Limits

Couple of weeks went by, and my control of the puppets improved. I was now able to fully control one puppet. It was nowhere near what Nick could do, but it was a start. I also told Nick about the plan I had. He agreed to get the herbs for me. I insisted, that I wanted try making that poison, as well as antidote myself. I told him, to prepare a working antidote just in case. At least this way, I wouldn't kill myself, if my antidote didn't work.

My training in the Art of Stealth, hit a wall. I needed to figure out, how to achieve "Avoid the light" part of the Art. Even though I managed to add a new skill to my Art of Stealth, it was not the real part of it. It was just an additional skill, that I came up with, while watching the fishes in the water.

My medical knowledge, was getting better by the day. I already memorized 42 recipes. The ones that were left, were much harder to memorize. This was all thanks to the complicated processes, required by those recipes. The Great Scriptures of Evil Medic, was a hard book to memorize completely. 'No wonder Nick told me, to take it easy' I thought.

In my estimates, I would be able to memorize the whole book, in about 3-4 months. Provided I spent a lot of time on it. Otherwise, it would take longer. I promised Nick, that I would destroy this book, after I've fully memorized it. That way, the book would not get discovered by other people. Unfortunately for me, this meant that I had to memorized every detail of it, perfectly.

I had one more book, that could be useful in the future. It was the manual, that I found on Rand's disciple. It was just a copy, and it probably was incomplete. Therefore, I planned to get the real thing. 'The original must be kept somewhere, in the Rand's mansion. If not there, he must've hidden it somewhere, somewhere that is even safer than his mansion' I thought. I was still quite certain, that the real manual, was at Rand's mansion. I was 80% sure of that. There was also the 20% possibility, that the manual was located someplace else.

'If during my plan, I'm unable to find the real book inside his mansion, then it will be somewhere else. I'd still prefer if it was at the mansion though' I thought to myself. Otherwise, I always had the copy, something was always better than nothing. Over a month passed, since I've returned to the village. Rand's suspicions, should've been non existent by now. I still didn't go out to collect the manual from the forest. I had stuff to train, and I could always do it, after I was done with that Village.

Instead of worrying about stuff, I worked on my dagger skills, and my control skills. When Nick came over that day, he saw me move one puppet around, as if it was alive. I stopped my training, and looked at Nick. He said "You can now control one puppet very well. I shall now tell you the last step, in the Art of Hidden Weapons. This will be the last step, passed to me from my master. This doesn't mean, it is the final step. This will be up to you, to figure out, what other steps you will be able to take". I nodded my head, asked "What type of training, do I have to do then?". Nick smiled, and responded "It's simple boy. You have to become a hidden weapon".

I was baffled at this stage. 'First, I get the "avoid the light" thing. Now "become a hidden weapon" thing. What is wrong with these people. Can't he just tell me? Why teach me in riddles like this?!' I thought. Nick saw my face, and continued "Don't worry. This time, I will actually tell you more. Remember that you are learning the Art of Hidden Weapons from me, and at the same time, you are developing your own Art. What that means, is quite simple. It means for you to be the Hidden Weapon. In other words, all of you, should become the Hidden Weapon".

Nick then continued "How you interpret what I said, is up to you. I will not help you any further, and I can't really. I didn't master this step. I have some insights in it, but I never mastered it. This step alone, was too much for me, who know what is beyond this step". After Nick said that, he bid me farewell, and said that he would be back later, to check on my progress.

I was left alone in the room. I thought about Nick's words. 'I'm supposed to become a hidden weapon, but how? Carry weapons all over my body? So that every inch of my body, is a weapon? Is that even possible? Or does that mean something else entirely?' I thought. I didn't know what else to think. Because I wouldn't be able to figure it out quickly, I decided to focus on what I could do, and improve. With time, I could slowly uncover the meaning behind Nick's words. Maybe I would be able to master it in the future, but using a different path. I had my own ideas, which I could use to create new skill, or improve those that I already had.

I trained with the puppets most of the time now. I only took breaks to eat something with Shelly. After such a long time, Shelly managed to grow a bit bigger. When I found Shelly, it was about 40 centimetres big, but after about two months of time, it grew about 10 centimetres in size. I didn't notice that at first, because I used to spend a lot of time with Shelly. Lately though, I was busy with my training, and only noticed now that Shelly got bigger. 'It may be due to the amount of food, that Shelly ate. Normally, it would eat one or two fishes, but while we travelled, Shelly ate more than me' I thought to myself. Shelly's diet changed still. Even though, it pretty much did nothing, it ate more at the same time. This changed, especially since Shelly tasted cooked food. Whenever I roasted something, I could see drool coming out of Shelly's mouth.

I was a bit worried 'What if Shelly is too big, to fit into places?. For now, it will fit through the door, but what about later?' I thought. What if it grew to one or two metres? With that in mind, I walked over to sleeping Shelly, and said "How big are you going to grow?". I didn't expect an answer, as it was rather a rhetorical question. To me, it wouldn't matter how big Shelly grew. It could create some problems in the long run, but I wasn't that bothered. I already treated Shelly, as if it was my own family. Shelly on the other hand, after hearing that question, woke up and stared at me with watery eyes. 'Shelly probably thinks, that I'm saying it eats too much'. I said in clarification "Don't worry, I was just wondering how big you can grow. You can eat as much as you like". Shelly became happy about what I said, and went back to sleep....

Shelly didn't really act like a turtle anymore. It acted more like a dog. If there was food around, it would pester me and beg for some. It didn't have the same eyes as a dog, but to my surprise, a turtle could also make "cute eyes" and beg for food. Shelly also laid around for a whole day, and when it woke up, Shelly would always want to play with me, and eat of course. Just like a dog, but the thing was, it was a turtle.

I didn't pay any more attention to Shelly, and focused on my training instead. The time for my plan, was coming closer and closer. I had to be at the peak of my abilities, and squeeze out everything I could when training the Art of Stealth, as well as the Art of Hidden Weapons.