Limits

After the dinner, I put the mask on Shelly and started the training. I still used only one puppet as it would take some time for Shelly to be proficient with one. Then I could increase number of puppets to two, then three and so on. This training would make Shelly more aware of its surroundings while not depending on its eyesight alone. This will provide Shelly with the ability to see through or rather feel through the ambushes and hidden attacks. Not only that, Shelly would be able to better manage a fight against large number of opponents.

We trained like this till the evening when I said "Alright, it is time to stop today. I still have to work on my diagram and you need a rest as well". I then took of the mask from Shelly's face and let it go inside the shelter to rest. On the other hand, I started to figure out new ways to modify the 2nd diagram. I pondered over it couple of times during past two weeks but didn't arrive at any suitable pose. Although I say this, I felt that I was getting closer to the pose that would be perfect for me. This would mean that I made some progress which might not seem apparent.

When I was getting tired and sleepy, I dropped all my thoughts about the diagram and went to bed. I had to face the dream again. I found out that the dream no longer improved my strength or thinking abilities. I managed to squeeze the time of the 1st modified diagram pose to 15 minutes. That was still 5 minutes off the mark I set for myself. I would now need to grind those 5 minutes by my own hard work.

Another thing that improved was my knowledge of the language the dark figure spoke. I already figured out or at least I thought I figured out 4 words that the figure spoke. The words were Fer which might mean "I" or "Me". Lak which could mean "You". Ak which could mean "It" referring to a living thing or an object and Ji which could mean "Is". I had a strong feeling that Lak and Ak meant what I figured because both contained the word Ak, perhaps when one added a letter "L", it created Lak as a 2nd person "You".

It would make sense and human language was similar in some regards. For example the 3rd person "He" is referring to a male but if you add "S" at the beginning it would refer to a female. It was a similar form. I was quite happy about that discovery because if the language was some kind of ancient human language, then surely it would be much easier to extrapolate the meaning compared to the language that is not govern by the same rules as the human language.

I soon fell asleep and awaited the dark figure in my dreams. The dream went on as usual and repeated itself 20 times. I didn't figure out anything this time but I didn't have to worry about the dream going away. It was always there every night, even if I didn't want it.

I was also less hungry every morning. Maybe it was due to the increase of strength and my body adapting to that hunger. I had to eat a lot compared to normal people but it was nowhere near compared to the past. I ate my breakfast and went outside to practise the 1st modified diagram of the Strength Manual. After 15 minutes, I stopped and noticed no real improvements in my strength. I was not in a rush anyway. I was still young and had loads of time to master my arts as well as get strong.

Even if it took me a year of time, I would still be young so what would it matter if I accomplished my training at 23 or 24 years of age. After my training, Shelly woke up by itself and demanded food as usual. I gave it couple of wolves worth of meat and went back to my training with the Stringed Hidden Weapons. I needed to practise this as much as I could in order to master it faster. I decided to focus on one thing at a time, instead of doing many things and spending less time on them. The results would be poor if I trained everything at the same time. While if I trained only one skill, that said skills would become much better. The drawback to that method was that other skills would not be trained whatsoever.

It was a trade off. Either I get better at one thing or know a lot of things but at a very shallow level. I learned that shallow level in these parts of the forest was the same as death. My daggers were useless against silver bears and even if I could make small cuts and wounds, I would run out of daggers before I could kill that silver bear.

The solution to that was Stringed Hidden Weapons. I would use 10 daggers continuously without discarding any of them. It meant that my fighting ability would rise as the zone of about 5-10 metres would be an area of slaughter. Of course provided I've mastered that skill. Every animal had a weak point, this meant that if my attacks were fast and accurate, I could hit the desired areas even on fast moving targets.

Those were the reasons why I started to practise my Stringed Hidden Weapons before anything else. I still struggled with that one dagger. It was not easy at all to retrieve it back to my hand. That was a simple straight throw and then a pull to retrieve it, yet it posed so many troubles already. I was getting scared of what my head conjured up. 'Such skill… No wonder Nick said that if I manage to master this, I would become very strong' I thought.

I didn't give up and practised. It was all I could do and this never seemed to fail me. In the afternoon I asked Shelly to hunt with me. I didn't want to go alone nor did I want for Shelly to go alone. The beasts in these parts were too strong and too numerous. If something happened, Shelly or I would have no back up.

This time we didn't encounter any variants as we hunted the group of boars. Shelly took care of most of them, while I killed the remains that tried to run away. We now had enough meat to last us couple of days and my bag was very heavy, this made it harder for me to carry. I then came up with new idea. 'Why not use this bag as a sort of training as well?' I thought. I never actually thought about it but if I were to carry that kind of heavy bag with me at all times, wouldn't I become stronger sooner?

But the bag was not suitable to be worn on my legs or arms. It could only be worn on my back, if it was very light then I could tie it around my waste but with that kind of load it would be more damaging than helping. I used to leave the bag in our shelter when training or next to me somewhere. To carry it at all times, it would be very taxing but it would train my muscles at the same time. I figured that with time, I would be able to adapt to the weight and it wouldn't feel so heavy.

I then got another idea. 'This would increase weight on my back so the legs would be trained as well but my arms wouldn't. I need my arms the most in order to throw my hidden weapons. I need some weights for my arms as well' I thought. The problem was, where do I get such weights from?

'Couple of kilograms wouldn't make much of a difference, would it?' I thought. I decided to try and make a sort of bracelet from the animal skin and fill that with earth. Although the weight would be about couple of kilograms and it wouldn't really pose any problems for me but what if I were to carry them all the time? During training, sleep, hunting and so on? Although it is just couple of kilograms, it would surely produce some effects.

I got excited by the thought and decided to go with my plans. Back at the camp, I cut the leather into long wide strips that I then saw together to make a very bulky bracelet. When I saw the strips of leather together, I left a hole in order to fill it with sand or earth before I closed it.

It wasn't hard to find earth in the forest. I filled in the bracelet and closed the opening. I could feel that it weighs about 4 kilograms. This, for normal people would be a lot but to me, it was not that much. 'Although this may not be much but if I don't take it off… The effect might surprise even me' I thought. My arms would become tired sooner and it would be harder to control my strength, this meant I would have to adapt to the new weight faster in order to use my skills properly.

I created another bracelet and decided to train a bit with Shelly. I myself wondered how would my puppet skills be affected by the increase in weight.