"Formation Arrays are inscriptions, which are carved into a weapon. Different shapes have different effects on Energy. Of course, the basic Formation Arrays only have a very subtle effect on Energy. For example, you can't convert Energy into an element with just the basic Formation Arrays," his father explained.
"There are Formation Arrays that absorb Energy, some that move it around, some that store it. Some other Formation Arrays influence the will, Spirit, element, or awareness. The last one isn't relevant to forging weapons."
"I'm going to teach you the relevant Formation Arrays for manipulating Energy, will, Spirit, and lightning. Energy is the base, while you need to know the ones for manipulating will and Spirit for your Lightning Crescent."
"Contrary to the expectations of beginners, carving the Formation Arrays into a weapon is one of the easier parts. Yet, it becomes more difficult the further you progress until it becomes the most challenging part in the end."
"How come?" Gravis asked.
"The initial Formation Arrays are only basic. As I said, they only manipulate the Energy in very simple ways. Yet, such a simple format clearly wouldn't be enough for more powerful cultivators. After all, they have comprehended their Laws, and using basic Formation Arrays wouldn't do justice to these Laws," his father explained.
Gravis nodded. He had already guessed that the Laws would most likely become the strongest weapons of the cultivators in the future. Merely storing and unleashing an element or Energy from a weapon seemed too basic and weak for such powerful people. There were surely ways to make a weapon harness the power of a Law.
"The basic Formation Arrays are used in smithing up to the peak of Nascent Nourishing. As soon as you start comprehending Laws, such basic usage becomes useless. At that point, you would need to transcribe the concept of your Law into the language of Formation Arrays. At that point, inscribing Formation Arrays becomes difficult," his father explained.
"Formation Arrays tailored to specific Laws are sold at a high price. Not everyone has the money, time, guidance, knowledge, or safety to practice forging. Therefore, forgers start becoming more important and sought after the more powerful the cultivators get."
"Theoretically, to inscribe a Law specific Formation Array doesn't require the forger to understand said Law. It's as simple as copying something onto a weapon. Since cultivators all understand different laws, it becomes important for business to know the Formation Arrays for more Laws. That's why these Formation Arrays are so expensive."
Gravis rubbed his chin. "So, theoretically, I could find and ask a forger to create a weapon specifically made for my Punishment Lightning, right? You said that it is a Law."
His father nodded. "Correct. Punishment Lightning is a popular element. So, a lot of forgers know the required Formation Arrays."
Gravis snorted. "But the more advanced and complex the Laws become that a cultivator can understand, the harder it is to find these Formation Arrays, right?"
His father nodded again. "Also correct. Even though the weakest Laws are, by a huge margin, the most numerous, they still have the most public Formation Arrays. After all, they're comparatively not that hard to understand. The more powerful the Laws, the fewer people are able to create or recreate the relevant Formation Arrays until only a select few know them. Such powerful Formation Arrays are highly valued in trade."
Gravis scratched his chin. "I guess the Divine Forger, Linus, knows a lot of them."
His father nodded. "He is one of the very few people that actually know Formation Arrays for more than one of the most powerful Laws. The other people that know as much as him or more are very secluded. Most of them are just acting as ancestors for Peak Sects, and they don't forge weapons for others since they think it's beneath them."
Gravis nodded but kept quiet.
Whoop!
A small book appeared, making Gravis furrow his brows. Did he need to read even more now? Reading the small booklet had already been time-consuming. How long would it take him to read this book?
"This book has all the relevant basic Formation Arrays noted down," his father said as the book floated over to Gravis.
Gravis opened it and was immediately surprised. The size of the writing was large enough that even mortals could read it. This was way less information than Gravis had anticipated.
"As I said," his father said, "the basic Formation Arrays aren't difficult, and even people in the lower worlds can use them. You should be done in about three hours or so."
Gravis had already started reading. Going through this book was a piece of cake. His Spirit had been tempered, which had increased his comprehension ability way past what a mortal could do. Completely memorizing the book from front to back wouldn't take much time.
