Lazek looked at his disciple’s leaving figure, but there was a strange look in his eyes. From the list of corpses needed by his disciple, the Fleshcraft Grandmaster had already deduced what his disciple was trying to do.

He sighed. It was not the first time someone had considered using the Tamer Pathway to achieve the human race’s greatest potential.

After all, it is only with the Tamer Pathway that one’s future potential can be somewhat dictated; for the rest of the pathways, an individual’s potential is mostly decided at their birth, or their heritage, maybe even the state of their awakening.

And because of this quirk of the Tamer pathway, many saw it as the only opportunity for a human to reach their highest potential. There were two ways to achieve that potential.

One was to tame the species with the greatest talent and most formidable power, which was obviously the Dragons.

Many rogue and powerful entities throughout history have tried, unmindful of the social backlash of hunting down the divine race or of the possible wrath of the Dragon Church.

Yet, unfortunately, none managed to succeed, because, for one, Dragons lived in the subterranean world; no one knew where the entrance to it was, so it was impossible to see a real dragon in sight on any spot of the world.

And even if one found it, it was likely that one would meet a brutal end at the invincible might of the true dragons.

Lazek sighed as his expression turned bitter; the second method was to create a chimeric Beast with potential and power comparable to a dragon’s.

Even Lazek himself once harbored the dream of it.

To command a chimera even more powerful than a Dragon, as a felshcrafter, it was in his very nature to pursue evolution, an evolution created by his hands, to chase something even beyond the divine race’s status.

But his hopes had been crushed again and again and again.

Despite being the most talented Artificer that has graced the world in a long, long time.

Let alone creating a chimera as powerful as a Dragon.

He couldn’t even get close to the concept of it.

As if the world itself barred the existence of anything else achieving the same status or surpassing the state of the Dragons.

Trying to combine the most powerful traits of various races was in and of itself a nightmare. He could at best combine 3-4 traits, but even the created Beast turns out to be completely unstable.

A far cry from what was actually needed.

And he was not the only one who attempted this; rather, there were records of many powerful past Artificers trying something like this, but all failing at the first or second step of the process.

Even his mighty master, who was one of the three sovereigns of humanity and the Greatest Artificer in the world, even he had failed in this endeavor.

Which was why he wanted to warn Kale to expect eventual failure, but then again it would not be right to try to diminish his disciple’s spirit before Kale even attempted anything.

Not to mention the fact that the sheer amount of talent Kale possessed in the Artificer pathway, despite being a Tamer, was unheard of; it was the first time it had happened in the history of this world.

So, at the back of his mind, Kale’s master had some trace of hope that maybe, just maybe, his disciple might be able to do something.

Something that had never been seen before: Kale would not succeed in his endeavor, Lazek was sure, but the Cursed Tamer could perhaps think of a new way that would open Lazek’s own door forward.

***

Meanwhile, within the third Library of the Association, Kale was given access to higher-level books due to his master’s orders, books he was not privy to beforehand.

Not only that, but due to Kale’s performance before the famed Grandmasters of the Association, many people came to know his name and respect him.

Countless other Apprentices moving through the association would greet him honorably; many would look at him with skepticism, not believing the rumors going around, though Kale himself did not really care much about that.

Instead, it would be right to say that he found it all a bit annoying, given the mounting pressure on his head and the things he needed to do.

Like the flipper freak he was, Kale constantly flipped through the pages like a computer scanning through the documents.

The Librarian stared at Kale with apprehension, especially since he also heard of Kale’s display of incredible knowledge beyond his years and realm of expertise shown in the gathering of Grandmaster Artificers disciples.

Kale was not only imprinting all the knowledge from the books into his memory panel but also taking momentary breaks to consciously actualize it as much as he could.

Because no matter how easy Kale made it look, devouring too much knowledge in too little time still took an immense strain on his mind.

But thanks to his newly advanced state of being an Apprentice, he was able to stretch and endure the spitting pressure on his mind for much, much longer.

From time to time, he asked the Librarian for help in understanding the various topics he could not wrap his head around; even though the Librarian was only a Master-rank Artificer, the man was extremely knowledgeable.

Kale remained there for the duration of the day, until he was done with imprinting all the knowledge.

His head was aching very badly due to him putting his brain under too much strain, so it felt like someone was smashing his head with a crude sledgehammer.

Kale barely managed to get himself to his room in the Apprentice Dorm and fell asleep, not even being able to change his clothes.

***

And the next day, Kale jolted awake in his bed.

His eyes red and still and exhausted, he had slept in an awkward posture, and suddenly he was shocked by the sight in front of him

As the sun’s light streamed through the window, his master Lazek sat in a chair, sipping tea and reading a book leisurely.

"What the f...?" Kale cursed and rubbed his eyelids, thinking that he had seen things wrong.

But the sight in front remianed the same.

He instantly rose from his bed and scowled, "Master, what the hell? Why are you in my room? And how did you even get in?"

Lazek gave him a brief look and said in disappointment, "Your awareness is incredibly pathetic; you tired yourself so badly that you slept like a dead dog."

"And your first question is how I got into the room? I’m a Grandmaster, my disciple; do you think I can’t break a simple door lock?" Lazek asked back with annoyance.

Kale was stunned for a moment, still groggy from sleep; in the end, he frowned, "You didn’t answer my question...."

Lazek closed the book, which disappeared from his hands into his storage device. As he stood up, the man said, "The materials you requested, they are all... ready."