《Limits》


 Chapter 1

    Chapter 1


    You might wonder, how do I know? Or who am I exactly? To answer your first question. I know because I''ve seen thingsmon folks will never see. I''ve experienced things, no one has experienced. I''ve been to ces no one visited before. Although the answer might be a bit vague now but if you manage to read everything I wrote, the answer will be clear to you. You wille to understand why and how I came to know these things.


    As for the other question? I had many names. Sometimes people called me hero, sometimes I was called devil and sometimes they called me schr. It''s been so long since my name was spoken¡­ Nex is my name. Now, let us start from the beginning of how all of this begun.


    I, like many others was just amon guy. Average or even worse you might say in some cases. I lived in a vige called Freemount which was part of the Endrosian Empire. The capital was called Endros Imperial City due to the founder of the empire, Endros. To get from Freemount Vige to another vige would take someone about two days of travel, of course using a horse. As for Imperial City? I never heard of anyone going there from here. We didn''t even possess maps that showed the location of the Imperial City. Those things were the historical records that themon folks knew about. The Great Forest covered about two thirds of the empire, there were also mountains and ins but forest mostly.


    I never left the vicinity of the vige in my life. I never travelled to other viges and most people never did, just like me. One day everything changed when I encountered a travelling caravan.


    What changed? You may ask. Simple, a person appeared in my life. Haha. No, it was not some sort of expert that took me in and discovered my hidden talent or any kind of crap like that. I met a woman and fell in love with her. She seemed to share the same feelings as we flirted and even kissed once but that was all a scam, bullshit.


    I talked with her about everything, I was intoxicated by her, I even confessed from some of my secrets. There was only one thing I never told her and that was the location of my family heirloom. I was naive back then and although I told her about the heirloom, I now know. Her motive to get closer to me or even wrap me around her finger, was to get my heirloom! My parents always told me to take special care of it and never show it to people. To me it wasn''t anything great, just a sword. I knew nothing about swords. I don''t know where she got that information from but I''m now certain she knew from the beginning I had it. The only thing she wanted from the beginning was my family''s heirloom and not rtionship.


    She sweet talked me to give her that heirloom. If I did, she would marry me. Oh how stupid was I to believe that. She took it of course and then disappeared. Breaking my heart and my soul. I should''ve known better than that. Marriage after only couple weeks worth of rtionship! Bah! I got what I deserved for my stupidity!


    I became a wreck of a man. Soon after, I''ve lost my job... my home and before I knew it, I ended up on the streets.


    It may seem to you my dear reader, that my story will be rather sad one. I can''t me you, it all seems to go that way. BUT! I finally got a grip on myself and decided to do something about it. It was all thanks to some old timer that lived on the streets as well. We spent a lot of time together. He showed me where to get food from or where I could sleep the night. We also talked about various things¡­ well, mostly me crying about my fate and broken heart.


    Yet there is one thing he said to me that I would never forget. The words he once spoke to me changed my life. "Young one. Although life can be difficult, love can hurt and wealth disappear. I''ve long lost interest in those things. This old man may seem homeless but doesn''t that mean the whole world is my home? Young one. Don''t waste your life, explore it!"


    These were thest words he spoke to me. Next day, he disappeared. To this day, I don''t know where he went and I''ve never met him since. Nheless, thanks to his words, I understood something. ''Isn''t the whole world my home? Instead of wasting my time crying andining about what happened to me, isn''t it better to explore my life?'' I asked myself.


    Soon after, I decided to leave the vige and go on a journey to explore my life. Of course, I was a total stranger to adventuring. If I could make any preparations, I would probably do them the wrong way. Besides, I had nothing left. I was already sleeping on the streets so buying any supplies was impossible in a short run. Young and stupid, I decided to go forth and explore my life.

 Chapter 2

    Chapter 2


    As you might have expected I was not a hunter nor was I meant to be one. So going into a forest without any experience was not one of my best ideas but going to the forest without any supplies or weapons? YES that would be somewhere at the top of my stupid ideas of all time.


    Fortunately boars, wolves and bears were mostmon hunting preys for hunters from the vige and I never heard of anyone meeting something more dangerous than bear.


    My profession was craftsman. So I could technically craft stuff from wood but being an idiot I had no knifes to do so. I could also tailor a bit but then again no tools.


    Because I left in the morning, in the afternoon I actually covered quite a distance going through the forest. Then all the excitement and adrenaline rush subdued and it hit me that I will need a shelter, food and water.


    I panicked a bit, ok quite a lot actually. I then said to myself "how hard can it be to find food in the forest". It was, because the first thing I found were berries. I was so happy I got to eat something¡­.. Yea not even half an hourter I had to spend considerable amount of time in the bushes. This event took its toll on my body as you can imagine and so I didn''t touch anymore berries that day.


    Thankfully I found small stream with clear water and because of the adventure with the berries I was quite thirsty. Sating my thirst I thought it would be better to find shelter somewhere near the stream, so that I have ess to water. I searched the area around the stream and couldn''t find any type of ce I could use as my hideout.


    I also decided that sleeping on top of trees would be dangerous because what if I move during sleep and fall from such height? So I preferred to stay on ground. Time passed and the only thing I could find that would at least give me some protection was an old tree stump hollowed out in the middle. Because it was getting darker I decided I will use the tree stump but some kind of ''door'' would be nice. So I collected branches, climbed into the stump and covered the entrance.


    Not veryfortable to be honest but because I was used to sleeping on the streets it wasn''t half bad. The next morning I drank from the stream and because I had nothing on me that could contain water I could only leave.


    Although hungry I didn''t touch any fruits or mushrooms as I didn''t know which were poisonous, of course I now knew one type of berry that was. On my way I noticed wild animals such as deer and rabbits. Because I was not quicker than rabbit or a deer and had no weapons, I would not catch anything anyway so instead I tried to spot what type of things do the animals eat. This way it will have much less possibility of being detrimental to my health.


    I saw that the rabbits sometimes ate green berries but never touched the berries that I ate¡­ go figure. I tried the green berries, I didn''t eat a whole lot just tried one or two mouthfuls of berries. They actually had not a bad taste a bit bitter but other than that not so bad. I''ve waited for some time and nothing happened, which meant it was alright to eat them. I''ve collected as much as I could into my pockets and went along my journey.


    Sudden though hit me at that time. I didn''t encounter any dangerous animals yet but that doesn''t mean I will not. Some kind of weapon, any kind will be much better than my bare fists. But what can I use as a weapon found in this forest¡­ berries? Yea sure throwing the berries at the bear or wolf will no doubt guarantee my safety.


    A stick would be optimal choice or stones, but I couldn''t carry stones around with me that would be too tiring. Stick seemed as most probable but just picking up a stick from the ground will not make me more safe. I could either carryrge stick and use its weight as my weapon or smaller stick but sturdy and pointy. Ha! but how would I make it sharp?


    So the only option was arge sturdy stick with some weight. In search of such stick I went around the immediate area I was in and although I found some contenders but none were sturdy or heavy enough.


    Searching like this for 1 hour! I finally found a suitable stick (who would''ve thought that finding a stick in forest can be so hard). I should really thank those hunters one day because if not for them I would surely encounter something bad already. Acquiring the stick I used some vines to make a holder to ce it on my back.


    The day was almost over and it was time to find another shelter. This time I noticed a cave. I wasn''t stupid enough to just march in there and proim it as my new hideout.


    What if there are wolves or bear in that cave. I started observing the cave and saw nothing so I decided to move closer.


    When I was about 30 metres from the cave I thought of an idea. Instead of going there myself I will throw a rock at the entrance and see if something is there. As I thought I did, and so one rock flew¡­ quiet. I threw one more, again quiet. I thought 3 times a charm and threw another one, again nothing.


    Now that I was ''sure'' there is nothing inside I made my way to the entrance. To my surprise it really was empty. The cave was quite simple with couple of boulders here and there but other than that nothing else. I ate my dinner and straight after that I almost shat it out. There was some noise outside the cave and it was getting closer to the entrance.

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3


    Bracing myself for the worst I await the predator. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, one minute¡­ I can finally see the shadow of that deadly predator and the next instant I see its whole silhouette...it''s a rabbit¡­. IT''S A FUUUUUU RABBIT! I jumped from behind the boulder and pounced at the rabbit as if my life depended on it. I swung the stick and I don''t know why but the rabbit was so surprised it forgot to actually move.


    BAAM!


    The rabbit had no chances against that kind of attack whatsoever. This solved my anger a bit and I also had a rabbit¡­ but it was raw not cooked. What am I supposed to do with a raw rabbit? I know, I know, cook it but with what! Then I remembered that you can make me without using magic or matches. Yes, if I remember correctly. Long time ago my father used to take me out to camp near the vige and showed me how to make fire with sticks. I can try that but first I will need more wood.


    I''ve collected some sticks and branches as well as some wood. Now I just had to make the fire, easy! After ten minutes of trying my frustration levels got pretty high. After another ten minutes I finally seeded, I had fire!


    But I couldn''t just cook the rabbit like that I had to take out all the gross stuff from inside. I thought I could maybe use sharp stone but I couldn''t find anything sharp in the cave and outside was too dark already. Going around the forest with a torch was not the best idea so I could only use my hands. I made a mental note to find a sharp stone for the future.


    Using my hands only, it wasn''t easy to actually open the rabbit but after some fiddling I managed to open the belly and take out all the intestines. Next I ced a stick up its butt and ced it above fire¡­ the smell was so intense I actually had to get out of the cave! When the fur caught fire it stank so much I almost vomited. I don''t think any wild animal would appreciate that kind of smell so I thought I will be a bit safer in the night.


    Finally after all the fur was burned and meat cooked I could enjoy my meal. It was burned a bit and hard but hell it was meat! Not those stupid berries! I decided to bury all the remains left from the rabbit and go to sleep.


    The next day I resumed my journey not forgetting to look for sharp stones while I''m at it.


    I got more used to traveling in the forest, I guess I was adapting more to this survival thing and after traveling for a bit I was able to finally find a sharp stone. Enough to cut up the rabbit as for sharpening the stick¡­ I don''t think so.


    Early in the afternoon I got a surprise and found a group of hunters. I was ted at the thought of talking with fellow humans. When I approached them they didn''t seem to be in a good mood. Nevertheless I came over and said hello. One of the hunters turned towards me and said with obvious anger in his voice "what do you want?"


    I told them I''m from Freemount vige and came out on a journey. I also asked if they could give me some tips and perhaps something sharp as I had no knifes or nothing, of course mentioning myck of money. All the hunters just looked at me from head to toe and startedughing¡­ hysterically!


    I knew I was no hunter but shit at least be serious here when I ask you for help! Another hunter pointed at the stick behind me and said "Is that your weapon?" to which I nodded my head. Then again hystericalughter¡­ for five minutes! I waited calmly at the side, when they finally stoppedughing one of them said "Kid you have balls to actually travel this forest like that" So I asked again if they can be of any help.


    One of the hunters finally broke the silence and said "Ron, give the kid that old knife. Even if he dies at least we did something for him" And so the hunter named Ron took out an old and tattered knife and threw it at me. Yes threw it not passed it. Fortunately I was paying attention and caught it. I thanked them and moved further on my journey.


    I could only hear some stupidments andughs behind me but I didn''t care, I now had a weapon! I could to stuff!


    On my way I spotted more deer and rabbits and tried to sneak up on them but to no avail. My skills in this department were pretty much non existent. So I had to satisfy myself with more berries, correct ones of course.


    I found another streamte afternoon and so decided to rest there. I guess animals need to drink too so maybe I will get a chance to hunt something. I took out the knife and started to sharpen my stick. After some time I now had pretty pointy wooden spear.


    But this was not ideal for my n I needed smaller sticks or at least small enough I could throw. Yes my n was to hunt those rabbits with throwing spear and now that I had a knife I could do any weapon¡­ from wood of course.


    It took me some time to actually create wooden throwing spears but it was worth it! I can try them out the next day. Now I needed a shelter. Again in search of one I wasn''t so lucky this time. I couldn''t find anything that would be suitable so I decided to gather some branches, sticks and leaves and maybe I will be able to construct my own shelter.


    I did as I thought and started to construct my shabby shelter. It wasn''t very sturdy but it was mine! I was more tired today than usual so I went to sleep after I ate some more of my favourite food these days¡­ berries.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4


    Awoooo!


    The howling of a wolf woke me up. It was well into the night already and hearing a wolf howling like that, I wasn''t very keen to apany it for the meal.


    Awooo!


    ''Shut up you stupid wolf!'' I thought to myself whileying in my shelter. I didn''t dare to move an inch. Then I heard more noises and the worst part? It seemed that those noises were getting closer to where I was.


    I justyed there and waited¡­. I then hear sounds of what I could only think of as battle. I thought to myself ''Maybe it''s the hunters from before. They might be hunting the wolf right now.'' I really hoped that this was a case.


    Unfortunately the sounds wereing closer and closer and I could hear the wolf but what it was fighting was probably not a human. If I remember correctly there were five hunters and I only heard one other noise besides the wolf''s.


    The night sky was illuminated by the moon and finally two silhouettes emerged and fought in the open area near the stream. What I saw was a wolf and¡­ a wolf? One of the wolves was much bigger than the other but also looked more terrifying. It had silver coloured fur that glistered in the moonlight. On the other hand the other wolf was half the size of the silver one but its fur was ck.


    I never heard of a wolf with ck fur, maybe it was dirty but then when I looked more closely I noticed its fur also shined like a well polished sword. I decided to watch the battle, maybe they will leave to different area or maybe one of them will die and the other one will leave. Besides I wouldn''t be stupid enough to just reveal my location just like that.


    Silver wolf: "Grrrrr"


    ck wolf: "...."


    The more I watched the battle the more puzzled I became. It was like the silver wolf gave different types of howls while the ck one stayed quiet all the time. They pounced at each other and I noticed that although the silver wolf was stronger and bigger, the ck one was a lot more agile and fast.


    The fightsted more than ten minutes already and both wolves were tired and wounded. Then the silver wolfunched the attack again, pouncing even more ferociously with its superior strength and stamina and finally managed to kill the ck wolf. Yea, I thought the ck wolf is going to win here as it was quite well matched but s, the silver wolf was probably much too strong for it¡­ or maybe to experienced.


    I thought it will now consume that wolf and leave¡­ yea right. It didn''t even touch the dead ck wolf, no. It looked straight in my direction as if aware I was there looking at the whole fight from the beginning.


    ''That motherfu****!'' I cursed in my mind. These wolves probably knew about my existence from the beginning! Who was I going to fool? of course wolves have superior sense of smell!


    Without any type of warnings the silver wolf pounced towards me. This scared me shitless and the only thing I could think of was myrge wooden spear. In haste I retrieved the spear and ced it in front of me. Just in time to see the silver wolf''s gaping mouth full of bloodied teeth.


    THUD!


    I woke up in the morning, I could feel some weight on my whole body. When I focused my sight I noticed wolf''srge head on my chest¡­ "HOLY SHIT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and crawled out from under the wolf.


    Many things went through my mind which I will not share with you but after the initial shock I noticed the wooden spear pierced through the wolf''s head. Then it hit me what had happenedst night.


    I ced the wooden spear in front of me and because the silver wolf''s speed was too great and it was already very near me, it didn''t have time to change directions nor close its mouth and therefore killed itself. When I imagined this situation, I couldn''t thank the gods enough for how lucky was I to carry that stick with me!


    After calming down a bit I decided to take some of the leather from the wolf so I could make a pouch or a bag to store some stuff inside. Although I didn''t have any tailoring tools, I had a knife and using some vines as a thread, it should be sufficient at least for now.


    Unfortunately creating a leak proof container was impossible but something to hold my berries and a stone would be nice instead of my pockets! I also took some of the meat for breakfast and cooked some for my dinner. I had nowhere to store fresh or cooked meat so takingrge quantities would be useless. Besides why attract wild animals more than I already did.


    After breakfast I packed my stuff and continued on with my journey.

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5


    While traveling I came across what seemed to be abandoned camping site. Probably used by the hunters in the past. I decided to search it and the area around, maybe I would be able to find some useful things. At least useful to me.


    Unfortunately there was nothing to be found and so I could only continue on with my travels. In the afternoon I took a break for some dinner and decided to create a bag from the leather I got earlier.


    Creating the bag was not really that difficult as I already had arge piece of leather, so I only needed to make holes around the outer edges of the leather to weave the vines through. After I did the holes I started to weave fine vines through them. With thest knot the bag had the ability to open and close like a pouch used for money.


    I was satisfied with my work. It was not as shabby as the shelter fromst night and it could hold couple of things, like berries¡­. Stone¡­ I didn''t have many possessions on me but hell it will be useful to me in the future for sure!


    Before I left I decided to practice my throwing skills with wooden spears. I didn''t have many of them, around five. Yet, using those spears to hunt a rabbit or something simr would bring me more meat instead of the berries.


    I wasn''t very skilled with throwing stuff. I couldn''t be, I never had any training with weapons. So I picked a non moving target, a tree and hurled my spears at it. After fifteen minutes of trying, I obviously missed most of them but some actually hit the tree. When I say hit I mean hit and then bounce off, of course I couldn''t pierce a tree with a wooden spear! I''d say out of about sixty throws I managed to hit the tree eight times.


    Yea eight out of sixty is maybe a bit better than 10% uracy but so what! It was my first time doing this type of stuff so you can suck it! I got tired and so rested for a bit. It hit me that if I don''t practice this often and give it my all, I didn''t think hunting a rabbit would be possible any time soon.


    I decided then to stay in that area and practice for the rest of the day, besides where was I rushing? I had no clear objective in my travels. No, my objective was to travel. I threw, collected then threw again and then collected, asionally I had to make new spears as some broke. Of course they did, they were made out of wood.


    This continued tillte in the afternoon. I must say I did some progress. Out of five spears thrown, two would be on target. Sure it was just a tree and it wouldn''t move but hell at least I made progress! I found some berries¡­ again, for my dinner and built another shelter.


    I was getting better at building my shelter as it was a bit less shabby than the previous one. With all of that done today I went to sleep, hoping this time no such wild encounters will take ce during the night.


    Someone must have heard my pleas and the night was uneventful. I didn''t linger too long and proceeded onto my journey. After an hour of walking I again spotted a wild rabbit. This time I wanted to try my new skills against the rabbit. I was wondering if I will be able to aim properly but also if this weapon will be able to do something to the rabbit.


    I hid behind some bushes and observed with my spear prepared. The rabbit or rather my prey was eating some berries not to far away while its back was facing me. I decided this is my chance and threw the spear with as much strength as I could.


    Swoosh!


    Aaaand... nothing. Of course, what did you expect! I missed the rabbit and because of that it started to run. I tried another throw but unsessful again, this time by arger margin. Sure tree is much easier to target, it doesn''t move. I wasn''t discouraged by this, instead I decided to train more.


    This time I used a tree with smaller width. This increased difficulty again took me to about 10% uracy. I didn''t give up and trained like this for couple of hours, with breaks of course and managed to get about 20% uracy on that tree. I was getting better at it but it was time to move on.


    Late in the afternoon I arrived at a ce with loads of rocks and bouldersying around. I didn''t know why this particr area had that but because it had somerge boulders, building my shelter would be easier. So the location of my next camp was decided.


    I didn''t have any meat, while berries were a source of food but not really the best food you could eat. I steeled myself for more training with the throwing spears. This time I choose a tree with simr width as to the one earlier and started hurling again. The rinse and repeat process continued for quite some time and because berries were widely avable but also because I had my shelter constructed already I extended the training till it got dark.


    I was too tired in theter parts of my throwing training and so my uracy was not very good but I still managed to do 20% at my worst. While when I was at my best I did a whooping 40% uracy on a tree!


    I was very pleased with this kind of progress so I at myte dinner and hit the bed or rather my nest straight away.

 Chapter 6

    Chapter 6


    Something woke me up in the middle of the night. When I gained focus in my eyes and looked around, something strange was happening not far away from my shelter. I could see ray of moonlight shining on a certain boulder. I thought I must be tired but no, I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was still there.


    I also started noticing different animals converging to that boulder. There were deer, rabbits, squirrels and even boars. I was not sure what was going on, so I stood up from my shelter and tried to approach the boulder.


    All the animals present simply ignored me and just stared at this boulder with the moonlight ray shining on it. I couldn''t figure out what was going on and asking someone was certainly out of the question. It''s not like a deer will suddenly learn humannguage and answer me.


    Without me realising it, I got closer to the bolder and was standing about 10 metres away when I finally snapped out of my thoughts. I decided to investigate this more closely and so approached the boulder.


    Again, it was not one of the best ideas I had in a while because as soon as I was within one metre of the boulder all animals started doing weird sounds. When I took my eyes away from the boulder and looked around I noticed all the animals staring swords at me. I don''t know how deer can have killing intent in their eyes but hell these deer had!


    I was clueless as to what the hell is going on but I was sure of one thing. Do not get close to the boulder! I backed off from the boulder and the animals again ignored me. Because I didn''t want to be the target of hatred of all the gathered animals, I stayed away from doing anything to that boulder.


    Around twenty minutester the light disappeared and all the animals started to recede back into the forest. I only had one expression on my face and you probably would have it too ''Just what the fuck has happened here!''


    It was dark now so I couldn''t see much, I decided that I will investigate this boulder in the morning. I tried to sleep again but I couldn''t push away this boulder business out of my mind and so Iid there till the morning.


    When I got up, I immediately went to the boulder because I just couldn''t contain my curiosity as to what was that weird phenomenon. Standing very closely to the boulder I looked around but didn''t see any animals rushing at me. I thought to myself ''It''s alright now I think'' and so touched, knocked, kicked, climbed and so on the boulder. I found, yep you guessed it¡­ NOTHING!


    ''What the hell! What is up with this boulder and this ray of moonlight?''


    I thought to myself. I then decided to stay here one more night, maybe this will repeat itself. I didn''t just stay there sitting patiently waiting for the night toe, no. Instead I practiced my throwing skills. By the noon I was quite tired already but my overall uracy increased to 30% when I''m tired and 50% when I''m at my peak condition.


    So out of two throws I managed to hit once, I call that a good result! I rested up a bit and started making new spears. I needed them to be of the best quality I could make as my next step was to go hunting in the afternoon.


    I went around the area looking for wildlife. I was mostly looking for rabbits as I didn''t believe my wooden spears would do anything to a deer''s hide, even if it did it wouldn''t be lethal. I searched for an hour, AN HOUR! Just to find one animal. Anyway I hid myself and prepared. I was good with stationary objects so the rabbit eating grass was as stationary as I could get.


    With rabbit''s back facing me I threw my first spear but because the rabbit heard me throwing, it managed to avoid it. I threw another one at the running rabbit but failed to hit the mark. I wasn''t discouraged and went off to find a new prey after collecting my spears.


    This time I found new prey after just ten minutes, deer. I knew it will probably achieve nothing but at least I will get some experience, so I decided to try anyway. The deer was eating some leaves off a bush. I took my time and tried to make no noises.


    With my full strength, I threw the spear and already had another one in my hand. The spear hit the deer and it actually got stuck making it injured but not injured enough for it to not run away. I tried to guess how the deer is going to escape and threw another spear. I missed it by a bit and because of that the deer got away.


    I now knew at least that my weapons do damage, so killing a rabbit should be possible with first throw if not maybe heavily injuring it so that it won''t be able to run away. Full of hopes I searched for my next prey.


    I didn''t search for long as after five minutes I found another rabbit. This time, with all my experience (not much of it, I know but still) I threw the spear when the rabbit least expected it and finally hit the target. Although the rabbit didn''t die and tried to run, it''s speed was so poor that I caught up with it and killed it with another spear.


    My first prey was hunted. Full of smiles I returned to the area with stones and boulders to set up a fire and cook my meat. This time I had knife so taking out intestines and getting rid of fur was much easier. I also cooked the rabbit better this time as I didn''t burn it. It was still hard and almost tasteless but it was meat!


    After the meal, I decided to exercise more and try to achieve higher uracy with my throwing spears. This went on till evening, then I took a rest and awaited moonlight to see if this boulder phenomenon will happen again.

 Chapter 7

    Chapter 7


    That night, the sky was clear. I''ve waited until midnight expecting to experience the boulder/rays of moonlight phenomenon again. The nature did not fail to meet my expectation. The same thing happened that night as well. I saw the boulder being illuminated by the rays of moonlight and animals converging into the area again.


    I stood up from my shelter and joined the animals in the boulder area. I sat down about 10 metres away from the boulder and then stared at it. This phenomenon look incredibly beautiful and the rays of moonlight seemed very mysterious. My thoughts started to drift away to some distance ce. I was calm for some reason and focused only on that boulder and the rays of moonlight.


    Suddenly, I felt like my consciousness was also drifting away. I tried to resist the feeling but after a while I gave up. I felt safe and carefree when I just stared at the rays of moonlight. Then it happened, before me I saw a misty figure, it was small and had wings? I was bewildered and could think on of one thing ''a fairy?''. It was dancing happily on the boulder without a care in the world, as if performing for all those animals gathered. I was shocked, shocked so much that I snapped out of this dream like state. When I looked around, the animals were still there staring at the boulder. ''Maybe I''m just tired?'' I thought.


    I decided to stare at the boulder one more time. After a while, the same sensation enveloped my body. My consciousness started to drift away, while a dreamy and hazy figure with wings began to emerge. It was that fairy again, dancing on the boulder. I wasn''t as much shocked as before and I didn''t snap out of that dream this time. I continued to watch the fairy while forgetting everything else.


    I knew nothing about dancing or fairies but when I saw this fairy dancing happily under the moonlight, I was in a state I couldn''t describe. I felt carefree, happy and at peace. When I finally woke up, I noticed all the animals going back into the forest and the rays of moonlight that shined onto the boulder? were no more there. I wanted to get up but my body was very heavy. I felt like, I was working hard non stop for couple of days.


    When I finally managed to crawl back to my shelter, I feel asleep instantly. I woke up the following day and noticed it was already afternoon. I also felt immense hunger. I had no meat, I had to eat the berries until I was full.


    With my stomach full of berries, I thought aboutst night events. The fairy dancing on a boulder, my thoughts and consciousness drifting away and the whole situation with hunger when I woke up. Even when I was dead tired, I would still wake up in the morning hours, it was weird for me to stay asleep for so long. I went to the boulder to examine it again but still found nothing unusual.


    Then, I got an idea. ''What if I stand on the boulder before the rays of moonlight shined on it? There would be no animals to stare swords at me at that time. I could just wait for the rays of moonlight to descend and find out what is so special about it'' I thought.


    With my new n formed, I decided to try and hunt something. I was still a human being, I needed meat not just berries. I went deeper into the forest in search for my prey. With my throwing skills improving everyday, it didn''t take long to hunt another rabbit. After my dinner, I practiced my throwing skills again, awaiting the night time to test out my n.


    My uracy increased day by day. ''Today, during my practice, I was able to hit a tree two out of three times!'' I thought. I noticed that the better uracy I wanted to achieve, the harder and longer it took to get there. ''I guess no one bes a master after a day or two'' I thought.


    When the night came, I executed my n and climbed on top of the boulder. I sat down and awaited the moonlight. As expected, it appeared at pretty much the same time it did the day before. Although I was happy that it worked, when the rays of moonlight shined onto my body, I felt as if I was dying. The feeling I had was no longer pleasant, carefree or happy, no. It felt as if I was awaiting ughter, taking myst breaths of life.


    I tried to move, to get away from the boulder but my body was incredibly heavy. I was barely keeping myself conscious. The pain intensified, few seconds felt like eternity when finally, I fainted.


    I woke up the next day or rather, I assumed it was the next day. This time it was morning. When I woke up, I was happy at the thought that I''m still alive! I was alive but very weak at the same time. When I tried to prop myself up, I noticed my hand was really shrivelled. I got startled by that discovery and check my arm, then another arm, then both legs and finally I touched my face.


    "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!"


    I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was shrivelled and dry like a skeleton. I looked like a dried corpse waking up from its long slumber. I was terrified at myself. ''What type of thing happened to me? Did this ray of moonlight suck away my life? Will I stay like this forever?'' I asked myself. There were more questions popping into my mind every second. I was scared, confused and maybe a bit angry.


    It took a while for me to finally calm down. I first tried to get off from the boulder. When I moved everything hurt, as if I was worked to the bones and then put into a long slumber. My desire to eat something became starvation, not hunger. ''I can even eat grass at that point, anything edible!'' I thought.


    When I finally managed to get myself off the boulder, I furiously looked for berries. I knew grass was not ideal type of food for me, it could do more harm than good. Berries were the easiest food to find in the forest, it didn''t take me long to find some.


    I started eating. I ate, then ate more, then more and more until I ate about two buckets worth of berries. I was surprised myself, how was it possible to eat two buckets of food, of berries nontheless? Somehow, I managed that and the starvation became a hunger. This was much more bearable then the feeling of starvation. I could still feel pain all over my body but it was nothingpared to before.


    When Iid down on the grass, I tried to organise my thoughts. ''The idea of standing on that boulder while waiting for the moonlight was stupid. I need to leave this ce. This ce is cursed!'' I thought. I no longer had any interest with that boulder or those rays of moonlight.


    I''ve rested for an hour or two and felt the hunger bing more intense again. I ate more berries then rested again. After another round of eating and resting, I managed to recover enough strength to move normally. I was still too tired to run but it was improvement nevertheless. I noticed that the shrivelled skin started toe back to normal, I was happy about that. If I were to enter a vige with that kind of look, people would either attack me or scream "Kyaaa! It''s a walking corpse!".


    I prepared to stay one more night at that ce to rest properly. This time though, I would just go to sleep and never go near the boulder and that moonlight again.

 Chapter 8

    Chapter 8


    I slept till the morning not waking up at night whatsoever. The hunger kicked in again. It was like I didn''t eat anything for couple of days. I stuffed myself with the berries to appease my hunger. I then packed my stuff and left, nevering back to that ce again.


    On the way I got hungry often, it was as if my body was burning away the food I ate. Even simple task of walking for a while made me hungry. I decided to hunt something because meat might satisfy my body for a bit longer.


    I was like hungry wolf looking for pray. Not long after I found a rabbit and hunted it. I was much more experienced now and it seemed to me that I had more strength as well. The rabbit I hunted with my throwing spear didn''t even manage to move after it was hit.


    After the meal I continued on with my journey, when I got hungry I again started to hunt. It went like this tillte afternoon, when I arrived at a small stream. I decided that this will be my next camping site and so started to build my own shelter and gather wood for fire.


    I was almost sick of the meat and berries. I ate so many rabbits in one day that no human would be able to in couple of days. On the bright side my skin looked much better now and the hunger attacks happened less often. I then heard some noises, rapidly closing in on the area I was in.


    I didn''t know what would jump out so I prepared myrge spear and throwing spears just in case. What popped out of the bushes was¡­ a bear. And not just any bear, no. It was in rage, as if someone killed its child. When the bear spotted me I knew I was screwed.


    Without any warning the bear charged at me. In panic I picked up my throwing spears and threw one after the other. I managed to throw all five spears. Four of them hit the target. I would be d with this type of uracy normally but at the end of these spears was not a tree but arge bear. The spears got stuck into the bear''s hide and although didn''t dorge type of damage it slowed it down quite a bit. I imagine due to the pain. I then remembered, I had one more thing I could throw and that was the knife I got from the hunters I met couple of days ago.


    The bear was getting closer but also ran in straight line with bloodshot eyes staring at me. I aimed the knife and threw it at the bear. Mind you I threw it the same way as a spear. I know, I know but if I tried to throw it differently I wasn''t sure if it will even touch the target, even if it was not far away.


    I managed to hit the bear''s neck with the knife. It stood up on its hind legs and roared in pain. I thought ''Now or never'' and rushed to the bear with my wooden spear. I was aiming at the bear''s mouth but the bear had different ns. I managed to hit it on the neck again but the bear was having none of that and swiped its paw from my left.


    "Swoosh" "Thud" "Crack"


    I had no way to dodge that kind of attack so the result was me flying away a bit. The force was so great it actually broke my arm.


    Human and bear both roared in pain. I was still conscious with my only weapon wooden spear in my right hand. My left hand broken hurting like hell, my whole left side also hurt but nothing was broken. The feeling was as if something huge rammed into you, it'' was not pleasant.


    I saw the bear struggle but still charged at me. I had no more strength to pick myself up and so my only solution to this problem was the same as with the wolf. ce the spear in front of me, prop it on the ground and hopefully the bear will ram into it and not swipe its paw at me.


    In this life or death moment thatsted eternity, I waited for the bear to get close and ced the spear in front of me then closed my eyes.


    "BOOM"


    "ROOOAAAR!"


    When I woke up, it was dark. My first though was ''I died'' but then I saw stars and a huge bearying not far away from me. The bear had my broken now wooden spear pierced through its mouth.


    I managed to survive again but not without a scratch. My arm was broken and my left side hurt due to the attack of the bear. I was in a forest with no doctors, medicine, no nothing. There was also a burning hunger in my body. I couldn''t start a fire with one hand so I couldn''t eat the bear''s meat.


    I tried to look for some berries to eat but could find nothing in the vicinity. I searched further away from the bear''s corpse and finally managed to find some. After I did that, I returned to the corpse. I knew it was a corpse because if this was not a corpse then I would be.


    I was lost on what to do next. With one hand broken, no medication and no doctors around, this can only go wrong. The worst part? I had no map, I just traveled wherever I travelled. As I said, I had no goal besides to travel. I thought to myself ''Although I survived but in what state and for how long?''


    Not being healthy in this environment was deadly. I realised how stupid I was to just go somewhere without anything prepared. I understood why the hunters that gave me that knifeughed at me.


    People say that you don''t see the danger until your life is at risk. Now with this enlightenment, I realised what I did was stupid, how childish my actions were. Thinking that hunting a rabbit and living in a forest is an easy job.


    Iid like this for a long time, contemting my life and my bad decisions until I fell asleep.


    When I woke up the next morning I was being moved. Something or someone dragged me. I got startled and screamed "AAAH!" then that something let go of me and started speaking¡­ in humannguage?


    "Boy, you are lucky I found you. Your arm is broken and you look really bad"


    It was a voice of an elder person. I couldn''t see his face as he was always standing behind me. I asked in confusion "Who are you?" to which the voice answered "Right now your saviour, so shut up otherwise I will not help you!" I could feel being dragged again. Then he lifted me and threw into some kind of cart. I shouted out of pain "ARGH" but the old man said nothing. I noticed that the cart also contain the bear I killed. No wonder he came with a cart, it was for this bear.


    Then I heard a horse that was tied to the cart. The old man shouted "HA" and the cart moved. After some time the scenery changed and the forest thinned out., after couple of more minutes I could see some kind of wooden walls, then buildings.


    I guessed it must be one of the viges that''s inside the forest. I didn''t ask any questions throughout the so called journey and the old man didn''t speak either.


    We arrived at one of the buildings. I wanted to say my thanks for helping me but all of a sudden the old man picked me up, went inside the house and threw me onto the wooden bed. When Inded on my broken arm you could imagine the pain I was in. I screamed


    "AAAAARRGGGH"


    The door closed and... nothing, silence, with one exception that was me still crying in pain. I''veid there for a while still in pain and cursed that old man. The fucker just threw me onto a bed with my broken arm. I didn''t know what to expect but I was too hungry and in so much pain I could only make painful noises but not move.


    After an hour or so of agonizing pain, the door opened again. There I saw two old men walk in. One of them said "This is the doctor he will take care of your arm" I thought ''I recognise that voice¡­. Wait! it''s that motherf¡­.'' then the other old man said "I will heal your arm and give you some medicine. You look like you didn''t eat for couple of days, we will provide some food for you too."


    I was baffled and afraid. They treated me badly from the beginning and now they offer treatment and food. I thought ''Something is wrong here'' but because I had no way to do anything, I could only wait to find out.

 Chapter 9

    Chapter 9


    The doctor started the treatment. He first told me to drink some kind of herbal medicine and said it will lessen the pain. I though ''I have nothing to lose anyway'' so I drank it. After a while I could feel the pain being subdued, which I was happy about. The next thing, the doctor took my broken arm and with one swift move without any warning straightened it up to align the bones.


    "AAAGHHH!!!"


    I roared in pain. No wonder he gave me that medicine first, I almost fainted from the pain. Takingrge gulps of air and trying not to faint, I saw that the doctor applied some kind of medicine onto my arm and then bandaged it together with some square stick on both sides of my arm.


    I couldn''t take it anymore so I fainted from the pain. I woke up in the morning, but I didn''t know what day it was. I only knew that I was starving. I still felt pain in my arm but it was nothingpared to before. I could not move a muscle due to hunger and also added pain from my arm. Iid like this for couple of hours before the doors to the house opened and a middle aged woman came in with some food.


    She ced it on a table next to the bed and left without saying anything. When she left and I looked at the food, I felt like a hungry wolf that had starved for two weeks. I somehow managed to use my right hand to grab some food and devoured it. The food was finished within seconds not minutes and I was not satisfied. At least it was hunger now not starvation, so it helped a bit.


    I had nothing to doying on the bed like that so I reyed the fight with the bear in my head. I found three crucial points that contributed towards my current situation. First, it wasck of experience and knowledge. I didn''t know how to hunt properly or had knowledge about animals, medicine and so on. That was one of the crucial mistakes I made. Going into the forest inexperienced and without knowledge, hoping for the best was not a good idea. Second, I had no supplies. I was stupid enough to actually enter the forest without any type of supplies or basic tools. Now I understood that supplies were as important as my life. Third,ck of strength. I was simply too weak to travel alone.


    When I thought about those three things I wasn''t discouraged, no. I was more motivated. I wanted to explore my life even if I were to lose it and for that I will need knowledge, supplies and strength. Knowledge means to have an idea on how to do stuff and how to behave ordingly, this ties in with experience. I got experience already as I learned couple of things. This doesn''t mean I''m experienced. Having someone to teach you how to do things is a good way to gain such knowledge, this then can turn into experience when you practice. The said someone will already know how to do certain things but you still need real life experiences like what I did. Just that I had no one to teach me first.


    The options I now had were to either get someone to teach me otherwise maybe get some books on those subjects or continue the way I did but with more caution and mature mind.


    Another issue with my traveling was supplies. I had no money. So finding a job, even low paid one would bring me some money to buy necessary supplies. Otherwise I could steal or something but I was not proficient in this kind of things, therefore I would probably get caught.


    Andst but not least was the strength. I thought ''There is no magical way to just get stronger'' and I could get stronger only through hard work. Working out everyday and repeatedly training my skills.


    All was nice and great but there was one problem with all of that. I now had a broken arm which was healing but broken. I was at a ce I knew nothing about and the people who lived here¡­ were not very friendly. I had no idea what they wanted to do with me and if they would just let me go after I''m healed. Because thinking about it, who would provide food and treatment for free. I had nothing on me that was valuable, so I could not pay them. I wondered ''What the hell might they want from me when I''m healed''.


    The days passed like that. I couldn''t regain my strength due to small amounts of food I was getting. The doctor that came once in a while just checked my condition and left without saying anything. Sometimes he would just apply some medicine on my hand again, then bandage it back and leave.


    Two weeks passed like this. I didn''t talk with anyone. Don''t get me wrong, at the beginning I asked some questions and tried to talk but they all ignored me and only said what they wanted to say. So I gave up talking to them, I was less and less fond of these people. It was like a silent torture. After those two weeks I was indifferent to their behaviour. I stopped caring and decided to focus on my goals and my life.


    After another two weeks, a month passed since I arrived in this vige. I could now move my arm but there was still some difort in it. I guessed that it might had not full healed yet but it was at least not crippled.


    On the day my arm healed to this stage, the doctor came again this time removing all the bandages and sticks while asking me "How does it feel?". I simply ignored him and moved my arm around. He got up and left but that was just the beginning.


    After the old doctor left someone else came in. It was the old man who dragged me through the forest and threw me around with my broken arm like I was a rag doll. He looked at me and said "Now that you are better, you will work for us to pay your debt of us helping you with your injuries as well as the debt of us feeding you".


    I knew they had some kind of motives, so they wanted me to work for them like a ve. I said to the old man "What if I refuse?" to that the old man raised his brows and said "We can just disable you and throw you back to the forest. Your choice"


    I asked another question "What if I try to run?" to that question the old man just sneered and said "You can try". He then added "You will work for one year here, do whatever we tell you to do. Then you will be free to leave"


    I thought to myself ''They may already have some kind of measures against me if I were to run away or if I disagreed they could just force me to work or kill me''. Then I remembered that my current goals were to gain knowledge, supplies and strength. All of that could be aplished in this vige. If I need to spend one year here, why not make it worth my while and train, get knowledge and try to umte some kind of supplies.


    I said to the old man "Alright, I agree" to which he just smiled and left. I stayed in the bed for next couple of days to fully heal my arm and after that talk with the old man I got a bit bigger portions of food. Not a lot bigger but still. This would improve my hunger situation.


    On the 6th day after the bandages from my arm were removed, the old man came again. This time He was holding some kind of paper. He threw the paper at me and said "Read it through. Those are the rules you will abide by and the tasks you will carry out." I looked at the list and my brows furrowed.

 Chapter 10

    Chapter 10


    The old man turned around and left. He only gave me the list of rules I needed to follow and tasks I was supposed to carry out. I started reading through the list. There were four rules I had to follow:


    First. I was not allowed to leave the close vicinity of the vige unsupervised. If I wanted to go to the forest for example, I would have to report that to the old man and ask for permission.


    Second. I was not allowed to bring harm to any of the vigers. So I couldn''t fight with anyone, that wouldn''t be so bad but the rule included that I couldn''t even defend myself.


    Third. If I was in possession of any item that was not used to carry out my task, I will be punished severely. Supposedly they didn''t want me to have anything.


    Fourth. I had toplete all the tasks on the list everyday. If I didn''t I wouldn''t get any food.


    If I were to ssify my standing by those rules I was a ve. I had no way to retaliate, maybe besides cursing someone but that could result in me being beaten up. That was not in the rules but to some arrogant or short tempered people, if I said something bad about them I would be beaten up with no right to hit them back.


    I had no way to run away from this problem so I could onlyply with that. Besides I had my own ns about the stay in that vige. I wanted to gain knowledge, strength and maybe even supplies. Although rules stated I could carry around nothing on me, I could still hide stuff around when I get the chance.


    Then I''ve read the tasks given to me. There was also a map of the whole vige, which woulde useful I was sure. First thing in the morning, my task was to bring fresh water to every household in the vige. On the map I could see the well and around 25 households in the vige. Judging by the number of households it was quite a small vige. The Freemount vige I came from had at least 100 households.


    The water needed to be delivered before 7am meaning I would have to wake up and start working at least at 6am or even earlier. Each household required 4 buckets of water, meaning I would have to do two runs per household if I took two buckets at once. After that I would have to go to woodcutter''s lodge just outside the vige and chop wood. There was no specific amount stated, it was only timed. I was supposed to do this till 9am.


    At 9am till 9.30am I would get my breakfast at the house I currently lived in and that would be my break as well because from 9.30 am I was supposed to help local cksmith with his work. The paper didn''t say what I was supposed to do but I was sure I would find out once I get there. This was supposed tost until 12pm at which I would get an amazing one hour break! Of course, break only no food.


    At 1pm I was supposed to go and help in the fields just outside of the vige. The fields were located at the northern side of the vige, while the woodcutter''s lodge was located at the southern part of the vige. The work in the fields was the longest andsted until 5pm at which I would get my dinner.


    The rest of the day I was free. I guessed that they didn''t want to work me to death from the beginning and I expected that something may change in the future. The paper stated I will start all of that the next day.


    I wasn''t really surprised by all those tasks, I knew they wanted to squeeze everything out of me. On the other hand that was also good because I could train a lot physically, the only problem was food. I only got two meals everyday and I was already in a weakened state. I checked the map and found a small river just outside the vige, if there are fishes there I could eat those.


    The problem was I had no weapons or tools, so I would have to create a fishing rod and use it to fish when I''m done with my tasks. If I manage to get couple of fishes everyday that would improve my food situation a lot. I could just store them and use them for my breakfast, lunch or whatever I wanted.


    Sure I couldn''t carry around anything on me but If I fished and ate all my food then hid the rod, what can they tell me? I have nothing on me. If I pick up a pebble from the road would that mean I have something on me? That would be absurd even for them. So as long as I don''t carry anything around the vige I think I should be fine.


    I wasn''t naive anymore and I knew someone would monitor me. Even so I wouldn''t steal anything, I would use only what I could find outside the vige. If they have any problem with that then they can kill me straight away. After one year of that kind of work and the food they would provide, I would be dead anyway.


    The n was formed and I decided to rest properly that day. I would have to wake up early in the morning for my first day at the so called new work.

 Chapter 11

    Chapter 11


    The next day I woke up at 5.30 am. Because I had nothing to eat I could only go out andplete my tasks. When I arrived at the well, I noticed couple of bucketsying around. I then looked at the map and decided the route I will take.


    When I filled the first bucket with the water from the well, I noticed that it had holes and the water wasing through them like in a sieve. I poured the water from that bucket to another one. It happened again, then again¡­ until I was left with only one bucket.


    ''These motherfuckers!''


    I thought. They obviously did this on purpose, with two buckets I would only need to make 50 rounds from the well to the households but with one bucket that was 100 rounds! I understood that they wanted me to work but this is just in wrong. I vowed to myself that they will pay for it one day.


    It took me around 30 minutes to do just 10 households. That means I would need about 1.5 hour toplete this task. I still had an hour but the thing was I still needed to make it to the woodcutter''s lodge at 7am therefore about 5 to 10 minutes was taken away just for travel. I was angry but stillpleted the task. Although walking with one bucket instead of two was easier and less heavy but covering the households a bit further from the well was more time consuming and also I had to walk more.


    At 6.50am I finally finished with the water carrying task and went off to the woodcutter''s lodge. I timed myself and it took me about 5 minutes to get there at normal speed, so I had 5 minutes of so called free time. I sat down outside the lodge and waited.


    At 7am a middle aged man came out of the lodge and so I got up. He said "Follow me" and moved behind the lodge. He then pointed at an old and tattered axe and said "Go to work, next time when youe here just start doing your job" and he left.


    I was left with mountain of logs and an old, rubbish axe. Of course they wouldn''t give me anything sharp, it wasn''t because they were afraid I would attack someone. No, it was to make it more difficult for me, to make me more tired.


    I started splitting the logs into halves, then splitting the halves again to obtain quarters. After about 10 minutes I started to sweat. ''This axe is shit!'' I thought to myself. I had to use more strength just to split the stupid logs and I had no such thing as strength because ofck of food.


    I slowed down with the work but still after half an hour I was too tired to continue. I decided I would rest a bit. I ced the axe back on the stump used as a cutting table and shook my hands around to relieve some pain.


    Not even 2 minutester I could hear a voice shouting "BACK TO WORK!" and so I picked up the axe again and started to split the logs but with much lower speed now. Even though I was tired, I persisted until about 8.30 am and had to rest again. This time the voice screaming "GET BACK TO WORK!" only after 5 minutes. I wondered ''why was that longer than the previous time''.


    Picking up the axe I continued on till 9am. Supposedly I had 30 minutes break but in reality it was about 20 minutes. I had to return to the house I was staying at and then at 9.30am I still had to be at the cksmith''s ce.


    When I returned to the house, I noticed some food waiting for me. There was a bowl of porridge and stale bread. I also got surprise, surprise a ss of water. I devoured the meal in a minute or two but as I suspected, I was not satisfied and felt hunger anyway. Iid down for a bit on the bed to rest, about 15 minutester I had to go out and travel to the cksmith''s workshop.


    When I arrived, arge man with muscles showing on his arms told me "Grab the hammer from the wall over there ande back here" while pointing with his hammer at the opposite wall. I grabbed one of the hammers and returned to the cksmith.


    He said "Watch what I''m doing and then you will start the work" and started his work. First thing. He took couple of lumps of ore I assumed and threw that into a furnace. He then retrieved a molten liquid and poured it into some sort of mould. He then cooled it a bit with water but it was still red hot. Next he took out the solid but orange metal from the mould and started hammering it. He did it for couple of minutes until the metal got ttened outpletely. He then put this into the furnace again and after a while took out molten metal and repeated the steps again.


    After doing this 3 times. He then melted it again, then poured it into the mould and submerged it in water to cool it producing a lot of steam. I noticed he had 4rge barrels with water. He submerged the mould with metal in one, then another and so on. After the fourth barrel, he took out the metal from the mould and it was an ingot.


    He then turned around towards me and said "Now that you know what to do, this will be your work from now on when youe here. Remember only to melt the bar 3 times before cooling itpletely". He then packed some stuff and left. There was no one left in there so I could only do what he showed me.


    It wasn''t overly difficult to remember what he did. Therefore I started repeating the process. I melted the ore, then poured it into the mould and then the problems started. When I hammered the bar, it was very hard to tten it. I had to use a lot of strength just to tten itpletely like the cksmith did. I was out of strength so I decided to rest a bit. This time I didn''t hear any voice saying I should be back at work, so I rested for 10 minutes and melted the ttened bar to pour it into the mould again.


    To actually create one ingot it took me one hour. Because I watched his demonstration it was already 10.30 am, so at the maximum I could probably create one more ingot. Time passed slowly and at around 11.30am Ipleted my 2nd ingot but I was too tired to continue.


    Couple of minutes before 12pm the cksmith returned to the workshop and said "Show me what you''ve created". I showed him the two ingots I created. He asked "Only two?" to which I only nodded my head. He then examined both ingots and said "You may leave now" so I did.


    When I returned to the house I was staying at. I thought to myself ''My next task is working in the fields'' so I decided to rest properly before I go to the fields because I had a feeling that they saved the best for thest.

 Chapter 12

    Chapter 12


    I didn''t sleep for that one hour as I was afraid I would bete so I justid down and rested, not moving a muscle. When it was about 12.50pm I got up from the bed and went out, heading towards the fields outside the vige.


    When I arrived I noticed there were couple of people working on the fields. One of the farmers came over to me and said "Your job is to plough the earth in this area, Do you know how to plough?" to which I answered "No"


    He said "Then I will show you how it is supposed to be done, follow me" he then moved to an area of earth and demonstrated how to plough the ground. He used a tool called hoe that looked like a spade''s de but the handle was at a 90 degree angle. He struck the ground with it making a grove and continued one hit after the other.


    The ground resembled tunnels dug by animals. He then exined to me that when I finish one line, I can start another one. The new line should be done a few centimetres away from the previous one. He demonstrated that too.


    After asking "Do you understand?" I nodded my head and reached my hand out for the hoe. The farmer looked at me and said "What do you want?" I replied "The tool? What else?" he startedughing as if I said something funny and said "This is mine, if you want yours make it yourself or buy one. I don''t care either way". I narrowed my eyes and asked "So how am I supposed to do this task then?", the farmer replied "I don''t care, use whatever you want. It''s not my problem how you do it"


    I knew there will be problems, why wouldn''t there be? So they wouldn''t even provide tools for me. I guessed that they wanted me to do it with my hands, these bastards. I didn''t start the work immediately. I searched the fields for something suitable but found nothing besides stones. I though ''Stone is better than my bare hands'' and so I picked a sizable one then started to plough.


    I had enough of ploughing after just one hour. Using a stone wasn''t helping but at least I wasn''t damaging my hands otherwise I would probably not be able to move them tomorrow. There were still couple of hours left till 5pm and so I took regr breaks to let my hands rest. I was quite surprised that no one demanded from me to work constantly but hell I wouldn''t anyway even if they gave me tools.


    This way I finally managed to reach the end of my tasks for that day. I threw the stone into the field and left, not saying anything to other people in the field. I was too tired to do anything and so I decided to go back to my temporary home to eat my dinner and rest for a while.


    When I arrived I noticed the food one the table. It was two stale breads and two bowls of porridge. I was surprised by the amount but didn''t linger around thinking about it and started devouring the food. I thenid down on my bed and rested.


    At about 6.30pm I left the house and went to see the river. When I arrived it was quiet and serene. I looked at the river''s surface and noticed some fish swimming around. ''Good, there are fishes here'' I thought to myself. I just needed to have a some sort of or fishing rod to be able to fish.


    I figured that fishing rod is less effective because I would have to wait and maybe I will be able to catch something. I would also need the bait. Withs I would need nothing but time. The problem was, how to create a? If I had a rope or something it would be possible. The other possibility was flexible branches and because I could not get any type of string or rope I would have to use that.


    It was worth a try, I was already proficient with wood due to my experiences with the forest. I wasn''t allowed to go to the forest alone but there were many shrubs and trees around the vige. After 30 minutes I managed to get enough branches to try and form a.


    But because it was already past 7pm it was getting dark. Even if I were to finish the it would be impossible to fish something then. I left the pile of branches near the river and decided to wash myself. It was already a while since I did that therefore without hesitation I jumped into the river and rxed a bit.


    After perhaps 2 or 3 minutes I could hear voices getting closer to the river. I quickly jumped out and put on my clothes. Just in time as the people I heard were already about 20 metres away from my location. From afar I could see that they were young, maybe even my age or younger. I was 18 at that time. I don''t know why I didn''t mention that till now, maybe because it was useless for you my reader while now it serves its purpose.


    I noticed two young men and one young woman. They also noticed me already. I just picked up my stuff, HA as if I had any and went off in different direction. I wanted nothing to do with these people. Who knew what kind of stupid ns they had this time. Although I tried moving out of their way they still had to find trouble with me. One of the young men shouted "Hey you ve, stop" I, on the other hand ignored him. This was my free time and I had no obligation to talk with them nor toplete any tasks for them. The paper I got from the old man stated I couldn''t harm them but it said nothing about me doing stuff for them.


    So I just left. Yet they wouldn''t give up and shouted one after the other "Stop you stupid ve, are you deaf?" "Fucking ve,e over here" I wasn''t provoked, I still tried to leave. Then they started to throw taunts at me "Are you scared, ve?" "Look at him already pissing his pants" but I wasn''t impressed. They finally stopped following me and I arrived at my temporary residence.


    I swore to myself that these people will pay for it after I was out of here. I vowed to myself ''I will return here when I''m stronger and more experienced then we will see who is a ve''. I was angry but after swearing couple of times and making empty threads I went to sleep. I would have to repeat what I did today and I would need strength for that.

 Chapter 13

    Chapter 13


    I slept well for the whole night, I was rested but hungry nevertheless. It was 5am when I woke up and because I had no breakfast to eat, I went out to start my tasks. I arrived at the well and noticed that there are again couple of buckets. I checked all of them again and only one was without holes. I decided to break the other ones. ''If they have to waste buckets everyday maybe they will stop doing this shit'' I thought to myself and destroyed all the buckets except the one without the holes.


    I finished much faster that day due to familiarity of the task and also because I arrived earlier then previously. I used some water from the well to wash my face then drank quite a bit, if I couldn''t eat anything I could at least drink water to my fill. After that it was about 6.45am so I sat down and rested for couple of minutes before heading towards the woodcutter''s lodge.


    This time when I arrived, the woodcutter didn''te out. He already told me to just go behind the lodge and start my work. I took regr breaks and when the break got a bit too long I could hear a voice screaming "GET BACK TO WORK!". I wondered where did the voice go yesterday when I was working in the fields.


    After finishing that task, I went back home and ate the breakfast. It was the same asst time but the bread was less stale, I guess they didn''t have a lot of stale bread at hand so I got a better quality one.


    Done with my breakfast, I rested a bit then headed to the cksmith''s workshop. When I arrived the cksmith was not there. I shrugged my shoulders and just went to work. This time I managed to create three ingots with the breaks I usually did. As expected the cksmith came back just before 12pm to check my work. I showed him the three ingots and he just said the same sentence asst time "You may go now".


    When I returned to the house I was staying at, Iid down on bed and rested before the work in the fields. Because I had some time on my hands I decided to think about the fishing. I wondered how to create it, If I had a design and everything already prepared, it wouldn''t take that long to create it. I decided that the couldn''t be toorge otherwise it would be too much work. Next would be the gap between each branch or vine in the. Surely the smaller the gaps the better but the longer it would take to create it. I decided to create a small enough that a fish about 30 centimetres long will not go through. Anything smaller than 30 centimetres could be eaten but this would require smaller gaps in the and that would be too time consuming.


    I had design in mind and the materials were already gathered. I just hoped that they were still there. This way it would take me an hour or something in that region to create the and if I were to fish for one hour¡­. Maybe there was a possibility of getting some fishes.


    There was also the problem with the hoe. I had to use stone previously but there were no materials in the fields I could use to make the tool from. I had ess to the cksmith''s workshop and I worked with metal everyday but stealing would probably be too difficult. If I found some old and tattered metal, then melted it and created a tool from it. I could use it in the fields.


    With these ns in mind, I left the house to start my work in the fields. This time I just went to my area and used the same stone to plough the earth. The voice shouting "GET BACK TO WORK" didn''t appear this time either when I took breaks.


    The day passed quietly and uneventfully. I was hungry therefore I returned to my home first to eat the dinner. It was again two bowls of porridge and two breads. After devouring the food I took of my shirt and looked at my body. It was all shrivelled and looked extremely weak. Although I did get some food and water, it wasn''t enough to return my skin and muscles back to normal due to constant physical jobs I was doing.


    I was even more motivated to go fishing and get more food. If I was at the top of my strength I would be as strong as the cksmith in this vige, if not stronger. I again arrived at the river. I could see no one and the sticks I left previous day were still there. I already had a n formed in my mind and so I started working.


    It was quite a fiddly job to weave the vines, branches and what not to create a. It took me about an hour just to create a half the size of a human. The had four vines used as a lines to retrieve the from the water. It was quite flexible considering that I made from wood. I immediately went to the river to try it out. I was green when it came to fishing, therefore fishing for 30 minutes brought me no results.


    After another 20 minutes I could see some fishes swimming towards my. When they were below the I pulled the vines in my hand and the trapped some fish inside. I was happy that I will get to eat something and dragged the out with the fishes inside.


    I managed to catch 3 fishes, one was about 40 centimetres long the others were smaller about 30 cm long. Pleased with my fishing, I immediately created a fire and cooked the fishes. I finally ate some meat. It was like I ate the best delicacy on the, the fish simply melted in my mouth.


    After I ate all 3 fishes, the hunger I felt was notparable to before. It was like someone just skipping one or two meals, instead of couple of days of meals. I hid the somewhere not visible, extinguished the fire and left the river.


    Not even 2 minutes after I left I could hear the same voices again. "Shit!" I eximed and tried to change the direction. After walking for a while I noticed a young man standing in that direction, the same one from the previous day. So I turned around and changed directions again.


    He followed me with a smile on his face. It was weird because he said nothing. After a bit of walking another young man stood on my path. I frowned and thought ''So that is what they wanted to do''. I swiftly turned left and moved in different direction. Again after walking a bit I noticed the young woman from the day before standing on my path, blocking my way.


    Now I had nowhere to go, there were two guys behind me and this woman in front of me. All of them had a smile on their faces as if I was their friend. I stop and one of the young men said "Where are you going ve?" To which I answered nothing.


    The guy got worked up by that and said "Drop on your knees and beg for forgiveness!" I still did nothing. The other guy said "You either beg us or you will regret it for your entire life" to which I of course said nothing. Both of them frowned and started to get closer to me. I on the other hand begun backing up. I kept my eyes on the woman as well. She smiled all of a sudden and without any warning rushed at me.


    I tried to evade but for some reason she knew what I would do and a punchnded on my stomach. "UGH!" ''How the hell was she so strong'' I though to myself, I knew I was in a weakened state but still. She tried another punch but I rolled away and evaded it. She didn''t seem happy about that and chased after me. Of course I wasn''t stupid enough to just stand in one ce. I quickly got up and ran towards the vige.


    They chased after me and the woman was actually faster than the two other men. It was like she had the same strength as both of thembined. Sometimes I would get hit from behind and sometimes I evaded her attacks. The other guys stayed out of it, mainly because they couldn''t catch up.


    After about 10 minutes of such running and evading or getting beaten up I managed to arrive at my house. Breathing heavily I looked back, the woman also breathed more roughly. She apparently got tired too but not as much as me or the other guys who were now catching up to her. She was standing about 20 metres away from my front door. I went inside and closed the door, then I heard her say "This is not the end ve, be prepared to face that everyday!" then I could hear them leaving.

 Chapter 14

    Chapter 14


    Standing in the house I wondered ''What the hell is their problem?''. I did nothing to them, we never talked nor met each other in the past so why create more problems for me than I already had. I figured that this must be the human nature ying its part. I was just a ve to them, although I didn''t think like that about myself. I was also from a vige as well and much bigger than that, so what right did they have to treat me like that? Strength! I was alone, if the whole Freemount vige were to stand with me they would be the ves not me.


    I started to notice more about how humans were fake and how they used numbers to overwhelm the weak ones. If I was healthy, at the top of my condition and could retaliate. Would they still look for trouble with me? I assumed no but because I was weak and they had whole vige behind them, they knew I could do nothing so why not pray on me.


    With these thoughts in my mind I went to bed. I knew the days ahead would be more difficult but other then preserving and focusing on my own goals, I could do nothing else.


    Time went by and it was already a month since I started working for the whole vige. The spring was ending and with it came the summer. Past this month I had to avoid the young people of this vige and do my tasks at the same time. They would sometimese looking for me when I was in the fields or carrying the water. They actually never disturbed me when I was smithing or cutting wood. Maybe because I had a weapon in my hand or maybe because they were scared of the people who owned the ce.


    After my work was done, I always went to the river to catch some fish but because these people started to look for me whenever I had free time, I had to change my spots often so that they couldn''t find me. They of course did find me couple of times and chased after me like the devil. Sometimes I managed to get away and sometimes there were too many of them, therefore I could only get beaten up.


    Although life was like this, I had some improvements as well. Because of my fishing, I managed to restore some strength and although my skin and muscles still looked terrible, it was much better than a month ago.


    I had more strength but I didn''t show that. I still spent the same time to carry the water. I took simr breaks when cutting the wood. I still made the same amount of ingots and I still used a stone to plough the ground. Although, the ploughing changed after two weeks. That was due to the field being ploughed through and then they sow the seeds.


    As for the hoe, I never produced it in the end. I actually found some metal scrap but it was not enough to create a hoe. Now that I didn''t need the hoe, I decided to leave the scrap for a time when I would need it.


    My task changed to watering everything, not just the area that I ploughed, no. I had to water the whole field. They were much more reasonable this time and gave me a cart and barrels that no one tempered with. I could use the cart and barrels to transportrge amount of water to the field but it still required load of strength to move the heavy cart.


    In the beginning, I was barely able to water everything till 5 pm. Later on when I got used to it, it took me less time. Now that the crops were already sprouting, the other farmers were taking care of the weeds.


    Because I had to water the whole field, I could sometimes overhear a conversation and learned couple of things. Apparently the old man that "rescued" me was the vige chief. He was also the strongest amongst the men in this vige. I learned that the woman who chased me to beat me up countless times was his granddaughter. They had some kind of body strengthening manual. That was the reason why this woman was so strong.


    I was intrigued by the manual. I wondered what type of things could it contain but I had no desire to actually steal it. I was sure it was heavily guarded or hidden somewhere and if I tried something stupid, I would lose my life for sure.


    Another person the farmers talked about was the doctor. Apparently, he was an outsider that only the vige chief knew. He was invited to live in this vige by the chief and agreed. Besides learning that, I also learned that his skills are quite good ording to the people. I could attest to that in a way, he did heal my broken armpletely and I had noplications ever since.


    They also talked about how the so called youngdy was a future star of this vige and that she would marry someone from arge vige located two days away from here. The vige was called Grasshill Vige and it was at least 8 times bigger than the vige I was in, at least ording to the farmers.


    I knew she was arrogant and vain but that doesn''t change the fact that I did nothing to her, ''why bother with me?'' This thought baffled me a lot and I couldn''t find any logical exnation, so I left it there.


    Today when I arrived at the cksmith''s workshop, I noticed that the cksmith is already waiting for me. That was weird because he was always absent through the month I worked at the workshop, of course besides the time when he showed me what to do.


    He said to me "Today I will show you something different and this will be your job from now on. Understood?" I just nodded my head in confirmation. This time he took two lumps of iron and threw in another lump of something else into the furnace. When all of that was melted, he took it out and poured it into the bar mould.


    Cooling it a bit to make it solidify, he ced the bar on the anvil and struck it with the hammer. I noticed he is hammering only one half of the bar instead of ttening it like he did with the iron ingots. When it was ttened to couple of millimeters, he started to curve it towards the other half of the bar and struck it until both ends were ttened. Then he put it into a furnace to not melt it but make it more workable and repeated the process 5 times. I could see he was already tired after the 5th repeat. He then melted the bar or rather whatever was left of it and poured it into the ingot mold. After cooling it the ingot didn''t look dull and grey but shiny and more silver.


    The whole processsted about 40 minutes. I was happy I had almost an hour break. The cksmith finished the ingot and turned around towards me while wiping his forehead. He said "This is your task from today onwards" and that was it. He left and I was supposed to repeat what he did.


    I went to work and repeated the process that cksmith showed to me. I took two lumps of iron and one lump of, well... something else and threw that into the furnace. Then I poured the molten metal into a bar mold and cooled it a bit. After that I took the hammer and


    "nk" "nk" "nk"


    I stopped. This metal was about two times harder to tten then just normal iron. I used more strength and was able to make a dent. I decided to heat it up a bit. When I did that, it was more workable. I guessed that I had to maintain a specific temperature to be able to work on it, otherwise I would have to put in a lot of strength.


    Even heated up it was still hard but workable. I did the process once and was already tired. I returned the ttened bar into the furnace to make it melt a bit and prepared for the second repeat. After second repeat I was too tired to continue so I had to rest. I''ve rested for 15 minutes and not to let the metal cool down I heated it up once in a while.


    Then I had to take a rest after each repeat. It took me till almost 12pm to finish that one ingot. The cksmith came in and looked at the still hot ingot. I cooled it till it was only warm to touch and the cksmith took it for examination. After a while I could hear the iconic sentence spoken by this intelligent and worldly person "You may leave now". I always wondered if he doesn''t get bored of saying one and the same thing. Would it hurt him to say something like "You can go" or "get lost".


    Either way I went back to my house to rest. Of course, I encountered some youngsters on my way and had to run. My house was like a sanctuary. I didn''t know what rules they were taught but no one ever tried to break in to that house or follow me in. I was happy that they didn''t but it was weird nevertheless.


    After resting I went out again to water the fields. This time some youngsters tried to make things difficult but when I arrived at the fields they dispersed. I guessed that having crops was more important than bullying me.


    When I was done with thest task of the day I went back home to eat, then headed towards the river as usual to get some fishes. I was more proficient at fishing with the as well as creating it. Sometimes they would find the hidden somewhere and they would destroy it. So I had to build couple throughout the month. I caught some fishes with the and I moved to another ce. I didn''t stay in one ce for too long as I didn''t want to be detected. After cooking and eating the fishes, I hid the and went on my way back to the vige with some thoughts in my mind.


    I still had 11 months to go before I received my freedom but I was sceptical about that too. Would they really let me go? This thought entered my mind often throughout the month I stayed in this vige. I was trying toe up with a n of escape in case they go back on their word. Now that I knew the old vige chief was the strongest among the vige people, I had to somehow escape his grasp.


    I could create a weapon from the scrap I had but It was still to early to do that and maybe I would be able to get something better in the future. That didn''t mean I would be able to harm the chief. If his granddaughter is this strong then he is at least two times stronger than her although he is old. I remembered the situation when I first met that old man. He used a cart to transport me and the bear''s corpse back to the vige. The problem was, how did he put the dead bear on top of the cart in the first ce? My guess was, he could lift a bear and I would have to n for that.


    He probably also had fighting experience and so my pity tricks would be useless against him. I needed to practice my skills on top of getting my strength back. I decided that I will use some of the scrap metal to shape thick branches in the shape of daggers used for throwing.


    When I have couple of them, I can practice at my house. In case someone tries to find something on me, I would only take wood and shape it at my home. If they find some wood on me what could they say? On the other hand if they found actual weapon, even the ones made from wood, they would get pissed and I would get punished. I wasn''t going to give them a reason to punish me.


    I collected some thicker branches and went to the ce I stored my scrap. I was cautious about my surroundings when I went there as I didn''t want anyone to dispose of my scrap. When I retrieved one of the sharp pieces I decided to hide it in a ce where no one would look, even if they tried to check me. I will spare you those details but it was difficult to walk nevertheless.


    I arrived back home and fortunately no one inquired about the thick branches in my hand. There weren''t many people around anyway, it was dark already and those that were around didn''t give a shit about me. When I closed the door I went to work straight away, I wanted to finish it as soon as possible and be ready to practice as much as I could through the time I had to be here.

 Chapter 15

    Chapter 15


    When I woke up the next day, I didn''t have time to create throwing daggers anymore. I had to run the errands for that stupid vige. I could only create those daggers when I was free and that was during the evening after I was done with all the tasks and fishing.


    The day passed mostly uneventfully with the exception of the fishing adventures that fueled my recovery. Some youngsters found me when I was cooking the fishes. I had to grab them and run. Fortunately they were not as fast or as strong as the granddaughter of the vige chief, they had no chance to catch up to me. I consumed my fishes in rtive peace when I''ve lost the pursuers.


    In the evening back at my house, I finally managed to create 5 throwing daggers. Now what I needed was some kind of target. I could throw them at the wall but that would create noise and someone might investigate. Just because young people of this vige didn''t dare to enter the house, it didn''t mean adults couldn''t. The example would be the doctor or the vige chief.


    I decided to use the pillow for my practice. It was rubbish anyway and if it had some more holes, it wouldn''t matter that much. I took the piece of scrap and dug out a nail from the floorboards. Rusty but still useful. I took a rock from outside and "hammered" the nail together with the pillow onto the wall.


    The target was a bit small. If I missed with the dagger, it would still make a sound. I decided to use the quilt as it was much bigger. It was rubbish too but when I thought about it, it was summer already and I wouldn''t need it anyway.


    I reced the pillow with the quilt after finding another rusty nail and the target area was much better. I had no paint or anything so I couldn''t draw any type of human figure on the quilt to make the target more useful. After thinking for a bit I came up with the idea of getting some coal from the cksmith''s workshop. There was loads of it because the furnace had to burn something, coal was one of those things.


    That n would have to wait till tomorrow anyway, I couldn''t go there now. For now, I tried to learn the technique not the uracy and so simply threw the wooden daggers at the quilt. I was trying to find optimal way of holding and throwing them. The training didn''tst for too long, I still had to go to sleep in order to be rested for the next day.


    Because summer started, days were bing longer and nights shorter. The next day when I finished with my water carrying task, it was already sunny. Moving on, Ipleted the wood cutting task and went to the cksmith''s workshop. As usual, the cksmith was not present. I stole one piece of coal and did my task. I managed to create 1 and a half ingot. I mean half because I was at the 3rd repeat of the process. When the cksmith arrived, he examined both my ingot and unfinished work and said his famous sentence.


    He would probably finish that ingot himself. I could do two of them no problem in the time I had but I didn''t. What would I gain from working hard? When I arrived back at my house, I draw an outline of a person on the quilt. It resembled the old man vige chief a bit. I added different target areas I wanted to aim at.


    I didn''t start the training as there was onest task toplete. This would have to wait till I was done with everything today. When I went out of my house, I noticed amotion not far away. When I got closer, I could hear the vigers talking about something important. Something about a young master from the Grasshill Vigeing to visit today.


    No wonder there was amotion outside. Someone important was visiting from a muchrger vige and this caused people to talk about all sorts of stuff. I wanted to hear more but when the vigers noticed me, they looked at me with anger in their eyes andmanded to leave and do my work.


    I did just that. Although knowing stuff was one of my goals, I didn''t want to face any punishments for no apparent reason. I''ve watered the field and as usual after the diner which was of better quality this time, I went to the river in order to catch some fishes.


    No one disturbed me that day. I guessed it was because of this so called young master and they didn''t want to bother with me. I only wished it was like this everyday. With full stomach at least for a while, I started returning to my house. In the vige, I noticed festive atmosphere. Everyone was busy doing something but it was none of my business, I just went straight to my house.


    I started my practice. I tried to hold the daggers in different positions while throwing them. The most suitable andfortable position I found was holding the dagger t in my palm. To throw it, I would swing my hand and release the dagger from my palm.


    With this technique I could hide the weapon inside my sleeve and throw it unnoticed. It was a good technique and so I practiced that. I tried aiming for the eyes, throat, heart, legs and arms. I aimed for legs and arms because the target area was bigger, also because I could slow down my opponent. As for the eyes, heart and throat these were fatal points in human body, therefore I wanted to have good uracy when aiming at these parts.


    I wasn''t green when it came to uracy anymore. Most of my throws were on the target I drew once I got used to the way of holding the dagger. There was a problem of the dagger hitting the target but not with the "sharp" edge. These were just wooden daggers and had no edge but hitting the target with the handle or with the side of a dagger would make no damage to the real target. I had to work on that.


    I practiced like this for couple of hours and decided it was enough for today. It was time to hit the bed. When I stopped practicing, I could hear the voices of cheering,ughing and overall happiness outside. I was too focused to hear them during my training and only noticed them after I finished. I came close to the door to try and listen in on the conversations.

 Chapter 16

    Chapter 16


    I couldn''t hear clearly what the people outside were talking about so I crack open the door to be able to hear better. I could now make out what the louder voices said. "Congrattions old chief" "Come here chief, let us toast the good news". These were the things I could mostly hear. Something good must have happened to the old man. He was being toasted and received congrattions. I wondered what the hell happened so I listened more attentively.


    After awhile of eavesdropping I managed to hear this sentence "Congrattions old chief. Now you granddaughter will have bright future in front of her". I wondered what might have happened to that granddaughter of his. Did she get arge sum of money or something? Was she bing a disciple of some kind of warrior?


    Then I heard the following "You granddaughter is blessed to be able to catch the eye of that young master. Congrattions again old chief". Now I figured it out. The woman who chased me around not because she fancied me, no. It was theplete opposite. As if I was her number one enemy. She got into a rtionship with the so called young master. Now I understood why the celebration. The Grasshill Vige was at least 8 times bigger then this vige and so much more wealthy and prestigious. If she married some kind of young master, she will have wealth and prestige.


    The first thought that entered my mind was ''How can I ruin that''. I wanted revenge. You would want that too. Why? If you were chased everyday and beaten up regrly, wouldn''t you want revenge too? The problem was I didn''t know the date and whenever that so called young master will actually marry her. There was also one bigger problem. I was a ve here. My movements were restricted and monitored. The voice shouting "GET BACK TO WORK" was probably some kind of trusted servant of the vige chief.


    My worry was that he wasn''t just any viger. What I mean by that is I didn''t know if that guy had normal strength or enhanced like the vige chief''s granddaughter. I would have to assume he is as strong as her or stronger. I couldn''t beat her so beating him would also be impossible.


    If the marriage were to take ce during the year I''m a ve, I could not really do much BUT if it were to be after that. I already had suspicions that they wouldn''t let me go. A year time from my calctions would be enough to restore my body to the top condition if I fished and ate additional food. I already was stronger and could do the tasks they gave me with nor problems. I had to fake being much more tired than I usually was.


    I was confident I could take on the guy responsible for monitoring me after one year. When I leave and then she still didn''t get married, I would make sure she would never do! I closed the door and went to bed. I still had work to do tomorrow.


    Time passed like this and another four months went by. Now it was the 5th month since I was enved in this vige. I finally managed to learn the name of the vige. It was called Horsein Vige, I also managed to learn the name of the vige chief and couple of other people. Usually these people were called something like vige chief or cksmith but they had their names. The chief of the vige was called Rand, the old doctor Nick, the cksmith Grond and Rand''s granddaughter Senty while her twockeys that were always with her were called Bill and Greg. My tasks were also changed a bit.


    At the end of the summer I had to harvest nts and grains on the field. When that was done I didn''t work on fields anymore but that didn''t mean I had more free time. I had to help the vige doctor with treating the patients. Not only the patients were not grateful that I actually tended to them, no. They were annoyed and angered that I was doing it. Someone even spat on me once.


    Nick the old doctor was quiet. He never talked to me about anything besides what I had to do and how to do it. I learned loads of useful things though. How to apply bandages correctly, which nts were beneficial for health and recovery and what types of remedies were used for different symptoms. This knowledge would be very beneficial to me when I finally leave this god forsaken vige.


    I was still chased when I went to the river or while I was still working in the fields. Now I was mostly hunted, yes hunted at the river. I would asionally get beaten up but I also got better at evading and running away. My body recovered a lot throughout these 5 months. I was still skinny and looked not that well but in fact I was feeling 10 times better than couple of months back.


    If I were topare my strength now and then, In the past I could only create 2 ingots of steels as I found out. Now I could create 4. I still wasn''t as strong as Senty but I wasn''t very far off. All the work I did and the food that I ate came back with more strength when I recovered a bit. Although I was skinny and didn''t look well, I still had a lot of strength if someone took my looks under consideration.


    I also practiced every night with my wooden daggers. I was now able to throw two at the same time and hit the target most of the time. In session I could throw all the daggers and hit the target almost 100% of the time. I got better with the practice and also learned how to hide the daggers into my sleeve, so that I can retrieve and throw them at will.


    Now it was already autumn and it was going to be winter in couple of months. My task at the woodcutter''s lodge changed to a different sort of wood not to long ago. It was much harder wood therefore more difficult to split it. I''ve shown that I''m struggling and took regr breaks. I didn''t want to expose my strength to anyone. It was the same with cksmithing. I only created two of the steel ingots everyday. Although I could create more, no one paid me for that.


    I was also a lot more proficient with fishing now as I tried different techniques when fishing with my. Sometimes I would get a huge haul like 70 centimetres fish or couple 50 centimetres long. Yet I was always never full, I felt like I could still eat if I had more food.


    I also learned one more thing. The date of the wedding. Apparently this young master wanted to marry Senty next year in summer. That would mean it was after the 1 year agreement I had with the vige chief Rand. I started to formte ns based on my abilities, but I still needed more skills. Sneaking would be great if I knew how to do it properly, yet I had no one to teach me so I could only learn by myself.


    For that I wanted to use the young vigers that always chased me. I wanted to learn using them. They would be helpful to practice things like, how to sneak up on people and how to be invisible. I decided I would try that from the next day when I go fishing again.


    Now though, it was time for bed. I was quite tired after my training session. I always had to be incredibly focused when trying to hit the target areas. If I lost focus for a while I would miss. That could be a problem as well in the future. When I lose focus, I had about 40% chances of hitting my target. So being distracted had detrimental effect on my uracy. I would have to make throwing daggers my second nature. So that even when I''m thinking of something else, I can still hit the target at least with 90% uracy.


    With those ns in my head I hid the daggers and went to bed. Tomorrow, there were loads of things I wanted to test out.

 Chapter 17

    Chapter 17


    The next day, I did my tasks as usual and went to the river. I caught some fishes and didn''t change my position like in the past but stayed in the same ce to cook my fish. When the fish was done and I was about to eat it, I could hear some noises traveling towards my direction. I grabbed the fish and started devouring it. After a while I noticed couple of youngsters about the age of 16,ing towards me.


    I was good at eating, especially since I had a huge appetite. So devouring the fishes I had was a piece of cake. When the youngsters noticed me, they immediately charged at me. I of course wouldn''t stay still and ran away. I didn''t want to run awaypletely, I wanted for them to search and that was my real objective.


    If there was no one that could teach me how to hunt. I would learn that myself! If there was no one that could teach me how to sneak, I would also do it myself! I hid behind the bushes and stayed quiet. When they arrived, one of them was at an angle which exposed my position. He shouted "There he is!" and other two added "Get that ve!"


    I ran away again to hide in different area. I yed like this with them for good 30 minutes, when they got tired and voluntarily left. I was kind of disappointed. I mean a bit of difficulty and they already gave up. Although they found me every time, I wasn''t discouraged. I had to learn by myself, no one was there pointing out to me what I had to do. I decided to think about it more after my training with the throwing daggers at my house.


    At my house, I trained furiously with the wooden daggers. I wanted to get to the point where I could throw 5 of them at once and all would hit different areas or if I wanted all would hit the same area. At this moment I could only do that with two daggers. It might seem that if I could do it with two then I could quickly learn to do it with three but that is a misconception.


    Holding two daggers in my palm and throwing them at the same time was my limit. If I had three, then the uracy of the other two would be off as well. By off I mean I would miss the target. This was annoying me constantly. I didn''t know how to improve on that, what could I use to increase the uracy as well as the number of the daggers I could throw at the same time? I thought about it hard and the only thing I coulde up with was nibliness. If my fingers were nimble enough, I could use them tounch another dagger or two.


    I tried it couple of times and it was difficult. My fingers were not nimble and flexible enough. I wondered how to make my fingers more flexible and nimble. I couldn''t figure anything out and so I left it there. I still had time and if I tried to rush things, it would only do more bad than good.


    The training ended up shortly after that. I wanted to think about the sneaking aspects before I hit the bed. As far as I could think, there were couple of things I needed in order to sneak properly.


    First. My steps needed to be light. By that I mean I couldn''t make noises when I walked. This could be practiced and I already had an idea in my mind.


    I could practice using twigs, sand, leaves and ss. If I littered the floor in the house and tried to walk carefully, I could with some practice, learn how to be noiseless. It wouldn''t be hard to gather all these materials. I could find twigs pretty much anywhere and leaves? Well it was autumn, there were fallen leaves everywhere as well. Sand was even easier to find and ss? Also easy. The people of the vige drank a lot of alcohol, therefore finding an empty bottle wouldn''t be that difficult.


    I decided that this would be my n for tomorrow. If I could get these things and practice on them, I would be able to learn a thing or two when ites to being noiseless.


    Second. I needed to be traceless. Thinking about this, I would train this while being noiseless as well. If I could move in a way that didn''t create footprints and disturbances not only would I be noiseless but also traceless. That''s like killing two birds with one stone!


    Third. I would have to learn how to blend in. Clothes were a good idea but I couldn''t wear clothes for every type of environment. Besides I had only one pair of clothes and it was already on me. I would have to find a way to deceive people somehow. To make myself invisible. Staying still is one way but also not being shy is another. If someone is not looking for you then there are less chances they will see you. I needed for someone to look for me and not be able to find me. I would have to train that at the river. I needed people for that and who else could help me other than my fans? Who went after me wherever I go. With those ns in my mind I went to bed.


    The next morning, I woke up as usual and went to do my tasks. When I had a break I would collect some sand, twigs and whatever I could on my way back to my house. Vigers stared at me sometimes but they always stared and although rules stated "I could have nothing on me besides the things I needed for the task I was doing" No one would actually say anything about twigs, sand or leaves. ss was more dangerous but they didn''t seem to care that I collected some bottles.


    After I returned from the doctor''s house and ate my dinner I went to the river again. Not just for fishes but also for experience. They would probably have weird face expressions if they actually knew that I wanted them to find and chase after me, so that I can practice my skills. I did some fishing and ate my second dinner but there was nothing. ''What the fuck?" I thought. Usually they would be all over this ce but now? Not a single soul in sight.


    I was afraid a bit that they gave up and will note here anymore. I decided to investigate that, so I returned to the vige. I noticed anothermotion when I entered the vige. When I got closer I saw a person kneeling and the old chief Rand holding a sword to that person neck. Then I heard him say "You have two choices. You be a ve here and I will let you live. After five years, you will be free to go. Or I kill you right now."


    The kneeling person''s head lifted and I saw a woman with a scar on her face that made her look not that pleasing to the eye. She gritted her teeth and answered "Fine! I will do it as long as you keep your promise!" It seemed she wasn''t stupid enough to waste her lifepletely. In her ce I would choose 5 years of very than instant death. In 5 years you can develop or form ns in case you wanted to escape. It''s loads of time to n stuff out. The vige chief said "Good. If you try to run, you are dead, if you try to harm anyone, you will face severe punishment. If you want food, you will have to do the tasks we assign to you." So it was the same bullshit lecture he gave me but this time it was not on paper but spoken out loud. Rand then said something that got me sweating "You will live with the other ve, we don''t have houses to just give out. But first follow me, I will give you some items you will need".


    ''SHIT!''


    I thought to myself. If she is going to live in the same house as me, all my ns will go to waste. I rushed to the house and started to take down all the stuff rted to my training. I cleaned up everything andid on my bed, awaiting the arrival of the uninvited guest.


    While waiting I thought about my training. Where should I continue it? At the river? What if someone sees me and besides today was special, tomorrow I''m sure those young vigers will again chase me. There was also this guy who shouted "GET BACK TO WORK" every time my break got too long. He was probably monitoring me and I never actually saw him. He must be good with sneaking but it''s not like I can learn from him. He wouldn''t teach me anything.


    There was one ce I could think of. cksmith''s workshop, I was alone in there and if I finished two ingots very fast I would have time to practice my throwing skills. But I was there for only 2.5 hours so even if I managed to finish the ingots in hour and a half, doing the training for an hour daily would be a little to short¡­ WAIT! That''s it.


    I had a n now and when my thoughts reached to that point I could hear the doors to my house opening.

 Chapter 18

    Chapter 18


    I stayed in my bed,ying there not interested. I was curious what type of arrangements will they do but I decided not to care and just wait it out. Laying like this on my bed I head Rand saying "Boy, this is your new roommate from now on"


    I just stayed on my bed and did nothing. I simply ignored them. I could hear the old man snorting and saying "I don''t care if you like each other or not. Both or you are ves and if you try to fight, both will be punished!"


    I then heard him leave the house, closing the door behind him. I was stillying on my bed not moving. I then heard a woman''s voice "Where should I sleep?" I furrowed my brows and opened my eyes. When I looked at the woman standing next to the door waiting for my answer, I must admit I was confused. I asked "What do you mean?"


    She then answered me "There is only one bed" I was even more confused and asked "They will not provide a bed for you?" to which she said "No". This really was a problem. The bed was small enough for one person to sleep on and two people would never fit on it. Even if we were intimate, sleeping on top of one another would be tiring.


    I asked her "What do you propose?" When I saw her expression of confusion and anger I was dumbfounded as well. ''Did she expect me to give her my bed just like that? Why would I do that, because she is a woman? BAH! No way!''


    After a while of awkward silence she finally answered "How about we take turns sleeping on it. One day you and one day me?" It was a logical proposal and fair. But this world wasn''t fair, so I said "This seems fair but I don''t agree to that"


    She was angered even more and shouted "Why? Because I''m ugly?" I looked at her in confusion again and thought ''I never said you were though''. Although she had not a very pleasing face as the scar looked terrible and made her face look bad, on the other hand the rest of her body was in very good shape.


    I said to her "No, it''s because I need to be properly rested every day" She seemed to be angry but also relieved? Maybe because I didn''t judge her looks and angry because I didn''t want to share the bed with her.


    She then stated as a matter of fact "So you want me to sleep on the floor?" I simply answered "You can sleep wherever you want" then I added "How about this, for now I will let you sleep two times a week on bed" I can see her not being satisfied but I couldn''t be heartless to her either. She didn''t have it nice here so two nights out of seven in my opinion was a good deal.


    She said with anger "Fine!" and just sat in the corner. Iid down on the bed and said "This is temporary, when I get some stuff, I will make something for you to sleep on" and then went to sleep. I didn''t care if she believed me but that was all I could do for her.


    Creating a bed from some vines, branches and what not would not be difficult. I would have to collect that first and as far as I stayed here, when I brought branches etc into my house the vigers said nothing about it.


    The night went by uneventfully. When I woke up in the morning, I saw my roommate sleeping in the same corner she went tost night. I went outside to start my tasks. I don''t know what she was assigned to do but my tasks didn''t change. After the usual routine of carrying the water and splitting some wood, I went for breakfast. The food was on the table as usual and she was not around. I guess she went off to do her own tasks.


    After my breakfast, I went to the cksmith''s workshop. It was time to implement my n. In the workshop I could create any sound I wanted because it was noisy environment. As an added bonus, I couldn''t be monitored inside. Another point was that there was always some waste material from forging so I could use that to make some real daggers. The problem was I never forged daggers, so what I thought of doing was to make some very thin curved tes. No, not the tes used for eating but metal tes that was very thin.


    With this I could then sharpen them on the grindstone I saw in the workshop and use them as my weapon. One hour of training was not a lot but If i had those des then I would already have a weapon and if I learned even for one hour daily to throw with them¡­ I would be able to learn with proper weapons instead of wood.


    I wouldn''t even have to carry them back home. I would just need to hide them in the workshop somewhere. I also hoped there will be some change in my task situation which would allow me to be alone in a ce that no one can see. This would allow me for more time to practice.


    Winter would be upon us soon and so some tasks may change. That was my n, to forge a real weapon and train with it in the workshop. Then either I will be assigned to a task were no one can see me like in the workshop or I would have to fish more and eat more to return to my top condition sooner. The more strength I had the faster I could finish with the ingots therefore the more time I would have to practice. In 2.5 hours of my allocated time at the workshop, if I could create two ingots in 30 minutes that would be perfect.


    Of course I would probably have to be at the top of my strength for that. So probably 1.5 hour would be much more possible in short run. I started to collect the waste material from the steel ingots and stored them in a safe ce in the workshop. I couldn''t execute my n yet but I would be able to soon.


    Just before 12pm the cksmith came over to check my ingots and told me I can leave. I went back to my house and when I entered I noticed that my new roommate was eating dinner. I guessed that we get breakfasts and dinners at different times. She was sitting at my bed but I said nothing about that. I wasn''t going to chase her away just because she sits on it while she eats. I sat down on the floor and leaned my back against the wall to get some rest.


    Iid like this for couple of minutes then I heard her saying "Why are you here?" I opened my eyes in confusion and thought ''Because I live here?'' then I said "Because I have a break." She then followed up with another question and rification "No, I mean what did you do to be enved?"


    To which I answered "Nothing". She started thinking and said "Sorry I shouldn''t ask". ''This idiot thinks I don''t want to tell her!'' I answered again "I did nothing" to which she furrowed her brows and asked "What do you mean? Then are you ve because you were sold?" to which I answer "No" she then asked again "So if you did nothing and you were not sold why are you a ve?"


    I closed my eyes and the past couple of months went past my mind. When I opened my eyes I said "Because life is such" I didn''t want to exin to her everything from the beginning. I was already very detached from social interactions. Anyone would be after that type of treatment for so long.


    She then said quietly "I don''t understand" as if expecting an answer from me but I already closed my eyes to rest.

 Chapter 19

    Chapter 19


    When she heard no reply from me after a few minutes, she said "I was enved because I tried to steal something important from the vige chief". I thought ''She''s annoying''. I guessed that because she wasn''t alone and I was a ve as well, she therefore tried to make a conversation. All humans wanted social interactions until they were left alone without being able to interact for a long time.


    I thought about what she said ''Something important¡­ it could be the manual that they practice''. I opened my eyes and asked "Was it some sort of manual that he has?" I could see amazement on her face. She asked "How did you know?" to which I snorted and replied "Because his granddaughter beat me up countless times and I don''t believe any woman should be this strong without practicing something"


    She was astonished again, then I realised something. ''Wait! She tried to steal something. This means she should have some skills, even though she was caught!''. I asked her a probing question "Why did you do it?" to which a hint of hatred appeared on her face, then she responded "Because it belongs to me!"


    ''That is a bombshell'' I thought. ''So the manual they have was stolen or perhaps it was sold and she wanted it back''. I asked another question "How can you prove it''s yours?". To which she snorted this time and said "Because it belonged to my parents!" I asked again "How can you prove that? Everyone can just im it''s theirs". She answered immediately "My parents left their notes inside. They mentioned me."


    I asked "Did you practice this manual?" to which she answered "No" so I asked "Why?", she said "Because I was too young and I couldn''t practice it but I knew what it looked like and saw the insides. It''s just that I don''t remember any of it, I was a child."


    ''This seems weird a bit'' I thought. Then I asked again "How do you know that the manual belonging to Rand is actually yours?" she then answered "It''s because I saw his training. It''s a long story. I can tell if you want to hear it" to which I answered "No need". ''I didn''t want to hear the story, I was a bit intrigued that was all''. I then moved my questioning to her skills "How did you want to steal it? I don''t suppose you just barged in like nothing and demanded it" to which she went a bit red on her face and didn''t answer. ''No, don''t tell me, she really did that.... She''s hopeless, just hopeless''


    I said to her "So you went and demanded it back and you were enved. Didn''t you say you tried to steal it?" to which she answered "It was because he didn''t give it back and justughed in my face saying, take it yourself if you can". ''Ufff, that was close, I thought those were bogus charges and she had no skills'' I asked again "So you tried to steal it, how?"


    To which she narrowed her eyes and said "Why do you want to know?". ''At least she can figure some basic stuff out'' I thought. She was suspicious why I asked the question and normally she should be but I wasn''t interested in that manual. Sure, if I could get my hands on it, I would take it but I wanted sneaking skills. I wanted to know how to be invisible!


    I said to her "It''s not what you think. I want to know if you can be invisible. Or to put it differently, If you can hide very well" to which she answered "Why do you need that?" and I said "Do I have to exin everything?" after that she seemed kind of pissed so I went straight to the point. "I want to learn those skills" to which she answered "Why?"


    I got up from the floor and moved towards her. She was startled as if I wanted to do something to her and she said "Stop!" I was a bit confused and just replied without slowing my pace "I just want to take my pillow from the bed" I lied of course as I didn''t want everyone to hear what I was about to say.


    She rxed a bit but was still on guard. I got closer to her, grabbed the pillow and said "Walls have ears. I want to learn it because I don''t think they will ever release me" and I went with the pillow back to the wall I came from. I could ept them knowing I want to learn stuff but my n couldn''t be known. I didn''t know if I could trust her but If she really taught me some skills, it was a risk worth taking. Besides she would have to be a very good actress to fake all of her expressions and answers.


    When I sat down I said "It''s because of those stupid vige kids. They always chase me and if I learned to hide myself better, I would be able to avoid them better". I lied of course but I needed to say that just in case someone was listening.


    She apparently got my meaning and asked "What will I get in return?". I went into deep thought. I didn''t think about that. I just demanded to learn something for free but there was no free stuff in this world. I remembered she wanted a bed so I said "How about you get the bed then? I will make one for myself?" To which she answered "Aren''t you a bit too shameless? You already promised me a bed"


    ''Right, I did do say that I will make one for her'' I thought. But I had nothing of value! What could I give her? I asked her "What do you want then? You know well enough I have nothing" She pointed a finger at me and motioned with it toe over. I was a bit confused but then I realised she probably wanted to say something quietly.


    I got up again and took the pillow with me. When I approached her and put the pillow down she said "Help me run away as well". I furrowed my brows and said "It''s time for me to go to work" out loud. Then I whispered "I will think about it" and left the house.

 Chapter 20

    Chapter 20


    I went to the doctor''s house to start myst task from today. There were mostly patients with some sort of flu or with fatigued muscles. Sometimes there would be more severe injuries, like broken arms or legs but that was mostly kids as they had stupid ideas and sometimes broke an arm or a leg.


    I was responsible for taking care of the flu and fatigued patients, while more serious injuries were take care by Nick. I would still help him by bringing necessary stuff, so the doctor had a lot of free time and only rested in his chair. It was also because of this work not being physically demanding, I could restore more of my strength.


    When treating a patient with light illnesses, I was wondering whenever I should ept the offer that my new roommate proposed. Running away alone would be much simpler and that was in case they wouldn''t let me go after a year. If they did let me go I wouldn''t have to run away but the skills that I developed would still be there.


    To me right now it didn''t matter whenever they released me or not. I would still take my revenge. I wanted all of them to suffer. The wedding was only just the beginning. There were warriors in this world. People with very strong bodies that specialised in fighting. Although I never met a warrior like many other people living in these type of viges, it could be said that the vige chief and his granddaughter were kind of fake warriors. It was all due to their strength being couple of times higherpared to themon people.


    But to most people that would be categorised as a strong hunter. There were hunters as strong if not stronger than Rand, it''s just that most viges maybe had one or two of such people. Of course more if the vige was veryrge. It was also usual for these type of people to be in the chief position. Due to their strength they could protect themselves better but also provide protection to the vige.


    I didn''t know much about warriors and as you may expect not many people did. All I knew about hunters and warriors was from my parents telling me. I was kind of lost in my thoughts and I could hear some profanitiesing from the person I was supposed to treat. Apparently I was spending too much time on treat him. I wrapped up with the treatment and waited for the next patient.


    I noticed a burly man dragging something behind him then threw it at me. When I saw what it was I was not only surprised but also astonished. It was her, my roommate. She was all bloodied and had her arm and leg broken. Her face was swollen with couple of teeth missing. I furrowed my brows but said nothing. Iid her down on the bed and went for the doctor.


    Nick was in the room next door resting as usual. I came closer and said "Doctor, we have a patient with very severe injuries". Nick opened his eyes and got up from the rocking chair. I followed him to the treatment room. He saw the woman on the bed all bleeding and with broken limbs. When the burly man that threw her inside saw the doctore in, he said "She broke the rules, You can treat her or not. We don''t care"


    To which the doctor replied "I won''t treat her". I was amazed at his answer. I thought doctors should help those in need. He then faced me and said "If you want boy, you can try treating her yourself". I furrowed my brows ''Is he for real? Me? an amateur? Treat that kind of injuries?'' The doctor said "Today the visitations end here" and went back to his rocking chair.


    I was left alone with my roommate in critical condition. I decided to try and help her, I still needed her skills and if I could save her life maybe she will tell me how to practice. I''ve seen doctor doing it many times, I therefore had an idea on how to take care of broken limbs. I started the procedure. She was passed out which was her luck because the pain she would feel would be something one cannot imagine and she would pass out anyway.


    I tried to stop the bleeding. This was the easiest part of her treatment as I just needed some medicine and bandages. She had stab wounds on her stomach and so I applied the medicine that would stop the bleeding and applied the bandages.


    Next I cleaned her bruised and swollen face, then applied some medicine. I could do nothing about theck of few of her teeth. Maybe some real doctor could imnt them but not me.


    Next was her broken arm. I''ve seen how it was done but I never did it myself. I needed to locate where the bone was broken and straighten the arm in such way that they align. Then put some medicine on top of the arm and apply two stick with bandages so it couldn''t be moved in any way.


    On my first try I missed. Second, missed and so on until the 5th try I finally aligned the bones together. Then I applied the medicine and the sticks with bandages. It was very difficult. I was already sweating ''Who ever said, treating people is an easy job!'' I thought.


    What was left was the broken leg. I could already see skies getting dark and the time should be past 5pm. I decided it would be better to do it now thanter, therefore I started the treatment of her leg. I did the same as with the arm but to align the bones in a leg was much more difficult and so I only managed to do this after 14th try. When I finished with the treatment, like on cue the doctor came over and said "It''s time for you to go. Also take her with you"


    I said "Alright" and went to get a chair for disabled patients. It was a chair with some wooden wheels like a pulling cart but much smaller and used by people with broken legs or with no legs. The doctor saw that and said "What are you doing?" I furrowed my brows expecting some kind of bullshit and answered asking "I''m taking her home? I want to take the disabled chair" to which the doctor said "Yes you take her home, but not the chair". My thoughts were ''I knew it. I just knew he wille up with some kind of bullshit''. Without any other option I picked her up by the healthy hand and carried her in a strange way so that both the broken leg and arm don''t receive any additional shock. My work would be useless if it got misaligned again.


    I carried her until we arrived at my house or I should now call it out house. Inside Iid her on the bed. Then I ate myte dinner and I noticed her dinner as well. I didn''t eat hers. I was indifferent but not heartless. She would need that food to get back to health. I retrieved the pillow and went to a corner. I still had my tasks to do tomorrow and I was sure when she wakes up, she will share what had happened to her anyway.


    When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that she was still sleeping. I had to do my tasks, so I went out toplete them. After my water carrying task and wood cutting task I went back to our house for my breakfast. When I entered I noticed a note that must''ve been slipped through the door. I picked it up and read it. It said "She will not receive any food if she can''t work. You will receive your share as usual when you do your tasks"


    I furrowed my brows again ''So they won''t even provide food for her'' I crumbled the note and threw it at the corner. I went closer to the bed and I noticed that her food from yesterday was gone and mine was waiting on the table. She probably ate it when I left in the morning.


    I ate my food and asked "Are you asleep?" I heard no answer for a long while and so I sat on the floor to rest a bit. After the break I headed to the cksmith''s workshop. It was time to think about my own situation and not about others. It was a heartless thing to do but I had my own problems as well. I had to focus on myself if I didn''t want to end up like her.


    I forged one steel ingot and also forged one steel te that I would shape and sharpen to make a dagger. I only had enough materials for one right now. In the future when I work more I will get more leftovers. Because I had loads of time still toplete my second ingot I decided to shape my dagger and then sharpen it if I had time.


    I wanted to make it curved so I heated up the te a bit in the furnace and pounded the middle section with my hammer. Then I worked like this till I got a pointy shape at the top and squared shape at the bottom. I decided I would make it round for better handling and so I again heated it up and rounded the edges of my so called handle.


    I noticed I still have an hour left so I decided to do the ingot instead of working more on my throwing dagger. After about 45 minutes I had another steel ingot. There was some time left but I''ve already hidden the dagger and just waited for the cksmith to arrive.


    The cksmith arrived about 5 minutester and inspected my ingots. He said you know what already and I left. When I arrived back at our house I noticed that my roommate was not asleep but I could also see pain on her face. Well who wouldn''t feel pain if they had couple of stab wounds, swollen face, couple of teeth missing, broken arm and leg. I closed the door behind me and walked towards the bed.

 Chapter 21

    Chapter 21


    When she saw me, she started crying. I thought to myself ''Well, it probably hurts her a lot'' and asked "How do you feel?" I know it was a stupid question but I didn''t know how else I could start the conversation. She started crying even more. I though ''Something''s wrong here. I just asked her how she feels and yet she started crying more''


    I said "I know it''s painful but you have to bare with it. You are lucky anyway that I managed to treat you" I could then see astonishment on her bruised face as well as pain. She stopped crying a bit and answered "You treated me?" in response I nodded my head. She just said "Thank you" and cried again. This time I thought ''Something must really be wrong'' It hurt her I assumed but she cried for another reason, so I asked "What happened?"


    She started crying even more. I thought ''What the fuck did they do to her?'' I decided to give her some time. After a while she calmed down a bit and said "They¡­ They raped me". ''BOOM!'' I could hear an explosion in my mind. ''This exins why she cries. Those vigers, they even went that far''. I didn''t know what to say. What could I say? I knew that ves don''t have it easy but this.


    She opened her mouth again and said "Kill me". My mind was shocked again. Kill her? Me? Kill her? I stood there bewildered. What was I supposed to do? Just kill her? I never tried killing another human being. I might want to spoil someone else''s life but not kill them. Beating someone up is not killing them, no. That was a different kind of feeling.


    She said again while crying "Kill me, I don''t want to live anymore" I could understand her a bit. She was raped and beaten to that state as well as the fact that she was still a ve. If she got better who knows how many more times this could happen.


    But was I able to kill? Could I actually do it, not because of hatred or anger but because someone asked me to? Wouldn''t I be a murderer. I was lost like this in my own thoughts. When she saw that, she said weakly "I will tell you how you can train some skills". I woke up from my thought and I realised what she meant. She wanted to exchange her life or rather her death for the skills she knew. In other words, she would tell me how to train if I killed her.


    I asked her "Why?". After a while I heard this answer "Because life is such". My own words came back to me. ''Because life is such'' I spoke this sentence when I realised how stupid and naive I was in the past. It meant that whatever would happen to me wouldn''t change the lives of other people. The hunters would still hunt, the peddlers would do business as usual and the viges would exist just as before.


    It showed that she realised this as well. I sighed loudly and said "I will do it". She smiled for the first time today and said "Come closer I will tell you everything". She described all the training methods she learned in the past. It appeared that she learned them from a hunter. I didn''t enquire more about her past but just listened and tried to remember everything she said. After about 20 minutes, she exined everything to me.


    She then said "Can I ask you something?" I was a bit confused and answered "Sure". She then said almost in a whisper "Will you take revenge for me when you are free?" I didn''t expect that kind of question but I already had an answer "No". I could see her being disappointed for a while, then I added is a whispering tone "I will take revenge for myself". I could see surprise on her face. I then got up and went out of the house. I needed a weapon to kill her and do it as fast as possible. She already suffered enough.


    I didn''t know if I would be able to do it when I stood in front of her with some kind of weapon ready to kill her. I agreed but I was not a killer. I decided to go to the doctors house. I would have to be there in about 20 minutes anyway and he had very sharp tools for treating patients. I would take one and return.


    When I entered the house, the doctor was as always sitting in his chair. He asked me "Why are you so early?" I simply said "I need something" I grabbed a very sharp knife and went towards the exit. Nick furrowed his brows and asked "What are you doing?". I went towards the exit without turning around and answered "I''m going to finish the treatment" and left.


    I was running now. I stole something and I didn''t have much time. I didn''t know if I could actually kill her but at least, I needed to try to fulfil my part of the deal. I entered our house in a hurry and closed the door. I didn''t know if someone will try to stop me.


    I went forwards and stood before my roommate. She opened her eyes and saw a strange knife in my hand. She didn''t ask how I got it or where from, she just asked "Are you ready?" I didn''t know how to answer that question. Was I ready? Can someone ever be ready for that type of thing?


    I said "No, but I want to fulfill my promise". She smiled and said "My name is Dina, we never introduced ourselves. What is your name?" I was caught off guard with that question. Nevertheless I answered "I''m called Nex". She thought about it and smiled "It''s a weird name". ''What the hell? She''s making fun about my name now?'' Then she said "Please remember me" and closed her eyes.


    I stood there, like a statue. How was I supposed to do this? I didn''t know. After a while I decided to try and stab her heart. Maybe this will give her less painful death. I positioned the knife above her heart and... nothing. I couldn''t move my hands. I couldn''t kill her. Something inside me was saying ''This is wrong'' ''Don''t do this''. She opened her eyes again and said "Don''t worry, no need to be afraid. Just do it" and she closed her eyes again.


    ''HA, easy for you to say! I''m the one who does the killing part!'' I thought. Then I saw her face and a smile. She was smiling even though she would die. Was she relieved? Or happy? I didn''t understand but because of that smile all the thoughts in my head disappeared. I no longer hesitated, I pushed the knife straight through her heart and only heard "Ugh" then nothing.


    I took out the knife and saw her clothes bing more red with blood. She was dead now, yet she died with a smile. Something clicked in my head and I was no longer afraid. I was no longer thinking of anything. I just stood there with a bloodied knife in my hand. After a while, I threw the knife onto the floor and picked her up. I went outside and noticed many vigers were whispering something and looking in my direction.


    I didn''t mind them. I didn''t care anymore. I went just outside the vige and started to dig. I didn''t want to leave her body to rot, I wanted to bury her. It was the least I could do now. I dug the grave just by instincts, I didn''t think about doing it or how deep it should be. I simply dug. When the hole was about 50 centimeters deep, I gentlyid her body inside and buried it back. When I was done I ced a stone at the top of the grave and just sat there.


    I woke up from this state after I heard someone saying "That''s enough. Now, follow me". When I turned around, I saw Nick the doctor. I stood up and followed after him. I would probably be in trouble but what was done was done. I could now only receive the punishment.

 Chapter 22

    Chapter 22


    We arrived at Nick''s house. He sat down in the chair and asked "Why did you do it?". I replied "Because she wanted it". He thought for a moment and asked another question "Would you kill someone if I asked you to do it?" to which I said "No". He asked again "Why?" to which I replied "I''m not a killer".


    He said "But you killed her, that makes you a killer" to which I didn''t respond. He said again "So you don''t deny that?" I still didn''t say anything. I couldn''t deny that I killed her but I was not a killer. I didn''t do it in cold blood, hatred or out of revenge.


    He saw that I was not replying and ask rather curious question "How do you feel?" To which I replied with a question as well "How should I feel?". Truthfully I didn''t feel bad or sick. I saw blood many times but most importantly it was her wish. He seemed a bit surprised about my indifference and so he asked "Would you do it again?" to which I simply stated "Yes".


    He got up from the chair and closed the door to the room. I was baffled by his actions and asked "What do you want to do?" He turned around and there was a knife in his hand. I was startled, ''Was he going to kill me too?'' I was now on guard against him. I didn''t care about the rules anymore, if he attacked me, I would fight till one of us dies.


    Without any warnings, he threw the knife so fast, I could do nothing and it pierced right through my leg. "ARGH!" I looked at my leg and it was bleeding, the knife still lodged in it. By the pure instincts I grabbed the knife from my leg and pulled it out. "AAAGHH!" I cried out in pain because as soon as I pulled out the knife, a second knife pierced my other leg.


    This time I didn''t take it out but looked at the doctor. He was standing there with another knife in his hand. I also had a knife in my hand but I also had injuries on both my legs. Because of the pain I wasn''t able to concentrate well enough to throw it urately. I then saw that the doctor is making another swinging motion, supposedly to throw another knife.


    At that moment my instincts kicked in and I threw the knife in my hand as hard as I could at the doctor. The knife was on target but for some reason it got deflected from its original trajectory and hit the wall, getting stuck in the wall half length of the de.


    The doctor turned around to look and I grabbed that chance to pull out another knife from my other leg and threw it. Yet again it was deflected, just likest time. The doctor then turned around facing me and said "Not bad kid" and threw one more knife at me. I tried to dodge it but I couldn''t and so it hit my arm "AGHHH!". I was pissed so I shouted "Just kill me you bastard!" but he justughed and threw another one, hitting my other arm.


    Now I had wounds on both of my arms and legs. I could feel less strength in both of them, as if some kind of drug was on those knives. There more time passed the more numbness spread in my legs and I couldn''t stand anymore so fell onto my ass. The doctor came closer and said "Do you want to kill me?" to which I answered "I didn''t but now I changed my mind". If only I had more weapons on me that he didn''t know about, I could take him by surprise and maybe wound him.


    What he did next astonished me. He took out the dagger I made from the steel te and was fiddling with it between his fingers. He asked "Is this yours?" My face probably gave him that answer already. I was not only surprised but shocked. How did he manage to get it. It was hidden in the cksmith''s workshop and no one should know where it was besides me. I suspected that even the cksmith would not find it in his workshop, so how did he find it?


    I said "Yes, how did you find it?" to which heughed and asked "Why did you make it?" to which I said nothing. It was not his business and I felt danger when he revealed all those things. He wasn''t normal doctor. He had great skills with throwing weapons, that was for sure. He could also somehow find my dagger or had means of monitoring me without me noticing. He should have been a strong hunter in the past but is now a doctor? That was what confused me.


    I was getting more dizzy and light headed. It was probably the drug taking its effect. After a while he said "How about I help you?". I was surprised again. ''Help me? Why? He is acting suspiciously'' I thought then said "Why do you want to help me?". He said "You are a smart kid, so you probably figured out already that Rand will not let you go after that one year". To which I was stunned ''As I thought, he didn''t want to let me go'' I thought and Nick continued "That is why you started to learn how to throw hidden weapons and produced this" he showed me the dagger I created.


    "You are quite smart to be able to learn so much without anyone''s help. So I want to help you a bit". I thought about it and said "Why, what will you gain from doing this" to which he replied almost immediately "Disciple". I was lost. Completely lost ''Disciple? What type of bullshit reason was that?'' I thought. He could see my facial expression and said "You don''t understand kid but finding a disciple who will carry your legacy is not easy. You are smart, decisive and creative. You can also learn new things and you are not biased towards anything. You are a perfect disciple" I said "I don''t believe you. Tell me what do you gain from that. What do you want?" to which he smiled like a devil and said "I want carnage. I want you to destroy viges. I want you to spread fear"


    I was taken aback and said "Why?" to which he said "Because life is such!". Besides shock on my face I realised something. This guy was different. There were different kinds of people around this world but there was one kind that stood out. No, not the righteous people or benevolent or cruel, no. The people who stood out amongst others were pure evil. They had no feelings and their desire was kill and spread fear.


    To think I would meet that kind of human here. ''To be disciple of pure evil. Was that my path for life?'' I said to him "You said that but there must be other motives behind you observing me and proposing this now" He smiled again and said "You are really clever kid. Yes, I want you to destroy this vige. I don''t have much time left. My life ising to an end, finding a disciple here¡­ HAHAHA who would have thought my legacy will be still alive? HAHAHA..." I then cut in on hisugher and asked "What if I say no?" he stoppedughing abruptly and threw a knife at my stomach "AAAARRGGHH!" this hurt much more than before. Nick then said simply "You will die. So what is your choice boy. Will you ept the evil and be one with it or will you choose death?"

 Chapter 23

    Chapter 23


    I looked straight in the eyes of the doctor and said "I choose death" To which he started saying "Good choice bo¡­ Wait, you choose death?". This time it was my turn to make him look shocked and astonished. I chose death, because I choose not to live for someone else''s sake. But you wouldn''t be able to read that if I died, which means I didn''t.


    The old man''s face looked grim and he asked "Why? You don''t want to live?" to which I answered "No, I want to live. But I want to live for my sake not yours!" He was again stunned and said "What do you mean?" I answered "What I mean is, I don''t intend to do your bindings for you. You probably know I want revenge for what they did to me and I will get it, with or without your help. I should be dead anyway because of my own stupidity". He looked me in the eyes and sighted "So you are this kind of human" I was stunned this time ''What did he mean?'' So I asked "What do you mean?" to which he responded "You are even rarer than my type of people. You are an unyielding person, that is why you are still alive" I asked "What does it mean?"


    He answered "It means you have your own path in life, and nothing can change this path. I assume you only have one goal in life right?" To which I was bewildered. It was true I only wanted to explore my life, so he wasn''t wrong. By my facial expression he already guessed the answer and said "As I thought. Good, even very good. I will not kill you. Even better, I will pass my legacy onto you. You are not pure evil like me but you are something worse. You are better than the perfect disciple I could ever find"


    I was lost for words. I chose death and he still wants to give me his skills what was that situation? So I asked "Why?, I chose death" to which he said "Don''t worry boy. I will not impose any conditions on you. Just ept my legacy and you will be able to do what you want to do". I thought about it and decided to ept. If I had to do nothing for him why not take it. Besides, I wanted to learn such skills for a very long time now and he decided not to kill me so why not take it.


    I said "Fine, I will take your legacy". The old manughed and said "It felt like I was the one having honour of epting you but nevermind." he then continued "I will only impart the skills to you and will help you with nothing else. So your current wounds are yours to take care of. Meet me tomorrow as usual and I will start your training"


    He opened the door and sat on his chair as usual. I couldn''t get up because I still had this drug inside of me. So Iid there. Nick didn''t seem to care as well. After about 15 minutes, the vige chief Rand came in. He looked at the doctor and then at me. He furrowed his brows and asked Nick "Why is he in such a poor state?" to which nick replied "He killed the other ve. Although at her request. This is his punishment"


    Rand''s brows eased up a bit then said "Ok, I won''t take this matter any further but I don''t want him to bleed to death either" to which Nick replied "He will take care of himself, I will not treat him" Rand again furrowed his brows and said "Why?" to which Nick said "That is part of his punishment. Don''t worry he will not die. Just let him rest for few days" to which Rand replied strongly "Fine" and left.


    Nick returned to his so called sleep on his chair and Iid there, unable to move my body at all. Iid like this for quite some time maybe even 3 hours, when I finally could move my hands and feet. There was a lot of pain in all parts of my body so I still stayed there for another hour and waited for the drug to stop working. The blood stoppeding out a long time ago and after this additional hour I was able to get up and move a bit.


    I went to the treatment room to get some medicine and bandages. I used some medicine on my legs first and wrapped the wounded areas with the bandages. Then I took care of my arms, then stomach. After all that it was already dark outside, I limped back to my house to get some rest.


    When I arrived there, I saw that the quilt and the bed has been stained with blood of Dina. I was too tired to care about that, so I simplyid on that and went to sleep. There was a dinner waiting for me but I decided I will eat it in the morning.


    I woke up in the morning the next day with a very familiar feeling of starvation. I lost a lot of blood and also I didn''t eat much yesterday. Adding all that, the condition of my body got a bit worse again. I tried to move but everything hurt like hell. After a while of fiddling and painful groans I managed to grab the food and devour it.


    It was not enough, but it never was. Iid there and examined my body. I could see that the wounds were bleeding while I slept but now they were fine. As long as I didn''t do excessive movements, I should be able to walk or move my hands. It was just that the pain was intensified when I moved. ''Nick knew where to aim to create the most pain'' I thought.


    I didn''t get out of the bed to do my tasks. I already knew that I had couple of days off, besides Nick wanted to see me today. ''What the hell can he teach me in this state?'' I thought. Nevertheless I would have to visit him anyway. I wanted to know what type of things he will tell me. At around 9am I expected my breakfast but it never arrived, nor did it arrive at 12pm. I thought ''Ok so I have couple of days off but they will not give me food. That''s great!'' I was already very hungry. The loss of blood due to my injuries as well as theck of food caused my skin to start and be dried again. I thought to myself ''Great! Now, all my fishing and trying to get my strength back will go to waste''.


    I was very hungry by 12.30pm and decided I will go see Nick sooner. I didn''t care about anything else now but food. I hoped I could find something at Nick''s house. I got up from my bed with difficulty and limped slowly outside my house. Then I headed to Nick''s house which was about 5 minutes away when walking normal pace. Of course I didn''t walk at a normal pace, it took me 20 minutes to get there.


    I was already exhausted and when I finally arrived I pressed the door handle and¡­ nothing. The doors were closed. I knocked couple of times but heard nothing. ''He must''ve gone out somewhere. NOW! Of all times!'' I thought. I slumped down supporting my back on the door. I didn''t have much strength left. Besides I used a lot of it just to get to that damned doctor''s house.


    Iid there in silence with my eyes closed. I waited and waited and could feel the hunger bing not just starvation but also some kind of weird rage. I was angry because I had nothing to eat.


    Finally, about 2 hours after I got there, Nick showed up. To my surprise from inside the house. I was even more angry ''This bastard was there all the time!'' I only had strength to say one sentence "You fucking bastard!" and I lost conscious.


    When I woke up, I was at the treatment table. I felt very weak but I could not feel the starvation anymore, just hunger. Nick came over to the table and said "You should have said you needed food earlier". I thought that I will jump straight off from the bed and punch that idiot square in his stupid face. He then said "Your body is very weak. I''m amazed how you managed to live till now. I''m even more amazed how you could do those tasks with this broken body". I didn''t like his tone. He was quite happy about it.


    I managed to squeeze out one sentence again "Go die stupid bastard!" He then said "Alright, alright" then pulled open my mouth and threw something in. I didn''t care what it was, I just ate it. Then he opened it again and threw another something. He fed me like this couple of times and said "I will provide you with more food from now on. But I can''t give you loads at once, this can actually harm you instead of helping you".


    After eating I could feel some of my strengthing back. I still felt very weak but at least I could move my hands and legs a bit. Nick then said "Your body is burning the food away. It''s the first time I see this kind of thing" then continued "I will feed you once in a while today so you can function properly, at the same time I will exin some stuff to you". He then moved me to his private room and closed the door.

 Chapter 24

    Chapter 24


    "I will exin to you your training and the skills you are about to learn". He then asked a question "You''ve learned how to throw small weapons right?" to which I answer "Yes, you already know that". He smiled and asked "Do you know how this skill is called? I''m not talking about throwing weapons, any idiot can do that. You figured out how to do something else. Do you know what it is?"


    I thought for a while and said "No, I don''t know what you mean. I just learned how to throw the wooden daggers as fast and as urately as I could" He smiled again and said "I''m asking about the way you handled your weapons". I thought some more and idea popped into my mind "Is it that I tried to hide them in my sleeves?"


    To which he replied "Yes, that is what you were trying to do. Retrieve the wooden dagger from your sleeve and throw it at the same time. There is a certain name for such skills". I then asked "What is it then?" he replied while grinning "Hidden weapons". I was a bit stunned ''Didn''t he refer to thatst time? I though it''s not really a skill but a convenience, the skill would be to throw these weapons''. I asked him "Hidden weapons? But how is that a skill, to me it was only the convenience of keeping my weapons hidden. If I wasn''t restrained, I wouldn''t do so."


    To which Nick answered "That is correct. Hidden weapons have a history. This art was developed because of the same situation you are in. Moreover it was also developed by ve. Do you know who that ve was?" I was baffled. ''This skill was developed by a ve, just like me?'' I said "No, I have no clue" to which he smiled and answered "It was very long time age. The person who developed this skill was Emperor Endros. Yes the one that founded this empire".


    I was shocked. ''He was a ve? And he founded an empire? HOW?!'' I screamed in my mind. Nick could see shock on my face and said "You don''t know many things boy. Endros was not what history books and tales describe him as, no. He was evil, even more than I was in my prime time".


    I had no words to say after hearing that. Then I thought about it and asked "What if you are lying? One person against all history books. Why should I believe you?" To which Nick snorted and said "I never said you should believe me. I only told you where the skill originates. If you don''t want to believe, that it''s your choice". I thought to myself ''I don''t know, he doesn''t seem to be lying and besides what purpose would that have?''


    Nick then continued "He developed it and taught couple of disciples his art but he never perfected it, no. His disciples never perfected it either. It was much, muchter that people manage to perfect this art to a seamless performance". So I asked curiously "Have you practiced it to the perfection?" to which he answered "No. I wasn''t able to. I was not talented enough to do so. As I said, only muchter people managed to perfect this art but that didn''t mean there were loads of them. There were less of them throughout the history than the fingers on your hands ".


    I said "It doesn''t seem too hard though. I can hide my weapon in a sleeve and retrieve it anytime I want. I can also hide it anytime I want". To which he smiled and asked "You say those petty tricks of yours are the art of hidden weapons?" then he startedughing, hysterically! I decided I will just wait it out.


    When he stoppedughing he said "No boy, Hidden Weapons Art is something else" and a five knives appeared out of nowhere on the wall in front of me. I didn''t see any movement he made. I only saw the knives when they were already stuck into the wall. There was no sound either. I was so shocked my mouth was agape. Nick smiled and said "This is how the art looks like. There are variations to the hidden weapons art but of course you can''t see this simple throw yet".


    He continued "I will teach you the proper art of hidden weapons but that is not the only thing you will learn". I asked "What other skill will you teach me?" to which he replied "Art of medicine" to which I was baffled and asked "Art of medicine? You mean healing illnesses and taking care of broken bones? I already have some knowledge in that". When I said this, his face went grim and he responded "Hmph! Treat illness? Fix broken bones? You think this is the art I would spend most of my life practicing? TO FIX BONES!?" He got quite worked up about it, as if I touched him where it hurt.


    He continued "Boy, you are clever but also dumb as hell. I can''t me you though, You grew up in some kind of barren vige with no knowledge of wonders out there" I was confused ''Wasn''t this just some kind of treatment based art or something? Why spend most of his life on it?'' I asked "Then what is this art of medicine?" He answered with question "Did you know that you can heal people with poison?" To which I answered "No, poison is bad for humans. That is why we avoid it" to which he snorted and said "Wrong! You can treat a lot of illnesses and diseases with poison. Besides poison, there is application of the art as well. I know the human anatomy inside out. I can aim at any spot on human body and I know what effects this will have on the target. I can also heal myself in need. Broken arms? I can connect severed arms if I wanted to!"


    I was amazed but confused as well. I asked "If you are so powerful and so almighty, why are you in this vige working as a doctor for some half assed vige chief?". I saw his mood change. He said "I could kill him but I can''t and he knows that". I asked him "Why?" to which he reyed "It''s because my master''sst wish was to protect him and aid him"


    I thought ''Ok so his master said to protect and aid him, fine. Then why does he want me to kill him? And destroy this vige?'' I asked him "Right, so why did you want me to destroy this vige then?" to which he said "I told you I don''t have much life left to live. I have about one year left. In this one year I will impart all my knowledge to you. Then you can do whatever you like. I told you I will not impose any conditions on you and I shall keep that promise. Just promise me you will learn my skills and use them in the future". I said "I would use them because they seem useful whenever you asked me or not". He smiled and said nothing.


    I asked "But why did you want this vige destroyed?" to which he said "Do you think I wanted to stay here? All because of that old fool, my master. I resent thatst wish but he knew I would do it" I asked in confusion "Then why don''t you leave? your master must be dead anyway. It was hisst wish" to which he said "Yes he is dead but even evil has order. There is order to everything. There is master, then his disciple, then disciple''s disciples and so on. No person can go against that order.


    I was confused again and asked "Why?" to which he said rather mysterious sentence "Gods that descend shall be mortals. Those who inherit shall follow. Those who live shall die and those who thrive shall pass" I waspletely stupid at this point and asked "What does it mean?" but Nick just stared at the ceiling not answering my question.

 Chapter 25

    Chapter 25


    After couple of minutes, Nick finally returned to the reality and said "You will not understand what it means, even if I exin it to you". I didn''t really care, I was more interested in other stuff, he would teach me. I asked "So, what else will you teach me?". Nick replied "There is onest thing, I''m going to teach you. That is, the Art of Stealth". I thought for a while about it, and asked "You mentioned it as ast skill, or Art. Is it because, that is your least important or most important skill?".


    He said "All of them are important, you small bastard. Don''t pick and choose!". He then continued "You think that the skills, thete roommate of yours told you about, are evenparable? They are just petty tricks, no wonder she got caught in the first ce!". I kind of expected that answer. I nodded my head, and Nick continued "What I''m going to teach you, is the Art of Stealth. I''m not as experienced with it, as with the other two. Therefore, I can only teach you that much". He then melded into shadow of the room, I couldn''t see him at all. I was astonished ''He just disappeared, as if by magic''. I was sure that, if I went to the shadow, I wouldn''t find him there. Nick then appeared out of nowhere, standing in the same ce, he used to stand.


    Only one word escaped my mouth "Wow!". Nick smiled and said "So, you finally see the greatness of my Arts!". He then continued "These are the 3 Arts that I''m going to teach you. From now on, I will refer to them by their names". I asked Nick "So, when do we start?". He answered "You will need constant supply of food in order to regain your strength first. You will also need to rest couple of days". He then thought for a while, and continued "I''d say, after 4 days of doing nothing and eating, you should be back to your condition from before. Therefore, we will start your training in 4 days".


    I nodded my head, while Nick continued "You will still do your daily tasks, so only when your tasks are done, will I teach you. Don''t worry though, it will not be here. I will teach you at your house. It would be suspicious, if you stayed here after doing your task". I knew what he was talking about. I also figured that no one else besides us, knew about our rtionship. I also had no problem with himing over to my house. With the advancements in his Art of Stealth, I doubted that anyone in this vige, could actually find him.


    Nick said "Good, it seems that you can walk now. You don''t have toe tomorrow. In 4 days time, I wille to you myself. I will bring some food to you personally. Now that you are able to walk, go back to your own house and rest". I nodded my head and left his house. I was feeling much better than before. That was all thanks to the food, that Nick gave me.


    I returned to my house, and took the quilt with me outside. I had to wash this blood off my quilt somehow. I didn''t want to sleep in blood all the time. I went to the well and draw some water, then I put the quilt into the bucket. Using my hands, I did theundry. I had no soap. My only solution, was to scrub it for a long time. The stain was still there in the end, but at least the collected dirt and smell was gone. I squeezed out as much water as I could, and returned to my house. I didn''t want to hang it outside. It was autumn already, so rain was not unusual, but more importantly, someone might just y a "prank" and steal it. It wouldn''t even be a prank, someone would do this, in order to make my life more difficult.


    That night, I went to sleep without my quilt. The nights weren''t that chilly yet, so sleeping without a quilt was still eptable. Next morning, I woke up and felt hunger. When I looked around, I noticed some foodying on my table. It was meat dish and some bread, as well as the usual porridge. The quantity was abnormal,pared to what I used to get. I devoured the food, in a matter of few minutes.


    I didn''t go out anywhere that day. I stayed at my house and rest properly. Nick asionally popped in to give me more food. I always received some meat, when Nick brought the food. This went on for 4 days. My strength returned, and even surpassed my previous state. I did nothing for couple of days and received a lot more food, my body recovered very well. I was still very skinny but my skin looked healthy now and there were no wrinkles anymore. I would even go as far as to say, that I looked younger than previously. My wounds, courtesy of Nick, also healed very well. I could now run, swing my arms and so on, just like any other healthy person.


    It was time for me to return, to my daily work. I got up from my bed, ate the breakfast provided by Nick and went out to do my job. When I started water carrying task, I felt that the bucket, was as light as a feather. It was a weing change,pared to the days, I started out as a ve. I felt like, I could throw it 20 metres into the air. With this light warm up, I went to the woodcutter''s lodge, to start my woodcutting task.


    I was surprised, at how easy it was for me to split the wood. It felt like I was splitting butter. I still took usual breaks and faked being tired. I didn''t want anyone, especially the one that monitored me, to find out my true strength or abilities.


    After this task, I went back to my house. This time when I arrived back at my house, I noticed that the breakfast was there. I guessed ''They will provide me with food, now that I started to work again. Good, I can gain my strength back sooner''. After the breakfast, which was the usual porridge and bread, I went to the cksmith''s workshop.


    I was surprised again, to see the cksmith Grond waiting for me. I wondered ''What type of task, will he change it to now?''. I soon got my answer "Kid. today, I will show you how to refine the steel even further. This will be your task from now on". I nodded my head and watched in silence.


    Grond took two lumps of iron ore and threw that together with the other ore. When that melted, he poured that into a bar mould and worked on it. He did 3 repetitions of the usual process, but then, hepletely melted the bar, and added one more lump of iron ore, and another lump of the other ore, to the mix. When that melted, he again poured that into a bar mould, and worked on it. He then did 5 repetitions of ttening one end, then curving it on top of the other, and pounding till t.


    It took him well over an hour to just make that one ingot. I still had about an hour of time left, so I went to work. I knew that I could do the same ingot no problem. With my current strength, I would even do it faster. In the end, I managed to create one such ingot. The cksmith''s eyes shone like rays of sunlight, when he saw the bar, I faked being seriously tired not to arouse suspicion. After examining my ingot, he said that I can go, therefore I left.


    After my lunch break, which was provided by Nick, I went to see him for my next task. Inside his house, I was treated as usual, as if nothing changed. I wasn''t stupid and immediately knew that this was a cover up, so I yed along. I treated the patients with light injuries. Only when someone with severe injury came over, or was carried in, I would call Nick over. He would then tend to the injured person.


    The day soon finished and I returned to my house. I noticed some food on my table. ''This should be my dinner, that I receive from the vige''. I ate my dinner in peace and awaited Nick''s arrival. After a while, I heard a voice "You seem a lot better now".


    I was startled by Nick''s voice. He didn''t use the doors and startled me... or maybe he did, and I didn''t even notice. The window was closed and so dirty that no one could see what is inside the house. I never did any real cleaning, hence the dirt. I asked in amazement "How did you enter?". Nick appeared out of nowhere and said "That, you will learn soon".

 Chapter 26

    Chapter 26


    Nick said "Today''s training will involve the art of stealth. If you are better able to hide yourself and your presence than learning the art of hidden weapons will be much more practical for you". I nodded my head in understanding and awaited an exnation or demonstration of what should I do.


    Instead of that I got a question "How would you hide if your life depended on it?" I was confused and Nick continued "I just want some of your ideas on how would you do things, I don''t need you to show my anything". I thought about it and said "I would hide in a ce hard to find" to which Nick responded "What if there was no such ce, what would you do?" I thought about it more and said "Then I would attack".


    Nick smiled and said "What if you can''t win, the result would be death. Do you have any other ideas?" I furrowed my brows. After a while I said "What could I do. If I can''t win and there is nowhere to hide, where would I hide then. The result would be death anyway!".


    Nick looked at me and said "No, you are wrong" he then continued "There is always a way to hide. Remember that if there is light, there is dark. You just have to follow the dark". I didn''t understand what he meant and I thought ''What can he mean? Why does he always talk in some cryptic bullcrap?'', so I asked him "What do you mean exactly?"


    He said "It''s simple. When there is light there is always shadow to hide in. If you can''t hide in object''s shadow then your opponent will also possess shadow". I thought about it and said "What if there is so much light, it can''t create a shadow?" to which he said "Then you are done for. Exception to that would be the masters of the art of stealth". I was confused a bit and asked "So you mean that even you can''t hide if there is no shadow but someone who truly mastered the art of stealth can?".


    After awhile of thinking, Nick said "Apparently, yes. That is how history describes them" he then continued "I told you that there were a few people who truly mastered the art of stealth. It was said that they couldn''t be found even if they stood next to you". I was sceptical and said "That is only based on history. You''ve never seen anyone reach that point did you?" to which he answered "No, the supposed masters were alive hundreds of years ago but I believe that there were these type of people. History has its twists and turns. Maybe in the future you will understand something more than I ever could".


    I was confused again and said "How so? You clearly know more than I do" to which Nick smiled and said "There is an old saying: The old makes way for the new. With timees wisdom and with agees death. The cycle repeats but one variable remains. Progress". I didn''t understand what he meant exactly and he saw that on my face, so he added "When you reach the same level as I, you wille to understand these words. Or maybe you will never understand them".


    Nick then said "That is enough for now. Let us focus on your art of stealth". I was getting excited, I would finally learn something. Nick continued "You will practice with this" and he showed me 6 wooden poles of varying height and breadth. I thought ''Wasn''t this supposed to be stealth training? Why the poles?''. With the puzzlement on my face Nick continued "You will walk on them, so that you don''t fall but also they don''t move".


    I looked at him as if I was looking at an idiot and said "You are joking right?" to which Nick ced all poles on the floor and jumped up. Hended on one and started moving through them. None of the poles moved and he never lost bnce. This sight in itself was amazing. It looked like magic, an impossible task! These poles were not even stuck in the ground or floor, no. They were just standing there and could topple at any slight push.


    When he came down he said "As you can see, it can be done quite neatly". My mouth was agape ''I''m supposed to repeat this? How the hell am I going to do that!?''. Nick then said "Take your time. This is not an easy exercise and before you ask, yes this is a vital part of your training". I then stood in front of the poles and decided to jump on the shortest one. As you may have expect already, my jump resulted in a fall. I picked myself up and tried again. After couple of tries I got nowhere, so I asked Nick "Are there any tricks or something that will help me?" to which Nick responded "Are you giving up that easily?"


    I was a bit stunned ''He said he will teach me but what he did is just put some poles up and told me to jump on them''. Nevertheless, I wasn''t going to give up just like that. I practiced and practiced and so on and so forth to no avail. After over an hour of falling constantly, I was tired and so I decided to rest a bit. Because I was focused on my training, I didn''t notice that Nick was already gone but he left some food for me. I ate the food as I took my break.


    It waste already but I decided I would spend a bit more time practicing, otherwise how else can I do it if not by doing it 1000s of times. If that was not enough I would do it 100,000 times. He showed me that it was possible to achieve that and so I thought ''If he could do it so can I. I just need to practice a lot''.


    The minutes passed and turned into hours. It was alreadyte in the night, I was all sweaty and tired. I fell countless times but with more practice, I started to get the hang of it. I needed to be perfectly bnced in order to stay on that pole and not fall. My jump onto the pole also counted. If I didn''tnd in a specific way, I would fall. It was very hard to achieve this bnce and precision but I didn''t want to give up. I thought to myself ''If this stage is so difficult I wonder how difficult would the other stages be?''.


    With that in my mind I went to bed. I still had to do my tasks in the morning and thanks to Nick and his constant food supply, I was able to get back some of my strength.

 Chapter 27

    Chapter 27


    I woke up in the morning as usual and went to do my tasks. Nothing of great interest happened and doing these tasks with my strength now was trivial. At 12pm I had my break and I practiced with the wooden poles back at my house. I wanted to practice as much as I could because other than in the evening, I had almost no free time in the day.


    The vige provided my meals as usual but in addition to that, Nick would bring me more food once in a while. I never got full to the point I didn''t want to eat anymore. I could always eat more, of course if I had something to eat. After my break I went to Nick''s house to do myst task of the day. Nick didn''t say anything as usual and I didn''t speak to him about anything out of ordinary.


    Late in the afternoon, after I ate my dinner. I waited for Nick toe. After about 30 minutes, he was nowhere to be found. I decided to just practice what he showed me. I fell down from the wooden pole all the time. I couldn''t even bnce myself on the first one and moving to the 2nd one? This was something I could only imagine but not aplish. At least not currently.


    I trained like this for couple of hours and was very tired. I stopped to rest and noticed some food waiting for me. I guessed that Nick came by and left it here. ''He probably wants me to continue practicing this before he teaches me anything else'' I thought to myself while eating. After my meal and a short rest, I went back to my training with the poles.


    Time went like this and a week passed by since I started training in the art of stealth. After a week, Nick came over. This time he showed himself and said he will teach me something new. I stopped my practice with the wooden poles and turned my attention to Nick. He said "Your training is not going that badly. I needed 3 weeks just to be able to bnce myself properly on that one pole. You almost did it after a week". He then continued "Now, don''t getcent. Just because you could achieve this faster, it doesn''t mean you will be able to do so in the future. Today, I shall teach you something about the art of medicine". I was a bit disappointed ''Art of medicine? I thought the next thing would be the art of hidden weapons''. When Nick saw the disappointment on my face, he snorted and said "I knew you would belittle the art of medicine but you wouldn''t be a ve if you knew that art in the first ce!" He then continued "You are a ve because you couldn''t take care of your own injuries. If you actually looked around the area you were found, you would find that there were many herbs and flowers which could be used to heal your injuries". I was a bit stunned and thought ''He is right, If I knew how to treat myself back then, I would not be a ve''. Nick then continued "But that is also a fortune for you", I asked "Why so? Being a ve is a fortune?" to which Nick smiled and answered "Actually, yes. Besides that, we would''ve never met. You would never be able to learn all those skills, and your character would not develop"


    I had to give it to him. Fate ys tricks on people. From one point of view, my situation was quite dire but looking from different points of view, it had its merits. For example I met Nick. I also learned more about human nature and myself. ''I could be dead now if I didn''t suffer this. Who knows what could have happened to me in that forest'' I thought.


    In the past, I was too naive and carefree. Thanks to that bear incident, I learned my lesson and paid for it almost with my life. ''Now I still pay for it as a ve but I will get back all the time I wasted on those supposed tasks. I will take back what belonged to me''. I said to Nick "You are right. It is a fortune in itself". Nick smiled and continued speaking about the art of medicine.


    "You will read this and this" he said while throwing two books at me. When I caught them I noticed the title of the first one was "Thousand and One Herbs" while the other was called "Medical Journal". Nick continued "You will not only read these books. You will memorize them". I looked at him as if I was looking at an idiot again and said "These books are quite thick". It was true, the Thousand and One Herbs had... yep thousand and one pages. ''How the hell am I supposed to remember over 1000 pages!!''. Nick smiled and said "I will give you a week of time. Then I wille back and test your knowledge"


    He then disappeared and left me standing there. I could faintly hear some wind outside the house but other than that it was all quiet. ''I swear that one day I will kick his ass so hard, my leg will break on it!'' I screamed in my mind. I thought ''Well, I already did the training with the poles so why not read some books before I go to sleep''. Iid down in my bed and started reading the Thousand and One Herbs. Each page had a herb, flower, grass or whatever it was, with a picture of the said herb as well as description and its uses. It was quite an useful book and if I really managed to remember all of that, then I could find these herbs in the wild to use for my treatment and other things.


    I found out that the book didn''t contain anything about how to use these herbs to make medicine. It only contained herb information. It was like a encyclopedia of herbs, I would still need to know how to process these herbs to make medicine. I wasn''t discouraged. This book would be helpful in the forest so I read it seriously, trying to remember as much as I could.


    I read it for a long time and my eyes were getting heavy. I decided to stop and continue tomorrow. It was probably time for bed anyway, and I didn''t have days off from those tasks. Well, maybe only if I couldn''t move my finger due to injuries.


    The next day, I did my tasks as usual and on any break I had besides eating I would read the Thousand and One Herbs book. I found it interesting in the first ce, so reading it gave my mind some break from other stuff. It was a nice method to forget about my worries and just read. Late in the afternoon, I started the wooden poles training and I did that for couple of hours. I was very close to staying bnced on the pole. I estimated that in couple of days I would be able to stay on that pole no problem. The hard part would be moving from it towards the next pole but I could only worry about that when I seeded with my current goal.


    After training with the wooden poles, I enjoyed the food Nick brought me andid down on my bed to read the book. I didn''t even read half of the book yet but I still enjoyed reading it. This went on like that for seven days. On the promised date, Nick showed up to test my knowledge of the books. I told him "I only managed to read the Thousand and One Herbs for these couple of days. I do remember quite a bit from it but I didn''t touch the other book yet".


    Nick didn''t seem surprised and said "Then I will test you from the Thousand and One Herbs book only". He then continued "Don''t worry, this will not take long. I will just ask you couple of questions and we''ll see how much you remember".


    Nick then asked the first question "Can you describe to me how does the herb called Mountain Trot look like?". I thought for a while and said "It has 2 or 3 green leaves that are round and elongated. The flower is also green and looks like it is about to bloom showing the petals and everything but it will never do so and will stay like this for its whole life". Nick seemed surprised by my answer and said "Yes that is correct". He then continued "Next question. What can a herb called Harvest Grass be used for?" I thought about that a bit more and remembered something "It can be used to deal with diarrhoea. It can also be burned as incense to scare off some insects".


    Nick nodded his head and said "That is right. Next question. If I wanted to cure an illness called green pox, what herb or herbs would I need to use?" I thought a bit about it and could find nothing. I could faintly remember something about pox but I didn''t know what can be used to cure it. I answered "I don''t know". Nick didn''tugh or mock me to the contrary of what I expected, instead he gave me the answer "There are 3 herbs that can cure this illness. Hungry Jade is one of them but it has to bebined with Green Lavender. The other is Lingering Petal and Ferenal Flower. Both of these can cure the green pox but Ferenal Flower is better at it".


    I nodded my head and he then continued "This will be thest question. Which is the rarest herb in that book?". I didn''t have to think about this one and answered straight away "It is called Ethereal Flower". Nick smiled and said "You remembered this one pretty well. Yes this is the rarest herb in this book". He then continued "Do you know what this herb can do?" I answered "I read that and I don''t believe it. It is supposedly able to make you immortal". Nick then said "Yes. Supposedly there was someone in the history that actually found this flower and he consumed it raw. History suggests that the book Thousand and One Herbs was started by him and that is why that flower is in there".


    I didn''t know about that but I also didn''t believe that. Who would put the flower in or spread that around. People would search for it high and low. Wars would break out. I only thought of it as a legend.

 Chapter 28

    Chapter 28


    I didn''t believe in those fairy tales. ''A flower that can grant you immortality? Bah, of course it is some kind of made up story to make people search for it in vain'' I thought to myself. Nick then said "This concludes the test. You did quite well actually. Only one wrong answer. Of course you would have more wrong answers if I were to ask more questions". I nodded to that. I knew I didn''t remember the whole book, therefore there would be loads of questions I wouldn''t be able to answer.


    Nick continued "Read this book couple of times but start reading the Medical Journal that I gave you as well". I agreed to that suggestion. Nick then turned around towards the poles and said "You are not far away from finding the right bnce on the first pole. It will be more difficult for you to make moves but with time you will be able to do what I did". I nodded my head in understanding. I then asked a question "When will you teach me about the art of hidden weapons?" to which Nick snorted and said "Hmph, You already have a lot on your hands. When you master both the wooden poles and these two books, I will teach you new things. For now, every week I wille back to test your knowledge and look at your progress with the wooden poles".


    I was a bit disappointed but he was right as well. I didn''t have any more time. I trained on wooden poles most of the time and when I had some free time like break between the tasks, I would read a book. There is a saying "Biting more than you can chew" and I didn''t want to be a perfect example of that saying either.


    When Nick left, I begun my training with the wooden poles again. After a few hours of such training I wouldy down in my bed to read the book. This time, I read the Medical Journal. This book exined how different illnesses and diseases are formed and with what to treat them. The book was about half the size of the Thousand and One Herbs book but it contained very small amount of drawings and a lot more writingpared to the other book.


    The book described symptoms of said illnesses and diseases as well as precautions if any and possible medication that can fight said ailment. It was quite detailed book and thus very hard to memorize. I didn''t give up and read it as much as I could when I had the time. I did read the Thousand and One Herbs from time to time, just to read something else once in a while.


    A week passed like this and I was already able to bnce myself on the shortest wooden pole. The next step was to travel to the next one. I tried many times but every time I tried jumping or anything, I fell down. I could stay on the shortest wooden pole for a long time but if I moved too much I would fall. I needed to find a bnce while moving otherwise this would get me nowhere.


    On that day, Nick came back and again asked me questions about both books this time. I answered correctly most of the questions from Thousand and One Herbs but on the other hand, I got only one or two correct from Medical Journal. It was hard to remember all these descriptions and illnesses as well as treatments and symptoms. The solution to that would be to read it many times, then finally memorizing it but how long would that take? I didn''t know.


    Nick said "You are making progress and you have remembered a lot from the Thousand and One Herbs book. You just have to focus more on the Medical Journal and on your pole practice". He then continued "I will give you a clue about the wooden poles training you are doing. When you are trying to find the bnce don''t fight against the poles. Be one of them".


    I was a bit confused and thought about it for a long time. Then an idea came to my mind ''I think what he meant was that. If I was to be one with the pole then when it falls I fall therefore when it stands I stand too'' At that time I understood something and jumped on top of the first wooden pole. If I could be one with it, then standing on it would not only be easy but also I could move with it. With this in my mind, I went straight to practise. I fell down all the time but now I had a clearer view ahead of me and a wisp of understanding.


    My training continued like so for 1 month. After that month winter was approaching in huge steps. I did loads of improvements in both memorizing the books as well as the wooden poles training. I could now travel around all the poles but if lost focus then the bnce would be affected. Although I could travel between the wooden poles now, it was not as perfect as Nick''s demonstration. I sometimes stumbled, misstepped or misjudged the bnce. There were still many errors in my movements but I could move around the wooden poles now.


    I also managed to memorize about 95% of the Thousand and One Herbs book as well as about 60% of the Medical Journal book. Nick was surprised at how good my improvements on wooden poles were after he told me this one clue. He wasn''t that much surprised about me memorizing the books, he even said that the Medical Journal was quite difficult for me to memorize which he didn''t expect. I didn''t give up either way and continued on with my training.


    My tasks also changed a bit. I still carried water in the morning for the whole vige but then I had to cut the wood until 11am. Then I had a break for 1 hour and at 12pm I had to go to the cksmith and produce ingots until 4pm. I was finishing my tasks one hour earlier but at the same time I only had one break so it wasparable to my past timetable.


    I also got a lot of my strength back. I was now full of it. I thought about it many times ''Why do I suddenly have so much strength?'' and only one answer was shing through my mind. It was the incident with the fairy. I was sucked dry and left starving. I had to eat a lot in order to not feel hunger and any activity brought more hunger. Simple task of walking was difficult without food. After so much time, I realised that because of the constant hunger and so little food as well as physicalbour my muscles developed but didn''t grow.


    Even Nick was astonished when he checked up on me couple of times. He asked me couple of times if I practiced some kind of manual but my answer was always "No". Thanks to Nick''s diagnosis and the experience, I figured it out. My muscles got stronger due to hunger andbour but without enough food my muscles were burned all the time. And although this seemed bad, I gained a lot of strength thanks to that.


    There were downsides as well. I was skinny as hell! It didn''t matter how much I ate, I would not get fatter. I looked like skin and bones but I was healthy and had a lot of strength. I even suspected that I could probably take on Rand''s granddaughter and the guy who always watched me.


    But I wouldn''t try that yet. I had stuff to learn and because I knew Rand will go back on his word, I would learn from Nick and then I would have my life back.

 Chapter 29

    Chapter 29


    Winter arrived. The days got shorter, nights longer and the temperature lower. I improved a lot during my training with Nick. Not only I recovered my strength but I also managed to learn something. I mastered the wooden poles, I could move however I liked on these poles. Even Nick was surprised at how good I was with those wooden poles.


    My knowledge also reached better heights. I memorized both books and Nick asked me many questions. Some were difficult, where I had to give couple of answers and some were more obvious. I achieved that due to hard work, sweat and blood. Nick was overjoyed that I managed to master all the things to such a level with so little time. He praised me couple of times and also praised my strength.


    My strength was nowparable to about that of Rand''s strength. I was a lot swifter and agile due to the training with wooden poles everyday. In the beginning, it seemed to me that this training was created for bnce. Later on, I realised that I learned to make no unnecessary movements and therefore I became more swift and more agile due to the control I had over my body.


    Today Nick saw the results of my training and knowledge gaining. He then said "Very good. I shall impart now new knowledge to you and you can continued your further training". I nodded my head and Nick continued "I will not teach you the art of hidden weapons yet. I still have something to teach you before that". I thought about it and said "Why can''t I learn all 3 altogether?" to which nick replied "It simple boy. It''s because you already have fundations of hidden weapons. When I ask you to train it, it will look much differently to what you may expect. I need to teach you the other stuff first".


    I was a bit confused ''So I do have a foundation but he still insist of teaching me something else first¡­ That is a bit weird'' I thought to myself. Nick then continued "I will tell you the next training you will do for the art of stealth. I will also give you this" and he threw to me another book. The book was not thick like the two previous ones. It had about 100 pages maybe. Nick said "This book contains basic knowledge of minor medicine creating. That means, there are recipes and methods of creating medicine for small to medium severity ailments". I was a bit surprised then I looked at the book again and I noticed there is no title so I asked Nick "There is no title here. What is this book called?" to which Nick responded "This is my book. I never actually thought of naming it. These are all my basic recipes and so it was only used by my and no one else. I guess naming it would be proper since you are going to be inheritor". He then went into a deep thought while I waited for him to finish.


    After a while Nick eximed "I know! I will call this book Evil Manual of Medicine!". I was a bit taken aback and thought ''Why evil?''. Nick was gloating about his naming sense and I didn''t really give a damn that much about the name but the content. ''If he wants to call it like that, then so be it. I shall call it Evil Manual of Medicine''. I said to Nick "Right, I will try to learn this then". Nick woke up from his dreams and said "Ahem. You do that. Now the part about the art of stealth training". He then continued "You will use this to train" He took out a mask that looked like a skeleton''s head and passed it to me.


    I was a bit confused and asked "What am I supposed to do with this?" to which Nick answered "You will put on that mask and navigate through the wooden poles". I thought to myself ''This can''t be that difficult''. Nick as if reading my mind said "It''s not as easy as you think because for this training I will change the position of the poles constantly and there will be more of them". He went to the corner and retrieved another 16 wooden poles of varying sizes.


    I asked him "What is so difficult? I just have to put that mask on and move around them? EASY!" and I put the mask on. Then I saw nothing. Darkness was the only thing I saw. This mask was not just a blindfold, it was constructed in such a way that even if it shifted a bit up, down, left or right I still could see no light. I took the mask off and said "Now I understand" to which Nick smiled and said "I told you it will not be that easy".


    I then asked another question "Why this design?" he smiled again and said "Because you remind me of a skeleton with your skinny body". I was kind of pissed ''It''s not my fault I look like this¡­ wait, it is kind of my fault I look like this. Damn it''. I asked "Do you have any tips?" to which Nick answered "Just one. Don''t hit the poles". I said in anger "HAHA, very funny! That is not a tip, IT''S OBVIOUS TO ME!"


    Nick then said "It''s all you will get at least for now. Try to figure this out on your own". I calmed down a bit and said "Alright". Nick then added "I will be staying with you for couple of hours everyday but I will not aid you or speak to you, so focus on your training".


    I nodded my head and put the mask back on. I tried walking with my hands stretched in front of me to feel for the poles and yet I always managed to get hit straight in my face. I was getting pissed because even if I crossed my arms so that no pole could go between them I still hit them with my face! It was obviously Nick''s doing. He ced them behind my arms and I walked straight into them.


    I decided to think about it before I lose consciousness due to walking into the wooden poles all the time. I came up with one idea, it was sound. I tried to listen to Nick''s movements or pole movements. Any sound I could hear, I tried to find the direction and move ordingly. It didn''t help much as I still walked straight into the wooden poles.


    I thought ''There must be something else besides sound. But what? Smell?Taste? There were no other senses I could use''. My vision was blocked. My hearing didn''t work and smell as well as taste wouldn''t help here. I needed to think about this more.


    The training went like this and I tried slow, fast and so on but nothing worked. I needed senses that were more able to pick even the tiniest details up. That was the only solution I coulde up with. I needed to train my other senses.

 Chapter 30

    Chapter 30


    The task of navigating through the constantly changing maze of wooden poles was not easy. Even after couple of weeks I couldn''t do it correctly. That didn''t mean there were no improvements. Due to my eyesight being blocked by the mask, I had to rely on my hearing, just like the blind people do. Learning this skill is very hard if you are not actually blind.


    The mask was supposed to simte this blindness and thanks to it my hearing got better. That was also a problem because I could hear better therefore more sounds would annoy me and it took a long time to adjust to that. I could now filter out sounds such as mosquito flying around or people talking outside. I was able to focus more on the movement of the poles but I was still far away from getting any proper results.


    I had about 50-50 chance of avoiding the wooden pole. This was not great but an improvement nevertheless. I was also mistaken about the smell senses. Due to my vision being restricted, my other senses were more sensitive with time. I even used this mask when going to sleep and when I had breaks at my house, just to practice more. I couldn''t take this mask and walk around the vige with it because that would be suspicious. But whenever I could, I wore the mask and tried to be blind as much as I could so that my other senses develop better.


    After those couple of weeks of getting my other senses more acute, Nick told me a hint "Your thinking is very good. Yes you need to develop your other senses but there is also one other thing you are forgetting. You need to feel it with your body". This hint didn''t tell me much, I was feeling it with my body, I walked into the damned thing countless times already!


    After that hint he shut up again. I told him that I wanted to train this more than we used to. He usually did it for 2 hours but I wanted to extend that to 4 hours. Nick wasn''t very keen on that but I pinned him down with a good argument "I need more time to practice otherwise it will take too long. Remember? You told me that you don''t have much time left. Aren''t you short on time?"


    Nick considered that point and stopped beingzy. He did the training with me for 4 hours everyday. Yet I still couldn''t do it. On the other hand, I already memorised most recipes from the Evil Manual of Medicine that Nick gave to me. There was one problem with that. It was just knowledge and so I didn''t practice on how to actually create such medicine or how to treat illnesses on real people. I brought this point to Nick one day and he justughed at me. I dropped this subject, I would have time to practiceter on when I gain my freedom back.


    Because it was winter my tasks did not change anymore. I had to produce wood for people to use as a fuel for fire and I had to produce ingots because that was what the vige was selling. Nick told me that, if I didn''t do these tasks the other people responsible for them would still need helpers toplete what I was doing.


    It showed that I still used too much of my abilities but changing now would not affect their knowledge. It could be even more detrimental to my cause, they would be suspicious of me and I didn''t want that. There were also some other information that Nick passed onto me. For example, Senty the vige chief''s granddaughter moved to the muchrger Grasshill Vige, where she stayed at her fiance ce before the marriage took ce.


    I knew that the marriage will take ce somewhere around the summer and Nick provided me with the date. He asked me why did I want to know that, so I said "Because I will make it a nightmare!" that was my n from the beginning and I wouldn''t change that! Nick hearing this answer had an evil grin on his face. His imagination probably took him too far.


    I focused on my training mostly and at night, before I went to sleep I would read the recipes and try to memorize more of them. Time passed and the winter was at its end. The snow was melting slowly and new life started to bloom. After training hard for so long, I finally managed to train my hearing and other senses to an astonishing level. I could now hear tiny whispers even from far away. My smell sense became much better as well. This had also bad effects, any bad smell was also intensified. I managed to control my senses after so much training. I could hear the wind or choose to have a "normal hearing" just like other people would. This allowed me to sleep and function in everyday life. Otherwise if I were to hear very loud noises intensified couple of times, my ears would bleed.


    The hint that Nick told me referred to instinct. This I found outter on, when by instincts I moved away from the wooden pole. I then learned how to harness my instincts. Together with my enhanced senses and instinct. I was able to do this training.


    I could now navigate the maze and it didn''t matter how much Nick changed the wooden poles, I always managed to avoid them. This concluded my training with the mask and wooden poles. I also memorized the whole Evil Manual of Medicine that Nick gave to me. He then checked my knowledge and I managed to answer all his questions.


    Nick then told me he will teach me another method from the art of stealth. He then said that he has thest book for me to memorize. The book was his most valuable possession, it contained all the advanced and more profound recipes of the art of medicine.


    The book was about 70 pages and each page contained one recipe. The recipes were quite difficult, they sometimes required in excess of 10 different herbs to produce the cure. Although it was like this, the diseases or illnesses that could be cured using the medicine were quite rare and very hard to treat even for famous doctors. About 43 pages from this book were about poison. The poison could cure many things but it was also a poison. From weak to very powerful.


    Nick spent more than half of his life to produce all these recipes, I would like to see another doctor that did the same thing. When Nick gave me thest book, he said "Destroy all the other books when you are sure that you memorized them. Be sure to do that before I pass away" Then I said to him "What about this book?" The book again didn''t have a name and so Nick again got fired up about naming it but he couldn''t find any good name for now so he said he will do itter.


    He said "You will do the same with this book, just that it will take you much longer to memorize this one. So you might have to do it after I pass away". He was also quite adamant in saying "Promise me you will destroy it and not sell it or show it to people!". I promised him. I knew how much work he had to put into this. If I were to sell it just like that or show it to people¡­ Why would he even search for disciple?


    We weren''t in a master-student rtionship but with time, I guess I could call him my friend. He helped me out when I needed help and so I should be able to promise him that no problem. After I promised him all that, he said "Now I''m going to teach you another method of training in the art of stealth. You are going to watch people. I want you to learn how to perceive what someone is going to do". I didn''t really understand what he ment. To watch people, it wasn''t hard but predicting or rather knowing what move are they going to do next was different.


    I asked him "Why do I need to know that to be stealthy?" to which Nick answered "It''s because if you know how someone will react, you can react ordingly. By the way, it doesn''t have uses only in stealth but you will learn that soon". I asked Nick "So what am I supposed to do?" to which he replied "Go out and watch people, their behaviours. I want you to concentrate on how they move, not just where but how. I want you to know how they eat, stand, walk, run and so on. I''m not asking you where because if you want to study their behaviour you will have to know".


    He then continued "This training will help you with a lot of things and I want you to be able to judge a person in an instant. From the way they stand, walk, speak, eat and behave in overall. This way you will know what to do in every situation".


    I then asked "I can do that. Then what about art of hidden weapons?" to which Nick said "When the timees, I will teach you! Now go and train. I have some other stuff to do". Then he left. I went out to see if any viger were outside. It was night already but maybe some of them would be around.


    I opened the door to my house and just stood in the doorway, checking if there are any people around.

 Chapter 31

    Chapter 31


    I could see some people walking around, mostly drunk people who left the tavern and headed home. Tavern was very popr actually. It had guest rooms and alcohol and most importantly, it wasn''t expensive. It thrived nowpared to the past due to Rand''s granddaughter. Senty was engaged to that so called young master from the Grasshill Vige and the poprity of the Horesein Vige went soaring. They sold more stuff and had more peoplee and visit. It was supposedly to make friends and good connections before Rand''s granddaughter married the guy from Grasshill Vige.


    I looked at the behaviour of the drunk people but all I could see was, well drunk people. I noticed that they sometimes fall, sometimes stumble or sometimes shout some profanities and so on. That was ordinary for a drunk. I looked at the way they walk and it was all over the ce. There was no rhythm or specific order, no. It was all chaos.


    I thought ''I will do it with other people tomorrow. I can train this anytime I want, maybe besides night time''. I went back to my house. Iid down in my bed to read the book Nick gave me before I went to sleep. The book contained very detailed recipes about medicine and poison. If I were to rate the difficulty, it was at least 4 times harder to understand and memorize than the Evil Manual of Medicine.


    On the very first page was a detailed description of a poison that could paralyse the whole body for couple of hours. It also depended on how strong physically someone was. I realised that this must''ve been the poison Nick used when he threw the knives at me at his ce couple of months ago. It was very powerful this poison and although I was stronger than normal people back then I was also starved. The poison worked on me for couple of hours so how long would it work on just a random guy.


    Another thought entered my mind ''How long would itst against Rand?'' I didn''t know but I estimated that an hour if I were lucky, nevertheless I assumed half an hour should be more probable. If that was the case, then the guy who watched me would probably be paralysed for about 2 hours and Senty, Rand''s granddaughter should be around the same time.


    With this poison, I could do a lot in two hours. This would be useful to my nter on, when the wedding takes ce or rather not take ce if I had my way. I looked at the ingredients and the method to produce this poison, it wasn''t very hard to produce or the materials were not that rare but the problem was that I was a ve now and I couldn''t just leave to gather the herbs. There was only one solution to that, Nick. If I asked him, he may be able to provide me with the herbs. I knew heughed at me when I wanted to practise making medicine and poison but this is different. I wanted it for something real, not just waste ingredients. It would be even better if he gave me that poison. He already knows how to make it and it would save the ingredients as well as time to get that poison. Maybe he even has some stored somewhere.


    With that n in my mind, I went to sleep. I wouldn''t see Nick often now and going to his house could be suspicious, so I had to wait for about a week when he woulde over and test me on my knowledge from the medical book.


    The week went on as usual with the exception of my training in the art of stealth. I had to watch people which I thought was not hard but then I discovered that doing so without anyone noticing was actually very difficult. Besides that, there was a part of watching their every move and judging what would happen next. I had to do so much thinking that my brain power gave up after a while.


    Training like this was mentally stressing but after a few days, I was getting used to this type of work out. Not that I had much improvement in actually guessing or predicting what the people will do based on how they behaved and moved.


    At the end of the week, Nick came over to test me from the book knowledge. I read only couple of recipes because most of my time was spent on the monitoring part of the art of stealth. I only remembered one recipe to its fullest and that was the poison I wanted from Nick. If he could supply it that would be ideal or at least supply the ingredients for it.


    I asked Nick "Can you give me some Axon Poison?" to which Nick was stunned and then asked "Why do you need it?" I thought ''So he has it, good. I just need him to hand me some''. I said "I need it for theing wedding". I could see sh of evil in Nick''s eyes and the evil grin he did whenever I told him about the wedding. He said "That is good. I will give you some, hehehe". I said "Thanks, it will save me a lot of trouble" Nick then asked "How is your training going?" to which I said "Not very well, it''s very taxing to concentrate on what people do and then try and predict what they are going to do next. There are many possibilities¡­" Then I realised something. ''Wait! Possibilities! That is what I need!''.


    Nick saw that I discovered something and didn''t disturb me anymore. I went out to look for people. I wanted to watch them and find out if my idea would work. My idea was simple, I would have to calcte probability of certain actions happening. For example, if a drunk person was walking wobbly then what would happen next based on the information I had. I would assign more probable events more percent and less probable less percent. This way I would be able to know better but also prepare for other possibilities that were likely.


    It was easy in theory but in reality, I couldn''t assign percentage to those actions due tock of knowledge and skill of judging. I was too excited about the idea that I forgot myself a bit. I wanted to still do it in the future but for now I would have to train my focus first. I was able to focus when working on something or training but there was a caveat and that was, the person I was watching couldn''t notice me.


    With that in my mind, I spend the rest of my time that day to judge people''s behaviours. Time went like this and another 3 weeks passed. I was crazy on observing people and sometimes I was so focused that others noticed me looking at them. There were some troubles as I got chased or shouted at. Now I had a stupid nickname going around the vige and that was "Dirty Pervert". The hell did I do to deserve that! I only looked at people when they were walking or eating but not in their private space.


    I didn''t care that much about it but it was still annoying. I had some major improvements with my predictions. I could now use the idea of percentages to work out roughly what events were more probable than others. I could also judge people better due to the amount of time I watched people. With time you get to see more details and more behaviours. As you proceed on that path it bes easier to figure out certain things.


    Two weeks back, Nick gave me a vial of liquid and said that this was the Axon Poison I wanted. I was ted, thanks to this vial my n will be more smooth. He also came up with a name for his second book and that was "Great Scriptures Of Evil Medic". I didn''t know wherever I shouldugh or cry. He just had to include word Evil in everything he named. I guessed that it was because of his nature.


    I managed to memorize about 8 recipespletely from the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. I still had loads but I figured I will memorize the ones that seemed most useful to me and my situation. My training was going along nicely and I learned more recipes from the Great Scriptures of Evil medic everyday. My strength didn''t rise anymore as my body stabilised at a certain point. I was skinny like an skeleton but I had a lot of strength and iIwas healthy at that.


    Even Nick didn''t know what to do about my weird constitution and he just epted it as if I was like this from the beginning. I also epted that I will look like this but it didn''t matter to much that much anymore. I didn''t have to look good because for who? Like this, I spent my days doing vige tasks, training and reading.

 Chapter 32

    Chapter 32


    It was time to face the reality. Today, exactly one year ago, I made an agreement with Rand that I will work and be ve for one year in this vige and after that one year, I will receive my freedom back. I went to see Rand and find out if he would uphold the agreement we had. When I arrived at his mansion, there was a guard waiting as if for me. When he spotted me he said "Follow me" so I did.


    Inside the mansion, I could see that it was quite elegant. I guessed ''Well the vige chiefs even of small viges like this Horesin Vige havevish houses''. I followed after the guard. I knew who he was, it was the guy who always watched me. I knew it because I recognised his voice and although this was the first time we met in person, I was 100% sure it was this guy.


    We arrived at a room that looked like a study with arge wooden desk in the middle. I saw that Rand was sitting there already waiting for me. The guy that I followed said "Sit on the chair over there". I walked to the chair and sat down. The guy went outside and I was left alone with Rand in this room.


    Rand looked at me and said "How have you been doing this past year?". I was a bit confused by that question and thought ''Why the hell would you care?''. I answered him "What do you want me to answer?". He didn''t seem to mind that type of answer and said "What do you want to do now?" I said to him "Is there a need for this sort of bullshit? The one year agreement we had is done. I''m now a free man!".


    His face went a bit grim and said "That is true, if the agreement was true". I knew he would pull something like that and I was long prepared for it but nevertheless, I acted ordingly and asked "What do you mean?". He said "Can you prove that we made this agreement and can you prove it was only one year?" I yed along and with fake anger replied "What nonsense are you spouting! We made an agreement and Ipleted my part of the deal. I don''t give a jack shit whenever I can prove it or not!".


    Heid his back on the chair and said "In my books, we never had that agreement, so technically you are still a ve". I said to him "Do you have a proof of me being a ve?". I wanted to test out what he is going to do. His face went a bit more grim this time and said "If you are capable then you can leave". I said to him "Bullshit! Now you are threatening me! You helped me and I worked for you. That is that!" I got up from the chair and walked towards the door.


    I could then hear the sound of movement from behind me and I was hit in the head, hard. I could''ve easily evade that. Thanks to my training and his behaviour pattern, I was able to predict what he is going to do and how this would y out. Even the way he attacked although I didn''t see it, I knew he attacked with a bare hand.


    But I didn''t evade it nor did I retaliate. I still had something to take care of in this vige and therefore I needed to stay anyway. After Nick passes away, I will be done with this vige. They would probably ask me to do more tasks for them but I wouldn''t do so. First of all I didn''t have to and so what if they didn''t give me food? I could catch fishes by myself and no one in this vige besides Nick was a thread to me anymore.


    I would have more time to practice all the skills. How are they going to force me to work? If not by food. They can also take away the house I wouldn''t care. I slept rough on the streets before and besides, Nick would provide more food for me. If they really pushed me too far, I would just deal with them. I wasn''t naive like before. I also killed someone already. Although it was her wish, I still killed someone. I never had any nightmares about it and If they push too far, I wouldn''t even bat an eye when the whole vige was in ruins!


    When I got hit, I faked being fainted. It wasn''t hard to fake because fainted people still breathe, they just do it more slowly. I faked this process but I was still very conscious. I learned to be patient and so I justid there doing nothing.


    I then heard the guy that escorted me said "What should we do with him?" to which I could hear Rand''s response "Don''t worry he is not dead. We still need him for the work. Grond said that his skills in smithing aren''t bad and he has good experience with purified steel ingots. He said that this kid can create 2 ingots in the time he is working at the workshop. Grond alone can create maximum 4 of them in a whole day".


    The guy I followed then said "What if he doesn''t want to do it?" to which Rand responded "We won''t feed him. If he wants food, he will have to work for it". To which I almost sneered andughed ''if that was your n then good luck with it! HAHAHAHA'' Iughed in my mind but stayed still on the ground. The guy said "You forget that he can catch fishes and provide for himself". Rand cressed his brows and said "Then we just have to make it difficult for him".


    The guy said again "What if he still refuses to work? If he is bent down on it, the same can happen as with that ve woman". When I heard this I was a bit enraged ''These bastards not only hurt her, they even drove her to wishing for her death!''. I knew what he ment. He was afraid I would just kill myself or die of starvation.


    Rand shouted "I told you to not mention this anymore! If she broke down, maybe she would release some information about the manual. These idiots just had to **** her. I don''t care if they did but this idiot killed her because she wanted it". I somehow managed to hold in that remark. They both went silent for a while.


    After contemting on what to do for some time, Rand finally said "We will offer him to work at the cksmith''s workshop. He will not be a ve but he will have to stay in the vige and we will pay him as well. We will set the low wages for him and deduce for housing and food. We still have to give him something so that he doesn''t feel like he does it for free. This should settle it, set 10 coppers a day for him as his wages and deduce 5 of that as housing and food".


    I''d say, their n was not bad and I was tempted because I still needed to stay in the vige and if my work was only in one ce, for example in cksmith''s workshop I could use that to my advantage as well. I still needed weapon and If I could get some materials, I would be able to produce something thanks to the tools already avable there.


    Rand continued "When he wakes up, present to him this offer. Stress it out that he will not be a ve and he will work for money. Tell him that his daily quota will be toplete 3 purified steel ingots. Even if we feed him and give him that house, which is abandoned anyway. 5 coppers a day means nothingpared to 3 ingots more of purified steel".


    The guy said "Alright. I will take him to the house and wait for him to wake up. Just in case he doesn''t ept, what should I do?". Rand just sighted and said "then he is not needed, do whatever you want with him".


    After that, the guy I followed in here picked me up from the floor and carried me to my house. When we arrived, he threw me at the bed and just stood next to the door waiting. I thought to myself ''I can y this game, if you want to wait, you will wait'' and so the game started.

 Chapter 33

    Chapter 33


    Iid there for two hours and the guy seemed patient at first but after two hours he begun to be impatient. I didn''t care much and justid there. I wanted to see how long it would take for him to leave or try to do something. At the 3 hours mark, he got so impatient that he walked over to the bed and nudged me a couple of times. You can already guess the effect that brought him, yep nothing. I stillid there as if asleep.


    After another 30 minutes he gave up and left. I thought ''Well he''s patient a bit but not enough''. After another 30 minutes I "woke up" and sat on the bed. The guy was nowhere to be seen. I even thought he will hide somewhere just to check if I was faking it but no, he just left. I got up and walked to the doors, when I opened them I still didn''t see him. So I got out of the house to walk around.


    I specifically headed towards the exit of the vige. I wanted to check if he was secretly observing me. When I got to the vige entrance, still no one stopped me. So I went out. I walked for couple of minutes and finally heard the sound of movement behind me. I guessed that it was probably that guy catching up to me now. He must''ve discovered I was not inside the house, so he went out to look for me.


    I wasn''t hiding or anything and if I wanted to, I would be gone already. Besides, he was not an opponent I had to worry about. After awhile he finally caught up with me and shouted "Stop!". I stopped and turned around, then I said "What do you want?".


    He said "Where do you think you are going?" to which I replied with a question "Home?". He seemed a bit confused but after a while he said "We have an offer for you". To which I faked being confused because I already knew what he is going to say and said "What is it?".


    He seemed relieved that I wanted to listen and said "Stay here and work for us. We will pay you and you will not be a ve anymore. You will be a worker with wages. What do you think?". I showed him the expression of thinking hard about something, which of course was faked again. ''I want to stay here anyway, you idiots. I wonder what type of faces they would have if they knew it! Hahaha''. I responded to him "Alright, what type of wages are we talking about?". He seemed happy at the thought that I wanted to ept, he said "We will give you 5 coppers a day and provide housing as well as food for you. Your job will be to create 3 purified steel ingots a day. You will not have to do other tasks, just this one". I again showed a "hard decision" kind of expression and said "5 coppers is not a lot. How about I get 10 coppers and some leftovers from the workshop?".


    I could just inly steal but if I could take the leftovers, I could steal with an excuse. The guy seemed to think about it and said "I can''t make that decision. I have to ask Rand". To which I said "Fine, go ask him". He then said "Follow me then".


    Back at Rand''s ce. He told me to wait inside a guest room and went to meet with Rand. After a while he came out and said "Fine, we will agree to those terms, as long as you can produce 3 purified steel ingots a day". To which I said "Then I shall take this job!". I then continued "I want my wages to be paid on weekly basis. Is that fine?" to which he said "Yes, we will pay you weekly". I told him that I will start from tomorrow and left the house.


    This was dealt with. Now I had ess to cksmith''s workshop as well as some materials. I would be able to create more perfect daggers with the help of purified steel. The quality would be much better than just iron. I went back to my house and started to read the book. I still had loads to memorize from it. The further I went the harder it was to memorize and learn those recipes. The processes were getting harder and harder.


    I say this but after that one year or rather couple of months training under Nick, I made loads of improvements. I could now judge people quite urately and could assign percentages to their behaviours. I was mostly right but sometimes there was an error in my calctions or the less likely thing happened. I wanted to predict something for up to 90% probability. I would be able to work with that. There was also the other 10% which was not likely but could still happen. I would just have to assume the 10% in my actions just in case. But that would be in the future. Right now I could only predict behaviour for up to 60-65%. So what I predicted as 60-65% would be an action or event more likely to happen but the other 35-40% still had some good chances of happening. That''s why I still made errors in my judgment.


    Nick didn''t show me any new methods of training nor did he give me any other book to read. I learned to be patient due to the predicting behaviour training I did for so long, therefore I didn''t ask Nick for any other methods. I assumed, he knew better than me when to introduce something new.


    That day I focused on the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and tried to memorize more of the recipes. One caught my attention. It was a drug that could double the strength when consumed for a while butter excruciating pain would cover the whole body. I thought ''This could be useful. Although the after effects are quite severe, this could be my trump card if I was in a life or death moment''.


    The ingredients required to make this drug were quite rare and some very hard to find. I didn''t have any ingredients now but in the future, if I manage to get my hands on them I would be in theory create such drug. It was called Burst Pill and I paid special attention when memorizing this recipe.


    The day passed and night came. Nick as usual brought me some food and asked how was I doing. I said to him "I can now predict what someone will do based on their behaviour. I can also assign percentages to certain possibilities. Now I''m only able to go as high as 65% of probability but I will get better with time". Nick prised my effort and said "The use of percentages is not a bad idea. It''s a shame I never came up with it".


    Nick asked me about the stay in the vige, I said "It''s sorted already. I will work as a cksmith and produce 3 purified steel ingots a day". Nick said "So they will pay you now? How much are they willing to give?" I said "10 coppers a day". Nickughed for a while and said "10 COPPERS! Hahahaha. This is priceless. Do you know how much a cksmith who can create 3 purified steel ingots a day can earn?" to which I said "I don''t, how should I know?". Nick said "About 1 or 2 silvers". ''I knew they wouldn''t pay me much but that is a bit steep''. I said to nick "Whatever. I will get the leftovers, so I can create weapons as well". Nick said "Good thinkingd. You will be able to create your own weapons".


    He then asked me some questions about the recipes, mostly the ones I''ve already read. I knew most answers but sometimes I made a mistake or just couldn''t remember the details. Nick said "Don''t rush, you will memorize this book sooner orter". He then said "I think it is time for your next stage of the training". I got my hopes up, I thought ''Finally, he will teach me about the art of hidden weapons'' but my hopes were shattered when Nick said "The next step of your training in the art of stealth is melding". Although I thought he will finally teach me about the art of hidden weapons, I was still surprised when he said melding. ''Was it the same thing as he always does?'' I thought to myself.


    I asked Nick "How am I going to train this?" to which Nick smiled and said "You just have to avoid light". I was not only confused, I was dumbfounded. ''Avoid light? How the hell am I supposed to do this? If there is a shadow then yea but what about on the streets and in daylight?''. Nick saw my expression and said "It is difficult, I''m not going to lie to you but there is a method. You have to apply all the previous training you did andbine that with ''Avoid the light'' part".


    He then continued "This will take you some time to master but that is the final step of your training. So don''t get discouraged. Even if it takes you couple of years to master this, that is still a very good result. It took me 5 years to master this technique".


    I asked Nick out of curiosity "What about the next step? You said that masters of this art can even hide in light. What about that?" Nick stared at the ceiling and didn''t answer. I guessed that he to was contemting on what would be the next step.

 Chapter 34

    Chapter 34


    After contemting for a while, Nick answered "I don''t know". I kind of expected this answer, but asked that question anyway. Nick then said "Maybe in the future, you will be able to find the answers, which I was not able to find". I nodded my head, and said "I will try". Nick woke up from his thoughts, and continued "Focus on the Art of Stealth from now on. Reading the books, is secondary at this stage. You already have good knowledge of the Art of Medicine, you justck experience".


    I asked "Then, what about the Art of Hidden Weapons? You taught me nothing yet, and I suppose we don''t have much time left". Nick sighed deeply, and said "Fine, I shall tell you". I listened carefully, for what Nick would say next. "Do you remember the story, about the emperor being the ve?" he asked. I was a bit confused, but replied "Yes, I remember". Nick continued "What did I say then?". I tried recalling what the story was about, and replied "I only remember you saying, that he was a ve, and that he had to develop the Art of Hidden Weapons. You also said, that he never mastered it though".


    Nick said "Yes, that is correct. Yet, there is a second part of this story, which I never told you about". I looked at Nick, and replied "I still think, that this is not true. I mean, to fake so many books and records¡­ it''s not really possible". Nick said "It doesn''t matter whether you believe me or not. What matters, is the story".


    Nick then continued "I only told you that Endros was a ve, and that he was the founder of this Art. I also told you that he had apprentices, and taught them his Art. Later, these people had their own apprentices, and so on. But the story, is not that simple".


    I asked "Why?", to which Nick continued "I only told you a generalisation. Now, I''m going to tell you the full story. When Endros was young, he lived a very poor life. He slept on the streets most of the time, and had to resort to stealing in order to live. One day, he stole from a wealthy trader, and got caught. He was beaten up and enved, then sold for couple pieces of copper. He was 10 years old at that time".


    Nick paused for a while, then continued "Although Endros lived on the streets, he was still kind to others. What you would call "a good kid", who tried to help those in simr situation. That was not his real nature though. His real nature, was evil, pure evil. But somehow, it didn''t awaken, even though he lived on the streets, and his situation was nothing to envy. This started to change, when he got sold as a ve. He was tortured mentally, physically and was forced to work. Growing up like this, being humiliated at every step, being tortured or beaten up everyday, and used by other ves, something inside him finally broke. His rage finally arrived at the limit. In the heat of the moment, he killed one of the older ves, that worked for the same master".


    "He was punished severely for that crime. They cut his skin with knives. They drowned him, until he almost died. He was abused to the point, where many would simply take their own lives, just to end everything. He lived through it, and never regretted killing that ve. When his torture ended, he vowed to take revenge. This prompted an idea for him, and he started developing the Art, that is known today as Art of Hidden Weapons. He would practice hiding pebbles, sticks and whatnot. He was already thinking, how to kill, and how to stay hidden while doing so. His real nature, awakened at the age of 14. From that point on. he developed his Art for about three years, until he was sure, he could kill any ve or soldier with his Art. When he was about 17 years old, he was called to his master bedroom, for reason I''d rather omit. Before his master could do anything, Endros killed him silently, with a sharpened stick".


    I interrupted Nick and asked "What about the guards?". Nick continued "He was check before he entered the masters bedroom, but due to his training, the guard didn''t manage to find anything on him. After he killed his master, the guard outside, was still unaware of what just happened. With an element of surprise, he opened the doors, and killed the guard outside. He then took his weapon, and slowly ughtered the whole mansion. It didn''t matter, whether the person was a ve or not. All of them died". I asked again "What about other guards? That master surely had more of them" to which Nick said "Yes, he had apparently 5 guards. But because only one guard stood at the doors to the his master''s bedroom, no other guard was even aware of what happened. He killed them one by one. Endros lived in that ce for many years, this allowed him to learn their habits, and positions".


    Nick waited for a while, and let that sink in. He then continued "You may ask. What does this have to do with Art of Hidden Weapons? The answer is precisely a part of the story, which I just told you. There are four conditions, that someone has to fulfil, in order to develop the real Art of Hidden Weapons. Revenge is the first condition. When there is revenge, there is rage, anger or bloodlust. Second condition is very, or in other words, true restrictions of your movement and possessions. very just so happens, to be the best method. Third condition, is the mind. You need to be strong mentally, just like Endros. Who managed to get through couple of years of torture, and still fulfil his revenge. You are different though. Your nature alone, fulfils that condition. The fourth condition, is to kill someone and feel nothing".


    I asked "So, what am I supposed to do?". Nick replied "If I teach you how to do it, you will only reach my level. If you learn by yourself, you have a chance of mastering it. All the masters of this Art, learned it by themselves. No one showed them, how it''s done".


    Nick then continued "I wanted for you to learn it by yourself, while creating some special events. Now that I already said this, it''s pointless. I will still give you the choice though. You can learn from me, or learn it by yourself. Whichever you choose, is up to you".


    I thought about it for a while, and asked Nick "Can''t I choose both?". Nick was stunned for a while, and thought about something. After a while, he replied "Right, choose both... Maybe this has a chance to work". I nodded, and said "Why don''t you teach me what you know, and I will also practice by myself. I always got some ideas, so I might be able to develop this further. Who said that, if you teach me, then there is no way to improve anymore?".


    Nick answered "Normally it wouldn''t work, but because of your unyielding nature, it might just work. I always forget about that nature of yours, it really is very rare. Funny enough, I never heard of anyone with unyielding nature, trying to learn the Art of Hidden Weapons". I thought for a while, and said "So you will teach me, but you mentioned that there are four conditions that I need to fulfil, in order to learn the real Art of Hidden Weapons. I don''t have all the requirements then".


    Nick shook his head, and replied "No, you are wrong. You met all of them. What I was after, was to intensify the rage inside you. I know you are enraged deep inside, but that is not enough for the true skills to be created. I wanted to create some... events for you, to gain that extra rage". He then continued "If you didn''t meet all the conditions, you wouldn''t be able to learn, what you did as a ve. You met all the conditions, because you learned".


    I asked Nick "What about the 4th condition? I began my training in the Art of Hidden Weapons, long before Dina died by my hands". Nick smiled, and replied "You met two out of four conditions, because of your nature. That is why, I once said "your nature, is worse than being of evil nature". In other words, for people with your nature, there is no good or evil. You were a ve already too. This condition, was also met. Thest condition, was revenge. You already wanted revenge, long before you became a ve. It only intensified, when you became one".


    "In overall, you met all the conditions. Yet, we shall do it differently. I will teach you what I know, and you must develop your own Arts as well. How you are going to achieve this, I don''t know. I''m certain of one thing, you will try it until you die. That is your nature".


    I nodded my head, and said "I shall try". Nick smiled, and said "First, you will need a real weapon. You will create it by yourself, and with your own imagination. Don''t try to copy my knives. Just go with whatever your mind and body is telling you. When you have the weapon, we will start the training".


    Nick then continued "Don''t forget to read the book from time to time, and practice the Art of Stealth as much as you can. Remember, you need tobine the whole training that you did, and remember the phase ''Avoid the light''".


    I replied "Alright", and went outside to practice. My work at the cksmith''s workshop, would start tomorrow. Gathering enough materials to create a few weapons, would take me a while. ''A few more weeks, and I should be able to create my new weapons. Then, I will finally learn the Art of Hidden Weapons!'' I thought.

 Chapter 35

    Chapter 35


    In the morning, I went to the cksmith''s workshop to start my work. I was required to do 3 ingots a day and that was it. If I finished in 1 hour my day would be done. On the other hand if I had difficulties, then even staying overtime would be justified. I was being paid by quantity not hours of work.


    I could easily finish 3 ingots in about 2 hours with my strength. The problem was, if I did it so fast then it would be suspicious. I didn''t want that, therefore I set my work hours between 4-5 hours a day. If I went there at 7am then worked till 12 or 1pm I would have the rest of the day to myself and because I was no longer going around hungry, I didn''t have to go to the river to fish. I did it anyway sometimes just for pleasure but that was only if I wanted to forget about everything and just rest.


    At the workshop, I saw that Grond was already there working the ingots. It was probably his 1st ingot as he didn''t seem that tired. When he saw me he said "You can start your work whenever you like but remember to create 3 ingots a day. You can use all the tools in the workshop. You will receive your lunch here at 11 am. Is all clear?". I nodded my head and went over to the tool rack to get a hammer and couple of other tools, such as pincers and moulds.


    The workshop had an area where all the ore was stored. There was iron, coal, purified coal used to create steel, copper and so on. I took couple lumps of iron ore and couple lumps of purified coal. I was supposed to create purified steel ingots, therefore I had to use specific technique which I learned long time ago and specific proportions.


    First, I had to melt two lumps of iron ore and one lump of purified coal. Then pour that into the mould, tten it and then melt again adding another lump of iron ore and lump of purified coal. I could never figure out why not put 3 lumps of iron ore and two lumps of purified coal at once and then melt it but that was all Grond showed me. I followed whatever were the instructions. I didn''t care whenever if that would be better or not, I was asked to do this and so I did this. Besides that, I also learned couple of other things such as how to sharpen metal. Mind you, he didn''t teach me that, I just saw him do it and therefore I could probably repeat the process or maybe it was just my imagination telling me that I could.


    I finished my first ingot in an hour. Which would be normal because I was fresh. I had to rest not to arouse suspicion and started working at about 8.30 am. I finished my 2nd ingot at about 10.30am and rested for another 30 minutes. I wanted to eat lunch first, that is why I timed myself to be able to reach this hour after creating 2 ingots. After eating lunch which took about 10 minutes, I started my 3rd ingot and finished it by 12.30pm. Grond in that time created 2 ingots as he was much morezy than I thought. After the first ingot he rested for half an hour and then went out for a bit. He started again the second one only at 10am. He didn''t finish before the lunch and restarted his work at about 11.30. He then finished at about 12 pm and again took 30 minutes break. In the same time I managed to create 3, a seasoned cksmith only created 2. That is why I assumed he must bezy.


    I told Grond that I was done with my work. He was slightly surprised and went back to work. I didn''t have to stay there anymore and I had my training to take care of. At the end of the week I would get paid and I already had some leftovers. It was not enough to create even one dagger but it was something nevertheless.


    I returned to my house and tried to train thest step that Nick told me about in art of stealth. He said tobine all my previous training and avoid the light. I thought about it for a while. ''My first training was bnce and movement. My second training was instincts and senses and thest training was the behaviour''. Then I tried to figure out what would happen if I try andbine them. ''If Ibine all of that, then what would I get? Bnce and movement can be attributed to agility. This way, my 1st training can be referred as such. Next was senses and instincts. I can probably round this up to sensitivity of the environment. In other words domain. Thest was behaviour but it isn''t that simple to categorize. I would say that it is patience and observation. In other words vignce''.


    I had 3 categories of agility, domain and vignce ''But how can Ibine these 3?''. I was thinking on how to do it, yet no idea came to my mind. Agility and vignce for example would make you slower because you had to pay attention. Domain and agility also contradicted each other. If the terrain was not suitable, I would have to slow down. The domain and vignce could be categorised as one. Therefore in theory this could be taken as one category which would be stealth.


    ''It''s weird. The domain and vignce categories make it a stealth skill already, so why agility is there as well? How can you be stealthy moving fast¡­ Wait! That is why the 1st training is with the poles! I get it now. Agility is speed but the agility I learned was speed through minimal movements and concrete bnce that can change on the whim. The agility I learned is different to the one people usually think of. Mostly people assume speed and flexibility but what aboutplete control of your body and bnce? This can also increase speed but in a different way.''


    My thoughts continued ''If such is the case, then my agility is different to what people assume and it can be incorporated to the stealth art. I can be stealthy and fast at the same time. This is the art of stealth not just stealth skill!''.


    This thought alone blew my mind. ''I already know the art of stealth! If I incorporate all my previous training then even the guy who monitored my on Rand''s orders would never find me! I could do all this stuff but I never thought ofbining it''. There was one problem though. Thest part that Nick said was "Avoid the light". I thought even harder but I couldn''t figure this out. ''How am I supposed to avoid the light?''.


    I decided to test out my skills in the art of stealth that I managed tobine. I went outside and found a group of youngsters that used to chase after me. Now I was not a ve anymore but a worker, therefore the rules about not defending myself and having no possessions didn''t apply to me anymore. Although I could crush them under my foot, I found them for another reason.


    When they saw me approaching, one of them said "What do you want ve?" to which I smiled and said "Your mother was a vest night, when she visited me. I mean woah, she was quite wild at times, I tell you". The guy got so angry, I could see his face burning with rage. He shouted "I will kill you, you fucking ve!" and he rushed at me. His friends were no exception and went after me as well.


    That was my real purpose. I wanted to test out if I could be stealthy. Running away from them was as easy as stealing an ice cream from a child. What I wanted to do was hide next to them and check if they could find me with my current skills.


    They soon lost track of me and searched around the area. I was many times next to them and they never spotted me. I followed them and even gave them hints. Yet they couldn''t find me. The guy who I insulted said "I will get you for that, you ve!" and they left.


    It seems my skills improved quite a lot whenpared to the time I wanted to learn this by myself. Even when I was a breath away from them, they couldn''t find me. Of course they were only kids of about 16 years of age and I would have to be more cautious against adults and skilled people, especially skilled people.


    With that, I had an idea on what I could currently do with my skills. I still had loads of time on my hands which I was not really used to. I decided to go to the river and try to train the art of stealth more. ''Maybe I will get some kind of inspiration about this avoid the light part, while I train'' I thought to myself and went to the river.


    As usual it was all quiet there and I started to practise. I moved around the trees and rocks like I did in my 1st training with the poles but I could nowbine other parts together to make my moves be even more intricate and stealthy.


    I trained like this for couple of hours and decided to go fishing a bit. I had time and I also liked to do this because it was rxing. I didn''t have anys or rods so I had to create one but because I did it so many times, I had no problem with that. I created a rod this time because I was not after the food instead I wanted to rx. I dug out some worms and used some metal scrap as my hook.


    Sitting like this and fishing, forgetting about everything, I stared at the water in peace. I observed the fishes in the water and their behaviour. It was natural for me to now calcte the behaviour of anything that moved. I could tell where the fishes would go next or whenever the fish would bite the lure.


    It was still bright and the sun was shining. In this serene setting, I sat there with my rod and observed the fishes. Then I saw something weird. The sun rays when they hit the water sometimes illuminated the scales of the fishes swimming around. The weird thing was that when I could see a predator fishing over the brightly lit scales of the fish turned dim. Not because the sun didn''t shine, no. It was because the fish felt that the predator ising and somehow made the glistering on its scales disappear.


    The fish was not invisible but it surely didn''t stand out from the rest. It was like it wasn''t there. I thought about the "Avoid the light" part that Nick talked about and realised something. Maybe humans were not the first to create such arts. Fishes existed for a long time maybe even longer than humans did, so what if humans actually copied these arts from other animals and just converted them in such a way that humans can use them.


    ''If it''s true that animals were the original creators of fundamental techniques, then that means if I learn from animals, those primitive methods and apply them to my art of stealth. Wouldn''t that give me clues or maybe evenplete the art?''


    With that thought in my mind I started to look at the fishes in greater details. I wanted to learn or at least know how the fish was able to hide from the rays of light and be less attractive to the predators in the water. As the old saying goes "Secrets hardest to unveil are held by nature".

 Chapter 36

    Chapter 36


    Days passed and so went my life. In the morning, I went to the cksmith''s workshop and created ingots and in the afternoon, I trained in the art of stealth for couple of hours. After that I would go watch the fishes. I couldn''t figure out how these fishes were able to do this. Other weird thing was that not all fishes could actually achieve this.


    From the school of fishes only about 10% could actually achieve that. I thought ''Well, it would be pointless if all could do it anyway. The predator would just choose from all of them that way but if only 10% can do it, they can survive''.


    In the evenings I would usually read the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. With every passing day I learned more recipes and those that really caught my eye, I would try to remember harder. Of course, I wanted to remember the whole book but if I remembered the more useful ones first then if needed I could use them or at least gather necessary materials used in creating that recipe.


    Nick would visit sometimes when I was at my house and check on my progres. He was a bit shocked when I told him that I managed tobine the art of stealth or rather all my previous training. He said "It took me over 5 months to figure out how to do it, yet you achieved it so fast. Now what is left is the ''Avoid the light'' part".


    He then asked "How are you doing on that front?". I said to him "I have some ideas in my head and when I''m ready I will test them out but no major improvements in that part". Nick didn''t seem to be disappointed, rather he was d I didn''t actuallyplete the training. He would be too shocked and probably killed himself on the spot if the merging of the art of stealth took him more than 5 months.


    After the week of work I got my payout which was whole 70 coppers. Not a lot but it was my first money in a very long time. I didn''t spend it and just left it aside. I would probably need money in the future, so I started to save. I didn''t need to spend money anyway, I received food and shelter for free as they said, it was just a deal for me to stay and work.


    I also managed to save enough leftovers to create one dagger. I used the time when Grond was not around and smelted the dagger but then I realised something. I was doing the same thing as I didst time. ''Why not improve the dagger?'' I thought to myself.


    In the past I had no choice but to do something fast, now I could take my time and create something really useful. I needed a mould. I decided, I would create a mould that suited my needs. I wanted to create a dagger out of wood and then convert it to mould with the use of y. It wasn''t that hard to create a mould actually, you needed to make an imprint of whatever you wanted the mould to produce, in the soft y. Then you just baked it and the mould was ready. It was one time use mold but creating 5 moulds wouldn''t be a problem and just to be safe, I wanted to create 10 moulds. I would always have an original wooden craving, so that wouldn''t be a problem either, even if I wanted to produce 100 moulds.


    After my work, I went out to do some training and collect some good wood that I can use for carving. I had this old style dagger on me and because I already created it, I would use it to carve the wood to the shape of a dagger that really suited me.


    I knew that logs of wood don''t just grow around. It had to be produced and so I went to a ce where there were too many of them. At the woodcutter''s lodge, I took one log of hardwood and went back to my house. I wondered ''What type of dagger would suit me?''. I didn''t know the answer to this question. I decided to just go for it with what the heart dictates. Nick said that this would be the most suitable dagger for me, so I gave it a try.


    It was actually very hard to create such detailed carving. I was no sculptor and although I had experience working with the wood, this was still very difficult. I scraped away the wood and the time went by. I was lost in my thoughts, thinking about the fishes and how can I imitate that or at least learn how the fishes can achieve this.


    I tried to figure out why but how could I ever confirm my theory if I just looked. I had to catch such fish and study it. Maybe this would bring me some results. The problem was, I had to catch the one with such abilities. As I said before, there were about 10% of fishes able to achieve this "avoid the light" thing. I could use a which would be faster but how would I distinguish between them. When they were out of the water, I never noticed anything and I ate loads of fishes in the past.


    I would have to catch a lot and study them in details, maybe even keep notes of each fish. This would be very time consuming but if I managed to learn something, the time I spent doing it would be trivial. I wanted to find out if the fishes with this ability have different scales or are naturally different from other fishes of the same kind.


    As I thought like this for some time, I forgot that I was carving the dagger. When I realised that, the dagger was already wasted. It looked all weird and irregr. I lost my concentration and the result was a fail. I threw the failed dagger to the side and something wasn''t right. This dagger, was perfect. I never threw anything that was so well bnced and intricate. I remembered what Nick told me. If I could create the dagger by heart then wouldn''t that be it? My thought ran off somewhere else while I was carving, yet in my subconscious I managed to create this shape. I picked up the dagger from the floor and yed around with it. It was perfect. It was as if the dagger was part of my body.


    I thought to myself ''Sometimes, you can receive something from nothing and sometimes you can work whole life to achieve nothing. I think this shall be the shape of my dagger!''. The dagger I would create was curved down at the tip and towards the middle the curve would return up until it met the handle of the dagger, creating something like a wave effect. The de would be long and and thin while the handle was a bit more thick. There would be a small de at the end of the handle that was curved downwards, towards my hand. It could act as a normal dagger but it could also act as a throwing dagger. This dagger was perfect for closebat as well as for the hidden weapons art.


    I was very excited by this new design. It kind of reminded me of my training in the art of stealth as well as the knowledge from the art of medicine. Itbined both worlds. The de was like a herb, growing a main leaf and a side leaf. It also reminded me of my training I did with poles and the behaviour training. It would be perfectly bnced but it could change on the whim. It would be slick and quiet like the art of stealth itself and deadly like the art of medicine.


    I wanted to go to the cksmith''s workshop immediately and start working on the moulds, but I restrained myself. I would have to do it when I go back to work the next day.

 Chapter 37

    Chapter 37


    The next day, I woke up very excited and went straight to the cksmith''s workshop. Grond was already there working on his ingot. I needed to wait for him to leave. He had the same pattern of behaviour everyday. He would create one ingot, then take a break and leave for a while. In the time he was absent, I would create couple of moulds for my daggers. I didn''t want anyone to know what I was doing, so I would store the moulds in my house instead of the workshop.


    At about 9.30am, Grond left the workshop and I went straight to the table with soft y to create my moulds. It would be possible to create a weapon with a mould that has an imprint on one side only but that was not what I wanted. I wanted the dagger to be perfect and therefore I had to create a closed mould. It wasn''t difficult to do so, I just had to create two halves of the mould separately and then connect it together before baking it.


    I made a thick square from the soft y and pressed the dagger inside. I then took the measures of that square and created another one with the same dimensions and pressed that on top of the other mould with the dagger inside.


    I now had a closed mould that would perfectly define curves and edges of my dagger. Of course I had to get the wooden dagger out before sealing the mould and baking it. It was not really a problem as long as the mould was not sealed. I opened it and carefully retrieved the dagger. I also made a small hole in the mould through which I would pour molten purified steel.


    With all of that done, I sealed the mould and baked it. It would have to slowly bake for about 10 minutes and therefore I had time to start another one. It took me about 3 minutes to create a mould and each mould would bake for 10 minutes so I only could make 3 moulds in the time that Grond was absent.


    After a bit more than 20 minutes I had my 3 moulds. I took them back to my house and stored them in a corner where no one would notice them easily. When I returned to the workshop, Grond was already there doing his ingot. He was a bit surprised that I was not in when he returned but didn''t ask about anything. He probably thought I took a break as well.


    I finished my 2nd ingot and then had some lunch. After that I dd my 3rd ingot and again finished around 12.30pm. Grond was no longer surprised that I finished earlier and although he might be slow he wasn''t that stupid to not notice that I took shorter breaks than him.


    I went out to train my skills as usual and catch some fishes. This time I wanted to study them, not eat them. I had to create a to be able to catch more of them at once. It would also save me some timepared to using a rod. At the river, I could see schools of fishes swimming around. It was spring, a season of new life so fishes went out and were more energetic. I set my in a ce where the fishes with the ability to absorb light were and waited for some to get close.


    I didn''t have to wait long and that was due to my behaviour analysis. I applied that training to anything that moved now, whenever it was a fish or a human. I caught 3 fishes and looked at each in great details. I saw nothing out of ordinary, so I decided to cut them open. Maybe there is something different inside and it is not the scales.


    When I opened the fishes one by one, Ipared what was inside between the fishes I caught. I could see no obvious differences, even though I check very thoroughly. Maybe I caught ones that didn''t possess this ability. I wasn''t discouraged though and decided to roast the fishes and eat them. I didn''t want to waste food for no apparent reason.


    I set up my again before I ate so that I would be able to catch them sooner. I ate the fishes which were not big and went to check on my. The were again couple of fishes swimming around. After a while I pulled the and got out 4 fishes this time.


    I checked them and could find nothing out of ordinary. I didn''t cut them open because I didn''t want to waste fishes and I couldn''t just eat all the fishes in the river. I released the fishes back into the water and had a sudden idea. I already learned how to throw weapons and therefore fishing with the old style dagger I had on me would not be that difficult, if I use skills from the art of stealth.


    I tried to spot the fish with the ability to absorb or avoid the light. I waited for about an hour before I found such fish. They were quite rare but now that I found one, I started calcting its behaviour. I retrieved my dagger and got ready to throw. When the fish swam opposite to my direction, I threw the dagger with one swift movement. I threw it quite hard as I didn''t want the water to disce the energy or change its direction.


    *Plum*


    The dagger went into the water and it was fast enough to stab the fish through. I retrieved the fish and took out the dagger. I looked at it''s scales and it seemed to be ordinary. I took off some of the scales and again examined them in greater details. I also tried to ce them in front of the sun and see if this had any affect. To my surprise they were just normal scales.


    That was a good thing and a bit bad. Good because I didn''t want to wear clothes made out of fish scales. Bad because it was not scales, so it had to be an ability that the fish knew. Otherwise, how else would that work? I opened the fish up and check the insides. Again it was the same as the other fishes I caught. Now I was sure that it was an ability that some fishes would be born with.


    I didn''t give up, I had another idea. I would watch these fishes and their behaviour. Maybe this way I would learn how they can achieve that effect. But watching the whole school of fishes swimming around would be to tiring and to taxing on my mind. I needed to separate couple of such fishes and introduce a predator.


    I went back to the vige. I wanted to visit Nick and ask if he could get me a shovel. When I arrived at Nick''s ce, I asked him "Can you give me a shovel?". He looked at me and said in a confused manner "Did you kill someone again?" to which I replied in anger "Just because I need a shovel, it means I killed someone?" to which Nick said "No, then why do you need it?". I said "I need it to dig out a trench. I want to try something out and if I''m sessful, it will help me a lot in my training". He was even more confused and said "Digging out a trench will help in your training?" to which I said "Yes, can you get me that shovel or not?".


    Nick said "Sure, I can get you a shovel. Wait here I will be back in a while". He then melded into shadows and disappeared. I wondered how can he just meld into the shadows. It was simr in effect to that of the fishes with this weird ability but it seemed that the method waspletely different. After a while Nick returned with a shovel and handed it to me while saying "Here you go". I thanked him and went out.


    Back at the river, I dug a hole that was about a metre deep and couple of metres long. With my strength, digging that kind of hole was not a problem. After I dug the hole, I created two gates from thick branches. I wanted the water to flow through this pond and keep it fresh all the time but at the same time not let the fishes trapped inside run away.


    My n was simple. I would catch couple of fishes and put them inside this pond. Out of these couple I would have 2 or 3 that had the ability to absorb or hide away from the light. This way I would have only a few targets and it would be much easier to keep track of them.


    Next, I had to dig channels to and from this pond and let the water flow in. I would have to wait at least a day before the hole I dug was clean and the natural current took away all the debris and lose earth.


    After I did the chanels, the water rushed through and filled the pond. I installed the gates at both the entrance and exit and watched as the water flows. After a while of watching, I decided it was time to go back to my house and rest for tomorrow. I still had to read Great Scriptures of Evil Medic before I went to sleep, so I had not time to just watch the water flow.


    When I returned, I went straight to the bed and read the book. I had many things nned for the next day. Things like creating my daggers from the moulds that I created today or trying to catch some fishes with the "avoidthe light" ability and putting them in my pond. Not long after, I fell asleep.

 Chapter 38

    Chapter 38


    I woke up the next day and went straight to the workshop. I started my work as usual and waited for Grond to leave, like he usually did. I didn''t bring the moulds with me because I didn''t want Grond noticing them.


    When Grond finally left, I went straight to my house and retrieved one mould. I wouldn''t have any time to actually cast more than one dagger in the time Grond was gone. It would take more than a week to create the 10 daggers that I wanted but everyday I would have more and more and more.


    For now, I wanted to cast at least one. I would still need to sharpen it and polish it. Back at the workshop, I melted the purified steel ingot I had made for myself and poured it into the mould. I waited for it to cool down a bit and then submerged it into the water.


    After the mould cooled a bit more, I broke it open and insideid a brand new dagger. It was sleek and a bit dull but I knew I would have to polish it and sharpen the edge. Moulds were not able to create sharp edges or polished surfaces. Moulds were used to create the shape but I still needed toplete the dagger by giving it an edge as well as polish.


    I went to the grindstone and started pressing the pedal to rotate the wheel that will allow me to create an edge of the weapon. I spend about 5 minutes on melting the ingot, then about 15 minutes creating it. I now had a bit less than 10 minutes to create an edge and polish the dagger. I didn''t rush this process though. I carefully grinded the de of the dagger and created a very fine edge that would cut a falling hair. It wasn''t hard anyway because the dagger was quite thin already.


    I could do the polishingter. It was also an easy process. I just had to "wash" it with sand. In the workshop, there was a tool to do that. You just put in the weapon or tool that you want to polish and sand inside. Then you close it and spin it around. After a while it would be polished. I didn''t have time for that right now and also it could be done without this machine. I would do it when I get the chance. I hid the dagger in my shirt and went back to work.


    I wanted to y with it due to excitement but Grond would be here anytime, so I restrained that thought. After I created the rest of the ingots, I went straight to Nick. When I arrived he was not there. I could only continue on with my other ns and meet with Nickter.


    I went to the river and saw that my pond was now clean and the water flow was very good. I set my sight on the fishes in the river not far away and watched them to determine which ones had the ability to avoid the light. After about 30 minutes of waiting, I found 2 such fishes. Now the problem was catching them.


    I set up the and picked up some pebbles. I wanted to use the pebbles in order to lure the desired fishes into my. I threw couple of pebbles while calcting the behaviour of the fishes that I determined would have the ability I was after. Fortunately one of them got caught in the when I pulled it out.


    I ced the fishes that I caught inside the pond that I created and went out to get more of them. I needed at least 2-3 fishes with this ability and just couple of normal fishes. I already had 3 fishes in the pond and one of them was able to use the ability to avoid the light.


    I casted my again and observed the school of fishes. After a while, I found couple that were able to use the ability and so I repeated my previous actions. After doing so for over an hour, I finally got 3 fishes with the ability to avoid the light and 5 fishes that were just normal.


    I went to the river again and searched for the predator to those fishes. It could be a fish but there were also other predators. One such predator was a turtle. Normally you would think that turtles eat nts but this one ate fishes. I went after the turtle because It would hunt just one fish to satisfy its hunger and then rest at the bottom of the river. If I let it into the pond, it would just eat one fish and then rest. I wouldn''t have to worry that all the fishes would die to the predator and one fish a day or two would be easy to replenish.


    The turtle I was looking for was not so easy to find though. Other predators were much moremon but this turtle mostly spent his time at the bottom of the river and left only to hunt the fishes. I had to search for couple of hours before I finally found one. The turtle was not really aggressive towards me, it was annoyed that I picked it up but didn''t seem to get angry to the point where it would try to eat me. It couldn''t anyway. It was only about 40 centimetres big.


    I took the turtle back to the pond and released it inside. It went to the bottom of the pond and stared at me. I though ''Can turtles stare at people?''. Maybe it was annoyed and just wanted me to leave. I moved away from the pond couple of steps and the turtle started to get ustomed with his new surroundings.


    Anyone would be confused if they got picked up, moved somewhere else and then ced down. The turtle noticed the fishes and seemed satisfied with his new home. If you have food that is very close to you, then you don''t have to look for it, just hunt it.


    It seemed that the turtle was a bit hungry so he creeped under water towards the fishes. I watched the whole process. I noticed that the 3 fishes that had the ability to avoid light also had the ability to sense a predator. These fishes were responsible for informing others that predator wasing. They had a purpose in the group as well as means to avoid their own death.


    The turtle got closer and lunged at one of the fishes. I was surprised when I saw that turtle. It was at least twice as fast as these fishes. No wonder he could hunt them. He caught one of the normal fishes and returned back to where I dropped it, which was closer to the first gate, where the fresh water was pouring into the pond.


    I thought that my efforts were not in vain and I would be able to study the fishes in greater details due to only couple of them being there. I wasn''t scared that the turtle would leave because it had the food near him and a fresh water that washed the pond all the time. It could just go out of water and walk onnd but these were simple creatures and the turtle would stay there. I was at least 90% sure of that.


    I knew that the turtle will eat and then go to sleep for today and there was no longer a point for me to stay there, so I decided I would go back to the vige and check if Nick has returned.

 Chapter 39

    Chapter 39


    When I visited Nick again he was home this time. I told him "I managed to create a dagger, can we start the training now?". Nick smiled and said "Then let''s see the dagger" I took out my dagger and passed it to Nick. He was astonished due to design of the dagger and said "Why does it look so weird¡­ This! The bnce is perfect and this dagger can be used for throwing and closebat!".


    I was a bit smug about my own creation and said "Ha! of course it''s perfect, I made it!". Nick''s face went a bit grim and then he replied "This dagger is very good. It''s a shame I have no techniques for cksmithing that I can teach you. You will have to visit the closest city from here, That is Terent. There, you will be able to find very good cksmiths and learn from them. I can see you have some talent in cksmithing".


    I asked Nick "Where is Terent?" to which he said "Oh, right. It''s about a month time from here on foot. Maybe 2 weeks if you travel by horse". I was shocked ''2 weeks just to get there on horse?'' I asked Nick again "is it far away from the capital city?" to which Nick sneered and said "From Terent? to Endros Imperial City? I don''t know maybe half a year? Something like that. Of course imperials have different means of travel but let us leave that for different time". I nodded my head in understanding, yet I was still shocked ''Half a year to get there from the city called Terent. That is a lot!'' I thought to myself.


    Then I said to Nick "I made it from the mould. I had to carve this shape first. It''s not like I could actually use hammer to create such weapon". To which Nick replied "A lot of cksmiths use molds that were created by some skilled people. Real cksmiths can produce that kind of shape without moulds. It''s still very rare for someone to carve that kind of weapon". He then continued "As you now have a dagger, we will start your training. Go to your house and I will visit youter and tell you about the first training".


    I went back to my house and waited for Nick. He arrived about 30 minutester and said "I shall now impart to you the first training of the art of hidden weapons the way I was taught". I nodded my head and Nick continued "Your first training is aim. I know you already practiced that and have good aim but that is mostly for stationary objects".


    He then went back to the corner and retrieved couple of hey puppets the size of human. I was a bit stunned and asked "Why do you have these puppets?". To which Nick said "Because you only practised on stationary objects most of your time, You will have to practise on objects that can move and evade your attacks. If you can''t aim properly, how can you kill your opponent".


    Before I said anything, Nick continued "Yes, this is a killing art and don''t look so stupid. Of course these puppets cannot move by themselves and that is why, I will train with you. I have to move these puppets in order to make them the moving objects. Because you have only one dagger, we will use one puppet. When you have more daggers, I will increase the number of puppets as well".


    Nick also added "I will move the puppet in a specific way and you will have to attack as well as retrieve your dagger. So pay attention to movements of the puppet and remember to retrieve your dagger. In reality, you may have more daggers than just 5 or 10 but what if you use them all. This is to teach you how to retrieve your weapons when you are under attack".


    I then saw one of the puppets move. It became alive all of a sudden and moved as if it was Nick himself. Nick shouted "Don''t space out and start your training!". I decided I would ask about thister and just trained my aim. Aiming at a moving object especially one that was controlled by Nick was not easy. I couldn''t hit it even once and the puppet would attack as well. I never received any damage but Nick constantly said "You are dead" when the puppet''s attack connected, it was driving me mad.


    After about 2 hours of training, I did even manage to hit the puppet once. Even the act of retrieving my dagger without hearing "You''ve died" was also very difficult. I asked Nick "How do you control this puppet?" to which he said "It will be part of your trainingter. When the timees, I will exin it". I nodded my head in understanding.


    Nick then said "I wille over at the evening everyday and train with you for couple of hours. Make sure to get more of those daggers soon. I want you to learn how to manipte many daggers at the same time. I can also give you one hint. Use your training from art of stealth in this training. It will help". He then left. I knew what he meant. I was supposed to calcte the behaviour of the puppet. I tried that already but it was a puppet and not a living person or even being. It was very hard to determine what would happen next. Nick in the past told me that art of stealth and art of hidden weapons is kind of connected to each other. It seems that some things will apply to both arts.


    The rest of the evening I spent reading the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and tried to memorize more recipes from this book.


    Morning the next day, I went to the workshop to work on my ingots as usual and collect some leftovers that I would use for my daggers. Then I would go to river and then I would train with Nick.


    Days passed like this and the date of the wedding wasing closer. The date was confirmed and I had my own ns. I needed poison, which I had. I also needed another type of poison which I had to get. It was called Evesting Dew. This would make the male impotent and woman to not bear children. It was a cruel poison but it was actually one of the easy/intermediate recipes from the Evil Manual of Medicine. The materials for it were also quitemon and I already asked Nick about this poison. When he heard what I want to do, he was a bit shocked but soon an evil grin appeared on his face.


    I couldn''t do anything about his nature, so I let him be and enjoy himself for a while. He promised he will deliver that poison to me before the wedding took ce. I had learned skills good enough to hide from anyone in this vige, well besides Nick. I also started to learn art of hidden weapons. If I had to take out some guards on my way, that would no longer be a problem.


    The time of my revenge was closing in and I trained even harder before the grand celebration would be held. I would make it my grand celebration!

 Chapter 40

    Chapter 40


    Spring passed and with it came the summer. The day of the wedding was about a month away from today''s date. I already had both poisons and I learned new things in all the arts I trained. In the art of stealth, I managed to uncover some of the secrets of the "avoid the light" skill that I observed from some of the fishes. I wasn''t able to find the exact method but watching the fishes everyday gave me some ideas.


    The best guess I had was the way fish moved and absorbed the light. Because the fish made many changes in a second, it was able to adjust to the light in such a way that it became less visible or at least it''s scales were not illuminated. The fishes couldn''t disappear like Nick did. He could meld into the shadows and I could not feel his presence at all.


    The fishes in the pond I created only knew how to avoid the light to make themself not stand out. But that was already improvement. I learned that if I make loads of changes in my movement, I could then be less visible or rather more in to others. That in itself is a type of stealth. The less you stand out the better it is for you, if you want to be stealthy.


    Putting on ck clothes or whatever will make people suspicious but if you can actually be like a pebble on the road people will not notice you naturally. I decided that this was a path worth exploring and trying out. Of course it was not the answer to the problem I had. I need to find other inspirations and maybe animals or phenomenons that would allow me to aplish the "avoid the light" part of the art.


    I released all the fishes in the pond as I could learn nothing else by studying them. The weird thing was, the turtle went out of the water when it saw me releasing the fishes and walked over. I wasn''t scared of a turtle. With my strength, I could destroy it with one punch and I had daggers on me as well.


    On the contrary to what I thought, the turtle came over and stared at me. Of course I knew turtles can''t talk and therefore I looked at it and wondered ''What does it want?''. The answer came unexpected really, itid down and yawned. I got confused even more and wondered ''What the hell is this turtle on about?''. I decided to just leave. My study with the fishes were done and the turtle could now do whatever it wanted.


    When I walked couple of steps, I could hear the turtle moving and then walking behind me. ''What the hell is going on?'' I thought to myself. I looked at the turtle and said out loud as if it could understand me "Are you following me?" to my surprise the turtle nodded.


    Just this action alone blew my mind. ''This turtle understood me!'' I screamed in my mind. I tried again "Why do you want to follow me?" to which the turtle made some sound, then opened and closed its mouth couple of times. I was shocked again. ''This turtle can really understand, it tred to answer! I think he is trying to say that he wants to go with me''. I said to the turtle "If you want to go with me, thene" and I left the river.


    I sometimes looked back and saw that the turtle was always behind me. When I entered the vige, many people wanted to get the turtle for its meat. The turtle would stand next to me in that situation and I exined that it belongs to me. The vigers were not really happy and some tried force but after knocking out couple of them, they stopped interfering.


    All the vigers knew I was no longer a ve and I could fight back. I was quite strong in their eyes because I did all these jobs and also became a cksmith. While I was walking in the vige, I thought to myself ''The food should not be a problem, it eats one or two fishes a day. It can hunt by itself, I would just have to be there to make sure no people harm it. It can sleep in my house so again no problem with that¡­ I should get some hay for it to sleep on, the fields outside the vige should have plenty of that''.


    I went to the fields and gathered some hay. Then I went back to my house andid the hay in one corner. I said to the turtle "This is where I live, so if you want to follow me you will stay here". To my surprise the turtle nodded its head and went towards the hay toy down. It seemed to befortable on the hay and so I left it there and went back to my training with stealth.


    I tried to apply the movements that the fish was making into my own movements. I tried to be ordinary. I noticed that it was impossible for me to do the same thing as a fish. I had to figure out a different way.


    I experimented with that thought for couple of hours before I came up with an idea. I needed to move in such a way that resembled the person or people I tried to avoid. For example if some viges that were farmers were walking around, I would have to be a farmer and blend with them. This didn''t mean that I needed to look like farmer or work as one. It meant that if someone looked at me, they would assume I was a farmer because of the character and behaviour. I called it "Aura Copy" skill. If I could copy the aura or the person I wanted to be, I would be able to avoid being suspicious because people would just assume I was a simple worker or something like that.


    I would need to learn gestures, the way certain people walk, how they behave, how they talk and so on. All of that would create something I called aura. All groups of people had different auras for example farmers had specific aura and guards had a specific aura as well. If I learned to copy them, I could be anyone. That way no one would suspect me.


    It wasn''t the "avoid the light" type of skill but it would be useful nevertheless because it would allow me to blend in without any cover or shadows. I went out to the fields to examine the behaviour and what not of the farmers. Farmer was a popr profession and if I could learn how to imitate the aura of farmers, I would be able to fool loads of people.


    This would take awhile to learn all the habits and such, therefore I was in no rush. Late in the afternoon, I returned to my house and awaited Nick for the training in art of hidden weapons. After about an hour of waiting, Nick finally showed up. He was confused as to why there is a turtle sleeping on hay in my room and so he asked "What''s up with this turtle?" to which I said "I used it to figure some things out in the art of stealth. I already have an idea how to proceed with a new skill". Nick was still confused and asked again "Yes, but what is it doing here?" to which I said "When I finished with my stuff at the river, it went out of the water and followed me. It can actually understand humannguage! I asked it if it wanted to follow me and the turtle nodded". Nick was a bewildered as much as I was when I found out that the turtle could understand me. Nick then said "So it understands human speech? That is not unheard of when ites to smart animals but to find such here¡­ Anyway, now you have a pet. Take care of it well. Usually these pets are rare and can help their masters a lot".


    I said to Nick "It''s just a turtle, what can it do besides eating and sleeping? Even if it can understand what I say, there is no advantages to that". Nick retorted "That is not true. If you train it well, it can be much more useful than you think. Just find the best uses for this turtle. In other words, find its strengths and weaknesses, then train it ordingly".


    I nodded my head. Nick was more knowledgeable than me so he was probably saying this for my own benefit. We then started the training in the art of hidden weapons. I could now hit the puppet sometimes with one dagger but I was not using one. I had to aim at 3 puppets at the same time and throw my daggers at 3 targets simultaneously.


    It was very hard to do so but thanks to the constant training and Nick''s nagging, I had some improvements.

 Chapter 41

    Chapter 41


    The whole vige was busy and in festive mood. This was due to the wedding ceremony that would take ce in couple of days. Most of the important people were invited for the wedding. Nick was also one of them. I told Nick that I had my own ns and didn''t need his help. I nned to travel to the Grasshill Vige alone when Rand and others would leave first with the dowry.


    Senty was already living in the Grasshill Vige at her fiance ce, or so I heard. Rand and others would travel there for couple of days and therefore they would leave tomorrow. I would leave the same day but I would take different path. I didn''t want them to know that I left and therefore I would take a much more difficult and dangerous path.


    I would arrive earlier than them but that was what I wanted. I didn''t worry about finding the right house or the vige. I asked Nick about the map and how to get to that vige. He supplied a map for me and it covered the areas of about 4 days of horseback traveling in radius. I could see that there were couple of viges in that radius and the Grasshill Vige was the biggest of them all.


    No wonder people would try to befriend the Horsein Vige now due to the wedding with some kind of young master. I also found out from Nick that this young master was a son to the current chief of the Grashill Vige. No wonder Rand was so happy when they proposed the marriage.


    It was all nice and great. There was one problem though. That problem was called Nex and no one seemed to realise what I wanted to do. Only Nick knew what would happen but he would of course keep quiet about it.


    The next day, Rand and others went out of vige and traveled towards the Grasshill Vige. Nick told me beforehand that Rand''s disciple, the guy who always monitored me. Stayed behind in the vige to keep an eye. He said that if I were to leave he would know about this. I didn''t care much if he knew and better still I wanted for him to go after me because then he would die.


    I returned to my house before I left and said to the turtle "I will be leaving for couple of days, so you have to take care of your meals by yourself. I will drop you off at the river and when I return, I will fetch you back". The turtle didn''t seem to like the idea and pulled on my trousers with its mouth.


    I thought it was concerned that I would leave it, so I said "Don''t worry, I will return". The turtle wasn''t having any of that and still pulled on my trousers. I was dumbfounded and thought ''What does it want?''. The turtle made couple of sounds and it looked like it still wanted to follow me.


    I asked "You want to go with me?" to which the turtle nodded. I said to it "I need to travel very fast and you will not be able to keep up with me. I can''t carry you around either and you are not stealthy. If I brought you to the Grasshill Vige, people would know".


    What the turtle did next was out of my expectations. It actually started running around. It wanted to show me that it would keep up with me. The sight was unbelievable ''what kind of turtle is so fast?'' I thought. Not only was it intelligent but it was fast. I would understand if it was done in the water but on thend? I looked at the turtle and said in shock "Then fine, you can go with me".


    I didn''t know how else to respond and so that was the only thing I could do, say yes. Then I realised something. I always called it turtle or it but we were together for a bit of time now and the turtle seemed to be very attached to me, yet I never tried to give it a name. I said to the turtle "I actually forgot but how about we give you a name?".


    The turtle seemed to like the idea and so I proposed couple of names. "How about Tory?" to which the turtle shook its head. It didn''t like it apparently. I tried again "Then how about Jack?" to which the turtle repeated the process of shaking its head. I went through many names when finally I asked "Then how about Shelly? It''s a good name right? It suits you because you have a shell". The turtle seemed to like this one and nodded its head in confirmation. I said "Great! From now on you will be known as Shelly!".


    I then said "Alright Shelly, we shall move out now. We will probably meet someone on our way and if we do, he will die". Shelly seemed to understand my meaning and simply followed after me. When I got out of the vige, I ran towards the path I established from the map. It wasn''t hard to find a path once you knew how to do it. Nick gave me some lessons as to how to read directions at night but also while it was day. So I knew where the north was and how to stay on my path.


    About 30 minutes of runningter I could hear noises from behind me. I knew who was following me. I just slowed down a bit to a normal walking pace and awaited the guy behind me to catch up. The guy caught up after a minute or so and shouted "Stop!".


    I stopped and turned around but I didn''t bother replying or anything, I just threw 4 daggers at him in an instant. He didn''t expect that type of development and so he got hit by all 4 daggers and died the least painful death, I assumed.


    I already was prepared to kill for my revenge and anyone that stood in my way, was my enemy. Like Nick said "The art of hidden weapons is an art of killing. It was not created for self defence or protection or any other bullcrap! It was an art purely for killing".


    I searched the corpse and found nothing except one tattered book that was on him. I retrieved the book and made some bigger cuts on the body. I wanted for wild animals to eat the corpse and the thicker the stench of blood was the further it would travel. This way some predators will be able to find this corpse.


    Before I continued my journey, I looked through the book. It was a copy of the manual that gave Rand and his granddaughter more strength. I was a bit happy about it but I also knew it probably was iplete. This guy was only some kind of disciple and not blood rted, therefore he wouldn''t have a full copy on himself.


    I put away the book and noticed that Shelly was unperturbed by the death of this human. I said "This was the guest I talked about. I don''t think anyone else will follow us. We should go now, there is a long way ahead of us". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me.

 Chapter 42

    Chapter 42


    I was running through the forest and Shelly was tagging along behind me. We encountered some wild wolves but those were no longer a thread to me. I decided to dispose of them. To my surprise, Shelly attacked one of the wolves and actually won. Shelly used its speed and the hard shell to ram into the wolf countless times and then bit it to death when it was incapacitated.


    I then saw Shelly eating the wolf. I thought it will eat only fishes but I guess I was wrong. Apparently Shelly will eat any meat it likes whenever it''s wolf or fish. ''In that case I don''t really have to worry about fishes, as Shelly can eat other types of meat'' I thought to myself and the said "Come on Shelly, we shall continue our travels".


    The road ahead was quite dangerous due to the animals living on the path we took. We meet loads of wolves and even some bears. Shelly would not go against bears because it couldn''t inflict any substantial damage to them. I took care of the bears that we encountered while Shelly would take care of the wolves and boars.


    Of course I wouldn''t just leave Shelly to die and if the situation got dangerous, I would kill a wolf or two. Those situations were quite rare which shocked me. Shelly typically managed to kill couple of wolves by itself and didn''t need my help. This turtle was very crafty and the agility it had was out of this world for a turtle.


    We continued like this tillte afternoon where I stopped and said "We shall make a shelter and stay the night here to rest. When we are rested, early the next morning we will move on". Shelly nodded its head and tried to help me with building the shelter. It collected some branches that were thick and long enough for shelter and brought them to the ce that would be our shelter.


    I was already a bit experienced with shelter building. After a bit over 20 minutes, we had our shelter ready for the night. I didn''t have to go anywhere to hunt for food as I collected a lot of meat during the journey here. It was already cooked partially, I just had to reheat it and cook it more properly.


    When I cooked the meat and started to munch in on it, shelly came over and looked at my with what I could only describe as cute eyes. ''Who could guess that a turtle can actually show that type of expression?'' I thought to myself. I asked Shelly "Do you want some?" and it nodded. I gave it a piece of cooked meat and the turtle ate it, then looked at me again. ''It seems that Shelly liked cooked meat as well'' then another thought entered my mind ''Wait, didn''t Shelly eat quite a lot today? Usually it would eat only something like one or two fishes but now it actually ate couple of wolves and is still begging for food''.


    I was baffled by this change of character in Shelly and asked out loud "Shelly, why do you suddenly eat so much?". I didn''t expect answer because Shelly couldn''t talk but it still tried to show me why. It jumped around a bit then ran around a bit and showed me an eating motion. A sudden thought entered my mind ''I think Shelly is trying to say that because it moves so much and at such speeds, it needs to eat a lot more. It would make sense because when it ate one or two fishes, it would go to sleep''. I asked Shelly "You mean to say that because you need to move a lot, you also need to eat a lot right?" to which it nodded its head.


    I took one more piece of the meat and gave the rest to Shelly. I was not full yet and I could surely eat more than just this one piece but I decided to give it to Shelly. Besides, Shelly was the one that hunted most boars not me and that was the meat taken from boars.


    I gave Shelly about 2-3 kilograms of food that was left over from today. I stocked so much because you never know if you need food and besides, my old habits dictated my hunger. I could eat a lot as well, although I didn''t get any fatter. Shelly gobbled down the food in matter of minutes andid down in the shelter next to me.


    I must admit that I grew attached to this turtle. It always wanted to follow me, it was intelligent and it was also skillful. I started to treat it like part of the family and the turtle seemed to treat me in the same way. After the dinner, Iid there reading the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and tried to rx a bit.


    I needed to be rested for the next day as the pace we were going at was quite fast. Also because of the path I chose to take, we had to face a lot of animals such as wolves and bears. After a bit of reading I felt tired, I hid the book back into my shirt and noticed that Shelly is already asleep next to me. With that I went to sleep as well.


    The night was very uneventful, probably because we killed a lot of animals in this area and there were simply none left or those left were scared away. I woke up Shelly and said "Alright, it is time to go. We will hunt on our way. This way you can refill your energy". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me. We were about 2 days away from the Grasshill Vige. My estimates were that I would travel 3 days to the Grasshill Vige while Rond and the rest would travel about 4 days. I should be able to arrive before them.


    Even though I encountered many wolves and other animals, I should still be ahead of them. I tried to do minimal breaks but because Shelly needed much more food due to the pace, I did stops and let it eat or hunt to replenish that energy. Shelly could run for about an hour at full speed but then it would need to consume enough meat to create a wolf. In other words, it would have to consume one wolf to replenish its energy.


    I also ate a lot but due to my weird constitution, I could run at full speed for about 3 hours and only then would I be hungry. Of course I could do it for longer but then hunger would change into starvation and that would be a problem. I didn''t want to weaken my body anymore, hunger was fine but starvation was already crossing the line and this would damage my body.


    Even though we ran at full speed for an hour and then did about 20 minutes of break, we traveled a bit more than I expected before the nightfall. Late in the afternoon, I chose a ce for our second shelter and started to build it. Shelly helped me again with twigs and what not, it seemed happy that it could help. A whileter the shelter wa built and I cooked food again. This time because I knew Shelly would eat as well, I prepared about 20 kilograms of food. It was like some kind of grand barbeque. About 5 kilograms of that would be probably eaten by me while the rest would belong to Shelly. This guy was only about 40 centimetres big yet it could fit all that food no problem. I think it had simr constitution to mine.


    I was much bigger and therefore 5 kilograms of meat is a lot but proportionally to my size, it could be eaten somehow. Yet, a turtle that is over 3 times smaller than me? Eating 3 times more than me was mind blowing. After the meal, I decided to read the book again and I already saw that Shelly went to sleep.


    While I was reading I heard a very loud howl and then another, and another and so on. I thought ''This must be a whole pack of wolves''. I put away the book and got a bit agitated. The amount of howls I could hear was not small and one of the howls was very distinctive and different. I then heard more howls that were getting closer to our location. I waked up Shelly and said "We have trouble. It may be possible we will have to run through the night". Shelly was a bit sleepy but still nodded its head.


    The howls got closer and closer. I stood up and said "Follow me Shelly, we need to get out of this ce".

 Chapter 43

    Chapter 43


    We ran through the forest at night. I tried to follow the general direction of the path we were supposed to take. I could hear the howls behind me. Judging by the amount of howls the wolves produced, they would number to at least 20. That was arge pack and it would be difficult to fight all these wolves. There was arge probability we would survive but 20 was the lowest estimate. The number could even reach 40 and the one very distinctive howl I heard from time to time was the most worrying.


    We ran like this for an hour and I could still hear some howls in a far distance. I said to Shelly "We have to get away much further. Otherwise too many problems can arise". Shelly looked tired but still nodded its head. We traveled for another 30 minutes and the howls now were very distant and low in number. I said to Shelly "Rest here. I think we are far enough for the wolves to not catch up". Although wolves were adapted to running and survival in the forest but a full speed chase would no doubt tire out most if not all wolves in that pack.


    I sat down next to Shelly and rested a bit. Shelly was quite weak because it over exerted itself. I needed to find some animals for it to feed on ''Where would I find some animals at night?'' I thought.


    My thoughts were disturbed by a loud howl that sounded not very far away from our location. I got up and immediately listened to my surroundings. After awhile, I could hear some noisesing from the direction that we came from.


    Then I noticed arge wolf. It was about twice the size of normal wolf and it had silver grey fur. The wolf noticed me as well and after howling once more, it pounced at me. I wasn''t scared of just one wolf but this one must''ve been the leader of the pack. Either way, I mobilised my daggers and threw one after the other at the wolf. The wolf managed to dodge one dagger, then another and finally the 3rd one finally hit the target.


    *Cling*


    I was dumbfounded. The dagger just bounced off producing sparks. Normally this throw would kill a normal wolf, yet this one had no injuries. The wolf was getting closer and it was quite fast but not as fast as I was. I pounced at the wolf as well, with a dagger in each hand.


    In seconds, I was metres away from the wolf. I calcted it''s next actions and evaded to the left then shed my dagger at its throat while spinning and shing my other dagger at its belly. When my first dagger connected the only thing that it achieved was more sparks. ''It seems to have metallic fur!'' I thought and when my 2nd dagger connected, it finally managed to wound the wolf.


    "Awooo!"


    The wolf howled. I now knew it''s weak point, which was it''s belly. I stabilised my footing and pounced at the wolf that was crying in pain again. I aimed both of my daggers at the wolf''s belly and shed. Two more wounds were inflicted on its belly but not without a price. The wolf in rage rammed me with its head.


    The impact was so strong that I flew a few metres back. I was quite shocked ''What type of strength is this?'' I thought to myself and picked myself up. I wasn''t unscaved eaither, Although nothing broke, I felt a lot of pain nevertheless. The wolf in anger pounced at me again. I readied my daggers and awaited it''s next move. When the wolf was close, I again evaded it''s attack and shed with my daggers at its belly.


    The wolf howled again and wanted to ram me but I wouldn''t be stupid enough to do the same mistake. I rolled to the side and attacked again. The wolf surprisingly was also quite cunning and so my attack failed. What weed me was the wolf''s tail. I evaded it and the tail hit the tree behind me. When I saw what happened to that tree, I was shocked. ''This guy''s tail is like a sword, it almost cut the tree in half!'' I screamed in my mind.


    Because the wolf had to turn away from me in order to swing its tail at me, I now had a chance to do whatever I wanted because the wolf''s vision lost me for a moment. I hid in the wolf''s blind spot and suddenly attacked it''s belly again.


    This time the wolf fell down and howled in pain. I didn''t give it any chances to stand up and shed multiple times at it''s belly. After such a barrage of attacks, the wolf finally died. I was exhausted. I opened up the wolf''s belly and took out all the intestines, then I took some meat and brought it to Shelly.


    Shelly looked quite pitiful and when it smelled the meat it instantly gobbled it up. I went back to the wolf and extracted more meat. I repeated this process until half of the wolf''s meat was eaten by Shelly. Then I started the fire and cooked the meat. I had to eat something as well. I was already exhausted. One and a half hour of running then fight with this monster, spent a lot of my energy.


    I cookedrge portions of meat over the fire and ate like it was my first time eating meat. Shelly came over and also wanted more. I gave it some more. This monster weighted at least 100 kilograms, when I was taking out the meat, I noticed that the fur was still very sturdy and hard to cut. I decided to extract some fur and use it for my clothingter.


    It was hard to skin the wolf because the fur would just give out sparks when I tried to cut it with my dagger. I had to cut it from the inside and then the fur separated easily. I cleaned up the fur and rolled it into a bundle. I turned towards Shelly and said "Can you carry this around?" it was a turtle after all and had quite big shell so I wanted to know. The fur was quite heavy about 15 kilograms and that was after I cleaned it.


    Shelly didn''t seem to like the idea of transporting my stuff around but it nodded it''s head in the end. I didn''t want Shelly to think I''m using it for cheapbour so I said "When we do dinner tomorrow, I will cook more meat for you, how about that as a treat?" Shelly nodded it''s head in agreement.


    We went back onto our path a traveled for another couple of hours with breaks of course, until I found another suitable ce to spend the night at. The next day,te in the morning. I woke up and stretched myself. The night was quite eventful but other than the encounter with the wolf, nothing else happened.


    I woke up Shelly and said "Alright, it''s time to move now. I think we will be at our destination at about evening". Shelly got up and followed after me.

 Chapter 44

    Chapter 44


    We traveled whole day ording to the map andte in the afternoon, we finally managed to arrive at the vige. I was a bit nervous when it came to Shelly. I didn''t want anyone to see it because people then can recognise me. I had to either smuggle Shelly somehow inside or make it wait outside. Theter was much more simple than the former.


    I said to Shelly "You will have to wait 2 or 3 days for me. It''s too hard to smuggle you into the vige without anyone noticing". Shelly was not happy about that and pulled on my trousers. I said "There is no way around that. I will return for you, I promise". Shelly seemed to be reluctant to let go but after struggling a bit, it managed to calm down and agreed to that.


    Before I parted ways with Shelly, I said "Hide somewhere near but make sure that hunters cannot find you. If someone tries to attack you, just run. I will be back in couple of days and we shall meet in this area". Shelly nodded its head and I left towards the Grasshill Vige.


    At the entrance to the vige I noticed couple of guards. The people wereing in and going out of the vige constantly. I looked at the behaviours of different people and noticed some paters. Usually wealthy people were not stopped and pheasants or poor people were stopped once in a while. The guard asked these type of people some questions which I could only assume were about reason for entry and so on.


    The entrance was too far from my location to be able to hear the actual questions but due to situation and the people that were stopped, I could kind of guess what type of questions they would ask. After watching people going in and out for about 30 minutes, I decided to copy a behaviour of a miner. Miner was not wealthy but as a worker that contributed for the vige they were rarely searched or questioned.


    I didn''t have a pickaxe but not every miner that walked through the gate had. It was the air and look of a miner I was after. I used some soil to make my hands as well as my face dirty. Then I copied the airs of a miner. It wasn''t very difficult after all the training I did and the most important aspects were tiredness but also sturdiness. Not in a sense of a lot of muscles but in a sense that each step taken was not shaky even if the miner was tired.


    With that set up, I went forward to cross the gate. At the gate, one of the guards looked at me but then averted his sight. He believed that I was a miner and therefore gave me a break. I was now inside the vige and had one thing I had to do. Find the ce where this so called young master lived at.


    I didn''t believe it would be difficult, after all the whole vige knew about this cerebration. After searching for a while, I found the ce where Senty and her future husband lived. I didn''t immediately infiltrate it. I wanted to spend some time to learn the movements of guards and gain better understanding of the surroundings.


    I watched the guards that were patrolling the mansion and noticed a pattern after about an hour. The guards would do one or two circles around the mansion and then stop in front of the main gate to speak with the guards on duty there.


    I could use this to sneak in. If I had to deal with 2 guards instead of 4, it would be much more simple. I also couldn''t eliminate the other guards because the ones at the main entrance would suspect something. I would have to sneak in while only 2 guards were at the main entrance and also when the other patrolling guards were behind the mansion.


    I suspected that there might be some people with simr skills to that of the guy I killed that used to monitor me in the Horsein Vige. I would just have to watch out for them. The first thing was to infiltrate the mansion and find out theyout as well as location of several people. I needed to know where the so called young master''s bedroom was and where was Senty''s bedroom. It would also help to know where was the chief''s bedroom as well as other rooms that I would like to avoid.


    Knowing theyout would also help me with my escape route, I wouldn''t have to run aimlessly in case I was found out. When I saw the guards leave, I waited for couple of minutes and then used speak as well as some trees to jump over the tall fence that surrounded the mansion.


    I was going the opposite direction to that of the patrolling guards. That meant I would encounter them sooner orter. I needed to hide or at least find a ce before they can spot me. I searched the area near me and found a small orchard not far away from the fence that I jumped over.


    I hid in the trees of the orchard and waited for the patrol to pass me. It took about 10 minutes for them to get there and it would take another 5 to get to the main entrance, where they would converse with the other two guards a bit.


    After they left, I moved towards the mansion. There were other stationary guards that guarded other entrances to the mansion. The security was quite good here but I guessed that this was the case due to the people living in this mansion. There was no easy entry to the mansion, so I would need to take care of one guard. I circled the mansion and saw couple of doors protected by guards. The problem was that the patro would be able to spot the missing guard if I took care of him, doesn''t matter which door he guarded.


    I would have to bypass the guards which if I could meld into the shadows would be very easy or find another way in. There were some windows at the ground floor of the mansion, but all of them were closed, I had no equipment to climb to the 2nd or 3rd floor where some windows were opened.


    My options were very limited here. I assumed that during the day, a lot of windows would be open but at the same time, loads of people would be around. If they had so many guards which was 8 and that was only outside the mansion. I had no way of knowing how many guards were there inside.


    The next day, Rand and others would arrive and my timeframe would get even shorter. I just needed to do the poison and that was that. I decided to rest for now and return very early in the morning. I would watch the mansion and decide my course of action.


    I knew that Rand and others would not arrive in the morning, so I still had loads of time. If worsees to worst, I still had time during the wedding ceremony which would be held in couple of days. For now I need to rest and be ready tomorrow. If I can''t find a way to get inside or it''s too risky, I will need to do something at the ceremony otherwise my ns would go to waste.

 Chapter 45

    Chapter 45


    Very early in the morning I tried to gain ess to the mansion again. I failed because they security was too tight. I could dispose of one or two guards but that would alert the other. The partoling guards were seen by everyone so If I took them out, all guards would notice something. If I took out a guard at one of the doors leading inside the mansion, the patrolling guards would notice that.


    The only solution to that was to kill all the guards but that would no longer be stealthy. I would have to wait until wedding as gaining ess to the mansion was impossible, with my skills at least and without killing everything I see.


    There would be arge celebration so the whole vige woulde to witness it. What I needed to get to was the party. I could easily kill a guest and get an invitation but I could be recognised by Rand and others. I needed to infiltrate the people who prepared all the stuff.


    The main mansion was off limits but there were other houses located in the area that belonged to the vige''s chief. There was a house for servants to live in as well as kitchen, stables and training grounds. The other areas were not heavily guarded or guarded at all.


    I wanted to sneak inside the kitchen and do what I had to do there, then I would be able to proceed with my n. I wouldn''t of course poison everything, in hope that the newly weds would eat or drink some of it. I had a different n.


    I needed to assume the role of a servant and work in the kitchen. It was easier said than done but if I were there only for that asion, no one would suspect me. If I tried to do it now, who would believe me that I''m the new cook or waiter?


    Because the wedding would be in two days time, I had some time to prepare. I made sure no one spotted me and mostly copied the air of other people. I went into the inn and rented the cheapest room. It costed me 10 coppers for 2 days and I would have to pay for the meals additionally.


    At my room, I practiced my skills, mostly in the art of hidden weapons. I wanted to be able to retrieve and hold more knives at once and be able to throw them. Nick showed me a trick on how I could do this. He said that my initial idea of having nimble fingers is good but I also needed to learn how to store and retrieve my daggers efficiently. I mostly hid my daggers up my sleeves but he said my whole body is a hiding ce and that is the true meaning of hidden in the art of hidden weapons.


    My weapons could be anywhere and nowhere. I practiced retrieving and putting back my daggers into all sort of ces on my body. I went like this for couple of hours and then to rx I read the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. I already remembered about 35 recipes and knew how to produce them. I had no experience yet but when all is done and Nick is gone, I would travel and naturally learn how to create poisons and medicine alike.


    After two days of waiting, It was finally time for the wedding day. I went out of the inn and could see loads of people walking towards one direction. It was the area designated for the wedding. I followed all the people as I was going to the same ce.


    When I arrived at the wedding area I could see many guards standing not far away from the wedding podium while many guests were seated at the front. Other people like normal vigers would be standing far back aways from the important guests.


    I mixed in with the crowd and awaited the show. The wedding day is supposedly the happiest day for man and woman involved but it would soon turn out to be their nightmare. My n was simple, I needed to poison both Senty and this so called young master with a poison called Evesting Dew. The best effect would be when ingested directly but if applied to wounds it could affect the target. The problem was ''it could'' part of it. So there was probability. Of course the more poison is introduced to the wound the better chances there are.


    I wanted this to be 100% urate without any possibilities and therefore I needed for them to drink this poison. Adding it to the drink was my n when the baquet took ce. There I would take care of one of the servants, get his clothes and deal with the newly wed. I didn''t have to worry much about security inside, as mostly the security would be outside keeping people off the mansion but otherwise it would be opened to the guests.


    I waited and watched the show. It would take an hour or two but hell, I had loads of time on my hands and I would make sure that these people could not ever consummate their marriage.


    After about 30 minutes of waiting, I saw Senty and another guying onto the wedding tform. ''This must be the so called young master'' I thought. He was handsome when it came to standards but other than that, he was a bit plump and short. After doing the vows and having the usual wedding ceremony where they would listen to the rtives and important people giving them some good wishes, the group of important people together with the newly wed would return to the mansion to celebrate.


    I followed after them as I needed to get inside as well. I easily bypassed the guards due to the overall mayhem on the roads and near the mansion. I was now inside, with my poison equipped and my n at hand. I needed to find a lone servant, which would not be hard because they moved about a lot, steal the clothes and apply the poison.


    Although I would apply the poison in the mansion''s kitchen, I would not be the one to deliver it, Rand and other would immediately recognise me and so I had to figure out which servant is responsible for delivering food for the pair and then use him to deliver my poison.


    I watched the hall that the party was taking ce at and noted any servant that woulde up to the high table of the newlywed and serve them. I needed some time to make sure I would get the proper guy but just in case, I had 2 vials of the poison. 1 would be enough to poison 4 to 5 people while I only wanted to poison 2 so I had loads of spare just in case. I also had Axion Poison with me just in case as well. If I were discovered and chased after, this poison could save my life.

 Chapter 46

    Chapter 46


    I noticed that one guy was assigned to the table of the newlywed. No other people served them, I noted any dishes and cups they were using. When all the people were partying and busy with the celebration, I followed one lone servant on his way back to the kitchen for more dishes. I took out my dagger and applied Axion Poison on it. I the sneaked up to him from behind and stabbed with my dagger while putting my hand on his mouth. The poison started to work quite fast because it was just a normal servant.


    Before I did anything else, I stunned him and then I dragged the guy to the nearest room. The servant was out cold and so I didn''t have to worry about him recognising me, I took off his clothes then wore them myself. I then hid him in the wardrobe and exited the room.


    I headed straight to the kitchen where I would wait for the servant responsible for the newlywed. I didn''t enter the kitchen because the chef or other servants would probably give me some tes or cups for me to carry. I waited in a silent corner waiting.


    I didn''t have to wait for long because the servant I was waiting for arrived about 10 minutester. I followed him into the kitchen and saw him pick up some stuff. I pretended that I was stumbling and poured the poison into the cups he was carrying, making sure he wouldn''t spill anything due to my stumble.


    He was quite angry at me and shouted "Watch what you''re doing!". I changed my voice a bit and said "I''m sorry" then I left with some trays in order not to attract any suspicion.


    I walked into the room I left the fainted guy in while holding the trays. I then ced the trays down and took off the clothes borrowed from the servant. I then exited the room again and went back to the main hall, where the party was in full swing.


    I saw the servant cing new cups and dishes with my poison in front of the newlyweds. Both Senty and her new husband stood up to make toast. The so called young master said "This is the toast to all of the guest gathered here for this asion. It is also a toast to my new lovely wife. I''m happy to have you by my side". The whole crowd cheered and all drank from their cups.


    When I saw Senty and her new husband drink the wine, I rxed and prepared to leave. Leaving through the front gate would be suspicious. Fortunately hallways were not guarded and I could escape through the window. I used one of the windows and jumped out into the garden that was adjacent to the mansion. Then I simply climbed over the wall and I was outside already.


    My n was aplished. Although it may seem as nothing but imagine two people straight after their wedding unable to consummate it. ''Hahahaha'' Iughed in my head. That was the beginning, I wouldn''t let them off that easily. This was just to punish her, when she finds out that her husband can''t even get hard looking at her body, it would bring her countless amounts of shame and frustration. He will never be able to do it with her, maybe if there was a good doctor like Nick, he could cure it but only if the poison was found out very quickly. After many hours he will be "crippled" for the rest of his life.


    She won''t be able to have kids either while her sexual drive would also perish with time. Her line of descendants will perish and that was very severe punishment in itself, they would only be able to get old together and die. Perfect ending for an arrogant bitch such as her.


    I didn''t head back to the inn anymore, I went straight to the vige gate to leave the vige. I needed to collect Shelly on my way and then return to the Horsein Vige in two days. There were few things I would need to take care of. Just to make things less suspicious on myself, I needed to catch up with all the ingots that I didn''t do throughout the time I was absent from the Horsein Vige.


    I needed that in order to cover up the death of the guy who used to monitor me. He was gone for good and he wouldn''t be found, yet I still had to stay in the vige therefore I needed an alibi. What else would prove that I was there everyday if not the ingots I was supposed to produce?


    I again copied the airs of miners and exited the Grasshill Vige. The guards were not really in the mood to check everyone due to celebration, they only checked those who entered the city. I easily went out and headed towards the ce where I parted my ways with Shelly.


    When I arrived at the location, I shouted lightly "Shelly! Are you here?". Not even a minuteter a turtle came out of the woods and with its incredible speed rammed into me. I didn''t dodge it because I knew Shelly was happy that I came back. Although Shelly was strong and rammed me with such speed, it actually slowed down drastically before it touched me and therefore I only fell down with Shelly on top of me.


    I said "I know you are happy but get off. I told you I will be back in couple of days". Shelly rubbed its head on me and reluctantly got off of me. I said to Shelly "Alright, it''s time to go back to the Horesin Vige. I still need to create some ingots before the others return". Shelly nodded its head and we travelled back to the vige.


    On the way, we encountered couple of wolves and bears as well as boars but nothing major happened likest time. After 2 days of travel we finally made it back to the Horsein Vige. It was very early in the morning so people were still asleep. It was good because I didn''t want other to notice us. All the vigers didn''t really care about my being so they wouldn''t notice I was gone for couple of days.


    I took Shelly back to the house and rested till 7 am. At that time I went out to the workshop and started my work on ingots. I worked without a break for couple of hours creating 3 ingots altogether. I then decided to just rest and eat something. Unfortunately for me, the food was not delivered because Grond was absent and vigers didn''t care if I had food or not. Besides, Rand was out too.


    I went back to my house and waked up Shelly. I said "Come on, we are going to the river. I need to eat something". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me. Soon we arrived at the river and Shelly pulled on my pants again. I looked down and wondered ''What does it want this time''. Shelly pointed its head at the river and then at me while shaking it left and right. Then it jumped into the river.


    ''I guess Shelly wants to hunt by itself, then I shall make fire''. I was getting better at understanding what Shelly wanted to convey with certain gestures and moves it did. I guessed it was because I spent loads of time with Shelly and naturally learned how to understand it.


    After a short while, Shelly jumped out of the water and brought out two fishes in its mouth. It left the fishes near the fire and then jumped in again. I guessed that this much would not be enough for both of us so Shelly went to hunt again.


    After about 20 minutes of hunting, Shelly brough out about 15 fishes. Some were even as big as half a metre. I cooked all the fishes and gave 8 of them to Shelly. For me the rest was enough. After enjoying the meal for a while, I said "It''s time to go back, I still need to work and create more ingots. I think if I manage to create 9 today, tomorrow I will have to create 9 more. Then my quota will be almostpleted". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me back to the vige.

 Chapter 47

    Chapter 47


    I managed the finish the 9th ingot in the evening of that day. I had to take breaks every 3 ingots because working like this non stop tired me out and made me very hungry. As I mentioned, I could go around hungry but I couldn''t cross the line where hunger would be starvation. This would degrade my body little by little.


    Shelly was nice enough to go hunt fishes by itself, just before I would be done with my 3rd ingot. I would simply arrive at the river and have all that Shelly hunted ready for cooking. Shelly was also very keen on eating cooked fishes instead of the raw ones. It seemed that Shelly liked the taste of the cooked meat better.


    The next day, I did the same thing and had now 18 purified steel ingots. In total I needed to make 27 purified steel ingots for the days I was absent as well as the days I was already in the vige. I needed 9 more ingots which meant another day. Rand and others would probably return by the next day morning.


    I assumed that based on their 3 days of travel and 1 day of staying and celebrating while I left. I had 2 days to catch up with my work but I already used about 1 and a half day. ''I will need to work till thete evening and then tomorrow morning, start very early''. I decided to make 5 more today and 4 more the next morning.


    I managed to finish the 5 ingots that night and went to sleep. I was tired as hell due to over exerting myself with the work. In the morning, I still had to do 4 more, otherwise my n would not be wless. At 6 am the next morning I woke up and headed to the workshop. I started to produce the ingots as quickly as I could. At about 9.30 am, I had all 27 ingots required to cover up for my absence.


    I needed to eat something and I knew I would be busy , I asked Shelly to hunt some fishes for me and bring them to the workshop. Shelly came over after I did my 2nd ingot and I cooked the fishes over the furnace.


    When I was done with all those ingots, I still had to produce 3 more ingots that would count for the current day. I wasn''t in a mood to create more but hell, I thought ''I am already here and I ate my meal, so I might as well get it over it''.


    I worked at a slower pace this time, producing 1 ingot in about 1 and a half hour. My calctions concerning Rand''s return were a bit off as they returned at about 2pm when I was finishing myst ingot. Grond came over to the workshop and saw me working. I stopped for a moment toin to him "I didn''t get paid for the week, I was supposed to be paid every week. Also I didn''t receive the meals as promised! I wantpensation for that!". Grond was a bit surprised and asked "Did you do the assigned ingots through the days we were absent?", I looked at him and sneered "You think I was sitting around and scratching my ass? Here! Look for yourself!". I showed him the table with all 27 ingots plus the two I already finished and thest one I was about to finish.


    Grond was surprised and said "I will give you the money now. As for thepensation about meals, how about I throw in 5 coppers extra?". I thought ''5 coppers HA! But hell, I will take it'', I said to him "5 coppers is fine then. If I got it right, I will get 90 coppers for 9 days of work plus the meals which is 9 days that would be 45 coppers. All together 1 silver and 35 coppers". Grond''s face went a bit grim from my calctions but he paid me the amount. I then finished thest ingot and left the workshop.


    Back at my house, I saw that Shelly was asleep and Nick was waiting for me on a chair. He said "I saw you in the mansion" to which I replied "I hope only you saw me". Nick smilled and then said "Don''t worry boy, I''m sure I was the only one who recognised you, your n seems to have worked out". I replied "Yep, I wonder how will they consummate their marriage now! Hahaha!", Nick alsoughed evilly and said "What about the guy who used to monitor you? He would notice that you were absent from the vige for so long". I said "He is long taken care off" to which showed an even bigger grin and said "Goodd! How about the alibi then? You know, Rand is not that stupid".


    I replied "All is in order. I managed to catch up with all the ingots in those couple of days since I came back. Even if Rand suspects me, I was here doing my work, the ingots prove that". Nick was even more happy now and said "You thought of everything. Good! Now boy, what do you n to do next?".


    I thought about it and answered "I will not let that grudge go. I was ve for a year and this vige will pay for it. Rand''s granddaughter Senty already paid for it with a price worse than death. She will never be able to have descendants while her new husband is crippled down there. This family is ruined now and having no hope for the future is worse than death I believe". Nick apuded that and said in excited tone "Good boy but what next. What is your next n?".


    I went serious and asked "How much time do you have left?". Nick''s smile disappeared and said "About 2 or 3 months at most". I looked at Nick deeply and said "I told you I will not do your biddings but I changed my mind. I shall do thisst favour for you". Nick was surprised by what I said and looked at me as if looking at his own son, he then said "I never had kids in my life and rarely interacted with women, my path was a lone path. Me against the whole world, that is the usual character of people such as me".


    He then continued "It seems you epted me, not as master but as a friend". It was true what he said, I didn''t think of him as my master but as a friend, a friend he never had. Nick said "I shall try and impart the rest of my knowledge onto you in this couple of months. You will have to prepare yourself if you really want to raze this vige to the ground". I looked at nick deeply and said "It shall be done".

 Chapter 48

    Chapter 48


    When Nick left, I started tob through the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic to find any poison I could use on many people at once. If I wanted to aplish Nick''sst favour, I would have to kill all the people in this vige not sparing anything, not even animals.


    There were some recipes that could aplish this deed but the ingredients were not widely avable. I needed something versatile and easy to make. I couldn''t find anything that would be easy to make, so I recalled all the recipes from the Evil Manual of Medicine. I only found one that fit the criteria and was not that hard to make. It was called Cloud Haze Poison. This poison was in liquid state but when it made contact with the air, it would turn into a cloud of poison, spreading for couple hundreds of metres.


    I would need 3 vials of that. My n was to set up the 3 vials in a triangr formation that would contain the vige inside and spread the poison. When the poison was inhaled it would spread inside the body and affect the internal organs. The symptoms were simple, those who inhaled the poison would vomit blood constantly until they died fromck of blood.


    I also needed an antidote for this poison, so that I would be able to intake it and give some to Shelly. My n was formed and now all I needed was to gather all the ingredients and create the poison. I had no one watching over me anymore and Rand would probably wonder where his servant/disciple went. I guessed that Rand will visit me or at least try to find out if I had something to do with it.


    Of course I already had that covered up and even if they could find the body which I highly doubted, they still wouldn''t be able to trace it to me. I practiced my art of hidden weapons for the rest of the day and only stopped to eat some food.


    The next day I went back to the workshop as usual and I noticed that besides Grond, Rand was there as well. When I entered, I showed a surprised expression and said to Rand "You are not here often. Actually, you never visited before". To which Rand said "Did you see my disciple the past week or so?" I showed a confused expression and said "What disciple?". Rand''s face went a bit grim and said "The one that brought you over the other day to my study, and the one that you talked about your work here".


    I said "Oh, this guy? I didn''t know he was your disciple. No I didn''t see him at all". Rand looked at me deeply then said to Grond "Alright, I will talk with you some other time". He then left. I knew he was still suspicious but he couldn''t believe that I would be able to do something to his disciple. Besides he probably came back to check if I did all my work for the past days they were absent.


    There was only one evidence that would tie my in with that disciple guy Rand spoke of. That would be the copy of the book I found on his body. I still had the book, I just didn''t have time to read it. I mostly focused on my training and my Great Scriptures of Evil Medic but I wasn''t stupid enough to leave that book at my house. I hid it in the forest and even if he manages to find it, He would not be able to link it to me.


    I started my work as usual andpleted the 3 ingots in the afternoon. I then went back to the house to collect Shelly and together we went to the river for some fishes. Shelly was very proficient at hunting in the water so I didn''t have to do anything besides making a fire and cooking the fishes.


    After the meal, we returned to the house where I would read and practise my art of hidden weapons. At the moment I needed to learn how to ce and retrieve daggers from around my body, so that my whole body is a hidden weapon and not just my sleeves. This was not an easy task because I would have to make certain moves to aplish retrieving or hiding a dagger in that ce. For example, if I wanted to hide or retrieve a dagger from some ce near my boots, I would have to bend down and that alone would waste time.


    I thought about this aspect and figured something out. I could only use some of the hidden weapons on my body when there was a specific situation. Like jumping, dodging, running and so on. My idea was wrong in the beginning because I always thought I need to be motionless but that was wrong to assume. I needed to be able to retrieve a dagger from any ce while I was on the move.


    This way I could retrieve a dagger from my legs, back etc as long as I was in the move. I instantly tried this out and to some extend I was able to aplish this. What was left was practise as well as correct cement of my daggers on my body. These daggers didn''t just levitate around me, I still needed holders and therefore I needed to create more holders for more daggers as well as adjust them in such a way that would not hinder my movement in any way.


    While thinking and practising like that, I came up with another idea. I was much more proficient at the long distance battle due to the training I did but because of that my closebat was not so great. I could calcte my opponent''s moves and what not but against someone that had rich experience, I would lose.


    The idea I came up with was to tie a string of some sort to my dagger and then use that to retrieve it and attack in closebat. I would throw the dagger all the time but at the same time, I wouldn''t have to worry about running out of them. Because of the string, I would be able to automatically retrieve the dagger and attack again. In short distance of couple of metres, If I could theoretically throw couple of daggers on that string and retrieve them constantly I would be able to attack endlessly with a barrage of attacks that would be very hard to escape from.


    I got this idea when I remembered how Nick used the puppets for my training. He wasn''t using any magic, he was using strings. If I could duplicate that and apply it to my daggers then learn how to control the string, I would be able to unleash quite a powerful skill. I thought about it more and figured that at most I would be able to use 10 daggers at once due to having only 10 fingers, which was much better than throwing 3-5 daggers at my opponent and then retrieving the daggers manually.


    Of course there were ws in this technique as well. If I threw the dagger without anything, I would be able to throw it quite far and hit the target but with this new technique, I would only be able to attack up to about 5 metres in radius around me.


    ''If I can learn this technique, it can be an attacking and defending skill at the same time. Although the range is a bit small, I still have my skills for the long range'' I thought in my mind. I decided to ask what Nick thinks about that, when I get the chance to meet him. For now I would practice art of hidden weapons the way I figured at first and memorize more recipes from the book.

 Chapter 49

    Chapter 49


    The next morning I went to the workshop as usual. I needed to stay low for couple of weeks in order to strip myself of any suspicions Rand may have about me. He may also watch me from somewhere, although I was more aware of my surroundings now due to the training I did and I knew Rand had no skills simr to that of Nick. He might still try to watch me for a week or two, maybe even a month. That was why I would do the same as usual for a month, this way Rand would be led to believe that I really had nothing to do with it.


    Even if he asked other vigers about me, he wouldn''t find anything so I didn''t have to worry. I produced the ingots till the afternoon, then went to the river with Shelly for some more food and then I would practise my art of hidden weapons as well as read the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic before going to sleep.


    Time went by like this and a week went past. I managed to gain some proficiency in the art of hidden weapons, my training with retrieving a dagger from anywhere on my body progressed quite a bit. I could now run, jump and do other things while retrieving daggers from any part of my body. I could only do one dagger at a time though and I needed to be able to pull out more daggers at once.


    That day Nick visited me to check on my progress and trained with me using the puppets. When I disyed my newly learned skills, Nick was impressed. I then said to Nick "I have an idea for a new skill" to which Nick was even more surprised and asked "What type of skill?". I said to him "It''s a skill for the art of hidden weapons. I noticed that you are using strings to control the puppets and I also noticed that 5 of them is your limit, which would mean, You need 2 fingers for each puppet". Nick was a bit surprised and said "Yes that is correct, Goodd. You figured it out".


    I then continued "The new skill I thought of is to use those string and attach them to daggers. I can then learn to manipte 10 daggers, 1 dagger for each finger. This would allow me to attack at closer range but with incredible speed and I wouldn''t have to worry about retrieving my fallen daggers as the string would allow me to retrieve them automatically".


    Nick was in awe for a while and then replied "I never thought of such thing. The second training which I wanted to teach you today will help you immensely to create such skill!". I asked a bit confused "How so?". Nick replied "Because the next training is maniption. It is the same thing I''m doing with these puppets. The reason for this training is to learn how to control things but also train your fingers and hands to be more flexible".


    He then continued "I never heard of anyone trying what you just said. If you can learn the control and make your fingers flexible than learn how to manipte daggers in fight..." Nick took in a gulp of air and continued "You would have already surpassed me in the art of hidden weapons. Especially closebat".


    I was speechless. ''Was the skill that I thought of this amazing?'' I thought to myself. I asked Nick "That is great but where do I get these strings? Or how do I make them?". To that Nick said "You can''t make them, this is an item of inheritance. I got these strings from my master, he got it from his and so on. Those strings are very durable and once I pass away, you will inherit those strings. It is one of the inheritances I will leave for you".


    I was a bit confused ''Some strings are inheritance?'' I thought and then asked Nick "Isn''t that weird to have some string as inheritance?" to which Nick replied "No, because they are essential in order to teach the art of hidden weapons. Otherwise, normal strings would not be able to do it. These strings are special, not only they are very durable like steel but also very flexible, so far I was not able to find simr strings".


    He then continued "Maybe what you thought of was the original intention of the strings. Maybe because of time the knowledge about that was lost. Perhaps the previous masters decided to hide some truth or perhaps it was forgotten and they passed it as inheritance due to the durability and flexibility which was perfect for the 2nd training".


    Nick then continued "It''s good you were able to figure out something new. That is how the art of hidden weapons should be learned. Now, I will impart to you the second training. You will learn how to control these puppets and practice with them to learn control and train your fingers to be more flexible".


    Nick then said "I will show you how it''s done and exin the method behind this as we don''t have much time. I would much prefer for you to figure this out by yourself but, we will make an exception". I nodded my head in understanding and Nick showed me the techniques involved with the puppet control as well as how I can improve my flexibility.


    After Nick''s demonstration, I had another idea pop into my head and so I asked Nick about it "Can I use this technique to actually make my whole body more flexible?". Nick gave me a deep nce and said "Another good idea boy. Yes... It might be possible. The technique would need some adjustments to be usable for the whole body.... Hmmm, wait couple of days and I shall try to make those adjustments but for now focus on the technique and train your control and flexibility. Don''t forget to train the other aspect as well. If you reach the stage where someone proficient can''t see how you took out a dagger, that will mean you''ve mastered the 1 stage".


    I nodded my head and continued my training while Nick left. The technique was a bitplex. I had to move my fingers in certain ways and apply certain amount of pull on the strings to be able to manage the puppet. As for using the puppet for fighting it was too cumbersome. The puppet would move if done properly but the strength behind the blows would be non existent, that was why it was only used for training. Making the puppet move and dodge was much more simple than make it attack. Nick simted attacks with the use of the puppets but they could do no damage to me even if they had weapons. It would be waste of strength. On the other hand, daggers were light and if I threw them while using the string to retrieve them, this changed the whole notion because the potential for attacking was many times higher than using a puppet.


    I spend the rest of that day practicing with the puppet. It didn''t go well, I needed to get ustomed to the strings tightened to my fingers and also learn to move them in specific manner to make the puppet advance, retreat and dodge. I was using only one puppet at one time and I had to use both hands to try and control it. Nick had enough string to control 5 puppets and that would be more than enough if I were to control my 10 daggers in the future.


    The next morning, I went to the workshop as usual and did my 3 ingots. I still collected leftovers and when I had enough leftovers, I would produce an ingot which would belong to me. Out of 1 ingot I would be able to cast 2 daggers. I already had 10 of such daggers for a long time now but because Nick insisted that I make much more, I didn''t stop making them and now I had 16 of them.


    By the time Nick and this vige is gone, I should be able to have about 25-26 daggers. That was only through leftovers and I didn''t n to go on leftovers all the time. ''When the timees I would take anything I want from this vige!''

 Chapter 50

    Chapter 50


    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 n 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 theplicated processes, required by those recipes. The Great Scriptures of Evil Medic, was a hard book to memorizepletely. ''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 iplete. Therefore, I nned 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 somece else.


    ''If during my n, 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 vige. 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 Vige.


    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 thest step, in the Art of Hidden Weapons. This will be thest 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 be a hidden weapon".


    I was baffled at this stage. ''First, I get the "avoid the light" thing. Now "be 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 be 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 backter, to check on my progress.


    I was left alone in the room. I thought about Nick''s words. ''I''m supposed to be 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 drooling out of Shelly''s mouth.


    I was a bit worried ''What if Shelly is too big, to fit into ces?. For now, it will fit through the door, but what aboutter?'' 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 rification "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 alsoid around for a whole day, and when it woke up, Shelly would always want to y 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 n, wasing 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.

 Chapter 51

    Chapter 51


    One day when I was training with the puppets, Nick came over with some bad and good news. He said "I can feel my timeing to an end. I thought I will have some more time but it seems we never have any choice when ites to dying". I was sad when I heard that.


    Nick might have had ulterior motives in the past but with time, I stopped caring about that and it seemed that Nick also dropped them down. Nick then said "I have the ingredients that you asked for. It is enough to make couple of vials of poison. If you fail all of them, I made some just in case. I also have the antidote, here take it".


    Nick passed me the antidote as well as the herbs. He then said "You don''t know how to create poison or the medicine and have no tools as well. I will show you the process first as I want you to gain some experience while I''m still here. Later on, you will know the basic principles and so it wille more naturally when you try to make them yourself".


    I nodded my head and said "Then, where are we going to do this? Here?" to which Nick replied "Yes, I shall bring all the stuff needed and I will leave it here for you to practise". He then added "Before you do the poison, try couple of simple recipes first. Just to get used to the process. Just because I will show you how it''s done, it doesn''t mean you will seed on your first try". I said "Alright, I shall wait for you here".


    Nick went back to his ce for the tools while I waited at my house. After a while Nick came back and he had nothing on him. I asked in bafflement "Weren''t you supposed to get the tools?". I thought that because Nick was dying, he started to forget things and his memory wasn''t working properly. Nick saw the look of concern on my face and smirked "Boy, do you really think, I''m so stupid as to forget what I just went to fetch? Although I''m dying, I don''t have problems with my memory!"


    I was confused and asked "Then where do you have all the tools?" To which Nick replied rather smugly "Ha! You know nothing boy! Did you really think I would go around with all my stuff strapped to my back like a camel? I told you that you will receive more than one inheritance and what I''m using right now is one such thing!".


    I was even more confused ''Tools as inheritance? But where are they?''. While I thought this, Nick took out a small bag and put his hand into it. The next thing I saw him taking out was arge pot. This sight blew my mind, I looked at Nick in disbelief like I was looking at a magician. I said in shock "What type of sorcery is this?" to which Nick replied "This is the inheritance item. A bag that can hold couple of items while not getting bigger".


    I looked at Nick as if I saw a mythical being and said "Bullshit, you just did a trick, right? It has to be some sort of trick!". Nick''s smile got bigger and bigger while saying "Boy, you lived your life in a small vige cut off from the rest of the world. Even people such as Rand have no idea that these type of items exist. You will learn about those things when you travel. I told you about the city called Terent, that is closest to here right? There will be people who will have inheritance items as well, then you will be able to broaden your horizons when you travel there".


    Before Nick said anything else I said "Tell me. Tell me more about the outside world. If this is amonce thing out there, I want to know more!". Because I said it so seriously, Nick was taken aback a bit. He then said "Listen, you will explore all those things in due time. For now focus on your training and goals. When you are done here, then I will tell you which way is the city Terent. You can learn a lot of things about this world when you travel. There are loads of people much stronger than me and my inheritance is kind of worthless to those that live in cities".


    Nick then continued "I left the city partly because my inheritance waspared to nothing. For you it may be amazing but to others that experienced the world¡­ It''s nothing much". I didn''t know what to say while Nick continued "You are humble boy, no, Nex. Because you are not lofty, you can easily surpass me. You also have more talent than I had when I was young and because you don''t know a lot of things, you will develop better".


    I looked at Nick and said "Then, if all these people are amazing and even better than you, how could Ipare to them?". Nick looked at me and said seriously "Don''t think like that! You are different than others. Because I''m partly responsible for you, I have only onest thing that I want you to promise me". I asked Nick "What is that?" to which he replied "Don''t go to the city".


    I was baffled ''Didn''t he say that my horizons will broaden when I visit the city and that I will learn much more?''. Nick saw that and said "I didn''t mean forever. First train yourself and live in the forest. Stay away from people and develop your arts. That is all I ask. When youplete your arts, you can travel to Terent or other cities that you wish to travel to".


    I looked at Nick and asked "So you want me to develop all my skills first before I visit other cities?". To which Nick replied "Yes. I want you to live in the forest and have as little interactions with people as possible". I asked "Why?" to which Nick said "Because people will taint you. Your talent is very rare and because of that the less interactions you have with people, the better. Besides this is your nature as well".


    I looked at Nick deeply and noticed that his breath is getting weaker. It was the first time I noticed that Nick doesn''t have very long to live anymore. Maybe I never noticed because I didn''t want to notice. Due to my training with behaviour, patterns as well as my knowledge of the art of medicine, I could tell Nick didn''t have long, yet I never noticed that, until now.


    I said to Nick "If not for you, I would be already dead rotting in the forest. If not for you, I might never be able to learn about all the things I learned from you. I finally saw that you are dying¡­. I shall perfect my arts before I travel to any city. If that is what it takes to explore my life, to be alone and constantly training. I SHALL DO IT!"

 Chapter 52

    Chapter 52


    Nick was stunned, when he saw my resolution. After a while, he smiled and said "Good, very good. Master your Arts, then show the world what I taught you. Show them, what you are made of!". Nick then continued "I will now show you, how the Cloud Haze Poison is made. Watch carefully, as each step has to be taken very seriously". I nodded my head, and watched Nick''s poison making process.


    Nick took out some Poison Grass. It was amon herb, that could poison insects and very small animals, but would have no effect on humans. Only if it was consumed in veryrge quantities, a human or simrly sized animal, would suffer from diarrhea. Not more than that. Nick ced the herb inside a big pot, and added some water. He said "The amount of water you will need to add, is quite precise. You will need about 200 milliliters of water, for one batch. If there is too much water, the poison will lose a lot of its strength. If there is not enough water, the herbs would burn". Nick then continued "As for the Poison Grass, you will need about 60 grams of it. Weight it as urately as you can. Too little, and the poison will lose some effects. Too much, and the poison will not be able to condense into a cloud. You will have to find a bnce".


    I nodded my head, and continued watching. When the water with herbs started boiling, Nick threw in another herb, and said "This is the Cloud Mushroom. I''m sure you know the effects of this mushroom already. You will need to add specific quantity as well. I''d say, aim for about 40 grams of the Cloud Mushroom, for one batch of poison. If you have to, then cut the mushroom to size. Or use more than one, if they are small".


    I nodded my head, while Nick continued "You have to leave this mixture to boil, for about five to six minutes. When you see that the amount of water decreased by half, you will need to add thest ingredient". I nodded my head, and waited for Nick to continue the process.


    When Nick noticed, that enough water has evaporated, he said "Now, it''s time to throw in thest herb. This is the Haze Flower. I''m sure you know the properties of that herb, right?". I responded "Yes. Haze Flower creates a mist when it rains. This Flower doesn''t have any poison, and is only capable of creating a mist, when it makes contact with water".


    Nick said "That is correct. Now thest step. When you throw in the Haze Flower inside the pot, you will have to cover the pot with a lid, and seal it. The mixture needs to be cooked for about five minutes. When it''s ready, you will extinguish the fire, and leave the mixture to cool down for ten to fifteen minutes. You will need about 30 grams of Haze Flower, for each batch. This should be enough. If you add a bit more, the poison cloud will get bigger. There is a drawback to this as well. If you add too much Haze Flower, the poison cloud will be less potent".


    I nodded my head, but then realised something. I asked "How are we going to take it out? If the poison touches air now, it will automatically activate". Nick smiled, and replied "That is true. We use the lead, for that specific reason. The lid is very important. Not only does the lid allow us toplete the process, it also allows the poison to condensate. This means, it will be in liquid form. I will show you in a while, how to extract the poison from the pot".


    I nodded my head, and waited with Nick for the poison inside the pot, to cool down. After about ten minutes Nick said "Now, I will show you how to extract the poison". Nick took out a small bottle with a cork, and ced it next to the pot. He then took out some sort of putty, and also ced it next to the pot. He then ced the bottle with the cork, that had a hole inside, into the faucet. He then opened the valve, and the poison started pouring into the bottle.


    The bottle''s cork fitted very tightly onto the faucet, and prevented any air from entering. The bottle that nick used, was almost full, while the poison stopped pouring out. Nick then took the putty and ced it around the faucet. With a very swift and quick movement, Nick took out the bottle from the faucet, and immediately sealed it with the putty.


    Nick turned towards me, and said "That is how you will extract it. You will need to do it very quickly, but you should have no problems with that. After all, you''ve learned the Art of Hidden Weapons, as well as the Art of Stealth". He then continued "This putty is a modified y. If you used normal soft y, it would crack after a while, when it dried. You need to mix the y, with coal powder. This way, the y will not crack, and will stay flexible all the time". Nick then continued "Some air will get to the poison, but it will not start the process of changing it into the poison cloud. That is why, we don''t have to worry too much about the air in the bottle, or when we take it out. Just make sure, you do it very quickly, and it should be fine".


    I nodded my head, but then something clicked in my mind. I decided to ask Nick about it "You only added one poison herb, which is very weak. How is it possible, to create such strong poison, that can kill humans? Even if I consumed Poison Grass inrge quantities, it would only result in diarrhea". Nick smiled, and replied "It''s all thanks to the process, of mixing certain herbs together. When webine those herbs, the Poison Grass will be much more potent. It''s true, Poison Grass alone is very weak, but if you process it ording to my recipe, then even a small amount of this poison is very deadly". I nodded my head, and thought ''So, weak herbs may not be dangerous sometimes, but whenbined with other herbs, the effects can be multiplied or changed''.


    I was eager to try myself. I asked Nick "Can I give it a try?". Nick replied "Sure, I also want to see how you will handle medicine, and poison making. Before you attempt the Cloud Haze Poison though, you will need to practice some easier recipes first. I have the herbs for one such recipe, and it wille in handy to you as well". Nick handed me some herbs, and waited for me to create my first recipe.

 Chapter 53

    Chapter 53


    Nick didn''t tell me which recipe I was supposed to create. ''He probably wants me to figure out which recipe from the herbs he gave me'' I thought to myself. I looked at the herbs and there were two kinds. The first kind was Seedless in, it was a verymon herb used mostly as a catalyst in basic recipes. It contained loads of sweet juices. It looked like a thin stalk with the middle hollowed out. The juices were contained inside the hollow part of the stalk.


    The other herb was called Vital Grass and it was brown in colour. It could be easily mistaken with hay or yellow grass while it grew in small patches on fields and in forests. It had healing properties but not great healing properties. If consumed in huge quantities it would speed up the regenerative processes inside the body.


    I searched through my mind for recipes that would use those two ingredients and after some thinking there was one which would fit the herbs provided. It was called Vital Liquid and it was used to treat small wounds externally. It could be ingested and help speed up regenerative processes inside the body but it was quite weak in that regard. Mostly it was used for external wounds.


    I said to Nick "I know which recipe I need to make. Shall I start now?". Nick said "Go ahead, whenever you are ready". I noticed that the pot is clean and ready for my attempt at medicine making but before I started, I asked Nick "How do I clean this pot, after creating a poison?". Nick was stunned for a while and said "Right, I forgot to tell you that. Yes, I have an item which will help you touch some poisons and not get infected but at the same time with this Cloud Haze Poison it''s not that difficult actually. What you have to do is burn the leftovers and then you can safely open the lid, the poison will no longer affect you".


    I nodded my head and prepared to create the medicine from the recipe and herbs I had. The first step was to pour in clear water inside the pot and boil it. I poured in about 300 milliliters and sealed the pot with the lid to make the water boil faster. When the water was boiling, the next step was to first throw in the catalyst which was Seedless in and wait for the juices to mix with the boiling water.


    After a while I could see the water inside the pot bing misty in colour, meaning that the juices from the herb have been extracted. The next step was to take out the dregs from the Seedless in and throw them away. After doing this, I needed to add the other herb which was Vitality Grass.


    The recipe didn''t state the exact amount of vitality grass I would have to throw in, it just said proportions. The proportions were 3:1, which would mean if I threw in 100 grams of Seedless in, I would need to throw in about 33 grams of Vitality Grass.


    Because I threw in about 200 grams of Seedless in, I needed to now throw about 66 grams of Vitality Grass into the pot. I measured the weight a bit and was quite confident it would be between 60-70 grams so I threw that inside the pot. The recipe said not to close the lid and wait for the Vitality Grass'' healing properties to be extracted. After waiting for about 5 minutes, the water became slightly greener. This indicated that all the healing properties of the Vitality grass were extracted and I could now remove the dregs.


    After removing the dregs, thest step was to cook it under the lid for another 5 minutes. I did just that and covered the pot with the lid. After 5 minutes, I opened the pot and the smell of medicine rose to the air. The medicine seemed to be made correctly because otherwise the smell would be bad as described in the recipe.


    I then heard Nick saying "Good job Nex. You''ve created your first medicine and as I said, this will belong to you. It wille in handy to you, I''m sure. Here, take those vials and fill them with the medicine. The cork this time does not have hole in it".


    Nick handed to me two vials that I used to pour in the Vital Liquid. Nick then said "We will do the Cloud Haze Poison tomorrow, I need to rest a bit and also, I want you to focus on other arts as well". I nodded my head in understanding and asked before Nick left "Will you leave the tools for medicine making here?" to which Nick replied "Of course, I don''t want to carry them around with me all the time. Although this bag will fit couple of bigger items, it will not magically make the bag less heavy. So if you put in there couple of hundreds kilograms, the bag may be small but it will still weight the same amount".


    I nodded my head and thought to myself ''So there are limitations to the use of this bag. It shouldn''t be a problem as long as I don''t put too much heavy stuff when traveling''. I bid goodbye to Nick and wanted to start my training when Shelly came over with pleading eyes as to mean it wanted something badly.


    I looked at Shelly and said "Are you hungry?" but this time Shelly shook its head in denial. I was confused and asked "So what is it then?". Shelly came closer and tugged on my pants then pointed on my shirt. I was even more confused now and said "What is it? You want a dagger, I have nothing else" but Shelly again shook its head in denial and pointed at my shirt.


    Suddenly a thought hit me ''Does Shelly want the medicine that I made?'' so I asked Shelly "Do you want the medicine I just made?" to which this time Shelly nodded its head in confirmation. I was baffled ''Why would Shelly want the medicine, does it have some kind of injuries?'' and so I asked Shelly "Are you feeling unwell? Or maybe you have some injuries?" to which Shelly again shook its head.


    I waspletely lost at this point. ''Why the hell does it want that medicine!?'' I said to Shelly "I don''t know why you want it so much but here, you can have it" and I ced the vials in front of Shelly. Shelly got excited and happy but also angry a bit because I left the corks on. Shelly pointed towards the corks with its mouth a bit frustrated, conveying a clear message.


    Iughed a bit and undid the corks. Shelly gulped down the medicine from both vials and went back to its bed. I didn''t know whenever I shouldugh or cry and just went straight to my training with the puppets.

 Chapter 54

    Chapter 54


    I did my training as usual and thente in the evening I''ve read the Great Scripture of Evil Medic to try and memorise more recipes that were left in the book. When I woke up the next morning, I went to the workshop as usual andpleted my 3 ingots. By now due to the work I did in the workshop, I had created 20 daggers from leftovers alone.


    But I was not satisfied with that amount. Because I lived in the Horsein Vige for a long time now and due to my work in the workshop, I was able to find out when the merchants from bigger vigese over for the supply of the purified steel ingots. I also knew they were sold for a cheaper price but that was expected due to the logistics and guards merchants had to hire.


    I nned to take all the ingots away that were produced before the merchants would buy them from the vige. I nned to rob everything when this vige is, shall we call it depopted. After my work, I went back to my house and awaited Nick to start the process of creating Cloud Haze Poison. Before Nick arrived, I went through the recipe in my mind and tried to remember all the details that Nick showed me.


    Nick came over a whileter and said "Are you ready to start?" to which I nodded my head and started to prepare the herbs, pot and other tools I would need. After all the thing were prepared, I started the process of creating the Cloud Haze Poison.


    First, I poured in the specific amount of water into the pot and threw in the Poison Grass then started the fire. When the water and the grass started to boil, I threw in the Cloud Mushroom and waited for the properties of the mushroom tobine with the water and the Poison Grass. The recipe stated it would take about 5-6 minutes before I could throw in the Hazy Flower.


    The indication to that was the amount of water left in the pot. I waited till the moment where half of the water in the pot evaporated then threw in thest ingredient, Hazy Flower. I then immediately closed the lid and sealed it. Now I had to cook it for about another 5 minutes before extinguishing the fire.


    I''ve waited 5 minutes and then extinguished the fire. Thest step was the cooldown as well as extraction. I needed for the poison to cool down for about 15 minutes, then pour it into a vial with a cork that had a hole big enough to fit inside the extraction valve but not bigger because the poison could leak out. Nick didn''t supply me with another vial that had this specific hole carved in the cork. I had to make one myself.


    I measured the dimensions of the extraction valve and created a hole a bit smaller than my measurement. If it was not enough, I would be able to adjust the hole in the cork but if it was too big, I would have to use new cork and make another hole.


    After 15 minutes of waiting, I tried to squeeze in the vial with the cork into the extraction valve but it was going in too tightly, so I decided to scrape the edges of the hole a bit and make it tiny bit wider. After erging the hole in the cork a bit, it now fitted quite well and was not lose. I decided to try and extract the poison now.


    When I turned the valve open, the liquid poison started to pour in. Fortunately the valve sealed the hole very well and no air entered the bottle. After all the liquid inside the pot poured into the vial, I prepared the y and coal putty to take out the vial and seal the cork.


    I went through my memory and tried to remember the detailed movements that Nick did when sealing the vial. After a while, I ced putty around the valve that was still connected to the vial and with one swift movement, I pulled down the vial while using the other hand to seal the hole in the cork.


    It seemed to work because the Cloud Haze Poison was still inside the vial and didn''t leak out nor changed partially to a cloud. I could then hear Nick saying "Well done for your first try. You produced the poison and it will have some effect but you weighting is a bit off, therefore the poison will be a bit less effective you also threw in the Cloud Mushroom a bit too soon but other than that it was fine. It''s still apudable that you could achieve that after trying for the first time".


    I asked Nick while making the fire under the pot to burn the leftovers and clean the pot "Do you know how less effective will mine poison bepared to yours?" to which Nick responded "I''d say about 20-25% less effective than mine. It is still deadly but the symptoms would be less severe in case of normal people, it would also take longer for the infected person to die".


    Nick then continued "Don''t worry, you will get better with time. You just have to work on the weighting part of your skills. Ites with experience. I have a method that you can use in order to learn how to weight the ingredients more urately". I looked at Nick with expectations and asked "What sort of method?".


    Nick replied "It''s simple. You just have to use couple of different sized containers and fill them with water. Depending on the container''s size, the weight will change and it is quite precise". He then continued "For example. If you make a container that is 5 by 5 by 5 centimetres the weight of the water would equal to 5 grams".


    I thought about it and then asked Nick "But what about the container? It also weights something, so the water may weight 5 grams but adding in the container, it will weight more depending on what it is made out of". Nick smiled when he heard myment and said "Yes, if you don''t know how much the container weights then it really is a pointless exercise. Of course there are weights and scales in this world where people can weight stuff to a very precise amount but the problem is, you don''t have that and learning how to precisely weight ingredients with your hands will make those tools useless for you".


    He then said "As I said, I have something that can help you and that is the containers with precise weight. I will pass them onto youter on but each container has a specific weight and if you fill it in with water, you will be able to know how much is 10, 15, 100 or 500 grams".


    I nodded my head in understanding. Nick then said "I shall leave you to your training. I brought you enough herbs to create 6 of such vials. We already did 2 batches and so there are 4 left. Wait till I bring you the containers and you can then practice your weighting with them". I agreed with Nick and then he left while I got ready to start training again.

 Chapter 55

    Chapter 55


    I looked at Shelly and it was still asleep. I thought ''That''s odd. Shelly would be up by now and hungry but it didn''t wake up since yesterday''. With those thought in my mind, I walked over to where Shelly was sleeping and called out "Shelly, wake up" but I hear no response. ''This is not normal, Shelley would usually wake up when I called its name. Something must have happened'' I thought.


    I then patted Shellys head and called out again "Shelly, are you alright?". Again, I saw no response. This got me worried, ''Why isn''t Shelly waking up?'' I thought and proceeded to examine it in more details. I checked the temperature and it seemed to be the usual temperature that Shelly had. I lifted Shelly''s eye lids and noticed that both eyes are in the state of rest but no abnormality there either.


    I picked Shelly up and noticed that it weighs about twice as much as it used to. Although it got only a bit bigger, its weight doubled since I picked it upst time at the river. I didn''t know what to think of it and went to find Nick, ''Maybe Nick will have a clue as to what is happening to Shelly'' I thought.


    At Nick''s house, I noticed that Nick is as usual sitting in his chair, resting. I said "Nick, I think something is happening to Shelly. Can you check it for me as you have much more experience than I do in the Art of Medicine". Nick opened his eyes and said "I already saw the state your turtle was in. You don''t have to worry about its health, rather did you give it somethingtely?"


    I was confused at first by Nick''s response but then I remembered that indeed, I gave something to Shelly. I said to Nick "Now that I think about it, yes. When I created the two vials of Vital Liquid and you left, Shelly came over begging for it. I gave both vials to Shelly and it drank both then happily returned to sleep. I don''t think that the medicine could harm Shelly though".


    To my answer, Nick responded "It didn''t harm it. Vital Liquid that you gave to your turtle will actually help it develop better. Turtles by nature are steady and live their lives as if in slow motion. Due to that, turtles can live longer. It''s not that they can''t move faster than usually, it''s just they prefer not to. As for your turtle, the medicine you gave it works a bit differently on it. Instead of healing your turtle which I assume had no injuries, it helps it develop further".


    I was stunned by this and asked "Then what is Shelly going to develop?" to which Nick smiled and said "It depends on the turtle. For example, Vital Liquid may be converted to a longer life for the turtle. It wouldn''t gain many years but a bit of time here and there and that is how those turtles are able to live twice if not three times as long as humans. It all depends on your turtle''s nature, character and what it requires the most".


    Nick then continued "Don''t worry about your turtle and focus on your training, it will wake up in a day or two. It may even take a week. As I said, it depends on the turtle and what it is trying to improve". I heaved a sigh of relief and said to Nick "Then, if I give it more medicine, will it improve constantly?" to which Nick said "No. It would be the same for you as well. If you abuse the medicine then the effect it would have on youter would be reduced or even non existent. That is why it is important not to abuse medicine and take it moderately". I nodded my head and left Nick''s house.


    Back at my house, I noticed that Shelly was still asleep. I decided to leave it alone and focus on my training. Nick already said that I didn''t have to worry and Shelly would wake up eventually. I practised with the puppets as usual. Due to my diligence, I was now able to control 2 puppets, each with one hand.


    To control 3 puppets at once was a breakthrough point as I would have to use abination of fingers in either one of my hands or both of my hands at the same time to control the 3rd puppet independently. It was also much harder to control the two puppets separately because each puppet had to do different movements and with that came different control patterns.


    I had to learn how to divide my mind and focus on how to operate two things at the same time while doing different actions. Nick told me an exercise for that as well. He said to draw a circle with one hand and a square with the other at the same time. It may seem simple but doing it for longer than a minute requires a lot of concentration. I practised with that everyday and also changed shapes in order not to learn one repetitive process but to learn how to divide my attention and essentially mind.


    This way I learned to use my both hands as if two different people used them. One puppet could make attacking movements while the other puppet could make defending movements. It didn''t limit me to suchbinations only, both could attack and defend as well and in different ways at that. Of course that was only an exercise to learn how to control the situation, I had to maneuver the puppets in such way that they could attack and defend at the same time.


    Nick told me that experts in fighting can imagine a strong opponent standing in front of them and fight as if they were fighting for real. Nick said this skill was called Shade Enemy and people needed very high attainments in skill and mind to develop this skill. He even said that there is supposedly even a higher skill to that, a next step so called.


    But Nick also mentioned that it was a legend and no one ever saw people with this skill. After a few hours of training with puppets and improving my concentration as well as dividing my mind, I started to train a bit in the Art of Stealth. I tried to use the shadow just like Nick to stay less visible and move only between the shadows.


    To some extend, I could hide my presence just like Nick does but I couldn''t disappear into thin air even in shadows the same way that Nick does. I didn''t discourage myself because Nick had many years to develop his skills, while I trained less than a year under Nick. I trained well into thete afternoon after all that training, I decided to make one more batch of Cloud Haze Poison. I needed to create couple of vials.


    My initial n was to make 3 of them but because I was doing the poison myself and the effects may be a bit weaker, I wanted to make as many as I could. I still had to make some antidote which I had ingredients for but instead I was focused on the poison itself, besides Nick already gave me the antidote.


    I knew Nick told me to wait because I can''t get the proper weight of stuff by hand without tools. He said he will give them to me on the next asion but he didn''t yet and I wanted to try nevertheless. I still had four more batches to make and therefore doing one more and trying one more time will not make my ns invalid, even if I fail this one. With the pot ready including all the ingredients as well as other tools, I started to make the Cloud Haze Poison.

 Chapter 56

    Chapter 56


    The process of creating Cloud Haze Poison went smoothly, even more smoothly than thest time because I had some experience. Although it went more smoothly and I knew how to do the processes better, my poison was still notparable to Nick''s. Although it might seem that 20% less effectiveness is not much but closing that gap and getting the perfect proportions was not so easy.


    The 100% efficiency of the poison would be perfect. Nick was well experienced in creating poisons and medicines and so he would create such poison with at least 95% potency. Of the other hand I was a newbie and therefore closing that gap to 90% or higher would require a lot of experience.


    The poison I created first time only had 80% of potency, for the second time it had around 82% potency but I was not delusional that every time I attempt to create this poison, I would get higher result. I guessed that on a perfect day with my skills, I would be able to make the Cloud Haze Poison with 85% potency. That was my skill limit as well as limit of my experience.


    I stored the poison in a safe ce and continued with my training. I still tried to figure out which fingers and whatbination of movements should I do in order to manipte 3 puppets. As I said before, this was the breakthrough point of the skill because I would have to use one hand to manipte two puppets while manipting one with the other or use some of the fingers from both of my hands to manipte the 3rd puppet.


    I wanted to attempt the first option I had, which was to manipte two puppets with one hand. I only used two puppets becauseplexity would be much smaller than using 3. But instead of using my both hands I would use one. With that in my mind, I tried differentbinations of fingers. I figured that doing it in sequence such as my thumb and index finger would manipte one puppet while my middle finger, ring finger and pinkie would manipte the 2nd puppet.


    The problem was, I would have to use two fingers for one puppet and 3 for the other. I tried couple of suchbinations and I didn''t get too far. I then got an idea to use my middle finger for both puppets. Although one finger would affect both puppets, this would bnce the fingers used for each puppet.


    I tried it and found out that this method suited me the most. I still couldn''t control the puppets very well but with more training and time, I should be able to control two puppets with one hand. This would also correspond to the other hand. If I managed to learn how to control two puppets with my left hand, I would be able to do the same with my right hand. This would bring the total to four puppets and at this stage, I would be weed with the final step of puppet control. Five puppets with both hands.


    When I''ve mastered this skill I would then be able to try and convert that into my idea of Stringed Hidden Weapons. I know the name is not that great but it seems I had a bad naming sense for the skills, just like Nick for his books.


    After training with the puppets, I would train in stealth. I had no insights whatsoever about this "avoid the light" part but this didn''t stop me from mastering the skills I already knew. I also worked on my camouge skills that I learned from the fishes in the river near the vige. The more auras I was able to copy and adapt to, the better would my camouge skills work.


    Experience and practise were the virtue of all skills and that was what I aimed for with all my arts. My Art of Medicine was also steadily improving. Each day I tried to remember more recipes and now Ipletely remembered 46 recipes from the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. There were less than 50% of recipes left for me to remember but the ones that were left, were the hardest to create and most rare. Those recipes contained many details and I wanted to make sure I remembered all the processes, ingredients and so on by heart. This way I wouldn''t make any mistakes when the time came to create those recipes.


    The days went by like this and Nick would visit asionally to check on my progress and sometimes give me pointers when it came to the Art of Medicine or the puppet maniption. Nick didn''t have much time left and therefore I produced the Cloud Haze Poison without training my weighting skills.


    Nick brought the containers he mentioned to me a while ago and I trained with them but the problem was, I wouldn''t be able to train so fast and finish the poison before Nick''s death. Therefore I created the Cloud Haze Poison one at a time, while taking 2 or 3 days off between making it.


    I now had 5 vials of the poison and 2 vials of the antidote which I made. If I were to count the stuff Nick game to me the total woulde to 6 vials of Cloud Haze Poison. One was at least 95% potent and the rest were 80% potency and over, I also had 3 vials of the antidote. I vial of antidote was enough for couple of people and itsted for couple of hours, so technically a person who drank the antidote could walk around for a while in the cloud of poison and not be affected. The antidote would give in after certain amount of time but I had more vials of the antidote and Nick checked to. It also had 78% and 80% potency which would mean that taking half of the bottle was enough to stop even 100% potency poison for 10 minutes.


    That was plenty of time for my n. My n also changed a bit because I had more poison therefore I nned to still set up a triangle of poison that would cover the whole vige but instead of 1 vial at each point of the triangle, I would use 2 vials and make sure the poison takes desired effect.


    There were some good news as well. Shelly woke up from its slumber and seemed excited. I asked Shelly when it woke up "How do you feel Shelly?" to which the turtle seemed very happy but giddy. I asked out of curiosity "Did you learn something new or improved something?" to which Shelly showed the new skills it developed.


    It was actually not anything new, it was still speed but the speed disyed was on par to my speed. In the past I was much faster than Shelly. I also never used my full speed when traveling to the Grasshill Vige due to Shelly being with me. Now that I saw the speed Shelly disyed, I estimated that the speed would be around the same as mine at my peak.


    I thought about it some more and said "You are faster but doesn''t that mean, you will have to eat even more due to the energy you will spent?" to which Shelly looked at me as if I wronged it. I didn''t mind Shelly eating more, it was fine if it wants to eat more, as long as it can stay this fast, I could be sure that no people in around these part will be able to harm it.


    I said to Shelly "It''s fine, you can eat as much as you want" and Shelly calmed down a bit. I then continued with a serious expression "We will soon leave this vige and live in the forest but before that there are some thing I have to do. We shall raze this vige to the ground and destroy any life. I already have the means and I will give you some antidote when the dayes. After I''m done here, we will leave". Shelly nodded its head in understanding and then pointed towards the door. I knew what Shelly wanted. It was to go out and hunt for food. I opened the door and let Shelly hunt for food by itself. I wasn''t worried that someone might attack it, even Rand would be helpless against a turtle with such speed.


    When Shelly went out to get something to eat, I returned to my training and continued my daily grinding of skills.

 Chapter 57

    Chapter 57


    It was now autumn, the leaves were falling down from trees and the weather got more chilly. After practising with the puppets for this long, I finally managed to control two puppets with one hand. This allowed me to control four puppets with my both hands and there was just thest step left of controlling five puppets with both of my hands.


    Although this wasst step of the training that Nick told me about, it was not thest step for me. I then had to learn how to control 5 daggers with both of my hands andter the final step for me would be to control 10 daggers with both of my hands, which would mean to control one dagger with one finger.


    That day, Nick came over and I exined to him the ns I had for this vige. I said "Today at night, I shall proceed with my ns. The weather is a bit chilly but the weak winds in the air will help me spread the poison, I also calcted the time for the poison to take effect for the whole vige and it should be around 20 minutes".


    Nick prised my n and said "Good, then everything is set". I then said to Nick "Yes, all is prepared and I will start well into the night. There is also some stuff I need to do before I leave the vige, like making more daggers from the ingots in the cksmith''s workshop and taking some valuables from Rand''s mansion". Nick nodded his head, he then coughed out some blood and said "I would die in about 2 days anyway so going away like this should be appropriate". I looked at Nick with sad expression and though ''It''s a shame he can''t live more, I''m sure he could''ve taught me much more''.


    Nick then said "When you spread the poisone over to my house, I shall impart all the inheritance to you" after which Nick left. I knew that the next time I will see Nick will be thest time we see each other. I woke Shelley up and said "Go to the river and have a big meal as we will be busy in the night. I will need you to help me with the poison". Shelly nodded it''s still sleepy head and went out to hunt for some food.


    I made sure that all the items necessary for the n were prepared and ready. I had 6 vials of the Cloud Haze Poison as well as 3 vials of the antidote. I nned to kill everything in this vige with exception to me and Shelly. Even Nick would die from the poison as this was his wish. He also said to me to burn his body when he died and then leave the vige.


    I was not concerned with normal vigers or even the ones that were a bit stronger, to live through the poison. There were two people who might survive. The first one was the lumberjack who lived outside the vige so I would need to dispose of him before I spreaded the poison. The other person who might survive was Rand, not because he lives far away from the vige but because he was much stronger than ordinary people.


    Because he was much stronger, I increased the amount of poison to 6 vials instead of 3. This would make better chances as the potency would be much more severe. I would also monitor Rand, and if he manages to live, I shall kill him myself.


    With all that prepared, I awaited the night time where I would sneak out and im the first target of this n, the lumberjack. Meanwhile Shelly returned after about an hour and was full. I had already prepared one vial of antidote for Shelly and I would give it to Shelly just before we release the poison. I also had one vial for myself. I would leave the 3rd vial just in case, if I or Shelly needed some more.


    In the evening, I checked all my daggers and went out to kill the lumberjack. He was a lonely man that lived outside the vige. People usually called him Jack due to his profession, lumberjack. I never learned his real name but that didn''t matter to me. He would be dead anyway so why learn about dead people.


    When I arrived at his house, I noticed the light inside. I thought ''He should still be up as it is still evening, I need to wait a while''. It didn''t matter much if he saw me or not but I wanted to do this properly and like a professional. This means that Jack would not be able to know who killed him or when, he would simply die.


    After about an hour of waiting, I saw that the light inside the house has gone out. I creeped up to the window and saw that he went to sleep. ''Good'' I thought and entered through the door. I could faintly see the outline of a sleeping lumberjack on the bed and the reeking of alcohol in the air when I entered. I swung my arm and the dagger passed straight through Jack''s head. He made no noise whatsoever.


    Just in case, I went over and check for vital signs. The body was still warm but there was no pulse nor signs of life. I retrieved my dagger and left the house. This was the only person who would die a painless death in this vige. It was also mostly because, he never did anything to me other than giving me dull axe for chopping wood. The rest of the vige will die quite a painful death.


    Back at my house, I saw Shelly already waiting for me. I said "We shall now proceed with the n. I will need to nt those vials around the vige so follow me to the location of the poison I want you to release". Shelly nodded its head and followed me outside.


    I went to the first location which was not far away from the vige entrance. I ce both vials down in a silent corner and said to Shelly "Follow me, this is not the location I want you to stay at. You will stay at the next location". Shelly nodded its head and continued to follow. The next location was at the north of the vige, which was the furthest point of the vige and therefore the most distant. I would be able to take care of two locations while Shelly would take care of the northern location.


    I ced both vials with poison on the ground and said to Shelly "This is where you are going to stay. I will give you the antidote in a minute but before that let me exin. When I leave here, after 5 minutes you will use your w to pierce the top of both vials. So you have to wait a bit and then pierce both vials. When you do that go back to our house and I shall meet you there". Shelly nodded its head in understanding but looked a bit worried.


    I said to Shelly "Don''t worry, I too have antidote. I have more just in case as well". Shelly nodded and its concern disappeared partially. I said to Shelly "I will give you the antidote now. The whole vial should be enough for couple of hours, so we have nothing to worry about". I opened the vial with antidote and gave it to Shelly. It drank all of it and then I said "I will see you in a while" and left. I still needed to travel to the 3rd location and release the poison there as well as travel to the 1st location and release the poison.


    When I arrived at the final location only about 3 minutes passed. When I ced the vials down, I immediately opened them and went towards the 1st location. On my way, I took out the antidote and drank the whole vial. At the 1st location, I was a bit more than 2 minutester but that was fine because I would not be able to open all of them at the same time anyway.


    I returned to my house, where I saw Shelly already waiting there for me. I asked "Is it done?" to which Shelly nodded its head. I then said "Good, follow me. We shall go visit Nick and then make sure everything is dead. After that we will leave the vige for the night as this cloud can stay for longer due to the use of more than 1 vials". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me.

 Chapter 58

    Chapter 58


    Together with Shelly, we arrived at Nick''s house. Nick was sitting in his chair and opened his eyes when I entered. He asked "All done?" to which I replied "Yes, I just need to keep an eye on Rand as he might be able to survive this". Nick thought for a while and then said "He will die but if you need to, then make sure he is dead after you leave here". He then reached into his pocket and brought out the bag from before that could store many things while not increasing in size.


    Nick said "Take this, inside you will find all the inheritance items that I received from my master". I took the bag and looked at Nick. He smiled and said "It''s a shame I will never know how you grew up" to which I said "Yes". We stayed like this in silence for a while, looking at each other. After a while I said "Although you are not my master, I shall remember what you did for me. Not as a disciple but as a true friend. Now let me show you the carnage we created".


    Nick got excited but didn''t say anything. I picked up Nick together with his chair and went outside. I could already hear people waking up, this meant that the poison started to work. I ced Nick at the square that had the best view of the vige and waited.


    After a while people started running out of houses and vomited blood. The weaker people would die after one or two vomits and would justy there on the street, dead, not even aware of what hit them. I looked at Nick and he seemed to enjoy himself. By nature he was evil but just because his nature was evil, it didn''t mean he was unkind. If he was, then he could just kill me when we met after I killed Dina. He could kill me or the whole vige whenever he wanted. He also wouldn''t need to help me or teach me anything.