Sure enough, in about two hours, Gravis finished the entire book. This was nothing in comparison to all the properties of all the materials found in the middle worlds. As he finished reading, Gravis realized that the Formation Arrays were really simple. Inscribing them was also straightforward and logical.
When Gravis had gotten his new weapons on his journey, he had always marveled at how great and mysterious they were. Such weapons could store Energy or lightning? This had been wondrous.
Yet, after knowing all the background information, Gravis realized that inscribing the Formation Arrays was probably even easier than creating the edge of a Spirit Weapon. No wonder Old Man Lightning had been able to create a fitting weapon for Gravis' peculiar technique in nearly no time.
Right now, Gravis could take the Core Ore, or Low Ore, to create a Peak Spirit Weapon. This meant that he was already at the same level as the forgers of the Heaven Sect.
Yet, Gravis had also trained with many different Unity Rank materials. Together with his knowledge, his forging was already superior to everyone inside a lower world.
When Gravis realized that, he sighed. 'I shouldn't forget that I didn't fully achieve that by myself. Without all these calculations, information about the materials, and endless supply of ore, I wouldn't have been able to become that good so fast.'
'On top of that, my inherent control over lightning makes it many times easier to control it finely. Others probably need years and years of practice to reach such fine control.'
Yet, Gravis wasn't deterred. 'Luckily for my ego, these are only the advanced basics of forging. Similar to my combat training before going to the lower world, this is just a starting boost. Every future progression will depend on me.'
After that, Gravis started practicing the whole process of creating a weapon. In the beginning, Gravis often wasn't detailed enough in inscribing the Formation Arrays. It required a lot of control and feeling. If the Formation Arrays weren't perfect, the weapon would become weaker.
Like this, Gravis practiced with a lot of different weapons and Formation Arrays for another two months.
After these two months, Gravis was able to make the edges for new materials after only around four failures. Yet, he felt like his feeling for the materials had increased by a lot. He started being able to feel some of the peculiarities of materials without trying to remember what the booklet had said.
Gravis realized that he had gotten closer to understanding the concept behind them. Yet, he had no idea how much more he had to learn to understand the concept. He remembered that he had thought that he been at the cusp of understanding the concept behind the materials after just reading the booklet.
Yet, after so much practice, he felt his knowledge increase crazily, but that one small step looked even harder to take now.
'Heh, I've been naïve,' Gravis thought. 'I thought I was close to understanding a Law, but, obviously, I'm not.'
After such a long time, Gravis had a completion rate for weapons of about 98%. Sadly, since he could only use the grinding method for the edge, all the weapons he finished were one grade lower than their Rank.
Yet, he had also managed to forge many weapons with Early Unity Rank materials, which would create an Initial Unity Weapons. Such a weapon would be even useful to Gravis now.
But didn't Gravis have the Void-Stone Saber?
Yes, he did, but Gravis now finally knew about Void-Stone. It was a material of the Early Nascent Nourishing Rank. It might still be useful until that Realm, but then it would become useless. Even more, Gravis couldn't really save a Lightning Crescent in it. He could only infuse it with one, but a lot of the lightning would get wasted inside the saber.
The Void-Stone Saber didn't have the required Formation Arrays, and the Lightning Crescent was also more powerful than Gravis' Realm. On top of that, since the Lightning Crescent was infused into the Void-Stone Saber, it had an even more destructive effect on it. Gravis was sure that the Void-Stone Saber would start breaking down at the Middle Unity Realm. On top of that, it didn't even have as much utility as a proper Unity Weapon.
After thinking about all this, Gravis decided to stop practicing. 'I've been learning how to forge for a little less than a year now. Soon, I'll be 23.'
Then, Gravis remembered something. 'Speaking of, nearly a hundred years should have passed for my friends. I wonder how they are,' Gravis thought in nervousness. A hundred years was a long time. It could very well be that all of his friends had already died, and his father just kept quiet to not distract him from forging.
"Father," Gravis said. "How are my friends?" he asked.
His father looked at Gravis with his usual, even look.
