Even as I do so, I feel like I can understand the structure of these slabs better.

  Every flaw in the design, every rune made at the wrong moment, I can now tell. I rushed quite a bit with a few of the runes, especially the third slab. I can tell that I could have significantly improved the slabs if I had made them now.

  Well, I can't really avoid the most glaring flaw in my foundation slab. I can tell that I have destroyed quite a bit of the structure of the slab to make my linking formation to the sword. The damage is enough that the slab should be collapsing right now. I can tell that the integrity of the slab should have been completely compromised. My mana core should be a ticking time bomb at this moment.

  I can tell that the only reason that slab is still fine is due to the linking spell itself. The linking spell has somehow managed to stop the collapse of the slab. I can't say for certain, but I think that it has managed to repair the slab a bit, too.

  Even as I am studying this, I can't help but marvel at my master's creativity. The spell might look simple, but it is not. I was sure that I had finally managed to get a grip on the spell. I had even actually thought that I was getting good at it. Now I realise that I don't know anything about what's happening inside my mana core.

  Looking at the core now, I realise that I have barely scratched the surface with the linking spell. The thing is infinitely more complex than it looks.

  Even as I study the three complete slabs, I can think of ways in which the damage of linking can be reduced. It won't be down to zero per cent, of course. After all, I am damaging my own mana core, regardless of what I do. Still, I will be able to reduce the damage by fifty to seventy per cent now.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Well, I will have to study the slabs a bit more, but I will leave that for later. After all, there is a lady out there that I have been ignoring for now. The lady in front of me looks like she has been running from the northern tip of the continent to the southern tip. She is gulping air as if she wants to devour all the air in this place.

  "How did you do that?" I find myself asking her. "Isn't it supposed to be impossible for anybody to record their cultivation process? All of those thoughts were recorded on a thought logger."

  Well, using the thought logger means that you need to split a bit of your attention to it. That is why it is impossible to record things that require our full focus (like cultivation) on a thought logger.

  I stare at the lady, trying to will her into answering my question. Knowing the scho.....

  "Well, it is impossible for you to want to activate your thought logger while cultivating. That is like trying to go to sleep and eat at the same time." The lady replies. "The keyword to this being being wantedly. People can become so used to using their thought logger that they can activate it without thinking, even at their full focu...."

  "So you basically waited for people to accidentally activate their thought logger. Then you compiled them all together. Still, that doesn't explain why you showed all of them at the same time. Wouldn't it have been better to show them separately?" I reply, a bit annoyed at that happening. "I am already starting to forget everything that I saw in there."

  "Just because they have activated their thought loggers doesn't mean that they can maintain it, Antonio." The lady replies, similarly getting annoyed. "The thought logger is only active for the duration of a single rune or two, before it shuts down."

  "So that means......." I start.

  "That means that what you are hearing is tens of thousands of people recording their cultivation." The lady speaks, a hint of pride appearing on her face. "All stitched together by me in such a way that you thought it was only thousands of people."

  Even as she is saying this, the lady realises that she has spoken more than she was supposed to. These are the secrets of the scholars. Things that they certainly don't want the formation corps to know.

  "Well, it certainly seems to be a grand little undertaking", I say, hoping that the lady might reveal a few more things. It is very rare for scholars to be this open. "Well, if you could show me any of the slabs, you could have shown the fourth first, couldn't you? I have already built my first three slabs."

  "Well, that was originally the plan. To show you the building process for the fourth and fifth slabs. Yet your master was particularly insistent that you see the first three slabs. Something about the atrocity that you have done to your second slab." The lady replies, a look of concern on her face. "You do realise that you are not supposed to mess with your foundation slabs once you have made them."

  "Oh, certainly, my lady." I find myself asking, taking care not to spark her curiosity. The linking spell is clearly very important to my master. That means that it will be important to the scholars as well. "When will you be able to show me how to make the fourth slab?"

  "Well, not any time soon, young master. I need to prepare for the mission as well." She replies.

  Well, she certainly will not be able to pull this off any time soon. The lady looks like she has exhausted all of her mana in creating the book. Well, I have never seen magic as complicated as the magic that the lady just cast. Well, it is the first time that I have scholars struggle with a piece of magic.

  Right now, she looks as exhausted as I would look if you made me inscribe class eight formation from scratch. The lady has collapsed on the ground as if she cannot stand anymore. Fuck, I think as I quickly help the lady get up. Even with my help, there is an unsteady quality to her movement.

  "Is there anywhere that I will be able to rest?" The lady asks.

  "Certainly, my lady, I had a room ready for you. That is where I am taking you right now." I reply as I take her to the guest room.

  The guest room is one of the least-used rooms in this building. My master never has visitors. The only time he has visitors is usually when he has found teachers for me. That is why the duty of cleaning that room always falls on me.

  I have been spending most of yesterday cleaning the room of all cobwebs and dust. Now I wonder if my work was thorough enough. I admit that I might have been a bit lax in my work.

  Well, in my defence, I was a bit busy yesterday. I have finally fixed a formation for my offensive formation. I was busy making detailed notes on the formation and the spells used to make it. I really should speak about that one of these days.

  Well, there is no use thinking about it. I have already brought the lady to the place. Opening the door, we enter a cosy little room. It is pretty small, with barely enough space for a table and a bed. It is comfortable enough for a single person, I guess. It is a bit on the simple side, if I am honest.

  Guest rooms usually tend to be much grander than this. By the way, as I am recording this, I have been depositing the lady onto her bed. She has fallen unconscious by the way.

  Now that leaves me in a dilemma. After all, I can't exactly leave a scholar unguarded in my master's palace. That would be like handing them a treasure chest. At the same time, I can't exactly remain in the room with her. I don't think that would be right.

  Well, I quickly leave the room, standing outside the room. I will be able to make use of my mana sense to sense any movement that she makes in there. (At the same time, ensuring her privacy.) She can still evade my mana sense, but it is very unlikely.

  More importantly, this will give me the time to finally do what I wanted to do ever since I touched that book. That would be to study my foundation slabs. Well, I won't be entering into meditation, of course. (I have to keep an eye on the lady after all.) Still, I will be able to fully see the benefits of what I have just gone through now.