    With people running out and dying, we watched as all of this unfolded. Some people noticed us standing at the square and I could see fear in their eyes. After a while, most normal vigers died. I could then see Grond running towards the vige chief''s mansion as if it would save him. He died while running. The poison spread faster the more physical activities infected person did.


    With people dying like flies left and right, I was numb to that scene. I already took lives of others and since the day I killed Dina, I no longer felt anything when killing. I looked at Nick and he was also coughing out blood but with one difference, there was excitement in his eyes as well as smile on his face.


    In hisst words before dying, Nick said "Nex, the road ahead is thorny for you but if you persist and preserve, nothing will be able to stop you in the future. YOU SHALL ACCOMPLISH BIG THINGS!" and with thest cough, Nick died. I stared at Nick and a tear in my eye swelled. I didn''t remember how long it was since I cried. I lifted Nick up from his chair and went towards his house, toy him down in the bed. I would burn his corpse as he wishedter.


    Shelly rubbed its head on my leg and showed a sad expression. I said to Shelly "I will be fine, Nick wanted to see this before he died and we fulfilled that wish. He can now rest in peace". After taking one final nce at Nick, I left to take care of the vigers that might be still alive.


    Outside, I walked towards Rand''s mansion while piles of corpses were on both sides of the street. I walked forward not caring about the dead and or those who were dying. After about 5 minutes of walking, I arrived at the mansion that belonged to Rand. I could see bodies of strong menying in front of the gate. I walked past the gate and went straight to the mansion.


    There were more bodies inside and I followed the trail towards the main bedroom. Before I could arrive there, I saw Rand walking towards me with shaky steps. I looked at him and just enjoyed the sight. I saw him as a weak, helpless little human who was at life''s end. When he saw me and Shelly standing together unaffected by the poison, I could see anger in his eyes. He coughed up some blood and said "Why did you do it?" to which I looked at him and said "Because I could. What you did was no less painful to me than what I''m doing right now". His expression changed many times, I could see regret, fear, anger, hatred and helplessness sh through his face.


    I then said to him "You yourself, brought this disaster upon this vige. But don''t worry, your granddaughter is also damaged. I made sure she will never have descendants, neither will that so called young master, that you revered so much. All of that because you wanted to abuse one human being".


    Iughed out loud and continued "Life is weird, right? You wanted to use me for the rest of my life and yet, I''m the reason why you and everyone you know lost their lives. This vige is ruined and your bloodline is ruined too. All you have left is death". I smiled at Rand and said my final sentence "Embrace your death as this is your reality now".


    I turned around and could hear Rand''s final cough, then a loud thud as his body fell to the ground. The poison didn''t kill him, nor did any of my weapons as I didn''t need to use any. What killed him, were my words. He lost all hope and feared me so much, he died out of fear and sadness.


    I went outside the mansion and there were no screams anymore, no movement either, it was empty. Just like a silent night in a serene forest with nothing around. I said to Shelly "Let''s go, we need to wait outside of the vige for the Cloud Haze Poison to dissipate. We will return in the morning". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me.

 Chapter 59

    Chapter 59


    We spend the night in the forest and returned back to the vige in the morning. The Cloud Haze Poison dissipated long ago and there were no more dangers awaiting in the vige. Although the poison was gone, the smell of blood was very strong. Even before the entrance to the vige, for someone who was not used to this smell, they would have severe puking reactions.


    My n was to burn down the whole vige when I was done. The traders that woulde here in couple of days to collect the items such as purified steel ingots, would be left speechless and perhaps disappointed as everything would be gone. I would take as much valuables as possible and burn down the rest. I wouldn''t leave stuff for such scavengers as it didn''t benefit me, rather it would only benefit them.


    I needed to create more daggers in those few days and therefore I would be busy. Shelly on the other hand, would not be. I turned around and said to Shelly "Can you go around and collect the stuff that is valuable. Gold, jewelry and so on". Shelly reluctantly nodded it''s head. I then added "Also search Rand''s mansion in greater details. There, you might find a manual that is used for body training. If you do, bring it to me. Oh and don''t worry about damages. If something is in your way, destroy it if you want". Shelly nodded it''s head again and left to search for treasures.


    I would need valuablester on, when I master my skills and visit a city or a vige. I would need money for my basic necessities. Instead of earning that money, I will have it prepared when I need it.


    I went straight to the workshop and created the moulds for my daggers. In between making moulds, I would make daggers. It wasn''t hard to do so because I didn''t sharpen the new daggers nor did I polish them. I could do itter on when I had time. I wanted to use as much purified steel as I could. My daggers were not heavy either, I could easily carry around 200 of them.


    The workshop possesed 32 purified steel ingots. It was not a lot when it came to selling but to me it was more than enough to create many daggers. I worked for couple of hours without any breaks and I was able to use up 13 ingots altogether.


    Fortunately, I didn''t have to create those ingots because otherwise I wouldn''t be finished in a week time. I decided to take a short break and went outside to catch some "fresh" air. The air was still filled with blood odor but I didn''t mind it. I sat outside for couple of minutes. After a while I saw Shelly running towards me a bit excited.


    I looked at Shelly and noticed that there is something in its mouth. When Shelly arrived in front of me, it spat out a tattered book. I took a lot at it and noticed that it was the manual I was looking for. I said to Shelly "Good job. That was what I looked for. What about other stuff like gold and so on?" to which Shelly pointed it''s head at the pile of stuff not far away.


    I looked at the pile and noticed that it included some gold coins and jewels but there were some useless things such as swords and so on. I said to Shelly "Very good. As long as you deem it important, bring it to the pile and I will collect whatever we need from it, then I will burn the rest". I then continued "But don''t overwork yourself. If you need to take a break do so or if you are hungry then go eat something". Shelly''s seemed very happy about the praises it got and happily went off to somewhere.


    I returned to the workshop and continued with my daggers. By the night time, I had used 23 ingots. That left me with only 9 purified steel ingots. I didn''t have to work through the night as I would be able to finish it up tomorrow and then raze the vige to the ground by the evening. This timescale was even better than I assumed as the convoy with traders would arrive in about 3-4 days.


    When I walked out of the workshop, I called out loudly "Shelly!, it''s time to sleep. We will continue tomorrow". The next instance, A very fast shadow appeared in my vision and traveled towards me. Shelly arrived next to me and looked tired. I said "I told you not to overwork yourself. Let''s go and rest. We will use the mansion in this vige instead of our old ce". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me.


    The mansion was very quiet and because I left the doors opened some "fresh" air got in and vented the ce a bit, the smell of blood was at least bearable here. I went to the master bedroom and saw a huge bed in the middle. Shelly wanted to stay in the same room and because the bed was big, I put Shelly on top of the bed andid there myself.


    Shelly wanted to walk a bit and find better spot but because the bed was soft, it didn''t know how to walk properly which was quite funny. After finally finding a ce appropriate for it to sleep, it stopped moving andid down. I went to sleep not long after that.


    The next morning, I woke up and picked Shelly up from the bed. I knew it could have difficulties getting out because of the softness of the bed, for that reason I took one of the pillows from the bed andid it on the floor. I the ced Shelly on top of it. Shelly liked to sleep a lot and besides it worked hard yesterday, I decided to let it sleep as much as it wanted.


    I went to the workshop and created more daggers from the 9 ingots I had left. I was finished before 12pm so I decided to get some food. The food that was left in the vige, did not spoil or got poisoned. The cloud Haze Poison only work on living beings that need to inhale air, otherwise it doesn''t affect anything else.


    After my meal I went to the pile of valuables that Shelly collected and sorted all the useful things from the rubbish. I mostly took gold coins and jewels as this would weigh the least and was the most valuable. Although the bag I had from Nick was able to contain many things without expanding, it didn''t lower the weight of the stuff inside.


    As for the rest of the stuff I didn''t want to take with me, I took it to the workshop and burned them in the furnace. I also threw in all the coal, iron and what not to destroy anything usable. I only took a hammer from the workshop that could be used to create new weapons. Before I left, I started with myst task. I needed to sharpen and polish all the daggers I made. This would take a while but I was confident I would finish before evening.


    I worked a few hours, sharpening and polishing my daggers. I needed to do this because the facility and tools were already avable for me here while in the forest, I would not be able to use them. After I finished with all that, it was alreadyte in the afternoon. I decided to go around the shops such as tailor''s shop and collected some tools from there. I would need new set of clothes when the winter came and these tool woulde in handy.


    I also went back to Nick''s house and took all the vials and what not. I then went to the vige square and called out "Shelly!". After a while, Shelly came running to my side. I said to Shelly "We shall leave now. I just need to set fire to the buildings and we are done here".


    I prepared some sticks with cloths wrapped around in order to create a crude torch. I used the fire in the furnace to light up the torch then started setting fire to the buildings. There were quite a lot of them in overall and so it took me 30 minutes to light all buildings on fire. I also lighted Nicks house inside out to make sure his corpse burned just as he wished.


    I said to shelly "Let''s go" and we left the vige not looking back anymore, as this chapter of my life can finallye to a close. My roadid ahead and I would experience more while trying to master my skills. While we were traveling through the forest I said out loud "My road just begun, I still need to learn a lot in order to explore my life!". Shelly looked at me with a confused expression but I didn''t extrapte and moved forward.

 Chapter 60

    Chapter 60


    Together with Shelly, we traveled towards north. In the bag that Nick left for me, I had couple of inheritance items that I never saw. Besides the usual stuff such as puppet strings and weighting containers, I found ck clothing. More precisely, it was a ck robe with a hood, ck pants that were not lose nor tight, pair of ck gloves without fingers and pair of ck boots.


    When I wore the set, I noticed that it fitted me perfectly, as if it was made especially for me. Also my presence almost disappeared and I became less eye catching. I figured out that this was the set of inheritance clothes for The Art of Stealth. I would be better able to blend in the shadows and at night. I took off the clothes and hid them back into the bag. I didn''t want to destroy them and besides I was in the forest and I didn''t really need to hide from anything.


    The other item of inheritance I got was a pair of green gloves. I remember Nick saying something about handling dangerous poisons and that he had tools for such things. This must''ve been such tool. I guessed that this must''ve been the inheritance item for The Art of Medicine. It woulde in handy when picking up poisonous herbs as well as handling them and cleaning my tools after I''ve concocted the poison.


    After putting back the gloves into the bag, I took out another item of inheritance. It was a mask. The same mask I used, to train in The Art of Stealth. Or at least it looked the same because when I ced it on my face, I got a bit surprised. It didn''t block my vision but instead enhanced it. I could see very well in shadows and dark areas of the forest.


    I was a bit confused and looked into the bag again, there I found another mask. When I ced the other mask on my face, the effect was the same as to the time when I was training in The Art of Stealth. ''So there were two masks but howe they look identical and Nick even said that he made it look like this because I reminded him of a skeleton'' I thought to myself.


    I got an idea and said to Shelly "Shelly, I will put on you a mask, let''s see how you feel". Shelly nodded it''s head but was slightly confused. I ced the vision sealing mask on Shelly and was stunned at what I saw. The mask changed its shape and became a different mask. It looked like a demonic turtle with two horns sticking out of its head.


    Shelly was also startled as it tried to remove the mask. It''s vision got taken away and it looked quite afraid. I took the mask back and the mask changed back in my hand to the one I used to train in. I thought ''This is very weird, so the mask will change its shape depending on the user but then why didn''t it change when Nick was holding it?''. I didn''t know the answer to this question, instead I wanted to try the other mask out as well. I said to Shelly "I will try another mask but don''t worry, this one will not make you blind, it will improve your vision". Shelly was sceptical about my ims but nodded its head obediently.


    I ced the second mask on Shelly''s head and waited. The mask also changed to that of a demonic turtle with two horns. This time, Shelly was not scared but excited. It looked around in excitement. I took the mask back and the mask again changed in my hands. ''So both masks will take shape of the person or animal that possesses it''.


    I was a bit annoyed as well and thought ''But why do I get some kind of skeleton!''. I didn''t know on what basis the mask will choose the design but it didn''t matter. The mask that improved my vision would be useful, I was sure. The mask would alsoplement the set of ck clothes I had in the bag. I put away both masks and reached into the bag again.


    The item or rather a book, I took out next was the manual Rand and his granddaughter used in order to train their bodies. I opened the manual and noticed weird diagrams of humans and some vague descriptions underneath them. This manual apparently worked because Rand and Senty were much stronger than usual vigers. Yet it seems they didn''t fully understand these diagrams.


    Dina did not tell me any secrets concerning this manual. She probably thought I would never get it or I wouldn''t need it. I looked at the first diagram and it disyed a human figure that was creating a specific pose. The pose in the diagram was quite weird as one would need to hold both hands on top of their heads while standing on one leg crouched. The description said "Rising warrior stretching before great war". The description didn''t provide any other clues just this one sentence.


    The problem Rand had wasck of knowledge in medicine and human body. I on the other hand already noticed that this would create great stresses on hidden muscles and therefore train them. But overtraining was also an issue. I estimated that the maximum someone could stay in that pose was only 15 minutes. Any more and you start to hurt yourself.


    Of course that was for a beginner practitioner of this manual but nevertheless a very fit and healthy one. Under my estimates, I could easily do this pose for 30 minutes but any more than that and I could also damage my muscles. I turned the page and saw another diagram. This time both legs were on the ground but the human figure was still crouching. Both of the figure''s hands were straightened out in front of it and the head was tilted backwards.


    I thought about this pose and got some ideas as to what it could possibly train. The first thing it trained was legs. The other thing it trained was arms as well as back. Human''s back was also a weak point and training it was not an easy task but with this exercise you could train the muscles and exercise all the joints. There was a short description saying "Great warrior pressuring the army".


    I flipped the pages like that and found another 3 diagrams. When I checked all of them, I felt like something was wrong. The exercises would help out and although there were no training durations or other descriptions, other than what I assumed names of those poses. It was usable nevertheless. Yet I still felt that something''s not right. It wasn''t that these poses were fake or harmful to the user. It was as if those poses were not appropriate for me.


    I thought ''If I want to use those poses for my future training, then I would need to modify them''. I check the 1st pose again and started thinking on how to modify it, in order to suit me. With my knowledge of The Art of Medicine, it wouldn''t be that hard to change some things and so I said to Shelly "Let''s stop here as I want to focus on something. We can stay in this area for the night. Go hunt something and I will make a shelter". Shelly nodded its head and went off to look for some food.


    I on the other hand constructed a shelter, which I must say was much better than in the past. There was a simple reason for that. I now had proper tools with me and some experience as well. If I wanted to, I could build a wooden shack in couple of days time.


    After building the shelter, I waited for Shelly to bring food. I didn''t have to wait long as Shelly was very quick and brought a whole boar for me to roast. After the meal, I went straight to the first pose and started drawing it on the ground. I would need to spend some time to optimise this pose for my needs and therefore visualizing it on the ground would be better.

 Chapter 61

    Chapter 61


    I tried to modify the first diagram for a long time before I noticed that it was already well into the night. Shelly was sleeping besides me and the fire was dying out. I put out the fire and went to sleep. I decided I would continue tomorrow when I got the chance.


    At the beginning, it seemed to me that it would take no more than couple of hours to modify the 1st diagram but I was greatly mistaken. Although I knew the anatomy of human body very well, my experience was still shallow.


    The next day, together with Shelly we moved on towards the north. I found out from the map that the vige I came from which was Freemount Vige was located to the south of empire and not far away from the sea. The map in the bag that Nick gave to me, depicted much more than the map I received before traveling to the Grasshill Vige.


    The map covered the area of about one month''s travel on horseback. That was a huge radius ofnd and it didn''t even depict the Endros Imperial City. This meant that it must''ve been much further. On the other hand it showed 2 cities in that vicinity. The first city was the one Nick mentioned to me. It was Terent. Terent was located at the western part of the map and it was about 13 days of horseback travel from my location.


    The other city was called Darun and it was located at the north east part of the map, about 21 days of horseback travel from where I was. I didn''t know the sizes of the cities but if a vige could have 200-300 households then a city must''ve been much much bigger.


    We traveled at a normal pace, neither walking nor running. If we were to travel to Terent, it would take us about a month of time at the current pace but I promised Nick that I would avoid cities and viges before I could master my skills. With that in mind, I did loads of stops on the way towards north to train in the Art of Medicine, the Art of Stealth as well as the Art of Hidden Weapons.


    The Great Forest was rich in ingredients to concoct poisons as well as medicines. Whenever I had an asion to gather some herbs, I would make medicines, poisons and antidotes in order to practice my medicine making. While we were on the move, I practiced my stealth skills. I had no one to run away from or hide from but that didn''t mean I couldn''t practice.


    The Great Forest contained many obstacles and hard terrains therefore I practiced my Art of Stealth constantly while on the move. Of course, I still couldn''t figure out the "avoid the light" thing. I gave it loads of thoughts but how was I supposed to avoid the light?


    I already learned from the fish how to camouge myself and due to that experience, I added another skill to the art which was to copy the aura of people. I looked for inspiration in animals but not every animal had such skills. I found the fishes by sheer luck, hoping to find simr skills in other animals was like hoping for the rain on a desert.


    Thest art that I knew was the Art of Hidden Weapons. I already knew how to manipte and control 4 puppets but now thest step was left. I needed to now use my both hands in order to control extra puppet. It might seem easy but in actuality it was quite difficult. In order to control the 5th puppet I needed 1 finger from both hands, yet which fingers should be used?


    I tried couple ofbinations and none worked out for me. I would need to find a perfectbination or just ept one and grind my skills to such an extend that even something not suitable for me would be suitable. Of course, I prefered to do the 1st option which was to find a suitable method orbination that suited me.


    I left that in the back of my mind as I still needed to properly master the control of 4 puppets. Only when I was able to control those puppets freely like my own hands, I would think about the final part of this training.


    While I was lost in my thoughts, I suddenly felt something pulling on my pants. I turned around and said "What is it Shelly?". Shelly didn''t have to make any responses as I already noticed something was wrong and Shelly was very rmed about something. I quickly took a look around us and found that we were surrounded by a pack of bears. Not just one or two but 6 of them and at the very front was a bear with ck fur that was a bit bigger than others. I assumed it was the leader of this pack and therefore the strongest of the whole group.


    I didn''t wait for them to do anything. I learned my lesson already. In the forest you either kill or you are the one being killed. If it was one bear we could go our separate ways but being surrounded by a group of bears while their leader stood proudly at the front, it was obviously to attack us.


    With a swift movement, I threw few daggers at the normal bear and because of the great force as well as sharpness of the daggers, the bear that got hit by them never had a chance to survive. One was down and 5 left to go. I quickly threw more daggers at another bear while moving towards the one that already died. I would need my daggers because searching through the bag was not feasible at the moment. I had about 15 daggers on me altogether and so I would need to either reach into my bag or collect the daggers already used.


    I decided to collect because I would also train my collection skill while fighting a real battle not a simtion with puppets. Shelly didn''t stand there either, itunched forward at its fastest speed towards one bear and rammed into it. Due to the speed Shelly possesed and the weight it gained not too long ago, the bear flew couple of metres into the air and fell down while crying in pain. It didn''t die but it was not possible for this bear to fight anymore.


    I decided not to finish it of with my daggers as I would have to retrieve them and besides I was already on my way for the first daggers I threw. The leader of the bears didn''t expect for 2 bears from his pack to die almost instantly while one being unable to fight.


    "ROOAAAR"


    It roared very loudly and pounced towards me. I was the greatest threat to them as I could kill with one move while Shelly could only disable them. Although the ck bear started to pounce at me, I was able to retrieve my daggers and evade the attack of the normal bear that pounce at me from the nearby location. I didn''t throw my daggers this time but used closebat to engage the normal bear. With couple of quicks shes of the daggers I held in both of my hands, the bear was also severely wounded and crying in pain.


    The ck bear arrived and lifted its paw to strike at me. I already learned how to read patterns and this bear might be stronger than its counterparts but it was not much more intelligent. It was still a wild beast and its behaviour was easily calcted. I dodged the attack to the left and shed with my dagger.


    "RIIIP"


    The ck bear''s hide got shed and red blood started oozing out. The bear cried in pain and swiped its paw at me again. Meanwhile Shelly attacked another bear and also disabled it. Shelly saw me being busy with two bears so it decided to help. I avoided the paw that was easy to read and continued my attacks in closebat.


    I found out that, I preffer closebat more than throwing stuff. Closebat contained more thrils but was also much more dangerous. I thought ''If I could master both, that would give me some advantages in the future when I face stronger opponents''. I shed my daggers while shelly rammed into the wounded bear that also tried its attacks on me. The bear didn''t survive this time. The sight was weird to behold because when Shelly rammed into that bear, it not only flew through the air but also huge amount of blood sprayed from the wounds that bear had due to my attacks.


    I thought ''That is weird, I wonder why this happened. Maybe it was a skill that Shelly learned?''. Not thinking any further on that for now, I attacked the ck bear with full force. The ck bear didn''tst a long time. Although it was more sturdy as well as stronger than normal bears, it was still a bear and it died not long after.


    The other two bears were taken care of by Shelly when I was still fighting the ck bear. After the fight, I did expand some of my energy but with my estimates. I could probably take on 6 of such ck bears with Shelly.


    I said to Shelly "Good job, we shall rest here and eat some meat. There is loads of meet so I will roast as much as you want for you". Shelly nodded its head in satisfaction and brought the dead bears closer.

 Chapter 62

    Chapter 62


    After the dinner we traveled further north. I chose this direction on purpose. That was because north had the least human settlements and I promised Nick to avoid them. I needed peace and quiet to develop my skills but I also needed different encounters and experiences.


    We traveled during the day and slept during the night. While traveling, I would practise my arts and while resting at the shelter, I would try to modify the diagrams from the manual I obtained from Rand.


    3 Days passed like this and I was finally able to figure out the most suitable diagram for myself. It wasn''t only improved but also much more refined and difficult. This one diagram that was the first in the book, would bring double the resultpared to the old one. If trained to perfection.


    The pose that the human being was depicting in my diagram was different of course. It now depicted a human with both hands touching the back of his neck while being crouched in a specific position. The position of the crouch was such that one leg would stay on the ground and the other would be lifted up in front of the human figure. This pose had also one very crucial detail and that was, the back needed to be straight and the whole body had to lean back a bit.


    It was much more difficult because maintaining that position was magnitude harder than the original diagram depicted. I would only be able to train this for about 10 minutes and I would bepletely tired. If I wanted to perfect this diagram, I would have to be able tost in this position at 30 minutes. If someone couldst longer then that, I didn''t know what would happen. From my knowledge, I could only predict this diagram to 30 minutes, which would make the hidden muscles in the trained areas as hard as stones. It could be possible that longer intervals would damage the body or it could develop even stronger muscles.


    I could onlyst 10 minutes and the time it would take me to reach the 30 minutes mark was not short, therefore I didn''t worry about that for now. I started to practise the pose from the diagram immediately and tried to get used to it. At first, I lost my bnce loads of times but soon I got the hang of it and could stay in that pose for couple of minutes.


    Although my limit was 10 minutes, it was a new type of exercise that I never attempted. Just because I would be able tost 10 minutes, it didn''t automatically mean I was able to stay in that pose for that long. After couple of tries and couple of minutes of staying in the pose, I was dead tired.


    I didn''t want to try and modify the 2nd diagram because I was just a beginner when ites to the 1st diagram. Meanwhile I thought of an idea and started to teach some skills to Shelly. Because Shelly''s style of fighting was crude and relied on speed and its weight, meaning the faster it was and the heavier it was, the more force would be exerted on the target. That was why the bear flew into the air when Shelly rammed into it.


    I didn''t want to change how Shelly fought. Instead, I wanted for it to develop senses and be more aware of the surroundings. The idea I came up with was to ce the mask limiting the vision on Shelly''s head and make it practise its other senses, like hearing or smell.


    Shelly was not very keen on the idea, its vision would be taken away again but because I insisted, Shelly finally nodded its head in understanding. I trained the arts as well as my body''s muscles while Shelly trained its senses.


    Days went by like this and a week passed. On our way, we encountered wolves, bears and sometimes big insects such as huge wasps that were at least the size of a human palm. When I first saw those wasps, I was dumbstruck. Usually wasps were tiny but these were about 20 times bigger and much more ferocious. Those wasps lived in huge hives that covered whole trees. Even if a tree was 20 metres tall or taller the nest would still extend from the top to almost the bottom of the tree.


    The nest must''ve contained thousand if not thousands of wasps of such size. When we encountered the nest for the first time, we immediately took a detour. Although I could kill dozen or so wasps, if there were hundreds or a thousand, even Nick''s skills would be helpless against that kind of swarm.


    Every day was new experience for us. Sometimes we were chased by wasps, sometimes we killed wolves and once we even encountered a huge group of bears that contained at least 300 of them. I also learned something about tracks and habitats of the animals in the forest. Because we encounteredrge groups more often while we traveled towards the north, I had more opportunities to learn about their nature and their way of life.


    If there were traces ofrger groups of animals, we would immediately take a detour and avoid meeting that group. I could take care of couple of bears at once while Shelly could take a few as well. But a group of 40 and more was deadly to us. I learned in those couple of days that I was a bit too overconfident due to my skills. I thought of them as just animals but there were pack leaders and sometimes even other variants that seemed to be even higher in social status of the group.


    After I practiced the new pose from the 1st diagram I modified, I was able tost 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I would be left breathless while taking huge mouthfuls of air. Although it seemed simple, it was very stressful exercise and therefore, I limited myself to only do it once a day and never more. I didn''t want to disable myself, even though I had some medicine on me. I still preferred to be safe than sorry.


    Shelly also had some improvements, although it couldn''t run with the mask on, it didn''t stumble anymore while walking and asionally walked into things but it was learning. I could see that Shelly was determined to learn as well. We traveled like this, where days were filled with training, hunting, avoiding packs of animals as well as resting and contemting.

 Chapter 63

    Chapter 63


    When we were about 3 weeks worth of travel on foot, away from the Horesin Vige. We encountered a small mountain range in the forest. This was the first time I saw mountains and probably it was Shelly''s first time as well. I wanted to explore the mountain range, different environments meant different animals as well as different herbs that I could use to create all sorts of medicine or poison.


    While we traveled up, towards one of the mountain peaks. We encountered some wild animals living there. Not only bears but also something that looked like a hairy deer. It''s horns were pointy and had a white coat of fur. It could jump very high and climb the mountain rocks without much difficulty. These animals were peaceful by nature, and when we got closer, they wouldn''t attack.


    The furry animals were also interested in Shelly, they probably never saw a turtle and so, some of them were watching with curiosity. The animals were wary about me. They must''ve seen humans and probably hunters killed those animals for food.


    Although they were wary at the beginning, after some time and after watching my behaviour as well as the way I took care of the animalpanion that I had with me. They got closer as their curiosity got the better of them. They tried to interact with Shelly and to some extend it seemed that they achieved some kind of interaction.


    Shelly interacted with the animals for couple of minutes and then turned around towards me pointing to my bag. Shelly then draw a square on the ground while cing some dots. I was confused and asked "What is it that you want Shelly?" to which shelly started drawing more. I finally figured out that Shelly wanted for me to take out a map. I rummaged through my bag and took out a map, I then unfolded it and ced it on the ground for Shelly.


    Shelly and the other animal that looked like furry deer started to look at the map andmunicate again. I was baffled by this sight and though ''Can animals read maps?''. After a while Shelly looked at me and pointed at the map. There was a small dot on the map with the name Limestone Vige.


    I looked back at Shelly and said "I don''t understand. You want to go to that vige? But I promised Nick I wouldn''t visit any settlements before I can master my skills". To which Shelly shook its head and started drawing something with its w. I looked at what Shelly was drawing and was again confused. Shelly drawn a vial or small bottle with some smokeing out of it. I thought about it and asked "Do you want to buy medicine there?".


    Shelly got a bit frustrated because I didn''t understand and pointed at my bag, then at the vial it drawn. I took out the vial from my bag and gave it to Shelly. Shelly took its calw and ced it inside the vial, then pointed at the smoke on the drawing.


    I finally figured it out and said "You want the poison that I used to destroy the Horsein Vige?" Shelly nodded it''s head and I asked "Why?" to which Shelly again started to draw something on the ground. After a while, I saw some crude buildings that seemed to be on fire. Shelly then pointed at the drawing of the vige and then at the map. I said to Shelly "You want me to destroy this vige?" To which Shelly again nodded in confirmation.


    I was confused and thought ''Why the hell does Shelly want to destroy a vige, it''s not like they did anything to us''. I asked Shelly again "Why do you want to do this. We never been to this vige". Shelly pointed at the animals that were now flocking around us and drawn on the ground a crude sword. Shelly pointed at the sword and then at the animals.


    I said "So you want to destroy a vige because these animals were hunted?". I thought ''What the hell? I''m not going to destroy a vige because some animals were hunted. Am I supposed to destroy all viges because they hunt animals. In that case, I would have to kill myself as well!''.


    I looked at Shelly a bit angry and said "I''m not going to destroy a vige because they hunted some of the animals!". Shelly looked at me as if it was wronged and shook it''s head. It then tried to show me something else. It pointed at the animals again and at the map. Then drawn something on the ground.


    I looked at the drawing and it was pile of valuables just like the one Shelly collected in the Horsein Vige. I thought about it for a while and then came to realise something. I asked Shelly "Did the animals ask you to do it and if we do it then we will get some rewards?" to which Shelly became happy and nodded it''s head vigorously.


    I said to Shelly "But still, killing a whole vige? Just for some rewards. Also why are these animals so bent to destroy the whole vige?". Shelly didn''t respond to me immediately, it insteadmunicate with the animals and then the weird deer came closer and tugged on my pants.


    Shelly pointed at the weird deer and then at me while walking after it. I said "Alright, I will follow". We followed the animals for about 20 minutes when we arrived at a cave inside one of the mountains. The weird deer that pulled on my pants turned around and again "talked" with Shelly.


    Shelly pointed at me and then again at the deer in the meaning for me to follow it. I went inside the cave with the weird deer. The cave was not deep and some of the light still arrived at the more distant part of it. When we arrived at almost the end of the cave, the weird deer pointed at a corner and stood in ce looking sad.


    I went to that corner and noticed something was there. When I finally focused my vision on it, I noticed that it was a small furry deer that wasying there. Then I realised that something was wrong. The furry deer was disfigured, It had arge scar on it''s head, only two limbs and no horns. It''s fur was not while like the others but a mix of white, ck, red and even yellow. The furry deer opened its eyes and I could see that they were red.


    When the furry deer saw me, it screamed and cried as if I wanted to ughter it. The other furry deer that I followed inside the cave, came over and pulled on my pants signaling for me to leave. I went out of the cave quite disturbed.


    Outside the cave, I looked at Shelly and said "So that is why you want me to destroy that vige? Because they do this kind of stuff to animals?" to which Shelly nodded its head seriously. I looked around me and saw loads of furry deer animals gathering around us, probably they wanted to know my answer.


    I was not upassionate. When it came to hunting, it wasw of nature but to actually do these kind of things to animal, for it to suffer and leave it in agony was wrong. I said out loud so that every animal could hear me "I shall do what you asked. Bare in mind, I will take the rewards as well". The animals around us seemed to be happy and excited and so I said to Shelly "I will need the herbs for that poison, when I create about 10-15 vials, we will got there and get rid of this vige". Shelly nodded its head and we went out to gather herbs.

 Chapter 64

    Chapter 64


    Collecting the needed herbs in the forest was not that difficult. Hunters almost never picked them up and people who knew stuff about medicine would grow simple herbs themselves or would simply walk in the vicinity of the vige where it was rtively safe.


    Because of that and because the forest was so huge while viges were like grain of sand on a busy road, the herbs could grow in great quantities. I picked up Poison Grass as it was the easiest to find, then I looked around for a dump area that was open to the view of sky. This was the type of environment where the Cloud Mushroom would grow.


    After a while of searching, I found the Cloud Mushrooms and I picked couple of them. I would need to make about a dozen of vials with the Cloud Haze Poison and so I would need more Cloud Mushrooms than just one or two. I stuffed the mushrooms inside the bag and waited to hear news from Shelly.


    I gave the task of finding the Haze Flower to Shelly because it was the rarest of them three. I showed Shelly how it looked like and also exined the likely location of the flower. I''ve waited for a while but Shelly didn''t find me yet. I thought ''Maybe Shelly can''t find me?'' I screamed "Shelly! Where are you?" after a while I could hear rustling sound and saw Shelly running towards me.


    I asked "Did you find it yet?" but Shelly shook it''s head to mean that it didn''t find the flower yet. I said "Not to worry, I have all other ingredients right now so we can search together". Shelly nodded it''s head and we went together to look for the specific area where the Haze Flowers would grow.


    The area would need to be near the water. The flowers pollinated themselves through the use of water. The mist that those flowers produced allowed for fertilization of new flowers. So a river or a stream or even a waterfall would be an ideal area for these flowers. I took out a map to see if there are any rivers or water reservoirs near this area.


    There was a pond disyed not to far away from the mountains location so we headed there. When we arrived at the pond, I could see the haze around some parts. This meant that the Haze Flowers we were looking for, were here. After taking couple of steps, I noticed something else.


    It was an insect that looked like a caterpir but there were two differences. First of all, it was ck in colour and secondly it was the size of a dog. I thought to myself ''This creature is not friendly, probably''. I then said to Shelly "We need to watch out, we don''t know the behaviour of those creatures. It''s best that we get couple of flowers and then leave". Shelly nodded it''s head and we moved slowly towards one of the patches with the Haze Flowers.


    All of a sudden a caterpir creature came out of the ground and charged at us. To my surprise it didn''t spray any venom and simply charged with its body. I flung my hands and threw couple of daggers at the charging creature.


    "Cling" "Cling" "Cling" "Cling"


    All my daggers got deflected, ''What a strong armour'' I thought and backed away. Shelly saw the opponent as well and charged with the greatest speed it could. Shelly and the creature rammed into each other and I could see Shelly being sted away by couple of metres due to recoil. This time the creature was not so fortunatepared to getting hit with my daggers. It flew up into the air and when itnded it didn''t move.


    I was not interested whenever that creature lived or not, I was more concerned about Shelly. When I arrived next to Shelly, I could see some cracks on its shell but other than that I saw nothing else. Shelly was a bit stunned and also in pain but it didn''t cry out. I said to Shelly "Wait here, I will take the flowers very quickly and we will leave".


    I didn''t wait for the response from Shelly as I ran at my fastest speed to collect some flowers. When I was about 5 metres away from the patch of flowers, I could hear another creature breaking the ground and resurfacing behind me. I didn''t turn around and simply went forwards. In the patch of the Haze Flowers, I picked up about a dozen of them and jumped to the left.


    "BAAM"


    The next thing I heard was a loud bang in the ce I stood. It was the caterpir looking creature that tried to ram into me. I sprinted towards Shelly and could hear more of those creatures popping out from the ground. There were at least 4 of them behind me now.


    When I arrived next to Shelly who was still a bit dizzy, I picked Shelly up and ran towards the forest. I ran like crazy, as if the devil himself was chasing me. After about 30 minutes of such running, I finally stopped. When I looked behind, I saw nothing and when I put my ear to the ground I also heard no digging or noisesing from underground.


    I ced Shelly down and said "That was dangerous. These creatures are quite sturdy. My daggers do nothing against them". I looked at Shelly''s shell and said "Wait a minute, I will give you some medicine to recover". Shelly seemed happy about that and I gave it some Vital Liquid to drink while I rubbed another vial on the shell. I then said "Alright, we have all the ingredients we need. Let''s return to where the cave is and I will make the poison there". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me.


    Walking back towards the mountain cave that the furry deer creatures upied, I noticed some strange tracks. When I examined them, the seemed to be made by humans. I though ''Probably hunters, it is possible they are here for the furry goats''. I then said to Shelly "We need to look out, those tracks probably belong to hunters who are not greatly experienced. From what I know, hunters would leave almost no tracks behind them and I probably wouldn''t be able to find them. We need to be on our guard".


    Shelly nodded it''s head and we moved forward towards the cave. When we were about 10 minutes away from the cave, I could see some frightened furry deers, Shelly called out to them and the furry deer came over to interact with Shelly. I looked with interest at the interaction and wondered if Shelly can actuallymunicate with all animals.


    After a while, Shelly pointed at me and then draw something on the ground. When it finished, I saw a sword again. I asked "Are the hunters here for the furry deer to harm them again?" to which Shelly nodded it''s head. I said "Alright, I already promised to resolve this and so I shall take care of those hunters as well".


    I moved towards the cave and could see furry deer hidden everywhere. I then noticed couple of humans holding 3 furry deers that were tied with a rope while around them were couple of carcasses of said creatures. I could see that they wereughing and joking about something, so I pricked my ears to listen in on the conversation.


    "Hey, Denis. If we bring him more than 3, will we get bonus money?"


    "HA! As if! This old miser will never give us additional money, he would just take it as a donation. Don''t be greedy Mark, we still get good money for that task".


    "True, let''s just stick with 3 of them and it will be easier to carry them as well".


    After hearing this conversation, I was now sure that someone needed those furry deer for some kind of experiments. He even paid for them to be delivered. I didn''t wait for them to leave as I simply drew my daggers and threw one after another.


    These people may have been beginner hunters of some sort but against my daggers they were nothing. All the daggers connected the unexpecting targets and all of them died. When the animals saw this, they stopped trembling or hidding and ran towards me.


    I could see that all the furry deer were grateful for my help and some even licked me like dogs. I said "That is enough, I promised you to take care of this problem", I then walked towards the three furry deer that were tied and undid the ropes. I took the ropes with me because they were not that heavy and one or two more ropes would always be useful.


    I then said to Shelly "I shall make the poison now, when I''m done with it, we will got to that vige and take care of it". Shelly nodded it''s head andmunicated this to other animals.

 Chapter 65

    Chapter 65


    I went inside the cave and set up all my equipment for making medicine. I needed fresh water which was not avable in the cave. I called out to Shelly "Shelly!. Come here, I need you to do something". Shelly immediately came running over and waited for instructions. I said "Take this bottle and bring me fresh water. I will set up all the herbs. By the way, you will need to do couple of trips, so be ready when I tell you". Shelly nodded it''s head and took the bottle while running off to fill it with water.


    I measured ingredients as best as I could to make one batch and left them on the side. I also prepared the putty to close the vial after the poison was inside. I carried a bit of it with me just in case but it wouldn''t be a problem to get some more. Coal could sometimes be found as rocks on the ground while y could be found near wet areas, such as ponds or rivers.


    After about 10 minutes, I was ready to start but because I had no fresh water, I needed to wait for Shelly to return. After another couple of minutes, Shelly finally returned with the water. I took out a measuring container and measured 200 milliliters of water. After pouring the needed amount of water into the pot, the bottle was still a bit more than half full, this meant it would be enough for the 2nd batch of poison.


    I started the process of producing the Cloud Haze Poison next. First I poured water into the pot and started the fire. I then added Poison Grass into the water and waited for it to start boiling. When the water-herb mixture was staring to boil, I threw in the Cloud Mushroom. I would need to wait couple of minutes, I decided to prepare the herbs for the next batch. I measure the weight of Poison Grass, Cloud Mushroom and Haze Flower before the 5 minutes mark was up.


    Leaving aside the herbs for the next batch, I opened the lid of the pot and threw in thest ingredient, The Haze Flower. I then Sealed the pot with the lid and waited for it to cook and turn into the poison. I now had a bit of time to spare so I called again for Shelly.


    Shelly came running again and stood there waiting for my orders. I said "When I start the next batch, you can go and fill the bottle again, so that I will not have to wait for water". Shelly nodded it''s head and waited for me to start the next batch. In overall, I was able to create one batch of the Cloud Haze Poison every 30 minutes, so creating a dozen of such batches would take about 6 hours.


    Although it was possible to do it this fast, the longer I would do it the more mistakes I would make in further batches, I decided to create 4 batches then rest and continueter, when I''m rested and fresh. The poison now cooked for long enough, I extinguished the mes and waited about 10 minutes for the poison to liquify. After the wait, I ced the vial with a cork that had appropriate hole in it under extraction valve and poured the poison inside. When the vial was almost full, I closed the valve and prepared to seal the vial. With one quick move, I pulled on the vial and sealed it with the putty.


    I needed to burn all the remnants left in the pot first before I could clean it. After burning the dregs and cleaning the pot, I again poured the water inside and threw in the Poison Grass to start the process anew. After the 4 batches were done, I took a break and went out with Shelly to hunt some food. I wasn''t heartless to hunt the furry deer creatures, instead we opted for stuff like wolves or bears.


    It wasn''t hard to find aggressive animals in the forest, the problem was numbers. The further north we went the lesser viges were present on the map. If we were to travel north for about another two weeks, there wouldn''t be any more viges there ording to the map. I always imagined how the map of the whole empire would look like. I imagined it as being somewhat round, where the vige I came from was located at the south of the empire which was not very far away from the sea, yet I got the feeling that north was not the location of the Imperial City.


    I thought ''Wouldn''t there be more viges and cities further north if it was closer towards the Imperial City? And also the number of creatures increases the further north we go. This is weird''. Because I had this concept of a round empire, I always thought that I lived at the bottom which was south and imperial city would be in the centre. ''It seems that it might not be the case or maybe there is another reason to that'' I thought to myself.


    Whatever the reason was, I didn''t concern me at them moment. The smallest group of bears we found on our way was 12 of them. While 2 in the group were ck bears. I decided to chose this group as hoping to find a small group of 3 or 4 bears was hard in these parts of the forest.


    I threw about a dozen of daggers and killed as many normal bear as I could. I usually aimed for heads or heart and because I trained in the Art of Hidden Weapons everyday, I was able to throw 3 daggers at once with one hand. Also because of the training I did in the Art of Stealth as well as Hidden Weapons, it didn''t matter which hand I was using, both hands were equally trained.


    I could achieve throwing many daggers due to speed and and flexibility of my fingers. I was also better able to retrieve daggers from hidden ces on my body, due to the training I did. With that attack 5 bears died and there were 5 normal bears and 2 ck bears left. Shelly didn''t wait for the bears to charge towards us and took the initiative to attack.


    When Shelly rammed one of the normal bears, I could see it fly into the air andnding on the ground couple of metres away. Fresh blood started to ooze out, I guessed that the bear died from that impact and this astonished me. In the past, Shelly couldn''t kill a bear but incapacitate it. Now though, Shelly actually killed one.


    I still attacked other bears while attentively watching Shelly''s next attack. I wanted to know if it was a fluke or was Shelly stronger. After throwing couple of more daggers and killing another 2 bears, I was faced with 2 ck bears which I decided to fight in closebat. I also wanted to practise that and ck bears were very good partners for that training.


    Meanwhile Shelly attacked another bear. The attack again made the bear fly and blood started to ooze out. It seemed that Shelly was stronger now but because it attacked recklessly, another bear got a chance to attack and striked Shelly with it''s paw.


    What happened next stunned me. I thought Shelly is going to suffer some damage but to my surprise, it was the bear who suffered damage. With such a heavy strike, the bear actually broke its paw while Shelly seemed to be unscathed from this attack.


    I no longer had any time to look at what Shelly was doing and simply fought the two ck bears. The ck bears were faster and stronger than normal bears. Because of that, my skills were tested even further. I had to calcte the behaviour of both bears at the same time and avoid theirbined attacks while attacking myself. After struggling for about 10 minutes, I finally killed both bears and saw that Shelly was done as well.


    I said to Shelly "You are stronger. What did you do?" to which Shelly draw something on the ground. When I looked at the drawing, it was a vial and it hit me ''That''s right! I gave Shelly some Vital Liquid after we ran away from the caterpir looking creatures. I gave Shelly one to drink and I smeared one on it''s shell. This exins why Shelly is stronger''.


    I said "Good but don''t think that I will give you a lot of that Vital Liquid, It will not help you when you really need it". Shelly nodded it''s head in understanding although I could see some unwillingness in it''s eyes.


    I then said "Alright, let''s cook some meat and then return to the cave". Shelly''s mood skyrocketed when I said that and we prepared to roast our dinner.

 Chapter 66

    Chapter 66


    After the dinner we returned to the cave where I started to create poison again. Time flew by like this and the next day, I had all 12 vials full of poison. The potency varied from 79% to 83% and that was mainly due to exhaustion. I created 4 batches one after another. Usually the ones with higher percentage were the first batch from the sequence of four. On the other hand, the batches with the worst potency were thest batches that I made in the sequence of four. Of course 79% potency was still quite good and I figured that with time and experience, I would get better at making this poison.


    I then said to Shelly "We will move out now towards the Limestone Vige. It will take us about two days worth of travel to get there". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me. We traveled on the shortest possible route, as usual anyway. I did take under consideration big groups of creatures or animals and in case we encountered one, we would make a detour.


    Because mine and Shelly''s stamina were very good, we decided to travel through the night in order to get to the vige faster. I already killed those hunters and 2 days passed since they were killed. In other words, they may send more hunters to find out what happened or instead to gather the furry deer because the previous group failed to show up. I didn''t want that, I needed to exterminate the whole vige. I didn''t want anyone to see me at all. If someone lived through that and managed to spread that news, I could kiss goodby to any vige and probably city as well in the future. I might even be hunted for mass murder.


    While traveling under night sky, I noticed something was off. I couldn''t see very well and decided to take out the mask which improved my vision. When I put the mask on, I saw something that terrified me. We were currently standing in front of at least 18 huge hives of the gigantic wasps. Cold sweat rolled down my back as we quickly backed up.


    If we were to enter that area and we were discovered by the wasps, I didn''t think we could outrun that many of them. 18 hives worth of wasps was an unimaginable amount. That kind of army of insects could kill a whole vige without a problem. Even couple of viges put together would probably cease to exist, if all those wasps were to attack at once.


    We took a detour from that part of the forest. In the morning, I check the map and we were about 6 hours worth of travel away from the Limestone Vige. I decided we should rest and besides we needed to carry out this n during the night. We needed the cover of the night in order to mask our activities. That way less people would be around. Ideally no people would be around.


    I still had one vial of the antidote, it was the one that Nick gave to me. I decided to create more antidote beforehand, instead of relying on that one vial in my bag. The recipe for antidote was also written together with the poison recipe. I needed some Grainy Flex as well as Fierce Berry. In order to create the antidote, I had to ce those herbs inside a pot and wait for them to "marinate" for couple of hours, then light up the fire and make the mixture boil. When half of the liquid was boiled off, I would need to take out the dregs and pour the antidote into a vial after it cooled down.


    The herbs I needed for the antidote were quitemon and after looking for a while, I found enough of both herbs to make 3 vials of antidote. The proportions needed to be specific but I could easily make couple of batches at once instead of just one like with the Cloud Haze Poison. I ced the herbs inside the pot with water and rested. I decided to nod off for couple of hours and said to Shelly to guard us while I slept.


    Of course Shelly wouldn''t say no to that but was still annoyed that I went to sleep while it stayed up. I said to Shelly before I went to sleep "When I wake up, I will be making antidote. You can sleep then". Shelly nodded it''s head in understanding and I went to sleep.


    Fortunately these couple of hours of sleep went uneventfully and Shelly never woke me up. I woke up and went to check on the pot while saying to Shelly "Alright, go to sleep now. I will do the antidote and after you rest, we will move towards the vige". Shelly didn''tin anymore and went straight to sleep.


    I checked the herbs inside the pot and it seemed that enough time passed for the herbs to release the needed substances into the water. I made a fire and ced the pot on top of it. I boiled the mixture until only half of the liquid was remaining in the pot and took out the dregs. I then let it cool down for couple of good minutes after which I poured the contents into the vials.


    Nicks showed me how to check potency of Cloud Haze Poison as well as it''s antidote. I also knew how to check the potency of Vital Liquid. All concoctions whenever poison or medicine had their potency. When I checked the effectiveness of the antidote, it had 81% potency. It was not bad for the little experience I had with this antidote so far.


    I didn''t rest anymore and decided to do some training in the Art of Stealth. My hiding ability improved since I left the Horsein Vige but I still couldn''t figure out the "avoid the light" part. It might seem simple at first because you just have to avoid the light but for humans who depended on light, it was not an easy task. Besides, how would one go about actually achieving this?


    Shelly woke up about an hour after I started my training. I asked "Are you ready Shelly?" to which it nodded it''s head and we left. We were now heading straight for the Limestone Vige. I had more poison than in the Horesein Vige but at the same time, I lived there for a long time and I knew the vige inside out. The Limestone Vige was an uncharted territory for me on the other hand, I didn''t know the size nor did I know how strong is the person in charge.


    There was a possibility that the poison may not work on that person and that would create problems, I would have to dispose of him or her by myself or rather with the help from Shelly. After about 6 hours of travel, I could finally see the vige. Fortunately my worst fears were not fulfilled and the vige was about the size of Horesein VIge. This should mean that with 12 vials, I would have no problem destroying life in this vige. Yet there is always the person who controls the vige and if he or she survives, there may be problems. ''I will need to keep an eye for such people, if I see someone resisting the poison, I will have to take them out myself'' I thought to myself.


    I then said to Shelly "We shall wait for the night time. We will spread the poison around the vige from outside and watch for any people who may be able to resist it. We will use 10 vials, this should be enough for this size of a vige". Shelly nodded it''s head and we waited for the nightfall.

 Chapter 67

    Chapter 67


    The sky turned dark and I could see lightsing out of the vige houses. It was almost night time but people would still do some things before going to bed, eating dinner, drinking and so on. We needed to wait till midnight at the very least, then the n would start.


    At the midnight all the lights in the vige were gone. I said to Shelly "We shall set up the poison and I will show you which ones you will be responsible for". When Shelly nodded it''s head, we moved silently towards the vige.


    The first location was next to the vige''s gate. I set up a poison there and moved on to the next location. Like that we ced 10 vials around the vige. It was now the end of autumn season and so there were some slight winds. The poison could be blown in wrong direction but because it was set up in a circle at least couple of vials would cover the vige.


    I hoped that it would be enough but I still decided to watch from within the vige, otherwise, I wouldn''t be able to find the ones who escaped or were not affected. I ced the skeleton mask on with the ability to enhance my vision and said to Shelly "You will take locations from 1 to 5 while I take from 10 to 6 and we will meet behind the vige. Then we will enter it together". Shelly nodded it''s head and I continued "I will give you the antidote. Just likest time, drink the whole vial". I ced opened vial with antidote in front of Shelly and it drank the whole thing. I then drank one vial myself and said "Alright. Time to start".


    We speed off to our own locations. I needed to start from the 10th location and work my way through to the 6th location. Shelly would be a bit faster but we would meet at the 6th vial ording to my calctions. At the 10th location, I unsealed the vial and speed off to the 9th location.


    I worked my way like this till 6th location where I opened thest vial and saw Shelly running towards me. I said "Alright, now we enter the vige silently and wait for the development. They probably have someone with the ability to track people and maybe someone with the ability of stealth. We need to watch out". Shelly nodded it''s head and followed after me into the vige. Because of my technique as well as approach to the vige no one spotted us or at least no one seemed to spot us.


    I could see some of the clouds from vials set up in the southern part of the vige were mostly blown towards outside edges of the vige and so wouldn''t have much effectiveness but other than that, because of the southern wind all other clouds entered the vige and in overall 7 of them were on target.


    We waited for about 20 minutes and I could see people starting to run out of their houses while coughing blood. It was simr sight to the one we encountered in the Horsein Vige. The more time passed the more people started to die, I said to Shelly "We should head to different ce, Almost all people here are dead, we need to check for other ces too".


    We traveled towards the inner parts of the vige where we saw more dead people on the ground while those that were dying and saw us, were shocked and I could see fear in their eyes. Then I noticed an old woman running towards us as if she was not affected. I swung my arms and threw about half a dozen of daggers at her.


    To my surprise the woman dodged those daggers and sprinted forwards as if I never attacked her. I narrowed my brows and said to Shelly "Attack her". Shelly didn''t wait any longer and with a great speed that was at least 2 times faster than the old woman, Shelly shoot out towards her.


    The woman smirked and didn''t dodge, instead she headed straight towards Shelly. At thest possible moment, the woman struck with her fist and connected with the speeding Shelly. I knew something was wrong because this old woman didn''t try to run, on the contrary it was as if she wanted to fight us. I could hear a "Boom!" and shelly flew into the air. I was stunned by this sight, ''This woman is strong, a lot stronger than me. Who the hell is she?'' I thought to myself.


    When She punched Shelly back, she smirked again and said "Boy, you have some skills but unfortunate for you. Mine are greater". I stood there without moving, not because I was paralyzed but because I was calcting and ning what to do next.


    This old woman was out of my expectations. To think that she would be this strong, I even had a feeling she was stronger than Nick. I didn''t say anything but instead focused on her. She looked at me and again said "Why did you do it?" to which I didn''t say anything. Nothing I said would change this situation. People were dying left and right and she was the only one that was capable to withstand the poison.


    She either had antidote or the poison didn''t work on her. I looked at Shelly who was struggling to get up. I could see some cracks on it''s shell. ''This is bad, I don''t know if she had antidote or whenever she has immunity to this poison. I also don''t know her skills besides her strength" I thought. The woman didn''t wait any longer and ran towards me.


    I didn''t wait for her to arrive and readied my daggers. I threw 3 then 6 and then 9 daggers but she simply dodged them. It was also hard for me to calcte her behaviour, it was as if her behaviour was ever changing. I needed to fight her in closebat. Although she was strong, her speed was not greater than mine. I took out two daggers and ran towards her as well.


    When we were couple of metres apart, she suddenly took out a whip that was barbed with some kind of metal. She thenshed the whip at me while I avoided to the side. Although I did avoid the whip it somehow still hit me in my left leg "Ungh", I gave a low grunt. This was a weird fighting technique, she actually manipted the whip in such a way that it could change directions.


    I got closer and tried to meld with the surroundings. To which she snorted and said "Another assassin. You think your petty tricks will work on me?" and sheshed out the whip in a way I would never imagine. I was already behind her but somehow the whip striked my back.


    I lost my footing and stumbled, when a second attack came and hit my right arm. I thought ''I can''t win against her. If I learned how to use stringed hidden weapons, I would have a chance''. I started to back up towards Shelly. I needed to retreat. My life was more important than someone surviving in this vige. I ran next to Shelly and grabbed it, then started to sprint out of the vige.


    The woman didn''t just stand there and ran after me while shouting "Where do you think you are going? Do you think I will let you leave just like that?". I didn''t respond to those questions and tried to focus on running. In the life or death situation, I thought of an idea. I still had some vials with poison left, I decided to to break some and use the cloud as a distraction. Maybe it would buy us some time.


    I threw one vial at my feet while running and the cloud started to form instantly. To my surprise, the woman ran straight into the cloud, having no care in the world. The poison would work even if someone didn''t breathe because whole human body was breathing. I thought of a different n and turned around towards the woman.

 Chapter 68

    Chapter 68


    The woman was a bit stunned that I actually stopped and turned around towards her. I ran at my fasted speed towards her with 2 daggers, one in each of my hands. She smirked and though I want to try closebat again but I had different ns this time.


    She took out the whip again and when the space between us was only couple of metres, sheshed with the whip. I didn''t dodge, I ran straight at her. The whip hit me in my chest and it was very painful but I persisted and swallowed the pain. Her face was shocked when she saw this. This moment of surprise gave me time to get close. I was now within the range of one metre. I threw couple of daggers at her from that range while shing at her with my other hand.


    She wanted to avoid it but because of the proximity and my speed, she could either avoid the daggers or my strike. She chose to avoid my strike, which I think was a better option myself and used the whip to deflect the other daggers.


    I knew she would choose one or the other and I was waiting for that. Because she avoided my strike I was now very close to her, I pretended to strike again with my right hand. She tried to block it but I was sure she immediately noticed that there was no strength in that attack. It was a simple decoy.


    My real attack woulde from my left hand. I took a step forward and thrusted my fist towards her. She had no time to dodge and so, she chose to block my attack. This was also expected by me and I needed her vision to be blocked for a second.


    Within that second, I retrieved thest vial and attacked with my left hand again with lightning speed. She didn''t expect for my attack to not arrive and so she took down the guard that was covering her face. The next instant "Boom!" "Crack".


    I punched the vial full of Cloud Haze Poison into her face. I didn''t believe that my poison didn''t work. Even if someone had some immunity, if I injected that poison straight to their blood, I would expect to see the effects. That was my n.


    Her face was full of cuts due to the vial and the poison already seeped inside her body. In liquid state it was much more powerful as it was more concentrated. The liquid state could not be kept for long as any contact with air would immediately make the poison start to change into a cloud form.


    The woman screamed and backed away. I also backed away and started to run again. I wasn''t certain this will work but I wanted to at least try it out. ''If she dies, that''s great! Otherwise, it may give us some more time to run away and lose her'' I thought to myself.


    I could hear some screams behind me and then "You little bastard. You will pay for this". I didn''t turn around to check, I simply ran. Shelly was also running beside me, due to the time I was running and fighting with this old hag, Shelly was allowed to rest a bit. Shelly recovered somewhat and could keep up with me but I imagined that the broken shell produced some pain as well.


    I could hear the old woman shouts growing fainter and fainter. I turned around just to assess if she is still on our tail. To my surprise when I turned around, I saw that the old woman had bloodied face with purple tint on it. I guessed it must''ve been the poison. I could also see that she was struggling. It meant that the poison did work on her. She must have had better immunity against the poison therefore the cloud could not affect her.


    The liquid on the other hand was concentrated and even I was starting to feel a bit ill, despite the fact that I took the antidote already. I didn''t want to faint in a critical moment, I took out another antidote from my bag and drank it. Shelly was fine and had no symptoms of being poisoned.


    We ran outside of the vige, and the old woman behind us was already on her knees. I could hear her cursing "You bastard, you will pay for this!" then "Even if I die, I shall haunt you to death!". I could hear unwillingness in her voice. Even though she had better skills and was stronger than me and shelly put together, she was tricked by me and I was the final winner.


    I didn''t return to the vige because she might have been faking this to some extend. We continued on towards the forest and escaped the sight of the vige. I needed to tend to our wounds before I could check out if that woman died or not. If she did not die, I could run immediately and at the top of my condition, she wouldn''t be able to catch us. If she died, then that would be even better.


    We ran like this for 2 hours when I finally decided to stop and take a rest to heal our wounds. Shelly only received one attack and so it''s shell was cracked a bit but other than that, it was fine. I on the other hand, had many wounds. On my legs, arms back, chest and side. The wounds were done by the whip with metal barbs in it. The skin was ripped and loads of blood came out. Thanks to my knowledge in the Art of Medicine, I wasn''t bleeding as much as any normal human but I still felt pain and still lost a lot of blood.


    I took out the Vital Liquid and smeared it on my wounds. With the medicine applied I felt another difort besides pain. It was as if worms were drilling inside my wounds. "Arrrghhh. This hurts!" I screamed andid on the ground without any strength. After a while, I applied some of the liquid to Shelly''s shell as well, for it to heal better.


    This process of healing with such a low level medicine, would take at least a day and there will be scars left as well. If I were to use advanced medicine on such wounds, There wouldn''t be any scars left and the time it would take to heal would be 10 times smaller.


    We rested for a whole day and Shelly would go somewhere to hunt small animals. Shelly already had big appetite and because we were both wounded, the appetite for food increased as well. The next morning, I could see that my wounds were starting to scar. This meant that I could run and do everything but not at my full power. I said to Shelly "We shall go and check if that old hag is dead or not. If she''s still alive, there is nothing else we will do. We will just leave this ce to travel further north". Shelly nodded it''s head and we traveled back to the Limestone Vige.

 Chapter 69

    Chapter 69


    Back at the Limestone Vige, I checked the entrance of the vige and indeed the corpse of that old hag was there. This meant she must''ve died. I threw couple of daggers at her just in case and they prated her head cleanly. I was now sure she was dead.


    I checked her body for any possessions as well as the whip weapon of hers. I found the whip no problem and took a detailed look at it. The handle was made from leather and so was theshing part of the whip. The end was very thin and the entire whip was studded with metal barbs excluding the handle. I didn''t know how to use a whip and therefore I simply threw it into my bag.


    Another thing I found on her was a book. The book was called "Soft Fish Technique". When I skimmed through it, I found that it was a technique that would make your moves soft but unpredictable. This technique suited me a bit. The more unpredictable I was the better for my Art of Hidden Weapons. Yet the softness didn''t really apply to me much. I could use it in one way or another but not at the moment. This meant I would have to modify this book as well.


    I didn''t have time to do that now, this would have to wait tillter. I also found another strange thing on the old woman''s body. It was some sort of medallion. It depicted an eye with a dagger that was recing the iris. I didn''t know what this is supposed to represent but I took it anyway. She wouldn''t need it anymore.


    I said to Shelly "Let''s go and check out the vige. We will need more supplies for the future and this vige should have some things". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me. Inside the vige, we went to the shops and houses of the people that used to live there. I was mainly looking for stuff like bottles, vials and perhaps tools I could use on my travels. This vige didn''t have medic and so we couldn''t find any vials but we found some bottles that could be used to store the medicine or poison.


    We took any money and light valuables like gems and such from the houses when we found them. There wasn''t much we found. The vige was not very wealthy. We moved on towards arge house which I assumed was the mansion of the vige chief. My guess was that the old woman was the vige chief but I could be wrong and the vige chief could be dead,ying there in his or her mansion. There was also the possibility that he or she might have ran away.


    When we arrived at the mansion, we saw a simr imagepared to the rest of the vige. There were corpses lying on the ground everywhere. When we entered the mansion, we saw corpses of guards and servants alikeying there with blood stains all over the ce. I said to Shelly "Check the mansion for anything useful. Take the right wing while I take the left". Shelly nodded its head and sped off towards the right wing. I took a walk towards the left wing of the mansion.


    On the way, I checked every room. Sometimes I would find more bodies and some valuables while sometimes nothing at all. When I arrived at thest room, I guessed that the master bedroom must''ve been in the other wing. I went back towards the central parts of the mansion with the intention to wait for Shelly.


    I''ve waited for 10 minutes and still couldn''t see Shellying. I shouted "Shelly! Where are you?". I wanted another minute or two and couldn''t see or hear Shellying. I got worried and thought ''Something must''ve happened'' and ran straight for the right wing of the mansion. I searched all the rooms on my way but Shelly was not in any of them.


    I ran more frantically towards the further parts of the wing. When I arrived at the master bedroom, I shouted again "Shelly! Where are you". After a while I could hear some soundsing from the walls and then Shelly broke through one of the walls and appeared in front of me. I was surprised that the wall was made out of wood instead of bricks. I said to Shelly "Where the hell were you, I was scared that something might''ve happened to you!". Shelly came closer and rubbed its head on my leg showing affection but at the same time it looked excited about something.


    Shelly showed me to follow it and we went together through the wall. Behind the wall was a narrow corridor that led downstairs. We went down the stairs for quite a long time and finally arrived in arge room that was decorated with weird lights. When I looked in greater details, there were some vials and other tools as well as liquids and strange materials on shelves.


    I noticed arge table in the room. Therge table was bloodied and there were some remains on it. I walked over to the table and looked at the remains in greater details. I noticed that the remains belonged to one of the furry deer that requested help from us. I thought ''This must be the ce where someone experimented on those animals. It could''ve been that old hag otherwise someone might have survived if it was not her''. I was worried because the poison would not get inside this room as it was hidden, most probably below the ground.


    I searched the area and found many weird things there. There wererge vials with animal remains in them. I also foundrge apparatus that looked very strange. It had two poles at the sides and in the middle was a spherical ss container of some sort. It was big enough to contain a human being inside.


    I searched more and found some notes as well as something that resambled a notebook. I took all the empty vials as well as the notes and the notebook and decided to destroy everything else. If the person was still alive, he or she mighte back here to retrieve all the stuff but what he or she would find would be destroyed room with all notes gone.


    I turned around towards Shelly and asked "How did you find this room?" to which Shelly signaled to follow it outside. When we were back in the room that we came from, Shelly showed me the firece. I looked at it and said "Did you go through the chimney?" to which Shelly shook its head and pointed at one of the sculptures on the firece.


    I examined the sculpture and then pushed it down. When I did that, I could hear some kind of mechanism and a hidden door opened not far away. I said to Shelly "How did you figure it out?" to that, Shelly pointed towards the top of the firece where there were some valuables and then all became clear to me. I said "So you were trying to get the valuables from the top of the firece and by luck you pulled down this leaver?".


    Shelly nodded its head but still looked a bit smug about it. I said to Shelly "That is good because now we can destroy this ce. Follow me, we shall get things ready". We went outside to make some torches and burn this ce down. Because the vige was quite well equipped, we quickly gathered all the necessary materials for torches and went back to destroy the underground room.


    Back at the underground room, I set fire to everything I could and broke all the tools. I then said to Shelly "Alright, we will do the same to the vige outside and then we will leave. It is time to collect our rewards" Shelly nodded its head and we got out of the underground room that was now burning. We set fire to the rest of the vige and left, never to look back again.

 Chapter 70

    Chapter 70


    We went back to the cave where the furry deer were living. I said to Shelly "Go tell them that we did our part of the deal". Shelly nodded its head and went towards the animals to interact with them. After a while, Shelly and an old furry deere over to me and Shelly motioned for us to follow the furry deer.


    We followed the animal for quite a while towards the mountain peak then noticed a hidden cave. If someone ever tried to go this way, they wouldn''t probably find this cave anyway it was very well hidden. The furry deer motioned with its head to follow it inside and that we did.


    Inside the cave I could see some precious herbs growing around the ce. Most of them would be useful when creating medicine for wounds and so I said to Shelly "We will collect the herbs as well. Those herbs will be very useful for us in the future". Shelly nodded its head andmunicated that to the furry deer. It didn''t seem to have any problems with us collecting some herbs. I took the herbs that would be most useful for us such as Wild Ivory that would speed up the healing processes when mixed into a medicine. I also took some Ripening Grass and Lavish Hemp. Both of those promoted better healing effects.


    Further inside the cave, I found some Hectic Mushrooms that could be used to create strong poison. I had to use the gloves that Nick left for me in order to harvest them. Touching this mushroom with bare hands was dangerous in itself. We traveled further inside the cave and the light got dimmer and dimmer. I took out the mask which improved vision and put it on.


    I could see much better in the cave now and spotted another herb. It was called Dark Weed and it grew in very dark and damp ces. This herb could be used in a recipe that enhanced stealth, I collected as much as there was and we moved on towards the depths of the cave.


    We finally arrived at the end of the cave. The light in this part of the cave was almost non existent but animals were more adapted to darker ces than humans so Shelly and the furry deer had no real issues walking in the depths of the cave. I had the mask which helped me see better so no one suffered any real difort. The furry deer pointed at the corner of the cave and there was a desk and a table next to it, both were made out of stone. I thought ''So, someone must''ve been living here and probably left some things behind. This will be our reward I suppose''.


    I got closer to the desk and noticed just one book on it. It said "Experience Of Death". I was intrigued by the title and tried to grab the book in order to read it but when I touched it, the book turned into dust. The dust formed a cloud and the wind blew the dust into my face. I coughed couple of times due to the dust and said quite annoyed "Was that supposed to be our reward? This destroyed book?".


    Shelly noticed my frustration andmunicated with the furry deer. After a while, Shelly came over to exin that this book was indeed our reward. Everything we found in this cave was supposed to be our reward. I thought ''Oh well, we still got loads of rare herbs so no harm done. Maybe there is something else here''. I said to Shelly "Search the ce for anything else. If we can find something useful we will take it". Shelly nodded its head and started to search. The furry deer also helped us.


    We searched the cave very thoroughly but we could find nothing else. I said to Shelly "Never mind, we got some herbs out of it so it was worthwhile. We also helped those animals from being experimented on. We shall leave now". Shelly agreed with me as it couldn''t find anything as well. We left the cave and I said to the furry deer "This is where we part our ways. The deal is done and you should be rtively safe now". After Shelly tranted that we went on our way towards north.


    It was still daytime when we left the cave and we had long way to go. I practised my Art of Stealth on the way and I would give the vision sealing mask to Shelly once in a while. Although Shelly was getting more used to the mask, it was nowhere near perfecting its senses. I also practised the modified diagram from the manual I found in Rand''s mansion. I could nowst 7 minutes before I had to stop. It was improvement and the more I practised it the longer I was able to say in that position.


    My strength also improvedpared to before. Although I was still skinny no matter how much I ate, in a weird way my strength increased while my muscles were more defined but not much bigger. In the evening, we arrived at a clearing and decided to make a shelter at that ce. It was rtively safe as I couldn''t see anyrge groups of animals around and it was open space so it would be easier to spot something.


    After building the shelter and eating our dinner, I practised some more with my puppets. I could already control 4 puppets without any problems. Nowid thest step of this training, which was to control all 5 puppets using both hands. I again tried different fingerbinations and found out that controlling thest puppet with both of my thumbs was the most ideal way for me. The thumbs would be responsible for one puppet while the rest of the fingers would be responsible for other 4 puppets.


    Because it was too difficult to control the 5th puppet right now, I started to learn how to control 4 puppets with only 8 fingers, meaning not using my thumbs. In one aspect of that skill, I already had some experience therefore it wasn''t that hard to adapt those 4 puppets onto different fingers. The problems started when I wanted to add the 5th puppet.


    My coordination would be very sloppy and I couldn''t focus enough to control all 5 puppets at once either. ''I need to practice with 4 puppets on 8 fingers and also train my mind. I need to do more difficult training when ites to doing different things at the same time'' I thought to myself.


    Shelly on the other hand was trying to use other senses while walking around with the vision sealing mask. After some time, I noticed that the sky was already dark. I called out to Shelly "Shelly, it''s enough for one day, we need to rest and we will continue tomorrow". Shelly walked slowly towards my voice and I took off the mask from its head. We went to sleep in order to regenerate strength for the next day.

 Chapter 71

    Chapter 71


    I fell asleep almost instantly and then I started to have weird dream. In that dream, a hooded dark figure spoke to me some words but I couldn''t understand any of them. As if the dark figure spoke innguage that was not human. After some time has passed, the dark figure stopped talking and ran towards me. I was startled and tried to reach for my weapons but I had no weapons on me. No daggers, pebbles or even sticks. When the figure arrived in front of me, it stretched its hand in order to throw a punch towards me. Its hand and fist was covered in ck mes or maybe dark cloud that partially hidden its hand from view. The figure punch arrived and I was like a paralyzed animal in front of a predator, I couldn''t move even if I wanted to. The next thing, the punch arrived and I woke up. When I looked around it was already morning.


    I was drenched in cold sweat and thought ''What the hell was that weird dream. It seemed to be real, as if I was really there facing that hooded figure''. I got up from the makeshift bed and woke Shelly up to continue our journey.


    We travelled further north. We already passed the point where no viges were present on the map. The map would be invalid in about 2 weeks of travel on foot, so we would have to either go by instincts and just travel further north or stay at the edges of the area that the map showed and live there for the time it took me to master my skills.


    I opted for thetter option. We would be able to still use the map I got from Nick in order to travel back. It would also be possible to travel towards north, if we ever felt the need for it. The days passed like this and another week went by. I still practised in the Art of Stealth as well as Art of Hidden Weapons whenever we were on our travels. I also made medicine when there was a chance to and trained the 1st diagram that I modified every morning.


    I could nowst exactly 10 minutes as my muscles got used to the exercise. The next step for me was to break that limit and train till I could stay 20 minutes in that pose. Although my improvements were quick, it was all due to my muscles just getting used to the pose in that diagram. Now I had to break the limits and it would take much longer for me to train my muscles.


    Shelly also made some improvements with its senses and could now walk around without hitting anything. Running was still too difficult for it but with time it would be able to do that as well. When Shelly masters its other senses to a certain degree, I would need to train together with Shelly using the puppets. Shelly''s senses need to develop before that because puppet training will be much more difficult than walking and running.


    There was only one thing that worried me. Every night, I had the same dream of a figure in dark clothes that covered its whole body as well as a hood that covered its whole face. The dark figure would talk to me in some kind of weirdnguage at first and then attack me. I never had any weapons on me and I couldn''t move when the figure attacked. I tried couple of different things, for example I tried moving and attacking the figure before it was done saying stuff. This didn''t work as the dark figure would simply stop talking and attacked me first. This always froze me into ce as if some strange power was forcing me to stand in ce.


    I tried to figure out the skills of the dark figure but I couldn''t figure out anything. It was as if this dream was real and yet not real at the same time. I was worried because I had this dream for over a week now and yet I could do nothing in it. It was as if I had no control even though it was my own dream.


    I also checked for any medicine possible that would cure this weird dream but I found nothing in Great Scriptures of Evil Medic or Evil Medical Manual. There was no mention of such thing in any of the books. Because I could do nothing about it, I decided to not think about it. What use was there to worry when I had no way of changing it?


    That day we arrived at a small waterfall. I saw some herbs that could be used to make medicine and decided we should make camp here. I said to Shelly "This ce looks quiet so we will stay her for a while and practise our skills. We will need to make a better shelter. Follow me, we shall gather wood to build it from".


    I walked in front of a tree and used a small hatchet to bring it down. This hatchet was made from normal steel and wasn''t as sharp and durable as my purified steel daggers but it was enough for cutting the tree. I then took care of the bark so that only the hardest part of the tree, the core was left as building blocks for our new home. I took out some ropes and tied them to the prepared tree. I said to Shelly "You will drag this to our camp and I will prepare the next one". Shelly nodded its head and I gave it the rope that was tied to the tree. Shelly dragged the log to the camp while I cut the next tree. This went on for a while when I cut thest tree and decided we had enough logs to make the shelter.


    I had some ropes with me but that wouldn''t be enough. I also had some nails and tools such as hammer that I took from the Horsein Vige''s workshop but I opted to use as little of that as possible in order to save the materials. I needed to cut the logs through their whole length in order to make long nks. The trees that I cut down were about 5 metres long and had about 50 centimetres in diameter. This would make about 6 nks. If I were to cut them in half I would get about 12 nks from one log.


    After a while of cutting and cleaning the wood I had 6 logs that were ready to be cut into nks. If I needed more, I could always cut more trees. This shelter would be more time consuming but at the same time, it would provide much better protection from elements. I started my work on the nks as this needed to be done first. I still had couple of hours before dawn and I wanted to cut as many as possible.


    I had a saw with me which was very useful in this part of the job. I cut one nk from the log which took me about 10 minutes of quite a lot of sawing. I then started another one and another one and so on until 2 hours have passed. I now had 12 long nks which would give me 24 if I cut them in half. I decided to do that first instead of producing more nks. It would be dark soon and I wanted to at least start some kind of foundations for the nks before that.


    After cutting the nks I had in half, I started to dig the foundations for the shelter. I didn''t know much about construction but I used my imagination andmon sense. The wind could topple it over or even blow it away if it was not secured properly to the ground. I decided to dig a small trench that was about 4 metres long and about 50 centimetres deep. The nks would go inside about 50 centimetres which meant about 2 metres would stay outside. That would be easily enough for me to stand in the shelter without hitting my head on the roof.


    I dug a trench and noticed that the sun was already gone and moon was recing it. I decided to stop and continue tomorrow after resting and eating something. Shelly was kind enough to bring some animals it hunted to our small camp and I cooked them for our dinner. We then went to bed early to start the work in the morning the next day.

 Chapter 72

    Chapter 72


    Early in the morning, I ate some breakfast and got back to work. I wanted to finish that shelter today and there were still loads of things to do. I began by digging another trench. This time I dug a 3 metre long trench that was also 50 centimetres deep. After that I repeated the same step and created a rectangle that was the size of four metres by three metres. This would be big enough shelter to contain both me and Shelly.


    After the digging was done, I ced couple of nks inside and noticed something was off. The problem was that the nks were not straight at the sides and therefore wouldn''t connect very well. I thought about possible solution to this problem and figured out two ways to solve that. I could either straighten out all the nks by cutting the sides. If I did that then the nks would connect no problem. The other solution was that I could ce one nk over the other. I would have to pattern it in such way that the 1st nk would be in the same position as the 3rd then 5th and so on. The same with the 2nd nk, the 4th, 6th and so one would follow the position of the 2nd nk.


    I was keener on thetter option as I wouldn''t have to cut each nk to be straight at the sides. I decided to go with the 2nd option and started to ce them in such order. I then found that wind could do some damage if those nks were not properly reinforced. I decided to add two long nks at the bottom and the top while using nails in order to hold the whole wall together, then burry the bottom.


    I didn''t have huge amount of nails, I only had about a kilogram worth but I could easily use more than that if I wanted to make this shelter more sturdy. I would only use nails if it was really necessary. I cut 4 of the long nks to be about 4 metres long. I would use them as supports for the wall at the top and bottom. I needed 4 because the wall was not in a straight line and nks were not next to each other so if I were to nail only front side of the wall, the back side nks would be loose.


    I nailed the supporting nks at the bottom and buried the whole wall. The wall was standing without any other support needed and I could even lean on it but if I pushed it harder it would topple. It wasn''t finished yet so that was understandable. I then started on the next wall that was adjacent to the one I already had.


    I repeated the process for the next 3 walls and I had the basic construction done. Of course during that whole phrase of building the shelter I forgot about the doors. All the walls were already standing buried in the ground. I decided I will cut an opening in one of the wall instead of taking out a whole wall and making entrance this way.


    After cutting out the entrance, I left the nks that I cut out in order to make doors. I didn''t have anything I could use to hang the doors onto and therefore I could only make them in such a way that I would have to lift them up and then remove thempletely in order to get in or out. I''ve run out of nks and it was alreadyte in the afternoon so I decided to cut some more trees and clean them while Shelly would transport them to our camp.


    ''By my calctions, I should be able to finish the shelter tomorrow. It was much more time consuming than I estimated in the beginning'' I thought to myself. After cutting some more logs and creating couple of nks, the sky was getting dark. As I was sawing the nks I said to Shelly "Go and hunt something for our dinner" but Shelly only pointed at the pile of animals not far away. I said "Oh, I didn''t notice. Good job, let''s eat and then rest for today. I will continue tomorrow". After the dinner we went to sleep.


    In the morning the next day, I did my training as usual and then started to work. I saw the rest of the nks and thought about roof of our shelter. It was possible to create the conventional roof that was steep but it would be too much work. I instead decided to make the roof t. We would live here for a month maybe two so the shelter didn''t have tost for years. In order to make the roof, I would also need supporting nks that would go from one wall to the opposite wall.


    ''But if I were to support that whole roof on two walls would it work?'' I thought to myself. I thought about it hard for a while and could only add more stuff as support in case the roof was very heavy. I would need wider nks and so I cut two long nks that had 10 centimetres in width. I then cut them in the middle and I now had support nks that could be fixed on top of the walls where the roof would be supported. I already used about ? of all my nails. I had no clue that I would need so many of them in order to build a shelter. I made the mental note for the future that nails are very useful.


    The roof would need couple of nks as well. It was quite arge area to cover and so I returned back to making more nks. After couple of hours of sawing, I could finally start the construction of the roof. I ced the nks on top of the roof and nailed them to the supporting nks that were fixed to the walls. When I stood in the middle of the roof, the nks would bend a bit but this was under my weight. Rain or other things would not be able to bend it that easily. Besides my bag weighted a bit as well.


    After cing all the nks and nailing them to the roof I could see some holes because of the irregr sides of the nks. Water would go through them so I needed something in order to seal the holes. Mud was bad for that because It would just absorb water and disperse. ''I need something that can seal the holes but at the same time it wouldn''t disappear when it rained'' I thought to myself.


    I thought about it for a while and couldn''t figure out anything. I didn''t know any such material that could do it, besides I was not a builder and so I didn''t have all that knowledge. Out of desperation I asked Shelly "Shelly, maybe you have some ideas? Do you know of any material that can seal the holes and make them waterproof?".


    Shelly thought about it a bit and then nodded its head. I was shocked by this and thought ''Shelly knows of such substance?'' I asked again "Where can we find it?" to which Shelly pointed towards the forest and motioned for me to follow it.


    In the forest, Shelly was looking for something while I followed. After couple of minutes, Shelly stood in front of a tree and pointed at it. I said "No, not the tree. I need something to seal tiny holes and such. It has to be quite flexible". Shelly shook its head and pointed at the tree again. I took a more detailed look at the tree and could see some kind of golden liquiding out of it. I asked Shelly "Are you talking about that golden thing?" to which Shelly nodded its head.


    I came closer to the tree touched the liquid. It was very sticky and hard to get off from my fingers. I tried to wash it in the water and it was also very hard toe off. I said to Shelly "This is it! Well done. We will need to collect as much of this stuff as we can. I can see that one tree doesn''t have a lot of it and I will need it for all the joints in the roof". I then followed Shelly around in order to find more trees that had this golden sticky liquid.

 Chapter 73

    Chapter 73


    After a bit of running around, I collected almost a whole bottle of the golden glue. We then returned to the camp and I applied the glue onto the joints in the roof using a small stick. There was a bit left in the bottle and I decided to leave it forter in case I need it.


    We now had a shelter with walls and roof over our heads. Although the shelter blocked most of the wind as well as rain, it wouldn''t block low temperatures. I needed something in order to make this shelter warmer for the winter. The best thing would be to use something like cut grass or weeds that were bundled intorge sheets and cover the walls with it but how much work would I need to do in order to get so much grass. I instead opted for leaves that were around everywhere. ''If I could use leaves to cover everything it would at least give some protection from cold'' I thought. At least that was what I hoped for.


    I went outside and tied couple of ropes together. I then took one nk and made it into arge rake. I tied one end of the ropes to the rake and gave the other end to Shelly while saying "Run around with this and collect leaves. You don''t have to bring them here, just make a pile somewhere so that I can use themter on". Shelly wasn''t very keen on the idea but did it nevertheless. While Shelly was busy with the leaves, I took care of the floor. I still needed more nks in order to make a floor, I started sawing again.


    When I was done sawing thest log, I noticed that Shelly managed to collect quite arge pile of leaves. I called out to Shelly "You can rest now. I will use them after I''m done with the floor". I constructed the floor in simr way to the roof but this time I didn''t have to use the golden glue in order to fill the holes. The floor was inside not outside, I therefore didn''t have to worry about leaks.


    It was getting dark now so I wouldn''t be able to do anything else. I still needed to do beds for me and Shelly and perhaps a table. The leaves needed to be fixed onto the walls as well. We had our dinner soon after and went to sleep in our new shelter. Fortunately we hunted every day and due to that we had loads of animal fur to use as our bedding, due to that the night wasn''t that ufortable.


    The next morning, I started the day by training the pose from the 1st diagram that I modified. I then went out to get some more nks for beds. It took me couple of hours to make 2 beds and a table as it was more difficult that I thought, especially a bed for Shelly, it was not the same shape or size as mine and I had to get creative. I then thought about ways I could use those leaves in order to make the shelter warmer.


    If I were to use leaves only, I wouldn''t be able to bundle them together but if I were to use some branches as a core and stuff the leaves in between, the leaves would not fall out that easily. I collected some branches to try out this idea. I didn''t use the ropes to bundle the leaves and branches together, instead I used vines that grew in the forest. I didn''t have enough rope anyway to cover the whole shelter with the leaves and branches.


    After I created couple of sheets of leaves and branches tied together, I tried to hang them on the walls with vines and even nails. I found that the wind would easily damage or even destroy the leaves. I decided to do it from the inside, the wind would not damage the leaves and branches and it would not freeze either when the snow came. It was a bit messy when I fixed them to the walls but in overall I was satisfied with that idea.


    I repeated the same process for the other 3 walls and the shelter was done. There wasn''t that much room inside after the leaves were fixed on all walls but it was enough for me and Shelly to rest. Due to the leaves it was a bit warmer inside. This was a good sign and when the proper winter came, it would at least be bearable inside. I thought about making some sort of firece but I had no materials to build it from. I also didn''t know exactly how I should go about doing it.


    After the shelter waspleted I said to Shelly "Our new home is done. We will stay here for couple of months, maybe even throughout the winter season". Shelly nodded its head and looked around the shelter while walking onto its bed and gettingfortable. We hadn''t had a proper bed for a long time now so Shelly was quite excited about the new shelter. I decided that we should rx for the rest of the day and then we could start our training the next day.


    Because we had loads of food already cooked, we didn''t go out of the shelter that day and rested properly like never before. I took out the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and began reading it again. I already memorized about 90% of the recipes in the book. I still needed to memorize a few more butpared to the past I already knew a lot about medicines and poisons.


    I''ve read the recipes I had yet to memorize about a dozen of times and hid the book in the bag. I then took out the training manual with diagrams and decided to try and modify the 2nd diagram. Theplexity of the 2nd diagram was higher. This meant that if I wanted to modify it, I would have to spend a lot more time on it.


    I first visualised the diagram in my mind and tried to slightly change the position of hands, legs, posture and so on. I sometimes would find positive effects and improve one aspect of the pose a bit but I also found the detrimental sides of changing the pose. ''If this was done in a wrong way, someone might even cripple themselves'' I thought. Although I found some slight improvements, it was still not suitable for me. Something was not right for me in that diagram and I needed to search for that.


    I knew I could do it because I already aplished that with the 1st diagram. The question was, how long would it take for me to find the right pose? I dwelled on the diagram for good couple of hours and didn''t figure it out. I wasn''t discouraged. ''I will be able to modify the 2nd diagram sooner orter'' I thought.


    When I came back to myself from all my thoughts, I noticed that it was dark outside. I got up and closed the door. Shelly was already sleeping in its bed, I decided to go to sleep as well.

 Chapter 74

    Chapter 74


    I fell asleep very quickly. I was already tired from all the training and building I did those past couple of days. My consciousness faded quickly towards thends of dreams. I opened my eyes and saw the same scene I usually saw during those couple of weeks. The dark hooded figure was there, standing and talking away as usual. I no longer tried to do anything because it didn''t matter what I did, the dream would always end with a punch.


    I waited for the dark figure to stop talking and throw its punch to finish this weird dream. After a while, the dark figure stopped talking and ran at me. I thought ''Good, finally this weird dream will end''. The dark figure punched me in my stomach and the next thing I expected was to wake up but it didn''t happen. I was shocked when I saw the dark figure moving backwards couple of metres and then started to talk again.


    I looked down and saw a gaping hole in my stomach with dark mes surrounding it. ck blood was gushing out and although I felt pain, it was notparable to the wound I received. With that kind of wound, it would be very hard to move or even stand on my feet. Yet the pain I felt was much lowerpared to the injury. I checked my surroundings and tried to find anything that could at least stop the bleeding but there was nothing. There was nothing on me either. If this wound was not taken care of in couple of minutes I would die.


    The dream was different this time and I didn''t know if that change in the dream would affect me in reality or not. I would usual wake up when the punch arrived but now I was still in this dream. I decided to attack. If the dream was different maybe I could perform different actions as well. I moved towards the dark figure step by step. When I got more momentum I started to run, the pain was more intense the more I moved but I gritted my teeths and ran with my full strength at the dark figure.


    When I was about 3 metres away from the dark figure, it simply stopped talking and threw another punch this time straight at my head. The dark figure was simply too fast, I couldn''t even see it move when my vision got dark and I died. Or so I thought. I tried opening my eyes and I saw the same scene again.


    The dark figure was talking away like usual and I was there standing with no pain or wounds on my body. I was confused and scared ''What the hell is going on? Why do I dream it again? And will this stop?'' I thought to myself. I tried calling out to the dark figure "Hey, what do you want from me!" but I heard no response as the dark figure simply talked away as usual.


    I thought about it some more ''I will try to remember all the words the dark figure speaks. Although I don''t understand what is being said. I can still memorize that and maybe if I repeat those words, I will be able to leave this damned dream''.


    I tried to memorize the words spoken by the dark figure but it was not as easy as it seemed. Not only it was a dream and everything was hazy, it was also very hard to say these words. The dark figure again stopped talking after a while and ran towards me to punch me. But I was wrong again, this time the dark figure kicked me. I could feel a great force pushing me away as I flew through the air andnded on the ground. I either died or fell unconscious again.


    After a while, I managed to open my eyes again and well I don''t think I have to say what I saw. I again tried to memorize the words of the dark figure before I got punched or kicked till fainted or dead. This repeated for 10 times and I noticed that some of the words that the dark figure spoke were repeated many times. This would mean they were probably pronouns and conjunctions. Stuff like "I, You, Me, And or But" which would mean that the most repeated words could represent simr things as in humannguage.


    With that thought in my mind I started to separate the most used words by the dark figure to the ones used less often. After fainting couple of more times, I could distinguish about 10 of the words that were used the most amount of times in the whole speech. They were Fer, Lak, Ak, Ji, Ki, Rei, Lan, Peris, Fal and Kroh . I didn''t know the meaning of these words but I knew they were the most used in the speech, this would probably mean that they were the equivalent of words such as "I, You, But, Or, And". Now the problem was to find out what these words mean. If I could manage to learn the meaning, I could try and further decrypt the meaning of other words that the dark figure spoke.


    After the 20th repeat of the same dream, I finally woke up in the shelter. I was very tired, as if my whole body has been through hell and back. My mind was tired as well. It was as if I stayed up for couple of days without any rest while focusing on something very hard.


    I checked my whole body and couldn''t find any wounds or scars but I could see that my body became a bit thinner and I could feel intense hunger rising inside of me. When I turned my head towards Shelly''s bed I could see that Shelly was still sleeping. I called out "Shelly, how long was I asleep?". Shelly woke up after a while and looked at me confused. It showed me that I slept only one night, the same as it did. I then said to Shelly "Bring me some food, I''m starving!". Fortunately we did have some cooked food stored just in case and Shelly brought me some of that. I gobbled the food that Shelly brought and only said one word when it was gone "More".


    I ate all the food we had stored and only felt a bit better. I then got up and opened the door in order to go and hunt more food. I knew Shelly was able to do it but I couldn''t wait. It was the same feeling that I had in the past, it was as if something ate away my strength. This time I didn''t have to wonder what caused this for a long time. It was this stupid dream I had every night. I was now afraid to go to sleep as I might not be able to wake up again.


    I ran through the forest with my dagger and killed anything that moved. In such frenzy, I killed about 10 bears as well as 20 wolves that were in the pack of about 30. I didn''t think straight at the time and only hunted. I was running on basic instincts while Shelly was always following and guarding me to make sure I wasn''t killed. Shelly by itself killed about a dozen of the animals present on the ground.


    When I finally calmed down, I saw carnage behind me. I was astonished myself and thought ''I did that?''. When I looked at Shelly, it had a worried expression on its face but also exhaustion which would be normal after such a battle. I said "Don''t worry Shelly, I''m alright now". I said that but I was starving at this point. I made the fire as quickly as I could and cooked the meat from wolves as well as bears.


    I devoured the food in heaps and couldn''t satisfy my hunger at all. 1 bear, 2 bears, 2 bears and 1 wolf. I stopped only when I ate 2 bears and 3 wolves. If I were to have that much meat, it would usuallyst mes about a week of time, yet I was able to eat that much in one sitting.


    Shelly also ate a lot because it saw me eating so much. When I was finally full, I looked at my body which had changed a bit. It was a bit less skinny but nothing other than that. It was as if the food just disappeared inside my stomach. I then thought about the whole situation with this dream. I knew when it started and there were only couple of things that could be linked to it. ''I only got those dreams after we left the cave of those furry deer and got our reward'' I thought.


    The first possibility was the hidden room. There could''ve been some kind of poison in there that would produce these kinds of dreams. In that case, I would have to put up with it until it is gone by itself or until I find a cure. Of course the worst case scenario would be my death from those dreams.


    The second possibility was the cave we got out rewards from. The herbs I got in that cave could not produce such effects and even if they could, they would have to be mixed together in order to produce such effect but I never mixed them together. I reached into my bag and saw that the herbs were still there. On the other hand there might''ve been some kind of poison spread there.


    Thest possibility was the book. It was weird that it couldst like that on the table but when I touched the book, it turned into dust. What''s more, this dust blew straight into my face which I also inhaled. It may be that the book contained poison of some sorts or perhaps it was haunted or something.


    I discarded the 1st possibility because Shelly was there with me in the basement and didn''t have such weird dreams. I also had to discard the 2nd possibility because Shelly always followed me, so we were together in both cases. The only ce that Shelly didn''t follow me to was the table with the book. Shelly also didn''t inhale the dust from that book. ''Deducing it like this, it had to be the book in that case!'' I thought

 Chapter 75

    Chapter 75


    I recalled the title of the book. It was called "Experience of Death". This in itself was a weird title. The book''s name itself fitted the dream I had all this time. In that case, I died at least 30 times. I thought ''But why did it change? Why did I survive after the 1st attack and didn''t wake up?''


    I didn''t know the answers to those questions but the more I thought about this weird book turning into dust the more certainty I had that the cause of my weird dreams was that book. Yet I had no clue as to how I could resolve those dreams. I knew of one recipe that was mind calming but the herbs used to make it were very rare and I haven''t seen them on our travels so far. Even if I had that medicine, solving this dream problem was not guaranteed.


    I had no way of doing anything, maybe besides learning that weirdnguage the dark figure spoke. I already noticed differences after so many times listening to the same speech. I also knew that the dark figure was using some sort of skill in order to punch me or kick me. I didn''t know why I sometimes survived and sometimes I would die instantly but I was certain of one thing. The figure was saying the same thing over and over again.


    I would have to study thenguage more when I fall asleep, for now I needed to improve my other skills instead of worrying about stuff I was not able to affect. I first trained using the pose from the 1st modified diagram. To my surprise, Isted 12 minutes before I had to stop. It seemed that the more I starved myself the stronger I could get. I was not keen to test this idea but I was happy that there was something beneficial in all of that.


    I then started my training with the puppets. I needed to master the control of 4 puppets with 8 fingers excluding both thumbs. I trained for couple of hours like this and decided it''s time for break. I called out to Shelly who was training its other senses "Shelly! It''s time for food". Shelly came over with the mask attached on its head without stumbling or hitting anything.


    I took the mask off and said "Let''s eat before we continue. We still have loads of meat left from the previous hunt and so we don''t have to worry about that for now". Shelly nodded its head and waited for me to start the fire and cook the food. When I cooked some meat, my hunger intensified. I was hungry a bit after all the workout but the moment I saw cooked food, I became like a starved wolf.


    I alone devoured enough meat to cover 2 wolves while Shelly as ifpeting with me ate enough meat to create 3 wolves. I cooked the rest of the meat that was leftover in my bag. I couldn''t take all the animals we hunted because although the bag could probably fit this much stuff inside, I would have to carry this bag with me all the time and it was as heavy as the amount of stuff stored inside. I also found out something interesting about the bag Nick left for me. The food inside could stay fresh for a longer period of time. The effect couldn''tst for very long but it could preserve the fresh meat for couple of more days without spoiling it whatsoever. This would be very useful in the future if we are short on food. After we ate out food I started to wonder ''Where does all the food go after I ate it? It didn''t go straight to my stomach. It was as if the food disappeared even before it got there''.


    I couldn''t get fatter either. I was always skinny like a walking skeleton. It was as if the food changed into pure energy and was absorbed by my body instead of depositing in my stomach. I also didn''t know how Shelly could eat even more than I did. It spent a lot of energy when moving very fast but surely a wolf that weighted about 30 kilograms or more would be more than enough for a turtle the size of half a metre.


    I didn''t expect an answer but I asked anyway "Shelly, howe you can eat so much and not get bigger? I also eat so much and stay pretty much the same. How is that possible?". Shelly looked at me confused as if I was asking the most obvious question in the history. Shelly just looked down and didn''t know how to respond. After a while Shelly draw something on the ground and it seemed to say that it was always like this.


    I looked at Shelly and thought ''Indeed, it was always like this since I started to travel''. It all started from that rock lit by moonlight and continued through to my very and now those dreams. I thought ''If I''m supposed to be like this then so be it. I shall ept this as normal from now on''.


    When I thought of this like that and when I came to that realisation, something inside of me calmed down and I felt more at peace. I continued on with my training untilte evening and when we took breaks for food, I would always store some leftovers in case I need it after the night''s sleep. We were also fortunate that these parts were full of animals because otherwise we might not be able to get food that easily.


    In the evening, I tried to modify the 2nd diagram. I knew it would take me much longerpared to the 1st diagram. I needed much more experience in order to predict what would happen when something was changed in the pose. It would take a long time but I had the 1st diagram to practise and master. I was in no rush toplete the modification of the 2nd diagram but I wanted to at least put in some work and maybe I would be able to figure it out sooner rather thanter.


    After a while of thinking and changing the pose, I fell asleep and braced myself for the weird dream that was about toe. When I opened my eyes, I stood in front of the dark figure that started to talk away. I listened attentively and looked at any gestures the dark figure did. I looked and listened for anything that would give away what types of words the dark figure was speaking.


    After a while, the dark figure stopped talking and ran at me in order to attack. I was paralyzed as usual and awaited the blow. The dark figure arrived and punched with its fist that was covered in dark smoke. "Boom" I received the blow and flew couple of metres back. I was still alive because the dark figure punched me in my stomach.


    I looked down and again saw a gaping hole in my stomach. I didn''t try anything else and simply listened to and looked at the dark figure. A short whileter, my consciousness started to fade and I could barely stand in ce when the dark figure stopped talking again and ran towards me with another punch.


    I didn''t survive this blow and the lights went out. When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted with the same scene. I thought ''It''s time to suffer, I guess''.

 Chapter 76

    Chapter 76


    The scene in front of me repeated 20 times likest time and I finally woke up. I again felt the hunger as if I didn''t eat anything for couple of days. I got up from my bed and opened my bag in order to get some food.


    I again ate a lot until I satisfied my hunger, I then checked my body. I didn''t get skinnier like before but I couldn''t get much skinnier than that anyway. I woke Shelly up and said "It''s time for our training. Eat something first and then we shall start". I waited for Shelly to eat its breakfast and then put on the vision sealing mask on it.


    I went outside myself and started by training in the 1st diagram of the Strength Manual. I decided to call it Strength Manual because that was what this manual helped to train. I was again stunned when I noticed that I couldst now 13 minutes while in the pose. This got me wondering ''Will I improve every time I have this dream?''. I knew that would be impossible because I only improved 1 minutepared to the 2 minutesst time.


    Although I had more strength, the price I had to pay was not small either. My mind was being overexerted every time I had that dream, my body was also overexerted as if I was overusing my body every night. I guessed that the reason I had to eat so much was also due to the overuse of my mind and body. It was less severe this time, this could only mean that my body was adjusting to that state.


    After the 1st diagram exercise, I went back to my training with puppets. I noticed that I could also focus a bit better. Although this didn''t allow me to instantly master the skill of puppetry, it helped me to be one step closer to mastery. I trained like this until it was afternoon and decided to stop in order to eat lunch.


    I called out to Shelly "Shelly, let''s go and hunt something". A whileter, Shelly came running towards me with the mask still attached. Shelly was makingrge improvements as well but it wasn''t due to the dreams, perhaps it was getting better ustomed to theck of vision and became more skillful with the use of senses such as smell or hearing.


    I took the mask off from Shelly''s head and we went deeper into the forest in order to hunt. On our way we found a group of boars that numbered in 23 and decided to hunt them. I could kill most of those boars no problem within a short amount of time but instead I opted for another way. I said to Shelly "You will deal with all of them, Let''s see what you''ve learned". Shelly looked at me and I could see worry on its face. I said "I will not help you, deal with this yourself. If you always follow me and deal with single targets that are left behind by me then you will learn nothing. What if we are separated and you have to deal with arge group of animals or creatures?".


    Shelly looked at me with even more worry. Probably because it didn''t want to be separated. This was a sort of taboo when it came to Shelly, it wanted to go with me even to the ends of hell. Although Shelly didn''t want to be separated, it could happen due to different circumstances and it would have to deal with problems by itself.


    I said again "Go, it will help you grow. Besides, treat it as a part of training". Shelly reluctantly nodded its head and sped off towards the pack of boars. Shelly needed to develop itsbat skills. Shelly would just ram into targets that were left behind by me and that was not good. It was a simpleminded attack at whatever was moving without any skill or n. I chose this pack of animals for Shelly to try and hunt because they were boars. Boars were not as difficult as bears or wolves. Wolves were very crafty while bears were very strong. Boars on the other hand had some strength and worked in a group in order to maximize their strength of many against few. This was a perfect ce for Shelly to develop its skills and gain somebat experience.


    When the boars noticed Shelly rushing towards them, they immediately grouped together and started their counterattack. Although the boars might''ve been right in doing this against one foe but this was a bad idea against Shelly. Shelly didn''t stop but increased its speed even more.


    When Shelly rammed into the boars that were packed into a group trying to trample Shelly, the results were as I already predicted. The boars at the front didn''t expect that kind of impact and about 6 boars flew into the air from the collision. When they dropped, all the boars were dead while blood started to flow from their snouts. Shelly''s momentum was stopped and now it was in the middle of the boars that survived the attack. Shelly''s tactic was not bad but it had one crucial negative aspect. When the attack finished and there were enemies in the vicinity, Shelly would not be able to attack like this again as it needed space to gain speed. This left Shelly in a very vulnerable position.


    The boars that survived the impact and those that were mostly unaffected from the impact, immediately attacked Shelly. Shelly became quite confused, It didn''t know what to do next and got hit couple of times while backing out. The hard shell on Shelly provided it with very good defence, I wasn''t worried that Shelly would die very quickly. Besides if the situation got out of hand and Shelly''s life was at stake, I would intervene. I didn''t say that to Shelly for it to focus fully and treat it as a life or death kind of situation. That was why for the sake of Shelly''s learning, I said I would do nothing.


    While Shelly was pushed back more and more and received more damage, it''s instincts kicked in and it started to use its mouth as a weapon. Although turtles were slow due to their lifestyle, that didn''t mean they were slow all the time. Turtles could be very fast when attacking with their mouth. Shelly already showed that when hunting fishes. Shelly would use its mouth in order to catch the fish but on other asions like fighting wolves or bears, it didn''t use its mouth in order to attack.


    Now, Shelly attacked with its mouth and the boars with their weak defence of only skin could not block the attack. The boars would lose considerable chunks of their meat when Shelly bit them. Shelly would also eat the meat and attack again. I guessed that this method would replenish some energy Shelly lost but also damage its opponent. It was a much better method ofbatpared to straight out running into things, especially for longer periods of time. Ramming into things would be effective in a one on one battle but fighting this type of group would be theplete opposite.


    Shelly through the use of its mouth, killed or rather ate about 5 more boars. The boars started to panic because about a half of them already died and some of that half was eaten alive. This allowed Shelly some room and it used that disorder to gain momentum and rammed into the group again. This time there were less boars in the group and they were not as densely packed so only 3 died from the impact.


    The boars couldn''t take it anymore and started to run away. Shelly ran after some and killed almost all of them. Although some ran away there were about 18 boars that died from Shelly''s attacks and that was enough for one hunt.


    I came over to Shelly, who was already quite exhaust and said "Good job but you could''ve done much better". Shelly looked at me a bit angry. Instead of a proper prise, it got some remarks. I continued "From now on you will hunt different types of animals alone. Although you could hunt small groups or single animals by yourself, in these parts there are rarely any lone animals". Shelly again was not happy about that andined to me.


    I said "You canin or you can improve yourself. The more you battle the better and you can''t always follow me. You have to think for yourself and learn how to deal with stuff by yourself". Shelly dropped its head down and after a while lifted it up and nodded in agreement. I then said "Good. Then we shall now cook the food and return to the training".

 Chapter 77

    Chapter 77


    After we ate the food, I ced the rest of the cooked meat into my bag in order to prepare for the next morning. I now knew I would needrger quantities of food every time I woke up therefore I had to store up for that asion. After sorting out the food, we returned to our shelter. I ced the vision sealing mask back on Shelly and said "Try running around between trees now. You already have some experience so it shouldn''t be that difficult". Shelly nodded its head and went off to train near the trees.


    I on the other hand, started my practise with daggers. I was already quite skilled with retrieving and hiding my weapons so I didn''t need to practise this further for now. When I fought with that old woman in the Limestone Vige, one very crucial detail became apparent. Although my aim was quite good, my daggers needed to be more unpredictable. If I couldn''t aplish that, the strong opponents such as that old woman could easily render my skills useless.


    For that I needed the book I found on the old woman''s body. I wanted to learn how to be more unpredictable but I didn''t need the softness part of the skill. I also didn''t know if that was a general skill or was it for the whip users. I started to read the Soft Fish Technique. After a while of reading, I noticed that the whip was required as a main weapon. I would need to learn how to use a whip in order to learn this technique but I never considered that option. I searched through the book in order to find methods that would allow my daggers to be less predictable.


    The book mostly pointed towards flexibility of the whip and how it could change directions midway as well as unpredictable behaviour it could create. It would be very hard to change those skills in order to use them with a dagger. First, a dagger was a close range weapon or a throwing weapon which would count as mid ran one time use weapon. This in itself had nopatibility with a whip that was mid range weapon and was not one use only. The next problem was that I had to throw my dagger while whip would always stay in my hand. This meant I could manipte it all times. Because of that, it give the whip unpredictable behaviour.


    When I threw my dagger, I had no more control over it. Of course I wanted to learn Stringed Hidden Weapons skill but I didn''t master my puppet skills yet. I could give it a try but that was not really unpredictable behaviour of a hidden weapon. In order for it to be unpredictable and a throwing weapon, I would have to find a way for the dagger to change directions while it was already thrown.


    ''It could be done with strings but how would I achieve it without them?'' I thought. I spent some time thinking about it and came to a point where I had 2 options. The first option was to somehow affect the dagger while it was already thrown and the other was to throw the dagger in such a way, that it would change the direction midway.


    While I was thinking like this, a gust of wind suddenly blew through the area I was in. I looked at the trees, the bushes, the waterfall then the water and realised something "WIND!". I could use wind to my advantage. ''If I could sense the wind and predict the currents, then a thrown dagger could change directions midway'' I thought. This was easier said than done. How exactly would one predict the wind. It could not be predicted, a gust of wind could blow from left once but then a frontal wind could blow. There is no way to predict that.


    I thought ''It''s a longshot but that would make my daggers unpredictable and thrown daggers could change directions or angles midway''. Hypothetically, if I threw a dagger at someone''s head. That person would try to either shield that area or avoid the dagger but what if the dagger suddenly changed directions and aimed for the heart. Even the old hag that I barely killed would not be able to predict that.


    I thought ''But how am I supposed to predict the wind and use it to throw my daggers. This is impossible idea and I''m getting too far ahead of myself. It''s not possible to do this!''. Then I remembered something ''Nick said that all the people who mastered their arts developed them by themselves. If I ry on Nick''s teachings all the time while suppressing my own ideas, will I ever master my arts?'' I asked myself. The answer was


    "NO! If Nick said that avoiding the light is possible as well as bing the hidden weapon is also possible. THEN PREDICTING THE WIND IS ALSO POSSIBLE!". I could feel something building inside of me, like a desire or thirst. I felt as if something inside my body, urged me to follow my path. While I was in that state, Shelly ran over due to my shout and wondered what I was on about. I woke up from that state and said to Shelly "Don''t worry, I just figured out what I need to do". Then I sent Shelly off to continue its training.


    I knew that predicting the wind would be as hard as avoiding the light or bing a hidden weapon but it was a goal I set for myself. My own feat that seemed impossible. My senses were already trained but I needed to train them further. The mask that Shelly used would not be able to help me, I needed a different n.


    I needed to train my hearing as well as the sense of touch. The wind was everywhere but if I could determine the wind by using my body as well as using my hearing, it could be possible to aplish that deed. I went to the open area not far away from our shelter. I then closed my eyes and focus only on the wind. I needed to cancel out all the other noises and learn to find the wind. I needed to register not the rustling of grass or leaves, not the sound of waterfall that was close by but the sound of the pure wind that flew through the air, unrestrained, blowing around me.

 Chapter 78

    Chapter 78


    I stood there with my eyes closed and focused. I didn''t move and tried to cancel out all the noises except the wind. It was hard to cancel out everything. I could still hear the waterfall. I could also hear Shelly running around and even the rustling grass. I knew it wouldn''t be easy to achieve that but I wouldn''t give up that quickly. I set my sight on the noise canceling part first.


    I needed to learn how to cancel out all the stuff besides the one I needed to focus on. Although I could manipte my hearing in a way where I could hear like a normal average human or with my advanced hearing where I could hear someone or something closing in from far away. The problem I had was to determine where the sound wasing from. If it was a silent day or night, I didn''t have much problems doing just that. Yet with Shelly, waterfall and what not that produced noise around me, it was multiple times harder to determine something that was happening further away, something I never saw with my eyes.


    I decided to take small steps first. In order to learn how to find wind, I would need to first learn how to cancel out the noise of all the things but one. In order for that I chose Shelly as my target. I needed to focus on only noises that Shelly made. With my eyes closed I started to listen in for the sounds that Shelly was producing.


    I found it very hard to do because the waterfall was very loud and other noises in the background didn''t help. I guessed that I needed to train in order to learn ''I wouldn''t be able to just do it without first learning how to do it'' I thought to myself. I focused like this for a long time and trained. I don''t know how much time has passed but Shelly came over and hit my leg lightly, I woke up from my training and looked down at Shelly that was still wearing the mask. I also noticed that it was already evening and Shelly was probably tired and wanted to eat something.


    I said "Sorry Shelly, I was so focused on my training that I forgot what time it is. Let''s go eat something and then rest for today". I took off the mask from Shelly''s head and stretched a bit. I was standing in one ce without moving for couple of hours and could feel a bit rusty. I had enough food for us to eat but I still decided we should go and hunt. This would allow Shelly to gain more experience but before that we had a meal from the supplies in my bag. We then went out for the hunt. I decided to give some hints to Shelly before we encountered any group of animals "The ramming attack that you do is effective against most enemies but when you attack a group of animals, you will not be able to kill all of them with that one attack. You should only use it against smaller groups because after that attack you will lose your momentum and will be more vulnerable".


    Shelly nodded its head in understanding and I continued "Last time, you actually used your mouth in order to attack. This is a good idea. Also as long as something is not poisonous, you will be able to recover your energy at the same time. Use your mouth more often to attack a group to preserve your stamina". Shelly again nodded in understanding and I could see that it was grateful for me to point those things out.


    I said "Remember that there are different types of enemies. For example wolves move fast and usually attack individually but they are working as one pack and it is much harder to fight against them then the boars. Bears on the other hand are much stronger and if you are surrounded, you can receive quite a substantial amount of damage".


    I then said "Let''s go, we need to find some animals to hunt". We looked for a group small enough for Shelly to take on by itself. After about half an hour of searching we found a pack of wolves that numbered 11. I said to Shelly "Think about your actions and what consequences they will have. Also think about your enemy. Wolves are more intelligent than boars and are much more agile. Take that under consideration when you go and fight". Shelly nodded its head and didn''t attack immediately. It was probably thinking about good way to y this fight out. This was a good sign. Instead of rushing in like thest idiot, Shelly was strategising or at least starting to form some ns.


    I waited patiently for Shelly to start the fight. After couple of minutes, Shelly started to move. I watched with anticipation and wondered what was Shelly''s n. Shelly slowly creepted closer to the pack as if trying to be stealthy but it was not very well versed in that departa. Shelly couldn''t move silently like I could and therefore the wolves easily discovered it.


    Shelly didn''t seem to panic and simply continued sneaking. I thought ''Why does Shelly still insist on sneaking when it was already discovered? Maybe it doesn''t know that it was?''. The wolves were getting closer and when they noticed a turtle they simply let their guards down and walked over in a yful manner.


    The wolves would not put a turtle in their eyes as an enemy, Shelly was rather considered as food than an enemy. One of the wolves ran at Shelly in a yful manner and probably got surprised at what happened next. With a lightning quick movement, Shelly bit the wolf''s neck and killed it on the spot. I thought ''Using the fact that Shelly is a turtle, it''s quite small and appears weak, the wolves underestimated its capabilities. This was a good n but it would not work on the rest of the wolves anymore''.


    The other wolves were also stunned at what just happened. Shelly then started to run very fast towards the pack of wolves. I think the wolves were even in bigger confusion when they saw a turtle rushing at them and gaining speed the closer it got. The wolves didn''t understand what was happening and because of that Shelly managed to ram into 3 wolves that stood as a group. The first wolf that took most of the impact almost shattered and thest wolf was critically injured.


    ''I don''t know if Shelly was after that moment of confusion but it did help in reducing the number of wolves. I wonder what is Shelly''s next move''. The wolves were no longer spacing out and ran towards Shelly in order to kill. Shelly on the other hand back away and speed off into different direction. ''I think I know what Shelly is trying to do. Because it needs space to gain speed, Shelly wants to run away for a while then turn around and use this ram attack again'' I thought.


    After awhile, I witness that exact guess I had. Shelly did a circle and came back to attack the wolves again. Some of the wolves managed to avoid Shelly''s attack but another two still perished. Now there were only 5 wolves left. This was much smaller group and much more manageable. Shelly then decided to attack in closebat using its mouth.


    I waited patiently and after about 10 minutes, the struggle was over. Shelly returned to my side and looked at me as if showing off its skills. I said "You did very well. You confused the enemies and took advantage of their stupidity as well as carelessness. Let''s go and collect the meat then we will return to the shelter".

 Chapter 79

    Chapter 79


    After we returned to our shelter I said to Shelly "Rest now, we will continue our training tomorrow". Shelly didn''t even respond and went straight to bed. I guessed it must''ve been very tired from all the training and hunting it did.


    I went to sleep as well. I knew the dream would appear again and so I was already prepared for that. I closed my eyes and soon my thoughts drifted away to thends of dreams. When I opened my eyes, the dark figure stood in front of me. It started to speak again while I focused on the words as well as any gestures. I already figured out that some words were repeated more frequently. Now I needed to find the meaning of those words.


    After the dream repeated another 15 times, I got a clue about one of the words that the dark figure spoke. It could mean "I or Me" and the word was Fer. The dark figure usual motioned towards itself when it spoke the word Fer. If my guess was correct, I had one word that I knew the meaning of. I was also excited and thought ''If my guess is correct then this would mean that I can decipher thisnguage and find out what it is that the dark figure wants from me or what I need to do in order to stop those dreams''.


    The dream repeated couple of more times and I finally woke up. I was hungry again so I reached into my bag and retrieved some food. I then thought about my discovery ''If the word Fer means I or Me then there must be a way to distinguish other words as well. I will have to pay more attention to the dark figure and its gestures. Even the small and unimportant ones could give me huge clues concerning thenguage it speaks''.


    I woke Shelly up and gave it some food. I then said "I will start my training now, you cane over when you are done eating". Shelly nodded its head while I left to train the 1st diagram of the Strength Manual. I trained for 13 minutes and I noticed that I can still go one. This proved that those dreams or at least me starving myself helped in my improvements. I could nowst 13 and a half minutes before I had to stop. The improvements were getting smaller and smaller but even if I reach 14 minutes in couple of days, that would still be great. This would mean I was much strongerpared to the past.


    When I finished the training of my 1st diagram, I sat on the ground and waited for Shelly toe over for the mask. After about 15 minutes, Shelly came over and I put the mask on Shelly''s head then said "You are not doing badly with those trees. Try increasing your speed when you feel confident. When you can run at your full speed through the forest, we can then start the next part of your training". Shelly nodded and ran away towards some trees.


    I decided to train with puppets. My mind was getting better due to the dream as well and so I figured that it might be possible for me to use all 5 puppets. I ced the strings on my fingers and controlled the 5 puppets. It was much easierpared to the past when I tried it for the 1st time. Although I still made some errors but that was due to the additional puppet and the fact I was not used to using all my fingers yet.


    I guessed that within couple of days, I should be able to have basic control over all the puppets. The mastery of my puppet skill would be in sight. I trained for a few hours with my puppets then called out towards Shelly "It''s time for us to hunt". I still had some meat in my bag but I had other ns this time. I wanted to show Shelly how I hunt and maybe it would gain some ideas.


    Shelly came running towards me and I took of the mask off from its head. I then said "I will hunt this time and you watch. Maybe you will get something out of it". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me. After searching for a while, I found a group of 17 bears. Five of them were ck bears, they were much stronger than the usual brown ones.


    I looked for the leader first and found him to be in the middle of the group. My n was quite simple. I had different set of skillspared to Shelly and therefore I could take care of more enemies at the same time.


    I got closer to the group and threw dozen of daggers at the bears. I targeted mostly the leader in order to take out the strongest first and create confusion and disorder amongst the rest of the bears. My daggers arrived and killed 3 bears including the leader.


    My location would be exposed now so the instant I threw the daggers, I changed my position to a different one, where I would not be noticed by the rest of the group. The rest of the bears were enraged but confused at the same time. It was all because they couldn''t locate their opponent, in other words me.


    I threw more daggers and took out another 3 bears. This time I didn''t change my position as I already lowered the number of enemies to a manageable size. I nned to fight in closebat. I could hide and throw daggers but I wanted to find out what are my improvements, especially my strength after practising the 1st diagram to this point.


    I ran straight at the two remaining ck bears. I wanted to take on the stronger opponents first and test my strength while the weaker bears would act as obstacles. Now the bears could see me and were enraged due to the loss of theirrades. The bears rushed at me but I simply evaded the weaker ones and ran straight at the ck bears further in the back.


    I arrived in front of the ck bear and unleashed a barrage of attacks. Mind you, I used my fists to attack. Using daggers would not test my strength, I needed to know if my fists were capable of killing those bears. I already knew the weak points as well as limitations and skills of those bears. This gave me some leeway and I didn''t have to worry about unexpected stuff.


    I threw my punches at the ck bear''s torso, head and even arms. I also purposefully didn''t evade some attacks to test my defences. When I got hit by the bear in my shoulder, it was dislocated but besides the pain, the bones didn''t shatter nor break. This would''ve been a bit worse in the past. My bones would be probably broken by now. I Fixed my shoulder back into the right ce and attacked with the other hand.


    After pummeling one of the ck bears for a while, it finally dropped dead on the ground. The other bears got scared and look at me in disbelief. I killed a ck bear with my fists alone andpared to a bear I was like a stick. The brown bears decided to leg it while the 2nd ck bear was dazed and not sure what to do. I attacked the bear and killed it after couple of minutes.


    It wasn''t umon for some animals to run away but to see 9 of the normal bears running away like that was a bit weird. I fought with the ck bear and so the brown bears could easily run away. I didn''t mind. This was to test my strength and I got the results I wanted. My strength rose dramaticallypared to the past. In the past, I would be able to damage the ck bear with my fist alone but killing one or two would be too exhausting. The strength I had now allowed me to do just that. My defence was also improved, my body was more sturdy. This meant I could take on some of the attacks but in the past I would be in a very bad situation if I even took one.


    I called out towards Shelly and it came running over. I said "It doesn''t matter that they ran away. I still killed a lot of them so this should be enough food for now. Did you learn anything useful?". Shelly nodded its head. It seemed that it got some ideas from my fight just now, this was a good thing. I nodded my head couple of times and then started to dismember the prey. While I was cutting up the 4th bear, I heard some noise in the distance. I stopped what I was doing and focused in the direction of the sound.

 Chapter 80

    Chapter 80


    After a while, I noticed a group of bears heading towards us. All of them were ck and numbered 10 while there was one more at the front. Its fur was silver in colour and it was a bit smaller than the ck bears. I thought ''I never saw a silver bear before. This may be troublesome''. I said to Shelly "No time to sit around anymore. We need to leave. If they chase us, we will fight". Shelly nodded and we ran away.


    We ran fo couple of minutes. When I looked back and saw nothing behind us, I stopped to inspect for any sounds and heard rustling and heavy thumps from the direction that we just came from. I said to Shelly "They are after us. We will need to fight them. I''m a bit worried about the silver one, we never encountered it and so we don''t know its skills. We have to be careful". Shelly nodded and prepared for the fight. When I saw the group of bears approaching I said "I will take out as many ck bears as I can and leave the rest to you. I need to take care of the silver one".


    Shelly agreed while I thought ''I have a bad feeling about this''. I ran forward and threw about a dozen of daggers at the ck bears. I needed to take care of as many as I could in order to challenge the silver bear in rtive peace.


    My daggers flew through the air and hit 2 out of 3 bears. The 3rd ck bear survived because of the silver bear. It actually deflected those daggers. ''I knew this will be troublesome'' I thought. Shelly didn''t just stand either andunched the attack. Its speed increased more and more as it tried to ram into the ck bears.


    But the silver bear was having none of that and intercepted Shelly. The speed that the silver bear disyed was not much worse to that of Shelly''s charge. When Shelly rammed into the silver bear it created arge noise "BAM!". The attack that could easily kill a ck bear was stopped and Shelly flew back from the recoil. Shelly struggled to get up and I could see many cracks on its shell.


    I shouted to Shelly "Fall back! I will block them" and ran straight for the silver bear. I now knew that its defences and speed surpassed the ck bears by far. I ran and threw as many daggers as I could in order to kill as many ck bears as I could. Although the silver bear intercepted some of the attacks, it could not be in couple of ces at the same time and another 3 ck bears perished.


    The silver bear roared loudly "RAAAWWR!" and sped towards me. The distance between us was not great and the silver bear''s speed reached speeds simr to that of Shelly, if I were to be rammed or even grazed by its attack, it would surely end badly for me. I calcted the path and speed of the silver bear and jumped right before it reached me with its attack.


    The silver bear whizzed past me and its attack barely missed. I turned around and threw just one dagger but with all my strength not caring about skills. The dagger arrived and barely hit the silver bear but the effects were minor. It did break its defences and drew some blood but that kind of wound was nothing to the silver bear and didn''t hinder its movements or strength.


    The silver bear stopped and turned around to attack again. I thought ''It''s defences are very strong. It is also very fast and has more strength than normal bears. Closebat is very risky at my level. If I just had a skill that could work against such opponents'' but I had no such skills. Stealth would give me nothing here as this bear could find us probably because its sense of smell was much better than the ck bear''s, besides its speed was far too great and I wouldn''t be able to hide. My daggers that were thrown with my full strength did very little damage and because of the added power, my aim suffered. Poison was a good solution but I had none on me and I had no time to create one now.


    ''I have no way to deal with this bear. I can try closebat as it is myst option. Running will be difficult at this point'' I thought to myself. The bear attacked once more and I tried to evade again. The silver bear threw a punch at me this time and I could feel the wind as the bear''s paw passed next to my face.


    I could only try and engage in closebat, which I did. I tried shing my daggers at the bear with my full strength and managed to create very light wounds, nothing that could be threatening. The silver bear got even more aggressive due to its constant misses and roared again. I noticed that the ck bears were trying to surround Shelly who had loads of problem dealing with them. It was all due to the recoil it received when ramming into the silver bear.


    I shouted to Shelly "Run! leave now!" but Shelly wouldn''t listen and still tried to fight the ck bears. I tried to throw couple of daggers at the ck bears but the silver one always obstructed me as if aware of what I wanted to do. Even if I threw a dagger the silver bear would block it. ''This situation is hopeless, we need to run'' I thought and screamed at Shelly "RUN! NOW!" while I headed towards the ce where Shelly was struggling with the ck bears.


    The silver bear was having none of that and ran after me while trying to intercept me and prevent me from reaching Shelly. I ran at my full speed and while I was getting closer, I threw my daggers like mad. The ck bears, without the protection of the silver bear started to die very quickly. I could hear more angry roars behind me but I didn''t look back. I shouted again "Shelly RUN!" but Shelly couldn''t move much. It received too much damage and it was in a poor state. I raced towards Shelly and swept it up into my arms.


    I could feel and hear whistling of the wind behind my back. I knew that an attack wasing, I jumped forwards and "BAAAM" the silver bear behind me struck the ce that I was at just a second ago. I didn''t wait for it to deliver another attack and simply ran forwards. The bear roared and persisted to follow me. I ran at my full speed and evaded the silver bears attacks that arrived once in a while. I was getting tired out by all of that running and due to my bag weighting quite a bit as well as Shelly who was rather small whenpared to things like a wolf or bear but it actually weighed as much as 15 kilograms.


    I couldn''t reach in to my bag in order to get some Vital Liquid while running and holding Shelly, I couldn''t stop either. After the silver bear attacked once more, I took a look back and saw that the silver bear was tired as well. I guessed it was all due to those attacks it did. If I couldst longer than the bear, I would be able to escape.


    I ran like crazy for another 30 minutes and was already gasping for breath. The attacks from the silver bear behind me got less frequent. I turned around and noticed that the silver bear was now breathing very heavily as well but still persisted to catch us. If my observation was correct we would run out of strength at simr time. This would mean it was now all in the hands of my willpower versus the willpower of the bear. If I fall first due to exhaustion, we are done for but if the bear goes down first then we will live.


    After another 10 minutes of running my legs gave up suddenly. I thought ''We are screwed'' as I fell to the ground. I couldn''t pick myself up anymore. I was totally exhausted and I could feel huge hunger starting to burn inside of me. The amount of energy I spent on running and fighting was my limit, I could go no further.


    I turned around and noticed that the silver bear was still standing but it was now walking not running. It walked very slowly but still walked and was getting closer to us. I then noticed Shelly standing up and walking in front of me. I quickly realised what Shelly wanted to do. It wanted to defend me. I said "Just run. You don''t need to do that" but it stood there like a stone statue. I crawled a bit closer to Shelly and took out the Vital Liquid then poured it on top of its shell. I took out another one and also poured it on top of Shelly''s shell. I drank the 3rd one and tried to recover as much as I could.


    When the bear saw this, it was not pleased and persisted to walk towards us with even faster pace. I had to ce all our hopes on Shelly. If Shelly could buy us some time then I would recover a bit. The bear on the other hand would probably fall due to the exhaustion. It was all or nothing.

 Chapter 81

    Chapter 81


    Each second felt like hours to me and with each loud thump of the bear''s step, I was more concerned. ''Would Shelly be able to survive this? Can we defeat this monster?'' I thought. I noticed that the cracks on Shelly''s shell started to heal up. This meant the medicine started to work. It was a good sign, at least Shelly would be in better form facing the silver bear.


    I said to Shelly "Just stall him, if he falls he is dead, if I recover then he is dead but if you don''t preserve. We are dead". Shelly didn''t acknowledge my words by either nodding or making sounds. It simply stood there like a statue. I got a bit worried and called out "Shelly, are you there?" but again I saw no reaction. The bear was getting closer and only a few metres separated us right now.


    I tried to stand up but my legs wouldn''t listen to me anymore. I also felt immense hunger and could feel my strength instead of returning due to Vital Liquid, it was actually fading. Bing ever so slightly smaller with time. I had no more time to think about stuff like this as the silver bear arrived. My only hope was Shelly. If Shelly was still awake and recovered some of its strength then we may have a chance, otherwise we die.


    The bearunched its attack. Although it was probably aiming at me due to my size and the fact that Shelly was not moving, Shelly was still in front of me no matter what size it had. When the silver bear''s attack was about to arrive, Shelly finally moved. It didn''t try to ram into the bear or defend, it actually used its mouth as a weapon and tried to bite the punch.


    All of this happened very quickly but I experienced it in slow motion. As if time slowed down just for me where I could see everything clearly, then "Boom". While I was expecting for Shelly to be knocked back and with serious injuries it didn''t happen like that. Shelly''s lightning quick bite attack actually managed to take arge chunk of meat from the silver bear''s paw. Shelly then avoided the punch inst possible second.


    The bear cried in pain as it lost a bit of its meat but also mmed that damaged paw into the ground. I guessed that it wouldn''t be able to use that paw for a while now. The silver bear fell onto the ground and cried in pain. itid there and didn''t pick itself up. I noticed that Shelly moved closer to the bear and started biting and taking away more of its flesh.


    The silver bear roared even more due to the pain but it was also exhausted and could do nothing while its flesh was ripped apart like this. After a while the roars ended and the silver bear died. It was eaten alive. Even after its death, Shelly continued to consume the bear until only bones were left.


    I looked at Shelly in shock and thought ''Could it be due to the medicine? Did it make Shelly to be this strong?''. The silver bear was weakened but even my daggers could barely prate it, yet Shelly was able to just bite away chunks of its meat as if eating vegetables.


    When Shelly finished the bear, it came over to me and looked concerned like it always would. I had no words to speak due to the shock. Shelly acted as usual and even rubbed its head on me to show affection. I finally managed to blurt out "What happened to you?" to which Shelly looked confused. Shelly took a look at its front legs and then at the sides, it was looking for any changes but it obviously didn''t find anything out of ordinary. I was not referring to Shelly''s appearance but its increase of strength. I wondered ''Could it really be the medicine? Would it be that effective?''


    I then said "I was referring to your strength. Was it due to the Vital Liquid?" to which Shelly nodded its head while showing an excited and happy expression. I was stupefied again ''Why would it have such great effects on Shelly? Every time I gave it to Shelly in emergencies, it seems to develop something but not to that kind of extend''. I asked a probing question "If I gave you loads more, could you develop even further? Would you be unstoppable?" this time Shelly shook its head and tried to exin something.


    Shelly draw couple of things then pointed at them while making noises. The drawing seemed to indicate that when Shelly was damaged to certain extend, the medicine I gave to it would not only start repairing its body but it would also improve it. The drawing also showed that only in this type of situations where it could barely move, the medicine would show such effects and that with more use, the effect would be smaller. I recalled that Nick already told me about this. If the medicine is abused, it would not create any positive effects and would stop helping the one who ingested it.


    ''This would make sense in that case. Shelly was damaged quite badly today and I poured 2 vials of the medicine on its shell. The liquid was absorbed and because of that Shelly recovered and even managed to increase its strength. I noticed a pattern as well. When Shelly was badly injured and I gave it some medicine to heal itself, it would always develop skills or traits that were most required for the situation. In this case, the silver bear was very strong and had a tough skin. Because of the Vital Liquid that I poured on top of Shelly, it decided or maybe something dictated that the strength is the trait needed the most for it right now.


    This would be fascinating in itself because if Shelly could choose what to gain, that could be helpful in the future but if that was not true, then there is another question. What exactly decides for Shelly what trait is the most useful at that moment? I decided to ask "Do you choose what to improve or is it random?" to which Shelly draw something again on the ground and it looked like Shelly had no way of choosing, something simply chose for it depending on the situation.


    I thought ''It could be nature or maybe Shelly doesn''t even know it is choosing this trait''. My thoughts got distracted with the sound of my stomach. I was very hungry now so I reached into the bag and took out everything that was edible in order to satisfy my hunger. Shelly also wanted to eat despite the fact that it just ate a whole bear. I shared the food with Shelly and rested until my strength came back.

 Chapter 82

    Chapter 82


    After a while of rest I said "We should go back to the camp. I need to catch up now with my skills otherwise a turtle will be stronger than me, hahaha". Shelly looked at me confused as if I was saying something stupid. I didn''t give it more thought as I took out the map and tried to determine our location. I wanted to swing by the ces where we killed all those bears in order to collect more meat. I would need it the next morning, after my dream.


    We traveled for about 30 minutes when we reached the ce that was littered with ck bears. I should rather say carcases and half eaten ones at that. When we arrived, we noticed a pack of wolves eating their dinner or to be exact my breakfast. I wanted to immediately spring into action but I almost had no daggers left. I used loads of them while fighting the silver and ck bears. I could see some of them still lodged inside the bears. Not many of my daggers were visible due to the carnage the wolves created while eating the dead bears.


    I said to Shelly "Chase as many of them as you can and kill, I shall fight in closebat". Shelly listened as usual which surprised me a bit because it was now stronger than me so it wouldn''t have to be scared of me. ''It turns out Shelly is still the same Shelly. Perhaps it doesn''t think about who is stronger. Maybe it can feel that I treat it as part of family and it doesn''t simply care'' I thought and ran at the wolves as well.


    We managed to kill about a dozen of them while the rest ran away. This time I didn''t sit around anymore. I said "Eat as much as you want and we will leave as soon as I collect couple of wolves and collect back all my daggers". I then started to scavenge all my daggers I could find. it wasn''t that easy to find them and I didn''t manage to get all of them anyway. I''ve lost about 10 daggers, which I couldn''t just replenish. I then stuff whole wolves into my bag.


    When I stuffed the 4th wolf inside the bag, it became quite heavy but I didn''t have the time to just sit there and dismember these wolves. When I was searching for my daggers andter packing the wolves inside my bag, Shelly on the other hand ate as much as it wanted. When the bag was heavy enough and any more wolves would make it too difficult to travel, I said "Alright, we will leave now" and Shelly followed after me, although a bit reluctantly, it was because Shelly was a glutton and didn''t want to leave all that meat behind but we had to leave, just in case.


    We travelled back for about 40 minutes and finally reached the camp. It was as peaceful as usual and nothing was going on. I ced the bag on the ground and took out the wolves I stuffed in earlier. I started to extract meat and fur. We didn''t need bones so I would just burry them. Intestines would also be disposed of, as would the head and other parts that were not really edible or just tasted funny.


    After I did that, I decided to train even harder now. Shelly was bing stronger and stronger. While I improved in one way or another, I felt that I was stagnating at the same level. ''If I don''t put in more work, I will never be able to match Shelly and what about those strong people like Nick was? I would never be able to reach their heights'' I thought.


    I needed to develop my skills and finish what I started. I needed to focus on the skills I was about to perfect or those that didn''t require hours of daily training before I could gain anything. I wanted to master my puppet skill, which I was not far away from mastering. I needed to focus on that all the time, until I''ve mastered this skill.


    I could still train the pose from the Strength Manual because it only took me about 15 minutes to do so, this would bring benefits in long run but also was not time consuming. I practised the puppet skills for the rest of the day and then went to sleep.


    When I opened my eyes I was back in the same dream. I did what I usually did and simply listened and tried to figure out another word from the dark figure. After another 8 repeats, I got an idea what another word could mean. The word was Lak and it was possible the word meant "You". This could further broaden my understanding of thenguage because if the word Lak meant You then the next word could be "Are" in human concept ofnguage. It could be wrong as well but if I were to try couple of variations and one of them made sense, then I could choose that meaning and try to create a sentence. Maybe this would change something in the dream.


    I listened and died dozen more times before waking up. I couldn''t figure out any other clue but I wouldn''t give up. ''This must be some kind of ancientnguage or it just isn''t human'' I thought. if it''s the former then it would be possible to use the currentnguage structure and decipher thisnguage as well. On the other hand if thenguage is non human, thenguage can be govern by different rules such as, there is no "Are" after "You". In that case, deciphering thenguage will be multiple times harder.


    I wouldn''t give up hope that fast. I sat down and ate my breakfast. I felt hunger as usual but because of constant supply of food, my body got kind of used to the hunger it felt and just demanded food but didn''t produce any negative effects anymore, which was good news.


    I didn''t wake Shelly up and simply left the shelter in order to train in the 1st modified diagram of the Strength Manual. This time I couldst almost 14 minutes but not quite. I had to stop about 10 seconds short of 14 minutes. The improvements were smaller but they were there. Next I practised my puppet skills. I was close to mastery of all 5 puppets. I could now move all of them and even make them attack, retreat or defend. The problem I had to solve right now, was to learn how to control such amount of puppets independently. Maximum I could do was to control 2 groups of puppets. For example 2 puppets would attack and 3 would defend or retreat. I needed to figure out how to control each one separately, if I were to aplish that, then I would have reach the mastery of the puppet skill.


    While I was training with my puppets, Shelly came over in order to get some food and the mask that sealed the vision. I first ced some meat in a pile in front of Shelly and waited while it ate. I then ced the mask on Shelly and said "When you are done with your training and can run around the obstacles without hitting them, you will train with me. Besides, it may actually help me develop my puppet skills as well". Shelly nodded and went off in the direction of trees in order to practise.


    I wondered about Shelly''s progress but I had no time for that. I needed to train myself in order to catch up.

 Chapter 83

    Chapter 83


    Time flew by like this and 2 weeks passed. I finally managed to master the puppets skill and could control every single puppet independently. I also started to train with Shelly and used one puppet in the beginning to make Shelly ustomed to the training.


    Shelly was doing rather well and adapted in a good pace to its new training. It still had issues when it came to attacking the puppet but the other aspects such as defence or dodging the puppets were carried out quite skillfully by Shelly.


    My training on the other hand moved from puppets to Stringed Hidden Weapons. I first needed to figure out how to attach the dagger to the piece of string. It might seem as a simple thing to do but I had to consider all the factors, such as wind resistance or bnce. If the string was attached in a wrong ce, it would not produce desired effects. It could even make it more difficult to control the dagger.


    I thought about it for a long time and tried different way of attaching the dagger but all the methods I tried were not very good. After so many trials and errors I figured out that the best solution would be to have a hole in my dagger''s handle. This way the dagger would be tied to the string in the best possible way and if thrown, it would fly in a straight line. Of course provided that I didn''t manipte the string.


    But there was a problem with that idea. My daggers didn''t have any holes. Not in the handles or the des. I would either need to create new daggers or modify my old daggers. I decided that modifying them was the only option I could go for. It was all due to the fact that I had no ess to a furnace or materials used to create my daggers. A small hole through which the string could be slipped was all I needed.


    I had no such tool that could be used to pierce the purified steel dagger. That was the problem I had right now. I could probably use one of my daggers as a kind of punching pin and a hammer to make a hole but it would sacrifice at least 1 dagger in case this didn''t work. One dagger was not a lot and although I had limited supply, I was willing to take that gamble.


    I prepared 2 daggers, one which will be used to punch the hole and the other which will contain the hole. I found a hard and t rock the size of Shelly then ced one dagger down and started hammering. It would take some time as both daggers were made from purified steel. Although my daggers were very sharp, both contained the same metal and it would be much harder to punch through. If the materials were different in those daggers for example purified steel and iron then I could mass produce those holes but that wasn''t the case.


    I hammered for a long while and managed to make a hole that looked like the tip of my de. The string would fit through it but because the hole was not round, the string could potentially move up and down. The perfect solution would be a round hole the size of the string but I worked with that I had and managed to produce something.


    The dagger used for punching out the hole was damaged a bit but I decided to leave it for now. If I were to create more daggers in the future it woulde in handy and I wouldn''t have to damage other daggers. It would have to be sharpened before the next use though.


    I tried to throw the dagger and retrieve it when it reached about 5 metres. I needed to learn how to throw and retrieve my dagger first. If I mastered that with 1 dagger I could add another dagger and so on until 10 fingers are upied with 10 daggers.


    Of course I knew that this would not be so easy because adding in just one dagger would increase the difficulty. I didn''t have to throw the puppets then retrieve them back to my hand. I simply manipted their positions. This seemingly easy step of throwing and retrieving my dagger was actually very hard.


    I practised like this for couple of hours and then decided to have a break. I was also getting hungry and we would need to got and hunt something. I was now much more careful when it came to hunting. I always made sure that no animals were able to leave because I didn''t want the same situation to happen again.


    Shelly did the hunting as usual for the experience but I would also intervene if I noticed any of the beasts trying to retreat. I also noticed that the bears were wandering in bigger groups from the time we killed that silver bear. It must''ve been some kind of leader to the bears and its death made them very cautious, this must''ve increased the numbers of bears in the group while they wondered out.


    I wasn''t sure where the bears originated from but I was not in a hurry to find this out. Who knew if there were more silver bears there or even something worse. I called out to Shelly "Shelly, let''s go and hunt". Shelly ran over to me and stood still. I took off the mask and we proceeded deeper into the forest. Shelly was still using the mask to run around and go around trees when I was busy with my own training. It would have to wait for me to finish while doing nothing so this was a better choice than just letting it sit idly for couple of hours instead of doing something.


    I was tempted to use this mask in actualbat but I figured that it was still too early for this to happen. We searched for any suitable group of animals to hunt when I noticed a ck wolf in the distance.


    I already encountered silver and ck wolf in the past. Both were fighting each other and the silver wolf won. I don''t know if that ck wolf was as strong as silver or stronger. Just because I saw one silver wolf defeat a ck one, it didn''t mean that ck wolf''s strength was much inferior.


    I remembered that the ck wolf from my memories was very fast. Faster than the silver one. So this should be a speed variant of the wolf. I started to categorise all the variants I encountered. For example a bear was a normal animal, then there was a ck bear who was much stronger and tougher but with simr speed if not slower than the usual bears. Then there was a silver variant of the bear which was stronger than ck bear and much faster than ck or normal bears. The wolves were a bit different. Normal wolves were a lot slower than ck wolves and a bit bigger but the silver one was slower than ck as well yet it had twice the size and strength.


    All variants had something developed better than other animals of the same species while they would also suffer in other aspects. I didn''t know what negatives the silver bear had but I may be able to find out in the future.


    The ck wolf also saw us and howled loudly "Awooo" then rushed at us with an astonishing speed. I had to give it to that ck wolf, it was much faster than the one I met in the past. I said to Shelly "We need to fight it, Look out for its speed. I will try to engage it while you wait for a chance to strike". Shelly nodded and we ran at the ck wolf as well.


    I was worried that due to the howl earlier, more wolves will arrive. Even if those wolves were normal ones, the ck one with its speed was enough of a headache.

 Chapter 84

    Chapter 84


    While we were running towards the ck wolf, Shelly stayed a bit behind to wait for the appropriate chance to attack. I decided to throw few of my daggers to test our the reflexes and also defence of that ck wolf. When I threw about half a dozen of daggers, the ck wolf immediately avoided them and pounced towards us.


    I knew that the wolf was fast but this was a bit too fast for my liking. I knew that it would have annoying fighting style but I had to fight it in closebat in order to get its attention on me. This way Shelly would have more freedom finding a chance and attacking unexpectedly.


    I took out two daggers and engaged the wolf with my attacks. The wolf evaded my shes and got behind me in order to bite but I was not stupid enough to expose my back to the enemy like this and rolled forward while throwing my daggers at the ck wolf behind me. The ck wolf was stunned a bit but at the same time also avoided my daggers. I thought ''This will be another annoying fight''.


    When I turned around, I faced the wolf again. The wolf avoided my attacks while I avoided its. It was a battle without conclusion. Due to my skills of calcting and predicting its behaviour, the ck wolf could notnd a hit on me but the same could be said about me. I had no way to injure the ck wolf as its reflexes and speed were too great.


    Although I''m saying this. The wolf while fighting with me, forgot about one crucial thing and that was Shelly. I managed to gain the ck wolf''s focus onto myself and when the time was ripe Shelly finally made its move.


    The ck wolf was surprised when it finally noticed Shelly pouncing at it and wanted to run but at the same time I also threw my daggers. It would either avoid the daggers and face Shelly or avoid Shelly and face my daggers. The wolf knew what I was capable of so it chose to face Shelly. This was its demise, Shelly was actually stronger than me. If it chose to face my daggers instead, it had a chance to survive but now its choice was fatal.


    When the ck wolf evaded my daggers, it also tried to evade Shelly and to a point it managed to avoid the ramming attack that Shelly did. What the ck wolf didn''t expect was Shelly''s bite attack. The ck wolf''s neck was ripped apart by Shelly''s bite and it stumbled around for couple of steps then fell to the ground twitching.


    It couldn''t produce sounds anymore as its vocal cords were destroyed. After a few seconds, the ck wolfid dead in its own pool of blood. I said "Good job Shelly. If you were to try and ram into it, the attack would fail so using your mouth at a critical moment was a good move". Shelly seemed very satisfied with my praise. I then started to dismember the wolf.


    One wolf especially this size would not be enough for both of us but I didn''t have to worry aboutck of meat. The moment I was about to finish with the ck wolf, I heard more howlsing from the direction that the ck wolf arrived from. ''Probably its reinforcements have arrived'' I thought. Fortunately the ck wolf died and we wouldn''t have to deal with it and the rest of the pack.


    After a while, I saw about 10 wolves running towards us but there were some bad news too. There was another ck wolf amongst them. I took out the remaining meat that was cooked from my bag and threw it towards Shelly while I munched on some as well. While Shelly was devouring the food, I said "This is going to be troublesome. There is another ck wolf amongst the group so we need to take care of as many normal wolves as we can before taking care of the ck one". Shelly nodded and finished eating the meat. We needed to be in a good condition for that fight.


    The normal wolves were not a problem but adding in the ck wolf to the group, it could potentially mess up a lot of things. When the wolves got close enough, I started throwing my daggers at the normal ones. Soon 5 of them were dead and the others got a bit scared. The situation was differentpared tost time. The ck wolf didn''t try to protect its kind like the silver bear did, it just pounced towards us with increased speed.


    I would need to fight it again. I got ready for closebat while saying to Shelly "Be ready to attack the ck wolf together with me. This time pretend you are weak and that you are trying to take care of the other wolves. If the ck wolf underestimates you, it will work to our advantage". Shelly nodded and got ready as well.


    Soon the ck wolf arrived first while the other wolves were trailing behind it. I raised my daggers and started the attack. Of course the ck wolf evaded it like the previous one but I didn''t expect anything else from it and threw couple of daggers to where it evaded. This time I got the ck wolf by surprise and it got hit by one of the daggers. Its fur was not as sturdy as I thought and the dagger prated the wolf very well.


    Although one of my daggers hit the target, the ck wolf was not dead or injured to a state where it couldn''t fight. Some of its speed would be affected due to the damage on one of its legs though. The ck wolf howled loudly and backed away, letting the normal wolvese forward and attack. I still nned to fight and started attacking the normal wolves together with Shelly. Shelly didn''t kill the wolves in one attack but took an approach of being weak. This worked to our advantage as the ck wolf decided to get rid of Shelly first. When it got close and tried to bite Shelly, it was instead bitten by Shelly and lost a considerable amount of flesh due to that. The ck wolf was finished now, I didn''t have to worry about it and quickly killed off the rest of the wolves that seemed to be in daze from what just happened.


    The ck wolf tried to get away but due to the severe injuries it sustained and the loss of blood, its speed was greatly affected. Shelly caught up with the ck wolf very soon and killed it. I praised Shelly again and proceeded to cut up the wolves for their meat.


    11 wolves would be enough for us till the next day hunt. After getting all the meat we returned to our camp. I said to Shelly "Let us rest for a bit and have some food. I will then train with you using the puppets". Shelly nodded and we ate our dinner, properly this time.

 Chapter 85

    Chapter 85


    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 againstrge 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 thenguage 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 humannguage was simr 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 simr form. I was quite happy about that discovery because if thenguage was some kind of ancient humannguage, then surely it would be much easier to extrapte the meaningpared to thenguage that is not govern by the same rules as the humannguage.


    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 lotpared to normal people but it was nowhere nearpared 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 aplished 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 be 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 ughter. Of course provided I''ve mastered that skill. Every animal had a weak point, this meant that if my attacks were fast and urate, 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 be 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 tost 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 be 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 ns. 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 be 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.

 Chapter 86

    Chapter 86


    I tried to manipte the puppet and I noticed it was more difficult, the additional weight on my arms as well as my back, prevent me from controlling the puppet very smoothly. Although Shelly couldn''t see that and trained as usual, I had some problems in order to maintain the training. ''Who would have guessed that adding just this much weight onto my arms would create such effect? Well there is this heavy bag on my back as well so it probably ys a huge role too'' I thought.


    I wasn''t thinking of taking off the bag or the weights and simply tried to adjust to the weight to continue on with the training. After an hour or so I was getting tired. The weight yed its part, although it might seemed that the weight was nothing in the beginning but continuous training proved otherwise. I stopped the training soon after and said to Shelly "It is enough for today. You are doing improvements although I had a hard time controlling the puppet. We will try to increase the number of puppets to two tomorrow and see how it goes". Shelly nodded and was quite pleased with itself.


    ''I myself wonder how my control will look like when I try two puppets at once'' I thought to myself. I let Shelly go to the shelter and rest while I focused on the 2nd diagram from the Strength Manual. I didn''t modify it for long as I felt tired from all the weight carrying and went to bed soon after.


    I still had to face the dream of mine and try to find some meaning in the words spoken by the dark figure. I fell asleep and woke up in front of the dark figure again, who started talking as usual. The dream went as usual and this time I wasn''t able to figure out any new meaning either. When I woke up, I ate some breakfast and went outside to train the 1st modified diagram.


    I didn''t evenst 15 minutes this time. It was all due to the weight that I was carrying. The time I could stay in that pose was a bit less than 10 minutes. The weight alone took away 5 minutes of the time I was able to practice this pose for. ''I wonder what type of effect would it have when I reach 15 minutes with the weight on'' I thought.


    I was adding stones to my bag as the food was disappearing, it was in order to maintain roughly the same weight. If I were to rely on food only to fill in my bag, it would not be a proper training. Every time I took away some food, I would ce about an equal amount of stones inside. it might seem stupid to carry around stones but hell it was my training and I didn''t care about the method but the effects it would bring.


    Shelly came out of our shelter a whileter and I gave it breakfast. I then decided to train with Shelly first and do my own trainingter. I took out two puppets from my bag and asked Shelly "Ready?" to which Shelly nodded and we begun our training after I ced the mask on it.


    Shelly was able to cope with two puppets but that was mainly due to the weight I was carrying. It didn''t mean it would be able to if I dropped all of that weight. Nevertheless, we continued on like this till afternoon.


    After the dinner we went out to hunt as usual. The hunt this time was not very thrilling but still possessed some difficulties for me and especially my uracy. Due to the weight, I missed quite often and this resulted in more dagger throwing. This was not progress but backstepping, yet I wasn''t disappointed. ''If I manage to pull through all of this, the fruits of my training will be much greater'' I thought.


    We returned from the hunt and went to do our own separate training. Shelly was bing more crafty and experienced when fighting againstrger groups of animals. This was a good sign and proved that Shelly was learning something new everyday.


    I on the other hand started my Stringed Hidden Weapons training but was soon left helpless. Due to the weight, it was now even harder to train in that skill. I wondered what possible things I could do in order to adjust faster to that weight. Improving my skills was quite troublesome with it and I wouldn''t progress much, especially when I adapt to the weight and all proportions would change.


    I thought and thought and finally figured something out. ''Why not just do simple exercises? It may be crude but wouldn''t that allow me to simply get ustomed to that weight much faster?''. The only problem with that would be theck of practice of other skills. ''I would have to sacrifice learning something new... again, in order to get stronger first''.


    This had its advantages too. When I''m adjusted to the weight, the effects might be even more amazing than simply grinding the skill while the weight pulls me down at all times. I decided to leave all the skills behind and focus on that. Although I would not make any progress when it came to skills, I would gain more strength in exchange. Strength was not an absolute power. It would boost my ability to make damage and perhaps my movements but it wouldn''t provide any technique.


    All that being said, I still went for strength. ''If I''m as strong as a silver bear or stronger then I will be able to kill such opponent with bare hands, I can work on my skillster''. I had loads of skills to work on, not only 3 types of arts that I learned from Nick but also skills I developed myself.


    I then thought about exercises I should be doing. ''The Strength Manual focuses mainly on hidden muscles and I can practise it only once a day. Besides I only have the 1st diagram modified, I will need to spend the rest of my free time on modifying the 2nd diagram''. I would still practise the Strength Manual but that was not enough and didn''t cover my other muscles.


    I thought ''What sort of exercises will I need in order to train all my usual muscles?''. Then the answer came to me in a sh. "That is right! I remember my father doing sets of exercises each morning. Mother also liked to watch him do it. Just what were those exercises?". I tried hard to remember and recall what type of exercises my father did.


    ''Now that I think about it, why would father do exercises every morning?''. My parents always told me they were merchants or simply put peddlers, selling stuff around the vige and sometimes leaving the vige while I would be under the care of my neighbours.


    ''Yet our heirloom was a sword, father used to do a lot of exercises everyday and he knew how to make fire and such¡­ Did they lie to me? Why would a peddler train his or her body? and why would the heirloom be a sword which I wasn''t supposed to show to anyone?'' I never wondered about those things. I was a stupid vige boy, ignorant and blind but now? All these questions and my parents'' past behaviour was weird indeed, if they really were peddlers.


    I no longer had a way to find out, they died when traveling from some kind of vige to Freemount Vige. Some people escaped that tragedy and reported it to the vige chief. That was how I found out. ''It seems strange and full of holes when I wonder about it now. I shall pay a visit to the Freemount Vige when I''m done with my arts''.


    I then tried to recall my father''s exercises. First he would stretch out for a while, I guessed that it was to warm up the muscles. A verymon thing before exercising. After stretching for whatever time, he would crouch and then stand up for a while. The next exercise he would do was toy down, put his hands behind his head and lift his legs up high while maintaining them straight. Next he would do some punches in the air for whatever reason and then stand on both hands while the legs would be straightened upwards and work with his arms up and down.


    I thought ''Some of those things are a bit stupid but hell, he did them for some kind of reason, so I will take that as 1 part of my training. I will need additional exercises as well in order to fill in my day'' and started devising the 2nd part of my training.

 Chapter 87

    Chapter 87


    For the 2nd part of my training, I decided to do some running. It was a good type of excercise for legs but if I only did that, my training would not be bnced. I had to think of something that would train my arms too. Although in the 1st part of my n, I had the "Punching the air" kind of exercise that my father used to do, but that wouldn''t be enough to train my arms. I needed something more.


    After a while of thinking, I figured out one such exercise. ''I could lift more weights'' I thought. It seemed stupid but it would be effective at the same time. Although I was carrying all that weight on me, why not lift some more?


    But that was too crude to be considered as an exercise for my hands. I needed something more. Then it hit me "If I can run on my legs, why not ''run'' on my arms?" I said out loud. It was again stupid idea on the surface but then again, I found out that when I try to follow my own way, I always seemed to get stupid ideas.


    Although it seemed stupid on the outside, it would actually train my arms very well. My arms would be under the same weight as my legs and this would produce bnce. I now had my training n but I needed to assign some times to fill in the day.


    ''First thing in the morning, I will train the 1st diagram from the Strength Manual. Then I would do my father''s exercises as a warmup for running. I think my father used to do them for about 30 minutes but I''m different and will need to practise all of that for longer in order to gain some kind of effects. Then I would run on my legs for 2 hours and then on my arms for 2 hours'' I thought. All of that would result in about 5 hours of training. Which was not a whole day. In that case, I would just rinse and repeat the running after the hunt and rests.


    My n was a bit crude but it was a n nevertheless. The day was not over yet so I started with light exercises to warm my body up. I stretched like my father did and then repeated the same set of training exercises for an hour. I found that it was very tiring to do them when an hour passed. ''So father was not doing any type of useless training but something useful''. If it was useless then I wouldn''t be so tired after that kind of training even with the weight on. I took a rest and decided to eat something while I was at it.


    Shelly smelled the food from afar and came running for some as well. We ate together and I asked Shelly "So how are you doing? Does theck of vision still bother you much?". Shelly shook its head and seemed to be proud of itself. I didn''t have much to talk about with Shelly. Maybe because it never answered and simply nodded its head or drew something. It didn''t bother me much but maybe it bothered Shelly. I asked "Shelly, do you think that we should talk about something other than training or food?"


    But Shelly didn''t seem to know how to answer. After a while it just shook its head. Then Shelly drew something on the ground and it seemed to say that it didn''t need that and it just wanted to stay with me.


    I was a bit relieved because how could we hold a conversation? I would have to wait for Shelly to literally draw something on the ground, then figure out what it meant and then respond. Awful lot of job to ask or answer one question. I was relieved due to the fact that Shelly didn''t need to have interesting conversations in order not to be bored. I then remembered that Shelly was still a turtle, it could sleep for a long time and didn''t really have very active life before it met me. ''I guess we are quite well matched partners'' I thought.


    After we ate the food, I said to Shelly "If you want you can go rest now. I shall continue a bit more". Shelly was a turtle andzy in nature, I didn''t have to ask it twice in order for it to go and sleep. I on the other hand started to run. I didn''t want to run off too far away and so I ran around in circles of about 500 metres radius.


    I began to sweat a bit when I ran for 10 minutes and thought ''I should change my initial n from 2 hours of running to 1 hour of running. Just after 10 minutes I''m starting to get tired''. After running for half an hour the sweat was pouring from me like river. I decided to stop, I could feel my leg muscles giving way.


    "About half an hour to drain my energy and after a meal too. I think this will be the new interval. 30 minutes of running, then rest and then running for another 30 minutes". I would then change that to ''running'' on my arms and repeat the same process.


    I needed about the same amount of break in order to regte my breathing. After my break, I ran again. This time I barely made it to 30 minutes mark and simply copsed onto the ground. ''I think this training is the most straining one I ever did''. Out of fear for my muscles and general health, I checked over my body but fortunately found no damaged muscles or skin. It was getting darker as the days were shorter and nights longer. I was too tired to continue any training that day and went back to shelter.


    Iid down in my bed and started my work on the 2nd diagram. I tried modifying the position in small details trying to find an optimal way of doing it. Then I hit the bullseye "I think I found what I''ve been looking for all this time". A small detail that I changed in the pose was all that I''ve been missing. Now when I looked back and added in the other positive effects, the diagram becameplete and most suitable for me.


    The 2nd modified diagram now disyed the pose that could be described in this way. Both legs would be ced on the ground but as far apart as it is possible. Then the practitioner would have to crouch which would create a sort of rectangle between the practitioners legs and ground. Both hands were straightened out but no longer in front of the practitioner. One hand would be straightened towards the skies while the second hand would point towards the ground. The head would be slightly tilted upwards while the back would be straightened.


    It was a bit different and in some regardsplete opposite of the normal 2nd diagram but to me, this seemed as a perfect diagram that I could practise. I tried calcting the time I would be able to spend in that pose and figured that maybe 5 minutes would be possible with all that weight on me. Without it maybe 10 minutes, that would be under ideal conditions and not guaranteed at all. The 2nd modified diagram pose was much harder to maintainpared to the 1st one.


    There was another good news. It seemed that both diagrams used different hidden muscles and I would be able to practise both every day. Bad news was, the 2nd diagram again produced huge amounts of stress on my hidden muscles and it could be practised only once every day, just like the 1st diagram.


    I was thrilled with myself and though ''Now I have 2 diagramspletely modified. This means I will not have to worry about trying to modify the 3rd and 4th diagram. It will take me some time to master those first two''. I then closed my eyes, rxed and went to sleep.

 Chapter 88

    Chapter 88


    The dark figure stood in front of me but didn''t talk. It struck me as odd and different. It would always talk so why wouldn''t it do so now? I then shouted towards the dark figure "Hey! are you finally going to give me a break?" but the it just stood there. I started to move toward the dark figure at a slow pace, as if testing the grounds.


    When I was couple of metres away, I noticed movement from the dark figure. It didn''t punch me or kick me, it simply did something over and over again. I was shocked at what I saw and though ''Just what the fuck is this thing doing exactly! It just arbitrarily decided to train right now and that''s it?''.


    ''But why the hell did it change again? It is not attacking me anymore and simply trains something. Just¡­ Why?''. The dark figure was training something weird at that. It would jump like a frog or run on all fours as if it was some sort of animal. It would also walk slowly in a very weird pose and even roll on the ground like a wheel.


    I thought ''Why did it change? That is the fundamental question. What happened for it to change?''. After a while of thinking and pondering about it, I began to suspect something. ''It''s a bit weird that this dark figure starts to train something when I decided to train in reality'' my thoughts then continued ''If that is the case, what if I start training my skills instead of strength. Would it change again?''


    Although I couldn''t be certain for now but I wanted to test it and know immediately. "Yet I''m in the dream right now and I don''t know how long it will take for me to wake up. If that is the case then why not train as well? I might just do it while I wait for the dream to end".


    I started to train as well. I stretched for a bit first in order to warm up my muscles. I then tried to do one of the exercises that my father used to do in the past but the moment I started the real training, the dark figure immediately stopped and ran at me. I was stupefied and again didn''t know what was going on. I soon found out. The dark figure kicked me and I died.


    When I opened my eyes, I was not in a dream anymore. Instead I wasying on my bed. I screamed loudly "Just what the fuck is that dream!" and woke Shelly up, who had no clue as to why I would shout such stuff first thing in the morning. ''This damned dream is ying tricks on me. I need to change my training to skills instead of strength and we will see whenever the dream changes as well'' I thought and got up from bed.


    I practised the 1st modified diagram as usual and then took a rest before practising the 2nd modified diagram. After that, I did my training with Stringed Hidden Weapons even though I still carried that whole weight on me. Later on, I trained with Shelly using the puppets and then we hunted after which I trained in the Stringed Hidden Weapons skill again.


    I didn''t do any exercises that day, of course besides the diagrams from the Strength Manual which I always did anyway. Late in the evening, I finished my training and went to bed. ''Let''s see if this dream changes again'' I thought and soon after fell asleep.


    When I opened my eyes, the dark figure was standing in front of me talking away. "This¡­" I didn''t know what to say and how to describe that situation. The dream indeed changed to the one I always had. The familiar feeling of dying and listening to the dark figure speaking away was now bewildering. ''Then does it mean that if I do stuff like y on some instruments whole day, the dream would be different again? This is preposterous!'' I screamed in my head.


    I couldn''t focus at all on the dark figure and the words it spoke. I simply died 20 times and woke up in my bed. I thought ''Let''s think about this rationally. If my actions affect what is going to happen in my dream, then does that mean it has some kind of deeper meaning. Maybe the dreams are much more than just dreams''. When It came to skills, the dark figure would first talk and then kill me with a skill.


    When I trained my body on the other hand, the dark figure from my dream would train all the time in some weird ways. I could walk, talk and so on but the dark figure would simply train. Yet when I wanted to train as well, it attacked me immediately. ''What the hell is that supposed to mean?'' I thought and suddenly, I got an idea.


    ''What if I try to repeat the same exercise that the dark figure does, would it attack me then?''. I couldn''t replicate the skills of that dark figure when it came to my original dream but doing the same weird poses was not that difficult to copy. I formed a new n where I would return to my strength training and when it was time to sleep, I would repeat what the dark figure did. ''We will see what type of effects will this have'' I thought and got out from my bed to start my day.


    After breakfast I did the usual morning training, I then fed Shelly and trained with it using the puppets. I added another puppet to make 3 but my control of them was quite poor so I decided to just stick with 2 puppets. After training with Shelly, I went out for a run. I decided to do 30 minutes of running on my legs then rest and another 30 minutes of "running" but this time on my arms.


    My muscles got used to the weight a bit already. I ran for 30 minutes and felt that I could go on some more. I still decided not to go that far and do it systematically. I rested for about 30 minutes and then tried to do running using my arms.


    I as a human being, was not adapted to walking on my arms, especially with the weight I was carrying. I couldn''t maintain the proper bnce when I tried to move. It was actually much harder than just walking. I decided to change the ''oh so weird'' arms running into walking. When you were born, you had to learn how to walk first in order to run.


    It was the same in this situation. I used my arms as, well arms not legs. Therefore my bnce upside down was affected greatly and I first needed to learn how to maintain my bnce and learn to walk. I could then change this to running.


    I trained like this till afternoon when I called for Shelly in order to go and hunt something for our dinner and breakfast. Shelly came running and it seemed that the mask was not very effective for Shelly anymore. Although during the puppet training, It would struggle due to my control skills but running around the shelter and areas near it, posed no problems for Shelly.


    I also wanted to try something new when hunting this time but I first wanted to make sure that the group we encounter is not deadly. Like this we traveled deeper into the forest in search of prey.

 Chapter 89

    Chapter 89


    Deep in the forest. Together with Shelly, we were searching for a suitable group of animals we could hunt. The search was not going very well as we found groups that were either too big or would be to troublesome to deal with. ''I think that due to our mass hunting, the animals got into even bigger groups and the variants started to show more often'' I thought.


    One variant such as silver bear or ck wolf were not a problem now but when the group had 3 ck wolves or 2 silver bears, that would be too troublesome to hunt them. At the same time, groups that numbered in excess of 30 were just too big to hunt. Even if we killed half of the group, the other half would retreat and maybe try to return with reinforcements and I didn''t want that. Who knew what type of beasts would arrive to get rid of us.


    Afterbing through the forest for over an hour, we finally found a group of boars that number 24. There was a variant in that group which we never encountered before. Normal boars were brown but the variant was dark yellow. It was also a bit bigger than normal boars and hadrger tusks. We didn''t know what abilities and characteristics the yellow boar had but we decided to tackle that group together, just to be on the safe side.


    I snuck up closer to the group of boars but due to the weight I was carrying, the yellow boar found me out as I stepped on something that made cracking sound. Immediately other boars followed the view of the yellow boar and saw nothing. Although I was found out by the yellow boar due to the sound, it didn''t immediately mean that those animals knew my location exactly.


    I didn''t wait any longer and started throwing my daggers to kill off some normal boars. I also wanted to test the strength of the yellow boar variant. Although my aim suffered a bit due to the weight, the boars were packed in a group and it would be hard to miss that group for someone with my skills. In fact if I did miss, I could just pack my staff and crawl into some kind of hole.


    The daggers killed normal boars without any problems but the yellow boar was more crafty and hid behind other animals in the group to avoid the attack. Now the group of boars knew my location but they didn''t know one thing for certain. Shelly was still waiting to take action. When the boars rushed at me, Shelly also made its move.


    Gaining momentum, Shelly charged at the group from the side. The boars never expected to be attacked, by a turtle nheless that was actually faster than them. The boars were bewildered and the next moment "Boom!" Shelly crashed into them like a boulder. Couple of boars died from the impact and even the yellow variant flew into the air.


    The yellow boar didn''t die but it struggling to get up. I quickly threw more daggers and finished it off. Its skin was tougher than normal boars but due to the disorientation and the amount of daggers, it died nevertheless. Shelly meanwhile attacked other boars and killed couple of them again. The fight quickly ended and none of the boars survived. I made a fire and then started extracting the meat. I cooked some while dismembering the other boars. When I was done extracting meat from all the boars, we had our dinner.


    I was multitasking in order to prevent the situation simr to the "silver bear appears" from uring. When we were done with our dinner, we went back to our camp. I told Shelly to just rest as I needed to focus on my own training. Shelly didn''t mind that and went to sleep, I on the other hand started my training afresh.


    First I warmed up and did my father''s training. I then started to run for 30 minutes, rest and run again. Iter changed from my legs to my hands and tried to find appropriate bnce and walk. Thissted until evening where I stopped and retired for the night.


    When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the dream. The dark figure was training some weird stuff again. I got closer in order to learn what it was doing. The dark figure would jump like a frog for a while, it would then change that to running on all fours. It did that for a while as well and again changed to rolling like a wheel. Some timeter, it would walk in a weird way as if its head was very heavy and pulling the dark figure backwards. The next thing the dark figure did was running but in some kind of weird fashion. It ced its arms behind while legs were a bit bent. It ran quite fast and its body was very low to the ground.


    After all that, the dark figure started again with the frog jumps. I thought ''OK, so the dark figure will cycle it like this. I will try to join in on the same exercise and we will see if I get killed''. I started to mimic the dark figure and jump like a frog. This time the dark figure did not run towards me in order to kill me but simply trained as if nothing happened.


    I thought ''OK, so I can train here but I''m only allowed to mimic this thing. Otherwise I will be killed''. I mimicked the dark figure for a while and noticed that it changed the training method to running like an animal on all its limbs. I mimicked that as well and ran like an idiot around. ''Fortunately this is only a dream. I would be too embarrassed to show my face to Shelly if it saw that kind of stuff'' I thought and continued on with the running.


    Soon the dark figure changed its style of training to the one where it would roll like a wheel. I had no idea what this was supposed to train but I repeated it nevertheless. Then I mimicked the way it walked as if it had a very heavy head. Lastly, I ran around with my arms behind my back and my knees bent a bit. This exercise was actually very hard to do. If I never trained my body, I would not be able to mimic that.


    The figure suddenly stopped and repeated all the exercises again. After the second cycle, I was dead tired. I thought ''I don''t even have the weight on me and yet I got so tired already. I wonder for how long will I have to stay here in order wake up''. I took a break and because the dark figure would not attack me as long as I didn''t do anything other than walking, talking or sitting around and of course the training that the dark figure did itself, I had nothing to worry about.


    I rested for 2 cycles and started to train again. My limit even after resting was just 1 cycle andter towards the end I was barely finishing that one cycle. I guessed ''Is it because I was fresh when I first started the training with this dark figure? and now I''m tired and can''t do more than one cycle?''. I didn''t know the answer but it was apparent that I could do 1 cycle after the initial 2 in the beginning.


    When the 20th cycle finished, my vision cked out. I opened my eyes again and noticed that I woke up. I thought ''So it will also repeat 20 times, just like when I had to die 20 times''. This was good because I wouldn''t have to search for specific conditions to wake up. Like dying for example, which I was not a fan of.

 Chapter 90

    Chapter 90


    I tried to get up from my bed but I couldn''t. I couldn''t move my hands, legs, I couldn''t even roll to my side. Then a feeling of extreme hunger hit me. I had no time to think about any of that as I simply shouted "Shelly! SHELLY WAKE UP". Shelly woke up a bit disorientated and looked at me as if saying ''What the hell do you want?''. I didn''t bother with Shelly''s mood and simply said "Food, give me food". Shelly ran over towards my bed and started rummaging in the bag that was next to it in order to find some food.


    When Shelly finally found some food, it took it out and left it there. I said "I can''t move. You have to bring it to my face!". There was urgency in my voice as I was really starving at this point. Shelly immediately came over to my face and feeded me the meat. I ate it like a starving animal and simply asked for more when one piece after another disappeared in my mouth.


    When I ate about 2 boars worth of meat, I could finally move although in great pain. I sat up and started to retrieve meat myself from the bag. Shelly also started eating when it saw that I could move by myself. We finished almost all the meat in my bag. There was still enough for our dinner but it wasn''t muchpared to what we had stored in there.


    Even though I ate so much, I still felt pain in all my muscles. ''I will not be able to train today whatsoever. This dream¡­ me training while dreaming is as if I trained all of that in reality'' I thought. If my dreams can influence the reality, which they could because the increase in strength from the past was a proof of that but also my exhaustion after every dream was real as well. I could be in deep troubles one day.


    ''If the dream can and is affecting the reality in some way. Then that means all the training I did in there is kind of real but not real at the same time. It affects my body but at the same time, I''m not able to eat anything while I''m dreaming. That would exin why I wake up so hungry all the time'' I thought.


    My thoughts continued ''But if I''m asleep, how does the dream affect my real body? I don''t know how it is possible but I need to watch out when I do stuff in those dreams. If I trained too hard, I could really starve myself to death and that would not be good''. I decided that any training I did in the dream would need to be limited. That way, I wouldn''t starve myself to death while in the dream.


    Although I didn''t mind being hungry when I woke up but I hated the feeling of starvation and the inability to even move as if something was in control of my life. I now knew I would have to get some more meat stored just in case. My bag had limited space and besides, it would weight the same as the stuff that was inside. Carrying that kind of amount was not only impossible but also inconvenient. I decided to build something to store the meat. I knew that in viges during the winter, people had special shacks constructed that would allow for the cooked meat to stay fresh for longer. Instead of 1 or maybe 2 days that the meat would stay edible, it would extend the edibility of the meat to 4 or 5 days. Not much improvement but having 5 days and 2 days is a very big difference.


    I needed to build that kind of shack. The winter was here as well so the coldness would preserve the meat. There was a problem though, I wasn''t able to move properly so constructing that thing now was out of the question. I needed to rest in order to do anything.


    I said to Shelly "Here, take the mask and run off to y. I need to rest my muscles before I start to move properly". Shelly wasn''t very keen on the idea that I wouldyabout while it would have to train but I ced the mask on it anyway and kicked it outside.


    Iid back in my bed and took out the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. I still had couple of recipes to memorise and due to the recent events, I didn''t have much time to study them. Now that I had toy in bed to rest anyway, I could read it as well.


    I read the book till afternoon and managed topletely memorise 2 recipes. My thinking abilities were improved sincest time I read this book and my memory got better as well. Shelly came back in the afternoon for me to take off its mask. I was feeling much better now due to the rest but the pain still lingered in my body.


    I took out the rest of the meat from my bag and we had our dinner. I ate less this time as I didn''t do anything really whileying in bed. Shelly on the other hand ate most as usual. With our meat finished we had no meat left for the next day. This was a problem. If the dream happened again, although I did nothing today, I could be very hungry in the morning as well. With no food avable, I would just starve to death. We had to go on a hunt today, no matter what.


    I said to Shelly "We will go hunt as we have no food left but I''m not very well yet so you will have to do the hunting. I will try to help in case of problems". Shelly nodded its head and draw on the ground that it didn''t mind doing it alone.


    We traveled into the depth of the forest at a slow pace. I didn''t want to strain my body on traveling alone. We searched the forest but found nothing. Literally there were no animals as if the whole animal kingdom simply disappeared from the face of the earth.


    We searched and search and search but we found nothing. We decided to go further, if we didn''t find any food today, it would be very bad tomorrow. Shelly could just sleep and save its energy but I couldn''t do that, so the meat was more for my sake than Shelly''s.


    I was getting more desperate the longer we searched. I thought ''How the hell there are no animals when it was crawling with them in these parts of the forest''. After another hour of searching we stumbled upon a clearing. To my surprise there was an ongoing battle happening. To my bigger surprise it was not animals fighting other animals for territory or for food, no. It was humans fighting animals.


    The ground was littered with dead animals and I could also see some human corpses in between. I thought ''Where the hell did those peoplee from? ording to my map there are no viges in the vicinity''. I said to Shelly "We shall watch and see how this develops. I don''t want to get dragged into that fight and also there may be more animalsing to finish of the humans. If we get lucky, we won''t have to do anything in order to get meat". Shelly nodded its head and we hid ourselves to watch the fight.

 Chapter 91

    Chapter 91


    There were currently 9 people fighting the animals. I wasn''t sure for how long they were fighting nor was I sure how many of them were there at the beginning. The group of humans consisted of 7 males and 2 females. They had different range of weapons as well. Some used swords sometimes paired with shields. Other used axes and bows, there was one female who used her fists in order to fight. I could see some gloves on her hands and she seemed to be really strong. She could take out the normal animals in couple of hits while she would have to fight more seriously with the variants. The group was not doing badly but I knew this could change any moment. If more animals arrived and even more powerful at that, these people would be doomed most probably.


    I kind of hoped for that but the ideal situation would be for them to start running away and luring away all those animals from this graveyard. My n was simple. After the fight, I wanted to collect as much meat as I could. This would preserve our strength because we wouldn''t have to lift as much as a finger to get all that meat that was littering the ground.


    I never considered helping the people at all. It was not my problem, they got in this situation and I wouldn''t risk my own neck for some strangers who could easily stab me in the back. I didn''t care what happened to these people and simply watched from afar as the fight progressed.


    The human side was winning for now. Most of the variants were dead and the group was taking care of the remaining mob of animals that seemed to be in dismay. The skills those humans disyed were not bad at all. The people who wielded swords, did so skillfully and disyed their techniques while ying the animals. The woman with a bow was very skillful too. Her aim was very good and she seemed to be able to single out specific targets that posed the most danger.


    I knew that because I could see those targets as well, it was all due to my training with behaviours but her technique relied on something else. The woman who was fighting barehanded was also quite strong, maybe even as strong as me but would not be a match for Shelly who was also stronger than me. There was a guy with a sword and a shield who acted as a defence for the archer most of the time. He shielded her from other animals and allowed the archer to kill at ease. He also killed couple of animals but was mostly focusing on defence.


    A guy with an axe was very rough and savage. He would charge at the animals and ughter them with his axe. He was fighting as if he lost his mind and I didn''t understand why would anyone take such risks, especially when fighting in a group.


    After a while of fighting the tidespletely turned in favour of the human camp and the animals started retreating. The human party didn''t pursue them but I wasn''t worried about anything, I could already hear loud noisesing towards the group of humans. ''The reinforcements have arrived'' I thought and indeed arge group of animals arrived at the clearing. The humans were shocked at that sight and decided to run for it.


    I thought ''So they finally make a run for it, good! As long as they take the mob of animals with them, we will be able to gather as much meat as we will be able to carry''. I then turned towards Shelly and said "Prepare to move out. We will get as much meat as we can and leave. You can eat as much as you want but be on the lookout for other animals. If there is any sign of them inform me immediately". Shelly nodded its head and we waited for the mob topletely disappear.


    Not even 5 minutester, the field was left empty. No more animals were in the vicinity as they were now pursuing that bunch of humans. I said to Shelly "Now is the time. Let''s go" and we ran straight towards the carcases thatid on the ground. Shelly started eating as soon as we got there. Its appetite was huge, that was why I said to Shelly to eat as much as it can. I said that because I wouldn''t have to feed itter from the stuff we brought back home, this way it wouldst longer.


    I started cutting up the carcasses like a madman. One boar, 2 boars, 5 boars, 4 wolves, 3 bears. I had a n to stuff as much meat as I could inside the bag and let Shelly carry it for me. Although Shelly didn''t know about that yet, it was stronger than me so it could carry more than I could. When the bag was fully stuffed and could fit no more, I called Shelly over. The bag was very heavy, I could barely lift it up, I wanted to check if Shelly would be able to carry it or not. In case it was too heavy I would just take out some meat to make it lighter.


    I said to Shelly "This bag is quite heavy and I don''t feel well yet so you will have to carry it". Shelly gave me a look and I said "I let you eat as much as you wanted so you have more strength than I do, just try it out. If it''s too heavy, I will just take some meat out and throw it away". When Shelly heard that, it looked at me with fire in its eyes and nodded its head. I said thatst sentence on purpose. I knew Shelly wouldn''t want to discard the meat and so it would prefer to carry it.


    I barely lifted the bag and ced it on top of Shelly. I could see Shelly''s legs bend under the weight. I asked "Are you able to carry that?" and Shelly nodded weakly. I strapped some ropes around Shelly to secure the bag and said "Let''s leave, the less time we are here the better".


    We left the battleground and headed back to our camp. We had a long way to go before we could reach our shelter but Shelly was carrying the weight of that bag without making any sounds. ''I guess that Shelly will do anything for food. Although it struggles a bit, it will not give up'' I thought. We took regr breaks every 30 minutes to let Shelly rest. I also cooked some meat while we were at it and gave some to Shelly. This motivated it even more to carry all that weight back home.


    After over 2 hours of traveling, we finally arrived back at out shelter. What I saw there stunned me but also angered me a bit. I undid the ropes that ere tied on Shelly and said "Prepare as we may need to fight. We will see how things turn out first". Shelly nodded and waited by my side.

 Chapter 92

    Chapter 92


    I moved towards our shelter and when I was close enough, a guy with a sword and shield shouted "Who goes there!". I didn''t respond and moved forward. As I moved forwards, my silhouette became more visible. The guy was a bit stunned when he saw me and shouted "Stop! Don''t get closer!" to which I stopped and said "Pack your stuff and leave my home or stay here for eternity". He was stunned again and said "This is your home? Doesn''t matter, leave before I deal with you!".


    I snorted and didn''t respond anymore. I simply threw a dozen of daggers and killed the guy. Although he had a shield with him that was protecting some of his body, I also had skills that would allow me to kill him when he least expected it. When the guy died I moved forward. Then another person came out of our shelter and looked at me.


    He said "Why did you kill him?". I stopped again and said "Leave my home or stay here for eternity. I don''t care where you go". The guy that just came out was also stunned but this time he was more intelligent and shouted "Enemy". I didn''t bother with that guy anymore as I threw more daggers to take care of him. These people were tired after such a long fight and escape. If I were to face them while they were in their prime, I would not be so up front and I would deal with them sneakily.


    More people came out of our shelter and grabbed their weapons. The woman who used her fists to fight shouted "Why did you kill them? So what if this is your home, does that give you the right to kill?!" I didn''t want to listen to those stupid morals. This shelter was built by mine and Shelly''s hands, well more like Shelly''s legs but it was my territory and no one was allowed to just barge in like that while at the same time trying to make me leave.


    I said to Shelly "Kill them". Shelly nodded and ran straight at the group. When the group saw a turtle running towards them, their faces showed mockery. What they didn''t expect was Shelly elerating and ramming into them.


    "Boom!" the group of humans flew into the air and some flew back into our shelter. One out of 5 people died instantly as he took the attack head on, the rest was incapacitated and unable to pick themselves up. I walked slowly towards our shelter to finish off the rest that managed to survive. When I arrived in front of the guy who wielded an axe, he looked at me with rage in his eyes but said nothing. I threw my dagger at his head and killed him in one shot.


    The others were terrified and tried to either run or grab their weapons and fight. The next guy I stood in front was a sword wielder. I could see fear in his eyes and he should be fearful for what followed was his death. Then I stood in front of the woman that used the bow. Her arm was broken and she couldn''t move very well. When she saw me she screamed "No, please don''t kill me. Just spare us, we will leave". To which I responded "You had your chance" and threw my daggers.


    Only one person was remaining. It was the woman who used her fists in order to fight. When she saw what happened to herpanions, she screamed "Why do you have to kill us!? We did nothing to you, we just stayed here to rest and heal our wounds!". I got closer and said "That is none of my problems. This is my home and you invaded it, you also wanted to get rid of me". She looked at me and didn''t know what to say. I found it funny that she seemed to be so righteous and yet she was lost for words. I got my daggers ready to kill her when she said "I''ll do anything you want, just let me live" to which I said "I''m not interested" and threw my daggers.


    That day, the whole group of humans, who fought a horde of animals died mostly because of me. They didn''t die because they were not skilled in their arts or because there were too little of them but because they thought that Great Forest is a yground.


    We needed to discard the corpses when I noticed Shelly eating one of the dead guys. It wasn''t a pleasant sight to see a human being eaten by Shelly but I figured that meat is meat for Shelly and it doesn''t care where it came from. ''I only hope it will not eat me'' I thought then said "If you want, eat them. To me they are just bodies. Just remember not to eat me, HAHAHHAH". Shelly looked at me as if I was crazy and continued eating. Then I remembered "Right! Don''t destroy anything on them, it might be valuable so watch out what you eat!". Shelly nodded and continued eating. I entered our shelter and noticed a lot of blood on the floor as well as beds. I took off the animals skins and took them outside. I then collected some water and washed them as well as the floor inside our shelter. I wasn''t a crazy bastard that like to sleep in blood. Fortunately I had more fur in my bag and we could use that while the washed fur dried.


    Shelly came over to me while I was doingundry and motioned that it had finished eating. I said "OK, let''s check what they had on them". I came closer to what used to be a sword wielder and there were bones as well as guts everywhere, of course besides his clothing and weapon. I said to Shelly "You created a lot of mess. Either way, let me see what he had on him". I searched the guy''s clothes and found nothing of interest. There was a book on swords but I didn''t use swords so it was useless for me.


    He had no money on him nor rations. ''It''s weird that he had nothing besides this book. Oh well, maybe I will find something on others'' I thought. I took the sword as it was the only valuable thing on him, maybe besides the book. Then I moved on to the next person. The next guy was also a sword user. I only found a sword as well as the same book on him and thought ''This is getting weirder. They had no money or any other possessions''. The 3rd sword user was the same. I was baffled by that. ''Why would those 3 guys have exactly 2 possessions only?'' I thought. Not only they had the same amount of possessions but also the same possessions. ''Maybe they were guards? They studied the same skill and received their weapons from someone?'' I didn''t know and it wasn''t that important for me to think about it in depth. I then moved on to the guy that wielded the axe.


    I searched the corpse or rather what was left of it and found more stuff this time. Besides the axe, there were some gold coins as well as some weird looking emblem. There was an axe with wings attached to it disyed on that emblem. I wondered what it could represent but couldn''t figure out anything so I simply took it. The guy also had a bottle of something. At first I thought it was some kind of medicine but it was alcohol.


    I thought ''I don''t need alcohol'' and threw it far away but I didn''t hear any crashing noise. I thought ''What the hell? it didn''t break?'', I stood up and went to retrieve the bottle. I threw it harder at the ground but it didn''t shater. I was a bit stunned "What the hell is this bottle made out of?" I said and decided to keep it. This would be useful in case I have to contain something that cannot break easily. Poison could be stored here and it wouldn''t easily shatter like a vial.


    The axe guy had nothing else on him. I didn''t find any books either. I moved on to the next guy who wielded a shield and a sword. The shield was wooden with some steel elements and reinforcements. I never used shields so this was useless to me as well. I also had a look at the sword and it was grade betterpared to those used by the other 3 guys. It had arge amount of purified steel in it. Of course my daggers were 100% purified steel but I was able to have them only because I worked in a cksmith workshop and in the end, all the ingots were stolen by me.


    The guy didn''t have any books on him but had a bottle as well. It was not alcohol like the previous one. It contained something that had medical properties. I wasn''t sure what it was but from the smell alone, it was not poisonous. I wasn''t about to throw that bottle to test its strength and just kept it.


    The guy also had some gold and another weird emblem. This was the same emblem that the axe guy had but this time instead of an axe, it disyed a shield. I was baffled by this and thought ''Why the hell do they need those emblems? Is it some kind of social status or something?''. I didn''t know and simply pocketed that emblem as well.


    Other than that he had nothing else. There remained two corpses. I had high hopes and left them till the end. Not because they were women but because they seemed to have the most unusual skills of the whole group. I hoped to find something good on them.

 Chapter 93

    Chapter 93


    I first searched the woman who used the bow. I wanted that bow anyway. It was a ranged weapon which would allow me to shoot from greater distance. My daggers would be used in closebat and mid rangebat while bow would be used in long rangebat. This would cover all sorts ofbat ranges and it would be perfect.


    I took the bow first and examined it. I didn''t know much about bows but it looked usual and had no specific detailing or quality about it. Maybe I was wrong but looking at the stuff other people brought, this bow would be at most of simr quality as the swords I found on those three sword wielders. While bow was a weapon, it needed to be paired with arrows. I took the arrows that were in a quiverying not far away. There were about 11 arrows left. But it was not a problem for me as I could make new arrows, although much worse than the ones in the quiver right now.


    If I wanted to make some real arrows, I would have to find a furnace or build one to melt steel or even better purified steel. For now, I would have to create some arrows made from stones in order to practise my shooting. I then check the clothes of the woman and noticed a small bag inside. The bag contain gold, emblem depicting a bow with wings as well as a neckles. I took all the stuff and thought of something ''I wonder if this bag is the same as mine''. I tried to stuff couple of things inside but the bag would not fit them and finally, I broke it. ''It turns out that it was just a normal bag'' I thought and continued to thest corpse.


    The woman who fought with her fists had no weapon. That was to be expected, yet I saw some kind of gloves that she used to wear. I searched for the gloves and soon found them, all bloodied in what could only be described as pile of guts and bones. The gloves vere still intact and not destroyed. I examined them more closely and noticed that they had a very hard knuckle area but were also very sturdy. The gloves were made from leather but not just normal leather, it was some sort of special leather that was flexible but sturdy like a stone. I ced the gloves beside me as I needed to wash them properly before I could use them.


    With my strength and those gloves, I could deal some serious damage with my bare hands. If used properly, it could be quite a nice weapon against some enemies. ''I will test themter on but before that, I need to check for other stuff that is on her or rather what is left of her'' I thought. I only managed to find a small bag again and nothing else. I checked the contents of the bag and I said "Jackpot". The bag contained stuff like supplies, fruits, water and also stuff like gold and even books. ''This must be the same type of bag that I have'' I thought and smiled. I figured that this woman was their leader and therefore would be the richest. I was not wrong in thinking that and now I had another bag which I could fill up and strap onto Shelly.


    ''Although Shelly will not like the idea, it will get used to it I''m sure. Besides it would also train at the same time just like me'' I thought and pocketed the bag. I decided to dig a hole and bury the remains of these people., Not because of respect but because I didn''t want bad smell to affect my training and mood. After a bit of work the hole was dug out and I collected all the remains and buried them there.


    I thought ''That is that. I hope we have no other uninvited guests''. It was alreadyte and I wanted to properly rest for the next day, I said to Shelly "Let us retire for the night, today was quite eventful" and we went back to out shelter for the night.


    When I opened my eyes, I was back in the dream but it was different again. The dream was not like the others where the dark figure would either train or talk. This time there were 10 dark figures and they were killing each other. When one died, another would appear and so on. The dark figures used different methods to kill their opponents. One pair used their fists, the other pair used daggers while another used legs only.


    I didn''t know what to do as the figures would fight themselves to death all the time and didn''t really pay attention to me. I sat down on the ground and observed. ''Maybe this is the purpose of this dream? To observe?'' I thought while watching the fights.


    The dark figures were dying left and right while skills of all sorts were disyed. I mostly paid attention to the dagger users. Their technique was weird and unpredictable, ''I wonder if I would be able to do this as well''. The techniques disyed seemed to be very profound, even more profound than Nick''s. I couldn''t see most of the attacks and the daggers were only visible when the target was hit or when they missed and hit the ground.


    While thinking like this, a dagger appeared in front of me. "What the..?" the next instant a dark hooded figure appeared with the same dagger and threw it at me. Then nothingness. I died and when I opened my eyes, the same scene repeated. A dagger appeared in front of me and next instance the dark figure. I tried to grab the dagger as quickly as I could but didn''t manage to do it because I already died.


    When I opened my eyes again, I shouted "What the fuck is this?!" and again died. I got fed up and as soon as I opened my eyes, I grabbed the dagger in front of me and threw it at the dark figure who was appearing. To my shock, the dark figure just evaded it and again lights out. I tried couple of times, throwing my dagger as soon as I woke up but to no avail. The dark figure was always faster than me or easily evaded my dagger. After about 10 tries, I woke up in my bed.


    "What the hell was that about?" I said out loud as I was stupefied. I was just sitting there thinking about the skills those dark figures used and suddenly a dagger materialised out of nowhere with the addition of a dark figure that immediately attacked me.


    I tried to gather my thoughts. ''Let''s think about it logically as stupid as it may sound. There are few things that I know about those weird dreams. First. Depending on my action during the day, I will receive corresponding dream''. My thoughts then continued ''If I train my skills, the dream I will have would be about a dark figure talking away and then killing me. If I were to train my body, the dark figure would do a set of weird exercises that I could mimic but not do any other training. The new dream contained multiple dark figures that killed each other with different set of techniques''.


    I then summed up all of that into simple categories ''The dreams could be separated into skill, body andbat but there is a problem. I fought animals all the time and never had this dream. It only happened when I killed those humans. Does that mean that I have to kill people in order to have that dream?''. I wondered about it more and there was another crucial difference in the 3rd dream ''When I thought about the dark figures that fought each other with daggers, one such dagger simply materialised in front of me. What followed was my opponent. This never happened in other dreams. It seems I could affect the dream in some way when it came to fighting but couldn''t the other two''.


    This was weird indeed but I wasn''t about to go and find a vige in order to ughter some people, just to test my thoughts. Yet the skills that those dark figures used seemed very profound. I wasn''t able to even see most of them. ''I would like to study those techniques more than anything but I''m not a madman and besides, I have loads of stuff I can train'' I thought to myself while leaving my bed to eat my breakfast and start the day.

 Chapter 94

    Chapter 94


    I started my day as usual. Training the 1st and 2nd modified diagram, then the training with Shelly and then dinner. While I was resting, I decided to have a look through the books that I found on the remains of that woman who used her fist inbat.


    The 1st book I took out was a book about swords. I was a bit disappointed because it would be useless to me. Learning to wield another weapon besides my daggers and a bow which I wanted to learn would be too time consuming. Although I was a bit disappointed but it struck me as weird that she had a book on swords. I check the book in greater details and noticed that it was differentpared to the books I found on the other guys.


    The book was called "sh of the Thousand Arms". I thought ''That is avish title'' and decided to check the contents. Although sword skills would be useless to me but that could be also said about the book on whips. I didn''t intend to learn how to wield a whip but the second part of the book was about unpredictability which could provide some benefits. I wanted to check if this book would also allow for such things even without a sword.


    I skimmed through the book for a while but didn''t find anything of that sort. It described the method to sh the sword many times at once and create the effect or illusion of attacking once but with multiple shes. It was useless to me but then I thought of something. ''This book describes how to train hands in order to aplish that. It also doesn''t require sword as a weapon. Dagger could be used as well, its just that the book doesn''t state that. It focuses on swords only''. My thoughts continued ''What if I were to adapt those fast movements to my closebat skills with the dagger. Dagger was lighter than a sword and so it could be even faster. If I can adapt those principles to my closebat then it would produce another skill''.


    I didn''t have time to try and adapt the principles behind that sword skill to my dagger now. I could only do it after I''ve mastered my other skills or at least hit a wall and couldn''t progress any further, like with the "Avoid the Light" or "Be a Hidden Weapon". Although I wouldn''t learn sword wielding, I could still adapt some skills from that area.


    I decided to leave this book forter. ''When I get some time, I will check it again in greater details but for now my mid rangebat is more important'' I thought. Training the Stringed Hidden Weapons would be the next skill in line after I trained my body.


    The next book I took out was a fist skill. When I skimmed through it, it described how to use strength properly through the medium of your fists. It also described couple of training methods that could make the fists tougher and more resilient towards damage. One such method was to use fine sand. The book described to get some kind of big bowl and ce the fine sand inside. The method was quite crude as the practitioner would have to, well hit that sand with their bare fists. The method maybe worked but it would also require loads of medicine due to the damages inflicted on ones hands. This was not the best solution for me so I didn''t take it seriously.


    But I decided to keep that book anyway. ''I will study itter, when my main skills are properly trained'' I thought. There was one more book in the bag. Or rather what I thought was a book, it turned out that the third "book" was a map and when I unfolded it, it actually coveredrger area than the one I got from Nick. The map I got from Nick would be invalid if we traveled for couple of days north but this map covered at least 14 more days of travel towards north and there was some kind of settlement there as well.


    The map was more detailedpared to Nick''s map. It showed mountain range in the forest or rather covered by the Great Forest as well as some names in red which I didn''t know the meaning of but could kind of figure it out. ''I think the names in red mean very dangerous areas'' I thought. There were names such as Lava Pit or Marsnd. There were some names in ck, probably describing animal dwellings and such. One of the names was "Wolf Den" which could only describe some kind ofrge poption of wolves.


    I was happy that we got even better map, now I wouldn''t have to worry what is further up north and we could travel there in case we wanted to. The settlement or vige was quite big. It was not a city because cities were disyed differently on the map. The map still covered the area of the map I got from Nick it just expanded towards north a lot.


    The settlement or vige was called Aria and it was about 5 or 6 days of horseback travel towards the north eastern direction from our current location. I thought ''These people were probably from that vige. I wonder how they can survive in this forest when the beasts are numerous. No wonder that group of people had decent skills''. Another weird point was that their vige was so far away yet they made it till here, the question was "What for?" I said out loud.


    I didn''t know their reasons but I just hoped that no more people woulde here. Just like Nick said, the less I interact with people the better. The group that wanted to take over our shelter which we built tirelessly for couple of days was a good example of that. Just because they need to rest, it automatically means I don''t have to? Why should I give them something for free when they did nothing for me in return except the hostility I received when I approached our home.


    I dispersed those thoughts and threw all the staff back into my bag. I didn''t have time to wonder about those things at the moment. My training was waiting.

 Chapter 95

    Chapter 95


    My days looked the same again. I trained from the morning till evening while helping Shelly in its training once in a while. We would also hunt some animals. The forest became a bit more popted, maybe due to the mass deaths the animals experienced and so they breeded more often. That was only my guess but it seemed usible.


    The dream I had about many dark figures fighting each other didn''t appear again, besides that one night. I knew that I would have to kill people in order to experience that dream again. On the other hand, I was dreaming of a dark figure who trained by itself. I always joined in but limited myself to doing only one cycle and then rest. Sometimes I would skip 2 cycles just to be properly rested.


    I soon got used to those exercises and noticed improvements, even with all the weight I was carrying. Days passed and soon came the spring. The ice melted and the grass started to apear around the forest and barren areas, deste due to the winter. Flowers started to sprout and trees became alive again, after the winter season. Small animals left their homes in search of food and even bigger animals were getting more active.


    We stayed in that shelter for over 3 months. There were ups and downs while we were there. After the human party incident, some animals came to our shelter. We didn''t have any animal guests before and when meat served itself on a te for us, why shouldn''t we take it? Soon more beast started appearing in the area of our shelter and things looked critical. I had to tell Shelly to kill any packs of animals nearby so that we don''t have a horde of them attacking us.


    Because the animals wereing to our doorsteps, we didn''t have to go deep into the forest in order to search for them. This saved us some time but also made things more dangerous. We had to do regr cleanings of the area. That was in order to prevent the animals settling and breed like crazy under our noses.


    Fortunately we managed to contain the migration of the animals and things quieted down. There was another event worth mentioning. In the middle of the winter season, the nights became so cold that even within the shelter you could feel the chill. I decided to build some kind of firece out of stones. If we had no fire inside we would potentially freeze to death, even with all that fur we had. I remember that the outeryers of fur used as covers was frozen solid, that was how cold it was during the night.


    The firece took me awhile to build. I needed to get stones and stack them in such a way, that I would be able to make fire inside. At the same time I had to do it in such a way that wouldn''t burn the whole shelter down. I ced stones on the floor near a wall and built up a tower that reached the ceiling. There was a channel inside the tower, It was for the smoke to travel upwards. I of course needed a hole in the wall in order for the smoke to escape somewhere but that was easy enough and didn''t take long.


    When the firece was finally built, I was stunned myself that it could hold like this without any sort of mortar. I made the fire inside and after an hour of keeping the fire burning well, it became much more bearable inside our shelter.


    As for our training. Shelly managed to train its instincts to a point where I had to use 4 puppets. It wasn''t very well skilled with 5 puppets yet but it could manage for a while and then get totally lost. Shelly was also making improvements when it came to hunting. It could now n and use different tactics against different opponents.


    Iter allowed Shelly to hunt by itself, instead of us going together. I made a special strap for Shelly to attach the bag that I found on the woman from the human party. Shelly wasn''t very keen about dragging stuff around but it got used to it. Shelly was fully convinced when I said that the bag belongs to it and all the food inside will be its not mine. Shelly liked the idea of owning the bag and of course food that would fit inside it so it had no problems carrying it aroundter.


    When Shelly hunted nearby our shelter, it would notify me when the hunt was finished and show me the location of its prey. I needed to extract and then cook the meat so I still had to waste some time on that but I was still happy that Shelly became independent to a point.


    As for me. I was already adjusted to the weight on my back and it didn''t really bother me anymore. I even increased the weight on my arms as well as added new weights to my legs. If I were to drop all that stuff down, I would be many times stronger. I decided not to do it and train my skills with the weight still attached.


    Towards the end of the winter season, I started to train my skills instead of body and managed to get back in form with my aim. I also practiced my bow shooting for about an hour each day and managed to get better at it. As they say "Practice makes perfect" and besides learning the bow, I also trained in the Stringed Hidden Weapons. Although I was still on the 1st dagger, I could now better retrieve and throw itpared to the past.


    When I trained my skills, I would be dreaming of a dark figure talking away. During the time I spend on improving my skills, I managed to figure out the meaning of another two words that the dark figure spoke. The first word was Ki which could potentially mean "Do" or "Does" it could also mean both as it could be interchangeable between the pronouns. The other word I thought I figured out was Rei. It could mean "Can" as in "I can" or "You can". With this, I had now managed to find some kind of meaning for 6 words out of 10 that I decided to trante.


    I decided that it would soon be the time to leave our shelter and move on towards different direction as much as the map allowed while exploring the regions not specified by Nick''s map.

 Chapter 96

    Chapter 96


    I told Shelly about my ns to leave the shelter and explore new areas. Shelly was rather indifferent towards that, it only wanted to stay with me so it would go wherever I went. Couple of dayster we packed out stuff and left the shelter.


    I didn''t destroy the shelter and even left the swords and axe inside. I didn''t want to carry with me all that rubbish. Besides if someone wanted to use that shelter after we left, they were wee to it. I just didn''t want uninvited guests while we were living there.


    Our new destination was something called "Silent Pass" that I found on my new map. I didn''t know what we were to expect from that ce exactly but it was our destination as the name seemed interesting. The Silent Pass was located about 4 days of horseback travel from our shelter. We were of course traveling on foot so it would take us longer to reach the destination. ording to the map we had to travel towards north west.


    We moved out during the morning after we had a breakfast and when I did my usual training from the Strength Manual. We already knew the terrains that were 2-3 hours of travel on foot from our shelter therefore the journey was very smooth. We set up our first camp after a day''s travel. The old days of building a simple shelter just for one night, returned.


    We had enough food tost us a few days due to the 2 bags we were carrying. Of course Shelly''s bag would be emptied sooner than mine as Shelly was a glutton but nevertheless we didn''t have to hunt that day. After we ate the food, I decided to have one final look at the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and make sure I memorised everything correctly. I would then burn the book and make sure nothing was left. I promised Nick to do this before he passed away. I already remembered all the recipes from that book so there was no point for me to carry it anymore.


    After this, there would be only one promise to keep. That was to master my skills before I travelled to any cities, towns or viges. When the dayes and my skills have been mastered, I would no longer have any more promises to keep. I would be burdenless and could explore my life to the fullest.


    I''ve read the book onest time in the quiet of the night then threw it into the fire. The book caught fire very quickly and started to burn. I watched as the mes engulfed the book that Nick painstakingly filled but I was not sad. I memorised it and his legacy would not die just yet.


    When I saw that the book turnedpletely into ash, I stirred the fire and made the ash indistinguishable from the burnt branches and wood. I then closed my eyes and fell asleep.


    The next day. I woke up early in the morning and had my breakfast. Shelly usually woke up some timeter therefore I always had time to eat in peace and do my usual morning training. When I was done with that and Shelly had its breakfast as well, we hit the road again.


    On the way, we encountered a group of animals we never saw. The creatures were smaller than Shelly but had spikes all over their bodies. The spikes were not very long but the sheer amount of them was stunning. Shelly tried to interact with them and it turned out that those animals were herbivore which meant they ate nts.


    The animals were not aggressive and those spikes functioned mostly as self defence and the means to deter a potential predator from attacking them. We stayed in the ce for a while. I wanted to observe the behaviour of these animals as they seemed quite interesting. The smaller ones yed with each other in weird ways. They would form a ball with all the spikes outside and roll around while racing each other. The small creatures would sometimes bump into trees or each other and cry out. These animals didn''t have it easy because although they had protection in the form of spikes, it was also their bane. They couldn''t interact with each other like most animals and had to keep distance in order not to hurt themselves in the process.


    It was a cruel fate when I thought about it ''Being able to defend themselves gave them means to be less likely hunted but at the same time, their lives are more distant and cold''. I noticed that the older animals usually carried some berries on their spikes as a means for transport to their homes.


    I thought I will do something for them and collected a lot of berries and what not then just ced them on ground for all animals to take whatever they liked. The older spiky animals came over to the pile and gave me what seemed like looks of gratitude. I imagined that they couldn''t climb trees or bushes, they had to pick up whatever was on the ground. Although that gesture was not much on my part, it would help the creatures a lot.


    We soon left the group of animals to do their own things as we continued on with our own journey. We travelled for the rest of the day and then found a suitable spot for our camp. We built another shelter andid there under the clear sky with the moon hanging as if suspended on the string.


    While Shelly wen to sleep, I read the other books as I wanted to familiarize myself with them. I then noticed that the sky became more bright. When I looked up, I saw lights in the distance. They seemed to be very far away as if touching the skies. The colours were vibrant like bright orange and yellow as well as red and even pink. Green colour was there as well as very light blue.


    I looked at those light with my mouth wide open and managed to blurt out one word "Wow!". We lived in the forest for a while now and we never encountered that kind of thing in the sky. I woke Shelly up to also have a look. Shelly seemed annoyed that I awoke it but when I pointed towards the sky, it changed its mind and stared at the lights just like me.


    Thissted for a while but I didn''t know how long exactly. I lost track of time and simply fell asleep thinking ''I would like to know what those lights represent''.

 Chapter 97

    Chapter 97


    The next morning we resumed our travels. The world had much to offer as I learned throughout my journey. Yet what I knew right now, was nothingpared even to what Nick experienced. Like the lights thest night, it was something I never saw. Although Shelly doesn''t talk, it probably never seen that kind of thing happening either.


    The Silent Pass was still couple of days of travel away. I decided not to get distracted anymore and increase our speed. We passed through a river that day and Shelly went in to have a swim. Although we lived near a waterfall that fell to a river below, Shelly didn''t get many asions to swim due to training but mostly due to weather. It was very cold in winter therefore it was rare for Shelly to swim. Now that it was much warmer and the river was there, Shelly got a chance to swim and it took that chance. Shelly was a turtle afterall and swimming was in its nature.


    Later in the afternoon we encountered the hives ofrge hos we saw in the past. I wasn''t about to go through their territory so we took a detour. These creatures were not dangerous separately but none of therge hos moved individually.


    Later we encountered a group of wolf variants which I never imagined was possible. A group of 11 ck wolves was a nightmare to encounter. The wolves were not very keen to let us go just like that, even though we tried to make a detour. We had to fight.


    If this happened couple of months before, we would probably die today. Now it was different. I carried that weight on me all the time and trained my body both in reality and in dream, my strength increased throughout that period. Maybe not by much but I was still carrying the weight on me. I used my daggers to fight while Shelly would use its mouth. Although Shelly was very fast when it gained momentum, it could only go in straight line at that speed, it couldn''t make sharp turns.


    Shelly would use that speed but only to attack with its mouth. Its ramming attack became used less frequently as Shelly began to n more. I fought in closebat. My aim improved but I stillcked in skills against fast enemies. My calctions and unpredictability weren''t there yet, besides I always wanted to polish my closebat skills. After the incident with the group of humans, I fought in closebat whenever I was in a fight.


    I still practised the Stringed Hidden Weapons as well as throwing and even bow shooting but my closebat could only be practiced when I had an opponent. The harder the opponent was the better for my improvement. If I were to fight against weak opponents, I wouldn''t be able to learn anything new.


    Although 11 ck wolves would be deadly in the past, today it was manageable and not life threatening. When most of the wolves died and some escaped, I extracted the meat with very precise movements then we left that ce. My butchering skills also improved due to the sheer amount of animals I had to butcher. I now knew every join, bone and part of themon animals, I could debone them without even looking.


    We traveled like this for couple of days. Hunting, training and resting at night. When we finally reached our destination, I was amazed at what I saw. "So this is Silent Pass?" I said out loud in astonishment. The silent pass was an actual pass between two cliff sides that were as tall as hills. The pass itself was not very wide, if couple of humans stood next to each other with their arms extended, the pass would fit about 6 of them.


    The walls looked like I could scale them but it would be dangerous and I had no experience with that in the past. This was the first time I saw cliffs and this tall at the same time. From the distance, I could seerge birds flying at the top of the pass. There were also nests high up on the cliff face, supposedly homes for those birds.


    I never saw those birds before. They were quiterge, about half the size of a grown man. I also didn''t know whenever these birds would attack us. When we encountered bigger animals they were usually aggressive. The ones not aggressive were herbivore or had passive nature which meant that as long as we don''t intrude on their territory, they would not actively seek to attack us.


    When we got closer to the entrance of the pass, I noticed strong winds that blew through the pass. The currents were also unpredictable. Sometimes wind would blow from the top, sometimes from the back and sometimes even from below. ''This ce is perfect for my wind training!'' I thought. Not only would I be able to learn how to predict the wind or in other words feel the wind but this ce could also help with my next step of my training. After I could predict the wind, I would use my daggers and wind currents for them to be unpredictable.


    I said to Shelly "We shall stay here for a while, I didn''t expect that kind of great environment for my training to be here. I need to take advantage of that". Shelly nodded but it wasn''t very impressed with that ce. Shelly treated it as almost any other ce but with more wind.


    I was a bit worried about the birds but when we entered the pass, the birds actually didn''t bother us. I though ''I think that as long as I don''t try to climb the cliffs, the birds will leave us alone. Although they may be carnivore, they may have a specific pray that they hunt and eat''. With that, I went outside the pass to create a shelter in which we could stay couple of days. It wouldn''t be as sophisticated as the previous one but it would have to be more protective than those we used to build just for one night.


    Shelly helped out with the shelter as usual and we retired for the rest of the day after we had our food. The next morning I would start my new training regime. Although I didn''t want to jump between different skills because I would never master either of them, this opportunity was too sweet to pass.


    I wanted to find out if this environment was good enough for me to learn how to find wind and perhaps how to use it to my advantage with my throwing daggers. ''If it works, I could always return here when it was the time to master my Wind Daggers Art'' I thought. This was the name I chose for this new skill.

 Chapter 98

    Chapter 98


    The next morning my training started. I stood there inside the pass and let the wind currents pass through me as if I was invisible. I was trying to determine the currents and any signs of wind movement before such current would hit me. I stood there for awhile and got bombarded with the wind. From left, then right, then above and left again. Sometimes the wind would even make me lose my bnce but I didn''t give up and simply stood there with my eyes closed.


    I didn''t know what Shelly was doing but I imagined it was bored as I stood there in the pass, while it had no real things to do. The pass was very quiet and it was much easier to cancel out the other noises made by birds for example. The wind was also more noisy in here. ''I knew this will be the perfect environment for me to practise this'' I thought and lost myself in my training.


    When I opened my eyes, it was already evening and I could hear rumblinging from my stomach. I was very hungry now, I skipped a meal which was important for my body to function properly. I stopped my practice and went back to our shelter. I saw that Shelly hunted some boars and brought couple of them back to our shelter.


    The boars were still fresh, I butchered them and started to roast the meat. Shelly returned when I was roasting the meat with another boar. It probably killed a whole group but had to drag one after the other here. I said "The food is almost ready so take a rest. Thanks by the way, for hunting the animals. I again lost myself in my training". Shelly simply nodded and didn''t mind. It knew that sometimes I was so focused on my own things, that I didn''t notice what was happening outside of my mind.


    I said to Shelly "I know you will be pretty bored while I train but we will stay here for no more than a week. I just want to test things out and it already seems promising". Shelly looked at me and then started drawing on the ground. It looked like it didn''t mind if we stayed here for longer than that. I said "Maybe but my primary goal is to train the Stringed Hidden Weapons to mastery first. I can then think about other skills. After a week, we will got to a new location. I''m curious myself what those noted locations on the map represent".


    As usually, Shelly went to sleep not long after we had our food and I decided to read some books. I took out the sh of the Thousand Arms from my bag and started reading. I was trying to figure out the best way to apply that in closebat. Although it might seem I wouldn''t need it when I master my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill but that would be a misconception.


    Closebat was not the same as mid rangebat. Stringed Hidden Weapons would have the range of 5-10 metres while closebat promoted very little distance between opponents. Fist attacks or dagger attacks would be considered closebat because their range was really as long as ones arm.


    I already had the general idea on how to train my closebat ording to that skill but I wanted to try and modify it to suit me and my daggers better. After the read, I went to sleep. When I opened my eyes, I was back in the usual dream witch the dark figure talking away. I listened attentively and then something hit me. ''I already know couple of words so it wouldn''t be wrong to assume what followed them were the usual words that we humans used'' I thought.


    Stuff like "I am" or "You are". I had the words for "I" or "You" so what followed those words could mean the same thing as with themon humannguage. I listened and tried to figure out if the words after the ones I already knew would repeat all the time or change.


    After couple of repeats, I found out that the words which followed the ones I tranted would mostly repeat but sometimes they would be different. If that was the case then the usual trantion would be something like "I am" or "You are" but then the other words would mean stuff like "I have" or "I went" which would make it more troublesome. Nevertheless I applied what I found out after couple of more repeats and found this out.


    Fe Lei would mean "I am". Lak Lan would mean "You are" which I also had in my original list. Lan was one of the words I set to trante. If that is correct then Lan would mean "Are". Ak Ji which I already knew would mean "It is" but if I turned it around, would Ji Ak mean "Is it?" as in a question instead of assertion or statement. I decided to categorise it like the humannguage and that was how humannguage operated. So far it seemed usible for this mysteriousnguage to follow the same rules. In that case, my trantions would most probably be correct.


    I needed to figure out more words and their meanings. The more words I had, the more I could extrapte and assign new meanings. ''Although I already spent so much time on this, no one said tranting anguage that no one speaks was easy. It is even harder for me than it could be. If I had a person who spoke thisnguage in reality, they could just point towards things and say the corresponding word. Here I don''t have that benefit''.


    The dream soon finished and I woke up in my makeshift bed. I saw improvements when it came to tranting thatnguage but the road ahead was still long. I still had a long way to go in order to trante the whole thing the dark figure was saying.


    I got up from my makeshift bed and ate my breakfast. I trained the two modified diagrams from the Strength Manual and went back to the pass. I wanted to spend as much time as I could in the pass to try and grasp a method of finding and predicting wind.

 Chapter 99

    Chapter 99


    At the Silent Pass. I stood there with eyes closed and focused on the wind. Suddenly I could feel somethinging with my senses and without thinking avoided it. I opened my eyes immediately and to my surprise, saw nothing. I looked around but I could see nothing. I thought ''Maybe one of the birds tried to attack me but just flew up when I evaded its attack?''.


    It was possible but the birds never attacked me before. I checked my surroundings one more time and went back to my training. I closed my eyes and again focused on the wind. I canceled out the asional bird cries and other noises that were faintly in the background in order to hear only wind. After a while, the same situation happened. Something wasing towards me and out of sheer reflexes, I avoided backwards. I immediately opened my eyes and looked up but saw nothing again.


    I check my sides and nothing was there either. Quite frustrated, I shouted "Who is there? Show yourself!" but there was no answer. I decided to try again and lure that thing out. I would pretend to be focused and wait to see if something is after me or just wants to annoy me.


    I closed my eyes again and stood there motionless. I was now focused on everything but the wind. I was trying to pick up anything that was getting closer to me. I stood there for 30 minutes then an hour and nothing. I opened my eyes and shouted "What the hell is this supposed to mean?". I searched the area, I looked at the cliffs and the ground. I even checked out the birds that flew through the air once in a while.


    ''Everything is in order, there are no hidden holes in the cliff face nor are there any ces to hide on the ground. The birds don''t care about my existence as usual¡­ Just what the hell?'' I thought to myself. I took couple of minutes to calm my mind and thought ''I will just continue with my training, probably it was a small animal ying tricks on me. It should be gone already''.


    I again stood motionless with my eyes closed focusing fully on the wind alone. The wind blew from on side or the other and would sometimes put me off bnce but I persevered and focused even more. Then it happened again. I could feel somethinging towards me. I opened my eyes but saw nothing. ''This is weird, I saw nothing. It should not be an animal in that case. If that is true then¡­ it is the wind!''.


    I stood there dumbstruck ''Is it really the wind? Is it possible I managed to actually sense the wind?'' I thought. I was really excited because if that turned out to be true, then it would mean that it was possible to predict the wind and therefore my new art would also be possible!


    I wanted to try it out again but I was too excited about that discovery. I decided to return to our shelter for a bit and maybe go and hunt with Shelly to calm my mind a bit. At the shelter, Shelly was not around. I decided to wait and rx a bit, maybe even read a book. Yet nothing seemed to work, I was too excited about the discovery I''ve made that day. About an hourter, Shelly returned but didn''t bring any prey. Probably it hunted something and just ate it as it thought that I will return at evening or night again.


    When Shelly saw me, it was a bit surprised but still ran towards me. I smiled and said "You probably returned from a hunt but I need to ease my mind somehow. I discovered how to predict wind and I will not be able to practice that if I can''t focus properly. Follow me as we hunt once more". Shelly had no real issues with that. It would never pass an opportunity to get more meat.


    We went deeper into the forest and searched for suitable group of animals. We weren''t scared of the lower tier variants like ck wolves or ck bears but a group that contained higher tiers variants such as silver wolves or silver bears were more tricky and dangerous.


    These parts of the forest were not as bad as the ones we lived in through the winter. Sometimes we would encounter a group of variants but mostly lower tier. We didn''t search for long and found ourselves a group of bears that consisted of 10 ck bears and 8 normal bears.


    We hunted them without any problems and I took care of the butchering. With our bags filled we returned to our shelter to have some lunch. After the lunch I said to Shelly "I will go back to the pass. If you want, you can follow me there as well. Trying out different environments would be also a good training for you. I can put a mask on you and we will see how you fare against strong winds, with your vision sealed".


    Shelly was a bit reluctant to go. It would hunt by itself and improve while training with me but Shelly was alsozy by nature as any turtle would be. Shelly preferred to simply eat and then sleep or rest for the remaining of the day.


    After thinking it through couple of times, Shelly finally nodded its head and followed me into the Silent Pass. I put the vision sealing mask on Shelly and said "Try moving in the pass with the mask on and see whenever you are able to". Shelly nodded and slowly made its way around the pass. I on the other hand stood motionless with my eyes closed. I tried to get the same feeling I had when I managed to predict the wind. I knew it would take my maximum focus.


    The sound around me disappeared. Only wind was left, whistling through the air unperturbed. Suddenly I felt somethinging closer. This time I didn''t evade, I simply let it hit me. "Whoosh" the wind blew past me. I became excited and opened my eyes. "I can sense the wind!" I eximed loudly. This proved that my new art was possible but there was a major drawback. I had to focus entirely on the wind. In battle, I wouldn''t be able to aplish that. No enemy would give me the time to just close my eyes and focus for a while to determine the wind.


    Yet I was not disappointed. ''That is just the beginning stage of the skill. being able to sense the wind is just the tip of the de. I have much to learn, if I really want to control this'' I thought.

 Chapter 100

    Chapter 100


    I calmed down a bit from the excitement but when I looked further down the pass, I saw something that destroyed my calmness. Shelly was running around with the mask on and suddenly hit one of the cliff sides with its head... Hard. The moment was so funny to me, that I forgot about my excitement, the training and simplyughed.


    Although Shelly would hit obstacles in the past, I always took it seriously. It seems I forgot that something so simple could bring a smile on my face. I went over to Shelly, stillughing a bit I took the mask off. Yet I couldn''t squeeze out any words as I was afraid I wouldugh even more. Shelly could see that I wasughing a bit and looked at me with teary eyes. I couldn''t contain myughter anymore and released it.


    "Hahahaha. Shelly you should''ve seen yourself hitting that cliff side, it was the best!". Shelly looked like it was about to cry, no doubt it felt very wronged. I stood thereughing, when Shelly decided it had enough of it and rammed into me. We fell to the ground together and Shelly made some noises with tears in its eyes.


    I picked Shelly up and got a bit surprised. I stopped myughing and said "Oh, you gained weight, you are much more heavy than thest time I picked you up. Huh? And you seem a bit bigger too". Shelly was again left with tears in its eyes as if I was saying it was fat. I ced Shelly down and sat up. I said "Sorry, don''t mind me. It was such a long time since I forgot about everything and simplyughed at something". Shelly still looked wronged so I continued while patting its head "That is a good thing, don''t you think? You are growing up, shouldn''t you be happy instead? I spend everyday with you and didn''t notice your development".


    Shelly seemed to brighten up when I said this and patted its head. I then continued "Its so easy to forget about the simple things, like how tough or enjoy the moment. I train my senses to be more acute and even study the behaviours of humans as well as animals, yet I can''t notice something so simple. Something that is always right in front of me". Shelly didn''t understand what I was talking about but it didn''t have to, I was saying this for my sake. I was focused on my training too much, it was to the point I couldn''t even see that Shelly has grown. My skills and arts were not the whole life, it was just the means to travel wherever I wanted and explore the life however I wanted to.


    I said to Shelly "We shall leave this ce and have some adventures. I can trainter, there is no rush to master my skills. Instead, I want to spend some time with you, like family would. Let''s go somewhere and forget about training and just enjoy ourselves for a while. Let''s take some holiday away from all that training and daily regime. What do you say?". Shelly looked me in the eyes and nodded its head.


    I then said "Good, let''s pack up and travel somewhere. No maps, no training, just having fun and discovering new ces". Shelly again nodded its head in agreement and we went back to our shelter in order to organise our stuff before moving out.


    When we were done, I didn''t take out my map in order to choose the direction. Besides I already knew approximate location of the areas that were written in red colour on my map, I wouldn''t choose to go near them. I said to Shelly "Let us go towards north a bit, the we can go west". Shelly didn''t really care, it was already happy we would just travel andyabout without any training and so on.


    We moved towards the northern direction. Whenever we found something interesting or something that would make us rx, we would stop and check it out. After traveling for couple of hours with breaks for food, we encountered a group of animals that we already knew. The animals we encountered were the spiky creatures. Shelly went over to interact and y around with the animals. Due to the hard shell, the animals were not really able to hurt Shelly as long as it didn''t try to touch them with its head or legs.


    While Shelly interacted with the animals and had some fun, I collected some berries and fruits from the nearby areas. I wanted to gift those to the spiky animals. When the animals saw the pile of fruits and berries that I made, they converged together but were scared to take anything. I said to Shelly "Just tell them that this is food for them. They can take whatever they want".


    When Shelly exined to the animals to take the food, they looked at me one more time but this time I could see gratitude in their small ck eyes. The spiky animals would either roll towards the food to pick it up or approach in such a way that the fruits and berries would stick to their spikes. It was sometimes amusing looking at the spiky animals picking up fruits. Some of them would pick it up with the side spikes and due to the fruit beingrge, they would walk funny and lose bnce in the process.


    The animals were not afraid of us anymore and even allowed us to follow them back to their homes. These spiky animals lived mostly in tree trunks or in underground tunnels, that I assumed they digged themselves. The ones in tree trunks had loads of leaves or grass to make it morefortable for them yet it also yed another part. Warmth during winter was a very crucial necessity. Without it, everything would freeze.


    The animals also had interesting ways of taking the fruits or berries out from the spikes on their bodies. One such method was to get the help from the other spiked creature. They would use their spikes to slowly extract the fruit or berry, that was attached on the creature who was carrying it. The other method that I saw was used by lone creatures, which didn''t have anyone in their homes. The creature would rub a wall or tree trunk in order to take of the fruit or berry on its back.


    I thought about it some more and the spiked creatures behaved simrly to humans. The creatures had simrmunity to us humans. Although we had rulers and what not but if one looked at just a simple vige then yes, there was someone who would keep thew, someone who would represent and protect people. Here I saw the same thing although not just one creature held that responsibility.


    There were couple of older animals who would represent the animals. I already noticed that when the animals gathered around the pile of fruits. There were couple of them standing out, closer towards the pile while others waited for them to make a move. I imagined that the ones who stood at the front would represent the whole group but perhaps also keep peace in themunity and carry outw if one of the animals did something wrong.


    ''If that is not a simr concept to human vige then I don''t know what is'' I thought. These creatures were interesting but I didn''t want to spend couple of days just watching them, we had loads to discover and learn. I said to Shelly "It''s time to leave. We should let them do what they need to do in peace". Shelly nodded and said goodbye to the creatures. We then left that ce to go into unknown and try to discover something new.

 Chapter 101

    Chapter 101


    We traveled further north for few more days. The past few days were quite intense. We encountered a group of bears that numbered over 50 and that was not all. The group contained 20 ck bears as well as 5 silver bears. It was one of the strongest animal packs we encountered so far.


    We obviously tried to run but the bears gave pursuit. We had to fight some of them in order to decrease the numbers and make the bears retreat or at least give up chasing us. We killed 2 silver bears and about 10 ck bears but we left the normal brown bears alone as they posed the smallest thread. After about an hour of fighting and pursuing, the bears finally gave up but reluctantly. We were lucky that time and only escaped due to our past training.


    After those couple of days, we decided it was time to change directions towards west. I wanted to go west as there were no dangerous areas in that direction, at least ording to them map I had. One day of travelingter, we found ourselves at the top of a tall cliff. I saw no immediate way of traveling down as the cliff extended for as far as I could see in both directions. More forest grew below the cliff but the air seemed different in this parts of the forest. The air was more damp. Another peculiar thing was the horizon, it was shrouded by fog the further west one looked.


    I wasn''t sure where the path in front of us led but I wanted to try and descend down this cliff. I asked Shelly "Do you want to go down?" but Shelly looked down towards the bottom of the cliff and took couple of steps back while shaking its head. ''Shelly is probably scared of heights. I''m not entirely fearless either but what I meant, was for us to find a path, not climb down'' I thought. I then said to Shelly "I didn''t mean to climb down the cliff but find a way to go down without climbing".


    Shelly looked at me and seemed to think about it. After a while of thinking, Shelly nodded its head. I said "We should go towards the southern direction then and find out where the cliff ends. Or maybe we will find a path down". Our new destination was set and so we traveled alongside the cliff towards the south in order to find a way of getting down.


    We traveled for a whole day and rested during the night. We would hunt for food and y around to enjoy our time whilst traveling. Like this, a week passed and we encountered something new. It was a nt but also kind of an animal at the same time. I didn''t know how to categorise it but the nt we saw was quite tall, as tall as human.


    I noticed that the nts were rooted to the side of the cliff but after examining them for a while, I discovered that the roots started to move and together with the roots, the nt also moved. When I saw this I was left baffled. ''How is it possible for these nts to just simply move as if they had legs'' I thought.


    These nts were not carnivorous, this meant they didn''t eat meat. They got their energy elsewhere. I said to Shelly "Let''s stay here for a bit, I want to study those nts in greater details". Shelly didn''t mind it as we were on holiday anyway so it didn''t matter if we moved towards south or stayed in one ce for a while.


    I tried drawing the nt in my notes as I never saw it. When we started the journey, I decided to start a journal of all the creatures and nts we met on our way. This would be filled in with details such as the characteristics but also skills forbat or defence and behaviour. I wanted to make something simr to what Nick aplished with all his recipes. I wanted to create a book of all the animals and nts we would encounter, with detailed descriptions and characteristics.


    The nt had a very long stem that was green in colour while the roots were brown, almost the same colour as the cliff they were attached to. At the top of the nt, there was no flower but something that looked like a green fruit. It was not its mouth, I studied the nts and the fruit at the top never opened nor had any holes.


    After some more studying, I found out that the nts moved because they extracted something from the ce they were rooted. When the source of their food was gone, they would simply move a bit further and stay still for couple of days. I didn''t know what those nts were absorbing. I could only guess that it was water but then wouldn''t those nts have more water in the forest? Maybe it was because the forest was not a safe ce for these nts. The cliff''s face was much more secure location for these nts to thrive so why move somewhere else, even if they could move.


    I wrote all these points in my notes. I didn''t know if these nts had any names but I decided to name them myself. I did that for anything we encountered that was new and not in my notes. "I shall call this nt Cliff Walker. This is a good name and appropriate for this type of nt". My notes also contained other things we encountered. Such as wolves and all the variants we encountered so far. The bears were there as well as boars and spiky creatures.


    Although I started those notes not too long ago, I already had 8 entries. I had the bear entry with the variants which were either ck or silver. Each type had a specified behaviour, skills as well as habits that I recalled about them. There were also wolves and all the variants we encountered so far. The boars had the same thing going on but we only managed to find one variant which was yellow.


    The other entries were, spiky creature which I named as Spikey Mouse. Then there were the Large Hos with their huge hives that upied most of the tree. I also added in the furry deers into my notes and simply called them Furry Deers. There was another animal we met but for a brief time. It was a ck caterpir looking creature we encountered while looking for Haze Flowers a long time ago. I didn''t know much about that creature besides its aggressiveness, the ability to hide below the ground and that it had a very sturdy body.


    I decided to name that creature Haze Caterpir because we found it near Haze Flowers. And the most recent entry was the Cliff Walker, the nt that could walk on the cliff''s face. The notes I had were a bit messy so I decided to organise them a bit.


    I wanted to put them in alphabetical order but then decided against it. ''I''m the one who gives them names, so the order of my notes would have to change too often'' I thought. Instead, I came up with a different idea. "I will just order them from the 1st one encountered to thest" I said out loud. This way, the order wouldn''t have to change at all. The first creature I encountered, would be 1st on the list and so on. It was the easiest to keep the track of and the order would never change as the new creatures would be added as thest in the list.


    I ordered the notes and thought ''Right! Nick named his books after what they were, of course with some added personality. I also want to give my notes some fancy title''. I then started toe up with a title that would be suitable for my notes.

 Chapter 102

    Chapter 102


    I thought about the title that I could use for my notes but no appropriate ideas arrived. I wanted something fancy as well, like Great Scriptures of Evil Medic or sh of the Thousand Arms. Yet nothing like that came to my mind. I thought ''Simplicity is also cool when used appropriately, why not give it a simple name then?''.


    I thought about it some more and then came up with the title for my own book. "I shall call this Beast Scriptures!". Maybe it wasn''t the best name but I liked the sound of it. I put away the Beast Scriptures and called for Shelly. "Shelly!, let''s go hunt something for our dinner". Shelly arrived immediately once it heard we were going to hunt food.


    Inside the forest, I sat there roasting the wolf meat that we hunted. I asked Shelly "So, how do you like our little holiday so far?" to which Shelly showed a satisfied expression and nodded its head couple of times in order to express satisfaction. We now spent more time together but also interacted more. Besides food, Shelly cared a lot about me. It wouldn''t follow me otherwise.


    After the dinner we went back to the cliff where I would study the Cliff Walkers. I wanted to learn more about their behaviour and perhaps its weaknesses as well as any predators that could potentially threaten them. We stayed there for a few days resting, eating whatever we hunted and also I was studying the Cliff Walkers.


    After those few days of examining their lifestyles and behaviours, I learned that these nts didn''t have any predators, they could simply popte however they wanted but there was a problem. The Cliff Walkers had very difficult requirements in order to breed, even the Spiky Mouse didn''t have it so bad.


    In order for the Cliff Walkers to breed, they had to move next to each other but at the same time they would have to share the same ce on the cliff. These nts could walk but it took a lot of energy it seemed and sharing a spot with another nt would halve the resources at that ce. There was even worse condition for the Cliff Walkers to breed. The nts had to extract some kind of fluid, that was inside the fruit at the top of the Cliff Walker. Both nts had to do it. It seemed that this process also took a lot of energy. I was lucky enough to witness the breeding process and only due to that, I was able to extrapte some things. When I first started noting their behaviour and studying them. I always wondered why the poption is so small. Now I had my answer.


    The Cliff Walkers had to find a cliff section which was very rich in resources, this would allow them to breed but also stay alive. I wanted to see how a new Cliff Walker sprouts and grows up but I didn''t know how long it would take for that to happen. We left after those few days to continue our journey.


    Traveling alongside the cliff was quite boring, I came up with an idea to y a game while we traveled. We were supposed to enjoy ourselves as well. I exined the game and rules to Shelly "The main objective of the game is for you or me to repeat the same thing that the other one does. For example. If I scratch my nose, you have to do the same. If you can''t repeat the same thing then you lose and you will have to get food as punishment, if I lose the same applies. We each take a turn, so when I show you something to repeat and you do it, then you show me what to repeat. Like this until we have a winner and loser. So what do you say, are we ying?".


    Shelly was thinking about it and drew something on the ground. It showed that Shelly would agree under one condition, it will start first. I agreed to that and we started our new game. Shelly first walked forward a bit then jumped a bit. When Shelly was done, it turned towards me and waited for me to repeat.


    I took couple of steps forward and jumped a bit then looked at Shelly but Shelly shook its head. I was baffled ''Didn''t I repeat the same thing?'' I thought while Shelly drew something on the ground. After a while, I realised what it was that made Shelly shake its head. I walked on 2 legs while Shelly walked on 4. In order to repeat what Shelly did, I would have to use my arms as well.


    I said "Well yed Shelly, you''ve won this round. I will go and get us some food". Shelly was quite smug about that win but it probably realised that the same trick wouldn''t work anymore. I could even use that trick to take advantage of Shelly instead. If I simply walked couple of steps on both my feet, Shelly would have to repeat that as well.


    I went into the forest alone in order to hunt something for our dinner. These parts of Great Forest were less popted than the ones we lived in before. It was now moremon thing to find a group of 3-7 animals, instead of 20+ animals in a pack. I soon found my target, boars. They numbered in 5 so it would be very easy to hunt them. I simply threw my daggers and killed all of them. After butchering the boars, I returned to the ce where Shelly waited.


    I said "Let''s have some food first" to which Shelly nodded in agreement. I made fire to roast some meat on while cutting the meat into smaller sizes. This would make the roasted meat cook faster and more thoroughly. After our dinner, it was time for payback. I said to Shelly "Ok let''s y again!" but Shelly shook its head and drew something on the ground again. After a while I figured out what Shelly meant.


    There was no point in ying because we already ate and so it would be better to y this game only when we were about to eat something, this would make it more interesting. I kind of agreed with that but at the same time, I wanted to get back at Shelly. I said "Alright, we will y this game before we want to have some food, this way we will decide who goes to hunt". This time Shelly nodded its head but I was left thinking ''What is Shelly really up to''. Shelly became more crafty the more experience it had but at the same time behaved the same way at most times.


    I brushed it off and said "Let us continue the journey, I still can''t see the end of that cliff". We then moved further south, trying to find any means of going down the cliff.

 Chapter 103

    Chapter 103


    We traveled south for the rest of the day. Because we had some leftovers from previous hunts, we didn''t y the game that day, instead we ate what we had. I asked Shelly "What do you think could be out there, where the fog is?". Shelly thought about that question for a longer period of time, when it finally shook its head to mean it didn''t know.


    I didn''t know what to expect from that ce either. Who knows maybe it was some kind of dangerous area or maybe beyond the fog was a city. Either way, I wanted to find out. Soon after we went to sleep. I actually didn''t have any dreams at all. It was because I didn''t train my skills nor did I train my body and certainly, I didn''t kill people. I think it would be right to say, that people were very rare in these parts of the forest.


    It was a nice change to dream about nothing. Maybe I did dream of something but when I woke up, I didn''t remembered it. The next morning we had our breakfast and moved towards south again. About an hour maybe hour and a half of travelingter, we encountered another new life form but this time it was kind of aggressive. The creature was aggressive because we entered its territory. It wasn''t difficult to kill the creature but I didn''t think it was edible.


    The creature we encountered looked like snail but it was much bigger than themon snail you would find just after it rained. It was about the size of small cat and also moved much faster than themon snail. It wasn''t poisonous but had a very hard shell, maybe even as hard as Shelly''s. When I threw daggers at the shell, they only created small cracks. The shell on its back was quite colorful, ranging from vibrant red to azure blue. But just because it had nice coloured shell, it didn''t mean it was undestructable.


    I said that killing the creature wasn''t difficult and that was because only the shell was very hard, its fleshy part was very soft and when my dagger passed through, it actually cut off the head of the snail. I wasn''t sure what type of skills the snail possessed but I decided to call it Vibrant Snail due to the colours on its shell. This was another new entry to my Beast Scriptures. Although I didn''t know much about those Vibrant Snails, next time we meet one, I would study it in greater details.


    After that little encounter, we traveled further south, until it was time for lunch. I said to Shelly "I''ve been waiting for this moment, we will now y the game and decide who goes to hunt!". Shelly nodded and waited for me to do something as it was now my turn to show and Shelly''s to repeat.


    I thought ''You wanted to y by those rules so don''t me me!'' and walked couple of steps forward. I then turned around and looked at Shelly with a smile. To my surprise, Shelly had something akin to a grin on its face. I thought ''What did this guy think of now?'' while expecting for Shelly to try something couple of times and then give up.


    But it never happened. What Shelly did next made me speechless. Shelly pushed itself up with its front legs and stood there on hind legs only, just like a human. Shelly then started walking. One step, two steps, three steps and so on. I was so overwhelmed that "How is that possible?" escaped my mouth.


    Shelly finished doing what I did and looked at me with not only a grin but also provocation in its eyes. I said "You crafty little bastard! you knew I was going to do this so you probably practiced!" to which Shelly nodded and maintained the grin. I said "Alright, now you show me what to do". I was now on my guard and though ''What is Shelly ning now?''


    Shelly looked at me and then simply hid all its legs and head inside the shell. I thought ''That bastard! it''s obvious I can''t achieve that!'' and then said to Shelly "It''s obvious I can''t do that, I don''t have a Shell!" but Shelly argued that it had to walk on hind legs while being a turtle. I was at a loss ''What can I do? Shelly is right. Normally, only a few kinds of animals can walk on just two legs and turtles are not really one of them''.


    I said "Fine, you win but you can''t use the same thing in the next game!" to which Shelly nodded its head in agreement. I then went into the forest for a hunt. I didn''t have to look for long before a group of normal wolves entered my sight. I took care of the pack of wolves and butchered them straight away. With bag full of meat, I returned to the ce where Shelly was waiting and roasted the meat.


    After we had our lunch, I said to Shelly "Next time, I''m going to win!" but Shelly only grinned even more. I knew it was nning something again but I wasn''t to be yed with, I could also do things that no turtle could!


    When we rested enough, we traveled further south for the rest of the day. The next morning, after breakfast. I went towards the cliff to have a look. We already traveled for couple of days towards southern direction, I hoped to find some signs of the damned cliff ending. My hopes were answered and I could see in the distance something like a path downwards.


    "Finally!" I eximed and called out to Shelly "Let''s go, I can see what looks like to be a path down the cliff!". Shelly came running and followed my sight. Shelly didn''t like heights, it probably wanted to check what is it that I called "A path" to make sure it was nothing dangerous. My sight was much better than Shelly''s but it could still make out some sort of path.


    I said "Don''t worry, we will get there in about 2 days of time and then we can have a proper look. If you don''t like it at all, we will go further south and maybe find another path". Shelly nodded and seemed to be more at ease due to my words. We packed our staff and moved towards the newly discovered path that awaited us.

 Chapter 104

    Chapter 104


    We were getting closer to the path in the south. I said to Shelly "When we go down, we will have to travel back north a bit. I want to go where that fog was, maybe we will find something interesting over there". Shelly was sceptical about the path but we went there anyway.


    Just before we had our lunch, it was time to y the game. I said to Shelly "This time I''m going to win! Hahahaha". It was my turn to start. Shelly looked at me attentively and waited for me to finish doing something. I went forward couple of steps and somersaulted forward. This time Shelly didn''t have a grin on its face, rather it looked quite grim. I said "Ha! try repeating this!" to which Shelly shook its head to mean that it couldn''t do that.


    I said "You thought it will be something easy again but Hahaha. You''ve lost so it is your turn to get food and you have to bring it here!". Shelly wasn''t very pleased but I didn''t care, I''ve lost twice already and I wouldn''t make it easy for Shelly either.


    While Shelly went deeper into the forest to get something to eat, I rested near the cliff. I watched the clouds and the scenery that was disyed in front of me. The view from the top of the cliff was great, especially during a nice sunny day. I''ve waited for about 20 minutes and heard some rustlinging from the forest. I thought ''Shelly is probablying back with the 1st animal it hunted''.


    I turned around and saw a bloodied Shelly walking towards me. Without thinking, I ran over and asked "What happened to you? These parts of the forest are not that popted with strong beasts". but Shelly was too tired to exin, it only made some noises due to pain. I took out medicine from my bag and applied it all over Shelly, I also gave Shelly some Vital Liquid to drink to heal its internal injuries.


    I waited patiently for Shelly to get better and thought about possible things that could''ve happened to Shelly while it hunted. After about an hour or two, Shelly was finally feeling much better and started exining what happened. "Right, so you went into the forest and saw a small group of wolves that you wanted to hunt. When you killed most of them, something else attacked you. It didn''t injure you heavily so you were still at almost full strength. You wanted to take care of that something but then realised it was bunch of humans. They attacked you more while you tried to take them out but it was difficult because they all used weird tactics and you couldn''t get close. You decided to run away and that is how you got here". Shelly nodded and made some more noises.


    I said "So, some kind of human group wanted to hunt you or maybe capture you? Where was that incident?" to which Shelly showed me the general direction it came from. I said "Wait here and hide yourself, I will deal with that" but Shelly made more noises to mean I shouldn''t go. I said "I will be back soon, just hide yourself and rest" then went inside the forest.


    I wouldn''t mind other humans hunting in this forest, the forest wasn''t just mine but attacking my family and doing so in sneaky ways, was a death sentence to that group. I wouldn''t just forget about it and leave, they had to pay for what they did!


    I searched the forest in the general direction that Shelly pointed to but couldn''t find anything. I though ''It''s been couple of hours, they must''ve been gone for a while now. It would be hard to find them''.


    I searched for a bit more but didn''t manage to find them, I did find the location where Shelly fought with the wolves andter the group of humans but there were too many tracks to follow. I couldn''t determine where the group of humans went. I had to give up and leave. When I returned to the cliff, I called out to Shelly "I''m back, you cane out now" but there was no answer. I thought ''That is weird, where did Shelly go?'' I called out again "Shelly! where are you?" but I heard nothing. Now I started to sweat ''Where is that turtle?''.


    I searched and searched and finally found something. Shelly left a drawing, in what I assumed its hiding ce. When I deciphered the drawing, I knew what happened and the rage inside me almost burst outside. If what the drawing suggested was correct, Shelly was taken by the same group of humans. These bastards didn''t chase Shelly on purpose and let it run away to me. ''They knew I would go search for them and this was when they tricked me'' I thought. If I stayed, they would have to face me but because I was so pissed, I just had to go and search for them.


    ''Those bastards are not stupid. Yet they forgot about one crucial thing, ME!'' I thought and took out a map. I soon found a veryrge vige couple of days worth of travel on my map. I thought ''So they probably went to that vige''. I didn''t wait any longer and used my full speed to chase after them in the direction of that vige. Even if I had to, I would burn that vige down to get Shelly back. As for that group of humans? They would receive the most painful deaths they would be able to imagine!


    I ran for couple of hours then took a break and like so a day passed. I saw no sign of that human group but they had to be close if they traveled towards the same vige. After a night''s rest I continued my pursuit. After about an hour or two of running. I found a camp that was abandoned not too long ago. ''So, they were here. I''m not far away from them in that case. I don''t believe they didn''t leave any tracks behind. If I search very thoroughly, I might be able to find something'' I thought.


    I searched the area and found couple of tracks leading in different directions. "So they want to cover their tracks and mislead me to somewhere else but they forgot about something again". I walked towards a piece of ground and saw a drawing. "Shelly is with them and as long as Shelly can move just one w, it will help me find them". I now knew the direction they went into, the chase continued. I was wondering what type of methods did they use in order to restrain Shelly. Shelly was very strong and wouldn''t just sit idly waiting for nothing. Shelly was quite heavy, there must be someone in that group who can carry Shelly for a day or couple of people who interchange carrying it. I guessed that I would find out when I catch up to them.


    At night, I stopped the chase just to rest and be ready for a fight, I needed to be at my prime when I encounter those bastards. I woke up early in the morning and gave chase almost immediately. They had to eat and sleep just like me but I already had some leftover meat from killing animals on my way.


    In the afternoon, I caught signs of human presence. I slowed down, I knew I was getting closer. They probably thought that I couldn''t find them due to the tracks left in their previous camp. I slowed down but still chased after them.


    I took more regr rests and ate more food just to be at my prime and finally the night came. When I traveled through the night, I saw fire in the distance. ''Finally! I caught up to you bastards!'' I thought and silently made my way forwards.


    When I arrived near their camp, I saw a group of 10 humans sitting near the fire. Some were drinking something while other chatted and ate. I could also see Shelly tied up by some kind of strange rope. Shelly was tired from what I could see, I guessed that it struggled to break free but that rope was very sturdy. I thought ''Now, all of you are just walking corpses'' and started devising a n of action.

 Chapter 105

    Chapter 105


    I observed the group of humans for a while and tried to guess what type of skills they could possess. The group consisted entirely of males. There were some who had sword, two that had shields and a guy who I thought had no weapon but I noticedter that he had daggers. ''I don''t know if that guy specialises in hidden weapons but I need to assume he was the one who did the tracking and is able to be stealthy'' I thought.


    I wanted for no one to escape alive. So I had to devise a n where I would kill them very quickly. Most important was the guy with daggers. I assumed he would be the hardest to catch if allowed a way out. That guy was my 1st target and priority. The next targets would be people with shields. I didn''t want them to use those shields in order to protect other people or themselves thus creating more opportunities for some people to run.


    Lastly, I would take care of the sword wielders. That was the order but my n was not set. If I attacked and seeded there were 2 options for these people. Option number one, all of them would start to retreat which would be bad, especially if they separated. The other option was for them to fight. For that, they would need an enemy. If I tried to do it stealthy then I would risk some people getting away but if I kill just that dagger guy and show myself, they would have an enemy to face.


    I was alone and at an obvious disadvantage but they shouldn''t be aware of my skills. I didn''t really use them much during our journey. ''My n is set then. First, kill the guy who may be responsible for tracking and stealth then leave my hideout and kill the people with shields, I would then take care of others. Even if they run away, I''m not something they can run away from'' I thought and dropped all my weights.


    I was still carrying them till this day but now, I needed all my power and couldn''t allow any of them to simply run away. With the weights gone, I could feel my body be more rxed and full of strength. ''I can probably outspeed them by many times right now, especially the people with shields as they wear more bulky clothes and those shields'' I thought.


    It was time to start the killing spree. I threw dozen of daggers at the guy who was responsible for stealth and tracking. "Swoosh" "Swoosh" "Boom boom boom" the daggers I threwpletely destroyed the dagger wielder, leaving gaping holes behind. The guy had no way of surviving that and I myself was surprised by the strength I possessed. When I threw my daggers, I immediately left my hiding spot to face the group.


    The other nine people in the group were still chatting and drinking away like nothing happened, then they heard my daggers exploding through my target''s body. They all stopped and looked in the direction of the dagger guy but only found gaping holes withrge amounts of blood rushing out of them. They immediately started searching around them while taking out their weapons. I was already walking towards them and threw another round of daggers at the shield guys.


    Although their shields were up, due to sheer strength and speed, the daggers passed through the shields creatingrge holes and even passed through the owners of those shields, to finally fall not to far away behind them. I now had a 100% certainty no one would survive.


    The ones that were left, didn''t know what was going on. In the space of couple of seconds, 3 members of their team died with holes in their bodies. The holes looked gruesome and evil. It was as if some kind of force made those holes in their bodies in just a second. They knew it was a physical attack because of the broken shields, otherwise, they wouldn''t be able to figure it out. One of the sword wielders blurted out towards my direction "Wha..What are you!?". I took couple of steps forwards and my silhouette became visible. I said "Your worst nightmare" and threw more daggers.


    The ones that survived tried to run, not even looking back at their colleagues or friends. The 4 people who survived, I had a special prize for them. I would kill them with my bare hands! I squatted down a bit and then released all the power stored in my legs. "BOOM!" the ground beneath me caved in due to the strength stored in my muscles . I reached such an incredible speed that I was surprised myself. Fortunately there were no trees orrge rocks, the camp was set up in a clearing. Otherwise I would run straight into a tree or a rock.


    I soon arrived in front of the first survivor. I caught him by his neck but because I used too much strength, I snapped his neck which resulted in his death. Just like that, one human lost his life, with no effort on my part. I thought ''My strength is so great, I can''t even control it properly now''. I woke up from my own amazements and chased the other 3 guys down, killing them by ripping off their hands or legs.


    These people were not as strong as I assumed at first but they had many people and probably good tactics. ''Maybe the guy I killed first yed a huge role in Shelly''s capturing. They had no people who used ranged weapons, I wonder how they could keep Shelly at bay'' I thought.


    With all the people in the group dead. I came over to Shelly and undid the ropes. Shelly''s eyes became teary when it saw me, but it was too weak to do much. I took out some meat and gave it to Shelly. They probably didn''t feed it much and Shelly also struggled while being tied up.


    While Shelly was eating, I went to retrieve my bag and weights. I thought ''I can''t control this much strength very well yet. I will use the weights for now and when the timees, I will practice the control over my strength and speed. It''s also a good hidden card. No one would expect that type of explosive speed and strength from a guy like me''. My aim didn''t suffer though, it was only that I couldn''t control my strength and speed. The guy who''s neck I snapped, was a perfect example. I just wanted to catch him and punch to death, but he died just from me grabbing him.


    I returned with all the weights back to Shelly, who was gobbling up the meat. I said "I told you that I will take care of them" and Shelly nodded with happiness stered on its face. ''I don''t know if Shelly is happy because I came to its rescue or because it has loads of food to eat''. I said "We should move away from this ce. If we stay in this area, we may encounter more people and you already saw what these type of humans are capable of. Humans are much more inteligent than animals, that is why you were captured". I then continued "Although I''m partly responsible for that, I went to look for them and gave them the opportunity to capture you. Just remember to never underestimate humans" to which Shelly nodded and continued eating.


    Although Shelly was carefree due to its nature, I could see a glint of hatred when it looked at the corpses lying on the ground. I said "Let''s go down the cliff. When I checked the map, it actually finished just below that cliff. I think there will be no humans there, once we get to that ce". Shelly finished eating and nodded its head seriously.


    "But for now, we will stay here and camp. Tomorrow morning, we shall move out towards the path that we found and leave for the unknown" I said then sat near the fire and ate some meat as well. I began thinking about tonight''s dream ''So, I will see that dream again. With my new strength, I may be able to do something now. We will see''.

 Chapter 106

    Chapter 106


    After my dinner, I checked the body of the dagger user. I wanted to know whenever that guy was using just one or two dagger as the means for closebat or did he use them as hidden weapons. I also wanted to know if he would have any books on him that could broaden my knowledge about hidden weapons, stealth or daggers.


    I found the daggers first as they were the most obvious. I took a detailed look and noticed they were mainly created for closebat and had no bnce when it came to throwing. The daggers were also created from simple steal, not purified one. This didn''t mean those daggers couldn''t be thrown but that alone suggested to me that this guy was not practitioner of the Art of Hidden Weapons.


    I searched his body thoroughly but didn''t find any books or bags. He had a map that was worse than mine and another knife. Probably used to butcher the animals they ate. ''So if he doesn''t have any specific skills, then how did they capture Shelly?'' I thought. I checked the other corpses too and it looked like this group was full of noobs. They had nothing on them besides their weapons and some trinkets.


    I went over to Shelly and said "How did they capture you? They had nothing on them which would allow them to do so. Their skills were also nothingpared to mine. So how did they even manage to injure you?". Shelly started drawing something on the ground. After a while, I figured out what Shelly was trying to say. "So it is like this. You are saying, these were not the people who captured you?" to which Shelly nodded and continued drawing.


    I could understand more and more when Shellypleted its drawing. "They were only responsible for transporting you to the vige. The other group disappeared long ago and was much stronger" I said to which Shelly nodded. I was a bit worried now but the other group would not be able to find out so quickly. ''We can rest properly today and hit the road tomorrow morning. This way we will be fresh and even in case of ambush, we would be able to hold our ground or escape'' I thought.


    We went to sleep not too long after as both of us were tired. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I opened my eyes again, I saw the familiar dream of many dark hooded figures fighting each other. ''So my assumption was correct. I need to kill humans in order to have that dream'' I thought and then focused on the duel between two dark figures who used their fists as weapons.


    ''I''m not confident enough to win against the dark figure with a dagger but if my strength here is the same as my strength in reality, I may be able to win against the fist user'' I thought and waited for my opponent to materialise.


    I didn''t have to wait long because my opponent appeared out of nowhere while being equipped with fists alone. The moment the dark figure appeared, it sprinted towards me in order to attack. I stopped thinking about useless things and also ran forwards to meet my opponent.


    The first exchange was quite good. I could see the dark figure''s attack and evaded, but the dark figure did the same against my attack. We were matched quite well from the 1st exchange. I began to have problems after few exchanges though. The dark figure got faster and stronger as if the more time it fought the stronger it would be.


    After fighting for couple of minutes, one of the punches that the dark figure threw, connected and I was sted backwards. I was surprised myself by the strength the dark figure possessed. I couldn''t hold for much longer after getting punched once and died.


    When I opened my eyes, the same scene appeared. I tried fighting with my full strength from the very beginning. It was a good choice because my punch connected and the dark figure back stepped couple of times but I couldn''t see any visible damage.


    The dark figure seemed to be unperturbed by this. I wouldn''t let go of that chance so easily. I used my maximum speed and threw couple of punches at the dark figure. It tried to evade but was still too slow and received one of my punches. The dark figure again lost its bnce while I rushed and used my legs to attack. The kick also connected and this time the dark figure flew through the air.


    When it tried to pick itself up, I was already in front with another kick. I wouldn''t give it any possibility of recovery after so many deaths in that stupid dream.


    I kicked, punched and so on but the dark figure didn''t seem to take any damage, it was as if it couldn''t be killed. After a few minutes of fighting at my full strength, I got tired and the dark figure finally had the chance to recover. What happened next, you already know.


    The weird thing was that every time I died and opened my eyes again, I was full of strength. It was as if the fight just before I died never happened. I decided to think about itter, this was not the time to be lost in thoughts. The more I fought with such a strong opponent the greater experience I would gain.


    A whileter, I died 20th time and when I opened my eyes, I was back in reality. Laying in the camp that the group of humans established. I wanted to stand up but I could feel something cold pressing on my neck. I looked down and it wasn''t Shelly, it was a hand with a dagger pointing towards my throat. I also felt very weak but I already knew why. I used a lot of strength in that dream I had and therefore, I would need a very good breakfast in order not to die alone.


    I was calm because if the person holding that dagger wanted to kill me, I would be dead already. It seems that someone from the 2nd group stayed behind or at least arrived in the morning to check on them. What he or she saw in around the camp area would be no doubt infuriating.


    I tried to look to my side but the dagger was pressed harder towards my neck. I said weakly "I need to eat something. Either kill me or let me eat". To which the person holding the dagger flinched a bit as I could feel the slight shaking in the hand holding the dagger.


    There was no answer so I called out weakly "Shelly, bring me some food" but I heard no answer either. I got angry a bit and said "If you try to take Shelly again, I can promise you right now. Even if you kill me, I will return and destroy all of you. Not one guy or two. I will massacre the whole vige or town that is behind you" and fell silent.

 Chapter 107

    Chapter 107


    The hand holding the dagger trembled even more but the person holding it, didn''t say anything still. After a while, I could hear some rustling in the southern direction. I thought ''Probably more of them arrived''. This was bad, I had no strength left due to that dream. I had to eat in order to restore my strength and this was the worst possible scenario that could happen.


    The rustling got louder and it stopped all of a sudden. I thought ''Why have they stopped? and why no one is saying anything?'' but the next sound was really surprising and relieving at the same time. ''This is the sound that Shelly does. Where did it go so early in the morning? To hunt?''. I called out weakly "Shelly, are you alright?" to which Shelly made a few noises and started approaching slowly.


    The hand holding the dagger tightened and pressed harder onto my neck. I said slowly "I told you to either kill me or let me eat because there is no difference. I I don''t eat something, I''ll die anyway". The dagger stayed on my neck but I heard a question this time instead of silence "Why did you kill them?". ''So its a woman. Doesn''t matter, I still need to eat something''. I said "Shelly, bring me some food or I will really die".


    Shelly started approaching me and saw that the woman holding the dagger pressed it harder on my neck. The blood started to leak, Shelly stopped while making some angry noises. I said weakly "Don''t mind her, just bring me food" and Shelly started walking again.


    The woman seeing this pushed the dagger harder and more blood started to run. Shelly again stopped and made some noises. It was probably worried that I will really die but what good would waiting make? I would either die by the dagger or die due to starvation. I shouted with myst strength "BRING ME THE FOOD!" and lost consciousness.


    When I woke up, I realised that I didn''t die. I had massive headache and still felt hunger but it wasn''t the feeling of starvation. I could feel something on my neck and realised that a hand with the dagger was there again. I noticed that the dagger looked familiar. To be precise, it belonged to me.


    I needed to make sure Shelly was alright so I said "Shelly, where are you?" but there was no response. I could feel rage building inside me "What did you do to Shelly?". A short whileter, I heard this response "It''s asleep". I felt relieved but I was still in rubbish situation. I had some strength now but when I tried to move my arm, the dagger was pressed against my neck harder. Being threatened with my own weapon didn''t feel good.


    The woman said "Why did you kill them?" again. I replied "Because I could? What does it matter to you? If you wanted to kill me, you had loads of chances. You could just let me starve to death". I heard no response and the dagger was taken away from my neck.


    I sat up and looked at the woman. Although it was a woman, her attire didn''t reveal any of her body. She had a fox shaped mask and her body was covered in dark grey leathers. I then said to her "I don''t get it. if you are not one of them then what do you want?". I saw that all my possessions were gone. None of my daggers were on me, the bag was also gone. I noticed that Shelly was indeed asleep and had no injuries. I said "Where is my bag?" to which I heard "I took it".


    I got frustrated and responded "I could figure this out myself, thank you. Give it back". The woman asked "Why?". I looked at her like I was looking at an idiot and said "Because it''s mine?". She pointed at the ce where camp fire was litst night and there was my bag. I said "My daggers".


    She yed around with my dagger and said "This?". I said to her in a deep voice that expressed my rage "You know that I can kill you without any weapons?" She immediately put up her guard and took out another dagger, which also belonged to me. I said again "Give me back my possessions". To which she said "What if I don''t?" Iughed for a while and then said "You will die".


    She seemed to be shaken by my words and fell silent. I got up from the bed and said "I don''t give a crap if you are the next empress or goddess herself. If someone takes my stuff or tries to harm my family, the only result for them is death". I stretched my arms and legs a bit and started walking towards her. She threw the daggers in her hands at me. The technique was so rubbish that this type of skill couldn''t even be considered as part of the Art of Hidden Weapons.


    I evaded the daggers and stomped my foot on the ground. The eleration was so great that she was shocked. With no time to spare she tried to attack again but now, she probably knew it was a mistake to enrage me. When I arrived in front of her, I grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up. I put most of my strength into the sudden eleration so my arm strength although decent was not at my peak.


    She started to choke and il. I said while holding her up "I told you that the only result for you will be death". She struggled for a while so I decided to end this and was about to tighten the grip when I heard "S..So..rry". I threw her away and though ''Was she just ying tough or something? Why would she apologise now?''.


    I said "You didn''t kill me so I will return that favour. You had a chance and I had a chance. Now you should know that I''m not something you can provoke easily". I retrieved my bag and took out some meat. I started eating like an animal. I wasn''t worried about her. If she tried to run, I would catch her and if she tried to attack again, I would kill her.


    After the meal, I noticed that the woman was sitting on the ground coughing. I said to her "I don''t know why you didn''t kill me and what you are doing here but I will take my stuff back and leave. You can do whatever you like". I picked up my bag and walked over towards her. She seemed scared, as if some kind of animal was going to eat her alive.


    I stood in front of her and said "My daggers". She seemed to be a bit dazed by my words and didn''t respond for a while. When she came to herself, she took out all the daggers that belonged to me and ced them on the ground. I picked up my daggers and said "I checked my bag and nothing is missing. The amount of daggers is also correct. You can go now, I will not kill you".


    I walked in front of Shelly next and called out "Shelly, wake up" but there was no response. I picked Shelly up and started walking towards the long cliff and the path we found before all thatmotion.


    As I walked, I heard the voice behind me "Who are you? I never saw you here. Are you from the city?". I stopped in my tracks and turned around. "No, I''m not from the city and who I''m doesn''t matter" I turned back again and started walking. After couple of steps, I stopped and said "I don''t know if you are trying to practice the same art as I do but try learning how to throw more than one dagger at once. If you practice how to hide them and retrieve them, it will do loads of good to your skills". I then threw one of my daggers backwards and it hit the ground in front of her.


    I said "Keep it. This dagger has great bnce. It can be used as a throwing weapon and as a weapon for closebat. It''s a gift from me but not everyone is as nice as I''m. Look out for that group, they are up to no good". I then left towards my own path, not looking back anymore.

 Chapter 108

    Chapter 108


    We returned to our previous path and were not far away from the path down the cliff. It took us couple of days in order to return to our original location but we managed that without any other hups. The dreams stopped again, I didn''t train my body or skills and I didn''t kill people. I again obtained the peace of mind and focused on traveling and exploring. We didn''t y that game anymore. We would always hunt together now, just in case someone tried to ambush us separately.


    After two days of travel, we arrived at the path that was supposed to take us down the cliff. ''Indeed, there is a path down but it''s not going to be an easy descent'' I thought and looked at Shelly. Shelly was not very keen on the idea of taking that path. It was too steep and at some points, I would have to jump in order to reach the overhangs protruding from the cliff''s face.


    I said to Shelly "Don''t worry, I will carry you with me when we have to move between the overhangs" but Shelly wasn''t keen still. I then said "Come on, it will be interesting. Besides, I want to leave this ce and explore something new, something interesting". Shelly nodded its head but reluctantly.


    I said "Great! then it''s decided. I still need to figure out the best and safest path so wait a bit while I look more closely at the path". Shellyplied and waited beside me, not making any noises. I looked at the path downwards and tried to figure out the best way down.


    The path started very steep and then ended abruptly. From that point on, we would have to jump between the overhangs. Some ces were difficult to reach, the overhangs were far apart or or the was only one lone overhang at the end and the only path would be to jump down to the next overhang.


    I deliberated different paths that were traversable and chose the best out of those. The problem was also our weight. My bag alone weighted a lot so for that asion, I decided to empty out all the unnecessary weight in order to gain speed and strength that no doubt would be needed.


    I said to Shelly "I have a path down and it is the safest as well as the easiest one I could find. I will tell you how we are going to go down, just in case we have to act due to some extreme circumstances". I then exined my n to Shelly "It would seem that going down the slope till the end would be the best idea but the path there is not optimal and more dangerous. We will stop about halfway down the slope and then continue using the overhangs. Don''t worry as I will carry you most of the times. Let me show you the overhangs we will use".


    I then pointed at the overhangs we will use in descending order. Shelly nodded its head and I continued my exnation "Do you remember the rope that was use to tie you up? I have it with me and it will be very useful to us". Shelly showed confused expression because it didn''t know where the rope woulde into y. I said "There is one overhang below the one we will stand on. In order to reach that overhang below, we will need a rope". I then pointed at the two overhangs that we would need to cross.


    I then continued "You will have to hold the rope while I go down". Shelly thought about it a bit and then became angry, making noises as if cursing me. I knew what Shelly was thinking about. If Shelly is up there holding the rope and I''m below, then how is Shelly going to go down? I exined "I know what you are thinking and the solution is simple. You will jump while biting the rope, I will either catch you or the rope. So even if I fail to catch you, there will be a rope attached to me and it will prevent you from falling any further. I will just pull you up. That is the hardest part of this path".


    The further my exnation went the more fear I could see on Shelly''s face. It would have to jump but I would be below with the rope still attached to me. So even if I didn''t catch it, the rope would still be there. Shelly shook its head many times and started to back away. I said "No time to hesitate now, you already agreed". I swiftly picked Shelly up and ran down the slope towards our new destination.


    Shelly screamed and tried to break free but I didn''t care, I ran down the slope a bit and then at the appropriate moment jumped. "Hop!". Wended on one of the overhangs and fortunately it was sturdy enough to withstand our weight. I ced Shelly down and said "Now there is no return". Shelly looked at me with teary eyes and moaned. "I know I said that if you didn''t like the path, we would look for another one but I want to experience some thrills as well. Stop moaning, we will get down safely¡­ I hope".


    I continued "I already showed you the path and most of the time, I will be carrying you so don''t worry". Shelly nodded its head although with tears in its eyes and fear stered on its face. I picked Shelly up again and said "Ready?" to which Shelly shook its head to show disagreement but I disregarded that and jumped to the next overhang.


    After couple of jumps, wended on a narrow overhang that started to crack the instant wended. I said "No time to think!" and jumped to the next overhang. "Crack Crack¡­ Swoosh". As wended on the next overhang, the previous one broke off from the cliff''s face and fell down. "Booom!" the piece of rock hit the ground and made a hole. Shelly again started whining and fearing for its life. I said "We are already halfway there so not much left to go. Hold on, we will reach the overhang were rope will be needed soon". I jumped down couple more times and fortunately none of the overhangs broke off.


    We were now located at the ce where Shelly needed to hold the rope while I descended to the next overhang. The rope was long enough for that and the overhang below was not far away, it was the difficult of getting there as they were almost perfectly in line with each other.


    I took out the rope and said "Shelly, now it''s important. Hold this rope as hard as you can. I will descend and then you will slowly jump down. Don''t jump forward, jump down and I will catch you. When I call for you to jump from below, jump". I don''t know if Shelly listened properly but when I handed it one end of the rope, it bit the rope tightly and stood near the wall of the cliff.


    I started my descent while saying "Don''t ,under any circumstances let go of that rope". My weight made Shelly slide forward a bit but when Shelly applied more pulling strength, it stabilised and stayed there. I made my way down as quickly as I could in order not to strain Shelly''s grip on that rope.


    Getting on the the overhang was not easy either. I had to swing in order tond there so I shouted "Shelly! Hold the rope very tight, I need to swing to get to that overhang. Hold on!" I started swinging and felt the rope moving down a bit. It was probably Shelly sliding again but I didn''t say anything and simply focused on reaching the overhang. As long as I got stable footing on it, getting Shelly down would be easier.


    With the final swing, I jumped andnded on the overhang. There was no cracking sound or any signs of movement form that overhang, which was a good sign. I shouted "Shelly! swing the rope a bit so that I can catch it". Shelly swung the rope and I caught it. I then shouted "Now! Jump down!" but in response, I could only hear moans and unwillingness.


    I said "Do you want me to leave you on those cliffs? We have no way of going up anyway. Our only way is down, whenever we go down safely or fall, it is the only way. Jump! I will catch you. Trust me!".


    Shelly didn''t make any more sounds and silence filled the area. I waited for a while and then heard shelly''s voice "Maaah" then the rope started to descent. I thought ''Shit!'' I was a bit unprepared and rushed into the position. Shelly jumped a bit too far forward and it was impossible for me to catch it. I caught the falling rope in the middle and shouted "HOLD ON TIGHT!" then pulled the rope.


    The falling Shelly had its eyes closed so it couldn''t see what was happening but it could feel a sudden tug on the rope and the change of direction. I pulled so hard that Shelly flew towards me and rammed me into the cliff''s wall behind. "Ugh" Shelly was heavy indeed and thanks to my strength pulling that rope, the damage I received wasn''t very big but it still hurt like hell.


    After a while, I said "Shelly, it''s alright now, I caught you". Shelly opened its eyes that were full of tears andined. Shelly wanted to say that it would never do this type of thing again. I packed the rope back into my bag and thought ''Now it''s just formality, nothing should go wrong''.


    I picked Shelly up and said "Now we shouldn''t have any problems, we will be down soon" and jumped to another overhangnding very hard. The overhang cracked but before it could break off, I already jumped to the next one. Some overhangs fell down, some stayed in ce while we made our way down. With thest jump we were on the ground.


    I said "See, it wasn''t that bad" but Shelly was grumpy and still made noises about my stupid idea. I said "It''s time to explore this area, I wonder what type of thing could be here".

 Chapter 109

    Chapter 109


    We walked back the way we came from but this time we were at the bottom of the cliff. Shelly was still grumpy about the whole experience of climbing down but I knew its mood would improve as soon as we got our lunch.


    The bottom of the cliff was not all that differentpared to the top. There were still trees, shrubs and small animals running around. So far, no visible changes were apparent. We traveled like this till afternoon when I decided it was time for break and some food. I said to Shelly "Let''s go deeper into the forest and get something to eat. I don''t have much left in my bag and your bag is already empty". Shelly nodded its head and became a bit more cheerful.


    Because we were following the cliff back to the ce where we saw the fog, we didn''t explore the forest yet. This was a good opportunity to check it out. We went into the forest and only 10 minutester we encountered a group of animals. ''This is bad'' I thought and said to Shelly "Do not make a sound, let''s back away". The group of animals we encountered were bears but not just any bears, all of them were silver in colour. Moreover there were 16 of them in that group.


    We backed away from that ce and continued further north along the cliff for a while. We then entered the forest again in order to search for something to hunt. This time, after about 15 minutes, we encountered another group of animals. Boars and all of them vere variants. All of the boars were yellow except one. The one that other boars were gathered around was white and twice as big as the yellow boars. I thought ''What the hell did we get ourselves into?''.


    No wonder there were no maps avable for this region. First of all, it was hard to get here, maybe further down south or extremely north the cliff finished and there was a path down but these parts would be hard to map out, especially with those type of enemies popping out likemon grass. I had a theory why those animals would thrive like this. Up there on the cliff, humans had their own settlements and so hunting was amon thing. The animals were not able to develop properly there. Although we could find variants and sometimes a group of them, it was not something that couldpare with this ce.


    ''There is no hunting here and therefore these animals are left alone without the need to hide, migrate or breed like crazy to fill in the spaces. These animals were allowed to developed and so I expect for this to be even worse if we were to continue further inside the forest'' I thought.


    We went further north to test my theory and when we entered deeper into the forest, we again saw a group of animals. This time they numbered less than previous times and the variants were ck bears. This group was manageable and quite easy to hunt with our current skills.


    We killed all 11 ck bears. I quickly butchered them and as soon as I was done, we left that ce. I didn''t want to encounter a group of silver bears or worse. About an hour of travel away from the ce we encountered the group of ck bears, we set up a camp and finally had our dinner. While we were eating, I said to Shelly "I know it was supposed to be our holiday but I think it will have to stop". Shelly looked at me and I think it expected what my next words are going to be. I said "It is time to train hard. If we want to survive in this ce, we have to get stronger and finding a way out with our current skills, could bring us even more danger".


    Shelly seemed to agree with my words and nodded. I continued "I know I said we should travel and forget about the training but the time to y is over. If we had more strength, situations like the one that happened on top of that cliff would never ur". I then said "I have to perfect my skills and you have to get even stronger. Being able to kill one or two silver bears alone means nothing here. We have to be able to tackle a whole group of them by ourselves".


    Shelly nodded seriously and from that point on we decided, it was time to stop ying around and return to our training. We had a good night rest and then started our training in the morning. I practiced both my body and skills, while Shelly would carry around loads of weight on its back together with the vision sealing mask attached on its face.


    I started my day from the usual training. First doing the poses from 1st and 2nd modified diagrams and then strength training. The bag I was carrying, although heavy, was no longer a problem and I could practice my skills at the same time. In the afternoon, we tried to go and hunt something. It took us a while to find a suitable group we could hunt. It wasn''t that there were no animals, the problem was theplete opposite. Not only were these parts of Great forest heavily popted with animals, the animals were very strong at that.


    After over an hour of searching, we found a group of boars that were of the yellow variant. There was no other variant in that group so we decided to hunt it. Shelly attacked by ramming the group of boars and I finished off anything that tried to run or simply was left out. We took our game back to the camp and had our dinner. After dinner it was time for skill training. In the past, I was practicing the Stringed Hidden Weapons and my ns didn''t change. Although I trained my body now as well. I would spend the rest of my time practicing the art before any other skill.


    This went on till evening when we had another meal. I wondered ''I trained my body and skills today, what type of dream will I have? Will it be the one with the dark figure talking away or the other where the dark figure trains? Or perhapsbination of both?'' I didn''t know the answer but I knew the dream would appear.


    I closed my eyes after a while and felt my consciousness starting to fade towards thend of dreams.

 Chapter 110

    Chapter 110


    When my eyes opened again, I was in the dream with the lone dark figure who started to train. I thought ''So it is this dream. This means there is no dream in between skills and body. I guess that I trained my body more therefore that is the dream I''m having''.


    I started my practice together with the dark figure. This continued on until I woke up in the morning. After my breakfast, I returned to my training. Time passed like this and the spring turned into summer. It has been over 3 months since we ended up in this ce.


    We had our share of dangerous situations as well. The variants were sometimes so powerful that we had to move further north in order to escape them. We encountered groups that numbers 30 and more with top end variants which I decided to call elites.


    What we discovered after about 2 months of leaving beneath the cliff was shocking. The so called elite variants were not at the peak of each animal society, no. There were creatures far more terrifying than those. Something that even 10 of me wouldn''t be able to do anything against. My Beast Scriptures got new additions due to that, although most of those things were without proper descriptions.


    We saw another 2 variants. One from the wolf family and the other from the bear family. The wolf terrified us when we saw it. It had mesing out of its back while its fur was deep silver. It looked like a creature from legends. What shocked me was that the wolf could almost fly. Not like a bird but due to its speed and jumping capabilities, it could traverse long distances without touching the ground. Its size was at least 2 times as big as the silver variant wolf, that was what I called an elite.


    If silver wolf was an elite then this had to be some sort of king. I filled in the details that I saw into the Beast Scriptures and noted everything I saw. We were d that this wolf had no intention of chasing us or killing us, it only passed over our heads quickly. It was heading towards the western direction, deeper into the Great Forest. I understood that day, I was wishful thinking when I decided to travel towards the fog we saw from the cliff many days ago. The creatures we saw those past months, opened my eyes a lot.


    The second creature we saw was a bear variant. The bear was like a huge statue, towering like trees in the forest. Although not as tall as a tree, it was at least 3 times bigger than the ck bear. It had red mes on its paws and its fur colour was deep grey. When that bear ran, it created tremors that could be felt from far away. The bear left deep pawprints while some me was still burning around the prints, extinguishing after a while. The bear''s speed was also very fast but notparable to the wolf that passed us couple of days earlier. I guessed that its strength had to be at least twice that of the wolf earlier but its speed had to bepromised at the same time.


    The bear showed no interest in us either and ran in simr direction to that of the wolf. I didn''t know the reason as to why those two powerful animals were running in generally the same direction but I was certain of one thing. I wasn''t stupid enough to try and find out.


    I decided to call them ming Silver Wolf and ming Grey Bear as the names seemed fitting for their appearance. The other variant which was the White Boar was also registered in my Beast Scripters. We didn''t meet stronger variant from the boar family besides the White Boar. Although we didn''t meet higher variant, the White Boar alone was very difficult to kill indeed.


    Not only was its fur and hide very tough, it was also quite fast and had properly developed mind. instead of rushing like an idiot, it used tactics andmanded the yellow boars that were always with it. It was hard to kill but we managed somehow, not without injuries though. I had to use couple of vials with medicine to heal our wounds after that fight.


    When we cooked the meat from the White Boar, it was at least grade better than other meat. It was delicious even without any spices. After the incident with the ming Silver Wolf and ming Grey Bear, I started to train as if my life depended on it. I increased the weight on my arms, legs and the bag was fully packed with the heaviest stuff I could find. Shelly also didn''t get away this time. I ced rocks inside its bag and told it to carry it at all times, just like I did.


    Shelly was pissed in the beginning but when I told it the reason behind this training, it quickly changed its mind. Like this we continued for those couple of months and got stronger while I practiced my skills as well.


    I could now throw one stringed dagger out and retrieve it and was on the stage of throwing two. I was learning how to juggle to be honest. I needed to throw one dagger after the other. I wasn''t worried about string maniption yet, I would worry about string maniptionter when I could grasp the basics of the technique first. I should say that learning how to properly throw one dagger was difficult but incorporating the second dagger was a step up in that difficulty. The problem was the coordination and focus needed in order to throw and retrieve them for extended periods of time.


    My strength also increased but I didn''t know by how much. I adapted to more and more weight which must''ve had some kind of effects. I also had the dream where I would train next to the dark figure. I was sure that this brought some results as well.


    Besides that, there was also the 1st and 2nd modified diagrams from the Strength Manual. Although my time improved but not by much. It was all due to the weight that was increasing the more I practiced. I could now spend 10 minutes in the 1st pose and about 6 minutes in the 2nd pose. Those were my current limits with the weight I was carrying. I didn''t test how long I wouldst without that weight but I assumed it would be somewhere around the 20 minutes mark for the 1st diagram and around 10 minutes mark for the 2nd diagram.


    I was already thinking about the 3rd diagram. In spare time, I tried to figure out some way to modify it as well. Theplexity of the 3rd diagram was exponentially harder than 1st and 2nd. Although I still had both diagrams to train, I wanted to at least try modifying the 3rd once in a while. The 1st and 2nd diagrams will definitely be useless in the future, having the 3rd one was a good idea. So far I wasn''t able to figure out much but again, I was in no rush yet.


    As for Shelly, it could now properly fight against 5 puppets but without the weight on. With the weight slowing it down, it was still struggling with 3 puppets. Obviously the weight slowed it down and this was a good training method for Shelly to develop some control over its strength. It would have to start predicting stuff and move much faster while making as little unnecessary movements as it was possible. I knew Shelly would adapt to the weight so I wasn''t worried.


    We always moved towards the north these past few months but after the encounter with those two beasts, I decided to build a permanent shelter. I looked for caves in the cliff''s face but only managed to find a crevice that was quite big. With some work, I managed to hollow out the inside of the crevice just enough for us to sleep in and eat. The crevice became our new shelter, it was quite nice as well. Good protection from direct sunlight and in winter, we wouldn''t freeze to death when the opening was blocked. The animals would also have a hard time getting inside, this gave us protection.


    With all that, we decided to stay in that ce for a longer period of time. At least until we were able to facerger groups of elites by ourselves.

 Chapter 111

    Chapter 111


    ''I will be 24 soon'' I thought. It''s been couple of years since I started my journey. With ups and downs, I somehow made it to this point but did I want to reach it? Did I find what I was looking for? Did I enjoy myself?


    Answer to those questions was ''No''. ''What I achieved means nothing in reality. What I experienced is not even the tip of the de. I''ve lost more than I gained, for what?'' I thought.


    You may be confused my dear reader because I never wrote the reason behind those questions. It will all be apparent soon as I exin what happened after those 3 months of training and getting by, day by day.


    We were doing the usual stuff. Training, hunting and resting. Nothing out of ordinary was happening. One day we attacked a group of beasts. It was a group of boars that included 14 Yellow Boars and one White Boar. We didn''t have many problems, we already fought this type of enemy therefore the fight was going well. Then it started to go downhill.


    When only the White Boar was left, it released a strange cry and suddenly, I could feel the earth tremor. I had a bad feeling about this so I called out to Shelly "Let''s run. I don''t like those tremors". Shelly nodded its head and we ran in the direction of our shelter. The White Boar didn''t chase us but the tremors were getting stronger and stronger.


    As we ran at our full speed, I knew we stepped into deep shit this time. The tremorsing from behind us, didn''t stop. I shouted to Shelly "Run to the shelter and I will see what it is. Under no circumstances leave the shelter!" and ran in opposite direction, directly towards the tremors. Shelly also stopped and tried to run after me but I shouted at it "I SAID GO TO THE SHELTER!" and Shelly stopped while making some noises.


    I sawter that Shelly finally turned around and ran towards the shelter. Now I was alone and on my way to face something unknown. At first, I thought it would be the ming Grey Bear but I figured that the tremors were too strong for that to be it.


    I ran a bit more forward and hid myself in the trees. I was waiting to see what exactly wasing this way. I thought ''Maybe it''s just a coincidence that the tremors started when the White Boar cried". it was a possibility but deep down, I knew something was not right.


    The tremors got louder and stronger, so much so that the tree I was one started to sway. I stayed on the tree and kept my high point. Soon I saw a silhouette. There it was, the cause of the tremors. it was a huge and I mean huge creature with long ck fur and 4 horns. It resembled a boar a bit but the sheer size and the long fur made it look like a monster for the deepest horrors. It''s red eyes stared in my direct. When I saw that creature, only those words could escape my mouth "Oh my god".


    I rushed down the tree and ran. I ran like crazy. I knew this was not something I or even 100s of me could go against. I knew that death was approaching, this was not something a human could kill. I rushed towards the shelter while the tremors behind me continued. When I arrived at the shelter, I shouted "Shelly! SHELLY!" but there was no answer. I thought ''Fuck! where did that damn turtle go this time!".


    I went inside the shelter just to check but Shelly wasn''t there. I then ran back into the forest, shouting frantically "SHELLY! WHERE ARE YOU!". After running for couple of breaths, I finally spotted Shelly, shivering in the middle of the forest. I ran straight to it and grabbed it. There was no time to exin anything. I simply ran for the cliff but because I already wasted a lot of time, the ck massive board creature closed in on us.


    I thought ''Fick this, if I have to die, I will die fighting!" and threw Shelly as far as I could and shouted "RUN! I will stall for time!" but Shelly wouldn''t move, it was paralyzed as if it saw a creature from its horrors. I didn''t have time to care about Shelly now. I had to face the giant of a boar that was rushing towards us. The massive boar was not that fast but was closing in nevertheless.


    I dropped all my weight and took out anything that would be of use from my bag. I didn''t have poison on me, only medicine but that would be as useful as it could be. I ced the vision improving mask on myself and put on the set of dark clothes Nick left for me.


    I was using everything I had. I knew I had no chance of winning against that monster but increasing my stealth could allow more time for Shelly to finally run away. I thought ''At least one of us needs to survive. I think my time is up. Nick, I''m sorry. I will be joining you soon''.


    The monster arrived and looked at me with its red eyes before stopping. It made couple of sounds but didn''t approach. As if it was waiting for a response. I didn''t understand what it was trying to say but I took out my daggers and prepared. The moment this massive ck boar moved, I would evade and then attack for what it was worth.


    We stood like this for a while and the boar didn''t move, it gaze then changed direction and looked behind me. I took a nce back and noticed Shelly was there trembling from fear. The boar made some more noises and waited. I didn''t know what to do and shouted "Shelly, just run!" but Shelly shook its head and moved towards me. I said "No, run, at least one of us will survive. I will stall it. Go, forget about me!"


    But Shelly no longer listened and walked towards me and the creature. I thought ''No other options, I need to attack first''. I bent my legs a bit and released all the strength I possessed in my legs. The speed I reached was extraordinary, even I was stunned by the eleration but I had no time to be thinking about that and prepared to attack.


    I soon appeared in front of the massive ck boar then jumped up and unleashed my attacks. 20 daggers flew towards the boar with the maximum strength I could throw. I didn''t have to worry about missing my target as it was massive, I was also very close. I aimed for its head. The head was a weak point in most of the animals and creatures, Brain would be there and so when brain died, the creature would too.. The daggers arrived but the creature just stood there as if a fly was just buzzing around.


    "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" daggersnded on the boar''s head. I wasn''t hoping for sess, I just wanted its attention on me. The daggers being thrown so hard actuallypressed on top of the boar''s head but did no damage. I thought ''Shit, I knew this was impossible. Even with my full power, the only thing that got destroyed are my daggers''. I was now falling down towards the ground, I heard or saw nothing before a sudden change of scenery and great pain in left half of my body. I could only guess that what''s happened was either the boar''s leg or horn hit me from the side.


    I had no way of avoiding that attack. It was also very fast, like lightning as I didn''t even see it. I flew through the air, fast! Not only the attack was painful and made me vomit blood, the area I flew towards wasn''t exactly obstacle free. I hit the tree with my body and broke it. I already had broken bones and now the close meeting with a tree, shattered my right arm bones as well as damaged my spine. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed due to the pain. I then fell down right after the broken half of the tree.


    Iid there unable to move, in pain that I never experienced before. Even the fight I had with the bear right at the beginning of my journey was nothingpared to my current injuries. I could only cry in pain,ying there on the ground. Nothing would move, no part of my body was operating properly. I thought ''So this is my end then? I achieved enough right? I proved something right?'' I could still see the massive boar standing in the distance while not moving.


    ''I just hope Shelly has managed to run away. Maybe one day, it will be able to avenge me'' I thought. As my consciousness was fading away, I saw something I would never forget.

 Chapter 112

    Chapter 112


    I watched with my fading consciousness as Shelly stood in front of the massive ck boar as if talking about something. Then all of a sudden the boar lowered its head and swallowed Shelly whole. I watched in disbelief as the sounds of crunching and breaking filled the air. ''No, it can''t be'' I faintly thought in disbelief and lost my consciousness.


    What followed looked like misty dream. I felt rage, hatred, anger¡­ thirst for blood. I saw my body starting to move, which was not possible, everything was broken or shattered into pieces. Yet my body started moving. My arms started twisting in ways that no human arm was supposed to. My hands then grabbed the ground and lifted my torso up, then my legs followed with the same weird movements. My body stood up on its own and "I" spoke some words from anguage that was familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.


    "Fer Lei Fal Gor Trevak. Phrak, Lak Thas Therak Grahten. Tentres Fhin Orhis Retres Lehis Sethis". I didn''t understand what I said but somehow, I pronounced the words as if I knew thenguage since birth. I was shocked as I saw that the body which was beyond any capability of moving, move. One step at a time, heading towards the massive ck boar that was looking in my direction.


    After a few steps, my body stopped and stood there not moving. The boar stared at my body but didn''t move. My body also stood there as if waiting for something. After a while "I" spoke once more "Sethis Kroh Seros" then "Boom!" my vision shook.


    The hazy dream then got even more blurry and then total ckness enveloped my eyes. I didn''t know how it was possible for my body to move at all. I didn''t know why I spoke in the weirdnguage, that samenguage the dark figure spoke to me in my dreams.


    I had so many question and no answers. While the darkness was all around me, I could still think. It was as if my consciousness was alive but stored in some kind of safe ce. I thought about Shelly and sadness filled my mind. If Shelly just ran away, maybe both of us would survive, maybe the massive boar wouldn''t eat me while Shelly hid itself and waited for the right time toe to my side.


    My thoughts wondered about what if? situations and I could do nothing but me myself ''It was all my fault''. I noticed that my life was¡­ empty. Every person or thing I cherished was gone. My parents, Nick as well as Shelly. There were also some people who I had some rtionship with and they disappeared too. Like the old man that told me to explore my life or the bitch that stole my family''s heirloom. Although I was still hateful, I couldn''t hide that the feelings I had for her were real.


    I was now alone¡­ again. Lost in my thoughts, I noticed that light started to appear. With light, objects like trees and grass came to my view. With more light flooding in, I noticed more details. I was currentlyying on the ground. Then the feeling of pain engulfed me. I grunted due to the agony andid there wailing for a while. The pain subdued a bit after some time, how much time has passed? I didn''t know but besides the pain, I felt hunger.


    I took more detailed look around me and noticed it was the same ce where we encountered the massive ck boar but I saw no signs of fighting, other than the broken tree that I personally broke. There were no animals as far as my sight could see. I tried to move my arms and legs but the pain became intensified. I thought ''Probably everything is broken¡­ Wait! if I can move my arms and legs, then it cannot be broken''.


    Iid there and rested. The more I moved the more pain it created and the longer I stayed motionless the pain was also bing subdued, it was as if some kind of medicine was taking effect. After about an hour or two of lying motionless, I was finally able to stand up slowly. When I looked around me, there was nothing to be found besides the trees, grass, asionally stones and shrubs.. No massive ck boar or any other animals. There was also one more thing missing, Shelly. I hoped it was a dream and called out "Shelly! Shelly are you there?" but heard no response.


    I tried to recall everything. The moment of me attacking the boar, then being smacked and flying through the air. Then meying there and watching as Shelly dies in the mouth of that monster. When my thoughts reached this point, I got a splitting headache. It was as if something was preventing me from recaling that misty dream I had. It was as if I didn''t want to remember and instead received headache. I stopped trying to recall the hazy dream but I still didn''t know what happened.


    I called out for Shelly couple more times but I knew deep down that Shelly would never return, eaten by that fucking boar. I didn''t know what happened to the boar and why I was still alive. I didn''t believe in my blurry dream either, I assumed it was a hallucination of some sort due to injuries, pain as well as loss of someone close.


    I closed my eyes for a while, trying to remember the times I''ve been with Shelly and tears started to roll down my eyes. I said to myself "Strength. I need to be stronger. Then I will get my revenge. I WILL KILL THOSE THAT HARMED MY FAMILY!" I shouted at the top of my lungs while tears were falling down from my eyes.


    My mind was no longer working rationaly. I only desired destruction and carnage. I wanted to exterminate the whole boar poption but I knew I would just throw my life onto the wind. I thought ''Shelly died for my sake, so I shall live to remember Shelly. I shall live to remember all people who extended a helping hand towards me. I shall remember all those who treated me as their family. I will live''. I then moved forwards not looking back. Forwards, in the direction that my heart dictated. North.

 Chapter 113

    Chapter 113


    I walked mindlessly through the forest. Lost in my thought, I took one step after the other. I didn''t know for how long was I walking when I finally woke up from all that was on my mind and noticed it was night time already.


    I stopped and looked around. There were no animals or beasts around me but I could see a faint light further up north. I then looked at myself. My clothes were damaged all over, I couldn''t call them clothes anymore, they were rags at this point. I touched my face and the mask was half broken. Only one half was left. The vision improvement that it provided was no longer there.


    I touched my back and there was no bag on me. ''I don''t recall seeing it at the ce we encountered that massive ck boar either'' I thought. I knew I dropped that bag in order to fight but now, I could do nothing about that anymore. My possessions were lost or maybe even destroyed. I thought about going back and searching for my bag but there was no guarantee I would find that ce again.


    I don''t know how long I walked for nor did I see the cliff that should be on my right hand side. I was hungry as well but there was nothing to hunt. Nothing attacked me along the way and even now, I couldn''t see any animals. The only lead I had, would be the light further up north.


    I searched my clothes and I found that I still had couple of my daggers left but not many. Only around 13 were left, I also had the Beast Scriptures on me ''So the book didn''t vanish together with my bag'' I thought. I decided to check out what that light further up north could be but I had a guess as to what I could expect.


    I walked forwards and after about 20 minutes of walking, I could faintly see what the light was. It was a fire or to be more precise a campfire. ''Someone is making camp up there but what type of humans could camp in these parts of the forest? I should watch out and probably avoid that light'' I thought and changed my direction a bit.


    I wanted to avoid that location and just move on further to find some food. I was about 20 minutes away from that campsite, I thought ''No one will be able to see me just passing by from that distance''. I didn''t run either and my ragged clothes although destroyed, they were still ck¡­ and red from blood but in the dead of night, I wasn''t sticking out like a sore thumb.


    When I passed the distant campsite located on my left, I heard some rustlinging from its direction. I thought ''How did they found out?'' and took out my daggers. A whileter, robust male with arge sword attached to his back came into view. He wore a set of hardened leather armour or at least that was what it looked like. The sword was very big, I thought ''How can someone possibly wield that huge thing? it''s as impractical as it can get''.


    The man also saw me and sighted, he then spoke "I thought it was a monster trying to sneak up on me. Friend, why don''t you join me? You seem quite worn out".


    I thought ''Why would I join you? So you can kill me more easily?'' I replied "I will not take your offer. I shall leave now". The man stood there for a while as I walked further towards the north and then shouted "Wait!". I turned around and looked at him, my daggers still in my hands. He said "I don''t know what happened to you and I''m not going to ask. I''m alone as well and just wanted thepany of someone". He then continued but with a slightly different tone "if I wanted to kill you boy, you would be dead already".


    I could see a sharp glint in his eyes as he said this. I looked at him and kind of believed him, he had to be strong in order to live and travel through this part of the forest. He was no pushover but to assume he could kill me wasughable. He didn''t even know my skills.


    I said to him "Want to try?". The man seemed to be a bit surprised about my response. He looked at me for a while and then smiled. "I will take you up on that offer" then "BOOM!" he speed towards me. He was as fast as me at my peak. No, he was faster, much faster than that.


    I quickly evaded the fist that flew towards my face. "BOOM!" the sound of air exploding sounded behind my body. ''This guy...'' I thought but I had no time to think more because he attacked again. I evaded everything I could and sometimes barely made it.


    "Boom! Boom! Boom!" the fists exploded one after the other. I was shocked, I knew he would have skills but this is beyond what I imagined. I was evading all the time, when I finally got a chance to attack, I threw my daggers at a tricky angle thinking that I got him. I thought "Take this bastard!''.


    I don''t know when but he got out his sword and deflected all my daggers. He then jumped back and said "You went quite far with those toys. You can stop now. If I use my sword, you will die" and I stopped. I believed him, if his fists had that kind of power then what type of skills and power would he possess with that sword.


    He then continued "So, Hidden Weapons?". I wasn''t shocked. ''This guy is more powerful than me so he probably saw and experienced a lot more than me'' I thought. When the man saw that I didn''t respond he said "Your skills are not bad, your strength, reaction isn''t bad either but I''m sure you can see the difference between us. Although I must say, you look quite young".


    I looked at him and said "I know you are stronger and with that sword of yours, you would be able to kill me. I also saw none of your sword skills so you have another advantage but are you certain you saw all my skills?". When I finished saying that it urred to me that I didn''t have my possessions. No strings, no poisons or medicines, nothing.


    He looked at me and said "As I already said. It''s an invitation for a meal and a chat, nothing else. If you really wish to leave, I will not stop you anymore". I looked at him and replied "I shall take your offer then" and walked towards the campsite. I thought, if he really wanted to kill me, he wouldn''t have to act so sneakily. I had no stuff on me either. My book? which had couple of animal and beast entries? This guy probably saw many more of them and knew much more than I could''ve had. He wouldn''t be interested in my book nor in my daggers. He had a sword which was probably much better quality than my daggers.


    I picked up my daggers along the way and noticed the guy smile a bit then follow after me, back to the campsite.

 Chapter 114

    Chapter 114


    At the campfire. I sat down and rxed a bit. The guy joined me and and sat next to campfire not far away. He then said "If you want to eat, just take what you like. Don''t hesitate". I didn''t, I was hungry and so I took the meat that was roasting and started eating. The guy took out a bottle of what seemed to be alcohol and started drinking.


    He asked "Do you want some?" to which I shook my head and said "I don''t drink". He didn''t mind and drank by himself. After a while, he asked "Where are you heading?" to which I looked at the fire burning and said "North, I''m heading north". He looked at me and seemed a bit shocked. He asked "Can I ask why?" to which I responded "I don''t know, I''m just going there. Anywhere would be fine, it''s where my body takes me".


    He looked at me with kind of disbelief in his eyes and said "Do you know what is up there?" to which I said "No but it seems you do. Wish to share?". He looked back at the fire and said "With your current skills¡­ turn back and walk different direction. This would be my honest advice". I asked "Why? I seems that north is very dangerous but what exactly is there then?". The guy looked at the fire for a long while and then finally uttered "Monsters. Monster you wished never existed".


    I was a bit shocked and confused as well. ''Monsters? For this guy to call something a monster¡­ Does he mean stuff like the massive ck boar or the Faming Silver Wolf?''. I decided to ask him "Do you mean monsters like the wolf with mes on its back or huge bear with mes on its paws?". He looked at me a bit surprised but thenughed. He then replied "Those things? Those are not that rare in the north. I mean real monsters, not animals. Animals hunt to survive, monsters kill because it gives them pleasure".


    I looked at him with even more confusion but decided to ask no more and changed the subject. I asked "Did you meet someone who practiced the Art of Hidden Weapons before? You knew what skill I was using". He looked at me deeply and answered "Never show those skills in public. I do not know where you are from and who you are but be sure that if you sh those skills in cities orrge settlements, you will be hunted and killed". I thought ''Why? A skill is a skill, it doesn''t matter what I use, as long as I can win a battle or kill my enemy''.


    I asked "Why? Do people hate if someone practices that art?". The guy responded "Hate? no, they don''t hate these people. They are scared of them. I''ve heard they kill any ves that are found to posses any object they weren''t supposed to. Even things like sticks or stones". He then continued "I don''t know if that is true but they fear people with those skills".


    He then said "You don''t seem to be from a city, you know very little. I don''t know if you learned those skills by yourself or did someone teach them to you but I don''t need that answer. As I said, I just wanted a conversation and I don''t care if you are an assassin or a saint".


    I looked at him and then back at the fire burning away, bringing warmth to my body. I said "I''m neither". I then asked him "Why are you here then?". The man sighed and said "Well you shared some stuff with me so why not return the favour". He then continued "I''m on the run. Some nasty people were after me, so I ran to this ce. Now, I''m a traveler just like you".


    I looked at the guy and asked "Why the big sword? Isn''t it too impractical?", the man smiled and said "I got used to it, besides it''s not as impractical as you may think". I asked "Why so?" and he responded "Weight. That is the purpose of the sword. It doesn''t even have a sharp edge but due to its weight and my strength, anything that is mmed with my sword would be crushed or smitten apart¡­ well not everything but I''m sure you get the idea. This type of sword is called Bastard Sword or Great Sword"


    ''So it''s that type of weapon but he needs to have a lot of strength and stamina in order to swing it. This could be a disadvantage in longer fights'' I thought. In reality, no skill or weapon was perfect, all skills and weapons had some disadvantages. Even the Art of Hidden Weapons had disadvantages. For example ranged weapons like bows ware the bane for users with mid range weapons like throwing daggers.


    Everything had its counter, that was why I wanted to master other arts and skills to fill in the gaps and disadvantages. I then asked him "It is clear that you are very strong. So why run away? Why not face your opponents?". I could see his face bacem visibly more grim, he then replied "It''s not something I can fight alone. You probably don''t know them but they have people everywhere. That is why I live in the forest instead of sitting inside the city, enjoying my life".


    I got more curious and asked "Who are they?", he looked at me seriously and said "Why do you want to know that?". I had no particr reason besides curiosity, I stared at the fire for a while and then turned towards him while saying "Did you know?" the man was surprised by my initial response but then I continued "Everyone I cherished or had some rtionship with, is gone. Some disappeared while some passed away".


    He looked confused and didn''t know what I meant. I continued "If something can be broken, it can be put back together. I may be young but I''m not stupid. You are strong there is no doubt about it and I''m sure your knowledge and experience amounts to much more than mine but it seems you don''t realised that simple things in life matter greatly. This is where we differ as well".


    The man was even more confused and asked "What do you mean?" to which I responded "If you lived my life, you would know and you could say the same thing about me. I would have to live your life, to know the stuff you know". He didn''t seem to realise what I meant still and tried to contemte. I said "I asked who they were because I was curious. If you don''t want to, you don''t have to answer".


    Iid on my elbow and rxed a bit. I was curious as to what group was chasing him because I wanted to know more about everything that I encountered but he was right, our lives were different. If we were topare each other, I was like a cloud, drifting through the sky. While he with his knowledge and background was like amon tree.


    I knew that there were loads of people who had simr information, just like this man and there were loads of strong people living in this world. Cities were probably crawling with them. ''Just like Nick said to me, his inheritance was worthless and nobody wanted it, that was why he left the city. He might have had another reason besides his master wishes but he never said'' I thought. In my eyes, Nick was strong but no one wanted his legacy. This alone shows what type of people exist in this world.


    The guy sat there thinking about something then finally said "I can tell you a story, would you like to listen?" I replied "Sure, we have loads of time".

 Chapter 115

    Chapter 115


    The man stared at the fire and said "Before I begin, I wish to say that a tragedy befall me as well. My wife was killed by those who try to kill me now". I looked at him but didn''t say anything. All people had losses, although I''ve lost everything, left with only few of my possessions, this was not a contest of who lost more. I waited patiently for the man to continue.


    The guy then said "You said that you''ve lost everyone dear to you or even close to you. I understand how you must feel" but before he continued I said "No, you can''t understand how I feel". He was bit surprised, I think he wanted to tell me that he was in simr situation. Left with nobody that would care for him. I then continued "I don''t mean it in that way. I''m sure you meant the feeling of loss and pain, probably the thirst for revenge and helplessness. I understand what type of feelings you wanted to portray but you don''t know how I feel".


    He didn''t know what to say to that. I learned to be straight with people. I said what was on my mind and what I truly thought. There was never a point for me to lie to him or try to cheer him up. All of us had some stuff going on, I didn''t live for the sake of making people happy.


    He wanted to say something but I interrupted him again "You don''t have to feel a certain way because we had something simr happen to us. I don''t know how you feel either. I have no clue how it feels to lose a wife".


    I continued "Just stay true to yourself. I can tell that you are not that type of human. You are brash and confident man. That is your nature, just embrace it and don''t try to put up a show in front of me". The man looked at me confused and surprised at the same time. He said "How do you know that?" to which I answered "I told you, the Art of Hidden Weapons is not the only thing I learned".


    I then continued "Speak freely, I can still understand what you mean even if you don''t put up a show". The man nodded his head after a while and said "It''s true. I think humans have it that way. They want to build up feelings and engage the person listening to their story. You are very smart even though your knowledge is shallow".


    He let out a sigh and then continued "Very well, I shall tell you the story like a man I''m". I waited for his story to begin. "I lived with my wife in the city called Hord. We were both mercenaries, meaning we were paid to do stuff like hunting, protection and so on" he said.


    He continued "One day, we got a lucrative job proposal. It would pay very well and it was quite easy to aplish. We would have to protect some sort of young master traveling from Hord to Trost. We would use the main roads. With the fastest horses avable in the city as well as the best carriage that the young master owned, the journey wouldn''t be hard. The thread was rtively small and the journey would be around 2-3 weeks worth of travel". I thought ''I have no clue where those cities are, I never heard of them''.


    The man continued "I took the job without thinking it through. As you said, I was quite confident in myself but that was the biggest mistake of my life". I looked at the man and asked "Why? Did something unounted for attacked you?" but he justughed painfully and said "No, the path was rtively safe. It was that young master who was trouble. I was happy that such an easy job had very generous pay. When we traveled with that young master, I found out why it had such a price".


    "I found that the young master gets whatever he wanted and he wanted my wife. I said to his butler that he can piss off but the butler only said that it would be better if I just agreed. He said that the young master was not someone I would like to mess with" he said.


    I asked "So, you didn''t agree but I guess the so called young master still wanted toy hands on your wife?" the man looked at me and said "Yes, that is exactly what he tried to do. He wanted to drug me and my wife in order to **** her but he didn''t seed. I didn''t eat or drink his drug. My wife on the other hand did but I was enough to take care of them".


    I said "So you killed all of them?" to which the man responded "Yes and that was my next mistake. If we just ran away, that young master with his butler would be able to get to the next city no problem. That butler wasn''t weak, to say the least. I figured outter that they didn''t need protection and only wanted my wife in the first ce".


    I said to the man "I can guess what happened next. You killed someone who you should never touch and so, here we are today". The man nodded his head and said "That is correct. I killed them and the people who chase me? That young master was one of them. They didn''t like the idea that he died when we were supposed to protect him and so they started to hunt us. They assassinated my wife... I managed to get away with my life after killing a few of them but the deed was done. My wife was dead and I was a broken man. To top it all off, those bastards were still chasing after me. I ran away, I ran further and further, until I finally arrived in these parts".


    I asked him "Why don''t you live in some small vige then?" to which he responded "I told you, they have people everywhere. As long as it''s a vige, settlement or city, they would eventually find me". I asked "Then what is your n?" to which he looked at the fire that was now burning slowly away and said "I don''t know, so far I could live rtively safely here, no one is chasing after me and it''s not that bad living here. As a mercenary, I don''t need a lot to go by".


    I looked at the man and said "Is that your n? What about your wife?" he said in a sad tone "What can I do against such arge group. If I kill 10 then 100 wille and even if I kill 100 then 1000 wille". I thought for a while and said "So you are dead either way then".


    He got a bit pissed and asked "What about you? You are heading towards north. You are dead as well! I wouldn''t survive there even more you". I still looked at the fire andughed. I turned around and said to him "Do you want to join me?". I could see fear and bewilderment on his face. He didn''t know what to say for a while but then mustered his response "No, I don''t wish to go there".


    I said "It''s a shame, you would have a chance of survival". I then stood up and said "I shall take my leave now. It was nice to talk to someone after such a long time". The guy was a bit stunned and said "You can stay till the morning, we don''t have to rush anywhere. North will not run away and I have to stay in these parts anyway. So we can talk more".


    I turned away from the fire and started walking towards north. While I was walking I said "There is no more need to talk anymore. Both of us have different paths in life. I can only wish you luck" and left the campfire as my silhouette disappeared between the trees in the distant.

 Chapter 116

    Chapter 116


    I traveled through the night as I didn''t feel tired at all. I could feel some hunger still, even though I ate therger portion of that man''s roast. I left that man because he would be dead sooner orter. I could see that when we talked. He was afraid for his life and hid himself from the world instead of trying to get stronger, trying to figure out how to avenge his wife.


    He was alive for now but I wasn''t certain for how long this wouldst. I tried to change his mind to pursue the strength and improve himself but he refused. I asked him to join me because I would travel and train at the same time. He would do the same due to possessingpetitive nature, striving to improve oneself while living in a dangerous areas. That was why I said he would have a chance of survival if he joined me. I wanted to extend a helping hand and give him some advice because he seemed to be a nice guy. He offered me food as well as conversation but it seemed that he just wanted to run.


    I didn''t think about that man anymore. As I already said, we had our own paths and mineid in the north. Whenever it was dangerous or not, I still had to face it because the whole world was my home.


    I traveled through the night and didn''t encounter any animals or beasts. I didn''t know where I was. I knew I couldn''t be very far away from the area where the fight with massive ck boar took ce. In the morning, I decided to stop and rest. I took out my Beast Scriptures and started adding in details about that monster.


    I decided to call it ck Mammoth. I then filled in everything I knew about that monster. I added some things to the White Boar entry as well and noted that at least some of them can call for the help of the ck Mammoth. I then closed my book and rested on top of the tree. I wanted to be well rested and fresh as I didn''t know what type of animals were present in these parts of Great Forest.


