A group of dwarves gathered around a large table, they often sat and drank after a long day of work and recently got into the conversations about Koren.

"How is de boy doin?" Airgror asked as he looked towards a tanned dwarf who was soaked in sweat.

"Ah, 'e's stell goin!" he responded as he chugged a large cup of beer and ended with a satisfied smile.

"its been 8 'ooehrs why is 'e stell doin it?"

They all shrugged, clearly not knowing why, but one dwarf did know why.

"'e said 'e wants us to teach 'im 'ow to use an axe!" the dwarf had a heavy smile on and was clearly drunk.

They all began to start laughing heavily.

"why dednt 'e just ask us we can teach 'em fahr free!" Airgror exclaimed, they all nodded in agreement

"Well go get 'im!" he motioned towards the same sweaty dwarf who angrily walked away.

A few minutes passed and the dwarf returned with Koren who looked unrecognizable from a week ago. His original pale skin was replaced with healthy tanned skin, his biceps looked much larger and his posture was undeniably straighter than it has ever been.

"I 'eard you want to know 'ow to use an axe like a dwarf!" Airgror asked Koren menacingly, but one could tell he was asking with good intentions.

Koren quickly nodded which brought a satisfied smile to Airgror's face.

"Good, good!" He roared, the other dwarves joined in, Koren who had been hearing the dwarves yells for the past week was slightly immune to the noise, however, he couldn't help but flinch from the sudden yells.

"Now me boy, we start today!" Airgror yelled as he led Koren into a large room he had not been in before. It was mostly empty however it was lined with axes of different shapes and different sizes.

Koren took out his black axe that he had gotten from the academy a while ago and started to twirl it in his fingers.

Airgror's normal happy and energetic expression had been replaced with a look of surprise as he gazed on Koren's weapon.

"it seems you 'ave already gahtten a mighty fine axe, dwarven made too!" He exclaimed as he began to examine Koren's axe.

"Hmm, it seems you 'aven't been usin it at its foehll potential."

"Have I done something wrong?" Koren asked nervously

Airgror shook his head violently

"No you 'aven't dahne anythin wrong, it seems to 'ave its potential purposely locked by its creatahr."

"Huh?"

"Dwarven blacksmiths ar' selfish buggers, dey often make incredeble weapons baht lack their full pahtential so dat in due time de weapahn'll fend a user who unlocks its true power."

Airgror's explanation brought some ease to Koren's heart and also made him excited for what the future holds for his weapon. As he tightly held onto his weapon, he looked up slightly to meet Airgror's eyes.

"Now, dwarves are extremely short and are incredebly strong, you are neither each meanin I can't teach you nahrmal dwarf axe combat."

Koren's eyes that burned with expectation and excitement were immediately extinguished with the cold truths of reality, however, Airgror was not done talking.

"'owever, i can teach you one din."

Airgror held up his battle axe with his right, a bright blue light enveloped the axe lighting up the dim room. He slashed left with the axe which made the air look as if it was being cut through. A loud sound erupted from the sudden movement to which Koren could only react with a gasp.

"H-How did you do that?" Koren stuttered, he had tried this out with his axe multiple times but the mana could never condense onto the axe.

Airgror chucked

"This is what I will teach you, however, this skill isn't easy."

Koren nodded, reminiscing the first time he learned how to use mana string.

"Our cahmbat is strectly based off o' usin our great strength, this is why you don't see us doin spells."

He continued after a long pause

"When we use mana for this skill we use large amounts, but we conserve it over large periods of time."

Aigror continued to speak but his thick accent was quite hard to understand. Koren however was getting most of what he was saying.

"So you're saying that you insert mana into the axe and create something similar to a cycle of mana to where you reuse the mana."

"Exactly!" Airgror exclaimed

Dwarves were usually underestimated when it came to their knowledge and imagination, but they often excelled in these aspects better than any human or elf.

Airgror soon left to sleep leaving Koren with a new skill to learn.

*

Inside of the ship's supplies area, a group of people were seated, diligently working in their own areas, no one daring to make any noise to mess someone's concentration.

"How are the runes going Cert?" a woman asked quietly, not turning to face the large man known as Cert.

"Fine Emilia, I'll be done in a week." his voice was filled with malice and annoyance which was nothing different from normal.

"Hmm, how about you Fras?"

"Ah, I don't care I need to take a shit!" He complained, regretting his dietary choices from the night before.

"Just do it in the box!" Emilia responded, slightly disgusted by his straightforwardness.

"Ah, I want to use a toilet, A TOILET!"

"Oh, shut up you disgusting- AHH!" Emilia unexpectedly screamed which warranted the rest of the group's attention. Out of nowhere appeared a large hooded figure which the three of them knew and recognized to be their master.

"M-Master!" They all immediately bowed towards the hooded figure not daring to show an ounce of disrespect.

"How is progress going." The figure's voice was quiet but extremely unsettling.

Emilia rose from her bow and instantly responded

"Progress is going well, Cert is going to be done with the exploding runes in a week and Fras is working diligently."

"Is that so?"

Emilia nodded quickly

"I see, Emilia you have been doing well so you should expect good things when you come back." His voice which was ice cold before was now quite warm.

"Of course she's the one who gets the praise," Fras muttered to himself which caught the attention of the dark hooded figure

"Fras can you repeat that?" His voice was filled with anger which made everyone incredibly uncomfortable.

"No, no, master I didn't mean that." He dug his dead deeper in the ground as he pleaded for his life.

The hooded figure looked at him with disgust before promptly disappearing from the ship.

"Ahahaha!" Emilia instantly bursted out into laughter which could only reduce Fras to the lowest amounts of shame.

Fras angrily marched away from the area still knowing that he couldn't go anywhere. Like a child who was too scared to run away, he crouched down in the corner of the room sulking.

Cert looked at Fras sympathetically before getting back to work.

*

"Hmm, It's interesting." Sebastian was quite intrigued by the new skill Koren was taught and was even impressed.

"Isn't it!" Koren exclaimed

The idea of circulating the mana, in theory, sounds easy, but in practice, it was painfully difficult. Koren just now after ten hours of nonstop practice created a dim blue light over his axe. Airgror was pleasantly surprised by Koren's quick progress but pointed out some major flaws in his methods which helped him out incredibly.

"Putting in a precise amount of mana isn't the problem. The problem is coursing mana into the axe and creating the repeating circle of mana." Koren who had problems with exerting precise amounts of mana, after the mana breakthrough was easily able to create and power large mana strings without counting.

"Man, this ship ride has been quite the experience I wonder how much I will learn in Corendale." Koren remarked as he gazed over the cold sea.

However, Koren's dreams were soon shut down as the new week dawned upon him.