A Harsh Master

"This…" just seeing the state William ended up at gave Ellina a big scare. She instantly cancelled her useless shield and appeared next to his side, supporting his body with her strong arm.

"T… Thanks…" William was so tired to speak properly at this moment. During the past five minutes, he truly went overboard and pushed his body beyond its limits.

"Here," Ellina took out a yellow bottle and handed it over to William, "this is the spirit breath, one of the best potions in recovering one's spirit and cleanse fatigue."

"Thanks," William couldn't refuse such a precious thing from her. As far as he knew, the price of such a bottle was at least ten thousand spirit crystals! And it was even smaller than this one.

Just taking a sip of that potion made him feel instantly refreshed. Few drops were enough to restore his exhausted strength. After all, William was still a weak spirit master to begin with.

Besides, William didn't want to deplete all this precious potion in one go. He intended to keep a few drops left for his future adventure.

"I have to admit," Ellina honestly said, "that master of yours is really a genius! But she is also a harsh one!"

William wanted to bitterly laugh, but he controlled himself. If this was considered harsh, then what Ellina would call the inhuman training of his master back then?

"Thanks for this," William said in honest gratitude while motioning towards the potion she gifted him with.

"It's nothing, I just want to see what you will do in the end," Ellina waved her hand before she stood on the side and didn't move.

This potion might seem priceless to someone like William, but to Ellina it was indeed nothing.

"Won't you get back there?" William pointed at the spot where Ellina stood before. But Ellina shook her head.

"I'm now trusting what you said... You won't throw your life simply like that," she firmly said while her main goal was to be closer and attentively watch the innovative things that William was doing here.

She didn't want to miss a single thing he did, and from this experience she might even try and replicate everything later on.

William already saw through her intentions, but he didn't stop her. She already vowed to keep the secrets she saw here to herself. Besides, she already paid enough price to get such a privilege using this potion.

As his strength replenished, he returned to repeat the same process again and again. The drawbacks of this method weren't only limited to the exhaustion it brought to his body, but also the time it consumed.

William was only able to deal with a single ore once every five minutes. He also needed at least a couple of minutes to consume few drops of the potion and rest.

With the presence of the breath of spirit potion, he got a little courageous and exerted more force and got this time shortened by half. But it wasn't enough.

He took over fifteen hours to finish this hard task. During this time, the sky outside dimmed, and night fell, but neither did he stop, nor Ellina left.

She kept watching his moves without even blinking during the first hour. The more she watched, the more she admired William and his mysterious master.

'So, he is using the percussion caused by the hammer to eliminate the impurities off… Using vibrations to cleanse such berserk ores without triggering the energy inside… Brilliant! Why didn't I think about using the same method before?'

She kept thinking about giving it a try and using the same way to cleanse the vibrant ores. However, when she thought about being inexperienced in such moves, she refrained from doing so.

And like that she decided to continue watching and learning, mimicking William's actions in her mind to better engrave them to her memory.

In time she got hungry, she sent for a disciple to bring a fancy meal that would be enough for five people.

William refused to eat until he finished this task. He was absorbed in the process. He feared losing his focus if he stopped. So, he pushed himself and kept going.

His fatigue was already cleansed away by the potion. His strength was restored as well. But his body still needed to eat, and his mind couldn't recover from the mental exhaustion of constantly focusing like his body. Just a few hours before he stopped, his stomach started to ache and make weird sounds from time to time. As for his mind, he felt an annoying headache, like his head got opened by a brutal axe or something.

"Phew, I'm done," as he finally cleansed the last piece, he stopped and drank a few drops to replenish his strength. When he noticed the darkness outside, he couldn't help but feel a little weird.

Just now he realised that Ellina stayed all this time by his side without moving an inch. This meant she remained here for over fifteen hours!

'Doesn't she have anything else to do or what?' William thought to himself before Ellina pointed at a new wooden table that her disciple brought.

"Come, let's eat."

"Thanks," once he saw the food, all the hunger he had suppressed exploded without control. Without acting polite, he went and sat on the opposite side of Ellina before gulping food like a monster.

"Hahaha, easy, or you'll get yourself choked, hahaha!" Seeing him like that made Ellina's mood better. Just as this moment William returned to the little eleven years old kid, and that mysterious air he emitted during his forging process vanished without a trace.

Ellina might have bought the story of the mysterious master, but who said reading a book was enough to become an expert?

One had to be talented, and that wasn't enough. Constant training over these skills and techniques was also required. So even if William had a formidable master like he claimed, then that master also had a scary disciple to execute such skills in such precision.

"I can't believe you are only eleven years old," after asking about his age, Ellina couldn't help but express her surprise. "I see you are a porter, why not quit this useless job and join us here?"

In her eyes such talent would be left to dust and be wasted if William continued to be a porter. William didn't stop eating while answering her with full mouth:

"I will, but not now."

"Why?"

William kept eating as he felt his headache and hunger were cleansed clean with food.

"It's my master's wish," William shrugged and put a helpless look on his face as if this was out of his ability to decide.

"Sigh, that master of yours… I can't criticise her, but her methods are really strange," Ellina couldn't believe that a master would force her disciple to work in such a low job when he could shine and live a life of kings in the Forging Department.

But if William surprised her for his abilities, then she was sure his master must be something else. How could she say anything about such a master's teachings?