    In the afternoon, I resumed my journey. I walked for couple of hours when I finally encountered some animals. I found wolves and they were the in wolves that were the weakest from the wolf family. There were 6 of them therefore I could take care of that group no problem. I still checked for any signs of other animals but found nothing. I used my daggers and killed the group. I then extracted meat as well as fur. I had nothing now and even my clothes were damaged. I decided I would need to make a backpack as well as some clothes that would protect my body better.


    Having 6 wolves worth of fur, I had enough materials to try and make some clothes but there was a problem as well. I had no needle or thread or anything that would allow me to make clothes. I decided to eat first and then do something with those skins. I had too much meat of course, I could eat 1 or 2 wolves worth of meat as my appetite was still good but the rest I would have to either throw away or take with me.


    I used one wolf skin to make a makeshift backpack in order to be able to carry something. I decided to cook the meat and create dry rations from it. This way the food wouldst much longer and I could carry more of it. I also took one more wolf skin just to have something as a cover at night and moved out towards the north.


    I didn''t have a map, I could only determine where north was using the stars. I had no clue as to what I can expect on my way there, I could only walk and train. There was nothing else to do. No one to talk to, y with or enjoy myself with.


    I never stopped training, I always did the diagrams from the Strength manual and I trained my strength as well as skills. I was cing more attention on skills this time. Not only my skills were behind but I also wanted to dream the dream of dark figure talking away. I wanted to learn thenguage and figure out what the dark figure said. I though ''Maybe I would be able to learn something new if I knew what the dark figure says''.


    I wanted to train my Stringed Hidden Weapons but that was impossible. I didn''t have the strings anymore, I decided to train my stealth as well as fingers and closebat instead. My dexterity and agility was fine but not great. The more flexible I was with my fingers, the easier it would be to control the stringster. I still remembered some of the books that I had in my bag. I also had the Strength Manual in there but I long since remembered all the diagrams, so losing the book was not an issue, I could still modify the further diagrams.


    I wanted to use the knowledge from the Soft Fish Technique that I found on a old woman long time ago. It was a skill for the whip users but I decided to modify it in a way that could train my body. I also remembered how to train my fists but I wasn''t concerned about that for now.


    As for my Art of Stealth, it''s been a long time since I made any progress. I still haven''t found an inspiration for the "Avoid the Light" part of the skill. I improved a bit with my stealth but I didn''t master it yet. I figured that this would be the perfect time to do so and besides, stealth could save my life if the north was as dangerous as the man said.


    I trained all the skills in my Art of Stealth from the beginning. Rehearsing the basics but without the tools this time, as I had none. The mask was gone and the puppets too. The strings were lost but that didn''t mean I couldn''t practice. I used trees, shrubs and whatnot as my obstacles, while I ran around with my eyes closed. Processing the information I got from my ears, nose and touch.


    I ran at the fastest speed I could and evaded everything in my way. I then got an idea ''I learned how to calcte the behaviour of people but why not the path I should travel?'' I thought. "If I could visualise a path that was not only the fastest but the most stealthy, wouldn''t that add on to my skills? Running away would be much easier but also moving around unnoticed would improve" I said out loud.


    I decided to try it out. I opened my eyes and tried to figure out a path that would take me to my destination in the fastest time and with as little exposure and sound. I looked for a while but found out that I couldn''t do it. I thought ''I can calcte the behaviour of people but this is different, nature doesn''t move really, so I can''t predict it.. although there might be a way''.


    My solution to that problem was ''I need to use every possible path in order to get to the same location and then figure out which was the fastest and the quietest''. My training of the Art of Stealth resumed and a new skill would be added, if I could aplished what I ned.

 Chapter 117

    Chapter 117


    The process was harder than I expected but I guessed that all my ideas about new skills were difficult. I set a destination for myself to train on. It was arge tree that seemed very old with the bark starting to fall off. It was easily recognisable and not far away.


    I stood in one ce and looked at my destination. ''The first step. Finding a route'' I thought and looked for a route I could take. I soon found my 1st route and took it. The terrain was a bit rough, I had to decrease my speed in order to stay quiet but it was one of the shortest routes. The route I chose was not in a straight line but quite close to it.


    It took me about 11 minutes to reach the destination. I went back to my previous spot and chose a different route. 13 minutes, 11,5 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 18 minutes, 14 minutes and so on. I ran back and forward to the same destination about 50 times, each time using a different route. The shortest time I could do it in while staying quiet, was 9 minutes but that was just the speed. I now had to take under consideration my exposure.


    I looked at the routes in the same order I took them and checked for exposure. I was looking for stuff that would hide me. The smaller the amount of objects allowing me to hide myself, the worse it was. On the other hand the more objects surrounded me the more hidden I would be. It was a bnce between speed and cover.


    The 9 minutes route had barely any objects that would hide my presence. The longer paths also had small amounts of objects but I had to examine all of them. I needed information. I needed to know how to judge the terrain and how to predict the best route possible. ''Time and environment'' I thought while searching. After examining all the routes I took, I found an optimal one that allowed for more stealth and optimal speedpared to others.


    It would take me 15 minutes in order to travel by that route. I though ''Now let''s make it 10 minutes''. This was my true reason for calcting a path. I did find the most optimal but even then, I could still optimise it and besides, no one would give me enough time to run 50 times back and forth to find a suitable path. I needed to learn how to calcte that while I''m on the move. In fact, I wanted to do this with all the paths, I just thought it would be easier to start with the most optimal one.


    Before I did any more training, I ate the rest of my rations. ''I think I should hunt before anything else. I can always return to this ce but I need food in order to stay here'' I thought and headed deeper into the forest.


    Bizarrely, these parts of the forest weren''t that greatly popted with animals. It wasn''t easy to find arger group of let''s say wolves or bears. I wondered why but couldn''t figure anything out. I searched the forest for really any animal I could find and finally after 40 minutes of walking, running and creeping about, I found a group of deer.


    ''Not an aggressive animal so they wouldn''t attack, I need to kill as many before they run away'' I thought and prepared my daggers. "Swoosh! swoosh! swoosh! swoosh!" my daggers flew through the air and struck couple of deer. The rest started to run but I didn''t chase after them. ''4 of them is enough for me, It should be enough for 2 days, I think'' I thought and started butchering the animals.


    I decided to take the skins as well. I needed a shelter and I would also need some kind of bed. I could also use the skins as part of my shelter so it was 2 birds with one stone. I nned to stay in the same ce that was used as my running field. Finding a new destination and running 50 or more times to examine all the paths, was not something I wanted to do again. I wanted to focus on optimisation and the 50 paths I already took? that was more than enough for the beginning stages of that skill.


    Back at the new camp, I set up my shelter using branches, animal skins and leaves. I was well experienced with building those temporary shelters so it didn''t take me long. It was already evening, I decided to stop my stealth training and focus on my strength a bit. I did the set of exercises that my father used to do in the past and then moved on to the exercises carried out by dark figure in my dream.


    It looked weird but I noticed improvement a while back when I did those sets of exercises. It wasn''t just to make a fool out of someone, it really did something for the body. Each set had a different purpose as I found out after studying them more extensively.


    The frog jumps that the dark figure carried out in my dream for example. Its purpose was to train legs and jumping ability, of course it worked better with a lot of weight on me but it wasn''t possible anymore, I didn''t have my bag. Every exercise that the dark figure did in my dream had beneficial effects assigned to it. I trained well into the night and then retired, embracing my dreams as I closed my eyes.


    When my eyes opened, I was standing in front of a dark figure that started to talk away. I thought ''Finally, this is what I wanted to see''. I then realised something ''I''m actually happy to see that dream¡­ never thought this would happen''. I studied thenguage that the dark creature spoke and tried to further increase my knowledge.


    I already knew a few words, now I just had to guess what followed them. I listened, then died and so on for 20 times. It was the same amount of cycles every time. I don''t know why but I hoped for more. More cycles would allow me more time to study thatnguage.


    Although it was repeated only 20 times, I still got something new out of it. The word Peris was sometimes in front of the word Ji and sometimes after it. Ji meant "is" so the word Peris could mean "this" as in "This is" would be Peris Ji. If I were to ask a question, the words would be inverted to make Ji Peris, meaning "Is this?" just like in the humannguage. ''Now I''m almost certain that this must be some sort of ancient humannguage or at leastnguage that has same construct as the humannguage'' I thought.


    "I don''t know where thatnguagees from and whenever it was spoken by humans or not but I shall name it the Ancient Language". The name fitted because it didn''t specify the race that used thenguage, it was just an ancientnguage.

 Chapter 118

    Chapter 118


    There was another word I thought I figured out. "The word Fal could potentially mean "the". It''s used very often and never in front of words like "is" "can" or "you" but the use of it, is quite often". I thought that this would be the best guess I could make about the word Fal. If I assumed that everything I figured out was correct, then it would mean I knew 9 words that were used quite often


    Fer - which would trante as "I" or "Me"


    Lak - which would trante as "You"


    Ak - which would trante as "It"


    Ji - which would trante as "Is"


    Ki - which would trante as "do" or "does" depending on the pronoun used


    Rei - which would trante as "Can"


    Lan - which would trante as "Are"


    Peris - which would trante as "This"


    Fal - which would trante as "The"


    The list was not a long one but it was a start. I could now even create simple sentences. For example "I can do this" would be Fer Rei Ki Peris. The amount of sentences I could create was limited but having that list, I would be now better able to guess more words and add on to it. ''With time, I will be able to fill in that list and decipher thenguage, to finally figure out what the dark figure is talking about again and again, with no end visible'' I thought.


    When I woke up in the morning, I ate my breakfast as usual and returned to my training. Starting from the Strength Manual''s modified diagrams. The next part of my training was to go around the route I selected as the most optimal and find out ways to improve my time as well as stealth. Although it was the same route and I kind of knew it, I didn''t register all the details so I started running that route again and again.


    For about 2 hours, I ran both ways using the same route. I did figure some basic stuff out due to that grinding process. I was now more focused on the objects that could hide me but at the same time, I was more aware of my speed. My time started to improve with more runspleted and I managed to do it in 14 minutes at the end of two hours. It was only a minute of improvement and I knew the route like the back of my own hand but that was also part of my training. ''If I''m very familiar with it, I can increase my speed and stay hidden'' I thought.


    Although this might''ve seemed pointless due to me using only one route, in one part of the forest. It actually helped me train my sense and find details while calcting the route. I was learning how to calcte the route, it wasn''t simple running back and forward while getting familiar with the route I was taking.


    I then had my lunch and decided to go hunt again for a change. I searched the forest and came out unlucky. After over an hour of searching, I found nothing worth hunting. I settled on few rabbits. ''I guess that few rabbits is better than nothing'' I thought and returned to my camp.


    Going back to my training, this time I chose a different route. It was 2nd most optimal road with 14,5 minutes travel time but a bit less objects to hide my presence. I ran the route back and forward for an hour or so and again improved the time by a bit less than a minute.


    I thought ''This can actually work out. I''m getting familiar with those routes but the more familiar I''m the better. This way, I will be able to find tiny details that will increase my time and hiding capabilities''. After doing that, I changed to body training and did that for couple of hours before having my dinner. During the night, I started revising the 3rd diagram from the Strength Manual. I knew it would take time and my current capacity with 1st and 2nd diagram increased by leaps and bounds but nevertheless, I would need that 3rd diagram too.


    I could now stay in the pose of the 1st diagram for almost 19 minutes, only a bit over than a minute away from my target of 20 minutes. That was of course without the weight on my back, arms and legs but it was something nevertheless. As for the pose from the 2nd diagram, I could keep it for a bit over 8 minutes. Which was improvement as well.


    This proved how much my body grew but it was not enough. My strength was good but not great, I would need at least the same amount of strength that the man I met couple of days ago had. My skills were alsocking, I was working on it but without all my tools, I could only focus on something that didn''t require them.


    I could potentially train my Wind Daggers but that was not an optimal choice. It would take much longer than my stealth and if I were to believe what the man said about north, stealth would be very useful. ''I need to stay alive in order to do something. Being able to move undetected as well as knowing how to run away, will help me achieve that'' I thought.


    I was modifying the diagram and found some small details that I could improve but nothing major. I still had some ways to go but before that, I needed rest. I fell asleep and dreamt the dream I actually wanted to see. Now that I was more familiar with thenguage and had some basic stuff figured out, I ventured to the unknown. Although I could remember the words that were spoken, it didn''t give me much without the dark figure saying them. It was very hard to pronounce them and I was afraid to get it wrong, if I did it by myself.


    It was already hard guessing the meaning of those words and if I did it on my own, outside of the dream, I could stray from the right path, which I didn''t need at that point. The dream finished after 20 cycles but I got nothing out. I had some guesses but they were far fetched and I needed more time in order to get a solid hint or clue that would either confirm or destroy my theory.


    When I stood up and tried to do my usual morning exercise, I saw a group of humans approaching my camp from afar. I thought ''This can be bad. If they are as strong as the guy I met. I could be in deep trouble''. I stayed calm on the outside but inside, I was already ning how to take care of them. I didn''t know their strength nor skills or their purpose but I knew one thing. They weren''t friendly people. I didn''t call out to them and simply waited in my camp for them to arrive.

 Chapter 119

    Chapter 119


    The group of humans got closer and finally arrived at my camp. One of them walked closer and said "Stranger, we are looking for a middle aged man with arge sword on his back. have you seen him?" I looked at them and said with a straight face "No. You are the only group of humans I saw, since I been here". The man looked at me and I could see sharpness in his eyes. He asked "Are you sure?" to which I replied "Yes, I''ve been in these parts of the forest for about half a year and you are the first humans I saw here".


    When I finished my sentence, I noticed that the man was trying to do something so I was preparing as well to throw my daggers. Before the man acted up on his thoughts, another man interjected "If you''ve been here so long, did you see any unusual beasts?"


    I looked at the man and said "What do you mean by unusual beast?" to which he extrapted "Something that wasn''t a simple animal". I thought about it and said "I think I might''ve. I don''t know if those two beasts are what you mean but I saw a silver wolf with mes on its back as well as grey bear with mes on its paws". I said nothing about ck Mammoth on purpose.


    The man''s eyes lit up and asked "Where did you see them?" I said "In the south. The two beasts I saw were running deeper into the forest, they didn''t even care about me. If you want to find them, I guess going towards the western direction would be your next destination".


    The man nodded his head and asked "Do you know who we are?" to which I answered with a question "Do you know who am I?", they seemed surprised while I continued "We never met each other so think about it, how would I know who you people are?". The man smiled and said "Give him something for his trouble" he then turned towards me and said "Your information is very useful to us, we don''t leave people unrewarded when they help us". Another person from the group threw something at me.


    I caught it and looked at the item. It was a bag, it looked simr to the one I had but it wasn''t the same one. The man who threw that bag said "I saw you don''t have a proper bag with you, so take this one". The man who asked most of the questions exined "This is not a normal bag, it will fit loads of things inside while staying pretty much the same size. Watch out though, it will have the same weight as the items inside it".


    I replied "Thanks! This is very useful indeed". The man smiled and said "Alright, let''s go. We have some beasts to catch" and they left. I was d they just left and I knew who exactly they were searching for. When I said to the man that he will die sooner orter, it might be sooner than I thought. ''If they get their hands on him, I don''t think he will have a chance to survive'' I thought to myself. I checked out the bag left and right. I check the inside and yed with it as if I never saw it.


    It was all a sham, these people were dangerous and they might still be somewhere around, trying to test me. I ced random objects inside and out. I put in loads of stuff and checked the weight. All with smile on my face. I acted as if I got my hands on a very expensive toy. If they were watching then they would assume I was telling the truth and perhaps leave.


    If the man I met before was correct, these people were the ones who chased after him. I wasn''t nning to run away like he did. If I had to, I would fight but only if it was really necessary. After ying around with the bag, I hid all my animal skins, food and what not inside. I then moved towards north. I couldn''t stay in this ce, I didn''t want for anyone observing me while I train.


    I moved towards north and didn''t practice my skills. I only hunted when necessary and did so with makeshift weapons instead of my daggers. I didn''t want for them to know anything about me. It might seem paranoid but if that group of people went as far as to chase one guy deep into the forest, I preferred to be paranoid than dragged into that mess.


    My days looked simple, I would travel towards north and hunt from time to time. I wouldn''t practice anything on my way but I had loads of time instead to modify the 3rd diagram. I made a bit of progress with the 3rd diagram due to my so called paranoia.


    At night, I made camp and sat next to the fire that was burning away slowly. ''So they are indeed following me''. My paranoia turned out to be useful and I discovered them hiding away in the distance. ''Pffft, you were trying to hide from a guy who learned the Art of Stealth. That is justughable'' I thought to myself. They probably wanted to see if my story was truthful, it wasn''t but they couldn''t know. I thought ''Let''s see who has more patience, you guys or me?''.


    I would do the same stuff everyday and it seemed monotone but that didn''t mean I was justzing about. Couple of days passed and I was at a crucial point with my 3rd diagram. I felt that I was about one or two crucial changes from apletely modified diagram. I already tried most of the things and finding the final details would not be easy but I was getting close.


    They still followed me after those few days. I wasn''t bothered, I just lived my own life and didn''t care about them. If they decided to attack, I''d fight or run but for now, I didn''t have to do such things. ''As soon as they watch enough, they will leave. I don''t believe that they would seriously just follow me for very long'' I thought. Even judging their behaviour, they were quite impatient people, maybe besides the guy who asked the most questions. I assumed him to be the leader. The others were not as calm and collected as he was.


    The group would soon give up and continue on with their own things. If not, they were wee to follow me north. I went inside my shelter to sleep. I knew I would have no dreams that day. Normally I would be happy but this time, I actually wanted those dreams. ''It''s always like this. When you need something, it''s never there and when you don''t need something it''s always there'' I thought and fell asleep.

 Chapter 120

    Chapter 120


    The next morning, I checked my surroundings stealthily. I did that in order to check whenever the group that followed me, was still there. I looked for a while and didn''t spot them but I wasn''t convinced yet. ''It might be a sham, they may have left or are pretending they did. I need to continue this charade for a while longer'' I thought and packed my staff to continue my journey north.


    I was traveling at a slower pacepared to the past. I wasn''t getting very far every day but I continuously traveled and so the distance to my destination got shorter and shorter. Of course I didn''t want to arrive there just like that. I wanted to practice my skills beforehand but if I had no choice and they still followed after me, I would have to do just that.


    I only had about a dozen of my daggers left. I couldn''t use my daggers as throwing weapons lightly. Especially fighting against a group of strong opponents. I didn''t know their skills either but they had advantage in numbers. Closebat would be difficult as well. That was why I wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs. You don''t fight the fights you can''t win.


    In the afternoon, I found a group of wolves, still the usual normal wolves. I wondered ''Where the hell are all the variants?''. I didn''t see one for a long time now and this seemed a bit suspicious. Although it struck me as weird, I was happy nevertheless. Fighting variants would mean that I had to expose my skills and if that group of humans still followed after me, I would be in even greater disadvantage once they attacked.


    I used wooden spears and whatnot to take care of the group of wolves. The group consisted of 4 wolves anyway, I wasn''t worried about being injured or dying. I made it look as if I was struggling with that group, just to let them know I wasn''t that powerful. Of course provided they were still trailing behind me. I traveled and hunted when necessary for few days and didn''t notice them hiding anywhere. I decided to test that.


    I went into the forest and disappeared between the trees. If they were watching that, they would surely find it surprising and maybe even try to find my location. I didn''t need for them to really chase after me, just expose their location, of course provided they were still there. I waited for a while, then about 30 minutes passed. I saw no response. I thought ''Maybe they can see me?'' I returned to my camp to pack my stuff and then sprinted into the forest. I went into stealth immediately and ran further north. After an hour of running at my full speed while staying in stealth, I hid at the top of a tree and waited patiently.


    One hour, two hours, 4 hours and nothing. I released a sigh and thought ''OK, so they finally left. Now I just have to travel as far as I can in one night, I can then resume my training''. I sprinted through the night leaving as little tracks as I could. When the sun raised over the horizon, I stopped to rest and thought ''Now I can finally focus on my training''. I made a camp nearby and rested till afternoon.


    Because I met these people, I now had to find a new ce to train my new skill from the Art of Stealth. I had to repeat the same process and again find the most suitable route that would take me to the same destination.


    This time, I chose arge boulder as my destination. It was about 10 minutes away, if I ran in straight line. Of course, I wasn''t interested in running at full speed in straight line, instead I needed to do it at optimal speed while staying hidden. Soon after, I selected my 1st route. ''Hmm, about 17 minutes'' I thought after traversing it. It was one of the fastest routes I could find but then again, I had to try many in order to have something topare them.


    I ran and ran and ran like crazy. Forwards and backwards, each time using a different route. Some routes took me 20 minutes to run while some took 16 or 17. I never managed to go below 16 minutes mark. It was due to theck of objects that would allow me to hide my presence. I contemted andpared the routes again, finally choosing one that was most optimal.


    ''I have my route. Next step, improving it!'' I thought. Although I started from the most optimal route and focused on improving that, I would try to improve other routes as well. This would help me with the familiarisation process of the skill. If I learned how each leaf, grass de, flower, pebble and whatnot behaved while I traveled, I could then use those small details to improve my route. I would also be a step closer to mastering the skill of calcting the best route. There was one more reason. It was to learn the behaviour of nature. I was doing the same thing when I learned how humans behave. The more people I watched and studied, the better able I was to predict what they were going to do. This same thing is at least ten times harder when ites to nature.


    For one, I had to watch not one entity or object but the whole route. Human was just one entity and calcting behaviour based on muscle movement, facial expressions or state was much easier to do than figuring out what a de of grass would do. nts or rocks didn''t have muscles or facial expressions. This was the reason why it was so hard to predict the behaviour of nature.


    I ran the route many times and managed to memorize it like the back of my hand but it wasn''t enough. Simple memorisation would improve my time for sure but that was not what I was after. I took a break in order to eat something and then decided to train my body. I now had a bag with the same effect as the bags I owned in the past.


    I didn''t know the maximum capacity of the bag but I was about to find out. I stuffed as many heavy things inside as I could, until the bag would take no more. When I tried to lift it, the bag was very heavy. It was heavy to the point that my past training with weight paled inparison. I tried to put the bag onto my back but it was already difficult to lift it. I decided to take out some of the rocks and make the bag weight less. I thought ''This bag seems to be capable of fitting more stuff inside than my previous bag. Probably because the one from Nick was old and this one is newer''.


    I ced the ''still heavy but not to the point of crushing me'' bag on my back and started my body training. As usual, I started with the modified diagram first. With the weight on me, the duration I could stay in the pose suffered a lot. I was able to stay only 8 minutes in the 1st modified pose. As for the 2nd pose? Measly 4,5 minutes. I expected that already so I wasn''t disappointed. I also knew that I didn''t carry any weight on me for a long time, my body would need to adjust to it again, even though I was strongerpared to the past.


    I carried on with my training until the evening. After dinner, I rxed for a while and tried to modify the 3rd diagram. When I got tired, I went to sleep. I hoped that this time, I would dream the dream of the talking dark figure.

 Chapter 121

    Chapter 121


    When I opened my eyes again, I stood in front of the dark figure that started talking away a short whileter. I listened attentively and paid greater attention to the words that preceded or followed the ones I already knew. After a few cycles of the dream, I didn''t figure anything out but then it hit me. I tried different meanings with the words, I thought I could trante and I hit the jackpot.


    ''If my guess is correct, The word Korak could mean "who"''. I found that the words usually ending with "ak" meant a person or referred to someone like Lak or Ak which meant "You" and "It" respectively. If my guess was correct then the words ending with "ak" could be deciphered more easily. I would only need to find what those words meant specifically and a few words could be deciphered.


    I was now gaining better ideas about the structure of thenguage. If there were patterns such as those, I could decipher thenguage much faster. I listened for a few cycles and found another word that fitted the description. ''So, I also have word Seurak. I don''t know what it means yet but I need to pay attention and maybe I will be able to figure it out'' I thought.


    I then came up with another idea ''Why not try and ask this dark figure what or who it is?''. I couldn''t ask "What are you?" but I could ask "Who are you?" as I had those words tranted already and if my trantions are correct then maybe I will hear an answer. While the figure was talking away as usually, I constructed my sentence in the ancientnguage and spoke it out loud.


    "Korak Lan Lak?"


    My pronunciation was rubbish and not at all natural but the words I''ve spoken were spoken correctly. The dark figure stopped talking and after a short while it said "Fer Lei Fal Gor Trevak" then continued on where it left off with the usual speech. I was stunned and thought ''It actually answered me. I don''t know what it said but it said something different and familiar at the same time''.


    I tried to decipher the words that the dark figure answer with to my question. I already knew the first three words, Fer Lei Fal meant "I am the" ''So the dark figure actually said who it was but I don''t know what thosest two words represent''. I tried to figure it out but then lost in my thoughts I felt pain and then darkness.


    When I opened my eyes it was already morning. I thought ''I was thinking about the words so much that I lost track and the dark figure killed me for the 20th time, I assume. But what do those words mean?''. Thest two words Gor and Trevak were a mystery. I knew Trevak contained "ak" at the end so it must mean something concerning that dark figure. I thought more about it and wrecked my brain. I then realised something.


    ''Trevak, Trevak¡­. Sounds a bit like travel. It could be a coincidence but at the same time it could mean traveller. This would mean that the dark figure is some sort of traveller or was'' I thought. ''If it is a traveller then what does Gor stands for? Old traveller? Ancient traveller?'' I thought and tried to figure it out but no answers wereing to my head. I simply didn''t know what word did the dark figure use before traveller. It could be anything, stuff like old, funny, grumpy, mysterious and whatnot. I had no way of finding it out this way. I had to narrow it down but I couldn''t ask the dark figure "What does Gor mean?" as I didn''t even have words "what" and "mean" tranted. I didn''t know if the dark figure from my dream used those words.


    I wouldn''t give up and I believed that with time, I would be able to find trantion for most if not all words that the dark figure spoke. I stopped worrying about those things and got back to my training. The weight that was in my new bag, put me back onto my original path. Now besides training my body, I could train stealth with that weight on. This further enhanced my training and made it more difficult.


    I ran my routes as usual and then trained my body. When I felt hungry, I would eat or go hunting in order to get some food. Fortunately, these parts of the forest weren''t greatly popted with strong monsters and I could train in rtive peace. The people which I met a while ago, didn''t appear anymore. I kept my eyes peeled but it brought no results, which I was happy about. I didn''t want to meet them ever again, well maybe when I''m much stronger than now but by then, I wouldn''t have to worry about such groups.


    A week passed since I made camp in this ce. My days looked monotone again but I wasn''tining. I focused on my stealth skill as well as thenguage of the dark figure. I was able to improve my times tremendously due to familiarity of the routes but also because I started adapting to the weight on my back.


    The most optimal route now took me a bit less than 20 minutes to run. Mind you, this was still with the heavy bag I was carrying on my back. I also learned more about the nature. I couldn''t say that I was at the point of predicting the behaviour of nature but I could see patterns of sort. There was a limited amount of changes that could happen to a de of grass or a leaf. The more I practiced and noticed the greater was my experience.


    My time improved daily, although the improvement was getting smaller and smaller. I was also gaining more and more experience while doing it. My body training continued as usual and I was now very close topletely modifying the 3rd diagram. As for my dreams and the Ancient Language? I studied it every night. Although I made no new discoveries, I became more certain that the trantions I already had, were indeed correct. ''This would be much faster if the dark figure gesticted more but it only speaks and sometimes uses gestures, I can''t see its face as well. It''s much harder to guess the meaning of those words'' I thought.


    I thought about using different sentences in the Ancient Language, of course from the words I already knew. I would need to ask questions or just simply state something useless due to the limitations of my tranted words. Although I didn''t expect much, I was mostly interested in the responses that the dark figure would say or not say. I thought ''Who knows, maybe a pattern would emerge. With pattern, I could trante more words''. I decided to give it a go next time I fall asleep.

 Chapter 122

    Chapter 122


    I continued on with my training untilte in the evening. Before I went to sleep, I wanted to have another stab at the 3rd diagram. I knew I was missing just one small detail in order topletely modify it but somehow I couldn''t find it. I already tried modifying other elements of the pose that seemed right but it didn''t bring the desired results.


    I wrecked my brain about it but there was nothing. ''Nothing¡­. with all my knowledge in the Art of Medicine, there is nothing I can find. How is that possible? I checked all the hidden muscles and whatnot but it doesn''t seem to be that. If it''s not about muscles, then what?'' I thought. I didn''t know what I was missing. It seemed correct but my instincts were telling me there was something missing.


    The more I looked at the pose the more I was convinced it was not about muscles or posture and position. It was something else. I was going along those lines and suddenly a thought came into my mind ''Aura! No, is it even possible?''. Aura was something that I learned how to copy from different people. This was also part of the Art of Stealth. It was the skill I created, I was trying to figure out how to be less visible and blend in more with the crowds. Copying the aura of the people that weremon on the streets was what I figured out.


    I thought about it more ''Does the further diagrams need aura in order toplete them? Something like the domineering aura, or calm aura?''. I went through my memories and tried to remember the name. ''Hmm, if I remember correctly, the pose was called "Warrior''s Step Breaks The Opposite Army". What type of aura would that be then?'' I thought.


    If my guess was correct, then the moment I add aura to that diagram, it would beplete. The problem was, which aura. I studied the title and thought about it hard. ''Domineering seems most appropriate, as if I wanted to dominate the whole army of people.'' I thought about it and my aura started to change. I tried to create an aura that would fit the description. Domineering and absolute, as if saying "The world shall bow when I take a step".


    My aura intensified and finally I released it. There was no explosions or sounds but the mood around me changed. I felt like I was the owner of this world, as if the stuff around me had to bow in front of me. The feeling of giving an absolute order "Bow, or get trampled on!". I stood up and tried doing the pose. ''Right leg forward as if I was making as step. Left leg stays behind, with a slight bent. Arms straight alongside my body but not lose, tense. Hands lifted upwards. Left hand''s palm facing the ground. Right hand''s palm facing the skies. Eyes closed and head leaning forwards a bit'' I thought as I positioned myself into the pose.


    The pose waspleted and the aura of dominance was filling the air. When I opened my eyes, "Whoosh!" it was as if the wind pushed the grass, leaves and small stones around me backwards. The area became quiet, as if thend was barren andpletely absent of any life. Complete silence. I stopped and smiled while saying out loud "It worked! The 3rd diagram ispleted. I have finally managed to modify the 3rd diagram and now only two are left from the Strength Manual".


    I was very excited but at the same time I already knew ''It''s good that I have it modified but I can''t use it yet''. I couldn''t use the 3rd diagram yet because it used the hidden muscles from the 1st and 2nd modified diagrams. Therefore, this was a follow up diagram, not one I could train at the same time like the 1st and 2nd. I also noticed how much stress it puts on my body, even though I stayed in the pose for a short while. ''I have to master the 1st and 2nd diagrams in order to be able to practice this one. This is probably the reason why Rand and Senty had issues with the Strength Manual. Of course, I modified it and it is now much better but the 3rd diagram already required an aura. If they only trained the unmodified pose, the effect would be almost nonexistent'' I thought.


    I didn''t know for how long Rand had this manual and trained using the poses but from what Dina said to me, she was a small girl when her parents died. ''It means that Rand didn''t get very far with understanding this diagram. Maybe he tried asking Nick but because Nick hated the whole vige, he didn''t help him modify it. Or maybe he never showed it to Nick and thought that practicing it will make him stronger than Nick'' I thought.


    Whatever it was, the past was the past. I had to focus on the future and now was the time to enter my dreams again, to face the dark figure and the Ancient Language. Iid down in my makeshift bed from animal skins and closed my eyes. The moment I opened them again, I was already in the dream.


    I thought ''Right, it''s time to test out some things''. The dark figure in the distance started talking as usual while I tried topile a sentence in the Ancient Language. After a while, I had my sentence constructed and said it out loud.


    "Korak Lei Fer?"


    I asked "Who am I?" and the next moment the dark figure stopped talking and replied "Lak? Lak Lan Therak Devorak" and then continued on with the speech. I was happy that the dark figure actually answered and with something else at that. I tried to dissect the sentence. ''Lak means "you" so the dark figure asked "You?" and then continued "You are" using the words Lak Lan but I do not know thosest two words. I only know they would refer to a person, so the dark figure referred to me twice somehow but what type of words are they?''


    I didn''t know. I tried thinking of possible solutions but nothing came to my mind. I couldn''t find any simr words in humannguage or at least simr that would make any sense. I decided to try a different sentence. I had limited amount of sensible sentences I could create so I asked.


    "Rei Lak Ki Peris?" and I jumped into the air.


    The dark figure stopped again and said "Ze, Kiq Thes Therak Reles" and the dark figure started talking again. I wondered ''How is it possible for it to answer anyway? If I learn thenguage, can we just talk like this?''. I tried to decipher the words spoken by the dark figure again. I asked the dark figure "Can you do this?" and jumped into the air. ''The answer it gave was probably "No" so the word Ze would mean "no" in that case'' I thought. The dark figure then said something familiar. I already knew the word Ki but this was not the word Ki but Kiq instead. ''Did it have some kind of rtionship?'' I thought and pondered over it. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I forgot again where I was and the dream soon ended.


    ''I need to figure out thatst sentence. I already figured out one word and I think I will be able to figure out at least one more. I just need to focus on it''

 Chapter 123

    Chapter 123


    I analysed the sentence again and though ''The word Ki means "do" or "does" this would depend on the pronoun used before or after it. The word Kiq should mean something like "do"... maybe it''s the opposite of "do" which would be "don''t". It would make sense because the construct is the same. In humannguage we would add "not" to the word "do" in order to create "don''t". If this is the same logic and the Ancient Language is based on simr rules, then if I add letter "r" at the end, it means opposite''.


    If my thought were correct then the sentence would be "No, Don''t or Doesn''t". ''This would make sense, the dark figure said it wouldn''t repeat what I did and perhaps added something like "Don''t be cocky" at the end of it. Maybe the dark figure said "Doesn''t matter" or something like that''.


    The next words the dark figure spoke were Thes Therak Reles. ''I have no clue as to what the 1st word could mean. The 2nd word was used before, I don''t know what it means but it must refer to a person or to something rted with a person. The 3rd word sounds a bit like "rules" but then what sense would it make?''.


    My thoughts continued ''If "rules" is at the end then the sentence would look like this "No, don''t/doesn''t Thes Therak rules". Then what can I use to rece the untranted words¡­ something like "No, don''t break my rules"? but I didn''t break any rules so it doesn''t make sense''.


    I tried a couple of different possibilities but it didn''t make sense. ''Maybe I''m wrong and the word Reles is not tranted as "rules". Just because one word could be simr in humannguage like Trevak, it doesn''t mean that Reles would be the same'' I thought.


    I needed to study thenguage more, It was hard to find a meaning when the words used could mean many things. Even when I got such short replies, I could only decipher one or two words. I was getting closer but at the same time, I knew the road in front of me will be long and winding.


    I stopped thinking about the Ancient Language and returned to my training. I had to improve myself as much as I could and because I was already adjusting to the weight on my back, I increased it to make things more difficult. I had to push myself to my limits in order to gain something.


    Everything I did, whatever training it was, I would have a bag filled to the brim with stones. I was barely able to walk properly but I didn''t give up. I needed to reach my limits, not trying to reach it incrementally but in one burst!. All the frustration, sadness and rage poured out of me. "If this is not enough to get stronger. THEN I SHALL CARRY MORE!" With a shout, I lifted a boulder that would weight about as much as a grown robust human.


    The sweat was pouring from me like never before. I was at my limits but something inside me didn''t allow me to drop that boulder nor the bag that was strapped to my back. I walked and walked, with sweat pouring down like rivers. My consciousness started to fade. I was about to faint when my instincts kicked in and I released an Aura. An Aura that was unyielding to anything in this world!


    "Crack¡­.Crack¡­ BOOOM!"


    The bolder in my hands crumbled and at the same time something in my body broke. I felt as if something shattered inside my body but I didn''t feel pain or difort, no. I felt boundless amounts of strength filling me. I felt as if I unlocked my true potential. The bag that was on me started to weight less and less as the strength filled my body.


    After a short while of this marvellous feeling, the strength stopped pumping through my veins but instead of dissipating, it stayed there. "What just happened?" I asked myself out loud. I felt intense hunger but I also felt that my strength became exponentially greater. For one, the bag I carried was filled to the brim with stones. Yet to me, it felt like half of it was filled. The boulder in my hands also crumbled due to the pressure I exerted on it.


    I looked at my body and didn''t notice much difference. My muscles were more defined and I seemed to gain some weight, I wasn''t as skinny as a skeleton anymore. I was still skinny nevertheless. I had no mirror but I checked my face using my hands. There was a beard growing on it ''I forgot to actually cut my beard, It''s been so long since I took care of that'' I thought. Besides the beard, my face stayed pretty much the same, still skinny.


    When I touched my hair they were now long enough to rest on my shoulders. I also noticed something wrong. "My hair colour was dark brown but it''spletely ck now!" I eximed out loud. I didn''t know why it would suddenly change colour or perhaps it did long ago and I never noticed. I thought ''Maybe it''s just dirty? but I wash myself from time to time''. Sure I wasn''t washing myself everyday as the pond that I could use to wash myself was located about an hour worth of travelling away from my camp.


    When I touched my hair, they didn''t seem to be dirty anyway. ''So does that mean my hair colour will be ck from now on?'' I wondered. Not that it mattered to me that much. Besides, ck colour would blend better in shadows. Then I got a crazy idea ''Did my body adapt? to be more stealthy?... Nah, that never happened to anyone. Even with my knowledge in the Art of Medicine, I never heard of such thing happening''. I dismissed the idea and just simply left it at that. ck, white, red or blue hair, what did it matter? it was just a colour.


    I tried taking a step forward but instead of taking a step, I traveled about 10 steps forward. "What is this!?" I eximed out loud. I had so much strength in my body that I wasn''t really controlling it and simply took a step forward but instead of taking a single step, I traveled almost a dozen of them. A smile appeared on my face and I bent my body a bit, then released all the strength in my legs.


    "BOOOM!"


    I only jumped forwards but the force behind my jump was so great that I actually traveled a great distance, before hitting a tree and breaking it. I stood up a bit confused from the impact. I felt pain but none of my bones were broken. When I looked back to the ce that I stood in before, I didn''t live prints, no. I left a hole on the ground and I could still see dust lingering around it. "This is my new strength?" I couldn''t believe it myself. This type of increment in strength was unheard of. One second I was barely able to hold on and then the next second, everything changed. I had much more power, much more strength and speed.


    I then hear my stomach grumbling. ''Right, I''m very hungry right now. I should eat something'' I thought and proceeded to eat whatever I had left. It was not enough so I decided to go and hunt. Besides, I was also curious about my new strength and wanted to test it out some more.

 Chapter 124

    Chapter 124


    As I traveled through the forest, I thought about my sudden strength increase and the aura that was released from my body. ''The aura I released was not a simple aura of dominance, it was something else. It felt like this aura came from my bones, as if I always had it''. I tried replicating that aura but I found out that I couldn''t. I could only release the aura of dominance.


    While I was testing my aura out, I came up with another idea. ''I can integrate my aura into my skills!". Of course one aura couldn''t be used for all skills. For example, the domineering aura could be used for skills that would pressure the enemy, such as fast attacks in closebat but it waspletely useless for stealth skills. ''I need to find few auras that I could use to enhance my skills further. I have the domineering aura but besides closebat, I don''t know where else I could use it'' I thought. Nevertheless, I decided to try it out when I fought next time.


    I searched the forest for prey but as usual, it was quite empty, maybe besides some rabbits and other small animals. ''There is nothing I could test my strength on, nor is there something I could test my aura on'' I thought as I moved through the forest.


    I searched and searched and finally! found a group of bears that numbered 8. The group consisted of normal bears only but I wanted to try my aura and strength on them anyway. I ran straight for the bears without concealing my movements. I had no weapons in my hands, no daggers, sticks or stones. As I ran towards the group of bears, they noticed me and roared "Roooar!". The bears were now pouncing towards me as well. When I was close to the bears, I released my aura. "Whoosh!" the whole area became quiet, the bears slowed down and stopped while trembling.


    I thought ''So the aura can actually paralyse my opponents. Although those are just normal bears, they are unable to move'' and attacked the bear that was at the front. I used my fists only to attack, I also didn''t use everything I had in me. I wanted to test out how much damage I could do with just half my strength.


    When my fist arrived and connected with the bear''s head, it exploded into pieces with an audible cracking noises before "boom!". I was shocked myself ''About 50% of my strength is enough to destroy normal bear''s head. Then what can 100% of my strength do'' I thought. My thirst to find out became even greater but I had no opponent to test it out.


    I looked at the other bears. I knew that before I killed the 1st bear, they feared me and couldn''t move but now? They were trembling and the fear was reced by pure dread. I took care of the rest of the bears and collected their meat. I didn''t even move from that location and simply made fire to roast my food. While I ate, I thought about more ways my aura could be used. ''I have the aura of dominance but that is just one aura. I always copied the aura ofmon people and those auras do not possess any effects. I need to figure out how to create an aura of stealth and perhaps other auras that could have positive effects on my other skills'' I thought.


    When I was done with my food, I went back to my camp. ''I can''t getcent, I still need to train hard and perfect my arts. The new skill from the Art of Stealth needs to be perfected, then I can focus on something else''. More strength training had no real benefit to me. The bag I was carrying almost helped me in no way but I wanted to test something before I would simply give up on improving my strength.


    Back at the camp, I started by practicing the 1st and 2nd modified diagrams. I wanted to test how long I would be able tost. I positioned my body to make the 1st modified diagram pose and started counting. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes and I was still fine. When I hit the 20 minutes mark, I started to feel some strain but I could still carry on, so I continued. 21 minutes, 22 minutes, 26 minutes, at which point I started to feel the effects and was trying to hold on for a bit more. 27 minutes, 28 minutes¡­. and before the 29 minutes mark, I had to stop.


    I fell down onto my ass and said out loud "Almost 30 minutes, this is more than I''ve ever dreamed of. The diagram still has some effect therefore I will still practice the 1st and 2nd diagrams. At least until I can reach 30 minutes with the 1st diagram and at least 20 minutes with the 2nd diagram". I rested properly before trying the 2nd diagram pose.


    Before I begun, I thought ''If I couldst almost 30 minutes under the 1st diagram pose then how long will Ist in the 2nd diagram pose?''. My curiosity was eating me alive so I assumed the 2nd diagram pose and started counting. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 7 minutes and I could already feel difort but I could still continue without any issues. 9 minutes, 10 minutes, 11 minutes and I could feel that I would not be able tost a lot longer anymore. 12 minutes, 13 minutes and 14 minutes. Short whileter, I gave up and the final time was a bit less than 14,5 minutes.


    I thought ''Still a long way to go, if I want to reach 20 minutes mark. When I get to that point, I think it would be safe for me to practice the 3rd modified diagram''. I stayed a bit in the pose from the 3rd modified diagram and it was seriously straining. Only a few seconds was enough for me to confirm that. That was of course before increase in my strength. Now, I would be able tost about 2 minutes in that pose. I still decided to train the other two diagrams to perfection or at least what I considered perfection. I wanted to squize out as much as I could from those two modified diagrams.


    I had to rest again and let my muscles regenerate. I also found that I was hungry again. Keeping the poses for such a long time, used much more of my energy. Although I wasn''t very hungry or starving, I wanted to eat something nevertheless. The 8 bears I hunted previously would be enough for me for about 2 days, maybe less if my consumption increased.


    I noticed that the more strength I use the greater my appetite seems to be. I ate some meat while resting and prepared for my next training. Learning how to calcte the nature and find the best route.

 Chapter 125

    Chapter 125


    After my break, I started running the routes again. I noticed that it was much harder now, due to increase in my strength. I had to slow down to stay hidden and sometimes even that didn''t work. I tried being very fast but that also didn''t work. The more strength I used, the greater disturbance I created. ''This is not the way to practice that skill. I need to control my strength properly. This sudden increase in strength is a blessing but also a curse in a way'' I thought.


    I didn''t train my new skill that day. Instead, I spent the rest of it trying to control my strength output. When my strength was increasing in small increments, I had no issue adjusting to it but now, I was either very strong or too weak for a specific task. I could control how much strength I used to punch something, to some extend. What I couldn''t control was the exact amount of my strength, for a certain task at a specific time.


    For that purpose, I came up with an idea. I had to figure out how much strength I needed to use, in order to lift a stone for example. It could be a small stone but it could also be something bigger. I opted to start small first and train my lower range of strength output. I lifted a stone that could possibly weight 1-2 kilograms, I then applied less and less strength in order to find the bnce, just enough strength that would allow me to lift the stone in my hand only.


    I didn''t search for long and quickly found the right amount. To test it, I found arger stone and tried to pick it up but I wasn''t able to do so. ''This means, I just need to find many objects that are heavier than that rock and test my strength. With time, my muscles will naturally remember what amount of strength I need for a specific weight'' I thought.


    This was just one part of my training to control the new strength I had. The weight was not the only way to learn how to control my body properly. I also had to train my running, jumping, throwing and whatnot in order to get back the control I used to have.


    The day passed like this. I noticed that it was already dark and the moon in all of its glory, floated in the sky. I stopped my practice for that day and had my dinner first before going to sleep. I made some progress. The more things I found that could test my strength, the better I got with my control. The problem was with the top range power control. I could release 100% of my strength but for example 90% was much harder to achieve. Releasing 50 or a 100% of my strength was simple. 100% was my all and 50%? half of that, so it was simple to adjust that power. ''I need to find something very heavy. The bag I have is not going to be useful for that'' I thought.


    I decided to worry about that the next day, right now, I had my dreams to take care of. I fell asleep and when I opened my eyes again, I was already in my dream. The problem was that throughout the day, I mostly focused on controlling my strength and testing my strength. The dream I had that night was not about Ancient Language but the one with a lone dark figure training.


    I was about to start the training alongside the dark figure, when I noticed that something was wrong. The dark figure didn''t practice the same set of exercises anymore. It would always start the same as usual but now, the exercise was different. Not only was the exercise different, there were other things that were different as well. New objects appeared when the dark figure started new exercise.


    I was baffled by this and thought ''What the hell is this? Why did it change?''. I wrecked my brain about that question and could only think of one thing. ''My guess is that due to my strength, the dream changed. It is possible that the dream changed due to theck of effectiveness of the previous exercises. The previous exercises would have no effect anymore¡­ probably. Instead, they were reced by this set of exercises'' I thought. This was the best theory, I coulde up with.


    The set of exercises looked a lot differentpared to the past. Instead of imitating animals, the dark figure was doing some solid sets of exercises. It started by... walking. It wasn''t simple walking though, the dark figure walked on some sort of illusionary path. When the dark figure stepped on a piece of ground, it would shine under its legs, as if it was walking on some sort of ss. This "floor" was not visible otherwise, only when the dark figure stepped on the ground I could catch a glimpse of that path. Later on, the dark figure was not longer stepping on the ground, it was walking on air. Well, the path was in the air but it looked confusing and magical. ''What the hell is this exercise supposed to be?'' I thought.


    The exercise ended soon after the "walking in the air" part and the dark figure started doing something else. The next exercise was even more shocking. It seemed like a description from a fist skill book, that I used to have in the past. The dark figure stood in front ofrge basin of sort. It was perfectly smooth and with no handles. The basin was suspended by means I was unable to understand. The basin basically levitated in front of the dark figure. It was silver in colour and looked like metal. There was something inside, it didn''t look hot or cold. It looked like some sort of gravel.


    The dark figure shoved what I could only assume its hands into the basin and then out. One at a time, in a continuous motion. Thissted for a long while before the dark figure started next exercise. The next exercise the dark figure did was also shocking to behold. Wooden poles or at least what looked like wooden poles, sprouted upwards from the ground. The poles were varying in sizes, some were as tall if not taller than a grown man, while some were as short as half a metre.


    The shocking part was not that those poles just sprouted up, from the ground. What shocked me was the next thing the dark figure did with those poles. The dark figure kicked at one pole breaking it. I wasn''t impressed... until I saw what happened next. Instead ofnding and running to the next pole, the dark figure flew to the next one with another kick, then another and so on. All the poles that the dark figure kicked were broken. It never used its hands, only its legs were used to achieve this feat.


    The dark figure never touched the ground when traveling between the poles. ''There must''ve been about 50-60 poles in there. This thing could do this not once or twice but at least 50 times in a row! How is that even possible?'' I thought. The exercise finished when all the poles were broken. I watched with anticipation, ''What type of miracle will this thing pull of now?'' I wondered.


    The next exercise the dark figure did was¡­ different. The dark figure sat down on the ground while images of random objects appeared in front of it. The objects would range from fruits to some wooden logs, weapons like swords and even everyday use items. At the beginning there were only few objects but with time, more and more objects started to appear. Then the objects started to change positions. I was confused ''What is this supposed to be?'' I asked myself. I had no clue about the purpose of that exercise. Then it hit me ''Is it memory?''. It could be memory training. There were loads of objects appearing, the appearances werepletely random as well. The objects also started to change positionster, adding in theplexity. I wasn''t able to count the exact amount of objects that appeared, as for their positions? I would wish to achieve that. When all the objects disappeared, the dark figure started from the 1st exercise again. I was so engrossed watching the dark figure train, that I myself forgot about the time and soon, I woke up.


    I was focused on watching and trying to figure out what those exercises represented. I wanted to know their purpose. From what I figured out, the 1st exercise trained vision or at least vision. It might be possible that it trained other sense as well. The 2nd exercise trained hands. I didn''t know if the objective of the exercise was to build up toughness in hands or perhaps resistance. Either way, the exercise would train arms. The 3rd exercise trained legs. This was easy to figure out, the dark figure only used legs for that exercise. My instincts were telling me there was more to it than simple kicking. The 4th andst exercise trained mind. It trained memory but also the ability to cope with changes.


    I thought some more about the 4th exercise. I knew it would help me greatly with my new stealth skill. If I trained my memory and ability to see through changes, I would be better able to predict the behaviour of nature. ''Next time I''m in that dream, I should try those exercises. Especially thest one, it seems the most useful to me at the moment'' I thought and started my day.

 Chapter 126

    Chapter 126


    I started my day as usual. Training using the Strength Manual first, then body and strength control training. I wanted to spend a few more hours in order to practice control and get better grasp of my power. I wanted to figure out the exact amount of strength, I would need when carrying out a specific tasks. Just like before, I used stones ranging from light to heavy in order to adjust my strength output. I did some running and other basic actions that would allow me more control of my body.


    Few hourter, I decided to try running the routes from my stealth skill. I wanted to find out how my new strength would affect the time it took me to travel a route. I ran the most optimal route and¡­ it was worse than before. I could run faster, that was true but then, I wouldn''t stay hidden. When I tried to be slower, I found that I could be stealthy but my time would suffer.


    ''When I had full control of my body in the past, every muscle and action was precise but now? I can''t control my strength output properly'' I thought. This was the sole reason behind the failure. If I ran faster, I wouldn''t stay hidden. On the other hand, if I ran at a slower pace, my time would suffer. This proved that I still needed to grasp back the full control of my body, before training anything else.


    ''This oue has its positives as well. If I train my body, I will be able to see the dream from yesterday again'' I thought. I searched the area for something very heavy. I mostly searched for stones or rather boulders. I needed to learn how to control the top range of my strength, as well as the middle range. I found some boulders that were quite big. Those could be useful but stones were not very precise. The boulders were also shaped in ufortable ways. Training with them would be a chore. I needed something better, something new.


    Then it hit me ''Why not use trees? Surely, I can bring one down with my strength''. The idea seemed far fetched but on the other hand, arge wooden log could be trimmed to a specific size and weight. ''I don''t know if I will be able to cut down a tree using a dagger though'' I thought to myself.


    My daggers were quite sharp but daggers were daggers nevertheless. I deliberated on the idea for a bit and decided to give it a try anyway. ''If I don''t try it out, the idea will haunt me in my dreams'' I thought and went around the area while searching for an appropriate tree. I searched for something that I could cut down. I had an ideal candidate in mind, I wasn''t searching blindly. The tree had to be quite thick, otherwise its weight would not be enough. If the tree was too heavy, I could always trim it. I couldn''t trim stones, thus trees were my next option. The tree had to be thick or had to haverge breadth. It should not be tall, shorter were better or at least rtively shorter. I didn''t need something like a 50 metres tall tree. I searched and searched and there it was, a perfect tree or at least good enough for my purposes.


    To cover the tree''s breadth, at least four grown man would need to hung the tree. That was of course at the base, it was much more narrow nearer the top. Its was an average height tree. I would prefer shorter but I took what I was given. I took out my dagger and shed near the bottom of the tree, I used about 50% of my strength. I wanted to test the hardness of the tree and whenever my dagger would be able to cut it. The dagger left a deep mark on it but it was quite narrow.


    ''Using one dagger will be too long. I should use two and perhaps do it from two angles. This way, I will be able to cut out a section. The cut out piece will allow me better ess further down the trunk'' I thought and took out another dagger.


    I started shing my daggers at the tree. The daggers went deeper and deeper as I cut out a piece of wood in the shape of triangle. I continued like this, increasing my strength a bit with each sh. It didn''t take me very long to cut through half of the tree. The tree started to move a bit at that point. ''It will probably snap soon, I should do the sides first and let it fall. I can then check the weight and trim it'' I thought and shed at the sides.


    A lot more shester, the tree creaked and started to topple. I moved away, while waiting for it to fall. "Creak¡­ Creak¡­ Swooosh! BOOM!" the tree hit the ground and the tremors passed through the area. I thought ''This tree is heavy! Fortunately my strength and daggers were enough to take it down. Now I just have to check its weight and cut a few pieces out of it''. The tree I cut had about 19-20 metres in length. I wanted to have a go and see how much it weighted. I didn''t think about lifting the trunk from the middle, That would be stupid. From the fall alone, I could guess that the trunk weighted a lot more than I could handle. I wanted to try and lift the bottom end up.


    Before I could attempt that, I had to take care of all the branches and whatnot that was still attached to the trunk. Those things were in my way and besides, I didn''t need them for my training. It took me a while to clear the whole trunk from those branches but I now had a clean trunk, ready to be tested and cut. I positioned myself at the bottom part of the trunk and lifted. "Hnghh!" I strained my muscles as much as I could and nothing, it didn''t even budge. "Whoah. This is very heavy!" I eximed out loud. I knew it would be more than I could handle but still, it didn''t even budge with my whole strength.


    The trunk was very heavy, I found that the hard way. I decided to cut it in about ? and ? parts. The trunk was wider at the bottom and thinner towards the top. I doubted that I could lift the wider ? part of the trunk but I could always trim it some more. I would at least get an idea on how big of a section I would need in order to test different ranges of my strength.


    I started shing the trunk with my daggers again. This time, it was more difficult to cut apart. When I was cutting it the first time, the trunk was in an upright position. The weight of the trunk pressed down while I cut out a section. With time, something had to give way. Now it was different. The trunk was t on the ground, I couldn''t ry on its weight anymore, I needed to cut it all the way through. I shed and shed... to a point where ? of the trunk was already cut. I came up with another idea ''I can try kicking it. If I kick one half hard enough, I may be able to separate them'' I thought. I lifted my leg up and kicked at the shorter half of the trunk. "Booom!" The tree shook a bit but nothing else besides that.


    I gave it a few more tries. "Boom!... Boom!... Boom!... Boom!". It might''ve been a good method to take out some of my frustration but the trunk wouldn''t separate. ''The halves are just too heavy'' I thought. With that not working, I went back to shing.


    Some more grindingter, I finally managed to separate the trunk into two halves. "Finally!" I eximed. ''Right, I wonder If I can lift one of the halves now?'' I thought and positioned myself at one end of the shorter trunk. With a sound of strain escaping my mouth "Hungh!" I tried lifting the trunk up. This time, I managed to lift it a bit. Not a lot but at least it was a result. I wouldn''t be able to lift the whole trunk but this already gave me some ideas. Now I could better judge the sizes of the pieces, I would need to cut from it.


    I decided to cut one piece that would be ? of the shorter trunk. This would measure about 2 metres in length. I couldter trim the sides a bit and create a decent weight out of that log. The rest of the trunk would be cut into 0.5 metre, 1 metre and 1.5 metre. This would be enough to train my strength at the top ranges such as 80 to 90%. There would be about 1.5 metres of the trunk left, I could make some more precise weights for the 70% ranges of my strength from it. The longer and thinner part of the trunk would also be used. I needed the lower and middle ranges of my strength to be more precise as well.


    Before I did any other work, I needed some food. I worked non stop for a long time and was quite exhausted. The meat from the bears I hunted a while back, was running out. I decided to go hunting, after I had my dinner.

 Chapter 127

    Chapter 127


    This time hunting went smoothly. I was able to find a group of wolves very quickly, disposing of them took even less time. With some meat in my bag, I returned to the camp and continued ying lumberjack game with my daggers.


    By the evening, I was done with my new weights. I added some new modifications along the way and created more weights from the other half of the trunk. I cut one piece of the trunk to a size I couldn''t lift, I left it like this on purpose. ''Thisrge piece will serve me as part of my training'' I thought. I needed that kind of weight for the future exercises and to further develop my strength at the same time.


    The other weights would allow me to train my control of the lower to middle ranges of my strength. I also created heavier weights for the top middle range of my strength. I already had the weights for the upper range of my strength, those were created from the shorter but wider part of trunk. This way, I could learn to control my body much better. I would be able to train ranges such as 55% or 75% but also 80 or 90%. I didn''t train anything else that day, I simplyid down and rxed. The night was still young therefore I tried to figure out some words from the Ancient Language.


    I tried different meanings with words I already knew or heard. This gave me some new ideas and I was able to get some more meaning out of thenguage. I found that Therak could mean "my" or "mine". The dark figure used that word often but not very often. It also used that word twice, when answering me. ''If my guess is correct, then the sentence Lak? Lak Lan Therak Devorak would mean "You? You are my/mine¡­" but my/mine what?'' I thought.


    I wondered about possible words that could fit that sentence ''It can''t be stuff like "my father?" that''s just stupid! The same would apply to brother, sister or whatnot. It must be something else. Maybe "friend" but again, I don''t know that¡­ whatever this dark figure is, at all. How could it call me friend?'' I thought as I couldn''t figure it out. I knew it referred to something that a person could be. The problem was that there were just too many words fitting that sentence.


    The trantion of the word Therak made sense but figuring out thest word would get me nowhere. I decided to change to another sentence. ''The other thing that the dark figure answer to my question was Ze, Kiq Thes Therak Reles. This could trante as "No, don''t ¡­ my/mine... ". This also doesn''t help much with figuring out the other words'' I thought.


    I had to look at the context. I asked the dark figure "Can you do this?" and jump up. The dark figure answered "no". ''I didn''t notice any emotions in its voice¡­. What could it be?'' I thought. I wrecked my brain about it and tried to figure it out. Then all of a sudden, I found a sentence that would make sense in those circumstances.


    ''He could''ve answered "No, don''t test my patience". This would make sense. I asked the "Who am I?" question and the dark figure answered... whoever I am. I then asked, "Can you do this?" and jumped. Maybe it got annoyed because I asked questions. I don''t know if this thing is somehow alive to be able to respond to me but then, what could it do? End the dream? This thing can''t affect me when I''m not asleep. Maybe it was just a generic answer, kind of prearranged into my dream'' I thought.


    The more I thought about that sentence, the more sense it made. It also fitted the circumstances. I decided to trante it as such. With this, I was one step closer towards basic understanding of the Ancient Language. I stopped thinking about the Ancient Language and prepared myself for the next dream. This time, I knew I would be in a dream where the dark figure trains something. I was quite excited about the prospects of trying out those new exercises myself.


    When I opened my eyes again, I stood in front of the dark figure. Without any introductions, the dark figure started by doing the 1st exercise. I got closer and wanted to join in but I didn''t know how. I thought about different way of joining. After a while, I took a step forward and noticed that a ss like tile, shined a bit underneath my feet. ''So the exercises started. Let''s see how this thing goes then'' I thought and took a step forward.


    "Baam!"


    I felt a lot of pain and then darkness. When I opened my eyes again, I was still in the dream. To be precise, I was standing in the same ce I always stood when I entered my dream. I looked at the dark figure and it was still practicing the 1st exercise. I decided to give it a try again. ''There must be some sort of trick to it. This thing isn''t really running on that path, it just walks or jumps sometimes'' I thought and again took a step forward.


    A ss like tile appeared under my feet with a slight glint, barely visible to the naked eye. This was the beginning of the path, that much I knew. I wasn''t stupid enough to again take a blind step. Instead, I had a look around me. This ss like path was very hard to spot, I guessed that this was precisely the aim of this exercise.


    I looked around me and noticed nothing. ''This is harder than I imagined. I need to focus better'' I thought and started focusing on one piece of ground at a time. After a while, I finally noticed something. It looked like a square tile but seemed invisible. It was about two steps away from where I stood. I decided to give it a go and jumped lightly on top of it.


    "Thud"


    I was d that nothing happened when Inded. The floor became more visible when I stood on it. I took a detailed look at the piece of floor before anything else. I touched it, jumped on top of it and so on. It was very sturdy, maybe even more sturdy than metal. When I jumped on it, it didn''t make any sounds, other than the sound of my feetnding on top of it.


    I wasted no more time with that tile and started to search for the next one. It went like this for a while. I was only able to find 5 of them. The dark figure managed to finish already and started next exercise. The tiles I already uncovered disappeared, while I stood there as if bewildered. ''This probably indicates that I ran out of time'' I thought. I was bewildered because the next exercise didn''t start automatically. I had to actually think about starting it before it actually did.


    I thought about the 2nd exercise and what seemed like metallic basin, appeared in front of me. It was suspended in air. I checked it from top to bottom, there were no wires or strings attached to it. The basin just levitated like this, as if it was perfectly normal. ''Whatever, I will try this 2nd exercise. Let me see what is this thing all about''.

 Chapter 128

    Chapter 128


    I started the exercise in the same way that the dark figure did. I shoved one hand in and then out, followed by the 2nd hand. I didn''t think much of it before I noticed what was happening to my skin, after couple of shoves.


    My hands became very red but not because of heat. It was due to friction. I didn''t know what type of thing was inside the basin but not only was it sharp, it also kind of stuck to my hands. Not in a gluey sense, where I would pull out my hand and there would be some of that gravel stuck to my hands. No, it only stuck to me when I tried to shove my hand in and out, it wasn''t sticky otherwise.


    After about 10 minutes of this exercise, I had to stop. My hands were already bleeding and although this might''ve been a dream, I still felt pain. I rested for a while but my hands didn''t get any better. I gritted my teeth and though ''I''ll do it till my hands fall off in that case!".


    I shoved my hands into the basin for another 10 minutes. My hands alreadycked skin, The pain was unbearable so I stopped. I decided it would be less painful to die than continue with those kind of injuries. I did just that. I went over to the dark figure and tried to kick it. The dark figure stopped whatever it was doing and avoided my kick. The dark figure then punched me and I died, as simple as that. When I woke up, I noticed that I''m still in the dream. I was quite happy about that, this gave me more opportunities to try more exercises.


    My hands were also healed and there were no signs of any injuries. That was why I prefered to die, instead of continuing on with that agonising pain. I waited for the dark figure to start the next exercise. I didn''t have to wait long, the dark figure finished quite soon. The next exercise started and I had to think about starting it as well.


    Soon, a field of what looked like wooden poles rose from the ground in front of me. I thought ''This should be easier than the previous exercise. Right?''. I did the same thing that the dark figure did and kicked at the 1st pole using more than half of my strength.


    "Boom!...Creak!...OOOOOOOWWW!"


    "What sort of bulshit is this! This is no wood, this thing is like metal!" I eximed painfully. My leg was not broken but it creaked in a way that it shouldn''t. I kicked wood before, to be precise a whole tree andpared to that pole? Wood was as soft as butter. ''I can''t go around kicking that pole like this. If my guess is correct, this is the same type of exercise as the 2nd one. Both train stuff like bones or resilience'' I thought.


    I used my other leg to kick it with much less power this time. "Thud!" I felt some difort in my leg but it was nothingpared to the 1st try. I started kicking that pole as if possessed. ''I need to get used to a certain level of sturdiness, then I can increase my power. This thing actually broke over 50 of them, no wonder I die with one hit from that dark figure'' I thought.


    I kicked and kicked and kicked, until the pole in front of me disappeared. ''So this is the end of that exercise. Now thest exercise, something I''ve been waiting for!'' I thought and prepared for the 4th exercise. I sat down just like the dark figure and thought about starting thest exercise.


    Shapes and objects of different origins started to pop up around me. I focused and tried to memorise all of them. I was doing quite well, until more and more objects started to arrive. Finally, the objects started to change positions. I was totally lost at that point but before I started that exercise, I had a n. I decided to train this progressively. I memorised about 10 objects out of all visible objects and only tracked their movement. I got lostter and was only able to keep track of 2 objects. I had to start somewhere and it seemed that 2 was my current limit. With time, I would get used to that exercise and the number would increase. I wasn''t worried about the weak results.


    After that exercise, the cycle started again from the beginning. I tried to find the ss path which was random and my previous progress didn''t matter. Then shoved my hands into the basin until they bleed. I did the 3rd exercise the same way, kicking at one pole to increase my resilience and then tried to remember as much as I could in thest exercise. Coincidentally, it was also random and not repeating at all.


    I was so engrossed in my exercises, I forgot where I was. I immediately received a clue when I woke up in the morning. I was starving again and could barely move. Although I could die as many times as I wanted in that dream, there were some limitations. Any type of exercise I did or suffered fatal injury, those things consumed my energy. That was the reason why I was always hungry, when I woke up.


    I ate something as quickly as I could. I was fortunate enough to have some food stored precisely for those kind of situations. I knew I overdid it in my dream. Next time, I had to take it easy. ''My body needs to adjust to that first, just like in the past. I have to take regr breaks and allow for my body to adapt'' I thought.


    All the food was gone but I was still hungry. I decided to go hunting right after I trained the diagrams from the Strength Manual. I was surprised that my times got slightly better. Although not much, an increase was always wee. After my morning training, I went deeper into the forest in order to hunt.


    I had to search for a while, it was quiet as usual. After about 40 minutes of searching, I finally found a group of bears. This was a small group of about 6 bears. What shocked me, was the ck Bear amongst the group. ''I think this is 1st time, that I see a variant here. Good, I wanted to test my strength anyway. I wonder if the ck Bear will be able to take my punch!'' I thought full of excitement.


    I didn''t try to conceal my presence and simply walked forwards. The bears noticed me no problem and started running at me. This was their doom. Even if they tried to run, I would still catch up. I ran at a slow pace and didn''t release my aura this time. The ck Bear was at the front, I extended my arm and punched with about 70-80% of my strength. I couldn''t control it that well yet.


    "Booom!"


    The same thing happened. The ck Bear''s head exploded due to my punch. I was kind of expecting that, I was also expecting the reactions of other bears. Besides fear, they also tried to run away but I quickly caught up and shattered their dreams of freedom. With the meat in my bag, I walked back to my camp.

 Chapter 129

    Chapter 129


    As I walked through the forest, I thought about the 4 exercises from my dream. ''They seemed easy at first but when I actually tried them out, those things were not only difficult but also dangerous'' I thought. Although I could die as many times as I wanted in that dream, there was a price to pay for that as well.


    I was lost in my thoughts as I walked. After a while, I arrived at the camp and ced my bag down. I then heard a familiar voice speaking to me from behind. "We meet again, friend". When I turned around, I noticed it was the group of people that I encountered a while back.


    I said "Is there anything you need?" and the guy smiled while saying "Your information was really useful to us this time. It''s a shame you lied to us". I looked at the guy who spoke and said "I didn''t lie, if you found those creatures, then that means I told the truth". The guy justughed and said "I''m not talking about the creatures, I''m talking about the man we were searching for". He then continued "We found him and he also told us everything. He didn''t even budge when we asked him about you. He told us what you guys did and even went to extend to tell us about your skills".


    I wasn''t impressed. The guy I met that day was a coward. I covered for his ass to give him some time to escape, I wasn''t expecting loyalty from him. I said slowly to the guy "And? I did try to cover for his sorry ass. Does that change anything? You are a pile of bones walking around, if you want to die so badly¡­ make your move".


    The guy obviously didn''t expect that as he seemed a bit shocked. I added "I''m just curious. How did you manage to track me? You should have a special method to do so, I assume". I didn''t hear an answer but I heard some movements from behind me. I said to him "Even if you try to surround me, you will all die". The guy in front of me was now visibly shocked. He asked "Who are you?"


    I smirked and said "Someone you should not mess with. I don''t know stuff like mercy. When half of you die and you would like to surrender, I will still kill you". Before the guy could say anything else I asked "Should I show you?". I didn''t wait for an answer as my hand shed. The guy behind me that was trying to sneak attack, got two new holes in his body. I said "This is an example of what I can do and now? All of you die" as the lifeless corpse fell down behind me.


    The guy in front of me was not only shocked, there was fear in his eyes. I didn''t have many daggers left therefore I opted to use closebat as the means to kill. I sprinted forwards to attack the leader standing in front of me. He didn''t expect my eleration and because he was quite close to me, I caught up to him in an instant. I passed right next to him and stopped. He tried to rotate his head backwards but his neck was already cut.


    I said to him "I told you, you will all die". I then sprinted towards my next target. In overall there were 5 people there. Two already died and other 3 were nearby, also trying to ambush me. Of course due to the situation, things changed a bit. One of them was not stupid enough to just sit there staring, he begun to run. I caught up to him and shed his back. The strength I possesed was not something to be toyed with. That sh alone almost separated the guy in half. ''If I used a sword instead of a dagger, there would be two halvesying on the ground instead of intact corpse'' I thought and speed towards my other targets.


    They finally woke up from their shock and started to run. It was still useless. My speed was much better than theirs and it didn''t matter what skills they had. My strength alone allowed me to dispose of them very easily. When I arrived in front of a woman this time, she pleaded me to spare her life but as I already said "No one will survive" and killed her. Thest guy was actually quite crafty and hid himself. Good thinking but he forgot that I also knew the Art of Stealth. If someone wanted to hide in front of me, they would have to be at a simr level that Nick was.


    I found him and killed him as well. All was done. The middle aged man I met while traveling north died because he was a coward. These people died because they thought being a part of somerge organisation means they are invincible. ''I avoided conflict whenever possible, yet these people still looked for their doom. I wonder why? Maybe that is why Nick forbade me to go into cities and viges?'' I thought.


    I searched for my daggers that I threw at the guy trying to ambush me and then looted the corpses. They had loads of stuff on them. Each had at least one bag that functioned the same way as mine did. ''No wonder they gave me one, They had loads of them''. The leader guy had 3 of them alone. I didn''t find anything concerning the ming Silver Wolf or the ming Grey Bear. ''They must''ve lied about finding those beasts, they wouldn''t be alive if they did try to fight them. Even I would have difficulties fighting one of them'' I thought.


    They did indeed find the man that carried arge sword, they did kill him as well. To prove it, they had his head in the bag as well as his sword. I took out the sword, it was quite heavy but with my current strength, it was nothing major. I swingged it couple of times ''It''s nothing amazing, it does weight a bit. They must''ve been as strong as him in order to kill him but I''m much stronger than I was in the past'' I thought and ced the sword down while taking a look at other things.


    There were no books or manuals of any sort. I was a bit disappointed, I wanted to find out how were they able to track me but it didn''t matter, they died anyway. I also found something familiar. ''So they also have those emblems of some sort. I wonder what type of thing this represents. All of them had the same emblem, except the leader guy'' I thought. The emblems depicted an eye half closed on a grey background. It was probably the sign of the group that was chasing the guy with the heavy sword.


    The leader''s badge was a bit different. Besides showing the eye, it also showed a tear droping from the eye. The badge was still grey. This probably meant he was a member with better positionpared to the others. I took the leaders badge and threw the rest of them into a bag that I emptied. ''I don''t want to carry all that clutter with me for no apparent reason. I will use one of those bags to store all those useless objects and throw it away somewhere'' I thought.


    I started sorting through all the things that seemed useless and threw them into the bag, one after the other.

 Chapter 130

    Chapter 130


    This group of people had loads of stuff and things like the head of the man they hunted down, was not something I would need. I also threw away things like weapons that were useless to me. I did keep the heavy sword for myself. The leader guy was also using daggers and although they were of simr qualitypared to mine, the daggers I possessed were bnced perfectly. The guy''s daggers were not something I would use but because I was short on daggers, I took them. ''One or two more daggers are weed at this stage. Even if I have to throw them, they would still be of some use to me'' I thought.


    With all the clutter stuffed into one bag, I tried burning it. I wondered if it could be destroyed with all those items inside. I started a fire and threw the bag in. I waited and waited but nothing happened to it. ''So the bag is immune to the fire it seems, it didn''t burn so it has to be made from some kind of special, fire resistant material''. Although these bags looked ordinary, they were anything but that. I fished out the bag from the campfire and tried to stab it couple of times using my daggers. The dagger didn''t even manage to leave a mark on it.


    I thought ''I don''t know what this material is but even with my strength, I can''t destroy it''. I decided to just bury it, leaving it in the open was pointless. I wasn''t someone who would leave free stuff for others to collect easily. After that ordeal, I made the fire bigger and threw in all the corpses on top. The smell of burning flesh was very strong and not something I wanted to breathe in. I left the camp to wander around the forest for a bit.


    I didn''t meet any animals that time, or at least animals that were aggressive. I wouldn''t kill things like rabbits or deer for no reason other than food. As I walked through the forest, I noticed a small stream ahead of me. In the stream, I saw some fishes swimming around. Then I saw a turtle swimming around the fishes as well. Memories started to flood in ''I remember when I tried to figure out how to "Avoid the Light" part of the Art of Stealth. This was when I met Shelly for the first time''. Memories of our time together started resurfacing and many of them shed in my mind. Good and bad times, whatever the times, we were always together.


    I returned to the camp and sat near the fire that was still burning. ''I will be 24 soon'' I thought. It''s been couple of years since I started my journey. With ups and downs, I somehow made it to this point but did I want to reach it? Did I find what I was looking for? Did I enjoy myself?


    I asked myself many questions. Everyone I ever cared for died. Even people I had interactions with died either by my hand or by hands of the others. ''I remember Nick telling me to stay away from people and that I will be alone. He said it was my nature. I think I know what he meant now'' I thought.


    I understood something that day. It didn''t matter who we were born as or what environment we were born into. ''We are the sole guides on our path of life. There is no wrong or right path, only the path we make for ourselves. As long as we stay true to our own path¡­ We shall live'' as my thoughts ended, I felt peace. I could think clearly now. I felt like, I no longer walked in a maze surrounded by mist. Instead it was just a normal maze, with nothing more but walls that surrounded me.


    Something clicked in my head and I was no longer confused about things, I could perceive stuff surrounding me much better. "Wow! my vision got better, I can even perceive stuff around me. I can even tell what the bug on the tree is doing!" I eximed. I was shocked at the sudden improvement and thought about it ''Is it because I realised some things? and this is the effect of me doing so? I have a feeling that I was able to see those things all the time but I couldn''t see them at the same time. There is no more ''fog'' in my mind obstructing that stuff. This must be my true potential!''


    I was very excited at the thought. I tested it many times on a lot of different things. Not only my vision improved. My hearing, the sense of touch and smell also improved. The only problem was that I had to adjust to that sudden sharpness of my senses. ''I will need to spend some time in order to fully control those things, just like my strength'' I thought.


    The excitement soon disappeared and was reced with desire to train. ''I need to use those weights to grasp the control of my strength properly before anything else. I have a very good idea about future training for my improved senses as well'' I thought and went towards my weights to train.


    I trained till evening, I then had my dinner and rested. I was a bit too excited to go to sleep and test my dreams out. I thought I would try and think about something useful then hype myself too much. ''My strength should be under my full control soon and I will be able to start learning about the patterns and behaviours of nature again. With thispleted, my Art of Steal will be much morepleted. I already have a skill that allows me to camouge myself amongst people. I called It Aura Copy. With this new skill, I will be able to better predict a path of either escape or as mean to get to my target'' I thought.


    ''My Art of Hidden Weapons is a bit behind but has additional skill that I called Stringed Hidden Weapons as well. if I were to add the Wind Daggers as part of the art, there is another skill thatpletes the art even more'' As I thought about it, I felt that there was something missing from my Art of Hidden Weapons but I couldn''t figure out what.


    I was finally able to rx a bit and fell asleep. When I opened my eyes, I was not disappointed. The lone dark figure that always trained by itself, started the training shortly after I arrived or at least opened my eyes. I thought ''It''s time to test my new senses!''.

 Chapter 131

    Chapter 131


    I thought about starting the 1st exercise and took a step forward. The ss like tile appeared under me feet. I took a closer look and noticed something odd this time. It was not solid but actually liquid, moreover it was such a weird liquid that acted as if it was metal. ''This is a dream but it''s still weird to see that kind of liquid'' I though and searched for the next tile.


    When I focused, more tiles became visible. I was able to make good progress but still got stuck on 24th tile. The difficulty increased with each tile. I could still find the next tile but my progress was slowing down. I could see that the dark figure was already twice as far as me, this was notforting at all. ''Even with my new senses, I''m not able to do the same stuff as this thing. What type of strength does this thing posses?'' I thought.


    I didn''t think aboutpeting anymore, it would be pointless. I simply focused on my own path and tried to find as many tiles as I could. When the dark figure finished, I was on 41st tile. It was a good progress from original 5 but I still had loads to improve. The exercise after the 30th tile got a bit more difficult still. Not only the tiles were less visible but would also appear and disappear. There were also couple of tiles appearing at the same time and I had to choose which way to go. This was the reason I couldn''t make it past the 41st tile. I didn''t have enough time to do it.


    I wasn''t discouraged. I knew I would have more tries and sooner orter, I would be able toplete that path. I thought about starting the next exercise and a metallic basin appeared in front of me. This time, I could see much more. The metal was also a sort of liquid. It was the same as the one I saw while inspecting the tiles in the 1st exercise. There was one difference though. Besides the obvious element of being much more visible, it was also much more dense. ''It seems that the more dense this liquid bes, the more visible it gets. This liquid also seems to take the properties of metal when it is in this dense state. I wonder what would be the next stage if this were to be even denser'' I thought as I started to shove my hands in and out.


    I was able to figure out one more thing. The gravel like thing inside the basin, was not crushed rock or stones. It was something elsepletely. It wasn''t wood either. It looked like some kind of living creatures, moving very slowly inside the basin. I wasn''t able to figure out what those things could possibly be, if they were things indeed.


    I gave that thought a rest and continued my exercise. My hands again started to bleed after about 10 minutes and I knew the next few minutes would be even more painful. I decided to continue anyway. ''I will just die at the end of it and will be healed with properly working hands'' I thought. I was not going to repeat this exercise often. Maybe 5 out of 20 cycles, I would attempt to do this exercise. I wanted to conserve my energy and besides it was really painful. I figured that if my hands get used to this torture, I could practice that exercise more in the future but that was in the future.


    After I died, I waited for the dark figure to finish with that exercise and started the next one. My n didn''t change with the 3rd exercise either. I used both my legs to kick one pole and get used to the sturdiness. I also wanted to train the toughness of my legs fist before trying to break it at my full strength. The exercise went quite uneventful and I wasn''t able to break even one pole. I also got an answer to my own question, the poles were made from the same liquid as the other things like basin or the tiles. ''It ispacted so much that I don''t think I can call it a liquid anymore, it is a solid object now'' I thought.


    The liquid was quite universal, not only it could behave like water and create a tile that seemed solid but was actually a liquid. When I check it over, I could see the tiny movements that resembled those of water. If it was more dense and packed, it could create something like a metal that was visible and very sturdy I assumed. When it was packed so densely that it became a solid, it was unbearably hard and changed colour a bit, to look like wood.


    This material was weird but fascinating. ''How did the materiale to exist in my dreams though? It seems real and it surely is breakable, the dark figure is able to do it. The question is: Is it real or is it just my imagination?'' I thought. I spaced out like this for a while and finally came back to reality or rather the dream. I thought about starting the 4th exercise and the images started to pop up in front of me.


    My n was different this time. I would try to remember more objects and see how many of them I would be able to track till the end. As the objects appeared Imitted them to my memory. Then the objects started to change positions, faster and faster. When the exercise finished, I was able to remember the position of exactly 23 objects. A huge improvementpared to the previous attempts.


    The cycle started to repeat but I took a break. I had to conserve my energy and do those exercises gradually. When my body got used to them and expanded less energy, I would be able to go through all 20 cycles. Every other cycle, I would take a break until my dream finished. When it did, I woke up in my bed and felt hunger but I could move normally, instead of barely staying alive.

 Chapter 132

    Chapter 132


    My days looked the same from that point on. I woke up in the morning, ate something and then trained using the modified Strength Manual. After which, I would do some weight lifting to be able to control my strength better as well as some running, jumping etc. When I managed to finally control my strength to the same standard as in the past, I moved on to the new skill training from my Art of Stealth.


    Things were going well for those couple of months and I finally became 24 years old. Not that it was some sort of achievement but I did have arge barbeque to celebrate that day. Although I say this, I didn''t know exactly what day it was, I simply used the time of the season as an indication for the celebration.


    The winter came upon me again and I would have to build another shelter that was sturdy enough tost the winter. I decided that when the winter was finished, I would travel further north. There would enough time for me to perfect the newly learned skill and also train some more. The more prepared I was, the better I would fare in the north.


    I trained very hard these past few months and managed to finally advance my new skill from the Art of Stealth. I decided to call it Natural Path skill. The skill''s main objective was to find the most efficient and stealthy way of getting from point A to point B, using the nature. It was a path of nature and that was why I called the skill in such way. I was able to predict the nature in a much more sophisticated way. I knew about patterns and possible changes. I was also more aware of my surroundings, being stealthy became my 2nd nature. ''If I were to use this skill andpare with Nick, I would be on simr level to his. Although I can''t hide as well as he did in any environment, I can hide very well whenever there is nature and I can travel at faster speeds while staying hidden. This would beparable to Nick''s level of skill but it only worked in natural environments. Cities or viges would be still very difficult for me'' I thought.


    I also made progress with the modified Strength Manual. I was already practicing the 3rd diagram. So far, I couldst only 3 minutes under its pressure but I wasn''t disappointed at all. I still trained my body from time to time but ultimately focused on my skills. I also made progress with the Ancient Language. I found a possible trantions for a few more words. I finally figured out who that dark figure was or at least what the dark figure referred to itself as when I asked "Who are you?". The answer to that question was "Fer Lei Fal Gor Trevak" which trantes as "I''m the Dark Traveler".


    The word Gor could mean either "dark" or "ck" but "dark" seemed more appropriate for me due to the way I''ve been calling it a dark figure. I was on solid track towards further understanding of the Ancient Language and there were some more words that I figured out, such as.


    Gor - which would trante as "ck" or "dark"


    Falhor - which would trante as "then"


    Kroh - which would trante as "of"


    Jer - which would trante as "why"


    Rak - which would trante as "person"


    Sathov - which would trante as "will"


    It took me some time to get those things tranted but it was progress nevertheless. I already saw patterns in thatnguage and whenever I could link them, I would be able to find some meaning. I took one day off from exercising and training, to simply build a shelter. I already had experience but I had no tools. That wasn''t a huge problem, I already got used to the weights that I carved out from the tree trunk. I had materials to build a shelter from, if I were to use them.


    I opted for a different design this time. I carved out a hole inside the biggest trunk weight I had as the base of my shelter. I didn''t carve it all the way through, I did it till the middle as I needed to sleep on something and ground was not the ideal location for that. There would be a lot of wood separating me from the ground but also from the cold air outside.


    This was just the base. I then carved another hole inside the 2nd biggest weight I had. This time, I went all the way through so that I could climb in and out of the shelter. I ced the smaller weight on top of the 1st weight and had my shelter nearlypleted.


    What was left to do, was to make some holes inside the 3rd biggest weight and then use it to cover the entrance to my shelter. There would be much more wood protecting me from the inside and I had loads of animal furs as well. I could use them not only as my bedding but also as the means to make the insides even warmer. The fur could be hanged inside the shelter and this would provide an additional barrier.


    I went into the forest in search for the sticky liquid. I was looking for the same stuff that Shelly pointed out to me when we were building a shelter in the past. I needed it to fill the gap between the the two tree trunk pieces. I wanted to use that sticky liquid for stick the animal furs onto the inside walls as well. I found and collected a lot of it after walking around the forest for a while. When I had enough, I returned to the camp and applied the stuff on my shelter.


    When I was done... my new shelter looked weird to be honest. It looked like 3 pieces of cut tree trunk were stuck on top of each other, left like this inside the forest as if it was some kind of sculpture. I climbed inside the shelter and closed the "lid". The insides were a bit crampy but nothing toin about. It was also very warm inside and although the cold air couldn''t easily enter my shelter, the holes in the "lid" of my shelter acted as an air vent. It allowed enough fresh air to toe in for me to breathe. ''I will be able to breathe so that is sorted. The animal skins are also quite a good touch. We will see how this fares in very low temperatures but it doesn''t look so bad'' I thought.


    I took a rest for that day and hit the bed early. When my eyes opened, I was in the dream. ''It must be because I did a lot of manualbour. I figured that I will not dream anything today. Seems I was wrong'' I though as I saw the Dark Traveler starting his 1st exercise. I also thought about starting it and went along with the Dark Traveler on this short journey that was body training.

 Chapter 133

    Chapter 133


    The dream finished after 20 cycles and I woke up in my new shelter. I ate my breakfast and then carried on with my training. The part of the forest I lived in currently, was very quiet. I always thought why people feared north so much. It seemed to me that the further north I went, the quieter it became. ''This doesn''t make sense. The guy who told me about north was a coward but didn''t lie to me, I would be able to guess that much. He really feared the northern parts and even said that there are even more amazing or dangerous creatures and animals living there. Even stronger than the ming Silver Wolf or the ming Grey Bear'' I thought.


    But something didn''t seem to add up. If my destination was so dangerous, why the hell was it so quiet here? Barely being able to find variants was something I never encountered outside of the scopes of viges. Something was fishy about this region. ''It''s either the guy who told me all of this was lying and was the best actor I could ever find or he told the truth and something is not right'' I thought.


    ''I never noticed any presence of strong animal or even people. The only people I encountered were the group that chased me up to here. They were already dead so why do I feel like something is not right here'' I thought.


    This was my current problem. Trying to figure out why this region was so peaceful? There were barely any strong animals, if calling the ck Bears or ck Wolves counts as strong. ''I lived in this ce for so long and there is nothing here'' I thought. Those thoughts started shortly after my senses awoke and improved. I was paranoid about it at first. I checked if anyone or anything was watching me but I felt no presence, saw no shadow and smelled no smell. Yet my mind never gave up about it. Always staying alert as if telling me "Look out, there is something here!".


    I dispersed those thoughts. ''Maybe I''mcking human interactions and my mind is starting to y tricks on me. When Shelly was here, I always had someone to talk to. Maybe I''m just tired'' I thought. With that in mind, I took a day off instead of continuing my training. It might''ve been possible I was stressing myself too much and ced too much pressure on myself. I decided that some rest would probably fix that.


    A weekter, I still had those thoughts. I couldn''t rx at all. I was able to sleep but doing nothing for a whole day was something I found quite difficult to do. When I trained, those thoughts were at least kept a bay. I had to focus on doing my exercises. I decided to get back to training. If resting didn''t help then there was no point doing it.


    I trained that day and tried to forget about everything. My skills improved with every day by a small margin but my strength stayed at a pretty much the same level. One day, I was training my Natural Path skill when I noticed something odd.


    ''Hmm? and what is this supposed to be?'' I thought as I looked at a strange object on the ground. It looked like an arrow but it waspletely green and didn''t seem like wood or metal. When I picked it up, I noticed it weighed almost nothing. ''Even a child would be able to pick this arrow up, it''s as if it weighs nothing at all!'' I thought.


    ''Where did this arrowe from? Who or what left it here? I ran these routes many times, it would be impossible for me to overlook this. With my senses, it was simply impossible. Someone or something must''ve left it here'' I thought. Then I remembered the feeling I had all that time, as if my instincts were telling me that something is here.


    I called out loud "Whoever is here,e out!" but there was no answer. I tried again using different approach "I found your arrow! I know you are here!". I waited for a while but still heard nothing. ''I''m sure this time it''s not my imagination. Someone or something is watching me, this arrow is the proof'' I thought as I started to head back to my camp.


    When I arrived back at my camp, I heard some noises behind me. I didn''t react instantly. I wanted to know what it was that tried to observe me. When I turned around, there was nothing. I called out again "Why are you ying this game? Juste out and talk if you want to talk or leave if you have nothing to say". I sat down near a ce I used to make campfire and retrieved some sticks from my bag. Then I lit fire and waited.


    I was now 100% sure, there was something or someone observing me. I had one problem with that "This thing or person is much more skilled at stealth than me. I''m not able to spot any movements until they are deliberate. That bush movement was a deliberate action. That thing or person wants to either irritate me or I have no clue what is the reason for such actions.


    The fire started to burn well so I ced some raw meat onto some sticks in order to cook it. When it was cooked, I enjoyed my meal and rxed a bit. I now knew that my senses were not lying and so I didn''t have to be paranoid again. I was on guard but knowing and not knowing are two different states a mind can be in.


    Not knowing is a much stressful state because we are scared of the unknown. Knowing on the other hand is not stressful as much, we know about something, therefore we can prepare for loads of possibilities. I was on guard at all times, I knew that whoever was doing it, was much more skilled than me in the Art of Stealth. This alone gave them advantage over me, not being able to locate my enemy, it''s almost the same as being dead whenever they so wish, of course if they have the abilities to harm me.


    I took out the arrow I found earlier from my bag and started ying with it. Suddenly, I came up with a great idea. ''It might not work but it is worth a try'' I thought. I said out loud "Hey! do you want this arrow back? Show yourself or I will destroy it". I heard no response but something that sounded like augh?


    After a while of silence, I heard "You can keep the arrow human, I have many more of them". I instantly turned around but found no one. ''This was a voice of a female. What does she want with me?'' but before I could ask that question, I realised something ''Wait! She said "You can keep the arrow human". She specifically said a word "human" in her sentence. Just what is that thing, if it calls me human?'' I thought.


    I looked at the ce where the voice wasing from and said "What are you?". There was no response for a while but then I heard her speak "How do you know I''m not human?". Iughed at this and said "You said it yourself. Why would you say "You can keep the arrow human" if you were a human as well? What are you?".


    Silence again, I was getting used to those long awaited replies. Although I was irritated, I was also intrigued. If that really was another species capable of human speech then that would be mind blowing. The answer came as a question as well "Why do you want to know?". It was a good question. I was curious and it seems that thing was watching me for a long time now, it must know my skill set and strength.


    I responded "I was curious. You must''ve watched me for a very long time. So you know what I''m capable of. Although I say that, I must bow to you when ites to stealth. My Art of Stealth is nothingpared to yours. If you don''t want to kill me, then why are you here?".


    I waited for her to respond for a while until finally she said "Yes, I watch what you were doing for a long time. You would''ve never noticed me if I didn''t leave that arrow for you on purpose. By the way, I don''t call that ability an "Art of Stealth" as you put it. It is a trait I was born with, so naturally, you will be inferior". I was a bit pissed but at the same time even more intrigued.


    I thought ''What type of creature can learn humannguage and also be born with a trait that naturally allowed it to be stealthy''. I said "Why don''t you show yourself? If you already decided to leave that arrow, why y those games?" but this time, I heard no response. Even after 30 minutes, there was no response. I stood up from my ce and thought ''This thing probably left, I now know something is watching me and that something is very intelligent. I have to be careful''. I went back to my training and my mind was more at peace. Known enemies are less scary than those we don''t know about.

 Chapter 134

    Chapter 134


    I became more rxed, now that I knew someone was indeed watching me. I continued my training as usual from that point on. I stayed on guard and at the same time tried to figure out where that something was hiding. I even had a theory that it was a small creature of sorts and it was very hard to spot.


    I didn''t know if my guess was correct but it could be possible. ''If wolves with mes on their bodies are possible, then such a creature is possible as well'' I thought. During the evening, after I was done with my training, I called out "Are you there?" but heard no response. I had no clue why that creature would leave something like an arrow and even more so such a weird arrow, for me to find. It didn''t make sense. ''If it watched me for such a long time, why reveal itself now?'' I thought.


    I went to sleep not long after and trained in my dreams. In the morning, I ate my breakfast and trained using the 3rd modified diagram from the Strength Manual. When I was done, I felt my senses telling me that something is watching me again . I said "I know you are there. What is it that you want? Am I that interesting, for you to watch me everyday?". I waited for the rey but received nothing after a while. I decided to just go about my day and ignore that something lurking in the forest.


    If it wanted to attack me, it could''ve done so during the night. ''I would be long dead, if that creature wanted to kill me'' I thought. Perhaps it couldn''t kill me and that was also a possibility. Maybe all it could do was hide, but had no strength. Even a normal human would be hard pressed to kill me, my strength was not the only thing that improved. My body got more sturdy as well.


    If a normal guy tried to stab me, he wouldn''t be able to do it. My skin and bones were too tough for some random viger to stab through them. ''Maybe that creature already tried to kill me but wasn''t able to. Now it was trying to irritate me or maybe even find my weakness'' I thought. All of that was possible but at the same time, it could bepletely wrong. It could be that the creature simply watched because it never saw humans before. ''This begs a question though. If it never saw a human, how could it tell what a human was? Moreover, how would it know the exact name of our species?'' I thought.


    As I was about to start Natural Path skill training, I heard a voice. "Why are you running like this?". This was probably a valid question from someone who didn''t understand what I was trying to achieve. I asked "Why do you want to know?" but heard no rey for a while and started my training. I ran my routes as usual and tried to improve my time. As much as I learned already, it became very difficult to improve my time even by 1 second. After couple of hours of training, I figured, I needed a new location. ''I could probably improve my time a bit more here but that is not the only point of that skill. I need to expose myself to different locations as well. Different locations will bring different results. Besides, snow will soon start to fall'' I though as I made my ns to move my training somece else.


    I wasn''t nning to move further north or anything like that. I was simply trying to find a different target. A new router from point A to point B with new terrain that would allow me to further improve my skill. ''I will start at a new location from tomorrow. Today, I need to train my body as well as mind''.


    I was hooked by the exercises in my dream. They were designed to train most of my aspects. Not only was there an exercise to train mind, there was also the body exercise as well as senses exercises. I could develop much faster with those things. As for the Ancient Language, I was curious but I still had loads to learn about it and the Dark Traveler in my dreams. There was no point rushing anymore. My strength and skills were the most important things at the moment.


    I started my body training and the voice could be heard again "You are already strong, so why train even more?". My initial thoughts were that this creature was some sort of kid, who asked about everything. I answered "I''m strong? Ha! There are things much stronger than me out there" to which I heard aughter and another sentence out of that creature "Including me".


    I was pissed at that point and said "If you think you are so powerful, why not show yourself and try me? Just because you are good at hiding, doesn''t mean you are strong". The response I got, was not what I expected. Instead of another crap like "I don''t have to prove anything to you" or something simr. I barely saw a projectile flying at me fast!


    I jumped to the side while shock was stered on my face. "Impossible, you also know the Art of Hidden Weapons". More projectiles flew towards me as I avoided. One of them hit my arm and ripped arge wound open. "Ugh" I muffled my grunt and jumped back. ''This thing is strong, not only does it know the Art of Stealth, it also knows the Art of Hidden Weapons. Both of the creature''s skills are a level higher than mine'' I thought.


    The creature stopped throwing stuff at me and said "I told you, I''m stronger than you". Before I could say anything, the creature continued "Besides, I don''t know what the Art of Hidden Weapons of yours is but I assure you, those are not any hidden weapons". I then realised something "Arrows¡­". After a while of silence the creature said "Yes, I used my bow and arrows".


    I looked at my wound and it was bleeding a lot. I didn''t care anymore about the creature and simply retrieved some medical herbs from my bag to heal my wounds. I didn''t make any medicine past couple of months but I did collect herbs that I found.


    After I applied the herbs to my wound and used some rags to tighten it, I said to the creature "It seems you are stronger. You also specialise in simr stuff that I learned. What do you want from me? If you wanted to kill me, you had many asions with your strength, so what the hell do you want!?"


    The creature asked "Do I bother you that much? If I didn''t reveal myself, you wouldn''t even know that I existed". I looked around and calmed down a bit. I sighted "I no longer care. Do whatever you like. I''m leaving this ce". I picked up my stuff and started to leave towards north.


    I wanted to have peace and quiet at least in a rtive sense. ''I don''t know what that creature wants from me. It is much stronger than me but just observes and does nothing. Why look at one human training everyday, It''s not even interesting'' I thought as I started walking towards north. After I took couple of steps, I heard the creature''s voice again "You know you will die, if you go there?" to which Iughed and said "You know what? I already heard that somewhere. Yet, I''m still going towards north. It was nice meeting you, find someone else to observe now" and left the ce. I left my shelter, weights and what not behind. I only took my bag that was filled with everything that I had and could carry. There wasn''t much of that stuff anyway.

 Chapter 135

    Chapter 135


    I walked through the forest, lost in my thoughts. ''A creature I can''t see is even stronger than me. No wonder that guy warned me about the north. I will go there anyway. Maybe that was just some kind of freak creature, just like the ck Mammoth I encountered with Shelly'' I thought. I lifted my head up and looked at the clouds drifting through the sky. ''Eh, if only Shelly was here with me'' I thought and then lowered my head to look in front of me.


    "Impossible!"


    I eximed. "This is not real, is it?" I said out loud again. What I saw standing in front of me, was¡­ Shelly. "Shelly?...How?" I blurted out. I had no other words but questions only. How was that possible? Was it really Shelly? How did it survive? And many more questions ran through my head.


    I ran towards Shelly while screaming "It''s good that you are back!" but instead, Shelly run in opposite direction and I lost the sight of it between the trees. When I finally arrived at the ce where I lost the sight of Shelly, it was no longer there. "What the hell is going on? Shelly?... SHELLY!" no response whatsoever.


    ''I must be hallucinating. Shelly is dead, how could it appear here?'' I thought as I started to move again. Not long after, I heard something move behind me. I turned around and called "Shelly?" but it wasn''t Shelly¡­ it was Nick this time. "How? What is going on here!?". I was confused. Was I hallucinating? Was my mind ying tricks on me? or was this real? I could no longer distinguish that. Nick looked like the usual him. The same clothes, the same expression on his face and the same posture.


    I said "Nick? Is that really you? You''ve died a long time ago. Howe you are here?" but Nick didn''t say anything and ran towards some trees. I tried to catch up to him but I again lost sight of Nick this time. "Something is wrong here. Shelly and Nick are dead. I saw them die, how could both of them be here. This isn''t real".


    I looked around and found nothing. I calmed myself a bit and turned around towards north. As I took couple of steps, a rustling sound came from behind me again. I turned around and shouted "What are you!? What do you want?" but what I saw shocked me again. "Dina? I killed you myself, you can''t be here. This is fake! I''m not going to fall for it!" I said and convinced myself that what I saw in front of me was not real. It was all fake.


    Then I heard a voice "Yes, they are all fake. You wanted to see what I look like, but I don''t really have a form". It wasn''t the voice of Dina, it was the voice of the damned creature that stalked me for days on end. I lost my calmnesspletely. What reced it was boundless rage.


    "BOOOM!"


    The ground shattered underneath me as Iunched at the creature standing in front of me. I extended my fist and punched. "BOOOM!" I didn''t manage to hit the creature but the ce it stood on. "You will die for that" I said while my instincts took over and sped towards a new location.


    "BOOOM!.... BOOOM!.... BOOOM!"


    I could somehow find the creature using my instincts as if I had apass built inside my mind that pointed my in the general direction of the creature. The rage inside me bursted and a new aura was born inside of me. The air seemed to freeze. The world started to change and I caw everything in red. I then felt unimaginable thirst for blood. "You will die for doing that" I said. My voice full of malice and thirst, thrist to see death and destruction.


    A few arrows flew towards me but I didn''t care about them. In my mind, I only had one thought "Kill". The arrows prated my body and although I stumbled back a bit from the impact, I felt no pain. I again rushed towards the creature that shot those arrows at my full speed.


    "Booom!.... Booom!"


    "Come out and die!" "BOOOOM!". The longer the fightsted, the more arrows were embedded in my body. With so many arrows in my body, I lost a lot of strength, speed and blood. Soon after, I finally copsed and the world of red started to fade. What reced it was the usual world, full of colours.


    I then heard a voice "Are you really a human?" and then, I fainted. When I woke up, I first noticed that I was alive. The other thing? Pain, loads of pain. Not only pain, hunger as well. When i finally gained focus in my eyes, I noticed a woman standing over me. She said "You finally woke up".


    I immediately know who it was. "It''s you! Why don''t you just kill me? Why do you want to torture me like this?" I said weakly. She responded "Calm down, no one is going to kill you or torture you". I looked her straight in the eyes and asked "Then what do you want from me? I have nothing to give you. I have nothing precious besides my life. So what do you want?".


    She looked up and then back down at me saying "Nothing, I was just interested. You seemed different from others so I watched you. I didn''t mean for you to suffer like this". She then extended her hand and tried to give me something. I had no strength and I was hungry as well so I took it. If she wanted to kill me, she would''ve already. With some many chances on her te, she probably didn''t want to kill me.


    When I ate that something she gave me, I started to feel a bit better. The pain started to subdue but I still felt immense hunger. I thought I ask some things now. "Is that how you really look like?" to which she smiled and said "Do you like it?". I didn''t know what to say to that. She looked like a human but there were some differences. Her ck hair seemed to be wet with something, it looked like some kind of liquid was constantly oozing out of her hair. Her skin was white, to the point I could see her veins as if it was transparent, the veins didn''t look like those in human beings. They had different formation and directions. Her clothes were weird as well. It looked like her clothes were her skin. Her eyes were ck, pitch ck with no other colour in her pupil.


    I said "I don''t know, you look like human but not human at the same time". She didn''t seem to like that answer and said "Of course I don''t look like human, I''m not a human". She then added "What did you see? When you looked at me back in the forest?". I was confused ''Back in the forest?'' I thought and looked around. It wasn''t the forest anymore, we were in some kind of cave.


    I said "My friends. People of the past. They are dead now". She looked at me and asked again "You didn''t see anyone alive when you looked at me then?" I said "No, only those who died, why?". She just brushed it off by saying "Nothing, I was just curious" and then continued saying "I''m sorry, it must''ve caused you a lot of pain. I didn''t mean that".


    I sighted but said nothing. I was already calm and besides, I was too hungry to care about that now so i asked "Do you have anything to eat?". She seemed to realise something and said "Right, you do eat a lot!" and gave me one more small thing.


    I thought ''This is not going to satisfy my hunger'' but I was wrong. When I ate it. I started to feel less hungry and after a while, I was not hungry anymore. I eximed "What is that thing you gave me? It''s amazing, I don''t feel hunger at all!" but she just smiled and said "Rest, we will talk when you wake up".


    ''I don''t have to rest, I feel much better now'' I thought but soon, my eyes started to close and I fell asleep.

 Chapter 136

    Chapter 136


    When I opened my eyes, I was in my dream. The problem was that although it seemed like my dream, there was nothing in there. No Dark Traveller, no objects, no nothing. Darkness filled the entire ce. I wasn''t even able to see anything. ''What is this supposed to be? Am I blind or something?'' I thought. I tried cing my hand in front of my eyes and found out that I wasn''t blind, I could barely see the outline of my hand.


    "This is weird. Why am I here? There seems to be nothing but darkness. Am I supposed to sit here like this and do nothing?" I said to myself. I decided to walk around and explore. I thought that there might be something there in the darkness. I walked for a long time but it seemed that I didn''t move at all. The scenery didn''t change and there was no sense of time. When I moved, I still could see nothing, whichever direction I went to.


    I decided to do some exercises, I had nothing else to do anyway. I tried imagining the exercises from my dreams but to no avail. I tried saying some things in Ancient Language as well but that didn''t work either.


    All that was left for me to do, was to either train without any weights, tools and weapons or try toe up with some new skills. I tried training for a bit but because there was no sense of time. It didn''t matter how long I trained, I also didn''t get tired either. I felt as if I was dead and just walked in the darkness mindlessly. I thought ''I should spend some time trying toe up with new skills or try to improve the current ones I have''.


    I thought about my current skill set and tried to add some adjustments. The first skill I tried to improve was my throwing skill. I didn''t have any weapons on me, I could onlye up with ideas but not test them. At least not stuff that involved weapons or tools. I remembered the book I found when I killed that old woman, the Soft Fish Technique. I went through my memory and tried to remember the things written inside. My memory was much better now and I could recall some things from that book but not a lot of them.


    I knew I had to be more unpredictable. ''This could be achieved by couple of different routes, now that I think about it'' I thought. The 1st way was for me to change direction of my daggers after they were thrown. I already figured out a skill based on that. The other option would be to make my daggers invisible or rather, create my daggers from a material that would not reflect much light. ''I don''t know if such material exists. Even if it does, it''s not like I can just find itying on the ground, inside a forest'' I thought.


    This was a far fetched idea but it would be possible to be much more unpredictable with daggers that are less visible and harder to spot. ''My daggers are already intricate and unusual. Nick didn''t use daggers either, he used knifes like those used by doctors. I already found my own style of the weapon i.e. the dagger I created in the past. Only the materials can change but the shape is very suitable for me'' I thought.


    I had one more idea. ''Speed. The faster I can throw the dagger, the more unpredictable it is or rather, the harder it is to be spotted and dodged. Besides speed, I would need perfect control of my body. Not some simple control of my strength but of every muscle movement. Throwing the dagger so fast, it would seem that I never moved my hand in the first ce. It is possible because Nick wasn''t far away from that. Back then, my senses were still undeveloped. I would be able to spot those knifes now. It must be possible though, if I could be fast enough'' I thought.


    I was already in the process of training my new skill from the Art of Stealth. I didn''t give much thought about the stealth as I knew what I had to do and how to improve the new skill. My Art of Medicine didn''t progress much. I was able to produce simple medicines or poisons but I had no tools or ingredients to try out the more intermediate or advanced recipes. My Art of Medicine was stagnant at the moment.


    ''I don''t know how long I''ve been here. It seems like eternity. There is no sun or moon, there are no seasons or even things to look at'' I thought. In the beginning, I tried to count how many hours, days and so on passed but I gave up after my counting reached days.


    "This is just ridiculous! It''s impossible for me to stay in here for days. Something must be wrong! I need to leave this ce" I said out loud. There was no change to my state whenever I wished to leave, train or just sit and think. I never became tired and never felt hunger. Iid down tired of feeling or seeing nothing around me and closed my eyes. ''I might as well just sleep'' I thought and fell asleep.


    When my eyes opened again, I was no longer in a dream. The darkness was reced by light, objects and what not. "Finally!" I eximed. "What finally?" the voice of the creature drifted from close by. I said "It doesn''t matter. How long did I sleep for?" to which she answered "About a day". This got me thinking ''Just a day passed but in my dream? Days, if not weeks passed. This is too weird, I hope I will not get to see that dream again''.


    I tried to sit up but for some reason, I wasn''t able to do so. I looked down and around my body, there were straps and what not attached onto my limbs and body. I asked "Why did you strap me like this?". The voice got closer and the creature stood next to me. She said "You were doing some weird stuff and your wounds were opening all the time. I strapped you down for your own safety. Wait a minute, I will undo them".


    I waited patiently until she undid the straps. I then sat up and took a look around. It was a cave with a few different rooms. I couldn''t see anything out of ordinary. ''She has some decor and stuff but nothing extraordinary'' I thought. When she saw that I was alright, she went back to her ce and sat down. "We can talk now. I''m sure you will have loads to ask, I will answer your questions so take it slow" she said and awaited my questions.

 Chapter 137

    Chapter 137


    I asked "What are you exactly?". She looked at me and said "It''s not nice to ask me what am I but anyway. My name is Laly, it was given to me when I received this form. To answer your question, I''m Eterian. This is what you humans call my race". I looked at her and asked "What is Eterian?". I asked because I never encountered that name before. She probably knew that and answered "It''s a race of beings that do not possess body when they are born".


    I asked again "Does that mean you are a ghost?" to which she shook her head and said "No, we are not ghosts or spirits. We are simply born without a body like you humans. When I received my body and name, I became Eterian". I was confused and asked "Then how are you born? You have body of a human and whatnot, simr features, you have veins and walk on two legs. You can also speak ournguage and show great intelligence. So if you have no body, how can you be born?".


    She smiled and said "Just like you, but I have no body. If you took away all the skin, muscles and what not from a baby, you would see a baby Eterian". I was even more confused at that point and decided to just let that go. I had other questions, I wanted to know the answers to. I asked "Then how do you receive your body? Do you kill a human or something like that?" to which she said "No. We don''t do that kind of thing. We create it from special materials and when a baby is born, it is then connected with that body then given a name. It''s actually a great ceremony when that does happen".


    I asked "So why did you say that it is "Sort of" how you look like?" to which she responded "Because we as babies are born looking the same. We are given body that was made by our parents as well as name. Our parents need a lot of effort to create a body for us and so the birth of Eterians is quite rare".


    ''So this must be some kind of rare race that has difficulties reproducing. I wonder why there were never any records of such race in history. Well, maybe because I lived in vige and didn''t need to worry about other races'' I thought. I decided to ask "Why are you here then and not with your parents? Or with your race?". She became visibly angered and sad at the same time. She said "Because humans killed my race as we didn''t want to be their ves". I could feel the coldness from her words towards me as a human but she didn''t try to kill me. I said "Then why didn''t you kill me?"


    She said "Because you are different. That was why I watched you for a while. You don''t seem to share the same ideas that those other humans have. I also wonder why?". I said "Maybe because I didn''t have many interactions with those humans, Nick told me to avoid cities and viges as they can spoil my character and progress. I did that till today. I also killed a lot of humans so I guess, I''m not a very friendly person".


    She smiled and said "That is why you were different. You don''t hate our race. It seems you were only upset about those things you saw in the forest and because I watched you". I looked at her in the eyes and said "I have no prejudice against your race or any race. I''ve been a ve so I know how fellow humans can treat one another". She asked "Is that why you train so hard?" to which I nodded and said "Yes, I promised Nick that I would master my arts before I go to any city or vige. I didn''t break that promise¡­. Well I bent it a bit. It was when Shelly and I razed a vige to the ground but other than that, I avoided settlements".


    I then asked "So did humans kill all Eterians but you?" to which she shook her head and said "No, it was impossible for humans to kill all of us. We''ve been here longer than humans and our roots extend much further than they can imagine. I have couple of friends far away that are Eterian. Wemunicate sometimes just to check up on eachother but it takes a lot of my power so we don''t do it often".


    I thought about something and said "If I were you, I would still kill me" She seemed surprised and I continued "Not that I want to die but maybe that is what your racecked when fighting against humans? Maybe you were not as decisive?". I think this struck a wrong cord with her and she seemed very mad but didn''t do anything and soon calmed down. She then said "Maybe you are right. No, you are right. This is what wecked. You were able to figure this out just from general descriptions I gave you".


    I looked at her and said "Sorry, it seems you''ve been through a lot but all of us been through some things. What do you n on doing now?". She sighed and said "What can I do? Alone or with couple of Eterians? Our race hides in the shadows and for a long time now. We don''t want to risk another fight anymore. As long as humans think that only a few of us were left alive and we are no longer a threat, they will never seek us".


    I had my own thoughts about that ''Maybe but I wouldn''t bet on it. As far as I know something about humans, it would be that they will exterminate a threatpletely. No loose ends''. I didn''t tell her my thoughts, there was no point. I asked "Do you intend to spend the rest of your life here then?" to which she smiled and said "I don''t know yet. So far I''m living here. I can live much longer than a human so to me 10 years is not a long time".


    I thought about her skills and decided to ask about them. "Those skills or traits as you call them. Can you teach me something?" to which she narrowed her eyes and said "Why should I teach you anything about my abilities? Why do you want to know them?". This seemed to be a taboo subject with her. I answered "Because I train in the same stuff. I train stealth as well as bow and hidden weapons. I don''t have a bow now but if I had one, I would train my aim with it. I can also make some basic medicines and poisons". She said "Then learn your things, why ask about my abilities and traits?".


    I was at a loss. ''What did I say that she is acting so differently now? Is this really some sort of taboo and they would be offended by me asking?''. I decided to ask about that "Did I offend you by asking to teach me? I don''t know your race so maybe you have different customs. I admire your skills or however you like to call them and would like to improve mine. I wouldn''t ask you if I was stronger than you". She seemed to calm down and answered "You didn''t offend me but I can''t teach you any of that. The processes are tooplicated and it requires something I am not prepared to do".


    I was confused but I dropped the subject nevertheless. Instead I asked "Then what now? You told me all of those things and whatnot. Are you going to kill me or something? I don''t understand why you would answer my questions and let me go like that?". She seemed to struggle a bit about something and said "Well.." but nothing else.


    I said seriously "Then I will ask you one more question. What do you want from me? I know you want something because normal person, creature or whatever it was, wouldn''t stalk me for months for no apparent reason. Especially me, when all I did was some everyday training. Everyday the same stuff. What is it that you want from me?".


    She was thinking about some stuff, that I could see but no answer came from her mouth. I asked "Can I leave now? I want to resume my journey north". She snapped out of it and said "Wait! Sit down, I need to think about some things" then she left the room and went somewhere. I thought ''There is no point running, I think. She is much stronger than me so I will not be able to get away. I will just wait and see''.

 Chapter 138

    Chapter 138


    I waited for her toe back for a while but there was no sign of her. ''What the hell does she want with me? Am I supposed to sit here like that for hours?'' I thought and stood up to take a look around the ce. I checked out the room in more details. There wasn''t much in that room. A wooden desk with a chair as well as the wooden bed I wasying on. Besides those things there was also a bookcase but with only a few books.


    I walked over to the bookcase and checked out the titles. "Empire of Endros", "Common Language", "Tales of the King Laris", "What the hell? These books are the mostmon books one could find in any vige. I assume in cities as well" I said out loud. ''This doesn''t make sense, she only has amonnguage book and some tales, written to inspire kids. Not even true or historic events. She also has a book about Endrosian Empire, which is avable in every vige or at least, it was in my vige'' I thought.


    I knew these books very well, I read them as a child. ''Why would she need those types of useless books? Maybe besides the Common Language book. It was used to teach kids how to speak and read the humannguage. Maybe that is how she learned ournguage. Although there are many words she used, that were not in that book. Weird'' I thought.


    There was nothing else in the room besides the exit. I decided to explore that ce a bit more. When I entered the corridor, I saw two rooms. One on my left and one on my right. I tried one on the left but the doors were closed. I then tried the one on the right and the doors opened. Behind the doors, was a room that looked like a toilet. ''Nothing interesting here'' I thought and closed the door. I went further down the corridor and saw an exit. I thought ''Should I try running away? I mean, I don''t know where she went so maybe she will returnte and I will be very far away''.


    As I thought about that and took a few more steps towards the exit, the doors on the left suddenly opened and she came out. I turned around and said "Did you figure out what you want from me or can I just leave now?". I could see the struggle on her face still. I decided to reassure her "I don''t care what you do and who you are. I''m not a person that sells people out. Even if I leave this ce, I will not tell anyone that you live here. I simply don''t care. I have my own stuff to take care of. If you want to stop me then either state your business or kill me".


    As I finished saying that, I turned around and started leaving. She called out "Wait!", I stopped and turned around. She seemed to struggle about something but still didn''t say a word about it. I thought ''This is pointless'' and walked towards the exit of the cave. As I walked, I heard something flying towards me. I jumped to the side in order to avoid the attack. I knew she was shooting her arrows at me and I wouldn''t be able to fight her with my current strength, my solution was to dart towards the exit.


    ''If I have to die, I will at least put up resistance or try to run away'' I thought as I ran at my full speed outside the cave. More arrows were shot at me but I evaded them all. I was stunned myself that I was able to do that. I thought ''Maybe she lost a lot of her focus, due to those thoughts she has and is not able to aim at me properly. This is my chance!''.


    Outside the cave, I saw the forest spanning for as far as the eye could see. I ran between trees and tried to utilise my new skill Nature Path. The arrows were still flying at me but thanks to the coverage of trees, none managed to hit me yet. I ran and ran and ran, until I realised that no more arrows were flying at me. I thought ''Did she finally give up?'' but I was wrong.


    She appeared in front of me in the distance. ''Fuck'' I thought and changed the directions. ''What the hell did I do to deserve that? She must be out of her mind. She won''t let me leave and won''t tell me what she wants from me. She is insane!'' I thought and ran again. I ran for a longer period of time now and was already getting tired. I was using my full strength continuously, yet she was still behind me. ''I will have to either face her or try to run till I copse. Maybe she will lose her strength and give up when she feels tired'' I thought as I ran. Facing her would be thest resort, I had very little chances of doing something against her.


    The cat and mouse gamemenced as I tried to get away from that lunatic creature. After an hour of such running, I was barely able to walk. There were no more arrowsing at me and when I turned around, she was nowhere to be found. I thought ''Finally! I lost her''. I quickly took out some food from my bag and started eating to restore my strength.


    After 20 minutes, she was still nowhere to be found and my strength recovered a bit. I wasn''t at my peak condition but I didn''t care. I checked the sky and ran towards north. I thought ''Maybe she will not follow me north. I have to get as far away from here as I can. With regr stops to replenish my strength, I should be far away from here before the nightfall''.


    I ran again. Then rested, then ran and so on until nightfall. ''I should be safe now, right? She wouldn''t follow me that far'' I thought. I had no more meat in my bag, I was quite hungry and tired. I didn''t try to hunt anything while I ran, I was focused on running away as far as I could. I decided to try and hunt something, even rabbits or deer were alright at this point. I search for prey around the area but I could find nothing. I went further north and searched more. I was finally able to find a group of bears after a while. There was a problem though. The group consisted of 11 silver bears. I thought ''What the hell is this?''.


    ''I wasn''t able to find any elite bears in the past. The part of the forest that I used to live in, was void of those creatures and now, 11 of them appear? What is going on here?'' I thought and then I realised something. ''Wait. I know why there were no elite animals in the part of the forest I used to live in. It''s because of her. I''m sure of it now. She must''ve killed all those creatures and buried them or something. She really is insane!''.


    I would be able to take on that group of Silver Bears normally but my current state was not the best. It would be much harder to kill them now. I decided to have a go anyway. I needed meat and this was meat. ''As long as I can kill couple of them quickly, I should be fine'' I thought.


    I approached the bears stealthily and with their backs turned towards me, Iunched my attack. "Swoosh! Swooosh! Swoosh!". I threw the daggers at 3 bears. This time, I was much strongerpared to the first time I met a Silver Bear. The 3 bears died from my daggers and I quickly engaged the rest of the Silver Bears in closebat. I managed to kill 2 more bears due to the surprise attack and there were only 6 left. ''This is much more manageable now but I also used a lot of my strength. I need to watch out'' I thought. As I was about to take the life of another bear, I heard "Swoosh!" and the bear that was pouncing at me was killed.


    I turned around and saw¡­ her. ''Fuck! this is just preposterous. She even followed me up to this point!'' I thought and quickly exited the fight. ''I have no more strength to run and besides, she caught up anyway. Think, Think!'' I thought. Then an idea sprouted inside my mind. ''Maybe I can use those bears as distraction and try to kill her. This could be my only chance!'' I thought. With that as myst resort, I made the bears follow me towards the insane creature shooting arrows from afar.


    As we were getting closer, she started killing of the bears. I sped up and chased after her. As I got closer, thest bear died from her arrow. I gritted my teeth andunched at her. "Booom!" but I hit nothing.


    "Well, it seems I''m dead". With those final words, I closed my eyes and awaited an arrow that would end my life but it never arrived. I opened my eyes and noticed her standing in front of me, like a statue. I was lost ''Can I even die? With this thing around me?'' I thought.

 Chapter 139

    Chapter 139


    I had no words left. This was a torture. ''What am I supposed to do? She doesn''t want to kill me but she also doesn''t want to let me go. What is this situation?'' I thought hopelessly. She stood there while looking at me. Silence,plete silence enveloped the area we were in. After a while, she finally said something "Why do you want to leave me so badly?". I was totally confused and could only blurt out "What?".


    I had no idea what she was speaking about. I had no reason to stay and she wouldn''t tell me what she wanted from me. I was now adamant in my beliefs that she was crazy. She said "Why do you want to go north so much, even to the extent of risking your life? There is nothing interesting there. No treasures awaiting you, no fame, only beasts that will kill you in an instant. Why don''t you want to stay by my side?".


    I had no response to that. What could I say? I didn''t have a reason not to stay with her but I also didn''t have a reason to stay. ''I have my own goals and she has her own. Why does she assume that I need to stay with her? It doesn''t make sense'' I thought. She continued "Do you hate me?". I again didn''t know what to say. I didn''t hate her. I was angry of course, she was preventing me from leaving but I didn''t hate her. I just didn''t know the reason behind her actions.


    I finally managed to say "What do you mean? I asked you if you want something from me but you don''t want to answer. I don''t have a reason to stay. I also have my own path I need to tread, even if it means going north. That is my goal. Whenever I live or die, it will all y out in the north". She didn''t respond so I continued "I don''t hate you but I also don''t understand you. You clearly don''t want to kill me, yet you don''t want to let me go anywhere. This must mean I have something you want. I just don''t know what it is".


    She became a bit surprised and said "Then stay with me. You can always go northter right?" I responded "Why do you change the subject? Just tell me what you want. If I can give it to you, I will and we can be done with it". She seemed to struggle a bit but finally said something else "That is why I said that I want you to stay with me. I need you for something, it isn''t an item that you possess but what you are". I was confused and didn''t know what she meant. Then I realised something and asked "Are you in love?"


    She became upset and said "No! of course not! Are you an idiot, I don''t need you for¡­ no, I don''t need you for that at all". I was also angry and confused, I responded "Then what the hell do you need me for? If you don''t want me then what exactly do you want?". She finally mustered the courage and said "I need your power. When I discovered you, I nned to kill you but then I noticed that you have an aura surrounding you that helps me develop. I''m this strong thanks to you".


    I thought ''Finally! I got something out of her!'' but then I realised something else and said "Wait, what power? I have no power! Are you crazy?" to which she argued back "I''m not crazy! Don''t call me that! When you sleep, you have an aura around you that is beneficial to me. That is why I wanted you to stay". ''This bastard, what the hell is she talking about? Either way, I feel used! She wants to use me even more, for her own stuff!'' I thought.


    I said "So, you''ve been using me to get stronger yet when I asked you to teach me something, you said outright no! I gain nothing from this while you reap all the benefits! Are you crazy!" to which she shouted back "I told you to stop calling me crazy!" and shot an arrow in my chest. I flew back from the impact andnded on the ground with a grunt "Ungh".


    She ran over to me and quickly gave me some kind of thing to eat while saying "Sorry! I didn''t mean to, I was angry. Eat this, it will help you heal your wounds". I said "Why don''t you just kill me? Why are you torturing me. I''m not your pet you know?". She apologised a few more times while my wounds started to heal.


    I said to her "I get nothing out of it while you get even stronger. When you get strong enough and don''t need me anymore, you will just kill me or something. I have no reason to agree to that". She shook her head and said "No, I will not kill you. I promise you that" to which Iughed and said "Promise? what is it worth to me? If I die, then you lose big time. I will be dead of course but is this not a good price to pay for my freedom?"


    She seemed shocked and quickly grabbed my arms to prevent me from doing anything to myself. Iughed "I don''t want to kill myself, I was just saying. I don''t agree to that deal. Besides, why should I help you? You hate humanity and I don''t want to be the one to send a cmity over my own kind".


    She let go of my hands and cried "Please, I need help. I don''t want to exterminate your kind, I just want to be strong enough to live my own life". I replied "You yourself said that you wanted to kill me and that you would if not for those so called powers I have. So why should I believe you?". "Besides you, no other human traveled here. I didn''t know if you were searching for me or not. Later on, I figured out that you are not searching for my race. I will not kill you not only because you have those powers. You are not a bad human" she said while crying.


    I thought ''She is either a very good actress or she really didn''t mean to kill me even when her powers no longer benefit from my so called power''. I sighted and extended my hand to touch her head. She stopped crying and looked at me. I said "Don''t cry, I''m not what you called a good human either. I can stay with you, if you give me something in exchange. Why don''t you teach me something about stealth? or perhaps some other skills". She replied with teary eyes "I can''t. Those are techniques passed to us Eterians. We can''t teach them to humans". I asked "Why?"


    "That is ourw. We can''t teach outsiders our own abilities or techniques". I said "Who will know if you do? It''s not like I will search for Eterians on purpose and spread the fact you taught me. Besides, how will they know that you were the one that taught me?". She seemed to think about it a bit and said "But¡­". I replied "You want help from human, shouldn''t that also be in your race''sw? I mean, getting help from human should be against your principles or something". When I said that, she seemed to freeze. ''No, don''t tell me'' I thought and said "This is also aw of your race? Well, you''ve already broken onew and you are arguing whenever you could teach me or not?"


    She responded promptly "No, it''s not!" but I knew she was lying already and said "Why lie to me? You are quite crafty. Were those real tears?". I could see those teary eyes again while she said "No, of course not, I just want to live without fearing for my life! I did lie about it but our techniques are very weird and hard to master. You wouldn''t be able to learn them anyway". I said "Why not give it a try? You will get what you want and I will get what I want. Isn''t that a perfect conclusion?" and patted her head again.


    She calmed down a bit then said "Ok, I agree. I will teach you whatever I can and you have to promise that you stay with me". I thought ''Finally! some improvements. Now I can train in those weird techniques and if she wants to use that whatever power¡­ I don''t care. I didn''t even know that it existed!''. I said "Then we have a deal". She seemed to brighten up, now that I agreed. Then I realised something and asked "But you could just follow me north. Why not go north then?". She shook her head and said "We would both die. North is too dangerous. That is why I told you, you will die if you go there. Even I would die if I went there and I''m much stronger than you".


    I thought about it and asked "What exactly is there? In the north?" to which her face paled a bit and she replied "Monsters, pure evil monsters" but nothing other than that.

 Chapter 140

    Chapter 140


    It was dark already so I said to her "We need to camp here. I have a few animal skins with me so we can use that as our beds. Let me make the fire first". She nodded slightly while I went to collect some wood for the fire. A whileter, I returned with enough wood and lit the fire.


    I took out some animal skins and fur to use as our beds. I wanted to hand some of them to her but she looked at me and said "I''m fine, I don''t need to sleep". I was a bit stunned and asked "What? You don''t need to sleep at all?" to which sheughed and said "No, I do sleep but I''m not tired. I don''t have to sleep as often as you humans do". I responded "Alright, as you like" and started to make my makeshift bed.


    It didn''t take long for me to finish. Iid down in my bed and closed my eyes. ''I''m tired, that past few days were too eventful. I better get some proper rest'' I thought. Before I could fall asleep, I could feel something moving next to me. I opened my eyes and looked behind me.


    "What are you doing?" I asked. She replied as if it was natural "I just want to sit next to you, why do you ask?". "... Just do whatever you want then" and closed my eyes again. I wanted to fall asleep but she had different ns. She asked "Hey, what is your name? I told you mine, shouldn''t you also tell me yours?". My first thought was ''Will I even get some rest with her around? Can''t I just fall asleep peacefully?'' and then replied "I''m Nex".


    She said "Nex¡­ that is a weird name". ''Just... What the fuck? Why am I the one with the weird name all the time?'' I thought but I decided to notment on that. She then asked "How old are you?". I opened my eyes and turned around. "I''m 24, do you have any other questions?" to which she said "Yea, I have a lot".


    I gave up at that point. She would probably pester me for the whole night. I decided to ask some of my questions instead. I asked "What is that aura or power that you spoke of? I clearly never felt anything like it. Are you sure I have something like this?" to which she nodded her head and said "Of course. Otherwise I wouldn''t be this strong. The aura seeps out of you when you sleep and I absorb it".


    ''Hmmm... Now that I think about it, the only thing that could be connected to that aura or power is the Dark Traveller from my dreams. If so, what is the purpose of that aura or power?'' I thought and decided to ask. "What is it exactly? Is it an aura like this?" I said and released an Aura of Dominance. She seemed stunned a bit but shook her head and said "No, it''s nothing like this. It''s like a dark cloud or smokeing out from you, I collect and absorb it. I don''t know how you can produce it either but it is beneficial to me".


    ''So that''s how it is! When I dream, the aura must be enveloping my body. This may be the reason why I use so much energy in my dreams. The aura consumes my energy and therefore, I feel hungry when I wake up. Besides that, due to energy used, I get stronger and my body is able to improve. This makes sense now!'' I thought.


    I knew that I was getting stronger thanks to my dreams but I didn''t know how exactly. Doing some exercises in my dream would not impact the reality. ''This is where that auraes in. The more I use it, the more energy I spend and the more my body improves. There also seems to be rules on what is improved, it probably depends on which dream I have. It doesn''t improve my body alone, it can also do so with my sense and my mind. Now I finally know how my dreams work!'' I thought.


    ''This is good and all but wouldn''t that mean, she took a bit of my aura? Wouldn''t I suffer due to that? I mean, I don''t know how much she is taking. I should ask!'' I thought and asked her "How much of that aura do you absorb?". She thought about it and answered "Very little actually. I can''t absorb much of it because it is very strong and takes me a long time to refine it. I don''t think you should be worried about anything".


    ''If what she says is true then there is no need to be worried, I guess. It''s not like I won''t get something out of it either. I will get to learn those stealth skills. I think that is a fair trade'' I thought and said "So you are called Laly, right?", she responded "Yes, you remember". I asked her "Then how old are you Laly?". She thought about it for a while and said "Do you want to know human years or Eterian years?". I was confused ''What? What does that even mean? A year is a year''. I asked confused "Isn''t that the same thing? A year means a year, four seasons pass meaning a year". Sheughed a bit and said "No, I didn''t mean it like that. We Eterians live longer, a lot longer than you humans. My Eterian age is longer but human equivalent is smaller. I will give you an example". I was still confused but I waited for her further exnation.


    "For example, when Eterian is 100 years old, it means that it reached adulthood. It would be equivalent to human''s adulthood. When you are about 16 years of age, you reach adulthood. That is what I meant."


    I was shocked to be honest. ''100 years to reach adulthood? Then how long can those Eterians live? 1000 years?'' I thought and asked "So you have like over 100 years?". She said "Yes, I''m 113 years old. Which would be about 17 years old human equivalent". I had only one thought in my mind ''Damn!''.


    Who wouldn''t want to live that long. I decided to ask "So you want to tell me, you can live like 1000 years?" She smiled and replied "No, of course not. The oldest Eterians live up to 500 years but that is rare. Our lifespan ends at around 420th year". I said "Still, that is couple of human generations. No wonder you have such constraints ced upon your race". I then recalled the Cliff Walker. Those moving nts also had huge constraints ced on their kind. They didn''t have predators but reproducing was very difficult for them. ''Eterians seem to be in the same boat'' I thought.


    I said "Wow, you are 4 times as old as me. I should call you grandma Laly". I said it as a joke of course but she didn''t seem to like that. Her response was quite angry "I''m not old! I''m still very young, younger than you!". I thought I will tease her more and said "How can you be younger than me? I lived for 24 years and you for over a 100. Everyone would say that you are older". She again argued back that she wasn''t old. I decided to drop it and said "I don''t really care how old you are. I was just messing with you. Do you have any other questions? I would like to get some rest".


    She realized something and said "Right, you must be tired. I don''t have any other questions. You can sleep now". I said "OK, grandma Laly" and closed my eyes. I could still hear some grumbling behind me but she soon stopped. I was able to get some sleep finally.

 Chapter 141

    Chapter 141


    Although the day was long, my dreams were peaceful this time. I dreamt about the Dark Traveller who spoke to me in Ancient Language. It seemed so fresh and nostalgic, like never before. I felt as if I could understand everything he said but at the same time forgot the meaning straight away.


    I lost time and enjoyed myself in my dream, like never before. When this mysterious feeling disappeared, I noticed that it was already morning and I was awake. ''It was the same old dream but somehow, I felt as if I understood everything yet I know nothing at all. This was a weird feeling'' I thought to myself while turning around.


    Laly that imed she didn''t need any sleep, fell asleep in sitting position. I stood up and decided not to disturb her. ''I should stretch a bit'' I thought and walked away from the camp a bit. I started my day from the 3rd modified diagram as usual and then ate my breakfast. I had loads of meat thanks to the Silver Bears I huntedst night. When I started to roast the meat, Laly woke up.


    I asked "Did you sleep well?" to which she said "I didn''t sleep". Iughed and said "You were clearly asleep when I woke up. You don''t have to prove anything to me. Sleep when you have to sleep". She didn''tment on that and I dropped it as well. I didn''t know what Eterians eat but decided to ask anyway "Do you want something to eat?".


    She shook her head and said "No". I nodded and took the roasted meat for myself. After my meal, I said "Where do you want to go now? Back to the camp I used to live in?" to which she answered "We can use my cave. It is much morefortable than camping outside". I nodded my head and said "You can lead the way then. While we at it, why don''t you exin some of the skills to me?".


    She said "Alright, follow me" and started running towards southern direction. I followed along awaiting some wisdom about her skills. After a while of running, she said "I''m not the best teacher, so maybe words are not the way to go. How about I show you and try to exin how I do it?". I said "That is fine. I will learn much faster if you show me how to do it,pared to telling me how to do it". She started disappearing and I lost track of her. I stopped running, I wasn''t sure where she went. I scanned the surrounding area but couldn''t find anything, I thought ''I can''t find her at all, even though its broad daylight''. As I was looking around with my maximum focus, a voice came from behind me "What are you searching for?".


    I turned around and looked at Laly. "How did you do it?" I asked. She responded "I told you, it is my trait. So it''s natural for me to hide well". I knew I couldn''t learn a trait someone was born with but I could try and mimic it, if I knew how she does it. I decided to ask "Can you do it slowly, in front of me? I want to have a proper look".


    She nodded her head and started to disappear in front of me slowly. ''How is this possible? It''s like she is melding with air¡­. melding with air...'' I thought and asked her "Are you using the wind or something? Or perhaps you are using some sort of power?". She appeared again and said "No, I''m not using the wind but yes, I''m using my power". I thought about it for as bit and asked "Can you show me that power without disappearing?"


    She said "Of course. I can manipte to some degree. have a look" and extended her hand. Very quickly smoky green aura appeared around her hand and then condensed into a ball shape on top of her palm. "This is amazing!" I eximed and asked immediately "How do you create that power?". She replied "I told you, it is my trait. I was born with it. I didn''t create it, I only have to increase it to be stronger". She then continued "I don''t know if it is possible to create it but I know that humans possessed powers of their own. Just like the one you released when fighting me or when you asked me about the aura I''m using to increase my powers".


    I said quite shocked "So humans use auras while you are born with traits? Does that mean I can create any aura?". She thought about it for a while and replied "I don''t know, you already possess 3 as far as I''m aware. The first one was the aura you released when you fell asleep, the second aura was when you saw people of your past when you looked at me and the third aura was when you wanted to find out about the first one".


    I went into deep thought ''She is almost correct. I have a 4th aura as well but I have no control over it and I can''t use it as I wish. It appears whenever it wants to appear. The aura connected to Dark Traveller is also not under my control. I have no way of controlling it as I''m asleep at that time. The one I can use is the Domineering Aura but it seems the weakest of them all. Thest aura? I also have no real control over it. In order to awake that aura, I need thirst for blood. Chaos, blood, rage and destruction seem to be the trigger fo that aura''.


    ''Then my initial thoughts were correct. I need to create a stealth aura, then I can repeat what she just showed me. Maybe apart that power she could condense in her palm'' I thought and asked about something else. "Do you know what does "Avoid the Light" mean?" to which she shook her head and said "No, you can''t avoid the light. My power isn''t avoiding the light, it simply melds my body to look like the surroundings. It''s like a camouge as you would call it".


    ''So she thinks that avoiding the light is impossible. Nick wouldn''t lie to me. It should be possible to avoid the light without an aura or traits. She doesn''t know how but it doesn''t mean it''s impossible'' I thought. I had another question that was bothering me a bit, I asked "How long can you use your power like this?". She said "For hiding alone? Very long. I think I could stay hidden for couple of days but in a fight, my powers get drained much faster. If you were twice as strong as you are now, I would''ve lost. I wouldn''t have enough power tost very long".


    I asked another question "So does that mean you use that power at all times? As in to run faster or to have more strength, stuff like that?". She nodded her head and said "Yep, I''m not as strong as you are physically. To be honest? If I were to run out of my power, you could kill me with one finger. My body is not as strong. It is the power inside me that I try to increase and gain greater control over. That is what gives me superior strength and abilities".


    ''She is quite honest. She told me her biggest weakness as if nothing. Maybe she isn''t a bad creature afterall'' I thought. She then said "We should continue. I can always teach you something when we return". I nodded my head and we resumed our journey back.

 Chapter 142

    Chapter 142


    We ran through the forest for the rest of the day and only stopped when I needed to eat something. In the evening, we finally arrived at a Laly''s cave. I asked "So, where do I sleep?". She said "In the same room you didst time". I was a bit confused and asked "Then where will you sleep?". She answered "In the other room?".


    ''Right, there was this other room. Why would she need 2 bedrooms though? She lives alone'' I thought and decided to ask "Why do you need 2 bedrooms?" to which she said "Are you asking about the room I was in? It''s not a bedroom". I was even more confused and asked "Then what is in there?". Sheughed a bit and said "You don''t need to know". ''Now I want to know even more'' I thought and tried probing one more time "Just tell me, is it something very bad?".


    Sheughed and said "No, of course not but you don''t need to know what is in there". I was lost at that point and decided to drop it. ''If she doesn''t want to say, that''s fine. Who knows, maybe I will find out in the future anyway'' I thought and entered "my" room. She followed me in and sat down on the chair. I said "Do you need something?" to which she replied "Duh? I''m waiting for you to go to sleep". ''Right, I forgot about that. Still couldn''t shee after I fall asleep? I don''t have to be watched like this'' I thought andid down on "my" new bed.


    It wasn''t ufortable and surely much better than sleeping on some animal skins. I asked "Did you make all of this?" to which she said "Of course, who else would have done it?". I thought about it and said "Maybe your partner or something?". She replied nonchntly "I have nothing of that sort. Besides, I was still very young when I left my hometown. I have only couple of friends and never had a partner". I asked "Why not? Shouldn''t your people strive to reproduce?".


    She said "I told you, it''s not simple for us to do so. I do have a few ingredients needed to create a body but I stillck many of them. I won''t choose any random male either. We are just like you humans. We also have our own likes and dislikes. That is why our parents strive to create the best bodies for us, so that we can find a partner".


    ''Heh, if only humans could have that kind of possibility. If our parents could choose a look for us, no one would be ugly. Although, if everyone was handsome or pretty, wouldn''t that create more problems? How do you choose from a perfect looking species, by character? That can be faked, I know something about that first hand'' I thought. I asked her "If every parent strives to make the best looking body, don''t you all look handsome or beautiful?".


    She said "Of course not. Our parents can''t choose the specific look of our bodies. They can only experiment with features such as tall, thin, fat or heavy and light. No one knows the oue when the body is created so there are some rather interesting guys and girls walking around. I tell you, if you saw them, you wouldugh to your death!" and sheughed for a while.


    ''Oh, so they can''t choose how their kids look like. This would be too broken'' I thought and said "Stealth is not the only skill you know, right? I already figured out how to achieve what you are doing. Tell me something about your other skills". She thought for a while and said "You will not be able to copy anything else, those are the traits that came with my body. I don''t need to use my ability in order to use them. I can of course add my ability to those skills to make them stronger".


    I was confused and said "Can we rify some things first. What do you mean ability?". She responded "Oh, right. It is the power I showed you, I call that ability, you call it power". I said "Does it have like an official name? Did you call it something or a name that was given to it when you recieved your body? Stuff like that". She thought for a while and said "No, I just call it ability". ''Heeeh¡­ I mean, whenever I learn something or discover something, I always give it a name. This way, I can memorize stuff better by using distinctive names. That is how humans do stuff. If every book was called "The book" then who would recognise which one is which?'' I thought.


    I said "Why don''t you name it then?". She looked at me and said "I don''t know how". ''This is hopeless¡­ I¡­ I can''t help her'' I thought and said "Alright, let''s just agree to call it an ability and refer to it only when you mean the stuff that allows you to hide well or create that smoky ball in the palm of your hand". She nodded her head and said "I can do that". ''Good, at least there will be less confusion when she exins things'' I thought and said "So we have that thing figured out. Now, you said you don''t have skills but to me they are skills even if you were born with them. Can we use that word instead of traits or whatever you call that? It will be much easier for me to understand and for you to convey your meaning". She nodded her head in agreement.


    ''Good, now we have somemonnguage'' I thought then asked "Can you tell me about your other skills? Even if I can''t copy them, I may get some ideas on how to create my own". She didn''t seem to mind and said "That is alright, I don''t mind telling them to you but promise me that you will never speak about any of those things with others!". I said "I wouldn''t anyway, I can promise you that no problem".


    She nodded and said "Which skill would you like to know about?". I thought about it and said "How about the one you changed into other people? Did you use your ability to supplement it back then?". She responded immediately "Oh this one? It is an illusion type skill that I was sort of born with. The body provides that effect and I don''t have to use it. It is active at all times. You can see through it right now because I don''t use my ability to go with it and your mind is not weak. In the forest back then, I used my ability together with that skill".


    I thought about it and said "I know you said previously that you have no control over who the person looking at you sees. So it''s due to the viewer and what he or she wants to see. I get that but why did I see 3 different people or rather 2 people and 1 animal?". She answered "I don''t know. I don''t really use that skill. It''s active at all times and those who can''t see through it will not see my true body but what they see, I do not know. My guess would be that you wanted to see all those 3 people or as you put it, 2 people and 1 animal. Those were the people or creatures that you thought about the most, that is why you saw them".


    ''It makes sense but even she doesn''t know why I saw 3 different images. Dina was there as well. I didn''t know her a lot but she was a good girl. Naive but still nice. It probably is because I killed her with my own hands. I still remember that very clearly. It must''ve been in the back of my mind when I thought about Shelly and Nick'' I thought and then said "I have a skill that can copy an aura of people but it isn''t the same as what you can do". She looked at me in disbelief and said "You can copy auras of other humans?". ''Right, I forgot. To me an aura is just the intent and everyone has one. Whenever it is a miner or a very strong hunter. All of them have some sort of air about them. That is what I call aura. She probably mistook it for the stuff like Domineering Aura. I can''t copy stuff like this'' I though and exined that to her.


    After a while, she finally understood what I meant and said "Oh! So you can copy something like a mood of a person and use that to blend in. You can''t copy auras". I said to her "At that time, I called it an aura and still think of it as such. Not every aura is strong and used for fighting. Common people have auras as well or mood as you called it. In the future, I will call it Mood Copy instead of Aura Copy skills. This will prevent further confusion". She nodded and said "Do you want to know anything else about that skill?".


    I looked at her and said "Is there anything else you could tell me? I mean, it''s thanks to the body you have so I can''t really see a way to change my shape into another one". She responded "Yep, I can''t really tell you much more about it. I told you, I will not be able to teach you anything else besides the stealth skill, as you like to call it".


    I said "No, there is one more thing". She seemed surprised and asked "What is it?" to which I said "Bow". She was confused and responded "Why should I bow?". I said "Archery. Teach me archery. You must be much better than I''m at it". She seemed to realise now and said "Oooh! Right, you did mention that you learned how to use a bow. I think I can teach you something about that. I''ve been using it for a long time now".


    She then stretched a bit and said "But I will do that tomorrow. It''ste, go to sleep". I was alreadyying in my bed and I was tired as well. I said "You are just going to look at me like this? Until I fall asleep?" to which she responded "Yep. Why do you ask? Is this wrong?". ''Well... Ahhh whatever'' I thought and said "Suit yourself". I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

 Chapter 143

    Chapter 143


    I tried to fall asleep for a while but her staring at me was annoying. It felt like an animal waiting for some kind of chunky size of its favourite meat. I managed to get some sleep but didn''t dream of the Dark Traveller. It was because I didn''t train my body or skills that day.


    When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I saw was Laly''s face. I asked "What are you doing exactly?". She said quite brashly "Where is your aura? You didn''t have it during the whole night! What happened to it?". I replied "First, get off my face and second, I didn''t dream of anythingst night. How could I have that aura?". She looked at me for a while and asked "What do you mean?".


    I replied "If I don''t have my dreams, I will not have that aura". She got worked up and said "But it never happened before. Why don''t you have a dream? We agreed that I will use your aura and you will learn about my skills in exchange. Don''t try to swindle me!". ''Yep, she is crazy'' I thought and said "Calm down. There is a reason for that. Sit down and I will exin. Stop acting crazy".


    She quickly made her way to the only chair in the room and sat there. She looked like a loyal dog waiting for her owner''s return. I said "If I don''t train my body or my skills, I don''t have dreams. It''s a side effect of having that aura, I guess. It never happened before because I always trained! Yesterday, we ran the whole way, I wasn''t training anything but running. Today, I will train and at night, the aura will return".


    She seemed to calm down and said "Well then, why don''t you go train now?". ''... I would anyway. You don''t have to tell me that'' I thought and got off from the bed. I was about to walk out when I remembered something and said "Right, I have a specific timeframe for my training. So could you teach me about archery in the afternoon? I also need a bow and arrows". She replied "Sure, any time you like. It''s not like I have things to do. As for the bow, I have an old one that I don''t use anymore so you can have that. Don''t worry about arrows either, I can make some for you."


    "Great, I''m off to train then" I said and went outside the cave. I started my day from the 3rd modified diagram. I was able tost a bit longer now but the improvements were very tiny. Stillsting for 4.5 minutes was arge improvement nevertheless. After my initial warm up, I ate my breakfast and then prepared to practice my Natural Path skill. Before I could do that, I had to find another destination, then figure out all possible routes to that destination and so on. I think you know the drill.


    It was afternoon when I finished with my routes. I found an optimal route that took me 23 minutes to run. I chose a destination further away, just to make it more interesting. My training with Laly would soon start, I ate my dinner before starting any other training. With all that done, I called out "Laly! Are you ready?". After a while, I heard her response "Yep, I will be there in a minute!".


    Laly arrived shortly after she responded and handed me a bow. "This is for you. It is an old bow that I used long time ago but it is still very good. It also has very good bow string so you don''t have to worry about breaking it" she said and I took the bow. The bow was quite light. I expected it to be much more heavy, considering that I didn''t have to worry about breaking it. ''I''m not that knowledgeable about bows. I can shoot one but I don''t know what this wood is. I used to work with wood but it wasmon type, stuff like oak or chestnut'' I thought.


    The bow itself was from some kind of red wood that was very light. The string was very tight but at the same time stretchy. I pulled on the string to see how much strength I needed in order to use it. I found out that not a lot of my strength was needed in order to open the bow fully. ''She said that I can''t break this bow¡­ Sounds like a challenge to me'' I thought and used my maximum strength to pull the bowstring.


    I could hear some creaks and Laly shouted immediately "Stop!". I stopped pulling and asked her "I will not be able to destroy it huh?". She responded "I forgot you were this strong physically. Don''t use your full strength. Half of your strength is the maximum you should go with!". I nodded my head in agreement. I didn''t want to break a perfectly useful bow but I also wanted to prove a point.


    Laly startedying out her understanding of archery. "Your posture is quite important in the beginning. I''m already in advanced stages, I can run and shoot urately but you can''t! So don''t try that!". ''Damn, she was quick to figure me out'' I thought and replied "Alright, I will learn from the beginning as you say". Laly nodded her head and continued "I will show you the basic posture so just copy me. If you do something wrong, I will point it out". I nodded my head and looked at Laly.


    She stood straight with her legs apart, about half a metre of distance. Her upper body was twisted to the side a bit while her bow and arrow were prominently disyed in front of her. I tried to position myself in the exact posture and awaited herments. Laly said "You are taller than me so keep your legs a bit further apart. You are also twisting your upper body too much. Hold the bow a bit higher and hold your arrow dead straight".


    I adjusted all of the things she pointed out and asked "Is this alright now?" to which she responded "usible. Now draw your bow and release the arrow. Don''t make any unnecessary movements! Just draw and release. Aim at the tree over there" and she pointed at a tree that was about 100 metres away. I did as she said and pulled the string of the bow then released it while aiming at the tree. "Swoosh!".


    "You missed. Try again". I drew another arrow and tried again but this time, I corrected my aim a bit. "Swoosh!". The arrow barely scraped the tree but it was improvement nevertheless. Laly said "You have to concentrate more. Take under consideration things like wind and the distance. Don''t assume that if you use more strength, the arrow will hit your target". I tried again but this time, I focused more and felt for any wind that could blow my arrow off the path. After a while "Swoosh!... Puk!" The arrow embedded itself into the tree.


    I was a bit off the centre of the tree but it was a hit nevertheless. Laly said "just continue like this and I will correct any errors you make. You need to get used to the basic stance as well as shooting in that stance. With time, I will introduce more advanced methods of archery". I nodded my head and continued shooting.

 Chapter 144

    Chapter 144


    I was shooting the arrows for the better part of the afternoon. Laly said the more I practice shooting the better I will get. Of course that was true with anything I did but I guessed that she wanted to motivate me. "You can stop for now. You were at it for couple of hours now. Get some rest. You will not learn the archery in one day" Laly said.


    I stopped my practice and prepared to make somete dinner for myself. When the meat was roasting, I asked "I never saw you eat. What do Eterians eat actually?". She responded "The same stuff as you humans do? I mean, we are not that much different. Why do you keep treating me like some sort of rare creature?".


    ''... She is kind of right about that'' I thought and decided to change topics. "Do you want some meat?". She shook her head again and said "No, I''m not hungry". I was baffled, ''I never saw her eat so why wouldn''t she be hungry?'' I asked myself. I ate my dinner and decided that it was enough archery training for one day. Instead, I thought I could try and start modifying the 4th diagram from the Strength Manual. ''It''s always good to have it already modified. When I need it, I will have it straight away. Besides, I don''t know how long it will take me to modify it'' I thought.


    I drew the 4th diagram on the ground using a stick and stared at it for a while. I was trying to find out anything that could be changed and improved. I also knew that I would have to add an intent or aura at the end. I wasn''t bothered by that at that moment. I would have to first modify it before I could try and add aura to it.


    Laly that was sitting next to me looked at the drawing as well and asked "What is this?". I responded to her "This? A diagram that allows me to train my strength. The pose I do in the morning is the 3rd diagram that I modified. This one is 4th and I''m trying to modify it now". She looked at me and then at the diagram while saying "So that is the reason why you always did those stupid poses every morning. I always wondered why would you do it. I didn''t want to be rude so I didn''t ask. There are loads of people who have some strange habits".


    ''Anyone would think that probably. I mean, those poses do look weird'' I thought. Laly then said "But if you have the pose already, why are you modifying it? Just use this one" to which I responded "I can''t, it''s not right for me. These diagrams were much weaker and not suitable for me before I modified them. This is the 4th diagram and the difficulty to modify them rises every time I try to modify the next diagram. From what I can see already, my medical knowledge is too shallow to modify it. I don''t see much wrong with it and even if I change some small bits, this will not work".


    Laly stared at the diagram for a while and said "Maybe I can help you". I was not only confused but shocked. ''She can help me? HOW!?'' I asked myself. I looked at her and said "How? Do you know a lot about the Art of Medicine?" to which she responded "No but I do have some books that are quite advanced. I don''t understand many things from them but maybe you will be able to".


    ''BOOKS!'' I screamed in my mind. "Give them to me!" I said in a hurry as if she was about to burn them to ashes. She shook her hand a books started appearing. This was another shocking moment. It looked like she magically pulled out those books from thin air. I asked "How did you do that?" to which she said "What? Oooh! You mean how I retrieved those books? I have the same thing as you do but a bit or rather a lot better. You have those bags of yours that are quitemon with humans but I have something else" and she showed me her wrist.


    "This is my bracelet. It has the same functions as your bag but this thing is much better. Not only it reduces the weight of the things inside, it can also fit much more than those crappy bags" she said. ''This is amazing!'' I thought and asked "Did you make it? How is this made? What are the materials? Where can I find them?". I was like a small child who was shown something amazing and mystical, that was why I showered her with questions.


    She said "Calm down. No I didn''t make it, I received it from my parents. They gave it to me as a present. I don''t know how it''s made, I''m not very knowledgeable about such materials. I know that my parents paid a huge price for someone to create it for them". I was a bit disappointed because if she knew how to make those things, I could learn that and make my own in the future. Still, she had some medical books, I took whatever I was given.


    There were a total of 3 books. Their titles "Corporeal Structure", "Bone Treatment Log" and "Nerves and Pressure Points". As I read the titles, I got more excited. The 1st book probably described stuff about our physical bodies which would be useful to me as I probably didn''t know everything. Nick taught me a lot about the human body but I''m sure he didn''t or couldn''t teach me everything. ''I might find some very useful things inside that book'' I thought.


    The 2nd title was a bit mysterious. A log would suggest some kind of entries in order of dates. ''If my guess is correct, this books should contain a specific date and time with a cause and method of treating that cause for the patient. All of this will probably refer to the bones in human''s body'' I thought. The 3rd title was something I studied in the past with Nick but at a very basic level. ''Nick only showed me couple of pressure points and exined some stuff about our nervous system but this book might hold a lot more'' I thought.


    With those books in my hands, I was a happy man. I looked at Laly and asked "How did you get those books?" to which she replied brazenly "I killed a guy who had them. It was quite a few years ago. Do you find them useful?". I said "Of course! These will be very useful to me. I will give them back to you once I''m done with them". She replied "No need, you can keep them. I have no use for them anyway and they were only ttering up my bracelet".


    She didn''t have to ask twice. ''If she doesn''t want them back, I will take them dly'' I thought and took my books back to the cave. I was very eager to start reading them before I went to sleep. Laly followed me inside the cave and sat on the chair in my room as usual. I didn''t think much of it as my focus was fully on the books. I chose the "Corporeal Structure" book and opened it on the first page.

 Chapter 145

    Chapter 145


    The first page contain an introduction to the book. It described what the book is exactly about and what content was avable inside. The book had a few chapters, those were separating different human structures such as a chapter on skin, bones, muscles but also organs such as heart, eyes and brain. It was quite detailed from what I could see in the beginning. I started reading the first chapter which was a general information about human body.


    The book was very interesting to me and I found it very useful. There were some things that I didn''t know about already. Stuff like the amount of blood humans possessed in their bodies. There were also different stages of blood loss. The book talked about 4 of such stages. The 1st and initial stage of blood loss is when a human loses up to 15% of their blood. At this stage, no real issues will ur in the human body but they will feel a bit weak.


    If a human loses 15 - 30% of their blood, they will enter the 2nd stage of the blood loss. At this stage, the skin pales and gets colder while the heart beat increases. The weakness of the body bes more apparent and supplements are needed to restore the blood.


    If a human loses between 30 to 40% of their blood, they will enter 3rd stage of blood loss. The blood pressure drops drastically at that point. The heart beat increases even more and the human would enter a "shock" stage where there is not enough blood to support the body properly. At this stage, supplements must be given to the human immediately.


    If a human loses more than 40% of their blood, they would enter the 4th stage. ''This book simply states "Death" at that point'' I thought as I read through it. The 4th stage was death. If a human loses more than 40% of their blood, the organs will cease to operate. ''That means, I can lose up to 40% of my blood but not more. A typical human body ording to the book possesses about 5 litres of blood. I don''t know if skinnier people have less blood and fatter people more but I can assume the 5 litre as my standard. If I took away 40% of that, then I would be left with 3 litres of blood. That is the minimum I need in order to survive. I can lose 2 litres of blood but the more blood I lose, the weaker I be. I have to remember about that'' I thought and continued reading.


    The book had some of those tiny details that would really help me out. Even basic stuff such as the amount of blood humans possess and how much we can lose, was helpful due to the fact I fight a lot. I read the whole chapter that introduced me to the human body in more details and decided to have a rest. I was tired and it was probablyte already. I ced the book down and looked at the chair which was always upied by Laly.


    "This is very useful book, it contains a lot of things that will help me improve my Art of Medicine even further. Thanks again, it means a lot to me". Laly sitting on the chair smiled and said "It''s just a book that I wouldn''t use anyway. If it''s of any use to you, that''s great. It''ste already, you should go to sleep". I nodded and said "I know, I can tell that you are worried about the aura but it will be there".


    She didn''tment on that, Iid down and closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, I was in the dream world. ''As I said to her, I just have to train and the dreams will return'' I thought and listened to the Dark Traveller speaking away. The dream went in cycles as usual and when the 20th cycle finished, I woke up in my bed.


    Laly was sitting next to the bed and seemed asleep. I didn''t disturb her and went out to start my day. In the afternoon, Laly came over to again instruct me on the archery and even praised me that I made huge improvements. I guessed that it was all thanks to my previous training with throwing weapons. I already trained my aim very well, I just had to get adjusted to the basic archery stance as well as the bow itself.


    I practiced like this for the rest of the afternoon and in the evening, I continued reading the Corporeal Structure book. Days went like this and a week passed. My basic archery stance was perfected and Laly introduced me to new technique of being even more precise. She said "Your aim is very good and your stance is perfected but we always used a target fairly close to us. A 100 metre target is not that difficult to hit. With this bow, you should be able to hit a target that is about 300 metres away". I was a bit stunned '' I thought 100 metres is quite far away but to hit something 300 metres away?'' I thought and decided to ask for a demonstration. "Can you show me how you do it?" to which Laly said "Of course" and took out her bow.


    I stopped her and said "No, use this bow" and handed her my bow. She looked at me and smiled "Do you seriously think that changing bows will somehow make me fail? Then look" she said and notched an arrow on the bow. Before she released the arrow, she asked "Do you see that tree with a broken trunk? It''s about 300 metres from here in that direction". She showed me the tree she was talking about and indeed, it was about 300 metres away from where we stood. I said "Yep, I see it".


    She didn''t respond this time but simply smiled and released her arrow. "Swooosh!!" the arrow flew through the air and hit the target dead straight in the center. "Very Nice!" I eximed. Laly gave the bow back to me and said "If you simply try to shoot an arrow and aim at that tree, you will most probably fail. You have to learn how to read weather conditions further away. The wind here can blow left but at the target it can blow right. You have to take note of those things and adjust to them. This way, you will be able to hit a target that is 300 metres away every time".


    I thought about it for a while and came up with something. I said "I think I know how to do it". Laly onlyughed at myment and didn''t believe me but I didn''t care. ''I trained the Natural Path skill, this involved perceiving the changes in nature. If I can perceive the changes that ur 300 metres away, I will be able to adjust to them and hit the target'' I thought. She didn''t give me a specific solution to that problem but she didn''t have to, I already learned one.


    I retrieved an arrow and notched it onto the bow. I took my aim and then looked at the nature along the path my arrow would take. This was the same as with the Natural Path skill but instead of me doing all the stuff, the arrow would do it. I aimed like this for a while and then "Swooosh!" the arrow flew through the air and barely missed the target.


    Laly was shocked at first but then said "That was probably just luck, try again!". I didn''t mind herment, it was something new for me as well. Implementing a skill such a Natural Path to something like archery was probably never done before. I took out another arrow and notched it onto the bow.


    I took aim again and tried to perceive the changes happening on the path that my arrow would take. After a while, I released the arrow "Swooosh!" another miss but again a close miss. Laly didn''t want to believe that as well and said "Again!". I could feel she was excited as well as shocked about that disy.


    I repeated those shots and finally on the 7th try, I managed to hit the tree. It was off center but a hit was a hit. I said "I have this figured out, I just need some time to get used to it". She couldn''t believe it herself and blurted out "Again". I practiced like this for a few hours and by that time, I had about 70% uracy. Out of 10 arrows I shot, 7 would hit the tree and a few would be very close to the center.


    Laly was stunned and asked "How did you do it? I remember that I had to practice for a very long time before I could even get to the same uracy as you". I said "It''s because I used one of my skills to help me with that. You remember me running around for days on end? That is the skill I used in order to hit my target. Although it seems incredible that I was able to do so very fast, you need to take under consideration the amount of time I spent on my Natural Path skill".


    Laly seemed to calm down and said "Oh! So that''s how it was. I thought you are some kind of born archer", I replied "Hey! Incorporating that skill to the archery was not easy! Learning it was even more difficult, so cut me some ck". She smiled and said "We will continue tomorrow. When you are able to hit the tree every time, we will move on to the next technique". I nodded my head and we went back to the cave.

 Chapter 146

    Chapter 146


    Back in the cave, I sat down on my bed and started to read the Corporeal Structure again. I continued to the 2nd chapter of the book that described functions as well as purposes of human skin. Engrossed like this in my book, I again forgot about the time. I heard "You should rest, you know? It''s quitete already". I woke up from my reading and looked at Laly that sat on the chair. I said "Right, when I start reading something interesting, I forget what time it is. I will continue tomorrow I guess. Goodnight".


    Laly responded with "Goodnight" as well and Iid down to get some sleep. The dream of the Dark Traveller was disyed in front of my eyes again. ''Let''s see what you got there'' I thought and listened attentively. The dreamsted for 20 cycles and I woke up in the morning.


    Laly was sitting next to me in some kind of sleep mode. I didn''t disturb her this time either and simply went outside to start my day. When I went outside the cave, I noticedrge amounts of snow everywhere. I thought ''This should provide some extra difficulty for my Natural Path skill. I need to learn how not to leave prints in the snow. I don''t know if this is possible but I wouldn''t be me, if I didn''t try!''.


    With the 3rd modified diagram practice and breakfast taken care of, I went to the location that I used in order to train my Natural Path skill and started running. I tried to be as light footed as I could be but I still left prints. ''This is not going to work, maybe speed will allow me to pass this area without leaving prints?'' I thought and decided to try it out.


    I leaned forwards a bit and released all the strength from my legs. "Booom!" the snow got pushed in all directions as I sped through the route. I quickly noticed that the disturbance created from such force was even more apparent than my foot prints. ''This is also not the way to go'' I thought. Then I remembered something ''Wait! The exercise that the Dark Traveller did in my dream. The one to find the ss like tiles and traverse the path. Later on in that exercise, the tiles would appear and disappear. I had very little time to stay on one tile and had to choose another one fast. What if I could implement these quick and erratic movements from Illusionary Path into my Natural Path skill. I can''t traverse the path in my dreams yet but it seems that the idea ofbining them both is just too perfect!''.


    I decided to give it a try. I was after quick changes and erratic movements that would allow me to step on the snow but at the same time, leave no prints. I started the practice right away and imagined myself traversing the Illusionary Path in my dreams.


    After a while of trying, I had no improvements whatsoever. I did that for about 40 minutes but still left the same size footprints in the snow. ''I know this is a correct idea, I''m justcking in skills that''s all. The more I do it, the better. I should practice like this from now on'' I thought. My practice went like this until afternoon when I had my lunch. After the break, I started my archery practice. I didn''t wait for Laly because she already said that I have to master that technique first. Therefore, there was no point for her to stand next to me and instruct me as I already knew what to do.


    I practiced my long distance shooting for the rest of the day and then had my dinner. When I returned to the cave, I found that Laly was not inside my room. That change was weing and I simplyid on my bed to read a book. After a few hours of reading, I stopped and noticed that Laly was still not in her usual ce. That is, the chair that stood in front of my bed. I decided to investigate and got up.


    I went outside my room and tried to go into the room on the left. It was closed. I called out "Are you there?" but heard no response. I tried again "Are you ok? Do you need help?" but there was no response either. I decided to break down the doors and go inside. As I was about to kick the doors open, I heard a voice next to me "What are you trying to pull here?". I stopped myself and looked to my right. Laly was there, standing with an unhappy expression, I should add.


    I said "You didn''t respond when I called you and you weren''t in the usual ce when I was about to go to sleep. So I thought you were inside there and something might''ve happened to you". She calmed down a bit and said "You don''t have to worry about me. Just go to sleep and don''t try to break my doors again!". I shrugged my shoulders and left. ''Whatever is in that room, must mean a lot to her but it''s not like I wanted to enter there just to see what''s inside. She is right, I will not worry about her anymore. She has her own life and I have my own. We are helping each other because we are both benefiting from that'' I thought.


    Iid down in my bed and closed my eyes. I decided to stop being nice and chatty. ''She gets to use my aura and I get to learn about her skills. I will just treat it as pure transaction''. I fell asleep and woke up in the dream where the Dark Traveller speaks to me in Ancient Language.


    In the morning of the next day, I woke up and didn''t care if Laly was asleep or whatever she was doing. I simply walked out and started my day. After the usual things in the morning, I started to practice my new and improved Natural Path skill. I had no progress still but there was a saying "A vige was not built in one day". I was not discouraged, knew how difficult it will be before I started.


    I ate my lunch in the early afternoon, then started my archery practice. I was getting very close to the 100% uracy. I was only off by 20% at this stage. ''A bit more training and I should be able to hit 100% uracy in about 2 weeks time. I''m getting better each day'' I thought to myself.


    With my archery practice done in the evening, I retired for the night and read the Corporeal Structure book. I was already at the 3rd chapter "Muscles". In that chapter, the book described something I felt familiar with. There wasn''t much information on it but the book stated that there was a legend in the past. ording to that legend, a certain type of muscles existed that were more condensed and contained greater burst powerpared to the normal muscles.


    This would mean that, if someone reced their normal muscles with those specific ones but not change the volume, they could contain double if not triple the amount of strength and burst power. ''It''s stated as legend but what if it was true? I mean, I''m this strong yet my muscles are pretty much the same. They look more defined and a bit bigger but I don''t look any different from a typical viger, besides the fact I''ve very skinny. What if I have those muscles and therefore I''m able to reach such strength. This would make sense as well'' I thought.


    ''But then, if I have these muscles then other people should have them as well. I can''t be the only one to have them, right? Nick said that there were many people much stronger than him. This would mean they also have such muscles'' I thought to myself. There was nothing else about that type of muscles but instead, I found some more general information regarding muscles. Some, I already knew and some, I learned from that book. ''In overall, this book is very useful, I already learned a lot and that is only the 3rd chapter. I still have loads to read'' I thought and continued my reading until it was time for me to go to sleep.

 Chapter 147

    Chapter 147


    My days looked monotone again. I woke up, practiced and ate then read a book before going to sleep. Like this, almost two weeks passed. I made some improvements with my improved Natural Path skill. The prints that I was leaving were not as deep anymore. This suggested to me that my initial thoughts were correct. Everyday, I strived to get better at it and implement the theory behind Illusionary Path into Natural Path skill.


    The rtions with Laly dropped a bit. She came couple of times to chat but I simply said "I''m busy". She stopped bothering me when I was training and only came in the evening. I also managed to master the Long Range Shooting skill. I decided to call it that way, when I mastered it. I was now able to choose any target that was about 300 metres away and hit it every time. Although not all arrows were hitting the dead center of my target, about half of them did.


    With my archery practicepleted, I went to Laly and said "I''m done with that technique. I have 100% uracy now. What is the next technique in line?". She looked at me a bit coldly and said "I will show you" and we went outside. She took out her bow and said "Next technique is Rapid Shooting. Watch me do it". She pulled out one arrow, notched it onto the bow and shot it almost immediately. She immediately pulled out the next arrow, shot it and so on, until 5 arrows flew through the air and hit the same target. She said "This is Rapid Shooting. When you master it,e back to me" and she left.


    I didn''t care if she was happy with my approach to her or not. She showed me what was next and I didn''t need her for anything else. I chose a target that was about 100 metres away. I wanted to start easy in the beginning but I also nned toter increase that range to 300 metres. ''If I''m able to hit my target at 300 metres, 5 times in a row every time, this should be considered as mastering that technique'' I thought to myself and started my practice.


    This technique was actually much harder than shooting a single arrow. I had much less time to think about stuff and therefore my aim was all over the ce. I thought ''I should do it slowly first. When I adjust myself to multiple shots, I can always increase the speed of shooting. This way, I will progress much more easilypared to doing everything at once''.


    With that in mind, I started shooting again. I did it slowly as I wanted to get the feeling for it first. With the archery practice taking all of my afternoon and a bit of evening, I ate myte dinner and returned back to the cave. I was too tired to read that day, I simply went to sleep. In the morning, I resumed my practice again.


    The daily grinding resumed and another two weeks passed. I got used to the Rapid Shooting and was now able to shoot 5 arrows continuously at the target located 100 metres away. I decided it was time to move on and practice on a target further away. The next step for me was, 200 metres. I tried shooting continuously but because I had little time for predicting the natural behaviour at my target, most of my shots missed again.


    ''I have to slow down again. With some more grinding at slower speeds, I should be able to have a 100% uracy'' I thought and continued my practice. In the evening, I read the Corporeal Structure book. I was already at the 5th chapter. The 4th chapter was about Bones. Mostly about bone structure and possible defects. The book also exined the weakest and strongest bones in human body. The leg bones are some of the toughest bones in human body for example. These bones are supporting the whole weight of a human and are very durable. On the other hand, the spine is one of the weakest bone structures. If the spine is damaged, it can leave the human paralysed or even lead to death.


    The 5th chapter of the book was about Vital Organs. This included heart, liver and lungs. It described their anatomy as well as possible defects. The chapter also exined different methods of checking the state of the organs in a human body. Those ranged from the colour of the urine to frequent coughs and asional pains. ''The information in this book seems really basic but at the same time, I didn''t know about half of these things'' I thought after finishing the 5th chapter of the Corporeal Structure book.


    Iid down in my bedfortably and closed my eyes. Laly was no longer in my room. She would be there when I wake up in the morning but she didn''t visit me anymore. I had nothing against that either. It was creepy and annoying that someone watched me as I go to sleep. Past those couple of weeks, I''ve been also able to trante a few more words from the Dark Traveller''s Ancient Language.


    The words Ra, Fhin, Trevas and Proh could possibly be tranted as "Yes", "Now", "To travel or Travel to" and "From" respectively. I knew that Trevas must''ve meant "Travel" as I already figured out the word Trevak, which meant "Traveller". The other words were harder to figure out but I believed them to be tranted correctly.


    There were still loads of untranted words but I wasn''t about to give up. ''With time, I will be able topletely trante whatever that Dark Traveller is talking about and then who knows, maybe I will be able to figure some stuff about the figure from my dreams'' I thought and fell asleep.


    When I woke up the next morning, I saw something unusual. Laly was not there in her sleeping state, after what I assumed a night of absorbing my aura. ''Well, not my problem. She said not to worry and I shall do just that'' I thought and went outside the cave. The 3rd modified diagram I practiced every morning also improved my body a bit past those couple of weeks. I was now able tost 5 minutes while in the pose.


    Although I was happy, I was also a bit stunned when I reached the 5 minutes mark. ''It seems I hit some kind of wall and I''m not able to progress even one second past the 5 minutes mark. This is weird, it never happened before'' I thought. My thoughts then continued ''Normally, I could strain my body tost that 1 second but when I reach that 5 minutes mark, my whole strength copses pretty much. Does that mean I don''t have enough strength to continue?''.


    Mecking strength to continue was possible but I decided to train that diagram every morning anyway. ''I may not be able to progress past the 5 minutes mark but it still helps develop my hidden muscles due to the pressure the pose creates'' I thought and started my practice.


    With that and my breakfast out of the way. I focused on my skills next. My Natural Path skill was also improving. I managed to leave more shallow footprints in the snow. The footprints were still visible but the depth was at least half of that when I started. ''This improvement is not bad at all. With some more training, I should be able to leave no footprints at all or very faint ones'' I thought.


    There was one problem though. Although this method would allow me to leave no footprints, I wasn''t stealthy due to those erratic and quick movements. ''When I master this part of the skill, I should work on the stealth part. If I''m able to aplish that, I think that my Art of Stealth will be the most advanced art I possess'' I thought and continued running like crazy.

 Chapter 148

    Chapter 148


    With my practice of Natural Path skill done in the afternoon, I ate my lunch and prepared for the archery practice. Before I could start the practice, I heard some noisesing from the forest. I looked into the distance and noticed Laly running away from something.


    I shouted "What is going on?" to which she shouted back "Run!". I had no clue what was happening but I wasn''t going to sit there waiting to find out. I chose to run in the opposite direction of the cave, then sprinted through the forest. I tried to utilise my Natural Path skill as much as I could. As I was running, noises of fighting revibrated behind me. I looked back and noticed Laly shooting from her bow like crazy at something.


    I turned my head forwards and ran at my full speed, disregarding the amount of stamina I had. I shouted back at the top of my lungs "WHAT KIND OF DISASTER DID YOU BRING UPON ME?!", Laly responded with silence. ''I guess she is too focused on fighting right now'' I thought. After a while of running, I turned back again. I saw Laly shooting and trying to hide her presence but then I caught a glips of that mysterious something chasing us. "It''s a human!" I eximed loudly. I asked by shouting again "What the fuck did you do to her, that she is so pissed!?".


    This time Laly responded and shouted back "Nothing! She figured out that I''m Eterian! She wants to kill me!". ''Oh for fuck sake!'' I thought and stopped running. I could either try to stop the fight, Or try to kill either of them. From the looks of it, both were too strong for me to tackle by myself. I could choose a side but if I chose wrong, the consequences could be grave. I knew that if I sided with Laly, she wouldn''t kill me after the fight, of course provided we won. The problem was winning. Laly was weaker than her opponent, this much was apparent. She was backing away all the time.


    When Laly noticed that I stopped, she shouted "What are you doing?! RUN!". I responded "Run, I will try to talk with her!". She had disbelief written on her face but didn''t try to dissuade me from my decision. As Laly ran past me, I started running as well and shouted "Whoever you are, let''s talk! Why are you chasing her like that?! She did nothing to you! Let''s talk peacefully!" but instead of some kind of argument, I saw a sh of what seemed to be a sword.


    ''Shit!'' I thought as I jumped forwards with all my strength. "Bam!" the attack hit the ground. In the ce I''ve been just a second ago, was arge sword mark carved deep into the ground. I shouted again "Whoa! Wait a minute, I did nothing to you either. I''m as human as you are! Let''s talk!" but the response was the same. I started running again and thought ''I didn''t think that finding someone more crazy than Laly was possible. I guess I was wrong''. The attacks were now focused on me, which was not ideal but who could Iin to?


    I shouted towards Laly "She is crazy! She is now attacking me as well! Shoot, while I try to distract her!". Laly nodded her head and I prepared to throw some stuff at her. I was low on daggers and I didn''t want to waste them so I started by throwing the arrows I had. I opted for throwing because shooting them from a bow would take too long and my Art of Hidden Weapons was much more advanced than my archery.


    I threw dozens of arrows at the woman but she evaded most of them. Those she didn''t evade, were sliced apart by her sword. When the woman saw my skills, she paused for a second and then continued. While attacking and avoiding all the attacks from both me and Laly, she said "You should''ve not show me those skills. That way, I would let you live. Provided that you stopped interfering of course. Now, you will die as well".


    ''Bollocks! She would''ve killed me anyway! Who the hell did that Laly offend, for her to be so strong?'' I thought and ran. I asked Laly "Don''t you have something we can use against her? I''m no match for her! Besides, all her attacks are now concentrated on me. How can you still not kill her!?". Laly was displeased as well and said "Shut up, I''m doing what I can!" then shot more arrows.


    As I was escaping, I tried to figure out how to either kill that woman or get away from her. ''Going north is one option but north is too far away. With my strength, I will not be able to reach that far. What can we do¡­.'' the thoughts ran through my mind but nothing seemed to work. ''If I had poison on me, I could at least try that but damn, all my equipment used for making medicine and poison was lost. I have no way of creating one anyway'' I thought.


    The attacks were getting more savage. I received some minor wounds from the woman''s sword, even though I basically evaded her attacks. I shouted towards Laly "Seriously, we will die here! If this continues, she will kill me first then go after you anyway! I have nothing¡­ NOTHING! If I had poison, I could at least try that!".


    Laly seemed to pause for a second then continued. ''Hmmm? Did she figure something out?''. I ran at my full speed and Laly was a bit further in front of me but I was catching up to her. ''She is slowing down for some reason''. I soon caught up to Laly and she whispered to me "I have a poison that may work but". I asked in whisper as well "but what?". She said "The poison is a close proximity type. That means it will affect both the target and the one who uses it".


    I already knew where this was going so I said "Why don''t you use it yourself? I will die together with her while you get to keep your life. That is a rubbish deal, I must say". Laly responded "I have the antidote but it has to be given at a specific timeframe, otherwise it will not work". I responded "Bullshit! Then tell me when I should give you the antidote and I will do so. Why are you pushing this onto me? I want to live as well or at least die for my own sake, not saving you alone!".


    She said something that sounded ridiculous next "If you don''t do it then both of us die". I said "If I do it then I die anyway! How should I know that you will actually give me the antidote or that you even have it!". She went silent for a while then said "I can''t do it. If I use this poison, I''m dead even if the antidote is given to me. This has lesser effects on humans but it''s strong either way. You will survive and I will die even if I''m given the antidote. I''m 100% sure of that".


    I asked "Then why do you even have it? And an antidote as well? Something is fishy about this. I don''t believe you!". She snorted and said "Then suit yourself" and shot at me. "You bastard!" I eximed. I wasn''t prepared for her to attack me all of a sudden. She shot two arrows into my leg, this made me slow down a lot. The sword woman chasing us caught up quickly and shed her sword at me.


    I evaded that attack somehow but still got another cut on my arm. ''Why am I so unlucky?'' I thought as I tried to run as fast as I could. The woman behind me snorted and said "That is why I wanted to kill her in the first ce. These things can''t be trusted. You worked together and yet she betrayed you. I wonder how that must feel?".


    I was angry of course but what good would shouting or crying do now? I focused as much as I could and ran. The woman behind me became even more talkative. "You will die anyway but I''m wondering, why did you associate yourself with Eterian? Did you fall in love? Or maybe she promised you something in exchange for your help?" she said.


    I responded while running "What is it to you? You are going to kill me anyway. Answering your question has no purpose. Stop your attacks and I can answer your question". I didn''t know whenever she expected that answer or not but after a long silence she said "I suppose I''m not that interested then. Now die". I could feel something getting closer from behind. I jumped to the left but some sort of st of wind pushed me even further. I flew through the air and then rolled for a while on the ground when I finallynded. When I finally managed to pick myself up from the fall, I looked at what just missed me.


    What I saw, was too shocking. ''Just what the hell was that?'' I thought. The area I was in before jumping, contained arge crevice. Not just any powerful sh that carved the ground, no. An actual crevice that extended for dozen of metres with the width of at least a metre. I didn''t linger any longer and started running again. This type of strength was beyond myprehension.

 Chapter 149

    Chapter 149


    The voice of someone I rather not hear, sounded from behind me. "So you survived that. I wonder if this was luck or you have very keen senses" she said. ''Shit, I can''t get away from her nor can I kill her. What am I supposed to to?'' I thought as I ran as fast as my body allowed me to. Then I felt somethinging again. I jumped much faster thanst time as I wasn''t as shocked as before. The st of wind still knocked me back but I didn''t fly through the air like the previous time.


    I barely picked myself up and didn''t even look back, I started running straight away. The woman chasing me said "So, it wasn''t due to luck. You can really sense my attacks. How interesting. It''s a shame you will die today". I didn''t say anything, My mind was focused on running only. I had no strength or time to respond to her bullshit.


    Then I felt it again but this time, it seemed much faster and felt much more dangerous. I jumped to the side as much as I could but in the end, half of my right arm was cut off. "AAAAAAAGHH" I screamed from the pain andnded on the ground, gasping for air. The blood gushed out of my arm or rather whatever was left of it and the pain was immense. I screamed constantly due to the pain but I knew I had to stop the bleeding. I tore a piece of cloth that I had on me and quickly tightened it around my arm. It wasn''t easy to do that either. As soon as I touched the wound, the pain became even greater. It was to the point where tears were flowing uncontrobly from my eyes.


    The bleeding was no longer as severe as before but I felt extremely weak. I lost a lot of blood due to that. I stumbled forward like a dying man on a desert. I tried to get away, keep moving as far as I could. I then heard a faint voice of someone new. "Leave him alone, he is at the verge of dying anyway. We need to catch that Eterian and because of your games, it ran away pretty far" someone said. Then I heard the voice of that sword woman "You are one lucky bastard but I guess you will die anyway. Enjoy the rest of your miserable life".


    I moved and moved until I was unable to move anymore. The pain and exhaustion was unbearable. I took off my bag that seemed to weight a tonne and took out some food. I needed energy in order to survive. Even though they left, I still wanted to survive. I ate everything I had and some of my energy returned but the pain never disappeared. ''Now I''m crippled. I need to get the other part of my arm back. With my knowledge of the Art of Medicine and the books I have, I should be able to connect it back together''. I went back to the ce where half of my arm was cut off.


    After a little search, I managed to find it and threw it into the bag. ''The bag will preserve my arm for a bit at least. I need to get out of here first, then I can think about attaching it. I shall remember that day. If we ever meat again, I will take your head!'' I thought and moved east. I wasn''t about to go the same direction as they did. I went the opposite way.


    I traveled for the rest of the day. The pain subdued a bit but it was still very painful, especially if something touched my wound. Even a branch that I identally brushed past, caused a lot of pain. I had no more food and I was in very poor condition sorge fights were out of question. Fortunately, I still had my other hand and I could throw my daggers. I managed to find and kill couple of normal wolves. I then collect their meat... eventually. Making the fire was not easy either. I used both hands to make the fire in the past but because one was not there, I struggled for almost 20 minutes to make the fire. With the fire lit, I roasted the meat and ate on the spot. The energy I used up increased due to the blood loss as well as constant traveling.


    The wound was no longer bleeding which was fortunate but there was also a problem. ''I have no tools to stitch my arm together. I need needle and a thread. Needle I could make from a bone somehow but a thread? Where would I get that?'' I thought. Then a sudden idea hit me. "Tendons! Those are very flexible but sturdy as well, maybe this will allow me to stitch my arm together" I said out loud.


    Of course, I wasn''t about to use my own tendons but a wolf''s or bear''s should work as well. At least that was what I hoped. I already had couple of them killed and tendons were present in every wolf. I threw some long tendons into my bag and then I had to make a needle. ''The needle has to be short but not brittle. I don''t know if making one from a bone is possible but I have to try'' I thought and took out the Corporeal Structure book. The book contain a chapter about bones and I should be able to find a suitable bone there.


    After searching for a while, I came to the conclusion that the best bone for making a needle, would be one of the rib bones. It was elongated at one side and I could easily grind it down as well. It was flexible as well, it could break but the flexibility should allow for sewing without breaking.


    I then remembered something. "So what if I sew it together? I still need to make it function as before. I have to connect all the nerves and whatnot. Otherwise my arm will be there just for show" I thought out loud. ''I have that book about the nerves, maybe this will be of help to me'' I thought. I had too many things to prepare. I had to take it step by step. ''I have the tendons in my bag, that can be scratched from the list. I also need the needle. I should do it now while I have the wolf''s rib cage'' I thought and went towards one of the wolf carcase.


    I removed couple of rib bones and brought them back to the campfire. I had no hand to hold the bone with and at the same time carve it with my dagger. I decided to use my feet as the means of holding the bone as I carved it into the needle. After a while of fiddling, I was finally able to carve a needle but it was a bit too thick. I started the process from the beginning, on another rib bone.


    After 4 tries, I finally managed to make a needle thin enough. I ced all the needles back into my bag. I figured that I might need the other needles in the future as well and they were quite sharp too, just varied in thickness. With that aplished and my stomach mostly satisfied. I thought about the herbs needed in order to stitch my arm back.


    ''I have a few healing herbs with me, those can be used after the procedure. If I make a paste, it will not be as effective as properly produced medicine but hell, it''s always better than nothing. I wish I could heal it now but if I did that, then stitching my arm back together would be even more difficult. I can''t let it heal'' I thought. My thoughts then continued ''I also need something to numb the pain and something to clean the wound''. It was evening already and I wasn''t going to move out now, this would have to wait till the next day.


    Thest part was the procedure itself. ''I need to figure out how to stitch my arm together properly. I need that arm to work as it did in the past'' I thought and took out the Nerves and Pressure Points book. The book wasn''t very thick and when I skimmed through it, about half of it was about nerves in human body while theter part was about pressure points.


    I was not interested in pressure points at the moment. I focused on the "Nerves" part of the book. The first few pages contained descriptions about the nervous system and how it operated. On the 5th page, I found a diagram of all the nerves in human body. There was a note as well. It said "This is an approximation. The nerves in each individual will have a bit different locations". ''At least the book specified that. Having that diagram is useful nevertheless'' I thought.


    I went couple of pages further an bingo. There was arger diagram of a hand. ''Great! I now have an approximate diagram of the nervous system in my hand. I just need to find out how to treat nerves. If the book doesn''t have it, I still know it''s possible. Nick said he could do it, so can I!'' I thought and read every page attentively.

 Chapter 150

    Chapter 150


    I stopped reading the book only when all the pages about the nerves were finished. ''There is no specific way to connect them, it only mentions that I need a specific solution that could be used to connect the nevers otherwise it is not possible. From what I remember, there was a recipe for something like that in Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. The problem is ingredients as well as tools to make such solution'' I thought.


    Finding the ingredients would not be easy but creating that solution without any tools would be impossible. I needed tools, ingredients and everything in between. ''Where will I get those tools now? I have no current map avable so finding a vige and getting some tools would be very difficult. Besides, I don''t want to encounter these people again. I have no clue where they came from but with my current strength and a crippled hand? Meeting them again would be the worst case scenario'' I thought.


    There was one way to solve that problem but it was time consuming, time was something I didn''t have a lot of. The half of my arm inside the bag wouldn''t rot very soon. Although I had some time, it was not a lot. ''The only way to solve that problem, is to make a rough solution with whatever tools I can manufacture myself and test it out before I use it. It''s time consuming but at least, it''s something'' I thought.


    My n was to find the ingredients needed and then catch a live specimen. A wolf or rabbit, whatever it was, I would have to experiment with them. It seemed inhumane but I didn''t care about those things at that moment. ''Was it humane for that woman to attack me for no reason? Was it humane that I lost half of my arm? I don''t give a shit if it is inhumane! If I have to, I will kill 1000 wolves just to heal my own hand!'' I thought.


    It was well into the night already. I had my n formed and the next day, I needed to search for those specific herbs. I would also need to make some tools that could be used to create the Trantum Solution. That was the name of the solution from Nick''s book. Iid down and tried to support my injured arm on top of something, this would prevent it from getting dirty and I would be less likely to injure it even more.


    With my eyes closed, I fell asleep. When my eyes opened again, I was in a dream. This time, the Dark Traveller was nowhere to be found. All of a sudden, I smelled blood. I looked down and saw a pool of blood underneath me. "What the¡­" I mumbled. I reflexively looked at my right arm and the wound was still there, moreover it was bleeding, excessively!


    I tried to stop the bleeding but I couldn''t do anything. The amount of blood gushing out of my arm was not normal. I lost much more blood than a human body can possibly contain and yet I didn''t feel weak or anything. The blood stopped gushing out after a while as if there was no blood left. What shocked me was not the fact that my wound arbitrarily stopped bleeding but that the blood underneath my feet, started to move.


    "What the fuck is going on?" I eximed as I took couple of steps backwards. I was now outside the pool of blood that seemed to live its own life. I watched with shock stered on my face as the blood started to gather and rise. It raised more and more, until it was about my height. Then it transformed into a humanoid figure and what followed totally blew my mind.


    "This¡­ This is me?" I said loudly. The blood copied my look and even my wounded arm. Although the whole figure was as red as blood, the features were the same as mine. "Just what is going on over here?" I said as I was lost for words. I had no ideas, nothing. My mind was like a nk piece of paper, with no words on it.


    The blood figure didn''t say anything and started to move towards me. Then a blood dagger appeared in its hand, at that point it started to run. I got startles and tried to reach for a weapon as well but I had nothing on me as usual. I had no time to think about that situation and decided to use my hands as the means of fighting.


    I threw a punch using my left hand but the blood figure evaded it and shed with its dagger. "Rip" the sound of torn clothes could be heard. ''This thing is as powerful as me and it seems to know all my moves as well as my intentions!'' I thought as I backed away.


    The blood figure charged at me again, this time there was something familiar with its charge. ''It even knows how to use Natural Path skill''. I did the same as I intertwined with the blood figure and exchanged some blows. Neither of us could harm each other for a while. Then the blood figure did something I thought as impossible and utilised the Natural path skill again but this time, it was different.


    ''Impossible! This thing''s Natural Path skill improved, by a lot!''. I was barely able to trace the blood figure at that point. The movements were so intricate and erratic I had no way of predicting them. The blood figure shed left and right and then threw that dagger at me "Swoosh!". I tried dodging it but it still grazed my leg. ''Shit, I got distracted by its improved Natural Path skill!''. I focused more and tried to counterattack.


    After a few more exchanges, my wounds started to umte. I could barely stand at that point. The blood figure stopped and looked at me. I didn''t know what was going on either. It then actually spoke in humannguage "You are weak. That is why you lost your dear friends". I was shocked and said "How can you speak? You sound like me as well!".


    The blood figure continued "You are weak. That is why you were swindled out of your heirloom". I responded "Shut up. What do you know? I was different then!" but the blood figure continued "You are weak. That is why the Eterian woman used you and betrayed you". I shouted "Shut up bastard! How should I know she would do that?". The blood figure said "You are weak. That is why you lost your arm to that woman who yed with you like a child". I was lost for words. ''Why do I have to hear that and in my own voice as well? What did I do to deserve this?'' I thought.


    The blood figure continued "You are weak. You can''t even defeat me". I looked at the blood figure that resembles me and asked "What are you? What do you want from me?". The blood figure responded "I''m the blood, that runs through your veins. I''m the shadow, that lurks beneath your stealth. I''m your wrath, your hate and your vengeance. I''m... Your destiny!".


    "Boom!" "Woosh!"


    The blood figure rushed at full speed and shed with its dagger right through my my body, leaving a long cut along my whole chest. The sh was so powerful that I flew through the air andnded on my back couple of metres away. "Urrghh!". The blood figure started walking towards me slowly and spoke "You are weak".


    I picked myself up slowly. Not only was I pissed but I also had enough. Enough of creatures I couldn''t exin. Enough of people who wanted to kill me for no apparent reason. Enough of people who betrayed me and enough of bullshit, I always had to listen to. I stood straight and focused my vision on the blood figure walking towards me. I said "I had enough. I had enough of people or things spouting bullshit at my face. Weak? Ha! WEAK! Then let me show you weak!".


    A heavy aura woke up inside of me and everything in the surrounding seemed to freeze. The blood figure stopped walking and spouting bullshit at me. I on the other hand, started walking towards it and said "Weak? What are you to tell me that? Some blood from my body has the balls to call me weak? You came from my body, I''m your master. KNEEL IN FRONT OF ME!". The pressure released after I shouted made the blood figure tremble and slowly kneeled down on one knee.


    I said "If I''m weak, then you are just a part of that weakness" then threw a punch at the blood figure kneeling in front of me. "BOOOOM!" the blood figure shattered back into pool state. I stood inside that pool of blood for a while as I noticed that less and less is visible. I was absorbing the blood back into my body.


    When all the blood was absorbed back, darkness enveloped the whole area. I saw nothing, until I opened my eyes and woke up at my camp. It was early in the morning and my arm was still injured but fortunately didn''t bleed through the night. I sat up and thought about the dream I just had. ''Was this real? I''m tired, even though I slept through the night. My hand doesn''t hurt as much but I still have to get those herbs. I will eat something first and then have a look'' I though and ate some breakfast.

 Chapter 151

    Chapter 151


    While eating the breakfast, my thoughts drifted towards the dream from the previous night. ''This type of dream never happened before. Why the hell was there a copy of me and made from my own blood nheless'' I thought. The dream was weird to begin with but what the blood figure said was also true. ''I''m weak and there is no doubt about that. That Eterian yed with me however she wanted. The woman with the sword was also toying with me. I know that if she was serious, I would be long dead'' I thought.


    My thoughts continued as I took another bite of the meat. ''The aura from my dream, it was the same Unyielding Aura I had previously. It only activates under certain conditions. It didn''t activate when the sword woman was chasing me. Why? My life was in danger so why wouldn''t it awaken?''


    I had no answer to that question. I also didn''t know what specific conditions must be met in order for that aura to awaken. ''Thest time the aura activated, I released great pressure onto the blood figure. My Domineering Aura could do no such thing to the blood figure. I know I was pissed at that time and I had enough but are those the conditions? Are there more?'' I thought.


    ''I need to master my skills, I need to reach the "Avoid the Light" in my Art of Stealth and I also need to "Be the Hidden Weapon" in my Art of Hidden Weapons. With those mastered, my skills will be on another level. Maybe they will be something even more extraordinary than the skills of that sword woman'' I thought as I finished eating thest bit of roasted meat.


    "Nick told me that mastering those arts will not be easy, he was right but I haven''t given up yet. Before I can continue any of that, I need to repair my right arm. I lost a lot of my fighting ability due to lost arm. I believe in Nick and his words. If he said that attaching back an arm is possible for him, I will also aplish that" I said to myself.


    Done with my breakfast, I decided not to train anything at the moment. I didn''t want to use up my energy for something that would bring no benefits and may injure my arm even more. I stood up and started moving again. It was winter season and many herbs would not be avable for me to find. There were some that I needed and that survived through the winter but there were three herbs that only appeared in spring or ces that were warm all year round.


    ''The winter will stillst for over a month. I don''t know if I have that much time but where do I find the missing herbs? It''s not like I can actually change the seasons by will'' I thought. If it was already spring, I would not have that problem but it wasn''t. I wrecked my brain and decided to search for warm ces. I thought caves would be a good example. With that in mind, I went on a search for the needed herbs.


    In the afternoon, I managed to find some herbs that were specifically required for Trantum Solution but the rarer herbs were nowhere to be found yet. I travelled further, in hopes to find something. In the evening, I made camp near a big tree. ''Last year, I had to build a shelter with Shelly in order to survive the winter. Now I can sleep outside and although I am cold sometimes, the coldness doesn''t seep into my bones like it used to in the past. This is good, I don''t have to build a temporary shelter and waste more of my time thanks to that'' I thought.


    I sat down near the fire. It took me a while to lit it, I then ced some meat on sticks to roast it. I ate much lesspared to before. Part of my arm was missing and I didn''t train during the day. My energy consumption was not as great as it was in the past. I didn''t know if I would have any dreams that night. I knew that the Dark Traveller would not appear because I didn''t train anything. What I was worried about, was the dream about fighting against my own blood.


    I tried to figure some stuff out before I went to sleep. ''What if I can''t find the herbs I need. I can''t wait for the winter to finish. What else can I do?'' I thought. With many things running through my mind, an idea was suddenly born in my head. ''What if I try to rece the herbs with those that have simr effects? Would it be possible to create the Trantum Solution with alternative resources?'' I though. I didn''t know that but if I could aplish this, then the herbs avable only in spring and warm ces would be unnecessary. ''I have to give it a try. Everything at this point is worth a try'' I thought and sifted through my memory, I was searching for herbs that could be used as recement to those rare and seasonal herbs.


    ''There are some that can act as a recement. Some are avable in the winter too. I should search for them as well. At this stage, anything goes'' I thought and decided to give it a rest for that day. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I opened my eyes again, it was morning. ''Whew, no dreams as it should be. Right, back to my search'' I thought and packed my stuff, then I hit the road again.


    I walked through the forest and looked attentively at anything that was a nt. I walked like this for a long while when I spotted a group of boars. ''Not good, there are couple of Yellow Boars as well as this stupid White Boar in that group. I should avoid them, no need for unnecessary trouble at this point'' I thought and changed the direction. The memory of a White Boar calling for that ck Mammoth was still fresh in my mind. I didn''t want to take any risks. Facing the ck Mammoth now would be disastrous and I had no way of predicting whenever my Unyielding Aura would awaken or not.


    I took arge detour and thanks to that detour, I managed to find one of the herbs needed for the Trantum Solution. ''This is the recement herb called Winter Needle Weed. It has some of the properties I will need in order to create that solution. Good thing that this herb grows inrger quantity'' I thought and harvested all the Winter Needle Weeds growing in that area.


    ''I need 4 more herbs, I have the rest. If going by recements those should be much easier to find. One of the recement herbs I need is the Sponge Mushroom, it grows on old trees. This allows the herb to survive the winter but also propagate in spring and summer. It is more like a parasite to the tree and that is why it can be found on old trees. There is also the Spiral Pinecone. Technically it is a fruit of a tree but a specific tree that can only bare those fruits in winter. I haven''t seen that tree in the foresttely but it should be here somewhere nevertheless.The Snowy Grass is very hard to find, not only does it grow in ces where snow is plentiful, it grows under the snow as well. To find it, I need to strain my vision as much as possible, it''s very easy to miss but it isn''t that rare. Thest herb that could be used as a recement is cial Lotus. This recement is actually not that bad at all. Quite rare and grows on water that is freezing. It can''t be a river but a pond or ake , I have to keep my eyes peeled for that as well'' I thought of all the herbs that were needed.


    Those were only recement herbs and should not be as effective as the original herbs ''Who knows, maybe it will work. It''s worth a try. Otherwise, I will just have to deal with it in a different way''. It wasn''t that I was entirely out of options. I could further preserve the part of my arm in my bag, by using herbs. There was a problem with that method as well. ''If I apply a lot of medicine and try to prolong the "freshness" of my cut part of the arm, the medicine may make it very hard for me to connected it back to my body. I don''t want to do this until I''m certain that I have no other means avable'' I thought and continued to search for the herbs.


    I wasn''t able to find any herbs that could be used to make Trantum Solution but I found some herbs that could be used as the numbing poison. Although it was a poison, it was not life threatening in small doses and it could be used for the exact purpose of numbing my arm. ''I need those herbs anyway. Finding them now, will save me from looking for themter'' I thought. Late in the afternoon, I decided to stop the search and make camp again. ''The search will take a while, then I have to test it on animals. Hopefully, I get a working solution, otherwise I''m in deep trouble'' I thought as Iid down and closed my eyes.

 Chapter 152

    Chapter 152


    My days started to look pretty much the same again. I would search for herbs during the day while avoiding any dangerous groups of animals and beasts. I hunted when necessary but only groups of animals I could handle, I didn''t want to risk anything. The Variants started to show and even the Elites were now more apparent.


    ''This is the Great Forest I remember. Variants upon variants'' I thought and tried tob through as many areas as I was able to. Moving deeper into the forest, was not ideal in my current state. During the week of my monotony, I managed to find 3 out of 4 recement herbs that I needed, the only one that was missing was cial Lotus. ''I didn''t find any ponds orkes past that week, it''s a bit worrying. I don''t need anything big, something that has no flow of water like the river. I need to find somece like this or I''m screwed!'' I thought and continued my search.


    Usually it was not so hard to find a pond or ake inside the forest but because of snow, a lot of ponds might''ve been covered. Largekes would be visible from far away but for some reason, I saw no suchkes past few weeks. ''I can''t give up, I still have a bit over a week of time'' I thought and searched for ake or a pond.


    I tried following the animals sometimes and their tracks. Animals needed water and some might not use the river but a pond or ake as their water supply. Another two days passed and I finally found a pond that was a decent size. ''Finding a pond is just the beginning. The pond has to contain the ciar Lotus. If it doesn''t, I will have to search again''. I hoped for the pond to have some ciar Lotuses and began inspecting it. After inspecting it for a while, I noticed some cial Lotuses growing on it. ''I''m in luck, there are 3 cial Lotuses but there is a problem as well'' I thought as I looked at the herbs growing on the frozen pond.


    There was a group of boars living there. It wouldn''t be a big problem if a White Boar was not there. ''I have no other choice, I hope the situation doesn''t repeat itself. I have to kill the White Boar first and foremost'' I thought and moved towards the group of boars. There wasn''t much, I could use for stealth. This was winter season and all the leaves, grass and whatnot, were not present. I figured I could try posing as a weak human, the boars would get closer to me and probably try to hunt me down but not with all their power.


    I walked slowly towards the group and even disyed my cut arm properly to show that I was week. When the group noticed me, I also pretended to notice them "just now". I then turned around and started running slowly in the opposite direction. The boars took the bait and went after me. Even better news was that the White Boar was at the front of the group. ''It probably figured that I''m "weak" and there should be no dangers. This is good, it will be much easier to kill it that way'' I thought and ran at a constant speed while turning my head around sometimes to show "panic" on my face.


    The boars caught up quickly and only the White Boar stepped out of the ranks. It was probably in order to disy how the boss of the pack, deals with something like me. I ran without stopping and when I saw the White Boar make its move, I used my Domineering Aura and sped towards the boar instead.


    With my increase in speed, the White Boar was quite surprised and dazed, it was also slightly affected by my aura. I took that chance and threw a few daggers at it, then took out another dagger in order to engage in closebat. The daggers hit the mark and the White Boar woke up from the daze with a roar. The White Boar was now injured but still quite dangerous, most importantly, its cry for help was most dangerous. It started to back away but it was toote. I gained my momentum and the dagger in my hand already shed.


    "Swooosh!"


    The dagger cut through the White Boar''s head and killed it instantly. ''I can take it easy now'' I thought and finished off the other boars that stared in disbelief. Some tried to run but those Normal Boars and Yellow Variants, could only dream about outspeeding me.


    After the fight, I picked up the cial Lotuses immediately. The lotuses were very cold to touch and if not for my resilience due to all the training I did, my hand could be injured by the coldness. I collected the herbs first, in case I had to flee suddenly. I had what I came for, I then took care of butchering the White Boar. It had the tastiest meat when roasted, I didn''t take any other meat as I didn''t want to carry too much.


    While I was looking for suitable ce to set my camp for a while, I thought about all the ingredients ''I have enough herbs to create 3 batches of the Trantum Solution. I need 1 cial Lotus for each batch and because I have only 3, I can only try 3 times. First, I should find a ce suitable for my little experiment. I can then create my solution and catch an animal of some sort to test out my solution on it''.


    After searching for over an hour, I found a suitable ce to set my camp up. ''There is a small stream which will provide clear water. I also have some thin trees that I can use as a resource to create my tools'' I thought and went straight to work. I needed tools so trees had to be cut down. Of course, I chose thin trees that were very young still. This way, I wouldn''t have to trim them too much and I wouldn''t need to spend a lot of effort in order to cut them down.


    I cut down couple of trees and started making stuff like jars, bowls and all sorts of containers. Those things would be used to store my medicine, solution and the poison. I also tried making some tools like pincers, tweezers and other general tools used for extraction as well as application. It took me the rest of the day just to carve those things but I was finally done and I had my tool set.


    My n for the next day was to catch a small animal, then create the solution and test the solution on that animal. ''We will see how a roughly made solution works tomorrow. When I have the results, I can try some improvements in case it doesn''t work. I have limited tries though. On the 3rd try, I will have to use it on myself and it has to work'' I thought and went to sleep. The next few days would prove whenever I was able to aplish that medical procedure or not.

 Chapter 153

    Chapter 153


    I woke up the next morning and set my n into motion. I had to create the solution as well as some medicine and poison. I also needed to catch an animal for me to test those things. I came up with a clever idea to try and make all that medicine and poison. ''I can''t just mush those herbs together and hope for the best, that will be wasteful of my limited amount of herbs. I need a stone that can hold some liquid and that is not too thick'' I thought. I ned to ce that stone on top of the fire, it would act as my pot.


    I looked for a while and found couple of contenders but none were truly what I looked for. I set them aside just in case and another idea came to my mind. ''Stream! I may be able to find such stones in there!'' I thought and went straight to the stream that was not far away. I searched for a while and indeed, there was such a stone at the bottom of the stream. I slowly made my way down and retrieved the stone. ''Good, this will be useful!'' I thought and returned to my camp.


    The stone weighted maybe 5-6 kilograms but most importantly, it had the shape I was looking for. It could hold some water because it resembled a bowl. It wasn''t exactly bowl shaped but it had some space to contain water and that was what I was after. I started the fire again and ced the stone inside. I needed to make it very hot, which would take a while.


    I then remembered about the lid. ''Right, If I ce some sort of lid on top of the stone, I will have even more chances of seeding!'' I thought. The lid would have to be made from stone as well. If I tried to make one from wood, it could catch fire and burn. I didn''t want that. I returned to the stream in search of t bottom stone. The search was short as those stones were quitemon. I found one that was a bit bigger in diameterpared to the previous stone but it had t bottom as I wanted.


    When I returned, I tried cing the "lid" stone on top of the "bowl" stone. The stones were not matching at all, there were some holes through which the air could get in. I came up with an idea to seal it using some y. I went back to the stream again and retrieved some y. The y would solidify when heated and create quite a good seal.


    ''This should be fine now. I have the tools, I just have to make the stuff but first, I need to catch something'' I thought. I decided to catch a rabbit, they were quite lively and besides they were very small. Handling them would not be a problem. I wasn''t a monster either, I would numb the rabbit a bit then do those experiments. ''It may still seem cruel but at that point, I don''t give a shit about cruelty that much. I will make it less painful for the rabbit but I will still do it'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I went out to search for rabbits. After 30 minutes, I caught one. It had no chances against my speed, catching a live rabbit was not a problem. It was more annoying to find them than actually catch them. I returned to my camp with the rabbit, then fainted it. It wasn''t that difficult to do either.


    I first started preparing the poison. I didn''t have to take any special precautions when making the poison, the only thing I would have to watch out for, was not to directly inhale the fumes, drink it or let it make contact with my blood. I poured a small amount of water into the "bowl" stone that was now heated very well. The water started evaporating pretty fast so I continued adding water until the water no longer boiled.


    I threw in the herbs and closed it using the "lid" stone. I then applied some y around it, in order to seal the container. I had to wait for it to cook now. The processsted for about 15 minutes. After waiting and letting it cook, I opened the lid stone and had a look. The dregs were still there but the recipe said to leave them until 15 minutes is up. I fished out the dregs using one of the wooden tools and again closed the lid and sealed it again. ''This has to cook for about 10 minutes, I should make the me a bit smaller, it has to cook more slowly than it did before'' I thought and took out some logs from the campfire.


    After 10 minutes, I unsealed the lid and took it off. The fumes started rising which was a good sign. I needed to test the poison for its effectiveness. I made a small cut on my finger and applied a drop of the poison on top of it. My finger felt a bit numb but nothing major and it wasn''t hindering my movements that much. ''It''s only one drop and I''m much more powerful than a rabbit. For the animal, 2 or 3 drops should be enough'' I thought and retrieved a wooden container.


    The nerve poison was now stored inside the container and awaited the procedure. I then made the medicine which will help heal the wounds. I assumed it would work even better on a rabbit, even though it was made in such conditions. I had herbs for making medicine from before, I also picked some more while searching for the Trantum Solution herbs.


    With medicine done, what awaited me was thest step. ''Now the hardest part. I have to make the Trantum Solution. The process is not that easy. it needs specific temperature and ingredients added in specific order. I can measure all that but controlling the fire, will be much more difficult. I hope that the 1st bach at least works, I can then figure out how to improve something'' I thought and prepared everything for the solution making process.


    I poured in the amount of water needed and then waited for it to be hot enough. With the water starting to boil, I threw in the Sponge Mushroom and Lantry Seed. The Lantry Seed hadplementary effects when mixed with Sponge Mushroom. It helped bind things together while Sponge Mushroom was like a parasite that extracted more energy out of its host. Those two thingsbined allowed for more effective medical properties to be extracted. This was of course the recement herb and the real one that should be used, was called Grearing Weed. The weed also acted as a parasite but had much stronger effect.


    I closed the lid and sealed it. First step was to extract as many binding properties from the Lantry Seed as possible. I left it there cooking for 10 minutes. When I opened the lid, I could already see the effects it has taken. ''The water has changed to a substance resembling glue. This is good, it is supposed to be that way'' I thought and removed all the dregs.


    The next step was to throw in the Winter Needle Weed, Snowy Grass and Ground Flower. The 1st two herbs had simr properties and were the recement herbs that I found. The purpose of them was to add a soothing effect to the gluey substance while the Ground Flower was there in order to keep the cold properties away from the mixture. Both Winter Needle Weed and Snowy Grass had cold properties due to the season and Ground Flower was there to make sure those properties are kept in check.


    I sealed the stone bowl again and waited for the medical properties tobine with the gluey mixture. After 6 minutes, I opened the lid again and fished out the dregs. The mixture was no longer gluey and seemed to be alright. The colour was a bit worrying, it was bing a bit whiteish. ''This must be due to the winter herbs used as recement. Looks alright but we will see'' I thought and continued the process.


    The next step was to throw in the Spiral Pinecone and Woody x. The Woody x had the properties to bind things really well, while the Spiral Pinecone added flexibility to the mix. It was a recement herb but it wasn''t that less effectivepared to the original. The mixture had to slowly cook for about 20 minutes. I took away some of the logs and made the fire smaller after sealing the lid.


    When 20 minutes mark passed, I opened the lid again and to my surprise, it still looked fine. ''The colour became a bit more icy blue but the smell and the consistency is great. Now it is time for thest step'' I thought and took out the cial Lotus. ''This is thest ingredient, if this goes well, I should have enough stuff to do my experiment'' I thought and threw in the cial Lotus into the stone bowl.


    After sealing it, I applied as much heat as possible to the stone bowl. Thest ingredient had to be burned, especially since it possessed cold properties. After burning the stone bowl for 10 minutes, I finally unsealed it and took a look at what was left inside the bowl.

 Chapter 154

    Chapter 154


    The solution had an icy blue colour but besides that, it seemed fine. ''Now I just have to test it. We will see how this works out'' I thought and picked up the rabbit, it was still asleep. I took out my dagger and positioned the rabbit in a way where its leg could be cut off. With one swift movement, I severed the leg from the rabbit. The rabbit woke up immediately and started crying from the pain. I held it down with my leg and retrieved the poison in order to numb its pain.


    It was quite hard to apply the poison onto the wound as the rabbit struggled but I managed somehow. After 3 drops of the poison, the rabbit calmed down a little but it was still bleeding. I quickly wrapped a cloth around its leg and let it stop the bleeding. The poison soon took proper effect and the rabbit stopped struggling.


    ''I just have to wait a while for the bleeding to stop and then I can proceed with the experiment. The rabbit''s leg is much lessplex than human''s hand, so I should have no problems attaching it back together'' I thought and prepared all the tools as well as solution and medicine.


    After about 30 minutes, the rabbit started whining again so I added another drop of the poison to its wound. ''It doesn''t bleed as much anymore, I think about an hour more and this rabbit should be ready for the procedure'' I thought and waited. The rabbit would startining once in awhile about its pain, I would apply more poison when that happened. The poison wouldn''t harm it in those small doses and it onlysted for a while, that was why the rabbit could feel pain again after a some time has passed.


    When another hour passed. I added some more poison to the wound, just to be sure and fainted the rabbit. ''It''s time to start'' I thought and unwrapped the cloth around the rabbit''s front leg. ''First I need to clean the wound and then cut away any fur or whatnot. This will give me ess to all the nerves, muscles and veins'' I thought. I took out my dagger and ced it over the fire, this was in order to sterilise it. With the dagger heating up nicely. I took out a cloth and submerged it into the cold water, then wiped the de of the dagger with the cloth, cleaning it.


    I started cutting away all the unnecessary fur and skin. I then cleaned the wound using the previously boiled water and did the same to the severed part of the rabbit''s leg.


    I could see the nerves and muscles connecting as well as the bone damage and whatnot. Thanks to my daggers being quite sharp, the leg was cut very precisely. I did it that way due to my own injury. The attack of that sword woman not only severed part of my arm, it also did it quite cleanly.


    With all the preparationsplete, I positioned the severed part of rabbit''s leg, together with what remained of that leg and rotated it to find the correct alignment. When I found the alignment, I could now start working. I only had one hand so holding the leg and working on it was impossible, I instead set up some wooden blocks, which I made earlier. Those were small wooden blocks but that was enough to support the rabbit and its cut leg. It would be enough for me to support my arm as well.


    With my "table" set up, I started my work. First, I added some medicine to the bone for it to heal. I also added the Trantum Solution around the edges of the bone, so that it would bind it together. This was to prevent other issues popping up in theter stages. With the bone now connected back with the medicine and solution, I had to take care of muscles, nerves and veins.


    The rabbit''s leg was nothing extraordinary. ''There are couple of veins here but not that many, this should not be difficult. The muscles are a bit bigger problem, now that I can see this properly. I hope the solution will do the job. The nerves are also fine from what I can see'' I thought and started by connecting the muscles.


    I applied the solution and used tweezers to match the cut areas, then "glued" them together. Muscles in overall, had the ability to recover and attach back together but they had to be aligned precisely. Otherwise, there may be someplicationster. It took me about 20 minutes just to align and stich those muscles back together but after a long battle, I was finally able to do so.


    ''Now, I just have to connect the nerves and the veins. I will leave the veins forter, those still contain blood and I don''t want the rabbit to start bleeding for no reason now'' I thought and took care of the nerves first. The difficult part of attaching the nerves, was their size. They were even smaller than vein. It was quite fiddly to apply the solution as well as connect them in proper way.


    Another 10 minutes passed and the nerves were connected. ''Whew! This is hard work and it''s only a rabbit. The only thing left to do, is to connect the veins and then apply the medicine on top of the whole wound. I can then wrap it with cloth and stiffen it using some sticks'' I thought and continued the final part of the procedure.


    The veins in the part of rabbit''s leg, that was still attached to the main body, contained blood. When I opened those veins, blood started to flow out, this was expected and I worked on one vein at a time. Attaching them with solution, then adding medicine in order to stop the bleeding and adding more solution on top, to bind them properly.


    With all the veins attached after a while, the procedure was pretty muchpleted. I smeared the whole leg in medicine and added extra on the injured part. I then wrapped the whole leg in cloth, which made it quite stiff and also added sticks around it, to increase the rigidity.


    ''I''m done. It took a while, even though it was a rabbit but it seemed to go well. We will see the results in a day or two'' I though and rxed a bit near the fire. The procedure took a lot of strain on my focus. I had to work with those details all the time, making sure no mistakes were allowed. I was quite satisfied with my first attempt and thought ''Maybe I should try with a bigger animal next. I still have about half of the Trantum Solution left, although this might not be enough for stuff like wolf¡­ I should try another rabbit before anything else''.


    The rabbit woke up after another 30 minutes and started whining again. I made it drink some more medicine and said "I know you can''t speak but thanks to you, I might be able to connect back my own arm. I will release you when your wounds are healed. You will get back your life and hopefully your leg works as well". I prepared to watch over the rabbit for the next day or two in order to check properly, if the leg healed or not.

 Chapter 155

    Chapter 155


    I fainted the rabbit again, I needed to create a solid cage in order to watch over it. Creating a cage from wood was not the best choice. The rabbit could chew through it eventually and I did sleep during the night. I also didn''t have any nails or things that could be used to make such cage. I opted to use heavy stones as the cage. I would create a circr cage that consisted of heavy stones. The stones would be stacked on top of each other and seal the rabbit inside. ''With heavy stones surrounding it, the rabbit should be unable to escape. Besides, with its injured leg, I hope it doesn''t move a lot'' I thought and proceeded with my n.


    I collected some bigger stones for the base and then some more to stack them on top. The rabbit would have a bit of room inside and it could stay therefortably. I ced some animal furs inside the cage, this would prevent the rabbit from freezing during the night. I also left somemon herbs that can be used to create medicine. There were no berries in the forest due to winter, that was the only food I could provide the rabbit with. I also had a lot of basic medical herbs due to me collecting them in the past. I ced the rabbit inside and covered the opening with a stone.


    The "cage" was well ventted and the rabbit had enough food for the day. When it woke up, it would probably try to escape. It would have to give up quickly due to the injury as well as the stone cage, which made it impossible for it to go out.


    I still had enough poison left for another rabbit and decided not to make another batch. I had enough solution but the medicine was running out. I prepared to make more medicine. I wanted to have it in case the 1st rabbit needed more, the 2nd rabbit would require some medicine as well. I could cut another leg from the same rabbit but it could affect its recovery. A new and fresh rabbit, would be more suitable.


    There was no point catching the rabbit that day, I needed to rest and rx for a bit. The procedure was really exhausting and attempting another one the same day, might result inplications which I didn''t need at that point. For the rest of the day, I read the Nerves and Pressure Points book as well as the Corporeal Structure book just to make sure I had all the details correct.


    The next day, I checked on the rabbit. Fortunately, it didn''t injure its leg further, the wrapped cloth and sticks were still there, while the herbs I left for it to eat were gone. When the rabbit saw me, it was scared of me a lot. It probably thought that I might do something to it again. I fainted the rabbit and took it out of its stone cage.


    When I unwrapped the cloth and checked the leg, I noticed that it started to heal pretty well. There didn''t seem to be anything wrong and in a week or so the leg should full heal, provided medicine was applied to it. I washed the cloth and squeezed out as much water as I could, I then applied more medicine onto the rabbit''s leg and wrapped the cloth as well as the sticks around it. ''The leg should heal just fine but to make sure, I will do the same process with another rabbit. I will give this one a few more days and then I will try to do my own arm'' I thought as I ced the rabbit back into its cage.


    I went into the forest to catch another rabbit. This didn''t take me long and soon I was back with a brand new rabbit. I fainted it, just like the 1st one and prepared more medicine, before I started the procedure again.


    In about 30 minutes, I was ready to start. I took the fainted rabbit, positioned it and cut its leg off. I severed the hind leg this time. Rabbits used their hind legs in order to jump around. I wanted to see what effects will my procedure have on that rabbit. The rabbit woke up just like the previous one and I applied some poison to its wound. I applied 1 more drop this time, to lessen the pain faster.


    With the rabbit calming down and the pain subduing, I fainted it straight away. This way, I could work on the bleeding much easier. With the wound wrapped in cloth, I waited for it to stop bleeding. After about an hour or so, I started the procedure.


    I was already a bit experienced with this, so the procedure went a bit more smoothly. I knew what to expect and I knew the order of the tasks, I needed to carry out. After about 35-40 minutes, the hind leg of the rabbit was attached back together. I did the same wrapping as I did with the 1st rabbit and let it sleep for a while. ''This went smoothly as well. This is good, it means I should be able to do it with my own arm as well. I just have to build a stone cage for this rabbit and monitor them for a few days. When I''m sure that there are noplications, I will try to repair my own arm'' I thought and started collecting stones for the cage.


    With another stone cage constructed, I ced the 2nd rabbit inside and left some herbs for it to eat. I check on the 1st rabbit and I noticed that it seemed to ept its fate of not being able to escape. I threw in some more herbs to the cage and said "Don''t worry, I will release you in couple of days. I just need to check how your leg heals" and sealed the exit. It might sound stupid when a human talks with a rabbit but with the little interactions I hadtely and the lost arm, saying something out loud was a nice thing once in a while.


    I rxed for the rest of the day while reading some books. I was already at thest chapter of the Corporeal Structure book. The 6th chapter described the inner workings of the so called sensing organs. Those were the ears, nose, tongue as well as eyes. The book described a bit about how each organ is able to perceive those senses but also ways to tackle basic defects and the overall healthcare of the sensing organs.


    The 7th chapter was about the human brain. The book called it "The mostplex organ in human body". There wasn''t much information in the book about the brain. Only some generalisations, such as the brain was responsible for storing the memory and it could do it for much longer than a human''s average lifespan. It also exined memory types and how all the nerves are connected with the brain.


    Thest chapter of the book was very interesting. Although it contained a lot of generalisation, I still learned a lot from it. I also started the "Pressure Points" section from the Nerves and Pressure Points book. The book had a nice diagram, with all the pressure points avable in human body. It also described what functions those points governed and possible ways of using them for treatment.


    The book didn''t contain any knowledge referring tobat use of these pressure points but it did highlight possible problems, if certain pressure points were struck. This provided me with some ideas about a skill concerning the pressure points. Besides the skills, I could also use that knowledge to stop bleeding or numb the pain. Although I had no way of training right now, I added it to the "Create new skill from this" list. Late in the evening, when I read both books from cover to cover, I went to sleep.

 Chapter 156

    Chapter 156


    I watched over the rabbits for a few days. The 1st rabbit was healing pretty well, it could now walk and all. It still had some difficulties fully utilising its leg but it seemed to function. The 2nd rabbit was a bit more unlucky. It wasn''t because the procedure went badly, it was due to attempting an escape. It hurt its hind leg even more during the struggle. There was no other option for me but to end its life. ''It would die anyway, a wild animal without a hind leg is doomed to be hunted down. Even if the leg stayed attached, the rabbit would no longer be able to use it'' I thought and killed the rabbit.


    I decided to give my own arm a try. Having some experience with rabbits was not a lot but it was something. I was quite pressed for time as well. I had only couple of days left, before I had to attempt the procedure on myself or use medicine to prolong the "freshness" of my arm in the bag.


    I chose the former option. ''It''s better to give it a try now, especially since it worked. I don''t want to go down the route of preserving my arm even more, this can produce some very difficult problemster'' I thought and started the preparations. I had to make more poison as well as loads more medicine. The Trantum Solution had to be created also. ''One batch of solution should be enough from my estimates'' I thought. What I had was the human arm, it''s structure was much moreplex than a rabbit''s and it was bigger in size. My arms were quite skinny, so 1 bach would be enough to attach it back together. If I was a burly guy, I would probably need 2 batches.


    I started by preparing the poison. When that was done, I made medicine. I made a stronger medicine, which was called Healing Essence. It was much betterpared to Vital Liquid that I used on the rabbits. With the poison and the medicine done, I prepared for the Trantum Solution. I wanted to rest my mind before starting the process of creating the solution. This would allow me to be in my peak condition.


    I rxed for about 30 minutes and then started the process. I paid much more attention this time and tried to make the solution even better. After about an hour of dealing with the solution. I finally had the usable Trantum Solution stored in a container. ''I don''t know if it''s alright or not, the icy blue colour is even more apparent now. Maybe it''s just due to the winter season herbs used as recement'' I thought and prepared myself for the procedure.


    I took it more seriously this time. Not only was this my own arm, it was also much biggerpared to that of rabbit''s leg. I didn''t use the needle and a thread before because the rabbit''s leg was too small for my needles. Besides, a rabbit would never be able to exert simr strengthpared to mine. The arm hard to stay attached and work under great pressures and weights. It had to be multifunctional and be able to execute skills. Sewing my arm together was a must in my case. I prepared the bone needles and the recement of a thread, tendons.


    If everything went right, I wouldn''t have to worry about that after couple of months. My arm would grow new skin and attach itself properly. The bones would also connect by themselves after some time and the arm would be like brand new. ''At least that is in theory'' I thought.


    I started the procedure from unwrapping a part of my right arm, that was still attached to my body. The wound started to heal by itself and the skin covered some stuff already. I had to make some cuts in order to expose the muscles, nerves and whatnot. I applied poison first, to numb the arm. The amount I needed to apply was extremely greater,pared to the amount I gave to the rabbits. With my arm numb all over, I made some cuts with my dagger.


    I could still feel some pain but I knew that adding more poison, would not solve that problem. I was operating on my own arm, I could see what I was doing to myself. My brain immediately assumed it hurts, even if no nerves were touched. I took out the severed part of my arm from the bag and cleaned it as well.


    ''I have to position my arm in correct way. This way, I can work on it from all sides'' I thought and used the wooden blocks as supports. I had to have ess to my arm from all sides and because it was attached to me, I had limited movements. When I finally positioned and aligned the two parts of my arm together, I started by connecting the bone. The bone was cut cleanly and there were no sharp edges. This was good news. Otherwise, there might be some defects and furtherplications in the future. I applied loads of Trantum Solution and medicine, much more than for a rabbit.


    With the bones attached, I still couldn''t rx. ''Now, I need to connect back my muscles. The muscles will repair themselves after a while, I just need to align them properly and make sure that no strand is left hanging'' I thought and started stitching my muscles back. The pain became much more severe at this point, I added a bit more poison to my open wound. This numbed my arm even more but at least the pain lessened.


    ''I can''t use any more poison for now, I have to continue like this. Any more and my left arm can be numb as well and I can''t have that'' I thought and continued stitching my muscles back together. I already used half of the Trantum Solution, as I was applying it generously. With my muscles connected, it was time for the next step.


    ''Now the nerves. I already memorised the diagram from the book. Looking at my arm and all the nerves exposed, the diagram is about right. The main part is to connect the correct nerves back'' I thought and started working on each nerve, one at a time.


    When I touched one of the nerves in order to connect it back, the pain intensified immediately. It was to the point, I almost shed tears from the pain. I gritted my teeth as I knew there is no return now. Adding more poison would solve this probably but it could also make things even more difficult. I connected the first nerve, then the second and so on. When thest nerve was connected, I was covered in sweat. The pain lessened a bit and due to the medicine I applied together with the solution, it became more bearable. Connecting the nerves back together on my own arm, was a hell of a task to aplish.


    "Gasp¡­ Gasp...Haaaah¡­ Now, I just need to connect the veins and sew it together. This should not be as painful" I said out loud. The time it took me to connect all the nerves together was about 23 minutes. I could apply a bit more poison now that so much time passed. With my arm numbed a bit more, I started to connect the veins. I could feel some pain still but it was nothing inparison to the pain that the nerves gave me.


    There was some bleeding when I tried to connect the veins but it was nothing major. It took me only couple of minutes to attach all the veins back together. "I''m almost done. I just need to stitch both parts of my arm with the bone needle and the tendons, I can then apply some medicine on top. Cloth and sticks will finish the procedure" I said to myself.


    Attaching the tendons onto the needle, was not easy but I managed somehow. Each tendon was quite short, so I had to do it multiple times while working by sections. Just to make sure, I stitched my arm twice then added the rest of the Trantum Solution all over the wounded area. I topped that with medicine and wrapped my arm in a cloth, while attaching some sticks around it just to keep is nice and stiff.


    "It''s done. Hopefully, I will be able to use my arm. I need to wait couple of days and apply medicine constantly, before I will see the results. This was much more difficult than doing it on a rabbit" I said to myself andid down. I was tired, this procedure took away most of my mental strength and focus. Not only was the pain intense during the part where I had to connect my nerves, it was also a stressing matter. I worked on my own arm, there were no second chances if I messed up.

 Chapter 157

    Chapter 157


    I rxed for the next few days. The rabbit''s leg on the other hand healed properly and it was now able to walk without the cloth and sticks wrapped around it. The medicine it ate as well as the raw herbs, increased the healing process greatly. I released the rabbit on the 4th day. The rabbit was surprised that I just let it go but didn''t linger around for fear of me changing my mind.


    "Thanks to you, my arm is now attached back together. Live your life to the fullest" I said out loud even though the rabbit was long gone. ''I will have to heal it first and then start the rehabilitation process. It will take a while for my arm to return to the previous state but with the spring approaching, I should be able to find even more herbs'' I thought and took out a book. Past those few days, I couldn''t really train my skills, even more so my strength, therefore I opted for books. Knowledge was also part of one''s strength.


    In those few days, Ipletely memorised the Corporeal Structure book as well as the Nerves and Pressure Points book. They were quite useful and I already had some ideas how I could use thetter for medical purposes. On the other hand, my fighting ability suffered a lot. My closebat was reallycking as well. If I were topare it with the woman who severed my arm, my skills in that department were pretty much non existent. ''That attack of her¡­ It wasn''t done by sheer strength. Was this also an Aura? I mean that Eterian Laly, if that is really her name, said humans have Auras but can Aura attack as well?'' I thought.


    My Auras couldn''t create such attacks, they only possessed certain effects that could increase my pain resistance and instincts for example. This may be possible. Afterall, I only experienced my own auras as well as that Eterian''s Ability. I didn''t feel any Aura from the sword woman when she attacked normally, it was entirely possible that the final attack was an Aura.


    ''Even if an Aura can be used this way, I have too much going on now. As soon as I get better, I need to master the Natural Path skill. The blood figure gave me some ideas about it due to its advanced use of my skill. If I''m correct, I should be able to improve it a lot. This would mean that catching me, will be very difficult'' I thought and started reading the book in my hands.


    I was reading the Bone Treatment Log. This book couldn''t help with my case but it was interesting nevertheless. ''It seems that someone who wrote this log, treated a lot of bones with defects and illnesses'' I thought. The book described cases such as hollow bone structure, it would mean that the bone had no marrow. This was a very serious condition and quite rare but the person who wrote this, actually managed to heal it and described how it was done.


    Another such case was, when the author encountered a patient which seemed to be born without the bones in few of his fingers. The patient couldn''t move those fingers whatsoever as there was no bone structure to support that movement. Yet the author ims that he healed that defect after a long time. It took him over a year to imnt some bones and carry out the procedures in order for the patient''s fingers to work again. ''If what this book says is true, then that author was a bone doctor. He specialised in bones most probably, while he could also do some other procedures as well. Stuff like imnting bones into the patient''s body and so on'' I thought.


    I found the book interesting and read it from cover to cover, stopping only for some food. I had some food stored up in my bag and because I didn''t practice anything while my hand was in healing process, it would be enough for one more week. I didn''t have to hunt and simply rest.


    A few more days passed and I was quite bored. The books I had, were already finished. I decided to spend some time thinking about all my skills and what to do next. ''Besides rehabilitation, I need a n. I still want to go north, even though it''s so dangerous. Everyone I met, said I would die in the north. Just what exactly is there, that it''s so dangerous?'' I thought.


    My thoughts continued ''Going there with my still healing arm, is out of the question. With my rehabilitation, I should practice the Natural Path skill until I''m able toplete the movements of the Blood Figure from my dreams. It shouldn''t take me long, I already saw the the Blood Figure do it. Perhaps a few months of time but I stillck in mybat departament. There is the Wind Daggers skill I could practice but it''s not going to be easy. Although I incorporated that under the Art of Hidden Weapons, It really is an art on its own. Mastering it would take me too much time. What else can I do?''.


    I went through my mind and besides the archery, there was also the Stringed Hidden Weapons which I couldn''t practice either. The closebat was abysmalpared to some strong people. I had no techniques like the others. Even though I still remembered the book about fist skills, what good was it against opponents that used weapons?


    Poison was a supportive skill and I also needed tools as well as herbs in order to produce a decent poison. ''I have nothing. Wind Daggers or archery is my only option. The problem is, those are not closebat skills. Wind Daggers require daggers which I have very little of. Archery requires bow and arrows, I can make arrows myself or reuse the ones I have but it is a long distancebat. If somethinges closer to me and is powerful, I have no way of counterattacking. I can only¡­ Wait!'' I thought.


    There was a skill I could utilise with my daggers. ''I forgot about it. This was the skill from the book about fist techniques but I can adapt it to my daggers! The book described a skill that utilised speed in order to punch multiple times. It''s not really difficult to do when someone is as strong as me and I can do it with my daggers already'' I thought. What I had in mind was not that simple thing, the attacking points would be the most important parts. ''This should be a start, a skill in closebat I could use. I will test thatter when my arm heals but the real practice will begin after the Natural Path skill ispleted. If I had the skills of the Blood Figure from my dreams, I might not have had my arm severed'' I thought andid down. The days ahead would be boring but I was already fired up to try some of the ideas I had.

 Chapter 158

    Chapter 158


    Hours, days and months passed since my arm was attached back. My rehabilitation went well but there was something unexpected that happened to my arm. ''It''s probably because those winter season herbs. My arm is now... different'' I thought. My right arm was much palerpared to the rest of my body but that was not the only change. Due to the winter herbs used as the recement for the Trantum Solution, my arm evolved.


    It happened two months after I attached it back together. I was fighting bears barehanded in order to exercise my arm properly. When I striked the Silver Bear with my right arm, the spot where it was hit, became frozen. I was as shocked as the Silver Bear but that was not the whole extent of my new hand''s power. I noticed that if I were tobine my Domineering Aura with it, the air around me became cold. My arm would freeze a sizable chunk of my opponent''s body when striked.


    What was weird, was that I didn''t feel the coldness in my right arm but when I touched it with my left hand, the arm was very cold. ''This is a blessing but another curse as well. Not only do I have weird dreams, I also have a weird arm. Who would have thought that changing the herbs to the ones I used, would create such effect'' I thought as I looked at my arm.


    The rehabilitation went even smoother than I assumed. After a month, I could already use the hand normally but not with my full strength. After two month, I was able to exert almost whole of my strength and at this point in time, my arm was like before, except the freezing part of course.


    ''My strength returned and I have something new that came with it'' I thought. This was not the only thing I did past these months. The Natural Path skill was trained to the level that the Blood Figure from my dream shown. What it became when I reached that level was a footwork technique, that Icked from my skill set.


    ''The Natural Path skill was originally a skill to escape but now, it can be used not only for escape but forbat as well. This thing has even more applications, it even helped me develop my archery skill quickly'' I thought. With the Natural Path skill reaching that level, my Art of Stealth became the most advanced art, I possessed. ''My arm is healed, I can now escape more easily and fight much better in closebat. I should move to the north soon. I will go there in the middle of summer. We will see what north has on offer'' I thought and practiced my dagger skills.


    When I reached my current level in the Natural Path skill, I ced more focus on the closebat. I had an idea about a technique that incorporated the pressure points as well as speed. ''Normally, I sh with my dagger but this is different. I have no human being to train that technique on but I have bears. Although they are not humans, that will do for now'' I thought.


    The technique I came up with was to stab with my dagger but at incredible speeds and at different locations. This is where the pressure points part came in. Each pressure point in human body was responsible for something. There were those that allowed for blood to be stopped, reversed or rage forward. This may not seem as much but when the blood is reversed for example, a human would lose all the strength for a certain amount of time. This alone gives loads of possibilities for me. There were pressure points responsible for breathing, and even those that could spell immediate death.


    ''I memorised those pressure points and even discovered them on my own body. Hitting them will not be easy though. A human opponent, especially a strong one, is not a wooden log that doesn''t move and evade my attacks. Humans are also much more intelligent than bears or wolves. Although I practice with bears, this is just the beginning'' I thought and continued my practice.


    It was already well into the spring. The trees flourished, animals breed and herbs grew. I was moving constantly towards eastern direction, I also travelled a bit north once in a while. Albeit at a slow pace, due to my training. I had no maps, so I had no clue what I would encounter in that direction. This was also a problem. I had no tools with me, I learned to make some medicine by using stones and fireces but real tools would be much better. I also needed to find recement for my strings. ''From what I remember, Nick said that these strings were quite rare. Where do I get new ones then?'' I thought as I walked through the forest practicing at the same time.


    I lost too many things and even the clothes that Nick left for me were in shambles. I was wearing a set of clothes from one of those guys that followed me north in order to kill me. ''I know I promised Nick not to visit viges or cities but hell, I need supplies! I don''t mind even bending that promise a bit but who in the world would live in this part of the forest? There is probably no vige or city in that direction whatsoever, especially since this is closer to the north'' I thought and mindlessly stabbed with my dagger.


    When I heard the "Why are you stabbing the air?" I was lost. "Huh?" I blurted out and turned around. A kid, 12 maybe? years old, stood there as if nothing. I looked at the little fellow and my eyes almost left my sockets "What the...?". The kid, as if nothing out of ordinary happened, asked again "Why were you stabbing the air?". I couldn''t answer that, I couldn''t say anything due to the shock.


    After a long while and another "Are you deaf sir?", I finally managed to respond "No, are you human?" to which the kid looked at me weirdly and said "Don''t I look like one? You must be slow in your head mister. I haven''t seen you before, are you from somewhere far away?". ''I''m not slow in my head you fuuu.... kid'' I thought but I decided not to voice that thought. Instead, I said "What is a kid doing here, alone in the forest?".


    He didn''t seem happy with me not answering his question and calling him a kid. He said "Hey! I asked first! Besides, I''m not a kid!". ''....'' What was I supposed to do in that situation? Beat him up? As I was contemting about that kid, he said "By the way, what the hell do you call forest? This is our vige here".


    I looked at the kid and asked "The what?". He responded "You are slow indeed. Look in front of you, you idiot!" and pointed a finger at something. When I looked at what the kid pointed, I could only blurt out "How the fuck is this possible?". The kid became angry and shouted "Hey! Don''t use bad words. My mama said it is not ok to use bad words".


    I had so many questions, I didn''t know from which one to start. I asked "How do you survive here?". The kid became all prideful and said "It''s because of Warriors. They protect the vige. I will also be a Warrior, when I''m old enough". ''Warriors eh? There must be some strong people inside there but the opportunity is just too good to pass'' I thought and asked "Can I enter?". The kid was still talking about the pride of the Warriors, which I didn''t pay attention to. When he heard my question, he said "Sure! We don''t get a lot of visitors. To be honest, almost never. Follow me, I will show you around!". I nodded my head and followed after the kid.

 Chapter 159

    Chapter 159


    The kid walked in front of me and said "Whenever someone visits here, it''s supposedly a big event. I hope I get to see this as well. I was very small when someone visited out vige, so I don''t remember anything". I didn''t reply, I was still shocked that there could be a vige in these parts of the forest. ''The elite animals or rather beasts were more present here. People of this vige need to be quite strong, otherwise, they wouldn''t be able to survive out here'' I thought.


    As the kid talked away, we arrived at the entrance to the vige. When I entered the vige, I could feel many gazes on me. I could also feel killing intenting from all over the ce. I instinctively turned my head towards thergest source of the killing intent and saw a middle aged man looking at me. ''This guy is dangerous. Probably as dangerous as the sword woman that severed my arm'' I thought.


    Whenever I looked at someone old or young, they seemed strong. ''No wonder this vige can exist here. They could destroy viges that numbered 200 household easily, with that kind of strength'' I thought. The kid in front of me said "The people in the vige are very nice. When you meet them, please don''t use those bad words". I responded absentmindedly "Sure".


    As we passed the gate and went deeper into the vige, I paid extra attention to the guy with strongest killing intent. I noticed him looking at someone and then giving that person some kind of signal with his head. ''I don''t know if this is a trap, if everything goes south, I can use this kid to my advantage'' I thought and readied myself for a possibility of an ambush.


    As we walked towards the centre of the vige, another youngster started walking towards us, as if to intercept me and the kid. The kid became quite happy when he saw the that person and shouted while running towards the youngster "Hey! Ricky! There is a neer! He came to visit!". I was now on my guard. This seemed like a deliberate y and the kid that looked innocent, was supposed to lure me inside.


    With this in mind, I stopped walking. Going in any deeper would be foolish. The closer I was to the exit, the better. ''I wouldn''t be able to handle all of these people, even if there were two of me'' I thought and stood in ce. The kid talked to his friend for a while and both of them started walking towards me.


    ''...Maybe I''m just paranoid? The killing intents are real but who wouldn''t try to protect their homes? Let''s see how this ys out'' I thought and waited for the kid toe back with his friend. It didn''t take long and when they arrived in front of me, the kid said "This is my friend Ricky! He is a bit older than me because he is 16 this year". He then turned towards his friend Ricky and said "This is the guy I was talking about. He is a bit slow in his head but he came to visit our vige! The big event is going to happen right? I will finally see what it is!". The Ricky guy smiled at the kid, then turned towards me and said "So, why did youe to visit?".


    I looked at the youngster and said "I didn''t. I stumbled upon your vige as I was travelling through the forest. I must say that, you have some pretty impressive people inside here". The guy wasn''t impressed and asked politely "Oh? And who could those people be?". I turned towards the middle aged man and said "For example that middle age man over there. You can stop with your killing intent, I''m not your opponent".


    When I faced the youngster again, I said "The same if for you. You are not my opponent". The guy didn''t seem to like myment and said "Would you like a try?" to which I responded "I didn''te here to fight you guys. I''m here for supplies. If you are not willing to trade, I can leave". The youngster snorted and said "Are you scared?".


    I looked him in the eyes and said quietly "Of you? No. I''m not even scared of that guy over there" and pointed at the middle aged man. The youngster couldn''t take it anymore and rushed at me. He was strong to be honest. At the age of 16, he was able to elerate pretty well and he disyed some strength.


    I waited for the youngster to arrive. He threw a punch at me. I simply raised my left hand and caught his punch. He seemed to be surprised, when he noticed that nothing happened to me. He was even more surprised, that I had a firm grip on his fist. I said "I told you, you are not my opponent" and threw him away. I didn''t use a lot of strength but he flew through the air anyway. Because this was not an attack on my part, the guy could easilynd on the ground and stand up.


    The kid cried to his friend "Ricky! What are you doing? We can''t attack visitors! No one woulde here if we were to do that!". The kid was obviously delusional but had a kind heart. Ricky answered "I was testing him. Vige Chief told me to". The kid was bbergasted, while I already knew that. He then turned towards me and said "You are indeed strong. I''m not your opponent but I''m younger than you. When I''m your age, I will be much stronger!". I looked at him and said "As you like" and turned towards the middle aged man. "So, the Vige Chief, right?". The guy looked me in the eyes and said "Why did youe here?" to which I shrugged my shoulders and replied "Didn''t I already tell you? I need supplies, I didn''t even know there was a vige here". The man responded "And we would like for it to stay that way".


    I said "It is your choice. I have my own confidence, that is why I didn''t start running yet. You can try me or just sell me some supplies and I will treat it as we never met before". The old man said "Do you think I would believe your lies?". ''When did I lie?'' I thought then looked at the man in more details.


    After a while, I noticed something. ''Hmmm. He seems to be sick¡­. no, he is dying. Just like Nick!'' I thought. No wonder he was hostile. If the strongest person dies, then who will protect the people that are weaker? ''He probably has a sessor already but that sessor may be on mine or below my level of skill. He just wants to scare me probably'' I thought.


    I said to the man "So that is how it is? Listen. I''m a traveller and I didn''te here for any reason besides some supplies. Even if you are dying, I have no intention of doing anything to your people". The man became visibly shocked and muttered "How do you¡­." to which I responded "Because the person that taught me about medical knowledge, died the same way".


    The guy was stunned and not sure what to do. I asked him "How can I prove to you that I don''t mean any harm to your people? I just want some supplies". The man contemted for a bit and said "We don''t use money, so we don''t sell things here. Money is useless to us here. Everyone works and contributes. So, you want me to believe you? Stay here and work for a while. Then we will give you the supplies that we can provide".


    "That is an interesting offer. I will take it then. I need those supplies and besides, it will be only for a while". The man nodded his head and said "I will have my eyes on you, if you try something¡­" to which I shook my head and said "What am I supposed to do?". He pointed at Ricky and said "He will show you what to do". Then all the people returned to their own tasks.


    PLEASE READ! NOT PART OF CHAPTER!


    So, I think you guys can see the results for yourself. More people chose slower progress over faster progress. I''m still a bit disappointed. I thought more people would voice their opinions but guess I was wrong. Slower progress it is BUT I will give you one thing. I don''t want the novel to go on and on and on... about one thing. So, although the progress stays the same and the details too. I will skip unnecessary stuff like 20 chapters on 1 thing. About the training, I will shorten that as well (not that he will master stuff faster but that you won''t have to read stuff that repeats all the time. Of course when there are changes orrge improvements, I will write about that).


    For those that voted (for whichever option), I thank you and this shows to me that you care. For those who reached this point and didn''t vote -That is fine, I still appreciate your views. Thanks and I hope you will still like me novel :D

 Chapter 160

    Chapter 160


    I turned toward Ricky and waited for the instructions. The guy was still in daze but after a while snapped out of it and said "I''m Ricky, which you know already by the way. This kid over here is Natan. Follow me, I will show you what you can do". I followed after Ricky while the kid called Natan, said in whisper to his friend "I''m not a kid".


    We arrived at a small hut, that was further away from the central za and the entrance to the vige. Ricky said "This is where we process wood and create various things. We make some tools or we use some wood as heat source and cooking fire. This will be your job. You will go inside and the person working there will exin everything to you". I asked "Is this where I will work all the time?".


    Ricky responded "Are you not satisfied?". I shook my head and said "No, it''s fine. I know my way around wood a bit. I can also help with smithing, although my experience in that department is much more shallow". The guy seemed surprised and said "First work here. If what you say is true, we can maybe think about the other job". Then both youngsters left.


    I purposefully asked about smithing job. I needed to create a few daggers and if I could get some ore to make those daggers, that would be great. I entered the hut and saw a elderly man carving a piece of wood. He seemed busy and didn''t turn around to speak to me, so I waited for him to finish.


    I stood there looking and after a while, I noticed that the man was carving a wooden handle for some sort of tool. From his carving, I could see that he was very experienced. this meant that he probably did this for many years. Each stroke of the carving knife was precise and decisive. I stood there and admired his skills, I too worked with these type of tools in the past and I knew my way around wood. The elder man finished his carving after a while and was about to reach for the next piece of wood.


    I called out to him "Hello. I''m here to work". The man turned around and said "I know. I could hear your conversation with Ricky. You are quite patient, you allowed me to finish my work before you disturbed me. Is it true that you worked with wood in the past?". I nodded my head and said "Yes, I was a craftsman in the past. This was my professions¡­ It probably still is, I didn''t change my profession really. Although it''s been a while since I did anything properly, I should still be able to help you".


    The elder man said "This will save me the trouble of teaching you then. I''m Woody, this name was given to me by my father, who also carved. Come, I will show you what to do". I followed Woody to the workbench not far away and he started exining my job. "I want you to carve the arrow shafts. It''s not really difficult but it requires you to create a bnce and specific size. This is the size and bnce I would like you to create" he said and shoved me apleted shaft of an arrow.


    I took it and examined it in details. The shaft was much more exquisite than those of the Eterian Laly. It had a very good bnce and wasn''t too thin or thick. It was pretty much perfect. I said "Did you create this? It''s very well bnced and would create nice shaft for the arrow head. Your skills are very good". Woody didn''t mind thepliment and said "If you can create shafts like those, that would be great. Did you ever do stuff like that?" to which I responded "Not really or at least, I''m not experienced with arrow shafts but I will certainly try my best". Woody smiled for the first time and said "Good, then start your work".


    I sat down at the workbench and started creating the shafts. It might''ve seemed simple in the beginning but I soon found that it was actually quite hard to make a bnced shaft. It took me about an hour to make one, that was of simr quality to the one Woody showed me. The more I did it, the more used I became to it and after a few hours of work, I was able to create arrow shafts of simr quality. They weren''t as defined as the one Woody made but the bnce was there and the shape was solid.


    At the end of the day, I managed to create about 50 of such arrow shafts, the others were discarded. When I stopped my work, I asked Woody who was still working "So where do I stay the night?". Woody still worked on his own carving and replied "You can sleep here. I don''t have a second bed but if you are skilled enough, you can make your own. By the way, how many did you manage to create?". I replied "I made 50 of them, they are not as good as yours but the bnce is there and they have solid shape. I think they are going to be usable. I left them on the bench, if you want to check, you are free to do so".


    Woody replied while still working on his piece "There is no need, I already saw them. They are not bad, that means you weren''t lying about your profession. Although they are a bit crude but they are certainly usable. You can rest or work some more, If you want to leave and see the vige, you are also free to do so, just don''t disturb other people". I said "Sure" and prepared to make my own bed.


    The materials were already there, so I simply took some tools and started creating a solid wooden bed. It wasn''t hard at all with all those tools avable, the wooden nks were in abandon in the workshop as well. Soon my bed was constructed and I ced some animal skins on top of it, for somefort.


    With that done, I decided to go out and have a proper look at this vige. ''It''s been awhile since I saw a vige. I might as well go for a tour'' I thought and said to Woody "I will go out for a bit to take a look. I will be back shortly". Woody didn''t reply, so I just left.


    The vige wasn''t very big, it had all the necessary things inside but in overall it was as small as the Horesein Vige, that I burned down in the past. It was constructed in peculiar way as well. All the roads led to the center za of the vige. When I arrived there, I could see people walking to and from while doing something. In the middle of a za was arge stone, it was elongated and quite tall. It looked like arge, long rock, fell from the sky and pierced the ground.


    It looked different and I never saw that type of thing in any other vige. Sure there would be some sculptures in arge vige, for example of an ancestor who founded the vige or the current Vige Chief but this was neither of them. I came closer to have a look and noticed some carvings on it. They weren''t that apparent from far away and I didn''t really pay attention before. I looked at the strange carvings and couldn''t figure out what they were supposed to represent.


    The more I stared at the stone and those carvings, the more I felt that I knew this from somewhere. Suddenly, I got a splitting headache and could barely stand. I could hear voice¡­ voice of my mother. "Son, grow up and stay healthy, ok?". The headache intensified and I screamed "ARGHHH!". The people on the street stopped whatever they were doing and looked at me. I couldn''t think straight as I grabbed my head due to the pain. I screamed and screamed but to no avail, the headache didn''t stop. I then saw an image of my mother, talking to me when I was a kid. Then the news of my parents dying, shed before my eyes.


    Then, I felt someone grabbing me and dragging me back. The headache eased a bit the further I moved away from the stone. I took inrge gulps of air due to the pain. Then I heard "Boy, are you alright?". It was the voice of the Vige Chief. I took a few more breaths in and out, then responded "I''m fine. I don''t know what happened. My head hurts like hell and then, I saw memories of my mother". The Vige Chief asked "Does this happen often?" to which I said "No, it never happened before. What exactly is that stone and those markings?"


    He looked at me for a while, then said "This is our ancestry stone. Our founder fought a great battle here and killed a beast by piercing thatrge stone through it. After the battle, he decided to settle in this ce and founded this vige. It was very long time ago and none of us know what those runes mean. We call them runes by the way".


    I asked "Did this happen to anyone else before?" to which he shook his head and said "No, it''s just a stone with some runes. Although it has been here for as long as people can remember, this never happened. At least to my knowledge". I stood up and said "I''m fine now. I should probably go and rest". He said "Yes, go do that". I left and returned back to the hut, where Woody was still carving something.

 Chapter 161

    Chapter 161


    I went to sleep straight away, after that day''s events, I just wanted to rest. The dream I had of the Dark Traveller, repeated itself for 20 times, as I listened to the words spoken. I had figured out the meaning of couple new words. This was thanks to the words, I already tranted.


    The words I tranted were, Rin which tranted as "In", Tar which tranted as "Fall/Falling", Thatos which tranted as "Yet", Hal which tranted as "Great/Supreme", Nroh which tranted as "To" and Adis which tranted as "And". With those new words, my understanding of the Ancient Language advanced. I was that much closer to figuring out the wholenguage and the whole speech of the Dark Traveller.


    In the morning, I started my work with the arrow shafts again. I got better at it, the more of them I created. It was also my profession in the past, so it was easy for me to learn new stuff in that trade. At the end of the day, Woody was impressed with my work and said "You are not half bad. Did your parents teach you that profession?".


    I answered "No, I learned it from the age of 16. I''m nowhere near your level of skill though". Woody said "Just do this for one more day and I will introduce you to another job, which is a bit more difficult. I''m sure you will be able to handle it". I nodded my head and took a rest. It was evening already and although I wanted to go out and see the vige properly, I was kind of discouraged due to the past events.


    I decided to stay in and rest properly. The next morning, I started my work on the arrow shafts again. By the mid afternoon, Woody approached me and said "You can stop now. This amount should be enough for the warriors to use for a while. Let me show you, your next task". Woody took a piece of wooden log and started cutting and shaving it. After a while, I could see a specific shape emerging.


    ''What is this supposed to be?'' I thought to myself and watched. It looked like a wooden te but it was perfectly t and round. It seemed like a te but it was smaller than the usual tes. When Woody finished the wooden te, he turned around and said "This is your next task". I looked confused and said "Making tes? How is that more difficult than making arrow shafts?".


    Woody smiled and said "This is not a te. Here, hold it". I took the wooden te and checked it in details. I saw nothing extraordinary at first but then, I noticed bnce and not just any bnce, it was bnced perfectly in every direction. It was quite thin but I could ce it, in a standing position and it wouldn''t fall or roll. It''s t side was also bnced.


    Woody saw my expression and said "This is not a te for food or anything like this. It''s a target for practice. Do you want me to show you how it works?". I handed the "target" back to Woody and nodded my head. He said "Follow me outside". I went outside with Woody and he took out a bow from somewhere. He passed me the target and said "Throw it as hard as you can upwards. I will shoot it down".


    I took the disk and said "Are you sure? If I use my whole strength, I don''t think you will be able to hit this target". Woodyughed and said "Try me boy". I nodded my head and prepared to throw the target as hard as I could. I swung my arm with my maximum strength and released the target into the sky. "SWOOOSH!" It flew so fast that I could barely keep track of it.


    Woody that stood next to me, quickly notched an arrow into the bow and shot it, without much of a thought. "Swooosh!" The arrow travelled even faster than the target I threw and incredibly, hit the target that was very far away from us. The distance was at least 500 metres! The target was not only pierced but due to the arrow striking it, it went even further, then fell down somewhere far away.


    I eximed "Wow!". Woody put away his bow and said "As I told you, these are targets for practice. This will be your job from now on". I turned towards Woody and said "Can you teach me?". Woody was confused and said "I already showed you how to create those targets. With your skills, it shouldn''t be a problem". I shook my head and said "I''m talking about your archery. You are much better than that Eterian, I met a while ago".


    This time, Woody was surprised and said "You met an Eterian?". I said "Yes, She taught me some archery and exined some other skills she was proficient in. Although, this didn''t end well. She betrayed meter¡­ I don''t want to talk about it". Woody became quite serious and said "You should''ve killed her". This is what I didn''t understand. In the beginning, she was quite nice and did taught me some skills. Her betrayal was unexpected but I guessed that she wanted to live as well. This of course didn''t mean, I forgave her but I could understand her logic. I decided to ask "Why do humans want to exterminate Eterians so badly?".


    Woody responded "For those specific reasons. I don''t know what she said to you but they are master maniptors. We lived in peace in the past and we even had an alliance against another race. They betrayed our race and stabbed us in the back, together with our enemies. Those were hard times for us but we managed to survive andter exterminate loads of Eterians. The hatred is passed down, I don''t know how you can be unaware about all of this".


    I answered "Ie from a rtively small vige, it''s called Freemount Vige. It''s probably very far away from here. I don''t know a lot of things, I also promised not to visit any cities or viges if possible, before I master my skills. I already sort of broke that promise. I need supplies in order to continue, that is why, I had to visit your vige"


    Woody seemed shocked and said "Freemount Vige? Interesting. How did you get all the way here then?". I said "I travelled. I was green in the beginning but with time, I gained experience and skills". Woody seemed to think about something and said "I have to think it through, I will give you an answer shortly". I nodded my head and said "Sure. I better get back to carving then".


    I went inside and started my work. The task of creating those wooden targets was truly more difficult,pared to arrow shafts. Although it was more difficult, it wasn''t something I wouldn''t be able to make. After trying for a few times, I managed toplete one target te. By the evening, I made dozens of them. I decided to have some rest and go outside. I didn''t want to sit inside the hut all the time and I could just avoid the central part of the vige.


    I wandered around the streets of the vige aimlessly, lost in my thoughts. I thought about the strange runes and therge stone in the central za, as well as the event that took ce over there. I thought about my home, the Freemount Vige and my parents. One thought didn''t give me rest. ''Why would Woody be interested in my home vige? Does he know where it is?'' I asked myself. He also seemed to change his attitude about me, when he heard that I''m from that vige. ''Something doesn''t add up here. Is Woody hiding something from me?'' I thought. Of course we weren''t friends or anything and there were probably loads of things he never told me. Although he didn''t have to tell me anything, this seemed like he supressed some stuff on purpose.


    As I walked, I stumbled upon a familiar person. It was the Vige Chief. The weirder part of it was, that he seemed to be waiting for me. I stopped walking and asked "Can I help you with something?". He looked into the night sky and said "I don''t know. I wonder that myself".

 Chapter 162

    Chapter 162


    I was confused and asked "So there is something. What is it? Will you sell me those supplies already or something?". The Vige Chief shook his head and said "That is not it. Can I ask you a few questions?". I responded "Sure, Ask away".


    The Vige Chief asked "Is it true that youe from a vige called Freemount?". I was confused and then, I remembered that I said that to Woody. ''He must''ve told this guy about it but why do they care so much?'' I thought and said "Yes, Woody must''ve told you about that". He then asked "How old are you?", I was confused and said "That depends on what day and year it is but from my calctions, I should be 24 years old".


    He said "It''s the 614th year of the Androsian Calendar. Today is the 41st day of summer". I nodded my head and said "Then, I''m 24". The Vige Chief looked at the sky again and asked "Who are your parents? You said that you saw an image of your mother in front of the vige stone". I was baffled and a bit suspicious. I said "Why do you want to know who my parents were? They were simple peddlers. They died a long time ago. Why are you asking me those unnecessary questions?".


    He still looked at the sky and said "Can you just answer one more question?". I said "Ok, I will answer one more question". He asked "What were your parents names?". I waspletely lost. ''Are these people obsessed about the history of others?'' I thought and answered "Lily was my mother''s name and Raz was my father''s". I looked at the Vige Chief and didn''t know what to think. ''Was this over? Can I go now or something?'' I thought but then, I noticed a stream of tearsing down from his eyes. ''What the¡­?''.


    He said "You may not believe it but Lily was my daughter". I thought I heard something wrong and asked "The what?" and a whileter, I said "Oh, you mean, your daughter also had the same name as my mother. Is your daughter dead as well?". He shook his head "You don''t understand. Your mother, was my daughter". The first and initial reaction I had was "Bullshit! Do you know how far Freemount Vige is from here? Old man, are you not acting delusional?".


    He said "I told you, you will not believe it but you are my grandson. I can also prove it". I was baffled and said "How?". He said "Your name is Nex, right?". I was shocked. He then continued "Do you know why your parents gave you that name and what does it mean?". I said absentmindedly "No. Why?". He said "The name means "Blood". You are the blood of my daughter Lily and your father Raz, this is the name, I chose for you".


    I said confused "But it doesn''t make sense, how? Why would they live so far away and be some small time peddlers? This vige has loads of powerful people, whenever man or a woman" then it hit me "Is that why my father practiced a set of exercises every morning?". The Vige Chief introduced himself for the first time. "I''m Trek. Trek Whitehound, your mother was Lily Whitehound while your father was Raz Wintersteed. You are therefore Nex Wintersteed, is that not correct?".


    It was true, I never said myst name to anyone while on the journey. Only people that knew my parents or me personally would know that. I asked "So, this is my home? This is where my parentse from?". Trek nodded his head and said "This is your true home boy. This is where your family is. It seems that the world is big but small at the same time. You came here by yourself even though, I searched you for years".


    I asked "Why didn''t my parents say anything? Why did we live in a different vige?". Trek said "Calm down Nex, I will exin everything to you. First, I need to tell everybody that my grandson is back!".


    He left like this and I stood there bewildered. ''Is this really my family? Is this where my mother came from? Otherwise, why would he know about all those things? But the odds of me getting here¡­ how unlikely is this?'' I thought as I stood there. This felt weird to me, as if something was off. ''If this ce is like this, full of strong people and they have their ownmunity. No one goes around hungry, everyone works for the better good of the whole vige. So why would my parents leave? Were they cast out? Ran away? Why did they go so far then?'' I thought and asked myself many questions.


    What Trek said seemed truthful but it seemed that he withheld some stuff as well. I wanted to ask questions but he left. ''I don''t understand his actions either. He found his grandson, that has been missing for years and he is not happy enough toe over and hug me or something like that? My instincts are telling me, something is wrong and my instincts were never wrong. I should watch out, I don''t know any of these people'' I thought and returned to the hut.


    Woody was still working on his carvings. I said to him "It turns out I''m the grandson of Trek". Woody stopped his carving and turned around. He said "So, it was you. I thought about that, when you told me that you are from Freemount Vige. Your long, ck hair obstructed your face but you do resemble your father". I asked "Can you teach me archery now? It seems that people of this vige, hide great amount of experience and skills".


    He responded "Sure. You are part of the family, so I don''t see a problem. We can start tomorrow and you can still do some work if you want but being the grandson of Trek, I don''t think you will have to work here hehe". I nodded my head and said "I will do some work once in a while, it reminds me of my profession and the past. I will rest now but tomorrow, you have to show me some tricks!". Woodyughed and said "Sure".


    Iid down in my bed and closed my eyes. I didn''t know what to think about all of this. One one hand, I was happy that I still had a family but on the other, my instincts were warning me about something. I learned to trust my instincts and the unanswered questions that I had, were bothering me even more. ''We will see tomorrow. I want to hear the answers to my questions first. Maybe this will ease my instincts'' I thought and fell asleep.

 Chapter 163

    Chapter 163


    When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that Woody was not there, carving something as usual. I stood up, washed my face and went outside. It was eerily quiet. I took a stroll around the vige but couldn''t find anyone. It was as if the whole poption of the vige evaporated. I walked and walked, until I arrived at the central part of the vige.


    I saw that all the people were gathered there and waiting for something. I was bewildered and asked out loud "What is going on?". The people around the central za, turned towards me and silence filled the air. Trek came out of the crowd to the front and smiled. He said "We were waiting for you. We all gathered here, to wee back my grandson. Come, let us celebrate!".


    This felt weird. ''No one told me about that. What if, I just stayed in the hut till afternoon, would they just sit here? Waiting like this? Why wouldn''t Woody wait for me and tell me?'' I though. I took a few steps forward and the people started smiling and saying "Wee back" or something equivalent.


    I joined the group and saw tables that surrounded the Vige Stone. On it was food, drinks and whatnot. I asked "Why didn''t you guys tell me?". Trek said "We wanted for it to be a surprise of sorts. Come join us, we will celebrate today like never!". I thought ''He seems quite enthusiastic. These people are a bit weird but so far, my instincts are not kicking in. I guess it should be fine''.


    I sat down next to Trek, while other people also found their own spots. Trek said "Here. A toast, for the return of my grandson!" and all cheered. I didn''t know how to behave myself really. I didn''t know these people and although they seemed to be my family, they were also strangers. The questions from the previous day, resurfaced and I was lost in my thoughts.


    Then I heard "Nex, tell us more about your adventure up to here!". It was the voice of Ricky. He acted differently than before, as if looking at an older brother. It was a weird feeling and besides, I didn''t know where to start. ''Should I tell them about everything? or just some major points? I don''t know'' I thought. Trek saw my expression and said "You don''t have toy out all the things you did past those years. Just give us some interesting things you saw and experienced". I nodded my head and began.


    "So, I learned about crafting since age of 16, it was after my parents passed away. I wasn''t doing badly and I liked what I did. Couple of yearster, I fell in love with a woman". At that point I could hear some "Oooooh" sounds made by older people as well as Trek. I continued "But, she just wanted to use me. She stole the heirloom that my parents left for me and ran away. I was.." then Trek interrupted me "What heirloom did you lose?".


    I said "The sword that father and mother left for me. They said to keep it safe but I was young and stupid. I wanted to impress a girl and gave it to her...". "BOOOM!" the table we were sitting at broke into pieces. Trek was furious, he said "Did you get that sword back?". I shook my head and said "No. I never found her and I never searched either. It was just a sword".


    Some people started to hold Trek down while his anger rose even more. The atmosphere changed by a 180 degrees. People had hostile looks on their faces, when they looked at me and my instincts were telling me to run. I stood up and distanced myself from the group. Trek was mad already due to my words and said "You bastard! A filthy spawn of that Raz and to think my daughter ran away with that filth!".


    ''I knew something was wrong with these people. It seems this really is my family but that is not necessarily a good thing. No wonder we lived so far away. My parents ran away from here but why did he get so pissed about that sword?'' I thought. I had no answer to that question but I knew, I couldn''t stay here any longer. My instincts were telling me to run!


    I backed away more and more while Trek still spouted angryments. "You good for nothing filth. You should be skinned alive! Boiled in water and then chopped into pieces!". The people seemed to realise that I was getting further and further away, so without waiting any longer, I sprinted towards the exit.


    "Catch that bastard!", "Don''t let him get away!", "He has be sacrificed anyway". When I heard thestment, I was terrified. ''What the fuck did they want to do to me? Sacrifice? To what? These people are lunatics, no wonder mother and father left this ce and went far away!'' I thought and ran at my full speed.


    There were arrows, spears and whatnot flying at me. I calcted their behaviours and used the Natural Path skill to the maximum, in order to run and avoid the attacks. I couldn''t stay there, I had to get out of there and into the forest. The forest would at least, provide some cover and means of escape!


    I ran past the entrance and I felt that something was wrong. My instincts were telling me that something wasing from behind, fast! I jumped to the left. "Screech!". What passed me, was an arrow that was going so fast, it was making screeching sound as it flew.


    ''This is bad. Woody''s skills are on par with that sword woman. I wouldn''t be surprised, if she was one of them as well'' I thought and ran as fast as I could, while utilising the Natural Path skill. When I was in the forest, the people that could attack me, were those that had ranged weapons but fortunately, they didn''t excell at speed. I was worried that someone who did, would chase me but no one was faster than me from that group. Woody was the most terrifying opponent, his archery skills were beyond those of that Eterian I met and she lived for over 100 years.


    There were currently 4 people chasing me, including Woody. All of them had bows but the archery skills of the other 3 people, were much worsepared to those of Woody. I decided to sacrifice some of my daggers and try to eliminate the 3 weaker opponents. With my daggers ready, I released two of them, while utilising the Natural Path skill. The daggers were on target, until two arrows knocked them off the course.


    ''That bastard is just too good with that bow'' I thought and then, I heard Woody shouting "Fall back guys! He has the means to kill you with one dagger! I will chase him alone!". The others didn''t seem to disagree and fell back. I was relieved but at the same time shocked. ''This guy can judge my skill very well and not only that, he believes that he can catch me by himself. This is bad'' I thought.

 Chapter 164

    Chapter 164


    Woody chased me through the forest, while shooting arrows once in a while. It would be great if these shots were just normal shots but no. Those were on the same scale as the one I dodged, at the entrance of the vige. I ran for over an hour and I could only see Woody behind me. ''I may be able to take him down, if I use all my skills and the new power of my hand, I should be able to kill him. He is good at long distance battle so that means, he has to be worse in closebat'' I thought and started slowing down.


    I was still utilising the Natural Path skill but I wanted to get closer. Woody probably noticed that and said "Good choice but against me, you have no chances". His running turned into footwork as well and the moment I got closer, he would back away. ''He knows his weakness and I can''t go back that way. If I run like this, I will end up being caught'' I thought.


    I couldn''t get closer and I couldn''t lose him. This was a predicament, I didn''t hope for. He chased me while I ran. I knew that sooner orter, I would run out of energy. He would be tired as well but who would be the 1st to run out? That was the crucial question.


    After another 30 minutes of running, the arrows stoppeding my way. ''Is he already too tired? Maybe he run out of arrows?'' I thought and looked back. I saw that Woody was still there and more importantly, he had more arrows with him as well. ''Why is he not shooting? Did he get tired and is now waiting for me to exhaust myself? This should be it, if he can''t strike me down, he can just wait it out'' I thought.


    But I was wrong. Woody, that was on my tail, said loudly enough for me to hear. "This should be far enough". When I heard this, I immediately assumed he is going to use an even superior skill. A skill that would hit. I prepared for the worst and awaited the signal from my instincts but it never came.


    What came was another sentence out of Woody''s mouth. "We ran far enough, they will not catch up now". I was baffled and thought that he was trying to slow me down and make me lose my focus. I continued on running, whatever he said, I would just ignore it.


    What followed after a while, was an attack. ''I knew it!'' I thought and evaded. Although I jumped as soon as my instincts told me to, I could still feel something knocking me back. When Inded, I noticed it was Woody. "How did you get so close?" was the only thing, I had on my mind. ''For such a long time, he kept arge distance but then, he released an arrow while catching up to me? How the hell did he manage that?'' I thought.


    Woody said "I told you to stop running, I''m not that young anymore, you know?". I responded "I prefer to die thane back there" but he just shook his head and said "Do you think I would take you back there? The only reason we ran so far away, is to let you escape. Why would I take you back now?".


    I was baffled and said reflexively "What?". Woody said "If I wanted to catch you, I would have done so a long time ago. Although we are far away, we don''t have much time" and then threw me a bag. "These are supplies you might need. Some tools, ropes and whatnot. If you have any questions, ask but we will have to make it short".


    I was confused and stood there for a while. When I finally snapped out of it, I asked "Why are you helping me?". He answered promptly "I''m not a lunatic like the rest of them. Of course, there are a few more people inside the vige, that are not lunatics". He then continued "Your father was a brave warrior. Far away from what Trek described him as. To be honest, Trek and his followers are the real filth, to think that he wanted to sacrifice his own grandson¡­".


    I said "Right, what about that sacrifice thing? What is going on over there? He is my grandfather but then, he wanted to sacrifice me? What the fuck is going on in that vige?". Woody said "He is dying, and he knows that very well. This didn''t happen in one day. This goes on for about 21 years. I know this may sound stupid but he is not dying from any illness. He is dying because he overreached his life".


    He then continued "He seems younger than he is and that is because, he is 163 years old. Your mother was his only daughter remaining, and she had you. You were about 3 years old at that time. Trek wanted to sacrifice you, in order to extend his own life. That is the purpose of the sacrifice. When your father learned about it, they fought but because Trek had followers and Raz was alone, your parents had to escape. This they did and they took the sacrificial sword with them".


    I was confused and shocked. I asked "A human can live 160 years?". Woody said "Yes, I myself am 98 years old. The vige you are from is not normal". I couldn''t process that information but managed to ask "Then why would my parents leave that sword with me? Why not destroy it?". He said "This is the sword of the founder of our vige. Destroying it, is not easy. They couldn''t do it, so they left it with you". I asked "Why not hide it somewhere?". He shook his head and said "I don''t know. Maybe they thought, that you will be able to use it. Although the sword is a sacrificial sword and when used in that ritual, can exchange lifeforce between two members of the same bloodline. The sword is also very sharp. That might be the reason why they left it with you".


    "Then, how did that woman knew I had it? She couldn''t be one of the vigers because she would capture me. So who was she?". Woody said "If you are referring to the woman that took your sword, then the simple answer is, I don''t know. I don''t know how she learned about your sword but if she was one of Trek''s people, you would be sacrificed long ago".


    I asked "How did you guys know about Freemount Vige?". He said "This is simple. We searched for people named Nex. Trek sent out people to search for you and not a small number. About 20 of them were searching, they found out about the Freemount Vige about 2 years ago but you were already gone from there. You have quite a unique name. Your father also had a unique name. No wonder he named you like this".


    "Wait. Trek said, he gave me that name". Woodyughed and said "He? He hated Raz and you as well. He never approved of Lily and Raz being together because your father was not from our vige. When he learned that he is slowly dying, he wanted to persuade Lily to give you up and extend his lifespan but she didn''t agree".


    Woody continued "I don''t know what type of bullshit Trek told you but he never acknowledged you, even more so, gave you a name". I didn''t know what to do at this point and asked "So what should I do?". Woody sighted and said "You need to hide yourself. Trek doesn''t have very long to live and he will pursue you, with or without the sword. You may think that the 20 people I told you about may not be a lot but in reality, these 20 people have their own people and so on. Going into any major cities or viges is not a good idea. You have talent, like your father. Develop yourself well and in the future, you can walk with your head straight".


    He then continued "Before we part ways, I will teach you my strongest move. Watch it and learn it. I will show it to you only once". I had mixed feeling but I watched attentively anyway. Woody pulled out an arrow and notched it onto the bow. He said "You need to mix your aura with the arrow and let it carry it". He then released his aura, I felt calm when the aura enveloped me. He then released the arrow. "SCREECH!"


    The arrow flew through the air like a bolt of lightning and the aura was no longer calm but raging as if a monster was hunting its pray. "Booom... Booom... Booom..." the arrow passed through trees like butter, leaving gaping holes behind. It flew very far and destroyed so many trees on its way, that it seemed impossible. Woody turned towards me and said "This is my final skill and it''s called Hunting Arrow. If you ever manage to learn it, you will be able to go to any city with your head up high".


    I was shocked for words. This was not some simple screeching arrow that he released earlier, it was much more destructive. Woody said "Now go. Try to stay alive, that is all I can do for you Nex". I was reluctant to leave but I knew I had to go. I said "Farewell, I hope that we can meet one day. I will pay you back for all this help". Woody simply answered "Farewell".

 Chapter 165

    Chapter 165


    I ran through the forest towards the northern direction for the rest of the day. Whenever I was out of energy, I would stop to eat something, then continue running. I didn''t want to spoil the opportunity Woody created for me, so I ran. When my food finished in the evening, I decided to hunt and continue running. The forest was not as peaceful as it was in the past, with that Eterian around. I found a group of wolves no problem and took their meat.


    I ran through the night and only stopped in the morning. I was exhausted, food could restore my energy but the stress on my body, that required sleep, was mounting up. I was very far away from that vige at that point but I didn''t have strength to think straight anymore and simply fell asleep. The dream I had was hazy, I knew it was the dream where the Dark Traveller spoke to me but it was hazy like never before. ''Why is it so hazy, I can''t make out anything he says'' I thought.


    The dream continued as usual but then something weird happened. The Dark Traveller seemed to talk in¡­ Human Language? "In my world, it always rains. The dark ash falls¡­" and then it reverted back to the Ancient Language. I thought that is was just my imagination but it happened again. "It''s a curse that I bare but it is also a.." then back to Ancient Language.


    I was baffled by this and tried to listen carefully but the more attentive I was, the clearer the Ancient Language became. ''Why is it that when I focus, the Ancient Language is clearer?'' I thought and decided to try not to focus at all, on thenguage. It wasn''t easy to not focus on somethingpletely, when you want to know what was being said.


    After a few attempts, I managed to hear another sentence in Human Language "I will tell you the story passed throughout¡­". Then thenguage changed again. I had no idea why it happened but it was weird. After a while, I realised that I''m awake. ''The dream finished without me realising it. Why did the Dark Traveller speak in Human Language? Or is it that, I could trante thenguage to some extent?'' I thought.


    I had no answer to that question but I also didn''t think it was my imagination. ''There is no need to worry about something I have no power over. I need to get away from here first''. I didn''t have the time to check what sort of supplies, Woody handed to me. When I checked the bag, there were some carving tools, hammers, saws and whatnot. The ropes were also there, as well as some tailoring, smithing and so on tools.


    What surprised me was a map. "FINALLY!" I eximed and hurriedly opened it up. The map contained a vast area of the Endrosian Empire. Not only was this map more detaily that any previous map I had, it also show what and where the north is.


    ''So that is how north looks like?'' I thought. The most northern location on the map was like and of shadows. The map disyed it as a dark ce with no human settlements. It didn''t disy the whole northern location, it only show a bit of it. I assumed a very small bit of it. ''This is my destination it seems. It will take me over a month to get there. Even if I were to run at full speed, the time would only decrease by a week or so. It''s quite far away but with the supplies I have, I should have no troubles reaching that ce'' I thought and resumed my journey.


    I only took breaks when really necessary. Only after a week of such travelling, did I calm down and took it more easy. I also noticed that the closer I got to my destination, the stronger animals became. I even saw a ming Silver Fox once, running into the distance. I wasn''t about to chase it down, even though I would probably be able to kill it. The Elites were popping up like mushrooms after the rain, they were everywhere. ck Variants were the norm here, then the Elites such as Silver Bears or Wolves and finally, the ming Variants.


    For some reason or another, I never encountered another ck Mammoth. I didn''t need to encounter one but I just wondered whenever they were very rare. I looked for stuff wherever I went. I took any herbs and ore I could find. Ore didn''te from the mines only, it could also be found in the forest. Some animals would transport it, weather could do that as well. I found a few pieces that I could use to make something but I didn''t have a furnace.


    I also went back to my usual training. I wanted to be as prepared for the north, as I could be. I also tried to mimic the Hunting Arrow that Woody showed me but to no avail. My skills in archery were the least advanced. Although I couldn''t mimic or learn the skill just yet, Woody hinted at something I figured out a while ago. That is, to use the Aura in order to attack. My Domineering Aura was always released as an area type of effect but what if, I were to apply that to my arrow or dagger? Would the attack power change?


    These were easy questions, the hard one was how? ''How do I apply the aura to my weapon? Woody released his aura first but then it transferred onto the arrow. Does that mean, I have to transfer my aura? But how?'' I was lost in my thoughts and then an idea was born inside my head. ''What if, I try to condense it? Condensing the aura should be possible, if it''s possible to transfer it onto an object'' I thought and decided to give it a try.


    I released my Aura and tried to condense it, so that the area affected is smaller and smaller. To some extent, I was able to do so but then I hit a wall. I could only condense my Aura up to 5 metres and then I couldn''t do so anymore. ''This is weird. It proves that I can condense it but then, only up to 5 metres in circumference. Why can''t I condense it more?'' I thought.


    Maybe it was due tock of experience or skills. I didn''t use the Domineering Aura that often and so I didn''t know much about it. ''I need to use it much more often, the Auras of us humans seem to be very useful. I also need to think about developing other Auras. I already know that I need one for stealth but one for my hidden weapons, would also be great'' I thought and left the Aura released.


    This drained my energy faster, I had to focus as well as exert my will but the more I used it, the quicker I would get an answer. I practiced and travelled at the same time. I didn''t have the leisure to sit in one ce like before. With a potential tail behind me, I had to move constantly.


    Another week passed, as I travelled and trained. My Domineering Aura was released at all times, except when I was getting tired or slept. I noticed that the more I used my Aura, the more control I had over it. I was now able to condense my Aura up to 3 metres in diameter. ''I''m getting closer but this is not enough. What I''m after, is a an Aura so condensed, that it doesn''t leave my body. It''s getting harder to improve it nevertheless'' I thought.


    In the past the Domineering Aura was spread out as far as it could reach but when I managed to condense it to the 3 metres mark, the effect was extraordinary. A Silver Bear that could be considered as an Elite, was almost bowing under my Aura, when I fought in closebat. Disposing of that bear was as simple as killing any Normal Bear.


    ''The effects are amazing. Although the scope is much smaller, the strength of my aura is at least 4 times greater. In the past, if I were to release that aura and fight with the Silver Bear, it wouldn''t feel much of a difference but now?''. I was now hell bent on mastering my aura. The power would be incredible if condensed to a Point of Origin. I decided to call it like this, the Aura wasing from me and spreading, if it were to be condensed back to my body or very near it, it would return to the original point. Hence Point of Origin.


    At that point, I was about two weeks away from that vige. It was called Asturb on the map, a weird name to say the least. I knew that they would send people but Woody wouldn''t search for me or he would pretend to do so. ''He may even misguide them to some different direction. That would be even better'' I thought and headed north.

 Chapter 166

    Chapter 166


    I travelleing and training resumed. Another two weeks passed and I was only couple of days away from my destination. In the distance, I could see what seemed like dark clouds looming over the sky. This was the north. The beasts got even stronger at that point. Finding any ck Variants was quite rare. Mostly the Silver Elites were the norm by now and from time to time, the ming Variants would appear. I had to fight a ming Grey Bear once.


    It was very powerful, not as strong as the ck Mammoth but strong nevertheless. The mes on its paws were not just for show. These were real mes and burned stuff much better than any me I could start using wood. The battle took a while and the destruction it caused, was great. In the end, I managed to kill the bear.


    What I noticed after the battle, was that the mes kept on burning, even though the bear was dead. This was weird. I tried to figure out, for how long they would stay lit. I waited for about 20 minutes and the mes started dying. After another 10 minutes, the mes werepletely gone.


    ''So the mests for about 30 minutes, after the bear dies. This is useful to me. I don''t have a furnace and these mes are even better, than the mes in a furnace. Next time, I can try making some daggers and whatnot'' I thought. I then butchered the bear in order to check its insides, as well as extract its meat. I never ate the meat from that variant, I was curious as to what taste it would have.


    The skin was very tough, even after its death. With some cutting and fiddling for a while, I was able to open the bear up and checked its insides,pared to other bears. What I found immediately was that, this bear''s muscles were much more dense and had a slightly different colourpared to normal red muscles. The colour was more on the light red side, as well as slightly pink. I took a look at the vital organs and noticed that they were much tougher as well. I extracted all the meat I could and left that ce. I already stayed there for too long.


    At a further away location, I sat down and noted all my findings in the Beast Scriptures. The book I almost forgot about due to only encountering the same animals, was now much moreplete. Not only did I found more about the animals and beasts that I already knew, I also found new species, that has been added to my book.


    I found a lizard like creature, that was quite fast and could camouge itself. It didn''t walk on 4 legs like normal lizards but on two. Its skin was multicoloured when visible and when camouged¡­ Well looked kind of transparent. It wasn''t humanoid in shape. It walked on two legs and had two arms but its head was elongated. The creature was quite slim, with a short tail that was used for bnce. It was also quite short, about 60 centimetres in height. It''s weapons were the ws, as well as its teeth. The creature had very sharp teeth and pointy ws, when I examined themter.


    I decided to name that creature Raptor. This lizard wanted to sneak up on me, during my break but due to my instincts and the fact that I learned the Art of Stealth, it could only wish to do that. Its greatest ability was the stealth, its fighting capabilities on the other hand, were not very strong. It could only fight me in closebat, while I could fight at long range as well. That kind of opponent was too easy for me.


    The ability to camouge itself, came from the skin. I collected the raptor''s skin in order to study it more and perhaps use it, as a cloak for stealth. I also collected its teeth. ''Those things would be perfect as arrowheads. Not only are they sharp, they are quite sturdy as well'' I thought. The ws could be used to make needles or even makeshift throwing weapons, so I took them.


    Another animal that I encountered, was a wild horse. These animals were not aggressive, until one entered their territory or tried to harm them. They lived inrger groups and were very fast. I tried to catch one but I soon gave that idea up. They were as fast as me and they became aggressive when I tried approaching them. I had to kill a few of them in order to escape. They were not that strong,pared to other animals but they excelled at speed.


    ''Maybe, I will be able to tame one in the future. I wouldn''t have to walk everywhere that way'' I thought after running away from them. I could kill them all but I decided against that. ''There is no point killing animals, that try to protect their own group and territory. They also eat nts not meat, so as long as I don''t provoke them, they will leave me alone too'' I thought. I decided to call them Forest Mare.


    There was another group of animals that I found. They were therge birds, that would fly in the skies from time to time. Although they never attacked me, their sizes were astonishing. One such bird could be as tall as 2 metres and with their wings spread, they could reach even 5 metres in width. Their feathers were pale yellow and from what I found, very gentle to the touch. I found couple of feather and collected them ''Who knows what uses they might have'' I thought.


    I decided to call those birds Pale Avias. I didn''t have much information on them but with time, I would probably find out more. Besides the new finds, I also updated some entries of the animals, I already knew about.


    I also made some more advancements with my Aura. I could now condense it to the 2 metres mark but then, I hit the wall again. This time, it was not justck of experience but something else. ''Perhaps it''s theck of strength or focus? I''m quite well versed with my Domineering Aura now but I feel like, I''m missing something'' I thought.


    I didn''t know how to advance with my Aura but that didn''t deter me from using it all the time. I also made some improvements with my new dagger skill, that I called Pressuring Dagger. I was now faster and more precise at hitting the correct pressure points. The bears had a humanoid kind of structure and their pressure points were in simr cespared to those of a human. I could kill a bear effortlessly now but of course that was a bear, with a limited amount of intelligence. The ming Grey Bear was much more intelligent and I wasn''t able to use that skill on it. I would always miss those pressure points.


    I only focused on my Aura and the Pressuring Dagger skill for my journey towards north. Besides skills, I also trained using the Modified Diagram from the Strength Manual. I was still stuck at the same ce but my body was getting stronger, it was due to the stress my body was under when practicing the diagram. ''Soon, I will arrive at my destination. North looks to be gloomy but something seems to push me in that direction. In a few days, I will find out what is so scary about north!'' I thought.

 Chapter 167

    Chapter 167


    The closer I got to my destination, the gloomier the climate became. It was summer still but the temperatures dropped a bit. The days seemed to be shorter, while nights longer. I was still in the forest but the atmosphere was¡­ different. I could now see the dividing line of sorts, where the forest finished and what followed it, was wastnd. The creature also thinned out. I could see less animals but more beasts like ming Silver Wolf or ming Grey Bear.


    As I walked through the forest, my instincts red up about something. I looked around but didn''t see anything. My suspicion was, that another Raptor was trying to sneak up on me. I walked forwards but paid attention to the surroundings. My guess was half correct, it was a creature that was trying to sneak up on me but it wasn''t a normal Raptor.


    I attacked immediately and uncovered the stealth of the creature. What I saw, was a ck Raptor but this one seemed weird and out of ce. It was covered in some kind of oily ck substance and its eyes were red. ''This is not a normal Raptor, it''s either a variant or something must''ve happened to it'' I thought and released a barrage of attacks on my enemy. The ck Raptor died quickly but what followed was too shocking to wrap my mind around. The ck substance that covered the Raptor, began to move and detached itself from the creature.


    "What the fuck is that thing?!" I eximed and threw another dagger at it. The liquid thing was unperturbed by that and simply condensed into onerge blob. What followed after, was something straight out of horrors. The blob grew eyes but not just one or two, no. It was covered in eyes that looked elongated and with red irises.


    The blob looked at me and then jumped towards me, as if to swallow me. I evaded quickly and distanced myself away from the creature. The blob like thing, was not very fast fortunately and was slowly making its way towards me. ''What the hell is that thing? That Raptor over there is a normal Raptor, with the multicoloured skin. Is that thing some sort of parasite?'' I thought.


    My thoughts continued ''Physical attacks don''t seem to work on that thing. I could try fire, maybe this will do something''. I started distancing myself and gathering some materials to make a torch. A whileter, I made a torch and lit it. The creature stopped when it saw fire and didn''t approach anymore. ''So, it is scared of me. This is good. Otherwise, I would have no other ideas how to destroy that thing'' I thought and started approaching the blob.


    The moment I walked towards it, the blob tried to move back. It''s speed was slow, so I approached faster and struck it with the burning torch. The creature screeched and burst into mes. The eyes started moving around and seemed to show signs of pain and panic. The blob burned very well, until almost nothing was left. "Just what the hell was that thing anyway?" I asked myself out loud.


    In the least, I now knew its weakness, as well as the fact, that it could act as a parasite. It looked creepy nevertheless, with all those eyes and everything. I examined the remains of that blob. The substance was like oil mixed in with water. It had no corrosive properties, I decided to gather some of those remains. At this stage, I wanted to study everything in details. The more I knew, the better my situation would be.


    ''No wonder ming Variants can survive here. These things are scared of fire'' I thought and moved towards north. I decided to call that thing Fluid Gazer, due to its form and those creepy eyes, that popped up out of nowhere. I was still a day or two away from that sort of dividing line. Although the forest started disappearing, the greenery was still apparent but that was only to the point of that dividing line. Anything beyond,cked green or any other vibrant colour. Everything was dull and gloomy.


    I was now on guard at all times. ''If a creature such as Fluid Gazer exists here, then what type of monsters would an actual north contain?'' I asked myself. After about 30 minutes of walking, I noticed a pack of ck Bears but on closer inspection, it was a group of infected bears. I steered clear of them, I didn''t want to waste my time, burning 13 of those Fluid Gazers.


    Although I didn''t want to fight, I still decided to make loads of torches. ''Better to be prepared than cryter'' I thought. Making torches didn''t cost me anything but time and I had loads of that on my hands. I could see some dying trees over the border in the north but ''Who knows what type of trees are these? If a creature such as Fluid Gazer is possible, than a monster tree should be as well'' I thought and collected wood for torches.


    I wanted to make as many as I could. Besides, the torches were light and even a thousand of them would not amount to much weight. I spent the rest of the day making torches. At the end, I was sick of it but I did manage to create around 340 of them. ''This should be enough¡­ I hope'' I thought and built my camping site on a tall tree.


    In this environment, I wasn''t going to stay on the ground, where those Fluid Gazers were roaming. The next morning, I resumed my journey. I met some more animals infected by the Fluid Gazers. I had to fight some of them but the torches I made earlier, were of great help. The infected animals would run away, when a few Fluid Gazers burned to death. ''I used 5 torches, which is not a lot. I still have plenty'' I thought and continued on my way.


    In the evening, I arrived at the visible dividing line, between the North and the Great Forest. This looked like two different worldsbining, with a straight line separating them. "This looks so weird. All the grass and whatnot, simply stops at that line. No greenery passess through that border, even a centimetre!" I eximed out loud.


    I took a step forward, to cross that line. "Boom!" Something like a cold wind, hit my face hard and made me stumble back. "What the hell was that?" I asked myself. I tried again but this time, I expected that st of cold wind. "Boom!" I was more prepared this time and didn''t stumble. When I fully crossed the line, I could feel sudden drop in temperature. The wind sounded like whispers, agonising whispers that would haunt me, even in my dreams.


    "This ce is as creepy, as it can get. It''s also very weird. Crossing that line, made the climate change so suddenly. The skies are dark, with no stars visible. Is that dividing line something special? Like a barrier of some sorts?" I said to myself. I crossed the line again and returned to the edge of the Great Forest. The atmosphere changed back, to the one I was used to. I could see the stars as well. ''This is very weird. One step and the whole environment changes'' I thought and crossed the line again to enter the North.


    I took a few nces around me and said to myself "Wee to the North, I guess" then marched forwards.

 Chapter 168

    Chapter 168


    As I walked forwards, I noticed something moving in the distance. I couldn''t quite make it out yet, due to the dust that has been raised but it could only spell trouble. A whileter, the form of that something was revealed to me. It was a pack of what seemed to be dogs. On closer inspection, these were not normal dogs, no. Those things were half rotten, with some flesh missing.


    ''The north is really mysterious. I wonder how strong those things are'' I thought and prepared myself for the confrontation. The Rotting Hounds, as I named them on the spot, were getting closer and closer. The pack contained around 30 of them and they were as fast as ck Wolves. While walking forwards, I took out my bow and prepared an arrow.


    "Swoosh!"


    I released the arrow. It sped through the air, hitting the middle of the pack. "ARWOOO" one of the Rotting Hounds screamed and died. ''Those things are nothing special, perhaps as strong or maybe a bit stronger than ck Wolves'' I thought and released more arrows.


    The hounds started to thin out quickly but never retreated. They got quite close but with 8 of them remaining, this was not a threat whatsoever. I decided to finish them off in closebat and learn more about their abilities. The Rotting Hounds might''ve seemed gruesome but they were quite weak to be honest. No abilities and it seemed, that their weapon was numbers and speed.


    I quickly disposed of the remaining Rotting Hounds and dissected them. I wanted to find out why they could stay alive, even though they seemed to be rotting. The answer to my question never came. ''It looks like they mutated in that way. Is it because of the wastnd?'' I thought.


    Then it hit me ''I will need food in order to travel anywhere further. Without food, I will be doomed. This is not Great Forest anymore, these creatures are not edible in any way''. I had to go back in order to get some meat. Otherwise, the amount of food I had, would onlyst me a week or two. This depended on my energy consumption.


    I went back to the border line and crossed it. ''Fortunately, I was close to the border, otherwise, I would have to waste a lot of time returning'' I thought and started the hunt. I hunted anything that was edible but I did have to backtrack a day or two in order to find any animals that could be eaten and were healthy.


    After a few days, I was back at the line separating the North from Great Forest. ''I have enough food tost me at least a month. That is under the worst case scenario. With the dry rations, I canst for about 2 months'' I thought and resumed my journey in the North.


    This time, the weingmittee didn''t appear. I didn''t see any creatures for a very long time or at least, what I thought it to be a long time. The scenery didn''t change much and besides that, there was no sun or stars in the sky. Only dark clouds that hovered endlessly over the horizon. This seemed weird to me ''Why are there no creatures? I get that this is a wastnd but then, why would people be scared of this ce? Because of those Rotting Hounds or the Liquid Gazers? Sure, those things are creepy but not strong in any way''.


    I lost track of time, as I travelled and rested when necessary. I could only track my days using the amount of food I had. I still had loads, so that would mean, not much time has passed. After what I assumed, a few days, I met something strange. ''This is¡­ a sea?'' I thought at the sight that was in front of me.


    It looked like a sea or perhaps a hugeke but it certainly wasn''t water. I came closer took a more detailed look at the sea. It was ckish and the waves never breached a certain point. It was as if they simply stopped in a specific ce. I decided to test that sea and ced one unlit torch inside the sea. It wasn''t liquid, that thing was like rubber. I even pressed the torch hard to pierce it but to no avail. Whatever it was, it was not a liquid but a sort of ckish rubber that was very tough.


    I checked the torch but didn''t notice any changes to it. ''This thing is not corrosive but it could be poisonous. I should test it out, before I try to touch it'' I thought and took out a small piece of meat. What happened next was totally unexpected. The piece of meat started to get absorbed by the sea, until it finally disappeared.


    "Don''t tell me this is alive. The whole sea is alive? As in, one organism?" I said out loud, shocked. This was impossible, how could it be? A sea with not end in sight, was one huge creature? I stood there for a while and didn''t know what to do really. This was something unheard of. ''If the whole sea is a creature, then what type of monsters live in this ce?'' I asked myself.


    I decided to test it myself, I wanted to know if that thing was really a creature or simply the meat fell into a ce that was actually not rubber. I ced my finger on top of the rubbery sea and focused. What I noticed, was the exact thing I already guessed. The rubber started to crawl up, onto my finger. I could see small, saw like teeth, growing out of the part that wrapped around my finger, when I focused very hard.


    I quickly tried to pull my finger out but it wasn''t that easy. The rubbery substance was acting like glue now. I pulled with the maximum of my strength and finally managed to retrieve my finger. There was still some rubbery substance on my finger wiggling about but causing no pain or damage. When I looked at the part of the sea that I touched with my finger. I saw something that was beyond creepy.


    "Those eyes again! The same ones, as in the Fluid Gazer!" I eximed and looked at my finger. The ck substance on my finger started to grow weaker and weaker and finally stopped moving. ''Is this were the Fluid Gazers are from? Do they leave this sea and travel outside?'' I asked myself. The part of the sea that was missing one chunk, patched itself up. It acted as if nothing ever happened. The remains on my finger were gluey but didn''t move whatsoever. I decided to study themter, I took out a container and stored it.


    "No wonder people are scared of the North. The wastnd that offers no food, water or shelter, as well as all those monsters, that look creepy. Even more so, a whole sea as a creature. I hope that this thing doesn''t move" I said to myself but then, I got an idea.


    "Wait! What If I try to burn this thing? Will it catch fire, just like Fluid Gazers?" I said to myself and retrieved a torch. After lighting it up, I threw it at the sea. What happened next was also extraordinary. A small part of the rubbery sea, rose into the air and deflected the torch far away.


    ''So, it doesn''t like fire either. I now know that it can do shit like, expanding upwards and maybe even contract downwards. It''s possible that it can also became different shape when it rises. I don''t know what height it can rise up to but my guess is, that it isn''t short'' I thought. The rubbery sea didn''t try to attack me either. This would suggest, that it couldn''t move, or at least move through the ground. My guess was that, it might''ve been a stationary creature and something had to step on it, in order for the sea to activate. I decided to call it ck Gazer Sea and noted all my findings in the Beast Scriptures.


    I couldn''t travel through it, I would be dead after just taking my first step on it. I had to go different way. ''Hopefully, this doesn''t extend for miles on end'' I thought.

 Chapter 169

    Chapter 169


    I walked towards the western direction, alongside the ck Gazer Sea. I don''t know for how long I did that but I learned couple of things, about the giant creature next to me. The sea would spew out some Liquid Gazers once in a while. It turned out that my theory was correct and this was the ce of origin for those Liquid Gazers. I didn''t know why it only spew out a few of them, every once in a while but I guessed that, the new Liquid Gazers were born inside and the space was limited. Therefore, the sea had to spew out some of them, in order to make space.


    Other monsters such as Rotting Hounds were not an issue. The amount of them, I met during my travel, was abysmal. ''One would think, that the ce would be crawling with monster and creatures but it''s eerily quiet. Could it be because of the ck Gazer Sea?'' I thought. I still had enough food left for over a month, so this meant that I travelled for over a week in the North.


    One day, or should I say, one interval of me sleeping and walking. I encountered a forest consisting of dead and rotting trees. There were always some trees around when I travelled but the area in front of me, was different. It felt as if, I was about to enter a new section of the North. When I approached the Dead Forest, I noticed something¡­ or rather someone sitting on one of the trees. I was a bit shocked but more importantly, I became much more focused and prepared for possibility of a fight. ''I don''t know what that is. If it doesn''t want to fight me, I will just leave it alone'' I thought as I moved closer to the forest.


    When I was about 100 metres away, I could make out the features of that something on the tree. It looked like human, with tattered clothes but human nevertheless. There was even a cape behind its back, although worn as well. The face was covered and I couldn''t make it out.


    The thing on the tree spoke in humannguage. "Wee traveller. Is this your first time visiting here?" it said. I wasn''t shocked that it could speak in humannguage. The amount of weird things that I saw in the past, was not small. It looked human as well, perhaps it or rather he was a human, or maybe a member of a different race.


    I decided to ask "Are you human?". The humanoid figure answeredughing "No, but you are". I wasn''t shocked by this either. Humans had toe here before. Otherwise, how would a map exist of this ce, even though it was a small region of it. I still wondered why the map didn''t show the ck Gazer Sea but it didn''t matter.


    I said "Yes, that I am. Do you want something from me?". The humanoid creatureughed and said "No. I was just weing you. There aren''t many humans thate here. I always found your race interesting but you are the first one to actually continue talking with me, even though I just told you, I''m not human". I wasn''t the sort of person, that would attack for no apparent reason, even if I knew that the creature is from different race.


    I decided to ask something "Are you Eterian?". The guy on the tree got visibly pissed and said "No. I despise those filthy creatures. Don''t you humans do the same? I thought every human knew about the past and what Eterians did". I responded "I know what they did but I met only one, so I don''t know much about them. What is your race then?"


    The creature answered "If I tell you, will you attack?". I was a bit stunned. ''Is this race also at war with humans or something? Just how many enemies did humans make?'' I thought then answered "No, I have no bias towards races. As long as you are not hostile, I will not attack either". The creatureughed and said "I''m a higher form of this" and he pointed at something.


    What he pointed at, was exactly the ck Gazer Sea. I was baffled and asked "You are a Gazer?" but then I realised something. This was the name, I gave those creatures. Humans might have called them differently. The creature was confused as well and said "Gazer? I don''t know what that is but I''m talking about the ck Sludge. This whole thing is a factory of ck Sludges". ''So they call them ck Sludge, not very interesting name to be honest. I think that mine is better'' I thought and asked "What do you mean by a higher form?".


    He exined "The ck Sludge is just the basic form but it has the potential to evolve, just like the animals outside of this ce. I''m sure you know what I mean". He was right, I knew what he meant but the changes in appearance were astonishing. I decided to ask "So, you are still a parasite?" The guy got a bit angry and said "I''m no parasite! I have my own body now!".


    ''Interesting. If what he said is true of course'' I thought and decided to test something. I took out a torch from my bag and lit it. The guy got scared and shouted "You said you would not fight me!". I extinguished the torch and said "I was just testing something. So you are still scared of fire. How did you get a body?".


    The guy was still scared a bit but calmed down when he saw, that I extinguished the torch. He said "I foun¡­ I grew it!". I knew immediately, that he was spouting bullshit. I said "I don''t care if you took a body of another human. It''s not my problem. Tell me more about this ce" and started walking towards the creature. He saw my actions and said "Don''t move closer! I will tell you from here. You can hear me just fine". I didn''t stop and responded "I told you that I will not harm you and I shall keep my promise. I just want a conversation and eat something. You do eat right? You can treat it as, food for information kind of exchange".


    When the guy heard food, he became hesitant. When I was about 10 metres away, I sat down next to a tree and said "Calm down. I told you, I will not harm you. Come down here and let''s chat.". I took out some meat from my bag and waved it towards him. The guy finally decided and came down from the tree.

 Chapter 170

    Chapter 170


    I threw a piece of meat at him and said "There is nothing wrong with it. Eat". He didn''t seemed worried and undid the cloths that were covering his face. He then realised something and turned around. I said "Don''t worry, I already saw those eyes. You don''t have to be afraid of showing them to me".


    The guy turned around and said "I heard that people think its creepy, so I wanted to turn around". When I looked at his face, I saw something, I didn''t expect. I expected for the whole face to be covered in those eyes but no. He had two eyes just like any other human, the difference was that, only those eyes were visible. Of course they looked the same as the ones Gazers had.


    I said "To be honest, I expected something else. I don''t think you need to mask your face. You have two eyes only, so what is the problem?". He said "We all have two eyes. The ck Sludge have many of them when they are weak and young. The more we evolve the less eyes we have. I used to have loads of them as well".


    ''This is interesting, so they lose eyes when they get stronger. I wonder what form it has'' I thought and decided to ask "So, what is your real form?". Before he responded, a gaping red mouth opened and swallowed the meat. He then said "This meat is great. I haven''t had such a thing in years. As for your question. I can show you but don''t do anything suspicious!". I shook my head and said "Just show me".


    A ck kind of shadow started to get detached from the human corpse and stood next to it. It was ck humanoid creature, with only two elongated eyes that had red irises. "Interesting!" I eximed and asked "Can you stay in this form forever, or do you need a body?". He answered "I can stay like this, after all, I evolved to be that way. I use the body because I''m attached to it. I have it for many years already and other recognise me immediately".


    I asked another question quite excitedly "What abilities do you have?". To which he responded "I''m not very strong, I''m quite low in the ranks of our race. I''m a scavenger, so I search for stuff and bring it back home. I''m good at hiding and stuff like this". He then returned back to his body.


    I said after a while "So, your abilities in stealth must be quite good. Otherwise, you wouldn''t stay there and wait for me to approach. What can you do, stealth wise?". He shook his head and said "I can''t tell you what my abilities are. I''m sure you wouldn''t tell me either". I responded "It was worth a try. Anyway, what can you tell me about the North?".


    He said "As this is your first visit, I''m guessing that you know very little. The part we are currently in, is called Dense Wilderness. Besides the ck Sludge factory over there, there is not much here. There are some other scavengers like me, in this area but mostly, you will find the young ck Sludges and Corpse Dogs". I guessed that the Corpse Dogs referred to Rotting Hounds. ''Other humans have been here already and these creatures also have names for stuff. I guess I should stop calling things by my own names. This way, I can prevent some confusion in the future'' I thought.


    I asked another question "Where does the west lead to?". The creature responded "To another region of the North. It''s called Vulture Cliffs but that ce is much more dangerous. Us scavengers, don''t really travel there. If you were to go east, you would encounter a ce known as Obsidian Mountains. That is one of the most dangerous areas in the North. At least, one the few I know about".


    I asked "Then how can I go north? Further ind, past that ck Sludge factory?". He said "You will have to walk around it, anything that is not from our race, will be immediately attacked. It''s not that the factory will do it on purpose, it doesn''t move and stays in one ce. So it is harmless until you try to step on it". I asked another question, which was upying my mind for a while "How did this factory you speak of,e to exist here?".


    He said "I don''t know that. It''s very old to be honest. It is treated as a backbone of our race. There are some theories between us scavengers though". I asked "For example?". He said "Well my theory is that there were loads of ck Sludges in the past and they converged to this ce for some reason and none of them wanted to leave. After some time passed, they merged and evolved. With time, more ck Sludges arrived and joined. I can''t say that this is what happened but I think it is usible".


    ''It does seem usible. The creatures evolved into one big creature, through numbers and the help of time. If that was true, the question would be, why did they converge here and not somece else?'' I thought but decided to ask no more. It was his theory anyway and not a piece of history.


    I asked about something else "You say that you are scavenger and low rank member of your race, is there a city or something here?". He looked at me as if I was an idiot and said "City? There are couple of them. At least, I know about couple of them but if I were you, I wouldn''t get anywhere close to them. Humans are not very well received here. You are alright and seem to be an honest guy but the view of others is already set in stone. Some might even hunt you down, if they knew you were here".


    ''No surprise then. Humans have loads of enemies'' I thought and asked "Where are those cities?". He was baffled and said "I just told you not to go there. Why do you still ask about them?". I said "Precisely for that reason. If I know where they are, I can avoid them". He realised something and said "You are right. Show me your map, I will draw the locations of the cities, I know about".


    I passed him the map and heard him say "Your map is shit, to be honest. You have no Northern areas on it whatsoever. You don''t even have details of this ce. Whoever gave you that map and told you toe here, is an idiot. Let me add few things".


