Well, I was so focused on studying my foundation slabs that I had not noticed it when the lady woke up. (I should not have recorded that. My master is not going to like the fact that I left a scholar unsupervised for even a bit in his palace.) Well, I at least managed to sense her movement as she came out of her room. Well, it was enough time that I find myself getting up in a hurry and tripping. Even as I am recording right now, my face is hurtling to the ground.

  I can feel my face getting red even as I hit the ground. Well, that is going to be embarrassing.

  "Young master Antonio, are you Alright?" The lady asks even as she comes to help me.

  Within a few moments, I find myself standing as she helps me up. I get up, feeling the embarrassment grow. Now is not the time to lose focus.

  "I am fine, my lady. I was just surprised by your sudden appearance." I reply, hoping that my voice sounds much calmer than it actually is. (It is not wise to be flustered in front of a scholar, however pretty she may be.)

  "You seem to be studying your mana core quite intently? Are you studying your foundation slabs?" The lady asks with her serene voice. I can't figure out her intent in asking this.

  Hearing this, I can feel myself get into attention. I have always told you, the curiosity of the scholars is a dangerous thing to deal with.

  "Well, I have never seen anything like this in my life. When I look at my foundation slab, it feels like I have studied the thing for my entire life." I reply.

  "Well, that is going to be the case. The magic that has been used on you has forced you mind to remember every single piece of information in the path." the lady replies. "Now you won't actually be remembering it all, but your mind will try to store as much of it as it can."

  "I realised that." I reply.

  "That means that you are going to have headaches for the next few weeks, on and off. The only solution for that is going to be sleep." She replies. "Other than that, you might have difficulty in remembering things for the next few weeks as well."

  As the lady concludes this, she falls into an awkward silence. The two of us look at each other as I try to think of some way to extend our conversation. The only thing that I can feel is the beginning of a headache forming in my head. Maybe I can just ask her about the headache. Just as I am preparing to open my mouth, the lady finally starts, breaking the awkward silence here.

  "The book is not the only thing that you are meant to get your hands on. It is just an aid meant to ease you into the process of cultivation." The lady starts. "The transfer is a record of all the progress that we have made in the art of creating foundation slabs. You can say that it is half the reward."

  "What else could be there?" I ask as I gesture for her to follow me. I actually don't have an idea of where we are going, but I certainly don't want her to remain for too long in one place here. Who knows what the scholar can learn from the dust on the ground here?

  "Well, you can say that what I am about to tell you is the more important part of the path. Not that anybody seems to agree with us on this point. After all, every person already has a pretty decent idea of cultivating. Most people don't know why they are cultivating." The lady replies. "Answering those questions is a vital point of the process, I say. How will you forge the sharpest sword if you don't know how it cuts?"

  "Well, isn't it obvious why everybody cultivates. It is so that they can store more mana in their core." I reply to her.

  "Well, that is certainly the case, but such an explanation is too simplistic. It certainly won't allow you to cultivate more efficiently." The lady replies. "With the path, we are tasked with explaining to you the history of elven cultivation. That will help you in understanding the structure of a foundation slab."

  The lady replies in a pointed tone.

  "Historical context? Hasn't the foundation stage always existed?" I find myself getting curious.

  "Well, that is certainly not the case. The foundation stage, or something similar to it, has only existed since the rise of the elves. The oldest mention of the foundation stage is with the elves. We are reasonably certain that the elven path did not exist before the elves in any form. That is why it got its name in the first place." She replies with a confident edge to her tone. "We have a clearly documented history of the elves and their cultivation path. We know the names of the people who have invented each of the foundation slabs after the third one. We will get to them soon enough. For now, you just need to know that the foundation stage can be considered to be integral to the Elves. Due to this stage, of theirs has a great amount of documentation."

  "How can that be? Isn't the foundation stage the weakest stage of cultivation? How would that be integral to their strength?" I ask the lady.

  "Well, their magic is certainly legendary, but their enemies had similarly powerful magic. There were dragons, the demihumans, and you certainly can't forget us. Other than that, minor players such as the fairies and the vampires have always existed. We had already gained quite a presence in the north and the west when the elves were ruling the continent." She replies. "The only reason that they held power for so long was due to their legendary mandatory training. Every citizen of the Elven Empire could reach the peak of the foundation due to this training."

  "Mandatory?" I find myself asking.

  Do you know how much time and resources it would take to do something like that? To even reach that stage personally, I would have to devote half a decade at the very least. That is with all the benefits I have. (Granted, I would have made significant progress if I had just focused on it.)

  "It was much easier for the elves to cultivate their own path. The foundation slabs were literally created for the elves." She replies on seeing my confusion. "All the other races created a version of it, but the elves always had it the easiest at making foundation slabs."