    I didn''tment on that and simply waited for him to finish. After a while, he gave me the map back and said "Here. I marked some of the locations that will help you out on your travels. I had to add some stuff on reverse. This is because the North region on your map, is so small". I said "You are quite a nice guy as well. You shared the map info with me and even told me about this region". I took out a day''s worth of meat and handed it to him. "Take it, you helped me out and it seems you like it as well. I have one more question". He took the meat and said "Sure, what is it?".


    I asked "Why don''t you cross that bordering line? Why is that line over there in the first ce?". He thought about it for a while and said "I can''t. When the beings of the North evolve to a specific point, they are confined to the north. So, creatures like ck Sludge, can cross that line but I can''t anymore. As to why it is there. The answer is simple. I don''t know, I have no idea how it came to be there but from what I know, many have tried to cross it but were unable to. Even very strong creatures couldn''t do it. What''s weirder, is that humans can cross that line no problem. Strong individuals or even strong beasts cane over here and cross the line as they like. It seems that North was meant to be separated and confine us".


    I stood up and said "Thanks for everything. A word of advice as a goodbye. Never try to do this with another human. I myself never met one that would have the same line of thought as I do. They would try to attack you straight away or backstab you. Either way, watch out and don''t believe humans". He got quite scared, probably at the thought that, I was about to do something but I never did.


    He helped me out and I wasn''t going to kill a creature, that meant no harm to me. What would be the point of making more enemies. I learned a lot through my travels and this was something I considered asst resort.


    I started walking towards the western direction. That region was less dangerous than Obsidian Mountains, I decided to go there first. After a few steps, I heard "Hey! What is your name?". I said while walking forwards "I''m Nex". Couple of stepster, I head "It was nice meeting you Nex, I''m known as Crow. Let us meet again in the future!". I waved my hand and left.

 Chapter 171

    Chapter 171


    The Dead Forest that was part of the Dense Wilderness, stretched for a while before I cleared it. I met some Corpse Dogs and ck Sludge on my way but I had no issues with them. I already knew how to deal with those opponents. When I cleared the Dead Forest, my new map indicated that I was closing in on the Vulture Cliffs. The ck Sludge factory that was always on my right, disappeared after I cleared the Dead Forest.


    I could proceed north but I decided against that. ''That guy Crow said, not to go there under any circumstances. I do agree with him, I can''t take on a whole city of creatures and if some of them spot me, they may bring reinforcements. I will head to Vulture Cliffs first and find out what it is about. I can decided where to go next, after that'' I thought and continued heading west.


    After a few more "days" of walking, I finally noticed a change in the environment. There seemed to be a huge swarm of something in the sky, as well as the towering cliffs that protruded from the earth. ''So, this is my destination. What is that swarm of things in the sky anyway?'' I thought. When I got close enough, I received my answer. ''So, those were birds. No wonder this ce is called Vulture Cliffs. Those birds must be Vultures'' I thought.


    When I got even closer, I noticed some of the birds leaving the flock anding my way. ''This can be bad'' I thought and prepared myself. The few birds that left the flock,nded about 50 metres away from me and stood there. They were quite big, at least 2 metres tall when they stood there. Their feathers were grey and gloomy looking. They had long necks that were red and no feathers on them. Their heads were a bit elongated, with short beaks that were also grey. Their legs were quite long too, about ? of the whole body size, the colour was also grey. To finish it off, the creatures had sharp looking talons, probably to catch their prey.


    I didn''t know the name of these creatures at the moment, so I decided to call them Grey Vultures. I stopped moving as I didn''t know what those birds wanted. Although I didn''t move, the birds started to walk towards me. I waited for them to arrive, the further away I was from the flock, the better. Their speed was not fast at all, they seemed to be much more adapt to flying than walking on the ground. Some birds could skip or walk quickly on the ground but these were quite slow. ''This must be their weakness. They are probably very good at flying and can stay in the skies for a long time but walking is something they don''t do very often'' I thought.


    This was my guess but it was a solid one nevertheless. The vultures were getting closer, while I stood in ce and waited. ''If they don''t attack me, I have no problems with them'' I though and waited. After a while, 8 Grey Vultures stood about 15 metres away from me. They started quite intensely for a bit and then, one of them spoke? "What is it that you want here, human?". I was surprised to be honest but I already had a fair share of shocking encounters. I asked anyway "You can speak?".


    The leading vulture said "Of course, We are the owners of the Vulture Cliffs, do you think that stupid race could be its master?". I shook my head and said "That is not what I meant. I never saw a talking bird in the past, so I''m just surprised". The vulture got a bit angry and said "Of course you morron, we are not birds! We are Avians! Those primitive birds are to stupid to know how to speak!".


    ''So, this is another race that lives in the North. I wonder what the Crow guy''s race is called. I should''ve asked him that before I left'' I thought. As I was lost in my thoughts, the vulture or rather Avian, asked again "What is your purpose ining here human?". I snapped out of my thought and replied "I''m going wherever the road is taking me, I don''t have any other purpose toe here, than to explore this ce. Your race is quite interesting, would you mind if I look around the cliffs? I''d like to see the home of Avians".


    The Avian I spoke with turned around and started speaking to the others, in anguage that sounded pretty much the same as bird''s noises. After a while, the Avian turned towards me and asked "Why should we give you permission? What do we get in return?". ''I knew it wouldn''t be that easy but fighting them is not an option. If that whole swarm goes after me, I''m dead. But I have nothing to offer them in exchange¡­'' I thought.


    After some more thinking, I replied "I don''t have much I can offer you. Perhaps you need something done? I can do it for you and you let me visit the Vulture Cliffs. How about that?". The Avian turned towards his colleagues and started talking again. ''It seems that these birds don''t follow the rules of "one leader says all". This guy is clearly a leader but he still asks for opinion of others. This structure in society is much more different,pared to humans'' I thought.


    The Avian turned around and said "We can ept that. There is something that needs to be done. If you do it, you will have the permission to walk around the cliffs and do whatever you like, as long as you don''t ughter everything and don''t harm any of the Avians". I asked "What is it that you want me to do?".


    The Avian said "We want you to clear out the underground den of those Corpse Dogs. They are annoying us. They know very well, we can''t get them underground but you can. If you do it ande back with a proof, that their leader is dead. We will let you in and do whatever you like, as long as you follow the previous rules". I asked "Is the den very big?" to which the Avian responded "We don''t know. We estimate it to have at least 1000 Corpse Dogs. Their leader should be much stronger as well".


    ''Hmmm, that is quite a lot of them. I could try and infiltrate it. First assess the risk then deal with it. I''m also curious what is inside the Vulture Cliffs'' I thought and said "Alright, I will give it a try. Can you show me the location on this map?" and handed them my map. The avian took it and seemed surprised. He said "You don''t have much on it".


    I said "I doesn''t matter, I just need the location of the den". He said "There are couple entrances that we located. Those damned dogs, they dig underground and make new entrances pop up, every once in a while. I will mark all the entrances that we know of, the rest is up to you". I nodded my head and waited for the avian to finish.


    What happened next, surprised me as well. The Avian ced its wing on some feathers and what looked like ink appeared. Besides the ink, a quill for writing appeared as well. I decided to ask "Do you have some sort of storage item on you as well?". The Avian looked at me and said "Of course, how would I carry all that stuff around? Although it is different from yours, by a lot. We make them from the feathers of our King. The King would lose a feather or two once every other day, so we make those storage items from them". He then continued to draw on the map.


    After a while, he finished and handed the map back to me, then said "Those are all the known locations of entrances to the den. Whichever you go through, I believe they are all connected. Either way, we will see you when you return and if you return human". Then, they spread their wings and flew into the air. ''Damn, I had more questions for them. I guess those will have to wait, until I''m done with the task'' I thought.


    I checked the map and saw 6 new marked location. The Avian was even nice enough to number them. ''Right, I should check out all the locations first and assess what I''m dealing with. I can then n out my course of action'' I thought and headed to the No. 1 entrance on my map.

 Chapter 172

    Chapter 172


    The Entrance No. 1, was located quite a distance away from the Vulture Cliffs. It was towards the north eastern direction. When I finally arrived in the vicinity of the Entrance No. 1, I could already see groups of Corpse Dogs running about. ''There are about 30 of them, next to the entrance. I don''t know how many are inside but my guess is that, the amount will not be a small one'' I thought.


    I took out my bow and arrows. ''Long distance is the best way to figure out their forces. When I kill couple of them, more should show up. I can either grind them with arrows or I can take them on in closebat, depending on the numbers'' I thought and started shooting.


    I was about 300 metres away from the Entrance No. 1. With a few arrows shot, the Corpse Dogs started to die. I then heard some howls and more Corpse Dogs crawled out of the entrance. ''There are about 100 of them now. I can''t deal with this number in closebat. I also don''t know, if all those dogs are the same. Maybe there are some elites mixed in'' I thought and shot more arrows.


    The Corpse Dogs finally figured out where my position was and the whole group ran at me. I decided not to linger and simply run. ''There are still about 85 of them left, that is arge amount. I also have only 30 arrows left. This seems to be the best tactics but I will need more arrows'' I thought, as I ran away at full speed. The Corpse Dogs had no way of catching up to me and I lost them after a while.


    ''I need more arrows. I wonder if those dead trees will be good enough to make shafts. I can use some rocks as arrowheads. I don''t have enough ore, to waste it on arrowheads. The performance will be much worse but with my strength, I should be able to kill the Corpse Dogs anyway, even with makeshift arrows'' I thought and took out a hatchet from my bag.


    I didn''t have to search for trees as those were everywhere. The only thing was that, they weren''t densely packed. I also ran towards the direction of Dead Forest. This would allow me some cover in case the Corpse Dogs relentlessly chased after me. I swung the hatchet at the tree and got a bit surprised. ''This trees seem to be dying and rotting but it''s actually quite hard. This will make very good arrow shafts!'' I thought.


    I cut down a few trees and started carving those arrow shafts. I needed a lot of them, if what that Avian said is correct, the Den would have around 1000 of those Corpse Dogs. I didn''t want to create 1000 arrows at once but about 200 for the start, should be enough. I was also more experienced creating arrow shafts, due to the visit to my "home" vige. Creating 200 shafts wouldn''t take that long for me anymore. The problem was arrowheads.


    ''I will need sharp stones of a decent size. I will probably need to carve them as well and I don''t know how long this will take. Although thisnd is reach in stones, not every stone will be suitable'' I thought. This would take me a while but I had to finish the shafts first.


    I spend the rest of the "day", carving the shafts. I made about 180 of them and decided it would be enough for now. I still needed arrowheads. I decided to rest first and then focus on that. Sleeping in the North was not that simple though. This ce was potentially very dangerous and had very little protection. While I slept, I was vulnerable to all attacks. A ck Sludge could creep up on me and try to assimte my body.


    I came up with an idea of an early prevention mechanism. I set up ropes around the area I was camping at and tied that to myself. If a creature touches the rope, it would potentially wake me up. I didn''t know if I could be woken up, when I was dreaming about the Dark Traveller but at least, it was something. This only work for creatures such as Corpse Dogs but for something like ck Sludge, it would have no effect.


    The solution to that was medicine. I found out that besides fire, smell of medicine was also nemesis of the ck Sludge. I had loads of herbs and medical liquids, so spreading some around my camp was not a problem. What I found out, when experimenting with the bit that was left after the ck Sludge burned, as well as the one I retrieved from the sea of ck Sludges, was that the medicine worked on it like poison. On the other hand, poison was something of a medicine to it. I guessed that not all poisons would work that way but the weaker ones, would actually heal the Sludge, instead of harming it.


    This was also apparent when I met the Crow guy. He ate the food without much of a worry. He knew that any poison I could potentially add into the food, would not affect him, or he was very naive. With that set up, I could now go to sleep at the top of a tree.


    The next "day", I started collecting the stones. Not every stone was appropriate as an arrowhead but because there were so many of them around, I quickly gathered a pile of stones. ''Time to grind some stones, I guess'' I thought and started carving.


    This went on for another two "days", when I finally had enough arrowheads to create 180 arrows. Carving those stones, was not easy at all. I had to carve them to specific size that was one thing. The other thing was a ridge or a hole that would slip onto the arrow shaft. That was why, it took me so many hours just to create 180 arrows.


    When all the arrowheads and shafts were attached, using some small strands of a rope that I sacrificed. I was ready to tackle the Entrance No. 1 again. I traveled back and arrived at the entrance to the Den.


    There were again, around 30 or so Corpse Dogs running around it. I took out my bow and positioned myself. ''It''s time to test my new arrows, I expect that their performance will be much worsepared to the arrows I already had but as long as I can kill Corpse Dogs, I don''t care about anything else'' I thought and aimed at the group.


    "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!"


    I shot 3 arrows, one after the other and fortunately, they managed to hit their targets. Although the arrowheads were made from stones, their speed covered for the substandard materials used to make them. The arrows pierced right through the Corpse Dogs, I targeted and all 3 died. ''Good, the arrows work. Now to grind them down'' I thought and started to release arrows one after the other.


    The Corpse Dogs were dying left and right when finally, reinforcements arrived. This time, the reinforcements numbered over 100, so the number altogether was around 150 of Corpse Dogs. I shot arrows like crazy at the pack or rather a herd of Corpse Dogs, that was getting closer. I stood up and ran. I didn''t have the skills to run and shoot arrows at the same time but there was nothing stopping me from trying that out.


    My aim was kind of all over the ce but my uracy was about 80%. It was all thanks to the size of the group that was chasing me. It was hard to miss it. I used up over 50 arrows and killed about the same amount of Corpse Dogs from that group.


    With so many deaths, they chased me for quite some time. I decided to lose them first and then reorganise. I wanted to grind them down, not kill them all in one go. I lost them and hid my presence. I learned that these Corpse Dogs, although stupid, had very good sense of smell, probably even better than mine. There was an easy solution to this. Just smear some dirt onto myself. This would mask my smell quite well and adding in the distance, the Corpse Dogs would not be able to find me.


    I managed to lose them but I didn''t let go of that group so easily. I knew they would return to the Den but I wouldn''t let that happen. I ate some food to restore my energy and went after them. The herd of Corpse Dogs running back to their Den, was the exact thing, I was searching for. I took out the bow and started shooting again. The Corpse Dogs turned towards me again and ran. I killed around 40 of them this time and only about 50 were left, from that whole herd.


    I repeated the process one again and then, finished off whatever was left, by utilising the closebat. ''Around 150 Corpse Dogs died. There are potentially 6 times as many of them left. There could be more though. I need to collect back my arrows, I can''t just make new ones every time'' I thought and went around collecting arrows. Some arrows broke apart, while others managed to stay intact and would be still usable. I managed to retrieve around 80 arrows but that was not enough for another raid. I had to make more, so my grinding resumed.

 Chapter 173

    Chapter 173


    I spent a few more "days" making arrows. ''I have 340 arrows now, this shouldst for a bit longer this time'' I thought. My destination this time, was the Entrance No. 2. I figured that the leader of Corpse Dogs, would most probably send reinforcements to the Entrance No. 1 and so, other entrances would be less guarded.


    That was my n at least, whenever the reinforcements would arrived at the Entrance No. 1, was a pure spection on my part. I headed toward the Entrance No. 2, which was in the western direction, or just north from the Vulture Cliffs. I took a more detailed look at the map and noticed something. ''The leader of the Corpse Dogs is not stupid. Those entrances are not random whatsoever. All of them surround the Vulture Cliffs. I think that the Corpse Dogs are preparing to take the ce over. Those stupid birds think of them as annoyance but in my opinion? Ignorance is deadly'' I thought.


    I also stopped believing in the Avian''s assumption, that there were only 1000 of them or so. ''I think that there could easily be twice if not 3 times as many of them. My guess is that the leader of Corpse Dogs revealed only this much, so that Avians think the Corpse Dogs are not a threat. If there were 1000 Avians, it''s 1 vs 1 battle but if the real number of Corpse Dogs, was let say 4000, then it would be 1 vs 4'' I thought.


    Avians had obvious advantage because they could fly and attack from the skies, so even a 1 vs 4 might not be enough, to bring Avians down. ''What if the Corpse Dogs were allowed to grow more, to 8000 or 15000? Could Avians deal with that kind of horde? Where each Avian would have to kill 15 enemies and if some died, the enemies would only increase per Avian'' I thought as I arrived at the Entrance No. 2.


    This ce was much more quietpared to the Entrance No. 1. There were only 10 Corpse Dogs guarding it, but there was something different about them. ''These are not normal Corpse Dogs. Those should be Variants. They are a bit bigger than the usual Corpse Dogs, and they seem to be rotting a bit less. I must assume that those creatures are faster and stronger. I will try them out with bow and arrow, I can then judge their strength'' I thought and prepared to shoot.


    A whileter, I calcted the behaviour of the Corpse Dogs and shot my arrows, one after the other. When one arrow arrived and struck its target, the other were immediately rmed and started moving. My other arrows missed, it was due to the reaction time of the remaining Corpse Dogs. ''One is dead, while 9 live. They are much more intelligent than those normal Corpse Dogs. They acted immediately and located my position very quickly too'' I thought and shot more arrows.


    Before the Corpse Dogs arrived, I managed to take down 2 more of them. I stayed in my spot on purpose, I wanted to test their closebat strength too. With 10 enemies or rather 7 left, closebat was not that dangerous. The Corpse Dogs approached me, while I put away my bow and arrows. What appeared in my hands instead, were two daggers.


    I bend down my legs a little and released all the strength stored inside them. "Booom!" the ground cracked and caved in from the burst of my strength, while I sped through the wastnd and shed my daggers. The fight didn''tst long. These Variants were a bit stronger, maybe as strong as Silver Wolves but to me, Silver Wolves were like normal wolves at this stage. I ughtered the remaining 7 Corpse Dogs and dissected them on the spot. I noticed that their organs seemed to be much more healthy, and their blood had a tint of red inside.


    ''Those Corpse Dogs are evolving from the stages of rotting and decay, to a stage of life. This isplete oppositepared to other animals. Their organs seem to function much better and the blood is not as much contaminated. I guess that, this is where their strengthes from. The less contaminated a Corpse Dogs is, the stronger it bes'' I thought.


    The question was, what strength would a healthy Corpse Dog possess? ''I have a feeling that their leader is either mostly healthy or has no decay and rotting on itpletely. If those dogs are at about the level of Silver Wolves, then half healthy should be at about the level of ming Silver Wolf. I will not be able to take down a leader, that has no decay or rotting on it'' I thought.


    This business with Avians, was getting more and more dangerous. I didn''t know whenever the leader was healthy or not, but there was such possibility. This would increase the difficulty to "impossible" at my level of strength and skill. ''I will check things out first, there are no reinforcementsing, which is good. I will enter the Entrance No.2 and see what I can find. Then, I will decide what to do'' I thought and approached the Entrance No. 2.


    At the entrance, There were no other Corpse Dogs in sight. I entered the cave that led me under the ground and into the Den of the Corpse Dogs. The inside, was weird. There were couple of tunnels in front of me, there was also no end in sight of them. ''They must know exactly which tunnel goes where, but I can get lost easily. I need to leave marks in order to get back here, after I explore this ce'' I thought. I chose the leftmost tunnel and entered it. Inside, I took out a dagger and scratched arge number on a wall. ''By using those numbers, I will be able to figure out which tunnel is which. This way, I will be able to return, if my memory fails me'' I thought and proceeded further inside.


    The tunnel was quite long and dark. My vision was already improved but I couldn''t see everything in darkness. I could only see some details. Stuff like the outlines of walls and such. I would sometimes stumble over a rock or uneven ground. Although I had torches with me, lighting one up in this ce, wouldn''t be the best idea. ''Those dogs have a very good sense of smell. Fortunately, I covered myself with the dirt, blood and whatnot of the Corpse Dogs that I killed at the entrance. Otherwise, probably a whole legion of them would already arrive'' I thought and continued walking.


    Then I came up with an idea. ''Why not try the smell then? I know how those dogs smell, I can always avoid the direction where the smell is the strongest'' I thought. I decided to do it. Besides, my sense of smell could be trained a bit more. I usually used my sense of hearing and sense of vision only. The other senses were kind of left out.


    I inhaled deeply and tried to find anything that would smell familiar to me. I could mostly smell dampness and earth but there were some faint smells, I could pick up from time to time. ''The smell of Corpse Dogs is apparent around those caves but it''s not very strong here. This may mean, the dogs don''t use this passage very often'' I thought. There was another faint smell of something. ''This feels sour and suffocating. This might be a poison or perhaps another breed of Corpse Dogs?'' I thought. I had no answer, so I could only walk forwards.

 Chapter 174

    Chapter 174


    I walked through the tunnel for a bit longer, until I arrived at arger opening. In front of me, another two tunnel entrances appeared. ''Let''s test the smell of each tunnel'' I thought and entered the tunnel on the left. I took a deep breath, and searched for anything that would give me clues as to where it might lead.


    I could smell the usual dampness but there was something else. ''This is where the sour and suffocating smell is stronger. It''s not to the point where I couldn''t continue but I better check out the other tunnel as well'' I thought and exited the tunnel.


    I then entered the tunnel on the right. I again, took a deep breath and analysed the smells. ''Hmmm¡­ The sour smell is not as present here but the smell of Corpse Dogs, is much more clear at the same time'' I thought. I stood in front of a choice. I could follow the road towards the Corpse Dogs, which would probably result in fightster on, or I could follow that sour smell and try to find out, what it was that caused it.


    I gave it some more thoughts and decided to follow the tunnel on the left. ''I can always return here as long as I''m undetected. I might not be able to explore that part of the Den, if I follow the tunnel on the right. Fighting with Corpse Dogs would alert the whole Den. Infiltrating this ceter will be much harder'' I thought and went inside the tunnel on the left.


    I walked inside that tunnel for a while and the sour smell got stronger, the further I went. ''Just what exactly is causing that smell?'' I thought and restricted my sense of smell. I was already in a tunnel and could only go forwards. There was no point in me smelling that sour stuff. A whileter, I saw something glowing in the distance, the sour smell was very strong in that ce. Even though, I restricted my sense of smell to the lowest I could, I could still feel that obnoxious smell.


    I took out some cloths from my bag and wrapped them around my nose and neck. ''This will at least block some of it'' I thought and continued moving forward. Soon, I found out, what that glowing thing was. Those were some sort of yellow rocks, that glowed slightly. I decided to investigate. I approached one of the rocks and stabbed an arrow into it. The rock crumbled into dust the moment my arrow touched it.


    ''This is weird, I didn''t use a lot of strength¡­'' I thought but soon, a strong smell of obnoxious sourness invaded my nostrils. "Pfuuu.. That damned thing smells very badly" I said to myself. I didn''t know what it was, it could be poison but I didn''t feel any effects whatsoever. I decided to scoop the dust up and take it. I returned to the crossroads, where two tunnels stood in front of me.


    ''This thing smells badly, I wonder what it''s for?'' I thought and took out the vial with the powdered something. The books that Nick gave to me, never described stuff like this, so I waspletely lost. ''Let''s do some experiments. I will try to mix it with water, that tunnel was pretty much moisture free, so maybe water will do something to it'' I thought and took out a water container from my bag.


    I ced some of that yellow dust on the ground and added water on top. That thing started to bubble immediately and what happened next, stunned me to extreme. ''This thing burned through the earth. Just how corrosive is this thing?'' I thought. I ced some more of that yellow powder on a rock this time and didn''t add water. After a while, nothing happened.


    ''So, I have to add water for it to work, otherwise it will just sit there'' I thought. I added water and the same thing happened again. The mixture burned into the rock, leaving what looked like scorched, pit like holes. ''This could be a good poison, the only downside is that, it needs to¡­ Wait! What if¡­ This could work!'' I thought.


    I came up with an idea of making special containers for my arrows. Each container would house the yellow stuff as well as water. Upon contact with the target, it would break and create poison damage. ''Creating a container that shatters and houses those two things separately, will not be easy but this thing is great!''. I was excited about the prospects this substance could bring me.


    ''What about fire then? Water gives me poison, earth and air is neutral, they do nothing to this yellow powder. What about fire then?'' I thought. I sprinkled some of the yellow stuff on the ground and lit one torch. It was risky, but as far as I could see and feel, there were no Corpse Dogs around. I touched the yellow dust with my torch and "PUFF!", the yellow dust caught fire immediately and burned so well, that it left a scorch mark on the ground.


    "This thing is amazing!" I eximed. ''I have to get loads of that stuff. Not only can it act as a corrosive poison, when mixed with water, it can potentially explode, when in contact with fire!'' I thought and returned to the tunnel, that contained those yellow rocks.


    I filled up all the empty containers with the yellow dust. I collected about 10 kilograms of that stuff and although I didn''t clear out the cave, I came up with another idea. ''If those damned Corpse Dogs are too much, I can just blow them up! With the amount of yellow stuff that is around here, I could destroy the whole Den in one go!'' I thought.


    Ultimately, I left that idea as ast resort. I wanted to check out the Den myself and find out what is the real strength of the Corpse Dogs inside. I left the tunnel with those yellow rocks and followed the tunnel on the right. The sour smell was no longer as obvious as it was before, it was getting thinner. The smell of Corpse Dogs, was getting stronger on the other hand.


    After a while of walking, I could hear some noises. I inhaled deeply, in search of the smells. The smell of Corpse Dogs was really strong here and the noises wereing towards me as well. I took out my daggers and prepared. ''Those dogs must''ve figured out that I''m here. I already knew that confrontation would be likely. Let''s see what you got then'' I thought and waited.


    Not even a minuteter, I could finally see the Corpse Dogs arriving. There were loads of them. I couldn''t even count how many due to darkness but judging by the sounds alone, at least 200 of them were running towards me. I didn''t back away ''The tunnel is too narrow for many of them to fight me at once. I have the advantage of space, but the darkness is my disadvantage'' I thought and started moving.


    I met the Corpse Dogs halfway and started stabbing. I also released my aura, just to keep them in check. "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!". I utilised the Pressuring Dagger skill to the fullest. Each attack killed one Corpse Dog. The dogs were dying left and right, while I started moving backwards. The amount of dead dogs would make things difficult for me as well. Besides, there wasn''t much space and the Corpse Dogs were mindlessly rushing forwards, without a care for their own.


    I killed and back away. The amount didn''t seem to dissipate, even though I killed at least 30 of them. I was forced back to the previous forkroad, and entered the marked tunnel for the exit. The Corpse Dogs were following relentlessly and there were some bad news as well. I could hear some noises from behind me. ''This is bad, they are not as stupid as I thought, or at least the leader isn''t. They surrounded me now, I have to get away from this group quickly!'' I though and sped towards the exit, even though I couldn''t see much.

 Chapter 175

    Chapter 175


    I ran as fast as I could, in the dark tunnel. The herd of Corpse Dogs behind, was still chasing but I managed to get further away. What weed me at the front, was another herd of Corpse Dogs. I ran straight into them with the maximum force, just like Shelly used to do. My body was much more sturdy than it was before, and I had the Domineering Aura released as well.


    I ploughed through many Corpse Dogs, before jumped up a bit andnding on a few of them. I shed my daggers furiously while running forwards. I had little space but thanks to my Natural Path skill, I could use even the smallest of gaps to squeeze past. I could already see the light at the end of the tunnel. ''Finally an exit!'' I thought and shed like a mad man. There were no skills involved, I only had time to use simple shes. Some of the Corpse Dogs managed tond a few hits on me as well. This meant, I wasn''t going toe out unscaved.


    A bit more shing and runningter, I finally managed to get outside. What I saw there, was scary. 100s, no, maybe even a 1000 of Corpse Dogs waiting outside. ''This is truly bad. I need to get out of here, fast!'' I thought and shed more. The Corpse Dogs outside started to hurl at me, as if I was the tasties food walking on this earth. The normal Corpse Dogs were not much of a thread, as their strength was too inferior to cause any real damage. The problem were the Variants. Some, more healthy Corpse Dogs, were mixed in with the crowd. I had no time to look for them or avoid their locations. I simply focused on running away and clearing anything, that blocked my path.


    With more shing and getting even more injured, I finally broke out from the encirclement. "Finally!" I eximed loudly and started running towards the Dead Forest. I was already tired and the injuries on my body didn''t help. I ran at my full speed, but the Corpse Dogs were still chasing. It would take a while for me to lose them.


    I ran and ran and ran, until I finally ran out of energy. I looked back and saw nothing. "Hah...Hah...Hah¡­ That was close. I managed to get away somehow. 1000 of them my ass, you stupid Avians! If they could mobilise that kind of army outside of one entrance, I believe that there should be at least 4 times as many of them" I said to myself. Those were mostly normal Corpse Dogs as well. Elites were still protecting the Den, at least that was my guess.


    I had to take care of my injuries first. I used some medicine on my wounds and wrapped them with cloths. The injuries I sustained were quite substantial but it wasn''t something, a dose of medicine and time wouldn''t heal. ''I am not going back there. I need to speak to those Avians first. This deal is not satisfactory to me'' I thought and rested a bit more.


    When my wounds got better and I restored most of my energy, I moved towards the Vulture Cliffs again. I went back to the same ce, where I met with Avians for the first time. The swarm was visible as usual, I decided to wait. After a while, I saw about 10 Avians approaching me. Theynded not far away and I moved towards them.


    It was the same Avian again, who came to the front and asked "You didn''t destroy the Den yet. Why are you here?". I responded "I don''t like your deal, your information was also wed". The Avian seemed a bit shocked and asked "What do you mean?". I slowly replied "You said that there are about 1000 of them in the Den. I believe the number to be at least 4 times as big. This would make it at least 4000 of them. No doubt you can see my injuries. I was barely able to escape with my life from a horde of Corpse Dogs".


    The Avian turned towards hispanions and spoke with them. I waited patiently for them to finish. After a while, the Avian turned towards me and said "If what you say is true, then we do apologise. The leader of those damned Corpse Dogs, is not that stupid. What do you propose, human?".


    I said "I have a way of destroying them allpletely but your deal is not worth it. If those dogs are allowed to breed and reach numbers twice, if not 3 times their current numbers, you will be damned". The Avians didn''t like myment and said "We don''t appreciate the threat but the danger is real. What is that method you spoke of?".


    I looked at him, as if looking at an idiot and said "Do you really think, I will just tell you, like that?". The Avian got a bit more angry and asked "What do you want then?". I said "I want unique stuff. Something that will help me develop my skills. I also want an entry to the Vulture Cliffs but I want to know beforehand, what is inside there".


    The Avian turned around and spoke to hispanions again. In a short while, he turned towards me and said "We can''t make the decision by ourselves. I have to talk with the King. Wait here, I will return shortly". He then lifted into the air and left. The other Avians stayed behind.


    I didn''t try to make a conversation. I was the one saving their asses and telling them about all of this. In a few years, they would be overrun with Corpse Dogs, and many would die. There was also the possibility of losing the current territory, that belonged to them. The Avian that returned to the swarm, took his time. I stood there waited for a long time at that point. When I looked at the swarm, I finally saw some movements but it wasn''t any normal movement¡­ pretty much the whole swarm was moving towards me.


    The Avians startednding left and right. Some seemed to be much more imposing, than the Avian I talked with before. They surrounded mepletely but none of them got too close to me. Then a female Aviannded in front of me with couple of male Avians by her side. The previous Avian I talked with, was not there. I took a look at the female Avian and noticed that her feathers were much brighter and seemed to be whiteish in colour. She was obviously different from the rest. The male Avians on both her sides, were also a bit different. Bigger than others and had very dark feathers.


    The female Avian took a step forward and said "I''m the King of Avians". I looked at her and said "Shouldn''t your title be Queen though?". She shook her head and said "The title doesn''t change, no matter what gender the leader possesses". I nodded my head and asked "Did you guys think about my demands?".


    She responded "Yes, they are very beneficial to us, if what you said is true. We can''t do much to those dogs underground, we can only hunt them when they crawl out of their holes". I responded "I know that already. You guys are not very well adapted to ground based fights. Walking causes you trouble as well". The Avians gathered around, didn''t seem to like me saying that out loud. I could sort of understand, it was their weaknesses. The King of Avians waved her hand and all went quiet.


    She said "That is true. Human, let me ask you this one question. Why are you helping us really?". I looked at her and thought ''I just wanted to enter the Vulture Cliffs. Although, I guess I had hidden agenda. I wanted to study the Avians as well as whatever is inside. This could help me develop my skills. I want to know what they are hiding''.


    I said "I want to learn your skills. I want to explore whatever is guarded so strongly inside. I want to know your secrets". The Avians around me seemed shocked at first but then, I felt immense amount of eyes, staring with hatred at me. The King of Avians thought for a while and said "At least you''ve answered truthfully. How do you know we have any secrets? Did someone tell you something?".


    I said "Are you worried that I will steal something from you? No, no one told me about your race. I just guessed, that you are protecting something. I don''t know what that something is, I simply want to learn more. I have no intentions of stealing anything of yours or harming you". She thought about it some more and nodded her head. "Then we have a deal".

 Chapter 176

    Chapter 176


    The King of Avians motioned to some of the Avians and said to me "We will take you to the top of the cliff. You want to know what is inside, we will show you but then, you will exin to me what is your n". I nodded my head and the Avians lifted off. One of the Avians grabbed me and carried me with them.


    I was surprised that the talons, made no damage to my body, I guessed that they could control their strength very well. What followed next was extraordinary. The Avian carrying me, flew up high and headed for the cliffs. ''This view¡­ is so incredible! I hope he doesn''t drop me though. We are quite far away from the earth'' I thought. As a human, I was not used to such heights, I was scared but also excited at the same time.


    Flying, was always something humans dreamed of but could never achieve. ''No wonder so many people admire birds. How nice would it be, if I could fly like this?'' I thought. I looked to my left and right and searched for stuff, I wouldn''t be able have that kind of view very often, so I wanted to use it to the fullest.


    In the distance, further to the north. I noticed great clouds that looked like fog or mist. It didn''t seem to be the usual fog or mist, those could be thunder clouds. I decided to ask the Avian who was carrying me. "What is over there? Thatrge mist or fog?". The Avian looked in the direction, I showed with my hand and said "This ce is called Land of Mirages. It''s very dangerous, that mist is not normal. This thing creates illusions when one enters or even goes near it. I never heard of anyoneing out of this ce alive, or dead either. Things simply disappear over there".


    ''What an interesting ce! I''m not about to go there but I wonder, why is that mist there in the first ce. Something must be causing it'' I thought. When I looked to the south, I thought I would be able to see the border line between the North and the Great Forest, but it wasn''t there. What reced it, was something like arge city. I decided to ask about that as well.


    "That in the south, is it a city?". The Avian again looked in the direction, I pointed to and said "Yes, that is a city. It''s quite big to be honest. The city is called Tremor and it isn''t something, you should visit. The creatures living in that ce hate humans. They would kill you at the first sight. We sometimes make deals with them but rarely".


    ''Good thing I didn''t go there first. It could get hot very quickly. I can imagine a whole city chasing after me¡­ I would be dead pretty fast'' I thought. The flight didn''tst very long, wended at the top of one of the cliffs. The Avian carrying me, ced me gently on the ground and flew off, to join the swarm.


    The King of Aviansnded next to me with her bodyguards and said "Follow me. I will show you what is inside". I followed after her to the edge of the cliff, that was facing the valley below. She said "Look down and tell me what you see".


    I took a looked and my expression froze from the shock. I said "Don''t tell me¡­ are those animals.. healthy?". Sheughed lightly and said "Yes. We have our own way of breeding and sustaining those healthy animals as our food. This is the reason why the damned Corpse Dogs are trying to take over this ce". ''It would make sense, the Corpse Dogs didn''t have much to eat in the wilderness. That type ofrge pool of healthy animals, was like water in the desert'' I thought.


    "I now know why the Corpse Dogs want to get inside or rather take over this ce. But this is not all you have here. The dogs might be here for the livestock but how do you feed that livestock? Is my question". She nodded and said "We managed to grow nts here. That is how we feed the animals. We can also eat those nts, so our diet is not based on meat alone".


    I was shocked even more. ''Grow nts¡­ here? In this wastnd?'' I thought as my mouth went agape. The King of Avians saw that andughed a bit again. She said "It is shocking, isn''t it? But it''s true. Although, I will not tell you how we do it and I won''t let you see the process either, but I can give you some herbs, after your part of the deal is done".


    I nodded and asked "What about skills. Can you teach me something?". She replied "You are not an Avian. I don''t think we will be able to teach you anything". I said "How about you show me some skills and whatnot. Maybe you have some training grounds here as well. I could always have a look and judge myself, if I can learn something or not".


    She didn''t seem to mind it and said "Sure, I don''t see why not. Now tell me, what is it that you want to do, in order to exterminate the damned dogs?". I took out the Yellow Dust and asked "Do you know what this is?". The King of Avians shook her head, dumbfounded. I sprinkled some of it on the ground, then took out a torch.


    I lit up the torch and said "Watch". I then touched the Yellow Dust with the torch and it went "Poof!". The King of Avians didn''t seem to understand and asked "Is that your n?".


    I said "You may not know that but this thinges from the Den. There is enough of it there, to blow out that ce couple of times. In simple terms, I want to blow them uppletely. This might not kill all of them but arge majority for sure. The leader of Corpse Dogs will have to make a move after such loses. There are two options for it. The first option is to fight and the other to run away. Whichever it chooses, your problems will be over with".


    The Avians seemed to realise what my n was. The King of Avians said "That is a clever idea but how will you do it?". I said "This is where youe in. I need a distraction. I need you to attack 3 or 4 entrances while I slip in, to the Entrance No. 2" and took out the map with all the entrances.


    I continued "I don''t need you to risk your lives but attract attention, so that the Entrance No. 2 is less guarded. There is also another thing I will need". She asked "What is that?" to which I replied "Transport. I need one of you to pick me up from there. When I start it up, I might not be able to get far away in time. I need someone to wait for me at the Entrance No. 2".


    The King of Avians thought about it for a while and said "We can do that. When do you want to start?". I said "There are about 4000 of them. Let me grind them down a bit. I want them to be on high alert, so that they send reinforcements when the time is right. Then I will blow them up". She nodded her head and said "Juste back to the original spot, when you are ready". I nodded my head and said "Alright, I will be back in a while". The King of Avians motioned with her wing and the Avian that carried me up the cliff, flew over. ''Time to cause some damage'' I thought.

 Chapter 177

    Chapter 177


    The Avian transported me back to the bottom of the cliff and flew off to join the swarm. ''I need to cause some chaos!'' I thought. I went straight to the Entrance No. 1 and started killing the Corpse Dogs. I didn''t even bother with arrows, I simply ran up to them and ughtered anything, that was in my way. The reinforcements arrived shortly after and this time, the numbers were much more manageable. Around 200 of Corpse Dogs followed me, while I ran away.


    I yed hide and seek with that herd, until Ipletely killed them off. ''The leader of the Corpse Dogs, should figure out my strategy by now. It will probably refrain, from sending any reinforcements. If I were the leader, I would try to lure the attacker into the Den. My guess is, the Leader of the Corpse Dogs, will do the same'' I thought and rested.


    I myself, killed at least 400 of those Corpse Dogs. That didn''t mean the Corpse Dogs suffer that many loses. ''I mostly killed normal Corpse Dogs. The more healthy Variants, only showed up in very few numbers so far. I don''t believe, that they don''t have more of them'' I thought. My n was to drive out more of those Variants. The normal Corpse Dogs, were disposable to the leader, it seemed. Although losing 1000 of them would be a blow, it wouldn''t be as big as losing for instance 400 of the Variants, which were stronger.


    The quality was always better than quantity. I myself, thanks to the strength I possessed, was able to kill so many of the normal Corpse Dogs. ''I need couple of more raids but this time, I will strike the Entrance No. 4. I need to vary my attacks, with enough deaths, the Leader will have to send in Variants or even appear by itself'' I thought and prepared for the next assault.


    The Entrance No. 4 was to the south, of the Vulture Cliffs. It didn''t take long for me to get there. What I saw there, was clearly an improvement of troops. ''So the Leader of the Corpse Dogs, already strengthen the defences greatly. There are only Variants protecting the Entrance No. 4. Good, I can dispose some of the stronger opponents'' I thought and took out my bow.


    There were about 40 of the Variants guarding the Entrance No. 4. I drew my bow and started shooting. The Variants weren''t as stupid as the normal Corpse Dogs. Their reactions and instincts, were much more advanced inparison. I expected for the Variants to run at me but theplete opposite happened. They actually ran away and entered the Den.


    ''So you want me to follow eh? Sure, I can do that''. I wouldn''t of course follow deep, but I wanted to go next to the entrance, and see whenever theye out. I also had to give way, if both me and the Corpse Dogs were constantly backing away, we could be ying that game till they really had enough numbers, to destroy the Avians.


    I ran up to the entrance, but saw no movements. I entered inside and made some noise. What followed was movement, movement of many things rushing at me. ''So you had reinforcements waiting, at the so called gate. Makes my job simple'' I thought and backed off. I was very close to the exit, so even if they managed to mobilise an army outside, I would be able to run away anyway.


    The Variants and normal Corpse Dogs rushed outside together with me. With that much space, I started ughtering them with my daggers. Although those creatures could beparable to stuff like ck or Silver Wolves, I was stronger than ming Silver Wolf at this stage. If I were to fight in the tunnel, the problem was space as well as being surrounded from both sides. That was why, I sustained many injuries running awayst time. Now with the open area, my speed and skills, I could hold on against such a group.


    This didn''t instantly mean, that I could stay there for long. I could kill loads of them but I would have to run away at some point. ''I can''t get to tired, I need some strength just in case'' I thought and shed. My priority this time were Variants, but the Variants were not stupid. They mixed in pretty well with the whole herd and it was hard to spot them.


    After a while of shing and backing away. I managed to take down 14 Variants, as for how many normal Corpse Dogs? I lost count long ago. Then I heard a quiet "boom!" and felt something moving towards me. I quickly jumped to the side, and took a look at the thing just flew at me.


    To my surprise, it was another Corpse Dog, but this one was different. It wasn''t any more healthy than variants but it seemed to be at least 3 times stronger. ''Hmmm? Is this another Variant? Maybe it specialises in speed?'' I thought and tried to go after that Variant, but I lost it.


    I was stunned myself, I didn''t believe that something like a Corpse Dog would be able to escape my eyes. ''This thing is not simple. Is that the Leader of Corpse Dogs?'' I thought to myself. Then I heard another silent "boom!" and felt somethinging towards me again. I threw some dagger in that direction, while jumping to the side.


    ''Let''s see how you evade that!'' I thought, as Inded. The same moment Inded, I heard a loud howl. The weird Corpse Dog, had its leg injured but it wasn''t a very major injury. ''This thing is good, it can be the Leader of Corpse Dogs. With that kind of strength and skills, it''s a strong possibility'' I thought.


    The weird Corpse Dog melded into the herd. I went to get my daggers back. I threw 3 of them and 1 was embedded inside the dog. There were other two, that I wanted back. The reason was simple, I didn''t have many of them left. I shed, killed and trampled my enemies, until I found those two daggers. The weird Corpse Dog didn''t attack anymore.


    I ughtered about half of the Corpse Dogs that came out and decided to retreat. Some of them tried to follow me but then, I heard a howl. The howl made all the dogs chasing after me, stop. ''So, this guy there is the leader then. If that is true, then it''s nothing special. It is as strong, as a ming Silver Wolf but instead of mes, it has great hiding abilities. This is even more of a chance, to study such creature and learn something new about stealth'' I thought and left.


    Now that they knew what they were up against, they would probably strengthen the defences. ''I guess, that they are going to stay inside now. With very little outside movements. Good, I can tell the Avians to prepare an attack on multiple entrances. I need them to harass them as much as possible. then I will get the Yellow Dust'' I thought and traveled a bit further to have a proper rest.

 Chapter 178

    Chapter 178


    After a good rest and breakfast, I went back to the usual meeting ce with Avians. After a while, a few Avians left the swarm andnded in front of me. The Avian I always spoke with, came to the front and asked "Are you ready?". I said "Yes, but there will be some changes in the n. I will go with you to the entrances and cause chaos. The Corpse Dogs are in hiding now, but as long as I''m there, they will have to send reinforcements".


    The Avians said "Alright, we will bring you to the cliff, you can then talk with the King of Avians about the details". I nodded my head and one of the Avians grabbed me, then we flew towards the Vulture Cliffs. I was excited at the prospect of looking at the world from bird''s eye view again. Although I saw the same things as before, I could at least marvel at the sights in front of me.


    Shortly after, wended on top of the cliff and the King of Avians joined me. She asked "What is the n?". I exined "We are going to cause chaos near some entrances, but I will be there as well. I will act as decoy and lure them to the exit. You can take care of themter, while I get the Yellow Dust from the Entrance No. 2". She nodded her head and asked "Which entrances should we cover?".


    I said "3 of the Entrances further away from the Entrance No. 2. I need the Entrance No. 2 to be as empty as possible. When I have the Yellow Dust, the real fun will begin". She nodded her head and said "Alright, then we will cover Entrances No. 1, 4 and 6". She signaled with her hand and all Avians came down. When theynded, she said "We will attack Entrances No. 1, 4 and 6". Then she pointed at one Avian and said "Carry him down the cliff to the Entrance No. 1". She then said to the rest of the Avians "I will assign the groups. Each group will be responsible for specific entrance. On my sign, you will attack". All the Avians gathered, replied "Yes" in unison.


    The Avian responsible for transporting me to the Entrance No. 1, flew over and grabbed me. I would arrive there first but it wouldn''t be a problem. ''This King of Avians is not stupid. I will lure them out first and then they will arrive, dealing a lot of damage. I can then move to the next location and so on'' I thought. We arrived at the destination, the Avian dropped me off next to the entrance and rushed back, into the skies. ''Time to ughter!'' I thought and rushed in.


    The Corpse Dogs were present at the Entrance No. 1, but the numbers were abysmal. ''At most 10 of them and normal ones at that'' I thought and disposed of them very quickly. I then went inside. ''Empty... We will see about that soon enough!'' I thought and ran into the tunnel. I didn''t do it stealthy this time, I used a torch to see better.


    Not even 5 minutester, I could hear something in the depths of the tunnel. ''Finally, they areing'' I thought and took out the Yellow Dust from my bag, I took out about a kilogram of that stuff and made a pile of it, in the tunnel. The Corpse Dogs arrived. I backed away a bit and when the time was right, I threw the torch in my hand onto the pile of Yellow Dust. Without looking back, I ran as fast as I could, towards the exit.


    "BOOOOM!"


    A loud explosion echoed behind me, while the st of air pushed me forwards with incredible speed. ''Shit!'' was the only word that came to my mind at that time. I flew through the tunnel and shot out of it at great speed. I flew through the air, around 20 metres away from the ground. I stabilised myself in the air, while falling down. ''This is going to hurt¡­'' I thought and bent my body a bit to buffer the fall.


    "Boom!"


    "Argh¡­. My legs hurt like hell! Fortunately, they are not broken!" I said to myself and fell to the ground. The impact was quite severe, I couldn''t stand up whatsoever due to pain. Although I was d, that I didn''t break my legs. ''This was dangerous, I shouldn''t repeat that again. I didn''t think that, only this much Yellow Dust, would create such an explosion. I was hit only by the aftermath of that st¡­ I wonder what happened to those Corpse Dogs'' I thought.


    I took out some medicine from my bag and drank it. I also smeared it on both my legs. The entrance spewed out a lot of dust from what I saw, then the Avians arrived. They also noticed me and somended next to me. One of them asked "What happened?".


    I said "Ugh¡­ I didn''t expect for there to be such an explosion. The Corpse Dogs inside must be sted to smithereens now. I think that more reinforcements should be arriving, as long as the tunnel didn''t copse". The Avian asked "Do you need help?" I said "Not now. I already applied medicine, so I should get better soon. We will wait and see. If the reinforcementse, Take me to the Entrance No. 2. Otherwise, I will got to Entrance No. 4".


    The Avian nodded his head and flew off to ry the news. I then saw the King of Avians arriving. Shended next to me and asked "Wasn''t this a bit too reckless?". I responded "Yes, a bit. There are positives too, now I know the strength of that Yellow Dust. One kilogram of that stuff, could cause such an explosion. There are couple of tonnes inside the Entrance No. 2".


    She became visibly shocked by that revtion and asked, with a hint of fear in her voice "Are you nning on using all of that?". I said "No, this would blow up the whole region. I need to collect at least 50 kilograms of that stuff and ce it around entrances. I will then blow them up from a safe location". She seemed to calm down and said "Alright, as long as you don''t blow up the whole region, do what you have to". She then looked into the distance and flew up, while saying "The reinforcements arrived. Judging by the number, there are at least 1000 of them. I need to get my Avians to this location". I nodded my head and said "Go".


    The Avian, I rted news to earlier, came by and asked "Are we going to Entrance No. 2?". I nodded my head and said "Yes, just drop me off somewhere remote, I will get inside by myself". The Avian nodded and grabbed me, then flew off.


    We soon arrived next to the Entrance No. 2, and it was quite empty. I said "Wait somewhere near, I might need a ride back". The Avian nodded and said "I will be in the skies. When I see youing out, I will pick you up". He then flew off and circled around, near the Entrance No. 2.


    ''My legs are much better now. Fortunately, I had some Healing Essence at hand. Otherwise, the basic Vital Liquid would not be enough, to heal up my legs that fast. I approached the entrance with the bow in hand and started shooting. ''I guess I''m in luck. All the Corpse Dogs guarding that entrance, are just the normal ones'' I thought. I immediately entered the tunnel and made my way to the Yellow Dust deposit area.


    I managed to get there no problem and the Yellow Dust was still there. Thanks to the diversion and that explosion earlier, all the eyes and ears were focused on the Entrance No. 1. I took out a spare bag that I had. ''I hope this will do'' I thought and used the bag like a dust pan. I scooped, then scooped and scooped some more, until I got around 150 kilograms of that stuff. ''This should be enough. I''m not going to blow up the Entrance No. 2, this might lead to an even bigger explosion¡­ I don''t know how much that Avian can carry¡­. I will take more and hide it. When the war is over, Avians may want that stuff for themselves. I might not be able to get moreter, better be safe than sorry'' I thought.

 Chapter 179

    Chapter 179


    I took out another spare bag and shoved in, as much Yellow Dust as I could. After a while, the bag weighed around 300 kilograms. ''This should be enough¡­ for this bag'' I thought and took out another one. I wasn''t sure, if I could ever encounter that Yellow Dust again, so I wanted to take a lot. Of course, I wouldn''t carry those both bags with me, I needed to hide them somewhere safe.


    The problem was ''That Avian is circling around the entrance. He will know about the bags, and I have 600 kilograms of that stuff just for myself. Where do I hide it?'' I thought. If I hid it inside the tunnels, there was no guarantee I would be able toe back to this ce, due to Avians. If I took it outside, the Avian would spot me with those heavy bags, and report that to his King. ''He will not be able to lift me either¡­ I think'' I thought and wrecked my brain about a possible hiding ce for my Yellow Dust.


    There was no ideal hiding ce, inside the Den and the outside, was also not optimal. ''I can only hope they don''t try to take it away from me, when I go out. I will try hiding it at the entrance and then dismiss the Avian. If it works, I should be able to get my Yellow Dust without them knowing'' I thought and proceeded towards the exit.


    The weight on me, was slowing me down but due to the attack earlier, there weren''t any Corpse Dogs blocking my way. I arrived at the exit and ced my bags behind some stones. When I went out, the Avian flew over and asked "Are you done?". I said "Yes, go tell your King, that I have enough Yellow Dust, to blow the Den up. Tell her, I will be at the Entrance No. 1 shortly. I have to take care of some things first".


    The Avian said "I can give you a ride". I replied "No need. Just ry the news and tell them to prepare. I will join you shortly". The Avian nodded his head and left. ''Whew¡­ that was easier than I thought. He still wanted to give me a ride though. My suspicions turned out to be true, they are watching over me, but I guess, they are not as much concerned. Otherwise, he wouldn''t leave'' I thought.


    I made sure the Avian really left, and retrieved the bags full of Yellow Dust, from the tunnel. I sprinted as fast as I could, towards some deste location in order to bury my bags. I needed to chose a location, that I would be able to findter on. For that, I used my map and headed to a specific area. There, I buried my bags and marked my map with the location.


    ''Good, now that my Yellow Dust is stored for the future use, I can now head towards the Entrance No. 1'' I thought and moved. With 600 kilograms gone, my speed increased. While I ran, I also ate some food, just to replenish the energy I used. Some more runningter, I arrived at the Entrance No. 1. The war was in full swing, I could see thousands of Corpse Dogs attacking, there was even a huge Corpse Dog, that Avians avoided.


    Some of the Avians spotted me and notified the King. She flew over and asked "Where the hell were you!? The amount of Corpse Dogs and their strength is really many times greater, than we expected. Even more than you expected. Quickly blow them up!". I looked around the battlefield and noticed that, loads of Avian already died. I said "Take me over to the battlefield. I have a n". She nodded and personally grabbed me to fly over.


    I said, while we flew in the air "I need to be around 10-20 metres above the ground. Just make sure to go to a ce with the most Corpse Dogs. The denser it is, the better". She replied "Alright". We flew over to the middle of the battlefield and I tipped over the bag containing Yellow Dust. I didn''t empty itpletely, I dumped around half of it on to the corpse dogs below. The corpse Dogs were confused about my actions but I didn''t care about that.


    I said to the King of Avians "Quickly, make your people retreat. Far away!". She immediately gave the order and Avians started to retreat. I lit a torch and said. "Fly up, As fast as you can". She did just that, and I dropped the torch.


    "Faster, Go up, as far as you can!". She screamed "I''m trying!". Then "BOOOOOOOM!". The explosion below evelopted at least half of the entire Corpse Dog''s army. Those in the middle of it, perished. So much so, that there were no ashes left behind. The st of air travelled in all direction and knocked away the rest of the Corpse Dogs, that managed to survive. We also felt the st in the skies but fortunately, the King of Avians was strong enough to stabilise herself, and not fall to the ground.


    She was visibly shocked and said with fear in her voice "This type of weapon shouldn''t exist. It can destroy a whole city, if there was enough of it". The Avians regrouped in the air, to form a swarm. We all looked at the aftermath of that explosion. When the dust settled and all became visible again, we saw what type of explosion, that amount of Yellow Dust caused.


    "This thing created a huge hole. Not only that, all the Corpse Dogs in the st radius perished, without a corpse intact¡­ The losses are too heavy. They are finished" I said out loud. The hole from the explosion was huge, not only was it as deep as about 20 metres, it was also about the size of 300 metres in diameter. That Yellow Dust, was a weapon of mass destruction. ''Now, Avians will surely m the Yellow Dust for themselves. Good thing, I took out that 600 kilograms of it. With that much stuff, I can blow up couple of cities'' I thought.


    With all Avians staring in awe, at the destruction caused by the explosion. I said "Now you just have to kill off all the remaining Corpse Dogs. I don''t know if the leader is still alive or not, but I still have some Yellow Dust left. We can drop it at a different location if need be". The King of Avians responded absentmindedly "Yea".


    After a while, she snapped out of it andmanded "Go to all entrances and kill anything that pops up!". The swarm acknowledged and moved in groups to each entrance. There was still a group with the King of Avians and me that stayed behind at the Entrance No. 1. I said "Take me down to the ground. I will investigate the Den now". She nodded her head and we flew down.


    When wended, I said "Just wait in the air, in case I need support. I will try and go inside. I should be able to find out, if the leader is still alive", then I ran off towards the entrance, or rather whatever was left of it.

 Chapter 180

    Chapter 180


    When I got next to the Entrance No. 1, that experienced the biggest aftermath. I saw that the tunnel which lead inside was still there. ''Fortunately, the Yellow Dust exploded in such a way, that it didn''t copse the entrance. It''s time to investigate'' I thought. I entered through the tunnel and immediately took out my torch, to light up the insides.


    The first thing I noticed inside, were some dead Corpse Dogs. ''They probably tried to run further inside, but the st killed them anyway'' I thought. I travelled further in and encountered some injured, but alive Corpse Dogs. I quickly disposed of them and moved on, towards the depths of the Den.


    After a while of travelling and killing whatever was left of the Corpse Dogs, I finally entered a huge cave underground. It wasrge enough to house at least 1000 Corpse Dogs. It wasn''t empty though, there were around 100 Corpse Dogs inside. Some were lightly injured but a lot of them were still at their full strength. When the Corpse Dogs noticed me, they charged at me, as if I was their greatest enemy. I was in a way, I was. It was because of me, that most of the Corpse Dogs died.


    I took out my daggers, and killed the dogs left and right. Fighting 100 normal Corpse Dogs in such arge area, was not hard. I killed, and killed, and killed some more, until thest Corpse Dog perished. ''It seems that loads of Corpse Dogs still survived, but it shouldn''t be over a 1000. It''s still arge number, but without a leader, they will die out fast. Of course, provided the leader is dead'' I thought and moved towards another tunnel, that was located in the opposite direction, of the entrance.


    I started encountering more and more Corpse Dogs, but due to the disorder and heavy losses, I usually encountered groups of 20-30 Corpse Dogs at most. There were some Variants mixed in from time to time, but nothing major happened. I followed the tunnels, until I reach thergest cave so far. What was inside that cave, left me stunned.


    ''Is that a Corpse Dog?'' I thought to myself. It wasn''t the size but the healthiness. It was pretty much healthy, with no rotting on it whatsoever. The "Corpse Dog" looked not only healthy but had a shiny ck fur and red eyes that seemed to stare directly at ones soul. Its size was about twice that of a normal Corpse Dog. ''This is bad, this must be their leader!'' I thought to myself, and ran in the opposite direction. I had no way of fighting against such opponent. I already knew that. Apletely healthy Corpse Dog, would be something, I couldn''t take on by myself.


    I could hear running from behind me, while I escaped. ''So it is going to chase me¡­ Fine! Have a taste of the Yellow Dust then!'' I thought and opened the bag containing the Yellow Dust. I started spreading it as I ran. The Yellow Dust formed a line behind me as I ran forwards with the bag opened. After a short while, I closed the bag and threw the torch behind me.


    "SWOOOOSHH!!" the Yellow Dust started burning and exploding towards the depth of the tunnel. I then heard "Booom!" and some shaking. I didn''t stop and ran at full speed, even though I just dropped my source of light. After a while of sprinting in the dark tunnel, I head "Do you think that, running away from me will be that simple?"


    I didn''t turn back, but still answered "So you are the Leader of Corpse Dogs. I''m not even surprised you can talk". The voice in the darkness sounded angry "Corpse Dogs? I always hated that name. You filthy human, you destroyed my home. You even had the balls toe in here and kill even more of my kind. I will eat you alive!". I could hear something closing in on me¡­ Fast. I started dumping the whole content of the bag onto the ground while I ran. I had about 50 kilograms left in that bag and I didn''t care about the consequences. When the bag was empty, I threw it to the side and lit the torch up. While running, I threw it behind me and didn''t look back anymore.


    "BOOOM!" "BOOOM!" "BOOOM!""BOOOM!"


    Loud explosions sounded behind me and the st of hot air arrived. Not only was I pushed forwards at incredible speeds, my skin started to blister due to the hot air of the st. "ARRGHHH¡­." The pain was so intense, it felt as if someone was skinning me alive. I flew through the air and crashed into the wall at great velocity.


    "UNGGHH!". A grunt escaped my mouth, as I crashed into one of the walls. I was barely left conscious. The pain was intensified due to me smashing the wall. I had no more strength to make any sounds. I couldn''t move a finger either. Iid there on the ground, my vision blurry, the pain unbearable, when I head "Y...You B...Bastard¡­ D..Damn you¡­ Human". What came to my blurry view, was the Leader of the Corpse Dogs. It was missing some bits of its flesh and the fur was mostly gone, from what I could see. it also had some blistered and burns from head to tail. It copsed onto the ground, not far away from me, and didn''t move anymore.


    ''Ughh.. Although that thing is dead, I''m¡­ not in a better situation'' I thought, as Iid there. Time seemed to freeze, I could see less and less, and my consciousness was drifting away. After what seemed like eternity, I heard some faint sounds. ''...Probably¡­ other dogs¡­ arrived'' I thought. But it wasn''t that. I heard someone speak "Here¡­. Get¡­ Here¡­". Then I felt being lifted up and my consciousness faded.


    When my eyes opened, I had the dream, where Dark Traveller talked to me. What was strange, was that the Dark Traveller, seemed to talk to me in humannguage. I knew it was humannguage, I could understand everything, but I also couldn''t seem to remember anything. I tried to listen and remember but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t do it.


    I only knew that the Dark Traveller seemed to talk about his own past. About some sort of curse and about trust. That was all I could remember, from that dream. I closed my eyes, I was extremely tired, and the darkness enveloped me. No thoughts or dreams appeared in front of me. It felt as if I justid there, motionless, drifting in the darkness.


    I suddenly felt something and opened my eyes. What I woke up to, was not my dream but the reality. In front of me, the grey sky of the Northern Wastnds. I still felt pain but it wasn''t as severe as it was before. I asked myself out loud "Am I alive?".

 Chapter 181

    Chapter 181


    "Your injuries were very severe. Rest properly, before you move" A voice said. It sounded familiar to me. I realized after a while, that it was the voice of the Kind of Avians. I said "Their Leader is dead, I blew him up. The Corpse Dogs should not pose any threat to you, anymore". The King of Avians responded "Yes, the Leader is dead, but what you did was very reckless. Fortunately, some of my people were willing to go down there, and check up on you. Otherwise, you would be dead".


    I said "I had no choice. The Leader was much stronger than me. If I didn''t blow him up, I would die anyway. It was a risk worth taking". She stayed quiet for a while, and then said "Either way, you helped us a lot. The danger we would face in the future, could potentially destroy us. We are very grateful for what you did. Who would have thought, that a human would be our saviour".


    I asked "Are humans really so bad?". She responded almost immediately "Yes, they didn''t attack us directly because of our position advantage and numbers, but almost all races are at war with humans. They even destroyed one racepletely, even though that race surrendered". I didn''t understand. ''Why create war everywhere? Why would humans try to be enemies with everybody?'' I asked myself.


    She then continued "But, you are different for some reason. You are unlike any human we met so far. I myself wonder why?". I said "I get that a lot. Anyway, now that the Corpse Dogs are gone, I would like to explore your Vulture Cliffs. I also need to stock up on some food for the future journey". She said "No problem, you carried out your part of the deal. I will also throw in some stuff, just to show you our gratitude. But first, you need to heal up. Rest for a few days and then we can talk about your rewards".


    I nodded my head lightly and closed my eyes. I didn''t have any dreams, only darkness filled my vision. I could move around inside it, but there was nothing to see. There was nothing to touch and nothing to hear. The time didn''t seem to pass, so I decided to just train. I didn''t do any strength training or any training with my weapons, as I didn''t have any weapons.


    I sat down and tried tobine the Art of Stealth. ''I have tobine 3 aspects. Those are agility, domain and vignce. I have tobine all that, with the "Avoid the Light" thingy. I already did the 1st step and developed my Art of Stealth, but how do Ibine this Avoid the Light?'' I asked myself.


    ''Darkness. Ack of light, that surrounds me¡­. When there is light, there must be darkness¡­ I need to be the darkness'' I thought. Due to experience and the conditions in front of my eyes, I felt, I was onto something. ''Is it, avoid the light or embrace the darkness? I feel like, I heard it somewhere already. Did Nick tell me that? I can''t seem to recall'' I was lost in my thoughts. For a while, I tried to remember where I heard that already, but I couldn''t figure it out.


    ''Embrace the darkness? How do I do it?'' I thought. I didn''t know how to do it but I closed my eyes, and tried to feel the darkness. I was trying to feel the darkness, just like I trained, when I was trying to find the wind. With all my senses focused only on that. I started to feel something. Something was there¡­ the darkness, was not empty.


    When I opened my eyes, I could see. ''I can¡­ see?'' I thought. I couldn''t see a lot but there was something in the darkness. Some strange ck Orbs were floating around everywhere. When I looked down, I saw the ground, but not just any ground, it was made from those ck Orbs packed tightly together. I was stunned ''So the darkness was never empty. I just couldn''t see'' I thought, and reached out with my hand, to touch one of the orbs. The orb swirled around my arm for a while and then continued to travel further. ''This is extraordinary! I wonder what those ck Orbs are?'' I thought and tried grabbing one ore. But when I sped my hand, the Orb inside it, simply went through my hand, and continued floating as if nothing happened.


    ''So I can''t catch them?'' I thought. I tried different things with those orbs, and I found out, that if I tried to catch them forcefully, they would always escape. On the other hand, if I tried to attract them, some of them, would swirl around my arm for a while and leave. ''This is weird indeed'' I thought.


    I also tried touching the ground, but the orbs on it never responded. Even if I tried to grab them, I couldn''t, no matter how much strength I used. After experimenting for a while, I had a look at my own body, under that darkness. What I found, was that there were ck Orbs leaving my body too. ''This¡­ Those orbs, areing from my body? Are all those orbs from my body then?'' I asked myself.


    I did some more experimenting and found out, that the Orbs leaving my body, were always swirling around my arm, when I extended it. What that happened, it meant that the ck Orbs belonged to me. The ones that didn''t swirl around my arm, didn''t belong to me. ''But why am I releasing those orbs? Is every creature and being realising them?'' I thought. I suddenly felt extremely weak and my vision returned to pure darkness. I couldn''t see any orbs and I felt tired.


    ''Is it because I lost too many of those orbs? Or because sustaining that vision is very taxing?'' I asked myself. I didn''t know which one it was but both were possible. ''I will have to try it out in the real world. Maybe it will work as well'' I thought and sat on the floor to rest. I soon closed my eyes and my consciousness drifted away.


    When I opened my eyes again, I woke up in the Norther Wilderness. I didn''t feel much pain anymore, and I found that I could move. I sat up and took a look at my body. My right hand was as pale as ever, and there didn''t seem to be any burns or scars left on it. My other hand was full of scars. ''My right hand is fine, probably due to that freezing effect that it has. My left hand is in a worse state though'' I thought. I moved it around, and it felt fine. The only visible damage, was to the skin. The scars were there, as a reminder, not to try something as stupid as that again.


    I took a look at the rest of my body. I noticed that most of my clothes were gone. My legs also had burn scars but other than that, they healed pretty well, and I didn''t feel any pain. My torso was also left with some scars but not as many, as my legs and left arm. I stood up and looked around me. I was on top of the cliff, and above me, a swarm of Avians was flying around, as usual.


    When some Avians noticed me getting up, a few of themnded not far away from me. I asked "How long did I sleep for?". One of the Avians said "Quite long. We thought you wouldn''t wake up, but out King said to provide medicine for you and let you rest. The King should arrive soon, so wait here for a while". I nodded my head and reached for my bag.


    Fortunately, it was still there. It didn''t seem to be to damaged much, it was scorched a bit but other than that, it was fine. ''Those bags are really sturdy. I wonder what type of material this is. If I could make a set of clothes out of it, how great my defence would be!'' I thought and took out a spare set of clothes. I also took out some of my medicine and applied it onto my body.


    With the medicine I had, some of the scars would heal up, but some would stay anyway. I touched my face and felt my shrivelled skin. I could also feel some rough parts, especially on my cheeks. ''My face must''ve been affected too. I will smear some medicine on it as well'' I thought and applied some medicine. My hair were also burned. I had nothing on my head whatsoever. ''I probably look like a freak now. No hair, my face is probably burned too, and all those scars all over my body'' I thought. Soon after I was done applying the medicine, the King of Avians showed up.

 Chapter 182

    Chapter 182


    "You slept for a very long time. It''s good that you woke up. How do you feel?" she said. I finished applying my medicine and responded "Although the damage I sustained was not small, I''m alright now. I can walk and move freely, with some rest and medicine, I should be able to get back to my peak form".


    She nodded her head and said "Good. I have this for you. It might not be a lot, but you can also stay here, for as long as you want. You can also get some supplies, that can be found in Vulture Cliffs. Someone will bring you down, when you are ready". She handed me a feather, it was the same feather that one of the Avians used, as the storage item.


    I decided to ask "Is this storage feather moreplicated, than the bags I have?". She nodded her head and said "Yes, the bags you have, probably don''t have the formation which will decrease the weight of the things inside. Do you want me to exin how the feather works?". I nodded my head and handed her the feather.


    She held it, using her leg and said "You just have to think about retrieving something from the feather and focus on it. If you don''t know what is inside, you can think about retrieving all the things inside, like so". When she finished speaking, some stuff appeared on the ground.


    She then continued "If you want to ce things inside, you have to think about the stuff you want to ce inside, and focus on the feather". She again showed me how that works and all the items disappeared. "Wow!" I eximed. My bags were not able to do such a thing whatsoever. She said "You can retrieve one or many items, at a time. The same is with cing them inside the feather. The only limitation, besides the space, is that nothing alive can be stored inside. If you try to ce something alive inside, it will die".


    I nodded my head and asked "What about that formation you spoke of? What is that?". She asked "You don''t know what a formation is?". I shook my head in response and awaited answer. She said "A formation is a kind of spell, that can be ced on items and even environment. That is how this feather can store things, it''s due to spatial formation. The feather is also special. My feathers can take the strain of a spatial formation. Any ordinary material or item, wouldn''t be able to do so. They would explode the moment you ced a formation on them".


    I immediately wanted to learn such skill, but before I could ask about it, she said "We will not teach you that. There is only one Formation Expert in our ranks. We can''t also share the secrets of our formations with humans. I hope you understand". I nodded my head and said "It''s true I would like to learn it, but I''m not going to ask for impossible".


    She said "Humans also have Formation Experts. From what I know, allrge cities in Human Kingdom, have some Formation Experts. Maybe you can learn from them". ''This is not a bad idea, I will have to search for such an expert, and try to learn about those formations. Those seem to be very useful'' I thought, and then asked "What type of weight can this feather carry?".


    The King of Avians responded "Around 2 tonnes of stuff, while it will halve the weight to 1 tonne, due to formation ced inside. It''s also quite sturdy, but don''t try to destroy it on purpose, just to check how sturdy it is. Before you ask, the sturdiness is also thanks to a formation". I nodded my head and received the feather again.


    She flew into the air a bit and said "When you are ready to go down, just wave your hand at the swarm. One of the Avians will take you down the cliff". I nodded my head and she left. I looked at the feather in my hand. ''It doesn''t weigh anything at all. I know there is some stuff inside, but it seems like there is nothing in there'' I thought. I focused on the feather and thought about taking all the stuff out of it. After my first try, nothing happened. I tried a few more times, and finally seeded.


    All the things, from inside the feather, appeared on the ground. I examined all the things and found that most of the stuff there, were herbs. ''I don''t recognise most of these herbs. There are only two, that I do recognise. There is the Calming Flower, as well as the Pareless Seeds'' I thought. There were another 4 herbs that I never saw. One that looked like a fruit, but it wasn''t like an apple or peach. It looked weird. The skin was grey and the size of it was simr to that of a plum. It had no smell either. I was tempted to slice it open and check the insides, but I decided not to do that. ''I will ask an Avianter on. They should know what this is'' I thought.


    The other herb that was unknown to me, looked like a needle from a pine tree, but it was dark red in colour and much thicker than a needle from a tree. Another herb I didn''t recognise, looked like a small stone, althought it was green and soft to touch. ''It might be a seed of some sort, but I''m not sure at this stage'' I thought.


    Thest herb I never saw, looked like a mushroom and not like a mushroom, at the same time. It didn''t have a stem like all mushrooms. Instead, it looked like a half of a mushroom''s cap and the colour was light brown. The underside of the cap, didn''t look like an usual mushroom either. Instead of gills at the bottom, it had the same structure as the top of the cap. The difference was that, the top was curved, while the bottom was t.


    Besides the herbs, there was another thing inside the feather. This was a set of clothes. One would expect a set made out of feathers, Avians were birds after all. But it wasn''t feathers, it was made of leather. The leather was quite rough, it had a very bad colour as well. It was orange, pale orange to be precise. ''Wearing those clothes, would make me stand out like a sore thumb!'' I thought.


    Besides that, the design was weird as well. It looked simple but menacing in a way. Usually, a set of clothes, would consist of torso, legs and boots. There were also some optional things such as hats, scarfs and whatnot. The set I got, consisted of 6 things. There were two pieces of clothing for torso. The first piece, was a long coat with a hood. The other piece of clothing, was what I could only describe as, a thick shirt that could be worn under the coat. The boots were quite tall, they almost reached to my knees. They looked more like women''s boots, than men''s. The only thing that saved them from being women''s boots, was their size andck of hills. The sole was pretty much t.


    The pants were quite thick and long. Supposedly, they could cover the boots. Or alternatively, it was possible tucked them inside the boots. Besides those 4 obvious items, there were two more. Gloves, that exposed the fingers. The gloves looked almost like the ones, I had for fist fighting. They were quite in and had no armour other than the rough thick leather. The gloves were simple looking, but of course, they were pale orange in colour. Thest item from that set, was a long and tubr piece of cloth. I had no idea, what it was supposed to be used as? ''It can''t be a hat, both ends are opened. Is it some kind of armband? Nah, it''s too big to fit an arm¡­ Maybe a legband? If such a thing exists?'' I thought.


    I didn''t really know, what to do with those clothes. The colour was appalling and easily noticeable. They didn''t seem to befortable either. ''What am I supposed to do with them? I guess they gave me something as I was nearly but naked, due to the explosion in the tunnel. Who knows, maybe I will need them someday, a set of clothes that is clean, can always be used''. The sizes seemed to be alright as well. I ced the set of clothes inside the feather, along with the herbs. ''Time to go down and explore this ce. I also need to ask about those herbs, maybe they can exin that clothing to me as well'' I thought and waved my hand at the swarm.

 Chapter 183

    Chapter 183


    Soon after I waved my arm, one of the Avians came down, andnded in front of me. She asked "Are you ready to go down the cliff?". I said "Yes, but before you take me down there, can you answer some of my question?". She nodded her head and said "I will answer, if I can". I took out the herbs unknown to me, and showed her the first one, while asking "What is this herb called?". It was the needle like herb, that I showed her first.


    She said "This is Blood Reed. Do you want to know its effects as well?" I nodded my head and said "Please". She continued "The Blood Reed can be used to recover blood loss but also improve your blood, if consumed in great quantities". I asked a bit confused "Improve my blood?". She said "Yes, your blood will be purer, that is a secondary effect and as I said, you will need to consume a lot of Blood Reeds, in order to purify your blood". I didn''t know what purifying ones blood meant, so I asked "What happens, when I purify my blood?".


    She answered in a ''as a matter of fact'' manner. "Oh!, you will be able to break through your limits much easier". I was confused again and asked "What limits?". She shook her head and said "You really don''t know much. It depends, it can be your strength, your mind or soul. With pure blood, you will have it a bit easier to break through your strength limit. I guess that there are some benefits for the mind and soul as well".


    ''I didn''t know that blood could be purified¡­ I get the notion of a limit but¡­ Wait! Didn''t I already experience that?'' I thought, and decided to ask "Would breaking a limit of my strength, instantly increase it, to a whole new level?". She nodded her head and said "Yes, that is what breaking through limits feels like. If it is strength, then you would feel a sudden increase in your muscle power, when you break the limit".


    ''So that''s how it is. No wonder I''m stuck at my exercises and can''t progress. I must''ve hit the limit already. Now I have to break through it'' I thought. In the beginning, I was sure that it would take a long time, for me to improve. I thought it was due to the training, bing less and less effective. It turned out, that the training I usually did, might still have some effects, it''s just that I hit my limit and couldn''t develop further, without breaking it. This information in itself, was more useful than anything, I could''ve gotten from the Avians.


    I showed her another herb and asked "And this, what is this?". I showed her the mushroom like herb. She answered "This is Earth Grab. This is used to increase one''s strength. I must say that the King of Avians, really did reward you. We don''t get that many of those rare herbs to eat. Most of us get only one or two every so often. These herbs grow for a long time". She then continued "This will allow your strength to increase by a bit. Of course, the more you eat, the more strength you gain. It will stop working after you consume a few of them. The best way to use that herb, is to eat it when breaking through the limit. At least, that is how we use it".


    I asked "Can you make medicine or rather more concentrated form of this herb? For example, add some herbs together to increase its effectiveness, cook it and then drink it?". She shook her head and said "We have no such thing. We eat all of the herbs raw. As for the medicine or some sort of concoctions, we don''t make them. For medicine, we use grounded herbs that provide healing effects. There are loads of herbs in the valley below, you can have a look by yourself, and take any you like. The rare herbs, are in the safe ce anyway".


    ''This is good too, maybe I will be able to find some useful herbs down there. They don''t seem to possess great medical knowledge. This can work to my advantage'' I thought. I then showed her another herb and asked "And what about this one?". I showed her the green and soft herb. She said "This is Fletched Fruit. It improves the eyesight when eaten. You really got a lot from the King". I showed her thest herb and asked "This is thest one, what is that?". Thest herb was the grey plum like herb.


    She said "This is also quite rare herb, that we grow. It''s called Generating Fruit, and it affects the¡­ well, reproducing organs. In simple terms, we eat it when we want to have more offsprings". I was kind of stunned ''Why the hell, would I need that herb! I don''t even have a partner!'' I thought. I was kind of dazed for a while, before I snapped out of it and said "I have only one more thing to ask about". She said "Sure, go ahead".


    I asked "This set of clothes. Why is it that colour and what is that for?", and showed her the tubr piece of cloth, that was part of the set. She asked "You don''t like the colour? It looks nice". I got a headache and thought ''Of course I don''t like the colour, it''s shit, to say the least''. I didn''t voice my thoughts and simply said "No, can it be changed?".


    She said "Sure, We don''t do clothes for humans really, or clothes in overall, but we know how to use dyes. That is how we got that colour. I wasn''t the one who created them, so I can ask for you, if the Avian responsible for making them, can change that colour for you". I nodded my head and said "Please do". She said "Alright, I will take them to the swarmter. As for the piece of cloth you pointed out, I don''t know. I will need to ask the Avian responsible for making it".


    I said "Alright. I will give you the set now". She asked "What colour would you like?". I thought about it for a while and said "ck". She nodded he head and took the set of clothes. I wanted ck colour, because Nick gave me ck clothes. Although that set was not simr, I wanted to have at least the same colour, as what Nick gave to me. ck would also blend better, in dark or shady areas.


    She asked "Can we go now?". I said "Yep, I don''t have any other questions. We can go". She lifted off a bit and grabbed me with her legs. We flew down the cliff, until we reached the ground. She said "Someone will bring you the set of clothes when it''s ready. Have fun exploring". I nodded my head and said "Take care!". She flew off and joined the swarm, while I turned towards the Valley, that seemed promising.

 Chapter 184

    Chapter 184


    The Valley in front of me looked less deste, than the wilderness outside. I could see some trees growing. There were some patches of grass once in a while, and somemon herbs were visible throughout the Valley. ''This ce is much differentpared to the outside. I wonder what type of animals live here'' I thought and moved forwards. The Avians used this ce not only as their food supply, but also a ce that meant future for Avians.


    The rare herbs seemed very useful, and even if they couldn''t get that many of them to satisfy the whole swarm, it was still extraordinary amount. Of course, if what the female Avian said, was true. While I walked through the Valley, I noticed a lot of herbs growing around. These were themon type herbs and mostly not very useful to me. I decided to leave them by, and not collect them. At least for now.


    Some more walking and exploringter, the view in front of me changed. I could now see an open area, which was surrounded by cliffs. That area, was much more green,pared to the Valley entrance. I could see some animals moving around in groups and living happily. ''This view is amazing. To find something like this in the North, must be very hard. There are loads of trees, shrubs and whatnot around. There are animals, that are not rotting, and even herbs growing in abundance. Why is this ce so different,pared to the rest of Northern Wilderness?'' I thought.


    There must''ve been a reason. Either they had a method to change this ce, into the paradise of the North, or the location in itself, was special. I didn''t know which one it was. ''The King of Avians said to me, that they had special methods to grow those herb and rear animals. That doesn''t mean, the ce is not special as well'' I thought.


    I entered the open area of the Valley and encounter the first animal inside. It was some sort of bull or cow like creature, but it had 4 tails instead of one. It''s colour was also weird, it was pale orange¡­ just like the set of clothes, I received. ''So, that is how they got the colour then. No wonder they liked this colour. I mean, it''s their source of food. Fortunately, that Avian took the set for redying'' I thought. Besides the colour and tails, it''s horns were also different than those of a bull. The horns were pointing towards the back of that creature, instead of the front. ''It''s as if, the horns of that creature are just there as a fashion feature. They are useless as a weapon'' I thought.


    I approached the creature, which I decided to name Four Tailed Bull for now. The creature seemed startled but didn''t run away. It looked at me with some curiosity. I wondered if that creature could speak as well, I asked "How are you?". I knew it was a stupid question but nevertheless, it was something. The Four Tailed Bull seemed confused but didn''t answer anything. ''It can''t talk probably. Not every creature can anyway. Normal Corpse Dogs couldn''t talk, the only one that could, was their Leader'' I thought.


    I came close to the creature, that was about 1.5 size bigger than a bull, and looked at it. I wanted to study those creatures as well, in order to fill in my Beast Scriptures. The Four Tailed Bull stared at me but didn''t do anything. After a while, it came closer and smelled me. ''Hmm, it seems to be friendly''. I reached out my hand on reflex to pat it on the head.


    The Four Tailed Bull backed off and stared at me intensely. I said "I only wanted to pat your head, I meant no harm to you". Although I said that, I had no idea if it could understand me. The bull stared at me for a while, it noticed that I did no suspicious moves and tried to get closer again. I extended my hand forwards this time. The bull came closer and sniffed my hand. I said "I told you, I mean no harm to you. I just want to learn more about you".


    The bull didn''t really care about my words and sniffed my hand for a while. It then lifted its head up and¡­ smiled? This time, it was my turn to be confused. I had no idea what that Four Tailed Bull was on about. It was scared at first, then smiled. It didn''t make sense.


    I tried to touch the bull and this time, it didn''t back off but got closer. Its hide felt quite rough, as I patted its head and neck. "Moooo!" the bull seemed pleased, it made the same sound that a bull would do.


    ''Weird animal. It must be some sort of Variant, from the bull family. Besides, this is North. Nothing is normal here'' I thought to myself. I check the bull from all sides and didn''t notice anything out of ordinary. ''It has four tails and weird skin colour, but other than that¡­ it''s like any normal bull'' I thought. I took out the Beast Scriptures and recorded the entry for the Four Tailed Bull inside. ''I will have to ask for the name of that creatureter. I don''t want to create more misunderstandings when talking with creatures here'' I thought and closed the book.


    I would have more chances to encounter those creatures again. I could always learn more, when that happened. I said "I''m off then, enjoy whatever you were doing" and moved towards the depths of the Valley. As I walked through a thin forest, admiring the views. I encountered another animal. It looked like a monkey, but it was red. It was also quite small and seemed veryzy. When it noticed me, it didn''t even try to run or do anything. Justid there on the tree, staring at something.


    I came closer to the tree and studied the monkey like creature. With a more detailed look, I noticed that, there was a 3rd eye on its forehead. It was closed at that moment but the eyelid was visible. ''A monkey with 3 eyes? Who would have thought, such thing to be possible'' I thought to myself and decided to call it Three Eyed Monkey. A name fitting its appearance. Of course that was only the provisional name, I wouldter ask Avians, about the real names of those creatures.


    I entered all the details into my Beast Scriptures, then moved on. I soon encountered a small clearing in the forest. In the middle of that clearing, ake¡­ or rather, a pond. It was quite small, but it would be enough for the animals living here, to have a drink and stay hydrated. ''I wonder, where does all this watere from? It could be underground stream or something like that¡­. But here, in the North?'' I thought.


    I got closer to the pond and had a look. I hoped to see some fishes inside, but I didn''t see any. The pond itself was quite deep. I ced my left hand inside and noticed that the temperature, was quite low. ''There is no sun, so the water has no way of warming up. This begs the question, how did all these nts grow?'' I thought. This didn''t seem to make sense. There was no sun in the sky, but the trees, shrubs and even herbs grew. The temperature was always the same, except when wind blew from time to time, then it got colder.


    ''The sun must still be there in the skies. Although the clouds cover the whole North, it''s not dark in here. Maybe that is why the nts could grow'' I thought. Before I could move on and explore more of that Valley, I noticed some movements inside the pond.


    ''Hmmm? Is something there after all?'' I thought and focused on the pond. I saw no movements again, but I was sure that something moved inside. ''I''m not delusional, as far as I''m aware. I have loads of patience, we will wait and see, what is inside there'' I thought and sat down.

 Chapter 185

    Chapter 185


    I sat near the pond for a while but didn''t notice any other movements. ''Is that something inside, aware that I''m here?'' I thought. I decided to test that and moved away, from the pond. I moved only a bit, I still needed to see whatever that thing inside was. I waited for some time again, staring at the pond.


    Suddenly, a movement. I didn''t rush to the pond and stayed in my ce. ''The creature might be testing, if I really left. Let''s see what it does next?'' I thought and stared at the pond. Some timeter, the movement repeated. I again stayed in my ce and didn''t move.


    This thing repeated for a few more times, before a creature resurfaced and looked around. When it noticed me, it seemed surprised and quickly hid inside the pond again. ''This was not a fish. I could only see its head but it looked like lizard? Are lizards able to live underwater?'' I thought. The creature''s head was blue and although it resembles a lizard, it also differed from usual lizards.


    I decided to investigate. I took off my clothes and jumped into the pond "Ssh!". I could still see stuff around me, as I was near the surface, but the further down I looked, the less I could see. The creature which I was looking for was there, nearer the bottom, or at least the bottom of what I could see. When it saw me, it dived deeper, until I wasn''t able to see it whatsoever.


    I resurfaced and thought ''This thing is weird. It''s head is like that of a lizard, its body is long like that of a snake, and it also has 4 legs, or 2 legs and 2 arms. If what I saw is correct, it should be about 1 metre long. The size of its body though, is not that great, the creature is just long''. I wondered what could that creature be. I went out of the pond and dressed myself. I took out the Beast Scriptures and recorded that creature inside.


    Besides the shape of the creature and the colour, I knew nothing else really. I added whatever I could and named it Water Lizard. ''I will have to enquire Avians about that creature. It seems to be a bit shy or perhaps scared'' I thought. While I was adding stuff to my book and gathering my thoughts, I heard a ssh behind me.


    When I looked back, it was the same creature that resurfaced. It looked at me with panic in its eyes and ran towards me. What appeared next from the pond, stunned me as well. It was another creature with many tentacles. The size of that creature, was at least 5 times that of a human being. I moved back as well, while the Water Lizard moved towards me with panic. I said "Stop following me. I don''t want to deal with that thing". The lizard made some noises but still followed.


    The creature resurfacedpletely and gave chase. It used its long tentacles like legs, its speed extraordinary. ''Why am I always being chased!?'' I thought and took out my bow. I turned around and started shooting at the creature running towards us. "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" "Swoosh!" but the arrows simply bounced back. The tentacle creature chasing us, was like a rubber.


    ''There is no other way then!'' I took out a small portion of the Yellow Dust that I still had on me and set it up. With the torch lit, I shouted "Come at me!". This seemed to enrage the tentacle creature and it went straight for me. I lit the torch and started running. When the creature got close to the Yellow Dust, I threw the torch.


    "BOOOM!" "SCREEECH!!". The ear piercing screech of a creature that was sted away, sounded through the air. I stopped running and turned around. The tentacle creature was all mangled and burned. It didn''t move anymore. The Water Lizard stared at the creature in shock. I came over to the lizard and said "What type of disaster, did you want to bring on me, huh?". The creature snapped out of its shock and looked at me. It panicked again and started to run.


    "Oh no you don''t!" I eximed and chased after it, at my full speed. The lizard was fast, but not as fast as I was. I caught up to it and caught it. I said "Where do you think you are going?". The lizard almost started crying and making loads of noises. It seemed to be apologising, begging not to kill it.


    "I will not kill you. Just don''t run!" and ced the lizard on the ground. It seemed confused and d at the same time. Probably because it pleas worked, but this time, it didn''t dare to move away. I said out loud "What was that thing?". The lizard got worked up again and pointed somewhere. I wasn''t really asking that lizard a question but I still looked to where it pointed.


    It was the exit from the Valley. I was a bit confused and asked "What is there?". The lizard seemed to fear something and pointed toward that direction while making noises. I asked "You want to go there?" The lizard nodded and urged me toe. I was baffled and said "I still want to examine that tentacle creature". It shook its head and still urged me.


    It was then, that I heard an ear piercing screech in the distance. To be exact, it was in the same direction, where that pond was. ''Shit, so that is why it urged me to run!'' I thought and grabbed the lizard. "I now know what you mean, we are going!" I said and ran at my full speed, towards the exit of the Valley. I heard more screeches behind me, and it sounded like more than just one creature.


    When I looked back, after a while of running, I didn''t notice any movements behind me. ''Fortunately we managed to run away. Just what the hell, did that damned lizard do, to enrage so many of them?'' I thought. I decided to investigate just that. I lifted my hand and noticed that it was a bit light. I looked at it and noticed the lizard was gone. ''That bastard! Don''t let me catch you!'' I thought and looked around. Something moved in the corner of my eye. ''So that is where you are?'' I thought, and released all the energy in my legs at once.


    "Booom!"


    I sped through the Valley and toward the ce, I saw some movements. It turned out, it was the lizard I was after. When it noticed me, It started to run. "Now you are done for, lizard!" I shouted and ran after it. It suddenly gave up and stopped. I approached it and asked, quite angry "What did you do, for them to chase you?". The lizard spat out something and made some noises. When I wanted to pick it up, the lizard quickly swallowed it back and stared at me.


    I said "I don''t think you have the right no to show that to me. You are alive only thanks to me! I just want to examine it. I will give it back". The lizard thought for a while and spat it out again. I took it into my left hand and examined it. It was some sort of round stone, blue in colour and cold to touch. I was a bit confused and asked "Why would you steal such a thing? Does it have any uses or something?" I threw it up and down couple of times and then, ced it in my right hand.


    What happened next was extraordinary. My hand started to freeze up and absorb? The stone. The lizard made a lot of noise and became angry. I was quite stunned by that process but after a while, I snapped out of it, and ced the stone in my left hand. With the stone in my left hand, the absorption stopped. "Just what the hell is that thing?" I asked myself. The lizard demanded the stone back, while making a lot of noises and jumping up and down.


    I gave the stone back and said "I didn''t know my right hand would do that. Here take it back, it''s yours afterall". The lizard took it and swallowed it back. ''This stone is probably some kind of rare herb, that can help water or ice based creatures increase their strength. Just that short amount of me absorbing it, already made my right hand''s freezing abilities better'' I thought.


    "Ok, so that is the use of that stone. Are there any more of those stones, inside that pool?" I asked. The creature nodded and extended its arm. It showed me 2 out of the 3 fingers, that it had. ''So there are two more inside that pond. The problem is, the tentacle creatures. There must be loads of them inside there. I can''t see stuff inside there either¡­ It''s too dark'' I thought.


    ''Wait! Dark, that is it, I almost forgot. I wanted to test out the vision from my dream. I need a dark ce in order to do that'' I thought and asked the lizard "Do you know how many of those tentacle monsters are down there?". The lizard shook its head in response. ''Hmm, I will have to let the things calm down there first. I can go visit that ceter'' I thought.

 Chapter 186

    Chapter 186


    I will stay away from that pond for a while and return thereter. For now, I should explore other areas as well. I turned around towards the Valley and started walking. My destination this time, was the other side of the Valley. I wanted to see what other animals and things, could be hidden in here.


    As I walked and admired the sights. I heard something behind me. When I turned around, I saw the Water Lizard following me. I was confused and asked "Why are you following me?". The lizard made some noises and motioned with its arms. "Don''t tell me you want to travel with me¡­" I said. The lizard nodded its head and came closer.


    It reminded me of my old friend, Shelly. I looked at it and shook my head. "I can''t allow that. A turtle that used to follow me, died because of me. I don''t want the same thing to happen again" I said. The lizard seemed sad, maybe because I lost my friend, but it still insisted on following me. I asked "Why do you want to follow me? Is it because of those stones?".


    The lizard shook its head and pointed at me. To be precise, it pointed at my right arm. I asked "What about my arm?". The lizard took a breath in and exhaled strongly. First, I was confused but then, I noticed that the grass, ground and whatnot that the breath touched, became frozen.


    "So you have the same ability, that my arm has. Is that the only reason you want to follow me?". The lizard shook its head and pointed at me again. This time, it pointed at me, not my arm. I was confused and asked "What about me?". The lizard started making some gestures and noises, trying to exin its reason. I had no clue what it tried to say, I had no such problems with Shelly, but that was mainly because I lived with it, for a long time.


    I shook my head and said "I don''t know what you mean". The lizard gave up and came closer. It extended its arm and made a simple noise "Mah". ''Just what the hell does it want? Food?'' I thought to myself, confused. The lizard stood there and motioned with its arm, at my right arm. It extended its arm again and made a "Mah" noise again.


    I didn''t know what it wanted but I guessed, that it wanted for me to extend my arm as well. I did that and the lizard put its arm onto mine, then shook it. I was baffled at this stage, but what happened next stunned me even more. The lizard started being absorbed into my arm. I shouted "Wait!" but it was toote, the lizard gotpletely absorbed and disappeared.


    "Just what the hell happened!?" I shouted, confused. When I looked at my right arm, there was a blue tattoo on it now. It depicted some sort of lizard, coiling around my whole arm. From my palm, up to my shoulder. I didn''t know what to do or what to say ''Just what the hell was that lizard?'' I thought and examined my arm. There was nothing happening to it, besides the lizard like tattoo appearing, my arm was fine.


    As I looked for a while confused, the tatto started glowing and moving towards my palm. I felt no difort, but what happened next, shocked me even more. The tattoo disappeared and the lizard appeared in front of me. ''What kind of sorcery is this?'' I asked myself. The lizard again made some noises and motioned with its arms. I felt helpless at that stage and said "Fine, if you want to go with me, thene. I can''t guarantee your safety though. If you are willing to take the risks, so be it". I decided that there was no point asking the lizard about its ability, I wouldn''t be able to figure out, what it was trying to say anyway. The lizard became happy and jumped onto my shoulder. It then slithered down towards my arm, and became a tattoo again.


    ''This guy is helpless. Although, I guess that it will be much safer here,pared to simply following me on foot'' I thought, and resumed my journey towards the other side of the Valley. The Valley itself, was not very big. I arrived at the other side rather quickly. What I saw over there, were loads of caves, carved into the cliff''s face. ''There seems to be around 300 of them. Do these caves belong to Avians?'' I thought. It was be possible, that ce might''ve been their dwellings. It was hard to imagine, how they could reproduce in the skies. ''These caves should be their homes'' I thought.


    I got closer and one adult Avian came down from one of the caves. He asked "Human, what is your purposeing here?". I was confused and said "Your King allowed me to explore Vulture Cliffs. I thought all Avians knew this". He responded "Yes, you are allowed to explore, but what are you searching for here, in particr?". ''Are they keeping something secretive here? Like those rare herbs or something?'' I thought.


    I said "I just wanted to see, what is at the end of the Valley. What is this ce by the way?". The Avian responded while pointing at the caves "These are our personal quarters, so please don''t enter them. You are free to move around as you like, but this area is off limits to you". I said "It''s fine, If this is were your home is, I won''t invade it then". The Avian nodded and flew up, back to his cave.


    ''So this is where they live. I think there is more to that, than just simple caves, but I don''t want to enrage the whole swarm, just to find out'' I thought and left. I went back into the middle of the Valley. Inside, I found another new creature. It was a moth like creature, but it was the size of a dog. They didn''t seem to be aggressive, as they flew past me, as if I didn''t exist. They seemed to be collecting some stuff. I watched the creatures for a while and noticed that, they were indeed collecting stuff. To be precise, they were collecting herbs. Themon herbs, that could be used to sooth the pain.


    These moth like creatures, would collect some herbs and then return to their hive. The hives were as big as trees, because they built them inside the crown of the tree. One tree could house at most 30 of them. Of course, this also depended on the size of the tree, but the ones avable in the Valley, were not that big.


    I noted all the details about those Moths, and decided to call them Grey Moths. ''Right, I wanted to ask an Avian about the creatures here. Whatever, I will ask different one, that guy seemed to be impatient and in a hurry. Maybe his partner was waiting for him¡­ I don''t know'' I thought and headed towards the exit of the Valley. ''I explored most of the stuff inside. The amount of animals living in here, should be enough for at least 4000 Avians to survive. Besides, they also eat herbs. I didn''t collect anything really, but I''m not done here. I still need to return to that pond, where the Water Stones are. I also need to get some food for the future journey'' I thought and headed back.

 Chapter 187

    Chapter 187


    On my way back, I decided to hunt some animals for their meat. I chose the bull like creatures, as they had loads of meat on them. I didn''t want to exterminate them either, just enough food, for me tost some time. I found one group, that consisted of 6 such bulls and hunted them down. I gave them the quickest death possible. They seemed to be friendly animals, but I still had to eat, therefore no animal was sacred.


    These animals weighted quite a bit, at least 300 kilograms and mostly consisted of muscles. Of course the carcase weighted as well, but from those 6 bull like creatures, I managed to gather at least 600 kilogram of meat. ''This should be enough. It shouldst me at least few months. No wonder the Avians rear these animals. They have loads of meat on them, not like wild wolves or bears, where there is loads of fat'' I thought. Of course, Variants had much less fat,pared to the normal counterparts.


    I ced the meat inside the Storage Feather. Not only was it much easier to do so,pared to the bag. I only had to think about cing the meat inside the feather, and all of it would be moved there. It would also weight half of its real weight. Around 300 kilograms, which was nothing to me at this stage.


    When I checked my hand, the lizard like tattoo was still on it. ''I wonder how it can achieve that?'' I thought. The lizard was weird but I guessed, I was as well. ''I can''t say, that I''m normal either. Coming from a vige where my own grandfather, wanted to sacrifice me. Or the fact that people there, were able to live over 100 years, and stay rtively young'' I thought. I soon arrived at the entrance of the Valley. The swarm of Avians, was in the same ce as usual. ''I wonder when will my set of clothese back modified'' I thought and waved my hand at the swarm. My purpose of calling over an Avian this time, was to enquire about the pond, as well as the names of all those creatures, inside the Valley.


    I soon saw a lone Avian flying towards me. When the Aviannded, he said "I was waiting for you. So, you didn''t like the colour of your clothes. What else don''t you like about them, Huh?". This Avian seemed to be a bit pissed. I asked "Are you perhaps the one who created them?". He responded "That I am. You know, I don''t make clothes for humans, or clothes at all. You should be grateful, that I spend the time to even make them".


    ''This exins, why he is pissed'' I thought and said "I understand that, but at the same time, the colour of my clothes is quite important. If I stand out like a sore thumb, the enemy will be able to find me very easily". I told a half lie. It was true that the colour was important for my camouge, but it didn''t change the fact, that the original colour was shit. The Avian seemed to calm down and said "You know, I took your measurements and created these clothes. I don''t know if you humans wear that kind of stuff or not, but what I tried to achieve, was the most protection".


    I nodded my head and said "I''m grateful for that". The Avian seemed like a talkative type and said "I added some modifications to it. Although it is still the same design, it is much more refined now. The colour should be permanent, even if you try to wash them 1000 times". I was a bit confused and asked "How did you achieve that?". The Avian became quite prideful and said "My father is the only Formation Expert in the Swarm. I, as his son, am learning some formations from him. In the future, I will take over that position!".


    ''So that''s how it is! He used some kind of formation, in order to modify the colour and make it permanent'' I thought and asked, quite excited "Did you put any other formations on the clothes?". The Avian beamed with pride and said "You bet! I ced a Hardening Formation, as well as Lightness Formation on it". I didn''t know what these formations meant but from their descriptions, I could vaguely guess. The former was probably strengthening defence, and theter probably had something to do with weight. I decided to ask anyway.


    "What do those formations do exactly?". The Avian said "The Hardening Formation, as the name suggests, make the whole set much harder and tougher. Although I say that, it doesn''tpromise thefort. It''s at least 2 times tougher, than the leather without that formation. As for the Lightness Formation, it makes you feel lighter. So you can run faster and bare more weight! But not by much. I guess, only about 5-8% increase". ''Just as I suspected'' I thought. Even though I already half guessed those effects, it was still nice to hear the proper exnations.


    "That is great. You really did put in a lot of work. I''m really thankful". The Avian was very proud and basked in the moment. I asked "Then what about that tubr piece, that was part of the set? What is that for?". The Avian snapped out of it and said "I thought, you as a human, would know that". I was kind of confused but then the Avian continued "Its for your neck and face. It''s a sort of a mask that covers half of your face and neck. This provides some protection, to otherwise unprotected areas".


    ''So that is the purpose of that piece. Actually, I kind of like the idea of it'' I thought and said "That is quite nice. I have a few more questions, can you answer them as well?". The Avian nodded and said "Go ahead". I said "As you know, I''m not very knowledgeable about this ce. I would like to ask about the creatures living here. Can you tell me, what that bull like creature is called?".


    The Avian seemed confused and asked "Bull?". ''Right, they might not know what bull is'' I thought and said "It''s the creature with the pale orange skin colour. 4 tails and so on". He eximed "Oh! That one! We call it Taurus. It''s quite docile and we rear them for their meat. They are quite tasty". ''So it is called Taurus. Good, one down, a few more to go'' I thought and asked about another creature. "What about that monkey like creature?".


    He said "This one we call me Ape. It has very weak affinity with fire. Although it can spew out some fire, it''s not that dangerous. Those creatures are quitezy, but they are here, in order to keep the pest under control". I was a bit confused and asked "What pests?". He said "The Grand Moths, that make home in tree crowns. These things are good for thend in appropriate numbers, from what I know, but too many of them would be a problem. That is why these me Apes are still around here".


    I asked "But then, why does that me Ape possess 3 eyes?". The Avian responded "I don''t know. They always had them and those names are what our predecessors called them. Maybe they can see better or something?". ''That third eye doesn''t give me rest. I feel like there is more to that'' I thought and decided to investigate thatter on.


    There was only onest creature, I had to inquire about. "What about that creature with tentacles? They live in the pond not very far away from here. It can even more on the ground using those tentacles". The Avian became confused and asked "Was there such a creature? I never saw one. I don''t know what that creature is. I also don''t know anything about a pond. Maybe others know, but I don''t pay that much attention to those detail". ''This is weird. I know Avians can''t swim, but to not be aware of such creature, in their own territory. Moreover, he doesn''t even know about the existence of the pond. This is suspicious'' I thought.


    Then I remembered about that lizard, but decided not to ask about it. ''They aren''t aware about those tentacle monsters, living inside that pond, or the pond itself. I doubt they would be aware of such lizard'' I thought. With no further questions, I said "That is all then. Thanks again for everything. I will have some rest and explore this ce a bit more". The Avian nodded his head and handed me the enhanced set of clothes. He then said "Alright. I''m off then" and flew into the sky.

 Chapter 188

    Chapter 188


    When the Avian left. I started to change my clothes. I wanted to test out the new set of clothes right away. After putting all the clothes on, I noticed that although they seemed a bit rough, the fitment was excellent. Besides the fitment, thefort was not very bad either. ''These clothes are much better than anything, I could make by myself. Even the clothes I took from the people I killed, were not this good'' I thought.


    When I took a more detailed look at my new clothes, I liked them even more. ''There are reinforced parts in areas that has the most wear, and are the most vulnerable. My elbows, shoulders, knees and even back, has an additional hardened protection'' I thought. Not only was the protection in crucial areas better, it didn''t restrict my movements either. The gloves didn''t look reinforced, but I was wrong again. When I put them on, the gloves fitted very well and had some additional protection for my knuckles and palm, although not visible from outside. ''This set is amazing. For an Avian to create such clothing, he really is talented'' I thought.


    The neck piece, or rather a sort of half mask, that came with the set, fitted very snuggly as well. It didn''t obstruct my breathing, movements or vision. It also masked my face, to some extent. ''This will be useful in the future, I''m sure'' I thought. The ck colour of my new set, allowed me to hide better as well. It was pure ck colour, and thanks to the Formation ced on it, it would stay that way for a long time. I wanted to test out my new set, but I didn''t want to damage it. ''I guess, it will be tested out, when I need to fight seriously'' I thought, and headed towards the habitat of those ming Apes.


    I wanted to figure out, why these apes possessed 3 eyes, instead of 2. My goal was to either kill one or make one struggle to live, and use that eye, or at least show me something, I didn''t know . ''When one''s life is at danger, one would use whatever they had, in order to try and survive'' I thought. I soon arrived at the location where I saw those ming Apes. I spotted one very quickly and moved towards it.


    The Ape was veryzy, it didn''t bother with me whatsoever. I started running towards it and immediately noticed the improvements in my speed. It was due to the Lightness Formation, that was ced on my clothes. When I was in front of the tree, I jumped.


    The trees were not that tall, in that Valley. With my strength, I could easily jump over it, and with the added bonus of my new set, I could jump even higher. Inded in front of the Ape. The Ape stopped beingzy and opened its mouth. It wasn''t doing so to yawn, but to release some fire at me. The fire was supposedly quite weak, but I still evaded it. When the ming Ape released the fire breath, I moved to the side. The me was hot, this I could feel. Although, it was nothing inparison to the heat of the explosion, when I blew up the Leader of Corpse Dogs.


    I moved in and caught the Ape by its throat. The mes stoppeding out. What I saw in its two eyes, was panic, but the 3rd eye was calm. I took out a dagger and ced it at the Ape''s head. It panicked even further, but I was only interested in the 3rd eye, which seemed calm, as usual. What happened next, stunned me a bit.


    I wasn''t standing on the tree anymore, I was somece else. ''This is illusion'' I thought calmly. Then the image of me standing in front of arge and imposing volcano, disappeared. I took a look at the Ape and said "So, that is your ability. The 3rd eye, is for creating weak illusions". I let the Ape go and said "Tough luck for you. I''ve seen much stronger illusions". This was very easy for me to figure out. I knew immediately, that I was in an illusion. When that Eterian created an illusion, whichbined reality and my memories, I believed it at first. Now, I was much more experienced, such weak illusions, wouldn''t work on me anymore.


    The ming Ape seemed confused, but then it quickly picked itself up and ran away. ''I don''t intend to kill them anymore. I now know the purpose of that 3rd eye. Even if I could extract it, I would never implement something like this on myself¡­. Wait! Maybe there is a technique involved with that eye. If I could learn something about that, maybe I could add it to my stealth, or my dagger skills!'' I thought.


    The ming Ape ran away, but I was much faster, than an Ape could ever hope to be. I quickly gave chase, and found the Ape no problem. When it saw me, it panicked again and started making noises. I caught up quite quickly, then grabbed it by its tail. I said "Wait a minute. I''m not going to kill you". The Ape still made some noises. I said "I''m not going to hurt you, calm down". The Ape was still frantic but didn''t make any more sounds.


    I said "I just want you to show me those illusions again. I want you to teach me. I will not hurt you, if you want, I can help you catch some of those Grand Moths in exchange. How about that?". When the ming Ape heard the name "Grand Moths", it stopped struggling and started listening. I said again "Just use your illusions on me, I want to find out, if I can learn something. In exchange, I will catch couple of those Moths for you, whenever I learn something or not. So, do we have a deal?"


    The Ape thought about it and nodded its head. I let the Ape go and said "Alright, show me how you use that ability of yours". The Ape started staring at me, while I focused on the Ape''s eyes. After a while, I found myself in a ce full ofva. I knew it was an illusion, but I still had a look around. The ce seemed real but there were couple of things, that gave away the fact, it was an illusion. Theva surrounding me, didn''t burn or feel hot at all. There was also nothing butva around me. ''This, to someone experienced enough, would suggest that it is fake''. I thought about leaving that ce, and the illusion dispersed.


    I asked the Ape "How are you able to do it? I know you have a 3rd eye, but is there some sort of technique, that goes with it?". The ming Ape started to motion with its hands and make noises. I had no clue, what it tried to convey. Then I got an idea. I took off my coat and looked at my right arm, that contained the lizard tattoo. I said "Hey,e out, I have something for you to do".


    The tattoo started to move and then disappeared. The Water Lizard appeared in front of me, with a questioning look on its face. I said "Can you understand what that guy says?" and pointed at the Ape. The Ape seemed stunned, so I exined "That is my friend, don''t worry. Try to exin how your technique works to it". The Ape nodded and startedmunicating with the Lizard. I didn''t have much hope, but it was worth a try.


    The Lizard and the Apemunicated for a while. When they were done, the Lizard turned towards me and started motioning something. ''I think I''m going to get a headache here'' I thought, and said "Let me ask questions and you can answer". The Lizard nodded, so I asked "Can I learn what that guy is doing?". The Lizard nodded its head. "Good. Now, how can I learn it?". The Lizard went into the fit of motioning again, I asked "Can you draw?". The Lizard shook its head.


    I thought about it for a while and asked "Did the Ape exin all the things needed to practice that?". The Lizard nodded this time. I asked "Can you remember it?". The Lizard thought about it and nodded again. I said "Good. Remember it then, when I figure out how tomunicate with you properly, you can then exin to me how". The lizard nodded and jumped onto my shoulder, then changed to the tattoo on my hand.


    I put back my coat and said "I will get some Moths for you. Do you want to go with me?". The Ape nodded its head. I said "Alright, follow me then, I will get some for you".

 Chapter 189

    Chapter 189


    I took the Ape to the territory of the Grand Moths, and quickly hunted a few of them for it. The Moths were not very happy, but I couldn''t just exterminate all of them. They were a vital part of this ce, and Avians wouldn''t be happy with that. Because I didn''t want to make more enemies, than humans already had, I ran away.


    With 7 Grand Moths still in my bag, I took them out and gave them to the Ape. I said "Here is the food, I promised you. Enjoy, I shall leave now". The Ape seemed very happy with the amount, it produced some me and roasted the moths in it.


    I left in order to take care of thest thing on my list. ''I need to go down and explore that pond. Those Water Stones are quite useful. If I can get them, I will be able to increase the freezing abilities of my right hand'' I thought. When I arrived at the pond, it was all quiet. I check the water and saw no movements either. ''The creatures should return to the depths. First I will dive down, to the point I can''t see anything. There, I will have to test out that new vision, and if I can use it in reality as well'' I thought, and raised the sleeve of my coat.


    "Come out, we have a job to do" I said. The tattoo started to move and the Water Lizard appeared in front of me. When it saw the pond, it panicked and wanted to change back into the tattoo. I caught it and said "You yourself wanted to follow me. I require your help, so you have to stay in this form". The Lizard didn''t seem happy but it fessed up and stayed.


    I said "Don''t worry, we are going down a bit, at first. I need to test something out. When I''m ready, we will dive deeper. You already know where those Water Stones are. It will be faster for me to retrieve them, if you show me the way". The Lizard nodded and waited for further instructions.


    I said "Let''s go down quietly, When I give you this sign, we areing back to the surface" and showed it a gesture with my hand. I simply used my thumb and motioned my hand up and down. I was sure that the Lizard wouldn''t be confused. This wasn''t a sign, anyone would do by mistake.


    With those rules set, I didn''t take off my clothes this time, and went straight inside the pond. I did it quietly from a sitting position, instead of jumping and making loads of noise. The Lizard followed me into the pond as well. It was panicky the lower we dived, but no creatures arrived. I dived deep enough to be surrounded by darkness. ''It''s time to test it out'' I thought, and tried to feel the darkness, just like in my dream.


    Seconds passed quickly, then turned slowly into minutes. Inplete silence and stillness, I opened my eyes. ''I can see now'' was the first thought in my mind. The bottom of the pond was now visible to me. We were at about half point to the bottom of that pond, but that was bottom and not the end of the pond. The creatures with those tentacles, were nowhere to be found either. ''They must be behind that corner, or even further down there'' I thought. There was a bottom, but there was a further tunnel, where water travelled to the left of the bottom.


    With my theory confirmed, I gave the sign to the Lizard and we returned to the surface. While outside the pond, I said "I''m able to hold my breath for about 4 minutes. My preparation alone will take me some time. Maybe you can retrieve the stones by yourself, and I will support you from the middle?". The Lizard protested and motioned that it will not go there alone. I said "It was worth a try. Alright, I will go down a few more times alone and try to get adjusted faster. We can then give it a try".


    The Lizard didn''t seem to mind it and jumped onto my shoulder, then changed into a tattoo. I went inside the pond and practiced like that. I needed to shorten the time, for me to awaken my new vision. This wasn''t that easy. Although, I could achieve that vision, I wasn''t able to do so instantly. I needed to focus and feel the darkness, with all my senses. It''s easier to exin than do.


    I spent quite some time there, training like that. I managed to get the time to around 1 minute, but it was still nowhere near changing my vision instantly or in matter of few seconds. ''I don''t know for how long I stayed here already. Looking at how much food I ate, it could be in the region of two weeks. I will try to decrease the amount of time to awaken that vision, for another two weeks and we will see'' I thought. I was getting more used to it and better at it, but I already knew that, the more you want something to be improved, the more time you need to spend.


    The Water Lizard stayed on my hand as a tattoo, throughout the whole process of me improving my new vision. I decided to call it Darkness Perception. The only difference from my dream, was that there were no floating orbs around me. None wereing out from my body and none were creating the world I could see. I wondered why it was like this, but ultimately, it didn''t matter to me that much.


    After approximately two weeks, I managed to get the time down to around 40 seconds. ''If I want any better improvements, I will need to stay here much more time. 40 seconds is already very good. I just hope, we can get those Water Stones and leave'' I thought and called out the Lizard, to join me.


    I looked down at the lizard and remembered something. "You need a name. I can''t call you lizard or something generic like that. A name¡­." I said. The lizard looked at me with some hope in its eyes. I asked "How about Scaly?". The Lizard shook its head and made some noises. ''It probably doesn''t like it'' I thought. After a while of thinking, I asked "How about Wavey?". The Lizard shook its head, again.


    I tried couple more, but all were rejected. The Lizard seemed to be less hopeful, the more names were suggested by me. It yawned and some frost formed on the ground below. I looked at the blue lizard thatid there on the ground and said "You are going to be called Frosty. It suits you very well".


    The lizard looked at me and thought for a while. It then nodded its head, and seemed quite happy with its new name. "Alright then Frosty. We will dive down, retrieve the Water Stones, then we are leaving for the Northern Wilderness". Frosty nodded its head with excitement. I said "When I show you this sign" and I pointed my finger downwards while moving my hand up and down, "Then take the lead. When I show you the previous sign. We are going back to the surface. Alright?". Frosty nodded its head and we entered the pond together.

 Chapter 190

    Chapter 190


    We dived deeper, inside the pond. When I wasn''t able to see anything, I closed my eyes. I focused and tried to awaken my Darkness Perception. After about 40 seconds, I opened my eyes and my vision awakened. I motioned to Frosty, for it to take the lead, and we dived deeper, towards the bottom of the pond.


    Frosty headed straight to the location of the Water Stones. After a while, we reached the bottom of the pond. The only way to go for us, was to turn left and follow the tunnel further. Frosty did just that, while I swam after it. The tentacle creatures were nowhere to be found at that moment, but I didn''t hope for them to not appear. I knew they could appear any second, the deeper we went.


    We''ve been under water for about 2 minutes, and the Water Stones were still not in sight. After another minute, we arrived at arge opening of the tunnel, almost like an underwater cave. ''So, this is where those tentacle creatures are'' I thought. Frosty looked behind and pointed at a certain location. There were 2 blue stones, edged into the wall, where Frosty pointed. I knew I had very little time, so I swam there as fast as I could, in order to grab those stones.


    I made some disturbance, but I didn''t care anymore. It was either, get them or leave. I arrived in front of the Water Stones and thought about depositing them in my Storage Feather. The stones disappeared, which was a sign of my feather collecting them. What appeared on the other hand, were the tentacle creatures, quite angry at that.


    I quickly turned around and started swimming back. Frosty was already on its way back, so I didn''t have to worry about it getting left behind. The problem was me, not Frosty. I was not as fast in water, as I was on the ground. The tentacle creatures behind me gained on me pretty fast.


    ''If I just swim, I have no way of outspeeding them. I need to get faster!'' I thought. It was easier said than done. As a human being, I was able to swim, but no matter how strong I was, a creature that was born in the water and was adapted to it 100 percent, was not something and dwelling being could beat at swimming. I decided to give a certain idea a try.


    ''So far, I''ve been using my hands to swim, just like any other human being, but what if I use a skill?'' I thought. At this stage, my air was almost gone, the pursuers were much faster than me and sometimes, my ideas might''ve been stupid, but usually saved my life. I turned around, to face the tentacle creatures, and used the Pressure Dagger skill, but without holding a dagger in my hands.


    I punched, as if I would an enemy, with the real skill. Due to the friction of water, my muscles started to heat up rather quickly, but a miraculous thing urred and I did speed up. Although I was happy at first, my face quickly lost that happy expression. The reason? One of the tentacle creatures became much faster. ''It must be the leader¡­ I''m in deep shit, if it catches me'' I thought and punched as much as I could.


    The creature was getting closer but I also managed to punch my way to the bottom of the pond. My air was almost non-existent at that point, and only willpower kept me going. I had about 30 more seconds, until I reached the surface. But, the tentacle creature had different ns. It managed to catch up to me close enough, so that one of its tentacles caught my leg. ''Shit!'' I thought and punched the tentacle, but nothing happened.


    I was in the water, so my strength was limited by a lot. The creature itself, was like rubber, punching it, didn''t produce much of a result. I tried swimming but the tentacle kept pulling me backwards. ''This is bad. I have no way of using Yellow Dust here, my weapons are useless as well. My strength limited¡­ How do I break free?'' I thought. I then felt something moving on my arm. It was Frosty, who became a tattoo again. ''It''s worth a try, I might as well try and freeze it'' I thought and ced my right hand on the tentacle.


    ''FREEZE!'' I screamed in my mind. I could feel extreme coldness seeping from my arm. The tentacle holding my leg, froze almost immediately. I was surprised by that myself, but I had no time anymore. My air was gone, the only thing I could do was swim. The tentacle broke off from my leg and I could hear a screeching from the bottom, but I didn''t pay attention to it. My only goal, was to swim.


    Before I reached the surface, my vision got darker and darker, until it wentpletely ck. I lost consciousness, due to theck of air. I don''t know what happened, in the time I passed out, but when I woke up, I was outside the pond. I could hear Frosty''s cries, then a loud ssh. When I finally woke up, I found myselfying on the ground, while the tentacle creatures emerged from the pond.


    "Ugh" I picked myself up with a groan, grabbed Frosty and ran. I was already in weakened state due to theck of air. My speed was of course affected, but I didn''t stop. The pursuers behind me, chased after us relentlessly. I headed toward the Valley entrance, in hopes to attract the attention of the Avians. Fortunately, the pond was not that far away from the Valley entrance.


    The creatures behind me would use their tentacles to attack once in a while, when they got into the range. Thanks to my keen senses, I was able to avoid most of them. Some tentacles grazed me, but thanks to my new set of clothes, the damage was minimal. We finally arrived at the Valley entrance, and I screamed "HELP US!" at the swarm of Avians.


    The Avians, fortunately saw my predicament, and loads of them flew over to help me immediately. When the creatures saw the amount of Avians flying towards them, they stopped and retreated. I could finally rest. I fell down on my ass and breathed heavily. ''This was close, really close'' I thought. A few of the Aviansnded in front of me, while others chased after the creatures. One of the Avians asked "What were those things?". In between my breaths, I said "Those things¡­e from the pond¡­. in the Valley". The Avian was visibly shocked, he said "We never saw those creatures. The pond you speak of, is known to us, but it never had any creatures. Why did they chase you?".


    I said slowly, while taking in breaths of air "It''s¡­ because I wanted to explore¡­ the pond¡­. I found them¡­ at the bottom". The Avian responded "We need to notify the King. Wait here, I will return with the King". I nodded my head. I wasn''t about to go anywhere anyway. I was too exhausted to move.


    After a while, the Avian I spoke with, returned with his King. She asked "How many of these creatures are there?". I said "About 15 of them. Although, that is how many of them I saw". She nodded and asked "How strong are they?". I thought for a while and said "They are like rubber, physical attacks don''t seem to do much to them. You can either burn them down or freeze them, this seems to work as well".


    She asked "How can we burn them in water?". I replied "Not in water, but onnd. You can blow them up, with the Yellow Dust. I already killed one of them like that". She nodded and asked another question "What type of number of them, would you say is there, in overall? I know you only saw 15, but you are not stupid. You could figure out the number of Corpse Dogs, so what estimate do you have for that creature?".


    ''I have to admit, she isn''t stupid either. She knows, that I know much more, than I told her'' I thought. It was true, I only saw 15 of them, but there was a 2nd tunnel in therge underwater cave. This could only mean, there must''ve been more of these creatures. The ones I ran away from, were only guards.


    I looked her in the eyes and said "I know you helped me, but I want more herbs". She didn''t seem surprised and said "I knew that already. I will provide you with some more. Now tell me". I nodded my head and said "There was another tunnel. I have no way of knowing the exact size of that underwater maze, but if 15 of them were guards, my estimate is that there are around 800 to a 1000 of them. It of course depends on the size of those underwater tunnels".


    She seemed surprised and asked "That many?". I said "Yes, that is my top estimate, my lowest would still be around 500-600. 15 guards, including one Elite or Variant. There must be at least 500 of them". She nodded her head and asked another question "What about threat? Is it big, just like the Corpse Dogs threat?".


    I thought about it and said "Bigger, if all of them invade. You would need a few Avians, just to kill one. Of course provided, you didn''t use the Yellow Dust. With the Yellow Dust, the threat is smaller. But you would still receive some damage". She seemed shocked, while I continued "My sincere advice is, collect the Yellow Dust and store it. If they invade, you can just explode them. Also, make sure to protect some animals and nts, in order to rebuild the Valley in the future. With that many of them pouring out, you will have to destroy some of the Valley for sure".


    I could see fear in her eyes, when I finished speaking. After a while, she asked "Can you deal with them?". I shook my head and said "No. They are underwater. I have no way of igniting the Yellow Dust. I also barely escaped with my life, I don''t want to return there". She asked "What if, I have a proposal which will change your mind?". ''Hmmm? Interesting'' I thought.

 Chapter 191

    Chapter 191


    I asked "What type of offer do you have in mind?". She responded "Good, you are willing to negotiate. This means, your mind is not set on rejecting". She then continued "What if we helped you break through your limits?". When she said that, the Avians around her seemed surprised and started talking. She raised her wing and all the Avians quieted down.


    I asked "What do you mean by, helping me to break my limits?". She said "There is one more herb, which is the rarest of the ones we possess. It grows very slowly, and is usually reserved for the King. I didn''t eat it yet and I''m willing to offer it, for your services". ''This is truly tempting. If I could break through my limits, my strength would advance to apletely new level. But, what they are asking me to do, is not an easy feat. I don''t know if dying couple of times, will be enough for me toplete it'' I thought.


    The deal was really sweet, but the dangers of actually exterminating those creatures, were extremely difficult and dangerous. I decided to inquire more about that herb "What guarantee do you have, that I will break through my limits, when I eat that herb?". She said "100 percent. This herb allows those who eat it, to instantly break through their limits. Of course, it has its limitations. The herb, only allows to break through the so called Inner Limit. Judging your strength, you should be at the doors to that limit right now. I am as well, but I''m willing to sacrifice it".


    ''Inner Limit? So how many limits are there?'' I thought, and asked "Can you exin more about limits? I have no idea, how many there are and at which I am currently". She nodded her head and said "The first limit you break through, is called Outer Limit. You already broke through it, otherwise, you wouldn''t be able to enter the North". I interjected her and asked "Does that mean, the border line that separates the North from the Great Forest, has a specific requirement?".


    She nodded her head and said "Yes. Humans who didn''t break through their Outer Limit, are not able to enter. On the other hand, Northern creatures that broke through the Outer Limit, can''t go out". I said absentmindedly "Just who or what created that borderline?". The King of Avians said "I don''t know. It''s been there since ancient times". I wasn''t expecting an answer, I just wondered about that out loud.


    I said "I did probably break through the Outer Limit then, but what about the Inner Limit? I''m not sure, if I''m at the doors to break it. The Leader of Corpse Dogs was much stronger than me. Did it break through the Inner Limit then?". She Shook her head and said "No. He was at the door, maybe I misjudged you. But that doesn''t change the fact, that using the herb, will allow you to break through the Inner Limit anyway".


    I asked "What is after the Inner Limit?". She looked at me and said "It''s the Primal Limit. Before you ask anything else. I have no knowledge of any other limits. I only know that creatures who broke through the Primal Limit, are like legends". She then continued "The Outer and Inner Limits, contain Half Steps as well. In other words, when you break through to the Outer Limit, you will face a wall in the middle. You will have to break through that wall, before you can reach the real limit, and try breaking through, to the Inner Limit. The same is with when one tries to reach Primal Limit".


    I said "Then I must be at that Half Step, and I haven''t reached the doors, to the Inner Limit yet. That was why, the Leader of Corpse Dogs, was much stronger than me". She nodded and said "That must be it. So, what is it going to be? Are you going to take my offer?". I thought about it for a while, and then replied "I have one more question to ask".


    She said "Sure, go ahead". I asked "What are the side effects of ingesting that herb?". I could see her face be visibly grim. She said "You are not an idiot indeed. There is a side effect. Due to forcefully breaking the limit, you will never be able to advance any further. The King of Avians only ingests it, when they really can''t break through the limits and their lifees to an end. The other use is in emergency, when there is threat, to the whole Avian species".


    ''I knew there was something. This powerful herb, must''ve had some side effects'' I thought, then said "In that case, I can''t take that deal". She seemed disappointed and said "Even though you would be stuck at the Inner Limit for the rest of your life, you would be much stronger. Not many creatures that I know of, would be your enemies".


    I replied "I am where I am, due to hard work. If I went by shortcuts, I would probably die already. I almost did many times anyway. I can''t take that herb. Although it''s promising an instant increase in strength, in the long run, it isn''t worth it. As you said, it''s ast resort kind of thing. This is not myst resort, but yours".


    She seemed kind of angry, while I continued "That doesn''t mean, you don''t have something, I don''t want". The King of Avians seemed to brighten up and asked "What is that?". I said "The herbs that you gave me already, those do not have that kind of effects. Give me more of them and you can keep the one, which allows you to forcefully break the limit". She looked at me weirdly and asked "Are you sure? Compared to the worth of the Inner Fruit, that I proposed to you, the others are nothing".


    I said "If I want to break through that wall, I will need more Blood Reeds as well as Earth Grabs. With enough of them, I should be able to break through that Half Step. With my improved strength, I should be able to do something against those tentacle creatures".


    The King of Avians looked at me, and then asked "How many do you need?". I said "I don''t know how many will make my blood pure enough. I think that 40 should be enough. As for the Earth Grabs, I just need 20 of them". She said "Alright. We will provide 40 Blood Reeds and 20 Earth Grabs. When you break through, you have to take care of those creatures".


    I said "With your help of course". She nodded and waved at one of the Avians. She then instructed "Bring 40 Blood Reeds and 20 Earth Grabs to him". She then turned towards me and said "When you break through your Half Step, wave at the swarm to notify us. We can then form a n". I nodded my head, and all the Avians left towards the swarm.


    I waited for the Avian to bring me my Blood Reeds and Earth Grabs. After a while, a lone Avian arrived and handed them to me. He then flew back to his swarm. The deal I got, might seem stupid. Breaking through the Half Step, in exchange for exterminating a whole poption of those dangerous Tentacle Creatures. ''Although the task will be really difficult, I will gain much more than simple Half Step break through of my Limits. The Tentacle Creatures, should possess more of those Water Stones. With those, I could increase the strength of my right arm by a lot. Now, I can also do some experiments, with the herbs I got'' I thought.


    My real purpose, was to get my hand on more Water Stones, and get my hands on more Blood Reeds and Earth Grabs. I wanted to test, if the herbs had any impurities. For this, I needed more of them. I also wanted to create a condensed version. I went back into the Valley and lifted the sleeve of my coat. I said "Frosty,e out".


    Soon after, Frosty appeared in front of me. I said "Was it because of you, the power of my hand increased?". Frosty nodded its head. I asked "Why didn''t you tell me before?". Frosty became angry and made noises, while pointing at me and itself. I said "Ok, so you told me, I just didn''t understand. That''s very useful. What happened with your Water Stone? Did you use it already?". Frosty spit out the Water Stone, which was noticeably smallerpared to before. I said "Your absorption, is a bit slow" but Frosty shook its head and pointed at me. I was confused and said "I didn''t absorb it".


    Frosty mimicked the tentacle creatures then pointed at my arm. I said "I get it now. So it was used up, when I tried to freeze the tentacle?". Frosty nodded its head in confirmation. I took out another Water Stone and gave it to Frosty. "Take it, and absorb it. You don''t need to hold back. Just increase your own strength". Frosty was very happy with my gesture and jumped on top of my shoulder, then licked my face. I said "That''s enough, go absorb it", it then changed into a tattoo. ''Time to put my n into motion then'' I thought.

 Chapter 192

    Chapter 192


    I found a suitable ce, to start my experiment. I then found a stone, which could hold some water, and made a fire. With all that set, I ced ? of the Blood Reed, into the boiling water. The water began to change colour after a while, and red veins could be seen inside. With more time, more veins started to appear. I waited a bit longer, and the colour of the water becamepletely red. Then, the opposite reaction happened.


    The water started bing clearer again, it seemed that the medical properties of the Blood Reed started to evaporate. I quickly extinguished the fire and waited for the water to cool down a bit. Some timeter, the water became cool enough to handle. The colour of the water, was faintly red. I submerged a cloth inside the water, to collect some liquid, forparisonter. I then hanged it on a branch, to let it dry.


    ''I need to find out, if there are any impurities inside that herb. I now know, that the essence of the Blood Reed, can be extracted. Although, too much heat, would degrade the medical properties'' I thought and prepared another batch. I had to test it a few times. My first attempt used a third of one Blood Reed, I still had two thirds left. Sacrificing one Blood Reed, was nothing. In exchange, I would get a better idea, about the properties and effectiveness of that herb.


    I repeated that proces two more times. Each time, I extinguished the fire sooner, so that more medical properties were left in the water. When all the clothes dried, Ipared them. ''The 1st cloth, doesn''t seem to have any impurities, but the medical properties are about 50% weaker. The 2nd cloth also doesn''t have impurities, and the medical properties decreased by 20% only. The 3rd cloth has impurities, while the medical properties only decreased very slightly'' I thought. From my experiment, I figured out that, the best way to use those Blood Reeds, was to process them first. That way, there would be no impurities inside.


    ''If I were to eat them raw, the impurities would eventually umte. Although my blood would be more pure, it would also contain those impurities. That would probably hinder me in the future'' I thought. No wonder Avians had such difficulties, breaking through their Limits. Although the blood could be purified using the Blood Reeds, it would also deposit impurities inside ones body. In a long run, the herb would actually harm the user, instead of helping him.


    ''Now, I know the exact time I have to cook it for, in order to get rid of impurities. Although the effectiveness will be smaller, it''s still a small price to pay'' I thought, and got ready for my 2nd experiment. I had to check the Earth Grabs as well. I didn''t want to ingest them raw, like Avians. Especially since I learned the Art of Medicine from Nick.


    I repeated the same process on the Earth Grab, and what I found out, shocked me. ''The Earth Grabs contains so many impurities. Ingesting them raw, would maybe increase my strength, but breaking through any limitster, would actually be very hard. This, paired with the Blood Reeds and other herbs, would make it almost impossible, to break through the Inner Limit. At least in my estimates. It''s no wonder, that Avians can''t brake through their Inner Limit. Even the King will not be able to do so, with so many impurities'' I thought.


    This also exined the herb, that the King of Avians proposed to me. If they worked hard and didn''t ingest those herbs, there would be many more stronger Avians around. ''Although, this is what I figured out, I have no reason to tell them that. I will gain nothing else from them'' I thought.


    In order to use the Earth Grab, I would have to burn away the impurities inside. This would decrease the effectiveness of that herb by at least 50%, if not 60% just to be sure. With that in mind, I decided to make a condensed version of those herbs. I started with the Earth Grab.


    I boiled the water and added one grab after the other. When the medical properties seeped outpletely, I extracted the dregs and allowed the mixture to burn out the impurities. From about one and a half litre of water, I received around 300 millilitres of condensed Earth Grab Solution. The solution was pure, with no impurities, but it was only at 40% of effectiveness. The other 60% burned away and evaporated together with the water and impurities.


    ''This much should still be better, than ingesting those herbs raw or processed poorly'' I thought. I did the same with the Blood Reeds. I used 21 of 41 Blood Reeds that I had, and created a condensed liquid. The liquid was dark red, just like blood, and had no impurities. I used about a litre of water this time, to make it more condensed, while the final product, came out to be only about 200 millilitres.


    I decided to leave the 20 Blood Reeds for now, and not create more of that Essence. ''I guess these concoctions, are my creation now. They never appeared in Nick''s books. I should name them'' I thought. After a while of thinking, I named them Blood Purifying Essence and Earth Strength Essence. The names contained the characteristics of each herb, and sounded good as well. I noted the herbs on two pieces of cloth. Together with the effects, defects and the process of creating both Essences, out of those herbs.


    ''I''m kind of starting to create my own medical book. I should probably get an empty book, instead of writing stuff on cloth'' I thought. With both Essences created, I could now try and break through my Limits, or rather, begin the process of breaking through. I drank the whole cup of Blood Purifying Essence, and sat down. When the Essence reached my stomach, I could feel a burning sensation, from inside my body.


    It felt as if someone started a fire inside my stomach, that travelled through my veins, circting my whole body. "Ughhh" I groaned. The pain was not something I expected, but I had no way of backing out now. All I could do, was endure. After a while, the pain of burning from the inside, changed to something even worse. My whole body became red hot, as ifva was flowing through my veins. Sweat stared to appear on my forehead, while my veins becamepletely red.


    Frosty changed to its corporeal form, and looked at me with worry. The right arm started to fight with the heat. The coldness fought against the heat, to the point of creating steam around my body. I gritted my teeth from the pain, but no matter how much I tried to keep it in, I couldn''t any longer. "AAAAAAHHHH!". I screamed. Letting out some noise, allowed me to at least vent my frustration.


    Frosty wanted to merge with my right arm, but I stopped it. I shouted "No!..... Stay There!" and tried to endure the pain. I didn''t know for how long that painsted, but to me, it felt like eternity. When the pain finally started to ease up and the burning decreased, I fainted. I was too exhausted from enduring the pain, to stay conscious.


    When I woke up again, I felt a cool breeze, blowing on me. With my eyes opened fully, I noticed that Frosty used its breath, to cool me down. I said "Thanks, that is enough. Otherwise you will freeze me" and smiled. Frosty stopped and licked my face. I said "I''m fine, I just purified my blood. Who would''ve guessed, that the Essence will have such an effect. I should probably note that in the description of the herb. Although, I don''t think, I will be ever able to forget that pain".


    This was only the beginning though. I only purified my blood, and didn''t break through the Half Step of the Outer Limit yet. ''I need to train physically, in order to break through. I should also take some of that Earth Strength Essence, while I''m at it. Although this time, I should take much less. I don''t want a recollection of such pain again'' I thought.


    Before I did any of that, I decided to have a proper rest and eat something. ''Thanks to that experience, I''m exhausted and starving. I need to eat something first, before I attempt any limit breaking stuff'' I thought, and prepared to make fire.

 Chapter 193

    Chapter 193


    I took out some meat from my Storage Feather, and roasted it on the fire. I wasn''t hungry, when I started the process of purifying my blood, but after taking that Blood Purifying Essence and going through so much pain, I was starving. I ate like possessed, then I remembered something. I asked Frosty "Do you want some?", but Frosty shook its head and declined. I was a bit bewildered and asked "What do you eat then?". Frosty spat out the Water Stone, and pointed at it.


    I asked "What if you don''t have those stones? It''s not like, they grow on trees or walk around the wastnds". Frosty pointed at the stone again, and then at some herbs. I was a bit confused at first, then I realised what it meant. "So, you eat herbs with water element as well?" I asked. Frosty nodded its head, and swallowed back the Water Stone.


    I startedbing through my memory. I was trying to remember, what herbs possessed the water element. I found about a dozen or so, of such herbs. For one, there were some herbs that grew near a water source, so they had that type of element inside them. ''It wouldn''t be a problem, to find such herbs in the Great Forest. Finding them in the Northern Wastnd, is more of a challenge'' I thought.


    I asked Frosty "What herbs here can you eat?". Frosty ran off somewhere and collected a few herbs. Frosty brought back couple of varieties, probably all of them contained the water element. I said "Alright. I will collect as many of those herbs as I can. I will also make a purified form from them. This way, you can also avoid some impurities. This is the Northern Wastnd after all". I wasn''t worried that Water Stones were impure. The water in the Valley, was free from impurities, which was a rare sight in the Wastnds.


    Frosty jumped on top of my shoulder, and changed back to a tattoo. I looked at my right arm, and didn''t notice anything wrong with it. ''When the burning sensation overwhelmed me, I was a bit worried about my right arm. It seems that the freezing abilities, didn''t disappear'' I thought, and continued eating.


    When I was full, Iid back and rested. ''When I rest enough, I will try and break through the Half Step of my Outer Limit. I myself wonder, how well it will proceed'' I thought and fell asleep. There was no sense of time passing, in the North. When I woke up, the skies still looked the same. I was full of energy. ''Maybe it''s because, my blood got purified?'' I thought. I seemed to have much more vigor and strength.


    I stood up and decided to test it. I walked in front of a tree and punched. "BOOM!" my first drilled straight through the trunk of the tree. "It seems, that I''m a bit stronger, but not by a lot. It''s probably due to the effect of the Essence. With purer blood, I can better utilise my strength" I said to myself. There was also one more thing that blood was responsible for. ''How about my regeneration then? I wonder if my wounds will heal faster, now that my blood is purer'' I thought.


    There was only one way to find out. I took out a dagger and shed my hand with it. ''This much pain is nothing,pared to what I already experienced'' I thought, and examined the wound. I noticed that the bleeding stopped fairly quickly, visibly quicker than in the past. ''This is already good. Let''s see how well it will regenerate'' I thought.


    I waited and waited, and waited some more. The wound was healing slowly, and a scab started to form. ''This is not bad. Before I took the essence, it would take much longer than this, for the wound to start scabbing'' I thought. With those experiments, I already figured out, that I could better utilise my strength. My regeneration ability, was improved too.


    ''Time to try and break through that Half Step'' I thought. I took out the Earth Strength Essence, and swallowed about ? of it. With that done, I assumed the stance from the 3rd Modified Diagram of the Strength Manual. ''My limit was 5 minutes, and not a second more. Let''s see, if I can beat that now!'' I thought.


    The seconds slowly passed and turned into minutes. 1 minute, I didn''t feel much of a stress on my body. 2 minutes, I could still continue, no problem. 3 minutes¡­ then 4 minutes. I already started to have a hard time. My strength started to deplete, but then, a sudden increase in my strength, I felt as if, I could stay in that pose for eternity.


    ''The Earth Strength Essence probably started to take effect. I should be able to break through my Half Step Outer Limit, no problem'' I thought and counted the seconds. 4 and a half minute. My strength was still boundless, I didn''t waver at all. 4 minutes and 55 seconds. I could feel my strength being depleted again, but I could stillst more!


    5 minutes. The limit of my power. When I reached that stage, my strength started to fall, sharply. I didn''t give up and stayed in the pose. Itsted less than a second but for me, it felt like never ending process. I screamed in my mind ''BREAK FOR ME!''. Then "BOOOM!". Something inside my body exploded and the second passed. I nowsted 5 minutes and 1 second.


    All the strength I possess, got drained instantly and I fell onto my ass. "I did it! I broke through the Half Step of my Outer Limit!" I eximed out loud. I wasn''t only happy, I was ted. Although I was tired, I could feel my body bing lighter, sturdier and more powerful. The feeling was very pleasant. I felt no pain, it was as if my body, started regenerating all my strength back, at an incredible speed.


    After a while, the feeling disappeared, and I was no longer tired. I stood up and stretched myself a bit. ''It''s time to test my strength. It was only the Half Step of my Outer Limit, but I can still feel the increase in my power'' I thought. I decided to test my speed first. I wanted to know, what type of eleration would I have, when using my full strength.


    I bent my legs a bit, to gather all my strength in them. Then released it. "BOOOOOM!" a loud explosion sounded throughout the Valley. The dust and debris flew in all directions, from my sudden eleration. My speed, was something else. In the past, I could easily travel a short distance in a blink of an eye. But now? I could travel twice if not three times as much, in the same time. ''This speed is amazing!'' I thought, as I stopped.


    Although I was ted and excited about my new strength, there was a problem again. ''I will have to adjust to my new strength again. I already have experience with that, and although the increase of my strength was quite substantial, it was not overwhelming'' I thought.


    I then decided to test my punching strength. I could already destroy the trees in the Valley, so I searched for rocks. I soon found, what I was looking for. ''I don''t know if this is a good idea, but hell! I have some herbs with me. Even if I break my arm, I can just heal it!'' I thought and gathered all the strength in my left hand, then punched. "BOOOOM!"... "Crack¡­.Crack¡­". My hand hurt quite a bit, from the impact. But thanks to the gloves I wore, there was no real damage to my fist.


    The stone, or rather a boulder, that was the size of a human being, had cracks all over it. It didn''t explode or crumble, but it was nearly there. ''My punching strength is also much better now. I will not test my kicking strength on a boulder. I don''t want to break my leg'' I thought. Yet, looking at the damage my punch could create, the kick would be even more powerful. ''This means, I should be able to destroy a boulder, with my kick'' I thought.


    I would have more opportunities, to test out my new strength. I still had to take care of those Tentacle Creatures from the pond.

 Chapter 194

    Chapter 194


    I decided to take care of my adjustment training, before I notified the Avians. I don''t know how much time I spent, trying to learn the control of my new strength. Although I wasn''t sure about the amount of time, I knew it was not that long. When my strength was adjusted to the desired standard, I thought ''This shouldn''t be as long as it took me before. I already knew how to do it, and I had quite a good grasp over my strength before. I should call the Avians. We need to devise a n''.


    I waved my hand at the swarm for a while, then waited for the Avians to arrive. I didn''t have to wait for long, a few of the Avians left the swarm, andnded in front of me. One of them asked "Have you broken through?". I nodded my head and said "Yes, notify your King. We need to talk about a n". The Avians seemed a bit surprised, that I already broke through, but still answered "I will do just that" and flew into the air.


    After a short while, the King of Avians with her bodyguards, descended in front of me. She said "You are quite fast, to have broken through that quickly. We thought it would take you much longer, even with the herbs". ''If she knew, that I broke through in a matter of a day or two, she would probably die from shock'' I thought. I didn''t voice my thoughts, and said "I was at my limit already. It wasn''t that hard to break through. Anyway, we need to talk about the course of action".


    She nodded her head and asked "What do you propose?". I said "Even though I broke through, I will not be able to exterminate such a huge poption of those creatures, by myself. We will need to use the Yellow Dust, for the best results". She seemed a bit worried, so I continued my exnation "We will not use a lot of it, the damage to the Valley will be minimal. But, Avians will have to fight as well". She nodded her head and said "Then how much do we need?". I responded "Gather around 100 kilograms of that stuff. Before you start to worry again, let me just say that, we will not use all of it at once. I just want you to have that much prepared".


    She replied "That is fine then, but how are you going to use that Yellow Dust underwater?". I said, in a "as a matter of fact" tone "I will not. I will use it outside. In other words, I will lure the Tentacle Creatures to the surface". She asked "Isn''t that a bit too dangerous?". I said "No, it''s the only way. Someone has to lure them outside, and none of you guys can swim, or at least, swim as fast, and as well as I can". She nodded and said "We can''t swim at all, that is why we need your help again".


    I then said "I still have to prepare. I need to train my underwater abilities. Otherwise, I might get caught this time. So for now, just gather the amount of Yellow Dust, that I asked for. When I call you guys over again, we will start weeding them out slowly". She nodded her head and flew up. "We will do as you said" she said, then all the Avians flew away.


    I lifted the sleeve of my coat and said "Frosty,e out, we have another job to do". Frosty changed to its corporeal form and stood in front of me. I said "You could hear the conversation no doubt. So, I will not exin it again. We will do some training under the water, for that, I need you to stay in this form". Frosty seemed a bit worried and scared. I decided to reassure it "We will not go down, to meet the Tentacle Creatures, at least, not now. I just want you to guard me, while I train. If you see the sign of theming, you will need to notify me". Frosty nodded its head, and we went back to the pond.


    I checked the pond and didn''t see the Tentacle Creatures inside. ''Good, they must''ve returned to their usual ce. I need to train my ability to hold air underwater, as well as my Darkness Perception. This way, I can kill two birds with one stone'' I thought and entered the water. Frosty followed after me, although a bit reluctantly.


    I dived a bit deeper, until darkness enveloped my vision. ''Frosty wasn''t alerted yet, so it should be fine'' I thought, and closed my eyes. 40 seconds, was my current time, for entering the Darkness Perception, I wanted to decrease it by half. I also wanted to check, if I could double my initial time of staying underwater.


    The trainingerced. When I was out of air, I would resurface, take in some air and then submerge myself again. I also took regr breaks, the Darkness Perception seemed to drain my energy faster. I didn''t allow my energy to be drainedpletely. Whenever I lost about 20-30% of it, I would take a rest. This allowed me to stay in my peak condition, just in case.


    I trained, rested, ate and whatnot, like this for a while. It seemed longer than my adjusting to the new strength, but I had no idea how many "days" passed, since I started. After such a long time, I managed to finally decrease the time of awakening my Darkness Perception, to the desired 20 seconds. Besides that, I also improved my ability to stay underwater. I could now dive for 6.5 minutes, which was about 2.5 minutes of improvement.


    ''Ideally, I wanted to reach double the amount of time, I could stay underwater,pared to before. But I will take that improvement. 2.5 minutes is not bad, especially since I also decreased the time required to awaken my Darkness Perception'' I thought. We didn''t encounter the Tentacle Creatures, during the time of my training. This was a good and a bad thing. A good thing was that, they stayed in that ce and didn''t feel the need of going out. The bad thing was that, it could be harder to lure them out.


    Satisfied with my training, I decided to contact Avians, and proceed with the n. I headed back to the Valley entrance and waved my hand for a while. This time, the King of Avians arrived straight away. She asked "Are you ready now?". I said "Yes. I can stay underwater much longer now. With my added strength, I should be able to escape the Tentacle Creatures, when they start chasing me. Give me the Yellow Dust, and circle around the pond area. When I resurface, make sure that there is someone to pick me up, when I give a sign".


    She nodded her head and asked "What sign should we wait for?". I showed her the same sign, that I showed to Frosty, when I wanted to return to the surface of the pond. She nodded her head and said "We will circle around the pond, when you give us the sign, someone will pick you up". "Let us start then" I said, and headed towards the pond again.

 Chapter 195

    Chapter 195


    My reason behind asking the King of Avians for someone to pick me up, when I gave a sign, was very simple. ''I want to test my strength, against those creatures first. If I can kill them without the Yellow Dust, then that will be great'' I thought. I wouldn''t attempt it unprepared, although I would test my strength, ultimately, I was after something else.


    I arrived at the pond, and rolled my sleeve up. "Frosty,e out, I need to do something first" I said. Frosty changed to its corporeal form, and waited in front of me. I took out the Water Stone from my Storage Feather, and ced it in my right hand. "Let''s see what type of effects, will one stone have" I said to myself. My hand started absorbing the stone, without me thinking about it.


    I could feel more coldness emanating from my arm, until it basically froze. I was a bit rmed but didn''t feel any pain or difort. The Water Stone was absorbed rather quickly, but my arm stayed frozen. ''Do I wait now or something? I can''t really do much, with my arm in that state'' I thought. I decided to wait it out, maybe the absorption process was notpleted yet. I looked at Frosty, but it didn''t seemed worried.


    ''If Frosty isn''t worried, then I shouldn''t be either. After all, Frosty can somehow enter my arm and be a tattoo, it probably knows more than me at this stage'' I thought and waited. The time passed, even though I couldn''t see the weather change, in the North. Some timeter, the ice on my arm started to melt. ''Finally!'' I thought. A short whileter, the icepletely disappeared. My arm appeared to be more white-ish, now that the ice was gone.


    Frosty seemed happy for some reason, and started motioning. I had no clue what it tried to say, maybe it was happy due to the improvement of my right arm. I stood up and decided to test it. I walked in front of a tree, and focused. The freezing abilities of my right arm awakened. With the improved freezing effect, even I could feel strong coldnessing from it. I threw a punch at a tree, using only about 40% of my strength.


    "Boom"


    The tree shook, while I punched through it. What happened next, shocked me. The tree started to freeze, it wasn''t only the area around my right arm, it was muchrger. It took a short while, but eventually, the whole tree froze. "WOW!" I eximed. ''I can probably freeze those Tentacle Creatures to death now! With this, I have another weapon, especially against creatures, that are resistant or immune to physical attacks'' I thought.


    I called out to Frosty "It''s time to go. You can change back now. I will go alone, it will be lessplicated that way". Frosty nodded and jumped onto my shoulder, then changed back to the tattoo quite eagerly. ''With my right arm improved, I can now dive into the depths of the pond'' I thought, and jumped in.


    At the mid point, inside the pond. I closed my eyes and started awaking my Darkness Perception. About 20 secondster, I was ready. I quickly dived towards the bottom, then took the tunnel to the left. This time, I was much faster, it was because I wanted to attract attention. When I reached the underwater cave, the Tentacle Creatures were still there, but in greater number. There were 20 of them now. ''Good, I can kill more of them at once'' I thought and swam a bit closer.


    When the Tentacle Creatures finally noticed me, they gave chase. There was one Creature, that chased me with an exceptional anger. It was the Elite Creature, that I damaged previously. ''It has a grudge with me, there is no doubt about that'' I thought, and swam towards the surface of the pond.


    This time, I didn''t struggle as much. I was much stronger, but more importantly, I was more experienced now. I knew how to increase my swimming speed, and I couldst much longer underwater. The Creatures were chasing me relentlessly, which was the exact thing I wanted.


    I swam like this for a while, then exited the tunnel. I could see the pond''s surface, high above me. I didn''t stop swimming, although I still looked down. I needed to check on the Tentacle Creatures. The Creatures were still after me, another added bonus was that, there were another 2 Elites, trailing close behind the raging Tentacle Creature, I damaged before.


    I soon reach the surface. "Ssh!". I shot out of the water andnded outside. The Creatures were close behind me. "SPLASH!... SPLASH! SPLASH!" the 3 Elites arrived. "Right guys. It''s time to fight!" I said, and released all the energy from my legs. "BOOOM!". I ran towards the Tentacle Creature that arrived first.


    With my left fist tightly clenched, I punched. "BOOOM!" The strength of my attack was so strong, that the Tentacle Creature flew through the air, and shattered couple of trees in the process. I also received some recoil from the impact, and was pushed backwards. "SCHEECH!". The Tentacle Creature screamed. Although it didn''t die, the force behind my punch was not something, it could''ve expected. The Creature screeched for a while and tried to pick itself up, but it was unable to.


    The other Tentacle Creatures, didn''t stay still and attacked me. I was already backing up, so I easily avoided those tentacles. ''With my maximum power output tested, I should now freeze them to death!'' I thought, and stopped backing away. I pressed my foot hard into the ground andunched forwards again, leaving a booming sound behind me. Utilising the Natural Path Skill, I quickly arrived in front of the Tentacle Creature. I punched with my right hand this time. "BOOOM!" the creature flew back, just like the 1st one, but this time, the screeching was even louder. It was due to the freezing ability of my arm. I aimed at the main body of that Tentacle Creature, so that was the area affected first. The screeches stopped all of a sudden, and the whole creature became an ice sculpture.


    When the other Tentacle Creature saw this, it started to instantly back away, but I didn''t give it that chance. As it was trying to run away, I quickly chased. ''These Creatures might be faster than me in water, but onnd, they have no way of reaching my speed!'' I thought, and arrived behind the creature. With another punch, the Creature flew forwards at an even increased speed, and smashed whatever was in it''s way. Before it could stop, it froze to the point, where tentacles shattered into small pieces of ice.


    Silence filled the area for a while. Before another round of sshes sounded from the pond. ''The rest of them have arrived!'' I thought and gave the sign, for one of the Avians to pick me up. While I was at it, I shouted "Give me the Yellow Dust!". The creatures saw the carnage and immediately went back to the pond. ''Ah, shit. They escaped'' I thought. I looked up and saw no Avian arriving. ''What the hell is going on? Why none of them moved?'' I thought. 2 Creatures died, while rest of them escaped. There was only one more left. The one that didn''t die, the one I punched in the beginning.


    It was struggling to stand up and run away. I said, while walking slowly towards it "I don''t know where you came from, but this is the end of your road". I could finally see fear in its small beady eyes. I extended my right arm and punched. "STOP!", "BOOM!" "SCREECH!". The Creature started to freeze and died.


    Soon after, the King of Avians arrived and said "You shouldn''t have done this!". I was confused and asked "Why, You asked me to exterminate them. Did you change your mind?". She said "I was checking the ancestral records, and only now I arrive back. I know what this creature is called". I looked at her and asked "What is it then?". When I finished speaking that sentence, I noticed fear on her face, a fear much greater than the prospects of the Yellow Dust exploding or Corpse Dogs invasion. She said "These things are called Yagaroths. This is not something we should''ve killed. We are in deep trouble now".


    I was confused but also worried, I asked "Why? Why do you fear them so much?". She said "It''s their High One, that I fear. My entire flock, would not be able to kill it. You would die as well, nothing would escape it. That creature has by default, broken through its Inner Limits, who knows how strong it would be, after a long time. Maybe even approach the Primal Limit".


    I asked again "How do you know, that the High One of Yagaroths still exists?". She shook her head and said "I''m certain, otherwise, these Yagaroths wouldn''t exist! If they decide toe here, we are done. I should''ve checked the ancestral records before¡­ I just hope they don''te for revenge".


    I asked "What if they do?". I could see a sharp glint in her eyes. ''This is bad'' I thought and started running. She shouted "CATCH HIM!". ''Fuck, I knew it!'' I thought, as I tried to get away from the Vulture Cliffs.

 Chapter 196

    Chapter 196


    I ran at my full speed, but I couldn''t outrun a flying creature, even if my Natural Path skill, was three times more advanced. Icked speed and the terrain was to my disadvantage. Soon, the Avians caught up to me and surrounded me. ''Shit! This can only end badly for me'' I though. Then I heard the voice of the King of Avains. She said "Where do you think you are going? You will take the punishment for your actions". I shouted back "Bullshit! It was YOU, who told me to kill them. I was only doing you a favour!".


    She asked "Would you kill yourself, if I told you to do it?". I got even more angry "Stop spouting shit at my face. Don''t try to act all high and mighty now! It was your idea, and you are the guilty one! Why haven''t you checked the records, before telling me to exterminate them!". She then shouted back "Hmph, You are the guilty one, it''s you who killed them. When they arrive, we will offer you to them, as an apology. One life in exchange for thousands, don''t you think this is a fair trade?".


    ''That bitch¡­.'' I thought as the rage started swelling up inside of me. I said "Over my dead body, bitch". She shouted back, pissed "This can be arranged, you filthy human! Catch him!". I ran straight at the group of Avians blocking my way. The Avains were not that stupid, and flew into the skies. ''You think, that you are clever?'' I though, and took out my bow.


    I started shooting. The Avians, didn''t really expect that, and started dying left and right. They flew higher into the air and still continued fly around me, while trying to attack Thanks to my instincts, whenever an Avian tried to get close and attack, I would always take it down with my bow. I stood motionless and shot at anything that got close. I was using the stone arrows, that I made in the past. But with my current strength, or rather the strength of the bow, I was still able to take down Avians, even with such crude arrows.


    When They backed away far enough, for my arrows not to reach them, I started running again. For some reason, they didn''t flock me, maybe they were scared of my speed on the ground, Although if all of them suddenly tried to attack at once, I myself wasn''t sure, if I would be able to escape. The Avians didn''t let go so easily, and the Elites arrived. The Elite Avians started by using their skills, from above. They shot feathers at me, at incredible speed and uracy. I was grazed by some of them, but due to my new and improved clothes, I came out unscaved.


    ''Those bastards! After so much I did for them!'' I though. I was extremely pissed and I could feel my vision turning a bit red. ''No! I can''t awaken that aura. The bloodlust andck of control will kill me! I need to calm down'' I thought, and eased my mind. The Bloodlust Aura, was not something, I needed at the moment. I tried calming my mind and eased up on my thoughts a bit.


    After a while, my vision changed back to that of a normal, full of colour vision. I was still being chased, but because I managed to reign in that bloody aura, and stop its awakening, I was better able to evade and control the situation. The Avians relentlessly attacked. Many of the attacksnded on me. I was mostly fine due to the clothes but my clothes became damaged. ''The Formations on these clothes are good, but it''s not indestructible. I need to get away from here'' I thought, then I hear a loud "BOOOOM!".


    My first thought, was that the Avians used Yellow Dust, in order to attack. But I was wrong, when I turned around, I saw something else entirely. The sound came from the pond. A huge column of water raised into the skies, and Yagaroths poured out from it. ''This is even worse now'' I thought, as all hell broke loose.


    Yagaroths started to run wild and kill everything in their path. The Avians, were not affected much, as they were flying in the air. The problem was me. I couldn''t fly. I then hear the King of Avians shouting "Yagaroths! The perpetrator who killed your kin, is there! He is the one responsible for all this!". My rage swelled up again ''THAT FUCKING BITCH!'', but then I head a deep voice from behind "Stay away from this fly. If you try something, we will exterminate you as well".


    The deep voice made me sober up. I shouted back angrily "Don''t believe her! She is lying! She was the one who wanted to exterminate you!". The deep voice behind me sounded again "Human... I already know it was you. Give up, and you might live". ''Like hell I''m just going to give up!'' I thought, and I ran at my full speed forwards.


    The voice sounded "It''s futile". I heard the creatures behind me chasing. When I looked back, I saw a giant creature that looked like Yagaroth, but different at the same time. It''s eyes were bigger, its colour was different too, it was blue, with white stripes around its body and tentacles. ''This must be their High One. This is just abysmal now!'' I thought while running.


    But for some reason, therge Yagarort, didn''t move. It''s stayed in that pond, and didn''t chase me. Then, I noticed why it didn''t move, and the fact shocked me to the core. ''This is not its full body! Just how big is that thing!'' I thought. It was a curse but a blessing as well. If thatrge Yagaroth couldn''t chase me, I had much bigger chance of escaping.


    When I left the Valley, I ran in the direction of the Sludge Factory. ''I need to get to the Dead Forest. I need to disappear, or leave the North altogether. These creatures will not be able to cross the borderline'' I thought. The borderline of the North, was not a straight line. The ce I was currently in, the Vulture Cliffs, was quite a distance away from the bordering line. It would be faster for me, to backtrack my steps, and go back to the Dead Forest, then cross the border from there . It would be less dangerous as well. I was already familiar with the route back, while if I went straight for the borderline, the areas I would have to cross, were unknown to me.


    Of course, this was all under one condition. ''I can''t get caught'' I thought. I then heard "Yagaroth, we will help you catch him! This will prove to you, that we are not your enemies". After a short time of silence, therge Yagaroth answered "That, I can agree to". ''Great! Now I have to deal with both bastards. I swear, if I manage to get out of this mess alive, the King of Avians and her fucking flock, is dead!'' I thought.


    The Avians didn''t try to get too close to me, I still had a bow in my hands. Instead, they were trying to slow me down, just enough, for the main army of Yagaroths to arrive. ''I still have a long way to go, how do I lose them¡­.'' I tried to think of anything, that would help me out. ''If it hase to this, then the only answer is Yellow Dust. I need to retrieve my bags, that are full of it. Then I will blow up the whole army, even at the cost of my own life!'' I thought. I took out my map, and checked the position of the hidden bags, then changed the direction slightly.

 Chapter 197

    Chapter 197


    Yagaroths were water based creatures,nd, was not their domain. Yet, I couldn''t lose them. Even worse, the distance was getting shorter. ''I''m not far away from the location, of my hidden bag with the Yellow Dust. I just need to retrieve it and then¡­ End everything'' I thought. The Avians were relentlessly trying to slow me down, I decided not to stop and shoot anymore. This would only shorten the distance between me and Yagaroths.


    My set of clothes became rags at this point, it offered almost no protection. The Formations ced on the set, seemed to weaken or disappearedpletely. ''I can already see the location, just a bit more!'' I thought and ran, like never before.


    When I finally arrived at the ce, where my bags were hidden, I quickly dug them up and opened one. The Yellow Dust started pouring out. The amount created a small hill, when the bag becamepletely empty, I threw it to the side and ced the other bag onto my shoulders, then ran.


    When the Avians saw the mountain of Yellow Dust, they instantly stopped. Some started retreating, while other waited in the air, scared to approach. The Yagaroth army was getting closer to the pile of Yellow Dust, while Avians tried to make them retreat, but no Yagaroth listened. When I was about 300 metres away, I took out a cloth and wrapped it tightly around an arrow. With the arrow prepared, I lit it.


    When the Avians saw this, they gave up any attempts of persuading the Yagaroths to retreat, and fled as far as they could. The Yagaroths got closer and closer to the pile, and thought nothing of it. None of them stopped or retreated. ''This is your doom'' I thought. I took aim, and shot my arrow. "Swoosh!". The arrow flew through the air, andnded in the pile of Yellow Dust.


    "BOOOOOOOOM!"


    The moment I released the arrow, I started running again. The st from that explosion, would be much more severe, than the one I released upon the whole horde of Corpse Dogs. When the arrow arrived, the sky lit up and became bright from the explosion, my ears rang and hurt a lot. Then the st of hot air hit me. "UGHHHH!!"


    I flew through the air like a rag doll. I almost lost consciousness, due to the impact alone. I was alive, thanks to the distance, but also because, I turned around at ast possible moment and shielded my body, using my arms and legs. My arms were broken and scorched, from the impact. Fortunately, the bones didn''t shatter and only broke.


    When I finallynded, the sole protection on my back, was the added armour in my clothes. Thankfully, it survived the attacks of Avians. The first impact slowed me down, but I didn''t stop and bounced back into the air. I bounced like this couple of times, then finally stopped. "Cough..." I coughed out some blood. The pain was real, my arms broken and I had difficulty breathing. My legs were not broken, but hurt like hell and were also charred. I couldn''t pick myself up whatsoever.


    Frosty transformed into corporeal form, and quickly started using its breath, to freeze some parts of my body. ''That lizard is not stupid at all, coldness can decrease my pain but also preserve the wounds'' I praised Frosty in my mind. ''But, Frosty also suffered some damages. I can see scorched marks on it, as well as some bruises'' I thought. When I looked at the ce, that used to contain an army of Yagaroths, there was a huge pit in the ground. The skies andnd, were clear of any living creature, there was nothing in sight, but the pit.


    I asked Frosty with some difficulty "Can... you... take out... some... medicine... from my bag? Ugh". Frosty stopped and nodded its head, quite worried. After a while, Frosty showed me all the bottles, I had in my bag. I pointed with my eyes "Give me this on to drink, I need to recover fast". Frosty opened my mouth and poured in the medicine. I looked at another bottle and said "Smear this one on me, it will allow my wounds to heal faster".


    Frosty did whatever I asked it to do, withoutints. After about 15 minutes of resting, I could see something flying in the air. ''These bastards are back. I need to leave, now!'' I thought and slowly picked myself up. Although my legs hurt like hell, I still managed to stand up. I said "Let''s go, we need to leave. The Avians areing". Frosty nodded and followed after me, it didn''t return to my hand, as a tattoo.


    While walking away, I said to myself "Wait you fucking birds, when I break through the Inner Limit, your race is doomed!" and left in a hurry. The Avians didn''t chase me anymore, they simply flew in circles, around that huge pit, created by the explosion. I limped forwards, while Frosty acted as my support. I couldn''t use my hands, so anything I needed, Frosty had to take care of it. I was d to have Frosty with me, it neverined about doing anything for me. It knew, how much everything hurt me.


    While we walked, I said "Thank you. It seems, I needed you more, than you needed me". Frosty shook its head and made some noises, then smiled. I thought ''Maybe both of us need each other''. We walked for a long time, until I wasn''t able to see the Vulture Cliffs in the distance.


    I said to Frosty "Let''s take a break, I will need you to treat my arms. But don''t worry, I will tell you want to do". Frosty nodded its head, but I could see that it was afraid a bit. I told Frosty the instructions of healing my broken arms, and exined what medicine to use. Frosty was an intelligent lizard, it remembered all the steps, so we went straight to the point.


    "Begin with my right arm first. You need to locate the broken bone, and then align them. This will hurt me no doubt, but just focus on the task, don''t worry about me". Frosty nodded with determination and started the procedure. The 1st try was unsessful. I screamed in pain "AGH! It''s wrong! Try again!".


    Frosty''s confidence disappeared after the failure, but it still tried its best. After a while of agonising pain, Frosty finally managed to align the bones properly. "Haah¡­. Haaah¡­ Now.. apply the medicine.. then wrap it¡­ with sticks¡­" I had to take breaks when speaking due to the pain. Frosty applied the medicine, then wrapped my whole arm using cloth and sticks.


    After some time, the pain subdued and I could finally think straight. "That was the 1st arm, the left one is next. But before we do anything, let me rest. I want to have a breather from that pain". Frosty took out some meat from the bag and brought it to me. I said "It''s raw, I don''t eat raw stuff¡­. I need to make fire". Frosty Shook its head and pointed at itself. I said "You want to make fire? Hmm, alright, I will teach you".


    I continued "There are a few way to make a fire. I will show you the easier way. There is a flint in my bag. When you scrape it with metal, it will produce sparks. I also have some dried leaves and grass, that can be used to start the fire. You will also need some sticks or branches on top of the dried grass or leaves, in order for them to caught fire and sustain the burning process. Try it out, it''s not that hard with that special flint".


    Frosty nodded and took out all the things required to make fire. I then tried the flint and managed to create some sparks. After a few trials and errors, Frosty managed to light the fire by itself. I said "Good job! Who know, maybe I will teach you more things, like the Art of Medicine. You can use your hands just like human can, although you have less fingers, so learning the Art of Medicine, shouldn''t be that difficult for you".


    Frosty had mixed feeling about that. I said "You don''t want to learn? I''m not forcing you, but imagine if we are in simr situation in the future. If you knew how to do all those things, you could treat me without my instructions". Frosty thought about it and nodded its head.


    I said "I''m not going to teach you everything, if you don''t want. I can only teach you the necessary knowledge. For example, how to make medicine, or which herbs to collect. How to treat simple wounds or broken joints, stuff like that". Frosty then nodded again, it seemed that it wanted to learn the basics only. ''The basics are good enough. If I happen to faint, Frosty will be able to start fire, make medicine or treat me, in case of emergency'' I thought.


    I then taught Frosty, how to roast the meat. While I was fed by Frosty, I exined some basics, about medicine making and treatment. Of course, while my mouth wasn''t full. With that, we rested for some time and chatted, or rather I talked and Frosty listened, until I decided to go to sleep and rest properly. ''I need to sleep a bit, before Frosty attempts to repair my 2nd arm. I''m not a great fan of pain'' I thought and closed my eyes.

 Chapter 198

    Chapter 198


    When my eyes opened, I saw the all familiar world of my dreams. The Dark Traveller stood there, but didn''t say anything. ''That''s weird. I don''t think this ever happened before'' I thought. It was the same setting, I stood in front of the Dark Traveller, while it would talk and then kill me. But nothing happened.


    I walked closer and thought ''Did he got stuck or something?''. When I walked in front of the Dark Traveller, he finally moved. My first thought, was that I''m going to die again, but no, the Dark Traveller simply ced his hand on my shoulder, then said "Therak Devorak. Fer Sathov Arast Lak". Then, I felt something entering my body. It wasn''t strength, but knowledge. Although it didn''tst long, I gained some knowledge of the Ancient Language!


    I said out loud, in shock"I finally understand what you said". The Dark Traveller said "Peris Ji Fal Gertes. Fhin Lak Rei Lentres Bahr Lakras", and took away his hand from my shoulder. What he said was "This is the beginning. Now you can proceed by yourself". I was a bit bbergasted by all that, but the Dark Traveller, simply punched me to death.


    When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in a dream. ''What the hell is going on? First of all, the Dark Traveller somehow passed the knowledge, about the Ancient Language to me, then punched me to death. I feel as if all my improvements, are useless in front of him. Then the dream finished¡­ I don''t understand it anymore'' I thought.


    But there was one thing, I was certain of. ''My knowledge of the Ancient Language improved, by a lot'' I thought. I didn''t learn the wholenguage, but the basicmunication would be possible for me now. ''I want to go back to my dream now. He called me his disciple... I don''t know, what to think of it anymore'' I thought.


    I was eager to find out more, but I had stuff to do as well. The most important matter, was to repair my left arm. I also had to travel back, away from the Vulture Cliffs. ''Who knows, if Avians will stay alive or not. Who knows, if the High One will send more Yagaroths, in search for me. I need to go back and heal my wounds. When I''m ready, I will return'' I thought, and woke Frosty up.


    "Frosty, it''s time to fix my other arm. Are you ready?" I asked. Frosty nodded and rummaged in the bag, for all necessary items. After a while of pain, the agony ended and my arm was fixed. I now had both arms bandaged and straightened out. Walking was weird, with both arms hanging beside my body like that, but at least they were still there.


    Frosty packed all the stuff, and tried lifting the bag containing around 300 kilograms of Yellow Dust. The face it made, when it realised how heavy the bag was, made meugh. "Hahaha, help me put it on. I will carry it". I moved closer to the bag, while Frosty ced the straps around my shoulders. I stood up with it. Although it was quite heavy, it was nothing for me, even though both of my arms were broken. I said "Let''s go, we shall head towards the Dead Forest". Frosty nodded and followed after me.


    The road back, was quite peaceful. Frosty was not aplete beginner, when it came to fighting. It could take care of Corpse Dogs mobs, that popped up from time to time. The journey back was long. What was weird though, was the fact, that I no longer had dreams with Dark Traveller. Even if I tried training something remotely, whenever my body or skills, nothing ever happened. ''Maybe it''s because my arms are damaged. Besides the Natural Path skill, I can train nothing else'' I thought.


    It was weird but also annoying. ''I finally got something useful and can''t even test it out¡­'' I thought. Although I had no dreams, we still traveled towards our destination. ''I can finally see the Dead Forest'' I thought, and said to Frosty "We have arrived. Let''s go. I hope that I can still meet a friend there".


    We entered the Dead Forest. It was quiet, as usual. I looked at the trees, trying to find a certain someone, who might be here. ''It''s been a long time, I assume. Maybe he no longeres here'' I thought. But then, I heard a familiar voice. "Don''t I know you from somewhere?". I looked in the direction of the voice, and surely, it was the exact creature, I was looking for.


    "Crow. It''s been a long time". When Crow heard my voice, he instantly remembered "Nex? Is that really you? You look bad, what happened to you?". I sat down and leaned my body on a tree, then said "It''s a long story. Would you like to hear it?". Crow walked over and sat next to me. He said "Sure. By the way, what is that creature next to you?". I introduced "This is Frosty, mypanion", while Frosty made some noises and introduced itself.


    Crow nodded his head, and asked with concern "How did this happen?". I said "It started from¡­" and told him about my journey to the Vulture Cliffs. I told him about the Corpse Dogs, the Avians, and the Yagaroths. He seemed shocked, especially about the Yellow Dust. After a long story, I sat there staring at the dark sky, that enveloped the whole Northern Region.


    After a while, Crow said "What are you going to do now? From what you told me, you are in deep trouble. Are you going to leave the North?". I said "I don''t know. It''s one of the possibilities I have. But, I don''t want to leave defeated". He became quite worked up and said "But you can''t win, with the High One of the Yagaroths. You said it yourself, it''s body was huge, how could you even damage it...". Before he continued, he realised something, while I smiled. He asked "Are you really going to use that Yellow Dust?". I said "If I have to. Yagaroths want me dead, because of Avians. Avians were the ones who asked me to exterminate Yagaroths, but that bitch managed to persuade the High One, to focus on me. I took the whole me".


    Crow said "It''s seems weird, that the whole army of them started chasing you, because you killed like 3 or 4 of those Yagaroths. It doesn''t make sense". I replied "It doesn''t make sense to me either. It seems to me, that I must''ve killed a Yagaroth, that was quite important to the High One. What other reason would there be?".


    Crow nodded, then hesitated for a while, but still asked "Do you need help". I looked at him a bit surprised, while he tried to exin "I can''t be of much help to you, when ites to dealing with the Avians or Yagaroths, but I can hide you, so that you can stay safe and recover your strength".


    ''What an interesting offer, but is it an offer made purely due to friendship? Or does he want to rat me out, to the Yagaroths?'' I thought. I didn''t know which it was but I couldn''t trust my life with another creature, maybe besides Frosty. I said "No need, but you could keep an eye for me on their movements. You seem to like this ce. I wille back once in a while, then you can tell me what you found out".


    Crow nodded and said "I will do whatever I can". I said to Frosty "Give him enough meat, tost him a long while, as a sign of my gratitude". Frosty nodded and started taking out the meat. Crow raised his voice and said "I don''t do it for the rewards! You don''t have to give me stuff. I want to help you".


    I looked at him and said "I know, but I also want you to be able to live properly. With some proper meat, you can go for much longer". Crow hesitated for a while, so I said "Take it, If I didn''t treat you as a friend, I would never tell you all that". Crow nodded his head and said "OK. I will try to find out anything regarding Yagaroths and Avians movements". He then took out a ck ribbon, and pointed at a tree saying "When this ribbon is attached to the tree, that means I will be here very often. When its not there, it will mean, I''m looking for information, and may not return for a long time".


    I nodded my head and said "Great. I''m off then. I came here in hopes of talking with you, now that this is done, it''s time for me to go. I will be back after some time". Crow nodded his head and said "Good luck, and hopefully, see you soon".

 Chapter 199

    Chapter 199


    We left the Dead Forest, and moved towards the east. East was much more dangerous, at least ording to Crow. I didn''t intend to go to the Obsidian Mountains straight away, especially with both of my hands steal healing. I just wanted to move as far away from the Vulture Cliffs, as possible.


    I was nning to make a camp, after a few "days" of walking, where I could heal up properly and recover my strength. We could then move to the Obsidian Mountains, and check out what that ce looked like, as well as, what creatures we could expect there.


    We travelled for a long time, until I couldn''t see the Dead Forest. The Sludge Factory, was barely visible as well. ''This is a good spot, to camp for a while. When my arms are healed, we can go to the Obsidian Mountains'' I thought. The medicine I had with me, allowed me to heal my arms very quickly. I still needed to exercise them slowly, in order for them, to return to the previous peak condition.


    I did some light training in the beginning, then increased the pace, until I reach my maximum output. I didn''t know how much time passed, but I knew that I had enough food, tost me a bit less than a month. ''This much food, might not be enough to survive in the Obsidian Mountains. Although, I only want to check the ce out first. If there is nothing edible there, I can always return, and go to Great Forest in order to hunt'' I thought.


    The weird thing was that, I had no dreams anymore. The Dark Traveller didn''t appear in my dreams, nor did I have any dreams at all. Even if I trained all day, nothing happened during my sleep. ''This is just too weird. The Dark Traveller gave me knowledge about the Ancient Language, then the dreams disappear? Just what the hell?'' I thought to myself. It would be fine, if it was same old dream, but to get none? No amount of training, seemed to change that.


    ''I had these dreams for years now, yet this never happened. Whenever I trained my body or skills, I would always have those dreams. Did the dreams finish? Maybe they couldn''t go infinitely. I always assumed, that those dreams will be there, no matter what. What if I was wrong? But then, why would the Dark Traveller say, that this is just the beginning?'' I thought, and asked myself many questions.


    I didn''t understand. Why would it change so much? It worked the same way, for such a long time. I couldn''t figure it out, but I got an idea how to find out. Frosty already returned to my arm, as a tattoo. I called out "Frosty! Come out". Frosty transformed quickly and stood in front of me. I asked "When I go to sleep, could you see any ck Aura around me? Or some kind of dark mist?", but Frosty shook its head.


    ''So if I don''t have that Aura, does that mean, I will no longer have those dreams? Then why would the Dark Traveller tell me, it was only the beginning? It doesn''t make sense'' I thought. I was lost in my thoughts for a while, and snapped out of it, when Frosty again changed back to the tattoo on my arm.


    ''There is no point wondering about that now'' I thought. The dreams helped me a lot, but I couldn''t seriously hope, that they wouldst forever. With that in my mind, I moved towards the Obsidian Mountains. ording to my map, I still had a long way to go. My destination this time, was twice the distance,pared to the distance from Dead Forest to Vulture Cliffs. Because I had nothing better to do, I decided to train, while on my travels.


    I already broke through the Half Step of the Outer Limit. This meant, any exercises I did, should now improve my body. I returned to my routine from the past. Whenever I woke up, I trained using the modified diagram, then trained my skills. I was on a constant move, and food was short, so I didn''t train my strength that much. On the other hand, I made some improvements with my Pressure Dagger skill.


    The North was really a wastnd, so finding any opponents, was not easy. There were some Corpse Dogs, once in a while, but those things were not even able to move fast enough. Like this, I started imagining my opponent, and used my skill on thin air. The opponent was Nick, not because I hated him, but because I knew a lot about his skills, and the way he used them. I could always imagine that much better, than a figment of my imagination.


    I remembered that Nick, told me about such thing in the past. ''Nick once told me, that some experts can imagine their opponent, and train like this. It seems, I''m able to do it as well'' I thought. It wasn''t that hard to achieve. I knew Nick very well. Besides, he was the one who taught me most things. With my own improvements and the memories, I could simte how Nick would move in my head. My attacks missed most of the time. I always found that, Nick would move in a weird manner or disappear, before my attacks could reach him.


    With time, I got better at it, but itcked something. ''Although I knew Nick very well, I don''t feel any hatred, evil or rage towards him. Maybe that is where I''m going wrong?'' I thought. Nick was not my enemy, but a friend. Shelly was the same. There were no people, who I knew really well. I knew some stronger opponents, especially those, that I felt a lot of hate for. But, I usually didn''t know much about their skills, or ways they fought.


    ''That woman who severed my arm¡­ I know her skill but not much else. That Eterian¡­ This could work'' I thought. The Eterian fought with me, and the fight was still fresh in my memory. I had many interactions and couple of duels with her. I also knew that she would betray, in order to live. ''I kind of know her character, and the type of creature she is. I also know, what skills she has. I don''t think that I have to mention the hatred, I feel towards that bitch. This may actually work'' I thought.


    I decided to give it a try. I imagined the Eterian, standing in front of me, trying to kill me. It was hard. I couldn''t do it whatsoever in the beginning, but the more I tried, the clearer her image became. After a long time, it felt as if I was really fighting against her. My imagination, could''ve never done the same with Nick. ''So, it turns out that in order fo this to work, I have to really hate someone, or something. With this, I can practice my skills better'' I thought.


    But! This was not a solution to everything. It was true I could practice, but there was no diversity. It meant that, if I meet her again, I would be better able to predict, what she was up to, and better able to harm her. But, it wouldn''t work on anyone else. ''This type of imaginary training is good, but also bad. I''m imagining only 1 person or creature, as my opponent, while there are many different creatures and people. The same stuff, wouldn''t work on that Sword Woman. The reason is simple, she has different set of skills, and different style'' I thought.


    The skill to imagine your opponent and improve oneself, seemed like a great idea. This type of training, had a hidden bad side though. When overused, it could actually do more harm than good. ''I will do this moderately. Just so, I can increase my proficiency with the skill, and take a more objective look. Learning how to deal with one person or creature, then using that same tactic broadly, will eventually lead me to my own demise'' I thought. With that, I headed east and trained, just like in the old days.

 Chapter 200

    Chapter 200


    The journey to the Obsidian Mountains was mostly boring. Besides the training, I tried teaching Frosty some things, from time to time. When I finally arrived in the vicinity of the Obsidian Mountains, I noticed a great change in the environment. There were no trees around,va pools were scattered everywhere, and the temperature seemed to rise, the closer I got.


    In the distance, I could see a huge mountain, but it wasn''t a simple mountain. It was a huge volcano, withva spewing out from the top once in a while. ''This ce is different. No wonder Crow said, it''s much more dangerous'' I thought. Travelling a bit further, I noticed a new lifeform. It looked like the ck Sludge, that originated from the huge factory, not far away from the Dead Forest.


    At first, I thought that it was somevaying on the ground, but then it moved. ''This creature must be quite dangerous. If its body is made out ofva, how hot can it be?'' I wondered. Besides thatva creature, I also noticed some horse like creatures, running in the distance. These were not normal either. They were covered in mes. Their tail and mane seemed to be made out of fire, while their hooves were covered by mes. They were entirely ck, other than the orange me, burning around the mentioned parts. The horses were quite tall as well, at least double the size of a normal horse.


    ''This ce seems to be a lot more dangerous, than anywhere I''ve been so far. Not counting Yagaroths of course, but who knows what type of creatures, dwell deep within that volcano'' I thought. I already saw, what the Obsidian Mountains was about. A ce of fire and dangerous creatures. With a food shortage, I turned around and returned the way I came from. For one, I didn''t have enough food, in order to stay there. I also didn''t know whenever the ming Horses, were edible or not. I decided to go to the Great Forest, hunt and return at ater time.


    This time, I didn''t train on my way back. I wanted to return as fast as possible. Time passed slowly, but without the sun, I didn''t know how long it took me to walk back. I returned to the ce, where my journey in the North started. The all familiar wastnds and the bordering line, that separated the North from the Great Forest. As I approached the borderline, I realised something. ''Can Frosty cross the borderline?'' I thought. The best way of getting an answer, was to ask Frosty. I called out "Frosty,e out for a moment".


    Frosty appeared in front of me, with an expression that stated "I don''t want to learn anything!". I didn''tment about that, and asked "Can you cross that borderline?", then pointed my finger at it. Frosty looked over and saw the borderline. It then motioned to me, that it had no clue. I asked "Can you try?". Frosty was a bit worried, I was too, I didn''t know what would happen, when a creature that was unable to pass, would try it anyway. After awhile of hesitation, Frosty nodded its head, and walked towards the borderline.


    I watched with anticipation. When Frosty stood in front of the bordering line, it extended one of its arms, and tried touching the barrier. What happened next was surprising, but for another reason. Frosty''s arm passed without a problem, it then proceeded to pass fully. ''Whew. I thought it would be impossible for it to go'' I thought.


    I waved my hand at Frosty, for it to return back. It did just that, also without any issues. I then came up with another idea. I said "Frosty, change back to the tattoo on my hand. Let''s see if we can pass like this". Frosty nodded and jumped onto my shoulder, then changed to the tattoo. I marched forwards, and crossed the borderline without any problems as well. My hand didn''t get stuck, nor did I felt any difort, everything was in order. ''Alright, we cane and go as we wish. Time to hunt some animals!'' I thought, and moved deeper into the Great Forest.


    The biggest change, was the sun, high up in the sky. ''I haven''t seen that thing for a long time now. I missed it'' I thought. There were white clouds, floating around the blue sky, and the weather was quite chilly. ''Probably the winter season ising. Doesn''t matter, I will return to the North, when I have enough meat'' I thought.


    I could see the ck Sludge from time to time, as well as assimted animals, that the ck Sludge took control of. I didn''t dispose of them. For one, the animals were already dead and secondly, these belonged to Crow''s race. It wouldn''t feel right, exterminating his race. ''Although we didn''t have many interactions, Crow is a nice guy. I can treat him as a friend, of course provided, he doesn''t betray me'' I thought. I would have to check thatter on, but I was already prepared for that possibility.


    I sped through the Great Forest, until I reached more popted parts, that contained healthy animals. I hunted bears and wolves alike, boars were also there in the mix. Anything that had meat and was edible, would be hunted by me. I quickly gathered enough food tost me a few months. ''With this, I shouldn''t have to worry about the food shortage, when I travel to the Obsidian Mountains again'' I thought. I only had one weapon, against creatures that were made ofva or had the element of me. That was my arm''s freezing ability. I didn''t know how well my right arm would perform, but it was something at least.


    I decided to stay a few more days inside the Great Forest, and collect some herbs, that Frosty could eat. I took out my map, and tried to located the nearest water source. I was in luck, there was a smallke, not far away from my current location. ''It will take me half a day, to get there. I will make camp for now, then head there in the morning'' I thought, and lit the campfire.


    When I went to sleep, the situation with my dreams didn''t change. It seemed that the environment didn''t y any part in that. The next morning, I exercised first, then went straight to theke on my map. When I arrived, I noticed that theke''s water was very clean, the fishes were swimming around happily, and there were some herbs growing here and there.


    I thought ''I didn''t take a bath for a while, might as well use that chance''. When I stripped my clothes, I noticed many small scars. Those were the leftovers, from the battle against Avians and Yagaroths. The most obvious scar, was on my right hand. I touched my head, and I could feel some hairs growing back. ''This is a good sign. I don''t want to be bald, for the rest of my life'' I thought. With some time, my hair would grow back to the length I used to have, before I embarked on my journey.


    I was lost in my thoughts, as I collected some herbs with water element. I reminisced about the past, about the good times, and those bad times. ''It seems, I mostly have bad memories. Bing a ve, being betrayed couple of times, having my arm cut off¡­ Yet, I''m still here. I now have more strength and I have Frosty, who is always with me'' I thought. Although, I went through a lot of bad things, I was still happy. I travelled to many ces, and learned about many things. I exceeded my limits, and began to explore my life. At that time, I felt at peace.


    But, I learned one thing, throughout so many years. Peace, doesn''tst long. As I was collecting some herbs, I could hear some noise in the distance. ''Probably some wolves or bears areing this way'' I thought, as I passed it of as something unimportant. But I was wrong. What arrived, were not bears or wolves, but humans. About 6 of them arrived not to far away, from my location.


    They stopped, and took a look at me. ''I don''t know what they want, but I surely smell trouble'' I thought. I always had troubles, when meeting humans in the forest. I therefore always assumed, they were trouble. After a while of debating, they moved towards me slowly. I was dressed in clothes, that I made myself from animal skins. My previous set of clothes, was pretty much useless at that point, and I was used to wearing animals skins on me.


    They group stopped about 20 metres away from me, while one male took a step forward and asked "Hello friend. Have you been to the North?". ''What a weird question to ask. Are they trying to judge my level of strength?'' I thought, and said while still picking up a herb "Why do you want to know?". The guy seemed a bit stunned, that I didn''t pay much attention to them, but still acted politely. "We are going there for the first time. If you''ve been there already, we would like to ask for some tips".


    ''They are not stupid, I must admit. Although, I don''t intend to share any information for free'' I thought. After a while, I said "I''ve been there, but if you want information, I will not give them to you for free". The guy didn''t seem to mind it and said "We can pay you. Especially, if your information is useful to us". I said "I don''t need money. What else do you have?".


    The guy seemed surprised and asked "What would you like then?". I said "Show me what you got, and I will tell you. Don''t worry, my informations can save your lives. If you think I''m lying, you may continue on your journey". The guy turned towards the rest of the group, and they discussed in hush tones between themselves.


    Although they used hushed tones, I could still hear them very well. "We shouldn''t trust him. Look at him, he is dressed in animal skins. What can he possibly know" one of them said. The leader guy argued back "That is exactly the reason, I believe him. He seems to know how to survive, and if he really went to the North, his information could really be useful to us". Another person butted in "He is collecting some grass, near the pond! You want to believe that kind of guy?".


    Most people in the group wanted to simply leave, there were only two people who wanted my informations. Those were the leader guy, that I spoke with, and another guy, who seemed scared of the North, and wanted any information he could get his hands on.


    After a while of debating, the leader guy turned towards me, and said "I, and my friend here, will show you what we have". Then they took out their bags and started taking out things. I took a look at them and started walking towards the group. The four that were against paying for my information, immediately grabbed for their weapons.


    The two guys taking out the stuff, also stopped and didn''t know whenever to prepare or wait. I decided to help them out on that, and said "I''m justing closer to have a look. Besides, I already heard your conversation". The whole group was stunned, but even more on guard now.


    I stopped about 5 metres away from the group and said "Just show me everything. If I wanted to rob you, I would''ve done it a long time ago". With that sentence, the four people took out their weapons. ''I''m not a great negotiator¡­'' I thought. The leader guy, finally decided to go for it, and dumped everything out from the bag.


    I said "That''s the spirit", then took a closer look. I noticed a bow inside that pile and asked "Are you an Archer?". The guy was still a bit dazed, but managed to answer "Yes". I nodded my head and said "It''s a good skill to have. This wille in handy to you, when you meet Corpse Dogs". The whole group was dazed this time, while one of them managed to squeeze out "We already knew about Corpse Dogs".


    They must''ve realised, that I probably didn''t lie. I replied "I never said, you didn''t. You also didn''t pay me anything". I took a look at the pile and said "How many arrows do you have?". The guy replied "Around 200". I shook my head "And for how long are you going to the North?". He replied again "We don''t know yet. A month maybe?". I asked again "Do you have provisions?". This time, a woman answered a bit impatient "Of course we have! We are not idiots, we know that it''s very hard to get food in the North".


    I said "Good. Make sure you have more than you assume". I then continued "I can see you have some pots and whatnot. I want those in exchange for some information". They seemed shocked and looked at me, as if looking at an idiot. The leader guy said "Are you sure?". I replied "Yes, that pot with the lid, as well as some utensils. I will need them in the future. You don''t really have anything else of interest to me. I would take arrows, but you only have 200".


    The guy nodded and said "Sure, You can have the cooking tools". I then turned towards the other guy and asked "What about you?". When he saw that my selection was some pots, he was no longer scared and dumped all the things inside his bag, onto the ground. I examined the stuff, but ultimately there was nothing of interest to me.


    I turned towards the leader, and said "For this pot and stuff, I will exin some of the locations on your map. Do you have it?". The leader nodded his head, and took out a map. I walked over and took it. When I opened it up, I saw some locations on the map, that I didn''t have. Those were the locations in the Great Forest. The amount was quite substantial, but all of them were minor. I looked at the Northern section and saw the Sludge Factory, disyed on the map. I also saw the Vulture Cliffs and Obsidian Mountains. There was a location of a city, that I saw from the Vulture Cliffs, when one of the Avians transported me.


    I said "Don''t go to Vulture Cliffs. If they see you, you will die". I then pointed at the Obsidian Mountains and said "There are Lava Sludges living in there. If you only have physical attacks, don''t go there. There are also some ming Horses or whatever they are called. They will be much faster than you, so I wouldn''t try to go against them either".


    I then pointed at the Sludge Factory and said "This thing is alive. I was shocked when I saw it for the first time. Just don''t step on it. You might''ve already know that, but I suggest to not get close. The city on your map is of limits. You will die or worse, whenever they spot you. Humans are not very well received over there".


    I continued "With your strength, and the fact that this is your first time going there. Make sure to first get ustomed with that ce. You can enter and exit whenever you wish, so don''t try to be brave, and go around dangerous areas for stupid reasons. There are no seasons in the North. Watch your food supply, as you will not be able to count days or nights. There is no sun or moon, you will miss them after a long time".


    "That is all, I will offer you. I wish you luck, in your journey". The leader thanked me and asked couple of times, if I wanted something else. They all thought, that a simple pot was worth to me more than gold. In a sense, it was true. It was a solid pot, and I needed one in order to make medicine or poison. With that, I would be able to do it properly.


    The group left, and for once, I was d about the fact, I was wrong. ''They seemed to be decent people. Although wary, but who wouldn''t be, when they met someone for the first time. I hope they do alright'' I though, as I went back to my herb collection.

 Chapter 201

    Chapter 201


    I spent one more day collecting herbs for Frosty, then made an Extract from them. Nick didn''t really teach me about Extracts, because this usually required loads of herbs. Creating an Extract from one herb, would yield pretty much nothing. On the other hand, when the medical properties, were mixed with other herbs, the medicine or poison was enhanced.


    That is what Nick usually did, when creating medicine. Although most of my knowledge came from Nick, I was not him. I found my own way of creating medicine and poison, and that was an Extract. Nick also knew about Extracts, but was not eager to use them. ''I sort of understand why. Nick always studied differentbinations of herbs, and created new recipes. Making Extracts from one kind of herb, was not something he couldn''t do. It was simply pointless, for him to spend so much time and resources'' I thought.


    But I didn''t have to study ande up with new recipes. Nick already provided them for me. Therefore, I had much more time, to go into other branches of the Art of Medicine. ''Nick was wrong, to some extent. Extracts can be mixed to make medicine or poison as well. The effects, are stunning'' I thought.


    The best example, were the unknown herbs, that the Avians gave to me. I made an Essence from Blood Reeds and Earth Grabs, the effects were extraordinary. This taught me, that all herbs could be processed like this, but not all herbs reacted the same. ''Some herbs might not release their medical properties to a certain extent, due tock of supporting herbs. This is where my Extract Path and Nick''s ssical Path, can bebined'' I thought.


    That was the exact thing, I was testing with all the water herbs. I wanted to test out, if I could get a better Extract, depending on the method I used. There were only two methods. One was to cook the herbs, without any supporting herbs, and receive a specific amount of Extract. Or use supporting herbs, which should allow the properties of the herb, to be gathered fully, with little waste. The process was not fast. I had to test out, how much medical properties the herb releases, when heated to a specific degree. This meant, that I had to repeat the same process many times, but increase the temperature gradually. Then, I had topare that, to the Extract created with the help of supporting herbs.


    After two days of experimenting like this. I finally found the optimal solution. The solution concerned the herbs with water element only, as I didn''t know how well it would work with other herbs. But, I proved my assumption. When Ibined both styles of Extracts and Supporting Herbs, I received greater results. I didn''t need to use as many herbs, in order to get the same amount of extract, when using supporting herbs.


    This meant, that I could make strong Extract from rare herbs, without using many of them. ''I used up about half of what I collected. I need to gather more, and make some food for Frosty'' I thought, and went back to collecting herbs.


    The next day, with enough Extract that contained the water element, I headed towards the north again. ''This should be enough for Frosty. At least for the time, I want to spend in the North'' I thought. Frosty didn''t eat a lot, I always wondered why? Ultimately, not every creature had to eat a lot, in order to live. I was also under suspicion, that Frosty somehow got energy from my right arm. ''Although it seems far fetched, Frosty always wants to stay... inside? My arm, I guess'' I thought.


    I could arrive at the border within one day, but I decided to spend onest night in the Great Forest. ''If everything goes well, I will not see this ce for a long time'' I thought. I had enough food, tost me around 3 months. I ned to find out, if the ming Horses were edible or not. If not, I could always search for other creatures, or perhaps ask Crow. Crow was born in the North, therefore he had much greater knowledge about that ce, than I did.


    The next day, I arrived at the familiar bordering line, that separated two different worlds. With a small step, I crossed the border and entered the North again. "I''m back. Time to explore!" I said out loud, and released all the strength stored in my legs. "BOOOOM!", I sped through the Wilderness, towards my destination.


    ''At my full speed, I should be able to arrive there in about 3 "days"'' I thought. No creature that lived in Wilderness, was a threat to me. With my Half Step of the Outer Limit broken, I would soon join the ranks of creatures, that already arrived at the wall of the Inner Limit. Although all creatures had Outer and Inner Limits, not all creatures were equal.


    I possessed a huge amount of strength in my body, which could bepared to the Leader of Corpse Dogs. It also specialised in strength, but for example Crow, was not as strong as me. His specialisation was stealth. ''Every creature experiences different improvements'' I thought. Even the Eterian woman, wasn''t as strong as me. She specialised in some sort of power, that she possessed.


    I ran through the Wilderness, and thought about some things. The first stop I did, was when my energy ran out. I had to replenish my energy by resting and eating. I did just that, then continued towards Obsidian Mountains. I had no interest in viewing the sights, I already went through that route. A long whileter, I stopped again and replenished my energy.


    After my 3rd stop, I finally arrived at the Obsidian Mountains. The temperature started to slowly rise, the closer I got to the Volcano. On my way, I spotted one of those Lava Sludges, and decided to test something out. I called out "Frosty,e out. I have something for you to do". Frosty appeared in front of me as always, and waited for instructions. I said "See that Lava Sludge? I want you to kill it. If you can''t, then just run away, alright?". Frosty took a look at the Lava Sludge and nodded its head.


    ''It seems to be full of confidence. We will see about that'' I thought, and waited for Frosty to approach the Lava Sludge. Frosty walked over to the Lava Sludge without any fear. It even walked around it for a while and showed me faces, that seemed to convey "See, I can do this!" and "you were so scared of it!". ''That bastard must''ve already encountered these creatures before. That is why it knows, that those creature don''t attack passerbys'' I thought.


    The Lava Sludgepletely ignored Frosty. Only when Frosty attacked with its Ice Breath, the creature wanted to react, but because Frosty''s attacknded first, a lot of mist was created. I thought that the sludge will be fine, but I was wrong. The Lava Sludge became solid rock, and didn''t move anymore.


    I was a bit stunned and came closer. I examined the Lava Sludge. Although it was still hot to touch, it no longer responded. I looked at Frosty with confusion. Frosty started exining, using the usual arm motion, but then remembered something and decided to show me differently. Frosty showed its Ice Breath again, then pointed at some rock on the ground.


    I said "I know that it turned to rock, that is not what I''m confused about. I just don''t know why, it would turn so fast into a rock? Shouldn''t this take a long time? It was made out ofva after all". Frosty shook its head, and pointed at the Volcano in the distance, then at the wastnds, that we came from. After a while of motioning and showing me stuff, I finally figured out, why the Lava Sludge changed into a rock so fast.


    "So, it was because of the difference between the temperature? In other words, these creatures need theva and hot temperature, in order to live. If the temperature drops too much, it will turn into a rock, or die pretty much. Is that it?". Exhausted, Frosty finally nodded its head. I said "That''s interesting. How do you know all this? Have you been here before?". Frosty nodded again, then jumped onto my shoulder, but didn''t change into the tattoo. It pointed at the Volcano, and motioned for me to stay away.


    I asked "Is something dangerous there?". Frosty nodded again. I asked "What about the area around the Volcano? Is that alright?". Frosty nodded again, and changed back into the tattoo this time. ''Alright. It seems that Frosty visited this ce already. No wonder it knows about Lava Sludges. Either way, Frosty said to stay away from that Volcano. Not a bad idea, I don''t want to get burned to a crisp yet'' I thought, and decided to explore the outer area, in more details.

 Chapter 202

    Chapter 202


    My first objective, was to check whenever the ming Horses were edible or not. ''For that, I need to kill one first'' I thought. My speed was alright, especially if I utilised the Natural Path skill, but I had no clue, how fast these horses could be. There was only one way to find out. I moved forwards, towards the group of ming Horses, that ran around in the distance.


    It took me a while to get there, and the temperature was getting hotter. ''No wonder these animals need a lot of heat, in order to live. With the temperatures in this part of the Obsidian Mountains this high, I wonder how hot it must be next to the Volcano?'' I thought. It was hot, but to me it was summer hot. My body was now much stronger, and I could take a bit of heat.


    The horses noticed me a while ago, but didn''t really care about me. ''Are they just like those Lava Sludges? They will not attack, until I do so? Let''s see then'' I thought and ran at the group. The horses gathered into a pack and waited for me. When I was about 50 metres away, the horses charged as well. They were much faster than me. ''No wonder, these creatures have four legs, they are also more adapt to running'' I thought. The horses didn''t have any special abilities, or at least, they didn''t show any, as they simply charged at me. I also used my fists as weapons. I wanted to test out the strength of those creatures.


    When we shed, I didn''t expect such a force behind their charge. The impact made me slide backwards a few good metres. The horse that I managed to punch, didn''t survive. I somehow managed to stop their advancements, but I wasn''t without any damage either. ''My bnce is affected and my hand hurts like hell. Fortunately, it''s not broken again'' I thought, as I stumbled back and forth.


    This charge seemed weird, but I had no time to analyze it, because the group advanced again. This time, I wasn''t stupid enough to face them head on. I chose to throw my daggers. With the added strength, after I broke through the Half Step, my daggers almost created screeching sounds, when I released them. The few daggers, were aimed each for one horse.


    Although those ming Horses were fast and had some strength, their bodies were not that tough. My daggers passed right through some of the horses, and killed them instantly. While some managed to survive, due to injuries, they lost all the speed. I finished off the remaining horses, and looked at the dead creatures.


    ''Their attack was weird. The charge was too strong, for their bodies to be able to sustain such damage. The horse I killed with my fist, was killed due to impact, but its head didn''t explode or break badly. This must be their ability. They can somehowbine forces, and attack as one. This would exin, why they could stand their ground, even though one of them died. Besides, their bodies are not that though'' I thought.


    When I checked the carcases in details, I noticed that the creatures possessed no blood, or rather, it didn''t look like blood. It was orange and hot. ''This is obviously notva, but this blood is different as well. I will collect some for the future'' I thought. The orange blood, was not that easy to handle. When I say hot, I mean very hot. I could start a fire, with that orange blood. Fortunately, the ss containers that I had, were quite resilient, and the heat didn''t seem to affect my Storage Feather either.


    I then cut open one of the horses. The meat inside, was not red, but deep grey. It was also very hot to touch, but it was not cooked. I cut out some parts of the meat as well, and stored it. ''I will have to check the orange blood and meatter. For now, I will try to go around that huge Volcano'' I thought.


    It took me awhile, to travel around the Volcano. When I finally got there, I understood why this ce was called Obsidian Mountains. ''The name contains "Mountains", which is a plural form of that word, but so far, I could only see that huge Volcano'' I thought. When I arrived at the other side of the Volcano, I saw other Volcanoes, but not as big as the first one. They were much smaller, and spewed out little or nova.


    ''These Volcanoes should be much more approachable. Although it''s still hot in here, the heat doesn''t rise as much as it did next to therge Volcano'' I thought. This would be the ce, to start my proper exploration. I could see more Lava Sludges in that area, but also more ming Horses. Before, I moved any further, I took out my Beast Scriptures, and noted the new creatures inside.


    ''I almost forgot to do this'' I thought to myself, as I added new entries. With that done, I walked towards the smallest Volcano, I could see. I didn''t bother the Lava Sludges and simply walked past them. The ming Horses were a bit different. Although they wouldn''t attack, when they saw me from far away, this would change, when I entered what they considered their territory.


    I had to fight couple groups, in order to figure that out. ''They seem to consider an area of about 150 metres, as their own territory. As long as I don''t cross that distance, I can just walk past them'' I thought. A long walkter, I stood in front of the smallest Volcano. Although it was the smallest, it was nowhere near small. It was still the size of a decent mountain. There was no Lava spewing out of it, but the temperature in the area, was still hot.


    When I examined the Volcano in greater details, I noticed some caves, littered around the Volcano. ''Those things are either natural, created whenva flowed out through them, and are simply old inactive channels. Or, they are not natural'' I thought. The obvious question would be, if they are not natural, what made them? The other question would be, if they are natural, was there something inside?


    These questions upied my mind, and I was eager to find out. But to make sure, I called out toward Frosty. "Come out for a moment". Frosty changed to its corporeal form, and seemed a bit weak. I asked "Are you alright? If you are hungry, you should say so". Frosty shook its head, and pointed at the volcano, Lava and whatnot. I got the meaning. It was saying that the environment was too hot for it. I said "Take some Extract, maybe you will feel better".


    Frosty didn''t seem to have anything against that, and nodded its head. I gave it a small dose of an Extract, that contained the water element. Frosty drank that, but seemed a bit sceptical. What happened next, stunned me. Frosty''s face changed, and it started spewing out water from its mouth. ''What the?'' I thought, and asked "Are you alright?".


    Frosty nodded and seemed quite excited. While spewing out water, it quickly jumped onto my shoulder and changed back into the tattoo. ''What was this all about? Whatever, I will just have a look. If it''s too dangerous, I will leave'' I thought and moved towards the caves.

 Chapter 203

    Chapter 203


    When I arrived at one of the caves, I noticed some marks all around the entrance. ''So, something seems to be inside. I no longer have to worry about dark ces though. Let''s see what''s inside then'' I thought and entered. The cave inside was really dark, I stopped for a moment, and awakened my Darkness Perception.


    What I saw inside, stunned me even more. There were w marks all over the cave, but no creature was visible inside. ''The cave or oldva channel might be natural, but those marks are not'' I thought. This proved one thing, there was something alive in those caves. The question was, what was it?


    I decided to go deeper and explore more. The cave had many twists and turns, until I hit a dead end. ''This is weird. If it was formed naturally, shouldn''t this extend towards the core of that Volcano?'' I thought. Hitting a dead end, was a weird sight, so I decided to look around and backtrack my steps. ''Maybe I missed something'' I thought.


    I checked every turn and twist in more details. Then I stumbled upon some sort ofrge crack, hidden away in a corner. It was very hard to notice it, if I didn''t look for something like that specifically, I would never be able to find it. I came closer to the crack, and noticed that there is a tunnel behind it.


    The crack in one of the walls, wasrge enough for me to walk through. I did just that and arrived at the other side. What weed me, was the peculiar view of a short tunnel, and an open area beyond it. ''So this is the original channel, thatva used toe through, but why was it sealed like this?'' I thought, and moved towards the open area.


    I stood at the edge of the entrance and realised what it was, that the Volcano hid in its core. It wasn''tva, but a whole colony of creatures. The creatures weren''t that simple either. It looked like they actually managed to create something like a vige, inside that Volcano. The creatures themselves, looked like Frosty? I was very confused at that point.


    The creatures were like lizards, but were much biggerpared to Frosty. They were also different colour. Most of them either red, ck orbination of both. They also walked on their hind legs, just like humans. What was even weirder, they had simple clothes on them. ''It seems, I stumbled upon another intelligent species. I wonder if they upy more than one Volcano'' I thought to myself.


    There was one problem. I had no idea, whenever these creatures would attack me on sight, or try to be friendly. ''I was lucky with Avians, but I might not be so lucky with these creatures'' I thought. As I stood there admiring the sights, I heard a voice behind me. "What are you doing here, human?". ''Shit!'' I turned around, and saw three lizard creatures standing behind me. ''I don''t know how they were able to hide their presence so well, even though I was lost in my thoughts'' I thought.


    I calmed down and said "I was exploring the Volcano, and stumbled upon this ce identally". The lizard creature looked at me but didn''t say anything. I continued "I''m new to North. I saw the caves in the Volcano, and decided to explore them, nothing else".


    The lizard responded "We know who you are". I was a bit stunned and asked "What do you mean?". The lizard creature responded "I mean exactly what I said. We know about the Avians, and what you did there". I looked at the lizard creature seriously, and said "Bullshit. The Avians are spouting shit again". The lizard paused for a while, then said "Maybe, but it''s a whole race''s word against yours. Tell me, why did youe here really?".


    I answered "Do you think, I came here to cause trouble? I told you, Avians are talking shit. I can tell you exactly what happened". The lizards looked at each other, then one of them said "We will listen to your side of the story then". I began describing, how I helped Avians exterminate the Corpse Dogs, then how I explored the Vulture Cliffs, and that I discovered new race inside a pond. I told them, that I notified Avians about those creatures, and that the King of Avians asked me to deal with them, in exchange for some herbs. I also mentioned that I only killed couple of Yagaroths, before the King of Avians realised, these were Yagaroths, and shouldn''t be disturbed.


    It took me a while, to exin my part of the story, but the lizards were listening attentively for the whole part. When I finished narrating my ount of the past events, the lizard creature said "So it seems, Avians ced the whole me on you". I replied "Pretty much. A whole army of Yagaroths chased after me, together with Avians. What I did to that army, is no doubt true, but I value my life as well".


    The lizard creatures exchanged some looks between themselves, and one of them said "You are quite lucky to stumble upon us though. If it was another race, you might not be so lucky". I asked "Do you mean that, you will not chase after me?". They nodded their heads, and the leading lizard creature replied "We didn''t intend to do that, in the first ce". The leading lizard continued "I actually believe your story. I don''t think you could fabricate the whole thing like that, on the go. What you said, is most probably true, but it doesn''t change the fact, that many races of the North hate humans. This gives them even more of a reason, to hunt humans down".


    I decided to ask "Can I stay here for a while, not to hide, but to explore your race. Maybe we can exchange some things". The lizard thought about it, then said "I can allow you to stay for a short while. Let this be a good will from us, in exchange for your honesty. We value honest creatures, and humans as well".


    He then continued "Follow me, I will introduce you to some people. This way, you will be able to walk around this ce for a while. If you want to buy goods, or exchange something, I will show you the market for that". I replied "Thanks, it seems you have something like a whole vige in here". The lizard said "Kind of, It''s one of many". I then followed after the lizard creatures, down toward their vige inside a Volcano.

 Chapter 204

    Chapter 204


    While we walked, the lizard leading the way said "We just came back from the meeting, which concerned your situation. Others don''t know about what you did, so my suggestion is, don''t spread the information". I was a bit stunned and asked "Is it alright for you, not to notify your people?". The leading lizard said "I will only notify the upper echelons, others will not know about it. Don''t worry, they will not drive you out, or chase you".


    ''This lizard seems to be important, maybe he is some sort of leader or something'' I thought, then asked "Do you hold that much power in here?". He said "Sort of. If you are thinking whenever I''m the leader here, the answer is no. But I''m in charge of the military actions, of our race here". I thought about the whole situation, and asked "Why are you helping me? Did humans help you that much in the past?".


    He said "Not as much as you may think. Humans used our services in the past, and even helped us with some information. Therefore we don''t treat humans with hostility". I asked "What type of services do you provide?". He responded "Information mostly". He then continued "If what you said is true, we can sell that information. The races not hostile with humans, will surely pay to know what really happened. That way, they can stop worrying about you or other humans".


    I asked "You mean to say, that my actions caused such an uproar?". He said "Yes, especially the fact, that you might possess more of that weapon, which you used to destroy Yagaroths with". I decided to ask a probing question "Are you interested in that as well?". He said "Of course. Such a weapon, would allow us to stand above other races. We don''t know where you got it from, but if you are willing to share that, we will reward you greatly".


    I said "Even if I tell you, you will not be able to get it". This time the lizard asked a probing question "Because you didn''t find it in the North?". I replied "I''m not that easy, to give my information away. I know a thing or two, about keeping the knowledge to myself as well". The lizard smiled and said "It seems, I misjudged you. You probably only told us half of the story with Avians as well".


    I said "Something like that. I told you the truth, but I didn''t tell you everything. Not that it matters, Avians are still bastards, no matter how much details I give you". We soon arrived in front of the vige. The lizard creature leading the way said "We will part our ways here, one of my men will show you around. I guess we will meet in the future, so till then".


    He then left with the other lizard creature, while one of them stayed behind. The guy who stayed behind, didn''t act impolite and said "Follow me, I will show you around. If you have some simple questions, I can answer them". We went towards the heart of the vige, where my guide pointed out a few locations, that might be useful to me.


    "This building here is where you can stay for the night. Of course, you will have to pay for it". Before he continued, I asked "I don''t know what to pay with. I have no idea what currency you use". The lizard knocked his head lightly, and said "Right, this is what we pay with", and showed me a bizarre coin, that was ck and gold in colour. There was also something printed on the coin. When I looked more carefully, I noticed it was some sort of castle.


    He then said "This coin is called Hal, or to be precise ck Hal. It is the standard currency of the North. This is the biggest coin, and therefore worth the most, there are also Red Hal and Copper Hal. Where 100 Red Hals is equal to 1 ck Hal, while 100 Copper Hals is equal to 1 Red Hal". Then he showed me the other two coins.


    The system was the same one, as the one humans had. We had copper, silver then gold coins. I asked "How can I get some Hals then?". The lizard said "You could sell some stuff, or earn it by working for someone". I asked "I have some medicine on me, would you be interested in buying it?". The lizard gave me a second look and asked "Is the medicine any good?".


    I took out a vial containing some Healing Essence, and showed it to him while saying "Have a look, and tell me what you think". The lizard took the medicine and opened the vial. He smelled it, and asked "Can I have a taste?". I said "Sure, go ahead". He took a small sip and eximed "This is really good medicine. Where did you get it from?".


    I said "I made it myself. Do you want to buy it?". Before he answered my question, he asked "You made it? Do you have more of it?". I replied "I don''t have that much, the ingredients are not avable in the North". He seemed disappointed, but still said "I want it, I''m willing to pay two ck Hals for it".


    I didn''t know whenever this was a fair price or not, but I needed the money, so I decided to ept. I said "Alright, 2 ck Hals it is then". He gave me two ck Hals, then said "If you are ever willing to sell some medicine in the future, look for me first! I''ll be sure to buy it. My name is Lazar, and you can find me in that building over there". He then pointed at a building further away. It seemed to be a house for just one family, and wasn''t that big. I nodded my head and said "Sure, when I want to sell some, I will contact you".


    He seemed satisfied with that, then said "There are a few more buildings here, that may be of interest to you. For one, that ce over here". He pointed at a one storey building, not far away from us, and said "This ce is where you can find something to do, if you need more money". He turned around and pointed at another ce with couple of stands.


    "This ce is the marked, where those who create weapons and whatnot,e here to sell them or exchange for something in specific". He then pointed at the upper area and said "This ce is off limits to you. You will not be allowed inside the Upper Area". He then pointed at what seemed to look like smithy, and said "This is where we make weapons. You can even order custom made pieces, if you have enough money".


    "That ce over there is a tavern with a bar. The ce I showed you in the beginning, is a simple and cheap lodge. The tavern not only has better rooms for rent, it also contains a bar, where you can have a drink and eat something" he said.


    He then continued "There are couple of rules, that you will abide by as well. For one, no fighting is allowed, but if you are attacked, you have the right of defending yourself. If you are caught stealing or breaking into other people''s properties, you will be killed, we don''t tolerate thieves here. Any damages you do to goods or properties, will have to be repaid by you, so just watch how you walk and behave". I nodded my head and thought ''These rules are not that difficult to follow''.


    He then continued "I shall leave now, feel free to explore the Lower Area of our little vige here, and wee to Olrad". He then left somewhere in a hurry. ''So the ce is called Olrad. I better add that to my map'' I thought. With my map updated, I took a look at my surroundings. There were Lizards everywhere, some selling stuff, some working, others doing something else. It looked like any normal human vige, but instead of humans, lizards upied the whole ce.


    The architecture was weird as well. The buildings in the Lower Area, were built from mud or rough stone. They didn''t seem to be in bad condition, but it easily indicated a poorer district of the vige. The Upper Area looked more refined, and the buildings were build with the use of some sort of white or grey polished stones. Almost all buildings, had very small rectangr windows and wooden doors. Their shapes didn''t vary much either. Mostly, the buildings were just one storey tall, and rectangr in shape. The buildings in both Upper and Lower Areas, had t roofs. The difference was that, the Upper Area buildings used stone bs as a roof coverings, while Lower Area buildings used some sort of hay or wood.


    There was one exception to all that, and that was the huge building, at the very top of the Upper Area. ''It''s probably some sort of important ce. Maybe something like a Vige Chief''s mansion'' I thought. The building was quite tall and wide. It also had a t roof, but the stones used to construct it, were as white as they could get. It stood out from the rest of the buildings, and was visible from all parts of the Vige. When I was done admiring the views, I decided to head towards the tavern first. I wanted to know the prices in there, but also learn a thing or two about their food.

 Chapter 205

    Chapter 205


    I entered the tavern, and noticed couple of Lizards inside. Some were drinking, whilst others eating or chating. When I entered, the tavern became quiet, and all Lizards looked at me. Thissted only a few seconds, then they returned to whatever they were doing before. I walked over to the counter, where a Lizard was standing, acting as the bartender.


    I asked "What type of food and drinks can I get here?". What shocked me, was not the fact that the Lizard answered, but that it sounded like a female. She said "I can give you a manu, to have a look". I nodded my head absentmindedly, and she passed me the menu. ''I have to watch out, not to offend some female Lizards here. I didn''t even realise they look so simr'' I thought.


    When I looked through the menu, I had no idea what those things represented. I decided to ask "Can you tell me what this dish is made from?". When I said this, one of the Lizards sitting at the table shouted "You heard that guys? The kid needs a mommy, to tell him what he is eat", and all the Lizards startedughing. ''It wasn''t even funny'' I thought to myself, and still looked at the bartender.


    She didn''t seem to care as well, and replied "The dish called Lears in Crumbs, is made from Lears, that live in the caves. It is cooked covered in crumbs", then she showed me the creature. It was a sort ofrva creature, but it was big enough to cover one''s palm. I wasn''t very picky about food, and trying new stuff out, was also a part of experience.


    I said "I will take one portion then". She nodded her head and said "Have a sit, and I will bring it to you in a moment". I already checked the price of that dish, it costed only 5 Copper Hals. I decided to order a drink as well. I didn''t usually drink alcohol, but I decided to have a taste of something new. I asked "Which drink would you suggest?".


    While she prepared the dish, she answered "If you want something strong, then Fiery Goblet is my rmendation. If you want something regr, you can take the Opal Water". I nodded my head and said "I will take the Opal Water then". Again, the same Lizard shouted "Not man enough, to drink the real stuff eh?".


    I didn''t give a shit to be honest. I didn''t intend to respond. I simply found an empty table, as there were couple of them, and sat down. The Lizard that shouted those things, never took it a step further. He obviously knew the rules in this vige, I wouldn''t be provoked either. They continued their conversation and drinking, while I awaited my food.


    The bartender soon arrived, with a cooked Lears on a te, and a wooden mug, filled with some sort of liquid. I took a sip and it was quite strong. To me, any alcohol was strong. I didn''t drink for a long time. I then took a bite of therva thing, and to be honest, it didn''t taste that bad. ''It looks much worse than it tastes'' I thought, and ate the whole thing. I then gulped down the rest of the Opal Water.


    With my meal finished, I took the te and the mug to the counter, and said "It wasn''t bad at all. Thanks". She smiled and asked "Do you need anything else?". I asked "How much do you charge for a room?". She said "For a simple room, we charge 50 Copper Hals a night. If you want something morevish, then it''s going to be 2 Red Hals a night".


    I asked in confusion "A night? But there is no sun or moon here. How do you know a night has passed?". She smiled and said "Thanks to this", then pointed at a something. It looked weird. The thing was made from ss, it had sand or something simr inside, and there were couple of containers to which the sand slowly travelled. I asked "What is this?".


    She said "This is called Sand of Time. It''s a tool to measure, when a day passes". I eximed "This is amazing. I''ve never seen such a thing. Can I buy it somewhere?". She said "Sure, probably on the market, but it''s not very useful, if you are on the move. It''s more of a stationary tool. That is why, it is here on this counter". I nodded my head and said "That''s a shame. It would be very useful, when I travel around the north".


    I said "That is all then, I will probablye backter. For now, I want to check out the rest of the buildings". She said "Sure. Your bill is 8 Copper Hals". I nodded and gave her the ck Hal. She seemed surprised, but still gave me the exact change. I gave her 10 Copper Hals and said "Thanks for the conversation, and the food. Take care now". She was a bit surprised, that I gave her a tip. I did that because not only was she polite, she even answered my questions. 10 Copper Hals, was not a lot anyway.


    I left the tavern, and headed towards the market. ''I might be able to find something useful over there. This Sand of Time tool, would be useful, but she already said that it''s useless for travellers'' I thought. I arrived at the marked, and noticed some merchants shouting around, trying to gather attention around their products.


    I check the stall that contained weapons, and although I saw some daggers, they were not as good as the ones I had. I also preferred my own daggers, I was used to them already. They had short swords and even bows on disy. ''What Ick, is materials for my daggers, not those already created daggers'' I thought, and moved to another stal.


    The stal I visited next, contained random rubbish and trinkiets. I already had a solid pot and utensils, but I saw some more ss bottles and whatnot on that stal. I decided to buy them. I asked "How many of those bottles and ss containers, do you have?".


    The Lizard responsible for the stal said "I have 20 bottles, and 10 ss containers. Each bottle costs 2 Copper Hals, while each container costs 1 Copper Hal". I said "I will take all of them then". He seemed surprised, but smiled and said "Of course. All together, that will be 50 Copper Hals". I gave him the money, and he handed to me all the bottles and containers.


    Before I left, I asked "Do you have any strings, I need a tough and thin string". The Lizard scratched his head and said "I''m afraid, I don''t have anything like that. You may ask the woman, responsible for the stal with fabrics over there", then pointed at one of the stals. I said "Thanks" and left.


    ''It''s worth asking about those strings. Maybe I can find something, that will at least let me practice my skill'' I thought. I arrived at the stal that contained the fabrics, and asked "Do you have any strings? Or perhaps very tough thread". The Lizard woman looked at me, then asked "Is it for stitching leather?". I shook my head and said "I need something much more durable than that. Something that is thin but also very durable".


    She thought for a while, then said "I know about such material, but it''s very expensive, and I don''t have it. Maybe the tailoring shop in the Arangard would have it, but I''m not sure". I asked "Arangard?". She nodded her head and said "Yes, the Capital City of our race, but lower echelons are not allowed inside, at least without a permission. Humans are not allowed inside either, as far as I know. There are very strict requirements, in order to enter there. The royals live over there, you know".


    ''I didn''t know that, although I already knew about other possible viges'' I thought. Before I left, I asked "Can you tell me the name of that thread or string?". She nodded her head and answered "It''s a thread, and it''s called Iron Spider Thread. Very rare, but tougher than steel". I nodded my head and thanked her. I also gave her 5 Copper Hals, for the information. She didn''t want to take them, but I ced them on the stal, and left.


    ''So there is a super strong thread, that I can use to master my skills. I assume, it''s not going to be easily obtainable. Maybe I will ask the military guy about it'' I thought, and continued to browse the stalls.

 Chapter 206

    Chapter 206


    I visited a few more stalls, but ultimately, I found nothing else of interest to me. ''I should visit the building, where I can get a job. Maybe I will be able to get some information as well'' I though, and headed to the building, that my guide showed me.


    Inside that building, I could see a few Lizards standing around talking with each other. There were some notes hang on the wall as well, and a few Lizards were there checking them out. In the middle of the building, was a counter, with two Lizards standing behind it.


    ''I think, that both of them are female¡­ although I could be wrong'' I though, and stood in front of the Lizard on the left. It was a female, and she said "Wee to the House of Tasks. How may I help you?". I said "Someone called Lazar, told me toe here, if I would like to earn some money. I''m interested to find out, what type of work do you provide". She seemed a bit stunned, when she heard the name Lazar, but still answered with a smile "We provide all kinds of jobs. From information collection, to tools creation. We have easy but low paid jobs, and those very difficult with better pay. If I may ask, what sort of field, would you be interested in?".


    I thought about it for a while, and said "What about smithing? Do you have something?". She was surprised again, and said "You know how to smith?". I just nodded my head. Although I was not a cksmith, I wanted to learn a bit more, and I didn''t lie either. She asked whenever "I could smith" not whenever "I was a cksmith". Besides, this would allow me to gain ess to a proper furnace. I would need that, if I wanted to create my daggers.


    She said "What a coincidence. We just got a request for a smith, to work at the cksmith''s workshop. If you are interested, we can provide that job for you". I decided to ept that, and said "I will take it then". She nodded her head and took out a scroll, then said "You will have to pay amission. Would you like to do it now, or when you received the payment for the job?". I was a bit confused and asked "Commission?"


    She nodded her head and said "Yes. All the jobse withmission, which are payable by the worker. It is a small percentage of what you are going to earn, and it''s a one time payment only". I nodded my head and asked "How much is themission?". She said "For this job, it is 3 Red Hals. Your daily pay will be 2 Red Hals, while the job is for a term of at least 10 days. This can be extended by the owner of the workshop, of course, you won''t need to pay themission a second time".


    I nodded my head and said "I will pay right now". I passed her the money, and took the scroll containing my new employment details. She said "That is the full payment. Just show this scroll to a behind the counter at the workshop, they will tell you what to do next. Do you know where the workshop is?". I nodded my head, in conformation. She continued "In that case, Good luck in your new job".


    I left the House of Tasks, and headed straight to the cksmith''s workshop. When I arrived, I saw a few Lizards, as well as some other creatures, working away. Some of them were creating weapons, some were creating ingots, while others made protective essories. I came over to a counter and said "I came here to work. I have a scroll here", then showed my scroll to the Lizard behind the counter.


    He opened it and read it. After a while, he said "Take the scroll with you, and go through that door. Someone will take care of your employment", while he pointed at the doors, in the corner of the workshop. I nodded my head and took the scroll, then headed towards the doors. I knocked lightly, but no one answered. I decided to just go in, as I was instructed anyway.


    Behind the doors, was a room, and inside that room, an old Lizard was sitting behind a desk. He said "Close the doors behind you, and have a sit". I did just that, then sat in front of the Lizard. He extended his hand, but didn''t say anything. I realised what he wanted, and I passed him the scroll. He read through it, then asked "How much do you know about smithing?".


    I said honestly "I only created ingots in the past, and a few weapons. Other than that, I''m not a smith really". He seemed a bit surprised, but didn''t get angry. He asked "Why did you want to take this job?". I answered "Because I want to learn more about smithing, while I''m here. I used to make purified steel ingots, in the past. I also made my own weapons". He shook his head and said "You are not that experienced then. We need someone with much more experience. Someone who handled other materials, than just iron and coal. We don''t have time to teach you stuff either. It would take too long. This is not a job for you unfortunately. You may leave".


    I was a bit displeased, to say the least. Sure, I wasn''t a cksmith, but this guy didn''t even give me a chance. I thought for a while, then stood up and said "Can you follow me for a moment?". The old Lizard became confused and asked "Why should I follow you?". I said "Just outside, to the workshop. I want to show you something. You can do at least that much, can you?".


    The old Lizard sighted, and said "Alright, I will have a look at what you want to show me". We went outside the room and into the workshop. I asked "Which of these ingots is the hardest to create?". The old Lizard was still confused, but answered immediately "It''s the Azurite Ingot. The people responsible for creating them, are called Grondons. They have a lot of strength, but they are very dumb, so they are employed to make ingots only".


    I nodded my head, and headed towards a Grondon, that was smashing away at a piece of metal, which was blue in colour. I stood in front of the creature and said "Stop for a moment", but the creature pounded away, without much of a care. I asked the old Lizard "Can he stop for a minute". The old Lizard asked "Why?". I replied "I told you, I want to show you something".


    "Heh... Alright. Herim, stop for a moment!". The Grondon stopped hammering, and looked at the old Lizard. I said "Give me the hammer", but the Grondon again looked at the old Lizard, and awaited instructions. The old Lizard nodded his head, and the Grondon passed me the hammer. I said "Maybe this guy is bulky andrge, but that doesn''t mean I''m weak. Look".


    I gripped the hammer in my hand, and used my full strength to strike down. "BOOOOM!" "Riiiiiing!". A shockwave of ringing spread throughout the workshop, as all Lizards and Grondons covered their ears. The old Lizard looked at me with shock, he didn''t even know what to say. The piece of metal that the Grondon was working on, was almost separated into pieces, due to the impact.


    I lifted the hammer, and said to the Grondon standing next to me "Catch", then threw it. "BOOOM!" the Grondon flew through the air, together with the hammer andnded a few metres back, unable to pick himself up. I then turned towards the old Lizard and said "This is what you''ve missed, by not employing me. Even though those Grondons are quite strong and might possess a lot of stamina, they are nothing in my eyes".


    I turned around and walked away. When I was at the exit, the old Lizard finally snapped out of it and shouted "Wait. I will employ you". I turned around and said "Sure, but not on the terms from that scroll. You will also teach me about new things. But don''t worry, apparently, I''m a very quick learner when ites to smithing". He said "Let''s talk in my office". I nodded my head, but walked towards the Grondon that "received" my throw first.


    I said "Don''t hold it against me, I was a bit frustrated. Here, drink this, and you will feel much better". I gave him some medicine to drink, then followed the old Lizard back to the room.

 Chapter 207

    Chapter 207


    Back inside the room. The old Lizard sat down on his chair, and said "I misjudged you badly. For that, I apologise. Have a sit, and let us talk about your employment". I sat down and said "It''s fine. Also, don''t worry too much about the Grondon. I gave him some medicine, and he should be fine very quickly".


    He nodded his head and said "I understand what you did. You knew I would employ you, when I saw you strength. You would give the medicine to that Grondon anyway, right?". I nodded and said "Of course, he didn''t do anything wrong. I had no reason to harm him, I just wanted to make a point". He nodded this time, and said "Good, you are an honest person. You told me how much you knew about smithing, and didn''t hide anything. I sincerely apologise. Now, what type of conditions do you propose?".


    I said "I''m not after money, as much as I am after the materials, and the workce. I need to create more daggers for myself. If you can provide some good grade materials, and the workce for me to create them, I can do any job you want". The old Lizard nodded, and asked a bit excited "Can I have a look at your dagger?".


    I retrieved one of my daggers, and passed it onto him. He looked at it, and eximed "This has a perfect bnce! It was made from a mold, but still, the quality is very good. Did you design that?". I nodded my head and said "Yes, I designed that dagger to suit myself perfectly". He nodded a few times, then said "The details are really great. I would be even tempted to buy it". I said "They are not for sale".


    He didn''t seem surprised and said "I figured as much. Alright, I can provide some materials for you, but it will not be Azurite. We are required to make a specific amount of it, and the materials don''t belong to us. I can give you other materials, that are better than the current ones in your dagger".


    I said "As long as they are better, I have no reason to decline". He nodded and said "Great! I will give you ck Iron, but don''t be fooled. ck Iron, is twice as resilient as Purified Steel, but it''s a bit heavier". I thought about it and said "That is fine. I can just get ustomed, to the new weight of my daggers".


    I then asked "What type of amount are we talking about?". He said "I will give you enough materials, to create 3 daggers every day. The ck Iron is much more expensive,pared to the Purified Steel. That is as high as I can go". I nodded my head and said "That is eptable. Can someone also teach me, how to make ingots from the ck Iron?".


    He said "I will teach you myself, when you are done with your task each day. As for the length of your employment, stay as long as you want. I''m sure there will be work for you here". I nodded my head and said "Alright, then what am I supposed to do?". He said "Let''s go to the workshop, and I will show you". I nodded, and we went outside. When I had a look at the workshop again, I noticed that the Grondon I damaged a bit earlier, was now working away. ''It seems that he drank the medicine'' I thought, then followed after the old Lizard.


    We came up to an empty workbench, then he said "I will teach you have to make Azurite Ingots. I hope you can make couple of them in a day, where Grondons can only make one. It is a lengthy and exhausting process, but not much can go wrong with it". I kind of expected that much, but I had no problems with it.


    He took some light blue ore and said "This is Azur Ore, very rare and expensive". He then added some other white powder, and said "This is Moonlight Dust, It is in a form of powder now, but that''s because it was processed. Normally, it forms underground, under special conditions. It''s also quite rare". I nodded my head, while he ced them both in a furnace and melted them. He said, while we waited for the stuff to melt "Use the scales provided here, to measure the exact amount of materials needed. Did you use the scales before?".


    I shook my head, and said "No, I didn''t have a chance to". He nodded, and exined "This tool is very easy to use. On one side, you have a te where you put weights, and the other side, is where you ce the materials. For example, you will need 1 kilogram of Azur Ore and 300 grams of Moonlight Dust, for the mix. Use the weights, that indicate specific quantity on one side, then ce the ore on the other side. When the scale is level, then that means you have the exact amount". I nodded my head, and said "I understand, it is simple to use indeed".


    When the ore inside the furnace melted, he said "We now need to strike it, until we receive a uniform mass of metal. It should be of one colour, with no impurities. It takes quite some time for Grondons to do this step, as we cannot melt the metal again. We can only heat it up a bit. If we tried to melt it, more impurities would enter the metal, and so our work would be pointless".


    He then continued, while pounding the piece of metal "It will take some time for me to do this, so I''m just going to exin, what to do further. When most the impurities are gone, you will have to melt the metal and add another ore. This time we need to add Blurite Ore. Blurite, is an ore that will add flexibility to the Azur Ore. While the Moonlight Dust, is there to give it a shine, but also strengthen the metal. This gives the Azurite more flexibility, strength and it doesn''t be brittle. Again, you will use the scales, in order to measure how much Blurite Ore you will need. For one ingot, you will need 650 grams of Blurite".


    I nodded my head and said "Then I pound out the impurities, that were produced due to the melting?". He nodded and said "That is correct. Besides that, you also have to thoroughly mix the Blurite, with the Azur-Moonlight mix. When it is thoroughly mixed, you don''t melt it anymore, instead, heat it up and use this tool, to shape it into the ingot". He pointed at a metallic mold, that would be used to aplish that. "In the end, it needs to look like this" he said, and he showed me apleted Azurite Ingot.


    I nodded my head, then said "It''s not that difficult indeed. I will give it a try, and then tell you how many ingots, I can create in a day". He nodded his head and said "Sure. Well then, I will leave you to it. All the tools you need are here. When you want to take a break, do so, you don''t have to ask anyone for permission here. When you finish your first ingot,e by and show it to me. I will need to check the quality".


    I nodded my head and said "No problem". He then waved goodbye and left me to my own work. ''Right, the process is a bit more lengthy and a bit moreplicated,pared with Purified Steel Ingots, but I have much more strength and stamina,pared to the past. There should be no problems'' I thought.

 Chapter 208

    Chapter 208


    I went back to the workshop, and ate my own meat, cooked over the furnace. I must admit, the idea of cooking the meat over the furnace... was original. With my hunger taken care of, I proceeded to make the third Azurite Ingot. The process didn''t change since thest two ingots. I still hammered the Azur-Moonlight mix for 15 cycles, then added Blurite, and again hammered it for another 15 cycles.


    In the end, I created the third Azurite Ingot. ''This is enough for one day. I need to rest now, even though I ate some food, I''m still quite tired. No wonder they employ those Grondons, to make Azurite Ingots. Stamina and strength are really the key, when ites to smithing'' I thought, and headed towards the room in the back.


    The room, was empty. I left the two ingots on the table, and went back to the tavern. I needed to get some sleep, and I wanted something better, than whatever that cheap lodge could offer. Inside the tavern, I walked up to the counter and said "I would like to rent a room, for one night". The female Lizard, that taught me how to use the Sand of Time tool, said "Sure, what room would you like?".


    I said "The standard one", and passed her 50 Copper Hals. She nodded her head and said "Here is the key. It''s the room numbered 3 upstairs. If you want to extend your stay, simplye over here and pay for that period, or return the key". I nodded and thanked her, then went upstairs. The room number 3 was everything butvish. ''At least it''s clean, and the bed looks decent'' I thought. The room also had a small table and a chair, but nothing else, other than that.


    Iid down on the bed, and went to sleep. No dreams visited me that night either. I woke up in the "morning" and went downstairs. This time, the other female Lizard was standing behind the counter. ''They probably work some kind of specific shifts'' I thought, and walked over to the counter. I said "Here is the key to the room". She nodded her head and took it. I said my goodbyes and left towards the workshop.


    I went straight to the room in the back, and this time, the old Lizard was there. When he saw me, he said "Great that you are here. The ingots you''ve created yesterday, were all Top Grade Quality. This is really great work". I nodded my head, and asked "Can you now teach me, how to make ck Iron Ingots?". He replied "Of course,e with me and I will show you".


    We went back to the same workbench, that I used to create the Azurite Ingots, and the old Lizard started his demonstration. "To create ck Iron Ingots, or to be more precise, ck Steel Ingots, you will need ck Iron Ore, sh Tin Ore and Purified Coal. The process is not thatplicated as well. We melt all the 3 ingredients together, then pound out the impurities. Thanks to the sh Tin Ore, we can remealt the steel, due to the protection it offers against formation of further impurities".


    I asked "Then, can''t we use the sh Tin Ore, when creating Azurite Ingots?". The old Lizard shook his head, and said "It''s a good question, but the answer is no. sh Tin works well with ck Iron Ore, but it would weaken the Azur Ore a lot. Hence we don''t use it". He then continued "When we melt the ingredients, we need to hammer out the impurities. You need to use the same method, that you used on Azurite Ingots. tten the metal, then curve it around, and tten it again. I suggest at least 10 cycles, to get a good quality ck Steel Ingot. Of course, the more you pound it, the better the quality will be, but don''t be fooled. The ore has its quality as well. That means, even if you pound it for 30 cycles, the quality might not rise much, and you can stress the metal too much. This would in fact lower the quality, instead of increasing it".


    I nodded my head, then asked "And when I want to form an actual ingot?". He said "You can melt it, and pour it to the mold of an ingot, just like you did with the Purified Steel Ingots. Do you have any other questions?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, what type of proportions are the best, for one ck Steel Ingot?". He knocked his head lightly, and said "I forgot. You will need 1.2 kilograms of ck Iron Ore, then 540 grams of sh Tin Ore, and 360 grams of Purified Coal. As I said, you will receive enough materials, to create 3 ck Steel Ingots, each day. Here are the materials".


    He passed me 3 normal bags, full of ore. "You can make them now if you want, then start your work on the Azuriteter". I nodded my head, and said "I shall do the ck Steel Ingots first then". He nodded, and left me to my work.


    ''He rmended at least 10 cycles, but I will do 15 and check. Doing too many is also bad, but 15 should still be fine'' I thought, and proceeded to weighting and melting the required materials. The metal was not that hard to work with, I soon finished 10 cycles, and had a look at the piece of metal. It was dark in colour, but notpletely back. The sh Tin, also gave it some shine. I check the metal from all angles, and could still see some impurities. I decided to continue, and follow my original n of 15 cycles.


    After another 5 cycles, the quality of the metal improved a bit, and possesed much less impurities. But, any further pounding would change nothing, and might even have the opposite effect. I decided to melt the metal, and create the ck Steel Ingot. ''I don''t know how long this took me, but I''m not tired from doing one ingot. I can easily create two more, without a break'' I thought.


    I repeated the same process again, and created two more ck Steel Ingots. ''Those 3 ingots, will allow me to create about a dozen of daggers. Couple more days, and I should be able to reach my previous number of daggers'' I thought, and headed towards the room in the back. I was tired after making those 3 ingots, and wanted to rest a bit. More importantly, I wanted for the old Lizard to check the quality for me.


    The old Lizard was sitting on his chair, when I entered. I said "Can you check the quality of the ck Steel Ingots, that I made?". He ced down some papers, and said "Sure, give them here". I passed him the ingots and awaited his verdict. He looked at them for a while, then said "These are of High Grade Quality. Quite good, but the materials I gave you, would easily allow for that quality to be made". He then passed the ingots back to me.


    I asked "Can you tell me, how to check the quality of the ingots?". He replied "Sure, when you finish your task, I will teach you". I nodded my head, and left. I still had to take a rest, but I didn''t go to the tavern this time, and stayed in the workshop. I decided to watch others, as they did their jobs, while I ate some meat.

 Chapter 209

    Chapter 209


    As I watched the workers, I was mostly interested in those, who created weapons or defensive essories. I wanted to see, how that stuff was made. One of the Lizard, was currently making a sword, but he didn''t use a mold. He was shaping the de and all, from the beginning. The process, as far as I could see, was not that difficult, but I could be wrong. I used a mold to create my dagger, not shaped it into that specific look by hand.


    I retrieved some meat from my feather, and roasted it over the furnace. With my meal done, I went back to work as well. The process didn''t change, as I followed the same steps, as previously. After two Azurite Ingots, I took a rest and ate something again. Then worked on thest Ingot. With all 3 ingots finished, I went to the old Lizard''s room to deposit them there.


    This time, the old Lizard was inside. I said "Here are the 3 Azurite Ingots". He nodded his head, and said after checking them "They are of High Grade Quality this time, but it''s not your fault. As I said, the quality of the Ore matters as well. Just continue, like you did till now". I nodded my head and asked "Can you teach me, how you can tell the quality of the ingots and ore?". He said "Sure", and took out some different ores, as well as some ingots.


    He said "To find the quality of an ore, is a bit more difficult,pared withpleted ingots. Let me start with ingots first. I have couple of them, so I will show you example of each. Let''s start with this Purified Steel Ingot. To check the quality, you need to check the shine, colour and impurities. The brighter and more silvery it is, the higher quality it''s going to be. Of course, it will have some impurities, otherwise it would be a Perfect Ingot, which is rarely seen".


    He then took out 3 Purified Steel Ingots, and said "These 3 ingots are the same, but have different qualities. Can you see, which one is the highest quality?". I took a lot at the ingots, and immediately noticed that one of them was rather dull, and contained quite a substantial amount of impurities. The middle one, contained not many impurities but its colour was not very shiny. The third ingot, was very shiny, but had a lot more impurities,pared to the middle one. I said "Is it the middle one? It contains the least impurities, even though its colour is not as shiny".


    The old Lizard smiled and said "Almost. Both the third and the second are on the same quality level. Both of them are Middle Grade Quality". I nodded and said "It''s because one is very shiny, but has loads of impurities, while the other has little, but it''s not very shiny, right?". The old Lizard nodded his head, and said "Exactly. One of them is shiny and silver, due to superior grade of materials used to make it. But the smith, was not experience, and so, it has loads of impurities. The other one, has less impurities due to an experienced smith, yet the materials used, were of low quality".


    I nodded and said "That is logical. You can''t make something very good, form rubbish materials. On the other hand, if the smith has no experience, no matter what materials you use, he will still produce low quality stuff". The old Lizard nodded and said "Yes, that is exactly right. So what you are looking for, when checking the grade of an ingot, is the colour, as well as the shine, and the impurities inside that ingot. If the third ingot had at least half of the impurities gone, it would be a High Grade Quality".


    He then continued "Let''s move on to the next one". We spent some time like this, where he pointed out stuff on a lot of ingots, and taught me how to check for the quality. After all that, I asked "What about ore? How do we check that?". He said "Now that you know how to check the ingots, checking the ore, shoulde to you much easier".


    He ced a few ores in front of me, and again started to point out the differences. "For example, these couple of lumps of ck Iron Ore. They may look the same, but each is different quality. For one, check for impurities inside the rocks. The colour of ck Iron, should be as the name suggest ck. If you find any spots of different colour inside the rocks, those are the impurities. The amount is important, the more impurities inside, the worse quality the ore is. But that is not all. The size and the shape is also a factor. The bigger the rocks, the better". He then asked "Can you now see, which of these piles is the best quality?".


    I took a look, and noticed that the first pile, had a very good ck colour, with very little impurities. The size of the rocks was tiny though. The second pile, had some impurities and the ck colour was a bit worse in quality,pared to the first pile, but the rocks were veryrge, thergest of the three piles. Thest pile, was in between the two previous piles. It had decent sized rocks, and not that many impurities.


    I said "I think, that the third pile should be the best. It has a bnce between the colour and impurities inside. I''d say it should be High or Medium Quality Ore". The old Lizard seemed a bit surprised and said "It is exactly as you said. This pile, can be barely ssed as High Quality ore. The middle one is only Medium Quality, while the first pile is between Low and Middle Quality, even though it has small amount of impurities, but the tiny rocks degrade its quality by a lot".


    He then continued exining about the other ores. After a lengthy exnation, I finally understood, how to judge the quality of different ores as well. The old Lizard said "You are indeed a quick learner. Now go and rest, you must be tired. Oh and here you go". He handed me the materials, then said "When you are rested,e back to do some more work". I nodded and left.


    I went back to the tavern, and rented a room. After some good rest, I went back to the workshop, and started grinding down those Azurite Ingots. While I was at it, I thought about the next thing, that the old Lizard could teach me. ''I think, I should learn how to produce different ingots first. I only know how to make 4 types of ingots, there must be more of them, that he knows about'' I thought, and hammered away.


    My food supply, was getting thinned out as well. It was due to the hard work at the workshop. I wouldn''t have to worry about food, for another month or so, but I had to think about getting some more meat soon. When I finished the 3 ingots, I went back to the room and left them there. The old Lizard was not in, that time. I then went back to the workshop, and began creating the ck Steel Ingots, for my daggers.

 Chapter 210

    Chapter 210


    I worked like this for couple of days, and umted enough ck Steel Ingots, to create about 100 daggers. Besides the ck Steel Ingots, I also learn more about smithing. The old Lizard, showed me how to create new ingots, such as Bronzite Ingot, which was very good for making shields, as it absorbed the impacts very well. There was also a disadvantage, when using equipment created from Bronzite, it would slow the wielder down, as the metal was very heavy.


    I also learned how to create Flexium Ingots, and as the name suggested, the metal was very flexible. It could be used for bow making, as well asshing weapons, such as whips. The Flexium had many more applications, not only in weaponry. He also described to me very rare ingots, that not only costed a lot, but were very difficult to get a hold of. One of such ingots, was Quicksilver Ingot. It was made using Mithril, a magical ore that was very hard to find. Another such rare ingot, was Lunar Ingot. It could be created only with the use of special materials, that rarely popped up in our world.


    He didn''t know much about those ingots, as they were treated almost as legends. They were that rare. I also got lesson from him about making weapons. He said that starting from swords, was the best idea, and we did just that. He showed me how to make a sword out of simple Steel. The process was much moreplicated, than I previously thought. First, I had to go through the shaping process, where I would give the sword it''s shape. Then I would need to temper it using, by cooling it down, and reheating it again. And then grind it at the grindstone, to give it an edge.


    It required a great knowledge of swords, to be able to create one, that was at least useful. One had to know, where to strike and with what strength, in order to make a good sword. He said that casting, was for novices and it required molds. A lot of smiths, were not very well versed at making more intricate molds, that was why, he was so impressed by my daggers.


    I tried creating a sword, but it wasn''t easy. Even though I could create a shape, it was all out of bnce, and not very useful. It could be used to kill something, but a proper swordsman, would throw it away, as a garbage. Nevertheless, it was my first attempt, and the old Lizard said himself, that I would get better at it, the more I practiced.


    When I did another 3 Azurite Ingots, I went back to the room, and gave the ingots to the old Lizard. I said to the him "I don''t need the materials anymore. I already have enough, to create a lot of daggers. I also stored some materials forter, if I need them". He asked a bit worried "Do you want to quit the job?". I shook my head and said "I still need to make my daggers, but I don''t want the materials anymore. You can now pay me with money". He seemed to rx a bit, and said "That is fine. I will give you the equal amount of money, to what the materials were worth. That will be 1 ck Hal and 26 Red Hals. Is that alright?".


    I was a bit stunned and asked "How much does a Grondon earn in one day?". He said "They earn from 15 to 30 Red Hals, that is because they are making Azurite, and we need that done as much as possible, hence the pay". I understood, why he was willing to pay that much for me. Not only could I create 3 ingots a day, I also made good quality ingots. This made me wonder ''Why would that Lazar be willing to pay 2 ck Hals, for the medicine? Was it really that good? Better than someone creating 3 Azurite Ingots a day?''. I didn''t know how much Azurite costed, so I decided to ask.


    "Can you tell me, how much does one Azurite Ingot costs?". The old Lizard said "A Middle Grade Quality, would cost something like 6 ck Hals. As for the High Grade Quality, It would cost in excess of 10 ck Hals. The Top Grade Quality¡­ In excess of 25 ck Hals". I was stunned to be honest, my work was worth that much, yet I earn a lot more, with just one vial of my medicine. ''Something is broken here, is my medicine that much more expensive?'' I thought, and decided to ask about that as well. "Say, is the medicine very expensive here?".


    The old Lizard thought about it, then replied "That depends on how strong it is, and how well it works". I took out a vial from my bag, and said "How much would this cost?", then passed the vial with Healing Essence to him. He opened it, smelled it and asked the same question, as the Lazar guy. "Can I have a taste?" He asked. I nodded my head, and awaited his response.


    The old Lizard took a sip, and immediately eximed "Is this real? Where did you get it from?". He reluctantly passed the vial back to me. I asked instead "How much is it worth?". He said "I never seen such a strong medicine, it must be worth at least 20 ck Hals". ''That bastard, and he only gave me 2 ck Hals. That is 10 times less! No wonder that guy wanted me toe over again, to sell my medicine. It was a daylight robbery!'' I thought.


    The old Lizard asked, if I wanted to sell it, so I said "I will sell you that one. Only because you were honest with me, I will sell it for 10 ck Hals. How about that?". He nodded his head, and paid me the whole price immediately. I then said "I will be back tomorrow, to make some of my daggers. Then I will take care of your ingots". He didn''t seem to care, and simply nodded his head. I left the room, and went back to the tavern.


    After renting the room, I went upstairs and sat down on the chair. "Frosty,e out for a moment" I said, but Frosty didn''t respond. ''Hmm? This is weird. Why isn''t Frosty responding?'' I thought, and called out again. "Frosty?" but nothing happened. I had no idea, why it wouldn''te out, but I could do nothing about it. ''I have to leave this ce soon. When I learn more about smithing, I will try to acquire a better map of the North, then I will leave. Before that, I should contact that Lazar guy'' I thought.


    The Lazar guy, was the only creature in this ce that I knew, who had contacts with that military leader. I wanted to inquire about my situation. I also needed to find some kind of food source, if I wanted to continue staying in the North. There was also the issue of my new strings, for the skill. ''I should visit Crow as well, and check out what he managed to find. Maybe he will know much more, than the Lizards'' I thought, and went to sleep.

 Chapter 211

    Chapter 211


    The next day, I went back to the workshop, and started my work from preparations, to create my own daggers. I needed to create moulds, as well as a tiny hole in my dagger, that wouldter be used to attach a string to. The problem was bnce. If I added a hole at the back of my dagger, the bnce would suffer. Not by a lot, but it wouldn''t be perfect anymore.


    I also had to take under consideration, the material my daggers would be created from. ''I have to redesign my daggers. If I continue using the same mould, I will only degrade them. I need an improved version of my daggers'' I thought. This was not easy, I had to figure out the new bnce, and the shape.


    I took some wood, that was lying around in the workshop, and started carving. ''I need something, that will have a greater prating power. The dagger has to be perfectly bnced, and it needs to be useful for both, closebat and as a hidden weapon. It will weight more, due to the materials used, so the size can stay rtively the same'' I thought, as I carved out the new shape. I carved like this, but to no avail. All my tries, were either out of bnce, or I didn''t like the feel of my newly designed dagger.


    ''I need to focus more, and focus on the aspects that I need to improve'' I thought. The carving knife in my hands, began moving on its own. I didn''t stop, but allowed my instincts to shape my new dagger. After a while, the new shape of my dagger emerged. It felt out of bnce at first, but then I added a small hole, at the handle of my dagger. ''Now, it''s perfectly bnced. My body seems to know what it wants the best'' I thought, and took a more detailed look at my dagger.


    The main de of the dagger was even more wavy now, but the most important thing, was that the wave of the de allowed for the bnce. It also stayed in line with the small de protruding from the handle. It had a very small hook de, incorporated into the main de. ''My dagger possesses three des now. Not only is it great for throwing, it''s also perfect for closebat fights'' I thought. All sides of the dagger had a de, which would allow me to damage my opponent, however I attacked. The handle on the other hand, was now a bit more curved, to align the front and back des.


    ''I can even use this dagger, as a kind of knuckle de. If I chose to fight that way'' I thought. My new dagger had much more potential, then the previous version. Not only was it more versatile, it was also created with the Stringed Hidden Weapons skill in mind.


    ''Good, I just need to make a new mould, and cast it. Then, take care of the polishing and sharpening process. I can''t wait to get my hand on those daggers'' I thought, and went straight to work. Creating mould, was not that difficult. I had to use the y, and imprint the wooden dagger in it. The mold was one time use only item, therefore I would need 10 mold, in order to create 10 daggers.


    I got to work, and created my moulds. It took me a while, as I decided to make 20 moulds. I didn''t create more on purpose, as casting, polishing and sharpening that many of them, would still take a while. Just the process of preparation, took me some time. I decided to cast my daggers next time, as I wanted to finish those Azurite Ingots.


    As usual, I made two Azurite Ingots, then took a break, before working on thest one. After a while, I had all three Azurite Ingots ready. When I visited the room at the back of the workshop, the old Lizard was there, sitting on his chair and going through some sort of paperwork. I said "Here are the three ingots". He nodded his head and asked "What would you like to learn now?". I thought about it for a while, then said "Can you teach me, how to create daggers? It seems that this is your race''s specialty".


    He nodded his head, and said "Yes, we do like to use daggers, it seems you do too. No wonder you want to learn how to make them. There are some advantages, when creating a weapon, without using moulds". I asked "What advantages are there?". He exined "Although your daggers are quite good, as you were able to design them very well, and carve out the original. But, those daggers are not as sharp, or as sturdy as they can be, when using the moulds. If youpare the work of a smith, with a dagger from a mould, then the weapon forged by smith will be much better, of course provided the smith is experienced".


    He then continued "I will teach you how to make simple daggers first. If you want more lessons, you know what you will need to do". I nodded my head and said "Sure". He was referring to my work, at the workshop. Money was not really what interested me the most, but the knowledge. He knew that perfectly. That was why, he taught me something each time, I finished my task.


    We went to the workshop, and he started the demonstration. "We will use Steel again, for the purpose of this lesson. When creating a dagger, a whole Steel Ingot, would be too much, so first, we will need separate the ingot into half". He started heating up the Steel, until it became red hot, then using a special hammer, separated the Ingot into two halves.


    He then continued "First step is called Shaping, as you already learned with swords. I will be striking the bar, until I get the general look of a dagger". He struck the metal with a hammer, from left and right. Sometimes ttening the piece of metal, and sometimes thickening some parts. In the end, he created a general shape of a dagger. It wasn''t as intricate as mine, but it was still a curved dagger.


    The old Lizard then said "Now that I have the general design of the dagger created, I will show you the next step, which is called Tempering, it will be a bit different, than before". He cooled down the dagger in a barrel of water, then heated it up again. When the dagger was red hot, he bagan ttening it, then returning it to the previous state. He repeated that five times, then cooled the dagger to a greater degree, until it was only hot to touch.


    With all of that done, he said "I now need to Shape it, for thest time. I will give it a more defined edge, as well as create the handle piece, to which we will attach the Holder". I nodded my head and watch the process. He heated up the dagger again, then ttened one side of it, to create an edge of the de. When he was done with the Shaping, he then ttened the back side of the dagger, to create a very thin handle.


    The old Lizard said "This is a ttened Style handle. You can slide a morefortable and well design handle on top of it. The advantage, is that the handles can be exchanged that way. I will now show you the second method". He started reshaping the dagger a bit. The dagger became a bit smaller, as he had to borrow the materials, in order to build up the handle. He created a rounded handle, that could be used, without any sort of materials strapped around it.


    "This is called Complete Style handle, where you can add some sort of string, rope or material, for betterfort, but the shape will not change. You wouldn''t be able to attach a handle, like you could with the ttened Style handle" he said. I nodded and asked "Which one is better?".


    The old Lizard said "That depends, on what you are going to do with that dagger. If you want to fight in closebat, a thick metal handle is better, because it''s more durable, and the dagger has less probability of breaking. On the other hand, if you are going for the lightness and agility, a ttened Style handle would be better".


    He then continued "Now we cool the daggerpletely. This is simple Steel, so water is fine, but more rare and unusual ingots, require different tempering baths. For example, if you were to create a dagger from ck Steel Ingots, you would need to use distilled water. A water that has been cooked couple of times, then cooled down, and sieved from all the impurities. This is to make all the minerals inside, disappear".


    I nodded, and asked "So, now we sharpen and polish the dagger?". He replied "Yes, the next process is Sharpening, then we do thest process of Polishing". He demonstrated that to me as well. He showed me how to properly sharpen the de, as well as how to polish the whole dagger. When he was done, he passed me the dagger and said "This is a dagger created by a smith, without using a mould. If you make a mould of this dagger, and cast that using Steel, your dagger would be twice if not three times worse than mine". I was a bit stunned and said "That is really good improvement".


    He replied proudly "Of course! Smithing is not as simple as you may think. Yes, the ingots require a lot of strength, but making ingots is not the whole profession, that smithing is. If you want to call yourself a smith, you must know how to make armors and weapons, not how to cast them". I nodded my head and thanked him. He returned to his room, while I went back to the tavern, in order to rest.

 Chapter 212

    Chapter 212


    When I woke up the next day, I went straight to the Lazar''s house. When I knocked on the doors, I heard a young voice saying "Who is it?". I was a bit surprised, but answered nevertheless. "I''m here to see Lazar. I have something to talk about with him". The voice from behind the door replied "Daddy''s not home. Came backter mister". I said "Alright" absentmindedly, and headed towards the workshop.


    ''To think that this Lazar guy, had a daughter'' I thought, on my way back. I soon arrived at the workshop, and went straight to work. As I pounded the metal, I thought ''I shouldn''t waste all the ck Steel, on making daggers from moulds. If I could create the same dagger, with my own hand instead of a mould, it would be much better. The problem is, I don''t have enough experience, to create such daggers, moreover to a high standard''.


    The only solution, was to practice dagger smithing. ''I don''t have that much time though. I will make about 2 dozens of daggers using the moulds, the rest of the ingots will have to wait. When I have enough experience of creating daggers by hand, I can then make more daggers'' I thought. With the three Azurite Ingots taken care of, I left them in the office, and went straight to the Lazar''s ce again.


    When I knocked on the doors, Lazar was the one who opened this time. He seemed surprised, and ted at the same time. He asked "Did youe here to sell some medicine?". I shook my head and said "I''m here for something else. Can we talk?". He was disappointed for sure, his expression easily betrayed that. Nevertheless, he invited me inside. He asked "What is it that you came to talk about?".


    I said "I need to talk with your leader. I want to ask about some things, and he surely would know". After a while of thinking, he replied "It''s not going to be easy. He is quite busy with all the affairs. I could go there and inform him, but..". I knew what he wanted, he probably wanted to get his hands on more of that medicine. I said "I catch your drift, but it''s not going to happen. If you didn''t lie to me, I would even give you one for that favour. Now, you should be the one, who owns me a favour".


    He acted, as if he didn''t know what I was talking about, and asked "What do you mean?". I said "The medicine I sold to you for 2 ck Hals, is worth at least 20. You knew the worth of that medicine, so you used myck of knowledge. I don''t have any hard feelings, but you can''t seriously demand more, after that type of stunt?".


    Heughed mockingly at himself, and said "So you figured it out?". I said "I was simply curious, why would my medicine cost more, than my work at the workshop? I asked, and found out why". He said "True, I swindled you, but that was all I could give you. I don''t earn loads either, and the medicine¡­ was quite important to me. It still is".


    I said "Maybe, but what is that to me? I told you, I have no bad feelings, just convey my message to your leader. I need to ask him a few things, that is all". He nodded his head, and said "Sure, I can do that much for you". I then hear "Daddy.. It hurts again". I looked in the direction of a closed room, while Lazar said "I had a reason to swindle you. You see my daughter..". I interrupted him "Don''t exin yourself¡­ Heh, just let me see her".


    He nodded, and we went inside the room. There on the bed,id a small Lizard, but it wasn''t red, ck orbination of both, she was grey. This alone stunned me, so I asked "I don''t mean to be rude, but why is your daughter grey?". He didn''t get angry, and said "She is grey because¡­ my partner was from the forbidden race. I''m sure you don''t know what that is, but in simple terms, these are Lizards that were outcasted a long time ago. I fell in love with one of them, but she died soon after Suly was born. Only a few people here, don''t point their fingers when they see me. It''s all thanks to Harlin, that my daughter didn''t get chased out or killed". I nodded and said "So the medicine was for her. Let me have a look at her then".


    He said "Please, if you are able to create such medicine, maybe you will be able to cure my daughter as well". I shook my head and said "I will not promise you anything. I mostly treated humans, not Lizards". The small Lizard on the bed, seemed to be in pain, as cold sweat was forming on her head. I examined her body, and found out that, she didn''t have a high temperature, it was the opposite. ''She is very cold to touch, as if something is freezing her from inside'' I thought.


    I asked "How long is she in this state?". Lazar answered "Since she was very small. Do you know what is wrong with her?". I shook my head and said "Not really. She is very cold to touch, as if she is being frozen from the inside. Did something happened to her, when she was small? Or perhaps she ate some kind of herb, or something?".


    He shook his head, and said "No, she ate nothing like that. Nothing happened to her either, that could produce this type of condition". I thought about it for a while, then took out my dagger. Lazar immediately reached for his weapon, and shouted "What are you doing?". I said "Calm down, I want to check her blood". He still held onto his weapon, then said after a while "Alright, but be careful".


    I shed her hand lightly, and saw some blooding out, but it wasn''t red. It was pale blue, with some red mixed in. I asked "Is this normal?". He shook his head and replied "No, it should be red, not blue. Even my partner''s blood was red, why is this one blue?". I had no answer to that question. I extracted some of it, and took a more detailed look.


    ''This blood, is very cold. My guess was correct, it seems that something is freezing her from the inside, but what?'' I thought. I had another idea, but it was risky, so I asked before I proceeded. "I may be able to do something about it, but it''s going to be risky. I don''t know if it''s going to work, and if it works, I have no clue what is going to happen".


    He asked worried "What the hell do you have in mind?". I replied "You see, my right arm¡­ is special. I can try absorbing the coldness, but I don''t know if that will work. I also don''t know what is going to happen, if it works. She may be alright, and cured, or well¡­ anything can happen". He shook his head, and said "Then I rather not try it".


    I thought about it for a while, and said "The sad news is, you don''t really have a choice. Her life is going to end soon. My medicine, will not help her cure it. She will only develop resistance towards it, then die anyway. It''s you call". He paced around the room for a while, then said "What are the chances?". I said "50-50 really. I don''t know if it will work. If it does, it should extract the coldness from her body, in theory. She would be weak for a while for sure, but she may also die. That is the worst case scenario".


    He gritted his teeth, and said "Do it¡­ If there is no cure, I need to try anything at this point". I nodded my head, and proceeded. I ced my right hand on her forehead, but nothing happened. I thought ''It happened instantly with the Water Stone¡­ Maybe if I focus? it is a living creature after all''. I closed my eyes and focused. I tried willing my hand to absorb the coldness.


    Still nothing happened, but then after a while, I could feel something entering my hand. When I opened my eyes, I noticed blue strands of gas,ing out of the little Lizard, and entering my hand. More, and more of that blue gas emerged, and finally, my hand started to freeze. I quickly took away my hand, and thought ''This wasn''t my doing¡­''. The small Lizard fell asleep, and seemed to be in much less pain. I said "This seems to work. I will need to do it couple more times, and there don''t seem to be any problems with her health either".


    Lazar immediately looked at his daughter and said "I will never forget this favour. If you can cure her, my life will be yours. If you need me to die for you, I will do so". I said "Slow down, I still need you alive. Got to that leader guy, and tell him to meet with me. I will take care of your daughter". He nodded, and said "I trust you", then went outside.


    I looked at my right hand, and said "Frosty,e out now", but there was no response. I said again "Come out, or I will cut this arm off, and make youe out!". This time Frosty appeared, scared and pissed at the same time. I said "You did this, didn''t you?". Frosty nodded its head and tried jumping onto my shoulder, to change back into a tattoo. I caught it with my other hand, and said "Why are you running away?". It pointed all around the ce, and shook its head. I said "Fine, we will talk, when I leave this ce. For now, help me extract the coldness from her". Frosty nodded, and I released it. When it changed back to the tattoo, I decided to wait a bit, for the ice on my hand to melt.


    ''I don''t know why, Frosty doesn''t want to show its face around here, but it seems to be scared of something'' I thought. I would have to inquire about that, when we leave this ce. ''For now, I have this little Lizard to take care of'' I thought.

 Chapter 213

    Chapter 213


    When the ice on my right hand melted, I extracted some more blood from the little Lizard''s hand, and examined it. ''This time, the blood contains a bit less blue colour. This is good, with couple of treatments, she should return to normal'' I thought. I again ced the right hand on her forehead, and said "Do your thing". After a while, the blue gas appeared again, while my hand absorbed it.


    ''I think, I know the reason why, I can''t absorb it. The Water Stone was a sort of herb, a naturally formed stone. My hand could absorb it, because it wasn''t alive. This little Lizard is alive, so I can''t absorb it. Frosty on the other hand, seems to be able to absorb anything, that contains water or ice element. What a weird creature'' I thought.


    When ice formed on my hand again, I took it away, and the absorption stopped. I repeated the process one more time, and the little Lizard seemed to be much better. When I checked the blood again, about ? of it was red now. ''This is going rather well. Couple of those absorptions more, and she should be alright'' I thought.


    As I waited for the ice on my hand to melt, Lazar returned together with the military leader guy. Lazar quickly asked "Is my daughter alright?". I said "Yes, she''s asleep. Her condition is now a lot better. You can take care of her now, I need to chat for a bit". I then turned towards the military leader and said "Good that you are here. I have few things, that I need to ask".


    He nodded his head and said "I will answer anything you want. The favour you did for my friend, I''m really grateful. I own you a lot". I nodded my head, and asked "What is the situation regarding Avians, and Yagaroths?". He said "So far, we don''t have any new information, but we made contact with races not hostile with humans, and they will not chase you. Especially now, since I know what you said must be true. A human who is scheming and full of lies, would not try to save someone else''s life".


    I asked "What races are those?". He said "The race called Voltars, who live further north from here. The race called Golems, who live further to the east from here, and the race called Shades who live to the north west of here. These races will not chase after you, but be warned. Some of the inhabitants, may still rat you out, for a possibility of being rewarded".


    I nodded my head, and asked another question "Do you have a better map of the North?". He searched his clothes for a while, and took out a map. He then passed it to me, and said "Take it, I will not charge you anything for that. This is a very good and detailed map, so it should be useful to you". I took the map, and simply hid it in my bag. I still had some stuff to ask about, I could take a look at that mapter. "Do you know of the material called Iron Spider Thread?".


    He replied "Yes, It''s very expensive, and only avable in Arangard. Are you interested in that material?". I said "Very. Can you tell me how much does it cost?". He said "It''s very expensive, one metre of it, will cost you about 45 ck Hals. I can buy it for you, but you will have to provide the money". I nodded my head, and said "I need quite a lot of it, so the price will not be small. How much do they have?". He shook his head, and said "I don''t know. Maybe two or three spools? Probably not more than that". I asked again "How long is one spool?". He said "I don''t really know, my guess would be around 15 metres? maybe more, maybe less. If you are that interested, I can find out". I nodded my head and said "I would be grateful, if you did".


    He then asked "Do you have anything else to ask about?". I thought about it for a while, and said "No, I have the new map. I also got the info about the races, which will not hunt me, and you told me some more stuff about the thread, that I require. That should be all". He nodded his head, then said "I will tell Lazar about the thread, when I find out more. My name is Harlin by the way, and if you have more questions, just direct them to Lazar, he will bring them to me. I can''t leave my office that often". I nodded and said "That is fine". He said goodbye to Lazar, and left.


    I turned towards Lazar, and said "She will need a few more treatments. Hopefully, this doesn''t re-emerge, when I leave this ce". He nodded his head, and asked "Do you want to proceed now?". I shook my head and said "No. Let her rest, I will return tomorrow. I still have stuff to take care of". He nodded his head, thanked me couple of time, then I left.


    I was already tired, after making those Azurite Ingots. Besides, she was no longer in any pain. ''If we wait a day or two, nothing should happen to her'' I thought, as I entered the tavern and ordered some food. This time, I ate to my heart content. Although I needed money, spending couple Red Hals inside the tavern, would not make me broke. When I was full, I rented a room and went straight to sleep.


    The next day, I checked the map that Harlin gave to me. ''This map is really good. Although it''s only focused on the Northern locations, it still shows me a lot'' I thought. I could see couple of cities, some of which I already knew about. I also saw the terrain conditions, and even which Volcano housed the Lizard Capital Arangrad.


    The most surprising fact, was theyout of the terrain in different parts of the North. The map described the difficulty of moving through each terrain, especially between crucial cities, and locations. ''No wonder this map is so detailed. He is a military leader after all. Moving arge amount of soldiers or people, is not an easy task. If the terrain is bad, all sort of stuff can happen. This will be very useful to me'' I thought, and hid the map in my Storage Feather.


    I used the Feather, to store my most precious possessions. It was easier to hide, and looked just like a feather. The bag on the other hand, was mostly used to store some of my less precious possessions¡­ besides the Yellow Dust, which I still carried with me in a bag. The Yellow Dust, was a sort ofst resort. The ultimate move, where everything, including me, would suffer.


    I headed straight to the workshop, and began creating my daggers. I didn''t want to make any more moulds, only use the ones, I already created. It took me a while to cast 20 daggers, but I was pleased with the final result. I then sharpened and polished them. My new daggers were ready. ''Those daggers are heavier,pared to the previous ones made from Purified Steel. The design is a bit different as well. I will need some time, in order to adjust to them'' I thought.


    I swung the dagger a few times, and didn''t feel any problems with it. I tested all daggers like that, and made sure that all daggers suited me. I was also checking for any deficiencies. ''Now I have my daggers, as for the remaining ck Steel Ingots, I will leave them for the time, when I can create those dagger by hand, without moulds'' I thought, and went to work on the Azurite Ingots.

 Chapter 214

    Chapter 214


    With my work done, I asked the old Lizard to teach me more about dagger smithing. This time, he showed me how to create daggers from Purified Steel. He also pointed out, that there was a certain technique involved in creating weapons, but it was reserved for advanced smiths. I tried asking him to teach me that, but he only said, that I was not ready to learn it.


    ''He probably wants to keep me in that workshop, as long as he can. Nevertheless, I can still stay here for a while, so I might be able to persuade him, to teach me that technique'' I thought, as I walked towards Lazar''s house. I knocked at the doors, and Lazar opened them. He greeted me and invited me inside When I entered, I saw his daughter ying around. She seemed to be full of energy. I asked "Can we proceed now?". Lazar looked at his daughter, and said "Yes. The sooner this is dealt with, the less worries I will have".


    I nodded my head, and said to his daughter "Justy on the bed. You may feel a bit weak, after we are done". She nodded obediently, andid on her bed. I ced my hand on her forehead and waited. It was Frosty, not me, who had to do this job. After a while, the blue gas like strands of coldness, started leaving her body, and entering my hand.


    When my hand became frozen, I took my hand away from her forehead, and waited till the ice melted. I repeated this a few times, until no more blue gas wasing out. ''I wonder if that is all'' I thought, and checked her blood. It was red, with no sign of blue colour whatsoever. Yet something was bugging me. ''I feel like this is not the end of the story. Maybe the blood is back to normal, but something must''ve caused her blood to change the colour, and be cold. I wonder what it is, and if it''s still inside her body?'' I thought.


    The absorption, gave no results anymore. I turned towards Lazar, and said "Her blood is now back to normal. I would still like to check on her, before I leave this ce. Is that fine with you?". He nodded his head, and said "I have no issue with that. Do you think that this can return?". I shook my head, and said "I don''t know, that is what I want to check. In order to do that, I need to wait a while. Hopefully, she will be fine". He nodded his head, and thanked me.


    With that taken care of, I went to the tavern in order to have a rest. Inside the rented room, I thought about the expensive thread, that I wanted to urie. ''If what he said is correct, than 1 metre of it, is already too expensive for me, and I need 50 metres of that thread. I also need them in at least 5 metres lengths, for my skill. Otherwise, connecting the smaller pieces together, might degrade my feel and uracy'' I thought.


    Even if they had 50 metres of Iron Spider Thread for sale, and I could receive ten 5 metre long pieces, the amount of money I would need, would be staggering. ''Even if I sell all my medicine, I would never be able to get that much money. There is only one solution to earn that much, in such a short time'' I thought. The solution, was to sell the Yellow Dust. Of course, I didn''t want to sell any of it, but if I could sacrifice some of it, in exchange for that thread, I would be willing to make that sacrifice.


    ''I just wonder, how much they would be willing to pay, for the Yellow Dust'' I thought, and went to bed. The days passed like this, and another week went by. I worked in the workshop everyday, and learned how to create different daggers. I finally managed to persuade the old Lizard, to teach me the special technique for weapon smithing. He said that the technique was to strike the weapon in a certain way, in order to produce the best de possible.


    Each weapon had a different method of striking and shaping. Besides that, he said that the material used, was a factor as well. Therefore, there were many variations to the technique, but I was mostly interested in daggers. He showed me how to strike a simple dagger, in order to make it stronger, but also sharper. He told me that in order to do so, I need to "strike with the grain". He exined what that meant "Each piece of metal, has a specific direction, towards which the "grain" is positioned. If you make a dagger without taking that under consideration, then although it might be good, it will never reach its apex. This requires a lot of experience, so you will not be able to do it now. I will exin the processpletely, and show you an example, but you still have to spend many hours practicing".


    He then continued "To judge the direction of a grain, you need very good eyes, which you already have. You also need to work with that material for a long time, to be able to spot it, as it''s not that simple. If you take a closer look, there are very faint veins on each ingot, the idea is to strike the metal, in the direction of those veins. Of course, the veins will go in one direction, but they will be scattered throughout the ingot. The technique requires from you, to align all those veins, and make a de in the same direction. It''s not easy at all, and it took me many years to learn it, but the final product is much better,pared with those created by intermediate smiths. All advanced smiths, have a technique which is either simr or better than this one. That is why their work costs so much more,pared to other smiths creating the same weapons".


    I nodded my head in understanding. It made sense, if the weapon made from the same material, could be a lot better when handled by an advanced smith, then it would obviously cost much more. The reason was simple. Imagine two people fighting. If both people had weapons and armours made from the same material and the same quality of the material. Then the person with the equipment made by an advanced smith, would possess an advantage. His or her weapon would be sharper, while the armour more durable. Although that advantage might be small, it was still an advantage.


    After that lesson, I started producing daggers from cheap materials, in order to practice. I wanted to gain as much experience as I could, and learn the technique, that the old Lizard described to me. Besides that, I also received the news about Iron Spider Thread. The cost was, as he said 45 ck Hals per metre, while they had 4 spools, of varying lengths. They had spools that measured 11, 17, 18 and 13 metres of length respectively. This would produce the 50 metres I require, but in order to buy all that, I would need 2250 ck Hals. This was a staggering amount, even if I sold most of my possessions, I would not be able to umte that much money. Of course, excluding the Yellow Dust.


    I ask Harlin about the Yellow Dust, and if they would be interested. He said very, but he had to ask about it inside the capital city Arangard. He said he would return with some officials, and I could show them the a demonstration. If they are satisfied, they would buy it. ''He should be back any day now, if I can get enough money to buy all the thread I need, that would be perfect. I still have to test the strength, or at least, witness the strength of that thread. Otherwise, I might buy something, that would be useless to me'' I thought.

 Chapter 215

    Chapter 215


    After a few days of working and waiting, Lazar came by to the tavern, and told me to meet with Harlin and the officials. I followed him to the meeting ce, which was at the Upper part of Olrad. The guards didn''t question me or Lazar, when we went through a checkpoint. We arrived in front of arge building, the same building that could be seen from pretty much any location in Olrad.


    He said "Go in, someone will take you to the meeting. I will wait here for you, and escort you back when the meeting is done". I nodded my head, and entered. Inside, I noticed that the design was much different,pared with other buildings from the Lower part of Olrad. Not only the interior wasvish, but it was clean. Clean in a sense of whiteness, to the point it was ring. I saw another Lizard, standing in arge reception area. ''He seems to be waiting for me'' I thought, and walked towards him.


    When I stood in front of the Lizard, he said "I''ve been waiting for you. We will head straight to the meeting. Follow me". I nodded my head, and followed after the Lizard. I thought about asking some questions, but then I figured that, the Lizards inside that meeting room, would be much more informed.


    We soon arrived at therge door, where he stopped and said "This is the ce of the meeting. You can continue through this door alone. I will wait for you outside". I again nodded my head, and entered through the door. The room behind, was very spacious. There was arge table in the middle, with chairs surrounding it. On the sides, there were some bookcases, as well as sofas and otherfortable chairs.


    There were couple of Lizards dressed differently inside that room. Not only were those Lizards dressed differently, their colour was ck, with golden stripes on some of their body parts. Harlin was also there, but dressed in his usual attire. He came forwards and said "Have a seat, the Members of Royal Family, will discuss the trade deal with you". I nodded my head and sat down. ''This exins why they look so different. It''s because those Lizards are part of the Royal Family'' I thought. Harlin took a seat next to me, while other Lizards sat in front of us.


    One of the three Royal Lizard, started the conversation. "We heard about your ordeals, inside the Vulture Cliffs. We are really impressed, by that weapon of yours. To be able to destroy such an army, this is a weapon anyone would like to get their hands on. Can you show us that weapon?". I nodded my head, and said "I can show you here, because the quantity I will use, will be small".


    I retrieved about a handful of the Yellow Dust from my bag, and then ced it on top of the table. The Lizards inside the room were stunned, and confused. No surprise, anyone would be, when someone imed to have a destructive weapon, and then took out some yellow powder. I exined "Yes, this is it, and before you judge, have a look". I took out a torch, and lit it. When I ced the torch on the Yellow Dust, "Boom". A small explosion sounded inside the room.


    I could then see astonishment, on all Lizards faces. They couldn''t believe what they saw, and none of them spoke for a while. I decided to interrupt the silence, and said "This is of course a small quantity. With a few kilograms of this stuff, I could blow up this room and anyone inside. This Yellow Dust doesn''t spoil, as far as I''m aware. So you can keep it for a long time, before you decide to use it".


    One of the Lizards asked "How much of that do you have?". I said "I have enough to sell you. I would like to know your price and the amount you want". The three Lizards talked with each other for a while, then turned towards me. One of them said "We of course would like to buy all of it, but we understand that you want to keep some of it for yourself". Then another Lizard continued "We heard that you require a lot of Iron Spider Thread. What is the amount that you require?".


    I responded "50 metres". They were visibly shocked. Again, anyone would be, when they head that kind of amount. I then continued "I also want ten lengths of that thread, which measure 5 metres. In other words, ten threads, each 5 metres in length". They started discussing again, while I could see Harlin sweating buckets. I knew that there was a possibility, of them trying to forcefully take away my Yellow Dust. I wasn''t weak thought, and the fact that I was in possession of that dust, would also deter them from making such moves.


    After much deliberations, one of the Lizards said "We will provide you with the thread, in exchange for 80 kilograms of this dust". I thought for a while, and said "This is not a bad offer, but I think my dust is worth much more, than money can offer. I will give you 60 kilograms, in exchange for the thread". They discussed that for a while again, then one of them said "We understand that it is a great weapon, but we can''t go lower than 70 kilograms".


    ''I was prepared to give them ? of what I had, but I even managed to give away much less, than I was prepared. This is already great, but I can''t ept it that easily'' I thought, then said "If you throw in some materials to make Azurite Ingots, we have a deal". The didn''t even discuss that, and said in unison "We have a deal". They told me that, they will need to go back to Arangard, collect the thread ande back here. It would take them couple of days. Before they left, I asked a question, that bothered me for a long time. "How strong is the thread?".


    One of the Lizards said "Very strong, that is why it''s so rare. You would need a very good de, from very good material, and a lot of strength in order to cut it". I nodded my head in satisfaction, and said my goodbyes. I also returned by following the Lizard that stood behind the doors, and then Lazar outside the building. Lazar asked me a few questions, and I simply answered that I made a deal.


    Although the Royal Lizards asked me, if I wanted to stay in the Upper part of Olrad, I declined. I wanted to freely go to workshop and the tavern, whenever I wanted. I also had those things close by, when I stayed in the Lower part of Olrad. Iter split up with Lazar, then went to workshop and did some work. ''I still need to practice my dagger smithing. Besides, smithing is a good training for my body as well'' I thought.

 Chapter 216

    Chapter 216


    Two dayster, I went back to therge building, in the Upper part of Olrad. The Royal Lizards returned with the required amount of thread, and also brought scales with them. I had no issue with that, even if I gave them a few kilograms too much, I wouldn''t suffer. After weighting all the Yellow Dust, they thanked me, and expressed the will to trade again, if I had something as valuable as this.


    I politely epted that offer, and left. ''With those threads, I can now practice my skill'' I thought. When they were still weighting the Yellow Dust, I had a proper look at the threads. These were not the same, that Nick gave me. These were different, also thin and flexible, but who knows if not stronger. ''Nick once said, that his inheritance is not much inside a city. Those strings alone costed a fortune, I guess that they must be much better. From the Lizard''s description, I need a very sharp weapon of very good quality, in order to separate that thread. Good, as I will use them in battles, and I don''t want someone simply severing my strings'' I thought.


    When I got back to the tavern, I rented a room and immediately decided to try out my new daggers, with the strings attached of course. I only used 2 daggers, it was because I lost touch with that skill. I had to pretty much relearn it. ''It''s been a long time, since I used strings. Let''s see how this will go'' I thought and started my practice.


    I soon got back to my usual form, and was able to manipte the daggers, to a certain extent. Of course, the skill offered much more, but that was for the future. ''This is pretty much all I wanted from this vige. I already learned a lot about smithing here. I also acquired a new map, and I have my new threads as well as daggers. It''s time to leave, to somewhere else'' I thought. Then I remembered something. "Right! I need to ask about food!" I eximed out loud.


    I ended my training, and went straight to Lazar. Fortunately he was home. I asked "Do you know where I can get meat?". He looked at me with questioning expression, and said "Have you tried tavern?". I realized my mistake, and said "I meant, what creatures can I hunt outside, to get some meat?". He said "There are couple of creatures, that are edible outside. For one, Fire Mare is edible. Its meat is not that great, but at least you won''t starve". I knocked my head lightly, and said "I forgot about them. What else is there, outside the Obsidian Mountains?".


    He said "That depends where you want to go. If you go further north, there will be some creatures called Ognars. These things are quite big, and usually live in groups. Hunting them alone, is not that easy, if you are not strong enough. They look a bit like bulls from the South, but are much bigger, stronger and grey in colour. They also have few horns on their heads, as well as spikes on their legs". I nodded my head, and asked "What if I go towards the west?".


    He said "If you go to the west, the only source of food would be Lears. Although they don''t look appetizing, they don''t taste half bad, if cooked properly. Nothing else can be found over there really. As for the East, I don''t think, you should be going that way". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I''m aware of that". As I was about to leave Olrad, I asked Lazar to see his daughter. ''It''s already been a while, so I might be able to check, if any blue gass was stilling out of her'' I thought.


    Lazar had nothing against that, and even weed it. I check her blood first, but saw no signs of blue colour inside. I then ced my hand on her forehead, and waited. I didn''t know whenever Frosty was asleep, or it was trying and she had no coldness inside her body anymore. ''I will have to ask Frostyter, if it tried. If not, well, I did what I could anyway'' I thought, and said "Everything seems to be fine. I will be leaving tomorrow, so this is ourst meeting". Lazar nodded his head, and said "I''m very grateful for what you did.." I stopped him, and said "Don''t worry about it. You already helped me out, and I returned the favour. You don''t need to pledge yourself to me or anything". He thought for a while, and said "Alright. If you evere by Olrad again, please do visit. I will treat you to some food and drinks at the tavern". I nodded my head, and said goodbyes.


    ''I will visit the workshop as well. It would not be nice of me to just leave, without saying anything to that old Lizard'' I thought, and went straight to workshop. The old Lizard, was as always inside the room at the back. I said "I came to say goodbye. Tomorrow, when I''m rested, I will leave Olrad". He seemed a bit sad about the news, but soon brightened up, and said "I knew this day would arrive sooner orter. You are a good kid, your skills in smithing are still in their infancy, but you have great potential. Train well, and you might reach the ranks of Advanced Smiths in the future".


    I nodded my head, and said "I will try to achieve that. Take care of yourself old man". He also said his goodbyes, and I left. I returned to the tavern, and went back to my room. After resting properly on a decent bed for thest time, I woke up and said "It''s time to go. Our new destination, is west!". I then left Olrad, and headed straight for the territory of Golems. ''ording to my new map. If I walk there at a normal pace, I should be able to get there in about 2 weeks time. I also know that Lars live in caves, if I see any caves on my way, I should visit them, and find some supplies for my further journey'' I thought.


    I passed couple of inactive volcanoes, as well as couple groups of Fire Mares and Fire Sludges. I decided to go west, even though I wanted to meet Crow as well. ''Crow will probably need a lot of time, to gather some very useful information. I will leave it to him for now, and explore the western parts of the North. I will head back to see Crow, when I''m done in west'' I thought.


    A dayter, I was already outside the Obsidian Mountains area, and the Wilderness again spread in front of me. I said "Frosty,e out. We have some talking to do".

 Chapter 217

    Chapter 217


    Frosty soon appeared in front of me. I asked "When we visited that small Lizard, did you try to absorb the coldness?", to which Frosty nodded its head. I said "Alright, now more pressing matter. Why were you scared toe out in Olrad?". Frosty started motioning something, but I didn''t know exactly what it meant. I asked another question "Did you do something wrong in there?", but Frosty shook its head, and declines strongly. ''Hmm, weird. Frosty obviously has been in Obsidian Mountains in the past, so why it didn''t want to show its face around there?'' I thought.


    I asked again "If you did nothing wrong, why hide? Obviously you''ve been there in the past. So what did you really do?". Frosty became angry, and again motioned something. I understood one thing from it. Apparently, I was stupid. I also got a bit angry and said "If you don''t want to tell me, then don''t! Whatever, let''s go", and walked towards the east. Frosty became even more angry, and used its breath on me. I turned around and blocked it with my right hand. Frosty stood there angry, shouting "Mah". I then noticed sadness in its eyes, and realised what I did.


    ''What the hell am I doing exactly? I always treated Frosty with distance, as if it was simply a dead weight. I always ordered it and demanded something, yet almost never gave something back. I''m an idiot indeed'' I thought, and walked over to Frosty. It was still shouting "Mah" angry and sad. I kneeled on one knee in front of Frosty, and patted its head. I said "I''m sorry. It seems I''m an idiot. It''s alright now, I realised what I did, was wrong". Frosty stopped shouting, and calmed down.


    "I distanced myself from you, due to myte friend. I didn''t want the same thing to happen to you. So¡­ " I said and looked at Frosty. It nodded its head, and brightened up a bit. I decided to no longer be that way, I would no longer force Frosty to do anything, or treat it as a dead weight. There was still one problem though, it wasmunication. Shelly could draw, and in greater detailster on, so I could easily guess what it meant. But Frosty always motioned, and didn''t want to draw. I understood some of the things that Frosty meant, but most of the time, I was clueless.


    I came up with an idea, and asked "You are very intelligent, so how about I teach you the humannguage? You may be unable to speak, but reading and writing should not be such an issue. We couldmunicate much better. What do you say?". Frosty thought for a while, and seemed hesitant. I added "I know you don''t like to learn stuff, and I will not force you. It is a suggestion, and if you know read or write, we canmunicate more freely. Tell me when and if you want to learn it, you can take your time". Frosty nodded his head, and released a "Mah" sound. Then again thought for a while, and nodded. I asked "You want to learn now?", it nodded again.


    I said "Alright, I will make things easier for you. You understand me no problem, so you know what the words I speak mean. You probably don''t know how the letters look like, right?". Frosty nodded his head in response. I continued "Then it''s simple. You already know the humannguage, now you just have to learn the letters. It''s not going to take you that long as well". I then took out a piece of cloth, and started writing all the letters. After a short while, I passed that cloth to Frosty, and said "These are all the letters humans use. As you can see, there aren''t that many of them. You should be able to learn, how to read and write them, without any issues".


    Frosty took the cloth, and looked at it. A short whileter, Frosty nodded its head, and seemed satisfied with that amount of learning. I said "Just practice whenever you want. If you want to write them, tell me and I will teach you how. For now, you can just memorize the letters". Frosty nodded his head, then looked at the fabric a few more times, before giving it back to me. I asked "You want me to store it for you?", but Frosty shook its head. It pointed at the fabric, then at its head.


    I asked "You already memorised them?", to which Frosty nodded. I said "Alright, then do you want me to tell you, how to speak each letter?". Frosty nodded again. I sat down and motioned at Frosty, toe and join me. I said "This letter is "A" when spoken by itself, and in words like "Allow". The pronunciation may differ a bit, but you will be able to spot those differences easily. The next letter is "B"...". I went through the whole alphabet with Frosty once, then said "Alright, this should be enough for one day. If you want to spend some time with me, juste out whenever you want. I also have some Extract for you, tell me when you want it. Alright?".


    Frosty nodded its head, and climbed my shoulder. It licked my face, then changed back to the tattoo. ''I should take better care of Frosty from now on. I don''t want it to feel sad, due to me'' I thought, and moved on towards the east. The road ahead was uninteresting, so I practiced my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill on the way. My goal, was to first get ustomed to the maniption aspects. I needed to be able, to control the trajectory of those daggers at my will. When that step was aplished, I would need to move on to the real purpose of that skill. It was called Stringed, but also Hidden Weapons. Hidden Weapons, was not a mindless attack, with some maniption of my daggers. It was a skill, where my daggers were supposed to be hidden and deadly.


    ''When my daggers be visible, they should''ve already taken the life of someone, or something. The real skill, will be to use those strings, and constantly hide my daggers while attacking'' I thought. It was the sole reason why, Nick was so impressed with that skill. Not because I would have 10 daggers flying around, changing directions at my will, but because they would do that and stay hidden.


    Besides the training, I also spoke to Frosty from time to time. I didn''t call it out, as I used to. I simply talked to my hand, and if Frosty wanted toe out, it would. I also didn''t push thenguage learning onto it. Whenever Frosty wanted, I would teach it something for a while, then give it some rest. I also told Frosty about the South. That was the name, creatures from the North used for the Endrosian Empire. Frosty always listened attentively, when I shared some stories and general things, I knew from the Great Forest and the areas.


    ''Frosty seems to be very interested in the Endrosian Empire. No doubt, there are many things, that Frosty never heard of. I also don''t know that much, I never visited a city before, so this should be a new experience for both of us, when we do'' I thought.


    After about 10 days of walking, the environment started to change, to that of rocks and sand. There were very little trees in this area, and the sand itself, seemed weird. It was very fine, and greyish yellow in colour. From time to time, I saw somerger stone formations, with openings. Those things looked like caves, but were free standing. There were no mountains in the area, and those cave like systems, althoughrge and spanned for many metres, were never connected to anything, but the sand.


    I visited one of the caves. I wanted to look for those Lears, in order to increase my supply of the food. Inside the cave, I could sometimes see holes on the ground, and on the walls. At first, I wondered what those holes could be, but then the answer came very quickly. ''So, these holes are Lears'' nests. I should try and catch one'' I thought. Lears were quite slow, I had no idea what they fed on, but when I picked one up, it seemed not dangerous at all. I was wrong. Multiple de like legs, extended from the bottom of the Lears, while its mouth opened with the "O" shape, with many razor like teeth inside.


    ''What an ugly creature this is. I don''t remember seeing these de like legs on my te. This means, those needs to be extracted, in order to eat them. I also don''t recall seeing any teeth in there. Perhaps those are extracted too. No wonder Lazar said, that I could eat them, if I knew how to cook them'' I thought, and severed the Lears'' head.


    Something I didn''t expect happened. All the insides of the Lears sttered outside, together with its head. ''So, I can''t kill them like this. As far as I''m aware, the Lears in the tavern were whole. No parts were severed, besides the de like legs. I will need to study those creatures a bit more'' I thought, and searched for another one.

 Chapter 218

    Chapter 218


    I experimented with Lears for a long while. I managed to figuring out how to kill them, while not destroying the whole thing in the process. The answer was simple, and not simple at the same time. I could simply freeze them. Of course, I could do that, and it took me a while, just to try it out, but others might not have much luck. With the Frozen Lears in hand, I severed all the de like legs from it, and took a proper look at its mouth.


    ''Hmm, how do I extract those teeth?'' I thought. I tried with my dagger, and to my surprise, the whole teeth formation simply became loose, and fell out. ''What the?'' I thought to myself. "This can''t be so simple though. What if I try that on live Lears?" I said out loud. Soon after, I caught another one, and tried out my idea. It didn''t work. My dagger was a lot sturdier than Lears'' teeth, so they all got destroyed, and the creature died with a burst.


    ''These things are so delicate, while their looks tell a different story though'' I thought, and went around collecting, and freezing Lears. When I caught about 20 of them, finding more of them, was no longer that easy. I decided to leave that cave, and headed towards the east, with the help of my new map. I was about 3 maybe 4 days of travel, away from the Golem''s territory.


    ''I wonder what those Golems look like?'' I thought, as I walked. Besides the usual training, and speaking with Frosty. I also decided to think more, about the 4th diagram from Strength Manual. My medical knowledge advanced a lot, thanks to the books I got from that Eterian. I could see some ways of modifying the diagram now, which I couldn''t spot in the past.


    ''Still, it will take me a long time to finish it. Besides, I will also need to incorporate an Aura to that diagram. I don''t know if my Domineering Aura will work'' I thought. Besides that, I also resumed my Aura training. I found that, I could keep condensing my Aura again. The reason should be, due to me breaking through that Half Step of the Outer Limit.


    As I walked and trained, 4 days passed in a sh. On the horizon, I could now see arge mountain. ording to the map, it was called Berant Mountain, and it was the exact living ce of Golems. ''This mountain is huge. As big, if not bigger, than the volcano I saw at the Obsidian Mountains'' I thought. The mountain was still far away in the distance, but there were some small mountain like hills, in the sandy areas around me.


    Because some of them were on my way, I visited one in order to find more Lears. It seemed that I hit a jackpot. The caves were literally crawling with Lears. I had no issues catching them, and soon I got around 150 in my bag. ''For now this should be enough. When I need more, I can always enter one of the caves'' I thought. Some more walkingter, I could see something moving towards me.


    When I finally saw what it was, I could barely believe it. ''Am I seeing things? Or are some sort of stones and rocks, walking towards me?'' I thought. These were not normal rocks or stones. They were about 3-4 times as tall as human could be, they had 4 arms andrge, t faces. Every part of that creature''s body, was made from rocks or stones. It looked weird, to say the least. Their speed was not very fast, and they seemed to be pulling something behind them. On a closer look, I figured that it was some sort of cart. It was full of what looked like Lears.


    I moved towards them, while they slowly made their way towards me. We finally met halfway, and the rock spoke "A human, and not any human. It is you. How can we help you?". I said "It seems that you know about me, which means that you guys must be Golems, right?". Therge creature nodded its head, and said "That is true, we are the Golems, the masters of the Eastern Desert. Is there a reason for your visit, human?".


    I said "I came to explore the east. I''ve been to Obsidian Mountains already, and this seemed to me like the next logical destination. Besides, as you know, I can''t really go west". Therge Golem nodded, and said "That is correct. We are not hostile to humans, as you already know. Some humans are even in our Capital, if you want to go there, you can travel with us". I was intrigued, and nodded my head. "I shall follow you then. If you need any help, just ask" I said. Therge Golem nodded his head as well, and said "Let us be on our way then".


    We slowly made our way, towards the Capital City of the Golems. I assumed that it was situated at the same ce, where that huge mountain was. I was not wrong, because when I asked about the City, therge Golem answered. "Yes, the Berant Mountain is our home. Inside, the Capital City Varent is located". I looked at the cart full of Lears, and asked "Do you eat them?", but the Golem shook his head, and said "No, we sell them. A lot of creaturese to us, in order to buy them. These are our collection grounds".


    I got a bit worried, and though ''I should probably keep quiet, that I just took more than a 100 of them, for myself. They shouldn''t be able to know about that anyway''. Changing the topic, I asked "What other creatures are here?". The Golem responded "There are the Sand Scorpions. They are asrge as you humans, and contain deadly poison. Although for us, it is ineffective". He then continued "In the deeper parts of the sands, you can sometimes encounter creatures called Rotworms. These creatures are quite big, bigger than us Golems, and can swallow you whole. Usually, when you see a pit in the desert, avoid it. There may be a Rotworm inside that pit".


    ''The eastern part of the North, is quite interesting, but also dangerous. It''s a good thing, I encountered these Golems here. If I didn''t know about those Rotworms, I might''ve been eaten alive'' I thought. As the journey continued, I saw one such Sand Scorpion, trying to get closer to us. It probably wanted to eat some Lears, that were on the cart. But when it saw the whole group of Golems, it quickly ran away.


    ''It seems that Golems are quite powerful, in their ownnd'' I thought. Although this was the case, the Golems were quite polite, and very easy going. ''It also seems, that being neutral is their natural disposition. They simply don''t want to engage in other people businesses'' I thought. This might''ve been mistaken with weakness, but how would they survive here, if they were weak. As the journey would be long, I decided to train again. Before I did anything, I asked "Is it alright, for me to train myself a bit?". The Golem responded "Suit yourself, we have no issue with that. If the pace is too fast, we can always rest". ''Not only are they easy going, they are quitezy too, hehe'' I thought, and said "It''s fine, we can continue at that pace". The Golem simply nodded.


    I decided to practice my Pressure Dagger skill, and while I was at it, I also tried to condense my Domineering Aura. The Golems were surprised, when I released the Aura next to them. One of them said "Your Aura is strong human. You must be a good warrior". I never really received such praise, so I didn''t know what to say. I simply said "Thank you", and continued my training. They didn''t really care beyond that. The Golems slowly pushed the cart full of Lears, as we went forwards. The next stop, was Varent.

 Chapter 219

    Chapter 219


    The journey was long and boring, but because I had stuff to do, I didn''t even realise when we reached the huge mountain. One of the Golems, said "This is where the Capital City Varent is. Come with us, we will show you where you can stay". As we walked through therge opening, that served as the entrance. I saw four evenrger Golems, standing guard. I asked "Why are these Golems much bigger, than you guys?".


    One of the Golems, said "These are Warriors, and are naturally much bigger, and greater than us. We are simple citizens, and although we don''t specialise in fighting, we are not weak either". I thought about something, and asked another question "Do you have something like a Leader, or a King?". The Golem I spoke with the most, said with pride "Of course! Our King is the strongest and bravest Warrior of our race. We all respect our King".


    ''What type of existence must the Golem King be, if those Golem Warriors are simple entrance guards?'' I thought. The guards didn''t try to stop me, and simply let us through. We arrived in an open area, of the huge mountain. It looked like the insides of the Berant Mountain, was hollowed out, whilerge stone houses, pces and mansions were built inside. The whole City of Varent could be seen from the bottom. There were many paths leading upwards, and the higher one looked, therger and more refined the buildings became.


    ''This ce looks amazing'' I thought, and asked "You guys built this ce by yourselves?". One of the Golems said "Yes, it was very long time ago. Our ancestors hollowed out this mountain, then built this city inside. There is also a legend tied to our ancestors, and how they built this city". I was intrigued, and asked "What is that legend?".


    The Golem started narrating the story "A long time ago, when there were no intelligent races living in this world. A lone mountain, stood in the deserts of thend. Dark clouds loomed over the horizon, as far as the eye could see. Over time, the dark clouds began producing rain, then wind and then lightning. A massive and loud thunder struck the mountain top, which sent the boulders, rocks and stones flying down. The clouds soon dissipated, while the boulders, rocks and stones became alive. They moved slowly in the beginning, then formed into bigger clumps by joining each other, until a Golem was formed".


    He then continued "Those were our ancestors. They came from the mountain, and they also returned to it. Searching day and night, our ancestors looked for simr rocks, stones and boulders, that had the breath of life in them. Soon the poption of Golems increased, and they decided to make that mountain their home. It took them many years, in order to hollow out the mountain, then build a very small vige at the bottom. The insides of the mountain, looked differently in the past. The future generations of Golems, were responsible of continuing the development of the vige, until it became the city, that it is today".


    ''This story is interesting, but I don''t believe it. Although there might be some truth in there, I don''t buy the fact, that there were no intelligent races in the world, and Golems were the first intelligent race born into the world. It is a legend after all'' I thought. One of the Golems interjected my thoughts, by saying "We need to separate here. I will show you where you can stay, and buy some food, if you need it". I nodded my head, and waited for the Golem to exin.


    He pointed at a certain building, then said "This is where you can stay and eat. This ce isrge, and loads of humans tend to stay there. If you want to take a job on, you can go to that building", and he pointed at another one storey house. Although it was one storey, the size alone would make it 3 or 4 storey building for Humans or Lizards. He then continued "If you need supplies, the market is over there", and he pointed at arge area of stalls, that seemed to have everything one would need in the wilderness.


    They then said goodbyes, and pushed their cart towards their destination. ''I should probably start from the tavern, or whatever that ce is called. There are some other humans in there as well, so I might get some info. I should watch out though. Golems already know who I am, therefore humans could possibly know too'' I thought, and moved towards the building.


    Inside the building, I saw something, I''ve never seen before. Not only Golems, and humans were inside. There were some Lizards as well. Besides them, I saw creatures that looked human, but were not humans. ''Hmmm¡­ These guys are a bit like Crow, perhaps they are from the same race''. I was sure that these people were not Eterians, because they would already be dead. I didn''t know exactly how many races hated humans, but I suspected that Eterians were even worse off.


    No one really paid much attention to me. I walked over to the counter, and asked "Can I have the menu?". Behind the counter, was not a Golem, as one would think. No, it was a Lizard, probably employed there, or perhaps owned that tavern, and paid some kind of taxes to the Golems. I still had a hard time, recognising whenever it was a female or male Lizard, but the voice usually gave it away.


    This time, it was male. He said "Wee to Sandy Stone Tavern, here is the menu". The weird thing was, when I opened the menu, I saw a small note inside. I thought ''That''s weird'', but then I realised the meaning. ''It must be Harlin''s work. He knew that I will being here, or at least suspected it, and instructed some of his people, to probably have an eye on me''. I hid the note, which was not very hard for me, due to many years of Hidden Weapons practice. I then selected a few things from the menu, and asked about the room.


    The Lizard himself was a bit stunned, that I acted so naturally, but yed along with it. With my meal done, and room rented, the Lizard behind the counter instructed me which room was assigned to me, and wished me enjoyable stay. I headed upstairs, and entered my room. The insides were in as usual, but more spacious. It was mostly due to the fact, that the buildings here were much biggerpared to those in Olrad.


    I sat down on the bed, and read the note. "Some humans know about you. My suggestion is, leave as soon as you can", was written on it. The note was short, but packed with information. He wouldn''t warn me about humans, if they didn''t mean harm to me. There were couple groups of humans inside that tavern. I wasn''t sure if he meant most of them, all of them or only one group. ''Things might heat up a little, but I know humans. They will not rat me out, they will try to capture me, in order to receive maximum rewards. Greed is something every intelligent creature possesses, but humans are masters in that departament'' I thought, as the paper in my hand froze, and got turned into icy dust.


    Just because Yagaroths and Avians hated me, that wouldn''t mean other humans couldn''t capture me. I said "Frosty, can youe out for a while? We are in Varent". Frosty didn''t seem to have any problems withing out, and did just that. I said "We may have some troublesing our way. Humans might try to capture me, I''m telling you this now, so that we can be prepared". Frosty nodded its head, and released some breath into the air. I said "That is the crucial trump card, they don''t know about. If the situation is very severe, I will need to borrow your abilities, like we did in that pond. Alright?". Frosty nodded, and jumped onto my shoulder. "I''m no pushover, if they want to capture me, ites with a price. I hope that they are at least half decent, so I can test my strength and skills on them" I said, and stroked Frosty''s head.

 Chapter 220

    Chapter 220


    My stay in the tavern, was uneventful. I expected that much. Although Golems were easy going, they would not allow fights and crime to be present in their own city. ''The group of humans that wille after me, will probably eye me, until I leave the city. This can also depend on how patient they are. Either way, I should first find out, which humans are eyeing me'' I thought, and left the tavern.


    I went around touring the city. Not only was I interested in the city, I also watched carefully my environment. I didn''t have to search for a long time. I soon spotted a group of humans, that seemed to be doing the same thing, as I did. ''I highly doubt that, these guys came here to tour the city. If I didn''t receive the note, I might''ve thought of it as just coincidence, but this is too obvious now'' I thought.


    The question was, whenever that group, was the only group following me? As I walked through the city and explored the buildings. I didn''t notice another group trailing me. ''So it''s just this one. I don''t want to disappoint them. I should go to the building that offers work. They might have some kind of task, outside of the city'' I thought, and headed to the building the Golem pointed to me previously.


    Inside, I could see many different creatures. Some of them were talking to each other. Some were looking through some posters, while others talked with the Golems at the front desk. I walked over to a Golem that was not upied, and asked "What is this ce?". The Golem answered "This ce is called Mercenary Guild, wee human. Is this your first visit to the city?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes. Can you tell me more about this ce?".


    The Golem replied "Of course. The City of Varent is the biggest and the only city in the Land of Sands. You will be able to find and buy a lot of materials, tools and supplies here, that will allow you the survival in the wilderness. The building you are standing in right now, is called Mercenary Guild, which I already mentioned. Here, you can take up certain tasks, that are disyed on those boards over there", then he pointed at the area with boards, which had some papers stuck to them.


    He continued "You are allowed to take up one task at a time. Some tasks may require to form groups, but it is not our concern, how you carry that task out. In case you are unsessful, we will ask for refund. The refund is calcted based on how many days you were overdue with the task, or in case you couldn''t do it, and returned the task before the expiry date, we will charge you for the amount of days that the task was not disyed for others. My suggestion is, don''t take up tasks, which you cannot handle. Focus on things you are able to carry out, and don''t be blinded by the rewards".


    He then added "Would you like to register now, or when you choose a task?". I said "I will have a look at the tasks first". I then moved towards the boards, that disyed all sorts of tasks on them. I looked through those tasks, and they ranged from killing some scorpions and bringing in the materials, to collecting Lears in the caves. Some simple tasks, like Lears collection, were not paid very well. ''For each 100 Lears that I bring, I would get 25 Copper Hals'' I thought. Not a lot, but it was a quick job, without much of a hustle. The time limit was 1 day, and the amount required, was at least 100 of them. One could of course bring 200, or 300 Lears, and they would receive a bonus.


    ''It doesn''t say what type of bonus one would receive, but at least they mentioned it''. I took down the paper, and went to the counter in order to register the task. What I didn''t realise, is that I would need a membership of sorts. ''The Golem didn''t exin that, he only said I would need to register'' I thought. The Golem said "This membership is tracked throughout the North. Any major viges and cities, will posses a simr guild to this. You can take up the jobs in there too, with that membership. It also doesn''t cost anything. All I need, is some of your details".


    ''This might be a problem'' I thought. There was no need for them to know my real details. Especially since, I was a wanted man. Although the Golems may not care, it would still be on the record somewhere. ''He also mentioned that anyrge vige or city, has this kind of establishment. This would mean, they may have ess to my information. I don''t need that at the moment'' I thought.


    There was another problem. To be exact, it was my name. Nex was not reallymon name, and my own grandfather''s pursuit, might give them clues that I was in the North. This was another reason, for which I didn''t want to reveal my name. ''Only Crow knows my name, and it should stay that way'' I thought. The Golem meanwhile, stood there as if waiting for something. He saw my confusion, and asked "Do you want to create the membership?". I said "Oh, right, I was lost in my thoughts. Sorry".


    He nodded, and said "Alright, then pay attention. I will ask you a few questions, and record them on your membership. If you don''t know something, say so, but it might invalidate your membership. This will also be noted, and you will have a much harder time getting one in the future. Proof will be required, so I suggest truthful answers".


    I nodded my head, while trying to think of something, that could be passed off as my identity. The Golem asked again "We can terminate here, if you are unsure. You can always returnter". I shook my head and said "Let''s continue". The Golem nodded, and asked the first question "Your name?". I already thought about that, and said "I don''t have a name. I''ve always been called Dark Traveller. I travel a lot you see, and due to my hair, that was the term people coined."


    He looked at me suspiciously, and asked "Why don''t you have a name?". I said "My parents died when I was very small. I don''t even remember them. Maybe they gave me a name, but I was too small to remember that. I had no other family either, and the people who were my guardians, never really cared about my name . When I grew up a bit, I travelled with some merchants, and everyone just called me "You". Then I started travelling by myself, visiting many ces. Because I had no name, people coined the Dark Traveller term, and it stayed like this".


    He seemed satisfied with my answer, but I was sweating underneath. ''Good thing I can act a bit. Otherwise he might''ve not bought that answer'' I thought. There was some truth in there too. I was the Dark Traveller''s disciple, and my parents were really dead. The other parts were fabricated. He asked the next question "Where do you originate from?". I said "The South. I''m from the Endrosian Empire". He nodded his head, and didn''t ask about any other details. Instead, he asked the next question "What is your current Limit stage?".


    ''Hmm? Why would they need to know that?'' I thought, and asked "May I ask, why you need to know that?". The Golem exined "Sometimes, you can get employed directly, if your strength fits the employer''s demand. These type of jobs are usually very well paid. Besides that, some tasks are locked for higher ranking members, and you cannot participate or carry them out, if we don''t know your strength". I nodded my head, and said "I broke through the Half Step of the Outer Limit". I figured that there was no point in lying. There were many creatures that reached this step, and of course, I rated my strength a bit higher than I said.


    The Golem nodded his head, and noted that down. After that, he asked another question "What is your specialisation?". I thought ''Specialisation? As in fighting with dagger or something like that?''. I wasn''t sure, so I asked "What do you mean by that?". The Golem responded "What do you specialise in, it''s exactly what I said. If you want an example, fighting with a specific weapon, infiltration, scavenging, production and so on".


    ''So I don''t need to tell him my skills. Good, as I didn''t intend to anyway'' I thought, and said "Smithing and Close Combat". This was the mostprehensive answer, I would provide. The Golem didn''t seem to mind that, and said "Thest question. Are you a convict?". I looked deeply into his eyes, and said "No". He froze for a moment, then said "Congrattions. You have passed the test, and you are now a full member of the Mercenary Guild. I will bring you the identity stone in a moment, and exin how all the rules and perks work".


    The Golem went somewhere for a while, then returned with a square, t stone. He handed the stone to me, and said "This is your identification. You may find that there are different styles of them. This is dependent on where the membership was granted. In Varent, we use these stones as membership identity. They can be exchanged to different cards, only when you want to advance in ranking. If you lose this stone, you will have to return here, and pay for recement".


    I nodded my head and looked at the stone. My "name" was written over there. The specialisations I provided, and the location I came from. It simply said "The South". I asked "What if I break it by ident?". The Golemughed, and said "For that, you would need a lot more strength, than you possess right now. It is a special stone, with Formations inside. The details you gave, can be read by the Mercenary Guild if need be". He then continued "I will now tell you everything about the membership".

 Chapter 221

    Chapter 221


    The Golem said "There are couple of rules, regarding your new membership. For one, you have to stay active. You have 100 days, to carry out at least one task. If you can''t finish any tasks within 100 days, you will have to provide a reason for that. If the reason is not sufficient enough, we might strip you of the membership. There are of course exceptions. If your task is supposed to take 100 days or more, you will be exempt from that rule. Another exemption is, if you encounterrge trouble, or leave North. We will demand an exnation in case of the former, while a notification in case of thetter".


    I nodded my head, and asked "So, if I want to leave North, you will not strip me of my membership?". The Golem nodded, and said "Yes, your membership will be suspended. When you return, and report to one of the branches, it will be active again". He then continued "There is another exception. If you are above a certain rank, you will not have such deadlines. Moreover, you will have many more benefits from the Mercenary Guild".


    I asked "What rank am I now?". The Golem exined "You are the lowest rank right now. To rise up in ranks, you will need to sessfully carry out some tasks first. For further ranks, you strength matters too, and there will be different tests concerning that". I nodded, and asked "What are the ranks then?". The Golem replied "The lowest rank is called Bronze Rank. This is your current rank. The next in line, is the Steel Rank, then Silver Rank, then Gold Rank andstly ck Gold Rank. I should also mention, that there are special ranks, but you will not be informed about them now. If you rank is sufficient, you will be provided that information".


    I wanted to ask something, but he stopped me and said "Let me continue. Each Rank, has a specific number of Tiers. There are 3 Tiers in the Bronze, Steel and Silver Ranks. There are only 2 Tiers in Gold and ck Gold Ranks. To advance a Tier or a Rank, a specific amount of contribution is needed. The contribution can be checked in any branch, as your membership stone records your contribution points". I nodded, and asked "So, can I now finally do that task?". The Golem nodded his head, and said "I already registered it. Keep that paper with you, and bring it with the items specified. Besides the money, you also receive contribution points. This task will reward you with 5 points". I nodded and asked, a bit curious "How many points do I need, in order to advance to the next Tier?". He replied "You will need 200 points. For the Tier 2 of the Bronze Rank, you need 500 points, and Tier 3 requires 1000 points". ''That is quite a lot. 1000 points, just to reach Tier 3, how many points one would need, in order to get to Gold Rank?'' I thought. I decided to not ask that question, and simply said "Great, I''m off then. See you soon".


    I finally managed to get, what I came for. ''It took me some time, just to get a job. Who would have thought, that getting such a low paid job, would be so difficult'' I thought. The membership, had its advantages too. For one, if I reached a higher ranking, I would have ess to greater amount of information. This could prove useful in the North.


    I soon left the city. I headed towards the caves, in order to plete" my task. Of course, I already had the required amount of Lears, so I didn''t need to go anywhere. I didn''t take that task for money. Further away behind me, a group of humans was trying to follow me. They kept their distance, and didn''t follow me in a straight line. ''They don''t seem to be that stupid, but even if there is someone as strong, as the woman who severed my arm, I can still deal with them. The problem would be, if some of them are as strong as Woody¡­ This could get messy'' I thought.


    When I travelled far away from the city, the group of humans got closer and closer. ''So, they finally make their move'' I thought, and continued at the normal pace. After a while, the managed to catch up, while one of the members from that group shouted "Friend, Wait!". I stopped and turned around. The group consisted of 5 members, there were four males and one female.


    A guy that seemed to be the leader, stepped forward, and said "Are you going to do a task? We can help you out, as you are new here". I shook my head, and said "It''s a simple task of collecting some Lears, I don''t need help with that". They didn''t take it to heart, and simply walked over. The woman from that group looked at me, and said "I think I saw your face somewhere". While others nodded and agreed.


    ''What a charade. I don''t get it thought. Why not simply attack me? After all, that is what they are here for'' I thought. The leader of that group suddenly eximed "I remember! You are that wanted man!". I looked at them, as if looking at idiots, and simply said "It seems to be the case. Do you want anything in particr?". I decided to y their game a bit too. The leader shouted "You filthy bastard! Giving bad reputation for your own kin. You should be brought to justice!".


    ''This is something, I never understood in humans. Why y the hero? Why are they trying to justify their greed?'' I thought. Of course, there was no need for an answer, as they already started their attacks. The leader guy charged at me with a sword and shield, while others followed suit. None of them were archers, or ranged weapon wielders.


    ''They are not weak though. They must''ve broken through the Half Step of the Outer Limit too. Let''s see how this goes'' I thought, andunched forwards as well. I didn''t use any of my skills from the Art of Hidden Weapons, I simply used the closebat. My first attack, was blocked to my surprise. ''Although I didn''t use most of my strength, the guy still managed to block my 60% strength output. Not bad'' I thought, as I shed with my daggers.


    Others didn''t stand there watching, and attacked as well. I had to utilise my Natural Path skill, in order to evade the attacks. ''The leader seems to be the strongest, I should take care of others first'' I thought, and backed away a bit from the leader. He immediately figured out my intentions, but with my strength, I managed to get away from him. He shouted "Watch out! He ising after you guys!", but it was toote. I appeared behind the guy with a shield, and used my Pressuring Dagger skill.


    "BOOM!"


    To my surprise, something unexpected happened, and I was sted backwards. The guy I attacked, was fine. They quickly tried to grab that asion, but I managed to escape. ''Just what was that thing? As if my attack hit some kind of barrier, then bounced me of'' I thought. The Leader engaged me in the battle again. He was trying to focus my attention on him. I had other ns, and used 100% of my strength, to push him back.


    I then sped towards the woman, who seemed to be the weakest. But then out of nowhere, I got rammed from behind. I lost my bnce and I was about to hit the ground. I reacted quickly, and used my hands to push myself further away. The distance between me and the group, increased again. When I looked behind, it was a guy with arge sword, that rammed into me. For some reason, he didn''t use the sword to attack. ''These guys are no amateurs. If I can take out one or two of them, I will have a much easier time. The five of them makes a good team, I hate to admit. Time to take this a bit more seriously'' I thought.


    I quickly took out my bow and arrows. They seemed surprised, while I started shooting. One of them shouted "Shit! Retreat! He is also an archer!". They tried retreating, while I shot at the guy with the shield. "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!"


    I shot three arrows, one after the other. He managed to evade one, but the other two were on target. Then, something made them change course. ''It''s not their skill. Now I know, why I was pushed backwards, when I tried to backstab that guy. Their clothes or some kind of items on them, have Formations. No wonder I have such a hard time killing them'' I thought.


    This was bad, truly bad. I hid my bow, and prepared to deal with them differently. I pressed my legs into the ground, andunched.


    "BOOM!".


    Someone shouted "He''sing!". I released my condensed Domineering Aura, my target was the shield guy. When I arrived in front of him, time seemed to slow down for him. I didn''t aim at the parts where his clothes were, I aimed for his neck, which was not protected.


    "SWISH!" "CLING!"


    I jumped back, and noticed that my arm became numb. ''This guy¡­ He has an Aura as well'' I thought. It was that leader guy. He used his own Aura, to ovee mine, and blocked the attack. ''They are truly a perfect team. If that is the case, I have no other options. I need to use Frosty''s strength'' I thought, and prepared for the next bout.

 Chapter 222

    Chapter 222


    As I was about to rush into the group again, I could hear something getting closer. When I turned around, I saw another group of humans. ''This is bad. I will not be able to take on two groups at once. I already have a hard time with this one. Time to run'' I thought. My only option, was to run west. The northern direction was blocked by the first group, while another group wasing from east.


    I could go south, but I decided against that. ''If I go west, at least I know that, no further reinforcements will arrive'' I thought, and started running towards west. The first group gave chase immediately, while shouting some bulshit towards me. I didn''t pay attention to that, and focused on running. My instincts suddenly red up, and I evaded to the side. "WHOOSH!"


    A guy with therge sword, sped past me. He stopped not far away from me and seemed to weaken, as if his strength left him. ''A chance!'' I thought, and "BOOOM!". I used my full strength to attack him. The guy was shocked that he missed, but I didn''t care about that. I swiped with my dagger "Swosh!"... "Thud!". He no longer had his head, I severed it with one clean sh.


    "You fucking bastard! You murderer! I will destroy you!", shouted the leader of that group. Although one of them was dead, there were moreing. I didn''t linger there, and simply continued running. They chased me like possessed now. It was only thanks to my strength and stamina, that I was able to keep a distance between us. The distance also started to increase. No other member of that group, had a simr type of skill, that would allow them to outspeed me.


    ''I don''t know for how long they will chase me. Although I can still run, and the distance between us is getting bigger, I will also run out of energy at some point'' I thought. The only solution I could think of, was food. Retrieving and eating food while running, would slow me down a bit. But I could regenerate my energy, while they would slowly run out of it.


    I retrieved and ate food from my storage. It must''ve been a weird sight, where one guy was running away, while eating food, and others chased after him, as if chasing that food. Soon, the distance was even greater, and my tactic seemed correct, but there was something I didn''t ount for. When I turned around, I saw most of them increasing the speed, while the woman was still drinking something.


    When she finished drinking, her speed increased as well. ''This is bad, they have some kind of special means, to increasing their speed'' I thought. I didn''t know, for how long this boost in speed would work for, but I knew it was not permanent. This was not the best time, to stop and think about it. I used whatever I had in me, and ran. I utilised the Natural Path skill to the max. Although there were no obstacles, my skill evolved to the point, where I could be faster even on a t ground. The reason was simple, no ground was truly t, and I could use that to my advantage.


    Still, the gap was bing smaller and smaller. In couple of minutes, they would catch up to me, and with that speed boost, I would have very little to say in that fight. Then, another twist in the whole y appeared. ''How the hell did these guys managed to catch up?'' I asked myself. It was the second group, and judging by their speed, they must''ve used the same thing as the first group, but they must''ve used it much earlier.


    ''This is pissing me off already. Wait bastards, until that thing of your runs out. I will fucking freeze you to death!'' I shouted in my head. When they were about 100 metres away, the boost seemed to finally show signs of ending. ''Good, I will deal with you fuckers, even if it costs me a few limbs in the process!'' I thought.


    But apparently, I didn''t have to do anything. When the second group caught up to them, the leader of that group shouted "Help us catch that murderer! He is a wanted man!", but what happened next, totally stunned me and the first group. The leader of the second group, simply charged at the first group, and attacked. I almost stopped in my tracks when I saw this. ''What the¡­?'', was the only thought in my mind.


    When the leader of the first group realised what was going on, he shouted "You bastards", and attacked as well. But they had no chances, the second group was much stronger, especially the guy who attacked first. ''He is also stronger than me, I don''t know why they attacked them, but I don''t intend to stay'' I thought, and ran towards the west. Before I could even increase my speed, I heard "Wait a minute", behind me.


    It was a voice of a female, and when I turned around, she was not that far away from me. I didn''t stop obviously, and continued running. Then my instincts red up, something wasing towards me. I evaded the attack, and shock filled my face, as I took a look at the thing that just flew past. I stopped immediately, and asked "Where did you get that from?"


    The woman chasing me also stopped. When I looked at her, she seemed familiar. She walked towards me, and said "Don''t you remember? You gave it to me by yourself". The thing that made me stop, was the fact she threw my dagger. But it wasn''t the new dagger, no, it was the old dagger. I noticed the mask oh her head, it was fox shaped. Something flickered in my mind. "I met you in the Great Forest, together with Shelly, right?" I said.


    She nodded, and replied "So you do remember". I asked "Are you here to catch me as well?", to which she shook her head, and said "I''m here to return the favour. You''ve changed a lot, I barely recognised you". "That may be so, I went through a lot of shit recently" I replied. She came closer, and took a proper look at me, then said "Your tips that day, although maybe insignificant to you, they allowed me to develop myself to the current state. I also used your daggers, and created more of them. I hope you don''t mind".


    I shook my head, and said "I gave it to you, because you were learning simr things, to what I was learning. You are free to use those daggers as you like". She nodded her head, then changed the topic and asked "Are you alright? You¡­.". Before she could finish, a guy interrupted her "Enough chit chat. Those guys are dealt with, so we did what you asked for. Now let''s go, we have our own task to take care of".


    She nodded, and said "Go first, I will catch up". The guy didn''t seem to mind that much, and said "Fine, just don''t make this long". They left, while she said "I wish I had something to give you as well. I have many questions but no time. Maybe we will meet in the future, we can talk more then". I nodded and said "I''m still thankful for what you did. Here, take this". I threw her one of my ck Steel daggers. I said "Last time, I gave you my first version of the dagger. This is the new version. Take it, and see if you like it. I will give you at least this much, for your help".


    She examined it for a while, then said "I will keep it. Hopefully we can meet again. Stay safe till then". She then sped off towards her group, that was already far away. ''The world is indeed small. One whim of mine in the past, actually helped me so much today'' I thought.

 Chapter 223

    Chapter 223


    The second group left, while the first group perished, at their hands. I checked the corpses, but found nothing. ''They aren''t stupid, they took everything that could be of use, even their clothes'' I thought. It didn''t matter that much, I was still quite happy, that someone would help me out like this. ''I need to increase my strength. I''ve been too confidenttely. Just because I broke through the Half Step of the Outer Limit, it doesn''t mean I''m invincible'' I thought.


    If the fight was one vs one, I would also kill that leader guy from the first group. I could kill almost anyone from both groups, in one vs one battle. ''The exception is, that leader of the second group. I''m not sure if I could win, even with the help from Frosty'' I thought. As I thought that, I asked out loud "Frosty, what do you think? What should we do next?".


    Frosty transformed into his corporeal form, and this time didn''t try to motion in order to convey its meaning. Frosty started writing something on the ground. Although the grammar was not very good, at least I knew the words and the meaning. Frosty wrote that we should continue with the Mercenary Guild thing, and that increasing my rank was a good idea. "I also thought about that. With a better rank, I will have ess to more information. While I''m at it, I can still train and try to increase my strength. How about you?".


    Frosty thought for a while, then nodded. "I still have that Extract, it seems to help you develop a lot. Maybe we can use that, to increase your strength?" I said. Frosty nodded, and agreed with me. I took out the Extract, but this time, I gave Frosty a muchrger does than before. "Alright, take this. Absorb it for as long as you need. I will manage on my own for now". Frosty nodded, and drank the Extract. Frosty almost immediately froze on the spot, but before it couldpletely freeze, Frosty change back to the tattoo on my hand.


    The Extract was so strong, that even my arm formed ayer of frost. ''This should help develop Frosty''s freezing powers. It will be great helpter'' I thought, and went straight towards a cave, that was closest to me. I still had toplete the task, and I wanted toplete it exceptionally. ''Everything is recorded in that Mercenary Guild. If I finished my task in an exceptional way, this should allow me to move up the Tiers faster'' I thought.


    I already had over 100 Lears on me, but I didn''t want to submit 100. I was aiming at a muchrger number. ''I can probably catch about 100 Lears in 1-2 hours. If I assume about 3 hours to return, I have about 18 hours left'' I thought. It was 18 hours, because I also had to get to this ce, and fight meanwhile. The first cave I''ve visited, was full of Lears. I started catching them like possessed. I decided to utilise a different method to save some time. I only killed the Lears. I would leave the process of extracting all of the de like legs and teeth, for when I was on my way back to the city. I could always do that when I walked, so there was no point wasting my time now.


    After about 2 hours, I had almost 300 Lears in my bags. I separated the ones I already had, with the ones I had to clean up still. The number of Lears decreased in the cave, so I decided to change locations. ''I can''t exterminate them all in one ce. Besides, it takes longer, when there are fewer of them'' I thought. The next cave, was about 20 minutes away, if one sprinted.


    I repeated the same thing in the next cave, then moved to another. Not every cave was crawling with Lears though. Sometimes I had to change locations very quickly, as the amount of them inside was abysmal. I ran like this for about 10 hours, without taking breaks. I was tired, even though I ate food while traveling from one cave to another. After these 10 hours, I had around 800 Lears in my bag. That was the amount of Lears, I caught in that 10 hours period. All together, I had almost 1000 of them. ''I will catch a bit more, and then return. I wonder what type of bonus will I receive, when I bring a 1000? It is 10 times more than required, so I''m expecting a better bonus'' I thought.


    When I finally finished catching those Lears, I had over 1000 of them altogether. I decided to just rest, and eat something. The bag was also heavy. One Lears weighted around a kilogram, so I was carrying about a tonne of them in that bag. I could put them into my Storage Feather, but I figured that carrying so much, was also a form of training. With my rest and meal done, I started cleaning up the Lears.


    ''I still have couple of hours, before I need to return the task. I can just do it here then'' I thought. I was already sick of those Lears. It was such a monotony, and I still had to clean them up. This alone took my a few hours. I finished cleaning the rest of the Lears in my bag, as I walked towards the Varent.


    I went straight to the Mercenary Guild, and walked over to the counter. The same Golem that provided me with the membership stone, asked "You came to hand your task in?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I also have more than required", and handed him the paper with the task, as well as the bag which contained 1000 Lears.


    When he took it, he became visibly shocked due to the weight. I said "I would like to get the bag back". He came back to himself, and said "Of course, we are interested in the items required only. By the way, how many did you collect?". I said "1000 of them". He took in some air, and replied "That is exactly 10 times the required amount. Because you brought so much, and it was your first task as well, I will double your contribution points. Although the amount of money will not change, you will get paid the same rate, 25 Copper Hals per 100 Lears. Are you alright with that?".


    I said "Sure". He took the bag with him, and dumped the content somewhere else, probably into another storage item. He returned after a while, and handed me the bag while saying "Hand me your membership stone. I will update it". I gave him the stone, and he said "For this task, you will receive 2 Red Hals and 50 Copper Hals, as well as 100 contribution points, which is double of the usual 50 that you would receive".


    He recorded all that on my stone, and then gave it back. The Golem then said "You can now take on another task if you''d like, or wait some time. You have 100 days, to finish another task". I nodded my head, and headed to the boards that disyed those tasks. This time, I wanted something more interesting, than simple Lears collection. I also nned to aim for a bonus like before. Last time, I didn''t pay much attention to the tasks disyed on the boards, because I simply wanted a task which would give me a reason to leave the city. Now that I had a more detailed look, I noticed that not every task could be taken by me, or at least that was what I assumed.


    The tasks possessed ranks as well. There were Bronze, Steel and Silver tasks disyed on the boards. My rank was Bronze, so I probably couldn''t take the Steel or Silver ranked tasks. I didn''t even try, I was sure that the Golem would say "You can''t take that task, your Rank is to low", or something like that. I searched for Bronze Rank tasks, and found an interesting one. ''This one should be fun'' I thought, and took it.

 Chapter 224

    Chapter 224


    I went back to the Golem at the counter, and handed him the paper. He asked "Are you sure, you want that task. It actually been there for quite some time, and no one wanted to take it". I nodded my head, ad said "Yep, I will take it". The Golem replied "As you like. You will have to report to the owner of the mansion. Your specialisation is not medicine, but we will not stop you, from taking that task. Remember that, if you are unsessful, your contribution will fall¡­ by 200 points. This will mean, you will have -100 points. In such a case, the next task, will be assigned to you straight away, and you will have toplete it, otherwise you will lose the membership, and will not be able to apply ever again".


    I said "I understand, I still want to take this task". He nodded, and registered it. He then added "I hope you know, what you are doing". I replied "Don''t worry so much, I''m not stupid enough to take on something, I would not be able to handle". He nodded his head, and wished me luck. The task I took, concerned an ill creature, that a wealthy Golem owned. The reward was actually very good for the Bronze Rank task. I would receive 4 Red Hals as a payment, and 200 points of Contribution. This was not the only reason I took that task. ''When I finish that task, I will also get the gratitude of a wealthy Golem. This in itself is a good enough reward'' I thought. Knowing some wealthy people, was no a bad idea. ''This may open many doors for me, that might''ve been shut otherwise'' I thought.


    I went to the ce specified on the paper, and arrived at arge building. When I knocked on the doors, arge Golem opened and asked "Yes?". I showed him the paper, and said "I''m here to treat the ill pet, that belongs to the owner of this mansion". The Golem looked at me from head to toe a few times, and asked "Can you do it?". I also asked a question "Would I take that task, if I couldn''t?". Heughed a bit, and said "You don''t even know what is wrong. How do you n o treating my pet?".


    I said "So far, I didn''te across an illness, I couldn''t heal. I will take a look, this will cost you nothing, while I can lose much more". He became serious, and said "That is true. I like your attitude boy. Come in, I will show you my pet". I entered the mansion, and the first impression I got, was ''This ce is lonely''. There were no other Golems, or even servants inside. It was just this one owner, and his pet, that I had yet to see.


    He took me to a room, in which a creature was lying down. I''ve never seen such a creature before. It looked like a dog, but it''s whole body, was made from stones. He said "This is te, my pet". I asked "What is the exact problem?". He replied "te doesn''t want to absorb energy, and is very weak. te is just like us Golems, we don''t eat food, like you humans do. We absorb the energy from special rocks. The whole city is built upon such rocks, as well as the areas around the city. I simply absorb the energy from a stone. te stopped doing it for some reason".


    I could see that the creature seemed weak, and it was quite small. I asked "Is it perhaps correct, that te was much bigger in the past?". He nodded his head, and said "That is correct. te was at least, three times bigger in the past. It almost has no energy left, and I lost hope to be honest. No one seems to know what to do". I thought about it for a while, then said "I will have a look".


    I walked over, and touched the stone dog. It felt just like any rock. It wasn''t warn, nor was it cold. I asked the Golem next to me. "Can I inspect you?". He became confused, so I exined "I don''t have much experience with these type of creatures. I want to check you first, to know what condition should te be in". He realised what I meant, and said "Alright". The Golem sat down, while I came over. I touched his forehead, arms and legs. ''Hmmm¡­ There is a difference. The Golem is much more refined, and somehow I can feel life coursing through the rock. The dog, has none of that'' I thought.


    I took out a dagger, and shed at the Golem. He became furious, and shouted "What the hell are you doing!". I said "Quiet down. I need to examine you properly. I''m not going to do anything inappropriate". The Golem was stunned and became quiet. I continued, and shed at some of the Golem''s limbs. Then I noticed a small strand of something going out. I asked "Do you feel pain?". The Golem replied "Yes, although not as much as you humans do". I asked another question "Did you perhaps feel some of your energy disappear? A very tiny amount of it?". He shook his head, and said "No". I said "Focus now. I''m going to do the same thing. Try to feel, if some of your energy disappears".


    I shed at the same ce a few more times, and the Golem eximed "I felt it! You are right, some of my energy did escape". ''So, this is the life energy of Golems. Let''s see, if I can harness some of it'' I thought. I then said to the Golem "You said that, you can absort the energy from special rocks. Can you do it now? Just focus on absorbing it, as much as you can". He nodded his head, and said "Alright". He took out some stones, and started absorbing the energy from them. I on the other hand, began shing at the same ce, as before. Soon, more and more of that life energy starteding out. I quickly took out a bottle, and tried collecting it. To my surprise, I managed to collect some. I said "You can stop now". The Golem stopped absorbing the energy from the stones, and asked "So, what have you found out?".


    I said, while showing him the bottle "This is your life energy. This is what your petcks. I''m aware that you knew about it, but now I know, how the energy looks like. I need to examine your pet now". I walked over to the pet and started shing at it. It didn''t seem to mind at all, it only looked at me confused. The Golem behind me, gritted his teeth loudly, but I didn''t stop.


    Soon, I saw a single strand of energying out, it was very weak. I tried collecting it, but only a faint whisp was collected. I looked at both vials and said "Interesting". The Golem behind said "What is so interesting?". I replied "Your energy, is different to that of your pet. This might be a reason, why it didn''t absorb the same energy. It might require a different one, in order to feed on". The Golem was confused, and asked "What different energy?". I also asked another question "When did this start happening? Was it soon after you got your pet?". He thought about it, and said "Yes, now that I think about it. This happened about 20, maybe more days, after me and te started living together". I nodded my head, and asked another question "Where did you get your pet from?".


    He said "I found te a long time ago. When I was out on a job, away from the City. I found te next to a cave. It seemed to like me, and tagged along. From that point, we were together". I asked "Do you remember which cave it was?". He thought about it for a while, and said "I think, I will be able to find that ce". I said "Good, then let''s go. I have a theory, but I need to make sure. If I''m correct, your pet can be saved. Before that, let me try one more thing".


    I took out a vial of medicine, and smeared it onto the stone dog. The medicine was quickly absorbed, and the stone dog seemed to regain a bit of rity, but it was still very weak. I said "Even if I give te more medicine, it will not solve the problem permanently. I could lie to you, and simply give te a lot of strong medicine, then proim to have cured your pet, and collect my rewards. I''m sure you figured out already, that I''m not going to do that. I also want to figure out that energy problem myself. Let''s go, take me to that cave".


    He was shocked. After a moment of being stunned, he woke up from his thoughts, and replied "You are quite honest. Fine, we will go to that cave. If you can really solve that energy problem, you will have my utmost gratitude".

 Chapter 225

    Chapter 225


    We went outside of the city, and headed towards the north western direction. We walked for a long time, before the Golem said "The cave in question, is over there", and he pointed at a cave in the distance. When we arrived in front of that cave, I went forwards and examined it. I hacked at the rocks outside, but found nothing. I decided to enter, and check the insides.


    The cave was upied by few Lears, but they were not crawling around everywhere. I went deeper, and shed at one of the rocks, that was still embed in the cave''s wall. After a while, I noticed some energying out. It was the same colour, as the energy the stone dog had. ''So my guess was correct. That te needs to feed on a different type of energy, than the one that Golems feed on. No wonder it didn''t want to absorb the stones, the owner provided for it'' I thought.


    I walked outside, and the Golem asked "Did you find anything". I replied "Yes, we need to bring te here. The quicker we do it, the better. This ce has the energy te requires". The Golem nodded his head, and we hurried back to the city. Back inside the city. We quickly ran towards the mansion, and entered it. The Golem picked up the stone dog from its resting ce, and we rushed towards the cave again.


    Usually, these Golems were slow, and easy going. The change in his attitude ad liveliness, was eye opening. The Golem was running so much, that he left deep prints in the ground. His strength, as well as his weight, contributed to that a lot, but it was a weird sight, watching a running Golem. We arrived back at the cave. This time, the journey took us much less time, than before. The Golem asked "What now?". I replied "ce te inside, deep inside. If it doesn''t start absorbing the energy by itself, I will help te absorb it". The Golem nodded his head, and entered the cave, while carrying te with him.


    I followed suit, and walked inside as well. He ced te down on the floor, and the stone dog immediately started absorbing the surrounding energy. The absorption seemed slow in the beginning, but then the rate increased. te absorbed the surrounding energy to the point, where it glowed with the life energy.


    Itsted about 20, maybe 30 minutes. te transformed in that time to a huge dog, full of life. The Golem was so pleased, he almost jumped with joy. I didn''t interrupt their reunion, and waited patiently, for the Golem and te to exchange their feelings. The Golem apologised many times during their exchange, but te wasn''t the least bit hateful. It still loved its owner. When the Golem and te finally reconciled, they turned towards me. The Golem said "Thank you. I lost hope a long time ago, yet the solution was so simple. I''m really grateful. Tell me, what can I do for you?".


    I thought about it for a while, and nothing came to my mind. I said "It''s fine. I will get my reward from the Mercenary Guild. Maybe there will be something in the future, that I might require. Would you be willing to help me then?". The Golem nodded his head, and said "Of course. Whenever you need something,e by my house. I will also put in a good word to the Guild for you. You should get a greater reward, than what I offered in that task".


    That point was bugging me all along. ''Why was the reward so small? That Golem really cares for this stone dog, so why create such a low ranking task?'' I thought. I decided to ask about it "Why did you ce such a small reward on that task? I can clearly see, that you care for te. I don''t understand, why such a small reward?". He replied "This is already fourth time, I ced that task inside the Guild. In the beginning, it was Silver Ranked, and the rewards were multiple times better. Yet no one that came, could solve the problem. I then lowered the standards, to Steel Rank and gave better rewards. Still nothing happened. Whoever came to try and cure te, was unsessful. Medicine only allowed te to stay alive longer, but as you already said, it didn''t solve the problem. As ast attempt, I simply left a Bronze Rank task inside the Guild. I also ced that condition on purpose. It would deter those, who thought they could do something. I was tired of dealing with such kind of people, so if they wanted to bother me, they would be required to pay back the contribution, in case they failed. No one came to fulfil the task. Until you came, and cured te".


    I nodded my head, and thought ''It makes sense. No wonder he said, that he lost hope''. I then said "Well, the task is done. I suggest that youe here often, or get these stones to your mansion. I also suggest looking for simr caves. I don''t know how much energy is in this cave, and I don''t know, for how long it willst. If you find more caves, this should solve the problem for a long term". He nodded his head, and said "Let us return then. Remember to visit me, if you need anything".


    We went back to the city. The Golem and te headed straight to their home, probably to catch up on all of the missed time. I on the other hand, went to the Mercenary Guild. The Golem signed my task paper, and said that this would prove my task waspleted. When I walked over to the counter, the Golem I usually spoke with, was not there. I went to another Golem, and said "I finished my task, here is the proof". The Golem looked at the paper, then at me. He asked "Can you wait a minute?". I replied with a question as well "Is there something wrong?".


    He shook his head, and said "It''s not that. The Golem you spoke with about this task, asked me to inform him, when youe back. I will go get him". I nodded, but still thought ''That''s weird. I mean, I''m just handing in the task. Why would he want to deal with it personally?''. I had no idea, but I would probably find out soon. After a while, the Golem I spoke with usually, came over and said "So, you''vepleted the task. I''m amazed you know. There were many people trying in the past, and all failed to cure this pet permanently. Yet here you are".


    I asked "Why did you want to deal with me personally?". The Golemughed a bit, and said "I like you kid. I obviously know who you are, most Golems know that. I just wanted to see how you are going to develop, that''s all". I thought about it, and said "You must hold some power here, for another Golem to go and fetch you". Heughed again, then said "Seems to be the case". Short silenceter, he continued "For this task, you will receive the standard reward. You will also receive a bonus rewards for aplishing it. The bonus will be provided by that owner, as well as me. This task has been on disy for a very long time now, you solving it, gives us a good name as well. This requires a proper reward. Pass me your membership stone".


    I passed him the stone, and he continued "The task itself, is worth 4 Red Hals and 200 Contribution Points. Besides that, you will receive a bonus from the owner of that creature. The Bonus is 2 ck Hals, and another 100 Contribution Points. From me, you will receive 500 Contribution Points. All together, you shall receive 2 ck and 4 Red Hals, as well as 800 Contribution Points". He registered all that onto my Membership Stone, then gave it back together with the money.


    When that was taken care of, he continued "Congrattions kid. You are now Bronze Rank 2nd Tier. You have 900 Contribution points, and only 100 away from Tier 3. This is also a record, you are the fastest growing member. No one managed to gain that many contribution points, in two days. This has also been recorded onto your stone. Thanks to that achievement, you shall have ess to Steel Rank tasks, before you achieve Steel Rank".


    I didn''t know what to say, no one really gave me so many benefits in the past. I could only squeeze out "Great". He continued with the same speech as before "You can now take on another task, or rest a bit. You have 100 days toplete another task". I nodded and said "I get it. Right, I''m off to see some more tasks". I went back to the area with those boards, but this time, I check out both Bronze and Steel Ranked tasks.

 Chapter 226

    Chapter 226


    The Bronze Ranked tasks, were pretty much all boring. Mostly low level jobs, where I would need to help someone move stuff, collect things and so on. Or very few that required fighting to some degree. Steel Ranked tasks were different. These tasks mostly revolved around hunting creatures, finding rare materials, or creating different sorts of tools, weapons and whatnot.


    After a while of browsing, I managed to find another interesting task. I took it with me to the counter. The same Golem I just spoke with, read through the task, and asked "Are you sure about that? Given your reputation, I would not rmend it". I nodded, and said "I know, but there is a way to hide my identity, and carry out this task at the same time". He seemed interested, and asked "What is it then?". I said "I need a mask. Can someone here make one?". He realized what I meant, and said "I know a guy, who makes these type of things. I will give you his address. Tell him Graver sent you. Should I register that task for you?". I nodded, and said "Yes, I will also go meet that guy, before I head over there". He nodded his head, and registered the task on my stone. He then passed me a note, with the address.


    I headed straight to that address. When I arrived at my destination, I stood in front of a simple house. It didn''t look like someone traded from it, or even lived in there. I knocked on the doors, and waited. No one answered. I knocked again, but louder this time. Again nothing happened. "Weird. Is that guy not home? I don''t really have time to search for him" I said out loud, then shouted towards the door "Hey, are you in there? Graver sent me". After a while, I finally picked up some kind of noise from inside, then the doors opened.


    The creature that opened the door, was not a Golem, or a Lizard. He was just like a human, but very small. The small human asked, quite annoyed "What do you want?". I said "I need a mask. Graver said you specialise in those kind of things". He replied "So what?", and closed the door. ''If you want it the hard way...'' I thought, and kicked the door open. The little humans shouted "What are you doing!". I said "I want a mask. I''m kind of short on time, so I don''t want to spend it on bullshit. Make me one, and I''m gone".


    The little human thought for a while, and mumbled "At least you have some balls¡­". He then said "Alright,e in, I will make you that mask". We went inside the house. When I looked around, I saw loads of scrap and materials,ying on the floor. The whole ce was a mess. He said "Follow me", which I did and we went down the stairs, into the basement. Inside the basement, a huge furnace filled almost half of the space avable. There were different types of ore, scattered around the floor. Some notes, papers and whatnot littered the floor as well. Besides that, there was a crafting bench in the corner, as well as smithing bench in the next corner.


    The little human asked "Why do you need that mask? In such a hurry as well?". Before I could say anything, he added "I don''t care, so don''t answer. I just asked myself". He then continued "Did Graver mention, how expensive my stuff is?". I shook my head, and replied "No. I imagine that, I should be able to pay for a mask". Heughed a bit, and said "That depends on what you want". I didn''t understand what he meant. ''I want a mask, does a certain design cost much more or something?'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I said "I want a mask, that looks like the face of a skeleton. Make it, and I will pay you". Heughed even more, and said "What? That''s it? A in mask? Why would Graver send you here then?". I asked as well "What the hell do you mean? I just want a mask, what type of mask did you want to make exactly?".


    He mumbled under his breath again "That stupid Graver¡­". I interrupted his mumbling, and asked "Right, so why is your stuff so expensive?". He sighed, and said "Formations. Ever heard of them?". ''Now I know what he meant by "That depends on what you want". No wonder he said it may cost me a bit'' I thought. I then replied "Yes, I know what Formations are. Doesn''t matter to me, if you want to add Formations, just tell me the cost". He shook his head, and said "I told you, it depends on the Formations". I thought about it, and said "Something which you can make fairly quickly. If you have a Formation that will prevent someone from recognising me, that would be great. Make it though as well, and this should do".


    He nodded his head, and said "For that type of mask, you will pay 10 ck Halls". I was a bit stunned, and replied "It''s quite expensive, for a mask alone". He said "It has Formations, friend". I replied "Whatever, make it then", but before he went to work, he said "Not so fast. Money first". I handed him 10 ck Hals, and said "Can you now make it?". He nodded, and replied "Of course! Wait outside. When I''m done, I will call you in". I went upstairs, and sat on a chair. It was quite small to be honest, but then, the guy was small too.


    I waited for over an hour, before I finally heard "Alright, you cane down". I went into that basement again, and the little human greeted me with my new mask. It looked like skeleton''s face, just as I described. One could go even as far, as to say it was skeleton''s face. He said "The mask is ready, and should fit you very well. Give it a try, and tell me what you think". I took the mask, and ced it on my face. Indeed the fitment was perfect, and the mask was quite light. ''I was kind of scared, he would make it from metal. He didn''t, which is good'' I thought. Before I left, he asked "Do you need anything else? Your clothes don''t look very well".


    I said "I don''t have time now. Besides, you charge 10 ck Hals for a mask. How much would I need to fork out, for a set of clothes?". Now that I had the mask, I didn''t need anything else, so I headed upstairs. The little humans shouted "Wait! I have a set already. How about you take it, try it out, and then pay me, when you have enough money?". ''Something smell bad here, and I don''t mean the guy himself'' I thought. I looked at him seriously, and asked "What is wrong with it?". He smirked and eximed "Nothing at all!". I replied "Then keep it", and went upstairs.


    The little human ran up the stairs as well, and called out again "Hey, wait! Alright, I want you to test it, so I don''t want any money. Test it for me, and it''s yours. Any problems you report, I will try to fix them for free. How about that?". ''Hmmm¡­ a tempting offer, if it''s for free. The problem is, something might go wrong with these clothes¡­ I''m still curious though'' I thought.


    "Alright, show me that set" I said. The little human went downstairs, and brought me a set of clothes. The set consisted of a long brown coat with a hood, ck boots, and brown trousers. I must admit, that the quality looked amazing. I took them, and asked "I need to know what can go wrong. I don''t mind testing them, but tell me in advance. This way, I can make some preparations, when it does happen". He nodded his head, and said "Fair enough".

 Chapter 227

    Chapter 227


    The little human exined "This set of clothes, has couple of my new Formations ced on them. The boots have Boost Formation, that I modified from the standard. It gives 25% boost to your speed, but there can be a problem. Due to modifications I carried out, the boots may sometimes dictate your direction". I asked a bit confused "In what way?". He replied "Let''s say you are running at your opponent, but then the Formation ys a trick, and you are sliding backwards instead. There is a chance that it may happen, or it might never happen. When it does happen, it willst for a short time only. Of course, if it happens at all. It''s a possibility, that''s why I''m telling you".


    I nodded my head, and asked "What else?". He continued "The boots also have an improved Toughness Formation. This should work no problem though. I used it on other items, and didn''t find any problems. There is also a third Formation. It''s my own creation and I called it the Camouge Formation. It is a bit tricky though". "How so?" I asked. He replied "The Camouge Formation¡­ may or may not work. If it does work, then another problem might arise. Let''s say, you want to hide your presence, and the Formation works. Suddenly, your clothes change colour to that of bright red for example, not only the camouge stops working, you be more visible. I suggest using that with caution".


    I said "Right, and how do I activate the Formation?". He looked at me, as if looking at an idiot, and asked "You don''t know? Then why didn''t you ask that before?". I replied "Just answer the question". He sighted, and said "It''s simple really. You just have to focus on activating that Formation, and it will activate". I thought about it, and replied "I think I know how to do it". The reason was simple, I had the Storage Feather, which also had Formations. It turned out, I had to do the same thing in order to activate it.


    I then realised something, and asked "Then what about this Boost Formation? I have to activate it too?". He said "No, it''s a constant effect Formation. You really know shit. There are constant or rather Permanent Formations, and there are Temporary Formations. Permanent are much more expensive, and require much more work, while Temporary Formations, are activated only when you want them to activate. This makes you also lose energy, as the Formations takes it from your body". I nodded, and asked "Alright. What about the coat then?".


    He said "The coat is a bit more tricky. There are three Formations ced on it as well. The improved Toughness Formation, which should work without any issues. The Camouge Formation, which I already told you about, and the improved Regenerative Formation".


    The little human continued "The Regenerative Formation is.. different. This one was the hardest to make, and it¡­ might have a problem". I already expected something bad. "The problem is, instead of regenerating you¡­ it might drain your energy, and will not regenerate you at all" he said, then took a proper look at me. I wasn''t happy, when he saw that, he quickly continued "Fortunately! It''s a Temporary Formation. So it''s not active at all times. The Formation is not dangerous at all, when you just wear that coat, without activating it".


    He then continued "Thest piece of the set, are the trousers. The trousers have the same Camouge Formation ced on them. You already know about that. There is also the Toughness Formation, which you know about as well". I realised something, and asked "Wait, all three pieces have the Camouge Formation. What if one activates correctly, but other don''t?". He shook his head, and said "They are connected, that is why this is a set. When you think about activating the Camouge Formation, all 3 pieces from the set will be activated. Whether it works or not, is a different story".


    I nodded my head, and said "I don''t understand. You already know about some issues, yet you still want me to test it?". He replied "Yes, I need the set tested in real conditions. Otherwise, I will have to spend a lot of time, in order to figure out, how to correct these mistakes. This will make my job easier". I nodded my head, and said "Alright". He continued "Keep it for a while, and use it as intended, then bring it back here".


    I nodded, and said "Fine, but remember that I expect a proper set, at the end of all this. With all Formations working as they should, and I want it for free as well". He replied "I already said it will be free, now go. Weren''t you in a hurry somewhere?". He reminded me about my task, so I replied "Yes, I need to go. Before that, I will change to this new set". He replied "Suit yourself", and went back to his basement. I quickly changed, then headed towards the destination of my task.


    The reason I needed a mask, was exactly due to my task being a bit public. The task required for me to fight in the Arena. The owner of the Fnks Arena required warriors, who would win 10 battles against the challengers. I couldn''t lose even one battle, but the rewards were quite good. I would get 530 Contribution Points and 5 ck Hals for my troubles. Although any medicine and whatnot, was not supplied. I had to take care of that by myself.


    The Arena was about one day of travel, away from Varent. I had to report there the next day, before the time ran out. In case I waste, I would lose 250 Contribution Points and would need to pay 15 ck Hals as apensation. I ran towards the location, as the time was tight. When I finally arrived, I noticed a huge building in the desert. ''So, this is the Arena?'' I asked myself.


    There were many creatures walking to and fro the Arena. I could also hear loud cheeringing from inside. It was a round building, not squared as I mostly encountered. It was also very tall. At least 5 storeys tall, and the size was colossal as well. I walked towards it, and entered through the same gate, as the other creatures did. I already had the mask on my face. Some passersby gave me a second look, but usually no one cared much. I went to the frontdesk and said "I''m here to carry out the task", then passed the task paper to the Lizard behind the counter. It was a female, and she said "Great, the owner was waiting for you. You are thest one to arrive, the others are already waiting in the meeting room. Follow me, I will take you there".


    We went through some doors, then upstairs. After some more walking, we finally arrived at the meeting room. There were bunch of other people inside, who came to do the same task presumably. She said "Wait here, and the owner will arrive soon". I nodded my head, then stood in one spot of the room. ''Let''s see what we have in here'' I thought, and checked out the others, inside the room.


    In overall, there were 6 more people inside that room. Three of them, were humans. There were also two Lizards, and one other creature I didn''t encounter before. It looked like arge ape. It must''ve been intelligent, because the ape like creature was wearing clothes, and conversed with the two Lizards. One of the humans came over, and said whileughing "What''s up with that get up? Are you a Shade?". I shook my head, and said "I''m as much human, as you are".


    He then replied "First time here?". I said "Yep". I kept my answers short, and the guy noticed that, but didn''t really care much. He seemed like a talkative guy. He continued "Then wee. We are notpeting against ourselves, the challengers are our opponents. I''m looking forward to your matches. I wonder what this mysterious friend has to offer". He then went back to the other humans, and talked away.


    Soon after, the owner arrived. It was another race, I never saw before. To be honest, he looked like arge pig, but walked on two legs instead four. He was also quite fat, tall, and had his tusks protruding from his mouth . If not for the clothes he was wearing, he would look just like arge pig, but with a more ugly face. He said "Wee to the Fnks Arena. I''m sure you know, what you are supposed to do. Each of you is required to win 10 battles. Then your task will bepleted. I''m counting on you, as it is my profits we are talking about. Fight to win!".


    He then left, and one of the attendants, who looked like a pig as well, walked in. He said "Follow me. I will take you to the Fighting tform". We all followed the attendant, and went down the stairs. I didn''t know much about this Arena, but I was certain of one thing, win 10 fight andplete my task. We arrived at the ce, where a raised circr tform was located. It was quiterge, and took about ? of the open space of the Arena. We headed to a corner next to that tform, where seats were provided for the amount of people gathered.

 Chapter 228

    Chapter 228


    The pig attendant, started from the introduction. He said "I''m Cwik, and because there are some neers, I will exin the rules". He looked at our group, then continued "You are required to win 10 battles each. If you lose, you are eliminated, and so your task ends. There are usually 20 battles in a day, so in overall, you may be here for couple of days. If you need supplies, you can buy them at the shops, around the Arena".


    He then continued "Fighting rules are simple. No poison or medicine is allowed. You can use any weapon, but you are not allowed to kill your opponent. In case of extreme circumstances, you may be able to avoid punishment, if you do kill someone. The urrences like these are very rare, so make sure it stays that way. If you leave the Battle tform before the fight ends, whenever voluntarily or by force, it is your loss. You can of course make your opponent leave the Battle tform as well. When you are called out, it will be your turn to fight. So be prepared, when we call your name out. That is pretty much it, fight to win".


    He then left us alone, while we awaited the battles. No one seemed to know the order, I decided to enquire more, about that ape like creature in our group. For that, I walked over to the talkative guy from before. He was talking with the other man and woman, when I interrupted him. "What can you tell me, about that creature over there?" I asked, and pointed at the apelike creature. He looked over, and said "You don''t know what race that is?". I shook my head, and said "I never encountered it, so I don''t know".


    He nodded his head, and said "The race is called Atols. They usually fight with their hands, but sometimes use blunt type weapons. They are quite strong, even stronger than humans and sometimes Golems, but not as agile as us. They are quite friendly to other races. Of course besides one or two, that they are at war with". I nodded, and said "You''ve done this before, I assume". He replied "Yea, this is my fourth time already, but I lost once. This of course deduced my Contribution Points, and I had to pay the price as well. Although, with two wins, my losses were covered. If I win this time, my profits will be quite substantial".


    I asked a bit confused "This is quite risky, why not do a different task?". He looked at me, and asked "Then why did you chose this one as well? It is a challenge to win here, and we all seem to like a challenge. Don''t you agree?". I thought about it, and said "Fair point". I then heard an announcement "It''s time to start out first battle of the day! Our fourth time returnee Rnd, is going to fight against Anigah!". The crowd positioned above us and around the whole Arena, cheered loudly.


    The guy I just spoke with, said "It''s my turn". I nodded, and replied "Let''s see how you fight then". The guy smiled, and went over to the Battle tform. His opponent was a a Shade, they usually wrapped their faces in cloths, bandages, or covered them in one way or another, but the eyes were usually visible. The fight started. The Rnd guy, was using a sword as his weapon. The Shade guy, was using two short swords on the other hand.


    I watched the exchanges, and noticed that the Rnd guy was fast, even as fast as me. Not only that, he seemed to know a few sword techniques. One even reminded me of that sword woman, who severed my arm. ''I wonder if they are rted. If I could find her now, I would pay back for what she did. That bitch will die miserably, sooner orter'' I thought to myself. The fight was quite short. When the Shade guy got injured pretty badly, he forfeited the fight.


    Rnd came down from the tform, and smiled. He said "It wasn''t that difficult", as if showing off. ''He sustained no injuries. I guess it wasn''t that hard for him to win, after all'' I thought. The announcer shouted again "The next battle, will be between the neer Apam and Flint!". The Atol entered the tform. On the other side of the tform, arge Golem enter as his opponent. The Golem had four arms, and each arm held a sword. ''I wonder how strong, that Apam will be'' I thought.


    The battle was quite evened out in the beginning, but then the Atol started loosing. ''I think the Atol will lose here'' I thought to myself, and watched the battle. After a while, my thoughts became the reality. The Atol struggled a lot, until finally he lost. The Atol was quite injured, and had to be taken down from the stage. The pig attendants ced him on one of the seats, and left him there. No one seemed concerned about his wellbeing.


    I walked over to the Atol, and asked "Do you need help". The Atol replied surprised "You are willing to help me? If you can, I will ept, but I don''t have any money to pay you". I waved my hand, and said "Doesn''t matter, you can tell me about your race in exchange". He nodded his head in agreement. I gave him two bottles, of the Vital Liquid. It was the lower grade medicine, but I only wanted some information. After handing him the bottles, I said "Drink one, and smear the other one on your wounds. They should heal much faster".


    He thanked me, and did as I instructed. I then heard the announcer again. "The next battle, will be between Garond and Livia". The Garond guy, was the other human from our group, while Livia was some sort of snake like creature. Her bottom half was that of a snake, while her top half, was that of a human. They both entered the stage, and the battle begun.


    The Garond guy was using an axe, as his weapon. He was quite robust as well, and his muscles were showing when he wielded it. On the other hand, the half snake, half human creature, wielded two swords. She was much faster than Garond, but that guy possessed some good skills, and he seemed to have some pretty decent Formations on his clothes. Garond won in the end, by utilising a skill, I already experienced. It was a sort of charge skill, that increased his speed greatly. He charged at the half snake, half human creature, and the impact threw her out of the stage.


    ''These humans are quite good'' I thought, but I also noticed one problem. My skills were mostly used to kill, yet I couldn''t kill my opponent. I only had the Pressuring Dagger skill, which had the least chances of killing in one blow. My Art of Hidden Weapons, could not be used here. ''If I use it here, I may risk getting exposed. Humans are watching as well, and I don''t want to get chased again'' I thought. I was left with the bow, or simple closebat, and Pressuring Dagger skill. ''Using the freezing powers, is also something I want to avoid. The less people know about me, the better'' I thought.


    The battle was over. I said to Apam, that was sitting next to me "Alright, tell me bout your race then". He narrated his part of the story, which was not very long. His race, was not the so called "Main" race of the North. His race had a small poption, and only 1 small city, if you could call it a city. They were friendly to most creatures, but hated Eterians and Avians. He also exined where his race is located, then mentioned toe and visit him there. "Thanks, I will visit, when I get the chance. I myself wonder about your race" I replied. He nodded, and sat there quietly tending to his wounds. ''This is a race, that is pretty much on my side. They don''t like Avians.... and, well Eterians are hated everywhere. I should visit that ce in the future'' I thought.


    Soon, the announcer shouted again. "In the next battle, two neers to the Arena will fight each other! Please wee the Dark Traveller and Fox!". ''Hmmm?'', I looked towards the stage, and my hunch was correct. ''So it''s her. We meet sooner than you thought'' I said to myself, and entered the tform.


    Two people stood in front of each other. Both had masks, and both were humans. They both knew each other, yet one didn''t realise that. The fight started, and my opponent took out the all familiar dagger, that I created a long time ago. She started by throwing them at me. ''I''d say, her skills are quite good. Although she isn''t using much from the Art of Hidden Weapons, her daggers are tricky to evade'' I thought. This wasn''t a problem for me though, with my trained eyes, as well as the Natural Path skill, I could easily evade them. ''If she added the element of surprise to her attacks, in the form of hiding her weapons, her skills would be much better though'' I thought.


    She realized, that her attacks didn''t seem work. She instead decided to fight me in closebat. I weed that, but didn''t take out my daggers. I fought her with my bare fists. She was quite agile too, her closebat was much better than mine. She also possessed some tricky techniques, I was nearly shed a few times thanks to my carelessness. One of her techniques, was really peculiar. ''It almost got me'' I thought. She could somehow vanish from in front of me, and appear behind me. The first time she used it, I was shocked. I managed to avoid that attack, only thanks to my instincts. Otherwise, I would get backstabbed.


    ''Woah, she is not bad at all. Her strength is lower than mine, but she has much more experience in closebat than me. She also has more techniques than me. It seems, I''mcking in different ways of attacking'' I thought. Getting distracted like this, was not a good idea. My opponent was not some kind of rookie. She took the chance while I was distracted, and kicked my leg. The ce she kicked, was the backside of my knee. This involuntarily made my knee bend a little, and I lost my bnce.


    Before she could finish up, I used my full strength in the other leg, and pushed myself of the tform. "Boom!", the tform tiles didn''t even crack, at my full strength. I jumped backward over 20 metres, and she stopped her attack. I was a bit confused, but then she asked "Why don''t you use your weapon? Fighting barehanded, is not you speciality. Am I right?". I stood up, and smiled underneath my mask.

 Chapter 229

    Chapter 229


    I decided not to reply, and simply waved my hand in a motion, which meant "Come at me". She didn''t seem to like that gesture, and charged at me with her full speed. I still used my fists, but it was even harder to hit her now. She, on the other hand, was getting closer and closer to injuring me. Then suddenly, my new boots yed a trick, and moved me towards her. ''Shit, this is bad. I have no control over it whatsoever!'' I thought, as I slid towards her. She didn''t think much of it, and chose to take that opportunity.


    "Swoosh!". As her dagger shed through my chest, I managed to regain the control, and jumped backwards. She didn''t miss, but fortunately the clothes I got, were much tougher than I expected. My coat only had a long mark, but was not ripped or damaged seriously. ''Her attack didn''t go through my coat whatsoever. I jumped backwards, but the attack connected anyway. Still, I have to give it to that little human, this set is not half bad'' I thought. I then sprung back to my feet, and distanced myself from her attacks. ''This was close though. I think it''s time to end this. I don''t want to lose the contribution, I''ve gained so far'' I thought, and used 100% of my strength.


    I bent my knees slightly, then released all the built up strength. "BOOOM!". She didn''t expect that kind of burst of speed, especially since I had the Boost Formation in my boots. I punched out, while she tried to evade, but it was futile at such speed. "Booom!"


    She flew through the air, andnded outside of the tform. The announcer eximed "After a long fight, we have a winner! It''s the Dark Traveller!", and the crowd cheered. I went down the tform, and arrived in front of my opponent. She was quite hurt, as I used a lot of my strength to punch. Probably some of her rib bones were broken, she had difficulty to breathe and stand up. When she saw me, she asked weakly "What... do you... want? You... already won". I gave her two vials of Healing Essence, and left.


    ''I don''t want her to recognise me. I don''t want anyone here, to know who I really am. There will be another time, we might meet, perhaps in a more friendly environment'' I thought. She could be considered something like a friend of mine. She helped me out in need, and I had no bad feelings towards her. The medicine would let her heal much faster. When I thought about friends, I realised that I had very few of them.


    ''Besides Crow, who I can consider as a friend. There is also Lazar and Harlin, and I guess she can be counted in that bunch too. Fox was her name¡­ Well then Fox, till we meet next time'' I thought, and sat down on one of the chairs provided. As I sat there, I noticed some of her teammatesing over, and helping her up. When she showed the medicine to another woman in the group, the woman became excited, and talked with her about something. Then, they both looked my way, and nodded their heads while smiling. Well, the other woman was smiling, Fox was still wearing that mask.


    ''Weird bunch of people. It''s just some medicine. Even though it''s expensive in the North, humans should be more ustomed, to such grade of medicine. Anyway'' I thought, and gave it a rest. The talkative guy came over, and said "Nice job. You didn''t even use your weapon. I just wonder, why did you allowed her to hit you?". I said "It was a mistake. She used it that chance well, I give her that much". He didn''t pester me anymore, while the announcer shouted "The next fight, will be between Olia and Fral!".


    This time, the woman from our group went to the stage. She was using a bow, as her weapon of choice. ''This is a good chance, to see how real archers fight'' I thought, and watched with interest. Her opponent was a Lizard, with a dagger in each hand. I observed how she attacked, and positioned herself. After a while, I noticed a weird foot technique, it was the same when advancing, and when retreating. ''Interesting, her footwork is so stable, she is able to keep a steady aim at her opponent at all times'' I thought, and tried to memorize the steps.


    It wasn''t that profound, but I also wouldn''t be able to imitate it straight away. ''When I get some time, I will practice that with my bow. I will be able to figure out, whether it''s going to be usable or not'' I thought. The battle soon ended, and the Lizard gave up. He had a very hard time getting closer, and she also injured him slightly. When she came down from the tform, the announcer shouted out the names of the next contenders, that would battle on the Battle tform.


    No one lost in the first round of the battles, besides the Atol called Apam. The Atol left when his wounds got better. He couldn''t be challenged again, this meant only six of us were left. After a short break, another round of fights begun. This time, my opponent was a Lizard, and I took care of him without any issues. The others won their fights as well, and the third round began.


    The announcer shouted "This will be thest round of the day. Can our warriors survive this round, or will some of them fall? We will soon find out!". The announcer started calling out the names left and right. One of the Lizards from our team, got an opponent, who was quite strong. The Lizard lost in the end, and was eliminated.


    Others managed to fight their way through. I had some hard time too, because my opponent in the third round, was a Golem. I had to make him leave the tform, in order to win. The Golem called Oval, was quite strong, but much slower than me. This allowed me to trick him, and kick him out of the tform. The announcer shouted for thest time, when thest battle ended "Today''s matches will end here. Give our warriors some love, by cheering!" The crowd did as he instructed, then continued "Come back tomorrow, for more carnage, blood and sweat! Find out, if any of the challengers will be triumphant, or will they all fall, at the feet of our warriors?". The crowd cheered again, then slowly dispersed.


    The pig attendant called Cwik, came over, and said "I will take you to your quarters. Make sure you are prepared for the next day. Get some good rest, and keep on fighting!". We all followed Cwik, while he assigned a room to each of us. The rooms were located in a remote part of the Arena. When he assigned rooms to all of us, he left. n the other hand, the talkative guy Rnd came over to me, and asked "Wanna go out for a drink?". I shook my head, and replied "I will rest early". He didn''t seem to mind, and went with the other two humans out for a drink.


    ''I might not go for a drink, but I should have a look at the Arena. They may have something here, that I could use'' I thought. I didn''t go the same way as the others, and headed towards the opposite direction. The Arena was round, therefore it didn''t matter whether I went left or right, I would still get back to the same ce eventually. I visited couple shops and stalls on my way. The small time shops and stalls had nothing of interest to me really, they mostly sold stuff like food, basic tools and some other trinkets.


    I also found a shop that sold medicine, but it wasn''t as good as mine. They charged quite a price for it as well. ''I guess that, when someone really needs it, they might not have the choice, and will buy it'' I thought. The further I went, the better shops I encountered. I found a shop with weapons, clothes and whatnot. I browsed through them, but I didn''t need a new weapon, nor new clothes. ''I could use some better arrows though'' I thought.


    The shop with weapons, had arrows as well. I asked for some good arrows, and the price seemed fine. The arrows I chose, costed 60 Red Hals per 100 arrows. The arrowheads were made from Purified Steel, which was not very bad, and the wood used for the shafts, was some sort of variation of oak wood. From what the owner said, the shafts were much harder,pared to normal oak, but at the same time, they were heavier. I told him "I will take 200 of these arrows then". The owner, who was a Lizard, nodded his head and replied "Of course. Is there anything else, you would like?". I shook my head, and took the arrows only.


    I checked a few other stores, but didn''t manage to find anything useful. I decided to head back, and get some rest. As I walked through the Arena''s passage, I heard "Ah! It''s that guy!", from behind me. ''How the hell did they find out?'' I thought immediately, but my worries were unfounded. It was the woman who talked with Fox, after our fight. ''Haaah.. I almost got a heart attack back then'' I thought. She was together with 3 other members in that team. The leader guy was there as well, but he didn''t say anything.


    She ran over, and said "You beat her up quite badly. At least you are a nice guy, and gave her some medicine. Don''t think that you will have things easier though! Tomorrow, you might face one of us, and Fox is the new member in our team. The weakest one as well. This is just a heads up for you, as a thanks for the medicine". She said all that, in pretty much one breath. ''I didn''t think, someone might beat than that Rnd guy, when ites to talking'' I thought.


    The others joined in, while the leader guy asked "Did we meet somewhere?". I shrugged my shoulders, and turned around to leave. They knew my voice, so I didn''t want to expose my disguise by answering. The leader guy was not very pleased, and I felt a dangerous Aura surrounding me. The Aura felt like a wild animal, was eyeing my back. I stopped, and released my own Aura, but in the two metres radius. They couldn''t feel it, but his Aura was neutralised, and I went on my way.


    My condensed Aura, was much more powerful, than his spread out Aura. That was why, I could easily neutralise his Aura. The woman seemed surprised, and shouted "Hey, wait¡­" but before she could finish, the leader guy responded "Don''t bother him. He is much stronger, than what he showed us today". She asked him for the reason and all that, but he just stood there quietly.


    I didn''t take it to my heart, and simply returned back to my own room. The room had a lock, but I still decided to stay in that mask. ''Someone may have a key, or try to spy on me. It''s not ufortable in that mask anyway'' I thought, andid on the bed. ''Tomorrow, I might face that leader guy, or one of my teammates might face him. Either way, I''d like to see his full potential'' I thought, and went to sleep.

 Chapter 230

    Chapter 230


    The next day, our small group went back to the Fighting tform, in the middle of the Arena, and awaited our turns. When the crowd arrived, the announcer shouted "Wee Ladies and Gentlemen, to the second day of the of the battles! Today, we raised the bar for our warriors, and selected stronger challengers, that will face them on the Fighting tform!". He then shouted "What do you want to see?!", and the crowd responded "BLOOD! CARNAGE! BATTLE!".


    The announcer seemed satisfied with the crowd, so he continued "The first match, will be between the Dark Traveller, and the returning warrior Sonar! Let the battle begin!". ''I was up first, and my opponent was something, I never encountered before either". As I stood up, the talkative guy Rnd said "Watch out. This guy has loads of wins in the Arena. He is a Voltar, so beware". I nodded my head, and jumped onto the tform.


    The creature that stood in front of me, looked like a human, with one crucial difference. ''This guy looks like, he is made from energy'' I thought. The blue humanoid like creature, stood in front of me, while strands of electric energy, danced around his body. The Voltar had a body, but it was kind of transparent. ''This guy is going to be tough. I don''t think, my bare hands will do much here'' I thought. I also got a warning, from Rnd. I wasn''t sure, what I was supposed to be aware of, but I would find out soon probably.


    The Voltar just stood in one ce, and extended his hand. A beam of energy shot out of it, and headed straight at me. "Crackle"... "Screeech!". I evaded quickly, but because it was a surprise attack, my clothes were still scorched a bit, due to the residue of that electric attack. I felt very slight numbness in my arm as well. I took a look at the ce, where that attacknded, and I noticed a scorched mark on the tform''s tiles. ''This is bad. This Voltar is not only fast, he is deadly as well'' I thought, and took out my bow.


    When the Voltar saw this, he said "Good choice. If you tried fighting me in closebat, you would lose very quickly". I said nothing, and simply notched an arrow. He stood there confident, doing nothing. I shot one arrow after the other, but what happened next, totally stunned me. He swiped his hand, and the electric energy came out of it. My arrows that were on target, suddenly changed their directions, and flew somewhere else.


    ''This is even worse'' I thought, and shot couple more arrows, but the same happened. ''I wonder, if it''s because the arrowheads are made from metal'' I thought, and decided to test something out. I rummage through my bag, and took out a few more arrows. These were not arrows with metal arrowheads, these were the arrows, with stone arrowheads. I still had some left, from the time, I fought against the army of Corpse Dogs. ''If my theory is correct, he should not be able to affect these arrows'' I thought, and started shooting the Purified Steel arrows first. One volley after the other, all of them were reflected, until one hit him.


    The arrow lodged itself inside his body, and he seemed shocked. I didn''t wait for him to figure out how that happened, and shot more arrows. He was distracted, but still managed to get away from most of the arrows, that I shot at him. Only two more arrows, managed to hit the target. He was pissed, and started shooting electricity at me. I had to evade, because the power of his attacks, was not something I could take on lightly.


    When the Voltar noticed that his attacks missed, he became even more angry, and charged at me. I shot couple more arrows, but he deflected them with his electric energy. I started running away, while he chased me. ''What am I supposed to do, against running thundercloud?'' I thought. I could hear the crowd cheering, while some even called me shameless. ''I would like to see you idiots deal with him'' I thought, when I heard the crowd booing.


    My ice powers were no good either, there was no point in trying. My daggers would not be of much help either. The daggers were made from metal, and my bow didn''t work, beside the few stone arrows I still had. ''What should I do? Can I really not win?'' I thought. I tried to find a way, while running away, and evading the Voltar. The problem was, that even though I evaded the attacks, my body was still bing more numb. My speed was starting to decrease as well. The Voltar was not slow by any means, I had to utilise everything I had, in order to escape.


    Then I came up with one solution. ''This is very risky, but it''s much better than running around, and losing anyway'' I thought, and changed direction, to run straight at the Voltar. The guy smirked and shouted "You lose!", and shot out multiple beams of electric energy at me. Before any of his attacks reached me, I prayed that the Regenerative Formation on my coat, would work this time. I thought about activating it, and my energy started depleting at a fast rate. The attacks of the Voltar arrived, the attack exploded on me, and turned into a thunderstorm.


    The Voltar stopped, andughed "I won!". Before he became too happy, I emerged from the thunderstorm, and punched him in hisughing face, with whatever strength I had left. "BOOOM!". The Voltar flew through the air like a rag doll, andnded outside of the tform. "Haah¡­ Haaah¡­", I had a hard time catching my breath. My clothes were charred, but still there. The mask fortunately survived, although it must''ve been charred as well.


    I could barely stand. My whole body was numb and didn''t want to listen to me. ''Fortunately, the Regenerative Formation worked this time. Otherwise, I might have burned to a crisp. What a Formation indeed, this guy create a nice piece of work there'' I thought. The numbness started to fade after a while, and I could finally move. I went down from the tform, and sat on one of the chairs. The talkative guy Ronald said "I didn''t think you will be able to pull it off. I don''t know, if I could do it too. Surviving that thunderstorm, was epic man". I was tired, so I simply said "Yea". An attendant came over to me, and said "If you need to use a room, in order to treat your injuries before the next battle, follow me". I nodded, and followed after the attendant.


    While we walked, he said "Your fight was truly great. We hope to see more of such battles. No one expected you to win, and so, you made great business for us". He only said the words of praise, no bonus or whatever was ever given to me. ''Well, I''m here to do a task, not collect gifts. I still need to win six more battles, hopefully my next opponent, is not that difficult'' I thought.


    We soon arrived at a private room, and the attendant said "Use it as much as you like, just remember toe out before your next battle". I nodded my head, and entered the room. The room had clean water, a chair and a table, but nothing else besides that. I made sure to lock the doors, and took my mask off. Fortunately my face was fine, there were no new scars on it. My hair that just recently grew back to a decent size, were protected by the hood of my coat. I was really thankful for that hood.


    My body was fine in overall, only the clothes were damaged a bit. ''I will need to make that guy repair them. I also don''t know, if the set is going to hold together, until the end of this whole task'' I thought. Just to make sure, I drank one bottle of Vital Liquid, and ate some meat. With my energy mostly restored, I dressed up and left the room.


    When I joined my other so called teammates, I noticed that one of them was missing. It was the human woman Olia. I asked Ronald "Did that Olia lose?". His face was grim, as he nodded his head. He said "Quite badly at that. She has a broken arm and leg. Her opponent was very strong. One of us might meet him in the finals". I was a bit confused, and asked "Finals?". He nodded, and replied "Yes, people who win with us, have the option to advance further. If they do, they are fighting for a bigger rewards. They can also take the reward for winning, and leave. I doubt that guy will leave though".


    I asked interested "What race was that guy?". He replied with disgust "Human, just like you and me. Although, I don''t like to call that type of people human. He pretty much tortured her, bastard". I nodded, and asked "Tell me more about him. I want to be more prepared, in case I meet him". Ronald replied "Sure, If this increases the chances of you breaking a few of his bones, I will dly tell you more about him".


    He then continued "The guy is called Razor. Whether that''s his real name or not, I don''t know. He uses two saw like swords to fight. He is very quick, as fast if not faster than you. He also possesses an Aura, I think he called it Frenzy Aura, well he is crazy after all. Look out when he uses it, you may lose more than your limbs. He is very forceful and likes to see blood, so he doesn''t use many techniques. There is one, which you should take a note of". I asked "What is that?". Ronald replied "It''s a technique where he connects both of his swords, and thanks to the Formation inside them, the saw like teeth start moving and vibrating. I''ve seen limbs fly, when he fights. Olia escaping with a broken arm and leg, is already fortunate. If he was serious, she would lose much more". I nodded my head, and said "Thanks, I will remember that". He nodded as well, and said nothing else.

 Chapter 231

    Chapter 231


    After that short conversation, I directed my view towards the tform. Thest Lizard in our group, was currently fighting a hard battle. He was losing against a Golem, that had four arms, each holding a different weapon. I asked Rnd, that stood next to me "Was thepetition, always so intense?".


    Rnd shook his head, and replied "No. I did this four times already, and this is the first time, such thing happened. I don''t know the reason, but usually, the hardest battles were fought in 10th round. Sometimes¡­", before he could finish, the battle on the tform came to a conclusion. The Lizard lost, while the announcer screamed "Another warrior goes down! There are only three warriors left! Will the challengers be the ultimate winners?".


    The crowd cheered even more. The announcer then screamed "The next battle, will be between Garond and Jora!". Garond made his way towards the tform, while Rnd that stood next to me, said "This is bad. I saw Jora''sst battle. He was fighting in the 10th round, and won. Garond may lose here". I looked at the tform, and thought ''Something is fishy around here. Supposedly, the owner employed us, in order to win and maximize his profits. Yet we receive hard opponents, in the 4th round already. This doesn''t make sense. I think the owner is on to some shady business''.


    Whether I thought like this or not, the Arena had one rule. You are either a winner, or a loser. If we lose, we fail our task, and if we win, we receive the rewards. ''When someone can''t win, it''s their fault. They were weaker, and so shouldn''t participate in such task'' I thought. It was a hard reality, and it left a bad taste in my mouth, knowing that someone is rigging the game.


    Jora was a Lizard, but not any Lizard. It had a hint of golden colour on its ck skin. ''Although this Lizard is not pure royalty, one of his parents must''ve been. That is why, he has a hint of golden colour on his body. No wonder he is strong, as long as he received some benefits from the royals, he should be strong'' I thought. Jora''s weapon of choice, was a single dagger. I also noticed something on his left hand, it looked like a bracelet of some sort.


    ''This thing might be a weapon, or some kind of item with a Formations. Let''s see how this goes'' I though, and watched the battle. Garond rushed at his opponent, but what happened next, surprised even me. ''This Jora guy is much faster than me. He is also quite strong'' I though. Garond received the beating of his life, then Jora threw him off the tform. He had no chances against such an opponent. Even I would have a hard time, fighting that guy, provided I used all my skills and my ice power.


    Garond barely picked himself up from the ground, and walked towards us. Rnd rushed over, and supported him. They both returned to our area, where Rnd ced Garond on one the chairs. I came over, and took a look at Garond. After a while, I said "His ribs are broken, as well as his arm". Rnd nodded, and give him some medicine. Although this Garond guy was my teammate, I would not give him stuff for free. His injuries were his problem. I only examined him, as it didn''t cost me anything.


    The crowd finally managed to calm down a bit, the announcer shouted "This was a quick battle! Let''s see if the next one will be even more thrilling!". The crowd screamed again, while the announcer spoke some other rubbish, I didn''t listen to. When he was done with his usual gibberish, he shouted "The next fight, will be between Rnd and Hagar!".


    Rnd didn''t seem happy, about his opponent. I asked "Can you win?", but Rnd shook his head, and said "I don''t know. This guy usually appeared in the 9th or 10th round. He is quite strong, I never fought with him, but I saw his battles before". He then headed towards the tform. Hagar was of the same race, as that pig owner and his assistant. Although Hagar was more robust, and taller, than the other two. On his back, arge axe was attached.


    The battle started, and both Rnd and Hagar ran at each other, with everything they had. Hagar was much strongerpared to Rnd, but Rnd was faster. They exchanged a few blows, and Hagar seemed to be winning, but then Rnd utilised his Aura. His Aura felt like a calm sword, that was about to take someone''s life. Rnd then released a skill. It looked simr to the one, that woman used to severed my arm. Hagar didn''t linger either, and released his own skill. The axe in his hand glowed red, and shot out a beam of fire towards Rnd.


    Both skills shed in the middle, and Rnd''s skill seemed to weaken in power, after the initial sh. It was about to break, when Rnd moved to the side, and used the same skill again. His first attack broke, and the beam of firended in the ce, that Rnd used to stand on. Hagar''s skill missed, and even worse for him, he was sted by Rnd''s skill.


    He tried blocking it, but was pushed back to the edge of the tform. Rnd shouted loudly "HAAAAH!", and used the skill again. Hagar intended to counter it, but because his skill was used in a hurry, it was less powerful. Hagar''s skill dispersed, and he was pushed outside of the tform. The announcer eximed loudly "Our warrior Rnd, wins!". Rnd seemed very tired. ''The skill must''ve used most of his energy'' I thought.


    He came back to our sitting area, and sat heavily onto one of the chairs. After a while, he said "If this is the 4th round, I don''t think, I will be able tost 6 more". I knew what he meant, if the battles got even harder, he would lose for sure. The question was, how much would he lose. Would it be some minor injuries, or much more than that?


    The announcer shouted "We are going for a short break now. After the break, the Dark Traveller will face Flint!". I thought ''Good, it''s the guy who won against that Atol. He should not be such an issue'' I thought. I decided to go to a private room, and eat some meat. I said to Rnd "I will be back soon". He nodded, and tended to his own tiredness. I went to the private room, and took off my mask.


    ''I wonder, if I''m be able to win all 10 battles as well? My next opponent is not that difficult, so this should give me some breathing time. I also need to y for time. I need Rnd, to share the difficult opponents. When I''m alone, I will have to face all of them'' I thought, and ate some meat. With my meal done, I went back to the area, and awaited my fight. Rnd seemed much better,pared to when he just left the tform.


    Soon, the announcer shouted "Wee back, after this short break! Dark Traveller and Flint, will now battle for the honor! Let the battlemence!". I stood up, and walked onto the tform. I already saw how Flint fought, so defeating him was not an issue. I still ned to take it slow. I needed to gain some time, for Rnd to recover. When enough time passed, I thought ''Alright, I will end it now'', and kicked Flint off the tform. I left the tform myself, and sat next to Rnd.


    Rnd said "You did this on purpose, to give me more time. I appreciate that". I replied "How are you? Can you continue?". He said "I have about 80% of my strength. It will depend on my opponent, but if it''s as easy as yours, I should win". I nodded my head, and awaited the announcement of the next battle.

 Chapter 232

    Chapter 232


    The announcer soon shouted "The next battle, will be between Rnd and Terens! Wee our warrior, and the challenger, as they enter the Fighting tform!". The crowd burst into cheers, while I said "This guys should not be so difficult. He won with the Lizard back then, but it was a close call. You should be alright". Rnd nodded his head, and replied "I know".


    Rnd went for a quick fight this time, to conserve his energy. He defeated his opponent without much of a problem, and returned to our waiting area. "I guess, it''s going to be my turn now. Let''s see what I get" I said, and waited for the announcer, to call out my name. I didn''t have to wait long, before I heard "We continue to the 6th round. There are only two warriors left. Will they manage to pull through, and defeat all the challengers? Or will they fall, and the challengers will take the ultimate win?! We will find out soon!".


    He then continued "The next battle, will be between the Dark Traveller and Niel. Let''s hear it for the warrior and the challenger!". The crowd erupted, while I looked at Rnd for any hints. He shook his head, and said "I don''t know that guy. Whether he is strong or not, we will find out, after you fight him". I nodded my head, and entered the tform.


    To my surprise, the opponent was a human. Not any human either, he was one the guys from Fox''s group. ''Well, I was warned that I will meet them on this tform. I don''t think that this guy will be a problem though, but you never know'' I thought. Niel looked at me, and said "Even though you are strong, I don''t intend to lose either. Let''s see who is better!". I nodded my head, and the battle began.


    Niel was a sword and shield user. I already dealt with shield wielders in the past, but the problem was, I couldn''t use my Art of Hidden Weapons. It was the biggest restriction, I had to ce on myself, in order to stay unrecognised, as well as prevent humans trying to kill me. ''Anyway, I will try with a bow'' I thought, and took out my bow. The Niel guy just smiled, and moved forwards. I started shooting one arrow after the other. There was a problem though, and I realized why he had that smile. My arrows not only bounced back when they hit his shield, they bounced back so much, that they flew towards me at an increased speed.


    I managed to escape just in time. Otherwise, I would get hit by my own arrows. Not only was that counter dangerous, it would be embarrassing as hell. ''Just imagining getting hit by me own arrows¡­ fortunately it didn''t happen'' I thought. I hid away my bow, as it wouldn''t be very effective against that guy. He attacked me immediately, when my bow disappeared. I could only fight with my fists now. ''It''s a shame, I didn''t buy any rubbish weapon¡­ wait a minute!'' I thought. I still had some different weapons with me. I forgot about them. For one, I used my daggers, but also the weapons were rubbish,pared to my daggers. ''I should have that sword still'' I thought. A sword which I made, when I was learning more about smithing. I made couple of them, just to practice, and I used better materials as well. My final creation was still rubbish, but it was made from Purified Steel.


    ''This is better than nothing. I just have to watch out for that shield of his. It seems to have a Formation, that can bounce back attacks, and even at increased speed'' I thought. While distancing myself from that Niel, I rummaged through my bag, and finally found the sword. The sword was out of bnce, it was crooked a bit as well. The sight alone¡­ was simply a disgrace. Niel looked at my sword, andughed "You want to fight with this? If you don''t have a sword, just say one word, I will lend you one. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA".


    The crowdughed as well, but I wasn''t angry. ''The sword may look like this, but it was created by my hand, and I know it''s a solid piece of steel'' I thought, and started walking forwards. Niel stoppedughing, and prepared to attack as well. We met halfway, where he used his shield, in order to ram me with it. I evaded it easily, but to my surprise, when I attacked with my sword, he managed to block it.


    ''He must''ve used a shield for a long time. He is quite proficient at defence, and aware of his surroundings'' I thought. Proficiency was one thing, but what if he couldn''t see his enemy? I decided to test the Camouge Formation. ''Even if it fails to work properly, I can always try one more time'' I thought, and focused on activating the Camouge Formation. After a while of waiting, nothing happened. ''Oh well, let''s try again'' I thought, and avoided the attacks.


    I tried again and again, until finally after 5th try, the Formation worked. To my surprise, it worked as it should, at least at that moment. Wasting no more time, I used my Natural Path skill, and appeared behind Niel. He didn''t expect my sudden disappearance, and looked around him for clues. I stuck to his back, and then shed with the sword.


    "ARGHH!"


    Niel fell face down onto the tform, and made some painful noises. The wound on his back, was quite substantial. He could still fight probably, but he would lose anyway now. The Formation stopped by itself, and I appeared behind him. ''This time, the Formation worked. Although, relying on it against strong opponents, is not a good idea'' I thought. The announcer shouted "What an incredible win. The Dark Traveller surprised us yet again!". I walked down from the tform, and joined Rnd in our waiting area.


    Rnd asked "Was that a Formation?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes. Although, I can''t depend on it". He seemed confused, so I added "That''s how it is". He didn''t seem satisfied with my answer, but didn''t ask about it anymore. Soon, the announcer shouted again "The next battle, will be between Rnd and Alrika!". I looked at Rnd, and asked "Are you going to be alright?". He shook his head, and said "I don''t know that person either". I replied "Test her strength first. I have a feeling, I know who it''s going to be". He nodded, and entered the tform.


    The person who appeared on the stage in front of Rnd, was the exact woman who belonged to Fox''s group. ''I felt it''s going to be that way'' I thought. The weapon of her choice, was a bow. ''I don''t know her skills. I have no clue, whether Rnd can win or not. I still hope he does'' I thought, and watched the battle.


    Rnd didn''t waste any time, especially since his opponent was an archer. He wanted to get as close, as it was possible. But the archer named Alrika, was having none of that. She used some sort of weird technique, and circled around Rnd, while shooting. Rnd had a hard time evading, not even mentioning getting closer. He tried using his Aura, be she had an Aura as well, much stronger than Rnd''s at that. ''This Aura¡­ It feels familiar somehow'' I thought. The Aura was serene and distant, but it somehow made you want to look at Alrika, when she used that Aura.


    I didn''t have much hope for Rnd, when I saw her skills. I could win with her, when I used my own skills, but without them, it would not be simple. I would have to sacrifice a chunk of my flesh, in order to do that. To my surprise, that is what Rnd did. As a final resort, he released his skill, and ran towards her. She stayed calm, and continued shooting the arrows. Rnd on the other hand, no longer evaded them.


    His clothes also had some kind of Defensive Formation. Nevertheless, he still received damage. He managed to arrive in front of her, at which point, she started to panic. ''It seems, she is not very good in closebat, or doesn''t have much strength'' I thought. She backed away, and tried to increase the distance, but with thest ditch, injured Rnd threw his sword at her, like a spear. "Swoosh!". She didn''t expect that, and was unable to evade. The sword pierced through her stomach and nailed her to the ground, outside of the tform. "AAAAHHHHH! ARRRGHHH!", she screamed in pain.


    Rnd was not in a good condition either. He was bleeding all over, and barely stood on his own legs. ''What a mess'' I thought, and stood up. Rnd started limping towards our area. As his strength was leaving him, I grabbed him, and escorted him back to his sit. I took out some medicine, and said "Drink it. Drink both of them, I will return in a moment". He nodded his head, and drank the medicine without any hesitation.


    I walked over to his opponent Alrika. Her teammates, were already next to her, giving her some medicine to drink. I walked over, but didn''t say anything. The leader of that group asked "Can you help her?". I walked over, and pulled out the sword. She screamed even more, while blood started gushing out. I took out the medicine, and threw it to the leader, then left.


    I wanted to retrieve a sword. I didn''t care about her injuries, she had her teammates who would take care of that. I provided the medicine, only because I extracted the sword, which resulted in her wound getting worse. I returned back to our waiting area, and threw the sword towards Rnd. He said "You are... quite cruel. To just take out... that sword from her ¡­.and leave". I replied "I gave them some medicine. How are your wounds?". He said slowly, as he was catching his breath. "Alright ...I guess. With enough time ...they will heal. Your medicine is great... tell me, where did you get it from?". I replied "I can''t do that".


    He didn''t ask about that anymore. Instead, he asked "Why ...did you help me?". I replied promptly "I need you. If we want to win, I need to offset the strong opponents between us. If I had to face the strongest opponents one after the other, I would lose for sure". He smiled, and said "I figured ...as much. At least ...you are honest. Well ...I don''t intend to ...fail my task. I will take you up ...on that offer. Haah... I will try to win ...but make sure I don''t die". I replied "I''m fine with those arrangements". He went quiet for a while, then said "Thanks ...for returning my sword". I waved my hand, and said "It was nothing".

 Chapter 233

    Chapter 233


    The announcer shouted "We now continue, to the 7th round of battles! This will be the final round today! Will our warriors survive, and fight tomorrow, or will both of them fall! We will find out soon!". The crowd cheered as usual, and the announcer continued "The next battle, will be between the Dark Traveller and Lares! Raise your voice, as both of them go to the tform!".


    I stood up, and looked at Rnd. He shook his head, and said "I have no idea ...who that guy is. I''d say ...watch out". I nodded my head, and walked over to the tform. My opponent, to my surprise, was the leader guy of Fox''s group. ''I guess, it was inevitable for us to fight. He is going to be a hard opponent, I might have to reveal my freezing powers here'' I thought. This guy was no pushover, even if I used my Art of Hidden Weapons, and other skills, I wasn''t sure that I would be able to win.


    Lares walked slowly towards me, and said "I''m grateful you gave that medicine to Fox and Alrika, but you also treated Alrika like a piece of discarded rubbish. For that, I will pay you back". He rushed at me, with speed that easily surpassed mine. I utilized my Natural Path skill, and took out my sword as well.


    ''I need to find out first, what he is capable of'' I thought, and focused on my battle. He released his Aura, and became even more intimidating. I did the same, but condensed it to the radius of 5 metres. When we finally shed, I could feel his strength, it was greater than mine. ''He is stronger, no doubt. With those restrictions I ced on myself, I can''t possibly win. I need to use those Formations, and they need to work!'' I thought, and started from the Camouge Formation. Before I could even focus on that, I had to defend from his attacks.


    My hand was already numb from his powerful blows, and my sword was also in a bad shape. As he shed with his sword at me, he said "You are not a sword wielder. Why are you using a sword? Do you think, I will not be your opponent, when you use your real weapon?". I wanted to cry at that point. ''Who the hell told you that. If I could use my daggers, I would do so a long time ago!'' I thought, and defended. In the meantime, I tried activating the Formation, but to no avail. ''That bastard! At least make it so that it activates! Most of the time, it doesn''t even want to work!'' I cursed the guy, who gave me that set.


    When it finally worked, the camouge didn''tst long, and changed to some weird colours. I quickly stopped the Formation, but it was still a weird sight. Even Lares was surprised by that colour change, but didn''t take it to heart, and continued shing with hisrge sword. I tried and tried, and finally! It worked. But because of my bad luck, Lester didn''t seem surprised. He even said "I already saw this, this will not work".


    I didn''t try to go behind him, but approached from the front. I swung my sword as hard as I could, and "CLING!". He blocked it. ''So this ain''t going to work'' I thought, and my Formation stopped working. I jumped back, and distanced myself from him. Lares had different ns though. He chased after me, and released a powerful sword skill. He swung the sword so hard, that a crescent shaped energy formed, and flew towards me. ''Shit!'' I thought, and didn''t have enough time to block it.


    I shielded myself with my sword, and pushed myself backwards. "Booom!" the skill was so powerful, that it pushed me even further and cut my sword in half. The attack didn''t stop, and hit me in my chest. I tried to activate the Regenerative Formation, but due to my bad luck, it didn''t work. It still took away my energy nevertheless. The skill ripped through my coat, and left a wound. I fell onto my back, and grunted "Ugh". ''¡­ This was dangerous. Fortunately, his skill only managed to inflect a minor wound on me'' I thought, and picked myself up.


    I saw him using the same skill again. This time, I was more prepared, and managed to dodge it, by a hair''s breadth. ''I have to use my ability. Otherwise, I''m goner'' I thought, and ran towards him. He weed that, and ran at me as well. I looked at my right arm, and said quietly "Frosty, if you are awake. Lend me your strength". With only couple of metres away, I punched, while he swung his sword.


    "BOOOM!".


    I flew back from the impact, and a huge wound appeared on my chest. "ARGH!" I screamed in pain. I had a hard time trying to pick myself up, but I managed after a while. ''I didn''t miss, at least that is certain'' I thought, and looked at Lares. What I saw, was a half frozen man, standing opposite of me. His chest, legs and arms were frozen, but his face was still alright. I also felt his Wild Aura surrounding him, but he couldn''t make any moves.


    He said with difficulty "You''ve won. Now, help me out here¡­. I''m freezing to death". I was stunned myself. ''It must be because of Frosty. With the increased power, this guy can barely keep himself alive'' I thought, and took out some medicine, then smeared it onto my wound. I had no real way of helping him, besides making some fire. I took out a few torches, and lit them up. I then held them next to him, and the ice started to melt. I was not after killing that guy, this was simply a tournament. I also had no past grudges with him, and he did help me out once, so I could do at least that much.


    The ice finally melted after a while, and Lares simply fell onto the tform tiles exhausted. Before he fainted, he said "You are a monster". I didn''t take it to heart, and simply left the tform. When I returned to our waiting area, I noticed that Rnd was confused, and a bit of fear was hidden in his eyes. He asked "Are you really human?". I replied "Of course I''m human. I just didn''t want to use this thing too soon". He just stared at me, and said "Right".


    Lares teammates soon take care of him, and the announcer shouted "The Dark Travelleres back with a powerful move, that froze his opponent! What else, does that mysterious figure hide?!". The crowd cheered, and demanded more. The announcer screamed "You want more?! Then you will get more! It''s time, for the final battle of today! Rnd will face Gornak!". The crowd burst into fit of cheering. ''My guess is, the reason is not Rnd'' I thought.


    Indeed, Rnd''s face was grim. He said "I can''t win this one. This guy won the Championships of the Arena, three times. What we are doing right now, is not the only type of battles, this Arena hosts. Championships, are the real battles". ''This is bad then, because if Rnd can''t win, I will have to face him as well. Not only him, I will have to face two more powerful opponents'' I thought, and raced my mind, toe up with something.


    But nothing came to my head. ''The only way out, would be to use Yellow Dust. I will not risk a pursuit, for some kind of contribution. If I lose, then I lose'' I thought, and said to Rnd "Give it your best. I will heal you up, when you are done". He nodded his head, and said "I will need it", then left towards the tform.

 Chapter 234

    Chapter 234


    His opponent named Gornak, was a Golem. The Golem was huge, at least twice the size, of an ordinary Golem. He had four arms as well, butpared to other Golems, he wielded one type of weapon. All of them were some sort of metal staves. ''These are not ordinary staves. Not only are they made with something better than ck Steel, those things might possess Formations as well'' I thought.


    Rnd was in deep shit, speaking frankly. I had no hope for him, whatsoever. His opponent, was not only strong, he was experienced. I still watched the battle, I could always learn something, about my future opponent. Besides, I still had to heal Rnd up, after the fight. I already made a deal with him. Rnd also had enough courage, to stand on that tform, and go against an opponent, he would have no chances against. This in itself, demanded some respect.


    The battle began. This time, Rnd kept his distance. Gornak had different ideas though. Although he was a Golem, his speed was nothing to scoff at. He wasn''t as fast as me, or Rnd, but still. His strength was greater, than both of usbined probably. Rnd tried to test the grounds with simple attacks, but the Golem didn''t even evade them. Rnd couldn''t even damage the Golem, with normal attacks. ''This guy is like a walking fortress. My freezing power might work on him, but I don''t know to what extent'' I thought.


    Rnd, was now mostly evading the attacks of the Golem. Even when he tried his most powerful skill, the Golem just blocked it. Soon, Rnd''s energy started to fade, and he got hit. The strike was so powerful, if not for the sword Rnd had on him, he would be smashed to death. He flew outside of the tform, andnded with a grunt. ''I expected as much. He had no way of winning against such opponent'' I thought, and walked over to Rnd.


    His hands were broken from the impact, his ribs didn''t look good either. Other than that, he was in decent shape, when considering the fact, he just fought against such an opponent. I picked him up, and took him away with me. This was thest match of that day, so I was free to go, a long time ago. I brought Rnd to my room, and treated his wounds. When I was done, I said to myself "I will have to face three strong opponents tomorrow. I have an idea, who those two of the three opponents will be". I waited for Rnd to wake up, and when he finally did, I asked "How do you feel?".


    He said "Like shit, obviously. Thanks for stitching me up though". I replied "I promised you". He thought about something for a while, then said "You are a good guy, so I will give you an honest advice, like to a friend. Give up the fight, if you think its too much. You can lose a lot, if you are stubborn". I nodded my head, and said "I don''t want to lose my limbs either, but I also want a challenge. We will see tomorrow". When Rnd''s wounds were taken care of, and he was able to move, I told him to leave. I needed some rest, and prepare myself for the next day.


    As he exited my room, he said "I will be watching tomorrow. If anything, I can always bring you some medicine, when you finally lose, Don''t overdo it". I went back to my room, and sat on the bed. ''I will have to face three opponents tomorrow. Two of them I know. The Golem Gornak will be one of my opponents probably, as well as the Razor guy, who broke couple of Olia limbs. I just don''t know, who will be the third opponent'' I thought.


    I could''ve been wrong as well. The Golem might just take his reward, and leave. The same could happen with that Razor guy, but I had a bad feeling about tomorrow. With that in mind, I called out "Frosty¡­ are you there?". Frosty transformed into the corporeal form, and appeared in front of me. ''What the...?'' I thought, when I saw Frosty.


    Frosty changed throughout the time, I haven''t seen it. It was now bigger, and its colour changed to that of a deeper blue. It also had two small horn sticking out of its head. Frosty saw the amazement on my face, and seemed proud of it. I said "It''s good that you developed. I might need to use your help, with the ice power. The opponents I''m going to face tomorrow, will be very powerful, so spare nothing alright?". Frosty nodded and climbed on top of my shoulder. It was a bit heavier,pared to the past, but also more grown up.


    ''Frosty''s behaviour was kind of childish in the past. Now, it seems calm, collected and more adult, not only with its body, but also with its mind'' I thought. Frosty nudged me, as I was lost in my thoughts, and seemed to want something. I passed it the paper and some coal, that I shaped into a stick. After a while, Frosty wrote that I shouldn''t worry, and that we can win. It wrote that with the improved freezing powers, we can freeze almost anyone, who didn''t break through the Inner Limits.


    I was a bit shocked, and asked "Howe, you are so confident?". Frosty wrote that, together with my basic ability to freeze stuff, and Frosty''s improved powers, we shouldn''t be scared of single enemies. ''I wonder where does Frosty''s confidencees from. Whatever, we will find out tomorrow'' I thought, and said "It''s time to rest. Tomorrow, when I need your help, I will call out quietly, alright?". Frosty nodded, and changed back into the tattoo.


    The next day, I went straight to the Fighting tform, and awaited my next fight. ''Let''s see who my first opponent is. If it''s that Golem, I can only try and freeze him, if its someone else, I might try out something else. I can''t reveal my identity though'' I thought. I didn''t have to wait long, for the announcer to start bbering about how great the Arena was, and so on.


    After his usual monologue, he announced "Ladies and gentlemen! Only one warrior is left! He has three battles ahead of him, can he seed?! Or will he fall, like his teammates?! We will find out soon! The next battle, will be between our warrior Dark Traveller, and the Great Potarius!". I had no idea who that Potarius guy was, but I was sure, the cheers were not for me. The crowd pretty much erupted, when they heard that name. ''This can only mean, he is famous here. Let''s see who this is first, then we can decide the course of actions'' I thought, and stepped onto the tform.

 Chapter 235

    Chapter 235


    My opponent looked like a human being, but didn''t seem human. ''Hmmm... He doesn''t feel like a Shade either. What is that guy exactly?'' I thought. The guy walked over, and spoke "I heard you are quite strong. That freezing ability of yours is also something to envy. I wonder how you got it". I replied to him quietly "What are you exactly?". Heughed, and said "A Shade". I shook my head, and said "No, you are not". He seemed surprised, and didn''t talk anymore.


    Instead, he just stared at me for a while. I could feel something going on, something was about to happen. "BOOOM!", strong gales started blowing, as if the guy was a centre of a hurricane. Even though the winds were very powerful, he just stood there without moving. I decided to attack first, even though, I had no clue what that skill was. I ran at him, but my speed seemed to be affected. I was too slow, nothing would make me go this slowly. ''Is this his Aura?'' I thought.


    Before I even got closer, he appeared next to me, and punched out. He was very strong, so strong that I flew backwards from just one punch. "Ugrh" I grunted, when Inded on the tform. ''What the hell is that guy exactly'' I thought, and tried to pick myself up. My body felt heavy, as if couple of tonnes were pressing down on me. Suddenly, he said "You don''t seem that strong. To think I had my hopes up". ''What the hell is going on?!'' I screamed in my mind. He again appeared next to me and punched. I couldn''t even react, as my body flew from one side of the tform, to the other.


    He always appeared next to me, punched me, then appeared at the location I was about tond. After a few punches, I couldn''t pick myself up. He walked over, and said "How did you obtain that power? I know it''s not a Formation, where did you get it from?". I replied "Go die... bastard". He didn''t seem to like my reply, as the next words he spoke were "I will torture you a bit more then, until I get what I came for". He started punching me again.


    "Haah¡­.Haah...Haah", I had a hard time catching my breath. "So, are you going to tell me? I have a whole day, if you enjoy it so much, we can continue as long as you want". Then I noticed something. ''This is wrong. This is not real, it''s an illusion!'' I thought, and smiled. I knew who my opponent probably was. I said "I will tell you, but first, you answer my question". Heughed, and said "Sure, whatever you want". I asked "Are you Eterian?". His mood changes instantly, and he was no longer yful. ''So he is. Good, that means I can kill him without any issues'' I thought, and said "This is an illusion". My mind no longer believed, what my eyes saw. The illusion dispersed, and everything went back to normal.


    The guy panicked, and tried to run away from the stage, but I was faster. I grabbed him, and smashed his face into the tform. "ARGHH", he screamed. I didn''t stop though, I grabbed him by his neck, and said "I already had the pleasure, to deal with one of your kind. For her luck, she escaped. You will not be so lucky", then tightened my grip. I broke his neck, and threw his corpse to the ground. As I was about to leave, I heard "You are quite interesting. We will meet in the future".


    It was the voice of that Eterian. I looked at the ce where his corpse was supposed to be, and noticed nothing there. There were no signs of fighting either. ''So, it was another illusion. No wonder people call them master maniptors. I will get you next time Eterian'' I thought, and left the stage. I knew I won, because the Eterian left. If I notified others about the fact, that he was Eterian, probably all creatures in the Arena, would chase after him. The announcer shouted "The Great Potarius is gone! Our warrior wins the battle by default!".


    I sat down, and released a sigh. ''This was unexpected. These Eterians are dangerous. That woman back then, knew some things about illusions, but this guy is on apletely different levelpared to her'' I thought. The announcer soon screamed my next opponent''s name. "The Dark Traveller, will face Gornak in the 9th round! Will he survive, and advance to the 10th round, or fall? We will find this out soon!".


    I stood up, and headed towards the tform. ''My only solution against this guy, is to freeze him to the point, where he can no longer move'' I thought. Instead of a hard battle, I received another surprise. When we stood on the Battle tform, facing each other, he suddenly said "I was here to test your strength, I already know about that power of yours, so there is no need for us to fight. My purpose ining here, is aplished. I shall give up, Graver sends his regards". He then left.


    ''I knew something seems fishy. Graver must''ve done something, to attract all these strong opponents. I will demand an exnationter, for now, I have to take care of thest round'' I thought. The announcer was even more surprised than me, and shouted "Another win by default? Is no one able to win against the Dark Traveller?". After a while of silence, he shouted again "Fear notdies and gentlemen! There is the final challenger, and he is not going to give up so easily. Please wee RAZOR!".


    The crowd cheered, and Razor appeared from one of the entrances. I didn''t even go down from the tform, and simply waited over there. When I heard the name Razor, I was not surprised either. I kind of expected to meet him on the tform that day. ''Myst opponent. Supposedly a cruel guy, who likes to chop the limbs of his enemies. Well, I already had that pleasure, and I don''t intend to experience that again. I wonder if he had that pleasure?'' I thought.


    He was not a weak opponent, in any sense of that word. ''We will see how this goes'' I thought, and waited for Razor to enter the tform. He seemed to like the attention, as he basked in the glory, when the crowd cheering for him. He finally stepped onto the tform, and said "That right hand of yours, I will take it as my souvenir". I already didn''t like the guy, and said "Try".


    He didn''t waste any more time, and rushed at me with his saw like swords. His speed was on par, if not better than mine. I took out the bow, and started shooting. This didn''t bring any results. He was able to deflect my arrows, with his swords. ''His sight is very good, maybe a bit worse than mine. This is going to be tough'' I thought, and decided to fight in closebat. We got closer to each other, and he released his Aura. It felt crazy, with a hint of blood thirst, hidden in there as well.


    I released my Domineering Aura too, while restricting it to 5 metres in radius. He was no noob either, and restricted his Aura as well. The first strike belonged to him, I had to evade, in order to punch him. With the first sh of his sword evaded, I tried punching, but then realised, another sword wasing at me. ''Shit, this guy is good in closebat. A lot better than me'' I thought, and evaded that sword as well.


    I had to back up, and stay on the defence. He didn''t allow me to get close to him, even for a moment. ''He is not stupid. He knows that I have this freezing power, so he doesn''t want me to get close'' I thought. This situation required some trickery, therefore I immediately tried activating the Camouge Formation. It took a while, but it finally managed to hide mepletely.


    The guy didn''t panic at all, and just stood in one ce. As I was about to attack him, he shed towards my direction. I backed up, and repositioned myself. The Formation still worked, so I tried again. I tried couple of faints, but he seemed to be able to see me. With a final attempt, which he managed to block, my Formation stopped working.


    He smiled and said "This shitty trickery, will not work on me", then ran at me in order to attack. ''Right, so the camouge will not work'' I thought, and evaded again. After a while of running like this, he finally decided it was enough, and merged his swords together. "Your arm will belong to me! HAHAHAH!" he shouted, while a buzzing sound came from his swords. He became even more crazy, and faster at the same time. I had a hard time evading him now, even though I used my Natural Path skill, to the fullest. Then, my boots decided, it was a very good time to y a trick. The Boost Formation decided to just change my direction of running, and slid me towards my opponent. ''FUCK!''.


    Before I could do anything, Razor shed his sword at me. "VOOOM!", the sword shed right through my coat and sliced open my chest again. I flew back from the impact, andnded on the tform. Blood gushed out from my wound. The damage was severe, thanks to those moving teeth. "ARGHHH!", I screamed with pain, when Inded. "Cough¡­ Cough¡­", ''I think¡­ I lost that one¡­'' I thought to myself, after a fit of coughs.

 Chapter 236

    Chapter 236


    I tried picking myself up, but instead, I was kicked back to the floor again. "Cough...". I then heard "Where do you think you are going? I will still take that arm of yours". I was angry now "Take that leg... off of me... bastard". He replied "Oh? Still a tough guy?" "BOOOM!", he stepped on my chest, with a lot of strength. "Ungh¡­ ". He then continued kicking the same ce couple of times, andughed crazily. "ARGH!... Cough¡­ Cough" I screamed, and coughed.


    "What? Had enough. A weak piece of trash, though he was so mysterious, so invincible. I just showed you, what type of garbage you really are". I was pissed to the point, where my vision started turning red. I said "Get that fucking leg ...off of me, or ...I will kill you!". He kicked me couple more times, then said whileughing "Kill? Me? Hahahaha! You want to kill me?! A garbage like you, can only spout shit! Let''s hear it,e on, say it again!". He started kicking me again.


    When he noticed, that I no longer responded with coughs, or grunts, he asked "Are we dead already? What a piece of..", "ENOUGH!" I shouted before he could finish. "I had enough of your bullshit. Weak? WEAK! Then let me show you, what this weak garbage can do!". The Aura deep within me awakened, and the time seemed to freeze. I no longer felt the pain, and I no longer felt weak. I grabbed his leg, and tightened my grip. "Crack!".


    He was still smiling, until he hear the cracking noise. When he looked down, he realised, I just crushed his ankle. The pain hit him, and he screamed "Argh!", then fell backwards. I picked myself up, and said "If I am a piece of garbage, then you are even worse than a piece of horse shit. Let me show you, the real torture".


    My Aura was so powerful, that he was barely able to move. I walked in front of him, and grabbed him by his clothes. "You wanted my arm?". "RIIIP!", "Well, I got yours here". He screamed "ARGHHH¡­ AAAAGHHH!", while blood gushed out of his torn of arm. I then used my ice powers, and froze the torn part of his armpletely. I asked "You want that back?", and smashed his face with his own arm, which broke into small pieces. He screamed "Fucking bastard!... I will kill you!... You will die!".


    I grabbed his second arm, and said "Things, that are less than a piece of shit, have no right of talking". "RIIIP", I teared off his second arm. He almost fainted at that point, not only from the pain, but also from the blood loss. I froze his wounds, and said "Did you think, I will just let it go? I gave you a chance to fuck off". He cried, and said in fear "What the fuck are you!... You bastard!". I replied "I''m your worst nightmare!", and broke his leg. At that point, he fainted from the pain. He no longer responded, but that didn''t satisfy my anger.


    The announcer was shouting something loudly, but I didn''t give a shit anymore. I threw him up, and jumped as well. In mid-air, I kicked him downwards, and started falling as well. He crashed into the tform, while I crashed my knee into his head "BOOOM!". His head exploded into pieces. The crowd and the announcer went silent. I stood up, and collected his sword. ''This will be MINE souvenir'' I thought, then left. My task was done, and my Unyielding Aura vanished slowly. I felt weak as hell, and quickly smeared medicine on my wound.


    Thanks to that Aura awakening, the wound on my chest, ceased to bleed by itself. I only applied medicine, for it to close up faster. I hid in a dark corridor somewhere, and changed my clothes quickly. I also took the mask off, and threw all that into my bag. I drank another bottle of medicine, and left the Arena. No one noticed me, as the crowd was still stunned at what just happened. ''Fortunately, I was quick enough. I won the 10 battles, and I intend to get my reward. If that Graver tries to y dumb, I will raise chaos in that Varent'' I thought, still pissed at the situation I was ced into.


    The guy was a piece of shit anyway, he deserved to die. ''I hate these type of lofty fuckers'' I thought still pissed. I swore a lot, on my way back. This helped me calm down, and free my mind from the experience.


    After a long walk back, I finally arrived at Varent the next day. With the amount of medicine I used, my wounds were pretty much fine by now. ''The scars will stay there, due to severity of these injuries, but with the help of my medicine, they shouldn''t be that noticeable'' I thought. I went straight to the Mercenary Guild, and noticed that the Golem called Graver, was not behind the counter. I stood in front of another Golem, and said "I want to speak with Graver. Tell him that I came. He will know, who it is". The Golem seemed surprised, and said "Can I first have your membership ID?" I said "Just go, and tell him I''m here". He replied "I need¡­", but before he could finished, I heard "It''s fine, I will deal with that". It was the voice of Graver. The Golem I spoke with, nodded his head, and left. I said "Ipleted my task", and threw the task paper onto the counter.


    He said "I know, but you also killed a contender". The anger started to build up in me again, while I replied "I don''t give a shit. I also don''t give a shit about your petty games. I know you stuck your fingers into that task as well. Give me my rewards, as my patience is limited". He became serious, and asked "Are you threatening me?". I looked him in the eyes, and said "Take it as you like". He said seriously "Give me your membership stone".


    I handed him the stone, and he said "You are no longer a member of the Mercenary Guild. I suggest you leave peacefully, or face the consequences". When he finished saying that, I beganughing "Hahahaha... You sure about that?". My anger again reached the apex. He said "It''s your call". I reached into my bag, and took out the mask. I then ced it on my face, and said "Frosty, let''s do this". I jumped over the counter, while Graver retrieved his weapon, but he was not quick enough. "BOOOM!". I punched him with my right hand, as hard as I could. He stumbled back, and started to freeze.


    He managed to shout "KILL HIM!", and then froze solid. I punched him again, and broke him into pieces. ''I hate maniptive bastards as well. He thought, I will just y into his hand'' I thought, and retrieved my membership stone, from below the counter. "I will be taking what''s mine" I said, and turned around. Other Golems already surrounded me, while other passersby either ran away, or didn''t want to get involved. I had no intentions of killing anyone, when I came back to the Mercenary Guild, but my patience had its limits too.


    I started freezing and destroying the Golems, that surrounded me. I was again angry, due to all the events that happenedtely. My vision started changing, to that of the colour red. ''I never liked being used by someone, and never will!'' I thought to myself, then said to the Golems who managed to survive "If you wish to be destroyed, I will dly grant you that wish". The Golems attacked, so I started killing again. I killed all the Golems inside the Guild, and ran outside. The Golems inside the Guild, were not that strong, it''s the warriors I was worried about. ''I need to calm down'' I thought, as my vision was almostpletely red, and I felt great thirst for blood.


    Due to themotion inside the Guild, there were loads of onlookers outside. The Guild was fortunately, not far away from the exit. I ran at my full speed, and decided to just flee. Fighting in the city, would be suicidal, especially with that Aura awakened. I could also see, that some Golems already chased after me. I tried calming myself. ''I already killed those, that tried ying with me. Graver lost his life, and the Razor guy, who thought he was a god, lost it as well. No need to shed more blood''. My vision started returning to normal. I was done with Varent, and with Golems. It was time to go somece else.


    At the exit of the city, four Golem Guards stood there, blocking my way. They already had weapons prepared, but I didn''t stop. I used my max speed, and jumped over them. They of course gave chase, but I was much faster than Golems usually were, even though my set with Formations, was currently in my bag.


    The set was in rather poor condition. It was still wearable, but I assumed the Formations on the coat, would not work properly anymore. It was my guess, as the two holes were quite big. ''I will have to return here at some point, and get my real set of clothes back'' I thought. I soon lost the Golems, and headed west. ''I need to meet up with Crow. He might be able to shed some light, on the overall situation. I will also need a disguise, for my future travels. Now, Golems will probably hunt me too. I shouldn''t be worried about Lizards yet. I can visit Lazar and Harlin on my way to Crow'' I thought.

 Chapter 237

    Chapter 237


    My journey back, was rather uneventful. I managed to leave the Land of Sands, and began my journey back, towards the Obsidian Mountains. I met some Golems on my way. They were not aware of what happened yet, so they simply greeted me, and nothing else. ''Lazar and Harlin will probably tell me, how much trouble I created. It was a rushed decision, but I don''t regret it! These type of people deserve death'' I thought. My mood was always dropping, whenever I thought about what happened.


    ''No wonder Nick told me to avoid cities, I would not have to deal with such people, if I didn''t visit any city or settlement'' I thought. My promise was already broken, I couldn''t even keep to that. Although the situations required it, what was broken, has been broken and cannot be reversed. ''I wonder how Crow is doing?'' I thought, and sped up towards the Obsidian Mountains.


    My journey back, was long. In the meantime, I decided to take inventory, of what I exactly had in my bags. Clean up a little, and figure out what I needed. ''I still have a few days to go, before I arrive in the vicinity of the Obsidian Mountains. Even if I take a break, it will not affect me much anymore'' I thought, and dumped everything from my bags and the Storage Feather, onto the ground. There was one bag, I did nothing to. It was the bag, which contained Yellow Dust only. This was my safety card. In case something I couldn''t deal with, or run away from, came up.


    With all my stuff dumped onto the ground, I started sifting through the items I had. I had loads of crap inside my bags. Weapons I would never use, like some axes, and swords. I still had that Razor''s swords, which I didn''t intent to throw away. ''I also have therge sword of that guy, I meat in the Great Forest. It''s actually made from more than Purified Steel, it has some other metals mixed in, and the quality is not that bad either'' I thought. The sword was heavy to me back then. When I lifted it this time, it was not heavy anymore. The weight, was that of about 100 kilograms, which was a lot for a sword anyway. It had no de, and was quite thick and broad. ''This sword is too light now. I could maybe use it, if it was heavier'' I thought, and suddenly got surprised. The sword in my hand, suddenly doubled in weight. ''What the¡­?".


    I soon realised, what it was. "This sword has a Formation!" I eximed loudly. "Let''s see how heavy it can get then!" I said to myself, and thought about activating the Formation. "Booom!" the tip of the sword, crushed to the ground. "Woah! This is heavy now. I didn''t expect such increase" I eximed loudly. The sword increased its weight by 5 times. This meant, it could weight 500 kilograms, when the Formation was fully activated. ''This might be useful. A 500 kilogram sword is a nice weight. Besides, I will not throw out stuff with Formation inside'' I thought to myself.


    I stopped the Formation, and the sword returned to the original weight. I could swing 500 kilograms no problem, but not for long. It was half a tonne, and although I could lift much more, fighting with that weight as my weapon, would not be so simple and easy. I left the sword on the side, together with the saw like swords, and looked through other things. All the necessary survival stuff, I ced in one bag, which would only contain things for my survival. Stuff like food, needless, threads, tinder and so on, I ced in one bag.


    The other bag contained Yellow Dust only, therefore I didn''t add anything into there. I had couple of weapons. I decided to store them in my Storage Feather, together will all the herbs and medicine making equipment. ''I may sometimes need a sword or two, so I will leave them for now. The axe and other rubbish can go'' I thought. I also went through my medicine, and realised I didn''t have much left.


    ''I only have 5 bottles of Vital Liquid left, and 3 bottles of Healing Essence. This is not a lot'' I thought. I used a lot of medicine, thanks to the Arena. Not only did I heal up Rnd, I also had to use a lot of medicine, to heal my own wound. ''I can''t get herbs in the North really, but I don''t want to return to the Great Forest again. I will ask Lazar and Harlin about that, when I arrive there'' I thought, and packed all the medicine I had left, into the Storage Feather.


    Although I had some herbs with me, a lot of them could not be used to make healing medicine. ''Either way, it''s time to go now'' I thought, and resumed my journey. A few dayster, I finally saw therge volcanoes of the Obsidian Mountain. I made my way towards the small volcano, where Olrad was located. When I entered the volcano, a few Lizards were standing inside the passage. One of them eximed "Oh, it''s you! We heard you went through somemotion at Varent. Go inside, and meet with Harlin, he wants to talk with you". I nodded my head, and said "Thanks", then went inside through the entrance.


    The Lizard that spoke to me, was one of the Lizards I met, when I first arrived to Olrad. He was together with Harlin and Lazar back then. Olrad didn''t change at all, it looked the same as it used to. I went straight to Lazar''s house, and knocked on the door. I couldn''t hear Lazar inside, but his daughter was in. She asked through the closed door "Who is it?". I said "It''s me, I came to visit your dad". The door opened, and a small Lizard greeted me.


    "Daddy is not home, but you can wait inside mister. After all, you are a friend". I nodded and entered the house. She went back to a corner of the room, and yed with her toys. "How are you feeling?" I asked her. She said "I''m fine mister. There is no pain anymore, and I can y with my toys. Daddy is also less worried now, but I can''t go out of the house". I knew the reason why. ''She is mixed blood, so other Lizards might actually kill her, when she goes out'' I thought, and asked "You never went outside?".


    She said "No, I was ill back then. Now, daddy said it''s not safe for me to go out". ''Hmmmm¡­'' I thought about something, and said "If you want to, you cane with me. I will show you Olrad". She seemed eager, but said "But daddy said not to". I replied "Not alone, you will be with me. I will go get something, and return shortly, alright?".


    She nodded her head, while I left towards the market. I proposed that to her, because I kind of saw myself in her. I lost my parents when I was young, and my parents also used to be outside most of the time. I too felt lonely, but at least, I had some friends. Or people I thought were my friends. I returned shortly from the market, and said "If we use this, there should be no problem". She looked at the small bag in my hand, and asked "What is this?". I said "Red paint. If I paint you red, no one will ever say anything, right?". She like the idea of being painted, so she nodded her head. I mixed the red powder with water, and applied the paint onto her. She looked like any small Lizard now. ''I wonder why Lazar never thought of that?'' I thought.


    "Alright, now you look like everyone else. Let''s go". She seemed hesitant, but finally nodded her head, and we went outside. There were small windows in Lazar''s house, but she wouldn''t see much through them. When she walked out of her house properly, she finally saw the whole Olrad as it was. "Woah, this ce is nothing, like I imagined!" she eximed. I said "Let''s go, I will take you around, just remember to stay by my side at all times". She nodded excitedly, and extended her hand. I was confused, and didn''t know what to do. She said "If I hold your hand, I will not get lost, right?". ''Right'' I thought, and grabbed her hand.


    I had no experience with kids, so I didn''t really know what to tell her, and how to behave with her. I decided to just show her around the Olrad, and maybe eat some food. We went around the vige, and although other Lizards seemed surprised, that a human was walking with a Lizard child. They didn''t do anything really, and simply ignored it. Some might''ve thought, I was just ying a nanny for this child.


    We then went to the tavern, and the familiar Lizard behind the counter, asked me quite surprised "Did you adopt her?". I shook my head, and said "No, I''m just showing her around. She is not from here". She nodded her head, and asked "Would you like something?". I said "Give us some food, and something for a child to drink". She nodded her head, and said "Alright, I will make a few dishes". We sat at the table, and Suly said "This is nice! I would like to do this with daddy too. He is too busy, and usually only sleeps at home". She became a bit sad. ''I know what she is going through'' I thought, then said "Your name is Suly, right?". She nodded her head, and said "You remember well". I introduced myself "My name is Nex. From now, we can be friends". She nodded, and said happily "My first friend. Nice to meet you Nex". I smiled, and said "Don''t worry, we will tell your daddy about this idea, and maybe he will agree. He would be able to go out with you as well".


    She brightened up even more, and asked "Really?". Well I didn''t know, but still said "Really. If not, I will visit you. Alright?". She nodded her head, and our food arrived soon after. She tasted everything, and enjoyed the food. We then went back, towards Lazar''s house.

 Chapter 238

    Chapter 238


    As we approached the house, I heard "SULY! SULYYYYY!". It was Lazar, and he must''ve returned not too long ago. I grabbed Suly, and ran at full speed towards the house. I almost crashed into Lazar, who was about to leave the house. He was surprised when he saw me, and asked "You?". He then noticed a small Lizard in my arms. At first, he didn''t recognise his own daughter, but then realised something, and asked "Suly?". Before a biggermotion erupted, I grabbed Lazar, and entered the house.


    Suly said "Daddy, it''s me!". He was bbergasted to be sure, and didn''t know what to say. I helped him out, and said "Don''t worry, I just painted her with red paint. It wille off, after you wash her". He hugged his daughter, then looked at me with anger. I said "Your daughter never went outside, so I took her around the vige, before you returned. There is nothing to be mad about, she was with me at all times, and I wouldn''t let anyone harm her". He was still angry, and said "That is not the point", he then looked at Suly, and said "I told you to not go out! Why...".


    I interrupted him, by saying "Don''t shout at her. I will tell you why I did it. Come with me". He looked at his daughter, and then at me, "Fine. Suly stay home now" he said. She nodded her head, and became very sad. Lazar followed me outside, and said "Why would you even do this? Who goes to someone else''s house, and takes their daughters?". I replied "Don''t get all excited. She was much more safe with me, than she could ever be with you".


    He was stunned, while I continued "Your daughter¡­ She reminds me of my past self. People are usually blind, to what they have, and should cherish. You love your daughter no doubt, but have you ever spend time with her?". He became confused, and said "I always spend time with her, when I return home". I asked "Is it really? Your daughter is lonely, and I can see that. You didn''t even think of a simple solution, such as painting her red, in order to go out together. Youe back home tired, and tell me you spend time with her? Stop lying to yourself".


    He didn''t know what to say at that point, so I asked "You know why I did this?". He shook his head, and said "No". I replied "Because something bad may happen. You cut her off, from the rest of the world. She sits at home all day. She has no friends, who will y with her, or talk with her. I offered her that chance, to experience something else, other than the four walls that surround her".


    He replied "But that doesn''t mean, you could just take her like that!". I said "I did it on a whim. Only because I saw myself in her a bit. She agreed by the way, I never forced her to do it. This alone proves my point". He started thinking about what I said, so I gave him advice "I''m no parent, but I lost my parents, and I''ve been through some shitty experiences in my life. I know what loneliness means. I know how it feels, when you have no one to turn to, no one to talk with. I will tell you this as a friend. Take better care of her, and spend more time with her. She needs your attention, not your presence. Stop focusing on running errands so much, and start caring for your daughter more".


    He sighted, and said "You are right. I can lie to you and others, but I can''t really lie to myself. I still don''t approve of what you did, but I understand your intentions. I''m alright now. Let''s go back, I want to talk with my daughter". I nodded, and followed him back to the house. Suly was sitting in the corner, ying with her toys. When we came back, she looked at Lazar, and said with tears in her eyes "Daddy, I''m sorry, I will not do it again". Lazar realised his mistake, and shook his head. He then said "It''s fine, he is much stronger than me. What he said is true, you were much safer with him, than you can ever be with me. You don''t have to apologize, I should be the one doing it".


    He walked over to his daughter, picked her up, and said "I''m sorry, that I neglected you. It seems daddy is the stupid one. From now on, we will spend more time together. Alright?". Her tears disappeared, while smiled appeared on her face, and she nodded her head. I said "Stay with your daughter today. I will return tomorrow, and we will go to Harlin. He probably wants to speak with me". As I was about to exit his house, Lazar said "Thank you". I didn''t turn around, and simply waved my hand, then replied "Don''t mention it, just take good care of your daughter".


    I left towards the tavern, and ordered some drinks. ''This reminds me of my own family. My parents that died, and my grandfather, who wants to hunt me down. I wish I had a normal family I coulde back to, and talk with freely'' I thought, and drank quite heavily that day. I woke up the next day, with a huge headache. ''I shouldn''t have drank so much yesterday'' I thought to myself, and left the room.


    I drank, till I was barely able to walk. Fortunately, people around here knew me, so no one created any problems for me. I went over to the counter, and asked "You have anything for hangover?". The Lizard behind the counter replied "We usually take this". She poured something into the ss, and ced it in front of me. I drank it, and almost vomited it the next moment. ''What a disgusting thing that is. This could easily be used as a weapon'' I thought, then said "Thanks, how much do I own you?". She replied "It''s on the house. You''ve spend a lot of money here in overall, so there will always be a ce for you here". I nodded and thanked her, then left.


    I headed straight towards Lazar''s house. When I got there, and knocked on the doors, Lazar opened up. He looked a bit tired. "You alright?" I asked. Lazar replied "You look like shit yourself, thank you". I smiled, and said "I drank a lot yesterday, I don''t think you did the same though". He said "I yed with Suly, until she fell asleep. She was so happy, I''ve never seen her like this. You were right, I need to spend more time with her".


    I nodded my head, and asked "Can we go now?". He replied "There is no need. Harlin is already waiting inside". I nodded, and entered the house. Harlin was sitting on one of the chairs, while Suly probably slept in her room. Harlin said "Have a seat first". I did just that, and took a seat on one of the chairs. Harlin looked at me seriously, and said "You stepped into big shit this time. I guess, this isn''t the first time though".

 Chapter 239

    Chapter 239


    I looked at Harlin, and said "I noticed, that your people seem to be everywhere. No wonder you have ess to such information. I''m not even surprised". He replied "You overestimate me. I know what happened, but I don''t know everything. You are lucky though. The information that it is you, who killed all the Golems inside the Mercenary Guild, should be only known by us".


    I asked "Do you have a specific reason, for wanting to speak with me?". He nodded, and said "The Royals have no idea about this, but there is a chance, they may find it out in the future. I''m here to find out, why you did this? Before they are aware. But don''t worry, I myself will do nothing. I still think you are a honest man, and you wouldn''t do it without a reason. Whatever the story is, Me and Lazar will never chase you".


    I looked at him, and said "I appreciate that, but there is no reason to be concerned. If you know that I fought in the Arena, then you know that I was tortured, to the point I had enough. Scum like that Razor, deserve death". He said "I know, I don''t care about that Razor guy, but the Mercenary Guild". I said "The guy called Graver, set up the matches on the Arena, to test my abilities. I don''t know the exact purpose behind his involvement, but there was some shady business going on with him. When I returned from the Arena, and headed to the Mercenary Guild for my reward, I told him that I knew about his involvement". Harlin nodded his head, and said "Continue".


    I continued "I got no reward. Moreover, he tried to take away my membership stone. I have no idea what this thing records, besides contribution points. My guess is that, this stone is rigged in some way, and records much more than it''s supposed to". I then threw the stone at Harlin. He said "We can check that. I have a friend, who can look into this. With her help, we will be able to take a look, at the information stored on the stone. By the way, what you said is true. The membership ID records the Contribution Points, basic details of that member, and the specialisations only. If there is something else on it, then it was rigged indeed, and someone wanted to collect information about you".


    He then asked "But why did you still kill all of the Golems?". I said "I gave them the chance to get away. They chose to fight. I also have a suspicion, that some of them might''ve been onto the same shady business, as Graver was". He nodded, and said "I believe you. Let''s go, and check this stone. My friend will take care of it". We then stood up, and left towards his friend''s location. Lazar wanted to go as well, but I turned around, and said "Just stay with your daughter. She needs you more than I". He nodded his head, and stayed.


    Harlin took me to some old house, in the Lower Area of Olrad. I asked "This is where someone who knows Formations live?". He replied "She doesn''t like to be disturbed, and likes to stay hidden". ''Whatever, as long as she can get out the information from that stone, I don''t care'' I thought. Harlin knocked on the doors a few times, in a specific rhythm. After a while, the doors opened, but no one came out. Harlin motioned for me to enter, so I followed after him.


    The inside was rather dark, I could activate my Darkness Perception, but Harlin said "Follow me". I did just that, and we went down the stairs. I could see some light, at the end of the long stairway. A the bottom, we stood in front of a room, that was fully lit. The weird thing was, it was not lit up by fire, but some kind of glowing orbs, that gave out a lot of light. In that room, sat a lone Lizard. She wasn''t the usual Lizard, she was grey. ''Weren''t these type of Lizards, banished from Obsidian Mountains?'' I thought to myself.


    Harlin introduced me "This is Alicia. She is a Formation Master, and will be able to look into the stone for us". He walked over to Alicia, who was sitting at her desk, and said "I have something, I would like to get the information out of". She didn''t even look at him, and said "You know the price". He took out 5 ck Hals, and passed them to her. She extended her hand, while Harlin ced my membership stone on it.


    When she saw the stone, she became a bit surprised, and asked "You want me to examine this? Isn''t it just a simple Mercenary ID? Well, you paid for it, so it''s your choice". She started doing something weird to the stone, then stopped. After a while, she gave back the stone, and the money, then said "Leave". Harlin was as confused, as I was. ''So, this is not normal? I thought it was weird only for me" I thought.


    Harlin replied "What do you mean leave? I paid you the usual price, this stone should not be that difficult, to extract the information from. So what is the problem?". She said "The problem is the information stored on it. Destroy this stone, immediately. Where did you get it from anyway? No. Don''t tell me, I don''t want to know". Harlin was about to say something, when I stepped forward, and said "It''s mine". She turned around, and shock was visible in her eyes. I asked "What is on that stone?".


    She shook her head, and said "I can''t tell you. Leave, please". I replied "You think, I will just let you know my information? Whatever is on that stone, must be big. I want to know, what they recorded about me". She shook her head, and said "I can''t. Please destroy that stone immediately. Don''t let anyone else see it. I will never tell anything to anyone". She seemed afraid, but I had no intention of killing her. ''This is weird, she is obviously scared of something. Something must''ve been recorded there, that should not see the light of day'' I thought.


    I considered something for a while, then said to Harlin "Give me that stone". He did as I asked, while I turned towards Alicia, and said "How do I destroy it?". She scuffled for a while, then took some kind of bag out. Alicia then said "I will give you this. When you are outside, ce the stone into that bag, and throw it as far as you can, then run. The explosion will be quite severe", I took the bag, and said "Is the thing recorded inside, that shocking? I didn''t do anything out of ordinary though". She shook her head, and said "It''s not¡­". She shut up instantly, as if afraid to even say one more word. She continued after a while "Please go, destroy it as soon as possible".


    I said to Harlin, who seemed to be in daze "Let''s go, she will not tell us anything, even if I torture her". Harlin woke up from his thoughts, and simply nodded his head. As I was about to enter the dark staircase, I said "Keep whatever was in there, to yourself. I know where to find you". I heard loud gulp, then left. As we walked outside, Harlin asked "It seems what you said, is true. The stone recorded much more, than it supposed to. The problem is, what did it record? She also never acted like this, I never seen her scared".


    I replied "It doesn''t matter. If she is afraid, that the information on that stone is too dangerous, then I will destroy it". Harlin was a bit surprised, and asked "You don''t want to know, what is on it?". I said "No. I already created a lot ofmotion, and I know why Graver was so interested in me. Although everything is on that stone, I don''t need to know. Graver is dead. Even if he made a copy of whatever is on it, he didn''t make it after the Arena battles. He had no time to do it".


    I already had a suspicion what it was. Although it was only a suspicion, I didn''t need the stone anymore. ''The name on my stone, is going to be associated with a killer. I don''t need that, destroying it, is the best idea'' I thought, and went toward the Olrad''s exit. Harlin followed after me, to make sure I was alright.

 Chapter 240

    Chapter 240


    After we left Olrad, we walk further away from the volcano. I took out the bag, that the grey Lizard gave to me, as well as the membership stone. Harlin asked again "Are you sure about it? We can always find someone else, to get the information from that stone". I shook my head, and replied "It''s fine. She was scared, of whatever was on it. It''s better, if no one else sees it. Destroying it, is therefore not a bad option". He sighted, and said "Alright, as you like. It belongs to you either way. I already got the confirmation, that there is more stuff on it, than it was supposed to record. If Royals ever ask, I will defend you".


    I nodded my head, and ced the stone inside the bag. I immediately threw it as hard as I could, and started running in the opposite direction. I didn''t take lightly the words of that grey Lizard. She told me to run, and I did just that. Harlin also didn''t just stand there, and followed after me. A short whileter, I heard "BOOOOM!". The explosion in the air was so severe, that the wind st still caught up to us. Fortunately, it was just a st of normal wind, and not hot wind, like with the use of Yellow Dust.


    We looked back, and saw nothing out of ordinary, besides the disturbed soil. The bag exploded mid-air. Nothing was really affected on the ground, besides some rocks scattering away. "She wasn''t joking at all" Harlin said. I nodded my head, and said "I will be off now. You now know my reasons, for doing what I did. I have to visit a friend of mine. I will probably return in the future, especially if I need a safe ce. I hope you can provide that". He nodded his head, and replied "Return whenever you wish. When ites to me and Lazar, there will always be a ce for you among us. I will also give you this".


    He handed me some sort of scale. On a closer inspection, it was a scale of a Lizard. I was a bit confused, and asked "What is this?". He said "This is my mark. When you show it to other Lizards around the North, they will try to help you out in need. Beware though, not all Lizards will help you. Usually look inside taverns. Lizards working there, will be mostly my people". I nodded my head, and said "Thanks. Tell Lazar to take care of his daughter, I will visit him when I return. Take care of yourself as well". He nodded his head, and we walked our own separate ways.


    I travelled towards the Dead Forest, which was next to the Sludge Factory. This was where Crow could be found. On my way, I trained just the way I used to. I trained my strength whenever I could. Especially since I knew that therge sword in my bag, had a Formation, which could increase its weight. I swung it as I travelled, and tried to get ustomed to the 500 kilograms of weight. I also trained with my Stringed Hidden Weapons. Although I was at the first step of the skill, which was the control part of it. I knew that the fully developed skill, would bring in so much more, to my overall fighting ability.


    I focused less on archery, and Pressuring Dagger skill. I wanted to advance my other skills first, before I would take care of these things. I travelled like this for a long time, due to my pace being rather slow. When I finally noticed the Sludge Factory, I knew I didn''t have very far to go. I then realised, there might be a problem though. ''The closer I get to the west, the more probable it is, that I will encounter either Avians or Yagaroths. I can''t let any of them spot me. I will have to either kill them first, or wait for them to leave'' I thought.


    With my improved strength, as well as Frosty''s improved powers, I didn''t have to worry about small groups of Yagaroths whatsoever. Avians were a bit more tricky though. ''Avians can obviously fly. Not only that, they have a much bigger field of view. They will be able to spot something, much better than Yagaroths. I need to monitor the skies, and watch out for them'' I thought.


    Although still focused on my training, I monitored any activities in the skies. I soon spotted one such patrol of Avians, and immediately hid behind a dead tree. The Avians flew past me, then returned towards the western direction. ''Good thing I was looking out for them. If they noticed me, I would have to run again, or kill them off'' I thought, and continued towards my destination.


    This happened a few times, before I even arrived at the Dead Forest. The problems began, when I arrived there. There were loads of Yagaroths, and Avians inside the forest. ''This is bad, I will not be able to kill that many of them. They should not chase after me though. Avians are aware of what happened before, so they will probably track me from afar, until they can catch me'' I thought. Constant running away, was not my ideal option, so I decided to sneak past them. I also wanted to study them in more details, check out their behaviours, movements, and overall purpose in the Dead Forest.


    I observed the Yagaroths and Avains, for a few days. I managed figured something out. They seemed to be searching for something else, not me. ''Weird, if they are not searching for me, then for what?'' I thought. Time passed, and I slowly made my way towards the meeting ce, where Crow was supposed to leave a ck ribbon. Indeed, the ribbon was there. Not only was it there, it also meant, that Crow was in the Dead Forest often. ''I need to wait. If he frequents this ce often, he should appear soon'' I thought, and hid myself in the vicinity of the ribbon.


    Nothing happened for a very long time. I decided to just leave. ''Crow might''ve decided, that this is too dangerous of a location, and will not appear here. Maybe he didn''t have the time, to change the sign¡­ Or, there is another possibility'' I thought. There was the possibility, of Crow ratting me out. This would exin, why Yagaroths and Avains were waiting here. The weird thing was, that they didn''t seem to be looking for me. ''Are they looking for Crow then? That is why he didn''t appear yet?'' I thought, and prepared myself to leave, but then in the corner of my eye, I saw something.


    ''This was not an Avian or Yagaroth. This was something that knew stealth. If my guess is correct, it''s Crow'' I thought, and started heading in that direction. I moved through the Dead Forest, until I almost reached its outer edges. To my surprise, Crow revealed himself to me, and spoke quietly. "Fortunately you saw me. Follow me, this is not a safe ce". I nodded, and we moved away from the Dead Forest.


    As we travelled further and further away, we encountered less and less Avians, which were scouring the area. When we finally managed to distance ourselves from the Avian patrols, we could talk in rtive peace.

 Chapter 241

    Chapter 241


    Crow began the conversation by saying "I managed to figure out a lot of things, but they almost caught me. That was why, there were so many of those Avians and Yagaroths inside the Dead Forest. Fortunately, I excel at hiding. Otherwise, I would be gone already". I nodded my head, and asked "What did you figure out?".


    Crow replied "You stepped into something serious. One of the Yagaroths you killed, was a direct descendant of the High One. If you only killed the guards, this would not escte to such a degree. Moreover, The High One took control over the Vulture Cliffs, and ismanding the Avians. The King of Avians has nothing to say anymore. In order to save her race, they became ves to Yagaroths".


    ''I already knew, that one of those Yagaroths back then, was something special. No wonder that High One is so pissed'' I thought, and asked "What else, did you figure out?". Crow replied "Not only did you kill his direct descendant, you also wiped out arge portion of their poption. The whole army which was chasing you, perished. You are now the most wanted man, in the North. I''m still amazed, that no one actually managed to catch you. Besides that, Avians managed to conceal the fact, that you have the Yellow Dust. The fact that they are in the possession of it, was somehow concealed from Yagaroths too. Yagaroths don''t have a clue, as to how you managed to kill a whole army, and they are now wary of you".


    I said "This is good. If Yagaroths don''t know about it, then I have a chance to get more in the future. As for why I''m still free. Fortunately, there are a few people who helped me out. The races which are neutral towards humans, will not chase me, although some individuals may try to rat me out". He nodded his head, and said "That is good. Otherwise, you would have to leave the North. I assume, you still want to stay though". I nodded my head, and replied "Yes, I want to explore further north. I also got an invitation from an Atol guy. Their race is quite friendly from what I hear, and they will not fight against me".


    He seemed a bit confused, and asked "Why?". I said "Because they hate Avians. Even if I did what I did, without any reason, they would be thankful instead of hateful". Crow asked "Are you going there next?". I nodded my head, and replied "Yes, I n to go there, and train as well. I need to get stronger, and break through to my Inner Limits, as soon as possible. With this much power, I won''t have to worry about Avians or Yagaroths. Only the High One, would be a threat to me. Of course, if we only take skills and strength under consideration".


    Crow looked at me, and asked "Yellow Dust, right?". I nodded, and replied "Yes, I still have enough to probably kill the High One. If not kill, I can at least damage him to a certain degree. This is myst resort though". He nodded, and said "I still think, you should not return there at all. It''s too dangerous. At least don''t go there, until you break through your Inner Limits". I replied "I know. Don''t worry, I''m not that stupid". Crow then asked "What do you want me to do now though? If I go near the Vulture Cliffs, I may get caught. That High One, is not something we can mess with right now". I thought about that, and said "Why don''t youe with me?". He seemed hesitant for some reason, then said "I¡­ can''t. It''s not because I don''t want to¡­ It''splicated".


    I was a bit confused, and asked "What do you mean?". He replied "Well, you see. I don''t have as much freedom, as you may think I have. I belong to a certain group in my city. Getting in, was not really the problem, but getting out of it¡­ it''s hard. I have to work for them now, and scavenge the wastnds in order to live. If I leave, I will be ssed as a traitor. That means, I would not be able to return back to my own city, and I want to return". I thought about it for a while, then asked "Is it because of someone?". Heughed, while saying "Is it that obvious? Yes, it''s because of someone I like. Although we are not together, I''m still satisfied. I can at least have a simple conversation with her, from time to time".


    I asked "What do you have to do, in order to get your freedom back?". Crow replied "Pay a heavy price... There are two ways, to leave the group that I belong to. The first way, is to defeat the leader of the group. If I win, I have my freedom back. Winning is not the only problem, losing is even a greater problem". I asked "So wining is a problem, but losing is even worse?".


    Crow nodded, and said "Yes. If I lose, I no longer have the right to challenge the leader, and I will have to stay in that group forever. Not only that, I will face the punishment, for defying our leader. There is a second way, and it''s much more simple". He took a deep breath, while I waited for him to continue. Crow said "I would have to pay them for everything they did for me. Additionally, pay them for the inconvenience of me leaving. I don''t know the exact numbers, but I estimate them to be around 600-800 ck Hals, if not more".


    "That is quite a lot. I did some work in the past, and it would take me around 700 days, to earn that much, while working as a cksmith. That is two years of work, to earn the 600-800 ck Hals. If we took the expenses under consideration, this time period would increase by a lot". He nodded his head, and said "Precisely. I have expenses of course. Although I managed to save some money, it''s just a measly 30 ck Hals. That is all the money, I managed to save, throughout the years I''ve been doing this".


    I asked "What if I pay for you? Will that work?". His barely visible eyes became huge. The shock was stered in his eyes, even though they were mostly covered. He asked, while swallowing some saliva "You¡­ You have that much?". I shook my head, and said "No, but I know how to get that much rather quickly. There is also the second way. As you mentioned, you can just defeat the leader". Heughed a bit, and said "Me? I would die in 20 seconds, if not less. Not even you could win, that guy is a higher form of a Shade. He broke through his Inner Limits, and no one dares to challenge him. For me to break through Inner Limits?¡­ I don''t know, if I have the talent...".


    I looked at him, and said "At what stage, are you now?". He replied "I''m at the Half Step of my Outer Limit. For me, to break through this alone¡­ it will take some time". I said "What if I can help you?". Heughed, and asked "Now or in 10 years?". I looked at him seriously, and said "Now. Even right now, if you so choose". Crow was surprised, and asked "How?! If I can break through my Half Step, I will do whatever it takes. I''ve been stuck on it for a long time now! I''m willing to do anything!". I said "I will give you my Extracts. My Extracts have no impurities, and they will help you purify your blood, as well as increase your strength. I know you don''t specialise in strength, but having more of it, will not be detrimental to you".


    I noticed that, Crow was about to drop onto his knees. I quickly grabbed him, and said "Don''t you dare doing that. You have no need to beg, or give me your life. I''m helping you, because I consider you my friend". He was still shaken, and said "I¡­ I''m¡­". I said "I told you, I consider you my friend. I know only a few people like you. You could count them on one hand, hahaha. So stand straight, and let me help you a bit too". Crow nodded his head, but looked at me, as if looking at his master. I shook my head, and took out some tools for medicine making.


    I said "It will take me awhile, to refine the Extract". I began my work, while exining the effects. "The process is very painful, your blood will be more pure at the end, but be prepared to face a lot of pain". I then continued "This will not take you over the Half Step, this will purify your blood only, which makes it easier to break through your Limits. I will then give you the Earth Strength Essence, which will increase your strength. Drink it, and do what you like. I have no clue, what you need to do, in order to break through".


    He shook his head, and said "Don''t worry, I know what to do". "Alright" I answered, then continued making the Blood Purifying Essence.

 Chapter 242

    Chapter 242


    The process took me a while, but I finally managed to make about 200 milliliters of the Blood Purifying Essence. I said "If you drink it all¡­ the pain will be something unreal. I was barely able to withstand it, while Frosty was there helping me too. You will feel intense burning inside, so be prepared. I will give you half of it first. Then we will see how it goes". Crow nodded his head, while I handed him half of the Extract that I made.


    He undid the wraps around his face, and drank the Blood Purifying Essence in one go. He seemed unperturbed for a while, even wondering whenever it was real or not. Then the effect kicked in. His face changed immediately, and he began shaking a bit. After a while, he couldn''t take it anymore, and showed his true form. Crow abandoned the corpse he used, and sat down on the ground. His grunts began escaping his mouth, but the effect would only intensify. I called out "Frosty! Can you help him out?". Frosty change to its corporeal form, and nodded its head. I said "Just use a bit of your power, and cool him down. Don''t try to freeze him though". Frosty nodded, and used its ice breath lightly.


    The processsted for a long time, before Crow finally fainted. He managed to pull through the process, but at the end, all his energy was spent. He copsed, while I stopped Frosty. "We just have to wait for him to wake up. If the effects are not enough, I will give him the other half". I then turned toward Frosty, and asked "Would this also work on you?", but Frosty shook its head, and wrote something on the ground. Frosty wrote that its blood was pure, and this would only harm it, not improve it. "I wish I had pure blood as well. Wait! Doesn''t that mean, you should be able to break through your Inner Limits easily?".


    Frosty became proud, and wrote "Of course". ''That bastard'' I thought, and asked "Then at what stage are you now?". Frosty wrote "I just broke through to the Outer Limit". I nodded, and though ''So, Frosty''s ice power is this strong, and yet only broke through to the Outer Limit. What would happen, if it broke through to the Inner Limit¡­''. The thought alone made me shiver.


    Frosty climbed onto my shoulder, and I patted its head. I then said "Yea, you can return now. Although,e out whenever you wish". Frosty nodded, and changed back to the tattoo on my hand. I waited for Crow to wake up, and decided to roast some meat, while I was at it. Crow finally woke up, as I was roasting, and said absentmindedly "Mmm... I''m hungry".


    I replied "Then sit down, and have some". Crow finally realised where he was, and said "Sorry, didn''t mean to..". I stopped him, and said "Sit down, and eat". He quickly entered the corpse on the ground, then looked at the meat roasting over the fire. I said "Just sit, and eat as much as you want". He no longer hesitated, and sat down, then began eating. Crow reminded me of my old self, in that state. I was training a lot, which always resulted in my using a lot of energy. I used to eat like a beast. I asked "So, how do you feel?". He nodded his head, and said "I can already feel the improvements. I feel that I can break through my Half Step no problem now". I replied "That is good, here take this as well". I handed him the Earth Strength Essence, that I had left from the time, I was about to break through my Half Step.


    "Drink this, and your strength will increase. You can always use more strength, even though you don''t specialise in it". He nodded his head, and asked a bit afraid "Will this hurt, just like the other one?". I smiled, and said "No, this will not hurt". He nodded his head, and drank it. After a while, he eximed "This is great! I can already feel my strength bing better and better. I will be the strongest scavenger in our group!".


    I interrupted his daydream, and said "Now that this is taken care of, what do you want to do, about your freedom?". He shook his head, and said "Even if I break through my Half Step, I have no chances. Haah... I''m really grateful, but the only way is to pay really".


    I said "I can get the money, but you will have to wait a while. Rather, a long time. I need to train, and I want to go visit those Atols. I also don''t want to return to the Great Forest currently. When I get enough money, I will tell you". He shook his head, and said "You don''t have to. I mean, you have your own problems. Besides, didn''t you help me enough already? The money will be better spend for your own stuff". I shook my head, and said "It doesn''t matter to me. I always travel, and live off thend. I can get by in the North just fine. Take this as well".


    I handed him a portion of my food. It was about 30 kilograms of it. I already knew where I was heading, and what creatures I would be able to hunt. Giving Crow that much, was not a problem at all. He looked inside the bag, and said "That is a lot of meat. I can''t..". I stopped him, and said "Just take it, I can get more. Now onto another matter at hand. I don''t think that the Dead Forest, is a good ce to meet. Is there another location, that we can use in the future?".


    He nodded his head, and said "I was about to mention that. I will not frequent Dead Forest anymore. It''s too dangerous, if I get caught¡­ I prefer not to get caught. If you are going further north, then that is great! The other side of the Sludge Factory, is where my City called Sedon is. Show me your map, I will mark the location where we can meet". I gave him my map, and waited for him to mark the location. When he looked at it, he eximed "Wow! This map of yours, is much better than anything I saw till now. Where did you get it from?". I replied "From a friend. If you ever need help, go to Obsidian Mountains, and enter that volcano", I then pointed at a specific location on the map. I continued "This is Olrad. Find Lazar or Harlin in there, and tell them you know me. They will help you out".


    Crow nodded his head, and said "Thanks, when I really need help, I will go there". I then added "It is quite hot over there, but if you stay away from the creatures that live there, and don''t attack them. They will leave you alone too". He nodded, and said "I know, We don''t travel to Obsidian Mountains much, for reason I''m sure you know". After a while of checking the map out, he said "I added the location for our meeting, to your map. With this many details on your map, you will be able to find it no problem. I will still hang that ck ribbon as a sign. It will mean, that I''m there often. When it''s not there, it means I''m doing something. I will still try to get as much info, as I can for you, this is the least I can do". I nodded, and stood up. "We will meet again. So take care of your own stuff, and keep your eyes peeled in that case. Till we meet next time Crow" I said, and started walking towards my new destination.


    Crow said "Till we meet next time, Nex". Crow and I, went our own separate ways. Although our meeting was short, and we both knew that the future was unknown. Yet friends always manage, to find a way and meet again.

 Chapter 243

    Chapter 243


    I had to go around the Sludge Factory, and then head north east. This was where the Atols lived. Their territory was not that big, and from what I saw on the map, it was near the edges of the bordering line. The North was not the way I imagined it. With my new map, I now knew how the North really looks like. It was a piece of northernnds, that even had ess to the sea. I didn''t have the map of the whole Endrosian Empire, but I could extrapte some things.


    If you took away a chunk of Endrosian Empire, and created a border line around that area, you would get the North. It was still big, but this alone suggested, that the size of Endrisian Empire, was much bigger. My journey this time would be long, but I wouldn''t just walk there. I chose to visit the Atols, mainly due to the distance between them, and my current location. ''This long road, will give me the time in order to approach the wall of my Inner Limits. I can now improve, and my training already bore some fruits. I just have to do it, like I used to in the past'' I thought, and with my slow pace, I began training most of my skills, as well as my strength.


    Time passed. The environment change, to that of weird clouds in the skies. Usually, there were no clouds in the North. Of course, besides the one big cloud, that covered the whole sky. These were separate, and less grey. Not only that, there seemed to be lightning in them. I checked my map, just to make sure I was on the right track. I noticed that I was about to enter the territory of Voltars. ''I didn''t think that Voltars, would have such a different environment. I can visit themter. For now, I will head towards my destination'' I thought.


    The Voltars territory, was unusual for sure. Besides the strong winds, electric energy seemed to flow around the whole area. ''No wonder they canmand this electric energy. Being born into that kind of environment for many generations, they actually managed to learn how tomand it'' I thought, then an ideae to my mind. ''I can use this for my own skill. My Wind Daggers need some real improvements. Although this ce possesses more electric energy than wind, it''s still much better than anywhere else, I''ve visited so far in the North'' I thought.


    I resumed my training of the Wind Daggers, as I walked through the Voltar territory. I met a few of them on my way. Voltars didn''t seem like a bunch of bad people. We exchanged some pleasantries, and they went onto their way. No one stopped me, and demanded anything from me. No one also chased after me. ''I have some peace of mind. Fortunately, Voltars are not hostile towards humans. Otherwise, I would have to go around this area'' I thought.


    I made great improvements, on my travels. Besides training my strength, which increased little by little. I also finished training, the first step of my Stringed Hidden Weapons. I got more used to it, the more I did it. The first step waspleted, but it was not the whole skill just yet. ''The skill is very usable as it is right now, but itcks the "hidden" part of it. I need tobine my control, with "hidden" part of the skill, then it will bepleted'' I thought.


    I was already at the limit, of my aim, and control of my Art of Hidden Weapons. The only thing left for me to do, was to "be the hidden weapon". When it came to my pure skills, they were as advanced, as Nick''s. Yet, it would still take me time to develop the Stringed Hidden Weapons properly. ''The problem is, when I use those daggers continuously, and they are attached to the strings, I lose the ability to hide them. I can be unpredictable, but not hidden. I can be hidden, but can''t use the strings¡­ There is more to it, I''m sure!'' I thought to myself.


    I wrecked my mind about it, for a long time. When suddenly, I realised something. ''Aura¡­ I need an Aura. Woody already demonstrated to me, what will happen, if I attach my Aura to a weapon. The problem is, I can''t even condense the Domineering Aura to just stay on my body, even more so, attach it to an object'' I thought. This was not the only issue. I currently had no other Aura, which I could use freely. The Unyielding Aura, awakened whenever it wished. I had a clue, as to what were the conditions, in order for that Aura to awaken, but I wasn''t sure. The Bloodlust Aura would only activate, when I was very angry. ''This Aura is dangerous though. I lose control of my body, and the sheer craving for blood¡­ it''s something I don''t need really'' I thought.


    The final Aura, was something I experienced many times, yet never witnessed it with my own eyes. I still had no dreams of the Dark Traveller, even though I could now understand thenguage, and what he spoke of. ''If I have no dreams, how can I even ept or decline you?'' I thought to myself. I didn''t know if those dreams woulde back or not, but something still urged me to go north, further north.


    I was getting closer, to the end of the North. Instead of feeling that I''m almost there, I felt that my destination was still far away. I felt, as if the north I was looking for, was not this North. ''Is it possible, there is something more? Beyond the North, beyond the Endrosian Empire?'' I thought to myself. The only way to find out, would be to either visit the Imperial City Endros, and maybe some cities would have information about that. Or, just head north by the sea. ''Imperial City Endros, should have more information on that, it is the Imperial City after all. But I don''t even know where it is! No maps, that I got throughout so many years, had the Imperial City marked. Just how big is this ce?'' I asked myself.


    Every map I received or found, had no marking for the Imperial City. This was weird, because even Woody''s map, which showed great details of the Great Forest, had no markings for the City in question. ''Woody''s map is shit, when ites to the North and its locations, but it is excellent for the Great Forest locations. Yet, there is no mention of the Imperial City¡­. Just where is it?'' I thought.


    I decided to drop that topic. Wasting time on it, would bring no benefits to me at that moment. Instead, I decided to try and figure out, how to awaken or perhaps create a new Aura. An Aura that would allow me to hide my daggers, while I used the Stringed Hidden Weapons. At the same time, I had to train my Domineering Aura, and condense it, until it stayed on my body. When I managed to achieve that. I would need to learn, how to make that Aura leave my body, or rather how to transfer it, onto my daggers or arrows.


    I still walked through the thundery, and windy environment of Voltar''s territory. I wasn''t sure how many days passed. I wasn''t sure how long it would take me, to arrive at my destination either. There was only one thing that I knew, I had to train like crazy, with only one word in my mind ''Improve!''.

 Chapter 244

    Chapter 244


    Days passed, or rather time passed. I left the territory of the Voltars, with a much better understanding of the wind. I could now predict it much better, but I was nowhere near using that, for my Wind Daggers skill. In front of me, the Wilderness spanned again. This reminded me of the conversation I had, with all the people in Great Forest. ''All of them said, that the North is dangerous, and that I will die. I wonder why they said that? I also saw none of those ming Silver Wolves, or ming Grey Bears here. What the hell happened with them?'' I thought.


    I couldn''t figure it out. On one hand, people told me how dangerous it was, on the other, I found a few dangers lurking in the North, but the Wilderness was rather peaceful. There were loads of races living here, and while some were hostile to humans, I met some of those, who were friendly or neutral. I couldn''t figure out, why these people feared the North so much?


    I took a look at my map, and though ''I''m about half way there. These Atols live very far away though. I wonder why they hate Avians? After all, the distance between these two races, is quite big'' I thought, and continued my journey. My Aura training wasing along nicely. Although I couldn''t figure out, how to create a new Aura, I at least improved my existing Domineering Aura. I could now restrict my Aura, to a 1 metre radius. The Aura was so strong, that whenever I went hunting, and fought in closebat, the weaker creatures near me would pretty much freeze from fear.


    I also encountered new creatures along the way. I didn''t know the names for most of them, but I noted some provisional names, in order to have something. ''I will have to ask about them. Someone who lives in those specific parts of the North, will surely know what those creatures are called'' I thought. One of such creatures, was a sort of Lightning Dog, that I found in the territory of Voltars. These dogs were extremely fast, but didn''t look like Voltars. They had white fur, and electricity circled around their whole body. They were quite short, for the creatures of the North. About half a metre tall, and no more than a metre long.


    But these dogs were unimaginably fast. Although not hostile, their speed surpassed even mine with the Boost Formation. I also saw another creature on my travels. It was arge grey creature, that Lazar told me about. These were Ognars, a bull like creatures, that towered over thendscape. They were at least 4 metres tall, and as Lazar said, they lived in groups. I tried hunting one, and although I managed to kill one, the rest of the group almost killed me. Fortunately, due to the size of these creatures, their speed suffered a bit, and they were slower than me.


    I had to run away, as taking on 6 of those creatures at the same time, would end badly. They chased me for a while, and then finally gave up. I returnedter, and collected the meat of the Ognar I killed. Just one Ognar, provided me with enough food, tost me a long time. Besides Ognars, which I already knew about, I also met some weird flying creatures. They looked like mosquitoes, but were as big as a humans.


    Not only could those things fly, they were quite fast, and lived in a swarm. The swarm I encountered, contained about 30 of them. They were hostile on first sight. They would attack anything, but themselves. They were suicidal as well. No matter how many of them died, they would go after their prey, till thest one dropped. I had to run, and throw my daggers or use my bow, in order to kill all of them. I decided to just avoid them next time. I named them Annoying Flies provisionally, as I was quite annoyed at that time.


    There was one more creature that I encountered, and it was hostile as well. These things were nasty. Although I only encountered two of such creatures, every time I fought with them, I was always barely able to escape its attacks. The creature had four legs, like a dog or a wolf, but the legs were very long and hairless. Thanks to that, the creature could run at incredible speeds, but it had a weakness. It was not agile. Not only that, it had very sharp ws at the bottom of its legs. These ws made marks in the ground, when the creature simply walked. When the creature began to run, they would slice up the rocks and whatnot, that just happened to be underneath those ws. Besides the long legs and ws, it had arge body with no hair. Its head was that of an ugly dog, but bigger and again with no hair. It looked like a creature, from a book of horrors.


    The strength of that thing, was nothing to scoff at either. The creature would sometimes use its ws to attack, and sometimes it would try to bite me. I saw rocks being smashed underneath its teeth. Although it had no fur or hair, its skin was quite tough. When I tested out the creature with my arrow at full strength, it only prated the creature a little bit. I killed it thanks to the improved daggers, that were made from ck Steel. Even with my strength, it was hard to achieve. I decided to call that thing Scrambler, for now.


    My journey continued without much of a hustle, when I cleared the Voltar territory, and its vicinity. No other creatures appeared much, besides some Corpse Dogs, and those Annoying Flies. I was a bit stunned, that I saw Corpse Dogs here, but then, where were they not present. Almost as if, the Corpse Dogs were the same, as rabbits and deer inside the Great Forest. They were everywhere. ''I wonder if Corpse Dogs have their own city, or territory as well. The map I got from Harlin, does not specify that. I''m certain of one thing. There must be something, and it will be under the ground'' I thought.


    The Corpse Dogs, especially those that broke through the Half Step of the Outer Limit, possessed intelligence. Not only that. If that Leader of Corpse Dogs I blew up, could serve as an example, then they could create an underground colony. ''If all the Corpse Dogs, that exist in the North got together¡­ what type of army would that produce?'' I thought. I wasn''t sure, if the amount of Yellow Dust still underneath the Vulture Cliffs, would be enough to exterminate them.


    Those were just the passing thoughts, and from what I already saw, this should not happen at all, or anytime soon. As I trained, travelled and conversed with Frosty from time to time, I finally saw a change in the horizon. I checked the map, and thought ''So, this is my destination I guess. Well, it looks different, I give them that''.


    What I saw over the horizon, was the territory of Atols. I was surprised to be honest. Because the amount of greenery over there, was plentiful. This ce could be mistaken, for a part of the Great Forest, and not the part of Wilderness. Yet here it was. ''This might''ve been a good choice. If I can get loads of herbs over there, I can create a lot of medicine. Not only would I be able to restock my own supply, I could also help Crow out'' I thought. Withrge steps, I headed towards the destination, that seemed very promising from afar.

 Chapter 245

    Chapter 245


    It took me a few more "days", just to arrive at my location, but the sight was really extraordinary. The ce looked like a part of Great Forest, although differed in nts. There were some tall weird looking trees, as if they had faces. Besides that, grass and shrubs were present everywhere. I could also see Atols running around. These were small Atols, and probably were ying some kind of game. ''This ce¡­ It feels so serene. No one would guess that, this is still the North'' I thought.


    As I approached the area, and a few of the older Atols, arrived in front of me. One of them asked "Hello Human, do you have a specific reason for your visit?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, the Atol called Apam invited me toe here, and visit. I hope you don''t mind". The leading Atol shook his head, and said "No, not at all. We know Apam, and he also told us about you. You helped him out, while not asking for anything in return. This alone shows, that you are a good person. Follow me friend, I will take you to Apam". I nodded my head, and followed after the Atols.


    As we walked through the forest, the leading Atol asked "I assume that, this is your first visit here?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I''ve never been here. This ce is¡­ different. Compared to the rest of the North, it''s like a paradise. Although, I saw something simr at the Vulture Cliffs". The Atols became visibly angry, and the leader asked "Why did you visit Avians?". I said "Don''t worry, they hate me now. I killed of a lot of them. I''m also aware that you hate them. I wonder myself, why you hate them so much?". The Atols visibly calmed down, when their heard me say that. The leader said "Sorry, we misjudged you. You are a friend after all! Not only did you help Apam, you also killed those Avian bastards!".


    He then continued "I will tell you, why we hate them so much. As you already said, Vulture Cliffs have something simr to what we have here. The reason is simple, they stole all of that from us! If not for their ability to fly, and the distance between us, we would already go and kill them off!". I nodded, and said "Now I know, why they had so much greenery over there. I also wondered, how they managed to do it, but it seems your people are the reason. That King of Avians even dared to say, that they managed to find a way, to grow these nts in the North. No wonder they betrayed me".


    The Atol nodded, and said "Never trust Avians. Our ancestors did that, and they stole everything! These bastards will act nicely, but underneath, they are rotten to the core". I then asked a question "So, how do you call this ce?". The Atol replied "We call it Apium, we don''t have cities or viges like others. This whole ce is our home. You will find Atols everywhere here. Besides that, we make our houses on top of trees. We respect the nature, so we don''t like to harm it. We mostly use outside materials to build our houses, like the rotten trees outside of Apium, or if we really have to, we use the materials from Apium".


    I nodded my head, and asked "What about the money? Do you also use the Hals, as your currency?". He nodded, and said "Yes, we ept Hals, as we also travel to other areas. Therefore Hals are useful to us as well, but you can also pay us by working, or helping us out, which you already did". He then stopped, and pointed at a tree. He said "Apam lives over there, let me check if he is inside". I nodded, and the Atol climbed the tree quickly, then check if Apam was inside. The house was made from wood, and it actually looked amazing. It was one storey, but circled around the whole tree, as if the tree grew with that house. It was so well incorporated. The nks had very good finish, and nothing was roting. ''The Atols have some skilled craftsmen, to be able to build such houses'' I thought. I myself built a small house in the past. It wasn''t as refined and well created as these, yet I had to put in a lot of effort to create it. I could imagine the amount of work, the Atols had to put in, just to create one house.


    The leading Atol returned shortly with Apam. Apam, which I met at the Arena, looked at me and asked "Do I know you?". The others turned almost hostile, with intention to attack me. I raised my hand, and said "Don''t get all excited. He doesn''t recognise me, because I had a mask on". I took out my mask from the bag, and ced in on my face. Apam immediately eximed "Oh! It really is you! I didn''t recognise you without that mask". I took the mask off, and threw it inside my bag. I then said "Of course, you never saw my face, so you couldn''t recognise me". The other Atols calmed down, and smiles appeared on their faces again.


    ''It seems they really hate liars, or people who try to deceive them'' I thought. The Atol leading us till here, said "I''m sorry, we doubted you again, but we really don''t like people who try to deceive us. You are, who you im to be, and so we shall no longer judge you like that". I replied "Don''t worry, It''s better to be protective, than sufferter". He nodded, and said "Thank you, for your understanding. Apam will show you around, and if you want to stay, he will show you a guest house. You don''t have to pay us anything for a ce to sleep, after all, you did help us".


    The other Atols left, while only me and Apam were left standing. Apam asked "You want me to show you around?". I nodded, and said "Sure". We went on a tour, around the Apium. Apam exined a few things to me, on our way. "There are a few rules, that you need to abide by, when you are here. Please don''t attack anyone. We allow duels, if both opponents agree to that, but attacking someone without their consent, is not allowed. We are a one big family here, so we take care of each other".


    I nodded, and said "I didn''te here to fight with you guys. Therefore, I have no problem with that rule". He nodded, and continued "As you already know, we respect the nature. So don''t go around destroying it". I nodded, and asked "Do you have any herbs here, that I can collect?". Apam asked "Herbs?". I said "Yea, nts that can help you regenerate faster, and so on". He realised what I was talking about, and replied "Ah that! Yes, we have loads of those things. Picking one or two will not be a problem, but if you want more, you will have to give back to the nature". I was a bit confused, and asked "How can I return something, to the nature?".


    Heughed, and said "nt more nts! If you nt new nts, and take the old ones, this will keep a bnce. That is what the Atols, who know how to process these nts do". I nodded, and asked "Can you introduce me to some of those Atols? I would like to learn more". Apam nodded his head, and said "Of course. Do you want to go now, or do you want to see the rest of Apium?". I replied "Show me the rest of yournd. I''m interested what else you have in here". He nodded his head, and the tour resumed.

 Chapter 246

    Chapter 246


    Apam showed me the ce, where they reared animals for food. They looked very simr to the bulls, I encountered in Vulture Cliffs. Although these bulls were not orange in colour, but red. I asked Apam about them, and he said "These are called Taurus, they are very friendly, so we kill them outside of the group. We don''t want them to be scared all the time". I thought ''So the name is the same as well. Their nature is also the same, but the colour is different. It might be due to the environment change''.


    The moth like creatures were there as well, they looked less ugly, and more like butterflies. Apam exined, when I asked "These are Great Flies. They are helping us keep the Apium in the condition you see today. They are not aggressive, and take care of the weeds as well as pests, like bugs and so on. They have a short lifespan though, so we really take care of them". Again, there was a simr creature, that I met in the Vulture Cliffs. Although the Vulture Cliffs Variant was called Great Moths, and they were considered half pests and half useful, the Variant in Apium was only useful. It even killed off the pests.


    I didn''t try to exin the details, of what I saw inside the Vulture Cliffs, to Apam. There was no need for me to do that. Besides, I already knew that Avians stole their stuff. Apam then showed me, a kind of central region of their home Apium. There were loads of tall trees, with huge crowns full of leaves. A lot of houses and other buildings, were on top of them. Apam exined "This is the central region of Apium. It''s where our guests stay, and where you can buy, as well as sell your stuff. If you go around this ce, you can find some work too".


    He then said "Come with me, I will show you where you can stay". I nodded, and followed after Apam. He climbed the tree, and then realised something. He stopped and looked back, but I was climbing the tree as well. He probably forgot to ask, if I could climb it, or not. I could of course, when I was a kid, I used to climb trees as well.


    When we climbed to the top, there were some wooden bridges suspended between the houses, and buildings. Apam walked towards one such building, and said "It''s here. Let''s go inside, and I will tell the owner, that you will be staying here". I nodded my head, and we walked inside.


    An old Atol, sat behind the well crafted counter. When he saw us enter, he asked "How can I help you Apam?". Apam replied "This is my friend, who helped me out in the Arena. Can you give him one room?". The Atol nodded, and said "Of course, the room to the far right is empty, he can take that one". Apam nodded, and took me to my room.


    The room contained a bed, which was made from wood. It was very well crafted, even though it looked to be made from those dead trees outside. The trees were not really dead, but they looked like it. Besides the bed, the room also had a window, desk and two chairs. There was also a small shelf in the corner, next to the window. The room had no locks, but I guessed that Atols valued privacy, and didn''t need locks in order to stay private.


    Apam said "This room is a bit small, but you can stay here as long as you want. When you are ready to leave, just notify the owner, and say visit me to say goodbye". I nodded, and replied "Can do". Apam then continued "If you want to, I can show you the sculpture of our ancestors, as well as thergeke, with clean and fresh water". I nodded my head, and said "We can go now. I already know which room is mine". Apam nodded, and we left, to explore the Apium more.


    Our next destination, was the statue of Atols'' ancestors. When we arrived, I noticed a statue of three huge apes, that stood there proudly, with their chests raised forwards. Apam said "These are the ancestors, who started this whole ce. The statue was made by master craftsmen a long time ago, after the ancestors passed away. The tradition still lives to this day. Many Atols are craftsmen, or take care of Apium by nting and growing more nts".


    The statue itself, was made from wood, but it seemed to be some kind of special wood. Not only the wood didn''t decay, it still looked pristine, as if it was carved a moment ago. The three Atols, seemed to represent three different aspects of their culture. One was depicted with flowers, as well as vines growing around him. The other was depicted with a piece of wood, and a carving knife, probably to symbolize that Atols liked to create. Thest Atol was the most muscr, and had a stave in his hands. Probably represented a great warrior, that protected hisnd.


    I asked "Was this very long time ago?". Apam scratched his head, and said "Very long time, but I don''t know how long". I nodded my head, and asked "Why not show me thatke of yours?". Apam nodded, and said "Alright, follow me!". As we walked toward theke, Apam said "That ce is great. The young ones like to spend a lot of time there, ying in the water. Although, besides nts, nothing else lives inside theke".


    We soon arrived at our destination, and arge blueke appeared in front of me. "Amazing!" I eximed out loud. Apamughed, and said "Isn''t it? A lot of people whoe here for the first time, also exim like you". I asked "Is this safe to drink?". Apam walked over to theke, cupped his hands, and lifted some of the water up. He then drank it, and said "Of course, this is what we drink. You can try it, it''s fresh".


    I walked over, and did the same. Indeed, the water was clean and fresh. I asked "How did you manage to keep the water clean?". Apam replied "The nts at the bottom, do it for us. The Atols responsible for theke, also sprinkle some kind of dust once in a while. This keeps the water clean and fresh". I nodded, and asked another question "Right, but if you use it all the time, then how is theke still full?".


    He scratched his head, and said "I don''t know, I never thought about it. Atols responsible for taking care of thiske, might know. Want to visit them?". I nodded my head, and said "Sure". We walked around theke, and climbed one of the trees, that had a building on top of it. Inside, were a few female Atols. One of them asked "Apam? You don''te here often, and with a guest nheless". Apam replied "My guest is wondering, howe we still have water inke? We use it everyday, but theke is still full".


    She smiled, and said "That is simple. The nts produce water". I then asked "Can nts produce water?". She nodded, and said "Of course, these nts can. Theke is half full of these sorts of nts, while the other half, is popted with nts that purify the water. We sprinkle the Aranid Dust once in awhile, to feed the water producing nts. That is how, we still haveke full of water". I eximed "Amazing! Is it possible to get a few of these nts?". She shook her head, and said "Unfortunately, no. We cannot give you any, even if you paid us. These nts cannot leave Apium, under any circumstances".


    I nodded my head, and said "I understand". She then continued "We can show them to you, but we cannot give any. If you want to see some, we can dive into water". I replied "That would be great! I may be able to study them without taking them with me". She seemed surprised, and asked "You like to study nts?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I study nts to make medicine. The medicine I gave to Apam at the Arena, was created by me". She seemed ted, and said "It''s nice to see someone, who likes to do the same stuff as we do here. Come with me, I will show you the bottom of theke".

 Chapter 247

    Chapter 247


    The three of us headed towards theke, while the female Atol introduced herself. "My name is Sha. I''m responsible for taking care of the water producing nts, together with two other Atols". I nodded my head, and said "Just call me Dark Traveller". There was no need, to sh my real name around here. Besides, that was the name the Atol Apam knew me by. She looked at me, and asked "A weird name, but there are loads of things weird in the North". I asked "Do you have a specific name, for the water producing nts?".


    She nodded her head, and said "Yes, we do. They are called Ophilis Reeds". I asked "What about the purifying nts? What do you call them?". She replied "We call them Aliris nts". I nodded my head, and continued walking in silence. We soon arrived at a certain spot, where Sha turned towards me, and asked "Can you dive?". I said "Yes, I canst underwater, for quite long". She replied "That''s good. This way, you will have more time to check the nts out". She then continued "Just follow me, and I will take you to a good spot. Apam, are youing along?", but Apam shook his head, and said "No, I''m fine. I will wait here for you guys". We nodded our heads, and jumped into theke.


    I followed after Sha, as we dived deeper and deeper. Theke was not that deep though, and after about a minute, we already saw the bottom. It was filled with some sort of nts, supposedly these were the Ophilis Reeds. I got closer, and started examining them. The nt had a long stem, on which two or three leaves grew. There was no flower at the top. It had the same build as a normal reed, with one crucial difference, the top of it was blue. It wasn''t thanks to the colour of the water, but because it was glowing blue.


    I could see that the water, was being produced by them. As a tiny blue strand, was escaping each Reed little by little. When I looked at the whole ce, the view was amazing. The little strands connected, and travelled upwards. I took out a small bottle, and tried to capture some of that blue strands. I wanted to test, if it was pure water or something else.


    Sha didn''t seem to mind, what I was doing, and didn''t stop me. I collected some of that blue strand, but it was mixed in with water. I hid the bottle, while Sha motioned for me to follow. We went to another location, and different nts grew there. ''These must be the Aliris nts'' I thought. When I took a closer look, I noticed that the nt had a flower, that looked like honeb. It was also on a long stem, but this nt, had many leaves. The water seemed to be absorbed through the honeb like flower, then escaped at the bottom of it, through very small holes.


    I noticed that, some of the leaves were getting ck as well. ''So, these nts probably collect all the impurities inside them. I wonder what happens when enough umtes?'' I thought to myself. I saw enough, so I motioned towards Sha, that we can go back to the surface. A short swimter, we resurfaced and returned back to thend.


    I asked "The Aliris nt, is umting the impurities inside itself, right?". She replied "I know where you going with this, so I will answer you now. Yes. That is why, we have to monitor these nts all the time. Even if one Aliris nts arrives at the point, where it can no longer umte impurities, we need to extract it. We of course rent the gone Aliris nts, so the bnce is kept".


    I nodded my head, and asked "For how long, can they actually absorb those impurities?". She replied "Quite long actually, until all the leaves turn ck. It takes some time for that to happen. Of course, we monitor them very often still. Different Alirises, are on different stages of absorption". I nodded, and asked about the Ophilis nt next "That blue strand, which I tried collecting from the Ophilis nt, is it only pure water, or something else as well?". She replied with a smile "You are really observative. Yes, it''s not pure water only, there is something else in there. I can tell you, or you can study it yourself. You already have a sample".


    I asked "Do you have some tools, to study it?". She nodded her head, and said "Yea, back in the building. If you want to use them, feel free toe by". I nodded my head, and said "I will. For now, I want to see the rest of the Apium". She nodded as well, and said "Then have a nice stay, ande by whenever you want. We don''t get many visitors there". She said farewell to Apam too, and left. Apam looked at me, and said "I have no idea, what you two just talked about". Iughed a bit, and said "Well, you don''t study the nts, so you have the right not to know. Don''t worry about it".


    Apam nodded, and asked "So, where are we going now?". I thought about it, and asked "Can you take me to the people, who can use the nts and make medicine?". Apam nodded, and said "Sure, let''s go!". We went back the way we came from, and headed west this time. Our destination was a whole garden of herbs, with a few Atols tending to the nts. There were a few trees in there too, and all had some sort of house or building on top of them. Apam said "This is where the Atols that make medicine live, and care for nts. These nts also grow outside of this area, but in much smaller quantity". I nodded my head, and asked "Can you take me to someone, who is very knowledgeable about medicine and nts?". Apam nodded, and said "Yes, the old Ulon should be free at that time. Let''s go and visit him".


    As we walked, I said "You are quite popr in this ce. Everyone knows you". Apam scratched his head, and said "Well, I''m a warrior. I also tent to help anyone, whenever I can, but I don''t know everyone here. There are too many Atols to remember all their names¡­ it would be too confusing".


    We soon arrived at a smallest tree, that could be found in this area. On it, was a small house, that''ve seen the better days. Compared to the other buildings and houses, it seemed abandoned. Apam said "This is where old Ulon lives". Apam climbed the tree, and knocked on the doors. After a while, an old Atol opened, and asked "Apam? What do you need?". Apam replied "My friend here, would like to know more about what you are doing. He studies nts as well, and he makes medicine out of them". The old Atol seemed intrigued, and said "Alright, invite him in as well". Apam waved at me, and I climbed the tree as well.

 Chapter 248

    Chapter 248


    I entered the house after a short climb, and noticed the state of the inside. It was not much better,pared to the outside. The old Atol asked "Apam said you can make medicine, how did you learn this?". I replied "Someone taught me about herbs, medicine and how to treat injuries. That person is no longer alive though. He spend half of his life, in order to learn all that medical knowledge".


    The old Atol nodded, and said "He must''ve been really dedicated. So youngster, what is it that you wanted to ask?". I said "I wanted to find out, how to nt the herbs you grow here, and collect some at the same time. It''s very hard to find herbs, in the North". He nodded his head, and said "Yes, there are really no other ces, which have as many herbs as we do. But why should I teach you? I''m quite busy".


    I said "Can you show me your best medicine?". He was a bit confused, and asked "What for?". I said "Show me your best medicine, and I show you mine. You can treat it asparing results of our medicine making". The old Atol thought about it, and nodded his head after a while. "Alright, let me get my best medicine". He went over to one of the shelves, and took one of the bottles that was standing on it. The bottle was not made from ss though, it was made from wood.


    He then handed me that bottle, and said "Here you go, study it as much as you want. I''m curious, what sort of medicine, can you show me?". I nodded my head, and said "Let me see this first, I will show you mine in a moment". I opened the cork, and fresh smell of herbs filled the room. I dropped some of it onto my hand, and looked at the colour, impurities, and whatnot.


    ''This medicine, is as good, as my Vital Liquid. It''s not that great, whenpared to Nick''s recipes'' I thought. I ced the cork back into the bottle, then handed him my Vital Liquid. I said "This is the basic medicine, that I can make. It''s of the same grade, as your best medicine. Check it, then I will show you my best medicine".


    He seemed a bit angry, that I called his creation basic. Nevertheless, he checked the medicine, and eximed "You are right. It is on the same level, as my best medicine!". I nodded, and said "Now check this one out". I handed him the Healing Essence, and awaited his verdict. He tested it for a while, then asked "Can I have it?". I knew why he wanted it. He wanted to figure out, how I created it, and how to improve his own medicine.


    I replied "Only if you show me how to nt new herbs, and how to collect them. I need to make more medicine for myself, that is why I require herbs". The old Atol didn''t even hesitate, and said "I will show you everything I can. If you work in the fields, and grow your own nts, you will have the right to harvest as many as you grow. The workers below, already keep the necessary bnce". I nodded my head, and said "Deal, keep this medicine then".


    He hid the medicine carefully, then asked "When would you like to learn?". I replied "Let''s start from tomorrow. I know you are itching to get your hands on that medicine. Go ahead, and study it as much as you like". He was very satisfied with my answer, and escorted us back to the doors. As we walked outside, he said "Visit me tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I will be able to learn something from you", thenughed.


    When we climbed down, Apam said "I never seen old Ulon so excited about something. It seems your medicine really did make a good impression on him". Iughed in my mind, and thought ''Impression? My medicine was at least five times better than his, and that is just intermediate recipe. An advanced recipe, would be the same a miracle cure for that guy''.


    I decided not toment on that, because Apam wouldn''t understand either way. Instead, I said "I know Atols like to craft. Can you take me to some master craftsmen? I would like to meet them too". Apam was a bit confused, and asked "How many things are you interested in? Not only can you fight, and make medicine, you can also craft?". I smiled and said "Actually, that was my profession, before I started travelling".


    Apam nodded his head, and said "Alright, let''s go then!". We headed toward the north eastern direction this time. After a short walk, we arrived at an area with loads of houses, that were both on the ground, and on top of the trees. ''That''s weird. I thought they build their houses on top of the trees. Yet these houses are on the ground''. I decided to ask Apam about it. Apam said "Actually, the houses on the trees are for the Atol craftsmen, and those on the ground, are their work". I was still a bit confused, so I asked Apam to extrapte on that.


    Apam replied "They live on the houses on top of the trees. The houses on the ground, are not their living ce, but the workce. They build them, in order to show off their skills. Our craftsmen are really popr, so loads of other races employ Atol craftsmen, when they need to create buildings and so on. That is as much as I know". ''Now I get it. He could''ve just said that in the beginning. So the houses on the ground, are there to show off the skills of craftsmen, to the potential customers'' I thought.


    I replied to Apam "Now I get it. Can we meet one of the master craftsmen?". Apam shook his head, and said "I don''t know. I only know a few apprentices, but no masters. Let''s go meet my friend, maybe she will be able to help us" I nodded, and said "Sure, let''s go". We headed towards one of the houses that stood on the ground, and a few Atols were working on it.


    Apam shouted "Hey Ama! Are you busy now?". One of the Atols that worked on the doors, replied "Apam? Why are you here? Shouldn''t you be training?". Apam didn''t have to shout anymore, as we managed to walk up that Atol called Ama. Apam said "I have a day off, I''m taking care of my guest. He wanted to visit you guys, and learn more. I telling you, he is interested in everything!".


    The Atol called Ama looked at me, and asked "Are you also a craftsmen?". I nodded my head, and said "Kind of. I used to be, before I started travelling. I learned the basics, but I wanted to see, how you guys work, and maybe learn a thing or two from you". Ama nodded her head, and said "You are free to watch. When I have some time, I can give you some hints too, as I carry out my work". I nodded, and said "I will visit here often then, and check out how you work". She nodded, and said to Apam "Stop being sozy, and go do something useful!". Apamughed a bit, then said "I''m notzy".


    I checked out the work of others, while they conversed about some stuff. A whileter, we said our goodbyes, and walked towards the central region of Apium. As we walked, I said "This ce is really amazing. I can learn loads of things here, and rx a bit". Apam nodded, and said "Yea, this ce is great! Stay as long as you want. If you want to visit me, just head towards the training field. That is where I''m, most of the time. You can also find me at my home. If you don''t know where to go, just ask the Atols around you. They will point you in the right direction". I nodded my head, and replied "Will do".

 Chapter 249

    Chapter 249


    Apam went back, to take care of his own matters, while I went back to my room, in order to get some rest. The next day, I went back to the Atol named Ulon. When I knocked on the doors, Ulon opened them after a while, and seemed very tired. I said "You''ve stayed upte, right?". Ulon nodded his head, and said "I already got an idea, how to improve my medicine, but not to such extent. The person who taught you, was a real genius of medicine!".


    I smiled, and said "Yea, he was quite good. Can you now show me, how to nt all the herbs, and how to care for them?". Ulon nodded his head, and replied "Follow me". We climbed down from the tree, and walked over to an empty field near his house. The field was rather big, at least a thousand herbs would fit in the space provided. There was a small hut in the middle, that had a stool, table and some tools inside. The field itself, had loads of weeds, and rocks scattered around it. Ulon said "You can use this field. I will provide all the seed variants that we have, and teach you how to nt them. I assume, you have no knowledge, about the herbs that we grow?". I shook my head in response. He continued "I will exin them, when we get to the nting part".


    I nodded my head, and said "Let''s start then". Ulon walked over to the hut, and took out a hoe. He then said "First, you need to loosen the soil. This field was not cultivated for a while now, therefore that is what you have to do", and passed me the hoe. I took it, and said "That is quite simple". He shook his head, and said "Don''t simply strike the soil, and loosen it. This will make the herbs grow slower, and some may even die out. Let me show you, how to do it". He grabbed another hoe from the hut, and demonstrated the technique of loosening the soil. It didn''t seem extraordinary at first, but then I noticed that he loosened the soil very finely. There were no clumps whatsoever. He said "This is how, it''s supposed to be done. When you do that, you will have to take care of all the rocks, weeds and whatnot. Just tell me when you are done with ploughing, and I will show you the best method of cleaning up the field". I nodded my head, and went to work.


    It was much harder, than simply swinging the hoe at the ground. I had to do it in a specific way. When I got used to it, the task became much easier. It took me a few good hours, just to plough through the whole field. ''Even though this hoe is very light, I''m still a bit tired from swinging it, for couple of hours'' I thought.


    I returned to Ulon, who was sleeping on the stool, and said "I''m done with the ploughing. Now you can show me, how to clean the field up". Ulon woke up, and said "Uh? Oh right! Let me have a look first". He stood up, looked at the whole field, and said "Not bad for your first time. There are some clumps still, but you should be able to grow the herbs here no problem". He then continued "Alright, follow me. I will show you, how to clean the field up". He grabbed a rake, and walked over to one area of the field.


    He then said "You will need to rake the soil now. Again, any idiot can do it, but to do it right, you need a bit more knowledge. Let me show you how it''s done". He started raking the soil, in a specific way. The amazing part, was that he didn''t disturbed the soul whatsoever. He only removed the stones, weeds and so on. The area I ploughed through, stayed the same shape.


    After his demonstration, Ulon said "If you do it this way, you will not disturb the soil, and clean it up at the same time. Go try it out". Ulon again went back to the stool, and fell asleep. I took the rake, and raked the field. It took me some time, to get adjusted to the method that Ulon showed me, but in the end, I managed to rake the whole field.


    Ulon was awake this time, when I returned. He said "You did a pretty decent job. Now that the field is ploughed and cleaned up. We need to fertilise it. Follow me, I will show you where to get the fertiliser from". I walked with Ulon to arge building, that looked like a storage area. The ce smelled badly for sure. Ulon said "This is where we store the fertiliser. Of course, it has been processed already". I asked "Where do you get this stuff from?". Ulon smiled, and said frankly "It''s Tauros poop. That is the fertiliser". ''No wonder it smells so badly'' I thought.


    He then continued "We will need quite a lot for the field, so take that cart over there, and fill it up. When you are done, we will return to the field". On the side of the building, stood a few push carts. I grabbed one of them, and started shovelling the shit on top of it. ''I will stink like shit, for the rest of the day'' I thought, after filling up the cart. We then headed back to the field, while Ulon said "Let me show you, how to fertilise the soil properly".


    He filled a few buckets with the fertiliser, and took a small shovel. He then sprinkled it over the ploughed area, while pressing the fertiliser with his hands. ''Great'' I thought, when I saw him do it. When he was done, showing me how I was supposed to fertilise the soil, he said "Now just repeat what I did, and cover the whole field with the fertiliser. Just remember to be gentle, when you press the fertiliser in. Make sure, you don''t disturb the ploughed area". I nodded my head, while he went back to the stool.


    ''Well¡­ time to shovel some more shit¡­'' I thought, and went to work. It took me a while, to sprinkle the whole field with the fertiliser. When I was done, I was desperately looking for water. To my help, came Ulon. "I can see, that you fertilized the soil. There is onest thing, that we need to do, before we can nt anything" he said. I asked "What is that?". Ulon replied "We need to water the whole field, and leave it alone for a while. Follow me, I will take you to the water tank".


    I followed after Ulon desperately. I wanted some water, and wash myself as soon as it was possible. We arrived at arge wooden¡­ barrel? Maybe rge", was a wrong word to use. Huge defined that barrel much better. It was as tall, as some of the trees. Ulon said "There are few points where we can collect water. We will also use this, in order to transport it". He then pointed at smaller empty barrels, that were made from wood as well.


    Heughed a bit, and said "Each barrel, when filled up, should weight around 100 kilograms. We will need around 50 barrels of water". I didn''t listen to him much at this point, and went over to the huge barrel, and draw some water. When I washed myself a few times, I said "Alright, now I feel better. How many did you said we need?". Ulon repeated "50 barrels. Fill them up, and ce them on one of the carts avable. Only 20 will fit one cart, so you will have to do a few trips".


    I nodded my head, and filled 20 empty barrels with water. With all that packed on top of the cart, we went back to the field. Ulon said "Watering is not that difficult, I will show you how to do it anyway, just to make sure you will do it correctly". He took out a wooden watering can from the hut, and started watering the soil. While he was at it, he said "Just make sure, you are watering the soil evenly. So that, no part of the soil has too much water, while the other too little. This will be very useful to you, when you finally nt your seeds". I nodded my head, and watched as he watered the soil.


    After his demonstration, I finished the rest of the field, and came back to him. Ulon said "You are quite strong. After so many hours of working in such a field, you are still standing. Young people are really energetic". I replied "I''m doing my best". Ulon nodded, and said "That is all for now. Come back here every second or third day, and water it again. After about four or five waterings, the soil should be conditioned and weathered enough, to nt the seeds". I nodded my head, and replied "Will do".

 Chapter 250

    Chapter 250


    I said goodbye to Ulon, and he went back to his house. He already exined to me, the whole process of preparing the field. Now, I just had to water it ever so often. I was supposed toe back to him, when the field was weathered enough. I decided to rest first, before doing anything else, and went back to my room in the central region of Apium.


    The next day. I went back to theke, and asked Sha if I could use the tools, to study the sample I got from the Ophilis Reeds. She of course had no issue with that, but mentioned that my sample would be useless now. Indeed, when I checked it, there was no sign of that blue strand anymore, only fresh water was inside the bottle.


    I said "So, this thing doesn''tst very long". She nodded her head, and replied "No, that is why we don''t extract it. You are free to go, and collect more. Just make sure you don''t damage the nts". I nodded my head, and said "I will be careful". I went back to theke, and jumped in. I headed straight to the ce, where Ophilis Reeds were located.


    When I got to the nts, I took out a bottle. This time, I ced it on top of the nt. I wanted to catch as much of that blue water, as it possible. Soon, the bottle was mostly filled with the blue water. I quickly ced the cork on it, and swam back to the shore.


    Back in the building, I said "I have the new sample. Which tools can I use, to test it?". She showed an apparatus, that was made from few ss containers. She said "This is distillery. You can check theponents of that water, by heating up and filtering it to different containers". ''I''ve seen something simr already¡­ It was back in the Limestone Vige, if I remember correctly'' I thought. She then showed me another tool, and said "This tool, can be used to check theposition of the water as well, but with a different method. These papers, can test the water''s sourness, hardness, sweetness and so on. Each tray with papers is signed, so you can y with them as much as you like". I nodded my head, and asked "Is there anything else?". She shook her head, and said "These are the tools, we use in order to test the water. Let me exin how to use them now".


    Sha continued, while we stood next to the desk with all the papers "Using these papers, is very simple. You need to pour some water on top of the paper, then wait a bit, for the paper to change colour. If it doesn''t change the colour, it will mean that there is no such property in the water. If the colour changes on the other hand, that means there is such property in the water. I will give you a guide to the colours, and what they mean". I nodded my head, and replied "That would be great". We then went back to the first tool, and Sha exined "This tool, is used to boil the water, which will create steam. It will then be transferred to the next container, and so on. The purpose of this tool, is to separate a few substances from the water, and examine them. I will give you notes, on how to use the temperatures and so on. The notes will also exin, what the results of your test mean". I nodded, and said "This should be enough. I will stay here for a while then". She smiled, and said "Stay as long as you want. If you have any other questions,e over and ask one of us".


    Sha then handed me some notes, as well as colour chart, for the second tool. I started from reading the notes. They contained detailed exnations, on how to use the tool. The tool mostly tested contamination of the water, as well as the hardness and whether it was safe to drink. The tool was able to make a more detailed analysis of the water,pared to the papers. The papers could be used for a wider range of experiments, while the distillery was used for more specific examinations.


    I followed the instructions from the notes, and poured about half of the bottle with the blue water, into the first container. To get specific results, I needed to control the temperature of the burners beneath. This was aplished with another tool, which checked the temperature of the water inside the container. The tool was called Thermalmeter, and showed specific values, which suggested the temperature. ''I wonder where they got it from. I will have to ask them about it, when I''m done with my experiment'' I thought, and adjusted the temperature to 130 on Thermalmeter scale.


    The water began boiling pretty quickly, and the steam started to travel to the next container. ''The notes said, that I need to wait, until the first container had about half of the water left, from whatever was poured inside. I then need to burn the second container at 250 on Thermalmeter scale'' I thought, and waited. When the first container had about half of the water left, I extinguished the fire underneath it. I let the steam condense back to liquid form, then lit the fire underneath the second container. I could control the fire, due to learning the Art of Medicine. Getting the temperature to 250 on Thermalmeter scale, was not an issue for me.


    The water inside the second container, boiled very rapidly. The steam was being pushed at an increased rate, to the third and final container. ''The notes mentioned, that I have to burn all the water inside the second container, then extinguish the fire. After that, each container, should have a result, that I can read using the notes'' I thought, and waited for the water topletely evaporate from the second container.


    When all the water from the second container was gone, I extinguished the fire, and let the tool cool down. After a few minutes of waiting, I could already see some results of my experiment. The water in the first container, was not crystal clean. There were some impuritiesying on the bottom of the container. A ck soot of some sort, but the amount was very small. In the second container, there was no water. Instead, there were some crystals at the bottom, which were grey in colour.


    The third container, contained pure water but it was different from normal water. It was blueish, not transparent. I check the notes, and read the possible oues. ''The first container, is water with impurities at the bottom, which I already guessed. The amount of ck substance is important though. With my sample, the water was still drinkable from the get go, but boiling it, would be safer, as the impurities, would stay at the bottom'' I thought.


    With time, these impurities could stack, and affect the body, but not in any abnormal way. It wouldn''t affect the strength, senses or thinking abilities. The most it could do, would be some headaches or diarrhea. The impurities could be extracted from the body naturally, and so only created small inconveniences. I checked the notes for the second container, and learned that the crystals at the bottom, were crystals of salt. ''So, this is just salt. I thought, it''s going to be something special'' I thought.


    ording to the notes, salt was important too. To much salt in the water, and it would be undrinkable. The hardness would increase, and could damage teeth, as well as internal organs. This of course, was after prolonged use. They needed to monitor the levels of salt, and make sure that the bnce was not breached. I also noticed something else. Besides the salt, there was another thing mixed in. I check the notes again, and found it after a while.


    ''So, this thing is Crystalized Chlorine. It''s only a trace amount, but supposedly it''s needed. This keeps the water safe to drink, but too much of it, and it will be a poison. This is not a bad idea, to learn more about Chlorine'' I thought. The amount of Chlorine, seemed appropriate, to what the notes said.


    I then checked the third, and most important to me container. It contained bluish water, which I was after. The notes exined, what the substance in the third container was. ''ording to what is written here, this is Serelis. It''s a byproduct of the Ophilis Reed, and has the ability to calm one''s mind. This property, does notst though.'' I thought.


    The properties were already escaping. In about one hour of time, the properties would bepletely gone from the third container, while the water would be transparent again.


    ''So that is what this Ophilis Reed produces. The side effect of making water, is a calming drug. This thing is very useful, especially for people who are worrying too much'' I thought. Lazar came to my mind, when I thought about mind calmness. ''The problem is, I can''t really harness that. At least, not until I manage to find a way, to extend the lifespan of Serelis'' I thought. With that in mind, I went to Sha, in order to ask some questions.

 Chapter 251

    Chapter 251


    Sha was a bit busy, when I walked over. I decided not to disturb her, and ask another Atol inside the building. I walked over to the Atol that seemed the least busy, and asked "Can you tell me, where did you get that Thermalmeter from? It would be very useful to me". She nodded, and said "We get them specially made, so buying them at markets and such, is rather impossible. If you want, we can sell you one, as we always have recements".


    I asked "How much would you like for it?". She said "We pay 10 ck Hals for each, so I will sell it to you, for the same price". I thought about it for a while, then said "I will take it then". I was quite low on money. I could still afford the 10 ck Hals, but it was almost everything I had. She nodded her head, and went somewhere to get that Thermalmeter for me. ''I have 8 ck and 43 Red Hals left. This is even worse, than what Crow has'' I thought. Soon, the Atol returned with my Thermalmeter, and handed it to me. I gave her the 10 ck Hals, and thanked her.


    I asked my other question next "Can you tell me, how can I get a lot of Chlorine?". She looked at me weirdly, and asked "Why would you need a lot of it?". I replied "To study it, I want to know the exact effects, it has when used in greater quantities". She shook her head, and said "The only way I know, would be to filter loads of water, and get it like this. It would take some time though, as the amount of it, is closely monitored, and we make sure that not too much is in theke".


    I asked a different question "Where does ite from? Is there a source?". She shook her head, and said "No. The nts, as well as the environment produces it. If not taken care of properly, the level of Chlorine can increase inside theke. To get raw Chlorine? I never heard of it. I may be wrong, but I never seen it, nor has anyone here I guess".


    I nodded my head, and said "That is a shame. Either way, I have another question". She nodded, and said "Go ahead. If I can answer it, I will". I asked "The Serelis. Is there something you may know of, that will extend its lifespan, or perhaps condense it?". She shook her head, and said "We already tried. The mind calming effect would be great to have. Not only could we use it ourselves, we could also sell it. Yet, we found no solution to extending its life. I''m not sure, what you mean by "condense" it".


    I exined "To make the Serelis more concentrated. In other words, make it so that it has greater effect, in smaller quantities". She realised what I meant, and replied "Ah that! No, we haven''t tried doing such things. It has too short of a lifespan, in order to concentrate it as you called it. We would need more time, and process the Serelis even more".


    I had another question "This should be thest one. Do you know the reason, behind Serelis'' short lifespan?". She nodded her head, and said "Yes, as soon as it makes contact with air, it will start dissipating. The air is not only present here, meaning outside. It also exists inside theke, albeit in smaller quantities. That is why, Serelis disintegrates inside theke too".


    I followed up with additional question "You said that Serelis disintegrates, into what exactly? Water?" She shook her head, and said "We don''t know. We couldn''t find out, and are still trying to. The problem is, we cannot locate anything new, when it dissipates. It doesn''t turn into water, that is for sure". I nodded my head, and said "That will be all. Thanks for helping me out". She smiled, and said "Not a problem, it''s nice to talk with someone else about these things. We usually don''t get guests here, so your presence, is already a nice thing".


    I then said goodbye to her and others inside the building, then left. ''I will need to figure out, how to extend the lifespan of Serelis, or even better, make an extract from it. I wille here often. That way, I may be able to figure more things out'' I thought. I then went towards the craftsmen area. I wanted to check out, how they built those houses, and what materials they used. ''When I return to the Great Forest. I may need to build something. Learning from them, should be very beneficial'' I thought.


    When I arrived to the craftsmen area, I took a look around, and found the female Atol called Ama. She was working on the nks, that were supposed to be used for build the roof. When she saw meing over, she said "So you decided to visit after all. If you want to watch, you are weed to. I''m currently sanding the roof nks. If you want to ask about something, just do so. I can answer as I do this". I replied "Sure", and watched her, as she sanded the nks.


    After a while, she started applying some kind of stuff onto them. I was about to ask, when she said "This is a special oil. It prevents water from entering the nks. It''s not very useful in the North, as we don''t have any weather. But it will give a nice shine to the nks as well. A lot of customers like the shine, so Master Olis ordered us to always apply it". I nodded, and asked "How do you procure that oil?". She replied "It''s made from nts. To be more specific, from the seeds of those nts. We call them Yalin Seeds, and when grinded for a long time, they will produce oil. We extract that oil, and use it to cover the nks. The oil can be also coloured, with special pigments. We can make a coloured oil, per client''s request".


    ''So this thing, acts like the sap thing I used before, to cover the holes. This one is better though, not only can it be coloured, it will leave a nice finish while protecting the wood too'' I thought.


    I watched her build the house for quite a while, and learned a bit through the process. I learned how to make nks properly, I learned about the oil, and about the specific pattern ofying down the roof. I then left, and went back to my room. ''I will need to go back to my field tomorrow, and check it out. After a few more waterings, the field should be ready, and then I can finally work on my herbs'' I thought. I was curious, what type of herbs did they grow, and what kind of medicine, I would be able to make from them.

 Chapter 252

    Chapter 252


    For the next two weeks or so, I tended to my field. I had to clean it again after a while, from all the new weeds that grew there. I also watered it a few times, and let the soil get used to the conditions. Whenever I wasn''t working in my field, I checked out the nts inside theke, and tried to find a solution for extending the lifespan of Serelis. I also visited Ama once in a while, to learn more techniques and skills for building shelters.


    My time passed like this, until the field was ready for nting. I went to Ulon, and told him, that the field was ready. Ulon said "Great. We can now go and nt the seeds. Let me get them". He then retrieved a few bags of seeds, and we walked towards the field.


    As we stood in front of the field, Ulon said "There are six different kinds of herbs, that we nt. Some are rarer, while other are moremon and grow faster. The lessmon herbs, need more attention and care. I''m giving you all the herbs that we grow, as promised". I nodded my head, and Ulon continued "Never mix different herbs together, in one area of the field. You will have 6 different herbs, so you will need to separate your field into 6 sections. There is also another condition. Some of the herbs, cannot be ced next to each other. They will both die, or will grow even slower, while the final oue would be abysmal".


    I asked "So, how should I separate my field?". He replied "Let me show you". He then started drawing an outline of my field, on the ground. He separated my field into 6 areas, but they were not equal. The hut was in the middle of the field, so it acted as a central hub. When Ulon finished his drawing, he said "This is your field. I separated it into 6 smaller fields. You can treat it like this, since each section will contain only one herb". I nodded, and asked "Why are they not equal?".


    Ulon smiled, and said "Because different herbs, grow differently. Themon herbs that we grow, will need the most space, as they are the fastest to grow and popte". I nodded, and asked "So which herb, am I supposed to nt, and where?". He wrote some numbers on each section, and said "I numbered the sections, to which you will assign the herbs. It will be easier for you to remember that way. You have six sections. The Section number 1, is the smallest, and will house the rarest herb we have. It''s called Blood Yarn".


    I wanted to ask about it, but Ulon already started exining "Blood Yarn is used for blood purification. Although it is our rarest herb, we use it for our warriors mostly. Whatever is left, we sell it to the wealthy individuals, or organisations. It grows rather slowly, so we don''t have that much of it, and it''s quite rare when we sell it. Other races love this herb, and always pay the top price just to get it".


    When he said, what the herb properties were, I was sure that Avians stole it. Perhaps it might''ve even evolved inside the Vulture Cliffs, due to the environment. ''Although Avians called it Blood Reed, it has the same properties. I wonder if the impurities, are also the same'' I thought, while Ulon continued "But, there is a limitation. You can only take this once. The next time, it will not work, and will bring in no effects". I nodded my head, and said "I understand". ''The Avians'' variation, could be eaten many times, but the impurities would amount. This one can be eaten once¡­ My guess is, I can still make an extract of it, and it will be much stronger'' I thought.


    I was hoping to use that blood purification, one more time. I did break through my Half Step, but that was just Half Step. I wasn''t sure, if I could break through to the Inner Limits, in my current state. ''I will have to test it, when the herbs are avable for me'' I thought, and focused on what Ulon was saying.


    "You will receive 10 seeds, and I will show you how to nt them. Before that, you need to separate your field, just the way I showed you on this drawing". I nodded, and asked "Would making a hole be enough? Or do I need something like a fence?". Ulon nodded, and said "I like your thinking. A hole is enough, but fence would be even better. Just make a hole for now. If you ever find time, you can add fences to each area". I nodded, and went to the hut, in order to grab a shovel.


    I looked at the field, and wasn''t really sure, where to separate it. The drawing Ulon showed me, was very small, and had no real measures. ''I need to see the whole field'' I thought, and walked outside of the field. Ulon was a bit confused, but said nothing. I bent my knees, and jumped. "BOOOM!" The ground underneath my legs shattered, while earth and rocks scattered away.


    I was about 15 metres above the ground, and the view I had of the field, was fantastic. I memorised the drawing already, I just had to erge it, and find the digging points on my field. I quickly memorised the areas where I would need to dig, and in good time too, as I started to fall already. "Booom!" More dust, and earth flew around, as Inded. Ulon came over running, and said "Are you crazy? Why would you jump like that?". I replied "You told me to separate my field, into six different sections. Right? I needed a wider view of my field, in order to separate it the way you did on that drawing".


    He seemed stunned for a while, then said "You have some crazy ideas boy. Well, I would never think of that, and just do it approximately... ". I shrugged my shoulders, and went back to the field. After a while of shovelling, I managed to recreate Ulon''s drawing, on my own field. With that done, I returned to Ulon, for more instructions. Ulon said "Now that the field is properly separated. We can start nting. Let''s start from the Blood Yarn, that I already talked about. Come with me, and I will show you how to nt it".


    We went to the Section number 1 of my field. Ulon chose a space in the middle of the section, and said "Never nt from the corners. If you do, the nt will not be able to grow any further. Although I will give you only a few seeds, the nts can fill the whole section with enough time. Therefore we will start from the middle, and give the herbs space to grow". I nodded, and watched as he nted the seed.


    While nting, Ulon said "The best method of nting this seed, is to dig deep, and bury it using a lot of pressure. This will condense the soil around it, and allow the seed to slowly cultivate. Before you ask. No, the seed cannot be nted nearer the top. We already tried many things, and this is the best solution that we found". I nodded my head, and asked "What''s next?".


    Ulon replied "Next, you don''t water it for another 5 days or so. That is also why, you need to separate your field into sections. For example, this section will not be watered but others will. With the seed buried deep, let it rest over there, and water it only once every 5 days. When you see the herb breach the soil, you can start watering it every 2 days. When the herb is about half a metre tall, water it everyday". I nodded my head, and asked "When can I harvest it?". He shook his head, and said "Let it grow, and cultivate the rest of the field. When the new herbs start breaching the soil, and growing around it, you can then extract that herb. Then do the same with others, until the whole field is full".


    He then continued "It will grow to about 1 - 1.5 metre tall, so that is when it can be extracted. But as I said, don''t do it, until new herbs are growing around it. Here, take this bag of Blood yarn seeds, and nt them just the way I did. When you are done, we will move on to the next section". I took the bag, and started nting the seeds.

 Chapter 253

    Chapter 253


    We then moved, to the Section number 2 of my field. Ulon said "Now we have to think, what can be nted next to the Blood Yarn. For example, one herb will make the Blood Yarn not grow at all, and needs to be as far away as possible. This herb is called Arran Grass. It is amon type herb, and grows very fast. That is why, the Section number 4 of your field, is on the opposite side of the number 2. It''s also much bigger". I nodded, and asked "Then what herb, are we going to nt in Section number 2?". Ulon replied "We will n this", and he showed me some weird looking seeds. I asked "What are those?", to which Ulon replied "These are called Ghost x. Not only will these herbs promote Blood Yarn''s growth, they also benefit from Blood Yarn".


    I nodded, and asked "What about the other side? The Section number 6? It''s also adjacent to the Section number 1, with all the Blood Yarn". Ulon smiled, and said "I will tell you, when we get there. Now watch". I watched as Ulon nted the seeds. What stunned me, was that he just dropped it onto the field, without even digging a hole, then just ced some soil over it. He then said "Bring some water, we need to water it very slightly". I nodded, and brought him some water.


    Ulon poured very small amount of water, on top of the seed, and left it there. He then said "This is how you nt the Ghost x. It needs very little water, when you nt it, but you will water it everyday. Use a simr amount of water, until it sprouts. When it does, you will pour more water on it everyday, until the ground is soaking wet, and turns into something like a mud". I nodded, and asked "What about its properties?". Ulon replied "Ghost x can be made into liquid, and when drank, it hides one''s presence. Not only that, it lightens one body. Not in a sense of increased speed or something like that, it simply makes you as light as a ghost. We usually sell this to Shades or Lizards, they pay the most for that type of stuff". I said "So, it''s quite useful then". Ulon said "Depends to wh. We don''t use it, it''s not really for us". I agreed, and we moved to the next section.


    In the Section number 3, Ulon showed me how to nt Oviral nts. These nts were quitemon too, and the nting process was simple as well. I had to dig a small hole, ce the seed inside it, then bury it with some loose soil. The amount of water, was also normal. Enough for the nt to have water, but not too much. Ulon exined to me, the properties of that herb as well. "This herb''s main effect, is a support for medicine making. It improves the regenerative processes, but alone, it does not heal anything. That is why, it is a supportive herb". I nodded my head, and we went to the Section number 4.


    The Section number 4 had the Arran Grass, which Ulon already mentioned. As we nted it, he said "Just throw it on to the ground, and water it a bit. This thing grows like crazy. Make sure to water it every day, and pick out some of the Grass. Too much of it, and it will start to die off. After a few days, the Arran Grass will already sprout, and grow". I nodded, and asked "What about its properties?". Ulon said "The Grass has healing properties, albeit very weak. We need to process a lot of it, in order to make something decent, but it is still used by us, and we don''t sell it. Some minor wounds and such, are treated by this herb".


    We then moved to the Section number 5. Ulon showed me a seed, and said "This one is halfmon. It grows rtively fast, and has quite good properties". The seed looked like a star, just like you would see in the night sky. I asked curious "What is it called?". Ulon replied "This is Night Safis. We don''t have a day or night in the North, but our ancestors called it like that. We think that North, was not the same as it is today. Our ancestors wouldn''t call this herb "Night", if they never saw night".


    I agreed to that, and said "That is true. They must''ve been aware of night and day cycle, but that doesn''t prove the North looked different in the past. For all we know, they might have been told about the cycle, and they were impressed by it, so the called the herb like so". Ulon nodded his head, and said "That is true, we don''t know for sure. I personally want to believe, that North was different. Whether it was or not, it''s in the past already".


    Ulon then continued, and told me about the herb''s properties. "This is a healing herb as well. It is much stronger,pared to Arran Grass, but it doesn''t grow as fast. We still need a bit of it, in order to create some useful medicine. Night Safis can be used to create much stronger medicine,pared with the Arran Grass". I nodded, and asked "So, how do we nt it?".


    Ulon took some water, poured it onto the ground, then waited a bit. After a while, he ced the Night Safis seed into the soil, then lightly buried it. When he was done, he said "You have to be very gentle with it. When you water it in the future, use your hands and drip the water over it lightly. When it sprouts, still do it gently, but increase the amount of water, to double of what I just used. Also, make sure, that when the herb sprouts, you don''t water the herb itself, but the soil beneath it".


    I said "I understand", and took the rest of the seeds, to nt them myself. With that done, we moved to thest section of my field. As we stood there, Ulon took out the remaining seeds, and said "This is the Earth Grabbing Sprout. Do you want to have a guess, as to what properties this has?". I thought about it, and said "Strength". His expression changed, to that of disbelief. He said "That was just lucky guess", and passed it off, as me being lucky. It was not a guess though. Avians had an Earth Grabs. What Ulon showed me, was called Earth Grabbing Sprout. It could be ssed a continuation of the name, that I learned from Avians. ''If Avians'' Earth Grab improved strength, then it was very likely, this one would too'' I thought.


    Either way, he showed me how to nt it. The nting method, was a bit simr to the Blood Yarn. He dug a decent size hole, but then added water first, and ced the seed inside. He then buried it lightly, and left it over there. When Ulon finished, he said "Earth Grabbing Sprout, needs to stay in water when you nt it. Come back to it, after two days, and pour the same amount of water, I just did. Before you do it though, make a small hole, without reaching the seed, and pour the water into the hole. Then ce the dug out soil back. The source of water needs to be concentrated, and not everywhere. The Earth Grabbing Sprout, will absorb that".


    I nodded my head, and asked "What about the weeds?". Ulon smiled, and said "You will need to visit this field everyday, so remove any type of weeds, when you see them. This way, your field will be healthy. That is all, when ites to nting, and the herbs that we have. Come back to me, when you want to harvest something. I will tell you how to do it properly". I nodded my head, and nted the rest of the seeds, while Ulon went back to his house.

 Chapter 254

    Chapter 254


    Time slowly passed, as I tended to my field, studied the nts, and rested in the Apium. This felt to me like vacation, I rxed most of the time, and forgot about the training, skills and whatnot. Frosty also enjoyed the time off from everything. I grew used to Apium, and decided to stay there for a longer time, than I nned initially.


    Some of the herbs on my field, already sprouted and grew. Arran Grass was the mostmon type of herb, and it already covered half of the section, that was designated to it. I collected some already, and tested it. Ulon was right, the herb had quite weak medical properties, but I could extract more, than he could. ''With my method of Extracts, I can easily improve those properties. The problem is, I don''t have a supportive herb, which will draw out all the properties from Arran Grass'' I thought.


    I could try with Oviral ntster, but I had to wait for them to grow properly first. Besides tending to the field, I also learned more about the properties of Serelis. It turned out that yes, the air will make it dissipate. Yet under one condition, it would happen. ''If Serelis is in concentrated form, and doesn''t touch the air, it will not disintegrate. Making Serelis concentrated, is a bigger issue though'' I thought.


    If I could take the nts with me, or even cut them open and tested them extensively, I might''ve been able toe up with a method. ''But, I''m not allowed to do this. My only option, is to wait until one of the nts needs to be extracted. They do nt new ones, and take out the old ones. They shouldn''t have a problem with me, if I wanted to examine the old, and extracted nt'' I thought.


    I didn''t visit Ama very often, but I did ask her, if I could use the space in the craftsman area, to create my own fence for the field. She said "As long as you don''t obstruct others, you are free to work here. That ce over there is vacant. If you need some tools,e to me and I will borrow you some. As for the materials, you will have to pay for them, or get them yourself". I nodded, and asked about the materials costs. She said that, if I wanted Dead Wood, it would cost me 1 Red Hal, for a beam that has been cleaned up, and readied for nk making, or whatever I wanted to make from it.


    I went to the ce, where Ama pointed me to, in order to buy those beams. I decided to buy 50 of them. I also asked the Atols in the warehouse, if they could deliver them to that empty spot that Ama showed me. They agreed to do it, and I also bought nails, which were not that expensive. When they delivered all the beams, I started working on my fence.


    ''The beams are about 2 metres in length, and about 50 centimetres thick. I will need loads of posts. One beam will be enough, to make 8 such posts. Alright, let''s start then'' I thought. I borrowed some saws, and other tools from Ama, then went to work on my fence. I used 20 beams, to create 160 posts first. ''This should cover arge area, since I will ce them about every 2 meters. With this, I should be able to cover a lot of my field in posts, I can then do the nks'' I thought, and packed all the posts onto a cart, then went to my field.


    It went like this for a few days, as I needed to make stuff, transport it there, then fix it. But after all that time, the fence around my field waspleted. I left the holes that I dug, as I would have another use of them. ''These holes can be used, to transport water around the field. I just need to figure out, how to transport specific quantities of water, to specific sections'' I thought. This would save me the time, of watering these nts everyday, and I could focus on something else.


    I decided to ask Ama, about a possible solution to that problem. When I arrived to the craftsmen area, I saw Ama talking with another Atol. The Atol was dressed in some fancy clothes,pared to others. He had a long robe, that was light brown, with some golden ornaments. He also had brown pants that seemed to be made from some kind of expensive material, and shoes that exposed his fingers.


    I decided not to interrupt them, as they seemed to be arguing about something. After a while, the Fancy looking Atol saw me standing on the side, and called out "Hey you,e over here!". I didn''t intend to move at all. ''I''m not his subordinate, for him to order me around'' I thought to myself. When he saw that I wasn''ting, he shouted again "Can''t you hear me? Come over here!". Iughed, and shouted back "As if I''m gonna do that".


    He became angry, and walked over himself. Ah he stood in front of me, Ama also walked over, and said "He did nothing wrong. The argument is between you and me". He just ignored her, and said to me "When I call you, you will walk over to me". I replied "Try it again, and let''s see if I move". He became even more angry, and was about to attack me, but Ama stopped him, and said "What are you doing? You want to attack our guest? That is what we Atols do?". He stopped himself, which was unfortunate. If he attacked, I could just kill him, or at least break a few of his bones.


    I said "It''s a shame you stopped him. I could break a few of his bones. Maybe then he would realise, I''m not his ve, to which he can talk to like that". The Atol in fancy clothes was so angry, that he almost attacked me again. Ama shouted "Oran! Stop! If you attack him, he can retaliate. You are not a warrior". The Atol soon calmed down, and said to me "You have nothing to look for in this ce. No one will sell you any materials, or tools". He then turned towards Ama, and said "If I see you talk with him again, you can look for another job. No other master will take you in, when I tell them about this". He then left.


    Ama was angry, but not at me. She simply apologised to me, then left. ''So, the Atols have some sort of arguments between themselves too. No wonder. Creating a society without differences, is impossible. I don''t know what his problem is, and I don''t care. If he tries to do something, I will just dispose of those, who stand in my way'' I thought.


    Ama could no longer talk with me, and I assumed other Atol craftsmen wouldn''t either. Buying stuff from them would also be impossible. ''This is just minor inconvenience. I already learned a lot, and don''t need to frequent this ce. It served its purpose. I will figure out how to water my field more efficiently by myself'' I thought, and left.

 Chapter 255

    Chapter 255


    Days passed again, while my herbs grew bigger and bigger. The Aran Grass already filled the whole section, while Oviral nts filled about half of the section assigned to them. The Ghost flex was already growing very well, as well as other herbs. I was mostly interested in Blood Yarn, which breached the soil, and grew to about 50 centimetres tall. I would still need to wait a long time, before the whole section is filled with them.


    On the other hand, I managed to create a medicine, in simr effects to my Healing Essence. It was made from the Arran Grass, and Oviral nts. I made extracts of both, andbined that. The result astonished even me, When I showed my Extract to Ulon, he asked "How did you produce that?". I replied "I used Arran Grass and Oviral nts. My method though, is a bit different". He asked me a few times, to teach him that method, but I said "I can''t teach it to you. I promised the person who taught me all of this, to only teach it to my inheritor. Unfortunately, you are too old to be my inheritor, while I''m too young to pass all that knowledge to someone else".


    Ulon understood what I meant, and for some reason, didn''t seem angry or disappointed. He said "The teacher who passed all of that to you, was an intelligent man. I will no longer ask about it, and respect your teacher''s wish". I said "It''s not a problem for you to study it, ande up with a method by yourself. Here, take it and study it. Maybe you will be able to improve your own medicine". Ulon was very grateful for that gesture, and said "If you need help in the future, I will do what I can to help you. Remember that you are weed here". I nodded, and went back to my own matters.


    Ulon gave me all the nts, the field and passed his knowledge to me. I only gave him one of my Healing Essence, for all of that. Giving him some of my new inventions, for him to study, was something that I owed him anyway. ''He never asked for money from me. He helped me out, and treated me very well. I would like to meet more of such people, rather than arrogant and lofty bastards'' I thought. I decided to call that new medicine Arran Liquid


    I was also working on another medicine. Stronger than my current Healing Essence. It would be made from three different herbs. The Extract from Oviral nt and Arran Grass was weak still, but if I added Night Safis, I would be able to create an advanced recipe. ''If the Extracts from Arran Grass and Oviral nt can create something simr to my Healing Essence. What would the final result be, if I added Night Safis¡­ This alone makes my blood boil!'' I thought.


    I knew more advanced recipes, which were in Nick''s book. Though this, would be my own recipe, and with extracts nheless. I still needed to wait for Night Safis to develop properly. ''When I finally harvest it, I will be able to check, what type of medicine I can create with its use'' I thought. Besides the new healing Extract, I also made an Extract from Ghost x. When I tested it on myself, it really hid my presence. Not only that, I had a feeling of floating, after drinking it. I created an Extract of the Ghost x, but without the use of any supportive herbs. I had none of such kind, therefore couldn''t use them.


    I asked Ulon about the mixture, from the Ghost x that they did, and he gave me one. When I tested the effects, mine was at least twice as good. ''Extract are really the way forwards. If I stuck with the ssical way, I would not receive such results'' I thought. This applied to everything in Nick''s books. I could make an Extract of pretty much every herb, thenbine those effects using the ssical approach. Not only that, with my improved theory, I could use the supportive herbs, in order to minimise the use of herbs, when creating Extracts.


    ''Nick started all of this for me, while I''m taking it to another level. I think Nick would be pleased, about what I managed to aplish. My inheritor, if I ever find one, will get all the benefits, while me and Nick had to work hard, in order toe up with everything¡­ Inheritors have it nice'' I thought. Of course, it was more of a passing joke, as I was an inheritor myself.


    When I got ustomed to the work in the fields, and living in Apium. I also noticed a few things. ''Normal guests, thate here for a short visit, would not be able to notice that, but I can'' I thought. The Apium was separated into three fractions. This should not really be a surprise, as even the statue of Atol Ancestors had three different fractions. But to a normal passerby, they might seem to work together as one, but that was just on the surface.


    Corruption always found its way, to every society. All three fractions, were struggling for power. I learned that there was a council, which consisted of three members. Each member was from a specific fraction. There was the Warriors Fraction, Craftsmen Fraction and Floral Fraction. These fractions were fighting, to take control over the whole Apium. Although at first, it might seem like a friendlypetition, it wasn''t that friendly underneath. ''There are some shady businesses, going on around Apium, but normal Atols don''t know about them. It''s the elite, that keeps their hands on everything'' I thought.


    One such example, was the fact I couldn''t buy stuff from Craftsman Fraction anymore. Atols from that fraction would mostly avoid me, and wouldn''t speak with me. All of this, because of one Atol. I learned that the Atol called Oran, had a high standing in the Craftsmen Fraction, so others naturally listened to him. ''No wonder he was lofty and arrogant. With his status, it pretty much given'' I thought.


    I wasn''t interested in those power struggles much. As long as no one disturbed me, I wouldn''t disturb them. I gave rest to those type of thoughts, and simply focused on my own matters. I managed to figure out, how to improve the watering of my field. The solution was to create channels, that would deliver a specific amount of water, in specific intervals. It might seem simple, but it wasn''t.


    ''I have a concept in my mind, but building that, will take me a long time. I have to create wooden channels for all the holes that already exist, then I have to make channels for the sections to be watered'' I thought. The problem was with the water delivery. Different herbs, require different amount of water, as well as different technique of watering.


    Some sections needed to be watered every day, while others once is a few days. I had to create a structure, that would allow such thing. With no ideas on how to do it, I even asked Frosty. To my surprise, Frosty had an idea. Frosty wrote to me the whole n, and it had the potential to work.


    Frosty''s idea, was to create sectioned channels, just like my field was in sections. Each channel would be different size, this would allow for smaller channels to fill up sooner, and distribute the water everyday, while bigger channels would need more time, and would distribute the water once every few days. This was a great idea, but I still had to test out, what channel sizes I need, in order for that to work. Besides that, I also needed to figure out, how to water the herbs, that needed special attention. ''I will test out the channels first. Then I can figure out, how to water some of the herbs, that need extra care'' I thought, and went outside the Apium, to gather some wood.

 Chapter 256

    Chapter 256


    I had to travel for a while, as the Dead Trees around Apium were mostly cut. The weird thing was, that although loads of trees were cut, there were new trees growing out as well. ''It seems that either Atols nt them somehow, or these trees can grow by themselves'' I thought. I had no tools, such as saws and so on. Those were borrowed from Ama, and I couldn''t do that anymore.


    ''This isn''t a problem for me though'' I thought, and took out therge, and heavy sword. ''I need to name this thing somehow. Hmmm¡­ Edgeless Sword should be alright'' I thought, and chopped at the trees. With the Formation, that increased the weight, as well as my strength, the trees were chopped down without a problem. I then cleaned up the trunks, and made something simr to the beams, that were sold in Apium.


    ''I can''t really transport that much stuff without a cart. I should''ve thought about it, before I came here'' I thought. There were two solutions, I could either bo back, and bring a cart. It would take me some time, but it was the easiest option. I could also build a cart myself. Shape some wheels, make some nks and so on. Although it wouldn''t be easy with theck of tools, it was not impossible.


    ''Either way, I will waste time, so why not build my own cart then? I can use it however I like, as it will be mine. I don''t know, if Atols would allow me to leave with a cart just like that'' I thought, and started building a cart. I knew how this things looked like, the problem was, how to make one function, just like the ones I saw.


    ''Yea. Shaping it, is not such a problem. The problem is, that the wheels need some metal elements, that will allow the wheels to spin¡­ I have the materials, but not the tools, or furnace to make them¡­ Hmmm'' I thought. I had to abandon the cart n, and do something else. ''Well, I didn''t train anything in a while, so I will just drag those things with me'' I thought, and tied a few of the logs together, then ced the rest of them on top. ''This will look weird, but whatever. I have some distance to go, so I might as well move already'' I thought, and started pulling the ropes attached to the logs.


    That thing was heavy, very heavy. Not only were there around 30 trees on that construction, I also dragged it along with me. The weight, andck of wheels made it very exhausting. I stopped after a while, and took a break. ''This will take much more, than I anticipated. Well hopefully, I can arrive back in one day'' I thought.


    I wasn''t that far away from Apium, but still. I dragged the damned thing through the wilderness, until I finally arrived in front of Apium. I was exhausted to the point, I didn''t want to go any further. "Haaah¡­ Haaah.. I will¡­ just rest here¡­ for a while" I said out loud, as I was catching my breath. It took me a few good hours, just to get to the ce I was currently at. I made regr stops, and ate a lot of my food. I had very little left, and would need to either buy some, or go hunting. I rested for a while, then ate some more food. With all that done, I dragged the wood behind me forwards.


    The Atols that saw me drag the logs, were quite stunned to say the least. Some evenmented, and wondered why I was doing it. I ignored thosements, and dragged the logs straight to my field. When I finally arrived at my field, I dropped the ropes, and copsed onto my ass. ''I don''t think, I want do that again'' I thought, and sat there resting.


    To my surprise, Ulon came over after a while, and asked "Why did you drag all of that wood here? Are you that bored?". I replied "I wasn''t sure, if I could borrow a cart from here, and take it outside. So I dragged this with me. It was a good training anyway". Ulon shook his head, and said "If you want to borrow a cart, just do so. Besides, why did you bring all that wood over here? You already have a fence".


    I replied "I want to improve the watering process. Instead of spending most of my day, on watering the herbs. I want to make it, so that all the herbs are watered in a matter of minutes". Ulon was intrigued, and asked "How do you want to do that?". I replied "Well, it''s not that simple. I have to build channels of varying sizes, then use that to deliver water to the whole field". Ulon asked "But different herbs, need different amounts of water. The time frame is also different". I said "Yes, that is exactly why, I need to use channels that differ in sizes. Smaller channels will fill up faster, and can be used to water the herbs, that need to be watered everyday. While bigger channels, will hold more water, and will deliver it to herbs that need to be watered every few days".


    Ulon eximed "That''s genius! But there is one more problem. You will need a specific way to deliver the water. For example, Night Safis needs to be watered gently, while Earth Grabbing Sprout, needs a concentrated source of water". I said "Yes, I''m aware of that. This will be difficult, but can be aplished. I don''t have all the details yet, but I want to test stuff out. For that, I needed wood".


    Ulon nodded, and said "If you manage to aplish that, then we can adapt that system, and use it on our fields. Tell me, if you need anything. This is worth investing in". I said "I need skilled craftsmen, which you don''t have. None of them, wille here to work either". He was a bit stunned, and asked "Why? If you pay them, they will work for you". I shook my head, and said "Not for me".


    Ulon realised something, and asked seriously "What happened?". I said "You know the guy Oran?". He nodded, and said "Yes, I know what you mean now. This is indeed troublesome. Can you do it by yourself then?" I said "Yes. I can do it, but it will take a long time. I have to water my field still, and.." before I could finish, Ulon interrupted "Don''t worry about the field then. We can do it for you, and you just focus on that thing of yours. If you can create it, and I believe you can, all of us here can benefit. Watering the fields, takes a long time, if we could shorten it, then we wouldn''t have to work so hard, and rx a bit".


    I nodded my head, and said "If you can water my field, then I can work on that a lot longer, and make progress faster. You have a deal. When I''m done, you will be able to use the same method, for the rest of your fields". He nodded as well, and said "Deal".


    That day, Ulon and his subordinates, took care of my field, while I rested before working on the channels. I had to created different sizes, and even shapes. I wanted to experiment at arger scale, to make my progress faster. But that would begin from the next day. I had to rest after such exercise.

 Chapter 257

    Chapter 257


    I returned the next day, and went straight to work. I carved out the channels of varying sizes, using the simple tools that I had. These were the tools, I got from Woody a long time ago. They were still in my bag, and a good thing I didn''t throw them away, as they became very useful. Mostly chisels and hammers were avable to me, I had no saws, but this wasn''t a problem. I could chop the wood to a specific length using the Razor''s swords. ''Who would have thought, that I will find some use for those swords. They do act like a saw, so me using it like a saw, should not be a problem!'' I thought.


    I worked for a few hours, and created a lot of different channels. ''I now have to test them, and build a miniature field, that looks like mine'' I thought. With that, I went to Ulon. He said "You can use some space, next to your field. This should be enough for you, right?". I nodded my head, and did just that. I dug some holes, and made a replica of my field. Although it didn''t contain any herbs, it looked the same, and this was enough.


    I ced different types of channels around the mock up field, and poured water into the main tank, that I also created. The main tank would be used to house all the water needed for the nts, that required watering each day. It would also contain the additional water, which would fit into the other channels. I still didn''t know the exact amount of water, so I had to test it. I filled half of the tank with water, and waited for it to travel to all the channels. When the tank became empty, I Immediately noticed that it wasn''t enough. I poured another half, and waited. This time, the smaller channels were full, while the bigger channels were about half full.


    ''So the channels I created, are too shallow. I need different channels, and bigger ones as well. Back to work then'' I thought, and went back to creating more channels. I worked like this for couple of days, until I found the specific sizes I needed. ''This should do it, now the other problem at hand'' I thought.


    I had to create this watering system in such a way, that the bigger channels containing a lot more water, wouldn''t just flood the rest of the field. ''But how should I do this?'' I thought. I wrecked my head about it, but nothing came to me. I decided to ask Frosty again. I asked "Frosty, you have any ideas?". Frosty came out, and found a stick on the ground. Frosty wrote, that I needed more tanks, in order to disce the water that collected in the bigger channels.


    I was stunned, and asked "You''ve done this before, or something? It seems that you know how to do it no problem". Frosty smiled, and wrote "It''s simple". Like hell it was. Either way, Frosty''s idea was again very good, so I decided to incorporate that. Instead of only channels, I need to add additional tanks, where the water from bigger channels would flow into. With appropriate tanks, I could deliver the water to specific sections of my field, when the time was right.


    I went back to work, and created different sizes of tanks, to test out on my mock up field. I yed with varying sizes of tanks this time, and after some time, I finally managed to find the right solution. ''Great! Finally, the channels and tanks are ready. Now I just need to figure out, how to distribute the water, and we are home dry'' I thought. As I was about to end my day of work, Ulon came along, and asked "So, how is it going?".


    I replied "Quite good actually. I already have the watering system built. Now, I just have to figure out, how to deliver the water to those nts that need extra care. Arran Grass, Oviral nts and Ghost x, don''t need so much attention, therefore I can use a normal method of delivery. Ghost x just needs more water, which can be aplished with bigger channel. The Blood Yarn is not an issue as well. It only needs to be watered once in a while, but it has varying watering periods. This could be aplished, with couple different channels. The problem is, how to deliver water to Night Safis, and Earth Grabbing Sprout".


    Ulon nodded his head and said "You came quite far, with just a few days of work. Keep it up, and hopefully, we will have this working full time". I nodded, and said "I will try my best, but it will take some time". Ulon waved goodbye, and left. I didn''t tell him about the biggest problem. ''The issue is, the way that the herbs grow. There is no progression from old to young. They grow from the middle of the section, to the outside. If the whole field is supposed to stay that way, there is too much randomness. I need to find patterns, in order to solve that, otherwise this will not be possible for herbs such as Blood Yarn'' I thought.


    I decided to end the day, and go back to my room. ''Maybe Frosty can help me again. After all, it seems to know much more about it, than I do. I wonder, where Frosty gets all that stuff from?'' I thought. Back in my room, I asked Frosty about the problems I encountered, and again got some ideas. Frosty wrote, that in order to water the herbs, which needed special care, I could make some additional features inside the channel on the required section of the field. This would allow for a specific type of watering.


    For example, if I wanted to water Earth Grabbing Sprout, I would need a hole in the channels, that would concentrate the water, and drop it onto the herb. There was more and it could solve a lot of problems, but one still remained. "I still don''t know, how to make all the herbs grow in a specific way. I need to look for patterns, but I don''t know if this will be enough" I said. Frosty nodded, and agreed. This was something, none of us could figure out, without watching how these herbs grew.


    The next day, I told Ulon that I will be leaving for a while. He asked "Are you going to collect more wood?". I said "That, and I need to go hunt some animals. I will be back in about three or four days. I hope you can take care of the field for now". Ulon shook his head, and said "You don''t have to ask. I already told you, don''t worry about the field, and do what you have to do. I already saw what you did, so I believe you can create this thing. Even if it takes you a long time, this will stay with us, for the rest of our lives".


    I nodded, and left towards Wilderness. This time, I took a cart with me, because besides hunting, I needed more wood. ''I will gather some wood, as I return from my hunt. The best creatures, would be Ognars, but I will hunt anything edible at this point'' I thought. I was in luck, as I found a group of Ognars, after about a day of travel. I immediately hid my presence, and used a different n this time. ''Let''s see, what this deless Sword can do'' I thought, and made my way towards the group.


    When they least expected it, I appeared next to the Ognar, and activated the Formation inside the sword, while swinging it down. "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!". The Ognar''s head, was pretty much chopped off. It died instantly, after receiving that kind of attack. ''This weapon is great! It took me so long, just to kill one of them with my daggers, yet this sword¡­ It''s great. I will need to practice more, while using that sword in the future'' I thought, and attacked other Ognars.


    The group I encountered, consisted of four Ognars. This was manageable, since one of them died from one swing of my sword. After a bit of jumping, and running around. I managed to kill the other three Ognars. ''This amount of meat, is too much for me. I will have to leave some. I was too excited about the sword, that I killed them all'' I thought, and butchered the creatures. My bag was full of meat, and I couldn''t fit any more inside the bag. It was hard to walk, this was not the only weight I had. I was still carrying other stuff with me, so the weight was much greater than just meat. I decided not to put the bag onto the cart though. ''This should be a good training¡­ again'' I thought, and dragged the cart towards Apium.

 Chapter 258

    Chapter 258


    On my way back, I filled the cart with wood again. This time, I had a cart, but I also had a bag full of meat on me. The return journey was as exhausting, as it was before. When I finally returned to the Apium, I copsed onto my ass, and breathed heavily. ''Turns out, I did it again. This is not bad though. If I push myself so hard, I may be able to reach my Inner Limits faster'' I thought.


    I took a rest that day, and returned to work the next day. Time passed, as I tried to find a solution to the problem of my water delivery system. I observed the fields, and noticed a weird pattern. ''The pattern is different for each herb, but it is there. I can exploit that, in order to design the water delivery system'' I thought. It wouldn''t be easy, and for that, I needed Frosty''s help again.


    After a few days of thinking, and arguing. We came up with a method. It was simple, but alsoplex at the same time. The channels would need to follow the pattern, but that was the simple thing. Not only I needed the channels to follow the pattern, I also needed for them to be of varying sizes again. Theplexity of what looked to be a simple task, climbed like crazy, and became one of the most difficult things I invented.


    ''The process will be automated. I will not even have to bring the water, to the fields. This can be aplished with more channels. If my n seeds, Atols can implement all of that, and build channels from the huge main tank, straight to the fields. This would revolutionise the way Atols farm'' I thought.


    There was still loads to do, so I went to work. Atols that worked in the fields, were kind enough, to harvest my herbs as well. They of course gave me everything, that was harvested from my field. I couldn''t help but think, that those simple Atols were very honest, and straightforward. It were the higher ced Atols, that became corrupted, and only thirsted for more power.


    I work on my invention, for a very long time. In between, I went out hunting again, and I also collected more wood. When i did that, I also trained at the same time. I figured that it was the only time, I had for training. After many hours, days, sweat and problem solving, I finally managed to create the water delivery system, and implemented that to my real field.


    All the Atols, that helped me tend to my field while I was working, watched with anticipation. Ulon said "Go on, do it. We waited for so long, I want to see it work!". I nodded my head, and unblocked the tank, which held the water. The water travelled to all the channels. Some were filled, while others emptied. More tanks were ced in between the sections, and collected the water. This looked like a work of art, not a simple water delivery system.


    You could see the channels being filled up, then emptied and filled up again. It looked like a living being, began to take its first breaths. Soon, the water arrived to the specific fields, and watered them. The amount was just enough, the method of delivery waspleted. The patterns, were aplished. My invention worked.


    The Atols screamed happily "It Works!", "This is amazing!", "Now we can rest!". They were all happy, while Ulon patted my shoulder, and said excited "Well my boy, you really did it. You aplished something, that will be used by Atols for generations. You revolutionised the way, we are going to farm. This will be written in our history. Come with me, I will introduce you to someone".


    I was a bit stunned, but followed after Ulon anyway. We went to an area, which I didn''t visit before. This was the ce, where the Council of Apium was. Ulon said "I''m taking you, to meet with our Fraction Leader. She will be very happy to know, that your invention works". I didn''t ask anything, and decided to just meet with that Fraction Leader.


    The Council of Apium area, contained three buildings. Each was different, and one could easily guess, to which fraction it belonged. The Floral Fraction building, was made from nts. It looked like the nts grew in specific way, and created a building. The Craftsmen Fraction building, was created from wood, with very detailed features. It looked very beautiful, and very refined. The Warriors Fraction building, was not build from wood, but stones. This was the only building, I saw built from stones so far. It looked domineering and hard to prate.


    Ulon took me to the Floral Fraction building, and we climbed the stairs. The upstairs possessed only one room, it was opened on the whole floor. The floor and walls, were made from some kind of vines, while the furniture, was made from some sort of mushroom looking nts. Inside the big room, behind arge nt desk, sat an Atol dressed in elegant robes. Her clothes seemed to be made from nts, and fitted the overall atmosphere of the room very well.


    Ulon introduced the person behind the desk. "This person here, is our Fraction Leader Florin" he said. He then looked at me, and probably wanted to introduce me as well, so I helped him out, and introduced myself. "Just call me Dark Traveller". Florin looked at me, and said "It''s a weird name, but nheless. I heard that you created a watering system, that will revolutionise our farming. This is a huge contribution to my people. Tell me, how can I reward you?".


    I thought about it, and nothing really came to my mind. I then came up with something, and asked "Do you perhaps have more herb types, that you grow? As a Fraction Leader, maybe you could share some of your herbs with me". She smiled, and said "You are quite intelligent, to ask for such a thing. To answer your question. Yes, I do have my personal herbs. Although, I can''t let you grow them outside of this ce. If you are satisfied with some of them to study, and use, then I will be happy to give a few to you. But you will not be able to nt them".


    I nodded my head, and said "That would be great. Can I ask about something else too?". She nodded her head, and said "Sure, go ahead". I asked "Can I examine the Ophilis Reeds and Aliris nts, in more details? I''m aware that I can''t take them away from here, but I want to figure out, how to extend the lifespan of Serelis. This would help a lot".


    She smiled again, and said "It seems, you have great ambitions. Not only did you help us improve our farming, you also want to improve Serelis. If I allow that, would you be willing to share your findings with us?". I thought about it, and said "Yes, as long as I can take as much as I need, when I''m done". She became surprised, and said "You are quite confident, about extending the lifespan of Serelis¡­ Very well, I will allow you to study those nts in close details. I myself wonder, what you can aplish".


    I nodded my head, while she asked "Is there anything else, you would like?". I was a bit baffled, and said "No, I''m fine. I already got what I wanted, and there is nothing else, I would like from you". She nodded her head, and said "Great, you are not greedy either. I will pass the herbs onto Ulon, when they are ready. This will be written in our history, and your name shall be remembered, for what you aplished, improved the lives of my people". I thanked her, and we left.

 Chapter 259

    Chapter 259


    While we walked, Ulon said "It seems you made a great impression on her. She even gave you some of her herbs. Those things are much more precious, than a whole field of Blood Yarn. But you did help us a lot, we just need to implement the same system, and then we can finally rx a bit". I said "Yes, although there is one more improvement, which I didn''t implement yet".


    Ulon was stunned, and asked "Did you just say, you have even more methods, to improve our farming? Or did I hear something wrong?". I replied "It''s nothing exciting, it''s just an extension to the existing system. Currently, you need to bring the water to the field, but mypleted water delivery system is automated. This means, you will only need to fill that huge main tank, and the water would go straight to all the fields".


    Ulon couldn''t believe it, and said "I feel dumb, whenever I''m talking with you... Are you going to implement that for us?". I replied "I can, but under one condition". Ulon nodded, and asked "What is it, that you would like to get in return?". I said "I''m not a permanent resident here. What I want, is the field that I already cultivate. I want to own it, until I''m gone, i.e. dead. I will also leave Apium sooner orter, and I need someone to tend to my herbs. If you guys are willing to do that, and store the harvested herbs for me, then I will build the automated water delivery system for you. I will also help you implement the water delivery system, to all of your fields".


    Ulon thought about it, and said "Wait here, I will go ask Fraction Leader about it. If she agrees, then we have a deal". I nodded my head, and watched as Ulon ran back to the Floral Fraction building. I waited for a while, and Ulon returned shortly. He smiled, and said "She didn''t even think about it, and agreed straight away. When I told her about your idea, she seemed impressed. Therefore, we have a deal. We will tend to your field, and harvest it for you. You on the other hand, willplete the water delivery system for us".


    I nodded, and said "Alright, let''s go back. There is loads of work, that needs to be done". The process started again, but on a more massive scale. There were four other fields, that needed an upgrade. I also needed to design, and implement the automated system of channels. It would be used, to transport the water from the huge main tank, to all the fields. Ulon asked me, if I needed help gathering wood. I replied "No, I want to do it myself, as it will be a part of my training. I don''t get much time to do any trainingtely, so I can at least train like that". He was a bit confused, and asked couple more times. I assured him, that I would be fine.


    I started dragging the Dead Wood, back to Apium. With time, I had to travel further, and further. This on the other hand, exhausted me more and more. I also did most of the work, as the Atols from Floral Fraction, were not craftsmen. Like this, the time passed, and fruits of mybour started appearing. I got used to dragging the Dead Wood, and my strength increased by a lot. My stamina improved as well. I felt, that I was getting closer to reaching my limits.


    After many days of hardbour, I finally managed to create the automated water delivery system for all the fields, including mine. As the water from the huge main tank flooded the channels, the Atols that worked hard throughout so many years, cheered. Ulon patted my shoulder, and said "It has beenpleted. Your legacy, will stay here for the rest of our lives, and even longer. You should be proud boy. You helped us immensely, and we will honor the deal we made, with pride!". I nodded my head, smiled and said "Yea, I''m exhausted though. I will take a few days off, and get some rest".


    Ulon replied "you deserve all the rest, that you need. We still have to harvest out fields and tend to them, but it will no longer take most of our lives. I truly thank you". I waved my hand, and left. My part of the deal was done. I also received all the herbs, that the Fraction Leader Florin promised, and all the harvest from my own field. I had loads of herbs to make extracts from, and some new ones, that I needed to study. But before I did any of that, I went back to my room and slept like a log.


    For the next few days, I did nothing but rested. I didn''t try to study the herbs, or make anything, and simply let my body, as well as my mind rest. After these few days, I went back to studying the herbs, that I received from Florin. Fortunately, there was a note that came with the herbs. Florin exined what properties each herb had, so I didn''t have to study them too extensively.


    She gave me three herbs. They were called Alen Sprout, ck Iris and Antal Shroom. One of them looked like a vine, the other looked like a flower, and the third was a mushroom. Alen Sprout had healing properties, and could be used in medical applications. ck iris, could be used as a support, for increasing the strength of medicine, but also for other herbs, as it was very good at extracting properties of other herbs. The Antal Shroom was poisonous, and could be used to make poison.


    She cautioned in the note, that the shroom needs to be processed, in order to be poisonous, and that it was safe to touch otherwise. I didn''t know how strong the poison would be, but I needed to find out more. I was stunned myself, that they were in possession of poisonous herbs. ''It seems, that not only Warrior Fraction, is capable of attacking their enemies. I will have to speak to Ulon, about visiting Florin again. I have no idea, how strong that poison is, and how it spreads'' I thought.


    I decided to deal with thatter, and focus on making extracts from the Alen Sprout. I had ten herbs of each kind, so I wanted to make an extract, from all ten Alen Sprouts. ''I will use all the Alen Sprouts, but only 4 ck Irises. I will need them more, when I get to create that poison. If the poison is good, then having more ck Irises, would be more beneficial to that process,pared to healing medicine'' I thought.


    I set up my tools, and started the process of extracting everything from those herbs. Of course, I took it very slowly in the beginning, and tried to figure out when I had to stop. If I cooked them for too long, the impurities would pop up, which I didn''t need.


    To my surprise, the herbs had very little impurities. I could extract about 80% of the properties easily, without creating any impurities. ''This is great. I can already see, that the strength of medicine is nothing to scoff at. I can extract this much of it, just from one nt. It might be due to the ck Iris as well'' I thought. With my little experiment done, I did the full scale extraction, from all the nts.


    Soon, I had about one litre of pure extract from the Alen Sprout. ''This thing is amazing. Healing Essence, doesn''t evene close to this thing. If I smeared it on any wound, it would heal very quickly. In fact, it would be so quick, one could see it with their own eyes'' I thought. I decided to test a bit of it, and smeared some onto my chest.


    There were some nasty wounds left, after the battles in the Arena. The scars were quite substantial, so I wanted to check, if the scars could regenerate. After while of waiting, I noticed that the scars started shrinking, until they became half as big, as they used to be. ''This thing is really amazing. I will save it for when I really need it. This can save my life, when I really need it'' I thought, and poured it to three separate bottles. ''What should I call that extract?'' I thought. After a while of thinking, I came up with a name. ''I shall call it Greater Medical Extract. I will need to add this recipe to my bookter'' I thought.

 Chapter 260

    Chapter 260


    The next extract I wanted to create, was from the Blood Yarn. Throughout the time I''ve been in Apium, I received around 40 Blood Yarns. This alone, would be enough to make something powerful. I check at which point the impurities would be extracted. What I saw, totally stunned me. ''This Blood Yarn¡­ It has almost no impurities¡­'' I thought.


    I could extract about 90-95% of properties without any impurities. This was amazing news, I could use less nts to make more Extract. As I was testing it, an idea came to my mind ''What if, I can make it even stronger?'' I thought. I recalled that the building near theke, had distillery. If I could condense the Extract even more, what would happen then? I couldn''t wait to find out, so I made an Extract from 5 Blood Yarns. I received around 350 millilitres of the Extract.


    With the Extract in hand, I went to theke, and entered the building. Sha greeted me, and said "You did a lot for our people. I already know that you have permission to study the nts here. Feel free to do so, whenever you wish. If you need live specimen, just ask, we will provide that for you". I nodded, and said "Thanks, but that is not why I''m here today".


    She became surprised, and asked "If not for the nts, then for what?". I replied "I need to use your distillery. I want to test something". She must''ve been thinking about something else, because her reply was¡­ weird. "Oh, so it was that. Feel free to use it as much as you like" she said, with a bit of disappointment in her voice. I didn''t think much of it, and thanked her.


    I set up the distillery next, and poured the Blood Yarn Extract into the first container. I only used 100 millilitres, as I just wanted to test some things out. Next, I started the fire, and let the extract evaporate to the next container. I left it, until almost all of the extract evaporated. It was the opposite process,pared with Serelis.


    Soon, the Extract evaporated to the next container, and what was left stunned me. There was some kind of substance, left at the bottom of the first container. I didn''t distil it more, and checked the results. The extract that evaporated to the second container, became weak, very weak. The substance that was left in the first container, was a gooey liquid. It was still red, but very deep red. Darker than the blood, coursing through my veins.


    I took it out, and examined it extensively. After some time, I finally realised what it was. ''Was I wrong the whole time? Did I really explore the limits of Extracts? This alone proves, that what I aplished till now, were no Extracts. This thing is'' I thought. What I discovered, was a real Extract. The gooey liquid was so strong, that the Extract I made of the Blood Yarn, was aughingstock. ''Ifpared by volume, this gooey liquid is at least 10 times stronger, than what I managed to aplish till now, with my Extracts'' I thought. This stunned me, and I realised, how powerful the Art of Medicine could really be.


    I decided to separate my Extracts into categories. The normal Extracts, that required herb cooking, until only the strongest properties were left, would be called Prime Extracts. While the distilled Extracts, would be called Zenith Extracts. I converted the rest of the Prime Blood Yarn Extract to Zenith Extract, and received about 20 millilitres of the gooey liquid.


    ''My thoughts were correct, and the experiment proved it. I need this tool. I want to have it with me, at all times'' I thought, and went over to Sha. I asked her "Can you tell me, where can I get that tool for myself? I find it very useful, and would like to own one". She replied "We ordered it, so it''s not something you can just buy. This thing costs quite a bit though. If you can pay me, I may be able tomission one, to be made for you".


    I asked "How much would you need, to ce the order?". She thought for awhile, and said "If you want the same as this one, you will need around 350 ck Hals". I sucked in some air, while she continued "I told you, it''s expensive. Even if I order it now, you will wait for it a bit". I shook my head, and said "I don''t have that much". She smiled, and said "You can use this one, as much as you like. After all, we don''t use it that often anymore".


    I nodded, and said "I''m grateful for that, but it was more for when I leave Apium. I would like to have this tool with me. I will try to get that money, and we will see". She nodded her head, and said "As you like. Anyway, why are you so interested in that tool now? Did you figure something out?". I replied "It''s for something else, not Serelis. I wille back here often though, as I want to check the Ophilis Reeds in more details, and try to solve the lifespan problem".


    She smiled, and said "You are always weed here". I then left, and returned to my own room. ''I have to make more Prime Extracts. With that kind of potent stuff, I wonder what it will do, to my blood purification process'' I thought, and prepared to make Prime Extract, from all the Blood Yarns that I had. When everything was done, I went back to theke, and used the distillery again. Sha looked at me, as I was working. She was probably interested, what was it exactly, that I was doing.


    With the process of distilling the Prime Extract done, I had about 120 milliliters of Zenith Blood Yarn Extract. ''I can''t intake all of this. I will die, if I do. 10 milliliters of this Extract, is equivalent to about 180 milliliters of Prime Extract. I think that my body will be able to take 30 milliliters at max. More than that, and it would be a problem'' I thought. Sha walked over, and asked "What is that thing exactly?". I replied "It''s my own creation. This is the medicine, I created to purify my blood. This stuff is ultra powerful, and your Fraction''s creation, is noparison to this".


    She looked at it, and asked "Is it that amazing?". I replied "Yes. If I show it¡­. Hmmm". She looked confused, and asked "Show it to who?". I smiled, and said "I gotta run. Maybe, I will be able to afford that distillery after all". She waved goodbye, but was still a bit confused. I ran straight to the fields, to find Ulon. ''If I could sell it to Florin, raising 350 ck Hals shouldn''t be a problem, probably. If not Atols, I can always sell this to Royal Lizards, or try with Shades'' I thought.


    I found Ulon in his house, and asked "Can I meet with Florin. I think I might have something interesting for her". Ulon was surprised, and asked "What is it this time?". I replied "I have this here, my new invention", and showed him the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract. He took a look, and examined it. As he was about to taste some, I stopped him, and said "Don''t do that". He stopped himself, and asked "This is very strong medicine, what is it exactly?".


    I replied "This is the Blood Purifying Medicine, that I made. It''s much stronger, that what you can make currently". He looked at it, and asked "How strong is that thing?". I replied "Show me yours, and I will tell you". He returned my Extract, and retrieved his own Blood Purifying Medicine. I checked it out, and it was very weak, not as weak as the leftovers of my distilled Extract, but still weak. I said "This is at least 50 times weaker, than my invention".


    He sucked in some air, and asked "That much?". I nodded, and said "This thing, is very valuable. Even if you can take it only once, the effects of that would be stunning". He nodded his head, and said "Alright, let''s go. I wonder myself, what Florin is going to say".

 Chapter 261

    Chapter 261


    Ulon took me to see Florin. When we entered her office, she was a bit baffled, and asked "Do you need something?". I replied "I have another invention, which you may be interested in. Although I will not tell you how to make that stuff, I can sell you some". She was intrigued, and asked "Can you show me, what is that invention of yours?". I took out a small bottle, that contained about 20 milliliters of Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, and passed it to her.


    She looked at it, and then asked "Is this made from Blood Yarn?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes. This is at least 50 times stronger, than what you can aplish currently. If you take 10 or 20 milliliters of this, your blood will be purified to a much higher degree,pared to the Blood Purification medicine that you make. I don''t think I need to mention, what benefits that brings".


    She nodded her head, and said "Indeed. This is something, that can allow someone who reached their wall of Inner Limits, to break through it. You are very interesting indeed, young man. I''m willing to buy it, let''s have a private chat". She then looked at Ulon, who was standing next to me, and he quickly realised, that he was supposed to leave.


    When Ulon left, she did something, and the whole staircase disappeared under the vines. "Don''t worry, this is to prevent others from hearing our conversation", she said. I nodded, and asked "Tell me, what do you propose?". She smiled, and said "You are special, with someone like you on my side, I could easily control this whole ce. I can give you pretty much anything in return, as long as you join me".


    I was a bit shocked, and replied "That was not the topic, I wanted to talk about, but alright. Enlighten me, why would you need my help?". She sat down on her chair, and continued "I don''t believe, that this is the only thing, your mind can invent. You are also very strong. From what others told me about you, you are not a simple man". I stood there, and didn''t respond, I wanted for her to finally make a point, before I decided anything.


    She continued "I want that medicine, and I want you. I already mentioned, I can give you anything you want, for your help. This includes me". I almost dropped to the floor, and looked at her weirdly. ''Why the hell would I want you? As my ve?... No¡­ As my woman!'' I thought. This concept never appeared in my mind. ''Can even humans be with other races? Is that even possible?'' I thought.


    She noticed my weird expression, and said "I know what you are thinking, and it seems you never heard of it before as well. Yes, humans sometimes take other races as their partners. This is not that umon, but they don''t appear much in public". I looked at her, and though ''I''m not attracted towards Atols whatsoever. It seems, it takes special kind of human, who would be attracted to other races. Unfortunately for her, I don''t spin that way''. I might''ve been able to rethink that, if the other race was basically a human like creature, but Atols lookedpletely different.


    I replied "I''m fine, I don''t spin that way. I don''t treat other races, as my potential partners. I''m not saying this to offend you, but I don''t find you attractive at all". She shook her head, and replied "I''m not offended, I was just saying. My question still stands, would you like to join me? I can offer you herbs, money and whatever you like, as long as you help me take control of this ce".


    I thought about it, and asked "Why should I chose you? After all, I''m not only good with herbs. I could easily join the Warriors. Besides, why should I involve myself in your politics? I don''t n to stay here forever". She replied "Warriors? That bunch of idiots would get us killed, if not for the council. You can''t join the Craftsmen Fraction either. With Oran angry at you? You can forget about them. Even if you somehow convince the Leader of the Craftsmen Fraction, and team up with them, they will betray you sooner orter. With me, you only get benefits".


    She then continued "It''s true, that our politics have nothing to do with you. Yet, I want to break this deadlock. If you do help me, gaining an ally that can supply you with herbs, and whatever you like, is not such a bad deal". She was right. Gaining an ally, that could help me in the time of need, would be something, I could take advantage of. The problem was, how truthful was she?


    I asked "What guarantee do I have, that you will not go back on your word?". She replied "We can make a Blood Pact, if that is what you are after. If I try to break it, I will die. The same would be for you, if you break it, you will die". ''This is quite extreme. A Blood Pact aye?'' I thought, then said "First. Tell me, what is it that you require from me?".


    She replied "I want you to get rid of the other council members. They will be reced, but with my own people. This will make me owner of Apium. Besides that, I want you to supply more of that Blood Purifying medicine, for the people that I chose. That, is pretty much it. Of course, I would also like to know more, about your new inventions in the future".


    ''That is quite a list, but I guess the rewards are also quite big'' I thought. Florin spoke no more, and gave me some time. I replied "I need some time to think about it. Give me a day or so, and I will give you my answer". She nodded, and replied "Of course, Take as much as you need. I still hope for good news". She then opened up the staircase, and said "I will buy this medicine, next time we see each other". I nodded, and left.


    I met Ulon downstairs, and he asked "I never saw this happen. She must''ve been really keen, to make a deal. So how did it go?". I replied "Not bad, let''s go back. I need to take care of few things". Ulon realised, that I didn''t want to talk about the conversation, I had with Florin. He didn''t ask anymore, and we went back to the fields. When we arrived, I said farewell to Ulon, and returned to my own room.


    Inside, I called out "Frosty, what do you think about it?". Frosty came out, and asked for something to write on. I gave it the notebook and coal. Frosty wrote what was on its mind. "We can''t trust her, and especially, don''t make that Blood Pact. This thing can be nasty, if done wrong", was what Frosty wrote. I said "I also have some doubts about that Blood Pact. What is it exactly? You seem to know about it". Frosty nodded, and wrote "Yes. Because we have a Blood Pact". I was totally stunned, and asked "Since when?"


    Frosty wrote "Since we met. When we shook hands, the Pact waspleted". ''So that was why, Frosty wanted to shake my hand'' I thought. I then asked "Does that mean, if I shake someone else''s hand, they may create a Blood Pact with me? Without me even knowing?". Frosty shook its head, and wrote "No, our situation¡­ was different. With others, you will need to exchange blood". I then asked "So, if I die, you die as well?". Frosty shook its head, and wrote "No, our Pact is different. You really know nothing Nex". This was the first time, Frosty actually wrote my name.


    Frosty then continued writing "We cannot be separated. I will be able to find you, even if we are far apart. This is the same for you. You can''t feel it, because I''m always close". I didn''t know what to say at this stage. I felt as if, I didn''t even know that blue lizard in front of me. After a while, I asked "How do you know all that stuff?". Frosty started writing something. When Frosty finished, it dropped the notebook and coal, then climbed my shoulder, and changed back to the tattoo.


    Only when I picked it up, I realised what Frosty wrote. "Don''t take her offer. Sell her the Extracts, but don''t agree to her demands. We will talkter", was written on the notebook. I contemted about it for a while, and burnt the pages from the notebook.

 Chapter 262

    Chapter 262


    The next day, I went back to Florin with my answer. As Ulon left the room, and she again sealed the exit. I said "I will not ept your offer". She didn''t seem surprised, and said "I already expected that. No matter", but then I felt something behind me. I jumped to the side, and tried to evade whatever was trying to attack me.


    It wasn''t an attack per se though. Some kind of ss broke and pink mist filled the air. My body immediately became weak, even though I tried not breathing in any of that. ''This poison works, even when I don''t breathe'' I thought, and asked "What is this supposed to mean?". She smiled, and said "I can''t have you walk around, knowing all of this. Don''t worry though, I will not kill you. You are too precious, to dispose of you. Instead, I will make that Blood Pact with you by force".


    Iughed, and replied "You think I will agree? Kill me if you want, but you will not change my mind". She was still smiling, and said "I don''t need your agreement. We will have some nice time, and the Pact will bepleted". She then undressed herself, and walked over to me. I said "Don''t even try that bitch". She didn''t even lose her smile. and replied "We can y dirty too. I never had a human male, but I guess there is first time for everything. Wouldn''t you agree?".


    I was struggling to get up, but to no avail. I couldn''t release my Aura either. Nothing worked. As she was about to grab me, I screamed "FROSTY! DO SOMETHING!". She became a bit confused, when she heard that. Frosty changed into corporeal form, and used its ice breath on her. She didn''t expect that at all, and the ice breath hit her straight on. When she realised what has happened, she shouted "What is that thing! You! You are¡­", and then froze solid. Frosty came over, and rummaged in my bag. It took out the notebook and some coal, then wrote "I told you, we couldn''t trust her".


    I sighted, and replied "I know, but I didn''t expect that kind of thing. Can you help me out here?". Frosty shook its head, and wrote "We need to wait, for the poison to stop working. It may take a few hours". I said "This is bad though. She was a Fraction Leader. We killed her, so how am I going to stay in this ce?". Frosty made a "Mah" sound and wrote "We destroy those, wo stand in our way. Isn''t that, what we always did?".


    ''Yes, but this ce is to precious to leave just like that. If I can collect all my herbs, and some of those Ophilis Reeds and Aliris nts, I can leave. I already know how to nt them, and seeds should not be a problem'' I thought. Frosty wrote more "I know what you are thinking. Just take it by force. Although Atols will hate you, this is a minor race in the North. They will pose no problem for us, especially when you break through the Inner Limits".


    I nodded, and said "You are right. I will not attack them, but take what''s mine. Although this bitch wanted to enve me, the other Atols I interacted with, were not bad people. We will try to leave silently, after taking everything". I was nning to take all, that I owned. I would also take all, that I could find in the Floral Fraction Leader''s garden. I wanted to take all of those personal herbs of hers. This would be the payment, for trying to force me into her paws.


    Iid like this for a few hours, before I could finally move. The poison was not dangerous, in a sense where it would take my life. It only paralyzed me, and would give her enough time, to do whatever she wanted with me. I broke the frozen Florin into pieces, and from that point on, she would no longer appear in this ce. I then searched the whole ce, and took whatever I found useful.


    To my surprise, I found some seeds of different kinds, hidden away in the vines. ''These must be the personal herbs that she grew. Good, I will take that, and whatever has grown downstairs as well'' I thought. I searched the rest of the ce, and found some money as well. "She had quite a lot, this will solve my money shortage problem" I said out loud. She had 326 ck Hals stored in her drawers.


    Besides that, I found nothing else of interest. The staircase was still blocked by the vines, so I couldn''t just walk out of there. ''Destroying them, would make too much of amotion, I need to get out through the window'' I thought. Fortunately, the window was not blocked by the vines, but when I got closer, I noticed that it was blocked by something. When I touched it, it seemed like some sort of invisible membrane, that was stic.


    I tried pressing my hand through it, but it just stretched. I took out my dagger, and shed. The membrane was still intact though. ''Although I used a small portion of my strength, this thing is durable'' I thought, and tried couple more times. With the increase in strength, I finally managed to cut the membrane, after a few shes. ''Now, I just need to sell them a story, and pack my bags. Staying in this ce for a long time, is just going to bring more trouble'' I thought, and left the room.


    When I left through the window, Inded in her private garden. ''Great! I don''t need to go around ces specifically, and can take all of this as I wish'' I thought. I took most of the herbs that grew there, but still left quite a good chunk behind. Some of them were still young, and someone would rece Florin in the future. ''She deserved death for what she did, but Ulon and other will need them in the future'' I thought, and left the garden.


    I circled around the building, and entered through the main entrance. To my surprise, Ulon was still there, sleeping nheless. I woke him up, and said "Let''s go". He looked around, and asked "What took you so long?". I replied "I had to help her with the medicine. Don''t disturb her, as she is still in the process of absorbing it. When she is ready, she wille out. My guess is, Florin will be much stronger,pared to before". Ulon nodded, and said "That''s great! This way, our Fraction can have more prestige and funds. You helped us again, how are we ever going to repay you". I waved my hand, and said "Don''t mention it".


    We then returned to the fields, where I said goodbye to Ulon, and left. I went straight to theke, in order to collect some nts. Sha had no problem with that. She came with me to extract the nts, that were the oldest. She mentioned, that they already nted new ones, to rece the old nts, so I could take them without any issues.


    I got five Ophilis Reeds and Aliris nts. ''This should be enough, for me to study. I can see the seeds in them as well. This is good, I can nt more in the future, if I need to study more of them'' I thought, and said goodbye to Sha as well. I returned to my room, and started devising a n. "We need to take all the nts in my field. It would be best, if no one noticed me, but we will see" I said to myself.

 Chapter 263

    Chapter 263


    I waited for an opportunity, to collect all my herbs quickly and leave. I knew that Atols tended to their fields still, but they didn''t have to spend a whole day, before they went to rest. I watched them for a while, and waited. Soon, all the Atols ended their work in the fields, and left to get some rest. ''Now or never'' I thought, and started collecting my herbs. I only took the herbs from my field, and I took all of them, without leaving anything.


    As I was about to finish, Ulon walked over, and asked "What are you doing? You don''t want the herbs anymore? If you didn''t have the time, we would tend to the field for you". I shook my head, and said "I need to leave". Ulon still didn''t understand, so I sighted and replied "Soon, I will not be weed here. You are a good guy, you should be the new Fraction Leader". Ulon seemed confused, when I said that. After a while, he realised something, and asked seriously "What exactly did you do?".


    I said "Your Leader, she was not a pleasant person. I killed her, there is a reason for it, but Atols will not listen. Therefore, I''m taking what is rightfully mine, and leaving". He became angry, and asked "Why would you kill her? You helped us so much, and she even rewarded you? Why did you have to betray us?". I looked at the grey sky, and said "It''s your leader who betrayed me, she betrayed you as well. Florin was corrupted, and was willing to do anything, to get what she wanted. I didn''t ept her offer, so she tried to force me".


    He thought about it for a while, and asked "So what now? I don''t have the strength to stop you. Even if I raise an rm, I will probably die. So what exactly, do you want me to do?". I replied "Be the Fraction Leader. I told you already, she needs to be reced, and you are not such a bad choice". He started thinking about it, while I continued "I don''t intend to kill anyone else. She tried her luck, and died. Other Atols were usually very kind to me, I don''t hold your race in contempt, but the politics of your race, are not that simple. Think of something, and be the Leader".


    I harvested the remaining herbs, and started walking outside. From behind, I heard "Is it really true, what you said?". I stopped, and replied "Yes, I have no reason to lie. If I wanted to kill more of you, we wouldn''t be speaking right now. I chose to leave peacefully, instead of crashing out of Apium. There is no need, for unnecessary blood spige. Do as you wish, as most probably, I will not appear here again".


    I then left the Apium, and decided to find a ce in which I could stay. A ce away from races, cities and viges. Simple cave, or a shelter in the Wilderness. I wanted to study and train in peace. I also needed get some rest, from all these people. ''When I''m ready, I will resume my journey'' I thought, as I walked further away from Apium.


    I headed west. I didn''t have to worry about Avians or Yagarothes, as this would be north-west location. Avians were located in the south-west, the distance between us would still be huge. I walked, and walked through the Wilderness. Time slowly passed, as I arrived at the northernmost part of my map. ''So this is the sea?'' I thought.


    In front of me, spanned arge blue sea. I could see something in the distance. It looked like an ind. ''So, there is more indeed. This ind is further up north, maybe this is my true destination. Maybe this is where I''m supposed to go?'' I asked myself. The distance between me and the ind, was huge. I could barely make it out from my location. I wouldn''t be able to just swim there. ''I need a ship, and looking at those waves, not just any ship'' I thought.


    If I built a simple ship, it would break, before I could arrive at the ind. ''I will need a proper ship. Building that, would take me too much time though. Besides, I never built a ship before'' I thought. The only solution, was to use someone else''s ship. Whenever it was in the north, or back in the Endrosian Empire. ''I will have to return there anyway. I want to explore the human cities as well. I also want to find out, where the Imperial City is'' I thought.


    I decided to make a camp, near the sea. It was something, I didn''t encounter before. The sea allowed me to calm my mind. When I watched the waves crashing onto the cliffs below me, I felt weirdly at peace. Building a shelter, was very simple for my at this stage. I used my weapons to chop down some trees, and made some nks. With the small hut standing near the cliff''s edge, I could finally rx a bit. This time, I didn''t have to worry about holes, or about the coldness. There was no rain, snow, or seasons in the North. I wondered about the borderline, and where it extended. When I was still in the Great Forest, I could easily see the borderline, that separated the North from the South.


    ''In this ce, this is not so apparent. I can''t see any bordering line, and the grey clouds still extend towards the horizon'' I thought. I wasn''t about to go down the cliffs, and check that out. There was no shore, at the bottom of the cliff. The waves were simply smashing into the cliff. I decided not to worry about that, and spent my time on training, as well as examining the herbs that I had. I also had loads of Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, which I didn''t ingest yet. I left it, until I reached the wall of my Inner Limits. I would drink it, when I was at the point of breaking through it.


    My strength improved over the time, while my skills developed more. I had peace and quiet in that ce, and no one ever disturbed me. Besides training, I studied the herbs that I got from Apium. I already knew the herbs, which I used to grow in my field. This meant, that I didn''t need to study them. I focused on Ophilis Reeds, and tried to figure out, how Serelis'' lifespan could be extended.


    It took me a while, but I managed to figure some things out. The herb had a weird structure inside. It was hollow, with a few tubr channels, that circled from the top to bottom. One channel connected to the stem, while the other to the top of the herb. The weird thing was, that the nt didn''t contain anything else. There didn''t seem to be any other part of it, that would be responsible for water or Serelis production.


    When I examined it more, I figured out what it was. ''So, the herb has another part to it, it''s just that, it''s very small and hard to notice'' I thought. It wasn''t one part per se, but a whole structure. When one looked closely, there were needle like hairs growing around the channels. These hairs were blue in colour, but not light blue, they were deep blue. ''This must be the core of Serelis, and water production. When the herb is nted, either energy, water or whatever, will go through those channels, and absorb the Serelis from those needle like hairs. The produced water and Serelis, would then emerge through the nt at the top, and spread through the whole outer structure. That is the exact reason why, this herb has a limited lifespan. When the hairs are gone or they be used up, the nt will no longer produce water or Serelis'' I thought.


    This was important discovery. ''If I could nt these things, and make a smallke using those herbs, I might have a way of collecting the Serelis, in concentrated form'' I thought. I decided to give it a try. I had some seeds already, so I only needed water, fertiliser and an emptyke.

 Chapter 264

    Chapter 264


    I had water with me, but I wouldn''t be able to get greater quantities of it. The Wilderness, was pretty much devoid of water. It could only be found in special ces, like the Apium, or Vulture Cliffs. I decided to make a small pond instead, which would only be able to house a few seeds, of the Ophilis Reeds and Aliris nts. I had to nt the Aliris nts too. Otherwise, the bnce might be broken, and the Ophilis Reeds could die out.


    The next thing on my list, was the fertiliser. I had to find Ognars, in order to take some of their excrements. Ulon mentioned, that they need to be processed. I didn''t exactly know how, so I decided to use the raw shit for my experiment. Fortunately, Ognars were present in the northernmost area of the North. I quickly gathered enough fertiliser, and started working on my pond.


    I dug a small hole, about 2 metres deep, and 2 metres in diameter. I would have to use most of my water, in order to fill it up, but I had to separate the herbs, and give them some space to grow as well. I then spread the fertiliser, and watered it. I didn''t pour in the water just yet, and simply watered the provisional pond, for the soil condition to be better. After about four waterings, I filled the hole with water, and waited a bit.


    Because the ground got used to the water, it didn''t absorb much of it anymore. Although, after about a week of time, the water inside myke decreased by about half a metre. The level of water, was still at around 1.5 metres in depth. All the dirt also settled down, this allowed me to nt the seeds. I knew how this was done, as Sha already showed me the whole process.


    Soon, the seeds were nted, and I had nothing else to do. I just had to wait for them to sprout, and make sure they were healthy. I continued my training, and studies. I didn''t have the distillery needed to make Zenith Extracts, therefore I couldn''t practice that on other herbs. Instead, I opted for my skills and body training.


    Time slowly passed, and the herbs inside the pond grew bigger. The herbs began to form the important flower parts, where all the water making and filtration would take ce. I was surprised, that I managed to grow something in the Wilderness. Especially since, I was in much harsher environment,pared to Apium. The herbs inside the pond, were still very small, but progress was apparent. This alone gave me hope, and proved to me, that it was possible to grow them.


    Besides the herbs, I also trained my body. I felt that, I was about to reach a wall. I was very close to it. I had to train very hard, and for a long time, in order to see any kind of improvements. This suggested to me, that I began approaching my limits. ''A bit more training, and I should reach that stage. Then, I can take the Zenith Extract from Blood Yarn, and purify my blood further'' I thought. I was already prepared for the process of purifying my blood. I knew it would be very painful, perhaps much more painful, than the previous experience.


    With my strength, and Frosty''s help, I would be able to take 40 milliliters of the Extract. This was the maximum, I could take. Any more than that, and problems would arise. Not only could the process of purifying my blood backfire, it could even kill me. My skills improved a bit as well. I was able to condense my Aura, to about half a metre in radius. I was getting closer, to actually keeping that Aura on my body, but the improvements started to slow down.


    Besides that, I still trained in the Stringed Hidden Weapons Art. Although my control was already very good, I could always improve, if I trained more. I was still missing the "hidden" part of the skill. I needed an Aura, which would hide my daggers. This, was not so simple. I couldn''t create an Aura just like that, and I couldn''t even pass the Aura I already had, onto objects. My priority became the Stringed Hidden Weapons, as well as Aura condensing. In the meantime, I would try to modify the 4th Diagram, from the Strength Manual.


    I already noticed, that the 3rd Diagram became less and less effective. ''When I break through, the 3rd Diagram will be useless. When that happens, I will need the 4th Diagram'' I thought. The 4th Diagram, was called Warrior ughters The Army. The pose, was much differentpared to previous poses.


    It was the first pose ever, to have variations in it. The diagram was not just one pose, but a set of moves, to be perfectly honest. I had to make a certain pose for a while, then change to the next one, and then next one. It had four poses all together. I already managed to modify two of the four poses. I also incorporated the Domineering Aura into those two poses, and they seemedplete. I just had to modify the other two.


    Frosty acted weirdly too. It didn''t want to go out by itself, or when I called out to it. I decided to leaver Frosty alone, and only ask for help, when I needed to purify my blood. I lived like this for a long time. I didn''t know how long has passed, since I arrived in the North. I had no idea, how old I was. I only knew that my hair grew long again, and a beard with a moustache, appeared on my face. I decided to trim it, but not cut it. ''I''m old enough, to keep a beard. Besides, it doesn''t look so bad'' I thought.


    This reminded me of my father. He also used to trim his beard, and always tended to it. ''I wonder, where the Vige that my father belonged to, is located?'' I thought. I decided to add that to my list, for when I got back to Great Forest.


    My hardbour paid off though. The herbs in my pond grew, where Ophilis Reeds started producing water and Serelis. The Aliris nts, started purifying the water as well. ''With this unlimited supply of fresh water, I can even nt the other seeds'' I thought. Of course, I wouldn''t be able to create a big field, like the one in Apium. But, I could create a small one, to cultivate my own herbs. I also had a n, I wanted to check, if I could grow new herbs, from the ones I already had.


    Ulon warned me, that cing specific nts next to each other, may degrade them. ''What if, I were to nt two seeds in one ce? Would this work out, and create new nt?'' I thought. I was very curious about such prospect. Creating stuff like medicine, that would hide one''s presence. Or strength increasing medicine, which could heal and increased one''s strength, at the same time. With that in mind, I started preparing a small field, that would be used to grow different kinds of herbs. Herbs, that were never seen before.

 Chapter 265

    Chapter 265


    The time passed. My herbs grew, the pond was filled with clear water, and my skills advanced. My strength no longer increased. This meant, I was at my limit already. ''Now, I have to purify my blood, and try to break through the wall of the Inner Limit'' I thought. When I was getting ready, I called out to Frosty "Frosty, can you help me out?". I waited for a while, but Frosty didn''t appear.


    I tried couple more times, and even exined, why I needed its help. Frosty on the other hand, refused to go out. ''Weird. I would understand, if Frosty refused to go out in Obsidian Mountains, but here?'' I thought. This baffled me, but nothing I said, or did changed the final result. Frosty didn''t want to appear. I decided to just do it by myself. I would have to take a smaller quantity, because Frosty''s help was not avable.


    With my current strength, I would be able to take 35 milliliters of Zenith Blood Yarn Extract. This was the max I could take, without the help from Frosty. It was still a lot, and it would purify my blood greatly. Before I took it, I prepared first. I ate until I was full. I also rested properly, and made sure my body was in top condition.


    When the time was right, I swallowed the Extract. It was very thick, but I managed to swallow the small quantity, no problem. I then sat down, and waited for the effects to kick in. I didn''t have to wait long, before the blood in my body started boiling. The pain of the initial stage, was magnitude worsepared to the past. I gritted my teeth, and tried to bear it.


    Seconds slowly turned into minutes, as I endured the pain. I was sweating buckets already. My right hand, fought against the heat of my blood. This produced arge cloud of mist, which surrounded me. I was barely holding on at this stage, then a new wave of pain arrived. This time, it wasn''t my blood alone, it came from my bones too.


    "ARRRRGGGHHHH!". I screamed loudly, but the pain was bing intensified, the longer I endured. I was losing my consciousness, so I decided to go all in, and used my Aura. I hoped, that my Aura would somehow make me go through the process. I condensed it as much as I could, but to no avail. The pain didn''t decrease, and the darkness started filling my eyes. ''Heh¡­ Is that it? Is that all I have?'' I thought, and my vision turnedpletely ck.


    I could faintly hear something, in the darkness. Something from my past, something I said myself. I also heard someone, someone who I knew in the past. From the voices, it seemed like a conversation.


    "Why are you here?".


    "Because I have a break?".


    "No. I mean, what did you do, to be enved?".


    "Nothing".


    "Sorry, I shouldn''t ask".


    "I did nothing".


    "What do you mean? Then are you a ve, because you were sold?".


    "No".


    "If you did nothing wrong, and you were not sold. Why are you a ve?".


    "Because life is such".


    Because life is such. Life. So obvious, yet so mysterious. We think, we have everything figured out. The more we live, the more experiences we can umte, and the further we can explore our lives. Yet, the more of our life passes, the greater the mystery bes. ''Is it so hard, to explore our lives? Because life is such? Because we can never predict, what is going to happen? Or affect our lives fully? Because life, is out of our reach?''.


    .


    .


    .


    ''No! Life is such, because we chose for it to be. I CHOSE NOT!''. I opened my eyes, and although the pain was still there, I didn''t feel it as much, as I did before. I sat there, and resisted. I resisted the urge to give up, I resisted the urge to close my eyes. The life was mine, not because the life dictated it, but because I willed it.


    The process soon finished, and I copsed onto the ground exhausted. ''The process isplete¡­ I feel tired'' I thought, and fell asleep. When I finally managed to wake up, I felt very weak. I didn''t know, for how long I was asleep, but I was very hungry. I ate the meat, that I prepared before. I was eating like a starving wolf. This reminded me of the old times, where I would wake up hungry every morning.


    With my hunger satisfied, I checked my body around. At first, I didn''t notice any differences, but then I looked at my right arm. "What the?..." I eximed. My right arm was now blue. Not only that, it also had scales. "What the hell is going on? Frosty! What did you do?". But Frosty didn''t appear. I checked my right arm from all angles, and examined it more thoroughly.


    The scales were real. I could feel their hardness and slickness. "With my arm like this, I already look less human. Why the hell did it change?" I asked myself out loud. I noticed something else as well. When I looked into the distance, the ind that I could barely see before, appeared much more defined, as if it was closer to me. "Did the ind move? What is going on here?" I asked myself.


    But that was not the case. It was my eyes. My eyes became sharper. I could see distant objects, much better. I also discovered, that I could see more details up close. "Did my eyes evolved as well? What else is different then?" I asked myself again. I checked my strength, and I was a bit stronger than before. This could be exined with Blood Yarn Extract though. I checked my sense of hearing and smell too. They seemed to evolve as well. I could hear much better, and I could smell stuff, that was very far away.


    "Does the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, really have such effects?" I said out loud. I had no answer to that, but I knew one thing for certain. My blood became much purer, and my senses became more acute. My strength also increased. I still didn''t break through the Inner Limits, it was just my blood purification. I tested everything, for the rest of the day. I tried running, lifting stuff and so on. Indeed everything improved, even my memory. I could remember even the smallest details of my past. My body became more resilient too. ''I guess, it''s probably thanks to the Blood Yarn Extract. After all, the pain I feltter, wasing from my bones'' I thought.


    But the most amazing change, happened to my arm. My arm was very resilient now. When I tried cutting the scales, I found that, only when I used about 80% of my strength, I was able to do so. This alone was amazing, but this was not the only thing. The ice powers of my arm, were extraordinary now. I didn''t know exactly why, but the strength of the ice power increased substantially. I assumed it was due to Frosty, but Frosty never came out, so I couldn''t ask it. I also didn''t know whether this was a permanent thing, or temporary.


    ''I have no idea, if Frosty is making my arm look like this, or will it look like this for the rest of my life'' I thought. One way or another, I would look weird, to say the least. A human with a scaly blue arm¡­ was not something people encountered everyday. There were some advantages. The ice power in my hand was at least four or five times greater, than in the past.


    When I punched the ground, it immediately froze. I didn''t even have to think about using the ice powers, for the ground to freeze. My arm, had a constant freezing effect. I found out the hard way, when I touched my right arm, with my left. It was only for a short time, but frost formed on my left hand, and I could see signs of freezing. ''I will have to watch out for this arm now. I can''t simply touch anything, including myself with it. As long as my arm releases ice power, I need to beware'' I thought, and returned to my skill training, as well as the herbs. I needed some time to adjust, before I would attempt to break through my Inner Limits.

 Chapter 266

    Chapter 266


    Time passed again. I managed to adjust to my new senses, strength, as well as my right arm. Besides that, I also managed to extract the pure and condensed Serelis from Ophilis Reeds. Because I knew the structure of the herb, I was able to make a tool, which could be inserted into the Reed. The upper end of the channel, which spewed out the Serelis, could now be connected directly with a container. Serelis was mixed with water, because Ophilis Reeds produced both at once. Making a tool, that separated water from pure Serelis, was a challenge indeed. I had to experiment for a long time, before I found a solution.


    The solution seemed simple, yetplex at the same time. The tool I made, had to have two channels. One for water, and one for Serelis. But that''s the simple exnation. The channels had to be different. Not only in diameter, but in shape as well. The process of discovering this alone, almost made me go insane. Either way, I was now able to collect Serelis, in condensed and pure form.


    This allowed me to collect it only. The problem I faced next, was how to store it? My bottles and containers possessed air inside them, so the tool would be useless, if I just extracted Serelis into one of them. I came up with another idea. I needed to remove the air, from inside my containers. It also took me a while, to figure this out. With enough time, I finally managed to do that too. I sealed the container, but left a small hole in the cork. I then heated it up, until all the air inside the container or a bottle, escaped. When that happened, I would quickly seal the cork again, with the use of putty. This allowed me to not only collect, but also store Serelis, without making any contact with air, or water.


    This also proved something to me. If Serelis didn''t make contact with air, or other substances, it wouldn''t dissipate and stay in the container, for a long time. With my theory proven, I started collecting Serelis. Although my pond was small, and I only had few Ophilis Reeds, there was something, I didn''tck. Time.. ''Collecting only a bit at a time, is not really an issue. As long as I do it for an extended period of time, I should gather a substantial amount of it'' I thought.


    Collection, and storage was not an issue anymore. The issue I had next, was the small quantity of Serelis in each container. I had to let the herb rest, so to say. I did that, in order for the pond to be full of water, and contain Serelis inside. Even though, it would dissipate after a while. This meant, I couldn''t collect a whole bottle at once. Not only the collection process was slow, but the Serelis was also crucial, for the other herb''s growth. Aliris nts were depended on Ophilis Reeds. This was due to Serelis, I couldn''t just collect all Serelis, that the herb produced. This was the reason, for smaller quantities of pure Serelis, in my containers.


    I came up with another idea, which I already used before. I would use a modified tool, that I used for the Serelis extraction. It was modified, but to be honest, the tool was much more simple,pared to my first design. I simply had to make a hollowed needle like stick, and pass the Serelis between the containers. To my surprise, it worked. Although, I had to give it a few tries.


    When I tried this for the first time, some air got into both containers, as I did it the wrong way. I learned from my mistakes, and tried again. After a few more tries, I managed to pass the Serelis from one container, to the other. The process was slow, but I was finally able to gather a full bottle of Serelis. ''This is pure Serelis, but that doesn''t mean, it has no impurities. I will have to test a small batch of it'' I thought. I didn''t have the distillery, but I could make one, or at least make a simple one. Because I had materials avable to me, it wasn''t that difficult. I used two bottles, as my containers. Then, I created some steel pipes, and fixed all of that together, to make a simple distillery.


    My goal, was not to make Extracts, but simply check for impurities. I wanted to see, how many of them were inside Serelis. After staring my experiment, I waited for the Serelis in the first container, to evaporate by about half. When it did, I extinguished the me, and waited a bit.


    To my surprise, the first container possessed no impurities. Serelis was pretty much pure, with no bad stuff inside it. This stunned me a bit. What stunned me even more, was the fact, that I made Serelis Extract by mistake. It wasn''t anything great, as the tool I created was really amateur. Yet, the effects doubled, after distilling the Serelis.


    ''This is great! Although I don''t have the real distillery, I can still make some weak Extracts from Serelis. I can count them as Prime Extracts, but this will be the weakest Prime Extract, I have ever created'' I thought. This was still something to be happy about. I couldn''t use my medicine making tools, to create Prime Extracts from Serelis. It would be tooplicated, to achieve that. Nevertheless, my research of Serelis ended. I created a longsting Extract in the end, which I didn''t expect at all.


    I decided to give it a try. ''After all, Serelis has a mind calming effect only. There shouldn''t be any problems, when I ingest it'' I thought. I tried with the Extract, as this was the final product. The bottle with Prime Serelis Extract, contained about 20 milliliters of it. This was not a lot, but it was enough, for the testing purposes. I swallowed it, and then waited.


    Nothing seemed to happen. I didn''t feel any different at all. ''Maybe my mind is already calm, and I don''t need to calm it further. It therefore doesn''t work'' I thought. This could''ve been the case. My mind was at ease, especially after my blood purification. I passed it off as ineffective, due to circumstances. ''I will test it, when I get back to Obsidian Mountains. Lazar is always worried, so it should work on him. Perhaps I can give this to Harlin as well. This will prove, whether it works or not. At least, I know that it has no side effects'' I thought, and left it at that for now.


    The adjustment to my new senses, and the small increase in strength, also went along nicely. I was more worried about my right arm. In the beginning, I was careful not to touch anything with it. After some time though, the ice powers started to listen to me. I managed to learn, how to make the hand stop releasing the ice power.


    I could finally use my right arm, just like any normal arm¡­ except it look different. As more time passed, my arm transformed into that of a lizard''s arm. In the beginning, it look like a human arm, with the exception of the blue colour and scales. Now, my right arm was a bit thicker,pared to my left arm. Not only that, instead of normal human fingers, I had lizard fingers, that functioned like ws. The ws were very sharp, maybe not as sharp as my daggers, but I could still slice stuff up, pretty easily. My new fingers were also much more sturdy, and covered with scales. It felt weird in the beginning, and I couldn''t get used to it. My arm looked as if, Frostybined with it for good, and would never appear again.


    ''I understood, at least to some degree, Frosty transforming into a tattoo. Butpletely merging with my arm¡­ is that even possible? And is this reversible? Or is Frosty forever gone, and merged with my arm for good?'' I thought. I had loads of questions. It seemed weird to me, that Frosty didn''te out throughout the whole time. That was my reason, behind such theories. It was a theory though, and I didn''t want to believe it either. Frosty was the same as Shelly, my family. I didn''t want it to be just some kind of object, or just another one of my skills, or powers.


    Although worried, I could do nothing about it. ''Waiting seems to be the only option, for now'' I thought, and prepared to break through my Inner Limits. For that, I needed the 4th Diagram from the Strength Manual. The 3rd Diagram would not allow me to break through, as the pressure it created on my body, was too small. I needed something that would create loads of pressure, and let me break through it.


    I didn''t have to use the 4th Diagram. There were other ways, to pressure my body. Lifting something very heavy, would be such example. Yet, the Diagrams from the Strength Manual, were the best for that purpose. Simple weight lifting, would not pressure my whole body. Especially the hidden muscles, that the Diagrams trained. That was why, I was pushing myself topleting the 4th Diagram.


    I wasn''t very far away though. ''Only one more pose is left, for me to modify. Out of the possible four, this shouldn''t take me too long'' I thought. I was wrong. I had to spend considerable amount of time, before I finally managed to modify it. "I can finally start! 4th Diagram is ready. I purified my blood as well. My strength, is at the limit too. The Prime Extract from Earth Grabbing Sprout, is ready. Let''s see, if I can reach the Inner Limits!" I said loudly to myself.

 Chapter 267

    Chapter 267


    I drank the Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract, and assumed the first pose from the 4th Diagram. I had to stay in that pose for about one minute, then change to the next pose. I was fine through the first iteration of the Diagram. The problems started on the second cycle. It was at the third pose, where my energy started getting depleted, quickly. I continued nevertheless, and entered the third cycle. At this stage, even the Extract I drank before, was not enough. On the fourth pose, my energy was gonepletely.


    I copsed face first, onto the ground. I wasn''t even able to move a finger, it felt like I became paralyzed. I waspletely spent, and soon lost my consciousness. When I woke up, I felt the hunger kicking in again. I ate enough, to satisfy my hunger, and then thought about what happened. ''I was still far away from reaching the Inner Limits¡­ I could faintly feel it approaching, but my current strength¡­ is not enough'' I thought.


    I knew that breaking through to inner Limits, couldn''t be easy. This though, was beyond hard. My body no longer wanted to develop in strength. Yet, I was still far away from breaking through. I was baffled, and didn''t know what this meant. ''I''m clearly at my limit, my strength doesn''t want to improve anymore. Then, what else do I need, to break that wall of Inner Limits?'' I thought.


    My first try, ended as a failure. I wasn''t discouraged, but I now knew, I would need something else in order to break through. ''My blood should be purified enough. With the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, my blood should be purified to much better standards,pared to others. So, this shouldn''t be about the blood. It shouldn''t be the strength either. I''m currently unable to develop further'' I thought. There was another weird thing, that happened to me, which I didn''t expect. ''The Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract, should''ve increased my strength. Yet, for some reason, it wasn''t permanent. What am Icking then?'' I thought.


    Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract, should''ve increased my strength permanently, but it didn''t. This alone was weird. I felt, as if the Extract was used up, in order for me to try and break through that wall. I failed of course, and the Extract didn''t affect my real strength at all. ''I need to think about it some more'' I thought, and tried figuring out, what else did I need, in order to break through.


    Throughout the time I stayed near the sea, I tried a few more times to break through, yet all attempts were futile. I tried different things as well. Stuff like, making the poses while carrying three bags full of stuff. The 4th Diagram alone, ced huge strain on my body. The added weight, made it even worse. Ultimately though, it didn''t help me break through.


    Another idea I came up with, was to use an Aura. I didn''t use my Domineering Aura, when I tried for the first time. When I did try to break through, with my Aura active, it allowed me to continue for a bit longer. In the end, I couldn''t break through still. I also drank the Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract, while doing nothing. I wanted to test, if my strength would increase, and stay permanently. But, the same happened still. The increase in my strength, was only temporary. I couldn''t get any stronger, by any means. At least, any means known to me.


    I thought about possible solutions, long and hard. Yet, no immediate solution came to my mind. There were few possibilities, that could help me, if I tried them out. ''The Aura, seems to be giving me some advantages. If I manage to master my Aura, this may allow me to break through, but I''m not certain. Another way, is to experience something dangerous. This is not something, I want to try eagerly. It''s not like, I can just set it up. If I was in a situation, where my life was at stake, this could help me squeeze out my potential. I could try to break through at that time'' I thought.


    The former option, was not dangerous at all. I would eventually master my Aura. Although this might take some time, it was the safest option. Theter option, was very dangerous. Not only would I risk my life during a dangerous situation, I would have to risk it again, when trying to break through. ''If I fail at that time, I''m dead. With all my energy gone, there''s only one oue. Death'' I thought. Theter option, was something I thought of hypothetically. Starting a war, jumping from a cliff, or walking into an active Volcano, was not hard. Actually surviving it, was a feat in itself. ''I already escaped from Avians and Yagaroths. This almost costed me my life. I''m not very keen, to repeat the same thing'' I thought.


    There was no guarantee, that any of those would work. I could be wrong, and I wouldn''t be able to break through in both cases. ''I never met anyone, who broke through their Inner Limits. Well, besides the High One of the Yagaroths. He will not tell me, how to break through though. I have no one to ask really..'' I thought, then an idea came to my mind. "Crow!" I eximed. Crows already knew someone, who broke through the Inner Limits. It was the leader of his group, that he belonged to.


    ''The process is probably different, for humans and Shades. I can still get some ideas, if I knew how Shades did it? And what was involved?'' I thought. At that stage, I decided my next course of action. I would travel back to the Sludge Factory, and meet with Crow. ''I also have some herbs now, and I have over 300 ck Hals on me. If I sell some medicine in a city belonging to Voltars, I should be able to make enough money, and buy Crow''s freedom'' I thought.


    I packed everything, and retrieved all the herbs that were growing on my field, as well as in the pond. I wouldn''t leave my hard work for someone to collect, even if no one seemed to visit this ce. The water, as well as the small hut would stay, I didn''t mind anyone else using those things.


    There was onest thing, I had to do. I took out some bandages, that I made, and wrapped them around my right arm. I needed to hid my weird looking arm. I didn''t want to be some sort of weirdo. Besides, no one had to know, I had this arm, and how I got it. ''This Eterian, I fought in the Arena, was really interested in my ability to freeze stuff. I need to watch out, who I reveal this thing to. I still want my arm, where it is'' I thought.


    With all those things taken care of, I headed towards my new destination. The meeting ce marked on my map, where Crow could be found. On my way there, I decided to go through the Voltars'' territory, and try to sell some of my medicine. If not, I could sell it at Obsidian Mountainster. I didn''t know, if Voltars could use my medicine, as their bodies were¡­ different.


    I walked for a long time, before I reached the Voltars'' territory. Some more walkingter, I arrived in front of the Voltars'' biggest city, Boltier. I found it no problem, thanks to the map I received from Harlin. The city was something else entirely. The city was surrounded byrge walls, and each corner of the city, had a huge metal spike. I was confused, about the purpose of these spikes at first, but I didn''t have to wait long, to receive my answer.


    Arge bolt of lightning, struck one of the spikes, and the electric energy was absorbed by it. My mouth opened by itself, as I never witnessed such a thing before. ''So, that is how they gather electric energy? I wonder what they use it for?'' I thought, and entered the city. There were guards, stationing at the gates to the city. No one stopped me though, and I was free to pass. I entered the city, and marvelled at its design.


    ''It really is different. There is only one word, I can think of to describe it. Magical!'' I thought. The buildings were made from different types of materials, but that was not what surprised me. The buildings were not on the ground, they were in the air. Nothing held them in the air, they just floated there. Some buildings floated near the ground, while others were so up high, I would have the difficulty of jumping to such height. I also noticed some metallic orbs, that floated in the air. I was again baffled by this, and wanted to check one out.


    When I approached the orb, someone behind me said "I wouldn''t do that, if I were you youngster". I turned around, and a Voltar stood behind me. The Voltar seemed to be very old. Not only he looked old, his body didn''t possess much electric energy either. I asked "Why?". The Voltar replied "Because you will be electrocuted. This is for us Voltars, to travel fast inside the city. No one else can use them, as they simply can''t do that". I nodded, and thanked him for the warning.


    The old Voltar continued "This is your first visit here, right? I have nothing much to do, so I can show you around". I thought about it, and said "Sure, if you want to". The old Voltar motioned for me to follow, and we walked through the streets. He pointed out some buildings, that could be of interest to visitors.

 Chapter 268

    Chapter 268


    The tour started from simple things, like the market. Of course it wasn''t anything simple. The market look mystical as well. No only the stalls floated, the Voltars responsible for them, advertised their products in creative ways. Some would juggle their products, others would use the electric energy, to float them. Some would even demonstrate the resilience, or the quality of the items they were selling.


    It was a lively ce, and there was something to watch, at all times. The old Voltar said "If you need stuff like materials, weapons or supplies, this is the ce toe. You may even be able, to find some rare stuff in here. Though the rarest stuff, is in the Vatras Auction Hall. I will show you that ceter". I nodded, and we continued to the next location.


    He then showed me an inn, with a bar. The ce floated, but closer to the ground, ifpared to other buildings. This was probably, to allow the guest easy ess inside. The old Voltar said "Let me show you something, as not many ces have that". I was intrigued, and followed him towards the inn. When we were close enough, a road made from electric energy, appeared in front of us. "Wow!" I eximed loudly. The old Voltar smiled, and said "This is to allow easy ess, for other people. Not many buildings have that, but this inn is mostly used by travellers, just like you".


    I asked "What about the electric energy then? Wouldn''t it electrocute me?". The old Voltar shook his head, and replied "No. Although electric energy is used to create it, there are also Formations, that keep the path in check. This way, anyone can walk on it, and no one ever got electrocuted". I nodded my head, while the old Voltar motioned for me to follow, towards our next location.


    We then arrived, at the Mercenary Guild of Boltier. I knew what this ce was about, but the old Voltar didn''t know that, and exined "This is the Mercenary Guild. I don''t know if you are a member, but this is where you can get a job, and so on". I nodded my head, and replied "I know about it". He nodded as well, and we moved on to the next location.


    Next, he showed me the Arena. It was smallerpared to the Fnks Arena, but it housed battles all the same. It was also circr in shape, just smaller, and the fact that it was floating. The electric energy ran through it, like snakes around a tree. The old Voltar exined "This is the Electric Arena. It''s a bit differentpared with other Arenas. The electric energy, is widely avable on the tform. Us Voltars, can''t really lose against other races here. The Arena is used by young Voltars mostly. This way, they can test their skills and strength. Although I say this, we had some challengers, that won a few fights. These individuals, were unusually strong".


    I asked "Is there some sort of requirement, to fight in this Arena?". The old Voltar shook his head, and replied "No. You just have to beware, that your opponents will have an obvious advantage. This advantage is not small. Therefore before you try, consider it couple of times". I nodded my head, and we moved on to the next location.


    We soon arrived to pretty much the centre of the city. In the middle, was a huge crystal, which the old Voltar called Collecting Crystal. I could see electric energy coursing around it, and some kind of blue orb inside. The crystal itself, was almost transparent. Metal linen of some sort, were attached to the bottom of the Crystal, and extended outwards, in all directions.


    ''I''ve never seen such a thing. It''s amazing!'' I thought. The old Voltar said "This Collecting Crystal, is not only collecting the electric energy. It''s also responsible for storing and distributing it, around the whole city". I nodded my head, and asked "How exactly, is that crystal storing the energy?". The old Voltar looked at a certain location in the sky, and said "I''m not sure, how it is able to store the energy. The blue orb inside, is the condensed electric energy, that it stores. This is a relic, left by our ancestors. I don''t know much about it, but there are some high positioned Voltars, that do. As far as I know, this crystal is a blessing, but a curse as well".


    I asked "Why? Doesn''t this crystal supply energy to all of this city?", to which the old Voltar replied "Because it can explode if overloaded, or if its bnce is disturbed. It''s a fantastic relic, and as you said, this whole city depends on this Crystal. But, if the bnce is disturbed for some reason, it will blow up with all the electric energy stored inside. Imagine what would happen, when electric energy that can run this whole city, explodes". I could easily imagine, how devastating the results would be. He continued "Although, this shouldn''t happen soon. It works properly, and even if loads of strong people attacked, it would not break. It''s very sturdy, and bnced".


    ''For now'' I thought. That thing, was a recipe for disaster. Although it was very sturdy, it was not indestructible. If the crystal cracked, or the bnce got disturbed somehow, then the whole city would perish. ''Funny enough, I know a way, to probably destroy this Crystal. I don''t know if the amount of Yellow Dust on me, is enough to destroy it, but it should be enough to break the bnce'' I thought. Of course, I was not going to do that. Besides, I would kill myself too. The Yellow Dust explosion, would be severe, and I would need to add another electric explosion, into the mix. Death would be more than likely, it would be certain.


    We then moved on to the next location, which was the Grand Pce. The Grand Pce, was a sight to behold. It looked like a castle with three towers, that had metal spikes at the top. Besides that, it was huge and floated in air, like everything else. But the distance between the ground and the Pce, was at least 200 metres. The old Voltar exined "This Grand Pce, houses all the important figures, as well as the ruler of Voltars. No one is allowed entry, without a reason. Normally, other Voltars would receive the summons, or would need to ask for permission". I asked "How is it possible, for such a thing to float, and so high nheless?".


    The old Voltar replied "The answer is all around you. It''s the electric energy, that makes the buildings float around here. Of course, there are some Formations too". I nodded, and looked at the pce a bit more. Suddenly, the old Voltar asked " I think, I''ve seen you before. Do we know each other?". I looked at the old Voltar, and said "No. I''ve never been to this ce before". He thought about something, and said "You seem simr to someone¡­ I just don''t know who".


    I had no idea, who he was talking about. I just shrugged my shoulders, and said "I have no idea. I''m sure we never met before". But the old Voltar didn''t give it a rest, and after another while of thinking, he asked "Have you ever dealt with Avians?". Now, I knew what he meant. ''I have no clue, how he managed to even recognise me, but the fact who I really am, should stay hidden'' I though, and simply replied "No".


    He asked "Why have youe here human?". I replied "I want to sell some of my medicine. I don''t know, if Voltars can use it though. It''s quite good, and I hope to make some money". The old Voltar seemed interested, and said "I can buy some, if it''s good". I nodded, and took out my new medicine, which I created in Apium. It was the Arran Liquid. This medicine, was on simr level to the Healing Essence, from Nick''s book.


    The Voltar checked out the medicine, and asked if he could taste it. I said "Sure, go ahead". He did just that. When he tasted it, he immediately became excited, and tried to hide that. After testing my medicine, the old Voltar said "This is not bad. I can pay you 5 ck Hals for it". Iughed straight at his face, and said "This is worth about 20 ck Hals. You don''t have an idiot in front of you. I will sell that one for 18, if you want". The old Voltar, didn''t know what to say really. After a while of awkwardness, he took out the money and paid me. "Sorry, I tried taking advantage of you. I didn''t know, you would be aware of its worth. I gave you 20 ck Hals, instead of 18. It''s to apologize, for trying to swindle you". I nodded, and said "It''s fine then". ''I wouldn''t fall for the same trick twice. I learned my lesson already'' I thought.