  In a way, I can see why this was so important. If the elves had every person in the foundation stage, that would explain quite a bit of their strength. That still raises a question.

  "Haven't the other races pulled something similar to this. The sages are a good example. Only kids tend to be in the foundation stage among them. By the time they grow into their teens, they are in the stage beyond without any training on their part." I ask.

  "Well, the sages are significantly lower in number compared to the elves. While each individual sage is powerful, the elves could drown them in their numbers." the lady replies. "The only race that has a comparable number of cultivators is humans now. Still, at their peak, the elves outnumbered the humans by ten to one."

  Well, I find that hard to believe. Humans might not be the strongest race out there, but we certainly have the most cultivators. To think that a race (even the elves) would be able to outnumber us is quite unbelievable.

  "I will admit that it is hard to believe, my lady." I reply.

  "Well, let us return to the topic then." the lady speaks, annoyance clear in her voice.

  It takes me a while to realise why she is annoyed. She does not want to speak too much on this topic. Well, history is the domain of the scholars. They wouldn't want it shared too widely. (Each nugget of theirs has been acquired with a significant sacrifice on the part of the scholars.)

  "Well, I am meant to explain to you the origin of all the foundation slabs." The lady recites, making sure not to get distracted into revealing anything more. "Of all the slabs, the first three slabs are the easiest for me to explain. That is because we know painfully little of them."

  As she says this, we find ourselves back at the merging room where the transfer had just happened. I invite the lady in as we both take our positions on the table. Even during all of this, she continues speaking.

  "The first three foundation slabs have always existed in the elven tribes. We think it must have existed since its origin." She speaks. "The prevalent theory is that the original elves could make these slabs naturally. Kind of like how a dragon can use dragonfire naturally. A magical spell refined right into their bloodline to boost their mana reserves. Something that every elf could do in their dreams. With time, though, they lost the ability to do this naturally. That is why they had to record the cultivation methods down. It is these that we use as the basis for our own foundation slabs."

  "How could they have lost such an ability?" I ask. "Aren't natural abilities almost impossible to lose?"

  "Well, one popular theory is that it was due to the humans." The lady replies. "The elves intermingled with the humans for entire millennia. They say that near their end, even the royal elves had a human in their lineage. We are not sure of that."

  "How can you not know that? Aren't royalty always proclaiming their lineage to any person that they can find?" I ask that. "The divine right to rule and all of that."

  "Well, among the elves, only pure elves are supposed to rule. Due to that, every elven king has at least two lineages. One that they publish themselves to legitimise their rule. The other thing is that their enemies publish to do the exact opposite." The lady replies, excited at sharing this knowledge. "Neither is completely true, of course. We can estimate the true lineage by combining them, though it is a hit-and-miss process."

  "So how do you combine them?" I ask her, amused to speak with this particularly honest scholar.

  Well, the lady takes on an embarrassed look as she realises what she does.

  "Well, we should return to the topic." The lady mumbles. "So yeah, the first three foundation slabs have always existed in the elv..."

  "That would mean that all of the other slabs have been created by somebody? How do you do something like that?" I ask.

  "Well, I will speak of the other slabs when we get to it. It is not relevant to the history of the first three slabs." The lady replies. "Anyway, we have wasted enough time. Let's get to the point. I'm going to be providing you with a list of documents. These documents will be added to your thought logger once I approve them."

  Even as she says this, the lady points at my thought logger. As she does, runes appear on her hands which flow into the thought logger.

  "The documents that I have given to you are a fraction of the documents that a scholar would be given on the topic. It is enough to give you a working idea on the topic." she says while looking. "You are not allowed to share these documents with anybody who is not authorised to do so."

  She gives me a particularly pointed look at this. Well, there is no chance that it will happen. I can barely get the thought logger working as it is. To be able to transfer logs in that way is significantly beyond my capabilities.

  "You are also not allowed to mention anything present in these documents in your logs. You need to be mindful of your security clearance." The lady says. "These documents will be enough to get you into a lot of trouble. So be careful with them."

  "I will be careful, my lady." I reply. "Though, forgive my curiosity in asking. Why exactly are you providing me with all these documents?"

  "Well, you are asking the wrong person. The upper echelon doesn't usually tend to share many details with me." the lady replies. "All I know is that they are very interested in you."

  Well, I don't ask any more than this. Even this little bit is enough for the lady to look at me with a wary twinkle in her eyes. If I were to push her any more, I realise that it is not going to be very pleasant. Well, the scholars are always a mystery. Not knowing what they want from me is par for the course. Still, it is enough information for now. The scholars are interested in me. The how and why I will be figuring out soon enough.