    He said "You should go to the Vatras Auction Hall with this, if you have more. This will sell very well, and at much better price,pared to just 20 ck Hals". I nodded, and said "It''s a good idea. Can you show me where it is?". The old Voltar nodded, and said "Sure, follow me". As we walked towards the Auction Hall, the old Voltar introduced himself "I forgot, that I never introduced myself. I''m called Shak". I realised, that I had to respond somehow. I decided to just use the name of a certain talkative guy. "I''m called Rnd, nice to meet you Shak".


    Shak asked "Do you have a lot of that medicine left? I would still buy some, if it''s not a problem". I nodded, and asked "How much would you like to buy?". He replied "Well, I have only 30 ck Hals left, so I can only buy one". I took out two bottles, and threw them at him, then said "Just pay me 30 for them". He was a bit stunned, and replied "Thanks! I really appreciate your gesture". He handed me 30 ck Hals exactly. It didn''t take long for us, to arrive at our destination. Shak said "This is the Vatras Auction Hall".

 Chapter 269

    Chapter 269


    The building itself, was as magnificent, as the Grand Pce I saw before. It looked luxurious, with white marble like material used to build it. It also had two high towers, with metal spikes on them. I already knew the purpose for those spikes, they collected the electric energy for the building. The Vatras Auction Hall also floated prominently over the horizon, and added even more mysticism to the city. There were many different races, walking to and fro the Auction Hall.


    Shak said "If you want, I can help you with the registration process. The medicine will need to be tested by them first, and then it can be ced on the auction". I nodded my head, and replied "Sure. You know how all of that works, so your help will be appreciated". We then entered the Auction Hall, which had the same electric energy path, as the inn had. Although the Auction Hall''s path, was much more grand, and spectacr.


    Inside, loads of different races either ced their items up for an auction, or were retrieving the bough items. We walked over to one of the counters, and Shak began the conversation. "My friend here, would like to sell his medicine. Can you test it, and give a fair estimate for it?". The Voltar behind the counter seemed a bit shocked, but I was not sure why. He quickly nodded his head, and said "Of course my...". But the old Voltar stopped him, and said "Great, we will await the results in the waiting area".


    I took out a bottle of my Arran Liquid, and passed it to the Voltar. He took it, and quickly ran off somewhere, probably to get it tested. I followed Shak to the waiting area, and asked him "Are you some sort of important figure?". Shak justughed, and replied "Nah, I''m not that important. People just know me around here". I didn''t probe any further, but I already knew, that Shak was not just any Voltar.


    A whileter, the same clerk that I passed my medicine to, returned and brought back the results with him. He said "This medicine is very strong, and it''s pure. We estimate, that the price it would sell for, is around 30 ck Hals. I don''t know if our guest here knows this, but we take a 10% provision, for cing the items on our auction. Would you still like to ce this item, on the auction?".


    I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I will ce it on the auction. I have more of them, so I n to auction 15 of such bottles. Is that alright?". The Voltar nodded with a smile, and replied "Of course. We will ce your items, amongst the rarer products. This way, we can make a bigger profit. If everything goes well, we may even get 40 ck Hals per bottle". I thought about something, and replied "Can you ce them in sets?".


    The Voltar was a bit stunned, and replied "I see what you want to achieve. Yes, it is possible to do that. If you want to limit the avability, then this is a great way to do it. What type of sets do you propose?". I replied "Let''s do three sets. Each will contain five bottles. I''m aiming at the wealthy individuals or groups, if they bid against each other, the profits will be even greater. Don''t you think?". The Voltar nodded, and said "Certainly. In that case, let us advertise your product a bit. The auction with rare items, will start tomorrow. This is where we can ce your product. Because this may bring much more profit to us, we can stay at 10% provision. We would usually take 15% provision for the advertisement, and better cement. But because this is quite rare, and...". He looked at Shak, then continued "We will take the standard 10% provision".


    I agreed to his proposal, and gave him the other 14 bottles. We then left the Action Hall. As we walked through the streets, Shak said "You are quite smart. Limiting the avability, will bring you much more profits. There is also a risk involved, but you should be able to sell these things, at a high price". I smiled, and said "I kinda need the money, so the more I can get, the better". Shak asked "Is there anything else, that may interest you here? I showed you the main buildings, but there is more stuff to do inside the city". I shook my head, and said "I''m fine. If you want to, you can meet me tomorrow at the Auction Hall". Shak nodded, and replied "Sure, I want to see how your medicine sells as well. Then we will meet tomorrow". We then went our own separate ways.


    After separating from Shak, I went straight to the inn. I wanted to rest properly, and eat some local food. When I entered, I was stunned by what I saw. ''Lizards are even here? Harlin''swork, is not bad at all'' I thought. Behind the counter, was a Lizard. Of course, due to the size of the building, there were other employees too. Some Voltars worked there as well. I walked over to the Lizard behind the counter, and asked "How much do you charge for a room?".


    The Lizard was a female, she replied "We charge 2 Red Hals per normal room, and 20 Red Hals for a luxurious room. These prices are for one day of course. Which one would you like?". I replied "I will take the normal room", and passed her the 2 Red Hals. Besides giving her the money, I also passed her the scale, that Harlin gave me. She was surprised, when she saw the scale, and passed it back to me saying "This is too much, here is your change".


    I asked "What sort of dishes, would you rmend?". She replied "We have a wide variety of dishes, from different parts of the North. Here is the menu. I would rmend Ognar Gosh, and Ognar Steak. As for the drink, if you want something mild, Shock Water is great. While Lightning Wolf is very strong". I nodded my head, and said "I will take the Ognar Gosh, and Shock Water". She nodded her head, and said "Have a sit, I will bring it to you soon".


    I sat down at one of the empty tables, and waited. My food arrived soon after that. She smiled, and said "Enjoy they food", then left. I could see a piece of paper stuck underneath the te. I took it, and read the contents "We can talk freelyter. I will visit your room, after I finish my work". I ced the note into my right hand, and used my ice powers to freeze it. Even though my arm was covered in bandages, the ice power still worked.


    With the note destroyed, I enjoyed my meal. I had Ognar''s meat before, it was something I pretty much lived on. But the gosh was something else. It was delicious to the point, I could get addicted. The Shock Water, was not bad either. It had a tingling taste, and was a bit sweet too. With my meal done, I went upstairs to my room.


    The room was ordinary, but the bed lookedfortable. Iid down, and rested. ''Now, I just need to wait for her, and find out some stuff about this ce'' I thought.

 Chapter 270

    Chapter 270


    Iid there for couple of hours, before I heard the knocking on my door. When I opened them, the Lizard who left me a note, stood behind them. I invited her in, and said "Sit down". She did just that, and asked "I know who you are, but I couldn''t recognise you at all. You''ve changed a lot, from what Harlin described you as". I replied "Maybe not enough. I need some information, I hope you can provide them".


    She nodded her head, and replied "Of course. I will tell you whatever I can". I nodded my head as well, and asked "You know the guy called Shak?". She was a bit surprised, when I mentioned that name, and replied "Yes. Have you offended him?". I shook my head, and said "No. I want to know, who is he exactly?". She released a sigh, and said "That is good. Shak is not something, you should mess with easily. He is the owner of the Vatras Auction Hall. Not only that, he is one of the wealthiest, and most influential Voltars in this city. He even has his own small army of mercenaries".


    ''No wonder, that the Voltar in the Auction Hall, was so respectful to him. This exins a lot'' I thought. I asked another question "What sort of guy is he?". She shook her head, and replied "I don''t really know. My guess is, he is very calctive, and probably did some shady business in the past. After all, he owns the biggest Auction Hall in the whole North". I thought about something, and asked "Why doesn''t he just live in that Grand Pce?".


    She thought about it for a while, and said "As far as I know, he is not the type to sit on his butt, and enjoy his life. The Grand Pce, is pretty much that. High positioned individuals, simply sit there and do nothing. They simply enjoy their lives. It seems, that Shak is not that kind of Voltar, and prefers to do something. He also takes care of his business. This doesn''t mean, he can''t ess the Grand Pce. From what I know, he just does it very rarely".


    I nodded my head, and asked another question "What about my situation?". She smiled, and said "Loads of people already forgot about you. My guess is that, with enough time, you will be forgotten. Avians and Yagaroths, don''t really search for you anymore. Of course, if they find you and recognise you, they will still try to hunt you down. I''d say, you don''t have to worry much anymore".


    I nodded, and replied "That is great. I can freely walk around the North now. Do you know anything about the Avian-Yagaroth rtions?". She shook her head, and said "No, not really. We are too far away, to get any information about that. If you visit Harlin, he may be able to shed more light on that". ''I have better ns already. I just asked, as it was convenient to ask'' I thought.


    My next question, regarded the Collecting Crystal. "Do you know anything about that Collecting Crystal?". She nodded, and replied "Yes, but not that much. The information about it, is guarded rather well. Only the highly positioned Voltars, have ess to it. From what I know, it''s thanks to that Crystal, that this city can operate. If the Crystal was not here, the Voltars would be damned for sure". I asked "In what way?".


    The Lizard continued "Not only does the Crystal provide them with almost unlimited power, it also scares off other races, from attacking this ce. If the Crystal stopped working, or was moved somece else, this city would die quickly". This made me interested. I decided to ask about more details. "What about its bnce, and storage capacity? I heard that it can blow up, if it''s disturbed enough, or broken". Sheughed a bit, and said "Who told you that? This is a story, to scare others. This Crystal is very tough, but it would not explode with energy, when broken. The energy would simply dissipate, and this ce would die out without its electric energy. It''s a story told to everyone, to scare them. Most of the North believes, that when the Crystal is destroyed, it will create a disaster. This is a lie, I''m sure of it".


    She then continued "This information is not know by many, as you may have figured. I know this, only because I live in this city for a long time, and I heard loads of stuff. This is one of the guarded secrets, about the Crystal. Supposedly, they also know how it operates and all that, but again, it''s guarded".


    I replied "This would exin, why they try to sell that lie to everyone. If someone really attacked, and destroyed that Crystal, the Voltars would be done for". She nodded, and said "Exactly". I asked "Why don''t you sell that information?". She shook her head, and said "It''s too dangerous. We can''t let Voltars die. Other hostile races, would be stronger. We need Voltars, so we would never disclose that information. I hope you will not do that either". I nodded, and said "Whatever was said here, stays between us". She nodded, and replied "I''m d you understand".


    She mentioned something, about other hostile races. I wondered about it myself, for a long time now. I decided to ask "What are those races, you spoke of?". She replied "I don''t know, how much you know, but there are four neutral races, that belong to one camp. These are Humans, which are the minority in the North. Us Lizards, which is a major race of the North. The Shades, who are another major race, and Voltars". I asked "What about Golems?".


    She shook her head, and replied "Golems are neutral to everything. They don''t take either side, and only care about their own territory". She then continued "There are a few other minor races, that are neutral to some of us. Avians for example, are now hostile towards Humans. The Yagaroths, are also hostile towards Humans, but not other races. On the other hand, Atols are neutral to anyone but Avians. They are a very minor race, and no one really bothers with them much".


    ''Well, they probably hate me now as well. Other Humans should be fine though'' I thought, and asked "What about the hostile races?". She nodded her head, and said "There are a few as well. For one, we have Mordars. That race is nasty. Shades mostly deal with them, as they are the closest to Mordars'' territory. Mordars look like the Dead Trees, but are much bigger, and can move of course. They hate Shades, but also kill Lizards, and Humans on sight".


    I asked "Do you know more about Mordars? As in, their abilities, and stuff like that?". She nodded her head, and said "Yes, we all pretty much know. Mordars are very tough, and can control the nature in a way. Not only can they grow bigger, they can extend their roots as well as branches, in order to attack. They can use both underground attacks, and surface attacks. The best way to deal with them, is with fire. That is why, they nevere close to Obsidian Mountains. They usually frequent the area around the Sludge Factory, which belongs to Shades". I found it very interesting, and said "Tell me more".

 Chapter 271

    Chapter 271


    She continued "Another hostile race, is called Vanauts. These things live at the top left region of the North. Just above the Mordars. These creatures look likerge rats, and are quite toxic. They specialise in poison, and store it within their bodies. Although hostile to our camp, they don''t usually appear around the Obsidian Mountains. They leave Shades alone as well. After all, Shades are immune to most poisons. Therefore, they target Voltars and Humans".


    ''This is quite interesting. A whole race, that specialises in poison. I wonder how they create their poisons?'' I thought. I wouldn''t be able to visit them easily, as they were hostile to Humans. It was a shame, since I might''ve been able, to learn something new about poison from them. Either way, the Lizard continued "There is a third race, that is also hostile to us. It lives in a city next to the Avians". I nodded my head, and said "I know where that city is. I was already warned, that they are hostile to us Humans".


    She nodded, and said "Right. The city Tremor, houses a few races to be honest. There are the Slethers. They look like half man, and half snake creatures. They are quite fast, because their bottom part of body, is that of a snake. Not only that, they can also climb very well, and use weapons just like we can. They are hostile to us, but don''t really search for any of our races to kill. Usually they stay in that city".


    I knew what she was talking about. It was a race, I already met in the Fnks Arena. I said "I already saw a representative of that race, in the Fnks Arena". She nodded her head, and said "Yes, it certainly was possible. Land of Sands is as I said, neutral to all races". She then continued "The other race, that shares the city with Slethers, is called Orcs. They look like big pigs, but more ugly". Iughed a bit, and said "I met those things as well. Owner of the Fnks Arena, is one of them".


    She nodded her head, and said "Yes. Not only that, Fnks Arena supports the whole Tremor. These pigs are really greedy though. They would sell their own mothers, to gain profit. They have warriors too, and these Orcs Warriors, usually fight with brutal strength. They also make use, of the Formations in their weapons. They are strong physically, but quite stupid as well. They only know how to make profit, not how to fight properly. That is why, they rely on brute strength, and Formations".


    I asked "Why are they hostiles to us?". She replied "I''m not sure, but they help out the other camp. They also despise Humans, for some reason. That is why, the Arena battles are usually worse for Humans. They don''t really start the conflict with any of us, but are really keen to support the other side. Therefore, we treat them as enemies". I nodded my head, and asked "Is there any other race, in that City Tremor?".


    She nodded, and replied "There is. It is the worst of them all. It''s also a race, Humans are currently at war with. That race, is called Furians". I shook my head, and said "I don''t think, I ever met a representative of that race". She replied "That is very good. They are very strong, and crazy. The most shocking thing for you, may be that, they look like Humans". She was right, I was shocked. She continued "Although they look like Humans, they have two basic differences. Their eyes arepletely ck, and their skin is on the grey side. As for their abilities? They can control Auras, just like you Humans. They can sometimes awaken elemental powers too. Usually, they posses fire power, but there were instances, were Furians possessed the power to affect the earth or the water. From what I know, these Furians are really rare".


    I said "You mentioned, that we are at war with them". She nodded her head, and answered "That is correct. Humans periodically sendrger units of men to the North, and attack Tremor. Please don''t think, that we don''t help you guys. Shades, as well as Lizards, help out as much as we can. After all, Furians are really crazy, and if they were allowed to grow, we would all be in trouble here". I wasn''t worried, whether other races helped Humans or not, but I started to wonder about something. After a while of thinking, I asked "Why would Humans, wage a war against Furians? After all, Humans are not from the North".


    She sighed, and replied "There are two reasons. Furians are just like Humans. That means, they can leave the North as they wish. Not only the North would be in danger, the South would be too, if Furians were allowed to grow. The other reason, is even worse. They are the allies of Eterians. I''m sure you know, who Eterians are". I nodded my head, and said "I had a chance to meet a few of them". She nodded her head, and continued "Eterians were the ones, who really started that war. Only when Humans and other races, ughtered out most of the Eterian poption, did the North became peaceful. Of course, Furians are still here, but only a few Eterians managed to survive".


    I asked "Where were the Eterians? Where did they live?". Although I asked this question, I already had a location in mind. She asked "Have you ever heard of the Land of Mirages?". I searched through my memory, and replied "Yes. I even saw it, when I visited Avians". She nodded her head, and said "That is exactly where it is then. This was the ce, where Eterians lived. Who know, there may be more of them still, but from what I know, Humans managed to destroy their cities, and killed a lot of them. That mist, was their final defence. They didn''t activate it in time, and the mist covered the ruins, not the cities".


    I asked "So, there may be more Eterians in there?". She nodded, and said "It certainly is a possibility. No one can check that though. We all tried sending people inside, none of them returned alive¡­ or dead. Nothing returned from that mist". I nodded my head, and said "I think, those were all the questions I had. You provided me with a lot of information. Thanks to you, I have a better idea of the North now".


    She shook her head, and said "It''s nothing. You are not only an ally in a bigger war, but a friend. Harlin would not give you that scale, if he didn''t think of you like that". I took out some money, and handed them to her. She refused, by saying "You don''t have to pay me. I wanted to help you". I replied "I know, that is why I want to help you out too", and gave her the money anyway. "Just take them, I will get much more, after the auction. It will be useful to you, I''m sure". She smiled, and said "You are rather different, than other Humans. If you have more questions,e back to me, and I will try to answer them".


    I replied "Sure", and bid her farewell. When she left, I thought about our small conversation. I learned a lot thanks to her, and a bigger picture, was painted in my mind about the North. I decided to get some rest too, because I had to be present for the auction, that would take ce the next day.

 Chapter 272

    Chapter 272


    When I woke up the next day, I went straight to the Vatras Auction Hall. Shak was already waiting for me, in front of the Auction Hall. When he saw me, he asked "Ready for some action?". I smiled, and replied "Yea. I hope, I will be able to make a good profit on my medicine". Heughed a bit too, then we entered the Auction Hall.


    One of the Voltar clerks came over to use, and said "We already ced your medicine on the auction. The auction will start very soon. Please follow me to your seats". We followed the Voltar, to the upper area of the Auction Hall, and entered one of the rooms. I could see the whole Auction area, from the room we were in. There were two seat provided, so I sat in one of them.


    Shak sat in the other seat, and said "I wonder, what type of price it will reach. It''s always exciting to see, others bid against the product. You can also bid, if you want to. If you see any item that you like, you can bid using this button". He then showed me a button, that could be used for bidding. I nodded my head, and replied "We will see. If I see something really interesting, I might bid on it". Shak justughed a bit, and then stayed quiet.


    We waited for a while, and the auction finally started. A Voltar dressed in an elegant robe, walked onto the central tform, and announced "Ladies and Gentlemen. Wee to our Vatras Auction Hall. Today''s auction, will consist of rare items only! The rules are the same. I will call out the starting price, and I will provide you with the minimum amount, that you have to bid. You can of course, increase the bids by higher amounts. I''ll leave it to your liking".


    When the announcer was done, two Voltar females walked in with an item. It was a sword. The announcer introduced the sword. "This sword is called Lone Reaper. It''s made from a mix of Azurite, and Flexium Ingots. This reaper is extremely tough, sharp and flexible. The master cksmith Tornad, was the one who created it. It has no Formations. The reaper was left nk on purpose, for the new owner to chose his, or her own Formations".


    He let the crowd get ustomed with the sword, then continued "The starting price, is 100 ck Hals, all bids must increase the price, by at least 5 ck Hals". He didn''t have to wait long, before one bid after the other increased the price. ''It seems, that this guy Tornad, is a well known cksmith. I''m not really interested though'' I thought. The final bid, that won the sword, equalled to 175 ck Hals. It probably was a good sword, but adding in the Formations, would cost the new owner too.


    The two female Voltars, brought in another item. This time, it was a set of clothes. They disyed the whole set, while the announcer introduced "This is a set of battle clothes, called Lapris Set. It bears the name, of the well known Formation Master Lapris. The set of clothes may look basic, but don''t be fooled! There are four Formations ced on the set. Each piece, has the remarkable Lapris Strength Formation. Not only does it increase the strength of the wearer, without any costs. The Formation allows the wearer, to use the Outburst technique, which doubles the wearer''s strength for a short while".


    He then continued "The set also contains the Lapris Endure Formation, Upgraded Agility Formation, and Upgraded Countering Formation. This set is a masterpiece, and a piece of art, from a Formation Master!". I could hear the crowd, was getting excited about that set. ''From what this guy said, it''s actually quite good. Especially since, ites from a Formation Master'' I thought. The piece of clothing, was not my style really, and I knew that it wouldn''t be cheap. I could buy something, but not that expensive.


    Shak, who was sitting next to me, said "It looks good, but Lapris is not that good of a Formation Master. Her products are good, but they ask usually too much for them. She is quite lofty about her skills though. If I were you, I wouldn''t waste money on it". I looked at him, andughed a bit. I then said "I wasn''t about to buy it. It looks good, but I also concluded, that it would probably cost me too much. Besides, it''s not my style".


    Shakughed a bit, and said "It seems we though the same way". The crowd seemed ready, so the announcer provided them with a price. "The starting price for this set, is 350 ck Hals. Each bid, has to be at least 20 ck Hals higher!". The bidding war started. Wealthy individuals, increased the price left and right. Soon, the price reached 590 ck Hals, and no other person bid against that.


    A few more items were auctioned, but none of them were of interest to me. Then, the seventh auction item, was my medicine. The announcer said "This here, is something we don''t see often. A High Grade medicine, made by an anonymous Master. We tested it, and it''s pure. Not only that, it''s very strong as well. It could easily heal deep wounds, and minor wounds, would not even leave a scar! The most extraordinary though, is the purity of the medicine. Other Medicine Masters, should learn from this! Although this is not the strongest medicine, our Auction Hall has ever seen. It can be easily ranked in the top 10. The medicine, is going to be actioned as a set. Each set, consists of five bottles. We have three such sets, for today''s auction. The biddings for each set, will be separate".


    The crowd discussed about the medicine, while the announcer gave them some time. After a while, the announcer said "We are going to start, from the first set. The starting price, is 120 ck Hals. Each bid, has to be no less than 5 ck Hals higher!". This time, the bidding war really erupted. The price soon reach 200 ck Hals, and finally settled down on 230 ck Hals for the first set. This was a lot more, than I could sell it for myself. People would mostly pay 20, maybe 25 ck Hals per bottle. Here, the price almost reached 50 ck Hals per bottle.


    The announcer, started the auction of the next set soon after. This time, the price reached even higher. Someone forked out 255 ck Hals to buy the set. When the announcer introduced thest set, he said "This is the final set we have. Who know, when we will gate a chance, to auction such good medicine again. Last chancedies and gentleman. Make sure to grab it!".


    The auction started, and the price quickly reached 230 ck Hals. But the crowd was still bidding. 240 ck Hals, 260 ck Hals, 285 ck Hals¡­. With the final bid, it was sold for 305 ck Hals. This amount to me, was extraordinary. ''They managed to get three times the amount, I would get from selling it. With this much money, I should be able to buy Crow''s freedom'' I thought.


    Shak pped his hands, and said "Great Auction! You made a huge profit my friend. Thest price, surpassed even my expectations. I didn''t think, it would reach 300 ck Hals. Well done". I smiled, and said "Yea, I''m amazed myself. This should be enough". I was too excited, to care about the rest of the auction. Besides, there were only a few items left, and they were quickly sold too.


    When the auction finished, a Voltare over to our room, and handed me the money. The Vatras Auction Hall, managed to sell my medicine for a whooping price of 790 ck Hals. Per our agreement, the Vatras Auction Hall, deduced their 10% provision, which was 79 ck Hals. I was still left with over 700 ck Hals, and adding in the money I already owned, I had over 1000 ck Hals in my pocket now.


    Shak asked "So, what do you n to do now? Celebrate? Buy something for yourself?". I shook my head, and said "Nah, I need to pay that back to someone. Anyway, You''ve been very helpful. Here take this". I took out two bottles of Arran Liquid, and passed them to him. Shak seemed surprised, and said "You don''t have to, I didn''t help you at all. You medicine is just that good". I replied "Just take it, it''s a gesture of good will from me".


    Shak smiled, and said "It seems, that people were really mistaken about you. I shall ept it then". What he said, just proved to me, that he knew who I was. He probably figured out, that I knew who he was as well. Making a friend, who was highly positioned in the Voltars'' society, was not a bad idea. I bid farewell to Shak, and left Boltier. I still had to travel for a while, in order to reach the Crow''s meeting ce.

 Chapter 273

    Chapter 273


    My journey, as well as my training resumed. I wanted topletely condense my Aura, as soon as it was possible. Besides my Aura training, I also practiced my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill. Although my control was already pretty good, I wanted to make sure, it was perfect. I had loads of spare time, since I didn''t grow any nts, nor did I study them. I decided to spend my time, on my Aura and Stringed Hidden Weapons skill only.


    Time passed. I walked through the Wilderness for a long time, before I reached Crow'' meeting ce. The area Crow designated on the map, was a very small forest of dead trees. ''He really likes these type of areas'' I thought. Crow was not there, the ck ribbon was not there either. I decided to wait for him. I didn''t know, how often he frequented that ce, but it didn''t matter much. I had stuff to do, while I waited.


    The time slowly passed. I condensed my Aura more an more. I was not very far away, from reaching my goal. One day, as I was condensing my Aura, something surprising happened. When the Domineering Aura was only centimetres away, from staying attached to my body, it suddenly stopped leaving my body. "Did I seed?", I asked myself.


    I didn''t feel anything unusual. I knew that my Aura, was now pretty much stuck to my body, but nothing seemed to change. "I didn''t think, that I would be able to seed, without breaking through my Inner Limits" I said to myself. I wanted to try it out, and check what type of effect, would my condensed Aura have. Unfortunately, there was nothing around, that my Aura could be tested on. ''The location that Crow chose, is really quiet. I''ve been her for a while, and I haven''t seen anything pass by'' I thought.


    Because I had nothing better to do, I decided to y around with my Aura a bit more. I released, and contracted my Aura for a while, and another idea popped into my head. ''What if, I try to condense it even more? So that the Aura stays within my body, instead of staying on my body'' I thought. I immediately tried to condense my Aura a bit further, trying to make it enter my skin. After a while, I felt that it was possible, and I could achieve that. The difficulty of achieving that though, was something else entirely. After all that time, I only managed to condense it to the point, where it would stay on my body. I reached my goal, but a new goal was born at the same time. ''Making the Aura enter my body, is at least ten times harder, than what I did till now'' I thought.


    ''I can feel, that this is possible. It will require a lot of work, but I may be able to achieve that. Even before, I break through my Inner Limits'' I thought. On the other hand, I managed to gain superb control of my daggers and strings. Although that was only the first step in that skill, it was already very powerful. ''If I simply threw my daggers, I wouldn''t be able to attack so quickly, and efficiently. This skill, is already monster of a skill. If I could only add an Aura, or make my daggers hidden somehow'' I thought


    Creating an Aura, was not something I could just do on a whim. Through so many years of my travels, I managed to awaken two Auras only. The first Aura, was the Domineering Aura. Iprehended it, when I was trying to break through, to my Outer Limits. The Second Aura, was the Bloodlust Aura. I only awakened that Aura, because of that Eterian woman. It was rather coincidental, and not nned at all. None of my Aura awakenings, were nned anyway.


    ''So far, I had four Auras. The two, that I awakened myself. The Unyielding Aura, which seems to be a part of me, and was always there. Thest Aura, is the Aura of the Dark Traveller. I don''t know, if I still have it though. I didn''t have any dreams, for a long time now'' I thought. I had no idea, whether Humans had a limit, of how many Auras they could possess. I also didn''t know, how to creating one. I tried many times already, but wishing for it, would not grant it.


    ''If not the Aura, then what else can I use, to make my daggers hidden?'' I asked myself. It was a question, that already baffled me for years. Avoid the Light, Be the Hidden Weapon¡­ I felt, that those things had something to do with Auras. I could avoid the light, if my Aura allowed it. I could be the hidden weapon, if my Aura allowed it. The problem was, awakening such Aura.


    I contemted on that for a long time, but to no avail. I only had one clue. Auras awakened due to some sort of events. Something must change in me, or happen to me, in order to awaken the Aura. If I just wished for it, it would not appear. ''In other words, some sort of conditions, have to be met. Otherwise, I can try for my whole life'' I thought. What those conditions were, I had no clue.


    I stayed in that small forest for long time, but Crow never appeared. I decided to just visit the city called Sedon, and find him myself. Sedon was not very far away, from the location of our meeting ce. After a few "days", I arrived near the city. To my surprise, the city pretty much stood on the Sludge Factory. ''Fortunately, there are some bridges, which connect the city with the Wilderness. Otherwise, I would not be able to enter'' I thought.


    The city was rather gloomy looking, with high walls made from bricks. It had arge castle like building, in the middle. I could see it, because it was elevated, as if standing on a hill. I could also see Shades, as well as other races walking to and fro the city. It was much more lively here, than it was at the meeting ce. I stepped onto the bridge, and walked towards the huge gate, that was at the other side.


    No one bothered me, as I walked on the bridge. Shades usually used the Sludge Factory, to walk on. Sludge Factory would not attack them, as they were from the same race. Other races, such as Lizards and Humans, had to use the bridge. I stepped through the gate, and looked around. The city looked rather normal. Wide streets, with buildings on both sides. Some side ays and road forks, were pretty much everywhere. Although the city looked gloomy, it was rather clean. There was no rubbishying on the streets, or anything like that.


    I walked on the main street, and checked the buildings out. Most of these buildings, were Shades'' homes. There were some shops as well. I checked out a few of them, but they had nothing of interest to me. They usually sold stuff, that I would throw away. I tried speaking with a few Shades, but they didn''t seem like the talkative sort. I was ignored most of the time. The weird thing was, when I asked about Crow, they would avoid me like gue. But when I asked about an inn or a bar, they would answer.


    ''Something''s wrong here'' I thought, and decided head towards the closest bar. After a while of walking, I managed to find the bar. When I walked inside, I noticed a Shade behind the counter. ''So, not a Lizard. There are probably other inns, and bars around the city. I''m sure, I would find one with a Lizard'' I thought. I was already there, therefore it wouldn''t hurt me to ask about Crow. The ce was deserted, not even a sleeping drunk was inside. I walked over to the counter, and asked "Can you tell me, where can I find Crow?". The Shade looked at me, and replied "I don''t recall the guy". I smelled a lie there. Mostly Shades would simply avoid me. He replied, and in a specific way. I asked again "Are you sure? We were supposed to meet at our meeting ce. Crow didn''t appear, so I came here". He replied again "I told you, I don''t recall that guy". I smiled, and asked "Then how do you know it''s a guy? If you want money, I will pay you".


    He was shocked, but I already knew, that he was aware who Crow was. He walked over to the doors, closed them, and said "Follow me". I was a bit confused, but followed after him nevertheless. We entered another room, while the Shade asked "Why do you want to find him?". I said "He is a friend of mine". He was again surprised, when I said that. After a while of deliberation, he asked "Can you tell me something about Crow?". I was a bit confused, and replied "I don''t get it. I just want to know where Crow is. Is this some sort of secret? I was supposed to meet with him, at the designated location. He didn''t appear for a long time, so I came here. Just what is going on?". The Shade asked "What is the location?". I replied "North east from here, in a small forest of dead trees. Tell me, what is going on". He still asked another question "How would you know, he would be there?".


    I was starting to get pissed. I replied "He has a ck ribbon. My patience is limited. I''m already aware, that you know where he is. Tell me, or I will make you say it". The Shade shook his hands and replied "Calm down. It won''t be necessary. I now know, I can trust you. I had to ask, to make sure". I said "Fine, where is he?". The Shade replied "Hiding. He is in deep shit for sure. I told him to leave that woman alone, but he had to mess with her. That idiot".


    I was still confused, and I still didn''t receive my answer. The Shade noticed, I was getting impatient, so he continued "I will give you a map of the severs. This is where he hides. It''s a good thing, that you asked me. Those that are after him, could even try to interrogate you". He then passed me a map. I checked it out, and it showed a whole system of severs, beneath the city. I asked "I know he is in the severs, but where?".


    The Shade shook his head, and said "I don''t know. You will have to find him by yourself. Make sure no one follows you. There are three entry points to the severs. I suggest this one", and he pointed at one of the entrances. The Shade then continued "This ce, is usually deserted. I will show you where it is". He took out another map, and showed me the location.


    I nodded my head, and asked "How long, has he been hiding?". The Shade replied "Not that long actually. He should still be there, if they didn''t find him of course". I nodded my head, gave him a ck Hal, and left. ''I don''t know what he stepped into exactly, but I have to find him'' I thought.

 Chapter 274

    Chapter 274


    I made my way towards the severs'' entry point, that the Shade pointed out to me. I had to search for a while, because the location was not that obvious. When I found it, I wasn''t happy. ''This guy... '' I thought. What he called "an entry point", was arge opening in the ground, covered by arge metal grate. The worst part was that, there was a constant stream of murky water, flowing below the entrance. ''No other option really. I have to go this way'' I thought, and lifted thetch. Fortunately, I didn''t have to lift the whole grate, as it was pretty much attached to the ground. There was an ess grate, that could be lifted. That was, what I lifted up, then jumped inside.


    What greeted me, was a stench hard to describe. What I jumped into, was arge pipe, which carried the murky water outside of the city. That was what I assumed, because the murky water had to go somewhere. ''I haven''t seen any pipes outside of the city. It either goes to the Sludge Factory, or somewhere even further'' I thought.


    The pipe was big enough, for me stand straight, with some room to spear over my head. The problem was not the space, but the smell. It stank like shit, and I had to walk in that thing as well. I walked against the flow, as this would take me to the inner sections of the severs. I checked the map, and I seemed to be in the right ce. I had to walk forwards, until I encountered some intersections. Some walkingter, the pipe became a tunnel, and I didn''t have to walk in that murky stuff anymore.


    I followed the map, and started exploring the severs. The severs were quite big, checking all the tunnels, passages and whatnot, would take me a few days. After searching for about a day, I managed to find something. ''There are signs of a fight here. This is bad, they must''ve found him already'' I thought, and rushed forwards, trying to follow the clues, that were left behind.


    I soon arrived in arge open area, which seemed to be used as a collection point, of all that shit flowing through the severs. Multiple pipes extended from the walls, and spewed out the murky water downwards. I couldn''t see any clues anymore, so I decided to check the whole ce out. I looked around, but didn''t find anything. No bodies, signs of fighting, nothing. I called out "Crow, are you here?".


    Besides the murky water, falling from the pipes, I heard silence. ''Where can he be? Did they take him away?'' I thought. All signs pointed to that location, but no one was there. I stood there for a while, and though about possible oues. Then I heard "Nex?". I immediately turned around, and looked up. There was a small hole in the wall, and the sound wasing from there.


    The crevice was about two metres away, from the ground. I jumped up, and entered the crevice. Inside, I saw Crow. I felt anger, when I saw him. "Who did this to you?", was the first thing I asked. Crow was in a very bad state. No only was he missing an arm, his body, was also cut in many ces. From the looks of it, he was barely able to survive. Crow asked "Nex, is that you?".


    I walked over, and checked his wounds. ''This is bad, he is very weak'' I thought. Not only was his left arm missing, his eyes¡­ I asked seriously "Crow, who did this to you?". Crow shook his head, and didn''t reply. I was angry, but I had to calm down. Crow needed help immediately. My medicine wouldn''t be of much help to him. Shades didn''t use medicine to heal themselves. Instead, I took out some meat, and said "Open your mouth". Crow did as I asked, and opened his mouth. I fed him some meat, and said "Eat, I will feed you more". Crow ate, while blood poured out from his eyes. I said "Can you open your eyes?".


    Crow shook his head, and replied weakly "They are gone¡­ They¡­ took out¡­ my eyes". My hand crushed the meat that I was holding, into smithereens. "Where is your arm?". Crow shook his head, and replied "I don''t know¡­ somewhere below". I fed him more meat, and jumped down. I needed to find his arm, and attach it back. I couldn''t use the medicine on Crow, but I could use poison. Shades could absorb the poison, while medicine was actually detrimental to them.


    I went around searching the debris, and finally found Crow''s missing arm. ''I will have to attach it, the sooner the better'' I thought, and returned to Crow. Crow seemed much better, even though his arm was missing, and he could no longer see. I said "I have your arm. I can attach it, but it will be painful. Before that, we need to get you healed up". Crow asked a bit stunned "You can attach arms?".


    I replied "Yes, I even attached back my own arm. It''s an old story, I will tell you in the future". Crow was currently in the form of a Shade, not attached to the corpse. I checked his arm, and noticed that Shades also had simr structure to that of human body. The veins, nerves and such, were in different ces, but the bone and muscles were pretty much the same. Of course they differed in colour. Shades had grey muscles, while their bones were pure white.


    I said "It will hurt a lot, so be prepared for that. I will make a poison, and try to numb the pain. Although, I don''t know if it will work on you". Crow nodded, but stayed quiet. I had loads of herbs with me, and although I couldn''t make the real Trantum Solution, I could use recement herbs again. ''Last time, I used winter season herbs. This time though, I have spring and summer season herbs. There shouldn''t be a problem'' I thought.


    I made the solution, as well as poison. The poison was created from Antal Shroom. It could paralyze me, so it should be able to paralyze a Shade too. The poison was an Extract as well, while the Trantum Solution was sticky, but didn''t seem to possess any side effects. At least, none that I could spot.


    It was also the first time, I was making an Extract from Antal Shrooms. After the whole process, I got about half a litre of Prime Antal Shroom Extract. I walked back to Crow, and asked "How do you feel?". Crow replied "A bit better, but...". I said "Don''t worry, I''m about to attach your arm. Take some meat, and eat it. You need to have loads of energy". Crow nodded his head, and took the meat. He slowly ate the meat, that I was giving to him. When he had enough, I prepared for the procedure. While I was doing that, I gave him the Extract, and said "Drink this. Because you are a Shade, poison doesn''t affect you as much. Drink all of it, I need you to be pretty much numb". Crow nodded his head, and drank the whole bottle of Prime Antal Shroom Extract.


    After a while, Crow eximed "This poison is very strong! My body will not be able to absorb a lot of it. I can tell, that it will work". I nodded, and said "Good, let''s wait for it to work. Then we can start". We waited for a bit, and the poison paralyzed him. Crow said "It works, I can''t move at all". I nodded my head, and started the procedure.


    I had to position the arm properly, then open the wound, and connect everything. I already had some experience, and because I wasn''t doing this on my own arm, it was much easier. Crow still felt pain, even though the poison paralyzed him. But the amount of pain he felt, was much smallerpared to doing it raw, without any poison. I connected his bone, nerves, muscles and veins. I then stitched it together a few times, and wrapped it in bandages with some sticks, to stiffen the arm.


    Crow fainted from the pain in the middle, but was still alive. When I looked at the fainted Crow, my fury resurfaced again. ''They will die for that'' I thought. I was barely able to keep myself sane, while waiting for Crow to wake up. When he finally did, I gave him more food, and asked "What about your eyes?".


    Crow shook his head, and said "They took them. Maybe they will even disy them, for other to fear them". I asked the question again "Who did this to you?". Crow replied "You can''t win with them. They will kill you, or cripple you too. You already helped me enough". I repeated myself, but more seriously this time. "Tell me, who did this to you?".


    Crow was a bit stunned, and said "I don''t want¡­". My Aura exploded, while I lost control of my anger. Crow shouted "Nex! Stop! You will end up like me!", but I no longer listened. My Aura became heavier and heavier, as my anger reached its apex. "Do you think, I''m that weak?! Some pieces of shit hunt you down, and you want me to leave them alone?!". Crow replied with difficulty "No, I¡­". I continued "Not even a fucking Shade King, will be able to escape my wrath! All will be beheaded!!".


    "BOOOM!"


    My Aura exploded, and then silence. The walls of the crevice, exploded outwards, and created even bigger hole. The murky water flowing from the pipes, became disturbed, and stopped flowing for a second. The time itself, froze for a second. Soon, the Aura disappeared, and the murky water started to flow again. My anger, and hate made me break through my Inner Limits. I only realised thatter, when Crow said "You¡­ You broke through?".


    I was still angry, but when I heard Crow''s question, I woke up from my anger, and looked around me. Then I noticed, the change taking ce inside my body. It felt, as if my body was reorganising itself. As if the organs, muscles, veins and whatnot, began rearranging themselves. I could feel boundless strength, and vitality coursing through my veins. Flowing towards all my organs, skin, muscles, bones. Then another "Boom!" sounded, but it came from inside my body. As if a wall, that prevented me from going further, just crumbled.


    My angerpletely disappeared. As if it was there, to fuel my breakthrough in the first ce. Crow sat there, unable toprehend what just happened. I said "It seems, that I did break through. I reached my Inner Limits". Crow didn''t know what to say, but I knew "Now, tell me. Who is responsible for all this? Don''t you think, I can take care of myself now?".


    Crow woke up from his thoughts, and smiled for the first time. He said "It seems, I found a really good friend. It was the leader of my group. Some of his men, tried to hunt me down, but were unable to. Teron came down here himself. This was the effect. I don''t want you to suffer for me, but it seems, I also don''t have a choice, and I need to rely on you". I replied "You did a lot for me too. You stayed a friend, even though Avians and other chased after me. I own you that much".


    Crow smiled again, and said "The group that I belonged to, is called Overseers. I don''t have anything on me, as they took all my stuff. Someone outside will tell you, where they are located. It will be faster, than me exining it". I nodded my head, and said "Stay here. I will be back soon, with a new pair of eyes for you". I then jumped down, and ran towards the exit.

 Chapter 275

    Chapter 275


    I ran through the severs, and instantly noticed the improvements in my strength. I was at least twice as fast, and my strength seemed to rise exponentially as well. If I were to face the opponents from the past, I could kill them with pure strength alone. People like Razor, were a joke to me now. My strength and speed, was not the only improvement. My body was tougher, much tougherpared to the past. ''It seems, that my body underwent great change'' I thought, and then recalled something.


    ''My Aura did a weird thing back then, did it also change?'' I asked myself, and immediately released my Aura. To my surprise, I could control it now. Not restrict it, but actually control it. I stopped for a moment, and eximed "I can control my Aura! I can now attach it to objects, and even send it further away!". This opened up so many possibilities, I was shocked at the changes that happened.


    I resumed running, and headed straight to the exit. I arrived there very quickly. Not only was my speed boosted by a lot, I also knew the tunnels now, and didn''t have to use a map to return. I jumped out of the severs, not caring about the grate blocking my way "BOOM!". The grate broke out from the ground, and flew a couple of metres away.


    I ran straight back to the Shade, who told me where Crow was. When I arrived, the bar was as empty, as it was before. The Shade saw me enter his bar, and asked "Did you find him?". I didn''t answer his question. Instead, I asked my own question "Overseers, where are they located?". He was a bit taken aback, and said "It''s arge building further up the road, why?". I said "Show me on the map". He did as I asked, and showed me the location.


    I didn''t waste any more time, and simply walked towards the location. It wasn''t that far away, just a few minutes of walking away. When I arrived at the location, I saw that it was arge building indeed. It was built from grey bricks, with windows in an oval shape. I walked inside, and a Shade stopped me. He asked "Why are...", but before he could finish, I punched out, and obliterated his head.


    The others noticed that, and quickly jumped at me. I killed them all, without any remorse. From a room in front of me, another Shade walked out, and asked "What''s themotion guys?", then he saw what happened. I used my speed, and appeared in front of him. I grabbed him by his neck, and lifted him up. As he struggled in my grip, I asked "Where is your leader Teron?". He replied "I¡­ don''t¡­" before he could finish, I crushed his neck. "Then you are useless" I said, and threw the corpse onto the floor.


    I walked through the door, that the Shade I just killed, came from. Inside, I saw a total of five Shades. I released my Aura, and all of them froze in ce. I walked over to the first Shade, and asked "Where is your leader Teron?". The Shade repeated the same bullshit, as the first one. "Boom!", I punched his head, and killed him instantly. The others now knew, I wasn''t joking. I walked over to a female Shade, and asked again "Where is Teron?". She cried, and replied "Please¡­ don''t kill...". "Boom!". I killed her as well.


    I was pissed, before I even arrived at their hideout. My rage was bing stronger, the more they tried to talk bullshit to me. I walked over to the third Shade, but before I could ask the question, he said "He¡­ He is... down there! Just... let us... live!". "Boom". I killed him, and walked over to the fourth Shade "Is what he said true?". The Shade was already mumbling "monster" underneath his breath. I didn''t waste time, and killed him as well.


    Thest Shade managed to squeeze out "I''m not... one of... Teron''s men!... He is not¡­. downstairs¡­ Use... the other¡­ doors¡­ That''s¡­ where Teron is!". I stopped releasing my Aura, and left the room. I then went through another doors, that were on the left. Behind that door was a staircase, which led upstairs. I took the stairs, and arrived at the second floor. More Shades were sitting there, and enjoyed themselves. They probably didn''t hear anything, due to the thick walls.


    When one of the Shades saw me, he asked "Who let you in here?". I didn''t care about his question, and simply killed all but one of them in that room. As I grabbed his neck, I heard footsteps. The sound wasing from upstairs. I crushed his neck, and headed for the stairs. Two Shades ran over, and blocked my entrance to the staircase. I punched out quickly, and destroyed their heads as well.


    ''This is where that Leader should be'' I thought, as I headed upstairs. The third floor, was a one big room. At the end of it, was a desk. Behind that desk was a Shade, but he looked different. He had no corpse attached, but waspletely ck, with some sort of hazy energying out of his body. He was also bigger than normal Shades. The Shade smiled, and asked "What can I do for you?". I bent my legs a bit, and then released all my strength. "BOOOOM!", my eleration was so great, that even the building shook a bit. As I appeared next to his smiling face, I said "You can die for me". "BOOOM!".


    "Yea, I don''t think I can do that". He managed to avoid my attack. When I turned around, he was still smiling, but now stood at the opposite end of the room. I didn''t waste time, and charged at him again. He evaded my attacks, and said "You are strong indeed, but it seems you just broke through. I still wonder, why would you attack me? After all, we never met".


    I didn''t reply to his question, and simply attacked. He said "This is getting boring", and released his skill. It was something, I never saw before. The whole ce became dark, while his voice appeared from everywhere. "Booom!", something hit me from behind. I flew back, and smashed into the opposite wall. Teron said "You are quite weak, even for someone who Broke through their Inner Limits". I pushed myself off of the wall, andughed a bit. When I turned towards the voice, I replied "Am I?".


    I focused a bit, and my Darkness Perception awakened. I could now see everything again. Teron was fast. He created an illusion, from his pure speed alone. He was running around me, and appeared in different ces as he spoke. This created an effect, where his voice would appear from everywhere. As he was about to attack my back again, I thrust my elbow backwards.


    "Booom!"


    Teron flew backwards, and mmed into the wall. "Cough!... Impossible!". I used my Natural Path skill, and disappeared from his view. When I appeared next to him, I punched out again. He managed to evade that, but what he was unaware of, were my hidden weapons. "Screech!" "Booom!". I threw a dozen daggers at him, and all of them nailed him to the opposite wall. "UGH!... What type of monster are you! What the hell do you want from me!". I appeared next to him, and said "You have very beautiful eyes. I know someone, who might find use for them". I extended both my hands, and with a quick movement, dug out his eyes.


    "ARGGGHHHH! AGHHHH!"


    "This is not the end. I will take both your arms as well". I grabbed him by his arms, and ced my foot on his chest. "RIIIP!". I ripped off both of his arms. He screamed from the pain, but for some reason didn''t faint. "Monster, you are a monster!". I extended my right hand, and said "Call me whatever you like. This is the end of your rule". I then ced my right hand on his face, and released my ice power. "What is this¡­ what are you doing!". He started freezing slowly, and then "Shing!". He froze to death. Before he froze though, I took everything that was on him, and retrieved my daggers, which nailed him to the wall. As he fell to the floor frozen, I used my Aura, and the ice broke into small pieces.


    This was the end. The Overseers were no more. Shades would now hate me, but I didn''t care. ''I have one more guy to take care of'' I thought, as I left the building. There were loads of Shades around, watching what happened. When they saw me exit, they all took a step back, and no one dared to stop me. I walked past the onlookers, and left.

 Chapter 276

    Chapter 276


    I went back to the severs, and returned to Crow''s location. No one followed me, the Shades who witnessed the scene, were to scared to do that. When I returned, Crow asked "Nex? You are alive?". I smiled, and replied "Of course I''m. I also have new eyes for you. The problem is, I don''t know how to transnt eyes. I will have to experiment with that, before I can do it on you". Crow was shocked, he said "You killed Teron? You actually killed him?". I replied "Yes. Overseers are no more. He is gone, and with him, goes his rule. You are now free to do whatever you like. No one knows, that I was helping you¡­ except one guy".


    I was about to go and take care of that, but Crow stopped me. He said "Wait! He can be trusted. He didn''t sell me out, they found me by themselves. He won''t tell anyone, that you helped me. He hated Teron as well, so he will be happy that he is gone". I nodded my head, and said "Then that is fine. You are free, but we need to get you out of here. I also need to figure out how to rece your eyes. This may take a while, but I should be able to do it".


    Crow said "You did so much for me¡­ you even became an enemy of Shades. They will chase you now. Teron was highly positioned, and others with his skill level, will go after you, if they find you of course". Iughed, and said "This is not the first time, someone is after me". Crow though for a while, and said "I can''t really live in the city now. I can''t see, and my arm although attached back, will not function for a long time¡­ Can¡­ can I go with you?". I replied "Sure. We will go to Obsidian Mountains, and I will leave you there. You will be able to get back to health, while I try to find a way to return your sight".


    Crow nodded his head, then asked "How do we escape? The problem is, the city may be blocked now. They will search for you, that is certain". I thought about it, and asked "Where do these pipes go?". Crow seemed confused, so I exined "I want to know, where all this murky water is going. Is it flowing straight into the Sludge Factory, or somece else?".


    Crow realized what I meant, and replied "The pipes go straight to the Sludge Factory. At least, that is what the map says. I never checked, besides no Shade knows, what is below the surface of the Sludge Factory. Maybe those who built the severs knew, but it was very, very long time ago". I took out a map, and checked the possible exits. I soon found something, that we could use.


    "I found a ce, but it''s a bit tight. It''s right next to the eastern wall. As far as I remember the map of the city, this ce is rather deserted. We can go through there". Crow nodded his head, and stood up. I walked over, and grabbed him. Crow smiled, and said "Thanks". I walked with Crow, towards the new exit that I found. It didn''t take that long, as I pretty much carried Crow with me.


    When we arrived, I could see a small grate above me. "We are here. Wait a minute, I will remove the grate, and have a look". Crow nodded, and sat down. I jumped up, and grabbed the grate. I then ced my legs onto the ceiling, and pulled down. The grate broke off rather easily, while Inded below. I jumped up again, and looked around.


    There was no one currently there. I jumped down, and said "Wait here, I will check out the surroundings, and our way out. I will be back soon". I then jumped up again, and exited the severs. The exit was a bit tight though. I didn''t have to squeeze past, but didn''t have much space either.


    I quickly used the shadows, and hid from view. The ce was deserted, and no one was there. I checked the whole area, and although there were a few houses, no Shades walked around. ''Good, now I just have to figure out how to exit'' I thought. Scaling the wall, was not possible. It was too tall, and even if I could do it myself, Crow couldn''t.


    ''I can just force my way out though'' I thought, but then I noticed something. ''Hmmm?''. There was a way to escape unnoticed, but we wouldnd straight into the Sludge Factory. ''I don''t think that the Sludge Factory, will be able to do something to me at this stage. I''m very fast now, and much stronger'' I thought.


    The possible way out, was to use a specific route. The route involved jumping from one roof to the other that was taller, and building my speed. When I would reach the tallest building next to the wall, I would have to jump. It was possible for me to achieve that, although I didn''t know if I could do it with Crow as well. ''Let''s see then'' I thought, and returned to the severs. Crow sat on the ground silently. I said "I have a way out. We should be able to leave, without anyone noticing us". Crow nodded his head, and said "Alright, let''s go then".


    I helped Crow out of the severs, and then said "I will carry you, as the route I chose, will be quite bumpy". Crow nodded his head, and said "Sure". I grabbed him, and jumped onto the first roof. I travelled using the roofs, at my max speed, and then with all my strength, I jumped up "BOOOM!". The building''s roof copsed, as I flew upwards.


    I was barely able to make that jump. I had to jump about 40 metres, while carrying all my stuff and Crow. I said "Now the hard part. Jumping down to the Sludge Factory". Crow eximed "Are you serious?! This cannot be your n!". I smiled, and replied "It is indeed!", and jumped down. The distance between me, and the Sludge Factory, was around 60 metres. I hoped that Sludge Factory was soft.


    It was soft indeed. When Inded, I sunk a couple of metres below the surface, and could see the eyes of Sludge Factory, looking at me. For some reason though, the Factory did nothing. I sprung back to the surface, and ran atop the Sludge Factory, towards the Obsidian Mountains. Crow asked "We are alive?". Iughed loudly, and said "Yea, and the Sludge Factory doesn''t even attack us, or at least me. You wouldn''t be attacked anyway".


    Crow said "That is weird. Is it perhaps because you are helping me?" I replied "Maybe, I don''t know. Whatever the reason, we are out, and on our way to Obsidian Mountains". Crow nodded his head, and stayed quiet. With my speed and strength, we would get there in a few days, not weeks. I soon left the Sludge Factory, and the Wilderness greeted me again. ''I wonder how Lazar and Harlin are doing?'' I thought, as I ran towards my destination.

 Chapter 277

    Chapter 277


    After a few "days" of running, we finally arrived at the Obsidian Mountains. I headed straight towards Olrad, and entered the small inactive volcano. Inside, I saw some Lizards, standing at the entrance to the vige. When they saw a Human carrying a Shade, they were quite surprised, but didn''t stop me. I entered Olrad, and headed towards Lazar''s house.


    ''I don''t know if Lazar is at home, but his daughter should be'' I thought, and approached his house. When I knocked, I heard a female Lizard asking "Who is it?". I was a bit confused, as they voice seemed to belong to Suly, but it was a bit different. I asked "Suly? Is that you?". The doors opened, and young Lizard greeted me. She said "Oh Nex, it is you!". The Suly I remembered was much smaller, and younger. I asked "How long has it been since Ist saw you? You were so small".


    She smiled, and said "We can talk inside,e in". I entered the house together with Crow. Suly asked "Who is that?". I replied "That is my friend Crow. He is a bit battered, so I will just let him sit". She nodded her head, and provided a chair for Crow. I ced Crow down and said "These are friends of mine too. You will be alright here". Crow nodded his head, and replied "Thanks".


    Suly asked "Where have you been all that time? Father and Harlin were quite worried about you". I smiled, and said "I''ve been busy. Loads of things happened during that time. You grew up a lot". Suly nodded and said "Of course. I also left the vige many times already. Your idea worked very well. There is no rain in the North, so I could walk like this for days". I nodded my head, and asked "Where is Lazar?".


    She was no longer sad, when I mentioned her father. This was a good sign, it meant that her rtionship with Lazar, was very good. She replied "Father is at work. He should be back in a while. More importantly, you''ve changed a lot. I wouldn''t be able to recognise you, if not for your voice". Iughed a bit, and said "It seems we all changed a bit. So, what are you up to these days?". Suly replied "It''s quite boring actually. I do go out sometimes and such, but I would like to learn new stuff. It''s just that, I can''t leave for long, father would be too worried".


    I thought about something for a while, and said "I may have something for you to do, in Olrad". She seemed surprised, and asked "What is it?". I asked "Do you know what Formations are?". She nodded her head, and said "I kind of know. It''s some sort of spell or something like that, which can be ced on items. This can bring a lot of benefits to the user of such items. Why do you ask about that?". I replied with a smile "I know someone here, who might be able to teach you about Formations". She became shocked, and asked "Do you really know someone, or are you pulling my leg?".


    I replied "Let''s go see her now. Put your makeup on, and we will go". She nodded her head, and hurriedly went to her room. After a while, Suly came out looking like a normal Lizard. I said "Wow, you got better at it. I mean, I would have a hard time, guessing that you are a Grey Lizard". She smiled a bit, and asked "Do you think, this will be alright? To cover up my grey scales, and tell your friend a lie?". I smiled, and replied "You will see for yourself". I then walked over to Crow, and said "Stay here, I will be back soon. In case Lazares back, I will give you this". I passed him the scale that Harlin gave to me. I then continued "Show this to him, and tell him you know me. Tell him also that I will be back shortly". Crow nodded his head, and replied "Alright. I will be fine here".


    I turned towards Suly, and said "Alright, let''s go". The person I wanted to visit, was the Grey Lizard called Alicia. She was a Formation Master, and could teach Suly a thing or two about Formations. Suly was also a Grey Lizard, so she would be even more inclined that way. We walked over to the seemingly abandoned house, and I knocked in a rhythmic manner, copying Harlin''s knocking from the past.


    To my surprise, the doors didn''t open, so I tried again. ''Hmm, I don''t believe she is not home'' I thought, while Suly asked "Are you sure someone lives here?". I said "Yes", then turned towards the doors, and said "Open, or I will open them myself". A few secondster, I heard a creek, and the doors opened. Suly was surprised, while I said "Let''s go in". We entered the dark room, but it wasn''t a problem for me anymore. I could use my Darkness Perception at will, without waiting a few seconds to activate it.


    I didn''t even have to activate it, as I knew where to go. I grabbed Suly''s hand, and said "I will guide you". We went downstairs, and entered the brightly lit room. Alicia sat at her table, waiting. When we appeared, she asked "Why have youe here again? I never revealed your information". I smiled, and looked at Suly. Suly was shocked. She walked closer to the Grey Lizard, and asked "You are also grey?". Alicia seemed confused, so I exined "This is Lazar''s daughter. She is a Grey Lizard too".


    Alicia realized what I meant, and said "Oh, so that is why she said that. I still don''t understand why does that matter?". I replied "I want you to teach her about Formations". She immediately shook her head, and said "I don''t have time. You can leave". I said "I wasn''t asking you to do it. You own me one. Besides, you are a Grey Lizard as well, why not pass your legacy onto the next generation". Alicia thought about it for a while, and replied "Do you even know, how hard it is to learn Formations?". I decided to reply with a question myself "Do you know, how hard it was for me to break through my Inner Limits? I have ten more examples of "Do you know". So don''t jump out with that kind of crap in front of me. I was just a green viger in the past, yet I managed to learn stuff, and develop".


    Suly butted in, and said "I want to learn! Sitting at home all day, talking to no one and having nothing to do, is boring. Even if I leave sometimes, it''s still boring. I want to learn something useful. I want to do something interesting!". Alicia sighted, and replied "Child, Formations are really difficult. You will have to spend most of your life, studying them. For us Grey Lizards, it''s a waste of time anyway, we were banished after all¡­ I¡­".


    Suly became angry, and said "So what if I''m grey? Does that mean, I can only wait to die? Father loves me, even though I''m grey. Nex became my friend, even though I''m grey. Who said, I can''t aplish anything in life? You are wrong. I don''t want to learn from someone like you!". She turned around, and walked towards the exit.


    Iughed, and said "Well, it seems that the student, is wiser than the master. Forget that I asked then, you can enjoy whatever you were doing in peace. We are leaving". I turned around, and walked up the stairs as well. I caught up to Suly, and asked a probing question "You are alright with it?". Suly nodded her head, and said "Learning from someone like her, is no good. She believes that a Grey Lizard is worthless, but I don''t agree. Father loves me, and you became my friend. I realized something today. It''s not about being Grey, Red or ck. How you look, doesn''t change who you are. I choose not to sit in the house, for the rest of my life. I will find my own path, instead of sitting on my ass,menting about how the world doesn''t ept me".


    I smiled, and replied "Well said Suly. Let''s go, maybe your father is back". Suly nodded her head, and followed me in the dark room. I grabbed the doors, but they didn''t open. I smiled and though ''So, she changed her mind after all''. I heard footsteps behind me, and then Alicia''s voice saying "So, you are called Suly? My name is Alicia. You were right, I''m perhaps not the best person to teach you something¡­ But I want to teach you about the Formations. Do you still wish to learn from me?". Suly replied "No, I made..", but before she could finish, I interjected "ept it".


    Suly turned towards me, and was about to say something. I ced my hand on her head, and said "ept it. She is a Formation Master, and probably a good one. You will not be able to find such a master in 100 years. Besides, she lives in Olrad, and Lazar will not be too worried about you".


    Suly thought about it, and said "I will study the Formations then". I could see a smile on Alicia''s face, but it quickly disappeared. Alicia replied "Very well. I will teach you everything I can. I already warned you, that Formations are very hard. Be prepared to spend many hours studying, and working on your Formations. If you arezy, you will never aplish anything". Suly nodded her head, and said "I''m notzy. I will do it!".


    I said to Alicia "She can stay with you, for now. I will tell Lazar about it. Do let her go home, once in a while though, I don''t want Lazar to die from worry". She nodded her head, and said "If she does well, she will get some time off". I replied "I''m fine with that", then said "Suly. Study well, and prove the world wrong. I will see youter". Suly nodded her head, and replied "Thank you". I smiled, and left the house.

 Chapter 278

    Chapter 278


    I returned to Lazar''s house. Lazar was not there yet, therefore I decided to just wait there, instead of going to the Upper Olrad. I asked Crow "How do you feel?". Crow nodded his head, and replied "I''m notining. If not for you, I would be dead anyway, so at least I''m still alive". I smiled, and said "Don''t worry, I will find a way to rece your eyes". Although I said that, I wasn''t sure whether it was possible. The Art of Medicine, was able to cure loads of things, but it was not invincible. There could be some things, that just couldn''t be reced or healed.


    I sat down in one of the chairs, while Crow asked "Where is that other friend of yours? She didn''t return?". I replied "She stayed at her new master''s ce. By the way Crow, tell me, how did you get into such a mess?". Crow replied "I told you, that I liked someone right?". I replied "Yes". Crow continued "Well, turns out she is a bitch. When Teron found out, that I was meeting her, he warned me to just leave her alone. I was stubborn though. At first, I thought that Teron was jealous. Jealous that we talked with each other, and enjoyed our ownpanies. It was all a scam in the end. It turns out, she belonged to another prominent group, and wanted to get some information out of me. Unfortunately for me, I did provide some information to her. Teron was not happy with me, and tried to punish me. I ran away, and like an idiot, tried to get help from Irin. That is her name by the way. She seemed concerned at first, but that was a scam again. She wanted more information from me. I was angry at Teron, who wanted to punish me for a small leak. I was ignorant, and didn''t think of it as something major. So I provided her, with whatever I knew about Overseers. That''s what she was after".


    After a short pause, he continued "As you may imagine, when Teron learned about that, he was angry. I tried to get Irin''s help, but she turned cold towards me. My purpose was already fulfilled, she no longer wanted to even associate with me. I knew I messed up, therefore I decided to take the punishment". I was a bit confused at this point, and asked "Then, why were you in severs? If you chose to take the punishment".


    Crow replied "Teron was very angry with me, but because I''ve been a member of Overseers for a very long time, and I even broke through my Half Step, he gave me a second chance. I was confined in the basement, as my punishment. This was all a scam again. He had another purpose for me. I was supposed to be used, as a some sort of scapegoat. This would result in my death. I only learned about it, thanks to a friend who visited the confinement room".


    I asked "So you decided to get away?". Crow nodded his head, and said "Yes. I could try to run away, or die. I chose to try and run away. Unfortunately, I wasn''t able to leave the city, and had to hide in the severs. They still took a while to find me, and they only managed that, thanks to Teron. Because the event that I was supposed to take responsibility for passed, Teron ripped my arm off, as well as removed my eyes. He left me half dying, because he knew, I wouldn''t be able to get out of the severs, or find anything to eat. I would die a slow and painful death".


    Crow then continued "Fortunately, you found me rather quickly. Otherwise, you would only collect my dead body". I nodded my head, and said "Well, Teron is no longer around. What is your n about that Irin woman?". Crow became angry, and said "If I ever get my eyes back, I will kill her with my own hands. That bitch used me twice, and to think I saw something in her". I was a bit confused, and asked "But a long time passed, since west met. Why didn''t she use you sooner?". Crow shook his head, and replied "Because I was still a low ranking member. Not too long ago, my ranking improved, and that is when she started showing "affection" towards me. Her goal is obvious to me now, but although I had eyes, I was just as blind as I''m now". I thought about something, and said "I have ns for you Crow, but before that, we need to rece your eyes". Crows asked "What ns?". I smiled, and replied "In due time my friend, in due time".


    We waited a bit longer, and Lazar finally showed up. Lazar changed as well. He now had a small goatee on his chin, and he seemed more mature. When Lazar walked in, he was surprised to say the least. Not only was a Human and a Shade sitting in his living room, his daughter was not around. Before he got any ideas, I said "It''s me". Lazar finally realised who I was, and asked "Nex? You''ve changed a lot". He then pointed at Crow, and asked "This is?".


    I replied "My friend Crow. I need you to find him a safe ce to live. Before you ask, he can''t see, and his arm has just been attached back. That is why, I need a ce for him to stay". Lazar thought about it for a while, and said "He could stay here, but there isn''t much space. The house is only big enough for Suly and me really". I smiled, and said "Then he will stay here. Suly will being home less often now".


    Lazar looked at me, and asked "What did you do again?". Iughed, and said "Don''t worry so much. She is still in Olrad, I just found her a master, to teach her some stuff". Lazar was confused, and asked "What stuff?". I smiled, and replied "Formations". He was quite shocked, when he heard that. Lazar asked "Don''t tell me, you actually convinced that Alicia, to take her in?". I replied "Actually, it was Suly who convinced her". Lazar smiled, and said "Well damn me. My daughter is really going to learn about Formations... ".


    I said "Therefore, you will live alone for most of the time. Crow will keep youpany. He is not so bad, as long as you feed him". Crow butted in "I''m not a pet you know!". Lazar smiled, and said "Sure, he can stay. He is your friend after all, so he is my friend too". I nodded my head, and took out some money. I gave Lazar a small bag that contained 100 ck Hals, and said "This is for his food, and whatever you like". Lazar shook his head, and said "I don''t need money. Keep it, it will be useful to you, I''m sure". He threw the small bag back to me. I walked over, and said "Take it, I have loads more".


    Lazarughed, and said "I can afford couple of ck Hals you know?". I handed him the small bag again, and said "Take it, and check if it''s enough". Lazar mumbled something under his nose, then opened the bag. His expression was priceless, when he saw the amount. He eximed "This is at least 80 ck Hals. Who did you rob to have that much? You also said you have much more. Are you that wealthy now, or something?". I smiled, and replied "More or less. Take it, Crow likes to eat a lot. Besides, buy something for yourself as well".


    He was about to give the bag back, but I released my Aura, and said "Don''t even dare, handing that back to me". Lazar was shocked, and quickly hid the bag in his clothes. When he did that, I retracted my Aura. Crowmented "You are just showing off". I smiled, but didn''t say anything. Lazar was stunned, and asked "You are very strong now. Well, I guess loads of time passed already, and you didn''t just sit on your ass".


    Iughed a bit, and said "I''m off then. I just came by to leave Crow here. I have some stuff to take care of". Lazar asked "You are not going to visit Harlin?". I replied "I will be back here in a while, we can meet then". Lazar nodded his head, and said "Alright". I then recalled something, and said "Oh right! I have a gift for you. Actually, a few of them". Lazar seemed confused, and asked "What gifts?". I took out the extracted Serelis, and handed it to him.


    Lazar asked "What is this thing?". I said "This is Serelis. It has an effect to calm one''s mind. Drink it, you are always so stressed, this will calm your mind". Lazar mumbled "I don''t really need that though¡­". I then asked "What stage are you at? Did you break through your Half Step?". Lazar shook his head, and said "No, I''m close though". I said "Then take this", and I took out some of the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract.


    Lazar again asked "What is that exactly?". I replied "This will help you purify your blood. The amount may look tiny, but believe me, when you take it, you will see the results for yourself". Lazar seemed surprised, and asked "Is this real? I mean such thing is quite expensive, and it doesn''t help as much as we would like". I replied "It''s many times stronger, than what is avable on the market. Just this 10 milliliters, will purify your blood by a lot. Just beware, the process is quite painful".


    Lazar nodded, and asked "This is very useful. Where did you get it from?". I replied "I made it myself". I then turned towards Crow, and said "You already took one, but it was different. When you are healed up, I will give you some as well. Maybe you will be able to break through, to your Inner Limits". Crow didn''t seem happy about it, and said "I don''t think, I want to go through the pain again".


    I turned towards Lazar, and gave him some medicine too. "This is some of my medicine. Just have it with you. Also, give this and this to Harlin, from me". I handed him another 15 milliliters of Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, and two bottles of medicine. Lazar asked a bit annoyed "Why does Harlin get more?". I smiled, and said "Do you want to die? Then take the 15 milliliters. Harlin broke through his Half Step, right?". Lazar nodded his head "That is why, he can take more". Lazar nodded his head, and said "Alright, I will pass all that to him". I nodded, and said "Take good care of Crow. I will be back in a while. It should be a lot sooner, than previously". Lazar nodded his head, while I said farewell to Crow, and left Olrad.

 Chapter 279

    Chapter 279


    I walked slowly, towards my new destination. ''It''s time to meet Avians, and Yagaroths'' I thought. I nned to pay back Avians, for the betrayal. I also nned to pay back Yagaroths. My n was very simple, I would blow the whole ce up. I didn''t want to bother with fighting anymore, I would simply ignite the whole deposit of Yellow Dust, that was underneath the Vulture Cliffs.


    As I walked through the Wilderness, I yed around with my Domineering Aura. I didn''t really have much time to check its new effects before, and it was a good time to do just that. I could control the Aura however I liked. I tried attaching it to my daggers, and the effects were staggering. ''Even though the Domineering Aura, is more of a supporting type, I can now use it to attack as well'' I thought.


    When I threw my dagger at a dead tree, with my Aura attached, the dagger just went through it at first. What happened next, stunned me a bit. The tree stood there with a gaping hole at first, and my Aura didn''t seem to produce any effects, but I was wrong. The tree separated into many pieces, and all of them fell to the ground. "This is amazing!" I eximed loudly. I would have never guessed that my Aura could possess such an effect. I also found out, that I couldn''t use my Aura to pick things up. If I could, I wouldn''t even have to use strings, for my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill.


    ''It''s unfortunate that I can''t pick objects up with it, but the difference in power is still obvious. My Aura infused daggers, can now cause much more damage'' I thought. I didn''t practice with my Aura anymore, and instead focused on my Art of Stealth. I wanted to achieve the Avoid the Light part of the Art. ''It''s been a long time, since I learned about the Art of Stealth. I think that Aura may be the way to go, but how am I supposed to create an Aura'' I thought.


    I was lost in my thoughts, and didn''t really pay attention to my surroundings, when I heard "Don''t I know you?". "Huh?" I asked myself. When I looked into the distance, I saw a group of Humans walking towards me. "Oh, it''s you guys. It''s been a while, I guess" I said, and smiled. The group that I encountered, was precisely the group that Fox belonged to. They walked over, and their leader Lares said "So it was you after all. You''ve changed quite a bit". I smiled, and said "Well, you seem more refined yourself".


    Fox walked over as well, and said "It''s been a while". I nodded, and said "Yep. How have you been?". She nodded her head, and replied "North was interesting. I learned a lot. By the way, thanks for the medicine back them. It was really good". I smiled, and asked "So you figured out, it was me?". The archer named Alrika butted in, and said "You could''ve been more gentle back then! You have no idea how much it hurt". I turned towards her, and said "I gave you some of that medicine too. Don''tin, the sword had to be extracted anyway". She was angry, and mumbled "Bastard".


    Lares said "You created a lot of mess, after that Arena battle". I replied "They got what they deserved. Are you here to hunt me down too?". He shook his head, and said "We never nned to. Golems can chase you, if they so wish. I don''t want to get involved in those things". ''It''s a good choice. If he tried to attack me, he would die'' I thought.


    I asked "Are you guys leaving the North?". Lares nodded, and said "Pretty much. We stayed for a long time anyway. It''s time to return". I thought about it, and said "Yea, it''s been a long time". I turned towards Fox, and asked "How are your skills? Made any progress?". She nodded her head, and replied "Yes. I learned to use that new dagger you gave me. It really is excellent. The materials used, are also very good. I still wonder, how you managed to create such dagger?". I smiled, and said "I have good imagination".


    Lares then said "Alright, it''s time for us to go. Maybe we can have another bout in the future. I improved a lot, I hope you did as well". I replied "Sure, next time we can have a spar". They said farewell, and walked towards the bordering line, that separated the South, from the North. All of them, but Fox.


    Lares turned around, and asked "You are noting?". She shook her head, and said "I want to talk with him a bit more. I will catch up to you guyster. Or we can meet back in Ortava". Lares looked at her, and asked "Are you sure?". She nodded, and said "In case I don''t catch up to you, just tell my father, I will be backter". Lares nodded, and said "Alright, but be careful". I wasn''t sure why Fox wanted to stay, but Lares shouldn''t be worried about her safety, when I was around. They soon left, while I walked over to a dead tree and sat down.


    I took out all the stuff needed to make fire, and created one. I asked "Want something to eat?". Fox shook her head, and said "I''m fine". I didn''t mind, and roasted some meat for myself. She asked "What happened to your arm?". I smiled, and replied "It''s a long story. You should already know, that I have "special" powers, which can freeze my opponent". She nodded, and said "Yes. Lares experienced them himself¡­ You are a Human right?".


    I smiled, and replied "Of course I''m a Human". I raised my right hand, and said "This was an ident. My arm got severed, when I was chased by someone. When I attached it back, this effect appeared". Although I couldn''t see her face, from her voice, I could hear her shock. She asked "You attached your own arm back? Wasn''t it painful?". Iughed "Painful? I''m telling you, I don''t rmend losing an arm, then going through the process of re-attaching it¡­ It''s something else".


    She asked "Can I see it?". I replied "It was a long time ago. It''s fine now". She asked "Then why is it bandaged?". Iughed a bit, and replied "It''s a secret". She nodded her head, and didn''t ask anymore. Fox then recalled something, and said "Oh right, I have a gift for you!". I was a bit confused, and asked "What gift?". She rummaged in her bag for a while, then took out something. ''What is this?'' I thought.


    What she took out, was some sort of green liquid in a bottle. She said "I bought this from someone. This thing can boost your speed for a while, but also permanently increase it by a bit". She handed me the bottle, and said "You gave me your dagger, and medicine, but I can''t make weapons or clothes myself. I bought this for you, so that you could run away from dangerous situations". Iughed, and replied "Thanks for the gesture, but I will not need it. My speed is nothing to scoff at anymore". She replied "It''s a gift from me".


    ''Well, I guess a gift is a gift, I shouldn''t return it, even if I don''t need it really. Actually! I can study this thing, and maybee up with something of my own'' I thought. I nodded my head, and said "Actually, I found a very good use for it. If I study it, then I may be able to figure out, how to make my own. Thanks, it''s not a bad gift at all". She nodded, and said "You are wee". I hid the bottle into my storage feather, and said "It''s been bothering me for a while, but why do you always wear that mask? You are not wanted everywhere right?". She replied "It''s¡­ a secret", and sheughed a bit.


    My guess would be, that she had bad scars on her face, and just didn''t want to show it. I didn''t care, but if she chose to wear it, and it was morefortable for her that way, who was I to judge? With my meal taken care off, and the fire extinguished, I said "I think it''s time for me to go. I still have something to take care of". As I stood up, I thought about something, and asked "What stage, are you at?". She asked "Stage?". I rified "Your limit stage? As in, did you break through that Half Step?". She nodded her head, and said "Yes, not that long ago too".


    I took out some Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, and threw it towards her. She caught it, and asked "What is this?". I replied "This is blood purifying medicine. Don''t be fooled by the amount. This is magnitudes stronger, than anything you could find in the North. Maybe even in Great Forest. I have to warn you though. The process is very painful, so take it, when you are sure that you are in a safe environment. Perhaps when you go back home, you can take it. This will help you break through your Inner Limits in the future".

 Chapter 280

    Chapter 280


    Fox shook her head, and said "I can''t take this. It''s worth too much. You should..". I interrupted her, and said "I already did. I''m giving you this as a friend. Take it, it will help you out". She thought about something for a while, and replied "It''s seems, that I''m always getting benefits from you. All I gave you, was some useless speed concoction...".


    I replied "I don''t think it''s useful. Besides, you did help me, when I needed help. I''m returning that good will". I also took out a few bottles of Arran Liquid, and passed them to her, while saying "With your skill level, no wild beasts should be a threat to you. You can still get injured sometimes. This medicine will help you, in case you do". She didn''t want to take more, so I added "I have loads more. Take it, it wille useful one day or another".


    She nodded after a while, and said "Then let me give you this". Fox took off a ne from her neck, and handed it to me. I shook my head, and said "There is no need for that. You helped me out, when I needed help. This alone, means a lot to me". She replied a bit angry "I took your stuff, so take it as well!". I was a bit stunned, and took the ne. ''I didn''t think, she could act like this though. She seemed so quiet'' I thought.


    I had a look at the ne, and didn''t really know what to think about it. I wasn''t really the guy, who was interested in jewellery. ''The chain looks normal to me. It might be gold, mixed in with something, but I''m not sure. The chain is attached to some sort of coin?'' I thought. It looked like a coin, but a very peculiar one. On one side, was a wolf. On the other side, was some sort of peculiar woman engraved. ''Maybe it''s just some kind of symbol. I don''t have a clue'' I thought, and wore the ne on my neck.


    Fox then continued "Don''t lose it, alright?". I nodded my head, and asked "Is this some sort of special ne?". She replied "It''s special to me, but if you are asking about Formations and such. It has none. I thought I will say that, before you try to use it, as some sort of defensive item". Iughed a bit, and said "Alright, I will just wear it then".


    Fox nodded her head, and said "When you leave North, visit me in Ortava". I thought about it, and said "Hmmm, I don''t know where your Vige is. I don''t have it on my map". Sheughed, and asked "Vige? It''s a big city. What type of map do you have?". I took out my map, and passed it to her. I then said "This is my map of the Great Forest. There are a few cities on it, but it seems some parts are missing". She took a look for a while, and said "Of course there are some parts missing. To be more exact, about half of it is missing".


    I was quite shocked, and asked "Half?". Fox nodded, and replied "Yes, about half. No wonder you don''t know, that Ortava is a city. It''s actually to the east, where your map ends". I recalled something, and asked "Do you know where Endros Imperial City is?". She nodded her head, and replied "Of course. It''s also on the missing part of your map. I will show you where it is". Fox then took out her own map, and showed me.


    "This is how the Endrosian Empire looks like?" I asked. Fox nodded, and replied "Yes. It''s a big ind. The Endrosian Empire, is just part of the ind really. The ind or rather the continent, is called Perival Continent. We are currently in the North, which doesn''t belong to Endrosian Empire. There is another empire, in the southwest. It belongs to Humans as well, but they have different emperor. It''s over here". She then pointed at a piece ofnd, which belonged to another empire. It was called Elysian Empire, and upied a smaller portion of the continent. In size, it was even smaller than the North.


    Looking at the whole Perival Continent for the first time, I finally discovered how the whole empire looked like. Not only that, I learned about another empire in the southwest. I was very excited, so I asked "Can I have a proper look at it? I need to memorize this map!". Fox nodded her head, and said "Sure, go ahead. I can make a raw sketch of it, if you want". I shook my head, and said "Don''t worry. My memory is very good". After a long while of staring at the map. I returned it, and said "Great! I memorized it! Who would have guessed, that the Empire looks like this!".


    Fox said "Anyone who had ess to such thing, from a young age? You must be from somewhere very rural, not to know how the Empire looks like". ''Yea¡­'' I thought, and said "This map alone, is worth more than the medicine I gave you. Now I finally know, where that stupid Imperial City is". She asked "Why were you searching for it?".


    I said "Oh? I was just very curious. I knew that it had to be somewhere, but after so many years, I couldn''t find a map with its location. I wonder how it looks like?". Sheughed a bit, and said "You are indeed different". I didn''t mind herment, and said "It''s time for me to leave. I need to take care of something". Fox nodded, and said "Now you know where Ortava is. When you leave the North,e by, I will show you around". I nodded my head, and said "Sure. I will drop by. Take care of yourself Fox. Till we meet next time". "Till next time, Dark Traveller".


    I smiled, and left towards Vulture Cliffs. I wasn''t sure whether Fox was her real name. She seemed to be full of mysteries, but I had my own share of them too. ''She will be a good ally in the future. Having some friends, is not a bad idea. Especially friends that are strong'' I thought.

 Chapter 281

    Chapter 281


    It didn''t take me long, before I arrived in the vicinity of Vulture Cliffs. Avians and Yagaroths were present in the Dead Forest, but I killed all of them. For one, I wanted to enter the Yellow Dust deposit, without them knowing. Besides, I wanted to exterminate as many of them, as it was possible. I made my way straight to the deposit, and noticed some Avians flying around the entrance. I took out my bow, and dealt with them quickly. Inside the tunnel, there were no other creatures. ''It seems like Avians managed to conceal the Yellow Dust, from Yagaroths. This is great, as I will be able to blow them up, without them even realising it'' I thought.


    Of course, I wouldn''t throw a torch at the whole deposit, and hope for the best. I already knew, how to deal with this. My n was simple, I would make a sort of path or a line, from the Yellow Dust. I had to take a lot of it, and spread it outside of the deposit, towards the outer region of Vulture Cliffs. Then light up that line or path of Yellow Dust, and wait until it reached the deposit. ''At least this way, I will not have to run for my life'' I thought.


    I collected a bag full of Yellow dust for myself, and another bag, to make that line. ''Avians did take some of it from here. I remember, that there was more inside. Although, they took some, the amount is nothing to scoff at'' I thought. About ? were left, of the all Yellow Dust in the tunnel. It would equal to a few tonnes of that stuff. 300 kilograms of Yellow Dust, was able to exterminate a whole army of Yagaroths, and make arge hole in the ground. That hole still existed.


    I spread the Yellow Dust in a line, as I walked away from the Vulture Cliffs. Because there was no wind, I didn''t really have to worry about the Yellow Dust scattering. After a few hours of walking. I was still able to see Vulture Cliffs, but my position was very distant. I lit a torch, and said "It ends here", then threw it at the line made of Yellow Dust.


    "Swoosh!"


    The Yellow Dust caught fire, and the me travelled towards the deposit. It took a while, but then I saw the explosion. The whole ce disintegrated. Vulture Cliffs ceased to exist. Arge¡­ huge hole appeared in the ground, while rocks and what not flew upwards. Then the sound reached me "BOOOOOOOOOM!". Even though I was so far away, my ears still rang from the explosion. Besides the sound of the explosion, I saw the ground literally moving towards me. The ground acted like a sea, as a wave travelled towards my location. When it arrived, I felt slight tremors underneath me, and the ground wave lifted me up, then passed me and continued a bit further. Then I could feel some remnants of the st, but it was no longer hot or strong.


    "This was something else" I said to myself. Everything seemed to get obliterated, even the soil, and rocks disappeared. ''With this, the Avians and Yagaroths are no more. Time to check out the damages'' I thought. I wanted to check the damage, as well as find any possible survivors. ''The High One of Yagaroths, might''ve been able to survive that¡­ somehow. If he did, I will freeze him to death'' I thought. I ran at a normal speed, and soon arrived at what used to be Vulture Cliffs.


    What I stood in front, was a hole. A hole so big, I could fit a whole region inside it. It was also very deep, so deep I couldn''t see the bottom. I awakened my Darkness Perception, and saw the bottom of that hole. ''This is at least 200 metres deep. The st must''ve been enormous'' I thought. There was nothing at the bottom. No water or corpses, nothing but ss like rocks everywhere. ''The corpses must''ve disintegrated, with such heat and the powerful st, I doubt even the High One, could live through that'' I thought.


    I still checked the area around the hole, and looked at the bottom from different perspectives. Finally, I managed to find something. ''Yep, the High One is dead'' I thought. There wasn''t much left, only a piece of a tentacle, the was stuck inside one part of the wall. It was burned to a crisp, but managed to stay attached. I took out a bow, and shot at it. When the arrow hit the tentacle, it disintegrated, leaving only dust behind.


    "Avians and Yagaroths perished. This will no doubt stay in North''s history. Although, no one will know it was me". I turned towards Obsidian Mountains, and walked back. There was nothing else for me to do there. ''My next goal, is to return Crow his eyes. I need to find some animals, to experiment on'' I thought. This was not such a hard task to aplish. I could use the Corpse Dogs, that roamed around the Wilderness.


    "A Corpse Dog, is not the same as a Human or Shade. I still need to figure out, if that is indeed possible, in the first ce" I said to myself. After some more walking, I found a few corpse Dogs, and caught them alive. For the purpose of making them stay still, I made some more poison from the Antal Shrooms. ''Time to test it out'' I thought, and proceeded to take out their eyes. With the poison working, although they felt pain, they wouldn''t die.


    I check the eyes, as well as sockets. ''This will be difficult'' I thought. There was a nerve connecting the eye, but it wouldn''t be easy to connect that. The space was limited as well. I would need some very fine tools, in order to do this. For now, I decided to try and connect the nerves, with whatever I had on me.


    When I tried, I quickly found another problem. ''When the eyeball is in the socket, I can''t even see the nerves. I need to bypass this somehow'' I though, and focused my eyes on the tiny details. I could see much better now, so my eyes were not the problem, the space was. I tried a couple of times. Mosty, I would damage the eyeball, or attach the nerves badly. Couple of Corpse Dogs died as well. It seemed that touching those eye nerves, was unimaginably painful.


    ''I need better tools. Not only that, I need to find a better way to bypass the eyeball. I don''t have an infinite amount of eyes, to test that on Crow. I will have to do it on Corpse Dogs, or other animals here'' I thought, and speed up towards the Obsidian Mountains. There was a cksmith workshop in Olrad, I could use them to make me some tools.


    It didn''t take me long, to arrive back in Olrad. I went straight to the workshop, and found the old Lizard. I asked "Hey, how have you been?". The old Lizard was confused for a while, then eximed "OH! It''s you! I couldn''t recognise you". I smiled, and asked "Can you create some specific tools for me? I need them to be very thin but strong. I will also need some special holders and whatnot". The old Lizard asked "Why would you need such tools?". I replied "I need them for something. Can you make them? I will pay you of course".


    The old Lizard nodded, and said "Sure. After all, you worked here. Show me what you have in mind. I will need a sketch or some sort of example, how these tools are supposed to look like". I nodded, and said "I will provide them soon. I need to make a few sketches. Just beware, that these tools will be quite thin. Using a mould may not be optimal, as I need them to be precise". The old Lizard smiled, and said "Who do you think I am? I will make these tools by hand. I''m a cksmith after all!". I nodded my head, and said "I will return with the sketches soon", then left the workshop.

 Chapter 282

    Chapter 282


    I made my way to Lazar''s house, and knocked on the doors. Lazar was not in, so I called out "Crow, are you there?". After a while, Crow made his way to the doors, and opened them. I entered, and said "Returning your eyes, will not be easy, but it should be possible. I will need some special tools for that, and I will need to experiment a bit more". Crow shook his head, and said "Take your time. I still have hope, but if you can''t do it, I will just live like this".


    I thought about it, and said "I can teach you, how to move without your eyes". Crow asked "You can teach me something like this?". I said "Yes, you just need very keen senses. Your eyes are gone, so your sense of touch, smell, hearing and taste, should be better now. If you train them well, you will be able to move around, without your eyes".


    Crow nodded his head, and said "I will learn! I don''t want to depend on someone, for the rest of my life". I said "Good, then let me get some stuff, and we can start the training". I went out, and got some wood. I then made wooden poles from them, and returned to Crow. I said "I brought the wooden poles, for your training. Your training will be simple, you have to avoid the wooden poles, using your hearing, smell, touch and if you have to, taste as well". Crow nodded, and said "It shouldn''t be that difficult", but he overestimated himself. What I didn''t say, was that I would move the poles around, just like Nick did back then.


    I set up the poles, and said with a grin on my face "Alright, just walk towards me. Be sure to avoid the poles". Crow started slowly walking towards my general direction. He pretty much did, what I did in the past. He used his hands to feel for the poles. This wouldn''t work of course, as I began moving them. "Thud!". "Ow! That pole wasn''t there!" Crow eximed. I almostughed, and said "Just continue". Crow hit his head many times during the training. By the end of it, he was so pissed that he shouted "You are moving them around! I don''t believe a pole could appear in front of me, with my hands crossed!".


    Iughed, and replied "Of course I''m moving them around. It would be too simple, if I just left them there. You have to try and hear the movements. You can also smell the poles, they are made from wood. Rely more on that, instead of your sense of touch". Although Crow was angry, he nodded his head, and said "Alright". After a while, we stopped the training, and I let Crow rest.


    Lazar returned as well, and when he saw many poles inside his house, he again asked "What the hell are you up to this time?". ''It seems that I always do something ridiculous, when Lazar is around. Oh well'' I thought, and exined. When Lazar finally understood why the poles were there, he said "Alright, but hide them, when you finish that training of yours. There''s hardly any space to move around". I nodded, and said "I was about to hide them anyway. We are done for today".


    Lazar said "You came back much sooner, than I expected". I replied "Yea, it didn''t take me that long. By the way, did you take that blood purifying medicine?". Lazar shivered at the thought, and said "Yea, and I also managed to break through. I wasn''t far away, it seems. I just had to purify my blood a bit. I must say, that thing of yours, I''m d I only took the smaller portion. Harlin was actually cursing you, throughout the process".


    I said "I told you it will be painful. What did you expect? Anyway, you can tell Harlin toe and visit me, when he has time. I''m sure he wille over, once he knows I''m here". Before Lazar could reply, I heard "I''m already here you bastard!". I turned around and said "Oh! Long time no see. How was the medicine?". Harlin replied "You went through that as well? It was so painful, I wouldn''t do it the second time, even if someone paid me".


    I nodded, and said "Yes. Although I took double, of what you took". Harlin''s and Lazar''s faces changed greatly, and both of them said "Monster". I didn''t take it to heart, and continued "This can be ingested only once though. So you can''t use that again. That is why, I wanted to give you the most you could take. There will be no second tries". Both of them nodded, and Harlin said "I''m still very grateful. I feel that, I will be able to break through to my Inner Limits in the future. In the past, I could only dream about it". Lazar joined in, and said "I don''t know, if I will be able to reach that point too, but I will try. Without that medicine of yours, I would never be able to even try".


    I nodded, and said "I will be leaving the North soon. When Crow''s eyes are repaired, or at least, after I try to repair them, I will return to the Great Forest. I still have some things, to take care of over there". They nodded, and Harlin said "You will always be weed here. So return whenever you like. You can also leave Crow under our care. I already heard what happened in Sedon. You leaving for a while, is not such a bad idea. Let things calm down, and then you can return again".


    I said "I still have to make some tools, and teach Crow how to live without his eyes. Just in case, I can''t rece them. It will take some time to do that, so I will be around still". I then turned towards Lazar, and said "Before you worry too much, I''m going to stay at the inn. I have enough money, to stay there for years". Lazar smiled, and said "I wouldn''t say no, if you''d prefer to stay here. After all, I own you too much". I shook my hand, and said "Don''t mention it".


    I then asked Harlin "So what is your n? You blood is purer now, and when you break through to the Inner Limits, Olrad will not be a ce, where you can shine". Harlin smiled, and said "I already thought about it. When that happens, I n to fight for the military position in Arangard. Lazar already broke through, and with my rmendation, he would be responsible for Olrad". I nodded my head, and said "Then I will give you both, another concoction of mine". Harlin asked "No, no. I''m fine, I don''t want that type of concoctions".


    I smiled, and said "This one will not bring you pain, but increase your strength instead. When I make it, I will give it to you guys". They both thought about it, and Harlin said "As long as it doesn''t bring such pain, then sure", while Lazar nodded his head. I said "Alright, it''s time for me to leave. I still need to design those tools, and I want to rest as well. If you need anything, you will find me at the inn". I said farewell to Crow, and the rest, then went to the inn.


    Inside, one of the female Lizard that worked there asked me "What would you like?". I said "A meal, and a bed". She became surprised, and said "Oh, it''s you! I didn''t recognise you at all. You''ve changed". I smiled, and said "Yea, a bit. Just give me whatever you rmend, and I will rent a room as well. This time, I will rent it for longer. Let''s say, 20 days for now". She nodded her head, and said "Sure. Have a seat, and your food will arrive soon".

 Chapter 283

    Chapter 283


    After my meal, I went straight to my room. I still had to create those drawings for the next day. I would need three tools, and a special retainer or holder. The first tool, looked like pincers, but was very thin and long. The second tool, looked like elongated scizors, also very thin. Thest tool, had a hook at the end of a long and thin handle. These were the tools, I needed to carry out eye recement.


    I also needed a holder, which would open up the eye socket, as much as it was possible. It would need to retain the eyeball as well, while I worked on it. ''The drawings came out rather well. He should be able to create such tools now'' I thought, and went to sleep. The next day, I went straight to the cksmith workshop, and handed the drawings to the old Lizard. He nodded his head, and said "I can make them, but it will take a while. Do you have any materials in mind?". I replied "Use whatever you would rmend, for such tools. They can''t be too flexible though, I need them to be quite precise".


    He nodded his head, and said "Alright, Come back in a day or two. They should be finished by then". I nodded, and left the workshop. I went straight to Lazar''s ce, and knocked on the doors. Crow walked over to the doors, and asked "Nex?". I replied "Yes, it''s me". He opened the doors, and let me inside. I asked "Do you want to continue the training?". Crow nodded, and said "Yes. I tried doing that on my own, and learned how to walk around this house a bit better. I''m getting used to being blind. I don''t know if I should be happy, or sad though".


    I replied "It''s always good to learn something. Even if your eyes are back, this will still help you out". Crow nodded, and we started the training with poles again. Thissted for a few hours, and because I had nothing to do, I stayed at Lazar''s ce to apany Crow. "So how exactly, are you using your skills?" I asked. Crow replied "What do you mean?". I rified "How do you hide yourself? Are you using an Aura of some sort?".


    Crow shook his head, and said "No, Shades don''t have that. At least, I''m not aware of any Shade, who would possess an Aura". I asked again "So, how do you hide yourself?". Crow replied "I can show you, if you want". I said "Show me". Crow activated some sort of skill or ability, and started disappearing. I asked "How are you able to do it? Is it some sort of trait of yours?". Crow appeared, and said "No, I simply avoid the light¡­ well it''s a bit trickier than that, but this should be the best way I can exin this".


    ''Avoid the light¡­'', I was lost for a while in my thoughts. When I snapped out of it, I asked "Can you teach me?". Crow replied "I don''t know. I never tried teaching anyone. Not every Shade can do this. I could, since I evolved. I guess it is my trait after all". I asked "But you are doing something. Tell me, I need to know". Crow was a bit confused, and asked "Why are you so bent on knowing this? I can show you what I do, but I can''t really exin it. It''s not that I don''t want to teach you. I just don''t know how".


    I said "I''ve been looking for an answer, for many years now. Avoid the Light, the stage my mentor and friend reached. I always tried to convince myself, that it had something to do with Auras. I was just pulling the wool over my own eyes. Nick never used an Aura, he was able to do it, without it. Now that I mastered my own Aura, I know it has nothing to do with them. I could feel it for a long time, yet I chose to be blind. That is the reason, why I want to learn it".


    Crow nodded, and said "In that case, I will try my best to teach you how I do it. After all, I own you too much. Even if you wanted my arm, I would give it to you". Crow started demonstrating and exining, how he did this. Of course, it was very hard for him to exin, as the ability to do that seemed to be born with him.


    After a few hours of trying, I got some ideas, but I wasn''t any closer to reaching that stage myself. At the end, I asked "Are you making any specific movements?". Crow shook his head, and said "No. I can just stay still, and do the same. As I exined, it''s like I have this energy. When I ran it through my whole body, I be less visible. It kind of allows me to avoid the light. Because it doesn''t matter if there is a shadow or not, I can stay hidden anyway".


    Crow''sstment, light something up in my head. ''Energy. He is using his energy'' I thought. If energy was concerned, I had loads of it. ''But how do I make it course through my whole body? And how will it make me disappear?'' I thought. This was something, I had to try and do. Instead of contemting about, it was always better to just try. I couldn''t wait any longer, and simply started my practice.


    I began from spreading the energy throughout my body, which didn''t seem so hard. When I actually tried doing it, I found out how hard it was to achieve. ''When I fight, I usually spread my energy to my legs, arms and whatnot, but my whole body isn''t covered by it'' I thought. Then I remembered pressure points, and what different points affected in the human or any body. ''This is like pressure points, I have to spread my energy around my body, as if it flowed through every part'' I thought, and tried.


    This turned out to be a useful clue. Although I wasn''t able to do it straight away, I knew it was possible. ''Making my energy flow through every part of my body, will not make me invisible. There must be something else there'' I thought. There were benefits either way. Because the energy would flow throughout my body, every inch of it, would be stronger, tougher or more resilient. I could already control my strength, as well as my body very well. Yet, when I say body, I mostly referred to arms, legs, and bnce. Bnce could be kept using the hips, legs, arms and head. ''Then what about the rest of the body? Could those things be controlled?'' I asked myself. I didn''t know the answer, but I would surely try to find that out.

 Chapter 284

    Chapter 284


    I tried controlling my energy for a while, but I couldn''t do it. Crow asked "Did you get any ideas?". I replied "Yes. You mentioned energy, I think this is the key. I can control my energy, but I never actually learned to control the whole flow of it, inside my body. I only focused on the main parts of my body. If I can learn to control that, I think I will be a step closer". Crow nodded, and said "That is good. As long as I helped you even a bit, I''m happy with that".


    Lazar returned not long after, and greeted us. I said "Right. Because I have some time, I will make that medicine for you guys". Lazar nodded, and said "As long as it''s not thatst one, I''m fine with it". I took out my tools, and started making the Prime Extract from Earth Grabbing Sprout. I already took that Extract, so it wouldn''t be of much effect to me anymore. I wanted to get my hands on the distillery, before ingesting anymore.


    Then I recalled something, and asked "Lazar, do you know what distillery is?". Lazar shook his head, and replied "I have no clue". I said "If I make you a drawing, can you pass it to Harlin? It''s a tool that I would like to get. From what I know, it''s a special order tool, so Harlin would need to ask in Arangard". Lazar replied "Sure, I will pass it to him. If he can find it, he will tell you". I nodded my head, and continued making the Extract. ''I will make that drawing, after I''m done with this'' I thought.


    After a while, I made around 200 milliliters of Prime Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract. I gave half of it to Lazar, and the other half, was for Harlin. I said "Drink this in stages. There will be no pain, so you can drink half of it first. This will increase your strength by quite a bit. When you hand the other bottle to Harlin, just tell him to drink half now, and leave the other half for when he tries to break through". Lazar nodded, and said "Alright. Can I try it now?". I said "Sure. After all, you broke through your Half Step. This should be very useful to you".


    Lazar drank about ? of the bottle, and waited. After a while, he eximed "Wow, this really improves my strength! I can feel it! I''m getting stronger!". Lazar jumped around a bit, and punched the air. He seemed happy with the new increase in his strength. When Lazar was done, he said "It''s like, you are some sort of old sage, who knows the best medicine, and can cure anything. How did you manage to learn all of this". I smiled, and replied "I had a good teacher".


    Crow felt a bit left out, so he asked "What about me? I would like to get stronger too". I smiled, and said "In due time. I want to wait until your eyes are repaired. If I can''t do it, I will give you those things anyway". Crow nodded, and stayed quiet. I took out a piece of paper, and draw the distillery for Lazar. I tried to be as detailed as I could. This would increase the chances of Harlin finding it.


    "Here take this. This is how the distillery looks like" I said to Lazar. He took the paper, looked at it, and seemed confused. "I don''t get those tools of yours. I have no idea what that thing is at all". I smiled, and said "Just pass it to Harlin". I then bid farewell to both of them, and left. I wanted to train my energy a bit more,. Besides, I already stayed at Lazar''s ce for most of the day.


    Back in my room, I tried different ways of making my energy affecting my whole body. ''I think that pressure points, is the way to go. After all, Nick knew pressure points, but due tock of time, he didn''t exin most of them to me. Fortunately, I already learned them for that book'' I thought. I knew pressure points, but I felt something wascking. ''What could it be¡­. If my pressure points are veins, then what about muscles, bones, skin¡­ organs... '' As I thought like this, I came up with a crazy idea again. "Don''t tell me¡­ I knew it was going to be the whole body, but I thought of veins. Veins extend throughout human body¡­ it seems that I need to control the energy of my whole body, not the veins, but muscles, organs, skin¡­ everything".


    This seemed impossible. ''Could Nick really do such a thing? Is that even possible for a Human, who was not born with that ability?'' I thought. Crow was apparently born with the ability to control his whole body, but can a Human learn such a thing? That was the real question. "There is no other way, than try. After all, I can freely control my Domineering Aura now. In the past, I could only dream about such a feat. This should be possible, even for a Human. Just how long would it take?" I asked myself.


    Just because I was able to control my strength, and direct more of it towards my legs, or arms. It didn''t mean I had control of my energy. I could only will my energy to go to my arm, but this happened through my veins most of the time. What about the bones, muscles or skin? ''Even though I can control the amount of strength and energy I use, but besides the general direction of my energy flow, I control nothing else. This seems to be the problem then'' I thought.


    In front of me stood a choice. I could either try to master my energy, or try to awaken an Aura, which would allow me to hide myself. ''Both of those things are really difficult to do. Both of them, will bring the same results. Yet, I have a feeling that Aura, is not the way to go forward. Either Nick had to be very good with his Aura, and I couldn''t feel it. Or he never used an Aura, to achieve that stage'' I thought.


    I made up my mind, and said to myself "I will go down the path of control. Aura was always an auxiliary ability for me. I want to be able to achieve that, without any Auras". With that, I decided to take on the path of control. Not even realising, how hard it would be, to achieve that.

 Chapter 285

    Chapter 285


    I practiced my energy control for the rest of the day. The next day, I went straight to the workshop, and asked if my tools were ready. The old Lizard said "Yep, I have them ready. Here they are". He handed me the tools, and I must say, the quality was very good. I asked "How much do I owe you?". The old Lizard replied "Due to the materials, andplexity..". I stopped him, and said "Just tell me the price".


    He replied "15 ck Hals". I nodded my head, and gave him 15 ck Hals. He seemed surprised, and said "I thought you were going to barter a bit". I smiled, and replied "I don''t have the need to barter. Besides, you are a good cksmith, so I know the quality and precision will be good. I don''t mind paying for such things". The old Lizard replied "If you have any other tools or weapons, that you would like to make, be sure toe by". I nodded my head, and left the workshop.


    I first went to see Crow, and trained with him. Crow was getting more used to being blind, and his training was going along nicely. With Crow''s training taken care of, I left Olrad, and headed towards the Wilderness. I had to catch something, and test out my tools. For that purpose, I searched for Corpse Dogs. It wasn''t hard to find them, outside of the Obsidian Mountains range. I caught one, and started my experiment.


    ''This is tricky, even with the tools'' I thought, as I tried to connect the nerves. In the end, I connected the nerves, and the eyeball stayed in the socket. ''I have to watch that Corpse Dog for a few days. When it heals properly, I will check whether its eyes are working'' I thought. Time passed, and the Corpse Dog should have healedpletely. I took off the bandages from its eyes, and had a look. When I moved my finger, the dog didn''t react. Even when I moved my finger closer and further away, the eyes didn''t react at all. ''This is a failure. Its eyes are no longer functional'' I thought, and gave the Corpse Dog a quick death.


    I didn''t go back to Olrad, and simply caught another Corpse Dog. I tried again, and again, but nothing worked. All Corpse Dogs, that I tried the procedure on, couldn''t see anymore. ''What else is there, besides the nerves? It''s just that nerve, which connects the eye. Then is that really impossible? I can''t rece eyes?'' I thought. I didn''t want to give up, and decided to try a different creature. I caught a Fire Mare, that lived at the Obsidian Mountains. After doing the procedure, the creature''s eyes had some reactions, but the Fire Mare was still pretty much blind.


    ''This one worked a bit. It''s weird, I did everything the usual way. Nothing changed, so why could it see a bit?¡­. '' I thought. I decided to give it a few more tries, and the same thing happened. ''Hmmm, maybe because Fire Mares are not rotting, so the nerves are in much better shape'' I thought. I had no other solution, and it didn''t seem that changing anything, would provide different results. ''If that is the case, I should be able to return Crow''s sight, at least partially'' I thought.


    It was better than nothing, I guessed. ''I could try to find a perfect solution, but how many years would it take. Crow''s eyes were already left in that state for a while. If I don''t do anything, I may never be able to return even a bit of his sight'' I thought, and returned to Olrad. There, I told Crow the good, and the bad news. Crow replied "Do it then. Being able to see a bit, is better than beingpletely blind. Your training also allowed me to perceive my surroundings a bit better. With more training, I might not even need the eyes, to move around".


    I nodded my head, and said "Alright. I will try my best to repair your sight. If you get it back then great, if not, I will train with you, until you can walk normally everywhere. I can''t just leave you here, unable to do anything". Crow nodded, and said "I''m alright with that". I prepared for the procedure, of recing Crow''s eyes. I took it much more seriously this time. This was my friend after all.


    I made sure all my tools were clean. I took out the preserved eyes, that used to belong to Teron. I also took out the poison, that would paralyze Crow. I had to use a lot more on him, due to him being a Shade. A Corpse Dog, became paralysed with a few drops of my Extract, Crow needed quite a substantial amount. With everything ready, I said "Open your eyes". Although Crow didn''t have eyes, he knew what I meant, and opened the eye sockets.


    I looked around, and said "As I suspected, I will need to cut you up a bit. The wound managed to heal up a bit, and it''s going to make it more difficult. Just take the poison, and try to bear the pain". Crow nodded, and said "Alright". I gave him the poison, and waited for it to kick in. When Crow became paralysed, I started cutting out the healed up flesh. I could hear Crow gritting his teeth, but he had to bear through this.


    With the wound opened up again, I saw the nerves. They were a bit different than those of Fire Mare, but a nerve, was a nerve. I managed to find the correct nerves on the eyeballs as well, and began connecting them. I had to use a recement for Trantum Solution, and I also improved the recipe. Because poison couldn''t really harm Shades, I added poison to the solution, and used that to connect the nerves. This seemed to work well, because Crow felt much less pain, then he would have.


    The procedure went rather smoothly, and noplications arose during the procedure. With the eyes attached, I wrapped Crow''s eyes, and head with bandages. I then said "It''s done. Don''t try to move, or do anything to your eyes for a few days. Just rest, and let the eyes heal up. I will take the bandages off, once I deem it safe". Crow replied "Alright, I will watch out". I then continued "I have no idea whether this will work or not. I tried that on different creatures, but only Fire Mares were able to get a fraction of their sight back. I hope you will be able to seepletely, or at least partially".


    Crow smiled, and said "Don''t worry. I told you already, that I can still function without my eyes. Your training is something, I must master in order for that to work. This will be very useful to me in the future anyway, whether my new eyes work or not". I nodded, and let Crow rest. I returned to my room at the inn, and focused on my energy control training. ''There is still a long road ahead of me, before I can achieve the full control'' I thought, and continued my practice.

 Chapter 286

    Chapter 286


    A few days passed. I visited Crow regrly, and made sure everything was alright. Besides that, we also trained with the poles. Crow was improving with each day, and his senses became more acute. Almost a week has passed, and I finally took off the bandages from Crows eyes. Before Crow opened his eyes, I said "Wait a minute, before you open your eyes". Crow nodded his head, while I retrieved some skins, to block the windows. I wanted to make the room dark, so that Crow''s new eyes could adjust better. Of course provided they worked.


    When I made the ce darker, I said "You can now open your eyes". Crow opened them, and said "I can''t see anything". I replied "Maybe give it a while, they might need to adjust". Crow nodded, and we waited. After a few minutes, Crow eximed "I can see something! You were right, my eyes are adjusting slowly". I smiled, and said "That is great. We still don''t know to what extent your new eyes will work, but it''s already a proof, that the procedure did work". Crowmented every time, as he saw more and more. "I can see your shape, but everything is ck, grey or white. There are no colours". I nodded, and said "It may be a side effect. Besides, these are not your eyes. Let''s wait a bit longer, and check how it''s going to develop".


    We waited for about an hour, and Crow replied "Still no colours. I can see your shape, and some features, but not as much as I could in the past. All the stuff around us, seems to be blending in, it''s hard to see properly because of that. No wonder, since I can''t see any colours, besides ck, white and grey". I said "I can take down one of the skins, that I used to block the window". Crow nodded, and said "It''s worth a try".


    I took down one of the skins, and the room became a bit brighter. Crow said "Now I can see even less". I replied "Just let them adjust. Don''t be so impatient". Crow nodded, and said "You are right. It''s still something, even if I can only see in ck, white and grey, I can still see. This alone, is a lot". We waited for a few minutes, and Crow said "I can see a bit better now. No change of colours, but you are a bit more defined, then previously. Unblock all the windows, and we will see what will that bring". I nodded, and took down all the animal skins, blocking the windows.


    More light filled the room. We waited for a while, until Crow said "I will have to get used to it. Although I can''t see colours, I can see¡­ You did so much for me, how can I repay you? Even if you tell me to be the enemy of Shades, I will have no problem with that". I smiled, and said "My ns are a bit different. I don''t want you to be an enemy of Shades. I want you to be their ruler". Crow was visibly taken aback. He smiled after a while, and said "You always had crazy ideas, but I''m fine with that. I don''t know if I can be a ruler, but for that, I will need to at least break through to my Inner Limits".


    I replied "You will break through your limits. I will make it happen. This doesn''t change the fact, that I will leave the North soon. This will give you plenty of time to develop yourself, and break through your Inner Limits". I then took out 25 milliliters of Prime Blood Yarn Extract, and gave it to Crow. He took it, and said "Is that the blood purifying medicine of yours?". I nodded, and said "Yes. I''m giving you this much, because I will help you myself. Otherwise, you might not be able to ingest that type of amount. I will also give you an Extractter, provided I get my hands on that distillery. With its use, I will be able to create much stronger stuff, than I currently am".


    Crow nodded, and asked "Should I take this now?". I shook my head, and replied "No. We will wait for your eyes to adjust properly. Besides that, your arm needs to heal properly. When that happens, we will go through the process of purifying your blood again". Crow said "Alright. What should I do now?". I said "We will train. Improving your senses, will bring you a lot of benefits. Not only inbat, but in stealth as well. By the way, what weapons do you use?".


    Crowughed, and said "Right, I never showed you my weapon. I can''t anymore, I don''t have it, but it was a rapier. A sort of sword, that can be used for quick attacks". I took out a bag, handed it to him, then said "These are all the things, that Teron owned. Take them, and use them as you wish". Crow opened the bag, and said "Yes, most of my stuff is here, but there are also other things. Are you sure, you don''t want any of that? I mean, there is loads of money inside too". I replied "Keep them. I will be leaving the North, so I will have no need for that anymore".


    Crow nodded, and took the whole bag. He then took out the rapier, and said "I had it for a very long time. It''s not that great, but it was always by my side". I took it from him, and examined it. "It has some Flexium inside, and mostly Purified Steel. It''s not that great, but we can improve it". Crow asked "You can forge weapons as well?". I said "I can forge ingots. My weapons though, are quite rubbish to say the least. There is a cksmith here, who is very good. We can use his services".


    Crow nodded, and said "Great, I don''t have to worry about money either. Teron had loads of money on him. Judging by his status, they all should be ck Hals. This should be more than enough, to improve my rapier". I said "I will take the rapier to the cksmith, while you rest. Get adjusted to your new eyes. I will also try to get something, which will help you train your senses". Crow nodded, and I left the house. I headed towards the cksmith, where I talked with the old Lizard.


    He asked "Back so soon? Is there a problem with the tools?". I shook my head, and replied "No, not at all. Here, have a look at this". I handed him Crow''s rapier, and waited. He examined the rapier for a while, and said "It''s quite basic. Not that great, although the design seems old. Is this your new weapon?". I replied "No. I need to upgrade this. I want it to be very good, if not the best that you can make".


    The old Lizard thought about it, and said "The best materials, would be Azurite, Flexium and Obsidian, which can be found here. The materials will not be cheap, and I can''t give you any Azurite, as you know. Obsidian, is even more expensive. This ce is called Obsidian Mountains, but Obsidians can only be found in active volcanoes. Arangard, should have them, but the price may be even in excess of 50 ck Hals, per decently sized rock".


    I nodded, and said "I will take care of the materials then. Someone will get them for me, but can you work with that. Can you improve this weapon, and make it great?". The old Lizard nodded, and eximed "I can! It''s been so long since I created something exceptional. I''m willing to do it for free, as long as you provide all the materials". I replied "Then it''s a deal. I will get the materials, as soon as possible. When I have them, I will return". He nodded his head, and we said farewell to each other.

 Chapter 287

    Chapter 287


    I had one more ce to visit. It was the abandoned house, where Alicia lived. I knocked on the doors, and waited. After a while, the doors opened, and I entered. Inside the brightly lit room, I saw Suly studying books and writing stuff. She seemed busy, and didn''t even notice me. Alicia asked "What is it this time?". I smiled, and asked "Why so cold?". She didn''tment on that, so I continued "I''m here tomission something. I want you to make a mask, or to be precise, two masks".


    Alicia replied "I don''t have time". Suly suddenly butted in, and said "That''s not true. You have a lot of time. Hi Nex". I smiled, and replied "Hi Suly, how are your Formations?". This time Alicia replied "She has loads to learn, so don''t disturb her". I nodded, and said "I need two masks. I don''t know if you can make them though". Alicia replied "I doubt I can''t. Alright, what are those masks, that you speak of".


    I said "The first mask, needs a few Formations. One which seals sight, another which seals hearing, then one more that seals smell. If all three could be activated separately and together, it would be great. Besides that, I want the design to fit a Shade". Alicia asked "Why would you need such a mask? And for a Shade nheless?". I said "I have uses for it. Can you make it?". She thought about it, and said "I can. It''s not going to be that difficult though. But you will pay, and I will make the price exceptionally good for you". I replied "Sure, how much do you want?". She smirked and said "150 ck Hals".


    I took out two bags, each contained a 100 ck Hals. I passed one to her, then took half of the ck Hals from the other, before handing it to her as well. She seemed shocked, but said nothing. I continued "That is, for the first mask. I still need another mask". She asked absentmindedly "What would you like?". I replied "The second mask, is a bit more tricky. I want the mask, to improve the sight. I want the best Formation you have, that concerns the sight improvement. I also want it to change shape, based on the wearer. I''m not sure how this works, but I had a mask, that changed its look, when different people wore it. Besides that, I want it to be very tough, and conceal my identity. Can you make something like this?".


    She thought about it, and said "I can, but this time, I will tell you the real price. If you want such a mask from me, I will need 380 ck Hals. That is the price, and it''s a fair price at the same time". I nodded my head, and gave her the money. She said "You are quite wealthy. I wouldn''t have guessed that from your clothes". I smiled, and replied "I would like a new set of clothes too, but with your prices, I don''t think I will be able to afford it".


    Suly again butted in "I can do that for you. Although I''m not that great, I can make some proper clothes. Just tell me the design you have in your mind, and I will make them". Alicia protested "You need to study! Not make clothes. If you reach my level in Formation skills, then you can make clothes all day long". I thought about it, and said "Actually, this is not such a bad idea. She is reading books all the time. Being able to practice in real life, will give her much more experience". Alicia replied "Don''t tell me, how to teach my student¡­ It''s too soon for her to do that¡­ Alright, I will help her. But you will pay her too. She is not your ve".


    I asked Suly "How much would you like?". Suly shook her head, and said "I don''t know". Her master though, knew perfectly well. She said "Show me the design, or tell me the design, and I will get the cost of that. The price will be for apprentice, not master". I said "I want a long coat with a hood. ck is my preferred colour. Matching shirt and trousers. I will need new boots as well. A neck protector would be a good idea too. The final piece should be the gloves. I want gloves that allows a lot of mobility, so gloves without fingers, would be the best". Alicia nodded, while I continued "As for the design¡­ You know a lot about me, so I will leave the design up to you".


    Alicia nodded, and said "Yes¡­ I have a design in mind. What about the Formations?". I replied "I want the clothes to be very tough. I don''t need anything else really. Besides, the same applies. You know some stuff about me, so make it that my abilities, don''t damage it. I would like you guys to aim for mobility as well". Alicia calcted for a while, and said "235 ck Hals, that is the price". Suly again butted in, and said "Just give me half of that". Alicia became angry, and said "Don''t forget, I will be helping you. This is a fair price". Suly replied "Maybe, but I don''t want money from Nex. Half is enough, you can take all the money, if you need them so much". Alicia was stunned for a while, then said "Fine. 120 ck Hals".


    Iughed a bit, and said "It''s a deal. Here, this is the 120 ck Hals. When should Ie back, to collect those things?". Alicia replied "The first mask, will take very little of my time. So I''d say in a few days. The second mask will take a while. Theplexity is much greater, so you will have to wait. As for your new set of clothes, I''d say in about a week''s time". I nodded, and said "I need the first mask, as soon as possible anyway. I can wait for the other things, so take your time with them. I will be back in a few days, to collect that first mask". Alicia nodded, and I said goodbye to Suly, as well as Alicia, then left.


    ''I spent quite a lot of money today. Fortunately, I will not pay for Crow''s weapon upgrade, and materials. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be able to buy that distillery, if it''s avable'' I thought, and returned to Lazar''s ce. Lazar was still at work, so I sat down with Crow, and said "The upgrade of your weapon is taken care of. We just need the materials. For that, I will need Harlin. I also issued an order for something special. It will help you train your senses better".


    Crow asked "What sort of special thing, do you mean?". I replied "You will find out, when I get it". Crow though about something, and asked "You said it''s for my senses right? Can''t you just tell me?". I smiled, and replied "It will help you develop your instincts. Be patient, this is something you have to learn about too. Patience, is a very good trait to have. When it is ready, you will find out". Crow nodded his head, and asked another question. "How do youe up with such ideas?".


    I said "I went through the same stuff. I''m teaching you, a part of my own Art. I will not teach you everything, as you are clearly better at stealth than me. But your senses are worse. My instincts are many times better than yours. Even if we were at the same level, I would still be able to find you, if you tried to attacked me". Crow was surprised, and asked "It makes such a difference?". Iughed, and said "I live only thanks to my instincts. If they were not so acute, I would be dead already".


    Crow nodded his head, and asked "What about those materials?". I said "They are quite hard to get, and quite expensive too. But you should have more than enough money to afford them. With a good weapon, you will have some advantages in a fight. I can''t help you much with swords though. I don''t specialise in them. You will have to find someone who does, and learn from them. Or develop your skills by yourself".


    Crow acknowledged that, and said "Yea, I''mcking a bit in the battling departament. I will need to polish my skills. On a more serious note". I asked "Yep?". Crow continued "What is your n? You are helping some Lizards, you helped a Shade. I don''t know who else you helped, but why are you doing this? Being friends is one thing, but grooming people, and making them strong... ". I smiled and replied "You are asking about Lazar, Harlin and others right? There is a reason. Actually, there are two reasons. I''m helping you all, because you deserve to be helped. You are my friends after all, and all of you helped me when I needed help. I can now help you guys, and that is what I''m doing. As for the second reason". I smiled, and continued "I will tell you in the future".


    Crow leaned back, and said "I was just curious. I don''t care if you want to use me. It seems all people that are your friends, owe you too much. I will stand by your side, even if the whole world is against you¡­ Bing the ruler of Shades eh? I like that goal". I smiled, and replied "Don''t think of yourself as my ve. I don''t treat you guys as such. I know what it means to be a ve, so don''t have that mindset. You are all my friends, and you can make your own choices". He said "I know. I was just saying".

 Chapter 288

    Chapter 288


    I talked with Crow for a while, before Lazar returned. Lazar was not alone, he came back with Harlin. I said "It''s good that you are here. I actually have a few things, that I would like you to get". Harlin shook his head, and replied "It will wait. Before that, what do you know about the Avians and Yagaroths? The whole Vulture Cliffs ceased to exist¡­ Is that your doing?".


    I smiled, and said "Sit down". Both Lazar and Harlin sat down, then I continued. "I knew you would find out sooner orter. Yes, it was me who did this. As for the reason, you should be aware why I did this". Harlin became a bit angry, and said "I know why, but destroying the whole race¡­ two races. This is going overboard". I asked "Is it? Chasing one man with an army, is not going overboard? ming one man for the sins of another, is not going overboard? Harlin, don''t be naive".


    Harlin stood up, and shouted "Naive? You are crazy!". Crow stood up instinctively, and was ready to protect me. I waved my hand, and said "Sit down. No one is going to fight here". Harlin was angry, but what I said was true. He was naive, and I had to do something about that. I said "No race is invincible. You are naive Harlin. If you continue with that mindset, and be themander of the main army, you will not go far". As he was about to explode with anger, I continued "Sit down, and let me continue". Harlin calmed down a bit, and sat down. I asked "Do you know why, I called you naive?". He answered, still a bit pissed "Why?".


    I replied "Because if you keep thinking like this, you will be used by the Royals. If you get that position, you will be used for their own purposes. In the end, when you are no longer needed, they will discard you. This may sound stupid now, but that is how all the creatures behave usually. Especially those that hold power. I''ve seen it many times, and I''m done". Harlin replied "That doesn''t mean you can kill 1000s, because of your revenge".


    I asked "What about you? Why can you kill other races without remorse? Furians, Vanauts, Slethers and so on. Why can you kill them?". Harlin replied "They are the enemy. We are at war". I shook my head, and said "So? Just because the tag called "war" is attached, you can kill? If you don''t kill them all, then more of them will grow up. With deep hatred seeded inside them, they will fight you again, and again. It will go like this, until one of you ceases to exist. So my question is, how is that different?".


    Harlin gritted his teeth, and replied "It''s not". I smiled, and said "Exactly. I said you are naive, because you are too soft. I''m not saying you should ughter everything that you see, but you have to be ruthless sometimes. Avians and Yagaroths paid the price, for messing with me. Golems paid that price as well. I didn''t kill all Golems, did I?". Harlin asked "So what now? You want me to be a ughterer? Have no remorse for lives? Never forgive?".


    I stood up, walked over to Harlin and said "No. I never wanted any of you, to be crazy bastards that kill everything in sight. One Razor was enough for me. I want you to see the bigger picture. You see this as me destroying two races, but what about those two races, that wanted to destroy me? Sure, I did some bad stuff, but did that warrant them to send a whole army after me? Not giving me a choice, but to blow myself up? Did the Golems have the right to record stuff about me? If I were naive, I would just let them live, but then I would always be chased, or even worse".


    Harlin started thinking about something, while I continued "Harlin, I''m not going to lie. You are all my friends here, but I see a bigger picture. I have ns, and I will need people who I can trust, to help me. I also need strong people, not people who waver, or cannot decide. Believe in your decisions, and rise to the glory by your own choices. When you have to be ruthless, do so. Punish for betrayal, not forgive. That is what it takes, to make a good leader".


    Harlin asked "Leader?". I said "Yes. I want you to be the leader of the whole military avable to Royals. To be the greatest general alive". Harlin felt inspired. He stood up as well, and said "Greatest military general¡­ Yes. This is something, I would like to aim for". I patted his shoulder, and said "Good. You have to be inspired, in order to achieve your goal". Harlin asked "Why did you chose me though? I''m not that talented, and I usually did errands for Royals, there are many who are better than me". I said "Because you are my friend", and smiled. I then continued "Besides, don''t think of yourself so lowly. Keep your head up". Harlin nodded his head, and started thinking about some stuff.


    I turned towards Lazar, and said "Don''t feel left out. You are my friend too". Lazar smiled, and asked "I''m worse than Harlin. I will never be able to get such a high position, so how can I help you?". I smiled and said "I have a n for you as well. Harlin needs to take care of his ranking, but you don''t have to do that. I want you to take Harlin''s informationwork over, and make it bigger. Much bigger, and better than it currently is". Harlin said "It wouldn''t be very hard, to make Lazar my sessor¡­ but to extend the reach¡­ and all that¡­". I said "He can do it. If he tries, he will seed. Besides, He is very good at running from one ce to another".


    I turned towards Lazar, and said "You ran errands for most of your life. Now you will build your ownwork, that not only runs errands for you, they will also collect information for you". Lazar nodded, and said "I will try". With that, my friends had new purpose in their lives. ''This is something I wanted to see. People who are decisive, strong and loyal. With our small group, we will be able to do much, in the future. But that is for the future'' I thought, and turned towards Harlin, to ask for the materials.

 Chapter 289

    Chapter 289


    "I have a few things, I would like you to get", I said. Harlin asked "Yea, you mentioned that already. What are those things?". I replied "I need you to get me Azurite Ingot, one should be enough. I also need an Obsidian, that is a decent size. Then there is the Flexium Ingot. Those are the materials". Harlin said "These things are rather expensive. I can get them, but do you have enough money?".


    I looked at Crow, and he took out a bag full of money. He asked "How much do you want?". Harlin was a bit surprised, but answered nevertheless "I will need around 200 ck Hals. If there are any leftovers, I will return them of course". Crow took out 200 ck Hals, and passed them to Harlin. Harlin then said "I will get the materials, as soon as I can".


    I then said "I will need one more thing. Do you know what distillery is?". Harlin shook his head, and answered "No. I have no idea". I passed him the drawing, and said "This is the distillery. I need this, and I need this badly. From what I know, this is a special made equipment. I don''t know who makes this, but I need one such tool". Harlin took a look at the drawing, and said "I don''t know anything about it, but I can ask around Arangard when I visit. What is this tool used for?".


    I said "For experiments. People who study stuff like herbs or nts, properties of liquids and such, should know about it. It''s a tool for some experiments basically". Harlin nodded his head, and said "I will look around for it". With that done, I bid farewell to all my friends, and returned to the inn. After dinner, I went back to my room and trained the control of my energy.


    Few days passed. I went back to Alice, to collect the first mask, which would be used for Crow''s training. The mask waspleted, and it looked¡­ weird. It had very small holes for eyes, but not for the mouth or nose. Not that I could see a nose, on Crow''s face. The mask was mostly nk, but had some design elements around the cheek areas. It looked like some sort of me, or perhaps a specific design that look like me. Other than that, it was grey.


    When I asked about the second mask and my set, Alicia said it wasn''t finished yet. She told me toe back in a week or two, then the other stuff would be ready. I had nothing against that, and left her house, after saying goodbye. I went straight to Lazar''s ce, and met up with Crow.


    "That is the special item, I was talking about". Crow took the mask, and asked "A mask? What''s so special about it?". I said "Put it on, and activate it. You know how to use Formations right?". Crowughed, and replied "Of course I know! Watch this!". He ced the mask on his face, and activated the Formations.


    After a while, he took the mask off, and said "You are a monster. I know perfectly well, why this mask exists¡­ but still, this is cruel". I said "Don''t worry so much. You can activate one Formation at a time. That means, you can seal your sight alone, and train other senses. The same with hearing and smell¡­ You can smell stuff, right?". Crow looked at me, as if looking at an idiot, and said "Duh? Why couldn''t I smell stuff?". I replied "You don''t have a nose, so¡­ Anyway, that is for the beginning. When your senses develop, you will use the full potential of this mask".


    Crow nodded, and said "That is what I meant. You are a monster, and so are your ideas. Well, I already started, so why stop, right?". I smiled, and said "Let''s train your hearing first. We can then focus on other senses. When you reach a satisfactory standard in all three, the rest will be up to you. I will be leaving by then". Crow nodded, and ced the mask on. He said "Say something". He said that, to probably test if I wasn''t joking, about the Formations working separately. I said "Stop ying around, and find your way through the maze of poles".


    I took out the poles, and with swift movements, ced them around the room. The training went on like this, until Lazar came back. There was still no news from Harlin about the materials, or the distillery. Lazar on the other hand, was already thinking about ways to improve Harlin''swork. He was hardworking, and always did what he could, to carry out the task. His new goal, took it to the next level though. He became absorbed by it. Fortunately, not in a bad way.


    Time slowly passed. I trained the control of my energy every day. Crow trained his senses, while Lazar was getting familiar with the inner, and outer workings of Harlin''s informationwork. Harlin on the other hand, didn''t return for a while now. ''He probably searches for that distillery. I don''t think that getting the materials, would be this difficult for him'' I thought. A few dayster, Harlin finally returned. He passed the materials to me, and said "Do you even know how hard it is, to get any information about that distillery of yours?".


    I replied "I know about it, and even Atols know about it. How hard can it be?". Lazar replied "It''s like a trade secret. I had to pay 20 ck Hals, just to get that information". I nodded, and said "Just deduce that from Crow''s money". Crow asked "Why? You became poor overnight?". I smiled, and said "That mask of yours, costed 150 ck Hals". Crow immediately shut up, and didn''t say anything else. I asked Harlin "So, did you finally managed to find it?".


    Harlin nodded, and said "Yes. As you mentioned, it is a special order. But not just anyone can ce it. This involves Hatmandor". I was a bit confused, and asked "Hatmandor?". Harlin nodded, and said "Yes. Hatmandor is a special ce. This is the ce, where money we use originates from. They created a lot of different things. Stuff like Sand of Time, is one of their designs".


    I said "I visited pretty much the whole North, I never saw, or heard about Hatmandor. Where is it exactly?". Harlin shook his head, and said "It''s not here. It''s an ind, further north. No one has ess there, if not invited. Maybe some Royal Lizards visited that ce, but I know no one who did". "Interesting", I replied. I then continued "Can you still get that distillery?". Harlin nodded, and said "Yes, but it will cost you". I asked "How much". Harling looked at me seriously, and said "430 ck Hals".


    ''That is a higher price,pared to what I had to pay in Apium¡­ Whatever, I still need it'' I thought. I took out almost all of the money I had left, and gave them to Harlin. I said "This is 330 ck Hals", then looked at Crow. Crow realised what I meant, and sighed. "Alright, alright. I will add 100 to that. You know, you could''ve just taken all of that money before¡­ I feel like you are robbing me", Crow then passed 100 ck Hals to Harlin.


    I said "Get it as soon as you can. I don''t know how long, I will have to wait for it". Harlin nodded, and left to buy the distillery. I asked Crow "Do you know anything about Hatmandor?". Crow nodded, and said "Not much though. I too knew that they are located on the ind, and that they made a lot of inventions around the North. I also know one more thing. They are like the owners of the North. I don''t know the details, but everyone is trying to please them". I nodded, and though ''Hatmandor¡­''. A smile appeared on my face, and I said "Who knows, maybe we will meet them in the future". Crow seemed confused, and didn''t know what I meant, but I didn''t extrapte.

 Chapter 290

    Chapter 290


    With that taken care of, we all went back to our own matters. I went back to the inn, and trained my energy. Crow was also bent on practicing his senses, he could do it without my help as well. Lazar studied Harlin''s informationwork, and was trying to improve it. Harlin went back to Arangard for his own matters, as well as my distillery.


    After about another week of time. I went back to Alicia, in order to collect the remaining stuff. She fist handed me the mask, and said "The mask was created, just as you specified. Try it out, but I don''t ept any returns. It''s yours, so do whatever you want with it now". I took the mask, which looked in. It had no markings, designs or even vibrant colours. It was a simple white mask, with holes for mouth, nose and eyes. This soon changed, when the mask stayed in my hands for a while.


    The mask transformed into a nostalgic mask, that I used to own. ''It''s still the same, after so many years'' I thought, and ced the mask on my face. When I activated the Formation, I could instantly see much better. Not only that, I could see some stuff floating around. I was confused, and took the mask off. With the mask off, I didn''t see any floating stuff. I ced it back on, and again, the same thing happened.


    ''These things¡­ I know them. They look like those ck orbs, which I encountered a long time ago, during one of my dreams'' I thought. These orbs, weren''t ck though, they were of white and slightly green colour. ''What are those orbs exactly?'' I asked myself, and tried to reach out toward one of them. When I move my hand towards the orbs, the orbs moved away from me. Even if I tried to somehow attract them, none of them seemed to be attracted to me.


    I thought about that, and asked Alicia "Do you know what those floating orbs are?". She looked at me, and replied "Orbs? You mean the stuff that illuminates this room?". I shook my head, and said "No. They are everywhere. Some are floating around you right now". She looked at me, as if looking at an insane person, and asked "Are you feeling alright?". I shook my hand, and said "Doesn''t matter, it seems you don''t know. If the mask is done, that would mean the set of clothes is done too, right?".


    Alicia nodded, and handed me the set. I must admit, I was impressed. "It''s looks really good. You do know a lot about me after all". The setprised of all the pieces, that I specified. The design though¡­ seemed fitting for the mask. A ck and grey long robe, that had loose sleeves. This could easily allow me to use my Art of Hidden Weapons. The hood also covered half of my face, and seemed to fit the design of a skeleton mask. The boots were ck and grey too, and possessed additional protectors at the hill section, and fingers section. The design matched trousers, which werepletely ck. They had loads of hidden pockets, good enough to hide my daggers. The shirt was nothing extraordinary, but it did add to the overall appeal of the clothes.


    Thest two pieces of the set, were the gloves, and the neck protector. The neck protector was ck and grey in colour, while the gloves werepletely ck. The neck protector was long enough to cover my neck, along with my mouth. The gloves on the other hand, had a specific design. Besides the missing fingers, which I specified, my right glove was a bit different. It fitted my lizard like hand much better, than a normal glove would. ''She even took that under consideration'' I thought. My arm was always wrapped around in bandages, but the shape was still visible. It was obviously different from my left hand. ''It wouldn''t take a genius to see that, but still a nice touch'' I thought.


    Besides that, the gloves were very well designed for my Arts. They had some features from Art of Stealth, and that wasn''t the colour alone. The design was created in such a way, it would be harder for someone to guess, what I was doing with my hands. The almost invisible patterns, yed a role in that. I didn''t know that, until I asked about them. The gloves also allowed great mobility for the Art of Hidden Weapons, and they could act, a sort of hidden weapon.


    Suly told me, that the gloves had a Formation as well. The Formation could push my opponent backwards. The push would depend on the opponent''s strength, as well as my opponent''s weight. The advantage of such Formation, was very apparent to me. If Humans, and Human like creatures were concerned, the force would push them back a few metres, of course less, if they were stronger. It was a nice little Formation, and it was added for free, thanks to Suly''s nagging.


    The set didn''t contain any stealth Formations, just like I asked. I wanted to reach the next stage in stealth, with my own skills, instead of depending on items. That was not the true stealth, but an ability which could be lost, the moment that item was damaged. On the other hand, the clothes were very tough. Alicia''s Formations were top notch, no wonder she charged such amounts for the stuff she made.


    I left Alicia''s house, and went back to the inn. Because others had something to do, I could focus on my own improvements. ''I can control my energy to some extent, but it''s nowhere near the stage I require'' I thought, and continued my training. The time passed slowly. I got a message from Harlin, that the distillery would arrive in about two weeks time. This was very good. With the distillery in my hands, and all my friends taken care of, I could finally leave the North. I would return to the Great Forest, and take care of some things there.


    Through the time that I waited for distillery to arrive, I checked up on Crow once in a while. He made good progress on his senses, but was still far away from reaching the stage, where his instincts would awaken. I gave him as many tips as I could, and left it in his hands. Lazar left Olrad, and started travelling around different areas of the North. He wanted to get ustomed with the informationwork, and the people involved.


    I, on the other hand. I practiced the control of my energy, and experimented with the mask. I saw those coloured orbs floating around again, but I couldn''t affect them. I tried many different ways to affect them, but nothing worked in the end. My Aura had no effect on them¡­ well it had, it just pushed the orbs away, in a strange pattern. Because of that, I got some more clues, as to the properties, or effects that my Aura contained.


    ''My Aura is different now. Although I call it Domineering Aura, it''s a bit different than it used to be in the past'' I thought. My Aura''s effect, was to separate things. That was why the tree crumbled, when my dagger with the Aura attached, pierced through it. That was the primary effect of my Aura. Because my Aura was much weaker in the past, it worked as a type of restricting Aura. That was why, other creatures and beings, had problems moving, when my Aura affected them. They were fighting against the pushing force, which my Aura produced on their bodies.


    ''I will test that in the Great Forest, with my bow. I should get a better bow as well. The one I have, is too weak for me¡­. I will wait with that, until I return to the Great Forest though'' I thought. There was still much to do, before I could realise my n. What n? In due time¡­ You will find out, when the time is due.

 Chapter 291

    Chapter 291


    Before my distilery arrived, I went back to the workshop, and handed all the materials together with Crow''s rapier, to the old Lizard. He said "This will take me some time to upgrade. I should be done in about one week. Come back then, to pick it up". I nodded my head, and left the workshop. A week passed, and my distillery didn''t arrive yet, so I went back to the workshop, and retrieved Crow''s rapier.


    "This was actually a challenge, but here it is. The rapier has been upgraded", the old Lizard said and handed me the rapier. I took a look, and said "This is amazing. You really are a good cksmith. The weapons is still light, but the durability should have increased by magnitudes. Not only that, it''s much sharperpared to the past. You also managed to keep the old design style. Very nice sword indeed". The old Lizard smiled, and said "Don''t praise me so much. The materials you brought, were very good as well. This sword is now restored to its former glory, and even beyond it". I nodded my head, thanked him, and left the workshop.


    I went straight to Crow, and gave him the upgraded rapier. Crow was stunned, and said "This weapon¡­. It''s worth much more than I paid". I smiled, and said "In the future, we might add some Formations onto it. This will make it even better". Crow nodded his head, and said "I would love to. It seems you know some kind of Formation Master". I replied "This can wait, for when I return back to North. Collect as much money as you can though. Her Formations are not cheap". Crow nodded, and asked "When are you leaving?". I said "When my distillery arrives, and after I take care of some other things". Crow nodded, and wanted to hide the rapier, but I said "Wait a minute, can I try it out?".


    Crow stopped, and passed me the rapier. He said "Sure". I took the rapier, and went outside. Crow followed me, and looked at me with interest. I swung the rapier upwards. It created a crescent shape, that flew towards the ceiling of the cave. Crow stared in shock, and asked "How did you do it?". I replied "I swung hard and fast enough, that it created this arc. I used a bit of my Aura too, but you should be able to achieve that without an Aura".


    He asked "How?". I replied "Use your energy instead". I then threw the rapier back to Crow, and said "Just practice with it, when your arm heals. I will be back,ter. Train by yourself for now". Crow nodded, and I left. I wanted to give Crow space, and let him figure out stuff by himself. ''If I told him everything, he would depend on me too much'' I thought.


    Another week passed, and Harlin finally brought the distillery. As I took it, and checked it all around, he asked "You will be leaving soon, right?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes. Everything has been taken care of. All of you guys, have new goals in front of you. Just strive towards them, and you should be fine. There are some small things, I just have to take care of before I leave, but I should be gone in a matter of a few days".


    Harlin nodded his head, and said "Then this is goodbye. I will spend most of my time in Arangard now. I want to break through, and fight for that military position. Lazar already took over mywork. As you know, he went outside Olrad, to get himself familiar with everything. As for Crow¡­ He can stay here, as much as he wants. After all, this house is empty now. Someone taking care of it, is not such a bad idea". I nodded my head, and said "I will be back, although I don''t know when. It may take a few years, but by then, your should achieve loads". Harlin nodded his head, and left.


    I turned towards Crow, and said "We are not done yet. That arm of yours, should be healed up by now. I will take a look, and check how it healed". Crow nodded his head, while I started taking off the bandages. Fortunately, or due to my experience, the arm was connected back properly. I asked "Can you move it? Try moving your fingers, and so on. Just don''t force yourself". Crow nodded, and started slightly moving his fingers, and his whole arm around.


    After a while, he said "I can still feel some difort, but it works for sure". I nodded, and said "You will have to exercise it everyday. In the beginning, try simple things. Move your fingers once in a while, and let your arm adjust to the movement. When you feel ready, start grabbing something with your hand. It can be anything, just make sure it''s not heavy in the beginning. Then move on to other exercises, gradually increasing the strain on your arm. This should do it".


    Crow nodded, and asked "So, what about that blood purifying thing of yours? You said that, you were going to help me absorb it". I nodded, and said "That is why I didn''t leave yet. Give it a few days, and let your arm adjust. We can then purify your blood. Just beware, it will be much more painful, than it was in the past". Crow nodded, and said "Alright". I left Crow to do his own stuff, and went back to the inn.


    A few days passed, and Crow''s arm worked properly now. He could move his fingers normally, and even grab stuff. Of course, he couldn''t lift anything heavy yet, but this would change in the future. With his arm working properly, I said "Good, now just take the Extract, that I gave you. I will try to freeze your blood a bit, and slow down the process". Crow nodded, and drank the Extract in one go.


    I said "Sit down, we don''t want you to fall onto the ground from pain, do we?". He did as I asked, and sat down. I sat down in front of him, and waited for the effects to kick in. I didn''t have to wait long, before I saw pain on Crow''s face. I extended my right arm, and ced it on his body. I used very little of my power. My arm was much different, than it was in the past. The ice powers were magnitudes better now, and could freeze stuff pretty much instantly. The coldness seeping into Crow''s body, seemed to be of great help, as his expression eased up a bit.


    This was just slowing down the absorption, it didn''t mean the results would be worse. The process would simply be less painful, but longer. We sat there for quite long, before Crow''s face turned back to normal again. I stopped using my ice powers, and took my hand off of Crow''s body. ''He fell asleep'' I thought. Crow fell asleep with a slight smile on his face. He went through the process of purifying his blood another time. This should allow him, to break through his Inner Limits no problem. It was only a question of time.


    I let Crow rest, while I took out some medicine making tool, and my new distillery. ''It''s time to make that Zenith Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract'' I thought, and began the process. This took me a while to make, as I had to make Prime Extract first, then use the distillery to make the Zenith Extract. I also didn''t use all the Earth Grabbing Sprouts. I had quite a bit of them left. I also had seeds, of all the herbs that I got from Apium. ''With those seeds, I will be able to nt them whenever I wish. I wonder if they would grow in Great Forest?'' I thought.


    In the end, I received around 100 milliliters of Zenith Extract. This was a lot, but I wasn''t about to use that myself. ''I can give 30 milliliters to Crow. He should have no problems absorbing that much. Besides, he will need loads of strength. Lazar as well as Harlin, will get 20 milliliters each. This leaves me with 30 milliliters. I will just keep it, as I don''t really need to take that now'' I thought, and waited for Crow to wake up.


    Crow woke up after about a day, and was very hungry. I gave him all the meat he could eat, and said "With your blood now purified to even higher degree, you should be able to break through your Inner Limits in the future". Crow nodded, and said "I can already feel the difference. Even my energy seems to be purer". I nodded and said "Don''t leave Olrad yet. For one, I want you to pass those two things to Harlin and Lazar, when they visit". I then handed him the Zenith Extract from Earth Grabbing Sprout.


    Crow nodded, and said "I will do as you asked". I nodded, and gave him the third bottle, and said "This one is for you. Don''t take it now. Take it before you attempt to break through your Inner Limits. When you do so, you can return to Sedon, and start working towards your own task. For now, focus on rehabilitation of your arm, as well as your senses. When you develop your instincts and break through, go back to Sedon and deal with the matters over there". Crow nodded, and replied "Alright".

 Chapter 292

    Chapter 292


    With everything taken care of, I said "I''m leaving now. Take care of yourself, and train well. I will find you, when Ie back". Crow smiled, and replied "I will manage. You take care of yourself. Although you broke through your Inner Limits, don''t try to act invincible. You always had a knack for getting into trouble. Watch out when you go back to the South". I nodded, and waved my hand, then left.


    My journey in the North ended, at least for now. ''Time to go back, and deal with the stuff in the Great Forest'' I thought, as I left Olrad. My journey back to the Great Forest, was very peaceful and quick. I no longer wasted time, wandering around the North. I soon saw the borderline, that separated the North from the South. "It''s been a while, since Ist appeared here", I said to myself.


    I walked up to the barrier, and extended my right arm. I could feel some disturbance, but my arm passed through it, without much of a struggle. After my arm, followed my whole body. A ring sun hit my face, and brought back many memories. ''That''s right, there is sun and moon here. I haven''t seen them in a very long time'' I thought, and marched forwards. My destination this time, was the vige my mother came from, the Asturb Vige. ''Time to pay a visit to my family'' I thought, and speed up towards my destination.


    I was about 3 weeks worth of travel, away from Asturb Vige. With my current pace, I would get there in about two weeks. I was much faster than any horse could be. So it was pointless for me to even own one now. Having a horse would be nice in the past, but I would have to care for it. Feed it, let it rest when it got tired, and so on. Especially since I carried so much stuff with me. ''Which horse could even carry all that weight? No wonder I never got a horse. Now, it''spletely pointless anyway'' I thought.


    After about a week of travel, I encountered a Human camp. They were probably heading towards the North, but it was none of my concern. I sped past their camp, and disappeared in the distance. Someone tried to follow me, but with my speed, nothing or no one who didn''t break through their Inner Limits, could. I found a few more of such camps on my way. ''Weird. In the past, there didn''t seem to be so many people here. Why are they here now?'' I thought. As I was approaching another camp, I decided to slow down, and find out.


    I slowly walked towards the camp, and noticed a few Humans sitting there. They were resting, eating food and whatnot. When they finally noticed me, one of them shouted "Who goes there?!". I smiled, and replied "Don''t worry, I have no ill intentions. I only want to ask something". All of them stood up, and the leading person, which was a woman, asked "What do you want to ask?".


    I asked "I don''t remember seeing so many people in these parts, in the past. Did something happen?". She looked at me confused, and asked "You don''t know?". I smiled, and said "I was busy, it''s how I can put it. I have no idea why there are so many people here". She thought about it, and said "I can tell you, but you will pay for the information". I waved my hand, and said "I''m not that interested". Then walked towards my destination.


    One of the people from that group shouted "Did you perhaps return from the North?". I didn''t stop, and simply continued on my way. I was only curious a bit, it didn''t matter to me that much. I soon encountered another camp, and thought ''It wouldn''t hurt to try one more time. It''s on my way as well''. I approached the group, and asked the same question. This time, the male leader said "You don''t know? There is a hugepetition. If youe from that direction, then you must''ve encountered other camps". I asked "What sort ofpetition?".


    The guy said "The Royal Family issued a sort of challenge to us, the younger generation. Those who stay in the North for two months, and return with significant trophies, will be recruited to the Royal services. There are many roles to choose from as well. Even the ability to train as Royal Warriors. That is the main prize, where only a couple of teams, will be able to get that opportunity. Everyone is mostly aiming for that".


    I asked "What sort of "significant trophies" are we talking about?". He replied "Stuff like currency of the North, their techniques, tools and so on. Even wild beasts are counted. Their skins or more valuable parts can be exchanged for points. As long as something is of value, it is counted towards the overall score". ''Interesting. I wonder why the Royal Family would do that now. I have a hunch as to why, but¡­ it might be wrong'' I thought. I decided to ask for a reason. "Any reason for suchpetition?". He nodded, and said "Yea, the Royal Family will be choosing the new Emperor next year. All the princes are looking for good people to support them. They also need warriors, assistants and so on. That is why, thepetition happens now".


    ''There is more to that, than simplepetition. But, it doesn''t really concern me. It''s good to know that anyway'' I thought. I remembered something, and asked "What''s the current date?". The guy looked at me confused, and said "It''s year 619 of the Endrosian Calendar. Today is the 12th day of the Spring". I smiled, and thanked him. I then took out a ck Hal, and said "Catch", then threw it to him. He caught it, and said "This is... ". I started walking, and said "Have a nice trip to the North".


    ''I''m almost 29 years old. I''ve been to the North for almost 5 years. Time passed so quickly, when there was no sun and moon around'' I thought. When I thought about it, I almost became a middle aged man. Although I still looked quite young. My beard and long hair, didn''t help my young man image. Of course those things could be trimmed, and I would look like any 20 year old youngster.


    ''I wonder if Trek is still alive?'' I thought, as I increased my pace towards the Asturb Vige. I travelled like this for over a week, until I was quite close to the vige. I decided to rest just in case, and go inside the next day. I woke up the next day, and walked straight into the vige. Some vigers tried to stop me, but were unable to.

 Chapter 293

    Chapter 293


    None of them had the strength to stop me anymore. With such amotion, I finally noticed Woody, who just arrived. He came forward, and asked "Why have youe here? Who are you!?". I replied "It''s me, Nex". I could see disbelief on Woody''s face. He asked "Is this real?". I didn''t answer his question, and simply asked my own. "Where is Trek?". Woodyughed "That pile of bones? He is almost done for. Still, being able to hold on for so long, it''s like that guy just refuses to die".


    I walked towards Woody, and asked again "Where is he?". Woody replied "There is no point going for revenge anymore. He is a dead man anyway, but I will not stop you. Follow me, I will show you where he is". I followed after Woody, and we soon arrived at some run down house. There were only a few people staying around it. Woody pointed at the house, and said "He is inside. I finally became the Vige Chief, and that old and crazy bastard''s rule is over". I didn''t care about Woody''s remarks, and walked towards the house. A young man blocked me, and asked "What more do you guys want? Leave us in peace already".


    I looked at him, and noticed that it was the youngster, I fought in the past. "Move, I''m going to see my grandfather". The guy was shocked, and asked "Nex?... This is all your fault¡­ you". Before he could finish, I punched him lightly. He flew through the air, andnded a couple of metres away. I didn''t care about him, and simply entered. Woody said nothing, it seems they liked to abuse these people anyway.


    Inside, a lone man wasying on his bed. He was dying, that much would be obvious to anyone. His bones were visible, and he looked like a skeleton. He looked even worse than me, from the past. I walked over to the bed, and said "It''s me". Trek opened his eyes, and asked "Nex¡­ Have you returned to take my life?". I shook my head, and said "No. You are already dying, there is no need for me to do that. I came here to ask something". He replied "What''s that?". I asked "Why did you hate my father so much? He loved mother, and cared for her. So I don''t understand".


    Heughed a bit, and said "Blindness, that''s what it was. Since I had a lot of time to think things through, I realised that I was the one, who was crazy all that time. Your father was a good man. I just didn''t want to ept that, due to my own stupid reasons. It''s an old story". I replied "I have¡­", but before I could finish, Woody butted in and said "He is done already. That fool destroyed his own family, and.. ". "Leave".


    Woody looked at me, and asked "What did you say?". I repeated "Leave". He snorted, and said "You think, you can just walk in here, and...", but before he could finish, a dagger already pierced through his body, leaving a gaping hole. He looked at me in disbelief, and said "You¡­ bastard!", then his body split into pieces and fell to the floor.


    I walked over to the pile of flesh, and rummaged through it. I soon found what I was looking for. Woody''s bag, that contained all his possessions. I looked at the pile, and said "Did you really think, I didn''t see through your games?". I then turned towards trek and walked towards him, while saying "That idiot helped me, only to be the Vige Chief, but he was too stupid to leave". Trek was visibly shocked, and said "You¡­ you reached...". I said "I did. As I was saying, I have time, so exin to me".


    Trek went quiet for a while, then said "Your father is from a vige called Sav Vige. When I was younger, I had a friend in that vige. He was the father of your father. I said that I had a friend, because he betrayed me. Well, it was about a woman¡­ Anyway, when your father wanted to take my daughter, I immediately disagreed. This was a payback to his father. Raz was stubborn though, and Lily loved him a lot. When I heard that Lily was pregnant, I became furious and began nning the ritual, with the use of Moon de. This would allow me to live longer, but also get rid of a shame and disgrace. They somehow learned about my ns, and ran away".


    After a short pause, Trek continued. "Of course, I didn''t let them get away so easily. I chased after them, with a few of my followers. It was then, that Raz''s father stepped in. That is how I overreached my life. I was also at the Inner Limits stage, just like Raz''s father Otris. I won with Otris, but Raz and Lily managed to run away. I was bent on finding them, the sword and you. Even more so, since I overreached my life in that battle".


    I thought about something, and said "Woody told me something else though". He snorted, and said "Woody? That bastard always wanted to take the seat from me. I admit I was crazy about that ritual and stuff, but he had no right to be a Vige Chief here. His ranking didn''t even allow that. Whatever he said to you, must''ve been to convince you that he was the good guy. If I knew him well, he probably wanted to make sure, that you wouldn''t fight him over the position in the future. After all, you are the inheritor, and the next Vige Chief after me".


    I asked "Why not simply kill me?". Trek smiled, and said "I was still too strong for him, and I still had loads of followers. If he killed you, he would die as well. That is why, he had to let you go. He also had to make sure, we wouldn''t find you". I nodded my head, and said "I was suspicious of him anyway. Besides, I already saw through him, when I came back here. What you said, makes sense. This doesn''t mean, I forgive you though". Trek replied "I''m not looking for your forgiveness. It''s toote for me, and for that. I only wanted to tell you the truth. I do regret what I did, because of that, I lost my daughter. You lost both of your parents because of me, and even when you found a family again, it turned out even worse for you. I can only apologize... but what will that change?".


    I replied "It''s better than nothing, I guess. I don''t intend to be the Vige Chief. My goal is much different, to what yours may have been. But, I will help you out a bit. I will ce the person of your choosing, as the next Vige Chief". Trek''s expression changed, he was shocked to be sure. He asked "You still want to help me?". I replied "I''m not really helping you. I''m helping the vige, from which my motheres from. You know best, who is most appropriate as a Vige Chief here. So tell me who it is, and I will give him that position".


    He thought about it for a while, and said "The guy outside. You met him already in the past. He was the one who fought you. Make him the Vige Chief". I nodded my head, and said "It shall be done". I turned around, and exited the house. The guy I punched not too long ago, was stillying on the ground, trying to pick himself up. I walked over, and said "Is that all you got?". He managed to squeeze out "You¡­ bastard¡­ It''s all your fault!".


    Imanded "Stand up". He struggled, and finally stood up. He was very weak. The reason was simple, all Trek''s followers were weak. They were skinny, and had no strength left. I said "Good. You are not useless after all. Follow me, we will talk inside". He stood there, and said "I''m not goin¡­". I lightly pressed on one of his pressure points, and said "Yes you will". He screamed in pain, then shouted "I will kill you!". I said "Follow me, or I can make this even more painful".


    He finally fessed up, and followed after me¡­ slowly. We entered the house again, and I asked Trek "Is he the one?". Trek nodded slightly, and said "Yes. He was always loyal, and cared for the greater good of the vige. Although his views became a bit rotten due to my crazy ideas, he is a good kid". The kid seemed a bit confused, and asked "What is going on?". Trek said "Ricky. What I did in the past, was wrong. I was blinded by my own stupidity, and destroyed my own family. Nex did nothing wrong, he is not your enemy".


    The guy was confused, and didn''t know what to say. His world pretty much shattered. After all, he must''ve had a lot of hate for me. Not that I cared much, I would still leave this ce either way. He mumbled "But.. you said¡­ and¡­". I decided to waste no more time, and said "I''m the new Vige Chief, what are you going to do about that?". He looked at me, and then Trek a few times. He shouted "He is a bastard! How can he be the Chief¡­ I don''t approve of that!". I asked "What are you going to do about it? If you don''t want toply, I can just kill you".


    He replied "I won''t stand this. I will not be one of your pawns. I refuse!". I started walking towards him. There was fear in his eyes, but he didn''t back down. Who wouldn''t fear their death approaching? I raised my hand, while he closed his eyes. I smiled, and tapped his shoulder "Pak". He opened his eyes and asked "Wha..?". I said "I don''t intend to stay here. The next Vige Chief will be you. That is what I decided, you are worthy of such position". He became confused again, and asked "You¡­ you were testing me?". I smiled, and said "Kind of. You are too weak, to be a Vige Chief in such state. I will help you out a bit".

 Chapter 294

    Chapter 294


    He struggled, and said "It''s a lie. You are lying to me¡­ you want to use me". Trek butted in, and said "Ricky, stop being stubborn. It''s not a lie. You will be the next Vige Chief. Woody is already dead, didn''t you see the pile of flesh, when you walked in?". Ricky asked "Huh?" and turned around. He saw the pile of flesh, that used to be Woody. He asked me "You killed him?".


    I didn''t feel the need to answer that question, and said "If you don''t want that opportunity, I can always leave, and let you guys deal with this yourself". Before Ricky could say anything, Trek shouted "Ricky! Stop being stupid". Ricky finally woke up from his thoughts, and said "Alright, I will be the next Vige Chief. Remember though, I owe you nothing. I will not help you, if you ever need help. This will not be your home either".


    I snorted, and said "Tough words for a kid. Don''t worry, I have no need for you or this vige. You can live your life however you like. After I leave, it''s not going to be me problem whether you survive or not". I then took out some of the medicine I had, and said "Drink this". Ricky shook his head, and said "No". I replied "If I wanted to kill you, you would already turn into a pile of flesh. Don''t argue with me, and drink it". He looked at Trek, and gulped down his saliva.


    He took the bottle, and drank it. After a while, he eximed "This is medicine!". I decided not toment on that, and took out some cooked meat. I handed some to him, and said "Eat as much as you want. We don''t want you to be all frail, do we?". He took the meat after a slight hesitation, and ate. He ate quite a lot, and like a wild beast too. When he was full, he said "I feel much better now. My strength returned by a lot". I took out the Zenith Extract from Earth Grabbing Sprout, and gave him 10 milliliters.


    I said "Drink this, and you will see the effects yourself". He took it, and drank the Extract. After a while, he eximed again "My strength! I feel much stronger!". I asked "At what stage of your limits are you?". He looked at me, but didn''t want to answer. Trek did that instead "He broke through his Outer Limits. He didn''t break through his Half Step yet". I nodded, and said "That should be fine. With my medicine, he should have enough strength to be a Vige Chief. If my guess is right, he should be able to break through his Half Step in the future".


    When Ricky absorbed all the properties of that Extract, he eximed "In the future? I can break through now!". He made a stance, and released a wild Aura. His energy started to increase, and then a quiet "boom!" sounded from within his body. I was a bit surprised, but Trek was quite shocked. He said "You did break through your Half Step indeed. Good boy, you have some talent after all".


    He smiled, and said "Now, I can pay you back". He charged at me, while I simply waved my hand "BOOOM!". He flew through the doors, andnded outside with a grunt. I walked out, and said "Not in a hundred years. Do you think Woody was so weak? You are still nothing in my eyes, so I suggest keeping that hatred to yourself. My patience is limited". I grabbed him by his neck, and dragged him back to the house. I threw him onto the ground, and said "You trained him quite well. His hatred for me, is really deep. Not that it matters".


    Trek scolded him "You idiot. He his helping you out, and the vige. This is how you want to treat him? He didn''t even ask you for anything in exchange. Are you really that blinded? Just like I was?". Ricky picked himself up, and lowered his head. I said "With this over, I will now take care of few people here. After all, there are a few of them, who can kill him still. They need to be taken care of". Trek nodded, and said "Yes, the ones who followed Woody, will just get rid of Ricky. This is a good idea". I turned towards Ricky, and said "Follow me. We will announce your new position to the vige".


    This time, Ricky didn''t struggle or protest, he followed after me quietly. Because of themotion, there was a crowd of people already gathered outside the house we were in. I stood in front of them, and said "This youngster here, is your new Vige Chief. As the inheritor, I chose him, as the next Vige Chief. If someone is against that, step forward". A few people stepped forward, and one of them asked "Where is Woody? He is our Vige Chief, not you!". I threw my daggers, and killed these people immediately.


    I asked "Anyone else?". The crowd of people feared me now. Some of them tried running away, but in front of me, no one in this vige could do any such thing. With those people dead as well, I asked again "Anyone else?". The rest stood there, with fear in their eyes. I nodded, and said "Good. This is your new Vige Chief. He is now responsible for this vige and you. I will no longer interfere with your matters". I turned towards the house, and said "I''m leaving now. Whatever happens to this vige from now on, is not my concern. Enjoy your retirement". I then left the Asturb Vige, nevering back again.


    Although the matters concerning the Asturb Vige, were taken care of. This was just a part of my family. I nned to visit my father''s side of the family, and check if any of my rtives were still alive. I knew the name of the Vige, and I knew where it was located. It would take me a week of time at max, to get there with my speed.


    I sped through the forest, and only stopped when it was necessary. After about a week of time, I finally arrived at the Sav Vige. Two robust guards stopped me at the gate, and asked "What is your purpose here, stranger?". I replied "I''m looking for Otris". The guard replied "There is no such person living here, leave". I replied "I''m Nex Wintersteed, Raz''s son, and Otris''s grandson. Can you now tell me, where he is?". The guards became stunned, and one of them asked "Can you prove it?". I shook my head, and said "I don''t know how to prove it".


    The guard thought about it for a while, but then I got an idea. I said "My father used to practice a specific set of exercises. Maybe this will prove it?". The guard said "Show us then". I disyed a set of exercises, that my father used to do every morning. The guard nodded after a while, and said "Yes, this set of exercises originates from our vige. It seems that you are saying the truth. Alright, follow me. I will take you to meet someone".


    I followed the guard inside the vige, and looked at the surroundings. It was simr to the Asturb Vige. All people were working towards the better good of the whole vige. The people seemed happy, and hardworking. The atmosphere was many times different, than that of Asturb Vige, which I visited a week ago. As we walked, the guard said "If you are really Nex, then there will be some sad news for you unfortunately". I asked "Why so?". He replied "The person I''m taking you to, will exin everything". I nodded my head, and didn''t ask any other questions.


    We soon arrived at a small mansion. Probably belonging to the current Vige Chief. The guard knocked on the doors, and waited. After a while, a woman opened them, and asked "Ian? Shouldn''t you be guarding the gate now?". He replied "We have a special guest today. Take him to see Finch, they should talk themselves". She seemed confused, and asked "Why". He replied "He will know why. Just take him to see Finch". The woman nodded, and said "Alright. Follow me, I will take you to Finch".


    The guard left, while I followed the woman inside. She asked "Who are you exactly?". I replied "I''m Nex". She stopped in her tracks and turned around. After a while of looking at me, she asked "Are you really Nex?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes. That is my name. Nex Wintersteed". She couldn''t believe it for a while, but then smiled, and said "Wee home boy. I''m Tina, your aunt. Follow me, I will take you to see your uncle". I nodded my head, and followed her upstairs.

 Chapter 295

    Chapter 295


    Upstairs, behind a desk, sat a middle aged man. When we entered the room, he asked without looking at us "What is it Tina?". She smiled, and said "I brought a guest for you. You guys should talk". He looked up, and asked "A guest?". He then looked at me, and asked "What is the purpose of your visit stranger?". Tina was still smiling, and said "Go on, tell him". I nodded my head, and said "I''m Nex".


    He was shocked when he heard that name. He asked "Are you ying a trick boy?". I shook my head, and said "That is the name I have. Nex Wintersteed. Son of Raz Wintersteed". He looked at me in disbelief, and asked "Tina, is this real?". She nodded her head, and said "Apparently yes". Finch stood up, and walked over to me. He asked "Can I examine you?". I didn''t know what he meant exactly, but I replied "Sure". He lifted my long hair up, and had a proper look at my face. After a while, he nodded, and said "You do resemble your father. You must be Nex".


    Tina said "I will leave you guys to talk", and left the room. I stood there with Finch in awkward silence. After a while, he broke the silence and asked "So how have you been?". I smiled, and said "Just act normal around me. It seems we are a family". He smiled as well, and said "Your father was simr. Yes, I''m your uncle Finch. I''m Raz''s brother, Tina is your aunt, and my wife. We searched for you for so long, yet we couldn''t find you".


    He then hugged me. I was a bit confused at what to do next. I was used to people being cold and without feelings, but these people seemed to be my real family. The moment they found out who I was, they showed affection and care. It was something, I didn''t feel for a long time. He let me go after a while, and said "What happened? We didn''t find Raz, nor Lily. You were gone too". I shook my head, and said "Father and mother are already gone. They died a long time ago. I don''t know how, but I intend to find out, one way or another. I left the vige we lived in, after I lost the Moon de. Someone stole it from me, but fortunately, she didn''t belong to Trek''s people".


    He became angry, and said "So you know about Trek?". I nodded, and replied "Yes. He tried to sacrifice me, in order to gain his life back. Unfortunately for him, I didn''t have that Moon de with me, and I managed to get away". Finch said "That bastard! I should go and finish him off right now!". I said "There is no need. I already visited him not too long ago. He is a dying man, and has at most a few days of life left".


    He nodded, and asked "You didn''t go for revenge? Even though he was dying?". I said "No. He understood his sins, and although I didn''t forgive him, he at least apologised for what he did. This alone means something. I also found you guys, thanks to him. I didn''t know where my father''s vige was". Finch nodded, and said "It''s good that you are back. This is your home Nex. This is where your real family is".


    I nodded, and said "You must be the Vige Chief now. That means grandfather is no longer around, right?". Finch nodded, and said "Yes. He passed away about 10 years ago. He fought with Trek in the past, and used a lot of his strength to stop him. This exhausted his lifespan, and he became weaker. Until he passed away". I nodded my head, and didn''t really know what to say anymore.


    Finch took another look at me, and said "You are strong indeed. Just like your father. You should be almost 29 years old, right?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I will be 29 in Summer". He asked "Where is your wife?". I was a bit confused, and asked "Wife? I don''t have a wife". He asked "So you didn''t propose to your girlfriend yet?". I shook my head, and said "I don''t have a girlfriend. I''m just me, and no one else".


    He became quite shocked, and said "You are almost 29, and you don''t have a wife or a girlfriend? How did this happen?". ''It''s not like I was going around, looking for women to marry though. I don''t know why he expects for me to have a wife now'' I thought. I said "Well, it''s a long story". He sat down, and replied "I have time". I sighed, and sat down as well. I started narrating the story of how I became a traveller, and how my past years went by. I didn''t mention anything about Frosty, and a load of other things. It seems Frosty was hiding from something now, or really became absorbed into my arm, and would never appear again.


    With my story done, Finch said "You''ve been through quite a lot. Breaking through your Inner Limits before the age of 30, is a praise worthy achievement. Actually it''s even greater, because you did it all by yourself, without anyone''s help. I wouldn''t be able to break through that easily, if not for the teachings of your grandfather. It still took me 45 years to reach that stage". He then asked "So what about that woman, who stole the sword?".


    I replied "I don''t know where she might be, or what happened to the sword. I wasn''t concerned by it. After all, I just viewed it as a simple sword. It seems, it''s not that simple anymore". Finch nodded, and said "Yes, it is something you should get back. Not because it belonged to Asturb Vige ancestor, but because of its value. That de is something special, as far as I know. We also have an Ancestral Weapon, and it is currently in my possession. These weapons are not simple, I can tell you that much. If you can get it back, be sure to do it". I nodded my head, and said "I will look for it".


    Finch then said "Come Nex. Let''s announce your return to the whole vige. Maybe we can find you a girlfriend too. Many of the younger girls here, would love to be wives to a Wintersteed. Hahahaha". I had no words for that, but followed him anyway. This experience was different, than what happened in Asturb Vige, when I first visited. These people behaved like the real family, that found me after so many years. I could feel the warmth from these people, while my instincts never acted up. I never felt anything wrong with this vige. ''This is my real home. This is my family'' I thought a bit emotional.

 Chapter 296

    Chapter 296


    I followed Finch outside, and we walked up to what seemed like the center of the vige. There was a statue in the middle, just like in Asturb Vige, but obviously it was different. The statue was that of arge warrior, draped in animal skins, with arge sword on his back. It looked majestic and awe inspiring. As I was checking out the statue, Finch shouted "EVERYONE! GATHER ON THE MAIN SQUARE!".


    His voice was very loud, and even people outside the vige, would be able to hear it no problem. After a while, people started converging, and gathered around the statue. Some were talking amongst themselves, and asking questions like "What happened", or "Does he always have to shout like this?". When everyone was gathered around, Finch said "Today, is a great day. My nephew Nex finally returned home. This calls for celebration! Prepare food, and leave whatever you were doing. Today, we shall celebrate!". People cheered, and some eximed "This is Nex?". "He finally returned?".


    Some vigers came over, and introduced themselves. "Nice to finally meet you Nex. I''m Aran Greyflint. If you need any training with a sword or a bow, be sure toe by. Wee home boy". Another person said "I''m Howard Limeskin, but everyone calls me Howy. Nice to meet you!". A few other people introduced themselves, and I didn''t really know how to behave. I always replied in a simr matter, with simple "I''m Nex, nice to meet you".


    A few women also came over, and introduced themselves. I don''t know if Finch did it on purpose or not, but he said "Nex still doesn''t have a wife", to every Woman that came over to greet me. ''I didn''te here to find a wife though¡­'' I thought. In overall, these were very nice people. They joked, smiled andughed. This atmosphere reminded me of my own parents, and the house we used to live in.


    People prepared for a great feast, while Finch took me around to see the vige. He pointed to me a few locations, that belonged to more important people. cksmith, tailor, the training area for young warriors, and so on. The vigers quickly set up the tables, and cooked the food. After our little sightseeing, the feast was almost ready.


    Finch told me to sit down next to him, while his wife sat on the opposite side. I was a bit confused, and asked "You don''t have any kids?". Finch smiled, and replied "Of course I do. They are all grown up already. Aron, Haily and Norty, left the vige for that Royal Competition". I asked "They are also taking part in that?". Finch nodded, and said "It''s for the experience. None of us are really that interested in Royals. Although we do travel to the Imperial City sometimes, it''s not that often". I nodded my head, and waited for the feast to begin.


    When everything was ready, and all the people gathered. Finch stood up and said "Today we wee back my nephew Nex. Eat and drink to your heart''s content!". People cheered and started eating and drinking. A te full of food appeared in front of me, together with some drinks. It was Tina who passed that te, and said "Eat up, you are quite skinny. You need to eat a lot, in order to have strength". I smiled, and ate the food. Someone sitting not far away, asked "Nex, tell us about your adventures. You must''ve had many of them". It was a youngster, not older than 14 years old, who said this.


    I nodded my head, and said "In the past, before I actually started my journey. I met some bad people. This ced me in a bad situation, but it had its benefits. Thanks to that, I learned a lot of skills, and found myself a friend". The same youngster asked "Where is your friend now?". I shook my head, and said "Passed away. We encountered a huge boar like creature on our travels. I wasn''t able to do anything to that thing, and my friend Shelly sacrificed itself for my sake". The mood became a bit spoiled due to my story, as people became sad.


    I smiled, and said "I still remember Shelly. That turtle could eat, even better than I can". The youngster looked up interested, and asked "A turtle?". I nodded and said "Yes. It was intelligent, and very friendly. Shelly was also strong, it could kill a whole pack of wolves by itself". The youngster became shocked, and asked "A turtle could kill wolves? What type of turtle was that". I smiled, and said "Special kind. Although Shelly was a turtle, it could run faster than wolves. I was shocked myself, when I found out, how fast Shelly really was. I guess we shouldn''t judge a book by its cover, right?".


    The youngster nodded, and asked "What else did you encounter. Tell us more". I thought about it for a while, and said "How about I tell you, some of my stories from the North?". Some people eximed "You''ve been to the North?". I nodded my head, and said "Yea, for almost 5 years. I just returned not too long ago". People were shocked, and eximed stuff like "Amazing!" or "Wow!". I didn''t really treat it, as some sort of great achievement thought.


    I recaled something, and said "Actually, I always heard how North is dangerous. But when I visited, it was fine. There were no dangerous beasts around usually, you had to travel to specific areas, in order to encounter them". Finch replied "That is inside the North. What people usually refer to, when they say that the North is dangerous, is the Border, which separates the North from the Endrosian Empire". "Huh?" I asked confused, then continued "What about the Border? There is nothing dangerous there. You simply pass through, and that''s it. Right?".


    I looked around, and everyone seemed shocked. I asked "Something''s wrong?". Finch snapped out of it, and asked "Did you really go to the North?". I replied "Of course! I visited most of the locations there. Obsidian Mountains, Vulture Cliffs¡­ I have a story about that too. Land of Sands and so on. I met many different races like Voltars, Shades, Golems or Lizards".


    Finch asked "Then how can you say, that the Border is simple? No one can simply pass through it, just like that". "What? Then I''m lost, isn''t that what I did? I simply passed through it". Finch thought about it for a while, and asked "So you never encountered any trials at that Border? You didn''t have to fight beasts and so on, before you could enter?". I shook my head, and said "No. Was that a thing?". Finch replied "Of course. Everyone who wishes to enter the North, has to go through a trial. They are thrown in to some sort of space, where other beasts and filthy creatures wonder. You have to move through that space, before you can enter. The question is, Why you didn''t encounter that?".


    I replied "I don''t know. I simply walked past. It didn''t matter whether I was going in or out, I just passed the Border... This would exin, why I haven''t seen those ming Wolves or Bears inside the North. What others told me about the North, would make sense as well. Otherwise, why would people fear North so much". Finch nodded, and said "I don''t know how you were able to just pass, as this is something I never heard of. It''s something to cherish. You are free toe and go to the North, as you please. This is very useful thing".


    The youngster said "Tell us more about your adventures in the North!". Others also nodded, and seemed interested. I nodded my head, and said "I''ve visited most of the North locations, throughout the time I''ve been there. I made some friends with Lizards and Shades, but I also made some enemies. I also made many discoveries. I learned how to nt seeds and care for nts in Apium. It''s an area that belongs to Atols, they look like big apes, but are intelligent, and can talk. I even improved a whole farming system for them¡­". I began narrating some of the stories to the younger kids, but the adults sitting closer to us, also listened with interest.


    I didn''t want to spoil the moment, so I didn''t mention anything about Avians, Yagaroths and Golems. I only described the races, areas that they lived in, and some small situations that happened to me. With my story pretty much over, Aran said "You went through a lot of things. If I can ask, which limit did you break through?". Everyone around became instantly interested, and looked at me. Finch on the other hand, knew already. He had a smug expression on his face, but didn''t say anything.


    I said "I broke through to my Inner Limits, not that long ago". The crowd around us eximed, and all shouted and cheered. Things like "Genius!" and so on, were spoken by the people. I didn''t consider myself a some sort of extraordinary Human. I simply got lucky, if not for that episode with Crow, I would probably need a lot more time, to break through. They didn''t know everything that happened to me, so it was easy for them to assume that. ''If not for the herbs I got in the North, as well as Nick''s teachings and my whole experience, I wouldn''t be so strong today'' I thought.


    They younger kids looked at me with respect, awe and yearning in their eyes. They probably wanted to reach simr heights at my age. This was a good thing, this would motivate them to strive and be stronger. ''I should help out the younger generation here. After all, this is my family, and they are the future of this vige'' I thought. This was a good ce to check, if I could nt the seeds from Apium, in the Great Forest. I turned towards Finch, and asked "Can I use one of your fields? I would like to try and nt some stuff". Finch was taken aback a bit, and asked "You want to do some farm work?". I smiled, and said "Yes. You may not understand now, but if manage to grow the stuff, that I want to grow, I will be able to make this vige really powerful".


    His eyes shone likenterns, and he said "You can of course use anything you want here. You are the Wintersteed after all. It''s true, that I don''t know how exactly you want to achieve that, but if you can¡­ I don''t know how I could reward you". I shook my head, and said "I''m not doing it for rewards. You guys are my family, I want to help you, and make you strong". Finch nodded, and said "Goodd. Here, have a drink with your uncle!". He raised his mug, and I did the same with mine. We drank from them, and continued the feast.

 Chapter 297

    Chapter 297


    After a while of drinking, Finch asked "I meant to ask about your right arm. Did something happen to it? It looks different". I smiled, and replied "It''s an old story". Finch replied "We have time". I sighed, and said "Alright. I was travelling through Great Forest, and trained my skills. I encountered an Eterian", at which point Finch asked angry "Was it the Eterian, who did something to your arm?".


    I shook my head, and said "No. Let me continue, you will understand soon". Finch nodded, and said "Go on then". I continued "At that time, I didn''t know who Eterians really were. She didn''t kill me, nor did I kill her. We actually benefited from one another, as she taught me stuff, while I let her use my Aura". He was confused at that point, and asked "The Eterian wanted to use your Aura?".


    I nodded, and said "Yes, it was under special circumstances. Either way, she somehow managed to meet other Humans, and they recognised her as Eterian. The Humans she encountered were too strong for me or her, and because she brought them back to where we stayed, I had to run away too. This was when she betrayed me. She shot my leg with an arrow, and slowed me down, to stall the Humans chasing us. I tried running away, with everything I had, but the woman chasing me was too strong. She released a skill from her sword, and severed my right arm".


    Finch asked "You have the right arm though. So did someone attach another arm for you?". I smiled, and said "Not exactly. After she severed my arm, another Human appeared, and urged the woman to chase after the Eterian, instead of wasting time on me. I picked my arm up, and somehow managed to escape. To answer your question, I attached the arm by myself. If not for my teacher, I wouldn''t have my right arm today".


    Finch''s face changed, when he heard that. After a while, he asked "You attached your own arm back? Is that even possible?". I smiled, and said "The proof is right here", then extended my arm. Flinch asked "What about that woman who severed your arm. You said she used a skill. Can you describe it to me?". I nodded, and said "It was a sword skill. She swung the sword, and a crescent shaped sh of energy, flew towards me. It was quite powerful, as it left arge crevice on the ground when travelled towards me. I don''t know whether it was her real skill, or a Formation".


    Finch thought about it for a while, and said "I think I know, where that woman is from". I became serious, and asked "Where?". Finch replied "Don''t be stupid Nex, she is part of Royalty. I''m not saying you shouldn''t take revenge for your arm, but be reasonable about it. If you try to go there, and kill her, this will be very messy". I nodded, but still asked "Where is she?". Finch sighed, and replied "As I said, she is part of the Royalty, therefore you will probably find her in the Imperial City. Don''t be reckless boy, there are many people there with your strength and skill level. Don''t be blinded by revenge, your arm is back, and that is a good thing. If in the future you get a chance, then do whatever you like, but don''t be reckless".


    I nodded, and said "I''m not an idiot. If circumstances allow, I will take at least her arm or two, as apensation". Finch nodded, and said "Good". He then changed the topic, and asked "What about that teacher of yours. He taught you some interesting things. being able to attach your own arm back¡­ I wonder what else can you do?". I smiled, and said "Actually, quite a bit. He taught me how to make medicine, as well as poison. I also learned other Arts from him".


    Finch became all serious, and asked "What Arts?". I replied "Stealth and Hidden Wea..." before I could finish, Finch ced his hand on my mouth. He said "Never share that with anyone else. This is your family, and we will ept you under all circumstances, but others will not". I nodded my head, and he took his hand off my mouth. Because the day wasing to an end, he stood up and said "Nex and I will retire for the night, but you guys are free to continue. Just make sure you clean up after. Hahaha".


    Everyone said goodbye to me, and continued partying. Me and Finch on the other hand, left the table. We went back to his house, and then into the room upstairs. He closed the door and tapped his foot on the ground. Something changed in the room, and Finch said "Now we can talk more freely. I activated a Formation, that seals the sound within the room. Nex¡­ were you a ve?". I sat down in a chair, and sighed. I said "If I knew, this would cause such amotion, I would just keep quiet".


    Finch sat down as well, and said "No. It''s good that you mentioned it. This way, we can prevent stuff before it would happen". I nodded, and said "Yes, I was a ve due to my own stupidity. When I started my journey, I was pretty weak. Father and mother were gone, and after that woman took the Moon de, I was devastated. Not because of the sword, but because of love. Anyway, as a total idiot, I went into the Great Forest without any supplies, and tried to survive there. I was doing actually quite well, until I met a bear on my way. I managed to kill it with some trickery, but I wasn''t left in a good state. That is when someone from a vige not far away found me, and made me a ve for saving my life".


    He asked seriously "What is that vige called?". I smiled, and replied "It''s already gone. I destroyed it, before I left". Finch became stunned, and asked "What about that teacher of yours? Where is he now?". I replied "Passed away. I met him in that vige. Because he saw potential in me, he decided to teach me the Art of Stealth, Hidden Weapons and Medicine". Finch asked "Art of Medicine?".


    I nodded, and said "Yes. Although this was his own Art, that he developed throughout his life. It involves treating injuries, making medicine and so on. Poison, is also one of those things". Finch thought about it, and asked "So that is why you wanted a piece of a field? To grow some herbs, and then make them into concoctions of yours?". I nodded, and replied "Yes. Although, you don''t have to worry about any side effects. I make pure medicine, or poison. Nick was a good man, although of Evil Nature".


    Finch nodded, and said "This would exin why he knew the Arts. Nex, you can''t disclose that to anyone". I replied "I know. You are my family though, so I didn''t think much when telling you this". He replied "We are fine here. I told you, this is your home, and we will ept you, even if you were on an evil path. It''s our responsibility. We couldn''t protect you or Raz...". I shook my head, and said "You don''t owe me anything. You weed me here, and I feel like part of this whole family. This is a feeling, I haven''t felt in a long time".


    Finch said "Are Hidden Weapons the only offensive skill you know of?". I nodded, and said "Kind of. I learned archery a bit, but it''s not good for closebat at all. I do have two swords, but I''m no sword user. I usually fought with my daggers, fists or bow". Finch nodded, and said "Aran is a very good teacher. He specialises in swords, and can teach you some things about archery as well. It will be a good idea for you to learn, how to use a sword and master your archery. This will at least provide some skills to you, that can see the light of day. Your Art of Stealth, is not that bothersome though. If you are good, using it should not be a problem. I still ask you to never reveal all of that to anyone you don''t trust. If you have to use the Arts, be sure to kill". Thest sentence, Finch spoke in a very serious tone. I nodded my head, and said "Will do".

 Chapter 298

    Chapter 298


    With that taken care of, Finch said "Tomorrow, someone will show you the field, that you can use for your nts. You can also go visit Aran, to start your training. As for a ce to stay, this house is big enough for you to stay at. Besides, I don''t want you to stay all alone, after what you''ve been through. Know that this is your home, and you are weed here". I nodded, and replied "Thanks". Finch released the Formation, and said "Follow me, I will show you your room. Get some rest for today, and let all that sink in", he then smiled.


    I followed him to a room on the second floor. When he opened the door, he said "It''s not much, but this will be your room. If you want something to eat, just go downstairs and either ask Tina, or just take something from the storage. If you want to talk about something,e by my office". I nodded, and we said goodnight to each other. The room wasn''t big, but it had all the necessary stuff inside. Afy bed, a desk with a chair, and a window in the corner with some blinds. There was also a dresser, and a few shelves.


    I ced down the bags I was always carrying, and felt a bit lighter. ''I always had those bags on me. Although the weight is not much to me anymore, I can still feel the difference, after getting them off of me'' I thought. In the past, even when I went to sleep, I always carried the bags with me. This way, no one would steal them from under my nose. It would be much harder to steal my bags, if they were attached to me.


    I took off my clothes, andid down in bed. ''I don''t really remember thest time, that Iid in my bed without clothes and bags? It feels weird for sure'' I thought. I was too used to sleeping with everything on me, but because the bed was reallyfortable, and my instincts never red up, I fell asleep peacefully.


    The next morning, I woke up and went downstairs. Both Tina and Finch were sitting at the table having breakfast. Finch said "Join us for some breakfast. Someone wille overter, and take you to the field". I nodded, and sat down at the table. Tina gave me a te filled with food, and asked "So, did you have a look at the girls here? They were quite interested in you. After all, you are still young and very strong, just like your uncle. Many of them would like to snach you". I was lost for words. What exactly could I answer? Therefore I said nothing. Tina smiled, and said "Look honey, our little Nex is shy".


    Finchughed, and said "Give him a break. He will find his other half sooner orter. Although at his age, we were already crazy¡­". Tina shouted half angry, half smiling "Finch!". He replied "What? It''s true". That type of conversation was really new to me, but I didn''t dislike it. After the breakfast, someone knocked on the doors, and Tina walked over to open them. It was the youngster, who asked me some questions during the feast. He entered the house, and said "Nex! I forgot to introduce myself yesterday. My name is Nade Roleheart, I will take you to see the field, that you wanted to see". I nodded my head, and said "Nice to meet you", then followed after the youngster.


    As we walked, he said "I would love to be just like you. Have adventures, and meet different people". He then became sad, and continued "But, I''m not strong like others". I tried to cheer him up, and said "Never assume you are weak. I was just a normal guy, before I went onto my travels. If you try hard, you can also aplish something". He shook his head, and replied "I already tried. My body is just too weak. Doesn''t matter how much I train, I can never be as good as others". I thought about it for a while, and asked "Can I examine you?". He asked "What do you mean?".


    I said "I''m also a doctor of a sort. I know a thing or two about the Human body. Maybe I can help you out". I could see hope in his eyes, after I said that. He nodded his head, and released a quiet "Un". I checked his body, but didn''t really find anything out of the ordinary. I decided to test some pressure points. I said "You may feel a bit of difort, but just bare with it, ok?". He nodded his head, while I tapped a few of his pressure points. I immediately noticed that his arms began swelling ''This is bad, no wonder he is so weak'' I thought, and tapped the points again, releasing the pressure.


    Nade asked "So? Do you know what is wrong?", with hope still in his eyes. I said "Yes. Your pressure points are clogged up, and therefore you can''t use your strength properly. I assume you get tired very quickly when training, and you may even have difficulty breathing sometimes". Nade nodded and eximed "That''s true! You really are a doctor!". I smiled, and said "I can fix that, but the process will be quite painful. I will need your consent, as well as the consent of your parents. It can be a bit risky too".


    Nade was too excited, to listen to me properly. He said "Let''s do it! I want to be strong too!". I replied, "First, we have to talk with your parents". Nade was still excited, but this time he nodded, and said "We can go now!". I smiled, and said "Patience Nade. You have to be patient. Let''s go see the field first, then we can visit your parents". Nadeughed "But it''s the same ce. My family is responsible for the farms". I was a bit surprised. Nevertheless, I smiled and said "Alright then, let''s go".


    Nade increased his speed, but before we arrive at the farm, he was already breathing more heavily. I grabbed him, and said "I can already see the farm, let me give you a lift". Before he could answer, I took a step forward and disappeared from the ce we used to stand it. We soon appeared at a farm house, and I let Nade go. Nade eximed "Wooow! You are soooo fast! I wonder if I would ever be able to reach such speeds?". I smiled and said "If you train well, who knows".


    Nade said "Come on in. Parents should be inside". I walked inside the house, which was very tidy. Nade shouted "Mom! Dad! We have a guest!". A woman walked out from a room, and asked "A guest?", then she saw me. "Nex? Is there something wrong? Did Nade do something?". I shook my head, and said "Of course not. Didn''t Finch tell you? I''m here to take a look at the field. I want to cultivate some of my herbs". She became surprised, and replied "Hubby didn''t say anything. he is good for nothing. Pleasee in, and have a seat". As I walked into the room, she just came from, she said "It''s not much, but do have a seat". I raised my hand, and said "You don''t have to act like this around me. Your house is very clean, and tidy. I''m not one of those lofty bastards, who spits on people". She smiled, and I could see that she was relieved.


    I sat down, and said "Actually, there are two reasons for my visit today". She said "I know about the field now, but what about the second reason?". Before I could reply, Nade said "Nex is a doctor! He said that he can heal me. I will be able to train, and get stronger too!". She became shocked, and asked "Is that true?". I nodded and replied "Yes. I can help out little Nade, but I need your permission. This process will be quite painful for him. His life shouldn''t be at risk though, but still". I asked because Lazar was already unhappy about me once. I didn''t want to make people of my home vige hate me.

 Chapter 299

    Chapter 299


    Nade''s mother thought about it, and said "I will have to talk about that with my husband. I will go to him now, and ask. Can you wait a bit". I smiled, and said "Sure, go ahead". She went outside, while me and Nade stayed in. Nade was too preupied about the future prospects of his new strength, so I didn''t bother him. After a while, I could hear someone talking outside. "Come on faster. You had to drink so much yesterday? You didn''t even tell me that one of Wintersteeds wasing to visit us today". It was the voice of Nade''s mother. Then a male voice replied "I''ming, I''ming. It''s not often that we get to party like this".


    Soon the doors opened, and they both entered. Nade''s mother and father entered the kitchen, but Nade''s father stayed a bit behind. I smiled, and said "Come have a sit. You don''t have to be all formal with me". He shook his head, and replied "It''s fine, I will stand. My wife told me, that you can help our son. Is that true?". I nodded, and replied "Yes. It''s not going to be that difficult, but some pain will be involved".


    He immediately replied "Do it! If our son can have a normal life, I''m sure he can take some pain. Even though we are farmers, we still belong to Sav Vige!". I nodded my head, and said "Come here Nade". Nade walked over, and asked "Is this going to be really painful?". I replied "I will be painful, but just bare with it. It shouldn''t take me that long". Nade nodded, and said "Alright". I said "Take off your shirt and pants". Nadeplied without anyints, and took his shirt, as well as pants off. With quick movements, I tapped some pressure points and left the body swell up a bit. Nade tried to hold in the pain, but was unable to and started shouting lightly. I said "Rx Nade, it will be over soon". When the swelling reached the appropriate stage, I tapped on a few other pressure points. The swelling intensified, until "puk" sound could be heard, and the swelling started to decrease.


    Nade lost his consciousness due to the pain, and was about to fall. I caught him, and said "It is done. He will be weak for a while, but after he rests, he will notice the change immediately". I then took out some Arran Liquid, and smeared it around his body. Nade''s mother came over and took Nade from my hands. She asked "Is he really alright?". I nodded, and said "Don''t worry. He is just unconscious, when he wakes up, he will be back to himself". She nodded, and said "Thank you. Although there is a doctor in Sav Vige, he was unable to do anything to Nade. You managed to cure him in a matter of minutes. We are really thankful".


    I replied "Don''t mention it. I''m d I could help". I then turned towards Nade''s father, and asked "Can we go see the field now?". He was still stunned, until he heard my question and snapped out of it. He said "Sure, let''s go. I didn''t know what size field you wanted, so I prepared a middle sized one". I nodded, and said "It''s fine, whatever you have, I will take". We went outside of the house, and arrived at an empty field. As he mentioned, it was a decent size. I could use that no problem.


    He said "The field has some weeds still, but I can take care of..". Before he finished, I said "No need. I know how to work in the fields". He nodded his head, and said "You are indeed different boy, if you don''t mind me saying that". I smiled and said "I don''t consider this to be a lowly job. All jobs are necessary. If not for you, what would the vige eat? Your job is quite important". He smiled, and said "Thank you. If you need any tools, the shed next to the house, has all of them. Feel free to use them, as much as you like". I nodded, and said "Thanks, I will manage by myself, you can go back to your own matters". He nodded, and left.


    Although what I said was true, it was also untrue. Viges were mostly dependant on farming. But because this was a special vige, they could easily hunt loads of animals. ''Although, this would depopte them over time. To feed such a vige, loads of meat would be needed, especially through the winter. The harvested crops don''t spoil that quickly, and can be eaten during every season'' I thought. I imagined that even big cities would need farming.


    Leaving those thoughts behind, I said to myself "Time to go to work". I began by cleaning the field, and then tried to find some fertiliser. I found it in another building, that stood at the fringes of the farm. Reason was obvious to me. Smell. There was a cart avable, so I took it and filled it with the fertiliser. With my field fertilised, I watered it, and let it absorb the water. ''I should probably create the water delivery system here too. I also need to separate the field into sections. Having a small shack in the middle, will be also useful'' I thought.


    There was much to do, so I didn''t linger, and went to work. I first built a shack. This was not that difficult. as I had most of the tools avable to me. The vige was next to the forest, therefore I didn''tck the materials either. ''I will need more nails. The amount of them inside Nade father''s shed, is quite low already'' I thought. I decided to go back to the vige, and ask someone over there. I asked the first person, I encountered on the street "Hey. Can you tell me, where I can get some nails?".


    The viger was a bit surprised, and asked "Nex? Why would you need nails?". I replied "I''m making some stuff, and need quite a few of them". The guys said "You will have to ask Gerond for that. He should be able to provide them". I nodded my head, and thanked him. Gerond was the cksmith in the vige, and I already knew where the workshop was. I went straight over there, and asked Gerond who was working away. "Hey. Can I get some nails? I need quite a few of them".


    Gerond stopped his work, and replied "Hi Nex. If you are after nails, then I have some in stock. How many do you need?". I asked "How many do you have?". He replied "Hmmm... Let me check". He went over to some storage area, and checked. He returned shortly, and said "Around a 1000". I replied "I will need all of them". He nodded, and said "Alright, I will get them for you". He packed the nails into a bag, and handed them to me. I asked "How much do I owe you?".


    He smiled, and said "Nothing. Not only are you Wintersteed, we don''t really use currency here". I replied "Then let me give you this", and handed him a bottle of Arran Liquid". He asked "What is this?". I replied "It''s medicine. If you are ever injured, drink it, or smear it over the wound", Gerond nodded, and said "Thanks".


    I returned to the field, and prepared to make the water delivery system. The day quickly passed, and I retired for the night. Back at Finch''s house, Tina asked "Are you hungry? You''ve been out for a whole day". I shook my head and said "I''m fine. I ate some of the meat I had. I will just go back to my room". She nodded, and said "Goodnight". I replied the same, and decided to hit the bed early.

 Chapter 300

    Chapter 300


    For the next few days, I focused on my field. I put in a lot of work, and managed to finish the water delivery system. The field was ready for nting. The problem was, would the herbs grow? ''I don''t know if all this work will be for naught, but it''s worth a try'' I thought, and started nting the seeds. It would still take some time, before the seeds would sprout. ''This is taken care of, and because of the water delivery system, I don''t really have to worry much about this ce. I should visit Aran, and begin my sword training'' I thought.


    What Finch said, was actually true. My skills couldn''t really see the light of day. People would chase me again. North was not such a problem, but Endrosian Empire was popted with pretty much Humans only. I arrived at the training area, after a short walk. Some youngsters were already there, training. A few of them practiced their archery, while most of the youngsters focused on sword training.


    When Aran saw me, he shouted "Nex! It''s good that you are here! Why don''t you show the kids a few moves?". I smiled, and replied "I''m not a sword user, therefore I can''t help you there". Aran was shocked, and asked "Archery perhaps?". I nodded, and said "I know some basics. Nothing to show off, but if you insist, I can show you what I know". Aran nodded his head, and replied "Great! Then show them some archery skills".


    I took out my bow and arrows, then walked away from the target. I stood around 300 metres away, and said "Although this distance is nothing for me anymore, the bow will only manage that. I don''t want to break it". The youngsters usually shot from a distance of 100 metres. They were not strong enough, to pull a better bow. I said "I don''t know much about archery, and I only learned very little. This is the crux of it".


    I shot one arrow after the other, and all hit the centre of the target. As I shot my arrows, I continued saying "Due to my skills, I can shoot arrows from such distance, and always hit the target. I''m able to do this, because I can predict the weather conditions at the target. Over the 300 metres in distance, the wind can blow in a different direction, than it is blowing here. Therefore, it''s crucial for an archer to predict conditions at the target, and even before the target".


    I shot about 20 arrows, and stopped. I hid my bow, and said "I can only shoot like this, I don''t really know any skill¡­". I stopped myself, and said "Actually, I know one skill". The youngsters eximed "Show us!". I took the bow out again, and said "Although I know a skill, I never used it¡­ nor did I practice it. I know how to do it, but I don''t know if I will be able to". Aran encouraged me, and said "Give it a try. You never know".


    I nodded, and notched an arrow into the bow. I then released my Aura, and attached it to the arrow. ''This doesn''t seem so difficult. I just use my Aura, and shoot normally'' I thought, and released the arrow. "Swooosh!". There was no screeching sound, as my bow waspletely useless,pared to my strength. The arrow arrived at the target and pierced right through it.


    The youngsters seemed disappointed, but I replied "Just watch". Soon, the target fell apart, and turned into pieces. The youngsters eximed "Wow!" or "Amazing!", and started at the pile of wood. Aran nodded and said "You have mastered your Aura. Although this is not a skill, it''s still a powerful attack". I smiled, and said "Well, I''m not an archer really". Aran said "Let me show you something". He then took out his bow, which was a longbow, and seemed to be made from metal. He stood next to me, and said "Look". He notched an arrow, and released it, as if without a care. Although he did it so casually, the arrow travelled very quickly, even though it didn''t make screeching sound.


    What happened next, shocked me. The arrow hit the target, but didn''t pierce through it, or became stuck to it. No, it bounced off somehow, and hit another target that was a bit further away on its left. I asked "How did you do that?". He smiled, and said "If you want to, I can teach you. I''m no master, when ites to archery. I''m better with swords". I nodded my head, and said "Teach me both. I need to learn the sword as well". Aran nodded, and replied "Of course!.. This is embarrassing though. You broke through your Inner Limits, while I didn''t. A teacher that is weaker than his pupil¡­" I smiled, and said "Doesn''t matter. You can still teach me. When ites to sword and archery, you are much better than I am".


    Aran nodded, and asked "Why do you use such a rubbish bow? You should''ve told Gerond about it, he would make you a good one". I said "I will visit Gerondter. I want to get some of his knowledge too". He asked surprised "You know how to smith?". I smiled, and replied "Kind of. Anyway, show me some more of those archery skills". Aran nodded, and we began the training.


    This went on for the rest of the day. I asked Aran, to teach me how to shoot properly while running. I also asked him to teach me the trick kind of shots, where an arrow would bounce and such. After the training, Aran said "You are not that bad at archery, it''s just that you probably didn''t have a teacher in the past, or at least good teacher. You can do the same things I can, if you practice more. Come back tomorrow, and we can practice the sword".


    I nodded my head, and left. The next morning, I ate breakfast with Finch and Tina. Finch asked "So, how are things?". I said "Not bad, I trained a bit in archery yesterday, and I n to learn sword from today. As for the field¡­ We will have to see. I don''t know if the herbs will be able to sprout here". Finch nodded his head, then I heard the knocking. Tina opened the doors, and asked "What is it Nade?". Nade said "I came to visit Nex. Is he home?". She replied "Yes,e in". When they walked into the dinning room, Tina said "Nex, you have a guest". I could hear that already, so I asked Nade "How do you feel?".


    Nade bowed down, and said "Thank you! You really did heal me. I tested it out, and I don''t get tired that quickly anymore. Although I''m still weak, I can train, and improve myself. It''s all thanks to you!". I smiled, and said "Don''t mention it. You should visit Aran. He will teach you how to train. I will be going there soon, so you can join me". Nade nodded, and said "I will go!". I said farewell to Finch and Tina, then went outside with Nade.

 Chapter 301

    Chapter 301


    Both of us went to the training area, where Aran was already teaching some youngsters. When Aran saw me arrive with Nade, he shook his head. I could guess why he did that. After all, Nade was unable to train before. I walked over to Aran, and said "I brought a new student for you". Aran replied "He is not a new student. Nade, you know you can''t train, because you get tired quickly. You can''t force yourself". Nade replied "Nex fixed that! I can now train! I can be strong too, just like you guys!".


    Confused Aran looked at me, for exnation. I said "He can train now. I fixed his issue, he just had some blockages in his body, and got tired very easily. Now, this will not happen, and he will be able to train". Aran smiled, and said "You''ve been here for a few days only, yet you already work the farm, help out people¡­ I feel like you should be the Vige Chief". Although he said it jokingly, I replied "I''m not interested in that. Anyway, we can start the sword training. Treat me as an idiot, because I never learned anything about swords".


    Aran nodded, and said "Then we will start from the basics". Nade wanted to train with me, when he heard that I would begin my sword training. Aran disagreed on the other hand, and said "You have to build up your stamina, and strength first. That is what you are going to do. Your first training today, is to run 10 circles around the training area. When you are done, I will tell you the next part".


    Nade was a bit disappointed, but nodded nevertheless, and began running. Aran took out a sword, and asked "Do you have a sword?". I nodded, and said "I have two¡­ three actually. I just don''t know which one will be better". He replied "Show them to me". I took out the Razor Swords, and the Bastard Sword. Aran grabbed the Bastard Sword, and said "This one is quite heavy. A deless thick broadsword, interesting choice of swords Nex". I said "It has a Formation. Activate it to its maximum, and you will see something".


    Aran nodded, and activated the Formation. "Booom!", the sword pulled Aran to the ground. He eximed "That''s heavy!". He then lifted it up, and swung it a few times. "I knew that its main attacking power came from weight, but this is much more than I could expect. This is about 500 kilograms". I smiled, and said "Yes. It''s very good as a weight. I didn''t really use it, as anything else". Aran smiled, and said "Catch!". He threw the sword at me, with the Formation still active.


    I shook my head, and caught the sword. Even though the sword weighed so much, I didn''t even lose bnce or took a step back. I caught it as if it would weigh nothing. Aran whistled, and said "Boy, you are strong. Catching that 500 kilogram sword, and not even moving¡­ I''m envious". I said "I''m a bit strong. Anyway¡­" I swung the sword freely, then continued "This sword was used for its weight. I understand the notion of attacking using its weight, but I have no idea how to use it properly". Aran nodded, and said "We can work on that. Let me check the other two swords". I stabbed the Bastard Sword into the ground with a loud "Boom!" and replied "Go ahead".


    Aran mumbled "Show off", under his breath, and picked up the other swords. After a while of ying with them, he said "These are quite interesting too. The saw des can do a lot of damage, but it''s more of a barbaric weapon, than a weapon with finesse. Well, I guess your other sword is also very physical". I smiled, and said "I can show you something with these swords too". He stopped, and said "So, they are not that simple either? Go ahead, show me". He threw the swords, and waited for my demonstration. I connected both swords, and activated the Formation. "Vooom!", the saw like teeth began moving, and vibrating.


    Aran waspletely stunned. I swung the sword a few times, and said "This is very useful for cutting trees. That was the purpose of that sword". I then stopped the Formation, and separated the swords. Aran said "If these are the weapons you used for some kind of wood chopping, and simple weight¡­ what are your real weapons?". I smiled, and replied "Daggers".


    Aran was taken aback a bit, and asked "Daggers?". I smiled, and said "Yes. This is my dagger". A dagger appeared in my hand. Aran stayed quiet for a while, then said "You are fast. I didn''t even see how you took it out". I smiled, and said "These are my main weapons after all" I then hid the dagger, and said "I like both swords, so whichever you could teach me, I will be happy".


    Aran thought about it, and said "We can try two different styles. After all, the basics are the same for all swords. You have to learn basic moves, in order to wield a sword properly". I nodded, and said "Let us start with the Bastard Sword then". Before we started, Nadee over all exhausted, and said "I did 10ps around the area. What''s next?". Aran nodded, and said "Rest a bit, and then do 100 sit up, squats and jumps. You should know how to do them". Nade nodded, and said "I do", then went somewhere to rest a bit.


    Aran said to me "We will start from the basics then. Your position, or stance, the way you will hold a sword, and the basic attacks you can carry out using a sword". I nodded, and waited for the instructions. Aran stood in a specific way, and said "This is your basic Attacking Stance. Your right foot should be in front, while the left foot a bit behind. Notice that my left foot is ced horizontally, to my right foot. My right foot would also face my opponent. You position yourself towards the opponent. Besides that, my right knee is bent a bit, this allows for faster movements, and better bnce". I nodded, and assumed the same stance.


    Aran nodded, and continued "The Attacking Stance will allow you to advance faster, and attack your enemy". He then changed the stance, and said "This is the Defending Stance. Now your right foot is at the back, while the left is at the front. As you can see, my left foot is just a bit in front of me, while my right foot is way behind. This will allow my body to take on the strike, and absorb it. This stance also allows me to escape faster. It''s pretty much the opposite of the Attacking Stance".


    I nodded again, and tried that stance as well. After a while, Aran said "There is one more stance, but we wille to thatter. For now, just practice these two. Make sure you get them correctly, and within the shortest possible time. I will call out "Attack" or Defend", and you will need to change your stances ordingly. Do it as fast as you can". I nodded my head, and said "I will try".


    We trained the stances for about an hour, where Aran said "You are not that bad. You can adapt fast, but these are just the basics. Now that you know about the stances, and can use them to some degree, we will move on to the sword". Aran took out his sword, and said "This is the Neutral Hold. You hold the sword in front of you, with one hand. Both hands, in case of a two handed weapons. The way you position your upper body, changes depending on the sword. With the one handed sword, mostly your right side faces the opponent. In case of the two handed sword, your full body faces the opponent".


    He continued, and said "There are of course differences in style. One handed swords are more agile, while two handed pack more punch. Your Bastard Sword is a two handed weapon, and a heavy one at that. So you should use a two handed style with it". I nodded, and tried. While I held the sword, I asked "Can I try with one hand as well?". Aranughed, and replied "Sure, I forgot that there is no real difference for you anymore. With your strength, two handed swords can be used just like one handed. Learning both styles, is not a bad idea though".


    I trained the two styles, and liked the one handed better. I decided to learn properly though, and would adopt both styles. When I got more used to holding the sword in Neutral Hold, we moved on to the next style. "If you hold your sword like this, not only will your hands rest, but you can also attack. This is a style for attacking as well, but mostly used for one handed weapons. For the two handed weapons, it''s a bit different". He said, and showed me both styles. It was to hold the sword by my side, de pointing to the ground. Of course when I used one hand, I could easily do something else with my other hand. While using two hands, I had more restrictions ced on my movement, but the power of my attack would be greater. I guessed it was something for something. Aran continued "This is called Side Hold. You have a few varieties of attacking using this style, but I will talk about thatter. For now, give it a try using both hands, and a single hand".


    I nodded, and practiced that style for a bit. I also got some hints from Aran, once in a while. When Aran was satisfied with my progress, we moved to the next style. Aran said "This is a Rear Hold. You position your sword behind you, where you hand physically extends backwards. Your grip changes as well, this is called Reverse Grip. You should be aware of it, since your main weapon is a dagger". I nodded, and said "Yes, I''m aware of such grip".


    Aran continued "That is for one handed weapons. In case of a two handed weapons, you will need to lean forward a bit, to keep the bnce. You will not be physically able to extend both of your hands backwards, but the grip changes to the Half Reverse Grip. This means, one of your hands is reversed, while the other stays on top. This gives you more bnce". I nodded, and tried that as well. I found that I leaned more towards one handed style again. ''I guess, I just need to get used to the two handed style. It shouldn''t be that bothersome'' I thought.


    With that taken care of, Aran said "I will now show you, how to change between those styles. It''s important to change your styles during a fight, this will make you less predictable. Of course there are advanced methods too, but they originate from the basics. You will learn about them in the future". He showed me how fluidly he could change between those styles. After that demonstration, he told me to change the styles, when he shouted a specific style. We trained like this for a few hours, until Aran said "Not bad kid. You still need to practice, but you are getting it. Let''s have a lunch break, then we will continue". I nodded, and we took a rest.

 Chapter 302

    Chapter 302


    I still had some meat on me. I was used to carry supplies with me, at all times. Aran on the other hand, asked me to follow him to the canteen. I replied "I have food with me, I just need to roast it. You can join me if you want". He smiled, and said "It''s fine. I will just go to the canteen". I didn''t stop him, and simply roasted my own dinner. Some youngsters were also taking a break. When they smelled roasted meat, they asked if they could try. I said "Sure. Sit down, and take whatever you like when it''s roasted". A few kids grabbed the roasted meat when it was ready, and started eating. I quickly heardints, such as "It''s nd", or "Itcks salt".


    I smiled, and replied "You know, I ate like this for many years. When you are hungry, you don''t reallyin about the food". They looked at me, and then at the roasted meat. One of the youngsters asked "You ate like this for many years?". I nodded, and said "Yes. I ate whatever I could hunt. I never carried any spices or seasonings. Even though I ate like this, I''m still healthy", then smiled. The kids began eating the meat like crazy. I was a bit confused, until I heard one of them say "We can eat like this too! After all, Nex became so strong on his journey".


    I smiled, and didn''t reply to this. I didn''t know whether my diet helped me or not. Although I knew, that not being fussy about food, aided my survival. If a person was fussy about their food, they may be weak, and even lose their lives. I would eat anything, as long as it was edible. I knew what hunger was, while these kids didn''t. It wasn''t something, I would rmend finding out.


    One of the kids asked "When you talked with Aran, we heard that the daggers are your weapon of choice. Who taught you to use them?". I smiled, and replied "An old friend of mine. He passed away a long time ago. I''ve been developing my skills by myself. When you grow up, and learn all the basics, then advanced stuff, you will be able to experiment, ande up with your own skills. You just have to work hard". The kids nodded, and replied in unison "Yes!".


    As we chatted, Nade came over all sweaty, and tired. I asked "How is it going?". Nade replied "I''m dead tired. I need to rest¡­" He then looked at the roasted meat, and asked "Can I have some?". I replied "Sure, go ahead". Nade began eating, like a starving animal. He neverined about theck of salt or seasonings, and even praised the taste. Other kids were a bit envious of him, and ate as well. The roasted meat disappeared quickly. With my meal taken care of, I stood up and said "After such a meal, you guys need to move a bit. Go practice your sword or archery". The kids nodded, and went back to their practice. I stopped Nade, and said "Rest". He looked at me, and was about to say something. I added "Rest is important too. If you overexert your body, it will bring negative effects, rather than positive. Rest here for a while, let your body recover. Then you can continue".


    Nade nodded, and said "I will do as you said". I smiled, and left to do my own practice. Aran returned not long after, and said "Already practicing? I guess youngsters have loads of energy". I smiled, and asked "Can we continue?". Aran nodded, and replied "Yes. We will now move on to the Defensive Styles". He held a sword in a specific way, and said "This is the Horizontal Hold". The sword was ced horizontally in front of him. He held it with both hands, where the de of the sword extended across his body, at the height of his neck. Aran continued "With this style, you can block the overhead attacks, and piercing attacks. This stance is mostly used with both hands, and therefore suits two handed weapons better, but you can also do this with one handed weapons".


    Aran continued this time, and didn''t let me practice just yet. He said "The next style is called Vertical Side Hold. You will hold it like this". He held the sword with two arms again, cing his hands at the upper right side of his body. The de was pointing downwards, while its edge pointed towards me. Aran exined " With this style, you can block horizontal attacks. Notice that the de''s edge is pointed towards the opponent, or you in this case. This style not only allows you to use your whole arm, as a blocking support. It allows you to carry out counterattacks. I will talk about that more in the future. You will also learn how to alternate between different styles, and do so fluidly, even during a battle. Let me first continue, with the next style". I nodded, and listened.


    Aran continued " The next style is the same as the Neutral Hold. But this time, you are executing it while in Defensive Stance. This style is neutral and the standard hold you will assume. The reason we have separate styles, is that the Neutral Hold is a jack of all trades. The Vertical and Horizontal Holds, are part or rather extended styles of the Neutral Hold. The Neutral Hold is just that, neutral. That doesn''t mean it''s useless. As I said, this is the base of all the styles, that is why Neutral Hold looks the same in both Attacking and Defending Stances".


    I nodded my head, and asked "Is there any other style, I need to learn about?". Aran shook his head, and said "That is all for the basic styles. When you are advanced enough, I will show you more. For now, practice all the styles and stances. I willter show you, how to change between attacking and defending styles fluidly". I nodded, and began practicing.


    Time slowly passed, while I trained using the different styles. Later on, Aran showed me how to change between Attacking and Defending Styles. The day passed like this, and Aran said "That is enough for today. We will continue tomorrow. When you get ustomed to all of this, we will move on to striking, and receiving strikes". I nodded my head, and bid him farewell. ''Sword seems soplicated. Maybe because I didn''t learn, how to wield a weapon properly in the past. Nick taught me some basics, but not that much. I wonder if Aran''s training, could be adapted to my daggers as well'' I thought.


    This was something for the future. I would need to advance with the sword first, before I could try and adapt some skills to my daggers. ''I should visit the field tomorrow too. It''s been a while now, so something should''ve already happened. If not, I will give it a week of time'' I thought, and returned back to Finch''s house.


    The next morning, I resumed my sword practice. While Aran took a break, I went to the field, and checked it out. "Good!", I eximed when I saw the field. The herbs were able to grow outside of the North. The small sprouts of Arran Grass proved it. ''Now I just have to let them grow, and make sure to fill in therge water tank once in a while'' I thought. I quickly took care of some weeds that managed to grow up, and left the field to continue my training.

 Chapter 303

    Chapter 303


    Days passed, and the summer started. It was the 17th day of summer, which meant my birthday. ''Today, I''m officially 29¡­ I''m getting old'' I thought. Finch insisted on a grand celebration, but I said that something small was enough. We didn''t need to celebrate, like we did before. I was still surprised, when I returned from my training. ''I told him that I don''t want a grand celebration¡­'' I thought.


    I was weed by a feast, with many tables arranged on the main square. Finch and others were already there, waiting for me. When I arrived, Finch said "Happy Birthday Nex! We will celebrate this day properly!". I was kind ofcked for words, but it was something I weed. I never really had grand celebrations throw up, because of me. My parents only gave me some gifts, and we spend some time together, nothing else really.


    People started pouring in with gifts. I didn''t even have a free hand, to collect all of them. I simply threw them into my storage feather, and would check the contentster. All vigers wished me well, and gifted me something. After that, the feast began. Finch grabbed a ss, and handed one to me as well. This is how we began drinking. After a while, he asked "I saw the herbs growing in the field. What are you going to use them for?". I smiled, and replied "I''m going to purify the blood, of the people in the vige". Finch stopped drinking, and asked "Are you for real?".


    I smiled, and said "Yes, I already purified my blood. That is how, I was able to break through to my Inner Limits. Of course, there will be more herbs, than just that. I can make medicine, and some other things. When all is taken care of, I will leave the vige". Finch said "You want to leave? But you just arrived! Stay with us, you don''t have to wander the world anymore. Your home is here". I shook my head, and said " I know my home is here, but that is not my goal. My goal is to explore my life. I want to see more, and learn more. I want to witness the royalty, and beyond that".


    Finch sighed, and said "You know, you are a lot like your father. He never liked to sit in one ce for too long. I guess that the saying "Like father like son", is true. Alright, but remember to return whenever you wish. We will always wee you here. I hope that you will stay for at least a few months. My kids should be back by then, so you can at least meet them". I nodded, and said "It will take some time, before I''m able to harvest the herbs, so I should be able to stay until they return".


    Finch nodded, then asked "What about your sword training?". I smiled, and said "It''sing along. I''m learning from the basics, therefore it will obviously take me some more time. I should be able to master the basics soon though. After all, Aran is a good teacher, and I''m no longer green, when ites to fighting". Finch smiled, and said "Then let us drink!". We drank for the rest of the day, and even well into the night. The next morning, I woke up with a hangover.


    ''... I wish I had that thing, I got from the Lizard bartender in Olrad¡­ Although disgusting, it actually helped'' I thought. Finch seemed fine, and enjoyed the breakfast with his wife Tina. I asked "Do you have anything for hangover?". Finchughed, and replied "You are a doctor, and yet you can''t cure your own hangover?". I didn''t want toment on that, while Tina went over to a cupboard, and took out some liquid. She gave me some, and said "Drink this, you should feel better in an hour or so". I nodded, and drank it.


    This time, the liquid was not as horrible, as the one I received from the Lizard. I asked Finch "I meant to ask about that for a while. What about the doctor in this vige? He couldn''t even cure little Nade''s blockages". Finch smiled, and said "He is a doctor, but he doesn''t know how to use pressure points for healing. He never learned it. He mostly makes medicine, and works with broken limbs. I don''t know if he could attach an arm though, because to my knowledge, he never tried. You already met him a couple of times. v is the doctor in our vige, go talk to him if you have some time. Maybe you can teach him something. Hahaha". I nodded my head, and said "I will visit him".


    Because I still felt the remnants of that hangover, I decided to take a rest, and visit the doctor first. He lived in a house a bit further away, in the outer edges of the vige. When I knocked on the doors, a young woman opened them, and asked "Nex? Is something wrong?". I shook my head, and said "I would like to meet your father". She invited me inside, and said "Sure, he is in his office". I nodded, and followed after Kara.


    Kara knocked on the doors. v responded after a while with "Come in". We walked in, and I saw v working with some herbs on his desk. Kara said "Nex wanted to see you. I will leave you two to talk alone". She then left the room. v asked "How can I help you Nex?". I smiled, and said "You are a doctor, and I was wondering if you could show me some of your treating techniques? I''m willing to share some of mine in exchange".


    v looked at me a bit surprised, and said "I would''ve never guessed, that you had any medical knowledge. Sure, what would you like to know". I asked "What do you specialise in?". v replied "Nothing much, a bit of this and that. I mostly treat broken limbs, and make some medicine". I asked "How do you make your medicine?". He replied "I use that pot over there. I cook some of the herbs together, and this produces the medicine". I nodded, and asked "What''s the best medicine you can make? Do you have some?". He nodded his head, and passed me a bottle. I took it and examined it. It was worse than my Arran Liquid. It was better than Vital Liquid, but nowhere near Healing Essence.


    I took out the Arran Liquid, and passed it to him. He understood what I meant, and took the bottle examine its contents. After a while, he eximed "This is very good medicine! It''s better than mine". I smiled, and said "I can teach you simr recipe, which has simr strength to this one". He nodded, and said "If you are willing to teach me, I will learn it". I wrote down all the herbs required to make Healing Essence, and told him the process. Just in case, I also exined how these herbs looked like. Although Thousand and One Herb book might not have been Nick''s book, I wasn''t sure if v was aware of those herbs, and how they looked like.


    He contemted for a while, and said "Who would''ve guessed, that mixing those herbs, would bring such a result. Who taught you that recipe?". I smiled, and replied "An old friend of mine. He taught me much more, but I can''t really pass too much of it to anyone, besides my sessor. But, I can teach you about the pressure points. It seems you don''t know about them".


    v replied "I know a few of them. That amount though, is not really useful for treatment, or any other medical applications. You seem to know much more than me, yet you are so young....". I smiled, and said "I only know so much, because the person who taught me, spent most of his life developing all of that. If not for him, I would know nothing. I''ve a few books. I will leave them with you, and let you get ustomed with them. You may already know some of things written inside of them, but there will be things you will not know". He nodded, and said "I will dly ept them".


    I handed him the three books, that I received from that Eterian woman. With that taken care of, I said "If you know more, than whatever the books contain, or have certain techniques for treatments, I would like to hear about themter. For now, I will let you study". He nodded his head, and started reading the books.


    I left the room, and said farewell to Kara. I then headed towards the training area, and practiced my sword basics for the rest of the day.

 Chapter 304

    Chapter 304


    A few more days passed, and I finally managed to master all the stances and styles. Aran was satisfied with my progress, and said "We will now continue the basics. Today, I will show you different ways of attacking, as well as defending". Aran then took out his sword, and assumed the Attacking Stance. He used the Neutral Hold, and lifted his sword up, then shed downwards. He then returned to the Neutral Hold, and shed to the side. Each time he carried out an attack, he would return to the Neutral Hold. After his demonstration, he said "This should not be difficult for you at all, since you mastered the stances, and styles. I will add that the de''s edge, should be positioned exactly in the direction you are cutting towards. Even slight deviation will require more strength from you to cut through something. So although it may seem like simple shes, there is a technique involved. Before I let you practice that, I will show you a few other basic attacks".


    I nodded my head, while Aran continued to the next style. This time, he assumed the Side Hold. He shed his sword upwards but at an angle, then returned to the same Side Hold. The next sh, he did to the side, and again returned to the Side Hold. With that demonstration taken care of, Aran said "With the Side Hold, you can sh upwards at an angle, but you can also cover your sides. Now I will show you the Rear Hold".


    Aran assumed the Rear Hold, and shed upwards but in a straight line. He then shed to the sides, and horizontally. He even showed me how to attack the rear, using that style. When Aran was done, he said "These are the basic attacks that you can carry out, with the use of the basic styles. When you get used to them, I will show you more advanced styles, where you have to move your body around, modify stances, as well as styles in the middle of attacking or defending. For now, practice them using one hand, and both hands". I nodded my head, and practiced the attacks.


    What Aran said was true. I could easily sh my sword in any of the ways, that he showed. But it was harder to perfectly match the direction of my de''s edge, to the direction of my sh. I was close, but always a bit off. This meant, it wasn''t that easy. Nothing couldn''t be aplished with practice though. That''s what I nned to do, practice.


    My training progressed nicely, so I decided to visit my field. I found that some of the herbs, were having a hard time. After a longer examination, I figured that it was due to the sun. The North didn''t possess any sun, and the temperature was always the same. Here, the temperature varied, and the herbs didn''t receive enough water for such circumstances. I modified the water delivery system, and everything returned to normal again. ''Good thing I checked, otherwise all that work might''ve been wasted. The Arran Grass is pretty much already there, and I will be able to harvest a good chunk of it soon. The Blood Yarn, Earth Grabbing Sprouts, Night Safis and Ghost x are sprouting as well. I should be able to harvest them in about a month''s time'' I thought.


    Ghost x and Night Safis would be avable sooner, but I was mostly concerned about the other two. With my field tended to, I returned to my training. After a few days, Kara came over to the training area, and looked for me. She said "Father is very grateful for the books that you provided to him. These are the books, he is returning them". I smiled, and said "He could keep them for longer. I already memorized them anyway". She replied "It''s fine, he noted everything he wanted, so he returned the books. He would like to meet with you, if you have time".


    I said "Sure, I''ve been training too much again. Let''s go, I will see him now". Kara nodded, and we went back to her house. As we walked, she smiled and said "To think that Wintersteeds would produce such a genius. Not only are you talented medician, you are also strong, just like your uncle. Which woman wouldn''t want such a husband". I smiled, and replied "I''ve been through some stuff, and I got lucky a few times. There are many strong people out there. From what I heard, the Royalty is very strong".


    She nodded, and said "Yes. They have ess to loads of resources. Not only that, their medicians are much better than we can be. They have a lot more knowledge, and don''t really share it to outsiders. I sometimes envy those medicians, if only we had such knowledge, imagine what we could achieve". I smiled, and said "It might not be the case". She looked at me, and asked "What do you mean?". I smiled, and said "You will find out in the future".


    She nodded slightly, and didn''tment anymore. We soon arrived at the house, where v was already waiting for us. When he saw me, he eximed "Nex! I''m very thankful for the knowledge you passed onto me. When I get ustomed to those new techniques, I will be better able to help people out". I shook my hand, and said "Don''t mention it. Do you have any treatment techniques, that are better and not mentioned in the books?".


    He replied "No, not really. The book about bones was exceptionally good. I can recall, that I already encountered one of the conditions described in this book. Unfortunately at that time, I didn''t know how to cure it. This knowledge is worth a lot¡­ can I pass that knowledge to my daughter as well?".


    Kara looked at me with hope in her eyes. I didn''t really have a problem with that, and it seemed that Kara really liked the profession. I nodded my head, and said "Go ahead, or rather, I will just borrow these books to her. She can study them, instead of learning from you". Although Kara tried not to show her excitement, I could see her hand tremble, when she received the books. ''She could have just read them without my permission¡­ How would I know anyway'' I thought.


    I then continued "You can pass the recipe for Healing Essence to her as well. After all, she will be the next vige doctor I assume?". v nodded, and said "Yes, she has passion towards that profession". I nodded, and said "Teach her well then". v replied "I will", and then I bid farewell to both of them.

 Chapter 305

    Chapter 305


    I went back to my training, and practiced the basic attacks. It took me a while to get adjusted, while in the meantime Aran showed me how to defend. This time, I had to use the basic attack, while he demonstrated how to defend against them. We went through all the styles, and then Aran would attack me. Of course we did it lightly, without much of a strength or intent to injure. This was only practice after all.


    From that point on, I practiced together with Aran. I needed an opponent in order to block the attacks from, as well as attack. This went on for most of the next month, until Aran was satisfied with my precision. When the basics werepleted, Aran said "We will now move onto the more advanced methods. You will learn how to incorporate one move into another. So far, you released one attack, and stopped. I''m sure you know, that this is not how fighting works. You will have to learn to intervene these attacks, and make a continuous charge at your opponent. This applies to defence as well".


    I nodded my head, and watched the demonstration. Aran showed me how to fluidly attack using different styles, and how to keep on attacking without a pause. His sword travelled fluidly from one sh to the other. He then asked me to practice that, and so my new training began.


    I also checked my field once in a while, and noticed that the Blood Yarn, as well as Earth Grabbing Sprout began growing and spreading. I could harvest some of them, but the amount would be very little. I decided to wait, and let them grow properly, until the whole section designated to these herbs was filled. On the other hand, I already collected a lot of Arran Grass, Oviral nts and some Ghost xes. A few Night Safises managed to grow up as well, but I also decided to leave them, until the whole section was popted.


    I made more Arran Liquid, which made my stock veryrge already. In overall, I had 67 bottles of Arran Liquid. I still had three bottles of Greater Medical Extract, which was created with the use of Alen Sprouts and ck Irises. I had seeds for those nts as well, but I didn''t know the nting process. ''I will need a lot of time, in order to care for those herbs¡­Wait! I forgot about the Night Safis!'' I thought.


    I was meant to add Night Safis to the Arran Liquid, but because of what happened, I forgot about it. ''This will be a perfect time, to actually create that medicine now'' I thought. Because some of them already grew, I decided to harvest two of them, and used that to make an Extract. ''I will need an Extract from Arran Grass, and Oviral nts as well. I will try the Prime Extracts first, then do the Zenith Extracts'' I thought.


    Not waiting any longer, I collected everything I needed, and headed towards Finch''s house. I asked Tina "Do you have a room, that I can use for something?". She shook her head, and said "We have a storage, but we store stuff in there. Does it have to be private?", and she looked at me with a grin. ''What are the women thinking about these days?'' I thought, and replied "Yes. Can someone lend¡­ I think I know a guy. Thanks". I then left, and headed straight to v''s house.


    I knocked on the doors, and Kara opened them as usual. I asked "Can I use your father''s office for a while? I need to do something". She was a bit surprised, and said "Hello. Come inside, and ask father". I nodded, and walked inside. v was in his office as usual. I asked "Can I use your office for a while. I need it for something".


    He stood up, and said "For as long as you want Nex. After all, I owe you at least that much". I nodded and thanked him. He grabbed his daughter Kara, who stood there bewildered, and walked out. I wanted to make my experiments privately, and although there was a window in the room, I could easily close the curtains. ''Even though these people are like part of my family, a promise is a promise. I need to keep at least this one'' I thought.


    Sharing a recipe, or giving someone my medicine was not a problem. Showing them how to make Extracts was. This was my own knowledge, and I didn''t need anyone else knowing this. Especially people who could be my enemies. I began the process, and made the Prime Extract from Arran Grass, Oviral nts and Night Safis. I then threw that into the pot, and cooked it. I had to let thembine, to make a final product.


    After a while of cooking, I extinguished the mes, and opened the pot. The amount was reduced as usual, because it was an Extract, but I was more concerned about its strength. I tested it for a while, and realised that it was much stronger than Arran Liquid, but it was not as strong as my Greater Medical Extract. It actuallycked quite a lot. ''That is the Prime Extract though, now let''s check the Zenith Extract'' I thought, and set up my distillery.


    After processing through the Prime Extract, I received around 10 milliliters of Zenith Extract, but the strength surprised me. ''This thing is almostparable to the Greater Medical Extract¡­ It''s not that good, but it would also heal very heavy injuries. If a greater quantity was used, it would visibly close wounds'' I thought. It was easier for me to get this Extract, than experiment with the other two herbs. ''I would need to waste a lot of time, in order to find out how to grow them, and tend to them. My guess is that they would grow very slowly, due to the strength of their properties¡­ But, what type of strength would Zenith Extract have, if it was made from the Greater Medical Extract?'' I thought.


    I decided that no matter what, I will have to try that in the future. ''With such medicine, I may even be able to cure a dying man. I don''t think that even royal medicians can do that'' I thought. That was for the future though, I would need loads of time in order to grow these herbs. I then felt something, and said "I don''t like it, when people spy on me¡­ Kara". I could hear panicked footsteps, that were getting further away.


    I disappeared from the room, and appeared in front of her. I already knew where she was, due to my senses and instincts. When she saw me appear in front of her, she panicked even more, and begged "Please! Don''t kill me! I saw nothing, I swear! Please!". She was starting to rise amotion, so I grabbed her, and left the vige. She didn''t even realise we were outside of the vige, and still mumbled "Please, I beg you".


    I asked "Why did you spy on me?". She opened her eyes, and noticed the forest all around us. She started crying, and begging again. I lightly released my Aura, and she froze in ce. I repeated the question "Why did you spy on me?". She couldn''t move at all, so I retracted my Aura. She was scared for sure, and said "I¡­ I was¡­ just curious. Please¡­". I asked "You would pay your life, for curiosity? Why do you think your father left? Didn''t he tell you, to give me some privacy?". She nodded, and said "I did wrong¡­ I was just¡­ I wanted to know more¡­ so I tried to peak a bit¡­ and¡­".


    I decided to ask a probing question "Did someone tell you to do it?". She shook her head, and eximed "No! I was just curious. I''m not a spy¡­". She then began crying again. Either she was a very good actress, or was only curious. Before I could say anything, she said "I can do anything to prove it! I''m not a traitor! I just wanted to learn more about medicine¡­ please believe me". I asked a bit surprised "Anything?".


    She bit her lip, and replied "Yes". I said "Would you be my ve?". Her face changed, but she still nodded. "I''m willing to ept that punishment". ''Interesting'' I thought, and walked over to her. She immediately began shaking, I can only guess what was going through her mind. I said "Stand up". She was confused, but did what I ordered. I continued "You will get an opportunity, just like I received one in the past. If you manage to grab it, then you will receive your knowledge. If not, well". She immediately replied "I will! Anything you want".

 Chapter 306

    Chapter 306


    I said to her "I don''t think you understood me. You don''t have to be scared of me, I will not touch your body. You will not be my ve either, I was only testing you". She was shocked, but also relieved at the same time. I continued "You are not stupid. You chose to be a ve, instead of death. I believe that you tried to spy on me, due to curiosity. So I decided to give you a chance. If you satisfy my requirements, I will pass my knowledge onto you. If not, you will only have yourself to me".


    She was still confused and a bit fearful, but asked "So, you want to teach me? Make me your disciple?". I nodded, and said "If you can satisfy my requirements, you will be my inheritor". She had to take that in, before she asked again "You will teach me?". I asked "Do you have a problem with your hearing?". She quickly shook her head, and replied "No, no. I thought I was dreaming. Tell me, what do I need to do, in order to be your disciple?". I said "You will have to memorize a book. You will have three weeks to memorize it. If you can do that, I will teach you. If you can''t, I will not. Don''t think that the book will be simple though, it''s going to have 1001 pages".


    She was stunned, and stood there for a while. I asked "How many herbs do you know?". She thought about it, and said "Maybe 40 or 60. Not more than that. Why?". I said "You will know soon enough. For now, I will take you back to the vige. This time, keep this to yourself, I don''t need too much attention". She nodded, and said "I will". I walked over to grab her, but she instinctively moved back. I shook my head, and grabbed her anyway, then disappeared from that ce.


    We arrived in front of the vige, and I let her go. I said "If I wanted to do something to you, I would do it already. I told you, you don''t have to be scared of me". She looked around, nodded and said "You are fast¡­ It''s the first time, I saw someone so fast". Iughed, and said "Practice. When the book is ready, I will bring it to you. Just beware, you are not allowed to show it to anyone. Alright?". She nodded like a little bird. I smiled, and said "Good. I will see you around", and left towards the training area. I already collected all my things, before I chased after her, so there was no need for me to return.


    ''I wonder if she is able to achieve that. Although I would like to teach her, I can''t teach someone who has no talent in this field. Although I didn''t have talent, this is different. I''m the one who sets standards this time, not Nick'' I thought, and began my practice. Every night, I would sit down in my room, and write the book, that I burned down a long time ago.


    Because my memory was excellent now, I could still remember all the details about the herbs in the Thousand and One Herbs book. It would still take me a few days to write everything, and draw all the sketches. ''Fortunately I can draw. Otherwise, I would need to use another method to test her'' I thought. The days slowly passed, and I finally managed to finish the book. ''The Thousand and One Herbs book is finallypleted. This was tiring'' I thought, and headed towards v''s house.


    When I knocked on the doors, Kara opened them and invited me inside. I said "It''s fine, I came over to give you the book. Like I said earlier, you have three weeks to memorize it. I will test your knowledge after that time". She took the book, and said "I will try my best". I nodded, and bid her farewell. I headed towards the training area, to continue my sword practice.


    The three weeks passed rather quickly. I made improvements, and was better able to carry out all the attacks fluidly. I could also defend better, and it came more naturally to me now. I spared with Aran more seriously a few times, and learned even more. Although I never used my full power, I still managed to catch some moves that Aran was executing. Aran was very pleased with my training, and said "You are getting better and better. I will teach you some skills soon, as you managed to get the hang of simple attacks. Remember that, everything is derived from basics. Whether it''s stances, or styles. Practice a bit more, and you should be fine".


    I nodded my head, and said "For now, I will rest. I still have something to take care of". Aran had no issues with that, and we ended the training for that day. I headed towards v''s house, and knocked on the doors. Kara opened them, and looked very tired. I said "Three weeks passed today. Can I have the book back?". She nodded and handed me the book. I asked "Did you copy it?". She quickly sobered up, and shook her head. She replied "No, I wouldn''t dare. I already messed up once".


    I nodded, and said "Good, then follow me". She nodded her head, and did just that. When I saw no people around, I grabbed her, and left the vige. When I put her down, she said "You always grab me like this¡­". I replied "Don''t think too much about unnecessary stuff. Today, I will test your knowledge". I ced the book in my right hand and froze it, then destroyed it into small pieces.


    When she saw the book getting destroyed, her face went a bit grim. I asked "Ready?". She sighed, and replied "Ready!". I began by asking her some simple questions. Stuff like, what herbs could I use, to make poisons or medicines. She answered all the questions correctly, so I increased the difficulty. I asked "What herb or herbs are needed, to cure limb paralysis?". She thought about it for a while, and said "You would need to use Rinse Berry, Loran Grass and Perch Sprout". I asked "Why would I use these herbs?". She creased her brows, and thought for a while. She then answered "Rinse Berry has the effect to calm the paralysis, while the Loran Grass helps in muscles flexibility. The Perch Sprout is not really required, but it would help fight the aftereffects of numbness. A person could be brought back to health faster that way".


    I said "Interesting. Let''s continue". I asked a few more questions, each harder than the other. She began sweating, when I got to the point where knowing the book, would only help her 50% of the time. She had to extrapte a lot of things. To my surprise, she managed to answer all the questions correctly up to this point. I asked the final question "The Ethereal Flower, who found it?". Her face changed, and she began panicking. ''Of course you can''t know this. This was never written in the book, so how could you?''. I was interested in her answer nevertheless.


    After a while, she replied "I don''t know, but I have a feeling that this is a fake entry. A flower that grants immortality... Even if someone found it, wouldn''t that mean he or she is still alive? Wouldn''t that person be very famous or something? I know, these are just excuses, so the short answer is, I don''t know¡­ I failed". I smiled, and shook my head. She lowered her head, while I said "You''ve passed".


    She couldn''t believe it when I said it, and asked "I passed?". I nodded, and replied "Yes. Thest question I asked, you had no way of answering it. I was only interested in your answer. All other questions were answered correctly. You even gave me better answers sometimes, than I required. This means, you must''ve memorized the whole book". She became ted, and asked "Then¡­ Then¡­ Does that mean, you will teach me?". I nodded, and said "Yes, I will teach you".

 Chapter 307

    Chapter 307


    She stood there for a while, and had to take in, all that just happened. I said "Don''t think that it will be easy though. I will not pass all of my knowledge to you either. I will be leaving the vige soon, so I will teach you some basics only". When she heard that, she seemed a bit disappointed. I snorted, and asked "You think my basics are useless?". She quickly shook her head, and replied "No, I wouldn''t dare".


    I said "What you are about to learn, is not some simple medicine making, or knowledge. You will learn the Art of Medicine. Don''t be fooled though, it''s called an Art for a reason". She nodded her head, and asked "So, when do we begin?". I replied "Right now. I want you to gather some herbs. You will bring me the herbs, that are on this list. I will not tell you where to find them, and I will give you an hour of time. If you can''t find them in an hour, I will not teach you anything for a week. This will be your punishment".


    I passed her the paper with the herbs, that were required to make Vital Liquid. She looked through the paper, and said "Vital Grass and Seedless in. I will find them!". She then ran off in search of the herbs, I required from her. I decided to follow her discreetly, and make sure no wolves or other animals would attack her. She wasn''t stupid, and searched for specific locations, that could produce these herbs. Little did she knew, that I chose her test location on purpose. ''There is only one patch of Vital Grass, and a few stalks of Seedless in in this area. Both are in different locations as well. If she thought an hour was a lot, she might have to reconsider'' I thought, as I followed her.


    This was not because these herbs were rare, but because I made sure to collect them before, and only left those few. "I''m not going to make it easy Kara. You will have to work hard, and show me your potential, in order to receive my knowledge" I said to myself. She first checked the obvious locations, but she found nothing. She began panicking a bit, and then stopped. She thought for a while, and moved in a specific direction. ''Good girl. That is exactly the location of the few Seedless ins, that I left behind'' I thought.


    She soon arrived at the location, and quickly found the herbs. I could hear her say "I found Seedless in, now the Vital Grass. I haven''t seen one so far¡­". She thought about it a bit more, and quickly moved towards a certain location. ''Not bad. She figured that out as well. In rarer cases, Vital Grass can grow nearrge rocks'' I thought. There were a few of such rocks, in the direction she was heading towards. As I followed, I smiled and thought ''Good thinking Kara, but I told you this will not be easy''. The problem she would face, was not theck of Vital Grass in that location, it was the animal that I left there.


    I made sure to leave one wolf alive in that location. ''Let''s see if she will risk her life,e up with something or give up'' I thought, and watched. She arrived at an open area with some rocks, and stopped. She noticed a sleeping wolf in the distance. It couldn''t hear her, because I put it to sleep. There was an herb, which could be used for that purpose. It was called Lental Mushroom, and it had very weak poison. The poison would make one sleep, but only inrge quantities. That though, was not a problem for me. I made an Extract out of it, therefore its strength was intensified.


    She of course didn''t know that. I could see her struggling toe up with something. After a while though, she started approaching the wolf. She was very cautious, and managed to arrive in front of the Vital Grass, which she needed to harvest. ''Good, she has courage. Although, I think I should make her stronger. If I teach her all of that, and then she dies to a wolf or a bear while collecting herbs, this would be pointless'' I thought. I wouldn''t teach her any of my other Arts, but making her do some exercises, as well as practicebat, would not be such a bad idea.


    After she collected the Vital Grass, she started heading back to where I was supposed to wait for her. She had about 20 minutes left, and if she ran, it would take her 10 to 15 minutes. I followed her a bit more, and made sure that there were no wild animals around. Because I found nothing that could threaten her life, I quickly returned to my previous location, and pretended I didn''t move at all. She arrived a few minutester, all exhausted.


    Kara said "I have the herbs!". I nodded and said "Good. You did it within the one hour as well. Now you are going to make medicine out of it". I gave her the recipe for Vital Liquid, and asked "Did you make medicine in the past?". She shook her head, and said "Father didn''t allow me. I watched him only". I nodded, and said "Here are the instructions, and tools required. Create the Vital Liquid. You should have enough herbs for a few attempts. In the end, I require one bottle. If you can''t make that, the same punishment applies". She nodded her head, and said "I will make it!".


    I chopped down a tree, and sat on its trunk. She stared at me for a while, until I said "You are free to start now". She had enough herbs for three attempts. I managed to create it on my first attempt, but only because Nick showed me everything. Besides, my first medicine had very weak properties. If I were topare it to Nick''s, it would be 50% as effective. I didn''t care about the effectiveness, I cared about the results. ''Although she watched her father do this, she didn''t do it herself, and that recipe as well. We will see the results soon'' I thought.


    Her first attempt ended in failure. Her me was too strong, and burnt the medicine. She calmed down after a while, and started again. This time her me control was better, and she managed to make the medicine. I could see that it was rather weak. She turned towards me, but I didn''t say anything. She sighed, and tried again. Although she passed, I wanted her to think otherwise. ''This will make her strive to improve herself. Hard work always pays of'' I thought. I wasn''t wrong, herst attempt ended in sess, and it was much betterpared to the second attempt.


    I walked over, and said "Good, you can keep the medicine. You made it after all". She nodded her head, and sat down. She must''ve been tired after all that running and focusing. I said "You are weak". She looked up, and replied "I never trained anything. I always helped out my father, so I don''t have much strength like the others". I nodded, and said "We will fix that. You will train everyday from now on. If you are weak, then any wolf or bear can kill you easily. How will you go out to collect the herbs?".


    She realised what I meant, and asked "Will you train me as well?". I replied "I will tell you what to do, and you will train by yourself. I have my own stuff to take care of". She nodded, and said "I understand". I let her rest for a bit longer, and then continued "You will train using a diagram, that I will draw for you. Besides that, you will run, carry weights and learn to fight using your fists. If you want to learn sword, you will need to talk with Aran, but I doubt you will have the time to do it".


    After she nodded, I continued "Besides your physical training, you will also study some recipes. I will provide them, and you will memorize them. Remember that you are not allowed to share those things with anyone". She nodded, and agreed. I took out a piece of paper, and draw the 1st Modified Diagram from the Strength Manual. I passed it onto her, and said "You will train that once a day only. This pose exercises your hidden muscles, so don''t be stupid, and try to do it a few times a day. Don''t push yourself, and stop when you feel the need to". She replied "I will". I then said "Here are the exercises you will do everyday". She looked at the piece of paper and froze for a while.


    The list contained stuff like, running twentyps around the whole vige, while carrying 10 kilograms of weight. She also had to do sit ups, squats and so on. Basic stuff, but with weight attached to her. 10 kilograms might seem little, but it was more than enough for her at this stage. I said "Train like this everyday". She was a bit pale, and asked "Starting today?". I replied "Of course. If you want to give up, you know where to find me". I then grabbed her, and we arrived back in the vige. I mentioned that I will bring her another book soon, and said farewell. ''Although the set of exercises may be a bit too excessive for her, the harder she works the better. I won''t stay here for yours, she will have to gain as much as she can from me in that time'' I thought.

 Chapter 308

    Chapter 308


    Few days passed. As I was practicing some sword basics, a few groups of people arrived at the vige. ''So this is the young generation of the Sav Vige?'' I thought, and I took a nce at them. For their ages, they seemed quite strong. Each group had five youngsters, and one adult. The middle aged man or woman in each group, was probably a guardian, and protected them from dangerous situations. I didn''t go to greet them, and simply focused on my training. ''Finch will no doubte here, therefore there is no need for me to go and greet them'' I thought. Besides, I didn''t know who my cousins were.


    I wasn''t wrong. After about half an hour, Finch brought three youngsters to the training area. He shouted "Nex! Come meet your cousins!". I stopped my practice, and hid my sword. As I walked towards the group, I noticed a familiar person. It was the youngster who I met in the Great Forest. He was the one who told me about the Royal Competition. He was also surprised to see me, and asked "You? You are Nex?". I smiled, and said "That is my name".


    The other two were older than the youngster I already met. They walked forwards, while woman said "He looks so weak. Is this really our cousin?". This was probably Haily, and she seemed to have a lofty character. This was not my favourite type of people, but a family is still a family. The oldest cousin was pretty cold, and didn''t say anything. ''Oh well, at least the youngest cousin of mine is friendly. Can''t have everything'' I thought. All three walked over to me, while the youngest said "Who would''ve thought, we would meet again. Nex¡­ I''m Norty, wee home!". He smiled brightly, as he weed me. I smiled in response, and patted his head. Norty was around 16 years of age. But in my eyes, he was still a kid. I was more than 10 years older than him.


    The other two didn''t say anything, and just stood there. Finch asked "You guys are not happy, that Nex finally found...". I stopped him, and said "It doesn''t matter. Kids are kids. No harm done". Haily didn''t seem to like myment, and said "Kids? I''m 23 years old, I''m no kid to you". I smiled and said "You are 6 years younger than me. You are a kid in my eyes". She was about to burst out, when Finch said "If you are not happy to be here, leave". She snorted, and did just that.


    Aron looked at me, and said "You seem weak". I smiled, and replied "Have you heard "Don''t judge a book by its cover"? You may assume whatever you like, Aron". He also turned around, and left. Norty said "Don''t worry about them, they are always full of themselves. Especially now, since they lost to some people". Finch also came over, and said "I''m sorry for my kids Nex. At least Norty is happy you are here". Norty nodded, and said "You''ve been to the North, so you are not weak".


    Iughed, and said "I don''t mind. I could already judge their characters. Norty, you are very bright boy, and you want to help out people, even if you don''t know them. You are a good kid. I have something for you". I took out 10 milliliters of Zenith Extract from Earth Grabbing Sprout, and gave it to him. Norty asked "What is this? Medicine?". I smiled, and said "Just drink it, and you will find out". Norty nodded his head, and drank the Extract. After a while, he eximed "This¡­ This¡­ IS AMAZING!".


    Finch was confused, and asked "What''s going on?". Norty replied "I can feel my strength rising! I feel much stronger, and it''s not stopping yet!". After a while though, the effect stopped, as I only gave him 10 milliliters of it. Although this was a lot, it wasn''t at the same time. For Norty to enter the North, he had to be at the Outer Limits stage. This was what Crow told me, and I never saw weaker people inside the North.


    I said "Don''t worry, this is permanent, so you didn''t waste it". Both Norty and Finch were shocked. After a while, Norty asked "Where did you get this from?". I smiled, and said "I made it. Now go, explore your new strength a bit". Norty thanked me a few times, then ran off somewhere. Finch was still standing there, shocked. When he finally snapped out of it, he said "Well damn me. That field of yours¡­ This is its purpose?". I smiled, and said "Not only that. The field is mostly popted now, and I will be making some stuff soon. I will be leaving in about two months or so. Probably at the beginning, or during the winter season".


    Finch asked "So soon?". I smiled, and said "I have many ces to visit, and much more to learn. My final destination will be the Imperial City. I want to witness it, and maybe learn something new". Finch nodded, and said "It''s good to have ambitions, but remember what I told you". I nodded, and replied "I remember". Finch also bid farewell to me, while I stayed and continued my training. I wanted to get as familiar with the sword, as I could. ''I would like to train using the Razor Swords too, but I don''t know if I will have the time. Maybe I can manage that by myself, as I already know the basics'' I thought.


    I returned home before nightfall, and saw the whole family sitting at the dining table. Tina invited me over, but I declined and said "I still have some stuff to do. I will just return to my room". She wanted to say something, but Finch stopped her. ''I need to write some recipes for Kara. For now, twenty should be enough'' I thought. I didn''t n on teaching Kara the deadly part of the Art of Medicine, at least not now.


    Soon, Ipiled a list of twenty recipes, that I took from the Evil Manual of Medicine. There were only two poison recipes. These type of poisons, were mostly used to numb the pain, and wouldn''t be able to kill someone, even in greater quantities. With the list done, I retired for the night. The next morning, I went downstairs, and joined Finch as well as Tina for breakfast. Tina asked concerned "Are you alright Nex?".


    I smiled, and replied "Why wouldn''t I be alright?". Tina said "Well... You know, Haily and Aron¡­". I stopped her, and said "Do you really think they can spoil my mood? Through what I''ve been in my life, they are only kids to me". Tina smiled, and said "Look honey, Nex is acting all grown up". Finchughed, but didn''tment. I got used to her remarks, so it didn''t bother me at all.


    As we ate and chatted, Haily, Aron and Norty came down to join us. Norty greeted me as usual, and seemed smug about something. The other two said nothing. When I finished eating, I said "Alright, I''m off. See you around guys". Tina, Finch and Norty wished me a good day, but then Haily said "Who cares". I turned around, smiled, and replied "If you don''t care, why would youment? Have a nice day". I then left.


    I could hear Finchughter from the distance, and his words "Your expression was priceless!". I headed straight to v''s house, and knocked on the doors. Kara opened them after a while, and was barely able to stand. I shook my head, and said "I told you not to overexert yourself. Let''s go inside". She nodded, but didn''t say anything. v was in his office as usual, and was probably focused on his studies. I asked Kara "Why did you overdo it?". She squeezed out an answer. "You told me to¡­ do it everyday". I shook my head, and tapped on a few of her pressure points. She fell down to the floor, and asked "What are you going!?". I picked her up, and ced her on the sofa. She panicked, and was about to scream something, when I stopped her, and asked "Why do you always think, that I want to do some bad stuff to you?".


    She replied "Well.. you always¡­ you know grab me¡­". I shook my head, and said "I have no interest in you as a woman whatsoever. You are my disciples as well, justy there and stay quiet". She nodded her head, andid down. Kara was around 19 years old, therefore I viewed her as a kid. Kara wasn''t ugly at all. Long brown hair, slim body and pleasant face. A dream of many youngsters no doubt. But I simply had no interest in her as a woman. I viewed her, like I would view a family member. I was much more strict with her though, but I had my reasons.

 Chapter 309

    Chapter 309


    I left Kara there, and went to v''s office. Inside, I saw v trying to make some sort of medicine. I decided not to interrupt him, and waited. After a while, he failed the recipe and sighed. I asked "How are you doing?". v finally realised that I was inside the room, and eximed "Oh Nex! I was trying to make some medicine, while modifying your recipe. It didn''t work as you can see. How are you these days?".


    I smiled, and replied "I''m doing alright". v thought about something for a while, and said "My daughter became really secretivetely. She always lock herself up, and stays in her room for a long time. Did you perhaps...". I replied "I did, but she is not allowed to share it". He shook his head, and said "I''m old, so teaching me is pointless. I''m very grateful nevertheless. You are willing to pass some of your knowledge to her, this is priceless". I said "She will inherit some of my stuff, but don''t spread it around. I don''t need more attention". v was really happy about the news, and said "I hope she studies hard. I don''t believe that the recipe you gave me, was anything special to you. If she can be half as good as you probably are, I can die a happy man".


    I replied "That will depend on her. I thought I will mention this to you, so that you don''t worry too much". He nodded, and said "Thank you, she will be in good hands". I bid farewell to v, and returned to Kara. She was still resting on the sofa, and asked "Were you checking, if I said anything to my father?". I smiled, and said "Maybe. Do you feel better now?". She nodded her head, and replied "Yes, my body doesn''t ache as much anymore". I nodded, and said "Drop the weight stuff on that exercise list. This should make it more manageable".


    She replied "No, I will...", but I interrupted her by saying "Drop it. I don''t have the time to fix you everyday. When you build up your stamina and strength, you can resume the training while carrying the weight". She nodded, and asked "So, what am I going to learn today?". I took out the recipes, and passed them to her. She looked at a few of them, and eximed "This¡­ This is great!". While she was looking at the recipes, I said "You have 5 days to memorize them. I will return in 5 days, and collect the notes. If you try to copy them, you will not receive any more teachings from me. Understood?". She gulped down her saliva, and replied "Understood".


    Before I left, I said "You are still going to train everyday, so manage your time properly. For now, stay there and let your body rest. You can continue your training in the afternoon". She nodded her head, and said "I will". I then bid her farewell, and left. I headed towards the field, to check up on it. The herbs were growing nicely, and although I could already harvest the Blood Yarn, as well as Earth Grabbing Sprouts, I decided to wait a bit longer.


    ''I will be collecting all of the herbs, leaving none'' I thought. This was not because I didn''t trust Finch or others, but because these herbs were to valuable. If others learned about them, they would surely invade this ce, to get their hands of those herbs. I didn''t need a whole city trying to destroy my home vige. Besides, no one in the vige would be able to use those herbs properly.


    My field taken care of, I went to the training area to practice my sword. There were more people training, when I arrived that time. The younger generation also trained there, and more teachers were present too. They were the middle aged people from the three groups, that returned not too long ago. Aran came over, and said "We can now move on to some skills. There are a few other teachers here, so if you want, they can teach you as well". I shook my head, and said "No need. You are more than enough. Shall we start then?".


    Aran smiled, and said "Of course. The first skill, or rather Form I will show you, will be thebination of the basics. Have a look". Aran attacked with his sword swinging it left, right, upwards and downwards, but everything was done with purpose, and fluidly. He ended with a reverse grip cut, and stopped. Aran said "This is the First Sword Form. I will be teaching you seven Forms in total. The form you just saw, was the basic Form, and it focuses on both attacking and defending. It''s a bit difficult to exin, but in short, you can attack while defending, and defend while attacking. That is what this Form is about. When you learn it, and understand the movements better, you will know how to use it during the real battle".


    I nodded my head, and tried repeating the First Sword Form. Although Aran used a one handed sword, I treated my sword as one handed too. I tried a few times, but ultimately, I couldn''t repeat the same movements that Aran disyed. Aran gave me some tips, and also showed me this Form using a two handed weapon. I trained like this for a while, until some youngsters came over.


    One of them said "So you are Nex? Wanna have a spar with me?". I ignored the kid, and focused on my training. Aran replied "If you have so much time, then go train. If you arezy, you will never achieve anything". The kid retorted "Isn''t sparing a good method of training?". This time, I replied "You have no way of winning with me, or learning anything from me. Go back to your training. Aran is your teacher as well, be more respectful to your elders". The kid became pissed, and charged at me with his sword. Aran wanted to intervene, but I stopped him. He smiled, and nodded his head. The kid used some sort of Sword Form, and attacked.


    I raised my Bastard Sword, and blocked the attack without any issues. The kid jumped back, and eximed "A fluke!". I didn''t move at all, and returned to my practice, ignoring the kid. ''I will y with you if you want it so much'' I thought, as I tried to execute the First Sword Form. The kid was almost foaming with rage, at this stage. He attacked again, but used the same Sword Form, that I was currently practicing. I blocked his attack, but used a bit more strength to push him back.


    He was surprised, when he got pushed back a few metres, but still attacked. He used the same two Forms all the time, so I got bored and said "Aran was right. Even I can see that the execution of your Sword Forms is sloppy, and I''m no sword master. Go back to your training, instead of wasting your time". The kid attacked with an angry "RRRAAAAHHH!", which made me speechless. I swung my sword with a bit of strength, and made him fly through the air. Hended with a grunt, then picked himself up with some difficulty.


    He was about to attack again, when Aran shouted "Stop you ignorant kid! Not only is your sword sloppy, you have the balls to go against Wintersteed? Know your ce!". He immediately stopped, and dropped his sword. I said to Aran "It''s good to be young". I then turned towards the boy, and said "Pass my regards to Haily. You are not stupid enough to do this on your own. Now go, and focus on your training. Hard work always pays off". The kid picked up his sword, and left. The other youngsters quickly returned to their training too.


    Aran asked "How do you know, it was Haily who ordered him to do this?". I smiled and said "Because I''m aware of her character. Don''t worry though, I don''t intend to punish that kid or Haily. They are ying kids games. Although they are wasting my time, it''s not such a big deal". Aran nodded, and we returned to the Sword Form training.

 Chapter 310

    Chapter 310


    After a while of practice, Aran showed me the Second Sword Form. It was the same Form, that the youngster used when he attacked me. Of course, Aran disyed it precisely and fluidly. The Form used a different style of attacking. Instead of using all basic Holds, Aran used only one Hold, but incorporated a specific foot technique in order to carry out the attack.


    When Aran finished his demonstration, he said "The foot technique is not difficult at all. What you have to remember, is to stay in the Attacking Stance all the time. I did just that, but moved in a way that wouldn''t break the Stance, which you no doubt you noticed. I can''t really exin this properly. Training is the best way to learn, and get a feel for it". I nodded my head, and agreed. When I tried the footwork a few times, I understood why it was used like this.


    ''This is to face the opponent at all times, and make it easier to dish out the attacks. The footwork is, as he said not that difficult, but I will need to pay attention to the de direction, my opponent cement and so on. No wonder that kid was so sloppy with it, the Form actually requires good knowledge, and a lot of practice'' I thought. I trained the Second Sword Form until the evening. When we stopped the training, Aron said "You are making good improvements. I expected as much, the first three Forms are the basics of the Lethal Sword Technique. There are seven Forms in total, so you still have some things to learn". I nodded, and bid Aran farewell.


    Back at Finch''s house. Only Tina was sitting downstairs. When she noticed that I returned, she asked "How was your day?". I smiled, and said "Good. I learned a few new things, and checked up on the field". She nodded, then asked "Are you hungry?". I decided to have something to eat, before going back to my room, so I nodded. Tina prepared something for me, while Haily returned home as well. She didn''t say anything to me, and sat down at the table.


    Tina brought food for me, and asked Haily if she was hungry too. She declined, and just sat there. I wasn''t bothered, and ate my food. As I was eating, Haily asked "How long are you going to freeload here?". Before I could answer, I heard a loud "Smack!". Tina smacked her daughter on her face, and said "How dare you say this? Is this how we raised you?". Haily shouted back "Shut up! Some sort of bumes here, and says he is my family. You all get worked up about some guy, who you never saw!". I could see Tina raising her hand again, so I said "Stop".


    Tina restrained herself, and apologised to me. Haily stood up, and ran towards her bedroom. I released my Aura, and said "You stay as well". She froze immediately, and stood there, like a wooden pole stuck in the ground. I said "I came here to visit my family. You are the only people rted to me, that are left. I never liked lofty and arrogant people, so don''t act like this in front of me. I never offended you, yet you try to do that everyday". I then retracted my Aura, and Haily fell to the floor.


    I then said "To answer your question. I will be leaving soon. Not because you don''t want me here, but because I have goals in my life too. Think about your own actions, and learn to be modest. This may save your life one day". I then continued eating, while Haily picked herself up, and left. Tina didn''t know what to say, so I helped her out by saying "Don''t worry, I''m fine. She will be fine too. I did that to make her realise, she is still acting like a spoiled kid. What I said is also true, if she acts like this with the wrong people, bad things may happen".


    Tina sighed, and said "I don''t know why she doesn''t like you. You always smile, and treat everyone nicely here. Even themon vigers like you. I really don''t know what is happening to her". I didn''t know what to reply, but Finch walked down, and said "What Nex said isn''t wrong. Nex is her family, yet she treats him like an enemy. I''m aware of those petty things she tried doing¡­ I think she is jealous". I was lost at this stage, and asked "Why would she be jealous? It''s not like I take away all your attention from her. Besides, she is 23 already".


    Finch smiled, and said "I think she is jealous of her brother. You treated Norty very well, you even made him stronger. She feels left out, and wants attention from you". I massaged my forehead a bit, and said "I don''t get it anymore¡­". I stood up, and said "I''m off for the night, goodnight guys". Both of them said goodnight, and I left. I headed upstairs, but didn''t go to my room. I walked over to the room that was next to mine, and knocked on the doors.


    No one answered. I tried entering, but the doors were closed. I smiled, and disappeared from that ce. Because it was summer, windows were usually opened. I entered stealthy through Haily''s window, and sat on the chair. She wasying on her bed, and didn''t even realise that I was already inside her room.


    I said "You know, you could''ve just ask". She immediately jumped out of the bed, and eximed "How did you get in!". I smiled, and said "I have my ways". She sat down, and asked "What do you want?". I asked the same question "What do YOU want Haily? You never tried to get to know me, yet you always assumed stuff about me. Are you really jealous of your brother?". She replied "Ha! Jealous? Of what?".


    I shook my head, and said "Don''t lie in front of me, it will not work. I can see through you, and the charade you are putting up. So why don''t you just act ordingly?". She replied "You don''t know shit about me!". I smiled, and said "I don''t? Well then, how about this? You always pose as arrogant and lofty, but that''s not the true you. You are a good kid, and you care for your family. Norty is open about it, but you are not. You think that showing emotions as a woman, is a weakness. Why do you think I said "Don''t act like this in front of me"? Be yourself, instead of hiding behind fake coldness and arrogance".


    Looking at her face, I knew all of that was true. Her expression proved everything. She didn''t want to believe it, and asked "How can you¡­?". I smiled and said "I can, and I can much more than you may imagine. But because you always choose to y a game, you never learned anything about me". I then stood up, and said "Think about what I said. I will not force you though. You are a grown woman, and you can make your own decisions". I then left the room, and entered my own room.


    ''She stands in front of a choice. She can either abandon that futile attempts to fool people, or continue with that charade. Whatever she chooses, she is still my family, but I will also have to act ordingly'' I thought, and went to sleep.

 Chapter 311

    Chapter 311


    Morning the next day. I went downstairs, and the whole family was already sitting there eating breakfast. I joined them, while Tina passed me a te with some food. After a while of chatting, Aron stood up, and said "Nex, I want to fight you". I was a bit surprised, and asked "Why?". He replied "Prove your strength to me". I smiled, then replied "I don''t have to prove anything Aron. Whether you see me as weak or not, I''m not really concerned". He asked "If the blood of Wintersteeds runs through your body, you would never decline my challenge".


    I asked "Do you think I lied? That I''m not, who I say I am? That is why you don''t want to ept me, as part of your family?". He replied "I have my reasons". I thought about it, and said "I don''t understand your reasons, but I will grant you that experience. You want to see my strength? Follow me". I stood up, and left the house.


    Besides Aron, everyone else got up too, and followed after me. We arrived at the training area shortly. Aran and some youngsters were already practicing. I called out to Aran, and asked "Hi Aran, can you make some space? I want to trash my cousin around a bit". Aranughed, and replied "Sure". Everyone left the area, and stood at the fringes. I said to Aron "Take out your weapon". He took out a long sword, and positioned himself in Attacking Stance. He then said "Take your weapon out". I shook my head, and said "If I take my weapon out, you will die. Come, attack me. You have three chances, then you will lose".


    Aron didn''t lose his calmness, and approached slowly. I didn''t move at all, and simply stood there. He then used some sort of foot technique, and rushed at me. When he arrived, he released a Sword Form which I haven''t seen yet, and attacked. He shed horizontally, but it was a fake. He changed his de direction, to sh upwards in mid swing. I extended my right hand, and caught the sword. "ng", a metallic sound reverberated throughout the area.


    Aron couldn''t believe it. He tried backing away, but he couldn''t. I was holding the sword very tightly. He decided to abandon his sword, and backed away. I threw the sword lightly at him, and said "Two more tries". Aron was still shocked. He woke up from it, when the sword hit the ground. He quickly picked it up, and rushed at me again. The results were the same. Although I didn''t catch his sword this time, I simply deflected it.


    After the 3rd attack, I said "Now let me show you, a bit of my strength". Aron was totally stunned at this stage, but still assumed the Defensive Stance. It didn''t matter what Aron did. Anyone below Inner Limits wasn''t my opponent. Ten dagger appeared in mid-air, and danced around me, as if floating. I said "This is something I developed myself", and released the Stringed Hidden Weapons skill to the max. The daggers flew through the air making screeching sounds due to the astonishing speed. People would be hard pressed, to follow my daggers. This was the effect, with my skill not fullypleted yet.


    Aron stood no chance against such an attack. I obviously didn''t aim at his body, but all around him. He stood there frozen, unable to move. I suddenly stopped my attack, and all the daggers disappeared. His clothes were all damaged, but his body was intact. I said "You have no clue, what I have been through my life. While you sat on your ass in this vige, I travelled through the Great Forest, and lived in the North for 5 years. Although you may be only 4 years younger than me, you are like a lost kid to me. Does this prove I''m Wintersteed? I don''t believe it does, but my roots are here, whether you like it or not".


    I said farewell to the rest, and left. ''I never liked being tested... Aron is too stubborn, and has a very narrow view. Finch is much more reasonable than Aron. I don''t get it, why wouldn''t Finch teach his sessor properly?'' I thought. I couldn''t be always around, protecting these people. Even if I improved the overall strength of the vige, what would that mean to a whole city? My mood was a bit spoiled, because I was tired of my own cousins thinking, I was some sort of bad guy. A poser, or a stranger. ''I will just rest for a day or two, away from the people. Maybe I''ve changed. After all, I''ve been travelling around by myself. Only Shelly or Frosty were around. Now, even Frosty is not around'' I thought.


    I went to my field, and decided to stay in the shack. ''I need to make some sort of chair, or something'' I thought. After a while of hacking, chiselling and sanding, I had arge chair, on which I could recline and rest. I sat in my new chair, and closed my eyes. ''I''ll just rx here, a bit of peace and quiet'' I thought. This didn''tst, because after a while, I heard someone approaching me. I knew who it was, thanks to my senses. I asked "What is it Finch?".


    He replied "You could even guess that... I''m here to talk". I opened my eyes, and asked "About?". He said "You are also immature Nex. It''s true that your experience is rich, and you''ve been through a lot. But you are also blind. You became a loner, which is understandable, but have you tried understanding them?". A lot of things ran through my mind at this point. After a while, I sighed and said "You might be right". Finch nodded, and continued "How would you feel? A stranger simply appears in your life, and proims to be your family. I know you are Nex, and I never doubted that. But kids are different. Norty is easy going and bright, so epting you was not a problem for him. He is also young. Haily and Aron are already grown up, they see the world a bit differently".


    I could understand him. I wasn''t very weing to them either. ''I''ve lost touch a long time ago. I didn''t try to make them ept me, I simply didn''t care'' I thought. I sighed again, and said "I know¡­". I then heard other peopleing over. It was Haily and Aron. Finch smiled, and didn''t say anything else. Haily went forward and said "I''m¡­ sorry". She then hung her head down, and didn''t speak anymore. Aron also apologised, and said "I shouldn''t doubt my own family. Father believes you, so why shouldn''t we as well?".


    I stood up, and walked up to them. I wasn''t sure how to proceed, so I grabbed both of them, and hugged them. I said "It seems we were all at fault. I''m sorry too, it must''ve been difficult for you guys as well". I then released them, and said "Wait a bit guys, I will make some chairs for you too". They became surprised, and Haily asked "You can make furniture?". I smiled, and replied "I''ve learned a lot. I can also smith, make clothes and grow nts. All that you see around, was grown by me".


    As I chopped some logs, and started making chairs, Aron asked "You grew all of that by yourself? When did you get the time to water it?". I smiled, and said "I designed a water delivery system, which does that for me. I don''t have to water the field, I just need to tend to it once in a while. Although in the past, I used to do that manually". Aron, Haily and even Finch were stunned. The water delivery system, was something I came up with. It shouldn''t be that popr, or exist at all. ''Maybe the big cities, or the Imperial City has something like this. The viges though, wouldn''t know about such things probably'' I thought. I quickly made some basic chairs, and said "Take a seat. I will make a fire, and roast some meat".

 Chapter 312

    Chapter 312


    They all sat down, while I roasted some meat over the fire. I decided to talk about myself a bit more, and said "I was actually a wreck of man, before I started travelling". Aron asked "Why?". I continued "I fell in love. The woman I used to love, had ulterior motives, and wanted to get her hands on the Moon de, which is the Ancestral Sword from the Asturb Vige. I was very naive, and handed her the sword. She then disappeared without a trace, and I became a wreck. I lost my house, job and ended up on the streets".


    Haily asked angry "Did you get that woman?". I shook my head, and said "No, at that time, I only thought of it as just some sword. I was just a normal viger, I had no strength, skills or techniques. Like the idiot I was, I decided to travel, and explore my life". Aron asked "Explore your life?". I smiled, and said "Yes, it''s still my goal to this day. To explore my life". I then thought about something, and continued "Let me tell you something, that an old man said to me a long time ago. He said "Young one. Although life can be difficult, love can hurt and wealth disappear, I''ve long lost interest in those things. This old man may seem homeless, but doesn''t that mean, the whole world is my home? Young one. Don''t waste your life, explore it!"... This has be my goal since".


    Haily asked "Where is that old man now?". I shook my head, and said "I don''t know, I haven''t seen him since. I don''t believe he was a simple homeless man though. At that time, I took it at face value. But now? I can see that he wasn''t a simple homeless man". Finch said "There are that kind of people in this world too. They are usually very strong, but pose as just simple vigers. They might be hiding, got bored of the high life, or perhaps something else. Who knows". I nodded, and said "I also think that way".


    Because the meat was ready, I handed some to everyone, and we began eating. Aron looked at the field, and asked "Why did you nt all of that? We have food". I smiled, and replied "These are not just any edible nts. These are rare herbs, that I will use for something". Haily quickly asked "Is it for that thing, you gave to Norty?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, that is one of the things, I can make with the use of those herbs".


    Aron and Haily looked at each other, than at me. They seemed hesitant, to ask the obvious question. I helped them out by saying "We are a family, I would give those things to you anyway. You just have to wait a bit". Both nodded their heads, and seemed very excited about the prospects of my medicine. We continued our small meal, while Haily asked "You said that you went to the North, and stayed there for five years. Why did you stay there for so long?". I replied "I wanted to explore it. There are many ces you can visit, and even more things you can learn. It may sound weird, but my body was telling me to go north".


    Finch asked "I never heard of such a thing happening. Do you have a clue as to why?". I smiled, and replied "I do, but I can''t really share it". Finch nodded, and said "It''s fine. We all have some secrets, that we need to keep to ourselves only". I changed the topic, and asked Aron and Haily, at what stage of Limits they were. Haily said "I''m about to break through my Half Step of the Outer Limits. It shouldn''t take that long anymore".


    I nodded, while Aron said "I broke through my Half Step already. Now I just need to build up my strength and skills, until I hit the wall of the Inner Limits. By the way, how did you break though? Did someone help you?". I shook my head, and answered "Not really¡­ I guess some luck was involved though. My friend was being chased. They caught him, and crippled him before I could find him. I was already at the wall of Inner Limits, but I couldn''t break through. When I saw my friend in that state, a deep feeling of anger allowed me to break through that wall. I don''t know if this would work for everyone though. I guess I was lucky¡­".


    Haily asked "What about your friend?". I smiled, and said "He is doing fine. I managed to fix him up, and he should be able to reach the wall of Inner Limits soon. Whether he breaks through or not, I don''t know. It will depend on him". Aron asked "Your friend must be strong". I thought about it, and said "I don''t really have weak friends. All but one of them, are past the Half Step. Although he might''ve already broken through it as well".


    Finch asked a probing question "Are they Humans?". Iughed, and said "Does it matter? I have no bias towards races. Only one of them is Human. The others are of different race". I extinguished the fire, and said "You guys should go and train. Haily, be sure to break through that Half Step as soon as you can. This will make it easier for you, when I give you the medicine. Aron, think about what I said. Sometimes, it is better to retreat, orpromise. You are not a youngster anymore. After all, you will have to rece your father one day".


    Haily nodded, while Aron asked surprised "You don''t want to be the Vige Chief?". I smiled, and replied "So that''s what was bothering you. No, I have no interest in that position. I''m still a traveller. I like to move between ces, just like a drifting cloud. I will not be around here much. Therefore you need to make sure, that you are up for that position". Aron nodded his head, and replied strongly "I will!". I could see Finch''s proud expression. He was pleased that his son finally understood something, and even perhaps found a role model. ''I don''t know if I''m such a great role model¡­ But this should be better than being arrogant, and cold all the time'' I thought.


    When they left, I reclined in my chair, and rested. My mind was at peace, and I soon dozed off. I slept on the chair, in the middle of my field. I was sure of one thing. If I saw myself at that time, I would think about Nick.

 Chapter 313

    Chapter 313


    I woke up the next morning, and felt rested. ''Even though I slept on a chair, I haven''t got such a good rest in a long time'' I thought. I slept for a few good hours, practically a day. I stood up, and stretched my body. ''I should return to my sword practice. After all, I will be leaving in the vige soon'' I thought.


    The days passed like this. I spent most of my time on sword training. I managed to learn a few new Forms, and get ustomed to the old Forms. Aran showed me the Third, Fourth and Fifth Form of the Lethal Sword Technique. The Third Formprised of both the foot technique, and special Styles. I had to position my hands on the hit in specific ways, in order to attack. I found that doing so, allowed me to better control my sword. Not only that, I was able to use my strength better.


    The first three Forms were basic Forms. The Fourth and Fifth Forms, were the Defensive Forms. Although Aran called them defensive, I could actually attack using them. The Forms were basically centred around defence, that was why they were called the Defensive Forms. The Forms emphasized the Defensive Stance. Different holds and foot techniques, were included as well. I asked Aran about thest two Forms, but he said "I will teach them to you, when I''m satisfied with the other five".


    Because I couldn''t do anything about it, I trained the ones I learned. During that time, I supplied more recipes to Kara, and tested her knowledge a few times. She answered all the questions correctly, and even managed the create some recipes on her first try. After the initial 20 recipes, I began giving her some tips about medicine making.


    She went far, even without my help. ''I guess she really does have a talent for this field. She is hard working, and dedicated¡­ a perfect disciple'' I thought. The winter would arrive soon, and it would be the time for me to leave. ''I can train my sword and archery, during my journey. It would be great to learn thosest two Forms from the Lethal Sword Technique, but if Aran is adamant, I can''t really do anything'' I thought.


    Besides the new sword techniques, and archery tricks. I tried to gain a full control of my energy everyday. Even though a couple of months passed, I wasn''t anywhere near the mastery of my energy. I also had a few more things to take care of, before I left. The field was fully cultivated, therefore I skipped one day of training and harvested everything. ''I will need to make quite a number of Extracts. I want to help out the youngsters mostly, but the adults can benefit from them as well'' I thought.


    People like Aran, Finch and other important people, would be included. ''I will need some space to make my Extracts. v''s ce is good, but it will take some time to produce this kind of amount. I can''t simply tell him to move out for a few days'' I thought. I decided to ask Finch, about an empty house I could use.


    When Finch heard what I wanted to do, he immediately replied "There are a few houses you can use. Follow me, I will take you to one". We soon arrived at a house, located closer to the edge of the vige. Finch said "This house belonged to a craftsman. He died a few years back, and it''s now avable for a new family. Use it for as long as you need. No one will bother you here". I nodded my head, and took the keys. I said "I will be here for a few days. I only ask not to disturb me, as I will be busy. When I''m done, I will return the key".


    Finch nodded, and said farewell. The insides of the house were quite dusty, but it didn''t matter to me anyway. I only needed the space. I set up my tools, and began making Prime Extracts. I wasn''t going to make blood purifying, or strength improving Extracts only. I also wanted to make more medicine, and stock the vige up. Besides, I could always do with a few more bottles of medicine myself.


    Time slowly passed. Bottle after bottle of Prime Extracts, were produced by me. After two days of making Extracts, I used all the herbs that I grew. ''Now the second phase. Distilling all the Prime Extracts into Zenith Extracts'' I thought. There was no time to waste, and I quickly set up my distillery. This process was not longer than the initial process of making Prime Extracts, but it still took me almost two days. I was already tired after making so many Prime Extracts, even though I broke through my Inner Limits. I still required sleep and food. Although I didn''t sleep, I would eat something in between making Extracts. This allowed me to continue for so long. ''Staying awake for four days¡­ I don''t really want to repeat that'' I thought.


    Fortunately, distillery was easy to use, and didn''t require too much of my focus. After these long hours, and constant work, I distilled all the Prime Extracts. I received around two litres of Zenith Blood Yarn and Earth Grabbing Sprout Extracts. I also had loads of medicine now. Most of it would go to the vige, but I would keep some of them too. Fortunately, I stocked up on bottles. Whenever there was a chance to buy some containers such as bottles, I always did that.


    ''I will distribute that tomorrow. I just want to sleep now'' I thought, andid down in the dusty bed. I didn''t care about anything at this stage, and fell asleep instantly. I don''t know for how long I slept, but when I woke up, it was night time. I stretched a bit, and did my usual routine of exercises. When I walked outside, I saw a bright full moon, hanging in the skies. ''I wonder why the Ancestral Weapon of Asturb Vige, is called Moon de?'' I thought.


    The sword always seemed in to me. There were no markings on it, and the design seemed simple. It looked just like any one handed sword. I started at the moon for a while, then left. I headed straight towards Finch''s house. It must''ve been well into the night, because no one was around, besides some guards. All the lights were out as well. ''I shouldn''t disturb them'' I thought. Unfortunately, the window to my room was closed. But Haily''s window was opened. I entered through that, and quietly made my way to my own room.


    I decided to just practice my control of the energy, until everyone woke up. The morning arrived quickly, and I went downstairs to join my family. Finch was really shocked when he saw me. He asked "When did you return?". I replied "During the night. I didn''t want to wake you up guys". I sat down , and continued "I''m done now. I created loads of medicine, there should be enough for all youngsters". I then looked at Finch, and said "I didn''t forget about you guys either".


    Finch asked surprised "You will give us some as well?". I replied "Of course. You are the backbone of this vige. All the guards, teachers and others need to be strong as well. How can you protect the younger generation, if you are weak?". Finchughed loudly, and said "That''s true. Although, I already broke through my Inner Limits". I shook my head, and said "It doesn''t matter. It will still work, you just need a bigger quantity that''s all". Finch was very thrilled by the news.


    I took out about 100 milliliters of the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract, and said "I believe you can take around half of that. Haily and Aron should be able to take the other half. That is under the condition of Haily breaking through her Half Step". Haily smiled, and replied proudly "I did! Two days ago". I nodded, and said "Very good. You worked hard".


    As Finch was about to grab the bottle, I said "Before you take it, I need to tell you something". Finch stopped, and asked "Are there any side effects?". Iughed, and replied "Would I give that kind of crap to my own family? It''s not that, it''s about the process. This will be very painful, believe me". Finch replied "I can take some pain!". I smiled, and said "We will see. You will be first in that case. I will help you out, because I don''t want you to die". I poured half of the bottle into an empty ss, and told Finch to drink it. Without any hesitation, Finch drank the whole content of the ss.

 Chapter 314

    Chapter 314


    I smiled, and waited to see Finch''s reaction. After he drank the Extract, and waited a bit, Finch said "I don''t feel anyth¡­". before he could finish, his face suddenly changed. I said "Sit down, I will help you out when it kicks in properly". Finch didn''t argue anymore, and sat down on the floor obediently. I sat in front of him, and said "Endure it. Do I need to mention, that your kids are watching you right now". This should have been enough of a motivation for him.


    I could see his veins bing red, which meant the process was in full swing. I extended my right hand, and ced it on his chest. Besides the painful expression, I saw confusion in his eyes. I said "I know what I''m doing, just endure". I then released my ice powers. His clothes began freezing, and his expression eased up a bit. I controlled my power at an optimal range, and let Finch deal with the rest.


    One hour, two hours¡­ Time passed, and Finch endured the pain of his blood boiling. After four hours of such pain, the Extract was finally used up. Finch didn''t faint, which meant he was a strong willed man. He breathed heavily, and tried to pick himself up. I stopped him, and said "Just rest, you will feel the difference soon".


    He asked, while trying to catch his breath. "How¡­ did you.. do that?.. Is your¡­ arm¡­?". I stopped him there, and said "I know what you want to ask, and the answer is no. I told you, it''s my own arm. Things happened, and I have this ability". He said "It''s¡­ scary¡­". I smiled, and replied "A bit. Anyway, you need to rest. I will take care of others now. We will talkter". Finch nodded, and tried to pick himself up again. I helped him up, and asked Tina to escort him back to his bed.


    Haily and Aron were stunned, but also fearful. Iughed, and said "What if I tell you, that I had to go through this without any help? Moreover, I had to go through this twice". Aron asked "Are you a monster?". I shook my head, and said "Haily, you are next. 25 mililiters is the maximum you can do, after breaking through the Half Step. This is including my help. Aron will have it a bit easier though, because he broke through a while ago".


    Haily asked "Can Aron go first?". Aron didn''t like that suggestion, and replied "By all means,dies first!". I poured 25 milliliters of the Extract into the ss, and said "You can only take this once in your life. That is its limitation. I did it twice, because I had ess to different herbs previously. If you are scared, we can pass you, but that is the only opportunity you will receive. It''s your choice".


    Haily grabbed the ss and drank from it. I smiled, and said "Sit down. I will help you out". Haily sat down, and waited. After a while, the effects kicked in, and I used my ice powers to lessen her pain. The process this time was shorter. Haily received a smaller quantity of the Extract. After about two hours of pain, Haily fainted. I picked her up from the floor, and carried her to her bedroom. When I returned, Aron steeled himself, and said "Let''s do this! If Haily could do it, I can too!". I nodded my head, and gave the rest of the bottle to Aron.


    Another two hours passed, and the Extract was fully absorbed by Aron. He fainted in the end fainted as well, so I carried him upstairs too.


    I walked back down, and sat in one of the chairs. Tina asked "You must be tired as well. Why don''t you go and rest?". I replied "It''s fine, I can manage. What about you though? You are also my family". Tinaughed a bit, and said "Me? I just a normal woman. I''m not strong like hubby or kids". I thought about something, and asked "You never trained in your life?". She replied "I did a bit, when I was a kid. But I didn''t even break through to the Outer Limits". I took out some Blood Yarn Extract, and said "Then you can do it too. Breaking through to your Outer Limits, is not a bad idea".


    She shook her head, and said "No, no. I''m fine, really". I poured about five milliliters of Extract into a ss, and said "I will also help you. With such an amount, the pain shouldn''t be unbearable". Tina was hesitant about it. I tried encouraging her "You will have more strength and energy. There are only benefits, in exchange for some pain". Tina sighed, and said "Alright, I will do it. But make sure you help me out, don''t y a trick on me, alright?".


    She drank the Extract, and sat down like the others. I sat down in front of her, and said "This shouldst around half an hour, not more than that". Tina was just a normal viger, but that didn''t mean she couldn''t break through still. After a while, the effects kicked in, and Tina began screaming. Finch came down running, and saw what was happening. He asked stunned "Tina is going through this as well?!".


    I sat there without a care, and said "Yea. Although I gave her much less,pared to what you guys received". Tina gritted her teeth, and said "Don''t talk crap! Help me out!". I ced my hand on her chest, and released my ice powers. I then said to Finch "When her blood is purified, I will give you guys the same medicine, I gave to Norty. By the way, where is he?".


    Finch replied "He went to another vige. He is chasing one girl over there. That boy¡­ Skirt chaser from such a young age". Tina had enough of our chatter, and shouted "Shut up!". She then looked at Finch, and I could see slight fear in his eyes. Finch didn''t dare to say anything else. I also stopped talking, and focused on my job. Some screaming and painful howlster, the Extract was absorbed. Tina breathed heavily, and was a weakened state. ''I have to give it to her though, she held up and didn''t faint. And she said, she is just a normal woman'' I thought.


    Finch walked over, picked his wife up, and embraced her. Tina said weakly "I did it honey, I did it as well". She then fainted. I said "Let her rest properly". Finch nodded, and took her upstairs. I sat in one of the chairs, and rxed a bit. I wasn''t really tired, but I was d this was over.


    It was already evening. I realised that I didn''t eat anything yet. I went to the storage, and took out some food. When I returned, Finch was already downstairs, sitting at the table. I joined him, and asked "Do you think, you can break through the Half Step of your Inner Limits?". Finch thought about it for a while, and replied "Maybe. I''m not sure at the moment. It will require quite a substantial amount of energy". I asked "What if I can provide that energy?".


    Finch was shocked. He became speechless for a while, so I continued "Don''t worry, it''s nothing to do with my arm. Remember the medicine I gave to Norty? This can be used as energy source". Finch scratched his beard for a while, and said "It could be possible. It''s worth a try to be sure". I nodded my head, and said "Good enough. Then rest for today, and we will try that tomorrow".


    Finch nodded, then asked "So, you will be leaving soon?". I replied "Yes. I have much to explore and learn. I did what I could to help you guys out, the rest will be up to the younger generation". Finch shook his head, and said "This was never required from you". I replied "I know, but I owe you at least that much. You searched for me, and weed me with all your heart. Thanks to you guys, I know that I''m not alone in this world. I have a ce to return to".

 Chapter 315

    Chapter 315


    Finch only smiled in response. I said "When we are done with the kids, you will gather the people you trust. I will make them stronger too". He nodded, and said "Sure. Although the whole vige is united, not everyone can be fully loyal. After all, a couple of families moved here from different ces. I can''t really trust them fully". I said "That is fine, but ultimately all youngsters should receive something. It would be bad to give to some, and not to others. This would only divide the vige". Finch said "Good idea. We shall proceed with that tomorrow then. So Nex, what are your ns then. Where are you heading?".


    I replied "My first destination is Ortava. I want to visit a friend over there. I will then head towards the Imperial City. I have a long journey in front of me. We are currently at the north west of Endrosian Empire. Even with my speed, it will take me some time to get there". Finch nodded, and said "True. Ortava is quite far away. That is a good ce to visit. The city is famous for Formation Masters. A whole Academy dedicated for them, is located there".


    I said "Interesting, but I don''t really have time to learn Formations. I had a few asions to learn them, but I preferred to focus on my own stuff. Besides, I know a Formation Master. As long as I pay, I can get anything I want". Finchughed, and said "If you are wealthy". I said "When ites to the currency of the North, I only have a few coins. As for the gold, I have some but not that much. I can always earn some with my concoctions. It''s not a problem". Finch asked "Are you sure? I can give you some money". I waved my hand, and said "Don''t worry. How do you think I fared in the North? People didn''t just hand me money for free". He smiled, and said "As you like".


    I then said goodnight to Finch, and returned to my room. The next day, would be an important day for the vige. After everyone got a proper rest, I told Finch to gather everyone on the main square. Finch as usually shouted "EVERYONE! GATHER ON THE MAIN SQUARE!". Soon the people began appearing left and right. Some grumbled "Does he have to shout like this?", while other asked "What is it this time? Someone else returned?".


    Finch checked over the crowd, and noticed that loads of youngsters were missing. Hemanded "Bring your kids as well! We have something special to say". The crowd seemed confused, but the parent left to collect their kids too. When everyone seemed to be present, I came forward and said "Today, I have good news for all the youngsters in the vige. Those that train, or might train in the future, will receive a special medicine from me. It''s a medicine that purifies the blood. This in turn, will allow them to break through their Limits much easier. Every youngster will get some, as you all are the future of this vige".


    The youngsters cheered, while the adults were shocked. Someone asked "Is the medicine safe?". I replied "Would I poison my own family?". The person shut it, and didn''t dare speak anymore. I continued "This medicine can be taken only once in the entire life of a person. I must warn you though, the process of purifying your blood is painful. But what is a bit of pain, to the endless benefits in the future? All of you will have a choice. You can either use it now, or leave it until you reach a specific stage of your Limits. The choice will be up to you, or your guardians. But beware, this is a one time offer. So don''t regret your choiceter".


    The crowd began talking, while one woman asked "What about those, who are not inside the vige now?". The crowd immediately quieted down, and waited for my response I smiled, and said "I already told you, everyone will receive it. Whether they are here or not. I''m not unfair, or biased towards only some people. Doesn''t matter if you are rich or poor, if your job is highly desired or not. Every child will get some". The woman seemed relieved, after I said this. Some other people also became relieved, probably because their kids were also outside the vige.


    I said "This will take a while. So if you can form a line, we can proceed. One family at a time please!". I then turned to Finch, and said "Get something to note their names, and who received what. We don''t want to make mistakes". People quickly rushed to form a line, and stood in an orderly manner. I called over the first family.


    The first family that stepped forwards, consisted of two parents and two kids. A boy and A girl. They were quite young, and probably couldn''t take the Extract yet. I asked the parents "How old are you children?". The woman replied, "My son is 8, while my daughter is 6". I said "Did your son or daughter started training something?". She shook her head, and said "No. We are just bakers you see, and...". I shook my head, and said "It''s fine. You don''t have to exin yourself".


    I said to her "The medicine can be used by anyone, but if they don''t train, the quantity I can give them is small. It''s not because I think they are useless, but because the medicine would kill them. The more they take, the greater the pain. That is the price one has to pay, in order to purify their blood. So you stand in front of a choice. You can allow them to train, and in the future collect greater amount of medicine, or I can assign a specific amount now, and let them use it when they are older. As I said, I don''t want to kill them".


    The parents looked at each other, and replied "We are simple people. We just want our kids to grow up, and form their own families. You can just give them, what you think is appropriate" The boy protested "But mom! I want to be strong too!". His mother looked at him, and said quietly "Shush". I thought about it, and said "You guys still don''t understand. I''m not trying to make warriors out of your children". She seemed confused, and asked "Then, why do you want to provide every child with that medicine?".


    I replied "When I asked, if your kids trained something, I didn''t mean sword or bow. I didn''t mean any weapon to be precise. I meant their bodies. No one will tell them to be warriors, just because they took this medicine. They can live their lives as they like. They can bake bread, or feed cows. Purifying ones blood doesn''t mean they will instantly be warriors. They will be healthier, and have more energy. This benefits everyone, not just warriors".


    She looked at her husband, and didn''t know what to say. They looked at their kids, and the woman replied "Alright". I nodded my head, and said "In that case, they can collect their medicine under these conditions. If your kids managed to break through their Outer Limits, they will be able to collect 15 milliliters of the medicine. If they don''t break through by the age of 20, they will receive 5 milliliters". She nodded, and said "We are fine with such arrangements". As they were about to go, I said "There is one more medicine".


    They stopped, and she asked "Another one?". I nodded, and said "Yes. The other medicine increases the strength permanently. There is no pain involved, and no side effects. This can be used to break through one''s Limits, or just to increase one''s strength. I will add the same amounts, for the conditions already specified".


    She seemed sceptical, so I took out a milliliter of the Zenith Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract, and said "Drink it". She was stunned, and didn''t know what to do. I said again "Drink it, and you will see". She took it, and drank it. After a while, she eximed "Is this real?!". The others looked with interest, and wanted to see what was happening. Soon the Extract stopped working, while she said "I feel stronger. So you were not lying at all?". I shook my head, and said "Why would I lie? I told you, I wouldn''t poison my own family". She nodded her head, and said "We are happy with those arrangements. Thank you, I was wrong to be sceptical of you".


    Finch wrote down all the details, and we moved on to the next family. The other families didn''t ask so many questions anymore. They probably heard what happened, and were willing to let their kids train their bodies. In case of the youngsters who already trained, some of them already broke through the Outer Limits, and decided to take the medicine now. I told them to drink it, and sit down. Soon the area was filled with screams of people, who were having their blood purified. Some of the normal vigers seemed a bit disturbed, but I assured them that in the future, there would be a medic here who would help them out.


    I was of course talking about Kara. This would be her job, if I wasn''t around. Of course, I didn''t hand any of the medicine for the parents to keep. They would be able to retrieve it, after their kids reach the specific condition. Finch would be keeping them all.


    The day was long, I didn''t expect so many kids in the vige. ''This is good anyway. The vige will be strong, and will be able to protect itself in the future. People will be more united thanks to this event'' I thought. With everyone taken care of, I said to Finch "Some people were scared by this prospect, but went with the crowd. Don''t force anyone to train though. They have their free will, and they are free to choose". Finch shook his head, and said "I never forced any of the youngsters to train. It was always their choice". I nodded, and said "There is no time today, to worry about your Half Step. Tomorrow can be busy as well. We will do this, after we deal with all this stuff".


    Finch nodded, and said "I agree". We walked back to his house, where I said "Tomorrow, bring all the adults you trust. I still have some medicine left. Then we will take care of your Half Step". Finch nodded, while I bid him goodnight.

 Chapter 316

    Chapter 316


    I went to my bedroom, but I didn''t go to sleep. I stealthy exited through my window, and with one silent jump, I made it to the roof. I could see the whole vige. ''Let''s see what happens'' I thought, and observed. After a while of waiting, I found what I''ve been looking for. ''As I thought. My Extracts are too good for the people to know about them'' I thought. What I referred to, was people who were spies in the vige. I refused to believe, that all the vigers would be united. I expected for some people to have ulterior motives, and that was the exact reason why, I surveyed the whole vige.


    In total, I saw four different people travelling in different directions. They were either at their Half Step of Outer Limits, or passed it. ''Do you really think, I will let you escape?'' I thought, and disappeared from where I was standing. I chased after the first guy, and quickly caught up. I approached him stealthily, and quickly tapped him on certain pressure points. He fainted, without realising what just happened. I carried him to the next person, and then the next person, and so on. They had no way of outspeeding me. Soon, all fourid fainted on the ground in front of me.


    ''So, two older guys, a woman and a kid. Interesting'' I thought. They were obviously spies. I grabbed all of them, and returned to Finch''s house. I jumped up, andnded on the roof. I left them there, and headed towards Finch''s bedroom. When I arrived, and said "Follow me, I know you are not asleep". Finch opened the door a bit confused, but obliged anyway. I took him to the roof, and asked "Who are they?".


    Finch was a bit surprised. He took a closer look, and said "They lived here for quite some time. The kid trained from a young age with others. Why did you bring them here?... Do you think..". I replied "Isn''t this obvious? Did you think my medicine was nothing special? The spies in the vige would move out immediately, and report such findings. This is the living proof, right in front of you. Can you imagine what could happen next?".


    Finch creased his brows, and said "War". I replied "Exactly. If not other viges, then city or cities would invade this ce. Why do you think I didn''t hand any of my medicine to them? This medicine, it''s not something to scoff at. I even doubt the Royals have something like this. I may be wrong, but the normal cities would not have it for sure". Finch nodded, and said "I let my guard down. You are right, we should interrogate them. Thankfully, you didn''t kill them". I said "I''m not stupid. We need a private ce. You can take them for interrogation, while I watch the vige. To wake them up, either beat them up, or use your Aura. Whatever you see fit".


    Finch nodded, grabbed them, and made his way somewhere to interrogate them. I looked around the vige, but didn''t notice any more movement besides some guards walking around. This was part of my n. I wanted the event to be big, in order to root out these spies. ''Now, I just need to make sure, no other spy exists'' I thought.


    I wasn''t disappointed. Well into the night, three more people moved out, and ran in two separate directions. Two people seemed to be together, as they travelled in the same direction. The third person, was heading in a different direction. Judging by their speeds, they should''ve broken through their Half Steps of Outer Limits. I went after the lone guy first, and quickly fainted him. I then caught up with the other two, and fainted them as well.


    I knew where Finch went, as I observed the whole Vige. I couldn''t really go there though, this was a measure I decided on, in case more of them appeared. I returned to Finch''s roof, and dumped the captives onto it. I didn''t have to pay much attention to them. The pressure points I tapped, were responsible for sleep and rest. They had no way of waking up themselves, for at least four hours. That didn''t mean someone couldn''t wake them up forcibly. If one applied pressure on them, or beat them up, they would wake up. I stood there and scanned the vige, waiting for Finch to return.


    Finch finally returned after about two hours, and asked surprised "You caught more of them?". I nodded in response, and asked "Did you find something out?". Finch replied "Yes. They were all going to their viges, located not very far away from here. After a bit of persuasion, they admitted to spying". I asked "What are you going to do with them?".


    Finch replied seriously "They are dead. I will not tolerate betrayal". I said "Good, get rid of their families too. I don''t care whether they are innocent or not". Finch replied "You don''t have to tell me that, I know when to be ruthless". He was still pissed, but that was understandable. I nodded, and said "I will interrogate these three by myself. You stay here, and catch anyone who tries to leave the vige. I will try to find out more".


    Finch nodded, and said "Alright. See that house over there?". He pointed at a certain house, on the fringes of the Vige. I nodded, and said "I already know where you''ve went". He continued "When you enter, descent to the basement. When you are there, activate the Formation using this", then passed me a small metal rod. I took it, grabbed the three, and headed towards the house.


    Inside the house. I quickly found the basement, and activated the Formation using the small metal rod. Any sound I could hear from outside, was now gone. ''Good, this seems to be working'' I thought, and tapped on a few pressure points on the first guy. I could wake him up forcefully, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He woke up a bit disorientated, and then noticed me. He asked "Nex? What''s going on?".


    I asked "Where were you going?". The guy seemed stunned, and replied "I wanted to get my child back. He went to another vige, and I wanted to bring him back to take that medicine". I knew he was lying. After so many years of studying Human behaviour, patterns and the words they used, there would be very few people, who could actually fool me. He was not one of these types of people.


    I asked "And the real reason?". He replied a bit angry "It''s the real reason! I don''t understand why are you asking these questions. I can.." before he finished, I broke his arm. He screamed at the top of his lungs, but no one would hear him. I asked again "Why were you going outside. Mind you, if you give me a wrong answer, I will break the other arm". He screamed and shouted "Monster. You fucking monster!".


    This was not the answer, I wanted to hear. I broke his second arm. At this point he screamed for a while, then fainted. ''No you don''t, it''s not going to be that easy'' I thought, and picked him up. After tapping a few pressure points, he woke up again. When the pain hit him, he started crying and begging. I asked "Why. Did. You. Go. Outside?".


    He cried, and begged "Please¡­ no more¡­.". I broke his leg this time. He fainted again, but this wasn''t a problem for me. I woke him up, and said "I can do this all night long you know. Besides, I have two other guys, I can torment. Last chance. You either answer, or I will torture you till you die a miserable death". He finally cracked, and said "I will¡­ Don''t kill me¡­ I will say".


    I still held him up, and replied "I''m listening". He said between his breaths "I was going... to the Yeran Vige... to report... the medicine... you brought". I asked "Now, who sent you here?". He said while gasping for air "Hah....Hah¡­ It was¡­ not only this vige. There¡­ There were others¡­ who were sent¡­ to different viges¡­ This is¡­ how things are¡­ There are spies¡­ Hah¡­ In every vige". I let him continue. "Hah¡­ Each Vige¡­ Chief¡­ sends some people¡­ to other viges¡­ This is¡­ to spy on them¡­ and find out¡­ their weaknesses... wealth¡­ or strength¡­".


    I asked another question "How often do you report back?". He replied "I¡­ not that¡­ often¡­ A few times¡­ in a year". I snapped his neck, and threw him to the ground. ''So, new spies can arrive, when the old ones don''t report. This can be problematic'' I thought. I needed a solution, to stop the news spreading. ''Even if I didn''t announce my Extracts publicly, the whole vige would find out anyway. There was no other ways, to improve the overall strength of the whole vige... Maybe this was a bad idea¡­ I wanted for them to be stronger, and not to worry about them¡­ but it seems this resulted in the exact thing, I wanted to avoid in the first ce'' I thought, trying to figure out a solution.

 Chapter 317

    Chapter 317


    After a while of contemting, I came up with something. ''Blood Pact. If the whole vige makes a Blood Pact to never reveal this information, we should be alright'' I thought. I then looked at my right hand, and asked a bit concerned "Are you still there Frosty?". I heard no answer. ''Frosty knew about Blood Pacts. It would be best to ask it about them, but I don''t know what is going on anymore'' I thought.


    I woke up the second guy, and interrogated him as well. Half an hourter, the three spies wereying dead on the floor. ''They were from neighbouring viges. All of them were small, and not as powerful as Sav Vige'' I thought. This was reassuring, but it didn''t mean we were safe. They could easily notify people in the city, and create chaos.


    I picked up the corpses, and stuck them into a bag. I then left the house, and headed towards the forest. When I buried the corpses, I returned to Finch''s roof. There were no other captives there, which meant we should''ve taken care of all of them. I said to Finch "We need to remove the families of these spies". Finch nodded, and said "I will take care of that. You can keep the watch". I shook my head, and said "It will no longer be necessary. There shouldn''t be any more of them".


    I then continued "We might have a problem though. New spies may return, and people may share the news of my medicine. This may be bad. We need to make sure, no viger says anything about it". Finch replied "I can''t threaten my own people". I said "I never intended to threaten them. The whole vige needs to make a Blood Pact". Finch thought about it, and said "It''s not a bad solution¡­ but what if they don''t agree?". I replied "They have to. Otherwise, we are risking exposure, and further consequences. The Blood Pact will only protect the information about my medicine. They will be able to leave vige, talk with others and do whatever they like".


    Finch asked "What if they still refuse". I didn''t have an answer to that question. I replied "I don''t know. I refuse to kill them for nothing. Threatening them will not work either¡­ Maybe it was a bad idea, I just wanted to worry less about this ce¡­". Finch walked over, patted my shoulder and said "It''s not your fault. You were willing to help people out. This isn''t a bad thing. This shows to me, and should to everyone, that you care for this ce. A true Wintersteed, just like your father was. I miss my brother, but knowing that his son is like this, fills me with pride. We will think of something. Go back and rest, I will take care of the traitors".


    I sighed, and nodded my head. The next morning, I joined everyone for the breakfast. The atmosphere around the table, was the same as usual. Everyone chatted, smiled and ate without any worries. ''Finch probably didn''t tell them anything yet'' I thought. As I sat there lost in my thoughts, Aron said "That medicine of yours¡­ Breaking through to my Inner Limits in the future, will no longer be such a problem. It''s just a matter of time now. I can feel it". I smiled, and replied absentmindedly "That''s great".


    Haily asked "Did something happen?". I sighed, and looked at Finch. He nodded his head, so I said "We may have some problems. As you can see, my medicine is nothing to scoff at. This is the problem. If others find out about it, they maye here looking for it. I''m not worried about other viges, but a horde of people that popte the cities".


    Finch then continued "Yesterday, we executed some spies. If the news spread, a war can erupt. The situation is not great, I must admit". Aron stood up, and imed "We will fight then! We are no cowards". Finch looked at his son seriously, and said "Sit down". Aron was taken aback, but obeyed anyway. I then said "There is a solution. We need to make a Blood Pact¡­ the whole vige needs to make it". Tina asked the same question, I heard from Finchst night. "What if some people don''t agree?" she asked.


    I replied "I don''t know¡­ That is why, this is a problem". Everyone went quiet for a while. I decided not to linger there, and think about what ifs. I stood up, and said "Let''s assemble the whole vige. I will try to persuade them". Finch nodded, and all of us walked outside. After Finch called loudly for everyone to gather, we waited.


    When everyone was present. I sighed and said "We need to make Blood Pact". The people gathered started talking, and someone asked "Why? What is that Blood Pact about?". I replied "The medicine I gave you, cannot see the light of day. The Blood Pact will not restrict you in any way, it will only be there to prevent you exposing my medicine".


    Another person asked "What if we don''t want to? You will force us? Kill us?". The crowd began talking again, and some even had fear in their eyes. I sighed, and said "No. I can only tell you the consequences". A different person shouted "That''s not my problem then. You should have thought about it before". As he was about to walk away, a woman pped his face, and said "You want to repay him like that? Did he ask for impossible? He allowed our kids to have a better future, and what? You are going to abandon him? He might not kill you, but I will!".


    The man was shocked, but he wasn''t alone. Many people were shocked at the behaviour of that woman. Coincidentally, she was Nade''s mother. She shouted "Nex was the one who helped out my son. He allowed him to have a future. If not for Nex, would your kids be able to get such benefits. That is how you n to pay him back?". She walked out of the crowd, and said to me "I will make any Blood Pact you want. I''m not ungrateful like these bastards, who only think about themselves".


    More people came forward, and also dered they would oblige. There were around 40-50 vigers still behind. Not stepping forwards. I said "The consequences of leaking that information, is likely war. You might be able to defend against other viges, but what about a city? You can of course leave, that is a solution as well¡­".


    A young man that stood with his family, walked forwards. His father shouted "Where are you going! Do you want to be a ve?". He shouted back "I will not be a ve! If he didn''t care, he would kill all of you already. Do you think you could stop him, and the other Wintersteeds?". His father became speechless, while he turned towards me, and said "I lived my whole life in this vige. I''m not a coward, nor am I a traitor. I''m not sure what this Blood Pact is, but if this will solve your problems, I''m willing to ept it".


    Others slowly walked forwards as well. There were only a handful of people left. One of them shouted "I refuse to be a ve!". I shook my head, and said "No one is going to be a ve. No one is going tomand you, because of the Blood Pact. It will only prevent you from exposing my medicine, nothing else". He shouted back "Why should I believe you?". I replied "Because if I wanted to enve you, I wouldn''t care about your lives. The handful of you, would be already dead. Yet you are still alive and well". I sighed, and continued "I told you, I will not kill anyone, nor will any other Wintersteed here".


    The remaining people looked at each other. One woman with her kid stepped forwards, and said "I believe you. I''m afraid, but I believe you. What you said is true, if you really wanted to enve us, handful of people left or right, wouldn''t make much of a difference to you. I don''t know about the others, but I agree". The others hesitated, but ultimately also walked forwards. Only one person was left. The old man who shouted "I refuse to be a ve!". He said "I lived my life alone. You didn''t help my kids, you didn''t help me. Why would I be your ve? Others may be blinded, but I''m not".


    I sighed, and said "You are free to do whatever you like in that case. You are no longer my concern, or under my protection. Whatever happens to you, is not my problem". He shouted back "Are you threatening me boy?". I replied "No. I will not touch you, as long as you don''t try to break thews here. No Wintersteed will touch you". He didn''t say anything else, and started walking away.


    ''I will not touch you, my family will not touch you, but I said nothing about the people here gathered'' I thought. People who decided to ept the Blood Pact, wouldn''t be stupid enough to let one person slide. I would even go as far, as to assume they would kill the whole group of people. I wasn''t wrong. A few people left the group, and walked towards the old man. When he realised what was going on, He shouted "You said you will not touch me!". I replied "I will not, I never ordered anyone to do something. But as I said, what happens to you from now on, is not my problem. You made your choice, the people also made theirs".


    He began running away, but the people who chased him, weren''t exactly normal vigers. Soon, the people who chased after the old man, returned. I then said "Thank you, to all of you for understanding. Blood Pact is not a ve pact. I told you already, that you will be able to live your life as usual. It will only prevent you from talking about my medicine. This way, you will not mention it, even identally. Your lives, will not be affected whatsoever". The crowd nodded, while I turned to Finch, and asked "Do you know how to make Blood Pacts?".

 Chapter 318

    Chapter 318


    Finch was shocked, when he heard that question. He replied "You don''t know how?". I replied "I only know that they exist. I don''t know much else about them". Finch pped his forehead, and said "You are unbelievable. I will do that for you". I nodded, and said "Just make sure that they can''t reveal it in any form. Whether it''s writing, talking or anything like that". Finch nodded, and said "Alright guys, I will exin how we will proceed''''.


    All people turned towards Finch, and waited for the instructions. Finch said "Each one of you will prick their fingers. You will then drip a few drops of your blood into a bowl. When all the blood is collected, I will speak the conditions. When everyone is happy, they will agree, and the blood pact will bepleted". Finch then took out arge bowl made from metal, and ced it on the ground.


    One by one, ever viger whether small, big, young or old, dropped their blood into the bowl. Finch and others did the same, while I just stood there. Someone asked "What about Nex?". I replied "If I do this, I will not be able to teach my sessor. Besides, I''m the creator of it, and I know its value". The people nodded, as this only seemed logical. Besides, other Wintersteeds did this as well, so they had no reason to doubt me.


    Finch then said "By the power of our blood, we promise to keep Nex''s blood purifying medicine and strength improving medicine a secret. We agree, to never reveal this to anyone, or speak with one another about it. No means ofmunication, are allowed to reveal anything about the medicines. From this point on, we can only refer to it as The Medicine. For if we don''tply, may our blood run dry, and our bodies disintegrate. That shall be the punishment for breaking this pact!". All the people nodded, and some sort of Formation inside the bowl activated. The blood started disappearing, while bright red coloured beads travelled through the air, and entered every person''s body. Soon, the Formation stopped working, while silence filled the area.


    Finch said "The blood pact ispleted. When you want to retrieve The Medicine in the future, juste by my ce. I will provide it for you". All people nodded, and were about to leave. I stopped them, and said "Wait. You guys showed your loyalty, and concern. This should be celebrated!. Let this day be the day, where our whole vige united, and agreed to do something. We may have our differences, but today, we are all equal. Today, shall be the day of Sav Vige!".


    The people looked at each other, and then cheered. Finch said "Not a bad idea. Let this be the day for all the people. This will be the new tradition, of our Sav Vige! TIME TO CELEBRATE!". I knew that some people were outside of the vige, but I wasn''t worried. These people knew nothing about the medicine, or the events that took ce. They couldter take the blood pact too, or would never find out. We partied that day, and cheerful atmosphere spread throughout the vige.


    The next morning, I told Finch to bring some of his trusted people. I didn''t want to make a huge even out of this, so I asked him to do it quietly. Finch agreed, and went to fetch a few people. When Finch returned, he brought the strongest people, I encountered inside the vige. Aron, Gerond, Howard and few other people were there. They were a bit confused, probably because Finch didn''t exin.


    I said "They younger generation received the medicine from me. But they need to grow up, before they will be able to take full advantage of it. You are the backbone of this ce, therefore you will receive the same benefits. I hope that in the future, some of you will be able to break through to their Inner Limits, and protect the vige if such timese". The people gathered looked at each other, and Aron asked "You want to give us this medicine too?".


    I nodded, and said "Yes. I will ask each of you a question. After you answer, you will receive your medicine as well". The people gathered nodded. I asked them a simple question. "At what stage of Limits are you currently?", was my question. It came as no surprise, when each of them answered the same thing. They were basically in front of a wall, that blocked them from reaching the Inner Limits. All of them tried to break through already, but none of them managed that.


    I examined everyone, and distributed the Zenith Blood Yarn Extract to them. I said "You can drink it now. I will help you out, if something goes wrong". The people nodded, and drank the Extract. I said "Sit down, this will be painful. If you can''t make it, I will help you guys". They all sat down, and waited. They didn''t have to wait long, but to my surprise, these people weren''t weak. Of course they took much less than Finch, but my guess was, that even if they took a bit more, they would still try to bear with it. These people were not young anymore, and they had their pride to uphold. ''There was no need for my concern, they are strong willed individuals'' I thought.


    After about two to three hours, they were all exhausted, but none of them fainted. I smiled, and said "Congrats, your blood has been purified. This should make it easier for you to break through, although it will not guarantee it". They nodded, and rested a bit. I said "You can try to break through just like that, or visit Finch in a few days, to receive the second medicine. It will improve your strength, and maybe even allow you to break through to your Inner Limits".


    When they were all rested, they stood up and said in unison "Thank you!". I shook my head, and said "I thank you. You all deserve this". When they left, I asked Finch "Anyone else? People like guards and so on? I still have a bit left". Finch nodded, and replied "I can bring a few more people. How many should I bring?". I thought about it, and said "I only have enough for like seven people. So not more than that". Finch nodded, and headed outside, to collect more people.


    He returned with exactly seven people. One of them was the guard called Ian. He was the guard who brought me to Finch''s house, when I first arrived at the vige. None of them were as strong as the previous batch, but they were all past their Half Steps. I handed them the Extract, and said the same thing. If any of them had problems, I would help them out.


    This time, some people had problems. I helped them out by using my ice powers, and they managed to pull through. Thissted only two hours. They received smaller quantity of Extract,pared to the people Finch brought first. Some fainted, while others barely stayed conscious. I let them rest properly, as had something to say before they left. When everyone woke up, I said "Come back here in a day or two. Finch will give you the second medicine, which will increase your strength". They all nodded and thanked me.


    With my Extracts pretty much exhausted, I sat down in a chair to rx a bit. I turned towards Finch, and said "Make sure you are rested tomorrow¡­". Finch stopped me, and said "I know. You worry too much. It''s you who should rest". I smiled, and said "Yea, perhaps you are right". I didn''t do anything else for the rest of the day. I simply rxed.

 Chapter 319

    Chapter 319


    In the morning of the next day, I walked downstairs to join everyone for breakfast. To my surprise, Norty was there as well. He greeted me, and ask how I was doing. I smiled, and replied "I''m fine. How was your trip?". He returned the smile, and replied "You can check for yourself". I was a bit confused, until I saw Tina walking in with another girl. Norty exined "This is my girlfriend Elly", then he turned towards her, and said "This is my cousin Nex". I greeted he by nodding, and sat down.


    Elly said "Norty always spoke about you. It''s a pleasure to finally meet you". I replied "It''s a pleasure as well". Elly was as young as Norty. I wouldn''t call her a beauty, but she wasn''t anywhere near ugly. Long blond hair, with round green eyes and a slender figure. I teased Norty a bit "To think such a nice girl, would like to be with you". Elly giggled, while Norty replied "What!? I''m nice too! You don''t have a wife or girlfriend yet either!". ''It seems the tables have turned¡­'' I thought.


    Elly asked surprised "You don''t have anyone?". I smiled, and replied "I''m just a traveller. I didn''t have time to worry about such things". Haily butted in "If you want, I can introduce a few of my friends to you". I didn''t take to heart her remark, and replied "Says someone who is a loner as well". Haily''s face grew a bit red. She didn''t say anything else.


    After the breakfast, I grabbed Finch to finally proceed with our original n. We headed to the abandoned house, which we used for interrogating the spies. Inside, we activated the Formation, and I said "I have 60 mililiters of that medicine for you. If you can break through, this will be great. You will be able to be even stronger, and protect the vige even better". Finch nodded, and said "I''m quite excited. I''ve been stuck at this stage for a while now. Nothing I did, allowed me to break through that Half Step. We will see how this goes".


    Finch drank the Extract. He then released his Aura, and began building up his energy. His Aura was calm, with a hit of savageness. Finch''s Aura intensity, the more seconds ticked away. I had to use my own Aura, in order to counter it. ''Strong!'' I eximed in my mind. Finch then started making some weird poses, which I never saw before. At that stage, I was barely able to stand, even with my Aura fully activated. I felt being suffocated, I felt heavy and a tinge of fear began spreading through my body. I tried hard to withstand Finch''s Aura.


    At a certain point in time, Finch screamed and his muscles released a lot of steam. Then "Booom!". The air got sted in all directions, almost knocking me off my feet as well. Although I managed to stabilise my footing, the st of released pressure, knocked out any remaining air in my lungs. I had a hard time adjusting my breath, while Finch eximed "I did it! I BROKE THROUGH!". While he celebrated, I adjusted my breathing, and eximed "Great!". I then asked "By the way, what were those poses that you did?". Finch looked at me, as if looking at an idiot. I wasn''t sure why, therefore I asked "What?". He replied "How you managed to survive, and even break through, is a mystery to me. Don''t you know about those poses? There are different techniques to break through, but they always consist of poses¡­ How can you not know that?".


    I didn''t know how to respond, so I said "Well¡­ yea¡­ Anyway, congrats on breaking through!". Finch shook his head, and said "Now, I can be considered as elite. There are a few viges, where the Vige Chief is at the Inner Limits stage, but there are none, where the Vige Chief broke through their Half Step. I''m sure of that!". I nodded, and said "It''s good to be happy, but don''t disclose that". He replied "I know Nex, I know. I''m not a Vige Chief due to a coincidence you know?".


    I changed the topic, and said "When Norty breaks through his Half Step, give him the medicine for purifying his blood. Make him wait, until he is stronger though, he should be able to handle 25 milliliters at that time". Finch asked "So you are leaving?". I nodded, and replied "Yes, it''s time for me to leave. I still have two or three people to visit, but I will be leaving today". Finch thought about something for a while, then took out some sort of emblem. I took it, and asked "What is this?". Finch replied "When you arrive at the Imperial City, find a person called Paul Trnd. When you show this to him, he will help you out. Our families were always friends, and we stayed close to each other. If he can help you, he will".


    I nodded, and said "I will stille by to say farewell". Finch nodded as well, and we left the building. I headed towards v''s house first. When I knocked on the doors, Kara opened them. She invited me inside, but I refused. I said "I will be leaving today. Kara, you are a bright and hard working youngdy. I was strict, but I had my reasons. Take this". I handed her a book, which contained more recipes. She became sad, and asked "Do you have to leave?". I nodded, and replied "Study hard Kara. When you memorize this book, burn it. When I visit again, I hope to see the improvements you made". She hugged my all of a sudden, and said "I will. Thank you for everything". I patted her head, and bid farewell to her.


    I then visited Aran, and asked him to teach me thest two Forms. He replied "I told you, I will teach them to you, when you are ready". I said "I''m leaving today, and will not return quickly". Aran sighed, and said "Fine. I will teach you". He motioned for me to follow him, and so I did. We walked inside the only building in the training area, then entered one of the rooms. He locked it, took out his sword and said "I will only show this to you once. Thest two Forms are called Lethal Forms. There is a reason why these Forms and the technique, are called like this. It''s not called Lethal, because you can kill your opponent with it, no. It''s Lethal, because thest two Forms require from you to abandon all defences. In other words, this is a double edged technique. You must make sure to only use it, when there is no other way out". I nodded my head, and replied "I will".


    Aran demonstrated the Forms. He was right, there was no defence involved. Even worse, there were so many openings, he was vulnerable to attacks. This was of course true, under the condition that someone managed to attack. Aran raised a storm with his attacks. They were both unpredictable, and wless. Abandoning his defence, his emotions and his sanity. These were the results. An all out attack of a sword wielder, who had one thought in his mind. Kill!


    When Aran finished showing me the Forms, he said "You are not a stupid kid Nex. I believe you can master this, and use it only when you are forced to use it. I still hope that, such day will never arrive". I nodded my head, thanked him and left. I also visited Gerond. I told him to make the best bow, he could make. I even supplied the ck Steel Ingots to him. He was thrilled to work with ck Steel, and told me that the bow will be ready in a week or so of time. I gave him the ck Steel over two weeks ago, I figured that it should''ve beenpleted already.


    I wasn''t wrong. Gerond presented me with a new bow, when I arrived. It was a standard length bow, with specific design. The top and bottom of the bow, was shaped to look like a me. The lower and upper limbs were shaped like some sort of horns of a creature, and for some reason looked sharp. The bow''s grip had no rope, or material for a morefortable handling. It was bare metal, although it had a certain design to it. There was, what I could only assume as a guard, at the top and bottom of my grip. Probably there to protect my hand, but for some reason, it looked sharp as well. The string of the bow didn''t look awe inspiring, but then again, I knew nothing about such things. The bow was quite heavy too. I knew that ck Steel was not a light material. Besides, with my strength, it made little difference.


    Gerond said "I worked my ass off with this bow. I''m not sure about your strength, but it shouldn''t break that easily. I also added Flexium to the mix. The bow should be flexible, and strong at the same time. You can give it a try". He then handed me a bundle of arrows. The arrowheads were made from ck Steel as well. I took one arrow, and notched it onto the bow. I slowly pulled the string, and realised I needed quite a bit of strength, to pull the bow fully open. When I released the arrow upwards, it flew through the air, screeching like a pig being ughtered. I soon lost sight of my arrow. I had no idea where it went. "Great bow!" I eximed.


    Gerond said "This is not a normal bow. This is a Close Combat Bow. You can use it to fight in closebat as well. The grip, as well as the lower and upper limbs are sharp. You can cut your opponents no problem with that". I eximed "That''s useful! I didn''t know that bows could be used for closebat too". Gerond replied "It''s not verymon. You are used to closebat, so it should fit you".


    I nodded, and thanked him. With that taken care of, I told Gerond that I was leaving the vige. He didn''t seem surprised at all, and wished me all the best. I said farewell to him, and left. ''I took care of pretty much everything. It''s time for me to leave, and continue my journey'' I thought.


    I returned to Finch''s house, and said farewell to everyone. They were a bit disappointed that I wanted to leave so soon, but I had my own goals to achieve. Finch wanted to throw a party again, but I declined, and said "It''s fine. There is no need for you guys to throw parties left and right. I will be back one day or another. I hope to see your improvements at that time , and perhaps your own families as well". I looked at Norty and Elly, when I spoke thest sentence. Elly blushed, while Norty hung his head down in embarrassment. I said farewell to everyone, then disappeared from the house. As if I was never there.

 Chapter 320

    Chapter 320


    I ran through the forest towards my next destination, Ortava. ''It will take some time, before I will be able to arrive there. I will probably visit some cities on my way. We will see how this goes'' I thought. To pass the time, I practiced Lethal Forms of the Lethal Sword Technique. I only saw them once, but I wasn''t just any random viger. My eyes could catch even the smallest details, when I focused. My memory was also great. I memorized all the moves, styles and stances that Aran made.


    I tried with the Sixth Form first. I immediately noticed that, although I knew how to do it, I wasn''t able to. ''Movements, styles and everything in between is so intricate, I can''t just copy it like that. It will take me a lot of time, to achieve that Form'' I thought. I didn''t even try the Seventh Form. It was the Final Form for a reason. I could see the difficulty, when Aran disyed it. ''I hate to admit it, but I have something that wouldplement those Forms even more'' I thought.


    It was the Bloodlust Aura. This gave me another idea. ''Would I be able to control that Aura now?'' I thought. I tried releasing that Aura, but nothing happened. ''It seems that emotions still y a part in that. I can''t simply use it as I like'' I thought. I had to be angry or enraged, in order for that Aura to activate. It didn''t matter to me much at that point. Even if I could control it, I had to be angry for it to activate. This was not reliable at all.


    I moved forwards, while practicing the Sixth Form all the time. My speed decreased by a lot, but I could get some practice done at the same time. ''Something for something, I guess'' I thought. A week passed. I saw another vige in the distance, during my travel. I didn''t n on stopping there, and simply continued on further east. The Imperial City was located, in the far north east of the Endrosian Empire. This struck me as weird, because I would think it should be in the middle of the Empire. Or at least in that area.


    I also encountered more people, as I walked further east. It seemed that the closer I got to the Imperial City, the more popted the areas were. I didn''t stop for conversation, and simply minded my own business. No one stopped me either, until one day. I was going through the forest, while practicing the Sixth Form of the Lethal Sword Technique as usual. While I swung my Bastard Sword, I heard something getting closer to me.


    When I looked in the general direction, I noticed a male running through the forest. He seemed to be running away from a group of people. I didn''t pay them any heed, and simply continued forwards. The guy who was running away, must''ve noticed me, because he began running straight at me. He shouted "Help me out stranger!". I ignored him, but he still continued running towards me.


    When he was about 50 metres away, he shouted again "I beg you! Help me!". I stopped my practice, and said "Deal with your problems by yourself", and continued onwards. The guy was persistent. He ran up to me, and tried hiding behind my back. ''This guy is hopeless'' I thought. Others arrived as well, while a stout man from that group said "Mind your own business stranger". I replied "Do whatever you want, this doesn''t concern me". I continued moving forwards. The stout man replied "Good choice", while the group went after the lone man on the run.


    Because he persisted to follow me, I turned around, and punched him lightly. He flew back a few metres, with shock stered on his face. I said "I don''t care who you are. These are your problems, so deal with them yourself". The man shouted "I will reward you! Help me, and I will give you the sword, they are after". He took out the sword, and I couldn''t believe it. ''How is that even possible?'' I thought. The sword he showed me, was a Moon de.


    I stood there stunned for a while, until the other guys managed to surround him. I took action quickly, and arrived in front of the first guy. With a sh, he was split in half. Then the next guy, and the next guy. Until the remaining two finally realized, that three men had died already. I disposed of the other two, and said "Give me that sword". The man I just saved, passed me the sword with fear in his eyes.


    I examined it, and then used my Bastard Sword to sh at it. "ng!". The Moon de broke in half. ''This is not real Moon de'' I thought, and picked up the broken sword. It was made to look like Moon de, but it wasn''t real. I asked the guy, who was shocked. "Where did you get this from?". He replied "I¡­ I.. got it from a merchant. He said it was an exceptional sword. That was why, they chased after me". I asked "Where is that merchant?". He replied "I bought it from him in the Olia Vige. I¡­ I don''t know if he''s still there". I asked myst question "How did he look like, what''s his name?".


    The guy replied "Like a merchant¡­ He¡­ He was dressed in a brown robe, and sold weapons on his stall. He had a moustache, and beady eyes. He was fat as well". I disappeared from that ce, and immediately headed towards the Olia Vige. The Vige was not far away from my location. I quickly arrived there, and searched for the merchant. ''He is not here'' I thought, after scouring the vige. I scaled the tallest building in the vige, and looked around. I focused intensely, and finally noticed something. ''There you are'' I thought, and disappeared from that ce. I ran at my full speed. There was a merchant with a cart, and two horses going south. He was heading away from the vige. When I got closer, I saw that the description matched. I caught up to him, and appeared next to him on the cart. I asked "Where did you get the sword, you sold in the Olia Vige?".


    When he finally noticed me, he jumped up and eximed "What the fuck!? Where did youe from!?". I took out the broken sword, and asked again "The sword. Where did you get it from?". He replied "Get the hell out of my cart, bastard!". I replied "Wrong answer", and punched him in his fat face. He fell off of the cart, while I jumped off as well. The horses continued, but that was not my problem.


    He shouted "Are you insane? Do you want to die? Do you know who I am?". I said "If you don''t answer my question, you will share your story with the nts at most". I walked up to him, lifted him up, and punched him again. As he spouted more profanities, I broke his arm. He released an ear piercing screech, and fainted. I tapped on a few of his pressure points, which I admit was a bit harder, due to all the fat.


    He woke up again, and said "Don''t kill me.. Please!". I asked "The sword. Where did you get it from?". He replied "The city¡­ The city called Hord. There is a guy who makes them". I asked "What guy?". The merchant replied "He.. He is the cksmith called Herald. He has a small workshop in the city. He usually makes cheaper stuff, but tries to pass it off as more expensive. He made that sword!". The merchant wasn''t lying. I now had a lead. ''So the woman, or whoever is in the possession of my sword, must''ve showed it to the cksmith in Hord. But why?'' I thought. I disposed of the merchant, and set my sight on Hord. ''I need to find that cksmith. He should know, who is the person that revealed the original Moon de to him'' I thought.


    Because I had the full map of the Empire memorized, I knew the location of Hord. It was actually to the south east. ''With my pace, I should arrive there in about four days'' I thought, and sped up towards the city called Hord.

 Chapter 321

    Chapter 321


    I sped towards Hord. The city I already heard about, but wasn''t aware of its location at that time. The previous owner of my Bastard Sword came from there. The days passed quickly, I soon arrived in front of the city. The towering stone walls that surrounded the city, greeted me. There were a few guards keeping watch at the gate. When I looked up, archers stood at the top of the walls too.


    The guards were checking random people, but no one checked me. Not because I used my Aura Copy skill, it was due to my clothes. They were far from the clothes that a farmer, beggar or poor person would wear. I made my way inside without any problems, and immediately searched for cksmiths. ''The merchant told me, that the guys producing those swords, had his own small workshop. His name is Herald too. I should ask around'' I thought, and asked the passersby.


    A few of them didn''t know anything, but I finally found one, who told me the location. It was located near the northern gate. If I followed the city walk on my left, I would find it. I did just that, and indeed there was a small workshop there. Only one guy worked there. He was in the process of making a weapon. It was the replica of the Moon de. I walked over, and asked him "Where did you learn to make such sword?".


    He stopped, and asked "Why, interested in buying it? This is the best sword I can make. It''s really good, the materials I''m using are really exquisite. I can sell it to you, when I''m done". I asked a bit differently "Did you design it by yourself?". Heughed, and replied "Of course! That is my proudest creation. I can see you are interested, wait a bit and I will finish it". I didn''t wait for him to finish the sword. I quickly appeared in front of him, and tapped on a few of his pressure points. He fainted, while I took out my mask, and ced it on my face. I then grabbed him, and ran towards the gate. ''I don''t care what type ofmotion this will create. This guy knows something. I have to interrogate him in peace". When the guards saw me approaching, they shouted "Stop". I didn''t of course, and simply increased my speed. With one swift jump, I passed the guards, and evaded all the arrows. The escape made somemotion, but that was fine. I wore my mask anyway, so no would recognise me.


    ''Even though there might be some strong people here, guards will not be counted in that list'' I thought, and disappeared into the forest. After a day of running, I stopped and ced the guy down. He woke up a few times, but I just fainted him again. I tapped on his pressure points, to wake him up.


    He looked around disorientated, until he noticed me. He asked confused "What is going on? Where are we?". I asked "Who showed you the original sword, you were making?". He began sprouting some profanities. This was not the answer, I wanted to hear. I broke his arm, leg, and then second arm, until he finally gave up.


    "A¡­ A woman. It was a woman¡­ who showed me the sword. She told me to create as many replicas, as possible. She paid me, to make those replicas. The sword was a bit unusual too, so I decided to continue making it, and profit from this more". I asked "How did she look like, and where did she go?". He replied "I don''t remember anymore, I swear! It was 4 years ago". I asked "You don''t know where she went, where she came from, or her looks?".


    He shook his head a few times. ''The trail ends here. It was most probably her, who showed him the sword. Why would she do that though?''. When I thought more about it, I came to one conclusion. She wanted the replicas, in order for no one to be able to trace her. ''She couldn''t know, I would look for her. Someone else must be looking for that sword, or already found it'' I thought. The guy was useless to me, so I killed him with one swing of my dagger. ''I need to have my eyes peeled. Although there may be loads of fakes out there, someone must have my sword. Whoever it is¡­ will return it peacefully, or die'' I thought.


    I resumed my journey towards Ortava. I still had a long way to go. Besides, I went off course for a few days. I couldn''t stop thinking about the sword, and the woman who swindled me out of it. ''I hope I don''t find you ra, because your only way out, will be death'' I thought. I managed to finally push those thoughts away, and focus on my sword training.


    Time passed slowly, and the winter was about to end. I was only two weeks worth of travel, away from Ortava. ''I wonder how Fox is doing?'' I asked myself. During these few months of travelling, I managed to get ustomed to the Sixth Form of the Lethal Sword Technique. I was able to execute it to a certain degree, but I was nowhere near mastery. I decided to practice the Final Form, only when the Sixth Form was mastered.


    Besides that, I also managed to gain a bit more understanding about my energy. I learned how to control it better. Although I was able to control pretty much 100% of my energy, it wasn''t controlled fully. In the same sense, that I could control my arms, but not the flow of blood for example. In my estimation, I was at the halfway point. It would still take me a while, but I was getting closer.


    I wasn''t sure what type of effects this would bring. ''Crow is able to use it for stealth. I may be able to do something else with it'' I thought. I would much prefer stealth, but I might not have a choice. I also practiced with my new bow a bit. It was really powerful. When I released an arrow from a fully opened bow, it pierced through the trees like butter. Not only that, it travelled for at least 1000 metres.


    The bow was fantastic. I also practiced a few of the trick shots, that Aran showed me. Because of my Natural Path skill, and the ability to sense the wind, at least partially, I was able to release silent arrows, but with full strength. ''This is great. The screeching would warn others, or even my target. Fortunately, Aran showed me how to release a silent arrow, and with my skills, I was able to take it to the next stage'' I thought. That is what I decided to call that skill, a Silent Arrow skill.


    I still had to practice my aim. The bow was much more powerful, than anything I owned in the past. Hitting a target that was 800 or more metres away, was not that simple anymore. I didn''t worry much about it though, I just had to get adjusted to a longer range. That was all. As I was approaching my destination, I stopped my practice. I didn''t want to kill someone, and make trouble, since I came over to visit a friend.

 Chapter 322

    Chapter 322


    Ortava was different. Besides the obvious tall walls that surrounded the city, it was also very beautiful. The buildings had ornaments, and specific design to them. They were painted mostly ck and white, but had additional colours, like green or blue to bring a brighter contrast to the city. To the north west of the city, was a huge castle like building, with a few towers that extended into the skies. It was build from very slick stone, and all the roofs wereid with blue tiles. Looked magical from afar.


    A huge marketce, was located in the middle of the city. ''This must be the city square. I wonder what that huge building is'' I thought. I didn''t know for sure, but from what Finch said, it was probably the Academy for Formation Masters.


    I thought about it a few times. Learning Formations could be useful to me, but I simply didn''t have the time. I had loads of things to master already, I didn''t need more distractions on my way. ''I doubt Fox would be there anyway, she is a warrior after all. Now that I think about it, do Formation Masters actually fight?'' I thought. I didn''t know, but maybe I would find out in the future. As the saying goes, "Who knows what the future holds?". I didn''t know where Fox lived, therefore the only solution was to ask the people on the streets.


    Some of them gave me weird looks, and didn''t answer. Some would look at me, andugh. ''What the hell is wrong with these people? They can''t even answer a simple question'' I thought. I soon realised why peopleughed, or didn''t answer. When I asked a middle aged woman about Fox, she snorted and asked "What, another one of her admirers?". ''Why the hell would she say that?'' I thought, shook my head and replied "No, she is a friend of mine. Can you tell me where I can find her?".


    The womanughed, while responding "Friend? Good one. Anyway. Yea, I will tell you where to find your sweetheart". She then pointed at the huge building, and said "This is where you will find her". I nodded my head, and asked "Is that the Academy?". She looked at me, as if looking at an idiot, and replied "You need to ask about that? What else could it be? Arge pub? Yes, It''s the Academy. You must be some country boy, if you don''t even know that". I didn''t reply to that, and simply thanked her.


    ''Turns out, she really does live there. I never saw her doing Formations or anything of that sort. I wonder why?'' I thought. I made my way to the Academy, but the entry was not so simple. A few youngsters stopped me at the gate, and asked "Where is your pass?". I was confused, and asked "Pass?". One guy nodded, and replied "Yes, pass. Without it, you cannot enter". I made up a lie on the spot, and said "Oh! I forgot to take it, I will bring it back soon". They shook their heads, while one of them asked "How can you be careless like this?...".


    I bid them farewell, and began thinking. ''So I need a pass. Hmm... I need to catch one unfortunate guy, and just take it from him'' I thought. I could scale the walls, and enter like this, but I also wasn''t stupid. ''This is Academy for Formation Masters, I doubt I could just scale the walls, and nothing would stop me. Otherwise, a few youngsters at the gate, wouldn''t be the only security'' I thought. Getting a pass might''ve been a problem, but then I realised these people wore specific attire. ''Good, I just need to find a guy with such clothes, and the rest is simple'' I thought, and observed the people on the streets.


    I chose a specific spot, with a few side alleys, near the main street that was leading to the Academy. I soon found a fat boy walking towards the Academy. His attire was not the same,pared with the youngsters at the gate. It looked more simple... and a bit more dirty. From what I could see, food leftovers was the answer.


    I grabbed the guy, and disappeared into one of the side alleys. With a few quick taps on his pressure points, he fainted. I searched his body. After a while I realised that, I didn''t know how that pass looked like. As I rummaged through everything, I came up with an idea. ''These people are trying to be Formation Masters, then perhaps the pass, has a Formation'' I thought. I tried activating a Formation on every item, that the fat guy had on him.


    Finally, after a while of searching, I managed to find the pass. It was a feather, ck and white in colour. ''It turns out there is a Formation on it, but I can''t fully activate it for some reason. Anyway, I have the pass'' I thought. I took the clothes as well, just in case. I didn''t want to wear them, and they wouldn''t fit me anyway. The guy would stay asleep for a few hours, if no one searched for him, he would stay there. ''This should be enough'' I thought, and headed towards the Academy.


    When the youngsters saw me again, they asked "Finally got your pass?". I nodded my head, and said "Here it is". One guy extended his hand, and waited. I passed him the feather, and waited. He activated the Formation, then looked at me after a while. He said "Your pass says that you weight much more".


    ''Bad idea, to steal from a fat guy'' I thought, and said "Yyyy... You know how parents are. Father forced me to starve and train, not to bring him shame... so these are the results". I had no idea whether that would work or not, but then I continued "I have my clothes, but they are oversized. That is why I''m not wearing them". I showed them the clothes as well. The guy nodded his head in understanding, and said "You can get new clothes, although you will have to pay for them. Because this is the case, we will allow you to enter without the uniform. Make sure you go to the office, and report your weight loss. They will issue another uniform for you".


    He returned the feather to me, and allowed me to enter. ''I can''t believe that actually worked'' I thought, and stepped forward. Suddenly, something activated, and I froze into ce. I could see and hear everything, but I couldn''t move. The guy that just checked my pass, said "Did you really think, I''m that stupid? The pass has an image of the original owner. What did you do to him?".


    I sighed, and said "He is asleep, in one of the alleys not far away. I just want to visit a friend, I don''t have any passes". He replied "Then you are an idiot. You could just go to the office outside, and apply for a visitor''s pass. You broke thew, and you will be punished for that. Someone will take you for interrogation soon". ''Haaah... How could I know, there was a visitor''s pass. I am new here god damn it!'' I thought.


    Soon, a few people arrived, attached something to my back and grabbed me. They escorted me inside, not outside, which was a plus. ''Anyway. I can always escape somehow, if they really insist on pushing the boundaries'' I thought. I was taken to some sort of building. We went downstairs into the basement, and then into one of the rooms. There were two chairs and one table inside. They sat me down on one, and left. I still couldn''t move, probably due to the thing they attached to my back.


    An elder man walked inside after a while, and sat opposite of me. He asked "Why did you try to break in? Don''t you know that attacking a student from our Academy, is heavily punishable?". I smiled, and said "Look, he is alright, nothing happened to him. He won''t even have bruises. I only want to visit a friend. I''ve never been to this city, so how the hell should I know, there was a visitor''s pass?". He kept his stone face, and asked another question "Who did youe to visit?". I replied "Fox. At least, that is how she introduced herself".


    The guy just shook his head, and asked "Are you another crazy admirer of her?". I was fed up with being called admirer, so I said "What is your problem people? Why do you always assume, I''m some sort of admirer of her. I''m a friend, I don''t admire her. She can''t have friends?". The guy was taken aback, and said "No, she can". After a short pause, he asked "Why should I believe you?". I looked at him, and said "You don''t have to. Bring Fox here, and if she doesn''t recognise me, you can do whatever you like. How''s that for you?".


    He asked "What if that was your motive from the beginning?". I was lost for words. ''Are these people alright? Youe here to visit a friend, and they all act, as if I came to murder a prince... Is she a princess?'' I thought. I replied, "Just tell her, her friend from the North came to visit. Is this too much to ask?". He thought about it, and said "Alright, I will go there myself. You will stay here". He then left the room, while I sat there paralyzed.


    ''Although I can''t move or even use my Aura, I wonder if I can use my ice powers'' I thought. Because I had nothing better to do, I decided to test it. I tried releasing my ice power, and to my surprise it worked. ''Maybe I can freeze that thing on my back. I don''t trust that guy, will he actually go and find her?'' I thought. I might''ve been wrong, but I preferred to have mobility, in case I wasn''t.


    I increased the intensity, until the room was so cold, I had a hard time sitting in there. As I was about to stop, I heard a "Crack!", followed by more cracking sounds, and then something broke. I could move again, but I was stiff from all that coldness. I immediately stopped using my ice power, and moved around a bit to warm myself up. ''So cold... At least it worked, now I have my mobility back. Let''s see what happens next'' I thought.

 Chapter 323

    Chapter 323


    Due to my ice powers, my body was very stiff. I exercised a bit, to counter that coldness. ''I don''t know when the guy is going to return. I should pretend nothing happened, just in case'' I thought. I sat back on the chair, and stayed still. The guy was gone for quite a while, before the doors to the room opened. The old man returned. Fortunately, he wasn''t alone. Fox was with him. Fox quickly made hare way in front of me, and eximed "It''s really you!". She wasn''t dressed in the clothes, I would usually recognise her by. She wore more casual clothing, a long blue coloured dress and light shoes. Her mask was still there though, which made me wonder. ''Perhaps she really does have a scar on her face. She wears that mask even here'' I thought. I smiled at her, and I stood up. "Yep, it is me", I said.


    The old man stared in shock. He mumbled "How did you get out of¡­". Fox told him, that I was her friend, and to leave us alone. The old man obliged, and left. I sat back down, and asked "It''s a bit cold here, but it should be fine soon. Anyway, how are you doing?". She sat down as well, and replied "Your medicine was great. Thanks to that, I''m about to break through my Inner Limits". I smiled, and didn''t say anything. She also sat there, not knowing what to say.


    We stayed like this for a while, until I remembered something. "I had no clue you studied Formations", I stated. She shook her head, then replied "My father made me. I have no talent in that, so I''m quite bad at it. I prefer to go on adventures, than studying symbols and all that". I nodded my head, but I also realised something. I ran out of things, I wanted to ask her at this stage. Whenever I met with Fox, I had nothing to really talk about. The silence was awkward, I decided to try and tell her about my travels. "I came to visit, but I''m not sure what to talk about¡­ How about me finding my family?", I asked.


    She nodded her head silently, but then asked "You lost your family?". I smiled, and replied "Yea, my parents died a long time ago. Only a few months back, did I find my true family. It''s a happy ce, everyone is nice and weing. I also learned a few things". She seemed interested, so I narrated the story about my family. How my cousins didn''t want to ept me, or how I learned to use a sword. Pretty mundane stuff, but she listened anyway.


    After my story, I asked "So what about you?". She replied "I didn''t have any adventures like youtely. I sat here, and studied Formations¡­ Oh right, let''s go meet my father". I had nothing against, and agreed. We left the basement, and headed towards one of the towers. I asked "Is your father some sort of big figure here?". Sheughed, and replied "You can say that. He is the Formation Master. He is mostly researching things, but also teaches Advanced Students. He lives at the top of this tower". I asked "What about your mother?". She shook her head, and replied "She is no longer around".


    We continued in silence. The tower was very tall, I grabbed Fox and sped upwards. She eximed "Ah!", but didn''t struggle. We soon reached the top, where I let her go. I smiled, and said "Why walk like normal vigers, when we can get to ces faster". She shook her head, and didn''t reply. Fox knocked on the doors, then entered. I followed her inside, and noticed a messy office. A 50 year old man, sat behind the desk. A stack of papers, notes and booksid on top of his desk. A pile of booksid on the floor, near the desk, together with clothing and dirty tes. This already told me one thing. This guy didn''t care about order and organisation.


    The man looked up, and asked "Who is that person darling?". Fox introduced "This is my friend from the North". She then turned towards me, and introduced her father. "This is my father, Philip". I greeted Philip by nodding, and he returned the gesture. Fox pushed me onto a chair, and sat down next to me. I was a bit confused, but fortunately Fox''s father was more talkative than her. He said "My daughter talked a lot about you. You even helped her out, which I''m very grateful for. Tell me boy, what can I do for you?".


    ''Eeee¡­ I''m not here for a reward though¡­'' I thought. After a while of contemting on that question, I replied "I just came to visit my friend. I don''t want any rewards". He said "Of course. Either way, I''d like to help you out still. Do you perhaps want to study Formations? I can enrol you to the Academy". I shook my head, and replied "No. I have too many things on my head. Adding Formations into that mix, would not be such a good idea. Maybe in the future, when I master my own things". Philip nodded, and said "That is very good. You shouldn''t bite more than you can chew. If you need my help in the future, be sure toe by".


    I thought about it, and said "I don''t know if you can help me, but I''m looking for a sword. The sword belongs to me, but it was stolen a long time ago. It looks something like this". I took out the replica of Moon de, and showed it to Philip. Philip was about to say something, but Fox said "I''ve seen such swords. They are quite popr", before he could start. I replied "That is the problem. The woman who stole it from me, paid some cksmiths to make replicas of that sword. There is no way, she is aware of me, and about my journey. I think someone is searching for it as well".


    Fox asked "Woman?". I nodded, and replied "The woman I fell in love with, when I was like 18 years old. She of course wasn''t interested in me, but my sword. She stole it, and the rest is history. She is lucky I haven''t found her. If I do, she will die a miserable death". Fox didn''t ask anything else. I turned towards Philip, and said "That''s why I said, I don''t know if you can help me. You specialise in Formations, not swords". He shook his head, and said "I can still ask around, but I can''t promise you anything. As you said, I don''t specialise in sword".


    I nodded my head, and added "Someone else might be in its possession now. It''s been many years since I lost it. I will find it sooner orter, one way or another". I looked around the office, and asked "So, Formations?". Philip smiled, and replied "You seem interested". I smiled, then replied "Of course, Formations are interesting, I never imed otherwise. I simply don''t have the time to learn them. I know a Formation Master, she told me it takes a very long time, to learn everything properly". Philip replied "That is true. Even if someone is talented, bing a Formation Master is a long and winding road".


    Fox suddenly said "You can give it a try, right? At least, for as long as you are going to stay here". In overall, this wasn''t a stupid idea. I couldn''t train my sword here, and using my Arts around the people, was a big no no. I nodded, and replied "I will stay for a few days only. I will then head towards the Imperial City". Philip replied "Great. You can try out learning something, while I will try to find some information about your sword. Can you leave that sword replica with me?". I replied "Sure", and handed him the replica of the Moon de.


    Fox grabbed my arm, and said "Let''s go, I will show you around. We can be in the same ss, I''m still a beginner after all. Father will take care of everything". I nodded, and we left the office. I again grabbed Fox, and ran downstairs. She wasn''t as surprised, likest time. While we walked through the open area of the Academy, Fox said "You must''ve been through a lot¡­ Without your parents, and then that betrayal¡­ I meant to ask earlier, where is your turtle?". She reminded me of my old friend, and all the time we spent together. I sighed, and said "Shelly¡­ is no longer here. Shelly saved my life, in exchange for its own... Yea, I''ve been through some dark times in my life".


    I didn''t want her to feel bad, so I continued "But, I also met a few interesting people, and made some friends. Although I went through some hardships in my life, I''m happy to be here". She nodded her head, replying "That''s good to hear". We were going towards therge building in the middle, I guessed it must''ve been the ce where students, well, studied.

 Chapter 324

    Chapter 324


    The interior was very beautiful. Large paintings of different scenes and people, hung on the walls. The floor was tiled with beautiful grey stones, that looked brand new. Arge staircase led to the second floor, with statues of people on both sides. Fox said "This is just the main hall. Our sses will take ce on the second floor. The higher one goes, the more advanced students are".


    She then continued "There are four ranks that the Formation Students are separated into. The Beginners, Novices, Intermediate and Advanced. We are Beginners, so we have ess to the second floor only¡­ well most of the time. I have ess to the third and fourth floor as well". I nodded, as we headed upstairs to the second floor.


    Some youngsters were staring at me, but I didn''t pay much attention to them. I asked Fox about something, that''s been on my mindtely. "Do Formation Masters actually fight?". Fox replied "Some of them do. There is a department in the Academy, that specialises inbat. Although, only Advanced Students can apply, and the selection is very strict". I replied "I wonder how strong they are?". Foxughed a bit, and said "Even you may have some problems. From what I heard, they are annoying to deal with".


    We then arrived at the ssroom, and Fox told me to sit next to her. She said "Because you are a total beginner, I will help you out. I''m not good either, but I at least know a thing or two about Formations". I nodded, and Fox passed me a few books. She said "Read them for the basic theory. For everything else, just watch me, and ask questions. I will try to answer". I nodded my head, and took the books.


    I started reading the first book. It was about some kind of strange symbols. The book exined that the basics of Formations, were those symbols. The symbols were quite easy in the beginning, but the further I flipped, the moreplex they became. ''It''s like learning the Thousand and One Herbs book again. I''m not sure if I want to go through this one more time'' I thought.


    As I read the book, I felt someone approaching me. I turned towards that direction, and noticed a guy walking over. He looked at me, and said "Why don''t you take a walk, I have some stuff to talk about with Fox". Iughed, and said "Kid, you are to stupid, to even realise what you want to get yourself into". Fox was busy reading a book as well, and didn''t even notice that guy.


    He got angry, and a few more guys appeared. I wanted tough, but I restrained myself. ''A bunch of kids want to threaten me, this is justughable'' I thought. I turned towards Fox, and asked "You know these kids?". She raised her head with a "Huh?", and looked behind me. She said "Oh, they are from our ssroom. I don''t really know them much". I looked at the guy, and said "See? She doesn''t even know you guys. Seriously though, I suggest that you just practice or something, and stop disturbing people". I turned towards my book, and continued reading.


    The guy had a short temper, and ran at me with his fist clenched. I wanted to swat him like a fly, but to my surprise, Fox did that before I could. The guy flew back, and hit the wall. Fox said "Don''t you think, you are too full of yourself?". The other kids turned around and grabbed the guy from the floor, then ran away. She looked at me, and asked "Are you alright?". I couldn''t contain myughter anymore, andughed loudly. After a while, I said "Seriously? I found them amusing. I mean, if they know what they are getting themselves into, they would run even faster". Fox smiled, and returned to reading her book.


    I took the second book, and opened it. The book exined how to use those symbols. In truth, these were not called symbols, but Runes or Markings. If you wrote them in a specific way, you could make a Formation. The book exined that Formations could range from beginner to advanced, and finally mastery. The Beginner Formations were quite simple. Only a few Runes were used, but the effects they created were usually rubbish.


    ''So even if I learn how to write and connect them together, I can only make rubbish Formations. Although I guess, making a difficult recipe from Nick''s books would be hard too,pared with the easy ones'' I thought. One had to start somewhere, and that was where the third book came in. It contained a few of the "recipes" to create Formations. I also found that I needed a special brush, ink and paper to write them. Of course the more advanced students didn''t need that, and could imbed their Formations into objects.


    I decided to give it a try. After all, I wasn''t that bad with drawing. This was a sort of glorified drawing too, but instead of drawing figures, beast andndscapes, I would draw Runes. I asked Fox about the materials, and she handed me everything I was required. I then followed the "recipe" for my first Formation. It was a Formation to make the paper wet. I had no clue, what use this would have in the real world, but I wasn''t concerned about that.


    I draw the strokes the best I could, but in the end, the paper didn''t get wet. ''Hmm¡­ I followed the instructions to the letter. Why wouldn''t it work?'' I asked myself. Practice was the best solution, and that I did. Time passed, and when I looked up, I noticed it was getting darker outside. Fox was not next to me either. ''I must''ve been too focused on studying. Formations are quite interesting'' I thought.


    I decided to explore the ce a bit myself. When I left the room, I saw the stairs leading to the third floor. ''I already made a blunder once. Besides, I still don''t have that pass. Can I leave this ce?'' I thought, and tried going downstairs. Nothing stopped me, which was good. I took a tour around the ce, and checked out the paintings, as well as some statues. ''These are probably some famous people, that I know nothing about. Not that I want to know either'' I thought. I wasn''t interested in some famous people''s history. Whether I learned it or not, wouldn''t change anything. I ssed it as useless knowledge.


    While I walked like this, I noticed it was rather quiet. No people were running around, hurrying for their sses. ''This ce is so peaceful during the evening. I kinda like it here'' I thought. I then heard someone running behind me. I turned around, and it was Fox. She said "There you are. I was looking for you". I smiled, and said "I thought you went back home, or something". She shook her head, and replied "I went to get some food, you haven''t eaten anything for the whole day".


    Iughed, and said "True, I didn''t. Remember the time we first met? I was starving back then. If I didn''t eat anything, I would die". She replied "You were scary back then. You should thank me, that I fed you". I asked surprised "It wasn''t Shelly? I always felt out of sorts, when I thought about Shelly feeding me¡­". As we walked upstairs, I said "I have meat with me, we can make some fire, and¡­", but before I could finish, Fox said "Are you some sort of savage? There is plenty of food here you know? You don''t have to hunt, and eat tasteless meat". I replied "It''s not tasteless...".


    I was dragged back to the ssroom, with a table full of food. Fox said "When you focus on something, you forget that the world exists. I brought the food here, because you didn''t respond when I called out". I sat down, and ate. I was hungry to be honest. Halfway through table full of food, I asked "You don''t want any?". Fox replied "You can eat everything". I nodded and continued.


    After the meal, I said "Time to find a ce to stay. I will see you tomorrow, get some rest too". She grabbed me, and asked "Where do you think you are going?". I was confused, and replied "To sleep? An inn or pub, if I can leave through the gate. If not, I can always find a ce here. By the way, it would really help if I could get that Formation thing, to leave through the gate". Fox just shook her head, and said "You will sleep at our ce, in the tower". I had nothing against that, so I followed her.


    We arrived at the top of her father''s tower, and she showed me my room. It wasn''t very big, but I wasn''t the one toin. She said "As for that pass, I will give you one tomorrow". I nodded, and said goodnight to her.

 Chapter 325

    Chapter 325


    I woke up the next morning, and exercised a bit. I wasn''t sure where to go, I didn''t know if Fox was awake either. I decided to just go outside, and roast some meat for my breakfast. ''Why would she say that this is savage? When travelling, you don''t have constant food supply, besides whatever you hunt'' I thought, as I roasted some meat over the fire.


    There were only a few people around the Academy, it was still very early in the morning. The passing students looked at me weirdly, but that wasn''t my concern. I simply enjoyed my meal. As I was about to take thest chunk, I heard someone approaching. I turned around, and asked "You want some Fox?". She replied "If you are hungry, you could''ve said so. Do you have to make fire in the middle of a city?". I smiled at her, and said "Sit down, we can talk over the fire". She looked left and right, a bit hesitant. Ultimately, she sat down.


    I said "You worry too much. Who cares what others think? If you enjoy doing it, why stop?". Fox didn''t reply, and just stared at the fire. I ate thest chunk of meat, and asked "Did something happen to your face?". She looked at me, seemingly confused and replied "Why do you ask?". I said "You know... If you are afraid to show your face, I have a medicine that can heal the scars¡­". She stopped me there, and said "It''s fine. Besides, I''m used to wearing the mask". I was a bit confused. ''Wouldn''t she want to repair those scars? I though women care about such things¡­ Although, now that I think about it, my experience with women is rather poor'' I thought.


    I leaned back, and watched the fire. We stayed like this for a while, until I said "Soon, I will leave for the Imperial City. I wonder how it looks like?". Fox turned towards me, and said "You can always stay here. You are very hard working, so your Formation knowledge will surpass mine no problem. Besides, I''m not as interested as you seem to be". I shook my head, and replied "I''m a traveller. Although I''m interested in Formations, I also want to explore more. I have enough things to worry about, even without the Formations".


    I then continued "After that, I will probably return to the North". She asked surprised "You are leaving the Endrosian Empire?". I nodded, and replied "Yep, I have my ns. Before I do that, I want to check out the Imperial City". Fox said "Can I¡­", but she didn''t finish.


    I smiled, and replied "Ask whatever you like". She seemed hesitant about it. After a while of thinking, Fox eximed and asked "Oh right! Do you still have the ne I gave you?". I nodded my head, "Yea, I still wear it. Here it is". I showed her the ne, that I pretty much forgot about. I asked "You want it back?". I was about to take it off, when she grabbed my hand, and said "No! Keep it, I gave it to you after all".


    I nodded, and left it there. Fox struggled again, but finally managed to ask "Can¡­ Can I go with you?". I was a bit surprised, I didn''t expect such a question. I replied "If you want to. I have no problem with that. The journey will be more enjoyable with someone around. If¡­". I stopped myself. I wanted to mention Frosty, but it was better if Frosty remained unknown. I smiled, and continued "Yea sure,e along if you want to". She nodded, and asked "When do you want to leave then?". I thought about it, and said "I want to give your father a few days. After that, we can leave".


    She nodded, while I extinguished the fire and said "Let''s go study a bit. I want to learn a bit more about formations while I''m here". Fox had no problem with that, so we headed towards our ssroom. A few days passed, and I managed to make some improvements with my Rune drawing. Fox exined to me, that in order to make a formation, I had to be very precise and quick. If I spent too much time on drawing, the ink would begin to lose its effectiveness. That was the reason why I failed. With time, I got better at it, and could draw those Runes quicker. The basics Formations which made the paper wet, catch fire or crumble, were quite easy for me now.


    After all that studying, I said to Fox "It''s time to leave. I''ve learned a bit about the Formations, but as I said, it''s not my main concern right now". She nodded, and replied "Let''s go meet with my father then". We both left the Academy, and headed towards her father''s tower. I could also leave the Academy anytime I wanted, because I already received the feather. I became a student, but I would be the worst student of all time probably. Even those without the talent, would surpass me in rank one day or another. Not that I cared, the feather would be more like a memento of this ce.


    We quickly arrived at Fox''s father office, where Philip was as always busy with some papers. I asked him "Did you manage to find something out?". Philip lifted his head up, and replied "Although it''s not much, I think your sword might be in the Imperial City. You wanted to head over there anyway right?". I nodded, and said "That is good enough for me. As long as it is in the Imperial City, I will find it".


    Fox came forward, and said abruptly "I''m leaving father". Philip was shocked, but he managed to reply. "You promised me that you will study the Formations. That is why, I allowed you to go travellingst time". Fox replied "I know, but Formations are not for me. I have no talent like you do, I will never be a Formation Master. I want to travel¡­" she then looked at me, and back at her father.


    Philip was lost for words. He woke up after a while, and asked me "Can you give us a minute?". I nodded, and left the room. Philip must''ve activated some sort of Formation, because I couldn''t hear anything. ''Well, it''s not like I''m interested in their private matters. I wonder what would my father say, if he saw me now?'' I thought to myself. I waited a while, until Fox opened the doors. She invited me back inside. Philip gestured for me to sit down, and said "I will allow my daughter to go with you, if you promise to protect her with your life".


    I didn''t expect that kind of development. ''I would protect her naturally, she is my friend after all. But give my life for her? My life is worth a lot to me, I''m no hero either'' I thought. Philip was patient, and didn''t speak anymore. I replied "I will protect her, but my life is also precious to me. If your question was "Would I abandon her", then the answer would be no. Giving life for someone, is a different matter".


    Philip replied "At least you are honest boy. To tell you the truth, if you answered "Yes", I would not believe you. Therefore, I will let my daughter travel with you". I just nodded, and didn''t say anything else. There was nothing I could say. I was already living on borrowed life. If not for Shelly, I would be dead a long time ago. I looked at Fox, and asked "Ready to go?". She nodded her head, and replied "Let''s go".


    I grabbed her, and disappeared from the tower. I stopped when we were outside of the city, and let Fox down. She eximed, "You are so fast!". I smiled, and said "When you break through to your Inner Limits, you will see the difference it brings". She nodded, and said excitedly "I can''t wait to find out!". Fox was about to take out a map, but I stopped her. I pointed towards north, and said "It''s that way. I already memorised your map, remember?". She just stood there. I assumed she was surprised, or stunned. She shook her head after a while, and asked "You really did memorise it? I thought you were just ying a tough guy back then".


    I was lost for words. ''Why would I even do that?¡­ That map was very useful to me, why would I fake memorizing it?'' I asked myself. Leaving those thoughts behind, we ran in the direction of the Imperial City.

 Chapter 326

    Chapter 326


    While we ran through the forest, I forgot that Fox was much slower than me. ''No rush I guess. Besides, I can continue my training'' I thought, and took out my sword. I began practicing the Sith Form of the Lethal Sword Technique, when Fox said "That''s a big sword. Don''t you prefer a smaller sword? It would be easier for you". I shook my head, and said "I do have smaller swords, but I''m learning to use this one for now. Wanna try it out?".


    She replied "Let me see then", and I handed her the sword. When she grabbed it, she said "I guessed as much, it''s quite heavy". A mischievous thought appeared in my mind. I smiled, and said "It has a Formation on it too. Activate it, and you will see something". She nodded her head, then activated the Formation. "Boom!" the sword crashed to the ground together with Fox. Iughed a bit, and said "Even my sword teacher was dragged down, when he activated that Formation".


    She slowly lifted the sword up, and replied "Bastard, you yed a trick on me". After she swung it a few times, she said "This is so heavy. How can you even fight properly with this. The strength required to wield it properly, is just...". After she handed me the sword back, I said "In this case, it doesn''t make a difference to me. With my strength, I can wield this sword as a one handed weapon. Although, I can''t fight extended battles".


    I then returned to my practice, while moving constantly forwards. After a while, Fox asked "You even practice something, while travelling? When do you get some rest?". Iughed, and replied "I''m used to it. When you travel alone, there is not much you can do. I take my mind off the long road, by practicing my skills. Time goes by faster that way, and I don''t feel bored".


    We travelled like this untilte afternoon, where Fox told me to stop. I stopped my practice, and asked "Is everything alright?". She replied "Why don''t we make a break? We travelled for a whole day, you must be tired swinging that sword all the time". I wasn''t that tired yet. Besides, we made a few stops on the way. I had to eat something, and let my hands rest as well. Otherwise I would run out of energy, and copse. I looked at the sky, and said "We can make camp here if you want to. Let me build a shelter.


    She shook her head, and said "Are you really some sort of savage? I have everything with me, you don''t have to build any shelters". I wasn''t a savage, and I always built shelters to sleep in. I was never concerned about luxury orfort. ''I guess it''s because I''m a male. Women probably have higher needs than I have'' I thought.


    She set up the firece, then arge tent and even a table with two chairs. ''Why bring all that clutter with you? I mean a table?'' I thought. It never urred to me, to hide a table or a bed in my storage items. I could always make one, if I really needed it. I asked Fox "What type of storage device do you have?". She was busy with setting up everything, but replied anyway. "My father made it. It can store a lot of things, and the weight is reduced by around 70 percent. It''s one of the best storage items you can get. I wouldn''t be able to afford it normally, but my father is a Formation Master".


    ''70 percent is not bad at all. My Storage Feather can do only 50 percent. I guess the higher the percentage, the harder it is to make'' I thought. Fox soon finished setting everything up. She then began cooking over the fire. I asked "You can cook? I just roast some meat over the fire, and that''s it. I''m not fussy with my food". She shook her head, but didn''t say anything.


    I walked over, and sat down near the fire. I must admit, whatever Fox was cooking, it smelled really nice. Fox began humming some kind of song, then actually sang the words. The song was really nice, and her voice was pleasing to the ears. I asked "What''s that song?". She stopped, and replied "Father told me, that my mother used to sing it to me. I don''t remember my mother. She passed away when I was a child".


    I could feel the sadness in her voice. ''I at least knew both my parents, but she doesn''t even remember her mother'' I thought. This reminded me of my own parents. My mother who would scold my father, when he acted stupid. A mother who took care of me. I said "It''s really beautiful. You have a nice voice, you should sing more". She giggled a bit, and thanked me.


    The food was ready, and Fox insisted that I sit at the table to eat. She herself didn''t eat, probably because of the mask. I said "Eat something, I will go for a walk". She shook her head, and replied "I''m not hungry". I stared at her, and replied "Eat. You have your reasons, for wearing that mask. I will not judge you for that, everyone has their past and some secrets. Eat something, while I take a walk".


    I didn''t wait for her reply, and simply walked into the forest. ''She must be afraid that I will hate her. I mean Shades and Lizards aren''t handsome, or beautiful in particr. It makes no difference to me, if she has scars or not'' I thought. I walked around the forest, and recalled something. ''Wait. I meant to find out more about those Floating Orbs. I have some time, so why not give it a try'' I thought.


    I retrieved my mask, and ced it on my face. When I focused, I saw the Floating Orbs again, but they were different. ''These¡­ These are ck Orbs. The same ones I saw in my dream!". I reached out my hand, and indeed, some Orbs were attracted to me. ''Does that mean, I can attract ck Orbs but not the other ones I saw? Why are they different colour too? Because it''s night?'' I asked myself.


    I tried attracting more and more of them. I could feel my Darkness Perception awaking on its own. ''What is going on?'' I thought. I stood there, and tried to absorb the ck Orbs. The problem was, I was attracting very small amount of them. Some Orbs were leaving my body too. ''I can''t contain them? Then why would I be able to absorb them?'' I was lost at this stage.


    I had a feeling that these Orbs yed a crucial part in something. ''Maybe Formations are fuelled by these Orbs?'' I thought, and took out tattered boots from my bag. These were the boots that I received from a guy in Varent. There was a Formation on them, that worked constantly. I held the boots up, but the orbs were not attracted at all. ''Hmm¡­ Maybe this is not for the Formations. Fox knows a lot of stuff, maybe she will know'' I thought, and decided to return.


    I returned to the camp, and saw Fox sitting at the table. Her food was gone, which was a good sign. She asked "What took you so long? You''ve been gone for at least an hour". ''I was?'' I thought, and answered "I didn''t realise, so much time had passed. I have something to ask you". Fox said "Sure, ask anything you want". I asked "Do you know about those Floating Orbs? They have different colours, and they are everywhere".


    She tilted her head, and asked "Floating Orbs?". I nodded, and replied "Yea, they float around everywhere¡­ Don''t look at me, as if I''m a crazy person, will you?". Although I couldn''t see her eyes, I could feel a look of concern. She replied "There are no Floating Orbs, I have no clue what you are talking about". I took out my mask, and said "Put that on, and let''s check if you see them too".


    She looked at the mask, and asked "Are you sure, you are not seeing things?". I was annoyed at this stage. I said "Put the mask on, and activate the Formation. It will improve your sight". She sighed, and said "Alright". I handed her the mask, while she went to the tent, to change it. When she returned, I was stunned "What a weird design¡­" I mumbled to myself. The mask was grey in colour, or rather pale white. There were no eyes present, but empty sockets, just like on my mask. There were two long but thin horns sticking out on her forehead. The mask looked different to be sure.


    Fox asked "Did you say something?". I shook my head, and replied "Just activate the Formation, and focus". She did just that, and looked around. "I can see nothing. Are you sure you are alright?". I replied defeated "I''m telling the truth¡­ Maybe your sense of sight is not as well developed as mine". She turned towards me and asked with a bit of anger "Do you mean, I can''t see properly?". I waved my hand, and said "You can change back now. It seems you don''t know about those Orbs. I will try to figure it outter".


    When Fox came out from the tent again, her breathing was erratic and her heartbeat faster. I asked "Are you feeling well? Did something happen?". She handed me the mask, and asked "Why does it look like this? Do you¡­". I took the mask and said "Oh this! The mask changes shapes for every user. It''s something I had in the past but lost it. I paid a Formation Master to make another. It changes for me as well, look". I ced it on my face, and activated it.


    She eximed "It really does! You look like a skeleton". Iughed, and took the mask off. She calmed down for some reason. Her breath returned to normal, and her heartbeat regted as well. ''She was probably shocked by the design of the mask. I wonder what the design is based on?'' I thought. I wasn''t really dead, nor did I look like a skeleton. I figured it was either random, or maybe had something to do with memories, character or appearances.


    I said "It''ste already, let''s rest. We will continue our journey tomorrow". Fox nodded, and went inside the tent. I didn''t pay much attention to the tent before, but when I walked in, I noticed that the tent was separated into two sections. She pointed at one of them, and said "You can sleep here, I will sleep in the next section". I nodded, and said goodnight to her. My "room" contained a bed and a table with a chair. This was more than enough for me. I sat down on the bed, and controlled my energy. I would do that, whenever I had some free time.

 Chapter 327

    Chapter 327


    The night passed uneventfully. I got some sleep, but in overall, I didn''t need as much sleep as I did in the past. Fox was still not around, so I exercised a bit, made fire to roast some meat. While roasting the meat, Fox came out and shook her head. I said "We still have quite a long way to go. Do you want me to help you break through?". She just stood there, and asked "What type of thing, did you get your hands on this time?".


    I replied "I didn''t have any, at the time we met in the North. I have some left now. The medicine will improve your strength. Besides that, it can help you to break through to your Inner Limits. This time, the process is not painful. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about". She replied "Really? I tried to break through a few times, but I couldn''t do it. If it can help me¡­ Are you sure you want to give it to me?". I took out the leftover Zenith Earth Grabbing Extract I had, and threw it to her. "There''s around 30 mililiters of it left. Drink it, and try to break through".


    She nodded her head, and retreated back to the tent. After she drank the Extract, Fox returned and began making poses. These poses were different,pared to Finch''s. ''Wait a minute! I also know a set of poses!'' I thought. The Modified Strength Manual, was about poses as well. ''Maybe its purpose was not to train the body, but try to break through?'' I thought. I used it to train my body, and even modified it. ''Does that mean, I will have to modify the 5th Diagram, before I can break through the Half Step?'' I thought.


    I contemted on that for a while. ''No, I broke through without the use of modified diagrams. This should mean, it''s possible to break through with, or without their use'' I thought. Still, modifying the 5th Diagram was not a bad idea. Sooner orter, I would need that diagram anyway. I woke up from my thoughts, when Fox''s Aura intensified. I could easily withstand the pressure this time, Fox was not as strong as Finch after all.


    I waited, until Fox''s Aura disappeared, and she lost all her strength. She was about to fall. I appeared next to her, and caught her. ''She failed'' I thought. Fox was very weak, this was rather normal. All her energy was depleted. I carried her back to the tent, andid her in the bed. She said weekly "I''m sorry¡­ I failed". I shook my head, and replied "Don''t worry about it. You can always try a second or third time. Rest a bit. We can continue our journey, when you feel better". She nodded lightly, and fell asleep.


    I wasn''t really surprised about the oue. If breaking through to the Inner Limits was that simple, the older generation of Sav Vige, would achieve that a long time ago. I retrieved my mask, and ced it on my face. I could see the Floating Orbs again, but they were different colour. Most of them were brown or green. ''Hmm, these Orbs don''t get attracted to me either. It seems only the ck Orbs are attracted to me... '' I thought.


    I deliberated on that, until I came up with one conclusion. ''It must be because I have no affinity with the other Orbs. Yet somehow, I have an affinity with ck Orbs. If my guess is correct, it''s probably because of the Dark Traveller'' I thought. I didn''t have any dreams for a long time already. I wasn''t sure, if I would be able to see that hazy figure once more.


    I gave it a rest, and took off the mask. ''There is no point trying anything with the Orbs, I have no affinity with. I can test some things out during the night, that''s when I saw the ck Orbs'' I thought. Instead, I practiced my Sixth Form. A few hours passed, until Fox finally woke up and joined me outside. I stopped my practice, and asked "How do you feel?". Fox was still a bit sleepy, but managed to reply. "I''m much be¡­ What happened here?!". She saw the aftermath of my training. I was bored from using my attacks on thin air, so I used them on trees. ''Maybe I went a bit overboard¡­'' I thought, as I looked at the destruction I caused.


    The open area we were in, was rather small originally. After my sword practice, we could easily fit 30 such camps. Provided all the cut trees were cleared. I smiled, and said "Yea, nothing happened. I just, you know... Anyway, since you feel better, we can be on our way". She just shook her head, and began collecting all the stuff. I tried helping her, but she pointed at the cut treesying everywhere, and said "I will do this alone". ''It''s not like I''m some sort of walking disaster though¡­'' I thought, and let her be. Fox took care of all the cleaning, after which we left.


    As we travelled through the forest, I asked "Do you want to spar with me? You can always pick some stuff up. Besides, I can also learn a thing or two about closebat". She thought about it, and replied "If you promise not to throw your daggers, and use your Aura. Otherwise, I will always lose". I agreed to that, because I wanted to improve my closebat as well. Besides, Fox was not my opponent, if I used the Arts or my Aura.


    Fox took out two daggers, and positioned herself. She wielded my old dagger, and the new style, created from ck Steel. This looked kind of odd, so I asked "You want one more?". She replied with augh "How about this? If I win, you will give me the dagger". I asked "What if I win?". She ran at me suddenly, and said "You have to win first". Fox used her Aura to disappear in front of me. ''Her stealth is good, the Aura helps here a lot. But, this is not the Art of Stealth'' I thought, and swung my hand backwards. "ng!", the sound of metal colliding reverberated through the air.


    She was still under stealth, which was promising. I sensed another attacking, this time from my left. "ng", "ng", "Cling", "ng". I deflected all her attacks, and said "This will not work on me. Even if I can''t see you, I can still sense you". She didn''t appear, but changed her movements. I decided to end this. When Fox attacked one more time, I didn''t deflect it. Instead, I evaded it, and made a grab for her.


    ''Huh?'' I thought, as I grabbed nothing. Fox''s words came from behind "You lost", then she appeared. Iughed, and said "Good fight. You used my senses against me. Although I didn''t take it seriously, I''m still impressed". She took back her dagger from my neck, and said "Yea right. You lost, hand one dagger to me now". I smiled, and threw my dagger to her. "No wonder you are called Fox. A little trickster, that a fox is".


    She asked "Wanna have another round? This time for nothing". Iughed "You are crafty indeed. Let''s have another bout then". We sparred like this for a while. Fox was able to win a few more times. This was because she was very tricky. Her stealth was too good for my bare eyes to see through. The Aura she had,plimented her stealth by a lot. Although Fox wasn''t really my opponent, I also learned a few things anyway. For one, blind trust in my senses, was a bad thing. Even more so, if I fought against Eterian. ''Eterians proficient in illusions, could mess up with my senses. I can''t trust them all the time'' I thought. There was only one thing, I could trust. It was my instinct. I wasn''t sure if an illusion could affect it, but I was sure of one thing. My instincts would only kick in, if my life was in danger.


    We travelled like this for a good month. We had some fun while sparring. I learned a few things about closebat, and even tried applying some of my sword training to that. This actually worked pretty well. The basics of a sword wielding, included Reverse Hold. That was mainly the Style I was using for my daggers. We also talked about the past, and even a bit about the Imperial City. Fox already visited the city a few times, so she knew her way around. She told me that the Imperial City was huge, much bigger than Ortava. There were loads of adventurers and travellers visiting that ce, and that I could buy or order anything I wanted. She didn''t tell me too much, as her response to some of my questions was, "You will see". I was still getting more and more excited, about the prospects of the Imperial City. ''There will be loads to see, and I will try to find my sword as well. I can''t wait to arrive there'' I thought.

 Chapter 328

    Chapter 328


    A few dayster, we finally arrived at the Endros Imperial City. It was a sight to behold. The city was at least twice if not three times as big as Ortava. The high walls of the city, contained towers, and Fox even exined to me that there were Formations ced on them. Therge area of the forest was cleared all around the Imperial City, where field full of nts would be grown. Paved roads, extended in multiple directions, on which merchants, travellers and vigers travelled. We also saw some strange looking beasts, that were ridden by some people.


    Fox exined to me that these were personal mounts. Only very strong and wealthy people could afford them. We also saw many soldiers stationing, and patrolling the area around the city. The sight waspletely different,pared with other cities. Then I saw something that shocked me. I huge shadow loomed over us. When I looked up, I saw¡­ something. It looked a bit like a normal ship, but it was far from that. It had wings, and a dome instead of a mast. I wasn''t sure whether this was real or not. I nudged Fox that stood next to me, and asked "What¡­ What is that thing?", while pointing at the sky.


    Foxughed, and replied "This is one of the transport systems. The Empire only has three of those, and it required many Formation Masters, craftsmen and the like, to create them. These things can fly like this, because of Formations. Don''t be fooled though, these things can be used as war machines as well. They are called Falkons, and are mostly used to transport people. The tickets are not that cheap though".


    I was hooked immediately. ''I had the pleasure to fly a bit myself. I wonder how would the whole Empire and the North look like, from aboard that Falkon?'' I thought. Fox could see the excitement in my eyes, so she said "If you want, we can buy the tickets and go for a short trip. They offer transit mostly, not cruises. Although, if we buy return tickets for the same day, it should be cheaper". I was almost drooling at this stage, and simply nodded my head.


    Fox added, "The Royals have a few small versions of that, but it only belongs to the Royals. No one else can use them. Anyway, shall we go?". I woke up from my thoughts, and said "Yea! Let''s go, I want to see more". Foxughed a bit, and we moved towards the huge gate. This was one of the three gates, that the Imperial City had. We approached from the Southern Gate, but there were also the Wester and Eastern Gates.


    A few soldiers stopped us, for an inspection. They were especially suspicious of Fox. No doubt they were, she was wearing that mask. Fox on the other hand, didn''t seem perturbed at all, she took out a multicoloured feather, and showed it to the soldiers. They immediately became all nice, and let us pass no problem. After we entered the city, I asked "Why did they just let us through? Does the Academy pass work like that?".


    Fox shook her head, and replied "Not every feather. This is an identity as well. The multicoloured feather means very high position. It''s something like a privilege, that Formation Masters receive". I looked at her suspiciously, and asked "You stole it from your father?". Fox must''ve felt wronged, because she retorted "I''m not you! This belongs to me, I don''t need to steal other''s identities". ''Yea... Whatever'' I thought and left it at that.


    Instead, I marvelled at the sights of the Imperial City. And there was a lot to marvel at. I could see the docking ce for that Falkon. It didn''t levitate like the buildings in Boltier, but It was certainly very tall. There were spiral ramps all around it for people to embark and disembark. Besides that, there was also an entrance into the tower like building.


    Besides that, there was a huge castle, probably belonging to the Royals. There was anotherrge and distinctive building. When I asked Fox about it, she replied "This is the Grand Library. Pretty much anyone can enter and study there, but to get ess to real knowledge, you need status". My eyes lit up, when she said that. ''Fox has such status, we can view these type of books!". I wanted to go there immediately, but Fox grabbed me, and said "I know what you are thinking. Don''t forget, it is my feather, not yours. If I feel like it, I will take you there".


    Throughout the time I travelled with Fox, I learned a few things about her. She might''ve been a grown up woman, but she liked to be mischievous at times. Although she wasn''t interested in jewellery, she liked to buy new clothes. I saw at least ten different sets of clothes on her, while we travelled. All of them were designed for adventuring. ''I wonder how many casual clothes does she have?'' I thought at that time.


    She always asked me, where are my clothes for change, but I had none. Maybe excluding the broken set of clothes I received in Varent, and a set of fur clothes, I made a long time ago. Besides that, Fox was rather stubborn, which I would never guess, if we didn''t travel together for so long. Fox said "First, let''s go and find a ce to stay. Then we can eat something nice, and after that we will go shopping. If you behave well, I will take you to the Grand Library".


    I gave up at this stage. She knew much more about the city than me. Besides, it was true, the feather belonged to her, not me. I nodded my head defeated, and followed after her. Fox headed in a specific direction, and we soon arrived at an inn. It didn''t look toovish, but certainly wasn''t bad. We entered the building, and saw loads of people sitting at tables eating, drinking or simply conversing with each other.


    Fox walked up to the counter, and asked for two rooms. Unfortunately, the inn was packed full, and there was only one room left. I said "You are obviously familiar with this ce, so book it. I can find another ce". She shook her head, and said "We will go somewhere else. I don''t want you to get lost, wandering the streets". ''I''m not some sort of stray dog¡­'' I thought. I assured her that it was fine, but she wouldn''t listen, so we left.


    We headed to another inn, but it was fully booked as well. I could feel Fox''s frustration. I said "We can try a different one. It''s not like I care about the quality or something". She shook her head, and replied "There is one more. If it''s fully booked as well, we will go to a different ce". I was fine with whatever, so I followed her.


    The third inn we tried, had spare rooms. I could see why it was Fox''s third choice. The building was a bit poorer than the previous ones, but still looked clean, and had people inside. She booked two single rooms, and paid. I wanted to give her some money for my room, but she refused. "You already gave me so much, I can pay for such things. Don''t worry".


    I wasn''t very wealthy, as I only had around 40 Gold Coins. The price of each room per night, totally shattered my understanding of wealthy. They charged 50 Silver Coins per room. She paid for a week of time. For two people, this meant 7 Gold Coins. ''Those prices are ridiculous! How can some simple rooms cost 50 Silver Coins per night¡­'' I thought. I was scared to ask how much the ticket for that Falkon costed, if simple rooms were so expensive.


    She gave me the key, and said "I will go change and freshen up". She then looked at me from head to toe, and said "You should wash yourself too". ''This woman will kill me one day'' I thought, and headed upstairs to my room.

 Chapter 329

    Chapter 329


    The room was much better than I expected. There was a basin for taking a bath, a nicefy bed, a table with two chairs, and a few shelves. I used the basin to wash myself, and dressed back. I had nothing else to do in my room, so I headed downstairs. Fox was not there, which I already expected. ''She always took extra time in the mornings. I guess I will have to wait here'' I thought, and sat at the table.


    A waiter asked me if I wanted to order something, but I refused. A good half an hourter, Fox finally came down from upstairs. ''Of course she is wearing different clothes'' I thought, and stood up. I knew she wasn''t very happy, when she asked "You didn''t change your clothes?". I replied "Does it matter? Besides, I don''t have any other clothes. I never needed them anyway".


    She shook her head, and said "We will go shopping first then, we can eat after that". I sighed, and agreed. I wanted to visit that Grand Library. We walked through the streets, and Fox would stop once in a while to look at all sorts of stuff. I wasn''t really enjoying myself. She would look at clothes mostly, but sometimes weapons as well.


    When Fox was done with the stalls, I thought that it would end there. I was gravely wrong, this was just the beginning. We began entering the shops inside the buildings. ''Even though I broke through my Inner Limits, I never felt so tired. It''s like some sort of nightmare training'' I thought. Because the proper shops had rooms for people to try the clothing on, Fox would always try a few, and ask my opinion. ''As if I know anything about that!'' I thought.


    The clothes she chose were usually useless. ''I mean, they don''t even possess any protection. What is the point of such clothes'' I thought, as I looked at the different sets she wore. Fox wasn''t really happy with myck of interest, and asked "You want to go to the Grand Library?". I nodded my head immediately. She continued "Then take this more seriously, will you?".


    I was stunned. ''When was thest time someone actually threatened me?'' I thought. I decided that Grand Library was not worth it. I said "You can continue shopping, I will go take a look at the city. I can visit the Grand Library another time". I think this was a mistake, because Fox stopped talking altogether. She stared at me, but didn''t say anything. I said with a dryugh "Alright¡­ We will meet back at the inn¡­ See youter".


    I left, and disappeared into the crowd of people. I decided to forget about it, and simply do something I liked to do. I wandered the streets, until I saw something. ''Is this¡­ Arena?'' I thought. It was a round building, not very tall, but I could hear loud cheering from within. I was interested enough, to visit that ce.


    When I entered, I asked one of the clerks behind the counter. "Is this ce an Arena of some sort?". The clerk nodded her head, and replied "That is right. Wee to the Scorpion Arena. How may I help you sir?". I asked "Can you tell me about the rules here? Also, can anyone fight on the Arena?". The clerk replied "Of course. Anyone can fight in the Arena, although we have some requirements. For one, you have to be at least at the Outer Limits stage. If you broke through your half step, then there is another category you can fight in".


    She then continued "The rules are simple. You cannot kill your opponent. If you or the opponent leave the stage, they are automatically disqualified, whether it was by choice or by force. If you attack someone who gave up, there will be consequences. Any weapon is allowed except poison, or any concoctions that improve your abilities". I nodded my head, and asked "So how do I fight someone?".


    She replied "You will have to register first. You will then receive your Arena Card. Everyone starts from the basic Bronze Rank. The more fights you win, the more achievements you collect. The achievements can be used in two different ways. You can use them to advance in your Ranks, or you can exchange them for items".


    I nodded in understanding, and asked another question. "What Ranks are there?". She replied "You start with the Bronze Rank. Then if you advance, you would be Steel Rank. Next is Silver and then Gold. Gold is the highest Rank someone can achieve, and ites with a few benefits as well. For one, you will receive 50% of the ticketmissions, every time you fight. You will also have ess to more areas. The general public is not able to ess these areas of the Imperial City usually. Besides that, there is a discount of 10% for the items inside the shop. Would you like to register sir?".


    I thought about it for a while, and said "Maybeter, I was just curious". She nodded her head, and replied "As you wish sir". I left the Arena, and headed towards the Grand Library. Although I couldn''t ess everything in there, I could always browse some things. When I finally arrived, the Grand Library was really grand from up close.


    Beautiful windows with vibrant colours,plemented the tall library. It had a tower on each side, and its roof was also very elegant. Sculptures, and stone arches spanned throughout it. When I entered through the huge doors, I was d no one asked for any pass or permission. I just entered, and that was it. ''I already like this ce'' I thought.


    The interior was also grand and elegant. The walls were painted with depictions of various things. Some paintings depicted battles, others depicted people. Arge open space filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves. There were also stairs leading to the next floor. When I tried entering, I was stopped, and told that it was a restricted area. I couldn''t enter, unless I had specific privileges. I didn''t argue with those people, and simply headed back.


    ''No matter, I still have a selection of thousands of books'' I thought, and started checking out the aisles. A lot of books I found concerned the history. Past battles, formation of the Empire and so on. There were a few of them, that I found interesting, so I grabbed them. I probably couldn''t take them outside, but the library possessed loads of long tables with chairs. Anyone could just sit down and read. I did just that, and began reading.


    I chose a few books. One of them was called Torrential Era. The book described how thends were divided, before Endrosian Empire formed. There were many kingdoms in the past. The now Endrosian Empire, was separated into seven kingdoms. I was confused at first, the title didn''t make sense in the beginning. With some more reading, the book exined why it was called Torrential Era. The reason was due to the fall of the kingdoms. The kingdoms were supposedly encountering some problems, and started falling apart, one after the other. This was when Endros began his campaign, and united all the kingdoms to form the Endrosian Empire.


    I found some discrepancies in there. ''The books says, the kingdoms began falling, but never mentioned any sort of enemy. It doesn''t say anything about that, whether it was some sort of invasion, people fighting against each other, or something else. This is a bit suspicious'' I thought. This reminded me of Nick. He once told me the story about Endros, so perhaps the history books were not fully truthful.


    I began reading the second book. It was called Falkons, and described those great flying things, that I saw when we arrived at the Imperial City. Although there were very little details, I learned a few things from that book. For one, these things were created for the purpose of defending Endrosian Empire from Elysian Empire. The book didn''t extrapte more. Nothing was mentioned about the Elysian Empire but its name. The book didn''t mention anything about the North either. ''I will try to find a book on thatter. Maybe I will ask someone, I don''t really know where to search'' I thought, and moved on to the next book.

 Chapter 330

    Chapter 330


    While I was reading the next book, someone came over and asked "Are you really reading them?". I was a bit confused, and looked up. It was a youngdy, who was holding a few books of her own. I replied "Of course I''m, why would I even take these books, if I didn''t want to read them?". She shrugged her shoulders, and said "I don''t know, there are loads of weird people in the world". I couldn''t really argue with that.


    I passed her the Torrential Era book, and said "Wanna check?". She seemed surprised, but then smiled and replied "I will take you up on that offer. I don''t need the book, I already know what it is about". I took the book back, and said "Ask away then". She asked some simple questions at first. People could guess them, if they only skimmed through the book.


    She then asked, if I could tell her the names of all the kingdoms. I replied "Sure. There were seven. Kingdom of The North, South, East and West. Phn Kingdom, Eran Kingdom and Fentour Kingdom. These were the kingdoms in existence, before the Endrosian Empire formed. At least ording to that book". She asked surprised "Why did you say, ording to the book?". I replied, "There is nothing about the North, or Elysian Empire. Who knows if there were only seven kingdoms, there might''ve been more. This book doesn''t say, so I don''t know".


    The woman smiled, and replied "You actually came here to read. I''m sorry, I shouldn''t have judged you". I waved my hand, and said "Don''t worry about it. By the way, what are you reading?". She smiled, and said "Everything I get my hands on. I work here, and in my spare time, I read books". I replied "Must be interesting. If you work here, you must know this ce well. Can you tell me, where I can find some books about the Elysian Empire, North and so on?". She shook her head, and replied "These books are on the upper floors. Although you would be able to find some simple books here, they don''t contain any real information".


    I asked another question. "I understand not just anyone can enter there, but what are the requirements?". She replied "There are a few ways, you can get ess to the upper floors. For one, you can apply for a pass if you are a Formation Academy student. You can also get a pass, if someone vouches for you. Although this would only allow you to enter the second floor at most. Winning at the Arena is another way. Bing an official that works for the Empire, would also grant you ess. Those that broke through their Inner Limits, get ess to some of the knowledge too".


    I was stunned. ''So I could get that knowledge all along! Fox you bastard! You tricked me!'' I thought. As I was about to ask another question, I felt someone approaching. Speaking of the devil, Fox showed up. She didn''t seem to happy still, but I wasn''t happy either. I asked her "Did you finish your shopping spree?". She didn''t reply, but looked at the woman, I just talked with. The woman asked "Is that your friend?". I nodded my head, and said "Yep, we came here together. By the way, what other books would you rmend here, on the first floor?".


    She thought about it, and replied "That depends on what interests you. If you want the history of our Empire, I suggest Section 11. There will be loads of stories and ounts of battles. On the other hand, we also have Romance Section, Inventions Section and even basic Combat Section". I nodded, and replied "I will check the Section 11 out. Can you also tell me the section number for Inventions and Combat?". She nodded, and replied "Of course, they are Sections 24 and 8 respectively. I have to return to my work now, it was nice talking to you". I smiled, and replied "It was nice meeting you too".


    When she left, Fox asked "You done flirting with her?". I stood up, and replied "I don''t like to be mislead like this Fox. I could enter the upper floors of the library, without your help. You withhold that from me on purpose, didn''t you?". She replied "So what? Did it hurt you?". I walked towards the exit, and replied "No, but you''ve been dishonest with me. I don''t appreciate people who try to plot behind my back". I then disappeared from the library. I wasn''t happy with my friend lying to me, this was a betrayal of my trust. Using me for her own purposes, was not alright with me.


    ''Today, it might''ve been some stupid shopping, but tomorrow? I will have to think about that'' I thought. Crow, Lazar or Harlin didn''t try to use me for their own purposes. When Harlin found out about the Golems, he didn''t try to capture me, but help me instead. Crow risked his life, to find some information about Avians and Yagaroths. ''Fox... Is she my real friend? Or hides some sort of deeper agenda?'' I asked myself. I didn''t know, because I couldn''t read her properly with that mask on.


    ''Either way, I will have to reconsider her as my friend. I don''t want scheming people around me, this can only hurt me in the long run'' I thought. I decided to leave it forter, and explore more of the Imperial City. I wanted to see what other things, the city had on offer. I walked aimlessly through the streets, when I noticed a training ground of some sort. Loads of soldiers trained using their swords or bows. Some were running, others lifting weights. When I got closer, one of the soldiers stopped me, and said "This area is for soldiers only. Please turn around, and leave". I didn''t make any trouble, and left.


    Even though I was stopped short, and left soon after, I still saw a few things. There were soldiers that trained archery, and had specific clothing. Instead of full armour, like the usual soldiers had, they only had some armour pieces, and the rest was leather. ''Interesting choice. I can understand why those areas, are protected by the steel armour. Archers have to be agile, but they sacrifice some of that mobility and weight by taking on armour pieces'' I thought. It was a good idea. I only wore leather clothes, which allowed for a lot of mobility. The problem was, leather was not as protective as a good steel armour. ''If Ipare steel and leather with identical Formations ced on them, the steel will be much better for defence'' I thought.


    I decided to incorporate that, in my next set of clothes. After leaving the training grounds, I headed towards the Imperial Pce. It also looked exquisite, with statues, ornaments and whatnot, adorning it. I wasn''t allowed to enter either. This was the Imperial Pce, only officials or people who were allowed could enter. I wasn''t disappointed though. Royalty was something, I didn''t care about. I only wanted to check, if I can see the Pce up close. Touring the city took some time, it was alreadyte in the afternoon. On my way back, I noticed some food stalls, and decided to check them out. ''The prices here are at least much more reasonable'' I thought. Although I wouldn''t call 1 Silver Coin per portion cheap, it was much better than 50 Silver Coins for a room per night. The portions were of a decent size as well, so I didn''tin. After my meal, I headed back to the inn.

 Chapter 331

    Chapter 331


    I went straight to my room, and trained the control of my energy. Fox didn''t visit me for the rest of the day, but I wasn''t concerned about that anymore. ''I no longer trust her as much as I did before'' I thought. I never trusted anyone fully, not since I experienced very. Even Finch and others from Sav Vige did receive my full trust. I was able to share a lot with them, but at the same time, I was ready to take action if something happened.


    The next day, I went downstairs, but didn''t see Fox there. I shrugged my shoulders and left. I headed towards the Grand Library, to read some books. At the Library, I met that woman from the day before again. We conversed about some books at first, until I recalled something, and asked her, "Where do I obtain the pass, to enter the upper floors?". She asked in reply, "Did you be some sort of official over the night?". Iughed, and replied "No, I already met one of the requirements. I just didn''t know about it".


    I didn''t want to unt my strength, so I didn''t say which requirement. She replied "There is a building outside, where this can be taken care of. When you go out, and turn¡­ Actually, I have some spare time now, want me to take you there?". I nodded, and replied "Sure, I would appreciate that". As we walked through the streets, she introduced herself "My name is Elly by the way". I replied "Just call me traveller". She looked at me confused, and asked "You don''t have a name?". I smiled, and replied "I''m just a traveller".


    I decided not to reveal my name. This could be tied to Sav Vige one way or another, and I had a sword to find. If I created trouble inside the Imperial City, no one would search for me there. She replied "You are weird". We soon arrived at some sort of building, where Elly said "This is the ce. Let''s go in". I shook my head, and said "I will take care of this by myself. I still have something else to take care of before that. Thank you for showing me the way nevertheless".


    Elly nodded her head, and replied "Alright, I will see you at the Library then". I waved her goodbye, and waited until she left. I stood in the crowd of the people for a while, then disappeared. I appeared in one of the side alleys, and asked "Why don''t youe out? Fox". I knew she was there. Since the time she tried to mislead me, I''ve paid much greater attention to my surroundings. Even though I knew she was there, she didn''te out. Instead, she started running away.


    ''You want to run away from me? Futile'' I thought, and chased after her. Even though she was using stealth, I already experienced that many times. This time, I could use my full set of skills, as well as my Aura to chase her. I located her approximate position, and used my Aura to envelop the area. Fox was caught up in my Aura, and tried escaping it. Ultimately, she couldn''t do it. Her stealth disappeared, while I walked over, and said "Fox, why would you spy on me like this? First lying about the Library, now spying".


    I retracted my Aura, and awaited an exnation. If she couldn''t provide one, we would be done. She asked angry "Do you hate me that much? Because you can''t see my face?". I didn''t expect such a reply. I asked confused "What do you mean?". She continued "You are so stupid. All you care about is training. You just left me alone that day, and didn''t care. Weren''t we supposed to travel together?".


    I was stunned. ''What does this have to do with lying to me?'' I thought. She continued "If you hate me this much, fine then, I will leave by myself". She turned around and started running. I quickly grabbed her, and asked "Why are you so mad? Did I ever lie to you? Did I tell you what you can and cannot do? I''m not interested in clothes. I wear stuff that is protective, not that looks good. If it does, fine. If it doesn''t, great as well. Buying a tonne of clothes¡­ for what? You enjoy that, while I don''t. Forcing me to enjoy it, by threatening not to lend me your feather, is not alright".


    When I finished saying that, I could hear that she was crying a bit. ''What the hell! It''s not my fault at all! Why the hell should I do, whatever she wants?'' I thought. I let her go, sighed and said, "I always treated you as a friend, and never forced things upon you. I don''t understand why you would assume that I hate you, or anything like that. I just don''t like to be mislead. If your reason for misleading me, was for me to tag along for your shopping, I can understand that. But for the future, I suggest being truthful and open about stuff. This will at least show me, you are not trying to use me or something... If you want to leave, I will not stop you anymore".


    She stood there for a while, but stopped crying. She replied with a shaky voice "I''m¡­ sorry. I knew you would go straight there, so¡­". It was true, I probably would ditch her anyway. I was much more interested in knowledge contained inside the books, than shopping. ''So it was this. I guess, I acted badly towards her as well. I''m at fault too it seems'' I thought to myself. I patted her shoulder, and replied "I''m sorry, I shouldn''t have done that. You are right, I would probably go there straight away. I promised your father not to abandon you. I will not do that anymore, as long as you promise to not mislead me anymore".


    She nodded her head, and said "I''m alright with that". I smiled, and said "Good. Let''s forget about that then, we are still friends. I owe you for yesterday, so let''s go shopping. I will try to be helpful, as much as I can. Alright?". She nodded her head a few times, and seemed to be more lively.


    I continued "Tomorrow though, we go somece else. How about the Arena?". She asked surprised "You don''t want to go to the Grand Library?". I replied, "We can go thereter, it''s not like all the books will disappear from there. Arena should be enjoyable to both of us, right? Maybe we can fight on it too, just like we did in the North". Fox liked the idea, and agreed immediately. ''So this was only a misunderstanding'' I thought and walked forwards. I took a few steps, and noticed that Fox just stood there. I asked "Youing?". She was probably thinking about something. Hearing my question, she snapped out of it, and replied "Yes, yesing".


    We visited many shops that day. I tried telling her which clothes looked better on her, and which not so much. Although I knew nothing about that, I still had preferences. I sifted through my memories, and tried to recall what I liked for women to look like. ''It was usually long or short dresses, now that I recall. I always thought that girls dressed like that, were more attractive'' I thought. She seemed happy, that I at least tried. She enjoyed that day a lot, I could tell. We forgot about what happened, and simply moved on.

 Chapter 332

    Chapter 332


    Fox tried to buy me some clothes, but I refused. I was used to my clothes, and I preferred something that would protect me, just in case. Fox didn''t try to argue this time. Throughout the whole shopping trip, I learned that Fox was really wealthy. She even mentioned that buying this many clothes, was nothing to her. I wasn''t sure whether she was just honest or unting her wealth.


    Either way, we had ourte dinner after. Fox thanked me, and apologised again. I told her not to mention it, and that I shouldn''t ditch her either. Fox brightened up, after that day. The next day, Fox asked me again, if I wanted to go to the Grand Library. I shook my head, and replied "Let''s go to the Arena. We can watch some battles, and maybe participate in some of them". Fox nodded her head, and followed after me.


    At the Arena, I asked one of the clerks for some tickets. He replied that, there will be a major fight in one day. I could buy the tickets already, and they were selling out fast. He gave us an option to buy the tickets for the major fight alone, or for the whole day. There would be three battles altogether that day. The major battle he talked about, would be thest one during that day.


    I looked at Fox a bit confused, and then at clerk. I asked "Why is it a major battle?". The clerk replied "That is because one of the Royalties, will take part in it. It doesn''t happen very often, so I do rmend it". I was a bit surprised. ''Who would''ve thought that someone from the Royalty, would actually fight in the Arena'' I thought. I asked the clerk "How much are the tickets?". He replied "That will depend on the seats. If you want to sit closer to the stage, there are a few tickets left. They range from 30 Gold Coins to 70 Gold Coins per ticket. If you are looking for something cheaper, I have tickets that range from 5 Gold Coins to 15 Gold Coins".


    ''So expensive? This is for one fight as well'' I thought, and looked at Fox. I only had enough for one ticket, that had better seats. Fox was about to say something, but I stopped her, and said "We will take two seats for 15 Gold". The clerk nodded, and gave me two tickets. I handed him 30 Gold Coins, and we left.


    Fox said "You know, I could pay no problem. I could even buy the more expensive tickets". I shook my head, and said "It''s not about money. You paid for me, so I paid for you. Here is your ticket. Tomorrow, I hope to see a good spectacle from that Royalty. I''ve paid for it a lot after all". Foxughed a bit, but didn''tment. We walked for a while, until Fox asked "Where are we going now?".


    I stopped, and replied "I was lost in thoughts a bit¡­ I don''t know, I just walked forwards. To think of it, I always did that¡­ Walked forwards". I was lost in my thoughts again, until Fox poked me. She asked "Are you alright? If it''s about the money, don''t worry. I have plenty". I shook my head, and replied "No, that was not what I was thinking about. Besides, do you really think, I can''t make any money? With my skills, I can be as wealthy as you, if not wealthier".


    She replied "You are just talking. After all, I could see the struggle on your face, when it came to paying for those tickets". Iughed "Wanna bet?". She replied with moreughing, then said "Yea, yea. Anyway, where do you want to go now?". I wasn''t satisfied, and asked "What? You don''t believe me?". She shook her head, and replied "There is no need for you to prove me anything. I have money, and I don''t care if you have any. You don''t have to go out of your way, to show me that you can earn something. I believe you, I just found it funny, that''s all".


    I gave up at this stage, and said "Alright, alright. You are wealthy, and I don''t need money, as long as you are around. Happy?". She giggled, and said "Happy enough". Fox asked again "So, where are we going then? More shopping?". I knew she was joking about that shopping thing, so I replied "How about we look for my sword? We can check out some of the smithies, and perhaps find some clues".


    Fox nodded her head, and said "Let''s search for it then. I know two smithies in the city, let me show you the way". I followed after Fox to the first smithy. It was quiterge, with many people working inside. There were people who made ingots, those who make armour, and others made weapons. I asked at the counter "Have you seen such a sword before?", and showed the guy behind it, the replica of Moon de.


    He looked at it, and replied "Hmmm¡­ I think I saw a few of these types of swords. Some people like the old and ssic designs. We don''t have any of those, and as far as I know, no cksmith here makes them. Sorry". I replied "It''s fine, thanks anyway". We left the smithy, and headed to the next one. When I asked the same question at the next smithy, the person behind the counter was also unable to tell us more.


    ''It seems therge smithies are a dead end. These people would not be interested in replicas'' I thought. I turned towards Fox and said "Large smithies will have loads of orders. They don''t have to deal with replicas, or any knock offs. We should check out smaller smithies or workshops". Fox replied "Not a bad idea. I don''t know about any small smithies or workshops. We have to either ask someone, or buy a detailed map of this ce".


    In this case, the map was the best solution. I asked "Where can we get a map?". Fox motioned for me to follow. We soon arrived at a certain building, with loads of travellers going in and out. I asked "What is this ce?". Fox replied "Do you remember the Mercenary Guild from the North? This ce is simr. I don''t know whether it was us or the North, who came up with this idea first. But we can get a map here, as well as missions, and so on¡­ I didn''t want to show you this ce¡­" I cut her off, and replied "It''s fine. If you don''t want to take on any missions, I''m not gonna do them either. We came here together".


    She seemed happy about that, but shook her head, and replied "It''s not that. I just wanted to spend some time in the city. We can take on somethingter if you want". I said "Let''s not worry about that now. First, we will need a map". The inside was crowded, I could see that Fox didn''t like it there. I grabbed her, and said "If you don''t like crowded ces, wait outside. I will just get the map, and leave". She shook her head, but stayed close to me.


    We soon arrived at the counter, and I asked for a detailed map of the Imperial City. The clerk told me it costs 2 Gold Coins. I thought that the price was ridiculous, but Fox quickly took out the money, and grabbed the map. ''She hates crowded ces that much?'' I asked myself. We didn''t linger there anymore. I took Fox out, to a more open area.


    I asked "Are you alright? You hate crowded ces?". She replied "I don''t like it when there are a lot of people around. Things can happen¡­". I wasn''t sure what she was referring to, but I didn''t try to dig any further. Fox checked the map, and said "ording to the map, there are five small smithies in the Imperial City. There are two big smithies too, but we visited them already. Let''s go check those others out". I nodded my head, and followed her.

 Chapter 333

    Chapter 333


    We checked a few smithies. Two out of the five small smithies on the map, were making those replicas. They imed that the sword was popr, and they simply copied the style, to go with the trend. In other words, they never saw an original sword. ''I don''t think they lied to us, but then who''s in possession of the original sword?'' I thought. Fox tried to cheer me up, and said "Don''t worry, we will find it". I woke up from my thoughts, and replied "I''m not worried. I just find it very weird. She asked people to make copies of it. The sword became popr, and some people even did replicas of it, without looking at the original. Why go through all that trouble? I doubt this sword is worth that much, there must be better swords out there".


    Fox thought about something for a while, and said "That''s true, no one would go through such trouble for one sword. Unless, it''s really very unique. Unique to the point, people would kill for it". ''It is unique, but only my family is able to use that. No one would be able to use it besides me. To anyone but me, this would be useless. A simple sword¡­ perhaps the materials are unique?¡­'' I thought.


    I was lost in my thoughts again, when suddenly I realised something. ''Moon de¡­ Is it possible, that the sword was created from Lunite?'' I thought. This would exin a lot of things. Lunite was very rare, to the point where some people thought of it as a legend. If that was the case, it would make perfect sense to make replicas, and try to spread the sword as much as possible. ''This will be harder than I thought. If the sword is so valuable, who knows where it might be now?'' I thought.


    I said to Fox "I know a guy who lives here. He might be able to help us, but we need to find him first". Fox asked "Who is that guy?". I replied "His name is Paul Trnd. If we find him, he might be able to help us look for the sword". Fox didn''t nod or anything. She just stood there, like a wooden pole. I waved my hand in front of her face, but nothing happened. She was lost in her thoughts. I called out "Fox, you there?!". She finally woke up, and asked "What was his name again?". I repeated "Paul Trnd. You know him?".


    She replied after a while "Yea¡­ I''m shocked you know him. Do you know who that guy is?". I shook my head, and replied "How should I know? I never met him". Fox replied "You remember that first smithy we visited? That is where he is. To be precise, he is the Master cksmith, and owner of that ce¡­ I tried to employ him, for a new dagger¡­ He refused, even after I showed him my feather. Are you sure he will help us?".


    I replied "As long as he didn''t abandon his friends, he will help me out". Fox didn''t want to believe it, but followed me nevertheless. We returned to the smithy, where Paul could be found. I asked the clerk behind the counter, to see him. I wasn''t even surprised when he refused. I told him "Tell him, a friend of his family came over. If he doesn''t believe me, you can show him this". I handed him the emblem, which I received from Finch.


    The guy still refused to go. I enveloped him with my Aura, and said "I wasn''t asking you. I''m telling you". He was scared, and couldn''t move, but managed to squeeze out "What.. are... you doing?!". I repeated myself, "Go tell Paul I''m here!". Others began gathering around. One of the cksmiths shouted "Oi! You have some problems?!". I released my Aura fully, and enveloped the whole smithy. No one was able to move. I turned toward the clerk, and said "My patience is limited, I have enough of people demanding passes and shit from me. Either go tell him, or..".


    I heard a voice saying "That won''t be necessary. I''m Paul". A burly man walked out from a room. I retracted my Aura, and took back the emblem from the clerk. Paul asked "Why do you want to see me so urgently?". I showed him the emblem, and his face changed. He walked up to the clerk, and punched him straight in his face. He then said to him "You are fired, get lost from here". The clerk was confused to be sure, he wanted to say something, when Paul punched him out of the smithy. He shouted "And don''t return!".


    Others were as much shocked, as the clerk himself. Paul walked up to me, and said "I''m sorry for that guy. I told him that if something important came up, he should notify me. Come with me, we can talk back in my office". As we walked, he shouted at other cksmiths "What are you looking at? Want more work?!". All the cksmiths quickly returned to their jobs, not daring to look at us again. He then asked me "Is this your friend?", while pointing at Fox. I nodded my head, and replied "Yes, she is my friend".


    He nodded, and said "She can wait outside". Fox wasn''t really pleased with that, but she already saw how Paul was. She said, "Alright, I will wait for you here". We walked into the office, where Paul told me to sit down. He looked at me from head to toe, and asked "Were you sent by Finch here?". I replied "Kind of. He said you might be able to help me out, when I visit the Imperial City".


    He asked "Are you Haily''s husband?". I looked at him andughed. He didn''t know why I wasughing, therefore he asked another question, "You are not?". I replied "I''m a Wintersteed too. Haily is my cousin". He was shocked, and asked "Are you perhaps?¡­". I nodded, and replied "Yes, I''m Nex Wintersteed. Son of Raz and Lily". Paul stood up, walked up to me, and grabbed my shoulders. "They finally found you boy! Where is your father? Where is Raz?", he said.


    I replied "You don''t know? Parents died a long time ago". He replied with a weird question. "Are you sure?". I was stunned. Was I sure? I wasn''t, I never saw their corpses. I only heard that they died, because the Vige Chief of the Freemount Vige told me. ''Would my parents just abandon me? If they didn''t die, why wouldn''t they return? Neither to Freemount Vige, nor to the Sav Vige. They must be dead, right?'' I asked myself.


    Paul said "Maybe your parents are still alive". I shook my head, and replied "Would they abandon me, or their family? Was my father such a man?". Paul asked, "How did you find out about their deaths?". I said "It was in Freemount Vige. I now know they weren''t some simple merchants, like they told me. Someone reported that they died, while on their travels. If they didn''t, where would they be after so many years? It''s been more than 10 years, yet they didn''t visit our home vige even once".


    Paul thought about it for a while, and said "Raz was not a man who would abandon his son. He would protect you from danger, but then find you or at least help you out when the danger passed. You said he never appeared in Sav Vige, and he never appeared here either. It seems they really died... How they died, is a different story. Your father was no weakling, neither was your mother. Someone must''ve targeted them, someone strong".


    I always felt that the story was not true. Even more so, after I visited the Asturb Vige and the Sav Vige. My parents weren''t weak, yet they died somehow. ''Who targeted them in that case? That woman somehow knew about the sword, was she a part of it? Whoever killed my parents, didn''t find the sword on them. My parents wouldn''t sell me out, so they killed them? Was all of this, because of one stupid sword?'' I thought, and I could feel the anger rising within me.


    ''One sword¡­ One sword destroyed my family?''. Paul shook me a bit, and said "Calm down Nex. Stay calm and collected, don''t let your anger control you". I snapped out of it, and said "Whoever did this, will pay¡­ all will pay with their lives.... Paul, can you help me find my sword? It''s the Moon de, the sword was probably the reason for all of this". Paul nodded, and said "I will do what I can to find it. Nex, stay here. This ce is like your second home, so feel free to stay as long as you want".


    I nodded, and asked "You are Master cksmith?". Paulughed, and replied "I''m, it took me a while to receive that title though. Do you need weapons?". I shook my head, and said "I want to learn. I want to improve my skills". Paul stood there shocked. When he snapped out of it, he asked "You learned how to smith?". I nodded, and replied "Yea. Mostly how to make different ingots though. I learned how to create weapons too, but I''m not that great. I figured you could show me more, and I could practice here".


    Paul nodded, and said "I will teach you, as long as you work hard. I don''t know how much you learned, therefore you will have to show me what you can do. When I determine your skill, we will be able to continue from there". I nodded my head, and asked "I have a friend with me here, can she stay here as well?". Paul asked "That masked woman? You trust her?". I replied, "To a certain degree, yes. She knows about the sword as well". Paul nodded, and said "Alright. As long as she behaves, I have no problem with that. Look out though, those that mask their personality, are usually shady". I replied whileughing a bit. "I would be shady as well", then showed him my mask. He shook his head in defeat, and said "Come. Show me what you can do".


    We walked outside of the office, onto the main floor of the smithy. I saw Fox waiting, and waved at her. She walked over, and asked "Will he help us?". I replied "I will exinter. Can you wait a bit longer? I want to show Paul my smithing skills". Fox was confused, but agreed. We followed Paul to one of the workbenches, where he said "Show me what you can do". I asked "You want Ingots or weapons?". He replied with augh "Any idiot with strength can make ingots. A real smith creates either armours or weapons". I nodded, and decided to make a dagger out of Purified Steel.


    I had a bit of experience with that, but I could only create simple shapes and forms. After about half an hour of pounding. I finished making the dagger. I still had to sharpen and polish it. When that was done, I gave it to Paul for examination. He took it, and almost immediately threw it at the ground. He said "This is shit boy. You have loads to learn, even if you want to be as much as a decent cksmith". I didn''t argue with that. After all, I was no cksmith. Being able to make a few ingots, didn''t mean I could instantly make good weapons or armour as well.


    Fox on the other hand, was much more offended than I was. She said "He did well. The dagger could be used as a weapon, so it''s not useless at all". She then looked at me, and asked "Why don''t you show him your real dagger?". I shook my head, and replied "Fox, don''t try to protect me. What he said is true. The dagger I gave him, was rubbish. The one I gave you is made using a mould, this wastes the real potential of a dagger. I would never be able to create such shape, without the use of mould. That is why, I want to learn".


    Paul said "At least you know that much. Whoever taught you, was not that stupid then". I replied "He wasn''t, I just didn''t practice a lot". Paul nodded, and said "We can start immediately".

 Chapter 334

    Chapter 334


    I asked Paul "Can you give us a minute?". Paul shook his head, and replied "Sure, go ahead". When he left, I said "I want to learn from him, and improve my smithing skills. I know we came here together, but he will also help me search for my sword. If you are not bored to death, you are of course weed to stay here with me. if you want to leave, or do something else, that is fine as well".


    Fox thought about it, and said "If you promise to go out sometimes after your work, I will stay and keep youpany". Iughed "Of course. After all, we have that battle to see tomorrow. Besides, don''t you have any hobbies? Stuff you like to do?". She thought about it, and replied "No? I usually went outside to shop. When travelling, I just talked with people around or trained. At home, father made me study Formations¡­". I felt a bit bad for her. I had loads of things I could do in spare time. Fish, if I was near the water. Carve something, if I had wood, or even cultivate a field.


    I thought about her situation, and came up with something. I said "You like clothes, right? Why don''t you learn how to make your own clothes? You could make whatever you like, instead of buying whatever someone else created". She considered that idea seriously, but answer "I''m no good¡­ Who would teach me anyway?". I replied "Don''t act as if you are useless. You want to learn? then you will learn. If you think like this, you will never break through to your Inner Limits. Don''t think like that, be a bit more positive".


    She nodded, and replied "You are right! How would I know if I don''t try it?". I nodded, and called over Paul. He asked "You two are done?". I replied without a care for hisment "Do you know any tailors? If one of them could take Fox in, and teach her how to make clothes, that would be great". Paul nodded, and replied "I do know a few tailors, but why should I help her? Help you was never a problem, but¡­". I looked at Fox, and motioned for her to speak. Fox nodded, and said "I want to learn, and I will work hard. If someone is willing to teach me, I will give it my all. I only want a chance". Paul thought about it, and replied "I guess I can introduce you to someone. Wait here for a while". He then turned towards me, and asked "What are you waiting for? Make at least 20 Purified Steel Ingots, for your weapon smithing. Did you think I will be making ingots for you? Move your ass!".


    He was my teacher after all, so I went to work. I could hear Fox''s quiet giggle, and I hoped she gets someone even worse to teach her. I didn''t mind Fox anymore, and focused on creating Purified Steel Ingots. The first thing I noticed, was the quality of the ore the smithy offered. It was exceptional, there were very little impurities inside the ore. ''I can easily make High Grade ingots from this'' I thought.


    I grabbed all the materials and tools needed, and began pounding away. With my strength and stamina, I was able to make one ingot after the other. It took me a while to finish all twenty of them. When I stopped and looked around, Fox was no longer around. Paul on the other hand, stood to the side. He probably watched me as I created the ingots. With the initial work done, I said "I''ve created twenty Purified Steel Ingots. What now?". Paul replied by asking, "Can you tell me the Grades?". I nodded my head, and said "Most of them are of High Grade, there are a few of Perfect Grade". He was stunned a bit, and replied "A few of them? It''s most of them that are of Perfect Grade¡­. What teacher taught you such strict grading?". I was confused, and said "Does it matter who? The Grades are determined by impurities inside, not by who taught you. Most of them are top notch High Grade ingots, but still possess impurities. The few Perfect Grade ingots, contain none that I can see".


    He replied "You can see that well? No wonder your grading is so strict. I can''t see any impurities in most of them. Either way. You are very good at creating ingots, but not good at making weapons or armours. This is actually very good. Since you have already learned how to make ingots properly, there is nothing stopping us from moving towards weapons and armour. Let me show you, how to make a sword". He then took a hammer, one of my ingots, and began hammering it.


    "This is a simple method. You have to visualise a design in your head, and work towards that. For now, we will focus on different shapes. You have to get ustomed to that, then we can move on to the technique". I nodded, and watched. Soon the sword was finished. It looked rather in but sturdy and well made. Paul told me to repeat that process, and make a sword. He also mentioned not to simply copy him, and make a different sword. I nodded, and began my work.


    I''ve made a few swords, daggers, axes and whatnot, throughout the day. I was spent in the evening. Fortunately, the smithy had to close for the night, in order to let people sleep. Paul told me toe back tomorrow morning, but I reminded him of the fight in the Arena. He reluctantly agreed, but mentioned that I had to return as soon as it was over.


    When I left the smithy, Fox was waiting outside. She said "You look tired". I smiled, and replied "Yea. He knows that I broke through to my Inner Limits, therefore I got no rest. He pretty much worked me like a dog... How was your day?". She replied "Very nice actually. Olddy Mirabel is a skilled tailor. She teaches me and a few other people. Although it''s hard and all, I enjoy it. Knowing that I could make some clothes¡­".


    She changed the topic, and asked "Hungry?". I nodded, and replied "Sure, I didn''t eat anything. Although, I don''t have much money¡­ Right, I forgot you are wealthy". Sheughed for a while, and said "Let''s go eat something". We entered some sort of restaurant, and a waiter sat us at the table. He gave us a menu, and left. When I looked through it, I was shocked. ''What type of prices are those?'' I asked myself. A simple dish was priced at around 1 Gold Coin. Some of them were priced at 10 Gold Coins and upwards.


    ''I know she is wealthy, but why pay so much for food?'' I thought, and I said "You know, we can eat somewhere else". She ced down the menu, and asked "Is it about the money again? Why do you always worry about it so much?". I shook my head, and replied "I was never wealthy, and I don''t fit in those types of ces. I''m a simple guy, and I''m alright with this. Paying that type of money for this amount of food, is like daylight robbery. I know you have money, but no one has an infinite amount of money. It doesn''t feel right to me¡­ Especially since you can cook".


    She seemed surprised, and asked "You''d prefer to eat my cooking, rather than the dishes made by an experienced and professional chef?". I nodded my head, and replied "In those types of ces, although food may be good, but you always overpay for it". Sheughed a bit, and said "Alright. If this will make you less worried, I will cook for you, instead of eating out". I shook my head, and replied "You don''t have to do that, I was just saying". She insisted "Well, your "just saying", just became reality. I never considered my cooking to be great, but since you like it so much¡­".


    ''She seems to enjoy that¡­ I wonder why? Her cooking was very good¡­ Does she n to make it worse now? Oh well, I can eat anything as long as it''s edible'' I thought. Fox continued, "But for today, we stay here and eat. Alright?". I nodded, and then realised something. "Wait! How are you going to eat with that mask on?". Sheughed, and said "You know my father is a Formation Master, right? Did you think this is just some simple mask? It''s much better than what you have, although it doesn''t improve my sight¡­ I will have to ask father to add that in the future".


    I was still confused, because this didn''t answer my question. ''So what if it has Formation? Will the food simply pass through the mask? Why didn''t she use that earlier?'' I asked myself. She called over the waiter to make an order. This meant, I would soon find out.

 Chapter 335

    Chapter 335


    I told Fox to choose whatever, I had no idea what those dishes were. She ordered the food, and we waited. When the food finally arrived, I watched. Sheughed while asking "Are you that interested?". I nodded, and replied "I would like to see how you do it". She giggled for a while, then said "I''m not showing you then". ''This woman¡­ Fine then, I don''t care anymore'' I thought, and ate my own food.


    I focused on my te only. I could hear Fox eating as well, but I ignored it. ''Doesn''t matter, I will not fall for her tricks either'' I thought, and finished my food. She was kind of angry, that I lost interest. She asked "What? No longer interested? Just because I teased you a bit?". I replied "It doesn''t matter really". I looked up, and noticed that her mask, became like a face of a real fox. It looked weird to be sure.


    I said "So that''s how it is. Indeed, the mask is special. Who would''ve thought that it will actually be alive, and you could even open your mouth. Looks weird to be honest". She replied "You are weird". It looked like some sort of monster was talking to me¡­ This was nowhere near normal, even for my standards. Fox continued "Actually¡­ What is your name? You never told me your name, is it because you can''t tell me?". I shook my head, and replied "You never asked. Don''t know if you noticed, but I''m not the sort of guy to greet people, and exchange pleasantries. I don''t throw my name around, as if it was worth something. I''m not looking for fame".


    She asked probingly "Does that mean you can''t tell me?". I stood up, and walked over to Fox. She seemed surprised, at least the "alive" fox mask was. I came closer, next to her ear, and whispered "Nex". I then sat back down, and continued "Don''t use my name though. No one here can know who I am". She nodded lightly, and replied "Your name¡­ it''s weird". I smiled, and said "I always heard that". I could see her mask changing from the sort of "alive" mask, to the original mask. She said "My name is not Fox either. My name is Sonia". I nodded, and said "It doesn''t fit you¡­ Fox is better". She eximed "You bastard! It''s you who have a stupid name. Mine is perfectly normal, nothing''s wrong with it!".


    I replied "Yes, but you are a fox though. Although I know your name now, I still prefer Fox". She fumed under her breath "Bastard¡­ I will pay you back¡­". The food was taken care of, so I stood up and said "Let''s go, we still have a battle to catch tomorrow". She nodded her head, and called over the waiter to pay. With that taken care of, we left.


    While we walked, I said "Don''t pay anymore for my room at the inn. I will stay with Paul. You are weed to stay there as well". She kept quiet and didn''t answer. ''Is she mad again?'' I thought. We walked some more, until she nodded her head, and said "If it''s not a problem". I replied "He already agreed, so there''s no problem".


    We soon arrived at the inn, and headed to our own rooms. I was tired, and went straight to bed. The next day, we headed to the Arena. Fox didn''t want to wait around, so she bought more tickets for the two fights before the main event. The main battle would take ce in the afternoon. For some reason, no one knew who that Royalty was, and who was his or her opponent. I asked Fox "Any guesses? You know much more about this ce than me". After a while of thinking, she replied "I have no clue. I''m not familiar with Royals though". The first battle would take ce in about an hour, so we toured the Arena.


    There were a few shops, where achievements were not required. Usually they sold promotional stuff. Clothes with the name of the Arena, or emblems of the Arena, that could be pinned to the clothes. There were even banners which people could disy during the fight. ''"Wreck Him!", how original'' I thought, when I saw one of the banners. Most of the shops for general public sold food. Yet, Fox somehow managed to find a shop that sold normal clothes to the public. ''Here we go again'' I thought.


    I was surprised when she only browsed them, and tried on nothing. I asked "You don''t want to buy any?". She replied "I''m only checking out the designs. I will learn to make such clothes, if not better. Lady Mirabel is very experienced, and can teach me a lot". I said "It seems you enjoy making clothes". She nodded, and said "It''s alright I guess. After all, I''m still a newbie. I want to learn more, and the olddy is very nice".


    After our small sightseeing, we headed to the main stage. It was simr to the one we encountered at Fnks Arena in the North. The only difference was its size and shape. The stage was circr in shape, and a bit smallerpared to the Fnks Arena. The announcer shouted loudly, and tried to engage the crowd. ''It really is simr to the North. Although I would love to participate, I don''t want to risk it. Even with my mask on, some of my secrets could be exposed. I don''t need that right now, not before I get my sword back'' I thought.


    Fox nudged me, and said "The battle is about to start. Don''t drift off to yournd of dreams again". I abandoned my thoughts, and nodded my head. I had no clue who these people were. I didn''t even hear their names, not that it ever mattered to me. Both of them were weaker than Fox. ''Although it seems they did break through that Half Step of Outer Limits, it should''ve been recently. Anyway, nothing really interesting here'' I thought.


    Fox on the other hand, watched with great attention. She sometimes evenmented stuff like "Attack!" or "Dodge!", which I found amusing. Both guys were almost equally matched, but one of them had more stamina, and managed to oust the other. He won, but only because no one was allowed to kill. ''I think the other guy would''ve won, if they fought for their lives. Oh well, it was rather boring'' I thought, and looked at Fox.


    She was really enjoying herself. With fist tightened up, and in full swing celebration pose. I asked with a smile "Why are you so happy?". She looked at me, and replied "Oh! I don''t really care who these people are, I just bet on the guy who won. I just won 200 Gold Coins!". My smile disappeared. ''She can make 200 Gold Coins just like that? I guess if someone is wealthy, it''s easy to make money'' I thought, but then I realised something. I asked "What if he lost. How much did you bet?". She replied "It didn''t matter. I ced bets on both of them".


    I covered my face with my palm. ''Of course she did'' I thought. I decided to ask "So how much did you lose?". She replied "Nothing actually. I gained! That''s why I''m happy. The guy who lost had 2:1 odds. Meaning I would win 200 Gold, if I bet 100. The guy who won had odds 4:1, that is how I won 200 Gold". I asked "Is that even allowed? I could ce a bet of 10,000 Gold Coins on both guys, and still win 20,000 Gold Coins? This is broken".


    She shook her head, and replied "Of course not stupid. Do you think they are idiots. I already ced the highest bet I could. 100 Gold Coins, was the highest bet. I couldn''t ce any more than that. Otherwise, people would just be rich overnight". I then heard the announcer shouting out the names of the next fighters. I didn''t pay attention to that. When both of them entered the stage, Fox became all excited again.


    I asked "Not again?". She nodded, and said "Of course again! I bet on these guys too. I hope the guy in red armour wins. He had 8:1, my winnings would be much bigger". I asked "What about the other guy? What were his odds of winning?". She replied "Oh! That guy? 1.5:1". I was lost at this stage, and said "Isn''t it obvious, he is going to win? I mean, the previous guys were rather closely matched, and their odds were closer as well. This guy has about six times less chances to win". Sheughed a bit, and said "Just watch! I have a good feeling about it". I gave up, and watched the battle.

 Chapter 336

    Chapter 336


    The two people on the stage fought well. Yet, just as the odds suggested, the guy with higher odds won in the end. I turned towards Fox, and said "See, the difference was too big". She replied a bit unsatisfied "Whatever, I still won some money. Next should be the battle of that Royalty". I asked "You bet on that as well, right?". She nodded, and said "Of course. For that fight, they allowed me to bet 200 Gold Coins. It''s more prestigious, and we don''t know who is going to fight really. They didn''t want to say".


    I replied, "We will find out soon". The announcer warmed up the public, and said that the main battle will take ce in a few minutes. We waited patiently, and discussed who might win that fight. Fox wasn''t sure, while I assumed Royalty would win. This was not because I thought Royals had no match, but because the person who faced the Royalty, would have to probably lose on purpose. Provided he or she was stronger.


    The announcer finally shouted out the names of the two people, who would battle next. "Please wee to the stage Trevor Grandman, and Prince Rnd Stoneheart!". I didn''t think much of it, until I saw that guy. "Impossible!" I eximed. Fox asked "Isn''t that the guy, you sat with at the Arena in the North?". I nodded, and replied "It''s exactly that guy. Ha! To think he was a prince. Who would''ve thought". I then heard other people talking.


    "This guy? I thought it''s going to be someone important, not this bastard", one man said. Another replied, "Yea I know. At least we will see Trevor mopping the floor with him. This should be entertaining". ''It seems Rnd doesn''t have a good reputation¡­ I wonder why?'' I thought. When we met in the North, he seemed like a nice guy. I was baffled why people would hate him, or make fun of him. After all, he was one of the Royalties. I asked Fox "Hey, is this guy some sort of bad person? When I met him in the North, he seemed rather nice". She shook her head, and said "I don''t know. I never heard of him, and only saw him with you in the North".


    I leaned back, took out some fruits, and said "This should be interesting". Fox looked at me for an exnation, but I only munched on the fruits. The battle soon began. Trevor wielded arge two handed sword, while Rnd wielded the same old sword, I saw back in the North. When they shed, I immediately noticed that this Trevor guy was stronger. ''Although both of them must''ve broken through their Half Step, Trevor is still stronger by quite a bit'' I thought.


    Rnd utilised his skill, and attacked again. Trevor was not perturbed by it, and released his own technique. It was a sort of Sword Form, not simr to the Lethal Sword Forms. It seemed less savage and more controlled. One could even describe it as naturally flowing, and not rushed. His sword shed with Rnd''s skill, and broke it. Trevor didn''t stop. Instead, he increased his speed and continued with his Forms.


    ''It looks like Rnd has loads to do, if he intends to win'' I thought. Rnd was too calm and confident, when his skill was broken. What he did next, showed me where his confidence came from. He utilised a strange foot technique. ''This reminds me of an archer¡­ He must''ve adapted a kitting technique from an archer'' I thought. He evaded all the attacks, and released his skills at the same time.


    Trevor was in trouble. His attacks missed, and he had to face Rnd''s at the same time. Trevor was not as agile as Rnd was, he opted for blocking the attacks, instead of trying to evade them. When the first attack arrived, he blocked it, and moved back a few steps. Then the next attack arrived, and knocked him out of bnce. As the third and final attack arrived, I saw Trevor smirk.


    ''This is bad'' I thought, and I was right. Trevor had some sort of Formation on either his clothes or essories. When he activated it, he instantly moved pass the attack, and continued towards Rnd. I heard Rnd cursing "You bastard", while he backed off. Trevor didn''t want to give him another chance, and released even more refined Sword Form.


    ''This looks a bit familiar'' I thought, when I saw his attack. I felt it was familiar, due to one of the books, I got in the past. The book exined how to make many attacks at once, but pass it as just one attack. Trevor incorporated that into a Sword Form, and the effects were devastating. Rnd couldn''t escape in time, and got struck by one of the attacks. It must''ve been a heavy blow, because he stumbled backwards, losing his bnce. ''This.. Rnd was wounded before the battle, he didn''t recover yet'' I thought.


    Trevor executed another Sword Form, and was about to finish Rnd off. ''This strike¡­'' I thought. Rnd suddenly jumped off the stage and the attack missed. ''Fortunately Rnd is not stupid. This had the potential of killing him¡­ That Trevor guy''sst attack, was full of killing intent. He actually wanted to kill a prince'' I thought. Something didn''t seem right. Audience talking badly about a prince, the opponent wants to kill him in a final attack, and Rnd was wounded. Nothing added up.


    Fox didn''t seem disappointed at all. She eximed "Yay! I won big time". I replied "Good to hear. Let''s go, I have some talking to do". Fox was confused, but we left our seats anyway. ''I need to catch that guy, and ask him a few things'' I thought, as we rushed through the corridors of the arena. Fox asked "Where are you rushing?". I replied "We need to catch Rnd. I want to figure some things out".


    We left the arena in a hurry. I searched the crowd, and found Rnd fleeing for some reason. Without any dys, I chased after him. He kept to the main streets, but then suddenly turned towards one of the alleyways. ''What is he on about?'' I thought. When we turned the corner, I fished out the mask from my bag, and ced it on my face. Fox asked "You want to kill that guy or something?". I had no time to reply, because Rnd was nowhere to be seen.


    I tried locating him, but to no avail. Until I heard some noises, not far away. I quickly turned right, then left to arrive at the scene that baffled me even more. Rnd had an arrow pierced through his shoulder, and a few guys were already surrounding him. I said to Fox "Locate the archer, and dispose of him". She must''ve been shocked, because her reply was "Are you crazy?". I said "No time for that. Locate him, and kill him. Go". Fox sighed, and used her Aura to disappear.


    I walked forward, and asked "It seems we have a party here. Mind if I join?". The three warriors surrounding Rnd turned around, and told me to piss off. Iughed, and replied "Why so hostile? Aren''t we all friends here?". One of the guys said "I''ll deal with this guy, you take care of him", while pointing at Rnd. I smiled, and walked forwards. The guy said "You chose a..". but he didn''t finish. A dagger was already stuck in his head. When the others heard a corpse drop, and theirrade stopped mid sentence, they turned to look. I said "He tripped, right onto my dagger. Very sloppy indeed, you have to be more careful guys".


    Before they rushed at me, an arrow arrived. I stepped back a bit, and it flew past. ''Fox, now is your chance. Kill him'' I thought, and appeared next to the two people. With a slight spin, both of their heads were severed by my daggers. As they lifeless corpses fell to the ground, I stood in front of Rnd.


    <div ss="chapternav skiptrante">


    <a title="Chapter 335 You Be" ss="prevchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-335">


    <i ss="icon-left-open">


    Prev


    </a>


    <a title="Limits Chapter List" ss="chapindex" href="/novel/limits-17031322">


    <i ss="icon-home">


    Index


    </a>


    <a title="Chapter 337 Rnd the Prince Part 1" ss="nextchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-337">


    Next


    <i ss="icon-right-open">


    </a>

 Chapter 337

    Chapter 337


    Rnd said "So it is you. Hidden Weapons eh? No wonder you didn''t want to use that in the North. Not that I care. You saved my life, for all its worth". I asked "What happened to you? A prince being chased, hated by the crowd, and almost killed in a duel, where killing is prohibited". Heughed at himself, and replied "Prince? I''m just a bastard in their eyes. Can you help me out here? I know you are good with medicine and stuff". I sighed, and picked him up.


    Fox arrived, and said "The archer''s dead". I nodded, and said "Let''s go, we need to leave". I asked Rnd "Any safe ce, I can take you to?". He replied "There is one. No one should know about it, I will tell you the way. Remember to avoid people". I just shook my head. Of course I would avoid people, I didn''t need the me for anything that happened there.


    Rnd told me where to go, and we only used side alleys. I also stopped his bleeding, not to leave any trails behind. With his wound taken care of, at least for now, we quickly made our way to some sort of house in a poorer area of the city. Rnd said "Here''s the key. No one is inside, we should be safe there". I took the key, and opened the doors. Inside was quite messy, as if no one ever lived there.


    I dropped Rnd onto the dusty sofa, and threw him some medicine. "With the arrow extracted and my medicine, you should be back to the norm quickly". He thanked me and tended to his wounds. I found a chair, and gave it to Fox. "Sit down, I have some talking to do with him". Fox nodded and sat down, while I waited for Rnd to finish.


    When he was done, Rnd said "If not for you, I would probably die there. At the Fnks Arena, we made a deal. This time was different though. I''ll tell you anything you want to know. Just ask". I smiled, and asked "A prince eh? Why would a prince travel the North, and even fight at the arena over there?". Rnd replied "Precisely because of what happened today. I thought that with my experience in the North, I would be able to defend myself, and live a normal live. I was mistaken".


    I asked "Why would you enter an arena then? Someone forced you?". Heughed and replied, "Do you think I would enter by my own free will?". I nodded, and said "I now know why you were running away, that much is clear. You also left the stage at the arena, which was a good move. If you stayed, and tried to fight, I''m afraid we wouldn''t be talking now. My question is, who would want to hunt down a prince?".


    He replied "I told you, I''m not a prince. At least, it''s just a title, no one takes me for a prince. My mother was not father''s wife¡­ Therefore I can''t inherit the throne. I''m only called prince, because my father didn''t disown me. I don''t know if he did that because of pity or what, but after my mother died, he took me in". I said "That doesn''t answer my question though. Your father is an Emperor anyway, who would have the balls to kill you¡­ unless".


    He nodded his head, and replied "Exactly. Unless that other someone was also the Royalty. To be precise, there are a few of them, that want to get rid of me. The worst offender? I''d say my so called sister Liana. If my guess is correct, the people who chased and tried to kill me a while ago, were sent by her. The guy I fought, was not. He was probably told to take the chance, if such arose".


    Fox said "I thought it was weird. The Royal Family''s name is not Stoneheart. They are called¡­". Rnd butted in, and said "Ravensoar". Fox nodded, and asked "So, why didn''t the announcer say thatst name?". Rnd snorted, and replied "Because he was instructed to? They always wanted to make me look bad, always isted me". I asked "Something is off. Why care about a prince, who has no right to the throne? Killing you, will bring them no benefits. Do you perhaps have something that they want? Or something they cannot get as long as you live?".


    He smiled, and replied "You are indeed smart. Yes, father was not heartless. That''s why I don''t know if he did what he did because of pity or genuine love. He gave me a position. When the next Emperor sits on the throne, I will have the ability to question his decisions. It''s not something like an advisor, and I wouldn''t be able to question everything. Only when there is a controversy of some sort, or if Emperor''s decision could harm the Empire, I would be able to act and reverse or abolish the decision made by the Emperor. It''s a very powerful position, but as you can see, a dangerous one as well".


    I was a bit shocked, but confused at the same time. I asked "Wouldn''t your father assign some guards? Someone to protect you?". Rndughed, and replied "He did, which resulted in more backstabbing. I was almost killed by my own guards. They lost their lives, because it would look bad if made public. If they seeded, the problems my so called sibling have, would be gone". He then continued, "Before you ask. The Emperor is already dying. Even if he wanted to help me somehow, it''s not going to be possible on his deathbed. I doubt he would help me more than that".


    I said "It''s more of a curse, than help. If not for that position, you could just live your life. Your siblings wouldn''t need to go so far, and try to kill you". Rnd replied "That is true. If not for that stupid father, I would have it easier. Maybe his intention was to help me, but he just brought a disaster upon me". I asked "Can''t you simply refuse?". Rnd shook his head, and said "No. It''s already a decree. Not even the future Emperor can get rid of it. If they could, they wouldn''t try to kill me either".


    I asked "What about the current Emperor? Although on his deathbed, he can still abolish that decree. Just tell him that the position he gave you, is a disaster, not help". Rnd shrugged his shoulders, and replied "You think I didn''t try? That stupid old man thinks my siblings actually care for me. He can''t see their vile personalities, or motives. With the race for new Emperor in full swing, getting rid of me is the best idea".


    I asked "You mentioned a few of your siblings are after you. This should mean, not all of them". Rnd nodded, and said "Kind of. There were some who just didn''t care, or at least didn''t get themselves involved. Do I trust them? Not in 1000 years. There is something you need to understand. Royalty is like a stage y. People assume different personalities, but underneath they are all different. It''s all a charade. Only those the best at it, can win".


    I asked "Why don''t you leave?". He replied "I intend to do just that. I don''t want to fight for my life everyday. I don''t care about that position or that so called family. I returned, because I was naive. I thought something will change, but when I learned about that decree, I knew the troubles would only begin".

 Chapter 338

    Chapter 338


    I nodded, and took out some paper to draw a sketch. I wanted to draw the Moon de, and show it to him. As the Royalty, he might''ve encountered it. Finished with my drawing, I showed it to him while asking "I''m looking for this sword". He took the paper, and looked at it. After a while, Rnd said "Yea, I''ve seen a few of them. They seem to be really pop¡­ Hmm?". He looked at the drawing again, and eximed "I know this sword! I saw the exact same sword, that you just drew. The popr ones looked a bit different, but this one looks like... Why are you looking for it?".


    ''Jackpot'' I thought, and replied "Because it belongs to me. It was stolen from me a long time ago, and I want it back. Who has it, who has my sword?". Heughed, and replied "This is good, this is very good indeed. I will tell you, who has this sword". I waited for him to continue. Rnd said "Liana, she is in possession of that sword. I can guarantee that she will not give it back to you". I quickly asked "What does she look like?".


    He was a bit confused, and said "Em.. She is quite tall for a woman. Large breasts, blonde hair, and green eyes. I guess her face is rather pleasing to look at, although I hate to admit it". I draw up something, and passed it on to him. Rnd was shocked, he said "It is her. Have you seen each other before?". I snorted, and replied "Seen?". I extended my right arm, and said "More than seen".


    He asked "Did she do something to your arm?". I said "Yes, cut it off to be precise. I finally found her. This is just too good, not only did she cut off my arm, she even has my sword?". I lost control over my emotions. Without realising it, the whole house was enveloped in my Aura. I only realised what was happening, when Fox squeezed out "Stop¡­". I quickly stopped my Aura, and apologised.


    Rnd was scared, and shocked too. He said "You are much stronger than before¡­ Did you perhaps¡­". I didn''t answer, and said "You want out of this ce? I will give you a way out. If you do something for me". He replied, "If you want me to steal the sword, I..". I stopped him, and said "No. I want you to lure her to a ce, where no one will obstruct me". He asked "And how am I supposed to do this?". I replied "Your problem. I already know what I wanted to know. I will get my sword back, with or without your help".


    He thought about it, and said "I wish for her death, believe me. But I will not go back there. I prefer to risk it now, and flee, rather than return there and probably die. My answer is no". I appeared next to him, and tapped on a few pressure points. He fainted, while I said "Suit yourself". Fox asked "What are you going to do with him?". I replied "Nothing. He is just asleep. His problems are his, not mine. Although he is not a coward and can think for himself, if he chose my side, his future might''ve been brighter. Anyway, let''s go. I already know who has my sword, and I will make sure it returns to my hands".


    We walked through the streets, towards Paul''s smithy. Fox asked "That is how you lost your arm? Because of that woman...?". I replied, "It has to be her. At that time, she didn''t have my sword. This can only mean, she got itter somehow. Not that I care, the sword belongs to me anyway". Fox said "Don''t be reckless, alright? I know it''s your sword and all, but think about it. You can''t just go in, and kill someone. Especially in the Imperial Pce. There are people stronger than you inside".


    I smiled at Fox, and said "I''m no idiot. I might''ve tried breaking into the Academy, but I''m not going to repeat that with the Imperial Pce. I will think of something. With Rnd''s help, this would''ve been much easier. Unfortunately, we can''t count on that guy. No matter, I saved his life, and he provided me with information. Now, we go our own separate ways".


    Fox nodded, and said "Good. Don''t be stupid and reckless. The sword is going nowhere, there is no rush". We soon arrived at the smithy, where Paul was waiting for me already. I told him that I wanted to talk first. Paul agreed, and we went to his office. He asked "What''s up?".


    I replied "I found my sword". Paul was shocked, and then smiled. He said after a while "So you found it¡­ I''m sorry Nex. I didn''t want to tell you, who has that sword". I was stunned, and asked "You knew?". He nodded, and replied "Yes. I was afraid to tell you. With so much rage inside you, I could imagine what would happen if you stormed the Imperial Pce. You being here, is a good sign".


    I asked "How long were you nning on keeping that from me?". He shook his head, and replied "As long as it was necessary. You might be disappointed, but I can''t allow you to throw your life away". I sighed, and said "I''m not going to throw my life away. I will think of somethingter. For now, I will stay here and learn how to smith. Knowing where my sword is, I feel more at ease". I could tell that Paul was relieved when he heard that.


    I recalled something, and asked "Why are you so concerned about my rage, my anger? Everyone would be angry in that situation". He shook his head while replying "You are different. Your father was the same. When your father was angry, even his Aura became savage and filled with killing intent. Only thanks to your mother, Raz was able to learn how to control his anger. When we first met, I saw the same anger inside you. Who knows, maybe you also need someone to help you control it".


    I was lost for words. ''So the Aura that awakens when I''m angry, is my father''s? Does that mean, I inherited his Aura?'' I asked myself. I wasn''t sure whether it was possible to inherit Auras, or whether I coincidentally awakened the same Aura as my father. I asked "Can people inherit Auras?". Paul was confused, and replied "I never heard of anyone inheriting an Aura. It''s something that every human has to learn by themselves. Why do you ask?".


    I said "Because it is possible, I have the same Aura, as my father had". He was shocked, and asked "You mean, you also have an Aura when you be angry?". I nodded, then replied "Yes. I can''t really control it, and it only awakens when I''m really angry. My vision changes to that of red, and I thirst for blood". I could see his expression, it already told me, that in fact it was the same Aura. The Aura my father had.


    After a while, Paul finally said "This Aura is treacherous. Refrain from using it¡­ ever. It can drive you mad, just like it would your father. I told you, if not for your mother, Raz would die a long time ago. That, or he would be a wanted man. This Aura only spells trouble". I nodded, and said "I''m kind of aware of that". Paul sighed, and said "Alright, it''s time we return to our lessons. Focus on smithing, and forget about that Aura as well as the sword. You are still young". I nodded, and we left the office.


    Fox was waiting outside. I asked her, "You don''t have any lessons with that Lady Mirabel?". She shook her head, and replied "I have a day off. Besides, I can tailor anywhere I want. I will stay here, and keep youpany. Later I''ll make you some food". I nodded, and thanked her. She replied "It''s nothing, you don''t have to thank me", but I wasn''t thanking her for the food. ''Fox, you being there with me, helped me quell my anger. Who know what stupid things I might''ve done, if not for you'' I thought. Wasting no more time, I walked up to the workbench, and began making ingots.

 Chapter 339

    Chapter 339


    Time slowly passed. Day in and day out, I would make weapons. I got better at it, the more I practiced. Paul was a good teacher too, his knowledge was vast, and he knew exactly how to introduce everything to me. Fox visited me everyday, and as she promised, she brought food every time. I didn''t leave the smithy much, only when Fox wanted to go somewhere, or when the smithy was closing, would I leave.


    Together with Fox, we moved to Paul''s ce. He had a huge house, and even a family. I always thought he was a loaner, but I was wrong. His wife was very weing, especially since she knew who I was. His kids were all grown up, and lived somewhere else. The house was mostly empty, so there was no problem for me and Fox to live there.


    We settled in the Imperial City, and I forgot about pretty much everything. I felt like a normal viger, or rather a citizen. I only practiced my energy control, which improved a lot. I was at a crucial stage, where I could almost control it fully. ''I still need some time, but I can already see the effects'' I thought. Although I didn''t see any improvements in my stealth, this practice allowed me to control everything concerning my body. I could better utilise my strength.


    This meant, I got stronger, without doing any real training. ''To think that the body holds so much strength¡­ I wonder how many people got to this point?'' I thought. I wasn''t sure whether Nick reached this stage, he told me it took him years to achieve the "Avoid the Light" part of the Art of Stealth. Whether this was they way, I wasn''t sure.


    It was summer again, and my 30th birthday wasing in huge steps. I didn''t want to make a big deal out of it. Paul on the other hand, had different ns. He knew when I was born, so he decided to throw a party. Fox was really surprised that I was already 30 years old. She said with a giggle "You became an old man". I asked "Yea? How old are you then?".


    She didn''t want to answer, but I was adamant. Finally, Fox admitted she was 28 years old. Iughed while saying "And you tell me I''m old? In two years time, you will be old too!". She shook her head, and said "I''m still young. Younger than you! How sad though, my friend turned out to be some old man. I''m disappointed". She said that in a teasing kind of way, but I lived with her for a while now, and didn''t really take it to heart. She really was different, once I came to know her more.


    One day, while I was working on a dagger, I felt an intense and familiar Auraing from not far away. When I turned around to look, I was shocked that it wasing from Fox. She sat there making some clothes, and didn''t even realise that. I used my Aura, and shielded all the workers from her Aura. Fox was just sitting there, sewing some material together. She was also humming the song, her mother used to sing to her. Suddenly "Booom!" a st of wind pushed outwards, but thanks to my Aura, no one was affected.


    She didn''t even realise what just happened. I retrieved my Aura, while the workers thanked me. They were as shocked as I was. ''She just broke through to her Inner Limits¡­ This proves, we don''t need to use any poses. We can break through, under some kind of special circumstances'' I thought, and approached Fox.


    She was focused on her work, so I called out "Hey, are you alright?". She stopped and looked up with a "Huh?". I asked "Do you realise what just happened?". She looked around, and asked "No? I wanted to finish this cksmith outfit for you, so I didn''t pay attention. Did something happen?". Iughed, and said "You are amazing. Why don''t you try your strength out?". She seemed confused, and asked "Why?". I shook my head, and said "You just broke through to your Inner Limits. Shouldn''t you be happy?".


    Fox dropped the tools in her hands, and froze in ce. I smiled, and said "It''s true. I had to shield all the workers from your Aura. Try it out". Fox stood up and tried running around. She became faster and faster, until she disappeared. After a while, she appeared in front of me, and hugged me "I did break through! Thank you! If you didn''t give me that medicine, I would never be able to do that". I was surprised by her hug, but I guessed that she was really happy, so I said nothing.


    She finally woke up, and released me with a "Sorry". I smiled, and said "Don''t worry about it. Your breakthrough just proved to me, that we don''t need any poses. Although I''m not sure why you broke through, I went through the same thing. In my case it was anger though¡­". Sheughed, and replied "Not saying!". Fox was very excited, and wanted to go around ces to celebrate. I agreed because this was really an achievement. ''She broke through at the same age as I did. The difference is, she only took the Blood Purifying Extract once. I guess I had ate start... perhaps'' I thought.


    I tried finding anything, not to feel useless and mediocre. Either way, we celebrated that day, and I even paid for the stuff. She was surprised that I had money, so I exined "You know, I made so many weapons, and a lot of them were very decent. When they got sold, I received some profits". I wasn''t really wealthy, I only earned around 116 Gold Coins, for all the weapons I made. The worst part was that, I almost spent all my money in one day. ''I only have 14 Gold Coins left. I''m poor again'' I thought.


    Fox was really happy that day, and she enjoyed herself a lot. She also thanked me a few more times, but I told her not to mention it. We returner to Paul''s home in the evening, and called it a night.

 Chapter 340

    Chapter 340


    For a few days, Fox nagged me to have a spar. When I finally agreed, we went outside of the Imperial City. Deeper in the forest, Fox asked "Wanna make a bet?". I replied with a smile "Just because you broke through, it doesn''t mean you can win. If I use my full strength, you are not my opponent". She replied "Then let''s bet. Whoever wins, can ask the other person to do something once". I asked "And I can ask you to do anything?". She thought about it, and replied "Taking off my mask is out of the question".


    Iughed, and said "It''s no fun then. If I lose, you get to ask me to do anything you want. Yet I have restrictions ced upon me". She replied "I can''t agree¡­ I would, if I could". I shook my head, and replied "Sure, whatever. I don''t n on losing anyway. Come!". Fox took out her daggers, and disappeared. ''Hmm?'' I thought. I couldn''t sense her, nor track her.


    ''Her Aura evolved, even to the point, I can''t feel her. In that case, let''s try something'', I thought and took out my mask. When I ced it on, I opened my eyes. Floating Orbs filled my view, but not only that. A faint shadow was moving around me. I smiled, and stood my ground. The faint shadow, was Fox. She approached slowly, and the slower she moved, the fainter the shadow became.


    ''Her stealth is better than mine at this stage. Although this isn''t the Art of Stealth, because she uses her Aura, I''m still impressed'' I thought. When she was very close to me, she suddenly attacked. I extended my right hand, and grabbed the shadow. When I released some of my ice power, Fox appeared in my hand and struggled. "S..s...stop¡­" she said. I stopped using my ice power, and let Fox go. I could hear her teeth chattering for a while, until the coldness passed. She picked herself up, and said "You are a monster. To think you would be able to find me still¡­".


    I smiled, and said "Without my mask, you would be much more troublesome". She replied "You cheated!". I shook my head, and said "In what way? I was allowed to use my gear as well. Who said, I couldn''t use any Formations? Wanna give it a try without my mask?". She replied "Let''s do it then! This time, you will lose". I took my mask off, and said "Alright,e at me".


    Fox disappeared again. I really couldn''t track her, but that was not a problem. She just broke through, and didn''t get adjusted to her new strength yet. I on the other hand, broke through a long time ago. I had time to practice with my Aura, and learn how to control it properly. I stood there motionless, and waited. Just as I suspected, Fox went after my back, as a dagger appeared on my neck. She said "You lost".


    I replied "I don''t think so. Try stabbing me". She replied confused "What? Just admit you lost!". I said again "Move your hand, and we will see". She tried moving her hand, but it didn''t move. I said "I told you, you lost". After a while, her body could move again, and she eximed "What did you do?!". I replied "You don''t even realise that my Aura entered your body. You see, my Aura is a bit special. In the time you were unable to move, I could kill you at least twenty times. Again, although you broke through to your Inner Limits, this doesn''t mean you are on the same level as me".


    Her dagger dropped, and she seemed to give up. After a while, she said "You could at least let me win once¡­". Iughed, and said "Yea, how about No? Don''t feel down though. This is a lot of experience for you. If you want to ask me some things, go ahead. Oh, and I believe that you owe me two favours". She whispered "Bastard" under her breath, and asked "Alright, what do you want?".


    When I thought about it, I didn''t really want anything. ''Formations from her father would be good. We are in the Imperial City now¡­ Maybe we can use that Falkon thing'' I thought, and said "How about this. You pay for the tickets for that Falkon thing, and we go to see your father. I''d love some better Formations on my clothes". Fox replied "That Falkon thing is not a problem, but father is rather busy. He wouldn''t be able to make any Formations for you quickly. If you don''t mind waiting there for a few months¡­ I guess we can go".


    I dropped the idea. ''I''d rather spend that time on smithing, than waiting. Besides, I want to stay here, and make sure my sword is here too'' I thought. I told Fox, that I will use those favourster, and that we should return now. She agreed, and we returned to the Imperial City.


    We returned to our daily activities, and Fox seemed happier. She always hummed when tailoring inside the smithy, and sometimes giggled to herself. My only guess was that, she was happy to break through to her Inner Limits. Time passed, and my birthday arrived. They threw a small party for me, and all three gave me some gifts.


    Paul''s gift was kind of obvious. He gave me some smithing tools. The tools were very good, and made from ck Steel. In overall the quality was great, so I didn''tin. Elen, Paul''s wife, gave me a book. The book was about Elysian Empire. I was surprised by that, but then I recalled that she worked in the Grand Library. Fox on the other hand, gave me a set of cksmith''s clothes. She even tried cing some Formations, but they didn''t work. I didn''t mind, these clothes were for my work anyway.


    We celebrated my birthday with some food and drinks. When Paul and Elen saw Fox''s "alive" mask, they were both stunned. Besides that weird moment of Fox''s alive mask, the rest of the party was cheerful. In the evening, I couldn''t fall asleep. I was too curious about the Elysian Empire, that I had to read the book.


    The book was not the same, as those avable for general public. Although quite thin, it contained much more knowledge. I also learned something that I would never imagine was possible. Elysians ced Formations on their bodies. As far as the Endrosian Empire was concerned, no one was able to achieve that. Only Elysians were able to do this. The Royals wanted to steal that knowledge from them, but ultimately, they were defeated. This prompted the production of Falkons.


    When Royals saw the strength of the Elysian Empire, they could only stand in awe. These people were strong beyond belief. The Formations ced on their bodies made them to be like war machines. Elysian Empire was rather small, but the quality of their fighters, was better than the quantity of the Endrosian Empire.


    Elysians were peaceful by nature, but when Endrosians invaded, they turned out to be a nightmare of a foe. Verion, the Emperor at that time, had to apologize personally in order to stop the war. ''My guess is that, he paid a much bigger price,pared to his dignity alone. Although the book doesn''t mention that, I doubt Elysians would let it slide so easily'' I thought. Elysians prohibited any Endrosians entering theirnd ever again. Elysians didn''t need trade, or natural resources.


    ''The book doesn''t state anything else about this. I can still extrapte some things. If they didn''t need trade or resources, this could only mean, Elysian Empire was very rich. This could''ve been another reason for invasion'' I thought. They became isted from the rest of the world, or rather from Endrosian Empire, and lived their lives in their own territory.


    ''I would love to visit them, but I guess it would be too dangerous. Who knows, if my ns seed, I might be able to actually visit them'' I thought. Only when I read the whole book, did I finally went to sleep. I only got a couple of hours worth of sleep, but it was worth it. I went to smithy in the morning, and returned to my daily activities. There was one difference though, I was now wearing the cksmith''s attire that Fox made for me.

 Chapter 341

    Chapter 341


    Time passed again, and our days looked peaceful. Until the day, Emperor''s death was announced. I saw people mourning their great leader, while the Royal Family announced the funeral. It was supposed to be a public event, for everyone to be able to mourn the Emperor. I wasn''t really interested in all that. People died every day, whether it was an Emperor or just a simple viger, a death is death either way.


    ''I have no attachment to him, nor duty to mourn thete Emperor'' I thought. Fox on the other hand wanted to go. It was a public event, and although she wasn''t sad that the Emperor passed, she said it would be nice to pay their respects. ''Why would I pay respect to a guy I never met?'' I asked myself. Fox insisted that we go, so I agreed.


    The funeral was to take ce in a few days, during the first day of autumn. I asked Fox, if she met the Emperor, but she replied "Not personally. Father met him a few times, so I should go. Besides, you might see your sword right?". She said thatst thing on purpose. Obviously I wanted to get my sword back, or at least verify that it was indeed my sword.


    The whole Royal Family should be there at the funeral, therefore it was a good chance to check out that Liana. Fox knew how to convince me. The days quickly passed, and people prepared for the day of the funeral. When we arrived in front of the Royal Pce, the ce where the funeral would take ce, I saw hordes of people. Fox stopped in her tracks, and said "We can''t go any further". ''She and her fear of crowded ces again'' I thought, and suggested "We are not just some citizens, are we? Why should we stand in the crowd?".


    She said "You want to climb the buildings, don''t you?". I replied "Do you have a better idea?". She shook her head, and mumbled, "It''s actually very good¡­". I smiled, and said "Then it''s decided". I grabbed her, and disappeared from that ce. We soon arrived at one of the taller buildings in the area, where I could see the whole stage clearly. Fox said "You know I broke through right?". Iughed, and replied "Sorry, I forgot. Next time, you can go by yourself".


    She again mumbled "Not that Iin¡­", but I didn''t pay her attention anymore. I focused on the stage. A sizable wooden coffin,id on disy atop the stage. There were loads of chairs, and some of them were already upied. The coffin was not covered, and insideid an old man. I looked at the old man for a while, and eximed "IMPOSSIBLE!".


    Fox was startled by my shout, and asked "What''s wrong!?". I replied absentmindedly "This can''t be true. How can this old man be him? How¡­". She asked again, a bit concerned this time "What''s wrong? Who did you see?". I stared into the coffin for a while, and finally replied "That old man in the coffin¡­ is that the Emperor?". Fox nodded, and said "Yes, who else could it be?".


    I shook my head in disbelief. ''Is this real?'' I asked myself. Fox frantically asked me why was I shouting so much, and why was I so surprised. I said "This old man¡­ You may not believe me, but I know him". She looked at me for a while, and said "You are right, I don''t believe you. You never visited the Imperial City, how can you know him?".


    I replied "I don''t believe this myself¡­ But that old man, I would never forget him". Fox asked "Are you sure it was him? Maybe it was someone who looked simr". I shook my head, and replied "It is him, I''m certain". Fox asked "Where did you meet him?". Iughed, and said "If you don''t believe me that I met him, then you won''t believe me if I tell you where I met him either". She replied "Try me".


    I sighed, and said "All that I have, and who I am now, is thanks to him¡­ at least to a certain degree. I met him in a Vige called Freemount. I was homeless at that time, because of that woman who stole my sword. I was a wreck of a man. Homeless, without a job or money. Then I met him". I pointed at the coffin, as I said this.


    I continued after a while "He was homeless too. He taught me where I can sleep, get food and all of that. He was a rather quiet type, or maybe I just talked too much. One day, he told me something, I will never forget. Thanks to his words, I began my journey. Now, I stand in front of him, yet he already passed away¡­".


    Fox went quiet for a bit. We stood there in silence, when she said "I believe you. As impossible as this might be, I don''t see why you would lie to me about this. So you met the Emperor himself¡­ What was he like?". I replied "I don''t really know. Perhaps kind? He was looking after me, maybe he pitied me. After all, he knew about my parents, about that woman, and even about my sword. He probably didn''t even know that his daughter, has my sword right now¡­ Well, at least potentially".


    She asked "You mentioned something, that Emperor told you. What was it, that he said?". I replied "He told me to explore my life". Fox waited for more, but I only stared at the coffin. ''So, old man. It seems you were not just some simple homeless man after all. I guess it was all truth, what you said to me that time'' I thought. The Emperor seemed homeless, but wouldn''t that mean, the whole world was his home? To some extent, it was. He was the Emperor of the Endrosian Empire, which meant all the viges and cities were his home.


    Fox poked me, and said "Do you miss him?". I woke up from my thoughts, andughed. "I don''t think so. I liked talking with him, and he did help me out. I guess, he was the only person willing to help me, at that time". I turned towards the coffin and said quietly "Thank you". Fox said "But I didn''t¡­". She didn''t finish, or maybe I just didn''t listen. I just watched as other people paid their respects to my old friend. ''Farewell old friend. I hope you managed to explore your life in the end'' I thought, and closed my eyes.


    I thought about my whole journey. About the good and the bad moments in my life. I felt more at ease. Perhaps because I learned the identity of that old man, from my days in the Freemount Vige. Perhaps because I met that old man again. A person who chased the same ideas, just like me. Perhaps I felt I wasn''t alone... My body rxed, and my energy started flowing through it. There were no obstacles, difficult areas or abandoned ces. My energy flowed, just as if it was intended from the beginning.


    I woke up, when Fox punched my arm lightly. She asked "You drifted into your dream world again? Why do you keep on doing that?". I smiled, and replied "Perhaps, I have loads of things on my mind¡­ I think I justpleted my training". Fox was confused, and asked "What training?". I replied "I wanted to master the control of my energy, I think I seeded".


    She was even more confused, and asked "Why would you even train something like that? I can control my energy no problem". Iughed, and asked "Can you really?". She nodded while replying "Of course I can". I asked "Can you control everything? And I mean everything that your body consists of?". She looked at me for a while, and said "No one can control such things. What are you on about?". Iughed, and said "Maybe no one could, that is until now. I can. I can control my body however I like".


    She replied "Bullshit! You''re just making stuff up". I was a bit taken aback. After all, Fox never swore like this. A smile creeped up on my face, and I asked "I am? Then let me show you something".


    I controlled my energy, and adjusted my heartbeat. My heartbeat was the same as Fox''s right now. I asked "Can you hear my heartbeat? It''s the same as yours". She listened for a while, and eximed "It really is!... I still don''t believe you. Matching someone''s heartbeat, it could be learned, I''m sure".


    I asked "Then how about this?". My energy stopped flowing, and I had no heartbeat, no pulse, no signs of life. She stared at me, and asked "How is this possible?". I stood there unperturbed, and replied "I told you, for me it is. This is just some simple things I can do with it. It''s based on what I know from medical knowledge. I just learned this, so I will need time to explore it". When I finished saying that, my body returned to its normal state.


    She said "You will be even weirder now¡­ Why would you even train that?". I replied "Not Saying!", and smiled. It was the same reply, I usually got from Fox, when she didn''t want to share something. She didn''t seem to happy about that, and replied "You won this time". I smiled, and turned towards the stage. I still had to confirm, whether my sword was really on that Liana woman or not.

 Chapter 342

    Chapter 342


    I didn''t have to search for long. Liana was indeed the woman who severed my arm. Unfortunately, the sword was not on her. ''She probably hid it in her storage item'' I thought. It was a shame, but there was nothing I could really do. We watched the funeral till the end. It was the least I could do for the person who introduced a new goal in my life.


    Thete Emperor was taken away, probably to be buried with other past Emperors. But for some reason, the people didn''t disperse, and waited for something. I then heard someone announce "Today is really a sad day. Not only did the Emperor passed away, one of his children left our world too. Prince Rnd is no longer amongst us". I was shocked, and took a look at the crowd. No one seemed concerned, people even talked between each other. The speaker continued, "Whoever killed Prince Rnd, will pay for this! We swear to find the killer!". Then some people brought the corpse of Rnd onto the stage.


    Fox was as stunned as I was. She said "We spoke to him, not that long ago¡­". I sighed, andughed a bit. I could''ve helped him, but I didn''t. ''Hah¡­ You made a wrong choice Rnd. Now you are going to join your father¡­ All of that because of greed¡­ Greed for power'' I thought, and shook my head. What was amusing for me, was not Rnd''s death, but the Royal Family''s response. They were the ones who killed him, so by default, they should kill themselves. ''Well, none of my concern'' I thought.


    I quickly found that I was wrong. The speaker continued "Rnd managed to leave a message for us. He told us that a certain someone in this city, is a practitioner of the filthy Arts! That person must be destroyed! He must''ve been the one who killed Prince Rnd!". I almost eximed "Bullshit!" loudly, but I stopped myself. ''Rnd you idiot. I saved your life, and you sell me out'' I thought. Fox knew, and she stared at me.


    She said after a while "But we didn''t¡­". I replied "Rx, I didn''t do anything. Rnd sold me out. Fortunately, I had that mask on. Otherwise, he might even describe me to them. Why would that bastard even do that?". ''If you want to die, die alone bastard. Don''t drag other people with you¡­'' I thought. Fox asked "What are we going to do now?". I replied "Nothing. They don''t¡­". But before I could finish, the speaker continued "He also had an aplice!". I said "Oh for fuck sake! Fox, take that mask off".


    Fox shook her head, and refused. I then heard the speaker "They both had masks on, but we will find them! For anyone who provides information to us, will be rewarded!. Those who wear masks, will be searched, and asked to remove their masks! No exceptions!". I looked at Fox again, but she refused to do it anyway. I asked "Woman, why are you so bent on keeping that mask on your face?".


    She replied with a harsh tone "If I take it off, I will die". ''What nonsense is this? She already took off her mask, when she used my mask¡­ '' I asked myself. She continued "We need to leave. The sooner the better". I could feel a headacheing. Was I supposed to run again? I was tired of running, hiding my skills, as if it was a crime. After a while, I said "Fine. We are in this together after all. Besides, I promised your father not to abandon you, so I will have to at least take you back home".


    I then continued "Leave the city first. I will tell Paul about this. We will meet outside, just wait in the forest, after you leave through the southern gate". She asked "You wille right?". I replied "Did you seriously think, I would sell you out, or leave you behind?". She asked again "You promise right?". I was lost for words, and replied "I promise". She nodded in response, and disappeared.


    I quickly headed towards Paul''s house, but when I entered, he was not around. ''The smithy is closed today, due to the funeral. I just have to wait here'' I thought. I didn''t have to wait long. Paul and his wife Elen rushed into the house. They seemed to be distressed. When Paul saw me, he said "You need to run!". I was a bit surprised by his urgency, and replied "I know".


    He continued "There is no time. Leave quickly, your friend with that mask¡­ she is very easily noticeable. They will take both of you in, for interrogation". I said "I already told her to leave the city. Just so you know, we weren''t the ones who killed Rnd. On the contrary, it was the Royals who did this". Paul replied "Even if you killed him, I wouldn''t care. Go now, with your skills, you should be able to leave this city. Go before they send the Royal Guards to block the city!". I nodded, and said "I wille back one day. We will meet again".


    Before I left, Elen patted my head like I was her own child, and said "Be careful Nex". I nodded, and left the house. I used the side alleys, and headed towards the southern gate. ''I hope that Fox is already outside. With her stealth, she shouldn''t have any problems'' I thought. I made sure that no one noticed me, while I headed towards the gate.


    When I arrived, I saw loads of guards and soldiers checking people out. Everyone was checked, but I could still get past them. I hid behind the crowd, and slowly made my way outside. The soldiers didn''t reach their Inner Limits, therefore it would be hard for them to notice me. I managed to get past them, and left the city without any problems.


    Inside the forest, I called out quietly "Fox. You there?". After a while of silence, Fox appeared next to me. She said "They already blocked all the gates. We didn''t do anything! Those hypocrites should be chasing themselves!". Iughed, and replied "Wee to my world. Anyway, let''s leave. I will take you back home, and deal with this myself". Fox shook her head, and replied "We are in this together, I will...". I cut her short, and said firmly "No! You are going home. There are no buts or ifs".


    She tried arguing, but I stayed adamant. ''I can''t worry about you Fox, while being chased by people whose strength I don''t even know about. You will be much safer with your father'' I thought, and said "Let''s go". Fox reluctantly followed, I could tell she wasn''t happy. This time though, it was not about her happiness. This time, she had to listen. Her life was at risk.


    We travelled quickly through the forest, our destination Ortava. I thought that when we left the city, we would be in the clear. I was wrong. "We havepany", I said to Fox. She looked back, but didn''t see anyone. I continued "They are following us for sure. I don''t know how many of them there are, but they are all at their Inner Limits stage. We can''t return to Ortava like this".


    She asked "So where do we go?". I replied "WE, don''t go anywhere. You go back to your father. I stay here, and stop them". She replied "Are you crazy? You want to fight alone?". I replied "Don''t worry, I can run away if I have to. You on the other hand, just broke through not too long ago. Go, I will stop them".


    Fox refused. I said "Sonia, I''m not asking you this time. This is an order. Go, we will meet again in the future. I promise you". I stopped, took out my mask, and turned around. Fox stopped as well, and refused to go. I asked "Why are you making things difficult?". She replied "I will go, but promise me you wille back to Ortava". ''I already promised¡­'' I thought, and replied "I promise you. Now go! Don''t reveal yourself to anyone. Go straight to your father".


    She nodded lightly, and disappeared while saying "Farewell Nex". I waited for our pursuers patiently. There was no need to hide the fact I had that mask, or that I knew the Arts. These people must''ve figured out those things, or in the least, they were already suspicious. ''Haaah¡­ Why am I so unlucky all the time?¡­ If you want war, then war you get'' I thought.

 Chapter 343

    Chapter 343


    A whileter, five figures appeared in my field of view. ''Five of them. All of them are at the Inner Limits stage, I can feel that they are strong'' I thought. I checked for any other people trying to hide their presence, but I found none. ''Let''s see how strong Royals are'' I thought to myself, and started walking towards them.


    The five in front of me, slowed down, and also began walking towards me. They were all men. All of them wore armour, and all of them were older than me. What seemed like their leader, stepped forward and said, "Give up. You can''t run away now. Come quietly, and you will receive a fair trial". I snorted, and replied "Are you people blind? It was the Royals who hunted down Rnd. I even saved his life, from your attacks. Talk about being a hypocrite".


    The guy shouted "Silence! The filth like you, have no right to nder the Royalty! You are under suspicion of using the Filthy Arts! If you can prove otherwise, you will be free to go!". I walked forward, and said "You know, I always wanted to witness the strength of the so called Royals. Let me have that experience then". "Swoosh!", Iunched at the group in front of me. They weren''t even surprised, and had their weapons ready. ''Two archers, and three swordsmen. Not a badbination'' I thought, and chose my first target, the archers.


    These soldiers were no idiots. Archers immediately fell backwards, and began shooting arrows. I had a hard time evading them, but only because I used the basics skills I had. ''I hate to admit it, but these archers have skills way above my archery skills'' I thought. I could tell that both sides were trying to test the waters. Although archers went all out, I was able to evade their arrows. The three swordsmen including the leader surrounded me, and released their attacks. I jumped upwards evading all of them, and released my String Hidden Weapon skill.


    Ten daggers appeared out of nowhere, and floated around me. The leader shouted "So it''s true! Kill that filthy bastard!". I smiled, and said "Toote", then released my skill at the three. The daggers created afterimages due to the speed. This was the most powerful attack, I could muster. The strongest skill, I learned.


    The two swordsmen took a lot of damage, but managed to stay alive. The leader was not stupid, he immediately backed off, and received no damage. His men backed off too, but the damage was already dealt. Although my counterattack brought some results, the archers didn''t just sit quietly. At least ten arrows arrived, and blocked my path of escape. I controlled my energy, and twisted my body in an unnatural way. Most of the arrows missed, but I still had to deal with one, which I couldn''t evade. I used my right hand to deflect it.


    "Boom!"


    The arrow shattered, while I felt my right hand became a bit numb. ''They are quite strong¡­ But, with their formation broken, I have my chance now'' I thought, and rushed at the archers while taking out my bow. The archers backed away, and the swordsmen chased after me. I shot one arrow after the other, but the archers were too skilled.


    ''No choice then'' I thought, and hid the bow back to my bag. The archers constantly shot arrows, and backed away. Even though they couldn''t kill me, they could slow me down. I decided to care less about evading, and just go for the kill. I increased my speed, and used my right arm to deflect anything that could threaten my life, or seriously injure me. The scales on my right arm were very durable. Deflecting the arrows was possible, stopping them not so much.


    Thanks to abandoning my defence, I managed to close the gap. They also managed to inflict some minor wounds on me, but my speed didn''t suffer. When I got in range, I began throwing daggers.


    "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!"


    My daggers flew through the air. The archers didn''t panic, but they overestimated their abilities. The daggers thrown by me, were not only tricky to evade. Stopping them, was impossible in their cases. Soon one of my daggers pierced right through one of the archer''s legs. "Arghh!", the archer screamed in pain. Due to that injury, and moreover because it was my dagger, his fate was sealed. My Aura was attached to those daggers. Thanks to that, the archer almost stopped moving. Soon more daggers arrived, and killed the archer.


    But before I could kill the other archer, I felt something approaching from behind. I quickly stepped to the side, and evaded the attack. It was some sort of sword skill, released by the leader of that group. The archer managed to back off, and started running further and further away. He no longer shot at me, his main concern was to back off. ''They want to kite me back to the city, where more soldiers would engage me'' I thought. I tried chasing after him, but the leader of that group made it difficult.


    ''Fine, I will deal with you guys first'' I thought, and turned around. I was aware that the archer who managed to escape, would call for reinforcements. That was why I needed to finish the battle quickly. The swordsmen tried to surround me again by releasing their skills at once. ''This is bad'' I thought, while constantly backing away. ''No other choice'' I thought, and ran at them. They weed that, and rushed at me as well.


    The soldiers released their Sword Forms, and attacked from three different directions. I twisted my body, and evaded the attacks. With their attacks cleared, I released my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill once more. The leader, and another soldier managed to back away, but the third soldier was too slow. The barrage of attacks connected. "Boom!", "Boom!", "Boom!", "Boom!", "Swoosh!". The soldier was almost ripped apart. The skill I released, created many holes in his body. His lifeless corpse fell to the ground with a thud, and silence filled the area.


    My daggers were still floating around me, with the exception of the colour. They were now mostly red, thanks to all that blood. The leader eximed "You filthy bastard! Just wait, soon more of us will arrive. We will end you and your revolting ways!". I didn''t answer, but simply rushed at them. The leader ordered the soldier to back off, and released a beam of sword light at me. ''This is dangerous'' I thought, and tried to evade that. But before I could, his Aura locked onto me. It was sharp, and made me lose my focus for a second. I was slowed down as a result. ''Shit!'' I eximed in my mind. I couldn''t evade the attack anymore, so I opted for something else. I used my right hand to punch the beam of light.


    "BOOOM!"


    The beam of light shattered, but I wasn''t unscathed. My whole arm was bleeding, and I was barely able to move it. The daggers fell onto the ground, lifeless. The leader saw his chance, and shouted "Attack!". He released another beam of sword light, while the soldier rushed at me with his Sword Form. ''You think I''m that simple?'' I thought, and released my Aura. This time, the leader''s Aura wouldn''t work again. I evaded the sword light this time, and rushed at the soldier, while utilising my Natural Path skill. I moved like a ghost during the moonlit night. The soldier lost his head, as I appeared behind him.


    My instincts took over, and my Natural Path skill evolved again. Due to my mastery in energy control, I was able to make sharp turns and weird movements, impossible for me in the past. The leader was stunned. I on the other hand, approached like a ghost. He tried to defend, but he was no longer my opponent. "Swoosh!", "Thud!". His head fell to the ground, after I swiped my dagger.


    I was tired, and wounded. I quickly took out some medicine and drank it. I also smeared some of it onto my right hand, and anyrger wounds. ''Can''t my clothesst more than one battle?'' I asked myself, after I noticed how damaged my clothes were. Although I didn''t pay as much as I did for the mask, I still hoped they wouldst longer. ''Oh well. I will have to ask Suly and Alicia to make a new set, when I return'' I thought.


    The battle was over, but this was not the end. ''The archer managed toe back with the reinforcements¡­ I''m in no state, to fightrger amounts of people. Especially this strong'' I thought, and ran away. The amount of people I would have to face next, was not something I could handle alone, moreover in my current state. ''I still have myst trump card. If they push me too far, I will use it'' I thought.

 Chapter 344

    Chapter 344


    I ran through the forest, but not towards the Ortava. I was running towards western direction. The reinforcements must''ve stopped to check the corpses, because the distance between us increased. ''I don''t know how many of them are there, and for how long they will persist'' I thought.


    I ran, and ran and ran. With a few short stops to refill my energy. ''They are still on my tail. They must''ve brought some kind of person who can track me'' I thought. I tried to leave as little disturbances on my way as possible, but they were still able to track me somehow. ''It cannot be the smell. I checked, and there are no foreign smells on me. No Formations were ced on me either. How the hell are they able to track me?'' I asked myself.


    I used my Natural Path skill, which should decrease the tracks. But due to the speed, I might''ve left some anyway. ''In that case, I will go slower. If they can still track me, then it must be something else'' I thought. I made my way through the forest, without disturbing anything. My speed suffered a bit, but not enough, for them to catch up.


    When I stopped to rest in the evening, I waited. One hour, two hours¡­ ''Impossible! They are still able to track me'' I thought. I wasn''t sure how, there were no tracks left, for them to track me. It wasn''t my smell, nor was it a Formation. ''Just what the¡­'' I thought, and realised something. ''The skies!'' I eximed in my mind.


    I scoured the skies for anything that was suspicious. ''There'' I thought. A bird was flying around my location. Not only that, it was also looking at my general position. ''So that''s how they were able to track me'' I thought, and took out my bow. The bird noticed my actions, and immediately flew away. ''That bastard is well trained for sure'' I thought, and shot one arrow after the other. Unfortunately, I wasn''t able to kill the bird, it was to agile for my archery skills.


    ''No matter, I now know how they were able to track me down. I will get my chance to kill that bird sooner orter'' I thought, and left that area. I still headed west, but a bit more south west this time. The pursuers were still onto me, and chased me like a gue. On the third day of pursue, I finally managed to kill the bird. Unfortunately, they had two more of them.


    ''I need to get rid of those birds. Otherwise, I will never escape'' I thought. There was one more solution. I could set up a trap, with the use of Yellow Dust. I still had a bag full of that stuff. ''I can easily get rid of them, but I want to conserve my Yellow Dust. I might need it a lot more in the future'' I thought. I decided to try and get rid of the birds first, if I couldn''t do it, I would set up a trap.


    Running straight for a few days without any sleep, tired me out quite a bit. I decided to run through the night, then rest. I avoided any popted areas, for obvious reasons. Although I could potentially hide inside a vige, I could also be located more easily. It wasn''t worth the risk. I arrived at a river in the morning, and took a look at the skies. ''No birds so far. This can change quickly. Either way, they should be tired too. I need to get some rest'' I thought, and I climbed a tall tree. The crown of the tree hid me pretty well, the birds wouldn''t be able to spot me easily.


    I closed my eyes and rested. Although the danger didn''t pass, I had to get some rest. I slept lightly for about four hours. When I opened my eyes, I had a look at the skies again. I noticed something after a while. ''There they are'' I thought. The birds flew towards my location, but I wasn''t spotted yet. I quietly took out my bow, and notched an arrow. I took aim, and waited. The birds suddenly split. One flew further towards west, while the other continued towards me. This was my chance.


    My target was the bird heading towards me. I still waited for the other bird, to fly further west, before I released my arrow. ''Now!'' I thought, and released the arrow. The arrow created very little sound, as it flew through the air. The bird didn''t even realise what hit it. The arrow pierced right through it, and the bird crashed to the ground. ''One down, one more to go'' I thought, and stayed still. The other bird must''ve felt something, and turned around.


    Itspanion was gone. The bird decided to head back, probably to save its life, report the general location where the other bird died. I didn''t try my luck, and allowed the bird to leave. Moreover, I learned where its master was, or at least its master''s general location. ''They have onest bird left, at least to my knowledge. Then I can finally escape'' I thought. I jumped down from the tree, and headed west again. For some reason, I didn''t spot that bird for another two days. I even thought that they finally gave up, but I was wrong.


    The chasested for six days at this stage. I was already tired, and without a proper rest, my overall battling performance would suffer a lot. I haven''t seen that bird since I killed the second one. This made me rx a bit. I used a tree to prop my back against, and rested. Not even ten minutes passed, when I felt something. ''Hmm?'' I thought, when suddenly my instincts red up. I didn''t stay to find out, and jumped forwards, away from the tree.


    "Booom!".


    When I turned around, I noticed a few people walking towards me. The tree I propped myself against, wasying down. Cut cleanly, at the height where my neck would be. My first thought was ''How did they find me?'', but it quickly changed to surprise. "You had a good run, but it ends here. Now you will die", a woman said. Iughed underneath my mask, and stood up. "To think that fate would gift me, such a wonderful surprise. You should''ve stayed in the city. Liana".


    She was surprised to be sure. She asked, "Oh, so you know who I am?". I started walking, and replied "Right now, you are a walking corpse". She had three bodyguards, all at Inner Limits stage. All three of them wore elegant armour, while one of them had a shield. ''They must be top soldiers of the Empire'' I thought. I wasn''t even surprised, that she was at her Inner Limits stage too. I decided to waste no time, and rushed at them while throwing my daggers.


    The soldier with the shield shouted "Futile!", and actually deflected my daggers. He then released his own skill. A few snake like beams of fire left his sword, and headed towards me. ''This guy is trouble'' I thought, and used my Natural Path skill to evade. The other two didn''t linger either. Both of them released a ming air de at me. ''These must be Formations on their swords'' I thought, and stayed on defence. I couldn''t get any closer, but that didn''t mean they couldn''t attack me.


    Liana released her own skill. One I memorized too well. It was that exact skill, which took my arm. This time though, it was much more powerful, infused with her fully developed Aura. I was a bit confused, because the sword she was holding didn''t belong to me. ''Doesn''t matter now. I don''t know if I can win against these people'' I thought, and ced my hands on the ground. With as much strength as my body could muster, I moved.


    My speed increased by a lot. I figured that using both my legs and arms to move, will increase my speed. Added to that, was my mastery of energy control. Now they had a hard time aiming at me and even locating me. Liana snorted, and said "No wonder you practice those filthy Arts. You even act like an animal", and released another beam of sword light. I evaded that no problem, and moved towards them.


    The soldier carrying the shield snorted, and smashed his shield onto the ground. "BOOOOM!". The ground trembled and cracked, while the shockwave travelled throughout the whole area. My speed suffered a lot. The shockwave of that strike, disrupted my movements. This was a perfect opportunity for them, and they took it. A few ming air des came flying my way. That was not the end of my troubles. Liana released her skill as well. The earth splitting beam of light, passed the ming air des and headed towards me at incredible speed. "As if!", I shouted while punching the ground with my right hand, burying it to my elbow.


    I stabilised myself from that shockwave, and lifted my legs up. I then bent my right arm, and released all the energy stored inside. "Booom!", the ground trembled and shattered. The recoil of my strike, sent me flying upwards. Their attacks missed, while Inded further away from them. Lianaughed a bit, and said "I''m impressed to tell you the truth. Lasting this long against us, is a feat in itself. Maybe we can spare you. Your skills are rather rare toe by".

 Chapter 345

    Chapter 345


    I snorted underneath my mask. ''Spare me? I now saw your strength, and I know what you are able to do. Unfortunately for you, I will not spare you'' I thought to myself. She continued "Make a Blood Pact with me. If you pledge your allegiance to me, you will be spared. Not a bad deal, eh?".


    Iughed loudly, and responded "You think that you can stop me? Give it a try then. To me, you are still just a walking corpse". I moved forwards maximising the use of my Natural Path skill. Adding in the control of my energy, I began moving like a ghost. The guy again smashed his shield onto the ground, but I wasn''t stupid.


    I jumped up, and used the trees to move. Although the trees shook, I already ounted for that. My speed didn''t decrease, and for the first time, I could see a hint of panic on the soldier''s face. Ten daggers appeared around me, while I imbued my Aura onto them. They released their skills at me, but I dodged them. When i was close enough, I jumped downwards, straight at the whole group.


    ''Stringed Hidden Weapons, Aura Carnage!'' I shouted in my mind, and attacked. My daggers flew at them, but then stopped. The soldier with a shield smiled, and said "I told you, it''s futile". His Aura enveloped me, and I couldn''t breathe. ''This guy!'' I thought, as I dropped to the ground. My daggers fell onto the ground too. Lifeless. Liana said "Did you really think, you are some sort of bigshot? You had no chance from the beginning".


    ''This guy¡­ he broke through his Half Step¡­'' I thought. I was barely able to move, I couldn''t counter his Aura. This was bad, very bad. I tried backing away, but before I could, I was smashed with the shield, and flew backwards. "Ungh", I grunted when I smashed into the ground. ''This guy tempted me with that slight panic. He knew I would go for the kill'' I thought.


    The Liana woman asked "Where is your aplice? We know there was a second person. Tell us, and you will receive a quick death". I replied "Go to hell", and tried to stand up. She took out my sword, and said "You know, this sword is special. I only use it to kill worthy opponents. Although you are filth, I will grant you that pleasure".


    When I saw my sword, I felt anger. ''Bitch. You want to use my sword, to kill me?'' I thought, as the Aura deep within me began awakening. I said "Filth? If I''m filth, then what are you? You killed your own brother, chased me twice already, and I''m the filth?". The colour of the world changed to red, I couldn''t contain my anger anymore. "If I have to die, I will take as many of you with me, as I can!".


    "BOOOM!".


    The st of air pushed outwards, and I could move again. My instincts took over, I no longer cared about defence. All I thirsted for, was blood and carnage. One step after the other, I moved forwards. The Aura locking me in ce, no longer so suffocating. "Kill him", Liana said.


    They released their skills at me. I extended my right arm, and punched outwards. "BOOOM!", all their skills froze and shattered. With a heavy step on the ground, Iunched forwards. "Impossible!", the strongest soldier eximed. Explosions could be heard every time I stepped on the ground. I elerated and moved in erratic ways, arriving in front of the group.


    The guy with the shield ordered everyone to back off, and used his sword to sh. The beam of fire shed with me, and pushed me back. I sustained some injuries, but I felt little pain. I gained back my footing, and continued forwards. Dozens of daggers suddenly appeared, and flew at the group. One of the soldiers was stunned, and forgot to dodge. My daggers pulverized him, and his barely intact lifeless body, fell to the ground.


    Liana and the strongest soldier released their skills again. I countered that using my right hand, but this time the power behind those skills was much more severe. Liana was using my sword now, and the guard was using his full strength. I flew backwards, and took down a few of the trees down before I stopped. My right arm was wounded severely. It wasn''t broken, but moving it was also difficult.


    Liana eximed "You¡­ What are you? You are not Human! Kill him, before he gets away!". I reached into my bag, and took out some Yellow Dust. They used Fire Element skills. This meant, they could ignite the Yellow Dust no problem. I wasn''t after a huge explosion, but a distraction. With my hand full of Yellow Dust, I rushed at them again. The soldier pressed his shield onto the air, and a shockwave travelled towards me. He wanted to disrupt my movements again, but this time through the air.


    I crouched down, andunched myself forwards. I was flying at them, only a few millimetres off the ground. I could feel some aftereffect of that shockwave, but it didn''t affect me much. The shockwave missed, while I arrived in front of the group again. With a tap on the ground, I shot upwards. While I was falling down, I waited for him to use that Fire Element skill again. He didn''t disappoint me. When I was about to arrive, he released that skill.


    I couldn''t dodge, but I didn''t have to. I released the handful of Yellow Dust into the zing snake like beam of light. "Boom!", a small explosion changed my trajectory, and made my spin. This was something, they couldn''t predict. I spun past the attack, andnded in front of the soldier. With a "RAAAHH!", I managed to extend my right hand, and grabbed his neck.


    "Die". With my ice powers released to the max, he began freezing. Suddenly, something hit my back, and I flew to the side from the impact. I grunted as I hit the ground. There was arge cut on my back, probably from my own sword. ''He is dead anyway'' I thought, and felt that my energy was disappearing. I also heard Liana shout "Eres!, Eres!".


    Iughed, and said "Hahaha¡­ Cough¡­. Cough¡­ He is dead". I could feel someone approaching me. Suddenly, something shed at my back again. "Argh!", I eximed from the pain. Then another, and one more. I screamed from the pain, but I couldn''t move anymore. I was spent. All my energy was gone.


    Liana picked me up, to face her. She said "I will torture you to death!". She threw me upwards, and shed at my chest. Two deep wounds were engraved on my chest. One horizontally, and the other vertically. I smashed into the tree with another grunt, andid there motionless. I didn''t think about my end anymore. Maybe dying was not such a bad idea. The world was corrupted, you could barely trust someone. Even friends could backstab you. Even people you saved, could sell you out. People you loved, abandon you.


    Iid there with my eyes closed, and a smile on my face. This was the end, I could only await my death. ''Dina passed away with a smile, I should as well... Sorry Nick, it seems I will not achieve big things'' I thought. I tried recalling the good times. People I met, who were worthy to be called my friends. Shelly, who gave its life in exchange for mine. ''Frosty¡­''. As I thought up to here, I heard some screams, and then someone grabbed me.


    ''The end eh? I had a good run, for all it''s worth'' I thought. But the final attack never came, I was being moved somewhere. ''Are they nning on taking me alive?'' I thought. I tried opening my eyes, but I couldn''t. I was too tired, I wanted to sleep¡­

 Chapter 346

    Chapter 346


    I woke up disoriented. Everything hurt me, and I couldn''t move a muscle. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I noticed that I was inside some sort of house. "Where am I?", I asked myself. A voice answered my question "You got beaten up pretty badly boy". The voice belonged to an older man. I snorted, and asked "So what now, you are going to torture me?".


    He replied "Do you really think, that the Royals would let you live? Wake up boy, I''m not your enemy". I moved my head to the source of the voice, but there was no one there. The voice came from a different direction "You are promising, that is the only reason I saved you". I asked confused "What do you mean?".


    He appeared in my view, and said "We are the same boy". My eyes almost left the sockets. "You are also¡­", but before I could finish, he replied "I''m. Now rest, we can talk when you feel better". I said "My bag, there are medicines in my bag". He replied "I know, I already gave you some". I looked at him for a while, and said "It''s not nice to search through someone''s possessions, without their consent". He snorted, and replied "You can thank meter". He then left, and I couldn''t feel his presence anymore.


    ''To think that a practitioner of the Arts, would save my ass'' I thought. I was alive. In a bad state, but alive. ''I don''t know his reason for saving me, but I guess I will find out soon'' I thought, and closed my eyes. My recovery was most important now.


    When I woke up again, I was in a much better state. ''I''m hungry'', was the first though I had. My bagsid next to me, so I grabbed one, and fished out some food. ''Good thing I always have some provisions with me'' I thought, as I ate whatever I had. With my hunger taken care of, I took a detailed look at the house. It looked a bit shabby, as if built by someone unprofessional. The house was rather simple. There were no rooms, only one big open space. The house had very little furnishing as well. There was the bed Iid in, table and one chair. ''He must''ve built that house himself. This suggests, he lives somewhere rural'' I thought. When I stood up, I took a look at my body. ''I''m again full of scars. The worst ones should be on my back, and on my chest'' I thought.


    Then I heard the voice of that old man. "You finally woke up. It took you awhile to recover. I guess your state was even worse, than you looked". I couldn''t see him, even after scouring the house thoroughly. With no results, I asked into the open "Why did you save my ass?". The old man replied, "I told you, because I saw potential in you. It would be a shame to let you die like that". I asked another question "You practice the Art of Stealth, right?". Heughed, and replied "Practice? I''m one of the three masters left alive. I''m the master of the Art of Stealth. The other two are a bit more crazy than me".


    I nodded my head, and asked "So, what do you want from me? You didn''t save my ass for free, did you?". The old manughed, and revealed himself in front of me. He said "You are not too far away from reaching a certain stage in the Art of Stealth. You are also naturally gifted, just like I am. No one bes a master, if they are not gifted, the other masters are simr. What bothers me, is that I saw some copied stuff in your skills. Care to exin?".


    I thought about it, and replied "Well, I guess I owe you that much right?". I then continued "You are right. I learned the Arts from someone, but I also developed my own Arts. You can say, I''m a sort of hybrid. No doubt you saw the battle I fought, right? The movements you saw, that was my own skill in the Art of Stealth. The dagger skill was the same".


    He nodded while replying "That is true. The movement and dagger techniques, are something I haven''t seen before. No doubt they are original. Your basic skills seemed copied, but that is not a problem. Being able to develop those skills, proves that you are a natural".


    I recalled something, and asked urgently "Did you kill them? Did you kill that woman?". He replied "No". I asked disappointed "Why? If you are this good, and call yourself a master, why not kill them? They hunted me precisely because of Arts". He replied "Because I''m not an idiot. There were others waiting to provide backup. I didn''t need arge scale battle, just to save your sorry ass. I grant you one thing though. Being able to kill that soldier, in such setting¡­ Not bad at all".


    I asked "There were others?". He nodded, and replied "Did you think, they would let that princess walk around without Royal Guards? Especially chase after someone with your skills? The soldier you killed was a Royal Guard, but there were three more of them waiting. When you killed that guy, they were ready to move out, and take you out".


    I asked "How were they able to hide from me?". He snorted, and said "You think too highly of yourself. There are loads of people much stronger than you. That Royal Guard you killed? Bottom feeder at best. Besides, you killed him by surprise alone. If not for that thing in your hand, you wouldn''t even kill that guy".


    This was true, if not for that surprise, I would have a real hard time finishing him off. The old man continued, "Your arm¡­ It''s different. Care to exin?". I replied "Do I have to?". He shook his head, and replied "No, I was just curious. You are obviously Human, but that arm doesn''t belong on Human. I was wondering why you have it". I said "Partly because of that woman. That is all you will get from me". He smiled, and said "Interesting".


    I asked "So is that all? I''m free to go?". He smiled and replied "Of course. Besides, I want my bed back". I grabbed my bags, and walked towards the door. I stopped suddenly, and said "Thank you. I would be dead by now, if not for you. If I can, I will return that favour in the future".


    The old manughed, and replied "Actually, there is something". I turned around, and asked "What do you need?". He replied, "Your abilities... It''s something I''ve been looking for a long time". I smiled, and replied "I can''t give you my abilities. Besides, you are a master right? Shouldn''t you be much better than me?".


    He replied with augh, "That''s not it. I want to see another master grow up. I told you, there are only three of us left. There was always at least one master of each Art. Usually, there were more than one, but in this day and age? We are thest masters, with no one to rece us". I was confused, and asked "What do you mean? Everyone has to develop the Arts by themselves, right? If there are no people who reach the mastery, there will be some in the future". He shook his head, and said "It''s no longer that simple boy. I told you, in this day and age, this is much more difficult than you think".


    I asked "Why?". He replied "Because they are hunted down. For about twenty years now, the Royals made an extra effort, to exterminate all the practitioners of our Arts. This means, there are fewer and fewer people, who will learn those Arts". I said "Wait a minute. The Art of Stealth should be fine, right? After all, loads of people rely on stealth. There are even Formations, which allow for that".


    He looked at me, as if looking at an idiot and asked. "Boy, do you even know what Arts are? Stealth? You want topare some stupid stealth to the Art of Stealth?". I replied "Well, the Art of Stealth is more advanced. The use of one''s Aura or Formation, is not an Art of Stealth. Ultimately though, everything goes down to hiding or movement".


    He snorted and replied "The person who taught you, was an idiot in that case. My guess is, he learned all of that from someone else. His teacher probably learned all of that from someone else, and so on. Don''t be fooled boy, all Arts were created with a single purpose. In other words, Arts are the ultimate killing techniques. All of them are dangerous, even the Art of Stealth". I thought about it, and said "Well yea. If you can avoid the light and hide in in sight, then whatever weapon you use, you can kill your opponent".


    He shook his head, and said "Avoid the light? Hide to kill? You still don''t understand me. I''m not saying that Art of Stealth is deadly, because I can hide. It''s deadly, even if I don''t hide myself. You clearly don''t know what the Art of Stealth is about. But, you are young. Finding out what it really is about, is not easy. That is what separates people from being masters, and those who can only copy stuff".

 Chapter 347

    Chapter 347


    I thought about it, and couldn''t really find any ws in his argument. Nick himself told me that learning by myself, was much better than learning from him. ''Nick was really unwilling to teach me the Art of Hidden Weapons. He wanted me to develop naturally, which would make sense. But the Art of Stealth? I understand the Hidden Weapons, but Stealth?'' I asked myself.


    I said "You mentioned that you want to see another master grow up. Don''t get me wrong, I always nned to master my Arts. I just don''t understand why this would be a favour for you". He smiled, and said "You see, you have something other masters don''t". I asked "What would that be?". He replied "You might be able to master all three Arts, not just one". I thought about it, and asked "How do you know, I learned three different Arts?".


    He replied in a "as a matter of fact" manner. "Because I saw it with my own eyes? You disyed all those things during the battle. That is how I know". I was confused. ''I never used the Art of Medicine during that battle. What is he on about?'' I asked myself. I wasn''t sure how he saw the Art of Medicine in my skills, so I asked "I never used my Art of Medicine during the battle. How could you possibly know about it?".


    This time, he looked at me confused and asked. "Art of Medicine? What are you talking about?". I replied, "You said that I''m able to master three different Arts. I never used my Art of Medicine, so what the hell are YOU on about?".


    He replied "I never heard of anyone developing an Art of Medicine. What I''m talking about is Art of Rage". I replied immediately "What nonsense are you spouting? Have you gone senile old man?". He replied angrily "Want me to smash your head in? I''ve lived in this world for much longer than you, and I never heard of anyone who practiced that Art of Medicine of yours. Where did you even get that from?".


    I was stunned. ''So some kind of nonsensical Art of Rage exist, but Art of Medicine doesn''t?'' I thought, and questioned my own sanity. I shook my head a few times, as if in a bad dream. I said "I learned the Art of Medicine! Hell, I even improved it!". The old man asked "Where exactly did you learn it? Is it a killing Art?". I replied "From the same person. He developed it for most of his life, and I''m the sole inheritor. Killing Art? I wiped out a whole¡­". I stopped myself, and didn''t say anymore. He said "Continue, what stopped you there boy?". I replied "That''s all you get. Besides, your Art of Rage is pure nonsense. How could there be an Art like that?".


    He replied "Tell that to the old monster from the Art of Rage, and you will lose a few limbs. I''m surprised you haven''t heard of it. As I said, there are three masters left, all of us are masters of the forbidden Arts. The Art of Stealth, Art of Hidden Weapons and Art of Rage. These are considered forbidden Arts, and practitioners of these Arts are hunted down, like ducks".


    He continued "I also told you, that you are a rare find. To be precise, almost impossible to find. I never saw such a promising youth¡­". I stopped him, and said "Wait, you want to tell me, I can be a master in the Art of Rage?". This idea alone, was just stupid in my mind. He nodded, and said "That is correct. There were those who mastered multiple Arts, but no one mastered three or more at once. When you master one Art, you have the right to call yourself a Master. When you master two Arts, you have the right to call yourself a Grand Master". I asked "Then what about three or more?".


    He smiled and replied, "I don''t know". I was lost for words. The old man continued, "There has never been anyone who mastered three Arts. No one thought it was possible. Mastering one Art takes a long time. Two? You would be old already, and three? No Human had enough lifespan, to master three Arts". I asked "So how the hell am I supposed to do this?".


    He replied "Because you have us. You are also natural in those Arts. If we point you in the right direction, you have a chance to master all three Arts". I asked "Why do you want to do that?". He smiled, and replied "Do you want to hide? Do you want to be chased for the skills you know? You may say, this is also for the better future of our Arts. All masters left something for future generations. We want to leave someone like you".


    I was shocked for sure. I asked in confusion "Does that mean, you want to teach me?". He replied, "I will not teach you how to do things, I will only give you some hints. You already know that to be a master, you have to develop naturally. Because you got this far by yourself, I believe you have good chances of bing a master of three different Arts".


    He then continued, "Have you heard the story of each Art?". I replied "I only heard about Endros. He was the one who developed the Art of Hidden Weapons". He nodded, and said "In that case, I will tell you a story about the Art of Stealth. Listen well boy". I nodded, and listened. The old man said "Endros as you know, was the one who developed the Art of Hidden Weapons. Or rather, he was the one who started that Art. The Art of Stealth, has nothing to do with Endros. He never developed it, and never learned it. It actually precedes Endros".


    I asked "Didn''t the Art of Stealth, and Art of Hidden Weapons meant to go together?". Heughed, and replied "Each and every Art, is a separate ultimate killing technique. None of them were meant for each other. True, Art of Stealth and Hidden Weapons doplement each other. That doesn''t mean all who learned the Art of Hidden Weapons, learned the Art of Stealth too. I told you already, Art of Stealth precedes Endros".


    I thought about it, and replied "Wait. You want to tell me, that no one before Endros actually came up with an idea to use Hidden Weapons?". He shook his head, and replied "I never said that. No one ever managed to create an Art out of it, or at least start it up. People used hidden weapons for sure, but it was not the Art of Hidden Weapons. Your mindset is very narrow about Arts, which is understandable. Remember, stealth, is not the same as Art of Stealth. Same with hidden weapons, it is not the same as the Art of Hidden Weapons".


    I nodded, and motioned for him to continue. He said "I will, if you don''t interrupt me. Just listen quietly and when I''m done, you can ask questions". I nodded, and stayed quiet. He continued "The story begins in the year 417 of the Selesian Calendar. It was the 54th day of the Autumn. A young woman named Arien, travelled through the forest in order to reach her vige. She suddenly noticed a strange shadow of a person. The person must''ve been hidden by a tree, because only the shadow was sticking out. When she called out, the shadow simply disappeared. Arien was very curious by nature. Baffled by that sight, she investigated the tree, but found nothing. Empty handed, she returned to her vige".


    After a short pause, he continued "Arien shared that story with her family back at home, but no one believed her. She herself passed it off as her mind ying a trick. A few months went by, and this happened to Arien regrly. She saw a shadowy figure, that quickly disappeared when Arien tried to get close. No one believed her, but she couldn''t get rid of her curiosity. The shadow and the person it belonged to, simply melted away every time she got closer. She decided to learn how to get close to that shadow".


    "Arien began learning how to sneak up to the shadow. She tried loads of things, and learned a lot during that time, but she was never able to approach the shadow. Years passed. Arien got married, and gave birth to a child. She almost forgot about the shadow, when it appeared again. She tried to ignore it, but in the end, she couldn''t. This prompted her to again seek different ways of reaching that shadow".


    "Time went by. Arien became older. Her kids grew up, and had their own families. Only one thing was bothering her. She was never able to reach that mysterious shadow. Now that she became older, and had loads of free time, she decided to continue. Her skills in stealth were already well developed, she only had to reach that shadow. On one fateful day, when she spotted the shadow, she managed to reach it. To her surprise, there was no person, only the shadow alone. She didn''t know what to think of it, but soon realised something. Through most of her life, she was trying to reach something, that never existed. Something that was there, but not there at the same time. In the instance she realised all that, she noticed that she could do the same. She could also be just a shadow, exist and not exist at the same time".


    The old man stopped for a while, and I thought this was the end. I was about to ask something, but he continued. "This is just one part of the story. I told you, all Arts are deadly, so let me continue". I nodded, and listened. "Arien became old. She became a grandmother to a few little kids. All her life was peaceful, until one day. Arien left the vige for a few days, to visit her oldest son in a vige not far away. The rest of her family still lived in her home vige. She wasn''t aware that someone invaded her country. Moreover, her vige. The invaders from the Marnd Kingdom passed by her vige, killing everyone. On her way back, she saw no soldier, no warriors, no battles. Only when she returned to her home vige, did she discovered what had happened. Banners of the Marnd Kingdom ced everywhere. Corpses of killed people filled the streets. The vige devastated, in ruins".


    "Her family dead, her friends dead as well. As tears welled up in her eyes, she noticed some soldiers. Leftovers of the army that already moved further, to their next target. She couldn''t forgive, although old and weak, she couldn''t forgive them. With tears in her eyes, she screamed at them. When they noticed her, they froze in ce. All the soldiers that saw her, suddenly fell down to their knees, without a breath of life left in them".


    "She was shocked as well. She didn''t even realise, what she has aplished. In fear of the worst, she ran to the neighbouring vige. The only ce, where her family was still alive. But s, she was toote. The killing was already in full swing. The hostile army and Arien, must''ve passed each other somehow. She couldn''t contain her tears anymore, and screamed at the top of her lungs "Stop!". All soldiers stopped, and looked at her. When they did, they died. Arien no longer cared whether she could kill people on sight or not, she rushed to her oldest son''s house, to find the whole family killed".


    "Arien no longer cried. She walked outside, and disappeared like a shadow that she always chased after. What happened next, was not described by Arien. Only that the whole army was gone, and the invasion stopped. No one in the history knew how this happened, or why. Only Arien knew how. Herst words were "If you chase the shadow, remember that there is a price to pay. I Arien Nightgale tell this story, for those who chase. Know that what you chase, is an Art of Stealth. That''s how it shall be called!"".

 Chapter 348

    Chapter 348


    The old man finished narrating his story, so I began asking. My first question was simr to the one, I once asked Nick in the past. "How can you know, that what she wrote was true? Maybe it was just a story, nothing else". He replied, in a simr manner to Nick. He said "I didn''t tell you that story to convince you, or make you believe. I told you that story, because it hides a secret. The rest is up to you".


    He pretty much answered most of my questions, with that one answer. ''The rest is up to me'' I thought. I had a few other things to ask, and that I did. "When was the Selesian Era?". The old man smiled, and replied "Many years ago. From what I know, it was at least 3500 years ago". I asked shocked "Then that means, the Art of Stealth is as old as 3000 years?". He nodded his head while saying "That is correct. Don''t get me wrong, even Royals know this story. They know what a master in the Art of Stealth can do. These are not filthy Arts, these are the Arts they fear".


    He continued "The Art of Stealth, as well as the Art of Hidden Weapons, are the original titles. People changed the name of the Art of Rage. But, you will learn about that, when the old monster arrives". I asked "You called the other masters over?". Heughed while replying "Of course. After all, you will need to hear all three stories properly. Beware though, they are a bit more¡­ You will see when they arrive".


    I didn''t know how to take that. ''Whatever. I will find out, when theye'' I thought, and asked another question. "You said that you will not teach me, only give me hints. I guess the story is the first hint in that case?". He nodded, and said "Yes. Even if you figure out what that secret is, mastering the Art of Stealth will not be easier. It will still take you years. I personally became a master at the age of 64. I had to wreck my head and practice for around 37 years, but I seeded".


    I asked surprised "It took you 37 years, to master the Art of Stealth?". He replied vaguely "More or less. Anyway, you can stay in my house. You will take care of your own needs, I''m not your mother". I thought about it for a while. ''On one hand, learning under their gazes is an excellent opportunity. On the other hand, I should visit Ortava, and make sure Fox made it back alright'' I thought. I asked "You want me to stay here. I will, if you can do a favour for me. I know I should be repaying you, but I need something".


    He replied "That''s a reasonable request. What is it that you need?". I replied "I would like you to check up on a certain person in Ortava. I want to know if she is there, and alright". He said "Ortava is quite a distance away from here. I would have to run all this way¡­". I felt like the old man was asking for money. I said "If you want money, I''m not wealthy, I never was. I can give you some of my medicine in exchange".


    He looked at me, and replied a bit offended "Did you seriously think, I would extort a youngster? I was just thinking about the route I would need to take. Boy, I will go check up on that lover of yours, but you will stay here and train. I don''t want the Royals to find you again. I can move around, but if they find you, you are dead. Don''t forget, you killed a Royal Guard. Although he was weak, a Royal Guard is still a Royal Guard". I replied "She''s not my lover, we are friends. Either way, I thank you. You can find her in the Academy for the Formation Masters. Her father is a Formation Master there, and she wears a mask".


    He replied "I know, I saw both of you. I watched you since the funeral. You didn''t seriously think that I just stumbled upon your fight, and helped you out?". I just shook my head, and didn''t reply. What he did next, totally stunned me. He justid on his bed, and closed his eyes. I asked confused "What are you doing?". He replied with his eyes still closed, "Can''t you see? I''m resting". ''Is that guy for real?'', I thought and asked "Weren''t you supposed to check up on my friend?". He replied "And leave you alone with two monsters? I will go after they arrive".


    "Alright", was all I could answer. The old man mentioned I could stay in that ce, but I had no bed or anything I could use there. I decided to build another house outside. ''After all, I might have to stay here for a while'' I thought. With that in mind, I left the house. What I noticed outside, stunned me. I was at the peak of a mountain. ''Wow! I didn''t think we were in such a remote area. I don''t even know where I am'' I thought.


    The mountain was very tall, and the view was staggering. But, I couldn''t see any cities when I looked down. ''Wait! There is a vige that I can see'' I thought, and recalled the map of the Empire. There were a few viges next to a mountain, but I wasn''t sure which vige I was next to. ''I was travelling west, this might help'' I thought. To my surprise, the west was void of any viges or settlements, that featured a mountain. The central region of the Empire had one such vige. ''It must be the central region of the Empire then'' I thought, and looked in the opposite direction.


    ''This is not central region'' I immediately realised. What I saw at the opposite side, was a sea. ''This is west, or maybe even south¡­ I don''t know anymore'' I thought. The old man told me that Ortava is far away, therefore it couldn''t be the east. Towards the north, was the North. The Endrosian Empire had little to no sea in those parts. ''North east is the Imperial City. I doubt we are there. This can only mean, we are in the western or southern regions of the Empire'' I thought.


    The views although beautiful, were overshadowed by one thought. ''How the hell did that old man carry me all the way here?'' I asked myself. I had no clue where I was, and maybe it was for the better. ''If I don''t know where I am, the Royals shouldn''t be able to find me here either. I overestimated myself. The Royals are much stronger than I imagined. That guy alone gave me loads of trouble, and he is supposed to be weak Royal Guard? Now they are also aware of my ice powers. No doubt they will try to hunt me down. A human with a different hand, as well as the Forbidden Arts¡­ This old guy really saved my life'' I thought.


    I had only a few choices. I could decline their mentoring, and return North. Or, I could stay and move in with that old man. ''I will go to the North in the future, but that can wait. Mastering my skills, is the most important matter right now'' I thought. With better skills or even mastery, Royals wouldn''t pose as much threat as they did to me at that time. ''I will need a bed and perhaps another chair. I will need food as well. There is nothing here at the top of the mountain, so I will have to descend'' I thought. No trees grew at the peak of the mountain either. I had to descend anyway.


    I descended until the midpoint of the mountain, where I found trees and even animals. ''These animals¡­'' I thought when I saw them. Those were not some simple wolves or bears, all of them were of Silver Variants. Not that this posed any problem for me, but I was a bit surprised.


    I hunted down two bears, and cut one tree down. I didn''t want to drag a whole tree upwards. I simply made some nks after cutting it, and stored them in my bag. ''This should be enough'' I thought, and returned to the peak. Inside the house, the old man was still rxing in his bed. I didn''t pay him any heed, and worked on my bed. Fortunately, I had supplies of nails and whatnot with me. I learned to carry all of that crap with me, for situations like the one I was currently in.


    With my bed quickly pieced together, I used the fur from the two Silver Bears I hunted before, as my bedding. ''I still have some nks left, I should make a chair, and perhaps a shelf or something'' I thought. I went back to work. A whileter, I had a shelf for books or medicine, as well as a chair. My furniture was much better than what the old man had on offer. ''There''s nothing I can really do here, besides some training. He will check up on Fox, when the other two arrive. Until then, I will try some things out. Thanks to Royals, I didn''t have time to test those things out. Although I also learned something thanks to them'' I thought, and left the house.

 Chapter 349

    Chapter 349


    The outside was peaceful. This serene setting awoke a strange feeling inside me. ''I feel like I can achieve anything here, as if I''m above everything else'' I thought. I breathed in the fresh air, and exhaled. "Time to try some things", I said to myself, and ced my mask on. Besides the Orbs that were ever present, I also had a different use for the mask.


    The mask allowed me to take my Natural Path skill to the next level. Of course, provided I focused. I closed my eyes, then jumped. Head first, as if jumping into a pond orke. I flew through the air, and suddenly opened my eyes. What I was trying to improve was my calcting skills. ''Chase the shadow? Be a shadow? Meaningless!'' I thought, as I was about to crash into the ground.


    But I believed in my own skill. I believed that I was able to find a path, a Natural Path. ''There it is'' I thought, and tapped the ground lightly before I smashed into it. There was no sound, no explosions. The force I used was abysmal, but it changed my trajectory, and I continued to fall. "Pat", "Pat", "Pat", "Pat", "Pat". I tapped the ground with my hand whenever I was about to smash into it, and continued flying down.


    Trees, boulders or animals¡­ Nothing could stop me. With a final, stronger tap on the ground, my body lifted up and I no longer dived downwards. With the use of some trees, boulders and whatnot, I slowed down andnded at the bottom of the mountain. I felt excitement, it was something new. I turned around, and thought ''I can''t even see the peak... For now, I''m only able to achieve that with the mask. That doesn''t mean, I can''t achieve the same thing without the mask. This is great fun anyway''.


    I run up the mountain, and repeated that for the rest of the day. I always took a different path, always tried to increase the difficulty. There were a few instances where I almost crashed. Ultimately, I managed to practice like this without any injuries. When I returned to the peak of the mountain again, I roasted some meat over the fire, and enjoyed my meal.


    The old man appeared next to me, and said "If I didn''t watch you train today, I would think you wanted tomit suicide. You have some crazy ideas kid". I grabbed one piece of meat, and asked "Want some?". He smiled, and sat down near the fire. The old man took a piece of roasted meat, and ate it. I said "I was only able to achieve that with the use of my mask, but I believe I will be able to achieve that without it too".


    Heughed "It''s not much really. But that''s good, you are exploring your talents". I smiled, and pointed at the receding sun. The old man was confused, and asked "What about the sun?". I replied "When it''s dark, my real training will start¡­ Or rather, I will test some other things out". He was still confused, and asked "Why do you need darkness, in order to train?". I answered with a question "Can you see the Orbs floating everywhere?".


    He looked at me, as if looking at an insane person and replied. "What Orbs? I see no such things". I thought about it, and gave him my mask. I said "Put it on, and activate the Formation. Maybe you will be able to spot them". The old man was intrigued, and took the mask. After he ced it on, the mask changed its shape. ''Although I want to check if you can see them too, I also wonder what would the mask show me'' I thought.


    The mask changed to that of a smiling face. Creepy smiling face to be exact. Its eyes were in a weird position, and its grin from ear to ear. Not only that, it was changing all the time, showing different phases, as ifughing. ''What the hell? This has never happened before'' I thought. I had no idea what to think of it, and simply waited. The old man activated the Formation, and looked around. He said "I can''t see¡­". He stopped mid sentence and eximed, "There are indeed floating Orbs! What are those things?".


    I replied "I''m not sure myself. I treat them as Elements. There are different colours of the Orbs, I think it depends on the environment". He asked another question "Can those things be used?". I replied "I intend to find out". He tried some stuff as well, but couldn''t do anything. Disappointed, he took off the mask. "Hmm? Why does it look like this?". I replied while staring at the fire "The mask changes its shape, based on the user. It''s more of a memento for me". He shook his head, and gave my mask back.


    We waited like this, until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. When the darkness filled the sky, I ced the mask back on. The old man asked "I saw the Orbs, but why wait for the night?". I replied "Because I can only absorb those Orbs". I didn''t worry about him any more, and focused on my own thing.


    The ck Orbs floated everywhere. Some were naturally attracted to me, while others just floated around. I noticed that very few of the Orbs were leaving my body. ''So my guess was correct. With a full control of my energy, I''m better able to keep those Orbs inside my body. The question is, why would I need them?'' I thought. This, I intended to find out, but I needed to absorb more Orbs.


    I reached out my arm, and tried attracting the Orbs towards me. I was stunned when the Orbs rushed towards my arm, and entered my body. ''I can feel something'' I thought. My energy seemed to be different. I stopped absorbing the Orbs, and thought about it some more. ''Can this be used for stealth? Well, I can''t see any effects, but that old man might say something'' I thought, and turned towards the old man. He looked at me with disbelief in his eyes. I asked "What''s wrong?".


    He answered "Your arm¡­ It''s gone. I can''t see it. Hell! I can barely feel it. Surely if you attacked, I would manage to feel that. In a state where you just hold it there? It''s not as easy anymore". I looked at my arm, and there it was. I said confused "But my arm is still here", and waved it around. Then I noticed something. ''Hmm? This looks like some sort of haze¡­'' I thought. My arm was surrounded by a hazy ck smoke, and it was escaping outside. I was lost in my thoughts, when the old man suddenly eximed "Oh! I can see it again!".


    I looked at him, and the back at my arm. The hazy ck smoke was almost gone. ''I have no idea what those Orbs are. Apparently, they can be stored inside one''s body, and used as an addition to one''s energy. Although, the amount of Orbs I absorb is crucial'' I thought. This was not a permanent effect, and the ck Orbs were escaping my body all the time. The rate of escape was slowed down, due to my mastery in the energy control. I could only use this during the night, and perhaps in the morning hours.


    ''This has uses anyway. If a master in the Art of Stealth has a hard time detecting my arm, does that mean I mastered the Art of Stealth?... No, this shouldn''t be right. I can only use it at night. During the day, I have to rely on my own skills. The old man can use his skills whenever he wishes. That is the true mastery'' I thought.

 Chapter 350

    Chapter 350


    I thought about it some more, and tried to figure out what else the mastery in my energy could aplish. ''I can control things like heartbeat rate, or even make my body enter a temporary death state. I can control every inch of my body perfectly, which improves my movements. I can even absorb and store the ck Orbs during the night. But, what else can I do?'' I thought.


    An idea came to my mind, and although it seemed far fetched, I decided to try it out. I manipted my energy to flow differently. Not only that, I tried to shrink some parts of my body, while expanding others. The effect was unexpected. Even the old man was surprised, and asked "What is wrong with you?".


    I smiled, and replied "Can you control your energy perfectly?". He replied confused "Of course I can, Everyone who at least trained themselves properly, can achieve the same thing". I said "No. What I meant is not the ability to use your energy, but manipte it. In other words, do this", and I showed him how my body changed.


    Although I couldn''t reconstruct my body, I could make myself a bit taller, or a bit shorter bypressing and expanding my bones. I could also change my heartbeat rate, my breathing to match someone else. My muscles could expand or contract, and my overall posture could change. The old man looked at me weirdly, when I showed him how a mastery in energy control looks like.


    I then got an idea. ''My regenerative abilities should''ve improved now. I wonder what would happen if I am wounded, and direct all my energy to recover that one spot only?'' I thought, and immediately put that idea into action. I shed my left palm with a dagger. The old man again asked, "What are you up to this time?". I replied "Just watch". I had a good feeling about this, and directed all the energy flow onto that one wound. The bleeding stopped almost instantly, and I could feel itchiness in my palm. The wound started closing slowly. A whileter, the wound was closed, and a small scab formed atop the wounded area.


    ''Just as I suspected. If I will for my energy to focus only on one thing, the strength of my regeneration is much faster'' I thought. The old man was visibly shocked, and asked "Are you some sort of walking medicine?". I smiled, and replied "This is also due to my mastery in energy control. I can regenerate much faster now¡­ Although I guess my regenerative abilities were already quite strong".


    He said "I''ve heard of a technique that can change one''s body, but I never saw one. This type of regeneration¡­ I never saw something like this. Without the use of Formations or medicine, this shouldn''t be possible. Are you sure it''s not some sort of technique, and you only want to fool this old man?". I replied "I told you, I have perfect control of my energy. If you don''t know how to do it, then that simply means you don''t have full control of your energy. Even as a master, you can still learn things".


    He was a bit stunned for a while, but thenughed loudly while saying "To think that this old man would indeed witness something like this. That''s true boy. Even though I''m a master in the Art of Stealth, that doesn''t mean I''m omnipotent. There is a saying that goes, ''You can''t teach new tricks to an old dog''. The new generation will always overtake the old one".


    ''New generation... '', for some reason, his words reminded me of Nick''s. ''Gods that descend, shall be mortals. Those who inherit, shall follow. Those who live, shall die and those who thrive, shall pass'', was what Nick once told me. Now I understood what he meant. ''One day in the future, I will be someone like this old man. I will be confused and surprised at the younger generation. "Who knows what the future holds" right?'' I thought.


    ''What he considered crazy, impossible or non-existent, I might be in the same situation in the future'', my thoughts continued. Nick wasn''t talking about the Gods, but Humans. A metaphor used to describe Humans above all others. One might''ve been a god amongst men, but his time would pass sooner orter. He would die, just like any other man, like any other mortal.


    The old man was a master in Arts, but his time was passing. A new generation would take his ce. With time, he would be irrelevant, just like other historic figures. They had books about them, but nothing else besides that. Their glory gone. Their skills either passed on and improved upon, or changed many times. Or forgotten with the passage of time.


    I stared at the fire, and said "You know, life is weird". He looked at me, and asked "Why?". I continued "People chase fame or power, but in the end? They will still pass away one day or another. What does the fame mean, if you are dead? Why care about wealth, if you will die anyway? Why explore one''s life, if nothing awaits you at the end?". This was the first time, I questioned my own life''s goal.


    The old man thought for a while, then smiled and said. "I don''t think like that. I look at it differently. Imagine that your life is a story, a story that you write by yourself. Some stories are short, others long. Some will be interesting, while others are not. Does that matter? No. In my view, every story should have an end to it. Don''t you think?".


    I thought about it, and replied "Why would it matter?". He said with a smile, "Would you be happy if an interesting story suddenly stopped? Never to be finished? Humans are like that, it''s part of our nature really. The older we get, the more we worry, care and think about the future. If your life is not exciting, does that mean you shouldn''t explore it? No one knows what you find in the end, even if your life is mundane".


    He thought a bit more, and continued "Remember the story about Arien? She wasn''t some sort of great figure. A normal viger, just a bit more curious than others. In the end, she developed the Art of Stealth. All stories can be interesting, and everyone has a story to tell, this includes you".


    He leaned back, and continued "You are too young to question and worry about the meaning of life. Your whole life is still in front of you. What you make of it, it''s up to you". I nodded my head, and replied "You are right". He smiled, and asked "So, what else can you do with that energy control of yours?".


    I replied "I don''t know. I only mastered it recently. I can control everything about my body, which means my movement, strength and even look can be altered to a certain extent. I don''t know what else I could use it for". The old man thought about it for a while, and said "This is something I can''t really help you with. Maybe you will find more uses for that, or maybe not. You already found some, which is a sess. We shouldn''t be greedy sometimes, and take what we have".


    I appreciated his honesty. He didn''t try to motivate me, or point me in a certain direction. He simply shared his honest thoughts, and this meant a lot to me. I was used to people lying and scheming, but I felt like I could talk about anything with this old man. ''Why should I worry? Why question my own goals, when I have loads in front of me. It''s not like I can''t be someone too. It''s not like I can''t leave a legacy. I will die one day, but so what? Why shouldn''t I strive to improve and enjoy myself'' I thought.


    I probably had such thoughts due to Royals, the difficulty of life and overall realisations. ''Yea, my early childhood was great, but then I guess everything went downhill. Maybe I grew up to fast, maybe I forgot how to enjoy myself'' I thought, and recalled the training I did during the day. It was exciting. it was something else, something new. I decided to do more of such things, to worry less and just enjoy myself.


    I stood up, took off my mask and said "I believe I can aplish some things. A master of three different Arts eh? No one ever achieved that, so why not make it my goal?". The old manughed while replying "That''s the spirit". I stood at the peak, and closed my eyes. ''This is it'' I thought, as the wind brushed passed my body. I forgot about all the chasing, hate and shenanigans. I simply jumped forwards.

 Chapter 351

    Chapter 351


    Although I did it many times, I''ve never done it without a mask and during the night. I flew down the mountain at great speed, frantically trying to find a path. It was hard, very hard. I somehow managed to travel halfway down the mountain, when suddenly arge boulder stood in my way. ''Shit'' I thought, and tried to change my trajectory, but it was toote.


    I was about to crash into the boulder, when suddenly I heard "Oi kid! It seems you need some help". It was the voice of the old man. He appeared next to me, and pushed me to the side. Thanks to that, I managed to clear the boulder, and soon flew all the way down the mountain. "That was close". The old man again stood next to me, and said "Boy, don''t be reckless. There is no need to push yourself". I shook my head, and replied "Will you help me?".


    He said "If you meant that I will not let you die, then yes". I nodded, and said "Thanks, I want to try it more. If I don''t push myself, it will take years to achieve something. I have to push myself, otherwise I will just stagnate". The old man didn''t reply, he simply stood to the side. I took it as him agreeing, and climbed back to the peak of the mountain.


    I jumped many times during that night. The old man would help me out, whenever I was in peril. Although the practice was not without injuries. The old man would only prevent my death, he didn''t seem to care if I was slightly injured. When the sun rose, I stopped my training. I was tired, and full of injuries. Even though I used my energy to recover myself much faster, I still had to spend that energy.


    The old man looked at me, and said "You really are a monster. Your adaptability is insane". I replied tired "I figured some things out. Thanks to that, you didn''t have to save my ass every time". I figured out how to use my energy control, in order to manipte my trajectory. Even in mid air, to some I could degree make small changes in my position. This allowed me to sometimes make it down the mountain, without the old man''s help.


    We went back to the peak, while I went straight to bed. I didn''t sleep for very long, because when I woke up, it was early afternoon. When I walked out of the house, the old man asked "You don''t have any other clothes?". I looked at myself, and indeed my set of clothes I got from Suly and Alicia waspletely useless now. I shook my head, and said "I only have my fur clothes¡­ Oh and the cksmith''s clothes. That is all. I guess I can use the fur set for now".


    He asked another question "Why didn''t you buy anything in the Imperial City?". I shrugged, and replied "Because I''m not wealthy? Although my friend wanted to buy some clothes for me, I declined. Didn''t think I would need them really". I changed my clothes to the set of fur clothes, that I had from a long time ago. ''It''s been a long time, since I wore those clothes. Feels kind of nostalgic'' I thought.


    The old man appeared next to me, and asked "You will jump again?". I shook my head, and said "No. I will only do that during the night, it''s harder that way. The other two are no around yet, so I will just practice my sword and archery". The old man replied "I saw you using a bow, but not a sword". I took out the Bastard Sword from my bag, and showed it to him.


    He said "It''s quite heavy". I said "Activate the Formation". He looked at the sword interested, and activated it. But nothing happened, he just held it like it was nothing. After a few swings, he said "It really is heavy. Around 500 kilos, right?". I nodded and said "Around that". I wasn''t really stunned, this guy was a master after all. If he had weak physical body, how could he reach mastery?


    ''Although Art of Stealth is not really concerned with strength, he had already passed his Half Step of the Inner Limits. He can''t be weak'' I thought. He returned the sword, and said "Did you learn how to use swords?". I nodded, and said "Yes, although I''m not really good at it, but I practice". I practiced the Forms from the Lethal Sword Technique. I could only practice till the Sixth Form, the Seventh Form was to hard for me at this stage.


    When I took a break from my practice, the old man said "You really have a natural predisposition towards the Art of Rage. The sword you learned is a good example". I replied "That''s just coincidence. Either way, when will the other two masters arrive?". He thought about it for a while, and said "I''m not sure. Maybe in a week, maybe in a day. Depends on how interested they are. After all, they didn''t see your skills. But they wille, I''m sure of it".


    I took out my bow next, and practiced my long range shooting. I now had the ability to run, and shoot at the same time. I was no longer that green with a bow. During the evening, we would start my movement practice. The old man could rx much more. I usually made it to the bottom of the mountain by myself. ''This is not enough, I need to push it further'' I thought.


    Next time I climbed to the peak of the mountain, I started absorbing the ck Orbs. Although I couldn''t see them without my mask, they were still present, like the air I breathed in. This time, I absorbed them with my whole body, not just my arm. ''Although this is good for stealth, I wonder what else I can do with those ck Orbs'' I thought.


    The old man appeared not far away from me, and asked "So you want to use those ck Orbs?". I nodded, but he didn''t see me, so it was pointless. I replied instead "Yes, I want to see what else this thing is capable of". I then jumped forwards. I was wrong, the ck Orbs didn''t just improve my stealth, they improved my whole energy. There was something else as well, I could see as if it was daylight. It was as if my Darkness Perception awakened by itself.


    When I tapped the ground lightly like usual, a hole appeared in the ground. I didn''t expect that, and my trajectory changed to a one I wasn''t after. I was about to smash myself into a boulder, and the old man was nowhere around to save my ass. I decided to punch through it. ''Even if my arm breaks, I can still survive this!'' I eximed in my mind, and punched out.


    There was no sound, my arm didn''t break, but the boulder? A huge hole appeared where I was supposed to crash into it. I flew past the boulder, and continued until Inded at the base of the mountain. ''What the hell is that power?'' I asked myself. I couldn''t see the ck smoke around me, so I ced my mask on. I noticed that the ck smoke escaping my body was already quite weak. It was about to disappearpletely.


    ''Can I absorb this and fight or move at the same time? It should be possible'' I asked myself. I ran up the mountain, while absorbing the ck Orbs around me. It worked for sure, but because I moved, only the Orbs in my closest vicinity were absorbed, and at a slower rate. ''So, when I stand, I can absorb them faster. Although, I can also fight and absorb them. This is good, because the effects disappear very quickly too'' I thought, and made it to the peak of the mountain.


    The old man was not around, I couldn''t really locate him either way. I waited there for a while, until my body returned back to normal. ''Hmm?''. I noticed that my energy was half spent. I practiced with the sword and whatnot, but I had around 70% of my energy left. ''Does that mean, the ck Orbs consume so much of my energy? I absorbed arge quantity of them, and even used that to go through that boulder. This would mean, it''s not for prolonged uses'' I thought.


    The old man finally appeared next to me, and said "I''m surprised at what you could do". I replied "You saw?". He said "I did and I didn''t. I knew you jumped, so I followed you, but I had a hard time locating your exact position. Only when you went through that boulder, did I know where you were. I never saw such a thing. I mean yea, there are all sorts of techniques, but it wasn''t a technique, right?".


    I shook my head, and said "I found another use for those Orbs. In fact, they change my energy to something else. I punched the boulder, and it simply disintegrated. This energy¡­ It''s like it can disintegrate stuff. It has its limitations though. I can''t use it for too long, because it consumes a lot of my energy. Not only that, I have to stand in order to fill up on that energy fast. I can also do it while running, but it''s slower".


    He replied "That is really interesting. In my estimates, you would be able to kill the stronger Royal Guards with this. Although the elites would give you trouble or even no chances at all. They are pretty crazy, even I would have trouble dealing with one such elite". I said "There is something that has been bothering me for a while now". The old man asked "What is it?".

 Chapter 352

    Chapter 352


    I asked "Did any Human reach the Primal Limit?". He smiled and replied "Yes, actually I know of at least a few". I was shocked ''That many people? Wasn''t the Primal Limit considered legendary?'' I asked myself. He saw the shock on my face, and said "It is rare to be sure. In the past, there were a few people who reached it. Every Emperor in the Endrosian Empire was at that stage. Thete Emperor Harold The II was at that stage".


    I asked shocked "Thete Emperor broke through to his Primal Limit?". The old man nodded in confirmation, and said "Yes, but it was achieved thanks to a borrowed power. Only one Emperor broke through, without the external help. It was Verion, the Emperor in the Torrential Era. As far as I''m aware, the rest of the Emperors broke through using an inheritance item".


    He then continued, "They are weaker than those who broke through naturally. But don''t be fooled boy. Even we, the three masters of the Forbidden Arts, would have a hard time taking on an Emperor. You would be dead with one swing of his fist. That is under the condition, we fought him three versus one. It wouldn''t be that simple though. The Emperor has very strong and loyal Royal Guards. They number at least 20, and are at a simr level to us masters". I nodded and asked, "What about others?".


    He replied "There were others who broke through that Limit. Some masters of Forbidden Arts did it as well. Besides that, we have the North and Elysian Empire. The North is much more mysterious, but I know that Hatmandor possesses at least two beings at the Primal Limits stage. Elysian Empire is small, but they are quite rich in natural resources. They are Humans just like you and me, but they are also different. With their secret of "Living Formations", they pack as much punch as the whole Endrosian Empire. The Emperor of the Elysian Empire is also someone who reached their Primal Limits, although they do it naturally. Or so I heard".


    I asked excited "Have you been to Elysian Empire?". He nodded, and said "I have. Elysians are really peaceful, but they will not allow anyone in, except for certain people. No one from the Royalty has a right to enter. They only allow people like me to enter. They know I wouldn''t help the Royals steal their secrets. Besides, Even as a master in the Art of Stealth, I don''t think I would be able to escape, if they really wanted to catch me in theirnd. Elysians are not a joke, let me tell you that much".


    I asked "Can you tell me more? How does the ce look like, and so on?". He smiled and replied, "Me telling you, would be boring. How about this? If you do well, I will take you there for a few days. We are not that far away from Elysian Empire anyway". I nodded my head frantically, and eximed "I will try my best!". The old man seemed satisfied, and asked "So, what now?". I thought about it, and asked "Can we have a bout? If I fight you, I would be able to pick things up faster".


    Heughed "Kid, are you serious? You can''t even detect me, and you want to have a bout with me? I told you, I''m not here to teach you. I will only give you hints, when I see fit. You are doing well, but it seems you forgot about something". I thought about it, and asked "What would that be?". He replied "I already gave you one hint. Think about it boy. Take things slowly. Pushing oneself and rushing, are two different concepts. You are rushing right now, so slow down. Take some time to form your thoughts, and think about what I told you. You are not too far away from reaching something".


    ''It must be the story about Arien then. He did indeed say that there is a secret hidden in that story. I was focused on other things, and had no time to really analyse it. Besides, I never believed those stories'' I thought. Either way, I had to think about the story. If it contained the hint, I could gain something from it.


    I recalled Arien''s story, that the old man told me about. ''She was just a normal woman, yet was able to create the Art of Stealth. She was chasing a shadow for most of her life, but the shadow was just a figment of her imagination¡­''. As I thought to this point, I recalled something. ''Shadow that is a figment of one''s imagination¡­ I think I know what that is. It must''ve been the Shadow Battle technique, but with one difference. She wasn''t fighting it, instead she was trying to catch up to it, unveil it'' I thought.


    This would make sense, she was never able to unveil the shadow, because it never existed. She imagined it, it was all in her head. When she realised that, she noticed that she could do the same. ''If that is the case, does that mean I need to chase a shadow too?'' I thought. There was more to it. I didn''t believe it was that simple.


    I wrecked my brain about it, analysing everything that the old man told me. I came to only one conclusion ''Illusion. Is the secret to the Art of Stealth an illusion? Avoid the Light... '', and it hit me. It all made sense now. The Art of Stealth was not a simple Art of hiding, it was an Art of Illusion. My body moved by itself, and I entered a state I could only describe as "Epiphany".


    I was now able to appear, and disappear like a ghost¡­ No, I was able to do this for a long time. I simply didn''t realise that, and search for something that didn''t exist. That was the secret of the Art of Stealth. I stopped, and looked into the distance with a single thought. ''I did it Nick, I reached the stage you told me to reach'' I thought. Although Nick reached simr stage, it was different. His master must''ve had too much influence on him, helped him too much. Whereas I reached the stage by myself.


    The old man stood there shocked for a while. When he finally woke up, he said "Monster". I turned to look at him, and said "The answer was always in front of me. I chased after something that never existed. That was the hint of the story¡­ But, that is not the mastery, isn''t it?". His mouth twitched, and asked "Then what is?" I replied "Illusion, that is the real mastery, right?".


    His face went grim for a while. He suddenly startedughing, and said "You are indeed natural. I told you that story only once, just like it was told to me. Yet, you figured out everything so easily. Indeed, you haven''t be a master yet. Your ability to hide improved for sure, but illusion is the real mastery". I nodded, and said "Now I know why this is a Forbidden Art. Eterians are the reason right? The Art of Stealth was not forbidden before, only after the Eterians appeared, did it be a Forbidden Art".


    He was stillughing quietly, and responded "Correct. Eterians¡­ Master Maniptors. They specialise in illusions, but also in other practices that can control people. Charm or charisma, they use anything to get their way". I asked "I now know where to proceed, but I don''t really know how. Do you have any hints for that?". He replied, "First, show me what you can do. I want to see the extent of your abilities". I asked surprised "You want to fight?". He shook his head, and said "You can hide better, but your perception is still not there. This is something, you should be working on from now on. Jump, I want to see you move".


    I nodded my head, and jumped down the mountain. The old man followed me, not to help me out, but to watch me. We were both using our abilities to hide. If someone stood on that mountain, he wouldn''t even realise we passed by. I used the control of my energy, as well as the knowledge from my Natural Path skill, to descend. No obstacle was able to stop me. Soon, both of us appeared at the bottom of the mountain, like shadows that seemed real and unreal.


    The old man said "Good, that step ispleted. You can meld into anything you want. Now you just have to learn about illusions". I asked "And how do I do that". He shook his head, and said "That is for you to figure out. I will only give you hints, when I see fit. For now, try by yourself. If you are stuck for too long, I will help you out. Besides, I already told you what you can work on". I nodded my head in understanding.

 Chapter 353

    Chapter 353


    ''Work on my perception eh? And how would I go about that exactly?'' I asked myself. I could do some mental exercises, but that was not perception. I needed to train my senses to perceive things better. I thought about it for a while, and came up with the only thing I knew. ''Instincts''. That was the only thing I had, which could perceive danger and perhaps beyond that. ''The only method to train my instinct, would be to seal most of my senses'' I thought. This was counterintuitive. Instead of sealing everything but one sense, I had to seal everything. This was no longer impossible for me, with the mastery in my energy control, I could do that.


    ''I will be blind, deaf and unable to smell anything¡­ This can only go bad'' I thought, but I had no other method. I needed to be able to harness my instincts at will, not when there was immediate danger to my life. I sighed, and controlled my energy. My eyes were enveloped by darkness, I heard nothing and smelled nothing. My three senses were sealed. I knew I was at the bottom of a mountain, I just had to go forwards, in order to reach the peak. Seemed easy in theory, but without the help of my senses, it was something very, very difficult.


    I walked forwards, not aware of what was in front of me. I stumbled and fell down very quickly, but there was no sound for me, only the feeling of hitting the ground. ''This is rather impossible. I can''t perceive anything at all¡­ Whatever, it''s not like this is my first crazy idea. Besides, Crow went through a simr thing. Moreover, I was the one who told him to do it. It would look bad, if Crow was able to achieve this, but not me'' I thought.


    I picked myself up, and walked a few steps forwards, before I stumbled and fell again. This went on, until my instincts red up. Something was about to hit me. I punched forwards, and hit something. I didn''t know what it was, but most probably an animal that rushed at me. Time passed, but I had no concept of time, while most of my senses were sealed. It was impossible for me to seal my sense of touch. I still had to rely on something. With no feedback from anything, I could fall from a cliff, and die without even knowing it.


    The idea ofpletely sealing all my senses seemed nice, but it was a double edged sword. Although I wouldn''t be able to feel the pain, I could potentially overreach myself. This meant I could umte very serious injuries, which might result in a prolonged harm to my body. Without the pain, a Human could easily perish. Fear and pain, both of those feelings were necessary for a Human.


    I traversed the mountain, but I had no idea where I was going, and how far I went. I decided to unseal my senses, and check. I noticed that I was still on the mountain, this was a good sign. The bad thing was that, I nearly made no progress. I was maybe 400 to 500 metres away from my original position. ''Still a long way to go'' I thought, and sealed back my senses.


    I walked, stumbled, smashed my head and killed anything that my instincts red up against. When I unsealed my senses again, I realised that I was not too far away from the peak. It was already night time. ''I wonder if I can use the ck Orbs, to help orientate myself. It''s worth a try'' I thought, and sealed back my senses. I then started absorbing the ck Orbs. My body could contain only a specific amount of them, and when I was "full", I wasn''t able to absorb anymore.


    I "looked" around, but saw nothing. ''Maybe this cannot help me. After all, the ck Orbs can already do a lot. Besides, ck Orbs are not the real answer to improving my perception. I just have to continue like this, until I''m able to learn something'' I thought. I started walking again, the peak and my destination was not that far away anymore.


    I didn''t try to cheat myself, and memorize a path. I simply walked, and tried to figure something out. Soon, I hit my head onto something...sharp? I checked with my hands, and it was smooth. ''Not a tree, so it must be the one of the house''s corners. Now I just need to find the door'' I thought. Because I wasn''t aware of my surroundings, I didn''t know where the doors were. I moved to the right, and tried searching with my hands.


    After a while, I finally found a handle and pressed it down. The doors opened. I only knew that, because when I pushed forwards, my arm travelled forward. I think I closed the doors behind me, and tried to locate my bed. It wasn''t that hard to be honest. I already knew the house inside out. I quickly made it there, and found my bed. I unsealed my senses, and looked around.


    "I''m finally back", I said to myself. The old manid on his bed, and asked "Can I just ask. What the hell were you doing? You didn''t respond when I called out, and stumbled like a blind man. It took you so many hours, just to get here". I replied "I sealed my senses. I need to train my perception. I might be able to train my sight, hearing and smell to a better standard, ultimately though, I decided against that".


    He asked confused "Why?". I replied "Instincts. You don''t know this, but my instincts saved my life many times. It''s not that simple though. Not being able to perceive anything, is difficult. I believe that with time, I can learn something though". The old man didn''t reply anymore. ''It seems he has no problems with that. Anyway, if this doesn''t work after a long time, I will just focus on my senses. I can still improve them a bit more, probably'' I thought, and went outside.


    I wasn''t really tired, so I decided to continue training like this. This time, it was more difficult. I was going downhill, and a stumble could result in a roll and an eventual crash into something. I persisted and walked like this for the whole night. I only returned early in the morning. I was tired, injured and wanted to sleep. I hit the bed, and closed my eyes.


    Something suddenly jolted me awake. I was disoriented and tired still. I must''ve slept for only a short amount of time. I smashed into something very hard, and the pain fully awoke me. I noticed that I was no longer in the house. I shouted "What the hell are you doing old man!". I picked myself up, but the old man was not around. I saw someone else walking towards me. A stout man, with a full facial beard, and ck hair long enough to cover half of his face. His face though, there was arge scar on it. I couldn''t see the whole scar, due to his hair obstructing it. He was draped in animal skins, while arge sword was attached to his back. He was releasing an imposing Aura that seemed familiar.


    I asked him, "Who the hell are you?". The man didn''t reply, but released his Aura, and rushed at me. I quickly disappeared, but the Aura locked me in ce. I was shocked, the Aura was too familiar to my own. Full of bloodlust and anger. Before I could even counter his Aura, the man punched my face, and I flew through the air.


    I broke a few trees in the process, and finallynded with a "Bang!". I was starting to get pissed. ''This motherfucker threw me out of the house. Moreover, he still punched me in my face!''. I was tired, but I stood up. "I don''t give a shit if you are a master or not. I will not be punched around". He didn''t reply. Instead, he released his Aura again. I released my own Aura, and tried to counter him¡­ He was too strong though. I was barely able to move, when another punch arrived.


    I controlled my energy, and twisted my body, in a way normal Humans shouldn''t be able to. The punch missed, while 10 daggers flew at him. I thought that with such proximity, he wouldn''t be able to dodge. He didn''t have to. He simply swiped his other hand, which held a short sword, and deflected them all. He punched me again, and I crushed a few more trees.


    ''What the fuck is this guy''s problem!?'' I eximed in my head. I was even more pissed, since the old man was not around. When I barely picked myself up, I was punched again. I couldn''t take it anymore and shouted "I will fucking kill you! Even if it costs me my life!". The anger I felt, awakened that crazy Aura inside of me. My vision turned red, and the pain lessened. I started walking forwards, but the stout man didn''t even flinch. He just stepped forward, and with a "Boom!", rushed at me.


    His Aura no longer affected me that much. I evaded that attack, and punched out. He caught my punch like it was nothing, and punched me instead. I coughed out some blood, while he gripped my hand and mmed his fist into my stomach again.

 Chapter 354

    Chapter 354


    "Boom!","Boom!", "Boom!","Boom!".


    I felt deep seeded hatred awaking inside of me. I didn''t care anymore, that guy had to die. With a final punch, he released my arm, and I flew through the air again. When I mmed into the ground, my vision got blurry, but also more red, darker red to be precise. I was no longer able to stand, but somehow my body picked itself up.


    "Ha..Hahaha¡­", augh escaped my mouth. Although the voice belonged to me, it didn''t at the same time. I faintly heard someone shouting, but I no longer knew what was going on. My body started walking, then running. Something didn''t feel right, and then I heard my voice, but not my voice again. ''Release me, and I will kill that man for you''. I was confused. My body still moved around, and attacked that stout man.


    The voice repeated ''You are weak, release me. No one can stop us if you do''. I asked ''Release you? What are you?''. The voice replied ''Why ask, when you already know the answer? Release me, let the world drown in blood. We can achieve anything!''. I realised what it was, I already met that¡­ thing before. I fought it before. This was not the same asst time. This time, that thing was different.


    I replied ''No! You have no power over my body!''. The voice screamed ''Fool! Don''t you realise your own potential? Release me, and we can rule this world!''. I shouted ''Shut up! Get the hell out of my head!''. My body suddenly stopped, but not because I shouted, something stopped me. The blurry dark red vision began returning to normal, and I fainted.


    I don''t know for how long I was out. When I woke up, everything hurt me. I couldn''t move at all, and even my vision was blurry. I felt weak. I closed my eyes again, and fell asleep. I was too tired to stay awake. When I woke up for the second time, I felt much better. I could move, and the pain mostly disappeared. After a while, I noticed that I was inside the old man''s house.


    "Old man¡­ you there?" I asked loudly. The old man replied "You are finally awake. It took you some time. You were out for about two weeks". I sat up, and asked "Two weeks?". Then I realized someone else was inside the house. "What is that bastard doing here?", I asked. The stout man stood up, and walked towards me, but the old man stood in front of my bed, and said "You already done enough. Sit the hell down!".


    The stout man replied, "You think you can order me around. Out of my way". He released his Aura, but the old man did the same. As they were about to sh, they suddenly stopped, and their Auras vanished. A short grandpa walked in, and said "I told you two to stop messing around. I will not repeat myself again". The stout man mumbled "Bastard", when suddenly a dagger appeared on his neck.


    The short grandpa asked "You said something boy?". The stout man stayed silent. ''I couldn''t even see the dagger. Not only that, I couldn''t see when he took it out'' I thought. This was the third master. The master in the Art of Hidden Weapons. I could easily guess that the second guy, was a master in the Art of Rage, but I didn''t like him at all.


    The short grandpa walked over to my bed, and said "Stand up boy". I nodded, and stood up. He observed me, and suddenly my instincts red up. I jumped backwards, shielding myself using my right arm. The short grandpa only stood there, and a smile bloomed on his face. He said "Good reaction boy. I see that idiot messed you up a bit, but you should be proud. You managed to get in a few hits on your own. Who knows what would happen if I didn''t stop you". I asked surprised "You were the one who stopped me? I don''t remember much, only some hazy memories, but I''m sure my body suddenly stopped. How did you do it?".


    He smiled, and replied "I don''t mind showing you, because you came up with something simr, at least ording to Yater". I asked "Yater?". The short grandpa looked at the old man, and asked him "You didn''t even tell him your name?". He shook his head in defeat, and said "One almost killed him, and the other ignored him¡­ Are you guys real masters?". Both of them hung their heads down. It seemed like this short grandpa had a lot to say.


    I asked "Why do they listen to you?". The short grandpa replied "Because I''ve been a master for a long time now. These two are new". He pointed at the old man, and said "He became a master about 10 years ago. The previous two masters, died 20 and 7 years ago respectively". He then pointed at the stout man, and said "This guy is younger, and doesn''t have as much experience. He became a master only 3 years ago. The previous one, died 5 years ago".


    He then continued "My name is Nathan. We both lived through the same experiences. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be even talking to you. That is not enough though. If you want my help, you have to earn it". I replied "I don''t need help, I always nned to master my skills. With or without your help, I will make it one day". I then pointed at the stout man, and said "He can piss off too. I don''t need that kind of guy in my life. After what happenedst time, I don''t need his Art".


    The stout man snorted, and replied "What? Little baby got punched too hard, and is scared now?". I asked "Scared? Of you? No, I''m scared of that thing, which would eventually kill you. I don''t need that thing, whatever it was". The guy didn''t take it well, and released his Aura. As he was about tounch at me, he suddenly stopped. "I told you to shut up, didn''t I? How many times do you think I will repeat myself?", said Nathan.


    The stout man was bleeding all over his body, then I finally noticed something. "Strings!". Nathan replied "Wires, not string. Simr concept though". When the stout man could finally move, he said "Whatever, I''m off. He is not interested in learning from me". No one stopped the guy, and he left. The short grandpa asked "Are you fine with that?". I replied "I don''t need a jackass, who punches me in my sleep. Besides, I don''t need his Art. I don''t want to deal with whatever it was again".


    Nathan replied, "You are wrong about something. This idiot Yater probably told you, he is a master in the Art of Rage. That is amonly used name, due to the characteristics of the practitioners. The real name of this Art, is the Art of War. He wouldn''t teach you how to be angry, but how to control and use your anger as power. That is the basic principle of the Art of War".


    He then continued, "If you knew him, then you might understand why he did it. Although it might''ve been a bit overboard, but that''s how the Art of War is. I can get him back here, if you want". This time Yater replied "He hasn''t left. He sits outside, like an idiot". I heard a loud "I''m not an idiot!". I sighed, and said "Alright, I will learn all three Arts. Let''s forget about what happened".


    Nathan said "I told you already. You need to show me, you deserve my help. I''ve been disappointed too many times. There were many who I spend time on, but they couldn''t get it, they were not fit to be masters. Instead of wasting my time, I will watch you. If I''m satisfied, I will help you out. If not, I will leave. Yater will stick with you for sure, I can see that he is impressed by you. That idiot Irwin will also stay. He has no chance of finding another one like you easily". I replied "As you like", and walked outside.


    <div ss="chapternav skiptrante">


    <a title="Chapter 353 They''re Here Part 1" ss="prevchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-353">


    <i ss="icon-left-open">


    Prev


    </a>


    <a title="Limits Chapter List" ss="chapindex" href="/novel/limits-17031322">


    <i ss="icon-home">


    Index


    </a>


    <a title="Chapter 355 The Art of War Story" ss="nextchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-355">


    Next


    <i ss="icon-right-open">


    </a>

 Chapter 355

    Chapter 355


    The guy called Irwin sat outside, staring at the night sky. He didn''t turn around, instead he just spoke. "Just because you want to learn, it doesn''t mean I will teach you". I replied "Suit yourself. I''m not here to please any of you, and that includes the short grandpa. You want to share something, do so. If you don''t, then stay out of my way". I didn''t pay attention to him anymore, and sealed my senses.


    ''I have to train my instincts. If that doesn''t work, I can try improving my senses separately'' I thought, and walked forwards. It didn''t take long before I stumbled, and fell down. This was already expected. I picked myself up, and continued. I decided to live like that for a longer period of time. Do everything with my body. Let my body get ustomed to theck of my senses, and see if this brings any results.


    Time slowly passed, and I stumbled like a blind man all the time. I hit my head countless times, but it wasn''t all for nothing. My body learned to live without my senses, and sometimes moved on its own. Well, not on its own, I moved my body. It''s hard to exin this. In simple terms, my body somehow knew when to turn and avoid an obstacle, or move to a different path to avoid falling down. That didn''t mean I could walk without stumbling, but my training was bringing in some results.


    I had no idea how much time passed, so I unsealed my senses, and looked around. I kind of expected to be in the approximate area, I was in. A thin mountain forest surrounded me. "I wonder how much time has passed, since I started this training?", I asked myself out loud. I counted the amount of times I went to sleep, but I wasn''t sure if I wandered around the area for a day, or half a day.


    Someone else answered that question for me. "It''s been over one month. To be precise, one month and four days". It was Irwin''s voice. I turned toward him, and said "Still here? It''s not like anything is keeping you around". He replied "I will help you. You are crazy, but not in a bad sense. I must admit, I was clueless about your behaviour. Only when that old bastard Yater exined, I understood. Living for over a month, with your senses sealed¡­ Even I would go crazy like this".


    I replied "Thanks, I guess. So, how will you help me?". Irwin replied "What is your name?". I said "Nex". He nodded, and continued "I will help you control that rage inside you. Don''t be fooled brat, what fought with me at that time, was still you. Your rage took over. The worst part is that, if you gave in to your rage, you would be a lost cause. Deadly, but no longer a rational Human being. Sooner orter, someone would dispose of you".


    I asked "So, this was just my rage? Speaking to me?". He replied "Everyone has a different experience with their rage. Your case is not that umon though. You can think of it as having two personalities. The you, which we see everyday, and the sleeping personality, which contains all your anger, hate and desire for blood. I wouldn''t stay, if your Aura wasn''t that strong. But, you are very promising, more than me probably".


    I asked "So you will also give me tips, like Yater?". He shook his head, and replied "No, the Art of War has to be taught. If you can''t control and use your rage properly, you will never be able to achieve mastery. Although there were cases where people were able to do it by themselves, it needs a special kind of person. Otherwise, a master is always needed for the first step. I will not help you reach the mastery. I will only help you control and use your rage". I pointed at his sword, and asked "You are a swordsman right? Can you teach me about swords?". He seemed surprised, and asked "Have you learned before?". I nodded, and took out my Bastard Sword.


    Irwin smiled, and replied "Nice chunk of metal. Suits the Art of War. Very well, I will teach you some stuff about swords too, under the condition that you learn to control your rage". I replied "I''m alright with that", and hid the Bastard Sword away. I asked "So what am I supposed to do?". He grinned and replied "Battle!". Without any warning, he rushed at me with his Aura released, and threw a punch. ''Not this again!'' I though. This was a surprise attack, and his punch connected.


    When I crashed into a tree, he said "Awaken your Aura. Otherwise, you will only end up beaten up again". I refused, I didn''t want to release that thing again. Whether it was my personality, or simply me but very pissed, I didn''t want to do it. Irwin though, had his own methods. He punched me so much, I couldn''t contain it anymore and the Aura awakened.


    He nodded, and said "Finally! Now control it. Make it yours, don''t let it dictate what to do!". I wanted to kill, I wanted to see the man bleed, until no more blood was left in his body. He didn''t punch me anymore though, only defended when I attacked. After a while, the Aura got weaker and weaker. I managed to calm down after some time, and the Aurapletely vanished.


    I was tired, Irwin beat me up real good again. He patted my shoulder, and said "It''s necessary. You have no idea what hell I had to go through, in order to be a master". I replied "Perhaps, but my body will break before that". Heughed, and said "That is part of your training too. Do you really think the Art of War is a forbidden technique without a reason?".


    I asked "Will you tell me the story?". He thought about it, and replied "Come to think of it, I should, shouldn''t I? The story is rather simple, but you may get something out of it". I nodded, and awaited the story. Irwin said "The Art of War is, I think the oldest of the Arts I know about. There is no exact record as to when the Art of War was formed, but one name reverberated throughout history. That name was Elian Roamlord, a soldier who mastered and perhaps even founded the Art. As I said, the records are not clear, but Elian is considered as the founder".


    He continued "Elian wasn''t going around angry all the time. He was rather helpful to other people, and no one would say anything bad about him. That was until he entered the battlefield. They called him Fiend Soldier, due to the gore one would see when he fought. This alone wouldn''t justify such title. What allowed him to get such title, was the pure happiness on his face, when he massacred his enemies".


    "Elian was very righteous. He always protected his kingdom, but that changed with time. It wasn''t another war, it was the Royal Family. They obviously hailed him as a hero, who defeated many opponents on the battlefield. But Elian learned about their schemes, about the fake wars, about countless lives lost in the name of profit and political maniptions. His rage reached the apex, and he murdered. He killed most of the Royal Family members. As one of the strongest soldiers in the kingdom, he was very strong".


    "Why does this matter? The crucial part of this story, is that Elian was able to control his rage, and gave it an objective. He used his rage for justice, and then took his own life. He took his own life, because he was guilty of the same sins that the Royal Family was. He killed for no reason, questioning nothing. As I said, he was very righteous, not a hypocrite. He took his own life, to atone for the sins hemitted".


    The story was over, but Irwin continued. "I know this is not really a story, because I simply told you what happened. The crucial thing is that, a soldier murdered the Royal Family. Many years passed, and another master in the Art of War was born. Can you guess what happened?". I replied "He also killed Royals?". Irwin nodded, and replied "Yes, he killed the Royals scheming behind his and other people''s backs".


    I said, "That is why it is a Forbidden Art?". Irwin replied "It''s one reason. Not everyone who became a master, worked under Royal Family. But yes, we all have hate towards Royals. You are no exception, are you not?". I nodded, and said "Yes, I also hate Royals. Well, maybe thete Emperor was alright, I only met him once though".


    Irwinughed, and replied "Him? He did a fair share of bad things. In the past, we were considered heros. Now we are considered a gue. There is only one way to master the Art of War, and I don''t mind telling you. Art of War has to be learned through battle. Giving you hints about this and that¡­ pointless. You have to learn with your body. Which is the exact reason, I greeted you like that. In the past, with many wars spreading through the kingdoms, the masters were plentiful. Now, in the time of peace, it''s really hard to rise a master in the Art of War. Which is why, they probably call us masters in the Art of Rage".


    I asked "So you gonna punch the shit out of me every day?". He smiled while replying "Pretty much. Until you are able to awaken your Aura without being beaten up. The control is also important. If you give in, you are just a walking disaster. In a sense, this is I think the only Art, where master apanies and teaches a student for a long time". I nodded, and said "Alright, but we will do something else".

 Chapter 356

    Chapter 356


    Irwin asked confused "And what would that be?". I replied "I need to practice my instincts. You said that I have to learn with my body. Therefore my eyes, ears and nose, are not really needed here. If this works, I can kill two birds with one stone". He replied "Are you crazy? This requires your concentration. How can you concentrate, if you abandon your senses?". I thought about it, and he was right. My rage was not something I could take lightly.


    "You are right. I already improved in the Art of Stealth, rushing is not the solution". He nodded, and said "Good that you realise. We will take it slowly, there is no need to rush". I shook my head, and said "We will not rush, but pushing myself, is not the same as rushing. We will do this, until I faint". He smiled, and replied "I''m fine with that".


    I was beaten up everyday. My Aura would awaken, while I tried to control it. There was some progress. I was able to suppress my Aura, and stop itpletely after some time. Irwin told me that this was a very good progress. I couldn''t possibly control it, without being able to suppress it. A few dayster, I recalled something, and asked Irwin. "Where is Yater?". He replied "Him? He went out about two weeks ago. He said he had something to do, but that''s all I know". I nodded, and though ''He probably went to check up on Fox''.


    We resumed our training. Only thanks to my mastery in energy control, was I able to restore myself before getting beaten up again. If I were to use my potions every time, I would run out rather quickly. The downside was that, I had to eat a lot. Almost a month passed. Yater was not back yet, and I started to worry. ''I hope everything is alright. He should be there already. I''m not sure how long it would take him to arrive there though'' I thought.


    My thoughts were interrupted by a punch, and a scolding "You have time to doze off?!". I released my Aura full of hate and thirst for blood. I was able to release it after a few punches now, but I wasn''t able to control it. We worked on that most of the time now. I had to keep the Aura under my control, and use it to attack.


    Another two weeks passed. Irwin didn''t say anything, but I could see a glint in his eyes, when I finally managed to release my Aura without being punched first. Although I couldn''t control it, I could release it at any time now. The trick to that was simple. I just had to think about something that angered me in the past. I had loads of such memories. One of such examples would be Royals, or even Golems and their schemes.


    One day, after my training with Irwin, Yater finally returned. I asked him with some urgency "Everything''s alright?". Yater nodded, and said "Yes. She is there. Heavily guarded I might add. Her father did a great job protecting her". I asked "Did you speak to her?". He replied "That wasn''t a part of the deal, but I guessed you would ask that. Yes, I did tell her you are alright. So don''t worry anymore, and focus on your training now. By the way, I think Irwin had you for himself for too long".


    Irwin butted in "Get lost old man, he has loads to learn still". Yater replied "You get lost! You had him for yourself for about two months. What, you didn''t teach him well? Tough luck! He will work on his Art of Stealth now". Irwin released his Aura, and replied "Wanna try me out?". Yater also released his Aura. His Aura felt quiet and faint, as if a ghost stood next to me.


    They were about to sh, when the short grandpa Nathan stepped in. "Drop it you two. Save some face in front of that kid will you? Let him choose what to learn". Nathan appeared from the shadows, and walked up to our small group. I asked surprised "You learned the Art of Stealth?". He smiled, and replied "I''m no master, but yes, I did learn it. When you live as long as I do, hopefully you can be something more than a Grand Master. I don''t have much talent in the Art of Stealth, but I learned it".


    Both Yater and Irwin stopped their squabble, and awaited my decision. I said to all of them "I already practiced my Art of Stealth, and even learned something about the Art of War. It''s been a while since I practiced my Art of Hidden Weapons. Nathan, you are still here. Does that mean you want to share something with me, or not?".


    Nathan smiled, and replied "So you want Hidden Weapons eh? Alright, I will tell you the story first, then we can see the full extent of your skills". I nodded my head, while Nathan told the other two to find something else to do for a while. Nathan motioned for me to sit down, and asked "Have you heard about Endros?". I nodded, and said "I did, but probably a short version of the story. I would like to hear it from you either way". Nathan nodded, and narrated.


    "Endros became an orphan when he was little. His parents were killed by the soldiers of the Northern Kingdom. He was too small at that time, to understand concepts such as hate, or revenge. He grew up in an orphanage, but he didn''t like it there at all. When he became 10 years old, Endros ran away from them, and lived on the street".


    Nathan continued "Endros was kind to others, especially other kids who also lived on the streets. They formed a small gang, and helped each other out. When someone stole something, they would all share. Endros would even help the elders, who had no way of earning money to buy some food. He was rather popr on the streets, and liked by many".


    "One fateful day. Endros stole some money from a wealthy merchant. This was his mistake. He aimed to high with the self taught skills he possessed. He got caught, beaten up and when they found out that he was living on the streets, enved. Although the very in this day and age is not umon, at the time Endros was alive, very was everyday experience for all citizens. ves would be sold in the open, at vige or city squares. If a person had no family, or the family didn''t want to pay or had no means to cover for such a crime, they would be enved. Today, it''s a bit different. People are usually sold as ves because they owe too much, or theymitted serious crimes and have no means of paying for them. A robbery wouldn''t necessarily enve you today".


    ''I guess I was "lucky" then'' I thought. I didn''tmit any crime, they just used my weakness as a leverage to get me enved. Either way, they were gone now, while Nathan''s story continued. "They washed him, dressed him and even tended to his wounds. Endros was not ugly at all, and the merchant was not stupid. Although he went through some inconvenience, he had a high profile ve at his hands. Endros could be sold to wealthier people, for more money".


    "That is precisely what happened. Endros was sold to a Duke of a city called Myran. This city no longer exists, as you will find out why soon. He was hostile to other guards, and even other ves bullied him. Soon he learned to be obedient, but at a price which theyter paid".


    "He didn''t have a nice childhood at all. When Endros could take it no more, something snapped inside him. With the strict rules that he had to abide by, he found a way to practice a killing technique. His ns were basic in the beginning. He just wanted his freedom. He developed the basis of the Art of Hidden Weapons at the age of 16, this was when he killed for the first time. No one saw how he killed the other ve, but it was thanks to Hidden Weapons. They figured out that Endros was the one who killed the ve, and he was punished heavily for that".


    "But, because of his pretty face, and the dark secret of the Duke, he was spared. Endros formed his n to eradicate the whole mansion. He had enough of being a ve, and he already had the skills to finish people off silently. One fateful day, when the Duke called him to his bedroom again, Endros was ready. He went through this many times, and knew how all the guards behaved".


    "He was of course searched before he could enter, but Endros knew that, and hid his weapon very well. When the Duke was busy getting undressed, he pierced his head with a sharp piece of metal, and killed the Duke instantly. He then killed the guards at the doors, then those who patrolled around the mansion, and all the people who worked there. Not even the ves were spared. He killed everything and everyone who lived in that mansion. He then disappeared, while the uproar of the killed Royalty spread".


    I thought this was the end, because Nick stopped at simr point. Instead, Nathan continued "Endros returned to his home vige. He found his old friends. Some of them were dead, while other barely scraped by. When they saw their old friend back, almost all of them were ted. Except one guy. Endros disposed of him, and only kept loyal people around him, and loyal they were. He grew up teaching them how to fight, and learned how to fight himself. Gaining money was no longer a problem for him. He could kill a travelling merchant, and take all his money".


    "Their small gang grew, and grew until they held a whole city in reins. Endros was ambitious though. He had charisma, skills and was ruthless. With his ideas, he soon became the owner of that city, and started to branch out to other cities. With time, the whole Wester Kingdom was his yground. He became the silent ruler at first, then took the limelight, and became a king. This wouldn''t be possible without his skills and talent. He was able to break through to his Inner limits, at the age of 40".


    "With enough military power, he conquered other kingdoms. At the age of 63, he ruled over most of the kingdoms. At the age of 79, he became an Emperor, unifying all the kingdoms to form Endrosian Empire. The city of Myran? It was not spared at all. The whole city was razed to the ground. This would normally create uproar, but Endros was not an idiot. He told people about hideous crimes the citizens of that citymitted, and people stood behind him. All of that was a lie of course, but no one really knew. No one knew he was a ve anymore, no one besides the trusted people, he had by his side from the beginning. That is how the story of Endros goes".

 Chapter 357

    Chapter 357


    The story was different to what Nick told me, but I believed that Nick either knew only a short version, or simplified it by a lot. There was nothing to ask, it was only a story. Even if it was true, that wouldn''t change much. Nathan gave me no clues about the Art of Hidden Weapons. I said "You want to test my skills now?". Nathan nodded, and replied "Yes, show me what you got. I warn you though, you are allowed to use the skills from the Art of Hidden Weapons only".


    I agreed, and began attacking him. Daggers started flying left and right. All at tricky angles, and all hard to dodge. The strength behind my daggers, could easily pierce through people. Yet, Nathan evaded them or deflected them. He said "Is that the extent of your strength?". I smiled, and threw a few more daggers, this time with my Domineering Aura silently imbued. When he deflected them, the Aura travelled into his body.


    Nathan though, only smiled and replied "Those petty trick will not work on strong people. Not only I could feel your Aura, I could easily destroy it. I allowed it to enter my body on purpose". He then threw something himself. I was barely able to dodge, yet some cuts appeared on my body. What he threw, looked like arrows, but made from metal and without the feathers. They were also smaller, about palm sized. That was his weapon of choice, small metallic arrows.


    I knew I had no chance against him, but he told me to show off my skills, and that''s what I intended to do. With a heavy step, I lunged forwards at great speed. Ten daggers appeared around me, floating on either side. Nathan didn''t try to run away, he stood his ground, and waited. I arrived in front of him and released my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill, with the Aura attached. "Swosh!","Swosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!".


    A barrage of attacks assaulted Nathan, but he was able to somehow deflect them all. I increased the speed, and aimed at his pressure points. This was the apex of my abilities in the Art of Hidden Weapons. Stringed daggers with Domineering Aura, aimed at pressure points. "ng!", "ng!", "ng!", "ng!", "ng!".


    The daggers were being deflected by something, I didn''t even leave a scratch on Nathan. I stopped my attack, and backed off. I knew what he was using, because he himself told me about it. "Wires eh?", I asked. Nathan nodded, and said "Correct. My wires can be used as a means to defend, or support. You went a different way, and used string to aid your attack. Your defence on the other hand suffered. How about your supporting skills?".


    I shook my head, and said "I don''t really have anything like your wires. I can only block with this", and showed him my right arm. He smiled, and said "That right arm of your is indeed different, but that is not Art of Hidden Weapons skill. Now you realise, what you have to work on?". I nodded, and replied "I do". Nathan continued, "It will not be easy boy. You have to figure out how to defend yourself properly, and how to use Hidden Weapons as a means to support you. Remember, we are not swordsmen. We fight by trickery, and hidden means. Full frontal attacks are thest resort. From what I saw, you went in the direction of closebat. Not a bad choice, but this requires even greater skills in defence and support. If you have none, you will lose very quickly".


    I replied "I get it. I need to work on my defence and support". He smiled, and said "I will leave you to it then". I stood there thinking. ''What could I use as a means of support, and defence? I can''t copy his wires. Besides, I have none¡­''. I thought about it for a while, when suddenly a gust of wind blew my hair up. "Wind! I forgot about the wind!". There was a skill I trained before. A skill so ridiculous, it seemed impossible to master. ''Wind can help me a lot. Almost unpredictable, and ever present. I need to resume my training of sensing the wind'' I thought.


    Initially, I wanted to use the wind as my attacking move. I realized that wind could be used in many more ways. ''Although I can use wind as support, it''s not really useful as defence. Natural Path skill would probably benefit more than my defence. What am I supposed to do for defence?'' I thought. Although I had my answer about support skills, I stillcked in defence.


    What Nathan said, waspletely true. I had nothing for my defence except my clothes and right arm. ''But what exactly can I do? Use a shield? This is not a skill either'' I thought. I could use my Stringed Hidden Weapons as a defensive skill, which didn''t cross my mind before. ''Will that work though? It needs different patterns and maniptions. It is feasible though'' I thought.


    With my new n formed, I began from improving my defence. I had to adjust my Stringed Hidden Weapon skill, to that of a defence skill. I already had an idea. ''If I rotate my daggers well, I can deflect stuff. If my daggers and control is good enough, I might even be able to deflect elemental skill'' I thought.


    It was a bit of a copy, from what Nathan used, but different at the same time. I started my practice, and tried to adjust the maniption. It wasn''t easy, I always learned to attack with my stringed daggers, not defend. The concept of defending was much different. I spend a few days, just on the maniption, but I got the hang of it. ''I''m no master yet, but I think I know where to go with this'' I thought. There were three major Defensive Forms I figured out. One was a ring of daggers surrounding me. The difficulty of forming that,id in the rotation of the daggers around me at all times. I also had to move each dagger separately, in order to deflect something.


    This Defensive Form allowed for all round defence of single attacks, especially arrows. But, it was very difficult to figure out, and required my instincts. This was not a problem though, instincts were part of me, not something that could be sealed away or required an item to use.


    The Second Form I figured out, was a dagger shield. Although it acted like a shield, it was somethingpletely different. I would ce the daggers in a circr pattern in front of me, and use the strings as a sort of spring, to deflect or stop the attack. This Form was easier to manipte, because all the daggers were in front of me. I figured it out when I recalled the elemental skills the Royals used. This Shield Form was perfect for such situations.


    That Defensive Form was by no means easy. It required from me to move the strings just as the attack arrived. Otherwise, the elemental attack would simply break through my shield. The Third and final Form, was different. It was a Defensive Form, but not against physical attacks. I figured that I needed something to fight against the illusions, and skills which affected my mind. Which is where the Third Formes from. Not only was it difficult to pull off, it was deadly to me as well.


    The Third Form had to be manipted in a way, where it could pierce my body from different angles, with my Aura imbued. I wasn''t sure whether this Form would work, but I knew someone who could help me with that. ''I will focus on practice first, then call them over. There is no point practicing Defensive Forms a lot, when I have no opponent'' I thought. In order to figure out whether my Defensive Forms worked or not, someone had to attack me. A Silver Bear or Wolf, wouldn''t do. Nevertheless, I had to be able to manipte my daggers, to assume those Forms in the first ce. That is what I focused on.

 Chapter 358

    Chapter 358


    Time slowly passed, while I practiced my new Defensive Forms. With time, I realised that my attack was also basic, and I could improve that. This resulted in apletely new technique being formed. Stringed Hidden Weapons was still the basis of all those Forms, but I now had a fully developed technique, at least speaking of different Forms.


    I already created the three Defensive Forms, each with its own name. Ring Form, Shield Form and Mind Form. These were the three Defensive Forms of my newly upgraded Stringed Hidden Weapons Technique. The new additions, were the three Offensive Forms, I figured outter. The First Form, Aura Carnage Form. A full frontal attack with my Aura fully attached to the daggers. The Form aimed to cover a group of people or a single individual with a barrage of attacks. In addition, all of them would be targeting my opponent''s pressure points. A deadly skill, but abandons all defence. Of course, it stillcked the stealth part, which I had to figure out in the future.


    The Second Form, Wind Form. I would use the unpredictability of wind, to attack at tricky angles in mid rangebat. My daggers could change directions naturally with the use of wind, which meant I could use some of them in order to defend myself. This was kind of Support Form and Offensive Form in one technique. The difficulty was much greater than the First Offensive Form, because I had to master wind prediction first.


    The third and Final Form, was called Darkness Element Form. This Form could only be used at night, when I absorbed the ck Orbs from my surroundings. The most deadly defensive and attacking Form, I coulde up with. Not only would this Form destroy my opponents attacks, it would destroy my opponent as well. It required a constant spin of all my daggers around my whole body. Like a domain or zone that encircled me. Anything that woulde in contact with that domain, would perish.


    There was a price to pay for this. Not only could I use this Form during the night alone, I could only use it for a very short amount of time. The strain this ced on my body was immense. I also couldn''t support it for a long time. The rate at which the Darkness Element would be consumed? Quick, very quick. I decided to categorise those Orbs, and assign properties to them.


    As far as I found, there were six Elements. The Darkness, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Nature Elements. Not only that, my right hand was able to absorb small quantities of the Water Element. I found out that Water Element allowed for a faster regeneration, but it was restricted to my right arm only. My ice power as well as durability of the scales increased a bit, when the Water Element was absorbed. The benefits of that were obvious. I could use this at any time of the day, but there was a downside too. I had to be near a water source, in order to absorb the Water Element.


    Although these were the Forms, I wasn''t able to execute most of them. For now, they were concepts, and something for me to work towards. The Second and the Final Forms of my Stringed Hidden Weapons Technique, were very difficult to aplish. Coming up with them, took a lot of time too. ''It''s been a few months since I started my training in the Art of Hidden Weapons. I think it''s time for the next step'' I thought, and headed to the peak of the mountain.


    I haven''t visited the peak for those past few months. The three masters secretly checked up on me. I never discovered Yater, but if the other two spied on me, Yater must''ve done it too. When I climbed the peak and entered the house, I saw all three of them inside. Yater and Nathan were sitting on chairs, while Irwin sat on the floor.


    When Irwin saw me, he said "Nex! Make me a chair and a bed!". This guy seemed desperate. I asked "Can''t you do it yourself?". He replied "I don''t know how. Besides, I don''t have the tools. That old bastard wouldn''t share". Yater butted in "It''s your fault for not having the tools. Fess up to it". I shook my head, and replied "Alright, I will make them for you. Now you owe me though".


    He asked "What? For a bed and a chair?". I replied "You can sleep on the floor then". He quickly changed his mind, and said "Fine, I owe you!". I nodded, and went outside to gather some wood. It didn''t take long for me to make a bed and a chair for Irwin. He sat down on the chair, then tested the bed. Irwin said "Not bad, they are usable". I said to all three "I need your help guys. Irwin, do you have any skills that use elements?". Irwin nodded his head, and said "My sword has fire element, why do you ask?". I replied "I need you to attack me with that".


    He asked, "Is it for that thing you were practicing?". I replied by nodding, and turned to the other two. Yater asked "I don''t use any elemental skills though, so how can I help you?". I replied "I don''t need that from you, I need you to use Illusions on me". He was surprised, and asked "Why?". I replied "I need to test my new defensive skills on illusions. Would it look good, if a master in the Art of Stealth was subdued by illusions? Remember that there are Eterians roaming the world". Yater nodded, and said "Right, I will help you out then".


    Thest one was Nathan. He said "You want my skills as well. If my guess is correct, you want me to use my bolt knives, right?". I nodded, and said "That is right. I created three different Forms of defence. Each Form is for something else. One against projectiles, such as arrows or thrown weapons. Second that specialises in blocking elemental attacks, or frontal attacks. And third, which deals with illusions. I''m not sure how well they will work, but I need strong people to practice. There is no one else besides you guys. You also have the necessary skills for me to practice".


    Irwin stood up, and said "Then what are we waiting for? Let''s practice!". We all went outside. I asked Nathan to be the first person. After all, the Ring Form was the First Form. I said "Just go easier in the beginning. You are much stronger than me, and this is only practice". He smiled, and said "Don''t worry boy, I will not kill you".


    I released my daggers, and positioned them in a Ring Form. A ring of daggers floated around me, rotating all the time. Nathan smiled, and said "I already saw it, but not bad. Let us start then". Nathan threw one dagger after the other. I wasn''t able to block most of them, even though he wasn''t serious. We practiced like this for hours, before I stopped him. "I need some rest, and treat my injuries. This is much harder than I thought".


    Nathan cheered me up "Boy, you have something good on your hands. As long as you practice that well, your defence against such attacks, will be very good. This Form also covers your back, I''m not sure how you will cover that, but who knows". I was already prepared, and took out some meat. I had to use my energy, in order to regenerate my body. This required loads of food.


    A whileter, I stood up with my injuries mostly healed, and said to Irwin. "It''s your turn now. Don''t go overboard though. Just start slow, and if need be, you can increase the power". Irwin nodded, and took out his sword. He said "I will use the weakest attack, I learned. It should be alright". I released my daggers again, but this time assuming the Second Form.


    A shield of ten daggers, closely packed together in a circr pattern, appeared in front of me. I had to constantly control them, to keep the Shield Form intact. Irwin''s de suddenly lit with fire, and a Fire Element air sh sped towards me. As the attack was about to arrive, I pulled and released all the strings, with a motion akin to a wave on the sea. I was too quick though, and my Shield Form broke apart. I quickly covered myself with my right arm. I managed to block it, while the damage I sustained was minimal.


    We tried that for a while, until my right hand was unable to move. I was also spent. I had to use my energy, in order to regenerate my right arm faster. After I rested some more, and ate even more food, I said to Yater "Let''s try with illusions now". Yater nodded, and said "I will do some simple ones, let''s see if you can break them". I nodded, and again released my daggers.


    This time, all of the daggers pointed at me. My daggers were ced at specific locations around my body. This was to hit my own pressure points, and wake me up from the illusion. I also attached my Aura to them, just to give myself higher chances. Yater just stood there, and did nothing. He didn''t swipe his hand in any gesture, or made any weird moves. He simply looked at me.


    After a while, I saw two Yaters, then three, four and finally five of them. All had different weapons, and all of them walked towards me. I first tried my usual method, but it didn''t work. ''Time to test it out, I guess'' I thought, and pulled all the strings towards me. I didn''t pull too hard, as I didn''t want to kill myself. Just enough for my daggers to prate my skin.


    "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!", "Pak!".


    Ten daggers stabbed into different parts of my body, while I released an audible groan. Soon all five Yaters disappeared, while the real one stood in his original spot. I eximed "It worked! This actually worked!". Yater said "I know, I can feel when the illusion is broken. This was the easiest one I could do. Wanna try harder one now?". I nodded, and said "Yes, but wait a minute. I need to regenerate myself a bit".


    After a while, we resumed our practice. I could break through the simple illusion, but the harder ones were still too difficult. I said "If this was able to wake me up even from the weakest of your illusions, it means that the Form works. I just have to adjust it, and figure out how to break stronger illusions". Yater nodded, and said "I''m still impressed that you achieved it. Not bad kid".

 Chapter 359

    Chapter 359


    I focused on perfecting my Defensive Forms, before attempting training with the three masters again. I did a few adjustments to the Ring and Shield Forms, then worked more on the Mind Form. I needed to figure out other possible pressure points I could strike, in order to awaken myself. Although the Form was rather dangerous to myself, it was still better than getting stuck in an illusion and dying.


    Time passed slowly. I tried most of my pressure points, and Yater was there to provide the illusions. With time, I figured out how to break through harder illusions. Yater was speechless, when some of his harder illusions were broken. It was of course at a price. The more advanced an illusion was, the higher damage I would sustain.


    Yater urged me to master the Art of Stealth as soon as possible. He was afraid I would kill myself, if my opponent knew illusions. He mentioned that if I understood illusions, I would be better able to counter them. He also said that Eterians were the real masters of illusion, and even Yater would have a very hard time fighting against one. This was logical. If I understood how illusions worked properly and was able to create my own, I could potentially break the illusions of Eterians that were stronger than me, with the use of that Form.


    The problem was, Yater wouldn''t exin how the illusions worked. I had to find it out by myself. Although I witnessed his illusions many times, I wasn''t able to even copy anything. He simply looked at me, and that was all. ''I know only one thing, that can teach me illusion'' I thought. It was Frosty. Back in the North, I met the three eyed monkey, which exined to Frosty how its illusion worked. The problem was, Frosty didn''t respond at all. I tried many times throughout the years, but nothing.


    ''Are you really gone? Changed to that armpletely?'' I asked myself. Even when I threatened to cut my arm off, Frosty never appeared. It led me to believe, Frosty would never appear again. ''I guess I always spelled bad luck, especially to those around me. The three masters can probably take care of themselves, but others?'' I thought. Fox became wanted because of me. Crow lost his sight and arm. Although it wasn''t entirely my fault, I was partially responsible still. If not for my help, he would probably live his old life. I had no clue whether Harlin and Lazar were doing well. ''I probably miss them'' I thought, as memories of my friends appeared in my mind.


    "Why are you worrying so much Nex?". It was the voice of Irwin. I smiled, and replied "I think I miss my friends". He looked at the night sky, and sighted. "My friends are already gone. My master is no longer here, neither is my family. Friends eh? It''s been a while, since I thought about them". After a while of silence, he said "You know, I always thought what would happen to me, if not for the old man". I asked "Yater?". He smiled, and said "We know each other for a long time. We both became masters of our Arts. I guess I still have one friend left".


    I smiled, and replied "It''s good to have friends". He just grunted "Un", and stayed quiet. After a while, I broke the silence, and asked "Wanna fight?". He woke up from his thoughts, and replied "Ha! I''m always up for battle!". We both released our Auras, and had a little bout. I lost of course, but something was different. Even Irwin noticed that. He asked "Did you just control your Aura?". I thought about it, and said "I think I did¡­ I didn''t even notice".


    Irwinughed, and said "I already know what you needed. Remember Nex, when you release that Aura, think of your friends. This will help you control it, andter? It wille naturally". I nodded, and asked "Want another try?". He grinned, and released his Aura. I did the same, and we spared again.


    "Thud!". I dropped heavily to the ground. Irwin didn''t go easy on me at all. Besides, we battled a few times already. Irwin said "You did well. As promised, I will teach you about the sword now. Although we will fight still, I will be using my sword in the future". I nodded faintly, and said "Give me a minute here, I''m all spent". He shook his head, and replied "Just rest. When you are fully rested, I will show you some things". I nodded, andid down. I was really tired. Not only most of my energy was gone, I was still injured.


    I woke up in the morning of the next day. ''I can still feel some residue of those battles. Irwin went more serious this time'' I thought, and picked myself up. I looked around, and noticed no one. ''He probably went back to the peak'' I thought, and climbed to the peak myself. As I suspected, they were all sleeping. Nathan used my bed, for whatever reason. It wasn''t like I needed it. Most of the time, I was away from the peak, and practiced in the mountain forest.


    I said out loud "Wake up Irwin. Time to practice". Irwin replied, still sleeping in his bed "Just go do whatever. I will join youter". I walked up to his bed, and kicked it. The bed broke, and Irwin feel to the floor. "What the fuck Nex!". I replied "Wake up". He picked himself up, and said "You grew some balls over the night? Because I''m gonna beat the shit out of you". I just shook my head, and left the house. As I walked past the doors, I could hear muffled sounds ofughing from Nathan and Yater.


    Then Irwin voice exploded, "Shut up bastards! Nex! You owe me a bed!". We descended the peak, to a more suitable environment. "You are growing up badly. Learn some patience", Irwin said. I replied "You guys arezy, some motivation will do you good. Now, show me your sword techniques". Irwinughed "As if! I will teach you some basics first. How we the masters in the Art of War fight, is a lot differentpared to soldiers, or those adventurers. I will show you how to fight properly".


    I nodded, while Irwin took out his sword. He said, "Take your sword out, and attack. No Auras, or other skills. Simply attack with your sword. Of course if you know any sword techniques, you are free to use them". I took out my Bastard Sword, and assumed the attacking stance. Irwin on the other hand, had no stance. He smiled, and said "Come".


    I rushed at Irwin with my attacking stance, and Formation activated. ''Lethal Sword Technique, First Form!'' I eximed in my mind, and attacked. Although I practiced a lot with the Basic Forms, Irwin had no issues avoiding my attacks. ''Second Form!'', my stance changed a bit, and I executed the Second Form. Nothing still. I tried with the Third Form, when suddenly Irwin threw a fist full of sand at me.


    I quickly closed my eyes, but then I got hit by something in my chest, and flew backwards. I coughed a few times, and opened my eyes. Irwin''s sword was already about to chop me in half. I swung my sword upwards. But Irwin did something, I didn''t expect at all. He let go of his sword lightly, and my counter deflected the sword. The weird thing was that, the sword instead of flying upwards, it came crashing down at me. I used Natural Path skill, and evaded, but that was a breach of our agreement.


    He said "You cheated. I told you, no other Arts or Aura. Simple sword fight". I replied "Bullshit. You cheated as well. Using sand to try and blind me, then that weird thing of letting your sword go". Irwin replied "It''s true that most swordsmen fight fair and square. I''m not a swordsman though. I am a master in the Art of War. At war, the only thing that matters, is killing your enemy. I told you, we fight differently. While the Art of Hidden Weapons is concerned with distancing yourself, as well as the use of blind spots and hidden means. The Art of War, is the mastery of the underhanded methods. At war, there is no "You cheated!", or "Not fair!". Even if you had to eat shit, as long as this kills your enemy, you should do it".

 Chapter 360

    Chapter 360


    I was a bit stunned to be honest. ''A master of the underhanded methods eh?'' I asked myself. I wasn''t against that really. I also believed that doing anything to win, even if it was cheap as hell, should be used. After all, my Yellow Dust was one such thing. Poison was another. Anything that would guarantee my win, was useful to me. Irwin though, had specific methods. He didn''t need poison or Yellow Dust. He was basically a battle maniac. He knew everything there was to know about battling.


    We resumed our training, and every time Irwin would do something seemingly stupid, or pointless. But there always was a point to his actions. No Auras or movement skills, he simply defeated me with wits alone. When we stopped our practice, he said "From what Nathan told me, you want to specialise in close to mid rangebat, right?". I nodded. He continued "This will be your new closebat style. Remember, what I''m showing you, is not for swords only. This can be adapted to anything you want. As long as you have the mentality to do it".


    I agreed. If he didn''t choose a sword to fight, he could still do those things with a different weapon. It''s like this was his second nature already. Irwin continued "You will naturally learn how to use such methods, the more we fight. I believe you will not simply copy me, ande up with your own ideas". Yatar and Nathan arrived, just as we finished our small conversation.


    Yater said "Don''t make him learn bad stuff, will you?". Irwin replied "Bad? Winning is winning. No matter what method you use". Nathan nodded, and said "That is true. As long as you can finish off your opponent, any means are allowed". Yater looked at both of them, and sighed. "Whatever. Come Nex, we are going to Elysian Empire". Nathan and Irwin looked at him weirdly. I on the other hand was ted. I always wondered about Elysians.


    Irwin replied "Oi, oi old man. Isn''t it because you want to grab him for yourself? Stop being shameless". Nathan thought about something, and said "It''s been awhile since I visited that ce. Let''s go then". Yater replied angry "Bullshit! You two stay here. It was supposed to be me and Nex only. I never invited any of you!". Irwin replied "You are trying to be even more shameless now. That''s riching from someone who scolded me, for teaching Nex about bad stuff". Yater''s face went grim for a while. I stepped in, and said "Let''s just go together. After all, they have the right to go there too, right?".


    Yater sighed, and replied "Fine. Let''s go". He then whistled, and a bird flew down from a tree not far away. It was a ck sort of bird, but I didn''t know what kind. Yater said to the bird "Watch this ce over while we are out. I will bring you some good stuff from Elysians, alright?". The bird nodded, and flew away towards the peak. ''I saw this bird a few times, but I assumed that it just lived here. Who would''ve guessed it was Yater''s pet'' I thought.


    Yater led the way with the other two, while I stayed behind them. On our way, Yater exined "Elysian Empire is not that far away. With our speed, we should arrive in about four days. Just don''t offend anyone over there. We don''t need trouble". I replied "Sure". Yater on the other hand shook his head, and said "I wasn''t talking to you, but the other two. There is no need to worry about you Nex". I asked curious "Did they make some trouble in the past?". This time Irwin replied "Trouble? I made no trouble! It''s not my fault, I beaten up some of their warriors".


    ''That is totally his fault'' I thought, and asked "Weren''t Elysians peaceful, and didn''t like to battle?". Nathan replied this time. "They don''t participate in wars and such, but every nation, race or even a group, will have differences. Besides, they train warriors still. Otherwise, they would be an easy target for the outsiders". I nodded, while Yater said "Having a bout is fine. What that simpleton did, was no spar. He broke those young warriors like sticks. Well he paid for that, so they shouldn''t hold a grudge".


    Irwin replied "How was I supposed to know, they were so fragile? Besides, it was a long time ago". I wondered how strong those Elysians were. After all, they were Humans just like me, but apparently they were also different. A few days passed, and we were about to arrive. Yater stopped suddenly, and looked at me. I was a bit confused, and asked "What''s up?".


    Yater said "Elysians have a weird customs. Although it is rare, some Elysian women or men may take a liking to you. Especially if they see your strength, and us together. Just beware. Don''t get entangled with them, it''s for the better really". I asked confused "What do you mean? Just because a woman likes me, that doesn''t mean I will do so as well".


    Yaterughed, and replied "That is why I''m saying they have a weird custom. In short, you can be forced to stay there". I said "But that stupid. I''m a free man, they can''t force me to stay". Nathan replied this time "We all are, but Elysians are a bit different¡­ You will see. Yater, how long do you n on staying there?". Yater replied "At most a week of time. Any more than that would be unwise".


    I was baffled. Why such a short stay, and a warning before we arrived. ''Are Elysians some kind of weird people?'' I asked myself. Irwin added "Just stay with us at all times. This way, there''s nothing you can do wrong. We will just go inside, show you around, and leave". I asked "So we can''t have a bout with some warriors?". Irwin said "We will see. If the weather is good, we will be allowed to rx a bit more".


    I had no idea what he was referring to, but I would find out soon. The next day, we arrived at what seemed like a border between the two kingdoms. There were no soldiers of the Endrosian Empire around, only a few weird Humans stood at the edge of the forest. Yater said "We are here". The people who stood there, were tattooed from head to toe. Different designs of animals or objects. There were some weird writings on them too, but I had no clue what they were.


    The three masters slowed down, and walked toward the other people. One of them asked "You know the rules, right?". Yater nodded, and said "Of course. We are not of the Royals, nor are we associated with them. You know, they kind of hate us too". The tattooed man raised his eyebrows, and asked "Oh really?". Yater replied "Of course, we three masters wish to visit yournd, and show this disciple your Empire. All in the name of broadening his horizons". The man replied, "Then let us see your gift to us". Yater took out a sort of token, and passed it to the tattooed man.


    The man checked it, and then ced it against his head. After a while, he said "You may enter. Here is your token. You know the rules though. You can bring in only one person with you". Nathan and Irwin both walked forwards, and disyed simr tokens. The man checked both, and returned them. He then said, "To think that three masters would really visit us all at once. If I may ask, whose disciple is this young man?".


    Yater stepped forwards, and replied "He is mine disciple". The tattooed man nodded, and said "All of you may enter. I don''t think I need to exin anything, right?". Yater replied "It will not be necessary". Yater then motioned at me to walk with him, and we passed the tattooed men.

 Chapter 361

    Chapter 361


    We walked through the forest silently, until I saw a clearing. "Wow!", I eximed. There was a city, but not like any other. The whole city was built into the nearby hills and arge mountain. The houses and other buildings were embedded into the rock, or extended out of the ground. The sight was really something else. All the buildings were made from stone, and although the stones used weren''t some kind of grand shy looking, the setting itself was beautiful.


    Yater exined "This is one of the three cities inside the Elysian Empire. It is called Ancient Mountain. The name although very simple, together with such setting, it actually fits". I asked "Who else has?¡­", but before I could finish Yater interrupted me. "We will have a look around. The buildings although may seem simple, are very ancient and worthy a look". I was a bit baffled, Yater wouldn''t normally interrupt me like this. ''This can only mean, I shouldn''t ask questions now. The rules here are¡­ weird'' I thought.


    I had no idea what the rules were, but the other three knew. If they wanted me to shut up, I could only acquiesce. Yatermented on some of the buildings, as we got closer. "That ce over there, is where Elysians produce some great seeds. I always buy them for Peaky when I visit this ce. Elysians love nature, so they treat it with respect". I only nodded my head to everything Yater said.


    When we arrived inside the city, Irwin said "This ce is still the same. Just like I remember it from a long time ago". Nathan butted in "Yes, they are great builders, and care for their homend a lot". I could see a pattern here, they always said nice words about Elysians, they could probably say anything, as long as it was nice about them. ''Does that mean, I can ask about buildings, what they do and such only?'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I decided to give it a try. I asked "What do the Elysian specialise in?". This time, Yater didn''t stop me. He actually answered "I''d say growth. They have many sorts of nts here, that you will never find back home. Elysians are very good with nature, therefore their nts are very healthy". I tried asking another question "Is there anything else?".


    This time Nathan replied, "Yes, they are also Masters of Formations. Those bastards in the Endros City, have no way of reaching such level of mastery. Elysians drew their Formations from nature, and because they are very close to it, they are naturally talented in Formations". This was new to me, so I asked "Formationse from nature?". Irwin replied this time "Of course. The Formations originate from nature. For example the rays of sunlight, or the water inside a stream are bel¡­ Are Formations too". Nathan and Yater looked at Irwin, and he dropped his head without any furtherments.


    ''So it is true. We can''t really offend them by saying they are shit at something, or that they believe something to be true, where in fact, they might not even have a proof'' I thought. The rules were stupid. Not only that, it was like no one could have an opinion of something. I asked "Are we staying here?". Yater nodded, and said "We will stay at one of the buildings, that Elysians provide for visitors. It''s over there". He pointed at a certain building on a mountain. It didn''t look shabby whatsoever. Arge house built into the mountain, with at least a few rooms. I nodded, and said "It look very good".


    For some reason we walked to our destination. No running or even using one''s skills. When we finally arrived, Yater ced his token in front of the doors, and they opened. Inside the house, I saw a few separate bedrooms, and amon living room. When the doors closed, Yater walked a few steps forward, and tapped the ground. I was baffled, but maybe it was another rule. I was wrong. Yater said "Now we can talk freely. I hate that fucking flowerynguage. Shit, no wonder I never liked to return here".


    He then looked at Irwin, and said "We almost stepped into shit, because of you. Don''t forget stuff like that". Irwin replied "I forgot alright? It''s been a long time since I visited this ce. Fuck this though, river and fucking sun is a Formation. What a fucking load of crap". I don''t think I saw them so pissed. Nathan stepped in, and said "Alright, just calm down. We are here to show Nex around, and then we are out. You can take a few days of this bullshit".


    I looked at all three, and asked "What the hell is going on exactly? I already figured some stuff out, but just what the hell?". Irwin replied "We told you, they have those weird rules. One of them is that, you are not allowed to say bad stuff about them. It''s theirnd, and if you don''t like it, leave. The other rule, you are not about to question their beliefs. They believe Formations are everywhere, and everything is a Formation. I mean I don''t know, but it''s their belief, and no one saw Formations inside a tree or whatever. The third rule, no use of skills or Auras inside. Of course, if they attack you, you can for self defence, but they don''t attack people".


    I replied, "So when we talk, we can''t talk about anything but Elysians?". Nathan shook his head, and said "No, we just wanted to show you to be careful with your words. You can talk about anything really, but if you praise Royals or make fun of Elysians¡­ then there is a price to pay. Another rule is that if you interact too much with a woman, you will have to take her as your wife". Yater continued "I told you, some Elysians are even weirder. They can pester you, and all you can do is politely decline them. Never, under any circumstances, agree to meet with any Elysian woman¡­ or man. With us around, they will not pester you, but if you were alone¡­ You would probably fall for it".


    I said "They can supposedly draw Formations on their bodies. Which should mean that they are Formation Master. This part is true right?". Yater nodded, and said "Yes, they can do that, and you already saw it. Those tattoos are Formations. They have different sorts as well. Warriors get the battling Formations, which they can use during battle. But normal Elysians also get them. Some are used to grow nts better, or produce stuff more efficiently". I asked "Do they ce Formations on objects too?". Nathan shook his head, and replied "No. They believe Formations to be sacred, and can only be ced on living organisms. They believe that this is natural, and they follow that. Any sphemy about their beliefs, is not tolerated. That is why Irwin stopped himself. If he actually used them to be only believers, we would have to leave¡­ Fast".


    I nodded, and asked "So what are we going to do? Does this ce have something special to offer. I mean yea, looking at their cities is nice, but it''s not like I can gain something from it". Yater replied "We can buy special nts, which don''t grow outside of here. They also offer nice rxation ces. We are here to rx and sightsee. I have some Elysian currency, so if you want a specific nt or seeds, we can buy some. You told me that you learned about medicine".


    I replied "It''s Art of Medicine. If you don''t call it like this, I will call your Art just stealth". Nathan asked "Art of Medicine?". I nodded, and replied "Yes, didn''t he tell you that? Whatever, I learned another Art. Although you may not know about it, it''s still an Art in my eyes". Nathan asked interested "What can you do with it?". I replied "Medicine¡­ or poison. Don''t get me wrong, what I can aplish regarding medicine and poison, is way out of league for you".


    Irwinughed, and asked "Can you prove it?". I took out my strongest medicine, and told him "Have a look". They all gathered around, and checked the medicine out. After a while, Nathan said "I''ve never seen such potent stuff¡­ Even the guys in Imperial City, can''t do so well". Yater nodded, and said "There might be a few medicinesparable to this, but nothing better than this". I smiled, and said "This is not the best I can do though. I told you, this is an Art".


    They looked at me in disbelief, and asked "You can do better than this?". I nodded, and said "If I were topletely process it? I''d say, it would be at least 3 to 5 times stronger". Their faces dropped. I continued "Not without a price. The amount would be small, but the potency? I have no idea¡­ This can already heal the scars, the stronger version? Who knows, maybe even allow you to grow a limb or something". I said thest part jokingly, but they seemed to actually believe it.


    Nathan asked "Can you make it?". I shook my head, and said "I don''t have the herbs required. I mean¡­ I do have the seeds, but not the herbs". Irwin asked "Can''t you just nt them?". Iughed, and replied "And then what? I need to know how to care for those herbs, but I don''t. It would take trial and error, which I have no time for or enough seeds to do it".


    Nathan asked "Then what about Poison? Can the poison you make¡­". I nodded, and said "Yes, although not for all of them. I would have to redesign some stuff, in order to amodate specific poisons". The three of them discussed something, and Yater said "We acknowledge the Art of Medicine, and you as its first master". I was a bit stunned. ''Me? a master?'', I thought. I shook my head, and said "I''m no master yet. I feel there is more to it. When I find that, I will be able to call myself a master. Besides, I still don''t know all that exist in the Art of Medicine. I have loads to learn".


    They nodded, and Nathan said "We understand. The story though, has to be passed on. You should work on that in the future". I smiled, and said "I already chose an inheritor". They looked at me confused, and asked "You have a student?". I nodded, and said "Yes, she will inherit my Art of Medicine, but that Art alone". They shook their heads, while Irwin replied "I told you, this guy is a monster. If he focused on one Art alone, he would already be a master". They sighed a few times in defeat. ''I''m not that great though. I had my ass kicked a few share of time, and I had some lucky encounters too'' I thought. If not me, then someone else would get lucky. I didn''t see myself as anything special, excluding that arm of mine.

 Chapter 362

    Chapter 362


    I said "I''m not special. If I didn''t do this, someone else would. I don''t have as much talent as you think. I only worked hard. I saw people with potential, but they lost themselves to other things. Laziness is the answer". Irwin shook his head, and said "No, you are definitely a monster. Even though I trained everyday, and worked hard to be a master, I didn''t have such improvements. Don''t belittle your abilities, you might not be talented in anything, but you don''t need that".


    I asked confused "Then what do I need?". He replied "Adaptability. This is much more useful, than some stupid talent. If you are able to adapt to all situations¡­ Your growth, it will not stop. Hence I say you are a monster of a man, none of us had such adaptability. None of us was able to be even a double master. Not everyone can".


    I thought about something, and asked "Right. Nathan, you said that you also learned the Art of Stealth. Why didn''t you master it?". Nathan replied "I can''t make illusions. Yater is not allowed to share that secret, no master is". I nodded, and said "In that case, how do you guys know, I will be able to make them?". This time Yater replied "Because I can feel it. Nathan didn''t figure everything out like you did, he learned about illusions from someone else. Your mind is strong too, you can master the Art of Stealth, I''m sure of it".


    Irwin said "Alright, enough of that. Where are we going next?". Yater replied "We will visit a few shops, I need to buy some seeds for Peaky. Nex can also check out the nts, maybe some of them will interest him". I nodded, and asked "Can we also have a look at the way, they farm the seeds? If I know the method, I can grow them by myself. If there are some rare nts, I might be able to grow them outside". The looked at me for a while, until Nathan replied "No one ever attempted to grow them outside. There is a simple reason for that, their methods are very unique. They also use Formations, in order to grow them".


    I replied, "I will worry about that. As long as I can see the process, I might be able to replicate it". They looked at each other, and nodded their heads. Yater tapped on the ground with his foot again, and said "Let''s go outside. We can have a look at the merchandise first". The first "shop" we visited, was a house full of seeds and nts. Yater exined "This is where all the nts and seeds can be bought. Elysians have no issue with us taking them outside, therefore we can buy anything we want".


    There were two Elysians working in that shop. One male and one female. Both of them had tattoos, but not as many as the warriors outside. The designs were different too. Mostly depictions of some sort of nts, and farming objects. Yater walked up to the male Elysian, and said "Can I please have some Valunat Seeds, and I will also take some Iren Seeds". The shopkeeper ced a handful of seeds into arge leaf, wrapped it around with thin strands of something, then did the same thing for the other kind of seeds. With those two leaves packed, he handed them to Yater and said. "This will be 21 Branches". ''So this is their currency? Branches? Doesn''t that mean I can just take a few trees down, and have as many of them as I like?'' I asked myself. Yater didn''t take out branches from his storage item though. Instead, he passed his token to the shopkeeper.


    After a while, the shopkeeper returned the token, and that was that. ''So I guess the currency is stored in that token. It would be stupid, if I could collect branches and be wealthy. They probably named it like that, because they are close with nature or something'' I justified in my mind. I stepped forwards, and asked the female shopkeeper. "Do your nts promote regenerative processes, or perhaps fill you up with strength?".


    The female shopkeeper smiled, and replied "Yes, we have those nts as well. Are you looking for something in particr?". I nodded, and said "Yes, I''m looking for nts that help greatly in body regeneration. I would also like to see nts, that help improve other aspects of the body. If you don''t mind showing them to me, that would be great". She nodded, and pointed to some nts, then exined about their properties. I was surprised, because she knew a lot. Not only what those nts could regenerate, but also the strength, and how they should be ingested.


    I said "Your knowledge is really great. No wonder you are so close with nature, it''s something to envy". She seemed really pleased with myments, and asked "Would you like to buy some?". I nodded, and said "I would, but I don''t have that token. I''m just a guest with my master here. Can I ask, how would I go about earning money here?". She nodded, and said "Yes, there are a few ways. You can provide us with the information from outside. You can also bring seeds from outside for us to study. If we don''t have them, we''ll pay a good price. Another method, is to share some or your techniques with us, we also pay outside tutors for their services".


    I nodded, and asked "Would you be interested in information about Endrosian Emperor?". She raised her eyebrows, and asked "What sort of information?". I replied "He is dead. If you want to ask how do I know, it''s because I witnessed his own funeral". She asked suspicious "Why would you be at his funeral?". Before I could answer, Yater said "We were passing by the Endros City, when we heard that he died. I was curious whether that was true, so we checked it out. The Endrosian Emperor is dead for sure, I can guarantee that".


    She thought for a while, and said "This information is really new to us. It''s also a big piece of information. The reward you will receive is not small". I nodded, and replied "As long as I can buy some of your nts and seed, this is enough". She smiled, and replied "You would like to exchange that contribution for nts and seeds?". I nodded, and said "Yes, I''m also very interested in nts. If that information is enough to buy some of them, then I will ept without a thought".


    She nodded, and said "In that case, I will reward you with the best stuff we have. We respect people who love nature, like we do. Moreover, your contribution would be enough to buy loads of nts and seeds, even of the rarer kind. But you were not greedy, and chose nts straight away. Wait a minute, I will pack some of the nts and seeds for you. As an added courtesy, I will exin all the effects of those nts".


    I thanked her sincerely, and awaited my nts. After a while, she returned with a medium sized bag, and ced it on the counter. She started taking out all different kinds of seeds and nts. One of each kind wasid out on the counter. She said "I will tell you all the properties of each nt and seed here. I don''t know if you are aware, but there is a difference when you use a seed, and nt. For one, seeds contain much more condensed form of properties, but in smaller quantities. That is because the seeds didn''t sprout. nts are fully grown, therefore the properties are not condensed anymore. Although not condensed, the amount of properties inside, isrger".


    I nodded, and replied "I didn''t know that. Does this apply to all seeds and fully grown nts?". She nodded, and said "Yes. As far as I know, this seems to be the case for all nts and seeds". I thought ''Interesting'', and said "Do continue".

 Chapter 363

    Chapter 363


    She pointed at the first nt, and said "This nt is called Elryth Flower. It''s quite rare even for us, so I was only able to give you three of them. The primary property of this flower, is body regeneration. Even if eaten raw, it will help you heal major wounds faster. Besides that, it has a numbing effect. It doesn''t numb the body, but the pain. Very strong properties, and hard to grow, which is why it''s rare".


    I nodded my head, and waited for another exnation. She pointed at the next nt, and said "This is called Livi Sprout. You will receive 6 of such nts, and the properties of this nt will surprise you. When you ingest this nt, you will be able to jump higher. I''m sure this doesn''t sound like much, but believe me when I say, it''s something else". I asked confused "In what way?". She continued "Because the nt makes your legs very stic, spring like if you prefer. This will allow your body to absorb the impact better. Itpromises your walking a bit, but the effect doesn''tst that long. In any case, you are able to jump higher, and fall from greater heights".


    I eximed "Oh! So that''s how it was. That is very useful indeed. Instead of climbing down a cliff or looking for a path, I could just jump down". She nodded, and said "Precisely. Although you have to remember that, you can''t simply jump down from any height. You can still hurt yourself, if the drop is too big". I nodded, and said "I will remember".


    She then pointed at the third nt, and said "That is one of the rarest nts we can give away. I was allowed to give you only one, and that''s already stretching it. This nt is something else, and is mostly reserved for the warriors of our race. It increases the strength of your body. The nt is called Tarnish Bloom, and the effects it brings are extraordinary. There is a special method of processing this nt, but I''m not allowed to share it. We offer it to you as our sincere thanks for the information provided. You can study and learn more about it".


    I nodded, and asked "How strong is it, when you process it? Is there a way to quantify it?". She nodded, and said "There is. It can almost double your strength, if you haven''t reached the Inner Limits yet. When you reach Inner Limits, the nt can boost your strength by about ? of your current strength. Of course, when it is processed properly. When ingested, the effects will be strong, but not so much. Especially for those who already broke through their Inner Limits".


    She then moved on to the seeds. There were four different kinds of seeds on the counter. "This seed is called Orichald Seed. When it grows up to a fully developed nt, it bes Orichald Flower. The seed can still be used. If ingested, it promotes sexual activities of male or female. Although the fully grown flower possesses the same properties, the seeds is meant for one person really, and we don''t have to grow it either. I gave you a few of those, such a young man can surely use them".


    I was lost for words, then I realised something. She was eyeing me, like a delicious piece of meat. ''This is bad, she is probably interested in me. Yater said not to intertwine with them'' I thought. Iughed dryly, and changed the topic while pointing at the next seed. "And what is the name of this seed? It''s so small and looks different". She smiled, and exined "That seed helps cleanse one''s mind. It''s not very strong, but it can relieve some of the mental fatigue that you built up. It''s called Mites Seed, and grows into a Mites Mushroom. I gave you 20 of them, as they are not rare at all. Still can be useful".


    She continued "The third seed is called Ines Seed. It grows into Ines Flower, and we usually use it to enhance our medicines. It has good properties as a fully grown nt, but the seed can be used too. If Ingested, it will help you digest things better. If eaten regrly, it can boost your immunity a bit. Although it''s not much, it''s always a weed improvement right? I gave you 43 of them, as they aremon and daily use seeds".


    She then pointed at thest seed, and said "This one is also rare. Actually very rare, but we are allowed to give you the seed. We don''tck the seeds, weck fully grown nts. The seed is called Ethereal Seed¡­", but before she could finish, I asked "Ethereal Flower? Are you joking?". She looked at me surprised, and asked "You know about it?". I replied "I do, but isn''t that nt a legend? It wasn''t supposed to exist". Sheughed a bit, and said "But it does, we have those flowers here". I was confused. No, I was lost.


    ''That flower¡­ How the hell do they have it, and more than one? They have immortal people here?'' I asked myself. She could see my expression of disbelief, and said "You don''t believe me?". I woke up from my thoughts, and said "Does that mean, some of you guys are immortal?". She tilted her head to the side, and asked "Immortal?". I exined "You know, not being able to die from aging and stuff like this". She replied "No? Ethereal Flower doesn''t grant immortality. Where did you hear that from?".


    I didn''t answer her question, and asked my own "Then what does Ethereal Flower do?". She replied "It can prolong your life, but not make you immortal. We only get around 7 to 10 flowers a year. They are reserved for the Emperor''s family, and those who contributed a lot during that year". ''This seems reasonable. After all, the entry from that book might''ve been just a legend. Even more so, it might''ve been based on what Elysians grow'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I asked "How much time, does one Ethereal Flower give?". She thought for a while, and said "That depends on the individual. I''d say not less than a year, and probably not more than five years. I know what you will say. Someone could take it every year, and be immortal, but that won''t work". I asked "Why?". She replied "Because after a few uses, the flower would lose its effectiveness. I''d say, an average Elysian could increase his or her total lifespan by about 7 to 10 years. The talented and strong Elysians, would be able to gain around 30 to 40 years. It is a lot, but that is not immortality. Besides, they would have to get one every year. Only Emperor has that privilege".


    I then looked at the seed, and asked "What about the seed then?". She replied "The seed alone will not improve your lifespan. Even if it was processed, you still wouldn''t gain much. A few days maybe. We don''t ingest them, and only reserve them for nting. We are offering you one, because we have many". I asked "Why is it so difficult to grow them? Can I have a look at the farm?". She thought about it for a while, and replied "We could go together if you want. I will show you".


    Yater stepped in, and said "We are quite busy at the moment, perhaps next time?". She didn''t seem to like Yater''s interruption. She replied, "As you wish", then packed all the nts and seeds back to the bag before handing them to me. In a quiet voice, she said "Come by alone, I can teach you a lot". Yater grabbed my shoulder and dragged me out of the shop. He didn''t say anything, probably because he couldn''t. We walked around the city next, and check out other ces that sold some stuff, and contained some sort of Elysian history.

 Chapter 364

    Chapter 364


    While we wandered around the city, I noticed one obvious fact. Elysians didn''t carry any weapons. This included warriors, who were more distinct with their tattoos. I decided to ask about that when we returned to our amodation. Yater knew the city very well, and he showed me some interesting buildings, as well as the farms. Each building had its purpose. The houses were not for living alone, all Elysians had a specific job to do in their society.


    Some were craftsmen just like me, others were farmers. There were those who used tree barks or other natural resources, to draw their Formations on. Most of these people were practicing, but some sold their Formations. They ranged from useless, like creating water to water the nts. To useful, that could even be used during a battle. These Formations were great, because one could carry them around, and use at their disposal. The drawback was that they were one time use only Formations.


    ''This is actually quite good for them. If visitors want to buy them, they have to buy more, because they are expendable. Elysians on the other hand, can practice their Formation skills, and thenter apply them to warriors or other people'' I thought. I didn''t know how they would apply those Formations onto a Human being, but I knew I couldn''t ask. It was something I was not supposed to know.


    When we visited the farms, I looked at the methods of nting and watering the nts. I also made sure to check out how they tended to their fields. Although we spent only a few hours there, I learned quite a bit. The problem was, we couldn''t find the ce where Ethereal Flowers grew. ''Yea, I already guessed it wouldn''t be in the open. Maybe I will figure it out myself'' I thought. Although I didn''t see the Ethereal Flowers, I saw how they tended to some of the nts and seeds I had.


    The process and their farms were¡­ different. They used Formations for everything. I also figured out why, the warriors didn''t carry any weapons. These people used Formations, and they were so sophisticated, that it blew my mind. A tattoo of a rake, could change to an actual rake in Elysian''s hands. Hence, this would apply to weapons as well. ''I saw some animal tattoos too. Does that mean they can make animals appear?'' I thought. I didn''t know, so I decided to ask Yater when we returned.


    After a whole day of sightseeing, we returned to the house. Yater again tapped his foot onto the floor, and said "That was close. Nex, she has her eyes on you. We are not going to visit that shop anymore. Besides, you got what you wanted, right?". I nodded, and replied "Yes, I got more than I imagined. Ethereal Flower¡­ We will see if I can grow it. Although I didn''t see the process, I can still try". Nathan asked "Are you seriously going to grow those things outside? I don''t know if its possible, but it seems not. After all, they are confident enough, to give away such seeds to outsiders".


    I replied, "We will see", then turned towards Yater and asked, "I noticed that the tattoos can change into real tools, and probably weapons. But what about animals? Can they make animals appear?". Yater shook his head, and replied "No, it''s not that. The tattoos of animals, are used to increase their abilities. It''s the same for other tattoos. They can control Elements too, at least to some extent". I asked "Just like me?". He shook his head, and replied "No, through the Formations. If a warrior has a tattoo of a me, he can add that me into his skills, or the Formation Weapon. It''s not a real weapon, it''s made by Formation".


    This was shocking. ''I thought they stored their weapons inside their bodies somehow, but it seems that''s not the case'' I thought. In other words, those weapons, tools and whatnot, all of them were just Formations. Not something a cksmith or a craftsman created. I asked "You can do that? I mean, can you actually create weapons out of Formations alone¡­ Wait, that is a stupid questions, right?". Yater smiled, and replied "Of course it is. You could say the same about illusions, or other stuff that seems unexinable. Like you". He had a point, so I didn''t ask about that anymore. Instead, I asked something else. "What about tomorrow? Where are we going next?".


    Yater replied, "We will travel to the next city, and I will show you around. We will not go to the third city, where the Emperor is". Irwin added "Yea, the weather here is not so great. They became a bit happier, when they heard about thete Emperor, but still". I asked "What do you mean?". Nathan replied this time. He said "We can judge whether Elysians are in good or bad mood. If we go to the Imperial City of Zarok, there might be some problems. Especially, if you say something unintentionally. Worry not though, it would take us many days, in order to travel between cities on our feet. We are going to take a special method of transport".


    I asked "They have a special method of moving between cities? Like the Falkons in the Imperial City?". Yater nodded, and replied "Yes, but not like Falkons. Elysians value nature, and they built something unique with its use. The knowledge of Formations, plus the knowledge and love of nature, gave birth to a unique method of going ces faster". Irwin added "It''s a bit costly, but Yater saved some money. Besides, he nned to use that information about Emperor anyway. You just beat him to it".


    Yater replied "Whatever. I still have money. Enough to pay for Nex". Irwin said "Oi oi, old man. Why don''t you buy tickets for me as well?". Yater replied "Who the hell told you toe here, if you have no money eh? Stay here then, we will collect you on our way back". I shook my head, and stopped their argument. I said "We need to stick together. Leaving him alone¡­ You already told me what he didst time. We shouldn''t leave him all alone, what if he runs around and creates trouble?". Irwin replied "I appreciate the gesture, BUT I''M NOT A STRAY DOG!".


    Nathan chimed in "Then it''s decided. We are going all together tomorrow. Yater is paying". Yater replied "Wait what the fuck? You too? Ah whatever, I will pay this once". Irwin said "It''s not like you are poor. You always gave them some juicy information, I wouldn''t be surprised if you were wealthier than some Elysians". Yater didn''tment on that though. We rested and chatted for the rest of the day, and then retired to our own rooms.

 Chapter 365

    Chapter 365


    The next day, we went outside of the city, for that special method of transport. What I saw was really special. A track of some sort was woven with the use of vines, and a wooden cart sat atop it. The track extended into the forest, and disappeared between the trees. The cart wes made out of beautifully polished wood. The design was elegant but basic, no special ornaments or details. The cartcked any wheels though. It just sat atop the track, motionless. There was a house next to the track, to which we headed.


    Yater spoke with the Elysian inside, and bought the tickets for us. He told me to sit inside the cart, and wait. The cart had a roof over our heads, and benches for us to sit. It could easily fit ten people. Suddenly, the cart started moving on its own along the track. "Wow! Is this thanks to Formations?", I eximed. Yater nodded, and replied "Yes. This is just the beginning though, wait till we gain some speed".


    Indeed, the cart got faster and faster, until we broke out of the forest and rose above it. The track extended above the forest, and I saw other tracks branching out to different locations. The view¡­ It was something else. When I looked back through the cart''s window, I saw the Ancient Mountain in its full glory. The forest was below us, as well as the beautiful sights on the horizon. Yater smiled, and said "Even if we ran using our skills, we wouldn''t be able to go that fast. Elysians created many tracks, on which those types of carts can travel. It really is something else, especially if you experience it for the first time".


    I nodded, and looked at the sights. I saw some farms, and even mines in the distance. There were no huge buildings, walls or anything. Elysian Empire looked as natural as one could get. Everything was designed to integrate with nature, not go against it. ''In that sense alone, Endrosians areplete opposite. We usually build our settlements, cities or whatever, to separate ourselves from nature. Elysians integrate everything, to amodate the nature'' I thought.


    This setting alone, felt peaceful to me. Something, I haven''t encountered, not to that extent. ''I''m almost d Endrosians didn''t invade this ce. They would ruin it'' I thought. The cart travelled silently, without any bumps or hups. Only the sound of wind could be heard. I asked Yater "Why don''t we do the...". Yater stopped me, and shook his head. I thought we were safe. After all, no one was around.


    Yater didn''tment nor exined. I could only shut it, and marvel at the sights. We travelled for a few hours, before I saw what looked like another city. This time it was not a mountain, but huge trees extending upwards, almost reaching the skies. The trees were also different, very different from what I witnessed till that day. A huge trunk was the most prominent part of the tree, but the tree''s crown, was majestic.


    A sort of disk shaped crown, t at the top, extended over the earth below, and provided shade to the Elysians. The trees were not green either. Their barks, not brown but a sort of whitish grey colour, while the leaves were purple in colour. I asked "Those trees¡­ What are they?". Nathan exined "Elysians call them Ancient Elder Trees. Those trees are thousands of years old, and still very healthy. Elysian care a lot about those trees, and as far as I''m aware, you will not find them anywhere else. These are the only trees in existence, and they grow in this ce alone".


    Yater added "Elysians use those trees as their homes. There is one more thing. You see the crown right? It is the house of an ancient kind of bird. The Moonlight Swallow¡­ It can be found on those trees only. The Moonlight Swallows are Elysians'' pride and joy. Maybe we will be able to witness some of them". I asked "How do the look like?". Yater smiled in response, and said "If we don''t encounter any, I will tell you. For now, we will wait and see".


    The cart began slowing down, until it crawled to a stop just outside of the city. ''I don''t know if I should call this a city though. It doesn''t look like any I''ve seen so far'' I thought. We got off the cart, and Yater said "This is Elder City, named after the trees you saw from the cart. Let''s go". The city was really different. Although I saw Atols living atop trees, this waspletely different. Houses were integrated into the trees, but there were those on the ground as well. Everything was built using wood and stone. The wood had an ancient feel to it, while the stones were no less ancient. The huge Ancient Elder Trees were also upied. Elysians built ramps and stairs around the trees, in order to climb them. They were also living inside them. The weird thing was, the ramps extended to a certain point only, then abruptly ceased. I decided to ask about itter.


    Yater said "You will see how this city changes during the night. It''s something else entirely". We walked through the city, and looked at the Elysian architecture. The Elysians looked at us once in a while, because we were the ones sticking out like sore thumbs. Everyone had tattoos, we didn''t. We also wore different types of clothing. Elysians used natural resources only, to create clothing for themselves. The fabrics and whatnot, were created from nts. Elysian ate animals, just like any other Human, but they didn''t do it daily. Meat was mostly used by them for special asions, or by the warriors. Most of the time, they ate nts.


    While we walked towards our new amodation, we stumbled upon a statue. It didn''t depict a Human, but a walking tree. ''There is a race of walking trees in the North, but this tree looks much different. Healthy, more refined and ancient'' I thought. I didn''t know if I could ask, so I looked at Yater. He said "You want to know about the statue?". I nodded. Yater exined "This creature is called Ent. Elysians and Ents live together on thisnd, although Ents are really hard to find. They don''t really appear in the public, Ents are the guardians of nature. If someone tries to harm nature, the Ents would appear. I never saw one myself, but they are revered throughout the whole Empire, and treated with respect".


    I decided to ask more about themter. We soon arrived in front of a tree, with a house built into it. The tree trunk was reallyrge in breadth, while its crown rather smallpared to the trunk. It didn''t grow too tall, only about fifteen metres. Yater pressed his token onto the doors built into the trunk, and they opened. We walked inside, and Yater tapped onto the ground. I asked "Is this some sort of ritual? If you tap, we can talk normally, or something?".


    Yater smiled, and replied "No, not at all. I''m simply using an illusion. They use Formations to spy on us everywhere. Even the cart we used to travel here, had Formations that could ry information. That is why we can''t ever talk freely outside. The rules are, we can''t use our skills in the public, but we can at our amodation. They ced Formations inside this house too, but they are not that strong, especially for us masters".


    Nathan continued, "Although it may look peaceful and nice outside, thisnd is a dictatorship. Every house, building and even nts, have an information ry Formation. Everyone has to obey the rules. Even if Elysians break them, they can be punished for that". Irwin added "They consider nature to be alive. The cart, houses and whatnot, is alive ording to them. That is why they ce Formations on them. Stuff like swords and other objects, are not considered alive. It''s really stupid, and they are big hypocrites as well. As if a stone is alive".


    I asked "What about those Ents? Are they strong?". Yater replied "I don''t know. Supposedly, they are the guardians of the Elysian Empire. I don''t know that much, but Elysians do pay homage to them in one way or another. How this works, and what they give? I have no idea. Ents are supposedly very strong, and they canmand nature. If a group of Ents attacked us, we would be in deep trouble¡­ Supposedly. For all we know, these creatures might not even exist".


    I asked "What about those birds? Do they appear often?". Yater said "They do appear for sure. I saw them myself. When and how often they appear, is a mystery to me. We will stay a day or two here, and maybe we can spot them. It''s better to witness them, instead of me telling you". I asked another question "I saw that the ramps and stairs on the Ancient Elder Tree, suddenly stopped at a certain point. Is there a reason for that?". Yater nodded, and replied "There is. Elysians are not allowed to ess the territory of the Moonlight Swallows. If the Moonlight Swallows want to interact with Elysians, they wille down themselves".


    I nodded, and asked "So what is the n?". Yater replied, "We came here to rx. This ce has some of the best rxing spots. Their natural springs can remove all the fatigue from your body, and even improve your bodily functions. Those things are on the more expensive side, but whatever".


    Irwin said "Great! It''s been a while since I was able to rx like this". Yater shot him a nce, but didn''t say anything. Obviously he would have to pay again. I looked around our new amodation, and found it to be very pleasing too. The furniture looked like it grew to that shape. The table still had branches sticking out of its legs. The chairs were the same. ''Rxing is also good. I always train, and strain my body'' I thought, and sat in one of the chairs.

 Chapter 366

    Chapter 366


    Yater exined the rules a bit more to me, and we went outside to sightsee. He already told me we should wait till the night time for that, but we wouldn''t just sit in the house and wait. Either way, we first went up the Ancient Elder Tree. I wanted to see the view from those tallest ramps. Elysians had no problem with us climbing the tree, we were even allowed to go to the tallest point avable.


    "This view is amazing! I can even see past Elysian Empire from here!". Yater nodded, and said "Yes, pretty much whole Elysian Empire can be seen from those trees. If you look to the North, you will see arge tower". I looked in the direction and indeed, there was a tower there. Yater continued "This is also in the Elysian Empire Territory. This tower was made by Elysians, but it is still from natural resources. Rocks, wood and such, were used to create it".


    I asked, "What is that tower used for?". This time Nathan replied, "It''s called Wisdom Tower, and it''s a testing ground for Elysian Warriors. All warriors have to pass this test, and it is a great achievement as well as earns them a great deal of respect. I''m not sure what trials await the young warrior there, but they must be difficult". I knew that Nathan used flowery words on purpose, and he didn''t think too much of this tower. Either way, it was something Elysians considered special, so he couldn''t say it was mediocre or something.


    I asked, "Can only Elysians take the trial?". Yater replied, "As far as I''m aware, yes. I never heard of anyone but Elysian, who took the Elysian Warrior Trial. I''m not sure if we would be allowed to enter. It is their sacred ground after all". Yater then pointed towards the west, and said "In that direction, is the Imperial City of Zarok. You might be able to make it out, if you try". I focused hard at the direction Yater pointed, and searched.


    ''Hmmm?'' I thought. "I think I caught a glimpse of something". Yater smiled, and asked "What would that be?". I replied "A huge tree. Not like this one, different¡­ Bigger. Like a huge, no, massive oak tree". Yater nodded his head, and said "Very good. That tree is where the Imperial City of Zarok is. Do you know what that tree is?". I shook my head in reply. I''ve never seen such a massive tree.


    Yater replied "It''s a World Tree". I asked confused "World Tree?". He nodded, and continued "Yes. The World Tree is as the name suggests, the tree of the world itself. It is a holy tree, and doesn''t appear anywhere else in the world. I will tell you more about itter". I nodded, but couldn''t hide my interest. ''A World Tree. Just what type of tree is that?'' I asked myself.


    Yater then showed me a few morendmarks, but they were not as important. Some mines, Royal Fields and such. Although I would love to check out the Royal Fields, we weren''t allowed in that area. Only Elysians were allowed entry. We walked back to the ground, and headed towards one of the ces where we could rx. Yater was wealthy indeed, because he was able to rent one of the hot springs, just for ourselves. Otherwise we would have to share it with Elysians, and everyone knew it could end badly.


    "This ce is great. I can already feel my muscles rx", Irwin said inside the hot spring. Nathan also rxed in one corner, with a cloth on his face. Yater drifted around, like a log of wood. I also sat down, while Irwin said "Hey Nex, show us your equipment". I looked at him, as if looking at an idiot, or perhaps he was an idiot, and said "I never realised you liked men. I don''t spin that way though". He jumped up, andnded outside of the spring, with his manhood fully visible. He said "What! Are you afraid topare? We are men here, there is no shame".


    Yater called out "Shut up Irwin. Behave a bit will you?". I could see a glint in Irwin''s eyes, when he suddenly jumped back into the spring, and grabbed Yater. "Oi idiot, what are you doing!". He lifted him up, and removed the cloth covering his private parts. After a while, Irwin said "Eh? It''s not much, is it Yater?". Yater''s manhood was fully visible, and I didn''t want to look at that, so I turned around.


    Yater was about to explode, when Nathan said "Just quiet down. It doesn''t matter". Yater replied "Then show us yours!". Nathan lifted the cloth from his face, and asked with a grin, "You want to be disappointed in yourself even more?". He stood up, and walked out of the spring. He then turned around, and like some sort of pervert, took off the cloth covering his private parts. He then stuck a pose with his manhood fully disyed. ''Oh for fuck sake, what are these people into?'', I questioned their sanity.


    Irwin replied "Aye old man, not bad at all. Much better than Yater". Then I felt three gazes focusing on me. ''No way'' I thought, and looked at the three. "Bullshit! No way in hell, will I associate myself with you perverts". They all started walking towards me, so I quickly ran towards the exit, but I was too slow. Irwin grabbed me, lifted me up and removed the cloth that was wrapped around my waist. I asked "Happy now?".


    Irwin replied "Oi oi Nex, you are not so bad yourself". Irwin let go of me, and Nathan motioned for me not to worry. This didn''t break the rules, we didn''t offend anyone. Besides, nakedness was also considered natural by Elysians. In some rural areas of the Elysian Empire, people walked without clothes too. I looked at Yater, and his face was grim. I said "Hey, don''t let them get to your head. Does it matter?".


    Yater eximed "Of course! It doesn''t matter, I''m still a master!", thenughed to himself like a mad man. We left the hot spring a whileter, and walked around the city. We then ended up in one of the bars, and sat there till the evening. When we walked outside, the ce turned magical. Yater said "I told you it''s something else during the night". And it was. I marvelled at the sight for a good few minutes. ''I saw many things in my life, but not something like this'' I thought.


    All the houses and trees were illuminated by some sort of purple light. The source was unknown to me, but I could see a few spear like sticks, with purple balls of light on top of them. Houses had them too, but not on sticks. It looked like a wooden te, which hung from the walls. The purple ball of light was ced on top of it. My attention though, was drawn to the Ancient Elder Tree.


    Some purple lights illuminated the bark of the tree, giving it a magical look. Not only that, small glowing bugs were flying around, and made the world seem even more mysterious. When I finally woke up, I looked around me, and saw the three master also looking at the sights. "This is amazing. Such a contrast between night and day", I said. Yater smiled, and replied "Isn''t it. This ce is also known as Lovers Forest. Elysianse here often during the night, and marvel at those sights. They return hometer". Yater didn''t finish, but he didn''t have to. I already knew what for.


    I asked "Those glowing bugs, what are they?". He replied "These are Fiery Flies. Theye out during the night, and do the same thing Elysians are doing. The purple lights are Formations. The colour can be changed. Today is purple, but tomorrow or in a few days, it can change to green, or red and so on". I nodded, and looked at the sights a bit more. A few Fiery Flies flew around me, and sat on my right arm. They were not hot, but warm. Some evennded on my head, and yed around.


    Yater said "Don''t worry, Fiery Flies are not hostile at all. Although I never saw them get so close to someone from the outside". They danced around me for awhile, then flew up and joined the others. "Interesting creatures", I said quietly. Suddenly, I heard a loud bird cry. Yater got excited, and said "Oh! the Moonlight Swallow is going to fly around. We can have a look".


    I looked towards the sky, and saw arge bird flying around. It was silver and blue in colour, its feathers looked almost metallic. The bird had a distinctive long tail behind, shaped like a letter V, which was ck and blue in colour. A few silver feathers stuck out of its head, and danced around in the wind. The Moonlight Swallow flew a few circles around the tree. I noticed it was actually descending, because it got bigger and bigger. Yater saw this too, and asked surprised "Is it going tond?".


    We all looked at the majestic bird, as it got closer and closer, until itnded not far away from us. ''This bird is huge!'' I eximed in my mind. It stood at least twenty metres tall, and shone like a well polished piece of metal. The Elysians were also taken by surprise, they gathered around to watch the bird too.


    The Moonlight Swallow started walking, and looking at people gathered. When it looked at our group, it made its way towards us. Yater couldn''t contain it anymore, and repeated "It''sing" quietly. The bird stood in front of us in all its glory. I then heard someone say "Outsiders, move away from the Swallow". When I looked behind, I noticed a few Elysian Warriors standing there. Nathan grabbed Yater, and we backed away. The bird though, walked towards us.


    The Elysian Warriors saw this, and stepped in front of us and the bird. It seems the Moonlight Swallow didn''t appreciate that, and released a cry at the warriors. One of them said "Please Moonlight Swallow, if you have any needs, we will tend to them". The bird extended one of its wings, and swung it. The warriors got swept away, and the bird continued towards our group. I could see amazement on all the Elysians gathered. ''This is not normal in that case. What does this bird want from us?'' I asked myself.


    The bird walked up, and lowered its head to look at us. It stopped its gaze on me, and opened its mouth. I thought a loud shrill would follow, but no. The bird rubbed its head on me, and then lifted off, to fly in the skies a bit more. ''Just what the hell was that about?'' I asked myself. Nathan grabbed me, and said "We need to leave". We left the gawking audience behind, and headed towards the cart that would take us back to the Ancient Mountain. Without any exnation, we boarded the cart, and left that ce.

 Chapter 367

    Chapter 367


    Yater quickly tapped a few times on the cart, and said "This is truly bad. We have to get out of here as soon as possible". I asked "Why? We didn''t do anything". Nathan replied "We didn''t, but Elysians will still me us. The Moonlight Swallow should not interact with outsiders. They will not be happy about that, even though we did nothing". Yater nodded and said, "That is why I don''t care anymore. Using our skills is fine. I blocked the Information Ry Formations, which is the exact reason why we are able to talk right now. They will figure out we broke thew soon, but that is much better than being questioned by those crazy old monsters".


    Irwin nodded, and added "Yea, you don''t want to meet them. It''s something else. Although Elysian Empire is small, their military powers areparable, if not better than Endrosian Empire''s. The three of us, could only die in the face of such enemy". I nodded, and asked "Why would the Moonlight Swallow actually do this?". The other two also looked at Yater. He knew much more about them, then any of us. He shook his head and replied, "I have no idea. This has never happened before. Moonlight Swallows wouldn''t even do that to Elysians. Do you have something special on you?".


    ''Yea, I have something¡­'' I thought and answered "No". Nathan looked at me suspiciously. He knew I was lying, he could read people much better than me. I sighed, and replied "There is something, but I don''t know if that''s the reason". Yater asked "What is it?". I extended my right arm, and replied "This". Nathan said "I know your arm is not that of a Human, but why do you have it exactly?". I replied after a long sight. "Believe it or not, this is my arm".


    They looked at each other in disbelief. Nathan muttered "He didn''t lie", while Irwin asked "What do you mean then?". I continued "This is my arm, it changed because of something". They gave me a look spelling "Get on with it", so I told them. "I have, or had¡­ I don''t know anymore. Anyway, I found a weird lizard in the North. We made a Blood Pact, and the lizard was able to enter my arm. In the past, there used to be a tattoo on my arm, but now¡­". I realised something. It seemed the three masters also realised something.


    We all eximed at the same time "Tattoo!". "You said that the tattoo simply appeared?", Nathan asked. I nodded and replied, "Yes. When Frosty entered my arm, it would change into a tattoo. The tattoo would disappear, when Frosty left". They thought about it for a while, until Yater said "Maybe it was this. I was surprised at first, because I thought you somehow got a tattoo just like Elysians. But that doesn''t seem to be the case. Your parents were not Elysians?". I shook my head, and replied "No, they both came from Endrosian Empire. I''m sure of this".


    Yater continued "Perhaps it is due to that Frosty you spoke of. Animals will be animals. Who knows what that lizard is, especially since it''s able to change your arm like that". I replied "I don''t know if Frosty exists anymore. I haven''t seen it for many years now. Maybe it fused with my arm forever". Yater replied "Hmmm... I can check it, if you want". I looked at him in disbelief, and asked "You can do stuff like this?". He replied, "Well, I''m a master in the Art of Stealth, but I also studied Formations. I''m no master, but I know a thing or two about Formations".


    I nodded, and said "Great, let''s check if Frosty is still there. What do I do?". Yater replied "Nothing. Just extend your arm, and let me handle the rest". I nodded, and extended my arm. Yater draw some stuff in air, and then touched my right arm. As soon as he touched it though, his hand froze, while shock appeared on his face. The other two were as stunned as Yater, and looked at my arm with shock.


    Yater quickly used his Aura to melt the ice, while I retrieve some medicine for him. Irwin asked "Why did you freeze his arm?". But before I could reply, Yater said, "It wasn''t Nex. Your lizard is still there. That is all I can say". I was happy, but confused at the same time. I asked "Why?". He shook his head, and even when the other two looked at him, he just stayed quiet. ''The good news is, Frosty is still there. The next question is, why doesn''t it want to go out at all? It''s not like Frosty is angry at me or anything¡­'' I thought.


    I looked at my arm, and then through the back window of the cart. "Oi, oi! No one told me they can do shit like that", and pointed at the back window. The other three were confused at first, but then realised what I meant. There were some Elysian Warriors running, actually running towards us. Yater said "Due to all that stuff, I didn''t even realise we were chased". I asked "Chased? They run faster than the stupid cart!". Nathan shook his head, and said "No, we are slowing down". Another question escaped my mouth "They can slow us down too?".


    Nathan grabbed me, and said "No time for questions. We need to leave". We burst out of the cart, and ran along the track. The three masters were fast, really fast. If I ran myself, they would leave me in a cloud of dust. This was not the end of our problems though. The cart that was slowing down, suddenly sped up. Yater smirked, and said "Don''t worry, they fell for it". I had no idea what he was on about, until the cart stopped all of a sudden, and the Elysians walked out, falling straight to the ground.


    I could only guess it was Yater''s illusion. There were no other pursuers behind us, but we didn''t slow down at all. We soon made it to the Ancient Mountain, but through a different path. The three jumped off the track before we arrived, and used the forest to run towards the border. ''They are searching for us'' I thought, when I saw lights in the forest. We did nothing wrong, and they chased us as if we killed the Emperor himself.


    Fortunately, I was together with the three master of the Forbidden Arts. They couldn''t catch us so easily. At the border, we saw many Elysian Warriors waiting already, but we were able to leave without any bloodshed. While we ran through the forest of the Endrosian Empire''s territory, Yater said "If we killed any of them, we wouldn''t be able to return at all. At least this way, we can still visit in the future. You Nex, you need to wait a bit longer. It would be best to master your Arts, before going there again". I nodded, and didn''t n on returning fast. Elysians were crazy, and although the sights as well as the whole Empire was interesting, I valued my life. It was certainly more precious than some sights.


    We ran back to Yater''s ce in silence. We had our share of events past those few days, and we didn''t need any more. It took us a few days to return, and only then did we take a proper rest. The next day, my usual training wouldmerce again. Did I regret going to Elysian Empire? Not at all. Would I go there again? I would when I was strong. Strong to the point where Elysians could kiss my ass with their rules.

 Chapter 368

    Chapter 368


    Days passed after we returned from the Elysian Empire. I practiced my new Stringed Hidden Weapons Forms, as well as fought with Irwin every day. I stopped counting time, and focused on my training alone. I slowly learned to predict the wind, and incorporated that into the Wind Form of my Stringed Hidden Weapons skill. I also practiced more with the Final Form, and tested it to the limits. I was able tost two minutes under that Form. After that I would be exhausted, with only about 15% of my energy left.


    I also learned to control my Bloodlust Aura better. I could release it any time I wanted, and I was able to control myself during the whole awakened state. I learned more about Warlike Close Combat too. Although I was still getting beaten up, Irwin became more serious as time passed. They were right about something. I had no real talents, but I could adapt to everything quickly.


    I still couldn''t figure out anything about illusions. I tried asking Frosty a few times, now aware it was still there. But all I got in response was silence. I had no clue, why Frosty was so bent on staying hidden. ''There must be a reason, I''m sure'' I thought. Yater stayed silent, even when the other two asked about it. No matter how much they pestered him, he just replied "You will find out, when you find out".


    I also tried growing some of the nts in the mid time. I found that although I could grow them to some extent, I wasn''t able to cultivate a fully grown nt. As if I was missing something important. Before I nted the Ethereal Seed, I first looked for simr seeds. Yater was kind enough to get me as many as he could find. There were some simr seeds, and I could grow them. But when I tried with the Ethereal Seed, it never sprouted.


    ''At least the seed is still here. It didn''t spoil or got destroyed. I can maybe try in the future'' I thought at the time. I had my hands full with other things, so I only did that on a whim. Besides, Ethereal Flower was not like the book described it as. It couldn''t grant immortality, at most I would gain 30-40 year, if I ate a few of them. I was still considered young, where people were able to live past 100 years, so I didn''t have to worry about that now.


    I knew the seasons passed, but I already lost track of time. Only when Yater came over one day, did I realise how long it has been. "You studied well Nex. Although you didn''t figure out anything about illusions yet, your improvements in the other Arts are amazing". I asked "How long has it been?". He smiled and replied "Almost five years. You did well in that time. Even though you had us masters with you, still a great deal of improvements".


    I looked at him for a while, and asked "It''s been five years?". Yater smiled, and said "Time flies quickly, doesn''t it?". I took a look at myself. I had to make a new set of clothes many times during that time. I still used animal skins, but I tried with different designs each time. Not fashion wise, but defence and mobility wise. I added some of the things I saw in the past. I also got better at making the clothes. To my surprise, Nathan was a tailor by trade. He taught me how to properly process animals skins, and make leather armour.


    What I wore at that time, was a leather armour, with a few metal pieces. Irwin knew a thing or two about smithing too. He told me how to build a small furnace, which I could use for smelting some ores and making ingots. The ce changed a lot during that time, and I grew attached to the three masters. Besides the new and improved set of clothing, I changed as well.


    My hair, although still ck in colour, were long enough to cover half of my face. Nathan trimmed them once in a while, but not that often. The rough beard on my face indicated I was already middle aged, which when I thought about, didn''t sound so cool anymore. My right arm was as usually wrapped in bandages, and those were made by all three masters. Actually, this was my gift a few years back. Irwin hunted a strong beast, but he refused to tell which one. Nathan processed the skin into strong but flexible bandages, while Yater added some Formations to them.


    The bandages were very durable, grey in colour and thanks to Yater, resisted low temperatures. He obviously took my right arm under consideration there. When I tried it for the first time, it really didn''t break, even when I used the full extent of my ice power. I noticed that I walked, and behaved differently. I could change my styles, based on what Art I wanted to execute. Appear and disappear like a ghost, with the Art of Stealth. Walk calmly and collectively, with the Art of Hidden Weapons. Strongly and imposingly, with the Art of War. The essence of the three Forbidden Arts, was already in my bones. What awaited me, was mastery.


    I looked at Yater, and said "I have a favour to ask". Yater was taken aback by my serious expression. He asked "What do you need?". I replied "I need a favour from all three of you. I want you to help me". Irwin, who sat on the tree not far away, replied "What do you want to do, if you want help from all three of us? Don''t tell me you want to return to the Elysian Empire". I shook my head, and said "No, I want to retrieve my sword".


    Nathan walked out from behind the tree, and asked "Royals eh?". I wasn''t even surprised, Yater must''ve told them. I nodded, and said "I don''t want you to get killed or anything. All I need is a good distraction. I need them to be focused on you, not me. The rest, I will deal with". Yater shook his head, and said "I can''t agree to it. We can''t let you go there¡­", but before he finished, Nathan stopped him.


    Nathan said "We will help you. You are our student after all". Irwin jumped down, and said "I''m up for it any time. Yater, Nex can take care of himself. Don''t treat him like a useless kid anymore. He grew a lot past those five years". Yater sighed, and replied "What if...". This time I cut him off, and said "No ifs. I know who has my sword, and I know her strength. Even if she improved during this time, I can kill her¡­ No, I will kill her and take my sword back. My parents lost their lives for that sword, it''s the only thing they left for me".


    Yater struggled a bit, but then finally agreed. "I will do it. I don''t care about myself, I can run away. But we will not be able to assist you, keep that in mind Nex". I nodded, and said "I know. I will deal with this. It''s time to return to the Endros Imperial City". We decided to move out the next day, after discussing our n first. Irwin suggested storming the ce, but I told him it was a bad idea. After all, the Emperor was an existence we couldn''t easily deal with.


    Nathan had a better idea. Getting rid off some Royal Guards, would make them focus on the killers. It was a good idea, but we needed information. Nathan said "Information is not a problem. There is an undergroundwork of people who specialise in that stuff. They will provide us with all the necessary information, as long as we pay". I recalled something, and said "I heard there were some kind of people like that. I think some of them even chased after me once". Nathan said "They specialise in information, but have a few teams that kill as well. After all, it''s arge organisation. There are four people at the top, but it doesn''t matter now. I can get all the necessary stuff from them".


    I nodded, and suggested something. "We should all wear masks. If they don''t see our faces, they can''t chase after us". Yater smiled, and said "Not a bad idea. I never had to resort to that, but I guess we will be making somemotion. Nathan can make them, while I will ce Formations on them. This should be enough". With all that taken care of, we prepared everything for our journey.

 Chapter 369

    Chapter 369


    The next morning, we left the mountain. Three masters, and their disciple ran through the forest. "We will make a stop in Senberg. I will ask for information over there. We will need to target a few of those Royal Guards, but we should aim for the weaker ones", Nathan said. Yater nodded, and said "Yes, but not weak enough, for the Royals to simply stage an investigation. Remember, we need an uproar".


    We all agreed on that, and sped towards Senberg. I already heard of that city previously, but never visited it. Although we would visit it, I had no ns of sightseeing. ''I already waited too long. The sword has to return to the rightful owner'' I thought. A few weeks went by, and we arrived at Senberg. The city was quiterge, but nothingpared to the Imperial City. I saw arge tower inside, and it was the docking ce for the Falkon. Fox already exined to me, that not every city had such tower. Of course there were different means of disembarking as well as embarking Falkon, from ces that didn''t have those towers.


    We booked some rooms inside an inn, and Nathan went out to gather information. He knew quite a lot about that organisation, as though he was part of them. He returnedte in the evening, and brought us all the necessary information. I asked out of curiosity "Do you belong to that group or something?". Nathan smiled, and replied "I used to, but I''m retired now. They still treat me like some sort of great figure, but I don''t really care for that". He then exined our n. "We have six targets. They belong to the middle ss of the Royal Guards, and there are only 21 of them. If we get rid of six, they will mobilise their forces".


    I asked "Wouldn''t the Royals shut themselves in, because of the danger? I mean, I can infiltrate the Pce, but then again". Nathan smiled, and replied "That is why I have another piece of news". All of as looked at Nathan, and waited. He continued "You told me about the woman who has your sword. They were able to find information on her too. With the new Emperor on the throne, she became a general. A high standing one at that. This alone would be useless, if not for her second role. She is responsible for the Royal Guards".


    Yater eximed, "That''s it! She will probably act herself, if she finds out that her guards are dead". Nathan nodded, and said "Precisely. We will take care of the Royal Guards. Two for each of us. Can you handle that Irwin?". Irwinughed, and said "You two old fools have no idea¡­". Irwin continued talking, while we didn''t pay him any attention. Nathan turned towards me, and said "After we are done, we will lead them around, until the leader shows up. Then it will be up to you. We will make sure, no other Royal Guards will disturb you guys".


    I asked, "Isn''t that a bit risky though?". Nathan shook his head, and said "The strongest Royal Guards are always at the side of Emperor. They will not move without him. Emperor on the other hand, will not move out if the Empire is not endangered. If we killed off many Royal Guards, then yes. We will only kill a few, and not of the higher ss. The Emperor will have no ground to handle that himself, and will send his sister".


    I nodded, and said "Let''s do it then". Yater stopped me while saying "We rest today. We will need to be in our top condition. Remember, this is not something we should take half heartedly. There is a chance the Emperor could intervene, and that is when we have to run. Forget your sword or anything, we have to get out. Fighting an Emperor, and his Royal Guards, would only end badly". I nodded my head, and went to bed.


    We resumed our journey the next day, after a hearty breakfast. We still had a few good days, before we reached the Imperial City. Yater urged me to practiced at all times. Besides that, he also asked me a few times if I figured out anything about illusions. ''He must be worried, otherwise he wouldn''t act like this'' I thought, and decided to reassure him. "Don''t worry so much. Didn''t you witness the improvements I made? I didn''t be arrogant over the night. I will kill her, not y with her".


    Yater seemed to ease up, but he replied "I have a bad feeling". There were obviously many things that could happen. No one could guarantee for our n to work, it was the most likely. Both me and Nathan saw it that way, and Nathan was much more experienced in assessing such things. ''If things go wrong, we will run. The Emperor will notpromise his safety, over a few Royal Guards'' I thought.


    Days passed, and we arrived in the area of the Imperial City. Nathan already informed us that there was aw in ce already, against anyone wearing a mask or face coverings. There were some exceptions, but the face of that individual, had to be known by both Royals and soldiers. We? We wouldn''t enter normally. Yater could smuggle us no problem. Without anyone realising how we looked like, or that we even walked past the gate.


    That was exactly what happened. We entered the city, without anyone even realising we were there. While we walked through the streets, Nathan said "We will wait till the evening, before we take action. Irwin, remember to do it as silently as you can. We are not asking you to sneak, but don''t make a ruckus". Irwin replied "I know alright! Just because I''m a master in the Art of War, that doesn''t mean I can''t kill people without destroying half of the city".


    Yater looked at Irwin for a while, and asked "Are you sure?". Irwin was about to have another fight with Yater, so I stopped them and said "I have someone to visit. He''s a friend of my family. I wonder if he is doing well. You guys can go to the inn first. Just tell me which you will choose, and I will join you". Yater was against it, and said "You can''t walk alone! What if they recognise you". I looked at Yater, and pointed at myself. "Recognise me? What about now?". My face changed a bit, and I became a bit shorter. Added to that, the long hair covering my face and a beard. I was confident no one would recognise me. Yater replied, "Right, I forgot you can do that too¡­ Fine, we will go to the inn called Ti''s Quill. Don''t take too long".


    I nodded, and headed towards Paul''s workshop. ''It''s afternoon, so he should be inside there now'' I thought. Inside, I asked to see Paul, but they said he was no longer an owner. ''What the? Did he sell his smithy? Doesn''t seem like Paul'', I thought. I decided to try his house next. When I knocked on the doors, someplete stranger opened, and asked my business. When I exined that I was looking for Paul, heughed. After a while, I learned why heughed. Paul no longer lived in that house. For over 4 years, to be exact.


    He and his wife got into difficult financial situation, and sold everything. Supposedly, they went to live in slums. With whatever money they had left, they bought a small house there. That was all I found out from that man. I had an urge to kill him, but he did nothing wrong. I had an idea, who did this to Paul. ''Royals will soon pay for that anyway. If my guess is correct, Paul was done in by the Royals. People saw us together, and they sold him out'' I thought. My only clue was the slums, and that''s where I headed next.

 Chapter 370

    Chapter 370


    When I arrived at the slums area, I asked about Paul. One of the people pointed me towards his ce, in exchange for some money. When I got there, I saw Paul working away on a small anvil. There was a small furnace in the corner of his house, and small workbench. This sight was heartbreaking. A man who achieved mastery in smithing, was reduced to such a state.


    I walked up to him, and stared. I didn''t know what to say, this was my fault partially. If not for the skills I learned, he wouldn''t be in such a situation. Paul spoke first, but he didn''t recognise me. He asked "What can I do for you stranger?". I replied after a while "It''s me". Paul dropped his hammer, and took a proper look at me. He invited me inside, and asked me to sit down.


    His wife asked "Who is this honey?". Paul sat down, and didn''t speak. I walked forward, and said "I''m sorry. If not for me, you wouldn''t end up like this. If I just¡­". Paul stopped me, and I could see tears in Elen''s eyes. He asked "Why did you return?". I was stuck for a moment. I had nothing to say, what could I say anyway? "Sorry for destroying your life"? "Sorry that you suffered, while helping me out"?


    Elen stood up, and walked up to me. But there was no hate in her eyes, she wasn''t crying because they lost everything. She was crying because she was happy. She smiled, and lifted my fair up. "You''ve grown up a lot". I could only say "I''m sorry". Paul asked, "Why did you return? It''s too risky for you to be here". After a while, I replied "I came back to retrieve what is mine. You don''t deserve this. Not now, not ever". Paul replied "You are delusional Nex. Do you think getting that fucking sword, is easy? Do you know who she is right now?".


    I looked at him, and replied "I do". He seemed stunned, and asked "Yet you still want to get it back?". I replied "That bitch will die soon, what is rightfully mine, will be mine. Paul, Elen¡­ Why did you stay in the city? Why not go back to my vige?". Elen replied "This ce was our home... ". I shook my head, and said "Your home is where your family is". Paul said "The bigger issue is Royals. They will not let me out of this city anymore. We tried leaving, but we can''t". I replied "I can escort you outside. With your strength, you can make it to my vige no problem. Paul, this was my fault too. I tried helping that stupid prince, but he sold me out. I''m responsible for this".


    Paul sat there thinking. Elen on the other hand, asked "How?". I replied "I wouldn''t be back here, if I was the same as before. Many years passed already, I''m no longer someone, they can mess with easily". Paul stood up, and said "Let''s go then. You are right Nex. At that ce, we will at least have some friends. Here, we only have enemies". I nodded, and said "I wille back in a while to collect you. Just take whatever you want, and wait for me. If you need anything, ask. I will try to provide everything you need". Paul shook his head, and said "We will be fine. Go, deal with whatever you need to deal with".


    I nodded, and stepped outside. I headed straight to the inn, the other three would stay at. Inside, I found them sitting at the table, and walked up to them. "Yater, can you help me?". Yater was confused, and asked "Aren''t we helping you already? What else do you need?". I said, "Can you escort two people out of this city?". Yater stood up, and said "That''s nothing difficult. Who are these people?". I replied "Friends, or rather kind of my family too. They suffered because of me, because of the skills I know. This city failed them, and the Royals will pay for that too".


    Yater nodded, and said "Alright, let''s go". We went back to the slums, and entered Paul''s house. There wasn''t much for them to pack. Only necessary stuff they would need for travelling, and perhaps some tools that Paul had for smithing. When Paul and Elen saw Yater, they asked "This is?". I replied "My teacher. He will take you outside of this city. I will apany you as well". They nodded, took their bags, and we left.


    While we walked through the street, Paul noticed something and asked, "No one seems to care, what did you do?". I replied "Don''t worry, we will simply walk out of here. No one will stop us". Paul was confused, but then became shocked when we passed the gate like nothing. He asked "We left just like that? The guards would stop me. I can''t leave this city, they got orders to retain me here". I smiled, and said "Yep, just like that. We will take you out of the city''s range, and then you can continue on your own. We still have some stuff to take care of here".


    Paul was still shocked, and simply nodded his head. When we entered the forest, Yater said "This is far enough. No one is going to search for you here. Even if they realise you are gone". They nodded, and looked at me. I said "I will visit you back home. Say Hi to uncle Finch from me. Tell him I''m doing well, and wille back soon for a visit". Paul nodded his head, while Elen walked over and grabbed my hand.


    She said "We never med you Nex. We always knew Royals were shady. Paul knew this first hand, as he worked for them. They simply discarded us, because we knew you". Paul walked over, and said "We still chose you, over them. Family and friends are most important, remember that Nex". I nodded, and wished them well, as well as safe journey. After they left, Yater said "That Paul is a trustworthy and honest man. You said he was a friend of your family?". I nodded, and said "Yes. He chose to keep quiet, instead of ratting me or my family out. The world needs more of such people". Yater replied "That is true".


    We returned to the inn, and waited till nightfall. The n was simple. They would kill the six Royal Guards, and leave notes. The notes would be simple too. "Another six will die the next day", that''s what the note would contain. During the night, all three left the inn, and headed to eliminate their respective targets. It didn''t take long for them to return. They were masters, after all.


    Irwin as always made some ruckus, but due to the mask, he wasn''t recognised. Actually, this was what we nned for. We just didn''t notify Irwin about that. His style was not that of a silent killer, he was a master in the Art of War after all. The ruckus had its purpose. The public would find out about the killings, and the Royals wouldn''t be able to cover that up. They would have to save face, and find the killers.


    Irwin apologise at first. When I told him that we predicted that, and it was part of our n, he quickly became angry. "It''s not our fault, you are who you are. Be happy we actually nned for this, instead of you producing trouble now", Yater said. Irwin replied "I want to be informed too! If that was the case, I would make a bigger ruckus!". This time I said, "And that would be a problem. Because we told you to do it silently, you tried your best to minimize the noise. If we told you "Ah whatever", you would destroy two or three buildings!". Nathan and Yater nodded their heads, while Nathan said "Nex learned a lot. He already knows you inside out". Irwin replied "Whatever", and sat down.


    The next part of our n, was waiting. We had to wait for them to mobilise their soldiers and whatnot. Wait until the leader of Royal Guards came out. ''She will have to act, to save face. tant murders in her city, of her own Royal Guards. There is no way, she can let that slide'' I thought.

 Chapter 371

    Chapter 371


    From outside my room, I could see soldiers running around and searching the streets. ''The fun begins'' I thought and waited. The public knew, so the Royals mobilised their forces rather quickly. A whileter, I saw some more imposing soldiers walking around the streets. ''These must be Royal Guards'' I thought. The ordinary soldiers ran around and questioned anyone who was still on the street, then reported to those more imposing soldiers.


    All they would get was a description of some masked killer, who ran away somewhere. Waiting a bit longer, I saw her. I left the room, and knocked on the doors to Yater''s room. He opened them, and asked "Ready?". I nodded, and said "Yes. She is outside. Just lure the Royal Guards and her somece quiet, then keep the Royal Guards busy, I will take care of the rest". Yater nodded his head, and disappeared.


    I walked downstairs, and joined the others who watched themotion. Soon, three masked men appeared, and attacked the Royal Guards outside. The three masters didn''t kill them, they simply injured a few people, just to get their attention. Liana rushed after them as well. Yater and the others, headed south towards some quiet area. I disappeared from the crowd as well, and chased after them.


    ''Five Royal Guards of at least mid ss are with her'' I thought. The mid ss meant they broke through their Half Steps of the Inner Limits. They ran after the three masters, until they stopped, and stared nkly ahead. This was Yater''s doing, he used one of his strongest illusions to trap the Royal Guards. Liana was not affected, but knew something was off and tried to back off. Unfortunately for her, I was behind them. With my mask already ced on my face, I appeared on her path of escape.


    Disbelief was evident on her face. She shouted "You!". I walked slowly towards her, and said "Time to die". She took out my sword, and released a plethora of skills at me. "Useless", I said and evaded all of them. When I appeared next to her, she took out some sort of item, and shouted "Die!". But she didn''t realise one crucial detail. I already released a dagger, which struck a pressure point on her hand. Whatever the item inside her hand was supposed to do, was no longer there.


    When she realised there was nothing in her hand, she tried shing with the Moon de. I caught the sword with my right hand, and said "Bitch, you have no right of swinging that sword at me". I pulled and retrieved my sword from her grasp. With panic clear on her face, she tried grabbing the dropped item. It was a useless struggle. I kicked her face, and she flew backwards. When she picked herself up, She screamed "Help!" and ran in the opposite direction.


    I swung the Moon de as hard and as fast as I could. There were no skills involved, no Aura attached. The sword released an air de, that flew through the air, and split her in half. I wasn''t only training my skills throughout those five years. My strength also reached the limit. It stopped improving because I reached the Half Step of my Inner Limits. She was somewhere at that stage too, but I was much stronger.


    Both halves of her lifeless body, fell to each side with blood spouting left, right and up. This was the end. The end of a bitch who chased me twice, took my arm and almost ended my life. I picked up the item she dropped, and took a look. I had no idea what it was. Some sort of red ball, looked to be made from ss. I chucked it into my bag, and walked towards the south.


    Yater appeared not far away, and motioned for me toe over. I had one more thing to take care of, the five Royal Guards that stood motionless. I raised my sword, and chopped their heads off. Only then did I walk up to Yater. He said "Quite ruthless. They lost a good chunk of good soldiers today, especially that princess". I hid my Moon de into the storage feather, and said "They deserved it. We are leaving now, there is nothing else I need here". Yater created an illusion, and we left the city in a rush. Good thing we did, because after we left, a powerful Aura enveloped the city.


    "The Emperor must''ve realised something. Let''s leave quickly". Yater urged, and we ran back towards Yater''s house. Two days passed. We were already in the clear, they wouldn''t be able to find us anymore. Emperor himself wouldn''t leave the city, it was too risky for him. Of course he could, there were no such restrictions ced upon him. Although he could have a chance at revenge, there was also a possibility of an ambush outside. ording to our estimates, he would deem it as not worth the trouble. After another day, I stopped and said "You three can return, I have other things to take care of. I will be leaving the Empire soon as well".


    Nathan asked "You are going to the North?". I nodded, and said "Yes. I left some friends over there, so I want to visit them. Besides that, I will visit my family and a friend here". Nathan nodded his head, while Yater protested "But you need to practice. You still have loads to learn!". Irwin stopped him, and said something no one would expect from Irwin. "Give it a rest Yater. Nex already grew up, and he is much more diligent than we were in the past. You don''t have to tell him to practice, he will do it himself. Besides, all he has left to do, is to master the Arts. We can''t help him with that".


    Yater and Nathan were surprised by such wisdom from Irwin, and nodded their heads. I smiled, and said "I will still visit you guys one day. After all, you taught me a lot and I owe you a lot¡­ You three should stay together". Yater replied "They can go back home now! I want some peace and quiet!". Irwin replied "I have things to do. You have no idea what beasts lurk in the deep parts of this continent. Who knows, maybe we will stumble upon each other one day". Nathan said "Farewell kiddo, know that you made us proud".


    The two left, while Yater stood there looking at me. After a while, he said "I''m d we met. Thanks to you, I might be able to witness something unprecedented. You paid whatever you owed me with that alone. Visit me when you have time, the doors will always stay open for you". I nodded, and bid him farewell too. This was a moment our paths separated. I felt sad that we had to go our own separate ways. But at the same time, I felt confident and inspired. Three people poured their Arts into me. Now, I was the one who was supposed to carry their legacy. Perhaps it was a burden, perhaps a blessing. This wouldn''t change who I was, it would only make me stronger.

 Chapter 372

    Chapter 372


    I headed to Ortava first. I wondered how Fox was doing. It''s been a few years since Ist saw her. The journey to Ortava was really uneventful. On my way, I yed with the Moon de a bit more. Indeed, there was a Formation inside. I wasn''t able to activate the Formation at first, but then I recalled the stuff about Blood Ritual. I dropped some of my blood onto the de, and the Formation activated. The de shone like the moon during the night. When I shed it without much of my strength behind, the sword released a silvery air de, that cut through a few trees cleanly.


    "Wow", I said to myself. The sword with that Formation active, was very sharp. The Formation had two effects though. Although it activated the sword''s real power, it was also sucking my blood away. The rate was slow, but after prolonged use it would drain my bloodpletely. ''This must be how the sword would be used in that Blood Ritual. It would suck my blood, and then somehow transfer the life force to Trek'' I thought. I wasn''t sure how exactly it would be transferred, but it was the most logical possibility.


    Besides retrieving and learning about Moon de, I also checked out the red ss ball. I had no idea what it was. ''She shouted "Die!", before intending to use it. Is it some sort of explosive item?'' I asked myself. I couldn''t figure it out, but Fox''s father might have a clue. Ortava soon appeared in front of me. The city didn''t change at all. The Academy was still there, as were the students and ordinary citizens, going about their daily lives.


    I still had my feather, so entering the Academy was not a problem. I might''ve been able to enter without it. But why try, when I already had a pass? Inside the Academy, I climbed the tower, and knocked on the doors. A coarse and older voice answered "Come in". I walked inside, and saw Fox''s father. He aged a bit throughout the years I haven''t seen him. ''He must''ve gone through a lot. His daughter being chased and all that'' I thought.


    He lifted his head up, and asked "Who are you?". I began by apologizing. "I''m sorry. I hope Fox is doing well, despite all that happened in the past". It took him a while to recognise me. He stood up, and shouted "Why did youe here? Haven''t you done enough?!". I replied, "You are right to me me, it was my fault. After all, it was me who helped that prince. I did what I could to keep the promise I gave you. Knowing that she returned safe, and is safe now, it''s all I cared about".


    He said "Whatever. Leave, you already caused enough problems for us. I should sell you out to the Royals, but I will not do such a thing. Although you brought that disaster upon us, you also allowed my daughter to escape. Let''s just call it we repaid each other''s debts, and live our own lives". I nodded, and said "I came to apologize, and say farewell to Fox. After that, I will leave the Endrosian Empire". He asked angrily, "You still dare ask to see my daughter?". I replied "I just want to say goodbye. Nothing else". He thought about it, and replied "Fine. Say your farewells, and leave. I will be happy if I never see you again". I nodded and turned around to exit


    When I walked through the doors, he said "You will find her in the library. You don''t have to return here anymore". I nodded, and closed the doors. I headed towards the library, just like I was told. There were many students inside, and in one corner sat a lone girl reading a book. It was Fox, but her mask was different... Although still fox-like. I walked up to her table, and sat down on the chair opposite of her. She asked annoyed "What do you want", without even taking her eyes off the book.


    I smiled, and said "I came to say goodbye". She froze for a moment, and then looked up. She probably wanted to say something, but no words came out of her mouth. I said "It''s been a while. Your voice is more mature now, and you changed your mask". Her voice shaky, she asked "Why now? Why didn''t you visit earlier?". I replied "I had loads to take care of. Besides, I already took care of all the stuff here. I will be leaving this ce".


    After a while, she asked "You will never return?". I thought about it, and said "Probably. Who knows what the future holds, but I n to stay in the North for now. Your father¡­ both of you suffered enough because of me". She shook her head, and said "But it wasn''t your fault". I snorted, and asked "Then who''s? If not for me, you wouldn''t be chased. You wouldn''t have to deal with all that mess. I only came to say goodbye, but who knows, maybe we will meet one day. The world is big and small at the same time".


    I stood up, and said "Farewell Fox. Take good care of your father". I then left the Academy, and Ortava. ''I always cause problems for those around me. In the North, I should be fine though. No one will hunt me down, because of my skills¡­ Haaah'' I thought. In the end, I didn''t ask about that red ss ball. It would be inappropriate to do so. ''I will find out one way or another'' I thought, as I ran towards Sav Vige.


    I was lost in my thoughts for a while, until I realised someone was following me. ''Does someone have a death wish?'' I thought, and turned around. I soon realised who was following me. ''That stupid girl¡­'' I thought, and called out. "Fox, I know you are following me. Come out". Indeed, she appeared further away, and said "I''ll go with you". I smiled, and replied "You will go, but home. Your father is already angry at me, I don''t want to cause any more problems for you guys".


    She replied seriously "My father can''t dictate my life. I''m a grown up woman, I can make my own decisions". I shook my head, and said "You know I can''t allow that". She asked "Why? Because I''m weak? Because you don''t trust me?". I replied "No, because I can''t guarantee your safety". She replied "I can take care of my own safety!", then disappeared, and tried attacking me. I shook my head, and caught her as she was about to attack me from behind.


    "I''m not the same I was before. What you learned is some stealth. What I practice is an Art of Stealth. The Forbidden Art, that Royals themselves fear. Your tricks will no longer work here. I already ughtered some high standing Royals, including that princess. They will search for me far and wide. Are you alright with that?". She went silent for a while, then replied. "I''m willing to ept it". I sighed, and said "Alright then. We will be going to the North, but before that I will visit my family. Just to make it clear, if you want to go now, there is no return. You won''t be able to see your father for a very long period of time".


    She said "I already left a goodbye message. The life of Formation student is not for me, I don''t want it. I want to go with you". I nodded, and released her. "Let''s go then". I was a bit angry at myself. I shouldn''t allow her to go, but at the same time, she chose that over anything else. Knowing the risks of associating with me, she chose to go. This was her decision, but also mine decision. Whether we would regret making them, was up to the future.

 Chapter 373

    Chapter 373


    At first it was a bit awkward. Fox and I didn''t talk for a few days, until everything quieted down, and some time passed. She broke the ice first by asking "What exactly did you do throughout almost six years?". I said "Training. Someone visited you a few years ago right?". She nodded, and asked "Yes, who was that anyway?". I replied "A sort of my master. He was the one who saved my ass, after the Royals almost killed me. He and the other two "taught" me about three Forbidden Arts".


    She suddenly stopped, and asked "Three?". I nodded, and said "Yes three. The Art of Stealth, which you know about. The Art of Hidden Weapons, which you should be aware of too". She nodded, and asked "And the third?". I replied "The Art of War". She looked at me confused, and asked "Art of War? There are no wars around". I smiled, and said "These days, people call it Art of Rage".


    She looked at me for a while, and asked "You are pulling my leg right? There is no such thing as Art of Rage or War, right?". I released my Bloodlust Aura, and asked "There isn''t?". She stumbled backwards, and almost fell to the ground. I retrieved my Aura and waited for her to gain back her footing. A whileter, she asked "What exactly was that¡­ Disgusting and full of killing intent Aura¡­?". I replied "It''s my Aura. Call it however you like. You have no idea what stuff I had to go through, in order to fully tame it".


    She asked "You want to say that three master in the Forbidden Arts, were your teachers?". I nodded, and replied "Pretty much. I also visited Elysian Empire. Although a brief visit, I came back with mixed feelings". She asked shocked again "You''ve been there?". I said "Yep. Turns out that practitioners of the Forbidden Arts are allowed in". Sheughed for a bit, and said "You are indeed something else. I sat there in Ortava doing pretty much nothing all day, while you became a figure that even Royals have to be careful around¡­".


    I said "Not without costs. I had my share of pain along the way. Getting beaten up everyday, is not my idea of holiday either. You regret going with me?". She shook her head, and said "No. I''m weaker than you, that much is apparent, but I can also improve". I said "There''s no need to push yourself¡­", but then I realised I was always doing just that. I changed my mind, and said "Actually, it''s good. You have something to work towards, a goal". She nodded, and asked "Can you teach me?".


    I was a bit¡­ surprised? ''Can I teach her? I already have one student¡­'' I thought. I asked "What do you want me to teach you?". She replied "The Forbidden Arts". I asked "All of them?". She shook her head, and said "Not that Art of War, or whatever. The other two". I said "The Art of Hidden Weapons is also not for you". She asked "Why?". I said "There are specific conditions you need to fulfil. You are not fit to learn that Art".


    She pestered me more, and asked for the conditions. I said, "First of all, you need to experience very. You didn''t, so that already is a no deal. Besides, you have to learn it yourself. I can show you things, but you will not master anything. You can spend that time on something else instead". She asked "Then what about the Art of Stealth?". ''Hmmm¡­ There are no conditions to learn it. She has potential, but does she have a mindset?'' I asked myself.


    I replied "I can introduce you. You will have to figure everything else out by yourself. I''m no master either, all I can do is show you how to train". She nodded, and said "I''m alright with that". I nodded and said, "In that case, we will start from the basics. By the way, you are not allowed to use your Aura. It might be convenient for you now, but it will not teach you anything". She asked "So what do I do?".


    I said "Let''s check your bnce" and began chopping down some trees. I then chiselled the logs, and finally created some wooden poles. I ced them on the ground vertically, making sure they would stay that way. With that taken care of, I said "Just go from one pole to another". She looked at the poles, and jumped up. Her bnce was not bad, but she still crashed to the ground. ''I think I made the poles a bit too tall. Ah whatever'' I thought. She stood up, and said "It''s impossible!". I asked "Is it?", and jumped on top of a pole. I stood there, without the pole moving at all. I then jumped to the next pole, then the next and so on. After I traversed around 10 poles, I jumped down and said "Turns out it is possible".


    She stared at me for a while, and asked "What sort of hell, did you go through?". Iughed, and replied "Actually? I learned this around 15 years ago. This is nothingpared to what I did recently. Alright, try again". She fell off a few times and asked, "Can''t you just catch me?". I replied "Land by yourself, don''t you have fully working legs? If you prefer to use your ass as a cushion, that is your choice". She muttered "Bastard", and tried again.


    This was actually many times harder, than what I used to practice. Not only we were inside a forest, so the poles were much more unstable. The poles were also taller, and varied in height a lot more. ''If she wants to learn, this difficulty should be nothing'' I thought. About an hourter, she gave up. I could see her rubbing her butt, from all the falling. She turned towards me, and said "You know about medicine right? Give me some!".


    I replied "I have none", which was an obvious lie. She looked at me for a while, and asked "You sure?". I nodded, and said "I''m. Alright, let''s go now. You can practice that as we travel". She gave up on the idea of getting some medicine from me, and followed. We would repeat that every day. She would fall many times, but every time I told her to train, she persisted. This was promising, if she didn''t have the perseverance, this would be pointless.


    We were about to arrive at the Sav Vige, so I told her to stop the training for now. A few guards stopped us at the gate, with spears pointed at us. I said "Rx will ya? I''m Nex". The guards stood there bewildered, but didn''t lower their weapons. One of them said, "Anyone can just im that". I said "Anyone can kill you and enter. Your point?". They looked at each other, and one of them said "Prove it!". I took a step forward, and disappeared from their view. Before they could even react, I knocked them out unconscious. "Here is your proof".


    Fox said rmed, "I think they meant your identity¡­ What now?". I said "Nothing, this is my home. How can they even punish me for that. I wouldn''t be surprised if those two got punished instead¡­ Don''t worry though, I will tell uncle to actually reward them". She asked "Huh? Why? Didn''t they fail?". I said "Against me? They already did a good job not letting me in. They are supposed to keep strangers away, and they did their jobs¡­ sort of".


    We headed straight to Finch''s house. When I knocked on the doors, a familiar figure opened them. "Yes¡­Do we know each¡­ other?". I smiled, and replied "Don''t you recognise me? Well, I guess I changed a bit, didn''t I?". She rushed over, and grabbed me into a hug. "Nex, you are back home! We heard what happened from Paul, it''s good that you are alright". After she released me from her hug, she asked "Who might this be¡­ Your wife?". Fox replied flustered "No no, we are not... Just call me Fox¡­ Nice to meet you!".


    Tina smiled, and said "I''m Tina, Nex''s aunt. Nice to meet you too. Come inside guys". We entered the house, and sat in the living area. Finch came down as well. He must''ve heard my voice already, so he knew we came over. "Nex! You''ve grown up a lot! That beard, and long hair¡­ You should trim them you know". He then looked at Fox, and said "Ladies like well groomed men". I just rolled my eyes, and asked "How are you guys doing? I assume you didn''t have any problems".


    Finch replied "No, none at all. In fact, a few of the guys broke through their Inner Limits. This is the strongest vige of them all¡­ I think". I nodded and said "Great, just don''t unt that strength". He replied "Of course, I''m no idiot". I asked "Where is Norty, Haily and Aron?". He replied "Aron went out to train himself. Hees back once in a while. I think he should be back in a week or so. Haily found a husband, and lives in another vige with him. They travel around too, so they rarely visit this ce now. As for Norty? He and his wife took your advice".


    I asked "What do you mean?". Finch smiled, and said "I became a granddad. Their daughter Lana is two years old already". I smiled, and said "You guys changed as well. What about Paul?". Finch nodded and said, "He is here. We provided everything he wanted, and he now works at the workshop. He thanked us, but we owe him a lot more, right?". I nodded and said "Treat him well. This man and his family, it was worth to make them our friends. They are good people".


    Finch asked "But more importantly, what were you doing past those few years?". I smiled, and said "It''s a long story". He replied "We have time". I nodded, and narrated some of the things I did during those years. I didn''t mention everything, but I did tell them about Elysians. Finch asked shocked, "You visited Elysians? How are they, what does the ce look like?". I said "Elysians¡­ are weird. Their Empire is beautiful though. One of a kind I might even say".


    I then recalled something, and said "Oh, you should reward those guys at the gate. They are doing their jobs properly. I knew people would have a hard time recognising me, but they stood their ground". Finch replied "Of course. The warriors we train here, will only let in certain people. We do trade and such, but we limit the information that escapes our home. We get some curious strangers, but after they spy for a while, they leave. No one is aware of anything, which is a good thing". "That''s good to hear".


    Finch smiled, and asked "So! Have youe back for good? You know you can settle here. There are houses avable, just chose one". I shook my head, and said "I will be leaving for a long time now. I just came over to say farewell". Tina asked "Going so soon? But you only just arrived". I smiled and replied, "I still have something to take care of here, but we will be leaving today". Finch asked "What''s that?". I said with a grin, "You will see in a few years time. Don''t worry, it will be very beneficial to you guys". He was confused, but didn''t probe anymore.


    I turned towards Fox, and said "You can stay with them, while I take care of something". She shook her head, and quickly said "I will go with you". I stopped her while saying, "Just stay with them, they don''t bite. It won''t take long, besides it''s a private matter". She sat back down, and agreed. I left the house, and headed towards v''s ce. ''I wonder how she''s doing?'' I asked myself.

 Chapter 374

    Chapter 374


    I knocked on the doors, and Kara opened them after a while. She asked confused "May I help.. YOU!". Iughed, and said "Wow, you actually recognised me". She asked "When did youe back?". I replied "Just now. How are you doing? How is your medical knowledge advancing?". Sheughed for a while, and replied "The books you gave me? Ha! Old and boring!". I raised my eyebrows while asking "Oh, is that so?". She recalled something, then quickly apologised.


    I smiled and shook my head. "You don''t have to be afraid of me. I was strict with you, because I wanted to push you. If you are that confident, that''s great. I came to teach you a few more things", I said. She asked excitedly "What will you teach me?". I replied "Come with me". We walked through the streets, until we arrived at the old house. It was the same house, me and Finch used to interrogate the spies. I didn''t need ess to the basement, only the privacy of the house.


    Inside, I said "Today, I will give you two books. This book¡­ it''s mine. It contains the knowledge that will allow you to make Extracts. Don''t be fooled though. Extracts are very strong, and much purer than simple medicine. Besides that, I''m giving you the book about poison". She shook her head, and said "I don''t need poison. I don''t want to kill people, I want to save them".


    I smiled slightly, then replied "Silly girl. Poison can be used both ways. That is what I want to pass onto you. Besides, with your potential you can achieve a lot. You will be a hidden card of this vige. Not only a great medic, but also a lethal poisoner". She didn''t seem to like that idea, so I reassured her "I''m not asking you to go around killing people, simply defend this vige if such a need arises. Besides, poison can cure stuff to, of course if used in appropriate proportions". She said "I don''t know¡­ I never killed anyone". I replied "Humans are weird, you know? I also didn''t want to kill, but sometimes it is the best option we have. If the vige is invaded, do you think they will let you go? Just because you don''t want to kill anyone. You will have to make a choice at that time, just like I made a choice¡­".


    She looked at me for a while, then said "I will defend this vige, I promise. I will only defend our friends here, and will not invade any other viges, or be some sort of warrior". I nodded, and said "No one will require that from you. Here are the books Ipiled". She took the books, and asked "Is there a time limit as well?". I replied with a smile "Not this time. Just make sure you memorize them, and then burn them down. Although there is no time limit, you are of course not allowed to share this. Alright?". She nodded, and looked through the books.


    She was instantly hooked, and didn''t even respond when I called out to her. Only when I said "I will burn those books, if you ignore me", she finally closed the books quickly, and hid them in her storage bag. I said "No rush, you have time. Study them carefully, and apply the knowledge to your practice. Work ha¡­ ah whatever. You will practice and work hard, I don''t need to tell you that. After all, you are a maniac when ites to this". She pouted while replying "I''m not a maniac! I just like to know more".


    I felt like her talent was wasted, and not wasted at the same time. She was very curious, simr to Arien from the story of the Art of Stealth. She could practice the Art of Stealth, and maybe even be a master. I had no idea, how they knew someone could be a master in the Art of Stealth. ''Doesn''t matter. She has a chance to overtake me in the Art of Medicine'' I thought. Within those books, I described how to grow the herbs as well. I knew she would attempt it, because she was crazy about anything concerning medical knowledge.


    I then asked "How''s your training going along? Any improvements?". Sheughed, and said "Ha! I almost broke through to the Outer Limits. I didn''t learn sword, but I learned some first techniques. It''s good right? Considering I started sote". I replied "Great. I will give you the 2nd diagram. You can use that to practice now. Also, you will have to develop your own Aura. I can''t tell you how, that is something you need to figure out on your own". She nodded, and said "I will try my best". I then draw the 2nd Modified Diagram for her, and handed it to her.


    She looked at it for a while, then asked "What about exercises? Should I continue the same way?". I replied "Increase the weight, this will help you break through. Remember, these are your Limits, therefore you have to push past them". She nodded, and said "I will!".


    We then left the abandoned house, and returned to her house. I said hi to v, and left. ''I hope she can provide a lot of help for the vige in the future. With my Extracts, she should be able to improve this vige even further. With the poison, she should be able to defend it too'' I thought, and returned to Finch''s house. When I entered, I saw Tina and Finch surrounding Fox, as if interrogating her. "Something''s wrong?", I asked.


    Tina replied "Oh! No, no. We were just chatting". I nodded, and said "I dealt with everything here. I will just visit Paul on the way out". Finch asked "You don''t have to leave so soon. Stay at least a day or two. Don''t you want to see your cousins?". I smiled, then replied "Let them live their lives. It''s not like they have to rush here, just because I visited". Then I recalled something, and asked "Oh right. I retrieved my Moon de. Wanna see?". Finch eximed "Oh!", and then extended his hand.


    I took out the Moon de, and showed it to Finch. He took the sword, and said "A fine weapon indeed. Great that you finally got it back. After all, it belongs to you". ''Yea. After so many years, the sword is back to where it belongs'' I thought. Tina insisted we stay for dinner, but Fox was somehow reluctant. I had no idea what they did to her, but she was too shy to even lift her head up. I declined the dinner, and said farewell to them. We left Finch''s house, and headed to the workshop. I also wanted to say farewell to Paul.


    Loud noises of metal striking metal, came out of the workshop. Paul was working away, while Gerond looked at Paul''s work. He wasn''t there to make sure Paul worked properly, he was actually learning stuff from Paul. ''He is a Master cksmith after all'' I thought. I waved at them, and called out Paul''s name. Paul stopped working, and replied "Nex, d you made it here! I see your friend is with you too". I nodded, then replied "You made it as well. I hope Finch provided everything for you. After all, we owe you a lot".


    He shook his hand, and said "We were more than weed here. Elen made some friends already, and event took upon herself to teach children the proper history of our continent. I help Gerond here, learn a few things. His knowledge is not bad at all. He just needs to practice with his technique, and this vige will have another great cksmith". I nodded, and smiled in response. "I just came by to say farewell. I will be leaving for the North, and probably for a very long time. I don''t think I need to worry about you guys here". Gerond said "Not at all. We all bonded together, thest time you left. The vige is more unified, than it ever was".


    I said "Great to hear", and bid them farewell too. We left the Sav Vige soon after. Outside, I asked Fox what did they ask her about, but she wouldn''t answer. ''I guess it''s their little secret then'' I thought. "Towards the North eh? You know, I will make you train throughout our whole journey, right?", I asked. Fox replied a bit angry "What? With no breaks?". I said "You wanted to learn, not me. Do you think I had any breaks during that time?". She replied "You did! You visited the Elysian Empire!".


    ''I forgot about that'' I thought, and said "That was different. It was a training too. You have no clue what weird rules Elysians have. Don''tin. You said it yourself, you sat on your ass for over five years in Ortava. Time to train properly now". She didn''tment back, so I took it as a "Yes".

 Chapter 375

    Chapter 375


    Every day, I would make Fox train with wooden poles. Her bnce improved rather quickly. After all, she was much stronger now,pared to me in the past. I was green at that time, and had no idea what I was doing. A few days passed since she started her training. All was peaceful, but I already knew peace didn''tst long. While we walked through the forest towards North, a few people suddenly appeared in my view, and rushed our way. ''I wonder what do these guys want?'' I asked myself.


    Fox also noticed them after a while, and asked "What should we do?". I replied "Nothing. If they attack, I will fight. If not, they are free to leave. This forest doesn''t belong to me". There were four people in the group, all males. They were heading towards us, even after they saw us. I already prepared myself, and waited. They didn''t stop, or took out their weapons. They simply ran past, while one of them had a smirk on his face. ''I wonder what was that all about?'' I thought.


    I soon got my answers. They were running away, this much was evident. Why the guy smirked? Because they thought that thing chasing them, would go after us first. What appeared in front of us, was arge cat like animal. It wasn''t a cat, because it was much bigger. It was also grey in colour. I never saw that creature before, and where they encountered it, was a mystery to me.


    The grey cat like creature ran towards us as well. It''s strength was beyond anything an animal at the Outer Limits could do. This was no longer shocking to me, I learned from Irwin that some animals were called Beasts. Those things could be much stronger than Humans. The problem was, encountering them. Irwin was a sort of Beast yer, a person who takes on dangerous Beasts, for their rare hide, meat or whatever the Beast is made out of really. Although I didn''t know which Beast Irwin killed to make my bandages, but it was this sort of thing. Rare and very strong. I always wondered why he brought back so little material?


    The Beast rushed at us, and tried attacking. I decided to test out something not even the three masters were aware of. I released my Domineering Aura, but then added the Bloodlust Aura on top. I learned that I was able to do this identally, when fighting against Irwin. He didn''t realise at that time, but I knew I couldbine my Auras. The effects were devastating. Even Fox who stood next to me, shivered and backed off. The Beast on the other hand,pletely stopped. My Auras enveloped it, and held it in ce.


    I said "If you want those four guys, go ahead I will not stop you. If you want to try me out, then you can die. Your choice". Beasts usually possessed high intelligence. Although most of them couldn''t speak, they understood Humannguage. I retrieved my Auras, and waited. The Beast looked at me with fear in its eyes. With the tail behind its legs, it walked around us, then chased after the other group. Fox woke up from her thoughts, and asked "Why did you let it go?".


    I replied "The other four must''ve done something to it. I''m not a Beast yer. I don''t hunt these type of creatures for trophies or other stuff. As long as they don''t attack me, they can live". She asked, "But you kill wolves, bears and whatnot". I replied "Yes, for food. Wolves and bears aremon. These types of Beasts are not. Killing ten wolves will change nothing, but if I kill this one, there may actually be none left around. These things are quite rare, which is why I don''t really approve of Beast yers".


    She asked "What, or who are those Beast yers?". I said "Just like the name suggests, they y Beasts. One of the three masters was a sort of Beast yer. The difference between him, and a normal Beast yer, was that he fought the Beasts only. In other words, challenged them to a duel. It was rare for him to kill a Beast, at least that is what he said". She asked curious "Could I be one as well?". I replied "No. Before you ask why, I will tell you that I would always root for the Beast... Besides, I have no idea how you be one. I''m not interested in that".


    She said "But wouldn''t it be cool to encounter such Beasts? Perhaps even get some rare materials". I replied "And that is exactly why I don''t like Beast yers. When I''m not hungry, I don''t look at a wolf and see a piping hot roasted meal. It''s still an animal. Some wolves are actually friendly, did you know that?". She replied "Wolves? Friendly? You are pulling my leg".


    I replied "Not at all. Wolves like strong leaders. They attack as a pack, but need a leader for the pack to work well. If the leader is bad, the wolves will be bad. I killed a leader from a pack of wolves a few years back, and the others dispersed. But then some returned, and tried to get close to me. Not to eat me, they actually tried to make me their leader. They still live at the ce of my teacher, they are quite friendly to people they know. Wolves are attracted to strong leaders, and some of them wouldn''t mind a Human".


    I continued "You have those guys who ride around atop some animals, right? How do you know, these animals were not aggressive at first?". She replied "I don''t". I nodded, and said "With time, they learned that under Human leadership, the food is no longer an issue. Some of them are treated better than Humans themselves. So why wouldn''t they follow a Human? Of course, not every animal or Beast would be like that. That is why I said, "some of them" are friendly". Fox said "I never realised you like animals. So there is a soft side to you as well?".


    I smiled, and said "Call it however you like. But I think you forgot about something?". She asked curiously "What''s that?". I replied with a smirk, "Your Training!". She eximed "You are doing this on purpose! Is this your revenge?". "Less talking, more fallin¡­ I mean training!" I said. Her training resumed. I wouldn''t give it a rest, until her bnce was perfect.


    Two weeks passed. Although we didn''t make much progress towards the North, Fox finally managed to traverse all the wooden poles. I said "Still wobbly sometimes, but great job nevertheless. We could move onto the next exercise, but we can''t". She asked a bit happy "Oh, what a shame. What would the next exercise be then?". I replied "You will find out, when we arrive to the North. For now, you can keep practicing this. If I may add, try to figure out a movement technique. All you have is your Aura. You have a foot technique I saw before, but it''s too basic. Improve it, or try to find something else".


    She asked "And how do I do this?". I replied "It''s up to you. Try to get inspired by the stuff around you. Excluding me, of course". She shook her head, and said "You are not inspiring, you are just a walking monster. Alright, I will try". With that, our pace increased a bit. The North would wee us in a few weeks at most.

 Chapter 376

    Chapter 376


    Fox managed to perfect her bnce, when we were only a day or two from the borderline dividing North from Endrosian Empire. I told her to focus more on her movement technique now instead. She made little to no progress in those past few weeks. Before we crossed the border, I decided to collect some herbs. Although I had medicine, I wanted to stock up on herbs, and produce some lesser medicines. I had no money, and I would need loads of it, if I wanted to get a few things made.


    ''I wonder if Crow and others are doing well'' I thought while collecting herbs. Fox just looked at me, and stood there as if waiting for something. I asked "Want to help me?". She nodded and replied, "How do I help you?". I said with a smirk "Go practice your movement technique, instead of staring at me for no reason". She turned around, and walked off to somewhere. ''Kara was a much better student. She would do anything I asked her for. She would even go beyond that, and try harder to improve. Fox doesn''t seem to have such mindset'' I thought.


    That was the exact reason, I believed Fox wouldn''t be able to master the Art of Stealth. She had no drive, and wasn''t innovative. Kara on the other hand, had plenty of drive. Medical knowledge meant the world to her, and she constantly tried to expand her knowledge. She wasn''tzy either, Kara was at least three times as hardworking as Fox. ''I guess Kara is a vige girl, and she can do stuff by herself. She knows how to organise herself, and push towards her goals. Fox on the other hand, as a girl from the city, especially with such a wealthy father, had everything handed to her'' I thought.


    I still nned to tell her about other training methods I learned, but I didn''t expect much of her. ''She is not my student anyway'' I thought. Me showing her how to do some exercises, was not the same as me teaching her. I focused on collecting herbs that day. There were always loads of herbs growing around, just before the border between the North and Endrosian Empire. It''s like people didn''t even bother collecting them.


    The next day, we arrived at the borderline. Fox said with a sigh "Heeh¡­. Again with that stupid trial. No wonder people are reluctant toe here". I smiled, and said "Maybe not. Let''s try something". I walked up to the line separating the wastnds from Great Forest, and extended my right hand. I moved it in and out for a while, then nodded my head. ''Still works'' I thought and turned towards Fox.


    "Grab my hand", I said while extending my left hand. She looked at me, and asked "Wh..Why do I need to do that?". I said "Just grab my hand, we will check something out". She walked over slowly, and grabbed my hand. I walked towards the line, and entered. Although a st of wind hit my face when I passed through, it was no longer something that would make me stagger. I then pulled my left hand towards me, and Fox appeared behind the line as well.


    She looked around confused for a while, then muttered some questions. "How?..What?..Where?...". I smiled, and said "This way it''s quicker, don''t you think?". She eximed at my face "What did you do!? How did you do it!?". I replied "I don''t know how myself. I only know that I cane and go to the North as I please. It seems I can drag people with me too". She asked flustered "But.. but what about you know the trials, fighting and all that?". I replied "Completely skipped, great thing if you ask me. Alright let''s go. We will visit Obsidian Mountains first. I want to check if Crow is there".


    Fox only nodded and followed me. I knew she was shocked, because who wouldn''t be? Everyone had to take those trials, but thenes along someone who can just pass through. Anyone who experienced that, would be shocked. Our entry point was much closer to the Obsidian Mountains this time, so it took us only two days, before we arrived at Olrad. When we walked inside the volcano, a few lizards stopped us.


    "You can''t enter. We were instructed to not allow any strangers in". I tilted my head, and asked "Why?". They looked at each other, and one of them asked "You don''t know? Doesn''t matter, you can''t enter". I asked "Where is Lazar and Harlin? What is going on exactly?". One of them was about to repeat himself, when the other stopped him, and asked "Do you know them?". I nodded, and said "I came here to visit them. They are not here?". The guard asked "Can you prove it?". I then realised I saw that guy somewhere.


    "Hey, don''t I know you? You used to hang around with Harlin and Lazar". He looked at me for a while, and asked "Are you perhaps?..". "Of course I''m. I was the one who told you guys about the Yellow Dust. What is¡­", but before I could finish, he said "Come with me. It''s good that you are back". I was confused and clueless at the same time. The answersid inside, so I followed him.


    We arrived at the Upper Olrad, and entered therge building in which I met Royal Lizards before. The guard took me upstairs, and knocked on the doors. I heard "Come in", and already knew it was Lazar. We entered the room, while Lazar asked "What is it Airil? Who is that?". Before Airil said anything, I walked forwards and said "Long time no see eh? Even you don''t recognise me, maybe that''s for the better".


    Lazar stood up, and eximed "You are back! There''s so much shit that went down¡­ I will tell you everything, have a seat". I sat down, and Fox did the same. Lazar told Airil to return to his post, and to have a drink on his tap after his shift. I asked "What is going on exactly? People pointing weapons at me, when I try to enter. This tense and unusual atmosphere around Olrad. Did something happen?".


    Lazar said "Eterians, that is what happened. They returned, and not alone". I wasn''t shocked, I was already specting about that before I even left North thest time. He looked at me, and asked "You are not shocked at all?". I replied "I already predicted they would make a move. After all, they were silent for too long. Of course, I didn''t know when it would happen. I''m a bit surprised it happened so soon". I then asked "Not alone? With who?". He replied "Furians. Not only them, Vanauts and Mordars are there too, and in greater quantities than we ever imagined. The situation is really bad. Harlin is at the frontline, fighting together with the Royal Army. But we are slowly losing the fight. Royals even allowed us to use half of the Yellow Dust reserve, but that just won us one major fight, when we defended Arangard".


    I asked "What about Crow? Where is he now?". Lazar replied "He went back to Sedon about two years ago. He already broke through his Inner Limits, and climbed thedder inside Sedon. From what I know, he is one of the most influential Shades in there. Harlin also broke through, and I''m at the verge of breaking through. Although it might take me another year or two". I nodded and asked another question. "Suly and Alicia? Are they still here?". He nodded, then replied "Of course, I wouldn''t allow them to leave this city. With war raging left and right, they stay inside the city. I say, my little Suly really does have a talent for Formations. You should visit her".


    "Alright. Where is Harlin right now? Where do I find him?" I asked. Lazar replied "Not far away from Sedon actually. They made camp there, and fight off the enemies". I asked "What about Golems? And others?". He replied "The war is still fresh. It onlysts for about 2 months. Golems refuse to even budge a finger. Atols sent some warriors, but a very small minority. Voltars also joined in, but they have their hands full with defending their own city. There is no one else. Humans do help us out sometimes, but as you know, you guys are quite rare in these parts".


    I said "I will visit Suly and Alicia first. I will need new gear anyway. Then I will head over to Harlin. I will see what we can do about tilting the scales in our favour". He eximed "Great! I hoped you would say that. In that case, take this seal with you. When you show it to the allied forces, they will let you inside the camps and cities. Visit me againter, especially if you need information. I will provide anything I can dig up". I nodded, and motioned to Fox that we were leaving.

 Chapter 377

    Chapter 377


    We headed straight to the abandoned house, where Alicia and Suly lived. I knocked on the doors, and they opened after a while. We descended into the well illuminated basement, and I could already see the difference. ''Well I guess Suly decorated the ce a bit'' I thought. Alicia was as cold as always though. She even recognised me, and asked "You again? Well, maybe it''s not such a bad thing. With war raging on, they will need someone like you".


    "Good to see you too Alicia", I replied. Suly walked out of another room, and looked at me for a while with her sleepy eyes. ''She changed quite a bit. I guess she is fully grown up Lizard now'' I thought. Her grey scales looked glistering, and more defined than Alicia''s. I smiled towards here, and asked "Do you recognise me?". Suly woke up immediately, while her eyes almost left her sockets. "NEX! You are back!", she screamed while running towards me.


    She hugged me, and said "It''s good that you are back. You need to help us! Father didn''t want to admit it, but I found out we are starting to lose the war". I patted her head, and said "Don''t worry, I will help as much as I can". ''After all, I have a few reasons to participate and win this war'' I thought. She nodded, and looked at Fox. Suly asked "Who is she?". I replied, "That is my friend Fox".


    Suly looked Fox up and down, and said "I don''t trust her. She wears that mask, even here". Fox replied "Hey brat! What I wear is my choice. You sit in that basement, and besides you are a Grey Lizard! Shouldn''t¡­". I stopped her there, and said "That''s enough. Suly is a good girl, she''s just protective". Suly acted like a child, and showed her tongue to Fox. I turned towards Alicia and said "I need a few things done. I need aplete new gear". She replied as always "It will cost you". I shook my head, and said "I don''t have money. Just do it for me, you will not regret it". Suly butted in, and said "I will do it! She is always like this, I''m used to it".


    She then turned towards Alicia and said "You know, he came back and is willing to help us. Yet you still ask for money. Did he ask for anything in return for helping us?". Alicia''s face became grim. Suly learned how to pressure Alicia better. With years of experience, I had to admit, she was a natural at it. Alicia replied after a while "Alright. What do you need?".


    I took out the Moon de, and said "I need this weapon to fit me. I''m aware you are not a cksmith, but you should know one or two, right?". She took the sword and asked "Why use this weapon? Wouldn''t it be better to make a new one?". I replied, "If you can find Lunite, go ahead". She almost dropped the sword, and asked "This¡­ This sword is made from Lunite?". I smiled, and said "So you know how rare it is. Yes, it is made from Lunite¡­ at least that is my guess. I never saw Lunite, but people died just for this sword, and the name Moon de is also quite suggestive". She replied "Hmmm, maybe. Anyway, what do you want me to do with it?". I said "Because you know who I am, I want you to design a new weapon for me, with Formations included".


    She mumbled "bastard", and thought for a while. She then said "I know a Master cksmith, who could probably work with Lunite. He owes me a favour, but if I allow him to work on this, he will agree without issues. But the design¡­". I said "Let me help you out. Do you have something that can record information?". She replied "I don''t, but I can make one quick. Wait a minute". She grabbed the first item she could find, and ced a Formation on it.


    She passed me a statuette of some sort, and said "This works in a simr manner to what Golems tried to push onto you. Whatever, just activate the Formation". I asked "Can I have some privacy?". She nodded, and said "Sure, we will wait upstairs". Suly followed quickly, but Fox stood there, as if bewildered. Suly said "Hey! He was talking about you too. Wake up will you?". Fox shook her head to disperse the thoughts she had, and walked toward the exit.


    When they were gone, I released everything I had. All my skills, Auras and whatnot. I poured everything I had into that small statuette, then stopped. With that taken care of, I shouted "Come down guys!". A short whileter, they joined me in the basement, while I passed the statuette to Alicia. She checked it, and almost dropped it. "You are indeed a monster. Good thing you are on our side, otherwise we could be doomed in this war", Alicia said.


    Suly tried to grab the statuette from Alicia, but she hid it quickly and said "You can''t have a look at that". Suly said pleadingly "But Alicia, I''m your student, I want to know too". Alicia was adamant though, and after she viewed the information, she said "I will destroy it now". I extended my hand and said "I can do it myself". She nodded, and passed me the statuette. I grabbed it, and released the ice powers sleeping inside my right arm. "Crack¡­ Crack!... Boom". The statuette exploded into pieces.


    With the statuette gone, Alicia said "It will take awhile for your weapon to be made. I already have a design, but I will need to visit that cksmith. You will wait quite a bit for that though. Can you manage?". I replied, "Of course. I will visit the workshop, and create proper daggers for myself, at least for now. By the way, can you leave that Formation inside?". She shook her head, and said "The weapon will be remodelledpletely, the Formation will not survive¡­ But, I can make a new one, if that is what you want". I nodded, and said "I want this weapon to be blood restricted, I''m sure you know what I mean". She nodded, and said "I will be off then. Suly, you stay here and study. You have loads to learn still".


    Suly was reluctant, but didn''tin much. I said "You can help me too. Weren''t you good at creating clothes? As you can see, I need a new set of clothes. Hmmm, I will give you something in return, how about that?". Suly nodded, and said "Of course, but you don''t need to give me anything". Alicia''s character suddenly red up, and she said "Not money, then what can you offer?". Suly looked at her menacingly, but didn''t say anything.


    I replied "I will give one to both of you, I only have three after all. Not now though, I still need to process that a bit further. I myself am not sure what effects it will have, but you never saw something like that in your life, I can guarantee that". Both of them nodded, and Alicia left with my sword. Suly then asked "What clothes would you like?", but Fox butted in, and said "I can make you clothes too! Why didn''t you ask?".


    I asked her "Did you practice your tailoring past those few years?". She replied proudly, "Of course! I can make anything you want". Suly said "I can too! I can also ce Formations on them. Ha! Can she do that?". ''It''s not a contest though... '' I thought, and came up with a solution. "Why don''t you two work together? Fox can make the clothes, while Suly can add Formations. Fair enough?".


    They looked at each other, and said at the same time "Fair!". I nodded, then continued "You two can stay here then. Alicia should have some materials right?". Sulyughed a bit evilly, and said "Haha¡­ she is gone now, so I can get the best materials!". I told them not to overdo it, and promised toe backter. I had to go to the cksmith''s workshop in order to create my own daggers. Maybe even upgrade them.

 Chapter 378

    Chapter 378


    On my way to the workshop, I heard a loud explosioning from outside. "What the?", I ask out loud. Others also looked at the shaking wall of rock. I quickly made my way outside, and saw an army approaching from the distance. "What the hell are those things?", another question escaped my mouth. Large structures of some sort, were dragged by Grondors towards the Obsidian Mountains. What''s more, those things were shootingrge boulders at the Volcanoes.


    Another boulder almost hit the volcano, in which Od was located. The Fire Mares and sludges ran away in fear, while more Lizards appeared outside. Besides therge contraptions of some sort, a small army of Human like beings marched forwards. I left Olrad, and sped towards the army. When I was close enough, I realized what those Human like beings were. "Furians", I said to myself.


    I then noticed some Lizards joining me, and running next to me. These were strong soldiers, probably the leftovers of the Royal Army. One of them shouted "Human! Help us, we are being attacked!". ''No shit'' I thought, and replied "What do you think I''m doing? We need to destroy those contraptions, otherwise we are goners here". He nodded, and said "If we kill enough Grondors, they will not be able to operate them. Furians are the problem though. They will act as defence for Grondors".


    I said, "Take care of the Furians, I will deal with Grondors!". He nodded his head, while I increased my speed, and left them behind. ''Furians will try to stop me, but no being below the level of a master, can stop me currently'' I thought, and arrived at the first defensive formation. I didn''t try to fight them, I simply ran past them, evading anything that came my way. These Furian soldiers were not that strong. Most of them were at their Outer Limits, and very few at their Inner Limits. When I arrived at the second defensive formation, I heard a familiar voice. "Isn''t it our little friend, with unusual powers?".


    I stopped and looked around. "Come out Eterian". A mirage of some sort appeared further away, which then changed to a guy. I met that guy before. It was on the Arena, and he was also interested in my arm before. He said "Good that you are here, we can make use of you". He must''ve used an illusion, as I suddenly had the desire to kill all the Lizards. I didn''t listen to my desire, and released my Aura instead. This didn''t break it though, I decided to try with my second Aura.


    Both Auras enveloped the area around me, and any Furian that was close enough suddenly stopped. The desire to kill Lizards disappeared, while the voice of Eterian returned "Oh! You were able to break through that? I underestimated you". I didn''t wait any longer, and pressed my legs onto the ground, then disappeared. If I was confident in one thing, it would be speed. I utilised the knowledge from the Art of Stealth, and simply vanished.


    ''The Eterian is at the back. If I kill him, there will be much less problems'' I thought, as I passed the Furians and arrived at those weird shooting contraptions. But before I could locate the Eterian, I crashed into something "BOOOM!". I was stopped dead in my tracks, while pain engulfed me. What I crashed into, was that huge contraption. ''Ugh¡­ Another illusion. No wonder Yater said fighting against Eterians is not simple'', I thought as I picked myself up.


    The voice of that Eterian didn''t return, but the Contraption suffered some damages from me crashing into it. The Grondors who operated it, also flew away from the impact. I reached into my bag, and took out one of my medicines. After drinking it, I used my energy to heal myself even quicker. I wasn''t sure whether I was in another illusion or not, but that Eterian was an illusion specialist. Not only that, he was stronger than me. ''He broke through his Half Step. Otherwise, this wouldn''t be so hard'' I thought.


    I couldn''t locate him, so I decided to take out the Grondors operating the contraptions. I was about to attack a Grondor, but then suddenly stopped. ''Something''s wrong¡­'' I thought, and again released my Auras. The Grondors kneeled on the ground, but something was way too off. ''This is another illusion, these are probably not Grondors'' I thought, and retrieved my Aura. The Grondors around me stood up, but didn''t attack me. Soon they all started to morph into Lizards.


    I said "Sorry guys, I''m awake now. Watch out though, there is a strong Eterian behind the scenes. He is trying to mess up our minds, or at least mine". One of the Lizards said "We know, you almost killed us just now". I was no longer next to therge Contraptions, I was back in the middle of they Lizard army. ''I''m sure I ran all the way there, this was another illusion. That guy is dangerous'' I thought. I turned towards one of the Lizard Soldiers, and said "I can''t get through his illusions quickly. I might be able to do something, if I get closer to him". He nodded, and asked "What do you need?". I thought about it, and said "He can y with my sight, hearing and so on, he can''t y around with my instincts though. If you don''t attack me, I will not attack you either. Even if I''ming at you, stay still and do nothing. I will go with you for now. When we sh with Furians, I will try to hunt down the Eterian". He nodded, and passed it to his soldiers.


    The Eterian was sitting atop therge Contraption, smiling at our whole army. The boulders never ceased to rain down on the volcanoes. More Lizards joined in, but a lot of them were already at the frontlines. When my message was conveyed, a Lizard shouted "Move out!". The Lizard army marched forwards in two specific formations. The first formation had heavy soldiers. With ted armour on their bodies, shields and various weapons. The light soldiers were behind, this included those who used ranged weapons, or daggers. When an opportunity arose, they would strike the enemy army, taking them out one by one.


    The army started marching forwards, while I disappear in between the crowd. I hid myself inside the first formation, as this was the leading formation. There were loads of heavily armed Lizards around, therefore I had some confidence in being able to hide myself. The army marched forwards at a decent pace, and quickly made its way towards the Furians defending those Contraptions.


    The first formation arrived at the defensive line of the Furians, and crashed into them "BOOM!", "BOOM!", "BOOM!" "CLANG!", "BOOM!", "CLING!". The sound of soldiers smashing into each other reverberated through the area. Lizards were much better coordinated, and possessed better equipment. The amount of Lizards was alsorger, therefore Furian''s defensive formation was easily broken. The second Furian defensive formation arrived, and I made my move. Using both friends and foes as my shields, I ran forwards. Towards therge Contraptions, and the Eterians hiding behind them. I utilised whatever I had, and quickly made my way to the Contraptions, but I could feel something was wrong. ''He put me under illusion again'' I thought.


    I knew I was under an illusion, because my instincts red up when a Lizard tried to attack me. I yed along, and shouted "Oi! Watch the hell out!". In order to win with Eterians, one had to resort to trickery. The Eterian was mostly focused on me. Besides, Yater told me that affecting one person, and a whole group of people, were two different things.


    If one unleashed the strongest illusion at their disposal, but only aimed it at one individual, the target would have difficulties resisting it. If the same was done to a group of people, the power would get divided and the illusion would be much weaker. ''He is focusing on me, probably because of my arm. He saw my abilities as well. I would make a perfect puppet for them'' I thought. I killed some actual Furians, who attacked me. I still noticed that the Eterian guy was sending more Lizards disguised as Furians my way, than actual Furians.


    A short struggleter, I made it to the huge Contraptions again. I wasn''t sure whether it was real or not. Therefore I decided to use thest resort. Ten daggers appeared around me, and quickly stabbed specific pressure points on my body "Ugh" I grunted, and hid the daggers. Indeed, the view in front of me changed. I was still surrounded by Furians, but I wasn''t as close to the Contraptions as I thought. I used my energy to recover, and ran at the Eterian who was still smiling.


    He quickly realised something was off, and jumped off therge contraption. He must''ve tried another illusion, because I felt something was off again. I had my daggers ready, and immediately used a more lethal set of pressure points. "Swoosh!". Ten daggers stabbed into me, and the pain was real. These were my pressure points, not just skin or muscles. I woke up from the illusion, and pressed my leg down. "Booom!". I disappeared while elerating to my top speed, and appeared next to the Eterian.


    His expression was full of shock, as both of my Auras enveloped him. I extended my right hand, and used my ice powers to the fullest. But before he could freeze to death, he suddenly disappeared from my grasp. ''This was the real him, he must''ve somehow slip away'' I thought. With a slight spin, I threw daggers in all directions. I heard a muffled groan, and the Eterian appeared to my left. He was quite a distance away from me, but I could still chase him. I was about to make a step, when a wall of Furians blocked my way. ''You think you can block me?''. Ten dagger appeared around me again, and I disappeared from my spot.


    "Swoosh". A gust of wind blew out of nowhere, while ten Furian heads fell to the ground. ''Stringed Hidden Weapons: Wind Form''. I didn''t learn to predict the wind only, I learned how to use it as well. North had winds, and currents. When I released my skill, more Furians fell to the ground lifeless. But s, the Eterian managed to get away. Grondors already abandoned therge Contraptions, and ran towards the east. Furians were also escaping. I was too tired and wounded to give chase. We won the battle, and even retrieved thoserge contraptions. I walked up to them, and heard creaking sounds.


    ''Hmm?'' I thought, and took a closer look. A whileter, I realized why they were creaking. "These things are at their limits already. One or two more shots, and they would break apart anyway", I said out loud. They didn''t want a prolonged battle, but wear out their opponents. ''Crafty bastards, especially that Eterian. I will get you one day or another'' I thought. The Royal Army didn''t chase, they had to stay and protect the Obsidian Mountains. I joined them, while tending to my own wounds.


    <div ss="chapternav skiptrante">


    <a title="Chapter 377 New Design" ss="prevchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-377">


    <i ss="icon-left-open">


    Prev


    </a>


    <a title="Limits Chapter List" ss="chapindex" href="/novel/limits-17031322">


    <i ss="icon-home">


    Index


    </a>


    <a title="Chapter 379 We are Friends" ss="nextchap " href="/novel/limits-17031322/chapter-379">


    Next


    <i ss="icon-right-open">


    </a>

 Chapter 379

    Chapter 379


    One of the Lizards walked up to me. He was different than others, that much was obvious. His scales were ck in colour, with a hint of a gold colour mixed in. ''I think I met that guy before, and his name was Jora'' I thought. He said "Thank you for your help. You drove away the Eterian, and he focused on you most of the time. We were able to win this time, and the spoils of war are not bad either. We can now use those things ourselves".


    I replied "Don''t be so sure about it. Those things are about to break. They abandoned them knowing that perfectly well. One or two more shots, and those things will perish¡­ Maybe it was even a part of their n...". The Lizard raised his eyebrows, and asked "How do you know?". I replied "Check them yourself. They are already creaking. Eterians are crafty, he would rather destroy such things, than let us use them. I fear that if we shot from it, it will actually damage our own troops".


    He quickly went to check those Contraptions, and returned after a while. He said "You are right. With a light touch, those things creak a bit. I guess transporting them would be possible, but if we shot from them¡­ We should destroy them now then". I stopped him, and asked "Are you perhaps Jora?". He nodded, and replied surprised "You know who I am?". I said "We met¡­ kind of, at the Arena. Either way, take them with you. Transport them, and then destroy them. Let them think we fell for their tricks. I kind of feel that Eterian is still watching us from afar".


    Jora replied "Not a bad idea, and you are?". I replied "Hmmm, you should be aware of who the Dark Traveller was, right?". Jora froze for a moment. When he finally woke up from his thoughts, he said "So it''s you. Great news that you are here and on our side. From your disy today, I already know you are strong, stronger than me as well. Do you know the situation in full?". I nodded, and replied "Lazar already told me. I will head to Sedon soon, I want to meet with Harlin as well". Heughed, and said "I''m not even surprised you know both of them. Alright, because of your help today as well as your status, we will grant you entry to Arangard. Take this". He gave me some sort of seal, that disyed arge active volcano.


    "When you show this at the entrance, the guards will let you in. We hope you will be able to help us out a lot during this war". I nodded, and said "I will do what I can". Jora called for the army to back off, and dragged those Contraptions with them. I stayed there for a while longer, I was really tired. ''I wonder what he meant by status though?'' I asked myself.


    I didn''t have any status in the North, or maybe I didn''t know about something. Fox appeared next to me, and said "Let me help you". I asked quite annoyed "Where were you? I could use some help", and got up by myself. She replied "I¡­ you know¡­ I stayed to protect the others... Are you alright?". ''She is lying, but whatever. I''m too tired to care about that now'' I thought, and moved towards Olrad.


    Although the battle wasn''t very long, I was tired both physically and mentally. I spent more than half of my energy, just to chase that Eterian and fight against his illusions. ''My Auras can fight against illusions, but not that well. I need to master the Art of Stealth, otherwise I will be a goner against Eterians'' I thought. This was just one Eterian. If there were two or even more, I would surely kill loads of Lizards, and maybe even be their puppet for a while.


    While we walked back, I said "This was bad though. Eterians are master maniptors, fighting against them will be tough. I wonder how Harlin is faring against them?". Fox tried to cheer me up by saying "He will be fine, I''m sure. After all, he is your friend right? You don''t have weak friends". I nodded lightly, but I knew it wasn''t that simple. ''Crow must be there helping Harlin out too. I need to figure out illusions, and maybe break through'' I thought.


    I had an idea, but I wasn''t sure if Suly could do it. When we returned, Suly asked worried "What happened? Father was here to check up on me, but then left. You seem hurt". I replied "Don''t worry, it''s all fine now. Suly, I have yet another favour to ask, but I don''t know if you can do it". Suly replied concerned "Whatever you need! I''m sure you fought outside, right? That rumbling and shaking, it was a battle right?". I nodded, and asked "Can you create a Domain Formation? A Formation in which no one can see me, or hear me. No one can spy on me at all. Can you make something like that?".


    Suly thought about it, and said "No. I doubt even Alicia could ce something like that on an item". I replied "I don''t mean an item. It can be static, like field around me that would exist in only one ce. Non movable". Suly thought about it, and then ran off to somewhere. She brought a few books back, and sorted through them, until she eximed "There it is!". I asked excited "Is it possible?". She nodded in response, and said "Yes, but it will take me awhile to set up. I don''t know if I will seed though¡­ But I will try my best!". I said "That is more than enough for me. Thank you". She smiled, and said "No, no. You are helping us, and we are friends right?". I nodded, and said "Yes, we are friends".


    I was about to leave, when Fox insisted she would tag along. "Don''t worry so much. Help Suly out if you can, or practice your movement technique. When I return, I will show you the second training method¡­ Or maybeter. We will see". Fox stayed behind ultimately, while I headed to the workshop. I had ess to Arangard, but I already knew the old Lizard inside Olrad. Therefore I decided to go there.


    The workshop was quite busy. It was a time of war after all, cksmiths were very desirable. When I asked about the old Lizard, they pointed to his office. I knocked on the doors, and waited. A raspy voice answered, "Come in". The old Lizard didn''t recognise me, so I asked "Do you still remember me?". He thought about it for a while, and said "I think we met, but I don''t know¡­ Oh right! I remember now. Wow, you''ve changed so much since Ist saw you". I smiled, and said "I get that a lot. Anyway, I''m here to use your workshop¡­ and perhaps get some materials. I need to make some daggers for myself".


    He replied "Sure, I have nothing against that. What materials would you like to buy?". I replied "That''s the thing¡­ I don''t have money. How about I work for you, likest time? Or perhaps I can give you some of my medicine in exchange". He nodded and said "We can work something out. What do you need?". I replied "Obviously a workshop. I also need ck Steel, Blurite and sh Tin". The old Lizard raised his eyebrows, and asked "You have Azur Ore?". I replied "No, I will make something, you haven''t seen before. Can you get me those things?".


    He nodded his head, and said "Use as much as you need, I will tell you what you can do for us after you are done. Just got to one of the avable workbenches. As for the materials, I''m sure you know where to find them". I thanked him, and threw one of my lesser medicines at him. "This is just a thank you, not a payment". He smiled, but didn''t say anything. I left his office, and immediately noticed no workbenches were avable. ''I can''t just walk up to a guy, and throw him out though'' I thought.


    But then I noticed an old and abandoned workbench, with extinguished furnace. I asked one of the workers "Hey, no one is using that workbench there?". He shook his head, and replied "No. It''s been abandoned for years. Why do you ask?". I said "I will use it then. Don''t worry, I have permission from the old man". He replied "As you like, but starting that furnace will be a pain for you".


    He was a bit mistaken about that. For me, starting up a furnace was not an issue whatsoever. I threw wood and coal inside, then sprinkled some Yellow Dust on top of that. I used another furnace to catch a piece of wood on fire, and tossed that in. "POOF!". The furnace was set aze. The wood burned down, while coal turned red hot. The workers looked at me with disbelief. I said "What? I started up the furnace, any problems?". They shook their heads absentmindedly, and returned to their work. I added more coal and wood to the mix, and let that catch the temperature. About half an hourter, the furnace was ready. ''Usually it would take much longer, but with the use of Yellow Dust, the process can be shortened greatly. Anyway, time to make real daggers'' I thought, and gathered all the necessary materials.

 Chapter 380

    Chapter 380


    Irwin was a cksmith, but an unconventional one. He specialised in weird varieties of ingots. What I was about to make, was not mainstream at all. I melted the ck Iron Ore and added sh Tin to the mix. The ingot would be brittle because of that, but I didn''t need to worry about it. I poured the molten metal into the ingot mould, and allowed it to cool down. When that was done, I took a hammer and smashed it into pieces. I repeated the process a few times, until the ingot almost broke into fine dust. I collected that, and ced it to the side. I then melted more ck Iron Ore, but this time I added Blurite Ore. The ratio was 5:1. Although it might seem small, those were the exact proportions I needed.


    I repeated the process of melting, then smashing it into the shape of a mould. ck Iron Ore with the addition of Blurite, was a bit flexible. It wouldn''t break like the previous mix, and was much more workable. I smashed it, and mixed the two ores together. There was a specific method to it. I had to smash it towards the same direction at all times. It may seem simple, but it wasn''t. The method wasn''t to strike towards south or north all the time, but in the same direction of that molten metal. This was confusing to me at first, so Iwin used a different term. He told me to strike with the grain. That I understood. It concerned an advanced cksmithing technique, especially when creating weapons.


    I repeated the process a few times, until I received the desired effect. ''Time to mix them together'' I thought, and chucked the ck Blurite Ingot into the furnace. When that melted, I added the ck sh Powder little by little. After everything mixed properly, I took it out and mmed it with my hammer. It was again the same technique, I had to go with the grain. A whileter, I had a ck ingot, with blue veins running across it. There was a trace of silver thread like lines, surrounding the blue ones. This Ingot was called sh Blurite Steel, and it was much better than simple ck Steel.


    Not only was it a bit lighter than the normal ck Steel, it was much more durable and a bit more flexible. The brittlety disappeared when everything was mixed together, creating one piece of hard and durable steel. I had no idea why those ores worked together like this, but they worked. Irwin told me about a few recipes, but this one was the most suitable, and the easiest to get in the North. Others were a bit more¡­ exotic.


    With one Ingot done, I proceeded to make another. I needed at least five sh Blurite Steel Ingots. That was for my Stringed Hidden Weapons alone. I still wanted to make more, just to have a few daggers for throwing, as well as a few ingots for my armour. ''He will probably ask me to make Azurite Ingots, or perhaps ask for more medicine. Maybe a bit of both, it''s also a solution. After all, I will use a few of their resources'' I thought. It didn''t matter that much. I had medicine, and I could create a few Azurite Ingots for them as well.


    I worked for the rest of the day. I managed to make 14 sh Blurite Steel Ingots, but I had to rest a bit, and work on my daggers the next day. Before I left, I visited the old Lizard''s office. Inside, I said "I''m done for today. I have all the ingots I need, but I used quite a bit of your resources. Tell me what you want in exchange?". He asked "Can I see those Ingots?". I took out one, and passed it to him. He looked at it for a while, and then asked "Can you teach me how to make it?". I smiled, and said "I kind of expected for you would say that. I don''t mind, but I have to ask you not to make this widely avable". He nodded and replied, "Of course! After all, the less people know, the better for us, right?".


    I replied "Right. I will teach you tomorrow, keep this one for now. I will just keep the one from tomorrow. Anyway, thanks for letting me use your stuff, I really needed an upgrade". He told me not to mention it, and I left. ''Hmmm¡­ Should I use Lazar''s ce, or rent a room?'' I asked myself. I had like one ck Hal left, which would be enough to rent a room and eat something. ''Crow must be wealthy by now. I will just mooch off of him when I get there'' I thought, and decided to stay at the tavern. I could always sell my medicine and make some money, but I wasn''t in immediate need of them. I had enough for a room, even if I didn''t, I could just sleep somece else.


    The Lizard behind the counter at the tavern, was different. She asked me, "What can I get ya?". I said "A room and a meal". She replied "What meal would you like sir?". I replied "Just give me whatever you rmend. A few portions should be fine. I have a good appetite". She nodded, and said "Have a seat, and your food will be ready shortly". Before I sat down, I asked "Where are the previous people who worked here?". She turned around and said "You knew them? They moved to a different vige... I guess if I work hard, I can also move up thedder".


    I nodded, and sat down at one of the avable tables. She brought my food a whileter, and said "Enjoy". I was hungry, especially since I expanded my energy during that battle. I cleaned out the tes, and had to admit that her cooking was much better than the previous two. I came up to the counter with the empty tes, and said "Your cooking is really great. Much better than the previous two who worked here". She smiled, and asked "Really? I try my best, is all". I passed her the one and only ck Hal I had, and said "I will rent a room for four days, the rest is yours".


    She looked at me for a while, and tried to give me the change, but I told her to keep it after I took the key. ''After I''m done with my daggers, I need to think about breaking through'' I thought. The 5th Diagram was notpletely modified by me yet. It wasn''t the Aura that wascking. It wasn''t my Energy Control either. It was something else. ''I don''t know whether it''s the speed at which those positions change, or because of the positions themselves. I will need to figure that out, or perhaps break through naturally'' I thought. Theter option was not so simple. Specific conditions had to be met, or specific things had to happen in order for me to break through naturally.


    Either way, it was something I had to work towards. The next day, I returned to the workshop, and began making my daggers. I wasn''t using a mould this time. I already learned how to properly make weapons. The ingots were not for daggers alone. I wanted to use a few for the armour pieces, that would be attached to my new set of clothes. The old Lizard came by to learn the process of making sh Blurite Steel. I showed him how, and specified the proportions. He was surprised that it wasn''t as hard as he imagined.


    Because of what I showed him, he told me I didn''t owe them anything anymore. The ingots I created, were much better than normal ck Steel. If they issued weapons and armours made from that, the army would benefit. That was basically old Lizard''s n. He thanked me, and allowed me to make my daggers. It took me another day to make 20 daggers, for which I used ten sh Blurite Steel Ingots. For the rest of them, I nned to make armour pieces. I knew that Suly was working on that Domain Formation, so I was in no rush.


    I wanted to grab something to eat, but then I realised I had no money. ''Lazar should have some'' I thought, and headed towards Upper Olrad. Lazar was as usual quite busy. When he heard I was visiting again, he abandoned his work and came to meet me. He said "I was quite busy with all the stuff, but I already heard that you helped us out. If not for you, that Eterian would create even more damage to us". I said "Don''t mention it. Lazar, give me some money. I need one or two ck Hals". Heughed, and said "Only that much? I can give you a hundred if you need them". I shook my head, and said "Just spare change is enough. I will be leaving in a few days. My daggers are done, oh wanna see?".


    Lazar looked at me interested, and said "Sure, why not". I presented the new dagger to him. The design didn''t change that much, although it was more optimised for my Arts. Lazar looked at it for a while, and said "It''s weird¡­ I see some kind of blue veins in this ck Steel. Where did you get such steel from?". I replied "I made it. Anyway, your cksmith here knows the method. Ask the old man if you need better weapons. He will make them from that". Lazar nodded while saying "Yea, this thing is lighter than normal ck Steel. What else is better?". I replied "Durability. For an army, those things are quite important right?". He nodded, and said "I will ce some order then".


    He then gave me five ck Hals, and said "If you need more,e by". ''I only wanted one or two... Whatever, it''s just for the food'' I thought, and returned to the tavern. I noticed that the same Lizard was behind the counter. When she saw me, she asked if I was hungry. ''I''m but¡­''. I nodded, and said "Just give me whatever you rmend. The portion can be the same as yesterday, or even bigger, I don''t mind".


    My meal soon arrived, and the portion was indeed bigger than thest time. I enjoyed my meal, but the young Lizard was looking at me for some reason. I turned towards her, and asked "Can I help you?". She quickly averted her gaze, and didn''t reply. I didn''t take it to heart, and simply finished my meal. As usual, I came back with empty tes. She said "You don''t have to do that. I will collect them, it''s my job". I said it wasn''t much, and gave her a ck Hal. She shook her head, and said "You don''t have to pay. You already left enough money tost you a few good meals". I said "Then that''s for you. You are a good girl, and you work hard. You deserve this. Besides, it''s Lazar''s money, so take it", and I smiled.


    She stood there bewildered, while I retired to my room. ''She is a great cook, I wonder why she sits here in Olrad. Punishment? Either way, tomorrow I will do the armour pieces, and then go to Sedon. I''m worried for Harlin and Crow'' I thought.

 Chapter 381

    Chapter 381


    When I visited the workshop next day, I noticed that the old Lizard was already working away. He was in the process of creating the sh Blurite Steel Ingots, which I showed him yesterday. I only smiled, and didn''t disturb him. I headed to the same abandoned workbench, and began my work on the armour pieces. I already had a design in my head. ''I need my armour to work like scales. This type of design allows for better protection, and can be made from smaller pieces'' I thought.


    The armour pieces wouldn''t look like my right arm though, I simply went for the simr concept. The use of smaller pieces would allow for greater mobility, because the armour would be able to bend in many areas. Besides that, scales were strong due to how they formed. One scale covered the other, and this repeated until a whole section was covered. That was why, scales had the best possible defence and flexibility.


    The armour I designed, was a sort of addon to any set of clothing, I could possibly wear. It was stand alone, which meant I didn''t have to attach it permanently to any fabric or leather. It would go straight on top of my arm and legs. I nned to make a gauntlet like armour for my left arm, and the left arm only. I already had scales on the other arm. The defensive capabilities of my right arm, were many times superiorpared to the left arm. The gauntlet like armour, would work on a simr basis as my right arm would. The difference was that my whole left arm would be covered by armour, and it would be made from steel.


    Besides the gauntlet, I also required two leg guards. The leg guards would extend from the bottom of my shin, to just above the knee area. All the pieces would be made from the same material, the sh Blurite Steel.


    I focused on the gauntlet first, and hammered out the tes that would connect to make the gauntlet. This was more of a sophisticated work, as I had to measure everything correctly, and make sure everything matched. Just to create all the necessary pieces for the arm gauntlet, it took me four hours of work. ''I still have to connect them'' I thought. There were a few ways to connect such pieces together. Leather was the easiest, but such connection was the weakest. It would wear out after a while, and the armour would simply break apart. Not only that, it was much easier to break such armour, and find openings. I didn''t need an armour full of openings, therefore that was not an option for me.


    I opted for rivets instead, which would permanently stick the pieces together. Those types of connections were as strong as the metal used. The drawbacks were also quite substantial. I wouldn''t be able to easily modify the armour. I didn''t n to modify it anyway, and I needed as much durability as I could get. Riveting though, was time consuming. I had to punch out holes in all the pieces, then make nail like rods from sh Blurite Steel. A long whileter, I punched out the holes for each te and smelted small rods as the riveting pins. I had to heat each rod up, then insert it between the holes of two pieces and smash it with a hammer a few times. When the rivet cooled, the two pieces were not permanently attached. ''That''s just one rivet though. I have loads more to go'' I thought and continued my work.


    The pieces required many rivets. The more of them I ced, the more durable those connections would be. To connect two pieces together, I needed at least 20 rivets. Some of the pieces would require in excess of 30. This wasn''t particrly hard to do, but time consuming. A few hourster, I managed to stick all the pieces together and form the almostplete gauntlet. ''Thest step is polishing it, then adding internal leather forfort'' I thought.


    I polished the gauntlet, then took out some leather to line the inside. Although this would go on top of my clothes, it was still bare steel, and wouldn''t be veryfortable. The leather would also help absorb some of the impacts, when the gauntlet was used for defence. I processed the leather until it was as flexible as fabric, then lined the inside of my new gauntlet. ''Done, let''s check how this fits'' I thought, and wrapped the gauntlet around my left arm.


    I knew my measurements very well, so the gauntlet would fit anyway. Besides, the gauntlet had adjustable attachments. They were made from leather, and ted with flexible metal. I used Flexium and Purified Steel, to create them. Although ck Steel or even sh Blurite would be better, I couldn''t really use them. ck Steel didn''t mix with Flexium, while sh Blurite Steel wasn''t able to mix with anything. It was apletely stand alone ingot, which couldn''t be mixed further. Although sh Blurite Steel was more flexible than ck Steel, it wasn''tparable to Flexium mixed with Purified Steel.


    I swung my arm around, and punch the air a few times. ''It needs a bit of getting used to, but other than that, it''s perfect'' I thought. I decided to test the defensive abilities of my new gauntlet. I took out one Purified Steel Ingot, and ced it on the workbench. I raised my arm up, and swung it down "CLIIIINNG!". A metallic sound reverberated throughout the workshop, and made my ears hurt. The others were worse off, some of them had their ears bleed. The Purified Steel Ingot turned a bit red, and split in the middle, as if an axe struck it.


    I expected to create some ruckus, but this was beyond my expectations. I gave everyone some medicine, and apologised. When the old Lizard came to himself, he said "You could''ve at least warned us¡­ What the hell did you create? Smashing ingots with your fist¡­ What a monster". I smiled, and apologised again. My hand hurt, and I still felt the vibration from the aftermath. That was a full force impact with Purified Steel Ingot. I was surprised that my hand only hurt, and didn''t break or anything. ''With this, my left arm''s defence is pretty much on par with the scales on my right arm¡­. If not better. I still need to make the leg guards'' I thought.


    It took me another two days to create the leg guards, but the increase in my defensive abilities, was staggering. ''I never had such a great armour in my life! If I add the clothes that both Suly and Fox make, I shouldn''t worry about my defence anymore'' I thought. Of course, I would still receive damage when attacked with strong skills. But there was just noparison to before I possessed such armour.


    I didn''t return to the workshop anymore. Instead, I visited Suly and Fox. When I descended to the basement, I noticed some sort of Runes drawn on the floor. Suly had her hands full of books, and didn''t even look at me when I entered. Fox tried to help out Suly, as much as she could. I asked "How is it going?". Suly replied after a while "This is harder than I imagined. Alicia would''ve done it much sooner than me, but she hasn''t returned yet. It will take me some time, before I can finish this. Sorry Nex". I shook my head, and replied "Don''t be. I''m already grateful you are trying your best. Take your time, I will visit Harlin and Crow in Sedon first".


    She nodded her head, but focused on the books only. Fox on the other hand, asked "Hey, where did you get that armour?". I replied "I made it myself. With this, my defence has improved greatly... What? Why are you looking at me like that?". She replied "And you only made some for yourself? You could make some for me as well". I scratched my head, and said "Well... Last time, you avoided the fight... so you don''t really need it?... Anyway, I''m off to Sedon. I will see you guyster".


    I walked back up the stairs, and noticed that Fox was following me. I turned around, and asked "You want to go too?". She said "Isn''t that obvious? Suly is much better than me, when ites to Formations. I can''t possibly help her. As for your clothes¡­ we had no time for that. She insisted on setting up that Formation for you. Why do you even need it?". I replied with a smile "Not telling!", and walked outside. I could hear her saying "You are impossible!", and quickly following after me.

 Chapter 382

    Chapter 382


    We left Olrad behind, and headed toward Sedon. "I meant to show you the second exercise, but Suly and Alicia were busy. When we get to Sedon, I will ask Crow if he still has it" I said. Fox asked curiously "What sort of thing are we talking about?". I smiled and replied, "You will see when you get it". She wasn''t satisfied with that answer, but I didn''t extrapte. When we left the Obsidian Mountains area, I saw destruction and aftermath of the war. We would encounter a corpse once in a while, or rather whatever was left of that corpse. I couldn''t see any Corpse Dogs around, which was unusual because they were everywhere.


    ''The armies that passed here, must''ve exterminated them¡­ or perhaps not'' I thought. There were a few possibilities, but it was too early to draw any conclusions. The dead trees decorated the surroundings as usual, there was one difference though. There were less of them now. Some were cut down for wood, but we also found a few holes in the ground. As if the trees were dug out. ''Mordars look like trees, it is entirely possible they acted as a surveince'' I thought. Further examination of the ground, revealed to me that indeed, nothing was dug up artificially. With my experience in field work, I could safely say that whatever was rooted in that hole, walked out of it by itself.


    ''So Mordars spied on everyone, posing as trees¡­ Well I guess they weren''t really posing, they are trees after all'' I thought, and recalled the Ents. Supposedly, Ents were also tree creatures. I never saw one while visiting the Elysian Empire, but if Mordars were possible, then why not Ents. ''I wonder if those two are rted in some ways?'' I thought. The further we distanced ourselves from Obsidian Mountains, the more destruction we saw. Large crater like holes, littered the surroundings. Probably aftermath of a battle. ''I know of one thing only, that could create such craters'' I thought. What I meant, were those Contraptions that attacked Obsidian Mountains.


    "Let''s have a look around, we might discover something new" I said. We always examined a battleground while we travelled. This could help us learn something about our enemy. We looked through the area, and I finally noticed something buried in the ground. It was a decently sized piece of wood. Square in shape, with obvious marks of being carved and sanded. When I tried pulling it out, I was surprised that I couldn''t. "This must be much bigger than I thought", I said to myself. I used both of my arms, and pulled with everything I had. "Rumble"... "Swoosh!".


    I managed to pull out that piece of wood, or rather a whole wooden beam. "As I thought. This was a part of that Contraption, which attacked Obsidian Mountains. Why was it buried so deep?" I asked out loud. Fox shook her head, then replied "Perhaps they wanted to hide it? So that no one copies them". I replied "No, that is not it¡­". Then I noticed burn marks on the beam, and some kind of strange symbol carved into it. It was small, and barely visible. "I wonder what that is?" I asked while pointing at the symbol. Fox took a look as well. She eximed after a while, "That is a Formation Rune! I''m sure of it!". ''Hmmm¡­ Formation Runes on them¡­ Buried deep in the ground¡­ Scorch marks...'' I thought, and said "I think I know why it was buried".


    Fox asked, "Why? Because of Formations? It contains some sort of secret?". I replied "It contains a secret for sure, but not the one you think of. Those things were designed to explode¡­ Not because of overuse! Because of Formations!". When I finished my sentence, I quickly ran back towards the Obsidian Mountains. They were in danger, if those things exploded inside the volcano, the results would be devastating. ''That Eterian bastard is really crafty. He presented those Contraption to us on a silver te. I thought it would be suspicious if we didn''t take them, but turns out that is exactly what they were aiming for'' I thought.


    My guess was, it wouldn''t matter if those Contraptions were dismantled or not. Those things were designed to explode. I didn''t know when they would explode, but I knew they would eventually. ''This was the only beam I could see in that area. That lone beam survived for some reason. I hope I''m not toote'' I thought, and ran towards Obsidian Mountains at my full speed. I left Fox behind. Now it wasn''t the time to worry about her. A whole city was at stake.


    I made it back to Obsidian Mountains after one day of running. I was tired, but I had to continue. My speed decreased a lot due to exhaustion, but I had a way to replenish my energy now. Obsidian Mountains were popted by Fire Mares, and they were edible. I hunted down a few of them, and managed to restore some of my energy. I then headed straight to Arangard. I didn''t even worry about the entrance seals or whatever. I went past the guards at great speed, and shouted "Where are the Contraptions!". People looked at me, as if looking at an insane person. Some guards surrounded me, and pointed their weapons at me. One of the guards recognised me, and asked "It''s you? What happened, why are you storming this ce?".


    I said "Quickly, tell me where are those Contraptions! This ce is in danger!". He told me to calm down, and asked which Contraptions. But before I could answer, I heard a loud and ear deafening explosion "BOOOM!". The ce shook, while rocks¡­ No, boulders fell from the walls and crashed into the buildings, Lizards¡­ I screamed again "Everyone! Leave NOW!". One of the guards surrounding me, asked confused "What is going on? What happened?!". I replied "Those Contraptions you dragged here. They were designed to explode! Take all people out, NOW!".


    I ran towards the direction of the explosion, and was soon joined by other Lizards who headed that way too. I saw Jora in the distance, and shouted "Jora!". He noticed me quickly, and made his way towards me. I said "Get everyone out! Those Contraptions will explode. There are Formations hidden inside them. Even if dismantled, they will explode!". Jora''s face changed. He asked "How do you know that?". I replied "No time for this now! Escort your people outside. I will try to do something about them!".


    He nodded his head, and left a few of his men with me. We ran towards the location, where the Contraptions were stored. It took us a few minutes, before we arrived at our destination. When I stepped into the area, I stopped in my tracks. "Fuck", was the only thing I had time to say. The disassembled Contraptions were glowing red already. Next instance, they exploded. "BOOOM!", "BOOM!", "BOOOOM!". I quickly jumped backwards, and shielded myself with my hands and legs. The hot air pushed me backwards, which increased my speed even further. "BAAAM!".


    I mmed into one of the volcano''s walls, and fell to the ground. The impact was simr to that when I used Yellow Dust inside Corpse Dogs'' Den. My ears were ringing, and my arms as well as legs hurt like hell. ''The armour absorbed a lot of the impact, but¡­'' I thought. My hands and legs were shaking, I could barely stand. The other Lizards that apanied me? Dead. Either mmed into the walls just like me and perished, or died due to the st.


    Many buildings were destroyed, a lot of Lizardsid dead on the ground. The ce was crumbling down, and I would go down with it, if I didn''t leave. I forced myself to move towards the exit. Falling rocks almost smashed me a few times, but only thanks to my instincts was I able to evade them. I struggled until the exit. I was exhausted and everything hurt me like hell. When I finally got out, I fell down face first, andid there. A familiar voice sounded above me "What a disaster¡­ Let me help you up". It was Jora. He lifted me up, and took me further away from the volcano.


    As we walked slowly, I said "I was toote¡­". Jora shook his head, and said "You did what you could. With your early warning, we managed to evacuate many people. If not for you, we would truly perish here". After a while, he asked "How did you know?". I said "We left the Obsidian Mountains, and headed to Sedon. On our way, I examined a past battleground. This was when I realised those Contraptions had Formations on them. Connecting one thing to the other¡­ but I came toote".


    I then heard Fox''s scream "NEX!". She ran up to us, and grabbed me away from Jora. Jora said "We are now heavily damaged. We need to call the Royal Army back. Sedon will have to deal with frontlines by itself for a while". I said "That was their n all along. Remove the Royal Army presence from Sedon. I will not tell you to reconsider. You have the right to take care of your people". He replied "I''m aware of what can happen, if the Royal Army returns here. But we also can''t risk it. If we get attacked now, we have very slim chances".


    I nodded, and said "I will go there. With Crow, we should manage for now. One thing bothers me though". Jora asked "What''s that?". I replied "Can Eterians do that? Can they create such Formations?". Jora thought about it for a while, and replied "I''m not sure. We never had any intelligence about them using such powerful Formations. Do you think someone helped them?". I replied "Yes, and there are two possibilities. One, Hatmandor is behind Eterians. The other one, Human¡­ No, a Formation Master is helping them".


    Jora paused for a while, then said "Hatmandor wouldn''t help. They are not concerned with this war whatsoever. But a Human or other Formation Master is entirely possible. They might have even enved him or them. This is a problem, I will discuss that further with the others". I nodded, and Fox took me away to rest.

 Chapter 383

    Chapter 383


    Fox took me to the side, andid me down. "Are you alright?", she asked. I asked in response, "Do I look alright?... Sedon will be weakened now. The Royal Army will move back, while Shades will fare for themselves". She said promptly "It wasn''t your fault! The damages were reduced thanks to you. Otherwise we might''ve found the city in ruins, when we returned next time". I shook my head, and said "I''m not beating myself up about it. I don''t me myself either. This is war, and they should be aware of the stakes".


    I took out some medicine from my bag, and drank it. "Although Arangard being destroyed is a problem, the bigger issue is Royal Army. If they leave, the Lizards may find themselves in an even worse situation", I said. Fox asked, "Why? Wouldn''t they have more soldiers to defend this ce?". I snorted, then replied "Perhaps, but at a price. If Sedon falls, they have one less ally in this war. If Voltars fall too, Lizards alone will lose that war either way".


    Fox thought about it for a while, and asked "So what should we do?". I shrugged, and said "What can I do? I can''t win a war by myself. This was just one Eterian. Even if their numbers are low, three Eterians are enough to deal with me. There must be many more of them, but how many? I don''t know¡­ If I had more Yellow Dust, this would be simpler". She asked "Yellow Dust?". I shook my hand, and said "Doesn''t matter. There is a way though. If I go back to Apium, I might be able to induce some heavy damages to our enemies".


    "Apium? Why Apium?", she asked. I said, "Because they are in possession of certain knowledge about something. Something that can help us wipe out an army". She asked "It''s that good?... What is it then?". I replied with a smile "Poison. First, I need to go to Sedon. If they manage somehow, then I will travel to Apium. Atols will not help me easily¡­ Especially me, but they will have no choice really. If they want to live their carefree lives, they have to provide me with those things". I looked at Fox for a while, and said "You will stay here, and help Lizards out. Take care of Suly and Lazar. I will visit you, before I leave for Apium. During that time, make sure to train properly".


    She protested and wanted to go with me, but my answer was, "No". She couldn''t help me much, and I had to specifically slow down because of her. She could take care of herself, and someone had to watch over Suly. I had to act fast, and run between ces. I had no time to wait for her, or exin everything to her. A while of silenceter, she asked "Why do you want to aplish everything by yourself?". I shook my head, and replied "I''m not trying to, believe me Fox. I told you, I can''t win that war by myself. Even if I break through or achieve mastery in the Arts, I can''t simply fight against many Eterians. If they focus on me alone, I''m done for¡­ Anyone would be".


    She asked "Then doesn''t that mean, we will lose the war either way?". I smiled, and said "That is why I need to visit Apium. It''s not only poison, I need a few other things from them". I felt much better already, and stood up. "If we can fight against the Eterian illusions and maniptions, we stand a much better chance", I said. She nodded her head, but then realised something and asked "Not a win?". Iughed while replying "Win? I feel it in my bones, this will not be simple at all. They war willst, it''s not going to end in a month or two. After all, most of the whole North is involved".


    Fox asked a question, that would be on most people''s minds. "Why don''t we just leave? North is North, we can just stay in the Endrosian Empire. Why fight for the North?". I replied "I have a few reasons, but I will tell you this one. Furians and Eterians are able to leave this ce. If they win the war, and enve everything here, it will be a matter of time before Humans will be forced to face them. Although other races can''t leave this ce, they don''t have to. Enough Eterians and Furians would already tilt the scales in their favour. Of course, it could happen in the next 10 or 100 years. That would depend on their forces and ns. Both of those factors are unknown to me".


    She sighed, and said "Alright. I will keep an eye on Suly for you. I will try toe up with something regarding my training too. I wanted to follow you, so I guess I too have to participate in that war". I smiled and said "I never forced you thought". She shook her hand, and said "I know. Make sure toe back alive, alright?". I nodded, and said farewell to Fox.


    I slowly headed towards Sedon. I had no idea what to expect when I arrive, I only knew those were the frontlines. It took me over a week to bypass the Sludge Factory, which didn''t change at all, and reach Sedon. The city was¡­ tired. From afar, I could already see the broken walls, and smokeing out of the city. ''The situation is not as great, as I would''ve hoped for'' I thought. When I got closer to the city, a small garrison of Shades blocked my way. One of them demanded, "State your business".


    I took out the thing that Lazar gave me, and showed it to them. The Shade replied "Means shit to me. Your business, what is it?". ''Oh, seems they are really careful'' I thought, and replied "I''m here to see Crow and Harlin". I doubted the Royal Army would pack themselves that quickly and leave. At least I hoped they didn''t. The Shade though, was having none of that. I said "Look, it''s either the hard way or the easy way, I don''t have time for someckeys". The hard way it was, because they attacked. I didn''t kill them, they were my allies after all. I simply¡­ neutralised them, and continued towards the city.


    ''Hmm, more of them areing'' I thought, and disappeared. I ran past the Shades, and arrived at the closed gate. ''Right. They won''t just open the doors I suppose'' I thought, and used the broken walls to climb. I didn''t have to climb far, because the upper walls above the gate were damaged. With a final jump, I was inside the city. What greeted me, was a horde of soldiers. Both Lizards and Shades waited for me.


    I said "Seriously guys, if I wanted to kill, the others would die a long time ago. Where is Crow, or Harlin?". They obviously didn''t care about my exnation, when I noticed around 100 arrows flying my way. I disappeared from that ce, and tried to make it through the crowd. To my surprise, there were a few Shades who could follow my movements. ''Not bad at all. I guess I can find some time after all'' I thought. Testing out the strength of my allies, was not such a bad idea either. I ran past a few Lizard and Shades, when suddenly one of the Lizards shed at my direction. I evaded quickly, but another Shade was behind me. I tapped my leg lightly on the ground, and changed the direction to the right. ''Not bad at all. They have some good people hiding amongst the crowd'' I thought.


    Another two Shades were on my tail, and used their skills. It was weird to be sure, they somehow morphed into grey smoke, and their speed increased substantially. I used my Natural Path skill to the full, but then my instincts red up for some reason. I moved to the side, but the feeling didn''t disappear. Then I saw eyes in my shadow. ''What the¡­?'' I thought, when a hand with a dagger extended out of my shadow, and rushed at me. I used my own dagger to block, and reached out my hand to grab whoever was hiding in my shadow.


    I was to slow though. The hand retreated back to my shadow, and they eyes disappeared. What appeared instead, were two axes on my left and right. I released my Auras, and the axes stopped mid swing. ''That was close'' I thought. There were at least 10 people at their Inner Limits. All of them could find me one way or another. They also possessed some weird and unusual skills, skills I haven''t encountered before.


    I broke out of the crowd, and into the open area. Most soldiers could only kneel or stand rooted in the ground. There were some who could still move though. I said "That''s enough guys. I''m not your enemy. Which enemy would actually infiltrate a city alone? Think about it". A few Shades appeared in front of me, and a female Shade asked "Why have you entered the city then?". I said "To meet my friends. Where is Crow? Or Harlin?". She asked surprised "You know them? How can you¡­". Before she finished asking the obvious questions, I showed her the seals from Lazar, and from Jora. "I''m not sure if you already received the info, but Arangard was nearly destroyed. Anyway, where can I find either of them?".


    I then heard someone say "We will take you to General Harlin. We already know about Arangard, but we would like to know more as well. You''ve been there right?". I said "Just take me to Harlin then", and walked up to the heavily armoured Lizards.

 Chapter 384

    Chapter 384


    We headed to one of the corners inside the city, where more Lizards were stationed. Arge tent was set up in the open, with smaller tents surrounding it. We headed towards therge tent, and entered inside. The tent had a few separate rooms, but the middle section was open. Inside, a few Shades and Lizards stood around a table. Harlin was there too, he was talking about something when we entered. "They have ordered our return, which is not great. The situation is getting worse. We need people here, but they want to take the people away instead".


    As they stared at the map of the North, the heavily armoured Lizard I came with, said "General, this Human was in Arangard, and says he knows you". Harlin turned around and smiled. "Long time no see, you changed quite a bit. I already know you arrived to the North. Great that you came". I replied "You changed as well, but I''m not here for pleasantries", and walked up to the table. On it, I saw the map with the strategic positions of our troops. ''Hmm, it doesn''t seem great indeed'' I thought.


    Harlin asked "You''ve been to Arangard, what happened over there?". I replied "An army must''ve slipped by you guys, because they arrived at Obsidian Mountains no problem. With those Contraptions that shoot boulders I might add. Well, turns out these Contraptions were rigged to begin with. They had Formations ced on them¡­ You should know what happened next". He nodded, and said "Yes, and the situation is very bad. Not only did we suffer huge damages, Royals even suspect you". I snorted and said "I expected as much already. It was me who told them to take those things, and dismantle them. That Eterian was probably aware we would take them either way, so their n worked a 100%".


    Harlin shook his head, and said "I never suspected you. You even ran back to warn the people. Royals will be Royals, just like you told me a few years ago". I asked "How are you guys faring here? Where is Crow?". A Shade next to me replied, "We are in deep shit to be honest. The walls need to be repaired, otherwise we will lose all defences. We don''t have the skilled workers, to carry out those jobs. Supplies are a problem too. Because of the distance between cities, we are running low. Us Shades can feed on pretty much anything, but Lizards will be doomed".


    Another Shade added, "Crow went outside to scout. He prefers to take such matters into his own hands. He should be back in a day or two". I nodded, and said to Harlin "I will stay in Sedon for a while, then I have to run somece else. What about Voltars though?". He replied "Voltars are doing fine. Their city is very hard to attack and conquer. Although I say this, they are not able to help us much, besides sending some resources and supplies. That''s still great, they are helping as much as they can. But as it was mentioned, our supplies are running thin, and their supplies get "lost" sometimes". I knew perfectly well what he meant. ''So, someone is attacking the supply transport, the purpose to me is clear. Make Sedon as weak as it is possible, then strike'' I thought.


    This was one possibility though. They could strike Sedon when the Royal Army left, or they could attack the Royal Army, while they were on the move. They could also n something else. I asked "What about Atols? Where are they?". Harlin snorted, then replied "Them? They send in a few of their warriors, but so what? I could count them on my fingers, while the rest of them stays in their garden. Useless bunch, that''s what they are".


    ''Perhaps, or perhaps not'' I thought. Apium had its internal struggles, I wasn''t sure how the forces were divided now, but that could''ve been the reason. I said "I will visit Apium soon, I need to anyway. What about Golems? They still maintain neutrality?". Harlinughed this time, but it was an angryugh. He said "Those fucking stones? At least Atols send in someone, and are on our side. Golems? Totally indifferent, I suspect they might turn out to be our enemies, and not so neutral after all".


    I nodded, and said "I will talk with them too, but I need to go to Apium first¡­ Let me just tell you this. I have no idea what those Eterians have in n. I don''t know if they want you to leave, or not. Because there are many possibilities, and each of them has its own consequences. Do what you think is best, I already gave one bad advice". Harlin shook his head, and said "You are wrong. Royals would take those machines, and try to use them. The damage would be even worse than you expect". Ultimately, it didn''t matter anymore. What was done, was done.


    One of the Lizards asked "Why do you want to visit Apium though?". I replied "Because I need poison. I also need another thing, which I think will help us face Eterians better". The silent room became a bit rowdy. Harlin shouted "Quiet!". When everyone quieted down, he asked "What do you have in mind? Is there really a way to fight against Eterians?". I replied "It''s just a guess, but I think Serelis may help us. It has a mind calming effect, which might help us break through those illusions or charms. As I said, it''s just a hunch. Whether it works or not, it remains to be seen".


    He replied, "Good enough for me. Unfortunately, Sedon will have to fare by itself for a while. I will try to persuade Royals, to leave at least a few of our people here. As for your trip to Apium, do you need anything?". I shook my head, and said "No. Alicia is already working on my new weapon. Suly is also working on something for me. Fox is with her, so in case of another attack, she and Lazar should be alright. I just have to get Atols to cooperate¡­ whether by force or not".


    Harlin nodded, and said "Alright. Let me fill you in. I will also give you an updated map. It''s better if you avoid some of the areas, especially since you are going there alone". I nodded, and Harlin pointed out the enemy locations on the map. He also exined where the main forces of our enemies were. He also noted that the Land of Mirages was still there, and our scouts saw Eterians walking into that. This just proved, it was still their territory. I asked "Is there any way to deal with that mist or fog?". Harlin shook his head, and said "No. But at least we now know why no one ever returned from that ce. Eterians simply killed them, or even worse enved them".


    That made perfect sense, but that also meant we had no way of attacking our greatest enemy. I asked "What''s the situation with Tremor?". He replied "They had many more Furians, than we expected. Although you guys constantly sent people to kill Furians off, it wasn''t enough. Additionally, we also saw Furians enter the Land of Mirages. They must''ve been allies with Eterians for a long time now. Thankfully Avians no longer exist, otherwise we would be in hell today. I guess this one is on you".


    He then continued "Mordars are a pain in the ass too. I don''t know how, but they were able to mask themselves as normal dead trees. Watch out when you walk past the Dead Forest, or arger amount of trees. Some of them may be Mordars. That is why we cut down all the trees surrounding Sedon. They probably hide in the Dead Forest though, waiting to ambush us one day or another".


    I nodded, and asked another question. "What about the other races?". He said "Vanauts are suspiciously quiet. We think they are nning something. As for others inside Tremor? Completely enved. They either work like ves, or act as dispensable soldiers. Ruled with fear, not respect". With that, I had most of the answers I was looking for. I still wanted to talk with Crow, and find out what he found during his scouting. ''I can visit Voltars on the way to Apium. Maybe they can provide some insights to the struggle after all'' I thought.


    Harlin told me to choose any tent I wanted, and rest there. If I needed anything, I just had to ask. On my way out, a Shade appeared in front of me. It was the female Shade I encountered before. She asked "You really know Crow?". This was a bit surprising question, but I nodded my head in response. She asked another question, "Are you perhaps the one he always talks about?". I smiled, and said "Perhaps, why do you ask?". She said "I just wanted to apologize. Don''t take it against me, we need to be careful here". I shook my hand, and said "No harm done. You did a good job, the city needs people like you guys. Keep it up". I then said farewell to her, and left.

 Chapter 385

    Chapter 385


    ''A bit weird she would apologize. They are doing their jobs well, this alone is worthy of some respect'' I thought. Anyone could act as a spy, especially with Eterians going around and destroying cities. I entered one of the tents, and saw an empty bed. I was rather tired from all that running, I also used my energy constantly, to regenerate my wounds from that st. I was already healed, but tired as hell. Iid down in the bed, and closed my eyes. I learned to be a light sleeper. This meant, any unusual movements or noises would wake me up. Living inside the wilderness for almost half of my life, taught me some things to be sure.


    North was currently at war, but some ces were still rtively safe. I woke up after a good sleep, and looked around. ''I forgot there are no seasons, or day and night cycles here'' I thought. It''s been a good few years, since I left the North. I was used to having sun and moon around, as well as the change of seasons. ''I wonder who ced that barrier of some sort around the whole North? Was it to trap something inside, or keep something away from the North?'' I asked myself. I didn''t know, and even spection would be hard at this stage. I simply had no information about that whatsoever.


    I left the tent, and walked around the streets of Sedon to have a look. The city was in bad shape, but its citizens fared one way or another. Although tension was present, it was still not bad for a city that experienced war. ''This is another reason I need to go to Apium. They have skilled craftsmen, and Sedon needs skilled craftsmen. If they can repair the walls, the city will be able tost much longer'' I thought.


    I was still happy to see Lizards and Shades cooperating well. If they had too many differences, the war might''ve been over much sooner. ''Although I have Yellow Dust, I need to leave that for an emergency. Lizards already used their share, or at least some of it, and there is no more to be collected'' I thought. This was good and bad at the same time. Avians or rather Yagaroths would probably go against Lizards and Shades in that war. This would bring more disadvantages than benefits, if they survived.


    I saw a few wounded people on my way. I had some weak poison, so I shared it with Shades. Lizards received my lesser medicine instead. It was still great for them, and I didn''t charge anything for that. I wasn''t heartless, nor was I ungrateful. Alicia already did a big favour for me, and the medicine or poison I passed to them, was nothing inparison. ''I can provide them with more, but I need herbs. I never expected for the situation to be like this. Otherwise, I would gather many more herbs'' I thought.


    A few Shades saw what I did, and approached me. One of them asked "Are you a doctor?". I replied "Sort of, do you need help?". He replied "Me not, but there are others. If you can help us, please follow us". I nodded, and followed after the Shades. They took me inside one of the buildings, and I saw the true meaning of war. People with missing limbs, deep wounds, and some even dying on the makeshift beds. There were a few people attending to them, but from the looks of it, they didn''t have proper doctors.


    ''I wonder why Harlin didn''t say anything about that?'' I asked myself. Most of these people were not soldiers, although soldiers were there as well. A lot of them were Shades, but a few Lizardsid amongst them. The Shade that took me there asked "Can you help them? We know its a lot of work, so we can even reward you¡­". I stopped him, and said "Stop joking around. I don''t need rewards. I will help as much as I can, but I need herbs to treat so many people¡­ Let me help them out for now. I have something in mind forter". He nodded his head, and thanked me.


    I went around the room, and helped those I could. When someone was missing an arm, I could do very little if the arm was not present. I also had no medicine to reconnect the limbs, especially for Shades. I could only clean their wounds, and numb the pain. For those with broken limbs, I would realign the bones, and apply medicine before wrapping them up in bandages with sticks. Those with minor wounds were patched up, but I had to preserve my medicine as well. There were around hundred if not more people in that building alone.


    It took me a while to finish, but I managed somehow. The Shade who brought me to that house walked over, and I could already feel a headacheing. He said "We are grateful that you helped us out. We really are. You skills are superb, and we could only wish to have more people like you here". I replied "Cut to the chase. There are more of them right? This is not the only house with wounded people, am I right?". He nodded, and said "I''m sorry. I know this is asking a lot¡­". I stopped him, and said "Show me the way. If I can help, I will help. I can do at least that much".


    He nodded his head, and thanked me again. We went to another house, not far away. Another crowd of wounded people sat there. There were more Lizards this time, but the injuries were not as severe. Before I began, I said "I will need space, and soil. I will also need people who are willing to help me". The Shade replied "I can help with anything you want! I can get more people too!". I nodded my head, and said "Good, because there is loads of work to be done. What is your name?".


    The Shade replied "I''m called Lerry¡­ I''m just a scavenger but¡­". I stopped him, then said "Doesn''t matter who you are, you care for these people and that is what matters. Lerry, go to Harlin, and tell him I sent you. As for the purpose, tell him I need a field. I don''t care how he gets it, I need a field inside the city. Tell him Nex sent you". Lerry asked confused "Harlin? Do you mean General Harlin? You want me to go tell him that?". I said "Yes, is there a problem?". He shook his head, and replied "No! No problem. I will go there right now. Please help them". I nodded, and walked inside the house.


    I took care of the most serious injuries, and patched up anything that wasn''t a major injury. I was running low on my medicine already. Treating that many people, exhausted most of my supply. I didn''t use the superb medicine on these people, as it was reserved for me or people close to me. I would help, but not make myself go bust.


    While I was finishing with the remaining patients, I heard a familiar voice "A field you say? How am I supposed to get you one here?". It was Harlin. I turned around, and said "Just give me a small area with soil. I can cultivate it myself, or rather I will teach people here to cultivate it. The herbs will take time to grow, and I will need them for either medicine or poison. If Sedon wants to survive, they should make multiple fields. Their chances at survival would increase as well".


    Harlin nodded, and said "I will convey your message to Shades. You can take some of the space where our tents are located. After we leave, most of the area will be vacant". I nodded my head, then replied "Then remove some tents, and I will instruct people here to cultivate the field". I then turned towards Lerry, and said "You will be the first to learn, and then teach others. Are you up for it?". Lerry stood there rooted, and looked at us. I asked "Lerry?". He snapped out of it, and replied "I''m! I want to help out too!". That was good enough. I said "Great. Let me wrap this up here, and we can leave towards our new field".

 Chapter 386

    Chapter 386


    I finished treating the patients, then we left towards the tented area inside the city. Some Lizards were already taking down the tents. ''If the whole area bes vacant, the field here would be decent'' I thought. I waited with Lerry for them to finish. It didn''t take them that long, and now we had some space. Harlin walked over, and asked "Is that enough for now?". I nodded my head, and said "Move the people away a bit".


    Harlin asked confused "Why?". I replied "I can''t grow stuff on stones, can I? I need the stones to be removed, just make your people stand back". He nodded, and ordered for the area to be cleared off. The stone bs that functioned as road before, had to be removed. I wanted to test something at the same time.


    I stood in the middle of the area, and jumped up. With as much strength I could muster, I punched the ground with my left hand. "BOOOM!". The stone bs broke, and the ground caved in. A lot of dust was raised, but the job was not done yet. I repeated the same process, until all bs were broken apart. ''Hmm¡­ My arm hurts a bit, but thanks to the armour, it''s not so bad'' I thought.


    The Lizards and Shades gathered, looked at me in awe. I didn''t care much, and called out to Lerry. "Lerry! Can you get some people to clear the rubble? The soil underneath should be fine for nting. We also need a supply of water, if you know any cksmiths, as them toe over as well. I will need them to make something". Lerry stood there staring again. ''Does this guy even know who he is? He is lost in his thought too much'' I thought, and called out again.


    He finally woke up, and replied "Right! I''m on it!". He then ran off to somewhere. Harlin walked over, and asked "Where did you get such armour?". I smiled, and replied "I made it. When you go to Obsidian Mountains, visit the cksmith in Olrad. He will make you an armour or weapons from this steel". He nodded, and asked "Can I have a look?". I took of the gauntlet, and showed it to him.


    After a while, he said "It''s quite heavy, but not as heavy as ck Steel. There is something else as well. Those blue veins running across it¡­ How did youe up with this?". I replied "It wasn''t me, it was my master. Either way, your cksmith knows the method. I imagine he is quite busy because of that. I wonder if he is cursing me right now, hahaha". Harlin returned the gauntlet to me, and I ced it back on.


    A few minutester, Lerry returned with a group of people. He said "I brought some people who will help. What should we do?". I nodded, and replied "Remove the stones from the ground in this area. Don''t throw them away, store them to the side, we will use them for wall restoration". He nodded, and conveyed the message to others. The group didn''t consist of Shades only, Lizards were there too.


    I asked "Are there any cksmith here?". A few people stepped out. I said "Come over guys, I will show you what to create". They nodded, and walked over. Altogether, there were four cksmiths that came forward. I exined, while drawing stuff on the ground. "We will need four long strips of metal. Make them as long as you can. They need to be a bit flexible, because we will bend them into circlester. For now, just make the strips. As for the width, I''d say around ten to twenty centimetres. The length should be at least six metres long. There are four of you guys, so if you make one each, the workload shouldn''t be a problem".


    The cksmiths nodded, while one of them asked "That is quite simple. Why do you need those metal strips?". I replied "I need to make arge barrel. It will be used to store water for the fields". He nodded, and said "Leave it to us". The cksmiths left to do their jobs, while I instructed Lerry and others. I helped them remove the rubble as well. ''How could I just stand around, when injured people are working away?'' I thought. Most of the people Lerry brought, were those who I treated. Of course, only those with minor injuries came over. If I saw someone with heavy injuries trying to help, I would disable them myself.


    The stone bs were cleared quite quickly. Harlin didn''t even need to order his men to help us, they did it on their own ord. With the rubble cleared, and stored to the side, I said "We need wood. You guys cut down all the trees around Sedon, but did you take the wood?". One of the Shades stepped forward, and said "Yes. We have loads of woodying around. We mostly used it to do simple repairs, or it was used for fire. Let me take you where they are stored".


    I nodded, then asked Lerry and others to apany us. The storage was quite far away from the tented area. Almost at the opposite side of the city. I wasn''t really surprised, who would be willing to drag those logs through the city? I picked up a few logs, and told everyone else to take whatever they werefortable with. This wasn''t a very. People could choose to help or not, but ultimately it was for their own good.


    We brought many logs to the tented area, where I began processing them. Not only did we need nks for the water container, We also needed tools. The cksmiths were busy with other stuff, so wooden tools had to do. It was only for ploughing, and the people of the North were not that weak either. I made the tools first, then distributed them to those who wanted to help. I demonstrated how to plough the field, after separating it into different sections.


    I left Lerry with the rest, and worked on the nks for the water container. The container had to be watertight, so the nks had to be rather straight. I didn''t have logs long enough, to cover the whole height of that container, but that wouldn''t be a problem. This was where those metal rings woulde in. The nks would be connected with those rings, and make onerge barrel like container. Filling the holes was no longer an issue either. I didn''t need anything specific, because I learned how to make barrels.


    All I needed was water, to soak the nks. As well as heat and coldness to tighten the rings. The difficult part was to make very precise nts. I worked for a long time, before I was able to finish all the nks required. The cksmiths already brought the long steel strips, and left them at the side. I instructed them to make rivets, which will be inserted into those metal strips, together with the nks.


    Everything was ready, but I decided to rest before I assembled everything. The next day, I gathered some people, and we started the process of assembling the water container. We started by punching out the holes inside the steel strips, then riveted nks to them. When that waspleted, we had to connect two rings with nks together. I had to make a scaffolding, which allowed us to work on taller parts. I learned how to make one in Apium, and it was quite simple.


    We connected the two halves together, and the water container was ready. All we had to do, was ce it upright. With ropes attached to the water container and a group of people, we pulled and gently ced the water container upright. ''Almost done'' I thought. Only the process of heating up and cooling down the metal rings was left. The nks were already soaking wet, so with heat, they would dry, and hopefully cover up any holes. ''If need be, we can use some fillers'' I thought.


    I had no skills that used fire, but Lizards had Formations. This worked perfectly. Those who could use Fire Element Formations, heated up the rings around the container. I got ready myself, and used my ice powers to cool down the steel quickly. The whole container creaked a bit, but that was a good sign. I told everyone to fill the container, and check for leaks. We passed one bucket after the other, and slowly filled the whole container. There were a few leaks in the beginning, but after some time, they plugged themselves up. Because the wood absorbed some of the water, and was held tightly by those metal rings, the leaks disappeared.


    I nodded, and thanked those who helped out. I wouldn''t be able to do it by myself, not to that scale. The field was already cleaned, and fresh soil was turned over. I showed them how to water the fields for now, as I wouldter implement the water delivery system. We didn''t nt anything yet, the soil had to be conditioned first. That wasn''t a problem either. Shades had a small amount of livestock inside the city. This of course meant manure, and that was what we needed. Many were disgusted by the thought of shovelling shit. But when they saw me shovel shit like it was nothing, they joined in to help as well. ''It''s almost ready. I will be able to nt some seeds soon, and after a while, we will have herbs to make medicine for the whole city'' I thought.

 Chapter 387

    Chapter 387


    After a Few days passed, the field was ready for nting. Before I started doing that, I heard a familiar voice from behind. "How have you been, Nex?". It was Crow. I turned around and saw a Shade who was dressed in ck leather clothes, with a hood over his head. "Crow, how did you know I was here?". He replied "It wasn''t hard to figure out. I only know one Human with that arm. Besides, who else would do something crazy like farming inside Sedon?". Iughed, and walked up to him. We hugged, then I said "Good to see you are well". He nodded, and replied "Good to see you too. You''ve changed". I pointed at him while saying, "And you haven''t? No longer dragging corpses with you, and you matured".


    He smiled with his red mouth. "Turns out using a corpse has disadvantages too. Although the corpse allows for better defence, it limits my real abilities and strength". It made sense, after all the corpse was not his real body. He then asked "How about you? You became an old man it seems". I replied with a snort, "If I cut my hair and trim my beard, I would look younger than you. Anyway, how are your eyes? Did you get used to them?". He nodded, and said "I can see a lot better now. They just had to adjust I guess. I can''t see all the colours, but¡­ I developed something special as well".


    I asked curious "You mean your eyes evolved? Improved?". He replied "Sort of. I''m the one scouting, because my eyes can distinguish between illusions better. Although Eterians are still quite dangerous, I''m not an easy target for them". I patted his shoulder, and said "Great news! In that case, I can leave Sedon with a calmer mind". He tilted his head, and asked "You are leaving?". I exined my ns to him, as well as what happened in Arangard.


    Crow was quite shocked when he heard about Arangard. "You always step into big shit. I mean, you just returned here, and now you have to deal with the war¡­ I almost pity you". I waved my hand, and asked "What about the power struggle?". Crow became serious all of a sudden, and motioned for me to follow him. We left to a more private ce, where Crow said "I''m currently part of the Sedon''s Council. There are no kings or queens here. Only five Shades, who control the whole city. I grew to power not too long ago, but I nned to take..". I stopped him, and said "No rush. We need to deal with this war first, then we can deal with everything else".


    He nodded, while I continued "Infighting is bad for us at this time. Make sure to cooperate, but watch out not to suffer losses". He replied "I know. You want to go to Apium¡­ I don''t think they will help you though. They have their own internal struggle". I said "I figured as much. Don''t worry though. I will not ask them for help, I will order them. They can either help us, or be ves to Eterians. I can be ruthless too, one or two Fraction Leaders will not change the oue of the war".


    He smiled, and said "You were always crazy, but you are still alive. I told you before, I owe you my life. Whatever you want done, it will be done". I replied "And I told you not to think of yourself so lowly. We are friends, not master and ve". I then asked "What did you figure out, during your scouting?". He replied "We are in trouble. The Vanauts are nning something big. I wasn''t able to figure out what exactly, but if the Royal Army backs off¡­ I think they will strike at that time".


    I asked "Did you see Vanauts? What were they doing?". He replied "And that is the weird part, mining". I thought ''Mining? What for?''. But then a sudden thought entered my mind. I eximed "Impossible! Did they find Yellow Dust too?". Crow stood there for a while. He shook his head, and said "I¡­ I''m not sure. I didn''t see the Yellow Dust there, but they are digging something. It could be Ore¡­ or it could be as you said Yellow Dust". This was bad, real bad. ''If they find Yellow Dust, we are screwed... No, they shouldn''t be aware of it. Avians perished long time ago. Although Lizards are aware of the Yellow Dust, they didn''t know where I took it from'' I thought.


    Either they were digging for another reason, or they uncovered Yellow Dust. Whether by ident or intentionally, I had to know what was being dug out. I said "You have to find out. If it is the Yellow Dust¡­ We have to destroy those mines. They can''t be allowed to get their hands on it. Not now, not ever". He nodded, and said "I will try to find out". On a second thought, I replied "No, we will go together. We will have better chances that way". He nodded, and we returned to the fields.


    I finished nting the seeds, and gave specific instructions to Lerry. "Lerry, remember this is very important. On this note, you will find how and when to water the herbs. Make sure others understand too, we depend on those herbs to grow". Lerry took the note, and said "I¡­ I will do my best!". I replied "Great. I will be gone for a few days, I hope you can manage on your own". He nodded his head a few times, and we left.


    While we walked, Crow said "Lerry is a good kid. He will do his best, I know that". I asked surprised "You know him?". He nodded, and replied "I do. He is simr to how I was in the beginning. I have my eyes on him, if he fares well in this war, I will take him in". ''Not a bad idea'' I thought. We soon left the city, and headed north east.


    Crow said, "Vanauts made a secret camp quite far away. As I said, they are digging something, but I couldn''t get close enough to spot what it was. The worst part? There are a few Eterians supervising their activities". ''This could be potentially bad then'' I thought, and asked "How close can we get, before they will locate us?". He replied "Not that close. The Eterian was already suspecting something was off, that was why I left. I was quite far away from their camp, but thanks to your training, my sight improved a lot".


    "I meant to ask, did you develop your instincts?", I asked. He nodded in reply, then said "To some extent. I wouldn''t call them as good as yours¡­ You must''ve been born with them or something. My other senses improved too, but over such arge distance, I couldn''t hear what they were talking about". I asked "Do you have the mask? I want to give it to someone else?". He took it out, and passed it onto me. "Here, take it. I no longer use it. Besides, I''m happy that someone else will go through simr hell, I had to go through". I hid the mask away, and said "We are both good at stealth. This time, we will try to infiltrate the camp. In the worst case, we can always run away¡­ I hope". He replied "Yea¡­ I''m not so sure about that. I have no idea what improvements you''ve made, but I''m not confident in my skills enough to attempt it. You will see for yourself".


    I nodded, and didn''t ask him any other questions. Instead, he asked me some. "Tell me, what did you do throughout that time?". I replied "Trained. I met three masters of the Arts I''m practicing. What''s left for me, is to master those Arts. I guess I killed some Royals back home too". Heughed, and said "Yea, I expected you did something crazy, reason I asked. I assume you met with Harlin and Lazar?". I nodded, then replied "Yea, I learned from Lazar about the war¡­ Then experienced it myself. Those Contraptions¡­ I remember their design quite well, we should attempt building some of them too".


    He nodded while saying "That is not a bad idea. We found out the hard way, the destructive power of those things. Sedon''s walls look like this, because of those Contraptions. I think they called them Destroyers. A fitting name, if you think about it". He then added, "With our pace, we will arrive at our destination in about a day or two. It is quite far away, but also too close forfort". I nodded, and said "I just hope it''s not Yellow Dust. Otherwise, I will have to take drastic measures". Crow simply looked ahead, and didn''tment. He knew as well as I did, if they had Yellow Dust, the war could be over quickly.

 Chapter 388

    Chapter 388


    We ran for a long time, before making a break. Crow insisted that we rest properly, because we might not have the privilege to do thatter. After a good rest, we resumed our journey. A few hours passed, until I saw some trees over the horizon. Crow suddenly stopped, and said "Those are Mordars. At least, a lot of them are. This is the outer kind of defensive circle. We should be able to make it through them no problem. Make sure to use those abilities of yours, otherwise we will be found out".


    I replied, "Rx, I have some confidence in my Art of Stealth". He nodded, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. He was very hard to detect, even for me. Simple Mordars wouldn''t be able to find him. ''Not bad at all. This ability is on par with mine. Although, I didn''t master the Art of Stealth yet'' I thought, and disappeared too. We soon arrived at the small forest of dead trees. It was already hard to detect us, and if I had ess to shade or shadows? Only people with very, very keen senses could locate me.


    Because the dead trees possessed shadows, I was certain no Mordar would be able to find me in a 100 years. Crow had no issues either, not only his smoke form was hard to spot, one would assume it was simply wind passing by. We passed through the small forest safely and stealthy, then headed further in.


    At some point, I saw a camp of some sort. Crow stopped at that point, and motioned for me to stop as well. "We can go a bit further, but not much. You can no doubt make out the building next to the mine, right?". I nodded, and asked "Is that where Eterians stay?". He nodded, then continued "One of them is always outside, at least from what I saw. I saw three different Eterians altogether, but there could be more of them. As for their skills? I have no idea, and I would prefer for this to stay that way". He gave me a nce, after he said thest part.


    I replied, "I''m here to find out the possible danger, not to engage a whole camp in a fight". He replied "I know, but just keep some of your crazy ideas at bay here. We will try to get as close as we can, maybe you will make something out. Follow me, I will try to get us past some of their traps". I nodded, and both of us disappeared. We had to use our stealth at this stage. Crow was in the lead, slowly advancing while taking a specific route.


    I had no clue how his eyes could see through the illusion, but it was something we had to rely on here. ''I''m not sure if illusions can be just left on the ground, like Formations. Crow has been here before, he knows much more than I do'' I thought, and moved closely behind him.


    After a while, he suddenly stopped while I did the same. The smoke morphed a bit, and pointed to the mine. ''I think he means we can''t go any further. Alright, let''s have a look then'' I thought and took out my mask. My eyesight was good, but I could make it better. With my mask in ce, I activated the Formation. The first thing I noticed, surprised me. It was theck of Elemental Orbs. There were some Earth and Air Element Orbs flying around, but the amount was abysmal.


    ''That''s weird. Even in more barren parts of the Endrosian Empire, the Elemental Orbs were ever present. Is it because of that barrier thing?'' I asked myself. I shook my head, and dispersed those thoughts. I focused on the mine, and watched for a while. Rat like creatures were digging the ground, and taking something outside. But the more I looked, the more convinced I became. ''It''s not Yellow Dust. It''s not Ore either¡­'' I thought. I decided to look a bit longer. They didn''t pack the dug up earth anywhere, they simply moved it out of the way. ''They dug out so much earth, a few hills were produced. What are they digging for?'' I thought.


    It was still great, I haven''t noticed any Yellow Dust. Their purpose though, was illogical to me. Why would someone spend so many resources on digging, when all they received was soil. I then felt a slight rumbleing from beneath us. ''No, it wasn''t beneath us, it was much further away'' I thought, and finally realised what they were trying to do.


    I motioned to Crow, and we left that ce. After we passed through the small forest of dead trees, we stopped and I exined my findings. "They didn''t find Yellow Dust, or Ore. They are digging a tunnel". He asked confused "A tunnel?". I said "Yes. To be precise¡­ A tunnel which if I''m correct, will go under Sedon¡­ Who knows, they might be doing the same thing next to the other cities". Crow looked at me for a while, and asked "But that''s stupid. Couldn''t they just use those Destroyers?". I thought about it, and certainly it would make sense. There was one condition, under which it wouldn''t make sense to use Destroyers.


    I said "If they want to keep the city intact, they can''t use Destroyers. Why haven''t they attacked again? Their n is to probably have the city taken over, notpletely destroyed. Imagine what would happen, if a horde of enemies suddenly appeared inside the city. That battle would be over quickly, and with very little losses as well¡­ At least on our enemy side". Crow nodded, then said "It would make sense, but I still think this is ridiculous. They amount of time they have to sacrifice, in order to dig such a tunnel is beyond my rationing".


    I replied "It seems Eterians have time. I told you, this might not be the only tunnel they are digging. Voltars could be facing the same thing. Although I doubt they would attempt that at Obsidian Mountains. One wrong move, andva would wee them". Crow asked "Are we supposed to wait for them to dig it then? We can try and persuade the Royal Army to attack their camp. We need to destroy them, before they get to us".


    I smiled, and replied "Don''t so anxious. If they are digging a tunnel, all we have to do is to copse it. No wonder they are so secretive about it, if the tunnel copses, loads will die". Crow asked "And how do you intend to do that exactly? It''s not like we can go inside, and copse it. They must be digging quite deep underground too, otherwise we would hear them". That was the problem. I said "I could use my Yellow Dust, but that would be wasteful. We might need itter, for much more severe situation".


    We thought about it a bit more, and there was only one solution. I said "We need something heavy, very heavy. We need to m the ground above the tunnel with it". Crowughed, and asked "Even if you get your hands on something so heavy, how do you propose to m the ground with it? Pick it up, and throw it?".


    I shook my head, then replied "They are able to build those Destroyers, so why can''t we?". He replied "No amount of those things will do us good. We would only alert them, this would be bad for us". He was right, building those Destroyers wouldn''t help us much. Crow continued "It seems you just have to use that Yellow Dust. It has the required destructive power, to potentially copse the tunnel underneath".


    I was against that though. ''If I use my Yellow Dust reserve, that will be it. No more destructive power on our side'' I thought. I then came up with something, and said "There might be a way. We need Formation Masters. If they can set up a Formation on the ground, we could potentially destroy the tunnel underneath". Crow replied "The idea is not bad at all, but there is one problem". I asked about the problem, and Crow borated "Where will you get a couple of Formation Masters? It''s not like they grow on trees. I know you are familiar with one Formation Master, but I don''t believe one is enough to create a Formation that you spoke of".


    I nodded, and asked "What about you guys? You don''t have any Formation Masters?". He replied, "We have a few people who know a thing or two about Formations, but nowhere near what we require. Golems have a few people who know Formations too, but they will not participate. Voltars have a few people, as well as Lizards. Lizards would probably help, if we made a good case. Voltars though¡­ I don''t know about that¡­ maybe they would send one or two people". He then continued, "But none of them would be Masters. That friend of yours might be a Master, but one Master and a few amateurs, or advanced people at best, will not do in my opinion".


    He had a point, we needed a few Masters, to create such a powerful Formation. I said "I need to go back to Olrad either way. If Alicia is there, I will ask if she can think of something. We should check our enemy''s progress first. We need to know where they are with that tunnel. This will give some estimates of how much time we have left". Crow nodded, then replied "That is a good idea".

 Chapter 389

    Chapter 389


    I pressed my ear to the ground, and tried to pick up any noises. ''Hmm? Nothing. Maybe they are not that far away from their camp'' I thought. "I can''t hear nothing. They must be closer to their camp. You can wait here, I will go check by myself". Crow shook his head, and replied "Don''t be an idiot, I will go with you". I nodded, and we moved towards their Camp again. Just before we entered the Forest, I tried again. With my ear next to the ground, I still couldn''t hear anything. ''Weird¡­ The amount of soil we saw was staggering. They are either digging very deep¡­ or they are much further than we thought'' I thought.


    We left the area, and headed towards Sedon again. While we ran, I said "They must be much further away than I assumed". Crow didn''tment, but he didn''t like that at all. We check a few times on our way, and finally found something. After about an hour of running at our full speed, I heard some noisesing from the underground. ''They are still a bit faint, so they must be further ahead'' I thought, and advanced further.


    Another ten minutes of runningter, I checked again and the noises were very distinct. ''We should be close now'' I thought. We ran a bit further again, and the noises became more subtle. This meant, they were digging at around the previous area. I asked Crow, "How far away are we from Sedon?". Crow thought about it, and said "Hmmm, less than a day for sure. I''d say we are a bit less than half a distance between Sedon and their Camp. In other words, we are closer to their Camp".


    I nodded, and replied "We need to monitor them. We wille back to this ce in a few days. This way, we can figure out at what pace they are digging. This will allow us to judge how much time we have left". Crow nodded, and we ran towards Sedon. On our way back, I said "Don''t tell this to others just yet. We can''t have panic on our hands. I also doubt they would find a solution. First, we need to find out how much time we have. Then, a solution". He nodded, and said "Not a problem, but I will have to report something, the council will demand it".


    I replied, "Just tell them what you told me. Improve it a bit if you will". He nodded and said "Got it. I know the immediate n, but what about the rest? You know, what about the field? Or your trip to Apium?". I said "The field will take care of itself. They will need to harvest the herbs and perhaps clean it once in a while, but I should be back by then. If not, I will show Lerry how to nt the herbs. About the trip to Apium, this didn''t change. We need their stuff, and we need their craftsmen. I alone can''t repair walls properly. They should have much more experience with that".


    I then continued "I will check up on Voltars on my way there. If they are digging simr tunnels, Voltars need to be warned. Maybe they will have something withrge destructive power, we will see. Your job will be to monitor their activities underground. Try to find anything you can. Maybe you can find a way to copse the tunnel". He nodded, and said "I would do it anyway. I feel uneasy when I know that they are digging towards us... Do you need any help? I can send some people with you. Going alone, is not the best idea these days".


    Before I could answer, Crow added "I know you are strong, but many things can happen. This is a war, remember?". I smiled, and said "You know me well, but I will be fine. I would be inclined to protect your people at the same time. I prefer to step into shit by myself. At least that way, I can only me myself". He replied "Just trying to help". I nodded, and said "I know, but I will manage. You need your people".


    We ran the whole way, until we reached Sedon. I decided to rest a bit, before showing Lerry how to care for the field. A lot of Lizards were also gone. Most of the Royal Army already left, while only a handful of Lizards stayed behind. I was surprised, when most of them walked up to me. I asked "Is something wrong?". One of the heavily armoured Lizards replied "No. General Harlin told us we should listen to you. He trusts you a lot, and we already witnessed your strength. There is no doubt in our minds, that you want to help us no matter what others think".


    I smiled, and though ''Harlin you bastard''. He left his people under me, because he knew I wouldn''t let them die so easily. I replied to the guy "For now, the city is rtively safe. I will be leaving soon, but you have to stay here and protect the city. In the mid time, you should train yourselves. I will design some stuff for you guyster". The guy nodded, and said "We would train either way, but if you have any ideas, we would wee them".


    I nodded, and said "Your supplies are getting thinner, but because the main army backed off, you should be fine for a while. I will try to solve the problem of supplies for you. All you have to focus on is training, and defending the city". He nodded his head, and they left. The area had a few tents left, but therge tent was no longer around. ''We can make more fields, while we wait for Vanauts to make progress. I wonder if the seeds from Endorsian Empire, will also grow in the North?'' I asked myself.


    I was able to grow the seeds from the North, while staying in the Sav Vige. Whether that worked both ways, I wasn''t sure. There was only one way to find out. I wasn''t after healing herbs, no. I was after poisonous herbs. Atols had only one poisonous herb at their disposal. I also didn''t know how to care for it, so it waspletely useless to me. I on the other hand, had ess to a few poisonous herbs, and that is what I nned to nt.


    The next day, I repeated the process of clearing some stones, and made sure the soil was properly ploughed. I told Lerry a few things about nting and caring for the field. Lerry asked "Do we need to build another water container?". I shook my head, and said "No, I designed that one for a few fields. It will be enough for the two fields no problem. Even if we added a third one, we would be fine. It would need to be filled more often".


    Lerry asked "So what now? We wait?". I smiled, and replied "No. Now, I need to build a water delivery system. Before you ask, this is for the fields to sort of water themselves. You will only harvest the herbs, and nt new ones". He looked at me for a while, and asked "Tha¡­ That''s possible?". I replied "Of course, Atols already use it. Who do you think designed it for them? Anyway, I will need a lot of wood. Can you bring it here, while I process everything?". He nodded, and gathered some people for help.


    I then asked the remaining Lizards, if they could help as well. The soldiers didn''t protest at all, and headed towards the area were wood was stored. ''The amount of wood Shades have, should be enough for the water delivery system. I don''t think they actually took all the wood they cut'' I thought, and awaited the first delivery.

 Chapter 390

    Chapter 390


    It took me a few days to create the water delivery system. Others tried to help as much as they could, which made me happy. ''Even though they are at war, they are not selfish, and try to help each other. I doubt Humans would be like this'' I thought. With the water delivery system taken care of, together with Crow, we left to check up on Vanauts. "I hope they didn''t make too much progress. We need time'' Crow said. I wasn''t sure, so I didn''t reply. ''We will find out soon'' I thought.


    When we arrived at the previous area of their digging operations, I pressed my ear to the ground, and heard very little. ''They are not slow at all'' I thought. We made our way towards Sedon again, and checked once in a while. Soon, we found their current location. "They are about twenty minutes away from the previous ce. If we extrapte the distance¡­ We have around 67 days before they arrive". Crow replied "That''s not too much. So what now?". We would need to be ready for them in around 60 days. I had to make my trips quick and short, and I had to figure something out.


    I said "If we have nothing, I will be forced to use Yellow Dust. We can''t lose Sedon to them. Try to figure something out by yourself, and keep an eye on them. I will go to Boltier, Apium and perhaps Varent if I have time¡­ I have a feeling a massive headache ising". Crow replied "I will do what I can. If we find something, we will of course use that before anything else. When are you leaving?". I replied, "When I return to Sedon, and tell Lerry how to properly take care of the fields. Make sure everything goes smoothly with them. Not only medical, but poisonous herbs will grow there".


    He nodded, and said "Leave it to me". We returned to Sedon, and I exined whatever I needed to Lerry. I also met up with the Lizards, and passed on some exercises to them. I wasn''t sure how well my Modified Diagrams would work, so before handing them the poses, I checked up on their bodies. ''There shouldn''t be any problems. They should be able to train up to the 2nd Modified Diagram'' I thought. The leading Lizard looked at the weird poses and asked, "Are you sure about that? I mean we are not doubting your skills, but¡­".


    I replied "Would I make you look like idiots without a purpose? This trains your hidden muscles, hence the weird poses. Everyone trains this each and every day. If the first pose is too easy for someone, they can do the second. Otherwise, they should stick to it. There are restrictions of course. You can train this once per day. I mean it, don''t push your luck with them. Once per day, for everyone. Understood?". The Lizard nodded in understanding.


    I then gave them some other exercises and said, "Use weights when you carry those out. You might get tired, and it may not seem logical to do so at the time of war. But believe me, do them everyday. You guys are soldiers, so you should be disciplined enough to follow those instructions. Harlin left you here, and I intend to make you stronger. All clear?".


    The Lizard replied "Yes sir!", then left to convey the exercises to others. I didn''t linger anymore, and left Sedon as well. I had to head back to Obsidian Mountains first. I hoped that Alicia was already there, if not I would need to visit them on my way back. The journey back was rather uneventful. I didn''t meet any enemies on my way, and managed to arrive back as quickly as I could.


    Obsidian Mountains changed a bit. The Royal Army was ever present, and many soldiers were stationed outside. No one made any problems for me, as these people were already familiar with me. I made my way to Olrad, and immediately noticed an increase in poption. The people who lost their homes in Arangard, were moved between other ces. Olrad was no exception.


    Although these Lizards were upying the Upper Olrad, the poorer Lizards had to squeeze in more tightly, just to live off the streets. I went straight to Alicia''s ce, and immediately noticed it was no longer abandoned. ''Did someone move in here¡­ This can be potentially bad'' I thought. I knocked on the doors, and heard some footsteps approaching. I was surprised to see Fox. She eximed "Oh! You are back!". I nodded, and said "I thought they wanted to keep low key. I mean, that basement is there for a reason".


    She replied "Oh, that guy Lazar took this ce as his home, while giving away his old house. Come in". The ce had furniture, and was pretty clean. Fox continued "He did this to obviously cover for Suly and Alicia. Your friend is rarely home, so we live here with Suly". I asked "Is Alicia back?". She shook her head, and replied "No, we haven''t seen her. Either way, what''s the situation in Sedon? The Royal Army is back. Will they manage by themselves?".


    I replied, "We have a bigger problem than that. Anyway, I''m here to check up on Suly''s progress, and hand you this". I took out the senses sealing mask, and passed it to her. She asked "Another mask?". I replied, "Just ce it on, and activate the Formation. I will go check up on Suly". She nodded, while I descended to the basement.


    Suly was sleeping on her bed. ''She must be tired'' I thought, and noticed arge circle with loads of Runes connected in peculiar ways. ''Is that the Formation I asked for?'' I asked myself. Before I could examine it, I heard Fox''s scream. "What the hell is this!". I then heard hurried footsteps, descending the stairs. Fox arrived with her own mask on her face, while holding my mask in the other. She asked "What the hell is this supposed to be? It seals my sensespletely! What do you want me to do with it?".


    I replied "Quiet down. Isn''t it obvious? I want you to train while wearing it. Don''t worry, you can seal one sense at a time. The next training you will do, is training your senses. If your senses are very keen, you will be much better at fighting". She stood there for a while, not saying anything. I continued "I''m not joking. You need to learn how to perceive stuff without the use of your eyes, ears or nose. If you are good enough, you might develop something else".


    She shook her head, and replied "You are crazy¡­ And you trained like this?". I said "Of course, even Crow trained like this. That is where I got that mask from. Crow lost his eyes, and had to learn how to use other senses. Although I managed to return his sight, he still trained. I told you, this will not be easy". She thought about it, and said "I will train. But tell me, was Crow your first student then?". Iughed, and asked "Are you jealous? No, not at all. Crow is not learning the Art of Stealth. He is a Shade, and he has his own techniques. To tell you the truth? He is on par with me, when ites to stealth. He developed very well".


    Fox no longermented, and hid the mask. From all themotion, Suly woke up and said disorientated. "Why is it so loud? I want to sleep a bit more¡­ NEX! You are back!". I replied with a smile, "Yes I''m. I can see you worked really hard. Did you manage toplete the Formation?". Suly stood there proudly, and announced "I finished! It was really hard, but I think I managed to pull it off. The best way to see if it works, is to try it. Wanna give it a go?". I replied, "Sure, I can''t wait to see if it works too".

 Chapter 391

    Chapter 391


    I stepped into the Formation Circle, and waited. I had no idea how to activate it, but Suly knew. She said "Alright, just stay there, and don''t move". She then pressed her hands onto the outer circle, which resulted in the Formation lighting up. A whileter, Suly, Fox and the entire room disappeared. Everything was reced with darkness.


    I couldn''t hear or see anything. ''Does this mean it worked?'' I asked myself. I tried looking around, and even used my mask to try and spot anything, but nothing was there. Even my Darkness perception didn''t work. When I extended my hand, a sort of invisible barrier stopped me from advancing. ''It should be working'' I thought.


    I proceeded to take off the bandages from my right arm, and called out. "Frosty. We are now isted from the rest of the world. Come out". But Frosty didn''t appear. I got a bit angry, and said "Come out you stupid lizard, or I will do something even you might not expect!". My hand light up a bit in the darkness, but Frosty didn''te out still. Instead, I heard a raspy and deep voice. "What is it¡­ Nex?". I was stunned, and asked "Frosty?".


    The voice replied "Who else would it be? Why are you calling for me Nex?". The voice seemed a bit cold. ''I''m more amazed that Frosty can talk¡­ So he was a Beast after all'' I thought. I just stood there lost in my thoughts, when the voice asked "Do you think I wouldn''t appear without a reason?". I replied "So you can speak. Why didn''t you speak to me earlier then? Why hide in my arm? You gave me no exnations, and simply disappeared".


    The voice replied "Did you exin your actions to me? I don''t have to exin myself Nex. We are bound by the Blood Contract on equal terms. Neither of us can order the other around. I already told you that. Why did you go through such trouble to contact me? You are not in immediate danger, you don''t need my help". I replied "What about back in the Endorsian Empire? The Royals would''ve killed me, you didn''t help me".


    He replied "I didn''t need to. I knew that old man was following you, and would save your ass. Before you ask how, I could sense him. Don''t think that your instincts are one of a kind. So Nex, why did you call for me really?". I was a bit angry, ''I can''t call out to a friend? Can''t I worry about mypanion?'' I thought. I didn''t want to admit it, but I said it anyway. "I was worried... Was I wrong? Was I supposed to use you, like a tool? Were we not friends?".


    The voice stayed quiet for a while. I guess Frosty, not the voice. After all, it couldn''t be anyone else. Frosty replied after a while "I''m fine Nex, but I have to stay hidden. No one can know I''m with you, if they find out¡­ I''d rather not think about it. I even gave you some of my powers, yet you refuse to use them properly".


    I felt better. Frosty was still Frosty. He might''ve changed a bit, but deep down, it was still that small lizard I met many years ago. I then recalled something Frosty said, and asked "Wait, does that mean my arm looks like this because of you?". He replied "Of course. Did you think a Human could actually grow such an arm? It''s obviously thanks to my powers. You already figured out that the scales are very durable, but as for the power itself? You are aplete idiot".


    I eximed "What the hell! What do you want me to do? I can only freeze stuff, if I touch it!". He replied, "That is the problem you idiot! Did you think that this was the extent of those powers? You can be smart at times, but you are so dense at other¡­ I thought you will figure out how to use those powers, but apparently¡­ Fine, I will tell you how to use my power properly".


    I wanted to retort, but then I realised Frosty would actually teach me something. I shut up, and awaited the exnation. Frosty continued after a while. "The Power of Ice is not as simple as you think it is. The Power you have, is versatile. You can attack in many ways, and you can also defend in many ways. This will depend on your control. You im that you have full control over your body, right? Then that is what you need for the Power of Ice as well. Treat it like your Aura, you can also manipte this Power, just like you can your Aura. You fought an Eterian right? If you were able to control my power, there would be no escaping for that Eterian".


    I asked half lost in my thoughts "So¡­ I should treat it like my Aura?¡­". Frosty replied "Yes, what you do with it, it''s up to you really. There are many ways to use that Power. But beware. This is not something you can use infinitely. y around with it. You already have the ability to use my power well, you just don''t realise that". I nodded my head, and said "I will give it a try". Frosty asked "Is that all? This Formation will break soon. That Suly is quite talented, but she is still too young". I asked "Tell me, who is after you? Who would chase you so much, that you need to hide?".


    Frosty replied "When you are strong enough, I will tell you. Better yet, I will be able to walk around outside, just like in the past¡­ I know you have more questions, and I understand. But believe me Nex, I''m not your enemy. When I chose you for the Blood Pact, I knew who I was choosing. That war you want to fight¡­ I''m not against it, but I''m worried too. I just hope this ends well¡­ Get strong Nex. Stronger than any of those you saw. When the timees, we will meet again". I could hear a slightugh at the end, but it wasn''t evil. Rather, it was yful.


    Frosty no longer spoke. I was lost in my own thoughts, and didn''t even ask about anything else. I don''t know how long I stood there, but I woke up from my thoughts when I heard crackling sounds. The Formation was breaking apart. More light flooded through the cracks, and then it finally shattered like a ss bowl. The Formation broke into thousands of small pieces, that disappeared into nothingness.


    Sulyid on the ground, while Fox was holding her. I asked rmed "What''s wrong!?". She replied "Don''t worry, she just fainted. She used all her energy to support that Formation. I tried helping a bit too, but when Suly fainted, the Formation simply broke". I nodded, and picked Suly up. Fox noticed my arm, and asked "So that''s how your arm looks like?". I replied while carrying Suly to her bed, "You haven''t seen it before? Yep, pretty much like this". Iid Suly down, and let her rest properly.


    Fox asked "Why did you need such a Formation?". I smiled, and said "To figure some things out. You might witness some of them soon". She was confused, but I didn''t exin further. I sat down in one of the chairs, and closed my eyes. Fox sat next to me, but didn''t say anything. After a while, I spoke first. "It seems we will have a tough war in front of us". She asked "Why do you say that?". I replied "Let''s just say, I have a feeling about it¡­ It''s time for you to train. I will be leaving soon, and I need to go around ces fast. We have some trouble in Sedon, which we have to solve".


    Fox said "I meant to ask about that. What''s going on in Sedon?". I replied "The Royal Army left, which you already know. The bigger issue are Vanauts. They are digging". She asked confused "Digging? Digging what exactly?". I replied, "A tunnel. More precisely, a tunnel that would take them straight to Sedon". She looked at me for a while, and asked "Then why don''t we attack?". I snorted, and asked "With what? There are at least three Eterians guarding the camp. I have no clue how many Vanauts are there. An outer circle of Mordars¡­ Even if an army approached, others would be warned immediately. We need something to copse the tunnel from above".


    She replied "Something from above... ". I asked curiously, "Do you have a way?". She didn''t reply immediately. A while passed, before she said "I might have something, but as ast resort". I nodded, and replied "Alright, keep it then. As ast resort, we have my Yellow Dust. If I have to use it, I will use it. If youe up with something else, be sure to notify Lazar. I will visit him before I leave". She nodded, and just sat there. I stood up, and urged her "Go train. We have no time for sitting around. I''m off, I should return in about a month, or maybe a bit more. Take care of Suly, and give her my thanks. She helped me out a lot this time". Fox nodded, while I disappeared from the basement.

 Chapter 392

    Chapter 392


    I headed straight to Lazar''s ce. Before I could enter the Upper Olrad, a few Lizards stopped me. They asked why I wanted to enter, therefore I exined the purpose of my entry. I thought they would again ask for some ridiculous passes or proofs, but fortunately a passing soldier recognised me. I was allowed in without any further problems, and headed straight to Lazar''s office.


    "Knock, knock, knock".


    Lazar answered, "Come in". He wasn''t surprised at all, that I visited him. He asked "What can I do for you?". I replied, "I will be off for a while. Fox is with Suly, so you shouldn''t worry. Make sure she can meet with you though. We have a situation in Sedon, that requires¡­ some ideas". He asked confused "What situation? Something even I don''t know about?". I replied "If you did, it would be meaningless to hide it probably. All I will say is, try to find a way to copse a tunnel deep underground. The hard part is, we need to do it from above. Fox mighte up with something too, so make sure she can meet with you. You can rely your ideas to Crow, and Crow alone, alright?". He froze for a second, but then nodded while saying "I get it".


    Lazar continued, "I will try to figure something out. Are you going to Apium now?". I nodded, then replied "Yourwork is not bad, but it wasn''t a secret either. I need to make a trip there, and a few other ces. I will try to be back as soon as I can". He nodded his head, then added "I will do my best on our end. I will notify Harlin about it too, he might have some ideas as well". It wasn''t a bad idea at all, so I said "Good idea, but don''t make this too widespread. In any case, I will see you in a month or so". With that we said our goodbyes. Shortly after, I left Olrad and headed towards Apium.


    I would swing by Boltier on my way as well. I wasn''t sure whether Vanauts established simr camp near Boltier, but I would find this out when I arrived there. I met some enemies on my way to Boltier. The enemy camps were rather small, and the number of soldiers was¡­ minimal to put it mildly. They usuallyprised of the lesser races such as Grondors, or Slethers. There were always a few stronger Furians managing the small army. I usually avoided them, but a few fights broke out nevertheless.


    The fights ended badly for my enemies. Most of them were at Outer Limits, while only Furians were stronger and packed a stronger punch. Some of them reached Inner Limits, but no one under the Half Step was really my opponent. I was about three days of travel away from Boltier, when I noticed a small forest of dead trees. ''Most probably Mordars'' I thought. I decided to test the strength of those Mordars. I had no idea how many I would fight, but I wanted to judge their strength as well. ''Know thy enemy better than thyself'', is what the saying said.


    I took out my Razor Swords, and walked towards the small forest of dead trees. Before I arrived, a few of the trees began to move. The dead trees began transforming. Some of them got taller, while their bark began twisting and changing. ''So those things are Mordars'', I thought as I increased my speed.


    Mordars were different. Their bark looked like twisted and wrinkled vines, dark grey in colour. Two yellow eyes were prominent in the middle, while their crowns moved about like whips. The Mordars could actually move using their roots, and they were not that slow. I stepped hard on the ground, and released all my strength.


    "Booom!"


    Iunched at them, whilebining my swords together and activating the Formation. ''Razor Swords: Vibrating Form''. The sword in my hand began vibrating while releasing a low "Voom" sound. The Mordars arrived, and extended their whip like branches to attack. "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!".


    I evaded their branches, and swung my sword, "Vooom!". My sword cut through their branches, like a knife through butter. "SCREEECH!!!". The Mordar screamed so loudly, my ears rang. I had no time to worry about my hearing though, another three Mordars alreadyshed their branches at me. I quickly moved backwards, but then my instincts red up. ''Not good'' I thought, and jumped right. "BOOOM!". The ce I stood in a second ago, was smashed with some sort of thick root that extended from the earth.


    ''I was already warned that they can do such things'' I thought, and advanced again. This time, I released my Bloodlust Aura. Although my Aura had some effect, Mordars didn''t seem to mind it that much. ''Huh? They are immune to Auras?'' I asked myself, and added the Domineering Aura on top. This time, the effect was greater. The Mordars in the immediate area, slowed down. But my instincts were telling me to get out of that ce. Before I figured out why, multiple roots extended from the earth andshed at me.


    "BOOOM!", "BOOOM!", "BOOOM!", "BOOOM!"


    I evaded them with the use of my Natural Path skill, but it was a close call nevertheless. I finally realised why only a few Mordars engaged me in a fight. ''Apparently, there are two types of Mordars. Those who fight in closer range, and those who fight long distance. The ones at the back must be responsible for those roots'' I thought, when I cleared the area of their concentrated attack. I was unscathed, but just barely.


    The Mordars at the front didn''t let me rest though. More whip like attacked flew my way. I was surprised by their strength, most of these Mordars were at a stage of Inner Limits. Or at least possessed abilities and strengthparable. I smiled, and disappeared. While utilising my Natural Path skill, I was in constant movement. That didn''t mean I was simply running around.


    "SCREECH!!", SCREECH!!", SCREECH!!!!"


    A few Mordars had their branches trimmed by my Razor Sword. The Mordars at the back, tried smashing me into the ground with their roots, but they had a hard time locating me now. I appeared in front of the Mordar that had its branches trimmed, and shed horizontally "VOOOM!". The Mordar was cut in half. The top half fell to the ground with a "Bang!", but the Mordar didn''t screech anymore. I specifically aimed my sh at their eye area. ''My guess was correct. This is where their "brain" is. If I slice them in half, they will perish'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I increased my speed to whatever my body could allowed. If I were to describe what they saw next, would be a Human appearing and disappearing between Mordars. "Vooom!", "Vooom!", "Vooom!", "Vooom!", "Vooom!". I didn''t simply weave through them, I killed them all in a matter of seconds. When I stopped behind their frontline, all Mordars were already split in half, and fell to the ground one after the other.


    The Mordars at the back made some screeching noises, but didn''t run away. What I saw next was like a nightmare. ''They¡­bined?'' I asked myself in disbelief. I stared at arge Mordar, with many yellow eyes in the middle. It grew taller, much taller, and its reach? I found out shortly after. "BOOOM!!". I jumped backwards evading that, but another five roots extended from the ground andshed at me. These roots were much thicker now. As if three or four of them were wrapped up together. I only managed to evade four of them, and had to use my arm to block the fifth root. "Boom!", I flew backwards at great speed. My left arm hurt, but wasn''t broken. "Bam!...Ughhh...", I groaned when I hit the ground.


    I had no time toy around. More branches and roots flew my way. Their reach was ridiculous. The distance between us, was at least a few hundred metres. I picked myself up, and moved backwards continuously. Finally the whip like branches and roots stopped. ''It seems that is their limit. They can''t reach any further'' I thought. Although they couldn''t reach me from their current location, they could simply move. And that is what they did exactly.

 Chapter 393

    Chapter 393


    ''I can try something, but¡­ I don''t know if it will work'' I thought. The strength of thebined Mordars was exceptional, but there was also a disadvantage. They moved at a much slower pace. ''If I could get past those branches and roots, defeating them should pose no problems'' I thought. I had something with me, that could help me with that. It was risky, but worth a try.


    Therge Mordar advanced towards me, while I backed off constantly. During the chase, I fished out a bottle full of green liquid, and drank it. The bottle contained a sort of boosting liquid. I made it from the speed enhancing liquid, that Fox gifted to me, as well as few other herbs. I wasn''t sure what effects it would have on me, but there was only one way to find out.


    ''I don''t feel any different though'' I thought, while stepping backwards. Then I noticed something strange. Therge Mordar chasing me seemed to stop. ''Hmmm?'' I took a closer look, and quickly realised what it was. ''It didn''t stop... I''m moving so fast, it seems so slow to me!'' I thought. A smile appeared on my face. That speed enhancing medicine was something else indeed. It was the first time I actually tried it, and the effects were staggering.


    I stopped backing off, and instead moved forwards. I have no idea what appeared in the Mordar''s eyes, but its branches and roots? They were so slow, I could evade them without even trying. I didn''t take me long to arrive in front of therge tree. I didn''t slow down though. With my Razor Sword ready, I shed the Mordar horizontally, then stopped a few good metres behind.


    When I turned around, the branches and roots were nowpletely still. The top half of therge Mordar began slowly tilting to the side. I was falling slowly¡­ until it hit the ground. "Thud!". ''This thing is amazing! Even sound takes longer to arrive. As if the whole world slowed down for me... Is that the limit of speed? Everything will slow down, if I move that fast?'' I asked myself. It was unfortunate though. I only had that one bottle. ''The herbs I used were quite rare too¡­ Finding some again will take time, and I don''t have time'' I thought.


    This speed enhancing liquid was extraordinary. That experience opened my eyes a bit. If I were able to move that fast without any medicine, wouldn''t that be the pinnacle? Where the world itself slowed down, because of my speed. I didn''t linger anymore, and rushed towards Boltier. At my current speed, it would take me a day, or perhaps even less than a day to arrive.


    I didn''t know how long that medicine wouldst for, but when the effects disappeared, I finally learned the price for such speed. "Thud". I fell face first onto the ground. I could barely move, all my muscles were vibrating. ''I¡­ can''t even¡­ move a finger!'' I thought. Pulsating pain ran through my whole body, while some sort of weird vibrations gued my muscles. I could do nothing, but endure andy there. Fortunately, there were no enemies around, otherwise I would be a goner.


    ''I need to make a mental note. Try something first, before using it in battles'' I thought. At least a few hours passed before I was able to move again. The aftereffects were very strong. I wondered whether it was due to the herbs I added, or because the medicine Fox gave me had such an effect initially. With my hands able to move, I tapped on a few of my pressure points, and the vibrations as well as the pain lessened.


    After picking myself up, I walked slowly towards Boltier. I wasn''t far away either. About three hourster, I reached the city. By that time I could move normally, but the weakness of my body didn''t simply disappear. A group of Voltar soldiers stopped me, and demanded exnations as to my visit. I showed them the seal I received from Lazar, and added the Arangard seal on top of that. The soldiers checked them in great detail, then gave them back to me.


    "We need to make sure that those who visit are genuine. Please go through that gate, you seem a bit tired". I smiled and replied "Yea¡­ By the way. Where can I find your leader?". One of the soldiers asked "You want to speak with our General?". I nodded, and replied "Yes. I have some information to ry to him. I also want an opinion on something". He thought about it, and said "Rais here will take you to General Litral, you can ry your message there". I nodded, and followed the soldier called Rais.


    The Voltar guide seemed quite young to me. ''Is he a fresh soldier?'' I asked myself. Rais wasn''t as stiff as soldiers usually were. He asked "Youe from afar?". I nodded while replying, "Yes, to be precise from Obsidian Mountains". He eximed "And you made it here by yourself?!". I smiled while saying "Yea, pretty much". He whistled in amazement, then asked "How did you do it?... I didn''t want to be rude, I was just curious". ''This guy is interesting'' I thought.


    I shook my hand, the replied "It''s fine. I''m not that weak you know. Although thest stretch of my journey here was¡­ different". He asked confused "Why so?". I replied with "There was a small forest full of Mordars. They are quite strong you know? I wasn''t aware they couldbine into one big Mordar. If I knew that, I would simply go around them". Rais just stared at me for a while, seemingly lost in his thoughts.


    I just smiled, and didn''t say anything else. It wasn''t anything to brag about either. Although I could probably win without the use of that medicine, the fact that I actually used it, was no feat at all. Rais woke up from his thoughts, and asked "You are joking?". I replied "No? Why would I joke about such things?". He replied "You want to tell me, you took on thebined form of Mordars, alone¡­ And survived?". ''Didn''t I just said that? Maybe it was a feat after all?'' I thought. I had no clue, the opponent was difficult, but not impossible. I was sure some Voltars would be able to do the same thing.


    I replied, "You are free to go and check, it should stilly there". He just shook his hand, and said "Yea right. Jokes aside, General''s quarters are there". He pointed at one of the buildings in the distance. It was of course floating. He then tapped his head lightly, and added "I forgot, only Voltars can use the transport system in the city. Let me go there, and ask someone to bring you in". I grabbed him while saying "There is no need". I crouched down, then jumped as hard as I could. "BOOOM!". The ground beneath me broke apart, while I flew through the air straight towards the building Rais pointed out.


    "Swooosh!" "Tap". Inded just outside the floating building. ''Wow, I was barely able to make that jump though. I wonder how far I would be able to jump with that medicine still active'' I thought. I stood there contemting about the medicine, when Rais called out "You actually did it. I had to exin the sudden outburst to others, but WOW! You are strong indeed". I just shrugged my shoulders, and said "Let''s go met with your General". He nodded, and guided me toward his General.

 Chapter 394

    Chapter 394


    Rais took me to the General''s office. A few soldiers were inside when we entered, and they all seemed to gather around one Voltar that stood in the middle. To my surprise, it was a female Voltar. Rais announced "General Litral, This Human has a message for you, and would like to speak with you". The soldiers inside the room turned around, and looked at us. General Litral was rather brash, when she said "Out with it Human, what is the message".


    I replied with my brows furrowed "I don''t like your tone. Don''t mistaken me for one of your men". The soldiers eximed "Insolence!", and simr at my face. She replied, "I have no problem throwing you into jail for your posture, so better mind your words Human". I released my Auras, and the whole room froze. I said "I think you are the one who''s mistaken. I''m not your everyday pushover. I came a long way to warn you, and check up on you. I''m to tired for your bullshit, so cut it out". I then retrieved my Auras, and the soldiers fell to the ground. I didn''t target Rais, so he was mostly alright, except the shock on his face.


    The General looked at me with anger, and asked "What did you want to warn us about?". I replied "Did you get the news about Arangard?". She said "Is that what you came to say? We already know about that, and we know for a while". I replied "Good, this saves me time in that case. I''m here to enquire about Vanaut camps". She asked "There is a camp further to the west, what about it?".


    I asked "Do you know what they are doing?". She became a bit more frustrated again, and replied "What exactly do you want Human?". I didn''t ask in roundabout ways anymore, and went straight to the point. "Are Vanauts digging something?". She replied surprised "How did you know, you''ve been there?". I said "No, but they do that next to Sedon as well. This is my warning, they areing for you guys. Either attack them and destroy their camp, or figure out how to copse a tunnel from above".


    She thought about it for a while, and asked "Why should I believe you?". I replied, "If you don''t, you may as well perish or be enved by Eterians. It''s your choice. I don''t have the time to prove stuff to you. If you want proof, go there and check yourself". The soldiers who finally picked themselves up, just stood there quietly while she thought about it.


    I added "Another thing. What happened to the supplies?". She replied, "My people were attacked, and we lost everything. We can''t waste our people or resources, therefore we stopped sending them". I replied, "I will take them when I return from Apium". She asked "And why should we give you, a Human any supplies?". I said "Because of your own ipetence. Lizards and Shades take on most of the battles for you guys. The least you can do is send them supplies, and you failed at that. If you can''t deliver them, I will do it myself".


    She replied in an angry tone "And who the hell are you exactly? Eh? Some Human wille here and order us around!? Know your ce!". I replied calmly "Go to Lizards in your city, and ask them who I am. As for the supplies, I will collect them on my way back from Apium. Onest thing. Trim that loftiness of yours, Harlin could teach you a few things about that".


    I then turned around, and disappeared. I said what I had to say. ''This is war, I will not y nice, even with my allies. Besides, I never liked lofty characters. They always yed on my nerves'' I thought. I left Boltier without looking back. ''We will never win this war, if the allied forces are like that. Lizards are first to fight, but they don''t see the bigger picture. Voltars sit at their city, rotting away thinking they are safe. Atols have their own internal struggles. Golems don''t give a crap, they don''t seem to mind being ves to Eterians, if the war is lost. Shades¡­ What can they aplish by themselves?'' I thought.


    Shades were able toe together, even though they still seemed topete for power a bit. Ultimately, they were very weing to the army of Lizards, and stuck together. They tried finding out information about enemy, instead of blindly rushing at them. Although Shades worked as they should, it was the others in allied forces that were dragging them down. ''If Yagaroths and Avians still existed, and joined our enemy¡­ The war would be almost over. With Yagaroths'' strength, and Avains'' ability to fly, Sedon would already fall'' I thought.


    That was why I didn''t exchange pleasantries, or tried to be polite. I was as rude and demanded stuff, not because I wanted to be, but because I had to be. They needed to wake up and realise what shit they stepped into. Then start working together. ''If they don''t realise their own mistakes, they may as well perish. Such ally is no more than a hindrance, the weak link that might drag everyone else down'' I thought.


    Apium was still quite a distance away. Even though my speed was not bad, I was still not at my top condition. That medicine took its toll on my body. A few days passed, before I regained my full strength. Although I met some enemies on the way, it was nothing major likest time. The enemies started to thin out a bit, the closer I got to Apium. It struck me as weird, ''Why would they leave Atols alone? Or are they perhaps nning something here as well'' I thought. I had a bad feeling about it, but there was nothing I could do really.


    After another week, I finally saw Apium at the horizon. It didn''t change much, the greenery was still there, and looked like paradise in the desert. The only exception was the increased presence of Atols. A few groups of them were patrolling the area, and standing guard. Only when I got closer, I noticed some damages to the small forest surrounding Apium. ''Turns out they were attacked too'' I thought. It was weird though, because the damage seemed to be done by fire, not by Destroyers.


    This struck me as odd, because Sedon or Boltier didn''t have such damages. ''Did someone try to burn the forest down?'' I asked myself. One of the patrols started approaching me, probably to ask for the purpose of my visit. We met halfway, and one of the Atols shouted "Stop stranger!". I stopped in front of them, and the Atol warrior asked another question. "Why did youe here stranger? Do you have business with us?". I replied "I''m here to talk with Fraction Leaders. I want to discuss a few things with them".


    The Atol was having none of that, and replied "The Leaders are too busy. Turn around, and leave". ''Again with that attitude'' I thought. Before I proceeded, I asked "What exactly happened here. Someone attacked you?". He replied "None of your business stranger. Leave or we will use force". ''Not very weing'' I thought and said, "Let see that "force" of yours".

 Chapter 395

    Chapter 395


    The Atol warriors no longer talked with me, they immediately attacked. Most of them had weapons with longer reach. Some of them had spears, while others had staves with an axe de attached to the end of it. They weren''t that strong though. All of them were still at their Outer Limits, and therefore not my opponents. I didn''t kill them though, I just made them faint.


    I left the few lying Atols behind, and headed towards Apium again. Something was off though. The other patrols didn''t arrive, they just waited near the Apium''s forest. ''Are they waiting for reinforcements?'' I asked myself. I wasn''t sure, but there was only one way to find out. I arrived in front of the Atols, yet no reinforcements arrived. The guards didn''t speak either, this struck me as even more odd.


    When I approached them, they just stood still. ''Were they poisoned?'' I thought, and checked one of them out. ''He is dead!'' I thought. His eyes were still open, as if looking at me, but he had no pulse, no signs of life. I decided to try another thing, and pushed that Atol backwards. He simply fell like a log. ''What the hell happened here? The first group was alright, but the rest is pretty much dead'' I thought.


    Then I heard a quiet voice saying "S¡­ Stranger¡­". It wasing from the forest. I couldn''t see the guy, but he was located somewhere towards north east. I headed there until I saw a wounded Atol. I asked him, "What the hell happened here?". He smiled, and replied "Got ya!". I was confused, until my instincts red up. I jumped to the side, but the danger was everywhere. ''Illusion'' I thought, and tried to use my Auras as well as the Mind Form, but I wasn''t quick enough.


    Hundreds of roots appeared around me. Before I could break the illusion, I was caught by the roots which wrapped around me. I don''t know what happenedter, as I fainted. I had no idea what amount of time passed, but I finally woke up. It was dark, and I couldn''t move at all. I focused my sight a bit more, and noticed a sort of cave. I tried moving my legs, but besides hearing light metallic jiggle, I couldn''t move at all.


    My hands were in weird position too. I looked at my arms, and noticedrge cuffs with chains running somewhere behind me. My legs were bound by chains as well. My armour was gone, my possessions¡­ Probably too. I had no way of checking. I had no idea what that metal was, but when I tried to use my Power of Ice¡­ I couldn''t. It seemed to be sealed away.


    ''So I was caught. That whole Apium was an illusion. I knew something was wrong, but would never expect them to create a whole area just for me. They must''ve been hell bent on catching me'' I thought. I tried brute force, but the chains were very strong. ''This is not ck Steel. It looks like Azurite, but a bit different'' I thought. I wouldn''t be able to break ck Steel chains... At least I assumed. Azurite was an overkill, but I guessed they had money, or just stole it.


    I took a more detailed look at my surroundings, and found a table with a chair. Nothing else really. With the use of my Darkness Perception, I was able to peer further into the cave. A long corridor was in front of me. Metal bars were ced in the middle. The bars had doors, and they seemed to be made from the same metal. ''If I break free, I can just smash the walls or even freeze those bars'' I thought. At the end of that corridors, there seemed to be two passages. One leading towards left, the other towards right. ''Yea¡­ my guess is, this is a maze like camp'' I thought.


    Escaping was impossible at that stage. ''I can try to find out what they want from me, or perhaps discover something about their ns. If I get an opportunity, I will get out of here'' I thought. I could do nothing but wait. That I did, I tried counting time just for fun, but I got bored after about half an hour. I don''t know how much time passed, but I could finally hear someoneing. I used my Darkness Perception, and saw two guys walking towards me.


    One seemed to be a Human, while the other was different. ''A Human.. And Eterian. So, Humans have a stake in this as well? I thought they hated each other'' I thought. The two passed the metal bar gate, and arrived in my prison. "Well, well. It took us some effort to actually catch you". It was the Eterian who spoke first. I snorted, and replied "What do you want. If you wanted to kill me, I would be dead already. What''s your purpose?".


    He lifted his finger up, and shook it while saying "No, no. We are the ones who ask questions. You answer them". I replied "You can kiss my ass, how about that for an answer?". The surroundings changed, and we appeared in some sort ofva filled area. I no longer had my restrains on me, while the Eterian and Human stood opposite of me. "You want me to kill you over, and over inside your own illusion? Suit yourself Eterian" I said, and ran straight at them. I had no weapons, but my fists were enough.


    The Eterian smiled, and simply swiped his hand downwards. "Booom!", I crashed into the ground, as if something very heavy just hit my from behind. The Eterian said "I think you got the wrong idea. Tell us, why did you head toward Atols?". I picked myself up, but then got crushed back down again.


    The Eterian said "I didn''t ask you to pick yourself up, I asked why did you want to visit Atols?". I replied, "If you don''t know, why do you know I wanted to go there?". "Booom!", the force pressing my body increased, while I got buried deeper into the ground. ''Ugh¡­ I will kill that bastard'' I thought. He repeated the question, but this time lifted off the pressure so I could actually stand up.


    "I will ki¡­", but before I could finish, I was smashed into the ground again. I tried releasing my Aura, but it didn''t help. He smashed me into the ground a few more times, then asked again. I didn''t reply, and simply endured. ''I will get out of here, believe me Eterian'' I thought. It seemed like an eternity, before the Eterian said "We can do this all day you know. This is an illusion, the amount of time that passed outside is bare minutes. If you answer our questions, I will stop". I didn''t reply, and simply stayed quiet. He said "Suit yourself", and resumed crashing me into the ground again.

 Chapter 396

    Chapter 396


    I don''t know for how long he tortured me, but everything stopped suddenly. When I opened my eyes, we were back at the cave. I was too tired to even speak, and simply closed my eyes to rest. I was asleep, until someone pped me awake. I slowly opened my eyes, and saw the same Eterian. He was alone this time.


    The Eterian said "Time to wake up. We still need some answers". I replied "You will get shit from me". He just smiled, and said "We will see about that". My surroundings changed again, but this time it was some sort of wilderness. The Eterian asked "Howe you have an arm of a Lizard? Did you chop it off of one of them?". I replied "I have an answer for that question". He seemed surprised, and asked "Oh, let''s hear it then". I replied while scratching my head "How about I took it from your mother? Who would''ve thought she was mixed breed right?". He didn''t take it well, and some sort of vines extended from the ground. They wrapped my arms and legs, which restricted any movements I could possibly make.


    He said "You think you are funny? I wonder for how long you can y a tough guy? You will crumble Human. Sooner orter, your ass will be mine". I replied "I don''t swing that¡­". But before I finished, a vine pped my face¡­ hard. I spit out some blood, and looked at him. He asked "Did you like it? Don''t worry, there''s more where that came from". Another vine pped my face, then another. "AAAGH!", I screamed. I could do nothing else but vent my frustration and pain, with the use of my voice. The Eterian was a sadist for sure. His face was full of smiles, especially hisment "Scream, scream for me!".


    I was being battered with the vines like a rag doll. He would stop once in a while, but I was too tired to answer anything. Time slowly passed. I''ve been tortured countless times. Every time, the Eterian found new ways to torture me. I was eaten alive by beasts, dropped into hotva, or even frozen to death a few times. Although I never really died, this ced an enormous strain on my mind and fuelled my rage.


    One day, he visited me again. This time, he didn''t create an illusion. He simply said "You are indeed tougher than I thought. Being able tost that long, you are special indeed. If you are that bent on staying silent, I''m afraid we just have to kill you". I opened my eyes, and asked "Tell me one thing though. Why did you start that war?". He snorted, and replied "I told you, I''m the one asking questions". I shook my head lightly, then said "It doesn''t matter. If you are going to kill me, do so. I was just curious".


    He stayed silent for a while, before saying "You have no idea right?". I asked "Idea? About what?". He continued "You fight a war, yet you have no clue why it is happening. Why do you fight for them? Why die for the Lizards, Shades or Voltars? No Human would do such a thing. I''m curious as well". ''Why do I fight? Why risk my life for a war that shouldn''t concern Humans? Because Eterians can attack Endrosian Empireter? Did I ever cared about that?'' I asked myself.


    The Eterian stood there quietly, and waited. In truth, I didn''t have an answer¡­ Or perhaps I did. There was a legend of a certain person, who mastered his skills and became a ruler. The North was never unified, wasn''t that my goal? ''I never believed that story, even though people as well as books told me otherwise. Yet, even though I never wanted to believe it, I was trying to do the same thing'' I thought. I wanted to be a legend as well, I wanted to be remembered for centuries toe.


    I said "I guess I wanted to be a legend. A legend I myself never believed in". The Eterian was a bit stunned, and asked "What do you mean?". I shook my head, and asked "Does it matter?". He thought for a while, then replied "It''s fine. You are a strong Human, an enemy worthy of respect. If others were like you, perhaps history would look differently". I asked "Why the war then?". He replied "All I will say, is that we weren''t the ones who started this all".


    ''They didn''t start it? Then who? What is he on about'' I thought. My thoughts were disturbed by him asking "Are you scared? Of Death?". I looked at him, andughed. Iughed hard. So much and so crazily, he was stunned. "Have you gone crazy? Whatever, your life ends here". He pulled out a sword, while I said "Scared? There is only one thing I''m scared of".


    He paused, and asked "What would that be?". I replied "Myself". I released the stored up rage dwelling inside me. All the torture and humiliation, everything turned to rage. ''Art of War Forbidden Form: Aura Limit Break'' I thought. The Form I was supposed to never use, a Form I had no control over. A voice sounded in my head ''Now you want to release me? What if I refuse?''. It was my voice, more precisely, the manifestation of my rage and hatred. It never went away, and I was never able to control it. I had to seal it inside me, and never allow it to escape.


    I replied in my mind, ''You can have the control for a while. I will take it back''. The voiceughed crazily and replied "You can try!". The atmosphere around the room changed. My Aura intensified, and changed to that of suffocation. Pure hatred and rage escaped my body, while Iughed evilly. "What is that power?", the Eterian asked. My body replied, "Time to die¡­ Eterian". "Booom!", the shackles and chains holding me down broke apart. The Eterian was shocked, and quickly backed away.


    I started losing consciousness, even though I tried not to. I had no control over what would happen. My body or rather my other personality, didn''t distinguish between allies and foes. This happened two times when I trained with Irwin. He ordered me to seal that power away, and I managed to do that. There was an exception. I could resort to it, if my anger reach the apex, or even passed the threshold. The second condition was, my life had to be at immediate risk. Otherwise, the seal would simply not let go of it.


    Yater knew some forbidden stuff when it came to Formations. He was no master, but all of them knew the unconventional methods of doing stuff. Irwin knew unconventional methods to smith. Yater to make Formations, while Nathan.. Nathan was the craziest. He could actually make skins and change his lookspletely by wearing that skin. This was the reason I epted death, the reason I stayed silent, even after what seemed like an eternity of torture.


    Before I lost my consciousnesspletely, my body said "Let me show you how to use this body". I didn''t witness that though, andpletely fell into a state I could only describe as asleep. Although I didn''t see or hear anything, I could feel something surrounding me. It was the darkness. I thought about using my skills, but to no avail. I wandered through the darkness for a while, as if lost in my thoughts. I thought about many things, but I felt like I was forgetting something.


    ''Did I forget something important? Was it my family? A friend of mine? Perhaps I was supposed to do something'' I asked myself. The doubt grew, the more time passed. It bugged my mind, but I just couldn''t remember. ''I''m missing something¡­ a war? There is a war?... Eterians.... Anger¡­'' I thought. At that point, I thought about Auras, and I finally recalled what happened. I quickly tried to wake up, but I couldn''t. I shouted, even though I didn''t seem to have a mouth "THIS IS MY BODY DAMNIT!".


    "Swoosh!", my eyes caught some light. More and more light flooded my eyes, until I heard a voice. "You? No! I will not return. This body is mine now!". An Aura seeded deep within my existence awakened, while I said "You dare oppose me? Yours? This body is yours? Know your ce!". The unmatched and unyielding Aura enveloped my body, while a voice shouted "No!... You can''t do this!". "Swoosh!", I had aplete control of my body now. Before I could perceive my surroundings, I heard my voice onest time. ''...This is not the end¡­ You will crawl back to me again''.

 Chapter 397

    Chapter 397


    "Ugh¡­ I feel like I had a headache for a few weeks", I said to myself. Taking a long around, I found myself on the surface, but the sight still shocked me. The whole ce looked like and of ice. Everything was frozen. Vanauts, Furians as well as a few minor races, looked like frozen sculptures of thend. The terrain was not t by any means either. Large crater like holes were prominent every so often.


    ''Is that the real extent of my power?'' I asked myself in awe. I already knew how strong I was, when that Aura was fully released. Irwin also learned that the hard way. With that Aura fully active, my strength equaled that of a master. ''But, it''s not really my strength, if I can''t control it'' I thought. I was in a weakened state, and although able to move, I wouldn''t be able to fight much.


    I was about to look for my belongings, when I heard a familiar voice. "You are a monster indeed.. Cough¡­ Cough". It was the Eterian who tortured me for what seemed like an eternity. His legs were missing, and he was at his life''s end. I slowly made my way towards him while asking, "Why did you say, you were not the ones who started this all?". It was a question that bothered me a lot. He coughed out more blood, then replied with a smile. "If I tell you, will that change anything?".


    I thought about it for a while, then said "Probably not¡­ But, I''d like to hear it anyway". Heughed out loud while replying, "You don''t have to look far Human. Everything happened because of you. They know that, they know it perfectly well¡­ Yet they med us..". I was a bit confused. ''Started it all? What exactly did we start?'' I thought. That was under the condition, whether he was speaking the truth. I asked "I don''t know what you refer to, but doesn''t that depend on perspective? You will of course im it was someone else''s fault, while Humans will im it was yours. The question is, what is the truth?".


    He replied with a snort, "And what? Are you that perspective? Do you think, you can be the judge of everything that happened in the past? You may have defeated me, but there are stronger existences in this world. Humans? Eterians? We mean shit in their eyes". I asked "Is it the Hatmandor?". He just coughed out some more blood, and smiled. I asked a different question, "Eterian, why do you fight the war? Couldn''t you just stay quiet and exist? Who knows what time would change? The future is a mystery. I didn''t have a bias against your race, it was you guys who betrayed my trust".


    He closed his eyes, and said "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps we should''ve just let go, and live our lives peacefully. Perhaps people like you would ept us, but it''s toote for that now. Our leader is not someone who weavers. He will either win this war, or die trying". I asked the most crucial question "What do you n on doing?". Heughed, then asked "And you think I will tell you? I answered enough of your questions. End me, just like I wanted to end you".


    He thought of me as a worthy opponent, therefore I gave him the same benefit. I tighten my fist, and released everything I had onto that Eterian. "BOOOM!". His head exploded into pieces, which marked the end of that battle. I had some mixed feelings at the end. ''I don''t know if he wanted to mess up with my head, but all he said seemed to be his true and honest thoughts. This makes me feel odd'' I thought.


    A truthful Eterian didn''t fit the picture, but there was an old saying. ''In every story, there is a seed of truth'' I thought. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, there were other things to worry about. I searched the Eterian, and found my storage feather. He had nothing else, especially my other bags. ''Did he threw away his belongings? Or maybe he never had any? Weird¡­ Anyway, I need to find my stuff first'' I thought, and searched the area.


    After a considerable amount of time, I finally found my bags. I had to actually enter the system of caves again, where my belongings were stored. Besides the bags, I also found a few other dead Eterians. They were all frozen to death. Just in case, I broke the ice statues. I didn''t want them to somehow survive this. I couldn''t really search them for any items though.


    After checking my bags, I realised I had everything. ''This is everything. Fortunately, he didn''t realise that the heaviest bag was full of Yellow Dust. I should''ve left it with Crow. If they got their hands on this, the war would be much harder to win'' I thought. I looked around for anyndmarks, specific areas or unusual features of thend, that would help me orientate myself. ''Hmmm, I shouldn''t be too far away from Apium. If I''m correct, it should be this way'' I thought, and walked towards what I thought as the correct way.


    A few dayster, I arrived to Apium. This time, it must''ve been real. ''I mean, what are the chances they would actually manage that the second time'' I thought. A few guards were stationed outside, but they were much different than what I encountered. One of the Atol Warriors asked me to stop. I asked "This is Apium, right?". Perhaps a stupid question, but I wanted to make sure. They looked at each other, then at me with confusion in their eyes. The Atol Warrior replied "You came here, and you don''t know where you are?".


    I replied "I just wanted to make sure. You have no idea what shit I had to go through in order to arrive here. Anyway, I need to meet with your Fraction Leaders". The Atol shook his head, and replied "We can''t allow that. Fraction Leaders are currently¡­ busy. We are not to disturb them". I added "It''s urgent". He shook his head, and said "We really can''t. You are free to stay here until they sort out their dif¡­ the matters at hand".


    I nodded while saying, "Alright, I will wait". It was an obvious lie, but I decided to y nice for now. When inside, I would have enough opportunities to get to them. We walked past the forest surrounding Apium, and arrived in the central area. The guard designated areas I was allowed in, and showed me where I could get a room. It was the same old inn, I used to stay in before. He left me there, and returned to his post outside.


    I didn''t even wait before disappearing and heading towards Fraction Leaders'' area. There were a few warriors and other Atols guarding the perimeter, but I had no issues passing by them. The three buildings were still there, but there was an addition. A central building made from wood. It was on a tree as usual, but it was quite big and oval in shape. Seemed very well made, and refined. I had no idea what that ce was, but I knew it was something important. A few stronger looking Atols stood guard around the tree.


    I slowly made my way towards them, but these Atols were much better trained. Although they didn''t detect me, they felt something was wrong. ''Not bad, these type of warriors would be great at the frontlines'' I thought, and decided to use diversion. I picked up a few stones, and threw them at different locations.


    Only two out of eight Atols moved from their positions, to check the noise. ''They are not stupid either'' I thought. With two Atols missing, the space between others was much bigger. I decided to give it a try. With slow movements, I passed by the encirclement of Atols. They suspected something, but couldn''t locate me. With those guards cleared, I made my way upstairs.


    The weird thing was, I didn''t hear anyone inside. I made my way to the top of the building. There were only one pair of doors at the top. The previous floors, were empty. I opened them slightly, and was immediately greeted with three pairs of eyes staring at me¡­ Or rather the doors. "Who''s there?!". I didn''t need to hide myself anymore, and simply entered the room.

 Chapter 398

    Chapter 398


    "Who are you? Guards!", shouted the biggest Atol wearing an armour. He also grabbed the spear behind his back, and prepared to fight. I replied "Calm down will you? I''m here to talk with you, for now". Another Atol dressed in elegant robes, asked "What do you mean ''for now''?". But before I could answer, the guards from downstairs arrived, and drew their weapons.


    I said "If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already. You obviously have no idea who I am, but he knows", then pointed at the third Atol from their group. It was Ulon, the guy I met a few years ago, when I visited Apium. He taught me how to nt all the herbs. He was the one who I left to take charge after Florin. Ulon looked at me, and said "I.. I don''t know you¡­ We never met!". I replied "Yes we did. You took Florin''s ce thanks to me". The shock on his face was evident, while the Atol dressed in robes eximed "It was you who killed Florin? Guards! Kill that man!".


    I released both of my Auras, which enveloped the whole building. The guards behind me stopped, unable to move any further. The others especially Ulon, dropped to the floor. Only the Warrior Leader was not affected that much. ''He must''ve broke through his Half Step. Otherwise, he would have a hard time too'' I thought.


    I said "I don''t have the time nor patience to deal with your games. You have no clue what shit I had to go through, just to get here. So don''t test me". Warriors Fraction Leader asked, "What do you want Human?". I replied, "Why didn''t you send more warriors to the frontlines?".


    The Craftsmen Fraction Leader replied instead, "It''s none of your concern!". I was done. I walked over to that Atol and grabbed him. "Boom", I smashed my fist into his face, and dropped him to the floor. He was much more sturdy than I expected, even though I didn''t use my full strength.


    I continued, "Let me make this clear. If Eterians win, you will be doomed either way. Maybe you will have a choice of death, or be ves to them. Not a great perspective for the future eh?". The Warriors Fraction Leader replied "I know that, but these two blocked me from making any actions. They think, if we sit this out, we will actually win big time". ''It seems the Warriors Fraction Leader is not pleased too. He is a warrior after all, war and battles are his purpose'' I thought. I was satisfied with the warrior guy, but the other two? Useless.


    I asked "What do you mean, they blocked you from sending help to us?". He replied "That is due to the ancientw, it must be obeyed. In simple terms, there are three Fraction Leaders, and all of them have votes. If the two vote against one, he or she has to oblige". I said "And I assume, Ulon simply voted against it?".


    He replied "Of course. He is more of a puppet to that bastard, than a Fraction Leader. Florin wouldn''t vote for this, she would fight the war". I replied "Florin is a history. She would do anything to gain power here, I found that out first hand. If you think she would be any good, you would be wrong. Either way, we need people at Sedon. Things don''t look so great anymore".


    Craftsmen Fraction Leader picked himself up, and grumbled "What do you mean?". I replied "Arangard fell. It was attacked, and sustained great damage. Sedon is in ruins too. The Royal Army left, which means they are much more vulnerable. You on the other hand? Sit on your asses, and im to be our allies?". No one answered anything, therefore I continued "Do you think I woulde here, if the situation looked great? You are weed to be selfish now, but when the timees, you will pay a much bigger price".


    The Warriors Leader stepped in, and said "Now do you see? Did you think sitting here will help us? These people consider us allies, and our greatest enemy the Avians, already perished. We need to help the Allied Armies". But the Craftsmen Leader still opposed "No! We can have a vote on this, but you will do nothing against ourws. You can''t turn away from our ancestors!".


    The Warriors Leader seemed to struggle, so I stepped in. "You can have a vote then. Ulon, you will vote in favour of the Warriors Fraction, right?". Ulon just stared at me, but didn''t answer. The Craftsmen Leader used me, "You are trying to threaten him! A stranger has no deal with our ownws. You have no say here". I didn''t pay him attention, and looked at Ulon. I saw a glint in Ulon''s eyes, the same glint I saw in the past. He decided, but I wasn''t sure what. Ulon said "Let''s vote then". The Craftsmen Leader replied "Right! Very well, let us vote, and decide this once and for all. We will vote for and against. The question we will vote on is: Are we sending our own troops to help Sedon? Those against it, raise their hands now!". He of course raised his hand up, but Ulon didn''t.


    The Craftsmen Leader''s face change, he asked "Ulon? Your choice?". Ulon replied "Those who vote for, raise your hands now!". Ulon raised his hand. The Warriors Leader was so shocked, he actually forgot to raise it. Ulon cleared his throat, and the warrior finally woke up to raise his hand too. I said "It seems this has been decided then".


    The Leader of Craftsmen eximed "You threatened one of our people! This vote is invalid!". I replied "Did I? I never pulled my weapon on anyone. I didn''t make any threats either. Just because you don''t like the oue, that doesn''t mean the vote is invalid". The guy fumed with rage, and still maintained I influenced Ulon. I said "I have an idea. Let''s have another vote. The question is: Should I dispose of the Craftsmen Fraction Leader? Raise your hand, if you are against it".


    The Craftsmen leader replied "Insolence! You have no say here Human!". I looked at the Warrior and Ulon, then asked "I can dispose of him, if you vote for it right? It is thew after all". The Craftsmen Leader shouted "Guards! Arrest this man!". But the Warriors Leader stopped them, and said "Stand down. Return to your post". The Craftsmen Leader replied "You! You are corrupted! Both of you are corrupted! People will hear about it!".


    The Warrior replied "No one will kill anyone here. But, you lost and that is that. I had to deal with it as well, don''t use anyone here". The Craftsmen Leader stuffed it, and didn''t say anything else. I on the other hand, had a few more things to say. "We need craftsmen too. Sedon walls needs to be repaired, and they are not craftsmen". The Craftsmen Leaderughed loudly, and said "Good luck then. None of my people will leave this ce". I replied "You can vote on it".


    I could see his rage almost exploding. They did vote on it, and he lost again. I expected more insults and whatnot, but he just smiled, and said "Fine. You can take anyone who agrees to go by their own free will. If you try to threaten them, they will instantly not go. Those will be the rules". I replied, "That is fine, I will not drag anyone with me, against their will". He justughed, and asked "Is that it? I must return to my Fraction now". Their meeting ended, while only the Warriors and Floral Fraction Leaders stayed behind.

 Chapter 399

    Chapter 399


    I turned towards the Warriors Leader, and said "With this, you are now able to send your people, right?". He nodded while replying, "Yes. I still need to leave my warriors here, but to make up for the past, I will send about half of our warriors". I nodded, then said "That is great, They cane with me, I will be heading towards Sedon anyway". With that taken care of, I turned towards Ulon. "Don''t be manipted by anyone. War is scary, I already experienced that first hand. But just because it''s scary, does that mean we should simply give up?".


    Ulon shook his head, and replied "No, you are right. It will be different now, what do I have to lose anyway? I wouldn''t be here, if not for you". I smiled in response, and said "There is one more thing we need. Ulon, Sedon needs herbs. I''m not asking you to give me what you have here, I just want a few people toe with me. I already nted some stuff in Sedon, and Shades take care of that¡­ But they are not you guys. It was you who taught me everything about your nts".


    He replied "Thanks to your water delivery system, we don''t have as much workload anymore. I can send a few people there no problem". I added "There is one more thing¡­ I need those methods of growing Fraction Leader''s herbs". I could see the struggle on his face. The knowledge was meant for the Fraction Leader alone after all. I continued "Not for free. I understand that this is your knowledge, and it is your secret. Therefore, I''m willing to share some of mine. In other words, I will teach you how to make medicine properly".


    He looked at me shocked for a while. When he snapped out of it, he asked "You can do that?". I replied, "We all have to makepromises here. You might need that knowledge, just as much as I need yours. Therefore, I''m willing to share". Ulon nodded his head, and agreed to my proposal. I would only teach him how to make medicine from the nts he had avable. I wouldn''t teach him about Extracts. The medicine I made, was still far better than what they made.


    I managed to aplish all my goals in Apium. The only thing remaining, was to recruit some craftsmen for Sedon. ''Although most of them will not agree, I think I know one, who will. If she does, and takes a few people with her, this will be sorted as well'' I thought. I was about to leave, but then I recalled something. "Ulon, I will need Serelis. Oh! By the way, I found out how to store Serelis". Ulon was even more shocked, he asked "You did what?". I replied with a smile, "You will see, I will show you howter on. For now, I need to recruit some craftsmen. I''ll be back after I deal with that". He just nodded his head. I said farewell to both of them, and left.


    I headed straight to the craftsmen working area. I knew that most, if not all of them would ignore me. Therefore, I wanted to talk with one specific person only. Ama was as usual working on some sort of project. None of her workers even looked at me, when I stepped up to them. I said "Long time no see, Ama. It seems you are still at it, under the same guy I suppose?".


    She didn''t turn around, but asked anyway "Who are you?". I replied "Don''t you remember? I visited you guys a few years ago. Maybe you will remember if I mention water delivery system?". She stopped her work, and just stared at the piece of wood. A whileter, she replied "I can''t speak with you". I didn''t take it to heart, and said what I wanted to say. "I''m here to give you an opportunity. If you stay here, all that awaits you are orders. If youe with me, I will make you a head of construction in Sedon. You will be giving orders, while improving your skills with more challenging tasks. I''d say that''s a better perspective,pared to building shacks".


    She turned around, with visible expression of struggle on her face. She wanted more for sure. She had the talent to reach higher grounds, but her boss simply limited her. Although she must''ve been aware of that, she still struggled. It was understandable, Apium was her home after all. Then we heard a shout, "Ama! What are you doing? Go back to work, and don''t ck off with this stranger!".


    I replied "Oh, isn''t that the old friend with questionable mood?". It was the guy I supposedly offended in the past. He didn''t change at all. Oran looked at me for a while, then replied "Who do you think you are? Get lost, no one will follow you anywhere". I appeared next to him, and grabbed him by his neck. "The tone you use is annoying. I can kill half of you here, and still leave this ce unharmed. Choose your words carefully, because your life is at stake", I stated then threw him away like a rag doll. He crashed into the ground with a grunt, but didn''t pick himself up immediately.


    I turned towards Ama while asking, "How could you tolerate such guy for so many years? That''s a mystery to me. Either way, I''m not forcing you. I''m only giving you an opportunity". The guy I just threw away, finally picked himself up and eximed. "You are threatening her! She will not go with you". I appeared next to that guy again and said, "I told you to choose your words appropriately, didn''t I?". "Swoosh", his arm was cut off. He screamed like a pig during ughter. I tapped a few of his pressure points, and left him there.


    I began walking away while saying, "It''s your choice Ama, not his". As I was about to leave their area, I heard "Wait!". A smile appeared on my face, and I stopped. Ama continued, "I will take that opportunity! I don''t want to be a simple worker, I want to be known too. I want to leave my name in history as well. I will go with you". She then turned towards her workers, and asked "Will you guys go too? Although war is scary, but it''s an opportunity at the same time. They need us at Sedon, someone actually needs us! People there will be grateful to have us, not like here. What do you guys say?".


    A few of the workers looked at each other, and dropped their tools. They replied, "We will go too!". I turned around, and said "Good, follow me. We will be leaving soon". Altogether, I managed to get myself four craftsmen. Ama was a very good craftsman, she had the drive and the talent to work in this field. Although she mostly worked with wood, so Sedon''s walls would be a challenge for her. But, all beings required challenges. ''If we don''t challenge ourselves, we will never grow'' I thought.


    The small group took whatever was theirs, and followed me. Others stared in awe, while the guy whose arm I cut off, fainted long time ago. We left towards the Warriors Fraction ce. Inside, I spoke with the Leader. "Can you take care of these four for me? I don''t want them to walk in the open, someone might do something to them. After all, they epted my opportunity". He nodded then replied, "Certainly. No one will harm them here". I thanked him, then turned towards Ama and others. "You guys stay here for now. I''m not sure what that idiot would do, that''s just for safety". Ama nodded, but didn''t reply.


    I left them there, and headed to Ulon''s ce. He was alone inside, and seemed to be looking through some books. I asked with a smile "Sorting through the knowledge I seek?". He looked up, and replied "I just want to make sure you get what you need. Either way, these are the books we have on that matter. I can''t let you take them, but you can copy some crucial parts, and then destroy that copy when you learn how its done".


    I shook my hand, and said "That won''t be necessary, just show me the books". He became confused, but passed me the books nevertheless. I read through them one after the other. The processes of taking care and growing those special herbs, was not thatplicated. I memorized the processes, and gave him the books back. "Is it not what you were looking for?". I replied "It was, I already memorized everything". Ulon just sat there staring at me. I waved my hand in front of his face, but he wouldn''t wake up. ''Is it that amazing? I mean, I broke through my Limits a few times already, it should be no wonder that my memory is good'' I thought.


    I poked his forehead, and asked "You alright?". He finally snapped out of it, and asked "Did you really memorize it?". I replied, "Of course, why would I lie about it? I need that knowledge. Anyway, my part of the deal now". I took out some paper, and a piece of Coal I shaped into a stick, then wrote a few recipes for him. I also wrote how to precisely cook those recipes, and how to handle the herbs. When I passed him the note, he immediately grabbed them, and read through.


    I said "The part about Serelis is there too. But it will be better if I just show you, right?". He nodded his head absentmindedly. I replied "Let''s go then". He nodded again, but still sat there like an idiot, staring at the notes I handed to him. I said "Either we are going now, or I''ll burn down your garden downstairs". He finally woke up, and replied "I''ming!".

 Chapter 400

    Chapter 400


    We walked towards the pond, where Ophilis and Aliris nts could be found. On our way, we met the angry Craftsmen Fraction Leader. He demanded my arrest, and insisted on me paying for my crimes. I summed my response in one simple sentence. "Self defence". He became even more angry, and even tried ordering Ulon around. This time Ulon replied, "Do you have evidence it was not self defence?". The guy replied, "There were witnesses!". I said, "Yea, but they are under you, and will do whatever you say. Do you have independent witnesses, not biased towards you?".


    He stayed quiet for a while, then said "This is not the end Human, I will remember this". He left after that, while we resumed our walk towards the pond. I still had the tools necessary to acquire Serelis, therefore I didn''t need any preparations. We dived into the water, where I showed Ulon how it was done. I extracted some Serelis, after which we returned to the surface.


    "So that''s how it''s done? It''s quiteplicated. How did youe up with it?", Ulon asked. I replied "Well, I set up a pool outside of Apium, and tested everything I could. That is how I got the method. Either way, I will need quite a lot of Serelis for Sedon. We will wait another day or two. When I gather enough, I will leave". Ulon nodded, and said "I will try to get those tools done. This way, we can help you out a bit more. By the way, why do you need so much of it?".


    I replied with a smile, "I believe this could help us counter Eterians. With a calm mind, we should be able to break through their illusions much better¡­ At least in theory". Ulon eximed "That is a great idea! This means, we can use it here as well, just in case". I nodded while adding, "That is why I told you about it. Every Fraction Leaders has the strength to protect their home. Not only can you help with Eterians'' illusions, you can also fight them with the use of Antal Shrooms. Keep that in mind".


    Ulon nodded, and quickly headed to some other ce. He needed to make the tools, while I had to extract Serelis. A few days passed, before I managed to extract appropriate amount of Serelis. The Leader of Craftsmen Fraction tried to make trouble for Ama and even me. But when he learned that Ama and the rest were protected by Warriors Fraction, he gave up.


    ''Everything is taken care of. We can leave now, and head back to Boltier first'' I thought. I met up with the two Fraction Leaders, and told them I was ready to leave. The Warriors Leader assembled his warriors, and designated those who would follow me. Ulon also provided six farmers, who would take care of the herbs in Sedon. Ama was already there, therefore our group could leave.


    It was quite arge group. The warriors alone numbered over a hundred. This was a force to be reckoned with. Most of the enemy camps I encountered, had maybe 50 people in them. As we left Apium, I told the warriors "We will make a stop in Boltier. We need to collect supplies for you guys, as well as Sedon. I hope they provide a lot this time". The warriors didn''t have an issue with that, and agreed. After all, it was in their business to have supplies, no one wouldin if we made a small stop.


    I used a different path this time. Mostly because I wanted to encounter more enemy camps. I wanted to test out their skills, coordination and spirit. If they did well, I would have nothing to worry about. Besides that, I told Ama what to expect. She replied to me, "I don''t have much experience with walls, but I will try my best. I''m only afraid that four of us, will not be enough". I said "About that. Shades will help you guys out. Not only it is their city, but they stick together and help out on their own. Just don''t be under the impression that this will be easy¡­ But I wouldn''t choose you, if I knew you wouldn''t handle it".


    Sheughed while replying, "I don''t think you had much of a choice". I shook my head, then said "I could always kill those that oppose me, I can be ruthless too¡­ You already witnessed that". She replied almost immediately, "I never liked that bastard. It might be wrong of me to think that way, but I was secretly happy when you did that". This just proved how oppressed she was. With no ability to talk back, or do anything against orders. She was like a ve, with the exception of her possessions and freedom of movement.


    Before we reached Boltier, we encountered one enemy camp. It was rather decent size, I estimated that it had around 67 people. I could feel the warriors behind me getting ready. They were warriors after all, so I said "I will not interfere. You have the advantage in numbers, so take care of it. Let''s see how well you''ve been trained". A few Atols nodded, and ordered their men.


    There wasn''t one leader for the whole group, like a general. The whole group had five such leaders. Each responsible for a separate group of people. They devised a strategy how to attack, and carried out an attack. This was a good sign, they didn''t simply rush the enemy, even though their numbers were greater. ''If they simply rushed, the amount of damage they would sustain, would be greater. With a strategy, they can minimize that'' I thought, and looked from afar. I had no intentions of stepping in, even if a few of them died. This was war, and people would die. They were warriors, and had to be prepared for that. Besides, I wouldn''t always be there to save their asses.


    The leaders decided on a rather simple strategy. Two units advanced in a straight line towards the enemy camp. While the other three approaches from both nks. The purpose of sending others on a longer path, was to encircle the enemy. The two units going frontal attack, would be used as stalling tactics. ''I would send three units to hold the line, while two for the nks, but we will see'' I thought.


    The enemy camp didn''t simply stay there, and did nothing. Slethers came out with bows, and began shooting at the two units advancing. Because Atols didn''t carry shields, they had no way of shielding themselves. Fortunately, they had armours. Otherwise they would be ughtered. Although no Atols died yet, a considerable portion of them was injured. This didn''t spell too well for them. ''Their problem isck of shields, andck of ranged weapons. Sedon has archers, but as a stand alone unit, they could perish against archers very easily'' I thought.


    It was something we would need to address back in Sedon. Fortunately, the amount of archer the enemy camp had, was not that big. Only 17 of the Slethers were archers, while the rest stood in front, waiting for the Atols to arrive. ''They are not stupid either. They only sent half of their people to the front, the rest is at the back, awaiting Atols'' reinforcements'' I thought. But, that could haunt themter. In this case, my strategy would be different. There were a few stronger Furians in that group, but as I promised, I wouldn''t lift a finger.


    Ama asked worried, "Will they be alright?". I replied while looking at the battlefield, "They will win, but how many soldiers they will lose, it''s up to them really. I need to see their independent thinking, we can work something out from there". She asked "By couldn''t you help them?". I replied seriously, "Ama, this is war. They are warriors. They are also aware that death maye at any time. They marched towards the enemy without hesitation. That alone is respect worthy, they should be proud to be such warriors. Remember, war doesn''t forgive".


    She didn''t reply, but looked worried at the battlefield. The Slethers stopped shooting, when Atols got close. They changed their weapons to swords, and charged at them. This was a mistake, the backlines should''ve attacked. ''Obviously Furians don''t want to endanger themselves first. Moreover, they are the onesmanding those troops. If the Atols remove Furians from the game, they will win without problems'' I thought.


    It seemed that the Atol Leaders noticed that as well. They charged at the enemy, with their longer range weapons. Spears were quite useful in such battles. They could attack their enemies sooner, and stay further away from immediate danger. Slethers didn''tst long against Atols. They quickly perished, while Furians and Grondors attacked next. The other enemy unit was about to engage with Atols too. They wouldn''t stand a chance though. They had to face three Atol units, while the frontlines had problems with only two.


    ''The enemies could''ve won this, or at least damage Atols much more. If they all attacked the two frontal units at once, they had a higher chance of destroying them. Now that the numbers came into y, they no longer have a chance'' I thought. I had to learn about strategy from Irwin. Although I was no general, I knew the basic concepts of formations and different manoeuvres. ''Although I wouldn''t be able tomand a huge army, I could win this one with very little losses'' I thought.


    Atols had the advantage from the beginning, if used correctly, they would''ve disposed of enemy easily. ''So far only six Atols died. A few of them are injured, especially after those arrows hit them. Not bad, but could''ve been much worse if Furians yed differently'' I thought. The Atols cleared up the enemy camp, at which point we joined them.


    I said "Not bad, but we will need to work on you guys. Don''t get me wrong here. You have my respect for marching at your enemies without hesitation. But! You need to improve your strategy, as well as formations. For one, none of you carry shield. If the two units who engaged in frontal attack possessed shields, the damage you would suffer would be minimal. You alsock ranged weapons. If the enemies had double of triple amount of archers, the losses you would suffer would be devastating". The Atols looked at each other, but didn''tment back. They understood their weaknesses, and that was already a good oue.


    I continued, "Everyone who is injured,e over. I will treat your wounds, and we will move on. As for the enemy camp? Whatever you find is yours. This was your battle, and I will not take anything from it". I then turned towards the farmers, and said "You guyse over as well. I will show you how to treat wounds. This will be an opportunity for you too, an opportunity to be army medicians". They looked at each other, and quickly walked up to me.


    I showed them how to treat simple wounds, apply bandages and so on. I exined which medicine and herbs to use, while treating patients. They seemed very interested in learning all that. After all, they were treated as simple farmers. If they could achieve more, why wouldn''t they try. With the injured taken care of, and the camp looted, we resumed our march towards Boltier.

 Chapter 401

    Chapter 401


    We managed to arrive at Boltier without any further enemy encounters. When the guards saw the small army approaching, they actually panicked for a bit. Until they realised it was Atols, and not the enemy. A guard I was familiar with, was there as well. I shouted "Hey, Rais!". Rais had a dumbfounded expression. He looked at our small army arriving, and didn''t know what to do really.


    I asked "Are the supplies ready?". This time, another soldier replied "Are you the one called Dark Traveller? Someone would like to meet you, follow me". ''Does she wants to meet with me again?'' I asked myself. I replied "Wait a minute. The Atol Warriors wille in as well. Let them rest a bit inside. If they need something, do provide them with it. I will pay for that". The soldier was taken aback, but nodded his head, and ordered his men to let the Atols in as well.


    While we walked, I asked "Is it that General Litral of yours, who wishes to see me again?". The soldier replied "You will know, when we get there. Just follow me". ''Why so secretive'' I asked myself, but followed nevertheless. I became surprised when the soldier didn''t take me to Litral, instead we headed toward Vatras Auction Hall. ''Hmm, so he is the one who wants to meet with me'' I thought.


    I could guess who I was about to meet, because I knew no one else concerned with Vatras Auction Hall. Shak, who was the owner of the Vatras Auction Hall, sat inside his office. The Soldiermunicated his message, then left. "Come in friend. You''ve changed a lot". I replied "Shak. I''m surprised you wanted to see me. Can you share the reason perhaps?". Heughed, and said "No need to probe. That General you spoke with is useless, fortunately I found out about it. Before anything else, we managed to destroy the camp belonging to Vanauts. You were right, they were digging towards us".


    This was not such a good news. I replied, "This is good, but bad news as well. Of course it''s good that you managed to rid yourself of that problem. The issue is, Sedon has that problem as well. Now I don''t know how Vanauts will react". He smiled, and said "Perhaps, but that is one of the reasons I wanted to meet you. You asked for a way to copse a tunnel. I have one such way". I went straight to the point, "How much?".


    He shook his head, and took out a crystal ball of some sort. It was deep blue in colour, and looked like ss. He threw it at me, and said "Nothing, don''t spoil our friendship. You came here to warn us, and you''d expect I would take money from you? You should know, I''m not that kind of guy". I replied with a smile "Great to hear. So, how do I use this?".


    His face changed a bit, "About that¡­ It''s difficult. I''m ashamed to say this, but we had to sacrifice someone, in order to copse that tunnel. If you just ce it above and activate it, the energy will travel in all directions¡­". That was a problem indeed. Not only would we need to sacrifice someone, that someone would need to be strong too. ''They also attacked the camp, before they could copse the tunnel. Sedon might not have such a luxury. If Royal Army was there, then perhaps¡­'' I thought.


    With that in mind, I said "Don''t worry, I will think of something. I appreciate your help. Certainly one person''s life, for the lives worth a whole city, is not such a bad exchange. But, I will leave sacrifices for when we have no choice". Shak nodded, then said "With this, you at least have a way out. What choices you make, will be up to you". I nodded and asked, "How are you faring though? From what I know, Vanauts are you main enemies".


    He nodded while replying, "Actually, thanks to copsing that tunnel, we are doing very well. There were loads of Vanauts inside, therefore their loses are not small. We should have some peace and quiet for a while¡­ But, with Eterians everywhere, I doubt we will". That was true, at least one Voltar had his head where it was supposed to be. I said, "Alright, thanks for the¡­ Whatever it is. I still have to collect the supplies from that Litral, then we are off to Sedon".


    Shak stopped me, and said "Don''t bother, she is useless and will lose that position soon. As for the supplies? I''m the one who does that. Most of those fat andzy Voltars have no idea about logistics. They pushed it onto me, but they pay for it from their own private money. I already prepared a few carts of supplies. You didn''te alone, which is surprising. I have no clue how you managed to convince Atols, but you did".


    I replied, "That''s great. In that case, I will need to return to Sedon as soon as possible. Although most of the Royal Army left, the Atols should fill that gap by a bit¡­ Can I ask you something?". Shak was surprised by my sudden seriousness, but nodded his head. I asked, "What do you think about Golems?". He leaned back in his chair, then replied "Not that well to be honest. Those that don''t take sides, can usually affect such war greatly. Golems are strategically positioned behind our defensive lines. If they chose to support Eterians... ".


    ''So he has simr thoughts to mine'' I thought. Shak continued "Don''t get me wrong. Golems were usually rather indifferent, so they may simply stay out of it. The question is, can we afford that variable?". I nodded my head, and replied "That is what I thought. I will visit Golems, and try to probe something out of them. If I deem them enemies¡­ I will destroy them".


    Shak closed his eyes. He thought for a while, then said "The Voltic Orb I gave you, is really rare and hard to produce. Besides, it will not work on Golems that much". I smiled while replying, "There is no need for another, I have my own methods". He smiled as well, "It seems you do. After all, Avaians could attest to that, if they existed... The supplies will be waiting for you at the gate soon. Take a rest first. If you need something personally, let me know. We can work something out".


    I thought about it, and there was something I needed. With that in mind, I replied "There is something. I need shields". He thought about it, and asked "Shields? How many do you need?". I replied "Around 60, if I could get a shield for each and every Atol, that would be the best oue". Shak thought about it, then said "That''s quite a lot". I took out a few of my better medicines, and threw them at him. "How many of them do you want for those shields?".


    He smiled, and check the medicine out. "This one is not bad, I think they even better than before. I will provide all the shields for your Atols, in exchange I want 40 of such bottles". I replied "Deal", and threw him 40 more bottles. Heughed, "I thought you were going to barter a bit". I shook my head while saying, "I don''t need to. Besides, this medicine will help you as well". Although I gave him pretty much all that I had, Sedon''s crops would be able to refill that. ''I''m also in possession of the methods to grow those rarer herbs. With their help, I will have ess to stronger medicine as well as poison'' I thought.


    Shak added, "The shields will be waiting together with your supplies. Hopefully, we can meet again. Until then my friend". I bid him farewell as well, and left. The Atols were resting just outside the gate, which was a weird sight. Voltars were nice enough to provide them with food and other necessities. The five strongest Atols came over, and expressed their thanks. I replied with a smile, "Wait until you get your new shields". They looked at me confused, while one of them asked "New shields?".


    I nodded, "Yes. I paid quite a bit for that, but all of you will have shields. Back at Sedon, you will learn how to fight with their use. Arrows shouldn''t pose more problems for you guys, but the weapons you use are not the best. We will need to upgrade them as well. That''s forter though". They thanked me, and left to convey my message to others. They had to be well equipped, just like the soldiers from the Royal Army. Otherwise, their unit would be useless. I nned to make them stronger, a lot stronger.


    For that, I had a secret weapon. The Blood Yarn. ''With its use, I can increase the overall strength of our army. If I train the remaining Lizards and Atols well, I will have two Elite Units at my disposal. Shades need to be trained too, but I will mostly train Crow''s people. With that, he will have more strength after the war'' I thought. My ns were slowly getting into motion, and if everything went well, we would win that war.

 Chapter 402

    Chapter 402


    After that short rest, I told Atols to get ready, as we were about to move out again. The supplies were already prepared, and waiting for us at the gate. Besides supplies, a heap of shields was there too. I instructed the Atols to take one shield each, and to my surprise, there were a few left. I kept them just in case, and said "I know you have no experience with shields, but this will change in the future. When you get ustomed to using them, it will no longer feel weird".


    The Atols didn''t seem to mind that much. After all, they already witnessed what happened when theycked shields. I grabbed one of the carts, and told the rest to follow. Ama and the rest jumped atop the carts, while we dragged them forwards. I didn''t mind really. They were not strong or as disciplined as warriors. The stops we did, were mostly due to them being tired.


    I again chose a different route. The more battles Atols had under their belt, the stronger they would be. We didn''t have to travel for long, before being ambushed by a few groups of enemies. This time I helped out, and provided some hints to how the Atols should position themselves. Although Atols didn''t use shields before, they were able to instinctively learn a thing or two about their usefulness from that battle.


    No one died, and the amount of wounded Atols was kept to a minimum. ''My medicine is running dry, I can''t afford to treat them every battle'' I thought. That was the biggest reason I did whatever I could, in order to minimise the damages. Our enemies were rather weak, there were no Slethers, Furians or Grondors. Only Vanauts, probably the leftovers from that tunnel. Although they used some poison, it wasn''t that difficult to get rid of it. Their poison also required contact, unlike Cloud Haze Poison, which was spread through the air.


    I rounded up the six new medicians in our team, and said "Look guys, this weak poison can be cured with the use of Oviral nts and Ghost x. When we mix the properties of both herbs, they can cure weak poison. Fortunately, the Vanauts we encountered were not that strong. If the poison was stronger, then we might have problems. You can wrap up the rest by yourselves". I experimented with those herbs a long time ago. Although I could mix them to gain different results, they were rather weak.


    From what I heard, Vanauts had ess to more deadly poison. Fortunately, I was there to control the situation, and killed the strongest Vanauts myself. Otherwise, a lot Atols might''ve died. ''I will need a better antidote. I just hope the herbs from Endrosian Empire, have the ability to grow here as well. With that, I will have a much better variety of antidotes'' I thought.


    The others wrapped up the treatment, and we were on our way again. This time, no more enemies ambushed us. We managed to clear the wilderness, and arrive at Sedon. The Shades who were guarding the city from outside, were rather surprised to see an army of Atols walking towards them. They stayed on guard just in case, which was a good sign. When we rified the situation, and more Shades recognised me, they let us in without further dys.


    Ama looked around the ce, and said "This ce is really tattered. I should go to work immediately". I stopped her, and said "Follow me first, I will introduce you to someone. You will need people, especially those who know the ce well". She nodded, and followed me. The Atol Warriors followed too, while we made our way towards the area with my fields.


    Everyone seemed surprised to see so many Atols arrive. Whether they were Shades or Lizards, all were shocked at the sight. When we finally arrived there, a smile appeared on my face. ''The Lizards didn''t sit around at all. The herbs are growing well too'' I thought. One of the Lizards saw me, and notified others about it. They lined up to greet me, as if I was their general. "Don''t worry about such things. I brought some reinforcements", I said while pointing at the Atols.


    The Leader of Lizards replied, "That is great to hear. I can see you brought back supplies as well. With that, our problems are mostly gone". I shook my head, and replied "Not yet. Either way, you guys have experience with shields, right? Can you teach them how to use those shields properly? They didn''t have any prior training with shields before". The Leading Lizard straightened up, and replied "Of course! We will teach them to the best of our knowledge".


    That was enough for me. I asked, "Any issues while I was gone?". He replied, "We had a small scale battle with Vanauts, but Shades dealt with them without much of our help. Vanauts are not really effective against Shades, that is why they usually didn''t attack us. Maybe something bigger is at the horizon". He wasn''t wrong about that for sure.


    I nodded, and said "Good, in that case, I will leave the Atols in your care. Make them practice the same set of exercises, I passed onto you guys. I will take care of other things. Oh yea, another thing. The supplies we brought, those will be under your care. Make sure each warrior and soldier has enough to go by. When you take inventory, tell me how long will those suppliesst for. We might need to get more".


    He nodded, and told his people to take the carts off of us. I said to the Atol Warriors, "They are good people, and good warriors too. Learn from them, and make your home proud". The Atols nodded in unison, then helped Lizards move the supplies. I turned to the rest, then said "You guys follow me. No doubt you saw the fields, right? I will show you how to care for the second field, as the other one you should be familiar with".


    I was d to see people working hard in the fields. The fields were very clean, and the herbs sprouted very well. Even the herbs originating in Endrosian Empire managed to grow. ''Although not as well as the others, the fact that I will have ess to them, is already great'' I thought. Lerry was there too. I called out to him "Lerry!". He turned around, and stood there bewildered. ''Yea, he needs to work on that'' I thought, and waved my hand.


    He finally snapped out of it, and ran over. "You are back! The herbs grew very well, and you brought Atols with you. What about the Warriors?". I pointed behind me, and replied "Pay a bit more attention Lerry. Either way, the fields look great". I then turned around, and pointed at the six new medicians/farmers. "These guys will take care of the fields from now on. I have a different job for you. Ama and her three friends here, are craftsmen. They will be responsible for repairing Sedon''s walls. I need you to show them around, where the materials are, and round up some people to help them out. Can you deal with that?".


    Lerry nodded his head, and replied "Of course!". I turned towards Ama, and said "You will need a ce to work, how about¡­". Before I finished, she stopped me and said "Who do you think I am? I can build our own house here. It will be used for all the projects necessary". She thenughed while adding "You don''t have to baby me, I can manage". I smiled, and said "In that case, use any free space you deem necessary in this area. I will leave you to it". Ama grabbed Lerry, and they headed to explore the city properly.


    I turned towards the remaining six Atols. "Don''t get me wrong guys. Although you will take care of the fields, I will teach you how to treat injuries and make basic medicine. As you can see, the water delivery system has been implemented here as well. All you have to worry about is growing the herbs well, and harvest them. When we have enough herbs, I will show you how to make medicine. Is that alright?".


    They replied "Yes!", then we moved to the Endrosian Empire''s herbs, where I exined to them, how to care of those particr herbs. I also told them about the properties of each herb, and how to harvest them. They were not stupid people, and quickly picked up on the basics. They went to work, while I left to take care of other things.

 Chapter 403

    Chapter 403


    I wasn''t sure whether Crow was inside the city or not. I asked the Lizards, but they weren''t sure either. ''He is probably outside then'' I thought. I needed to know the situation with the tunnel, and because I had no idea where Crow was, I headed to the ce Vanauts were digging.


    For some reason, I didn''t meet Crow on my way, nor when I arrived at my destination. ''They should be further away by now. I will check this ce, and move slowly towards their camp'' I thought, and pressed my ear to the ground. Nothing, not even the slightest sound came from the underground. I followed my n, but found nothing still. I was getting too close to their camp, which could only mean one thing. ''Was I wrong? Did they manage to dig much further?'' I asked myself.


    I headed back, and began checking. After a lot of running, I knew something was up. ''Impossible. They couldn''t have made so much progress'' I thought, then ran towards Sedon again. But no matter how close I got, there were no soundsing from beneath the surface. ''Something is not right. They wouldn''t be able to dig so fast'' I thought. Even if Vanauts increased the number of diggers, a tunnel could support a certain amount of them at once. This wouldn''t change, even if the tunnel got bigger. The amount of Vanauts would change, but the size would too. Digging arger tunnel would require simr if not the same amount of time.


    ''There are two possible solutions. They stopped digging, or there are Formations ced inside the tunnel. Formations that nullify the sound'' I thought. The easiest way to check this, was to scout their camp again. I ran towards the Vanauts'' camp, but when I reached a point where Mordars should be present, they were not there. ''This can only mean one thing'' I thought.


    They stopped digging, and abandoned their camp. I quickly made my way towards the digging area. No traps stopped, no ambushes or illusions were there either. This made it even more apparent, the camp has been abandoned. Finally, I arrived at the location of the dig. "No soul in sight", I said to myself. They simply abandoned the whole ce, and that''s what I feared the most. ''I didn''t expect for Voltars to resolve that tunnel problem so quickly. This warned the other camp, and they simply abandoned this ce. Who would be stupid enough, to continue digging when an enemy destroyed one such tunnel already?'' I thought.


    The problem was, ''Where did the horde of Vanauts go?''. They didn''t attack Sedon. I refused to believe that the whole camp, was dealt with by Shades alone. ''The forces behind such operation, weren''t small. If all the Vanauts attacked Sedon, the Lizards wouldn''t simply stay back, and let Shades handle everything'' I thought.


    Before anything else, I saw someone leaving the cave. To my surprise, it was Crow. I called out, "Crow! Here!". He quickly made his way towards me, and said "They are all gone! I checked the tunnel, no Vanauts are present there. Why would they suddenly abandon this ce?". I knew the reason, but I asked a question first. "Weren''t you guys notified? With Lizards being everywhere, you should already know". Crow looked at me confused, then asked "About what?". I replied, "Voltars destroyed one such tunnel. Would you still dig, if one of your camps was destroyed?".


    He replied ted, "That''s great news then! We don''t have to worry about that tunnel anymore". I had different thoughts though. "Look at the bigger picture Crow. Don''t be too happy so soon. Think about this". Crow did just that, and finally realised something. "Where is the horde of Vanauts, that used to dig in this ce?". I replied, "Exactly. I have a feeling I know where they are". Crow narrowed his eyes, then asked "Voltars?".


    He continued, "We need to warn them. They might face arge scale battle soon". I shook my head, and said "It might be toote for that, they may be under attack as we speak. There is also the other possibility. Eterians changed their ns". Crow asked "What do we do then?". I said "Voltars will manage, even against such a group. As long as they have Boltier under their control, it will be very hard for them to lose". Crow asked "Do you mean that Crystal?". I nodded, and continued "Yes. With that, they are very strong inside their city. Besides, I can''t run between cities like that. Lazar has hiswork of information, we need to make use of that. I have to go to the Obsidian Mountains anyway¡­ What a pain".


    Crow replied "I will send someone to Obsidian Mountains. You can focus on other things". I shook my head while replying, "No, I need to go there. Alicia was supposed to make my new weapon. I can only hope she is back already. Take this for now". I retrieved the Voltic Orb, and passed it to Crow. He looked at it for a while, then asked "What''s that?". I smiled while replying, "This is the thing Voltars used to destroy the tunnel. As far as I gather, this has great destructive power, but the source is not concentrated. They released this inside the tunnel, and copsed it¡­ not without sacrifices though".


    Before he jumped to conclusions, I added "That was inside the tunnel. If you activate that, and throw or leave it in the middle of an enemy unit¡­ You can guess the damages it would cause". He nodded, and hid the Orb away. With that taken care of, I said "Your job will be different. I want you to scout the movements of Mordars. I have a feeling they won''t stay dormant for much longer". He nodded his head, and we left the abandoned camp.


    I didn''t return to Sedon with Crow, instead I headed straight towards Obsidian Mountains. ''If Alicia is there, I can finally have my weapon. I have a few questions for her as well. Other than that, I need Lazar to mobilize hiswork. With Lizards at every city, we can use that to update everyone about present situation'' I thought. With this, I could focus on more important matters, rather than run around ces.


    I had some time at that stage. I decided to test out the Power of Ice, and learn to control it properly. ''I know I can control it properly, because my body already did that. I just have to do it while I''m conscious'' I thought. I extended my right arm, and tried to will the Power of Ice into existence. ''Like Aura eh?'' I thought, as some mist began forming atop my palm.


    The mist got denser and denser, to the point it was bing slightly blue. I raised my hand up, and then mmed it to the ground. "Shing!", an area of around ten metres in radius, froze solid. ''That is how the wilderness changed intond of ice, but that is not the full extent of this power'' I thought. Fortunately, I could control it just like my Aura, which meant it wouldn''t freeze me as well. I then repeated the same step. This time though, I held my arm out for my longer, and tried to make the power more concentrated.


    "Freeze!". I shouted after a while, and mmed my hand into the ground. "Booom!, Shing!". This time, instead of affecting an area around me, my power produced a single protruding pir of ice. The pir looked to be naturally formed, it was also taller than me. "This can have a few uses. I can slowly experiment with that, but the most important thing is, I don''t have to touch someone in order to affect them". I was now able to use that power over distance, which was game changing.

 Chapter 404

    Chapter 404


    I practiced the control of the Power of Ice, while on my way to Obsidian Mountains. Whenever I spotted some dead trees, I would test my power on them. Some of them turned out to be Mordars, but they posed no problems for me. All of them were frozen solid, and broken into pieces afterwards. ''I wonder what else this power is capable of. Frosty said I could use it in many ways, which means I can attack and defend with its use'' I thought.


    I had toe up with some useful Forms, that could be used in battles. So far, I could only freeze an area around me, or produce protruding pirs of ice. The area of effect was very useful. Anyone in the radius of my attack, would be rooted solid to the ground. In more severe cases, half of my opponent could be frozen. The singr attack had its uses, but it was hard to affect an enemy. ''Mordars are not a problem, they are either rooted down like dead trees, or move at a much slower speed than me. If I were to fight an Eterian or Furian, I would have trouble hitting them'' I thought.


    I came up with an idea. ''What if I use an area of effect,bined with the pir of ice?'' I asked myself. It must''ve been possible, but I wasn''t sure how to go about it. ''How do I make the Power of Ice condensed, but also spread around me?''. I thought about it for a while, but couldn''t find any answers. When I condensed the power, it would produce a pir of ice. If it was spread out, it would produce a field of ice.


    ''Hmm, what if I try something else?'' I thought, and extended my arm. I willed the Power of Ice to appear. The mist appeared much quicker,pared to my first try. I had a lot of practice, and shortened the time greatly. As the mist collected, I tried condensing only a few small sections of it, not the whole mist. To my surprise, I was able to achieve that. A few points in the mist began condensing more and more. They also changed to a more blue colour, like stars in a cloud of smoke.


    At that point, I mmed my hand into the ground. "Boom! Shing! Creak!". The ground beneath me froze, but that was not the end. Four pirs of ice appeared in the area. There was more. I noticed that the pirs were in the same position, as the condensed points inside the mist. ''This means I can change their locations, based on the condensed points. I wonder if I can expand the area of effect too?'' I asked myself.


    I gave it a few more tries. It was possible, but I couldn''t make more than four condensed points in the mist. I couldn''t expand the mist too much either. The most I could get, was around twenty metres in radius. That was without the condensed points inside the mist. When I added those four points, it immediately shrunk to around fifteen metres in radius. ''I''m limited to four points at most. Not only that, the radius is limited too. This Power of Ice uses my energy as well. I don''t know why, but I have less than I used to before attempting all of that. The power seems to weaken, the more I use it, is another drawback'' I thought.


    I would be able to use that a few more times, but that would be it. Frosty already warned me that the power I had, was not unlimited. ''Still, that area of effectbined with ice pirs, is a good way to attack more distant opponents. I will need to experiment more with that power, especially defence wise'' I thought. I already had one Form, without a name yet, but it was progress nevertheless.


    Not long after my training, I arrived at the Obsidian Mountains. Lizards managed to rebuild some of the Arangard. Although Atols were generally the most skilled craftsmen, that didn''t mean other races couldn''t build stuff. I only glimpsed at Arangard, and headed towards Olrad. I decided to take care of the matter with Lazar first, then check up whether Alicia was back.


    Lazar was in his office as usual. I told him about the need for his informationwork, and proposed a few ideas. "We need ess to information from all of our allies. The information doesn''t travel too well, and you are the focal point of all information. That''s something you could address. How does your information travel?". He replied "By people usually, we also use Formations once in a while, but they have a limited use. We can send messages at a certain distance, but not as big as the distance between cities". I nodded, and replied "In that case, you need to make greater use of that. We need periodical reports, especially when something is about to happen. The more informed we are, the better".


    He replied, "That will be difficult though. My people don''t have ess to everything. They can report on things they either see, or hear from someone else. The leaders of each city, besides Sedon, are not very keen on updating us much". I replied "Then change it. If you have to, go there by yourself. Exin to them how important it is to exchange information. For Boltier, you can talk with Shak, as for the Apium, talk with the Warriors Fraction Leader. Tell them I sent you, they should agree".


    He shook his head while replying, "I can''t leave this ce now. There''s too much to take care of here". I said "Then send someone, make it a reality. Voltars might be under attack as we speak. I''m not certain, but it is a possibility. They should win either way, but I fear Eterians have different ns".


    He replied stunned, "Wait! You say the enemy might attack Boltier? How do you know that?". I said "Due to the tunnels. You must know about that already". He nodded while replying, "Yes, I do. They destroyed one such tunnel. What about Sedon then? You don''t seem to be worried about that much, especially since you are here, not there". I said "Think about it then. If I''m here, and I''m telling you that Boltier might be attacked¡­ Why would I say that?".


    He thought about it for a while, then asked "Did they abandon their camp?". I nodded my head in reply. Lazar continued, "In case they attack Boltier, I will be informed one way or another¡­ Alright, I will try my best to set up thework you spoke of. What else do you need from here?". I shook my hand, and said "Nothing else¡­ Perhaps there is something. What do you have on Golems?".


    He replied without thinking much about it, "They just sit inside that mountain, and don''t really do anything else. My people didn''t report anything unusual. But, you seem to have different ideas. As I said, my people can report things they see, hear and experience themselves, or stuff they heard from others. If Golems n something in secret, we have no way of knowing".


    I nodded, and suggested another improvement. "In that case, you need to expand the field of your expertise". He asked "In what sense?". I smiled while saying, "We need spies, not people who ry information. We need people who can get to information, not simply pass them on". He replied "I can''t ask my people to endanger themselves, or the rtionship we have with others".


    ''Then you have no idea how wasteful you are of your resources'' I thought. "How about this? Ask them, if they are willing to do it. Those who are willing, can go to Sedon. Someone will teach and prepare them there" I said. He replied firmly, "I can''t agree to that". I sighed while saying, "Alright. In that case, there is nothing else. I won''t take more of your time". I left his office, and headed to Alicia''s house.


    I was disappointed. Lazar was being narrow minded, our enemies had spies everywhere. I even suspected that some, if not all cities had spies. Eterians could manipte someone inside each city, to provide information for them. With no spies on our side, we were at a disadvantage. ''No matter. Lizards have thework in ce, which is why it would be more convenient to use that. I will ask Crow, Shades are even better for this task'' I thought. No people were irreceable, if someone wouldn''t do it, then someone else would. At a time of war, there was no "y nice".

 Chapter 405

    Chapter 405


    I knocked on the doors to Alicia''s house, and Fox opened them. "Nex! You are finally back!". We walked in, where I asked "Is Alicia back?". She shook her head, and replied "No, I haven''t seen her yet. Suly is worried for her, did something happen?". I told her that everything was alright, and it must''ve been due to the difficulty of making a weapon from Lunite.


    I then asked, "Did you make any progress with your training?". She replied a bit downcast, "Not that much. It''s really difficult¡­ But I have some good news as well. Me and Suly made a new set of armour for you". ''I almost forgot about that'' I thought and replied, "Great, let me have a look then". She motioned for me to follow, and we headed downstairs to the basement. Suly was as hardworking as usual. Books littered her desk, while she read one of them.


    Fox called out to her, "Hey, look who''s here for a visit". Suly lifted her head up, and eximed "Nex!". She abandoned her books, and quickly ran up to me. I said, "Thank you again Suly. You helped me a lot. You don''t even realise how much you did for me". I took out the Zenith Extract of the strongest medicine I had, and handed it to Suly. "Here take this. It might not be much, but this is really powerful medicine. I''m not sure how strong it is, but it might save your life".


    She didn''t want to take it, but I insisted and handed her the medicine anyway. "Right now, there are only three such medicines in the world. It''s one of the most precious things I have. I want you to have it". I didn''t know whether what I said was true, but as far as I was aware, there were only three such bottles in the world. Suly nodded her head, and put away the medicine.


    I continued, "I heard you also created a set of armour for me". Suly replied promptly, "Oh yea! We did, let me get it". Suly ran to another room, while Fox grumbled "I could use that medicine too". I asked her in a teasing way, "Did you say something?". She replied angrily, "You heard me damn well. Your hearing is better than that of an animal...". I smiled while saying, "You don''t need it. Besides, I''m taking you with me. We are going to have a small talk with Golems".


    Suly came back shortly, and asked me to close my eyes. I smiled, and did as I was instructed. Suly prepared something for a while, then said "You can open them now". When I did, I heard "Ta Dah!". A new set of leather armour stood disyed in front of me. Suly used some sort of statue, to disy the set. This reminded me of a shop, me and Fox saw back in Endros Imperial City.


    She asked, "What do you think?". The armour looked great. Not too shy, but had a certain design to it. I replied "It looks great. Can I try it on?". Suly nodded, and looked at Fox. Fox replied, "I would leave! I''m not some pervert, you know". They went upstairs to give me some space.


    ''This armour set is great. It''s not just any leather, I can see and feel that the material is great. The design suits me as well'' I thought. The set consists of a few things. The most prominent piece, was the chest piece. Although Suly never saw my right arm in its full glory, Fox did. The chest piece, was made in the style of scales.


    It was made in a simr style, but the pieces or the "scales" were much bigger. They were also stitched horizontally. In a sense, like waves on the sea. Altogether, there were four suchyers. The chest piece was ck in colour mostly, but it also had grey and white elements to it as well. Especially the edges of eachyer, which were grey in colour. Visually, it looked great and imposing. In the middle of chest piece, a familiar skull was embedded. I smiled when I saw it, as it looked like my mask.


    Additionally to the chest piece, a grey cloak was attached. It had no designs, or insignias, but the bottom of it looked like it was ripped off. This gave it somewhat less in look, which I liked very much. The cloak had a hood as well, which followed the same design as the bottom of it. There were no holes in the hood, but the edges looked like they were ripped.


    Then there were the pants. They were also ck in colour, but didn''t follow the design of the chest piece. They looked more in, and simple. ''It would be pointless anyway. I have my additional armour, so the design would be mostly hidden. If my guess is right, Fox made them in on purpose'' I thought. I didn''t mind at all, in didn''t mean rubbish.


    The boots were tall enough, to cover my anklespletely. They were dark grey in colour, with dark brown elements and studs. ''Fortunately, she didn''t use too many studs¡­ I''m not that interested in them'' I thought. The studs were barely visible due to their location, and size. Adding in the dark brown colour, they worked very well with the overall design of the boots.


    Last but not least, was the glove. I only got one, because my right hand didn''t need it. The glove was ck in colour, and had the same skull design as the chest piece. I took off my old clothes, and dressed up in my new set. "It''s almost a perfect fit¡­ I have no idea, how Fox was able to match it so well to my body". I even suspected she somehow took my measurement, while I was asleep.


    The pants were a bit too tight for my linking, by they didn''t restrict my movement. ''I should get used to it. Besides, the material should adjust better to my needs in the future'' I thought. With the new set on me, I called out to Fox and Suly. Suly rushed downstairs, and took a look at me. "Wow! So cool! That Fox knows how to make clothes. Although I helped her too!". Fox came down as well, and looked at me for a while. She then replied to Suly, "Of course I know! Who do you think I''m?".


    I nodded my head, and thanked them. This really was a great set of armour. I never had such high quality armour in my life. Fox looked at me from all angles, which felt a bit weird. She asked, "How do you find it? Is the fitment alright?". I replied, "Yea¡­ a bit too alright. How did you get my measures so well?". Suly replied instead, "I knew it, she''s a pervert after all!".


    Fox ignored her, and said "I could do the same with that brat over there. I learned how to measure things by looking at them. This was one of the techniques Lady Mirabel told me about. Let me tell you this, it was very hard". I asked surprised "Huh? You kept contact with that Lady Mirabel?". She replied, "Of course, she never med us. She knew we were good people. I learned a lot from her. Even though I couldn''t visit the Imperial City, she could visit the Academy".


    I nodded, and raised my right arm. "I appreciate that you didn''t make a sleeve for my right arm. This is a really great design. I thank you, both of you". Suly smirked while asking, "Is it my turn now? Have you forgotten about the Formations I ced on this set of armour?". ''I was impressed by the overall design, that I really forgot'' I thought. Suly continued, "I ced three Formations on this set. Those were the best Formations I could ce, and I''m not talking about the durability of the set!".


    I listened attentively, while Suly continued. "The first Formation is a speed Formation. You''d be surprised, I didn''t actually ced it on your boots. The Formation is ced on your cloak". I was surprised, and a bit confused. I asked, "How will this make me faster?". She smirked while saying, "You can test it out. I''m sure you will be even more surprised". I was intrigued to be sure. A Formation that improved my speed, but ced on my cloak.


    I activated the Formation, and took a step forward. "Shoom". Although I took one step only, I appeared about a dozen steps away. "What sorcery is this?" I asked surprised. Suly answered my question. "This Formation is called Blink Formation. It is the hardest, and mostplicated Formation I could ce on any item. It allows you to travel a short distance, in a blink of an eye. Amazing isn''t it?".


    I tried it a few more times, and indeed, it was amazing. "I''m speechless. This Formation¡­". Suly added, "But beware, this Formation will use up your energy. The further you travel, the more energy is used. If you travel a few steps, the energy consumption should be alright. If you were to travel a bit further away, let''s say twenty meters¡­ You would feel the difference in consumption".


    I said, "In other words, the further I travel, the more energy is required. What is the limit? How far can I travel, if I use for example half of my energy?". Suly replied, "As I mentioned already, it''s a short distance travel Formation. If you overload the Formation, it will break. I think thirty to forty metres should be alright. Any more than that, and you will strain or break the Formation. There is another drawback too. You might''ve noticed already, but you can''t use it continuously. A few seconds need to pass before you can use it again. The Formation needs time, in order to recharge".


    I said, "Got it, what else did you ce on the set?". Suly smiled, and continued "The next Formation, is something different too. Your set¡­ or rather chest piece is different. No doubt you noticed the specific pattern of your chest piece, right?". I nodded in reply. She continued, "Your set has two Forms actually. This is the standard Form, but if you activate the Formation in your chest piece, you will see what I mean".


    I did just that, and the wave like pattern tightened. Normally, my neck wasn''t that well protected. But in that Form, the chest piece extended upwards, and shielded my neck like a half moon. That wasn''t all, the chest piece became incredibly hard. I could guess the purpose for this Formation, it was for defence. ''Although I have a hard time moving, If I use it at the right time, it might stop a lethal attack'' I thought.


    I stopped the Formation, and took out my dagger. "Fox, stab me", I said while throwing my dagger at her. I wanted to test that armour with the best weapon I had, and my daggers were just that. Fox caught the dagger, andughed? She seemed overly confident in that armour, or perhaps she really wanted to stab me that much.


    She walked up to me, while I activated the Formation. "Alright, as hard as you can!" I said, and awaited the results. Fox probably used her full strength, when she stabbed my stomach. "BAM!", I moved a few steps back. I wasn''t prepared for such strength, but the dagger simply stopped. It didn''t even prate the armour. ''There is a small mark on it, but that strength, and my dagger¡­ This defence is insane'' I thought. I released the Formation, and said "This is really great. Even my weapon couldn''t pierce it". I extended my hand for the dagger, but Fox just hid it in her storage item, and walked off.


    I was lost for words. ''Right¡­ You can keep it, I guess?'' I thought to myself. With that demonstration taken care of, Suly said "This Formation is called Shell Formation. It can withstand a lot, but the harder the blow, the more energy it will use. Before you ask, this Formation has its limits too. If the blow is too hard, it might simply break the Formation". I nodded while asking, "So, what is thest Formation?".


    She shook her hand, then replied "It''s not that great. The two Formations I told you about, were the hardest and most time consuming. The third Formation is in your glove. It is special, but also not that special. From what I know, Formation Masters usually used Fire Element for attacking Formations. Your glove can do just that".


    I didn''t even ask, and simply extended my left hand to activate the Formation. My glove caught fire, but the fire didn''t burn me. It only felt slightly warm. Suly smiled, and said "It''s not much, but if you focus well and collect enough energy¡­ You can throw a sort of ball of fire at your enemies". Iughed out loud, and replied "This is seriously good. This Formation actually gave me an idea. Thank you Suly, you did an excellent job". Suly seemed satisfied with my praises, but she deserved that, if not more.

 Chapter 406

    Chapter 406


    Unfortunately, Alicia wasn''t there. I could only move on with my ns without my new weapon. I said, "We will be going Suly. I have loads to take care of, and the war is still in full swing". She asked disappointed, "Fox is going as well?". Fox replied teasingly, "Why, you will miss me?". Suly showed Fox her tongue, then said "Bah! As if! Leave already, you are annoying". Fox wanted to retort, but I stopped her. "We should go, I still need to return to Sedonter".


    Fox asked me to wait upstairs for a while. I thought she wanted to say goodbye to Suly privately, which surprised me a bit. ''It seems they grew closer over that time'' I thought, and left. Fox took her time, but when she finally appeared, I knew I was wrong. "Did you think I would make a new armour for you alone?" she asked.


    ''No, I thought you and Suly¡­ Anyway'' I said to myself. Her armour was impressive. Not only did it fit well showing all her curves, the design was even better than mine. The stitches were almost invisible, and the armour had a different sort ofyering. Theyers were round, and stitched together to make one full piece of armour. It was also ck in colour, but had blue elements that highlighted certain areas. Her mask was different as well. Still that of a fox, but much darker, and also with blue elements.


    Her whole body was covered by the armour. Even her neck was tightly wrapped in it. She had a cape as well, but much different to mine. Not only was it ck in colour, it also looked cleaner. The design was rather in, but the cut was different. The cloak covered her right side, including her arm. Mine extended across my shoulders.


    She asked teasingly, "Are you staring because I look that great?". I replied, "I must admit, you look good. Although armour is not about looks, it''s about defence¡­ But, since you and Suly grew so close, I''m sure she ced some Formations on it too". She replied with augh, "Although the materials are worse than yours, it''s a very good armour. As for its Formations¡­ Who knows, maybe I will show you if you ask nicely".


    I turned around while replying, "Let''s go". She just made a simple "Tch" sound, and followed. While we walked through the streets, I asked curious. "This is your improved mask, I assume?". She nodded while replying, "Yes¡­ You want to know Formations on this as well? Tough luck, you just ignored me not too long ago". I gave up, and continued walking. We left Olrad, and headed towards the Land of Sands. The journey would take us a few days, which meant I had time to practice some stuff. I made Fox practice as well. Just because she had an armour, that didn''t mean she was invincible.


    For some reason, she didn''tin much this time. ''I wonder why?'' I asked myself. While Fox trained her senses, I tried to produce new Form of the Power of Ice. The glove Suly and Fox made, gave me an idea I could use¡­ a few ideas to be honest. I extended my right hand, and willed the Power of Ice to appear. It would always appear in a Mist Form, ''What if I try to manipte it? Would I be able to produce a ball?'' I asked myself.


    That is exactly what I tried. The mist slowly formed into more of an oval shape, but I didn''t not a ball. I wanted to make a ball, not oval shaped mist. I tried harder and harder, until the mist formed a ball on top of my hand. ''This is so hard! To think I would have such a hard time making a ball out of this mist'' I thought. The first step waspleted. A misty ball floated on top of my hand. While strands of the mist escaped my hand in a spiral manner, continuously feed the ball from below. I tried making it a bit bigger, but the size didn''t increase that much.


    ''In that case, I need to condense it now'' I thought, and closed my fingers... ws a bit. The ball of smoke began shrinking a bit, and a tint of blue appeared. ''I can do more'' I thought, and continued condensing it. A whileter, the ball of mist condensed to a point, where its colour changed to pale blue. ''Alright, let''s try this'' I thought, and tried throwing the ball.


    I swung my hand as hard as I could. To my surprise, the ball of mist left my hand. It didn''t travel quickly though, probably because it was a ball of mist after all. When itnded, I stared in shock. "Creak! SHIING!". The area on which my ball of mistnded, became a huge pir of ice. No, it wasn''t just a single pir, it was a few pir stuck together. ''If that was the Merged Form of Mordars, it would freeze three times over'' I thought.


    Fox herself stopped the training, and took a look at themotion. "What the hell did you do?" she asked shocked. Iughed drily "Yea¡­ It''s something I came up with". She just shook her head, and asked "What a monster... Are you sure you are Human?". I didn''t doubt who I was, but that power wasn''t really mine. It belonged to Frosty. ''Just what the hell is that Lizard¡­ What entity would make Frosty hide for his life?'' I asked myself. This wasn''t even Frosty''s full power, I just borrowed a portion of it. I didn''t know how big of a portion, but still.


    I woke up from my thought, and said to Fox. "You can go back to your training now". She stared at the pirs of ice for a while longer, then shook her head again before returning to her own stuff. ''Alright, this proved I can throw this thing, but it''s too slow. The ball of mist has to be heavier¡­ or more condensed. Otherwise, this attack is too slow, and can be easily evaded'' I thought.


    This was something I had to work on, but I decided to test something else out. I extended my right hand again, and willed the Power of Ice to appear. I formed it into a ball again, but my intention wasn''t to throw it. I didn''t condense it either. Instead, I extended my left hand. The Formation in my glove activated, and fire appeared on it. Although it wasn''t a ball, Suly told me it could be a ball.


    ''This means, I can manipte this Formation to a certain extent'' I thought. I tried controlling the shape of the fire, but it was difficult. ''I wonder if I can increase the intensity. Suly didn''t say anything about that, but what if I pour some more energy into that Formation?'' I thought. I didn''t go crazy though, and increased the energy output just a bit. The me indeed intensified. I added a bit more and more, until my hand was zing.


    ''This should be enough, let''s try now'' I thought, and tried to control the me. Due to the increase in intensity of the me, I was better able to manipte it. That didn''t mean the task of manipting that me, was easy. After a few tries, I managed to make a somewhat ball of fire. ''Hmm, can this be actually thrown?'' I asked myself. The only way to find out, was to actually throw it. I had a perfect target for my test. With a fast swing, the ball of fire did leave my hand, and flew through the air. It was much faster,pared to the ball of mist. My target? The pirs of ice I created earlier.


    "Boom! Swoosh!". When the ball of me made contact with my ice pirs, it exploded. The strength wasn''t that weak either, not only did it melt the ice, but it also shattered the pirs. Fox again stopped her training, and asked. "Will you stop? I get it, you have great skills. So shove them, and stay quiet!". I just nodded, and told her she could continue. ''The power is not that bad at all. If an enemy unit was hit with that, it would suffer some damages. Not only that, it would bring disorder to the unit, which was always a great way to finish them off'' I thought.


    There was one more thing, I wanted to test. ''I shouldn''t go crazy though, I will only use a bit of fire, and check how it works'' I thought. The ball of mist was still in my hand, but it weakened a bit due to loss of my focus. I activated the Formation in my glove again, but this time didn''t make a ball, not increased the intensity that much. I sped my hands together. I wanted to produce mist. In other words, a type of smokescreen, which could hide me and my allies. A sort of supporting Form.


    "Boom". A quiet explosion sounded, while a lot of mist was produced. My hands were jolted backwards, but I didn''t sustain any damage. ''It seems Fox had enough of it'' I thought, when I left the mist and saw her disappear. She was going after me. Her stealth was actually on par with mine. That armour aided her stealth by a lot. I lost track of her for a while, when suddenly my instincts red up. I jumped back, and said "Alright, alright. Calm down will you? I''m not gonna test anything else out". She replied still hidden somewhere. "Let me punch you once, and I will stop".


    ''As if!'' I thought, and evaded another attack. But then a multiple attacks headed my way. ''What the?'' I thought, but there was no way of escaping. I didn''t want to harm her either, but then I recalled something. As the blows were about to connect, I made sure to activate the Shell Form on my chest piece. "Boom, boom, boom". Three fists appeared around me, then merged into one in front of me.


    Fox grabbed her hand, and eximed "OOOWW! Not fair! You used that stupid Shell of yours!... Why did she make it so hard?". I replied with augh, "Why would you aim for my chest then? It''s your own fault". She wailed in pain, her blows were rather powerful. I came over andforted her, "Look here, some medicine. You will be fine". I gave her some medicine, then said "That armour of yours is not bad at all. You are no longer that weak". She grabbed the medicine, and used it immediately. I let her take care of that, before we left.

 Chapter 407

    Chapter 407


    While we headed towards the Land of Sands, I tried helping Fox out with her training. Although her improvements were small, training together helped her out a lot. During that time, she managed to doges a few times, and predict my movements based on sound alone. "Keep going like this, and your hearing will improve¡­" I wanted to continue, but stopped myself. ''Now is not the time for that. When we get to Sedon, I will ask her'' I thought.


    Shortly after that, we entered the territory of Golems. The Land of Sands didn''t change at all. No signs of war, no signs of enemies. It was rather peaceful. We headed straight to the Golems'' only city, Varent. No one stopped us when we tried to enter, which was great. ''A nice change from all those passes, emblems and whatnot'' I thought. I said to Fox, "We will go visit someone. He should help us meet the leaders and perhaps provide some information, if he values the favour I did for him". Fox didn''t know who I was talking about, but that didn''t matter.


    We climbed the stairs to an upper section of Varent, where a certain someone lived. I knocked on the doors, and waited. I could hear someone, or rather something running around inside, then footsteps approached the doors. "Yes? How can I help you? I didn''t post any tasks recently¡­" said a Golem after opening the doors.


    I replied "You may have a hard time recalling me, but I was the one who healed your pet te". The Golem narrowed his eyes, and asked "Did you? Then how did you heal it? If you are who you are, you should know what happened right?". That was a test, he knew we went to that cave alone. No one followed us, and if I knew the answer, this would prove my identity.


    I told him exactly what happened at that time, and his brows eased up. Not only eased up, but shock appeared on his stone face. "It really is you¡­ No wonder te acted weirdly, he still recognises you". I smiled, and entered while Fox followed closely behind. Inside his house, the Golem said "You did some bad stuff in the past¡­ but I don''t me you. There are and were shenanigans going on within Golemmunity. I don''t know what exactly Graver did to you, but I guess you had your reasons".


    I replied "He tried to collect information on me. This alone would be fine, if not for the membership stone being rigged. Without my permission, the stone recorded stuff about me. This warranted his, and his minions death". The Golem seemed really surprised. He asked "Is that true? That is against our customs. He deserved death in that case. Although¡­ more Golems deserve it, now that the war of the North ys out".


    I asked "Can you tell me what you guys are nning? What is your purpose of not joining any camp?". He replied "In our true values, we would stay out of it. We have our own ce, and we were never concerned with others. Those are our core beliefs, we only care about Land of Sands. Although I say this, times changed. It seems, we will be your enemies Human". I replied seriously, "In that case, I will have to destroy you. If your intention was to really stay out of it, and help no sides¡­ I could ept that. But what you said, is a potential destruction to our own forces".


    He sighed while replying, "I''m against this too. I don''t know why the leaders suddenly changed their minds". I had a reason in mind, "My guess? Eterians. I''m not saying they are controlled by Eterians, although that might be possible too. I''m saying they might''ve received a deal, they just couldn''t decline. Do you guysck anything?".


    He thought about it, and replied "No, I don''t think¡­ Wait, there was that theory a few years ago. One of the Golems imed our Energy source would dry up soon. Supposedly, he stole that secret from the leaders of our city Varent. He was hailed as a criminal, who tried to harm ourmunity and the city itself. In fact, the leaders did limit the use of Life Energy inside Varent, which is weird. This could mean, the stuff about our Life Energy drying up is true. The problem is, Life Energy stones originate here. Where would Eterians get them from, even if that theory was true?".


    ''Hmm true, or perhaps those rocks don''t originate in¡­ No... this could be possible'' I thought. Boltier had that crystal. If that could power Golems, they would have infinite energy. "There''s one possibility. Say, can I meet with your leaders?". He shook his head, and replied "No, even if you wanted to discuss something important. Outsiders are simply not allowed. I can convey your message, but I don''t think they would do anything about it". ''In that case, Varent will cease to exist'' I thought. I wouldn''t take chances, especially since the stakes were so high.


    "I can only say, leave Varent. Take those who also wish to live peacefully, and find a new home. If we are to be enemies, I will not hesitate to destroy this city". He looked at his pet te for a while, and said "The Dark Traveller eh? I believe you. After all, everyone knows why Yagaroths and Avians ceased to exist. But, there is nowhere I can leave. Without Life Energy, I will die anyway¡­ The whole city will die¡­".


    He continued after a while, "I have another favour to ask of you". I asked, "What is it?". He said, "Take te with you. He feeds on different sort of Life Energy stones, which you know about. Thanks to my research, I know that te can live for many more years, much more than you will live. These types of rocks are in abandoned outside Varent, collecting them shouldn''t be an issue either. That is myst favour".


    I thought about it, and replied "It''s not impossible. The question is, will te go with me?". The Golem looked at te for a while, and said "Go with him te. If we join the war, we will probably die. If we don''t, who knows what those Eterians want. We might die anyway. It seems the leaders made up their minds". te refused though, it wanted to stay with its master, till the end of time. This was admirable in itself, such faithfulpanion was not easily found.


    The Golem tried persuading te, but it wouldn''t budge. I said, "It seems te wants to stay with you, for good or for bad. This alone is worthy of respect". He shook his head, and said "I want at least him to survive¡­ Human... Take him, even if he doesn''t want it". te stood up, and backed away from me. I shook my head while saying, "I can''t do that. I can''t force te to go with me, this is against my beliefs".


    The Golem stood up, and took out a rock from somewhere. When te saw it, he started running away immediately. The Golem managed to catch it, and pressed the stone onto him. te lost all his strength, and fell asleep. The Golem said, "Now, it''s not against his will. Take him Human, before you raze this ce to the ground. That''s all I''m asking of you". Fox nudged me lightly, and said quietly "Let''s take him. It''s the least we can do right? At least one Golem will still survive¡­".


    I sighed, and agreed. "Alright. I will take te away from here". He nodded again, then passed me a round and well polished stone. He said, "This is my storage stone. Everything I own, is inside. te''s Life Energy stones are there too. This shouldst him another fifty if not more years".


    I took the stone, and hid it in my clothes. te was heavy though. When I picked him up, I could feel his weight pressing down on me. The Golem followed us outside and continued until we left Varent. When the distance was deemed safe by me, I ced te down and said "You can still stay here. You don''t have to return there". He shook his head while replying "I lived long enough. Such eternal life is boring you know. I always envied those who got older and died. They had goals, while we simply exist. Perhaps that is the reason behind our indifference. Maybe we just live too long".


    ''How ironic. Those that possess longer lifespan, wish to die. Those with a shorter lifespan, wish to live longer'' I thought. I told Fox to stay with te, while we returned to Varent.

 Chapter 408

    Chapter 408


    As we entered the city again, I asked onest time. "Are you sure about it?". The Golem sighed, and replied "I lived for so long¡­ My life has lost its meaning a long time ago. This is the same for most, if not all Golems". He looked at me for a while, then continued "The Dark Traveller¡­ It was a pleasure meeting you". He then walked back to his house. I didn''t stop him though, it was ultimately his choice.


    I sighed. ''It seems eternity is overrated. So what if you can live forever, if you lose the meaning to live?'' I asked myself. All beings I encountered, cared for their lives. All except Golems. I had no clue how long Golems existed for, I had no idea how many years the oldest Golems had. Although some of them tried to cling on to life, they seemed¡­ tired of life.


    I took a stop forward, and disappeared. The Yellow Dust had to be ced in a specific location. A location where the whole mountain would perish. That location was the upper parts of Varent. I headed there, and found the best spot for the explosion. I dumped all of my Yellow Dust into that spot. A small hill of Yellow Dust formed, but wasn''t visible due to the location I chose. The ce I dumped my Yellow Dust, was around the middle part of the whole city Varent. The explosion would engulf everything.


    There was another reason for this location. I could use my bow, to ignite the Yellow Dust. I left that ce, and stopped near the entrance. With a bow and an arrow in my hand, I prepared to shoot. Of course, I had to ignite the arrow, which I did with the use of my glove. I took aim, and released the arrow. I didn''t wait there, and immediately used Blink Formation to instantly appear outside of Varent. I then ran, I ran at my full speed towards the ce I told Fox to wait at.


    "BOOOOM!"


    An explosion so loud and strong, that even the ground beneath me tremored. I turned around to have a look, and witnessed the whole mountain being ripped apart. Rocks flew in all directions, which also meant mine. I dodged the falling rocks, and stared at the aftermath. "This marks the end of Golems" I said to myself. Nothing could''ve survived such explosion. Especially since the hot st of air had nowhere to escape. This was the exact reason why, the whole mountain got ripped apart.


    I returned to Fox shortly after. te was still asleep, while Fox looked into the distance. She didn''t even notice me approaching, her sight was at the crumbled mountain that used to be Varent. I said "It has been done". She woke up from her thoughts, and asked "I know¡­ I know it was my choice to go with you¡­ but are you satisfied now? Do you feel any remorse? Are you even Human?".


    In truth¡­ I didn''t feel any remorse. I didn''t feel guilt¡­ It was something¡­ Something I lost along my journey. ''Perhaps I lost my Humanity. The world I was born into, is to be med for that. It''s what Humans do, that makes one more¡­ numb'' I thought. Fox continued, "You wouldn''t listen to me. You wouldn''t listen to anyone, that''s why I didn''t stop you. But I hoped you would change your mind, I was wrong. I''m leaving. Take it as you will, but I want nothing to do with you anymore. Fighting a war is one thing, destroying a whole race is another. It seems¡­ this is not your first time either¡­ You chose a fitting name for yourself. The Dark Traveller. Everywhere you pass by, you leave a trail of destruction behind. I hope you are proud of yourself".


    She turned around, picked te up, and walked slowly away. I didn''t stop her, I had no right to stop anyone from making their choices. ''It seems we both regret the decision we made outside Ortava'' I thought. I entered stealth, and as I passed by her, I dropped the polished stone from that Golem, and the ne she once gave me. ''Farewell Fox'' I thought, and left towards Sedon.


    Although Golems were no longer the problem, a war was still raging left and right. I had to return to Sedon, replenish my medicine supply and think about that spywork. I wasn''t in the best of moods though. Although I didn''t feel guilty, what Fox said bothered me. After all, we knew each other for a long time. ''First Lazar, now Fox. I should talk with Crow about it, maybe I''m going overboard?'' I thought.


    Perhaps it was because of the Arts I learned. Win at any price, that was the core teaching of any Art. No matter how hard the blow is, no matter how shameless one is. As long as this guarantees the victory, why should I be bothered about it. Everyone had different upbringing and values. I didn''t have those usual values. Loss of my parents and heirloom, then a broken heart whileter being enved. ''Their frame of mind is an illusion. They lived in an environment that had everything in abandon. From my teenage years, I didn''t have it easy'' I thought.


    They didn''t experience life from my perspective. It was always nice to care for others, but what about oneself? When did that matter? I abandoned these thoughts, and returned to my practice.


    Time slowly slipped away. I made it past Obsidian Mountains, but didn''t visit anyone. I headed straight to Sedon. This time though, I didn''t go around. I went straight towards the Dead Forest, which was supposedly filled with Mordars. ''I''m done running around ying nice. Time to destroy our enemies'' I thought. I was feeling out of sorts, as if I had a bad aftertaste in my mouth. The Dead Forest soon appeared on the horizon. I made sure I was at the top of my condition, then headed towards the forest.


    A few hundred metres away from the edge of the forest, I already saw movements. Mordars were waking up from their sleep, and advancing towards me. I wasn''t the same asst time. Throughout my journey towards Sedon, I got used to my new Formations and the Power of Ice. Mordars that didn''t merge, we no longer an issue to me. A few Mordars made their way towards me, while others stayed behind. I released the Formation in my glove and added energy. While increasing the energy output, I manipted the me. A short whileter, a ball of me appeared atop my palm. "Let''s see how you deal with this". With a hard swing of my arm, I released the ball of fire at the group of Mordars.


    "Booom! Swoosh!".


    Out of the five Mordars who advanced towards me, only three survived. One of the three had its branches burned a bit. But that wasn''t the end. A ball of mist condensed to the point of being azure, floated carelessly atop my palm. I swung my right arm, and the ball of mist flew towards the group of Mordars. It flew at a much faster speed,pared to the past. "Shoo! Shing!". The remaining three Mordars froze solid. This improved ball of mist, had the power to create a few pirs, as well as freeze the ground.


    I walked past the frozen Mordars, and they suddenly crumbled. My Aura alone was enough to shatter them into small pieces. This happened so fast, the Mordars acting as support, didn''t have the time to react to all of this. When they finally reacted, they cried out, or rather released loud shrills. ''Hmm, I think I should leave'' I thought, when I saw what happened next.

 Chapter 409

    Chapter 409


    Half of the forest began to move. There were at least a hundred Mordars advancing. Although I thought about leaving, my legs stayed rooted in ce. Instead of backing away, I advanced. ''I can make five such balls of mist at the top of my condition. Four are left'' I thought. Before I used them, I had to thin them out. With both hands in front of me, I willed the me Formation as well as the Power of Ice in both hands to appear. When enough power was umted for both, I pped my hands.


    "Boom"


    A quiet explosions reverberated through the air, while producing loads of mist. The mist quickly enveloped me. I ced my mask on, and activated its Formation too.


    I opened my eyes, and said "Time to reap some lives". A bow appeared in my hand, I notched the first arrow and shot it out. "Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...". One arrow after another flew through the air. My target area wasrge, after all the horde of Mordars wasn''t easy to miss. I didn''t have to take much time to aim, which increased my speed of releasing arrows to a continuous stream. The rain of arrows bombarded Mordars, killing a few and injuring many. These were not normal arrows either. These arrows were imbued with both of my Auras.


    Mordars'' screeches could be heard left and right. The injured Mordars began merging together. That was what I was waiting for. Four merged Mordars emerged, out of around fort altogether. ''These are stronger than the one I faced before. But I should be able to handle that'' I thought, and stomped my leg onto the ground. I quickly elerated towards them, leaving the dispersing mist behind.


    The Mordars were not idiots though. They used those roots to create tremors underground. They thought it would disturb my movements, and slow down my advancements. They were wrong. ''I already fought against such thing. Do you think my Natural Path skill is that useless?'' I thought, and disappeared while utilising my movement skill.


    Not only was I had to locate now, I also moved in erratic and hard to predict patterns. The tremors didn''t affect my bnce or speed anymore, and with my mask, I was better able to calcte their behaviour. No branches or roots could stop me at that stage.


    After a while, I underestimated the Mordars. The sheer amount of roots those Mordars produced, became a problem. Although I was hidden from their view, and used my Natural Path skill, they still managed to find me a few times. ''This is weird. They shouldn''t be able to predict my movements. Although one or two roots could appear on my path, this is too frequent'' I thought. There must''ve been a reason. I had to back up a few times, as the roots were about to epass me.


    I only needed to get close enough, for both of my elemental attacks to be in range. A whileter, I received that opportunity. I didn''t wait any longer, and condensed the ball of mist on my right hand, while preparing the ball of me in my other hand. "WRAH!", I threw the condensed ball of mist as hard as I could.


    There were no obstructions on its path, nothing to stop it, as the branches focused on me. The ball of mist arrived, and hit the two merged Mordars at the front. "SHING!". The two Mordars partially froze, but they didn''t have to freezepletely. My aim was to freeze the eye section, where their core was. If the core froze, then the Mordar would die. With two of theirrades perishing, other Mordars including the merged ones, released loud shrills. The Mordars further back, which acted as a sort of support, began merging as well.


    I quickly threw the ball of me at the remaining merged Mordars, in hopes to take them out. The Mordars used their branches, and even roots to defend against my attack. "Boom!". Although a lot of branches and roots got sted and burned, the two merged Mordars survived. This wasn''t the end though. The Mordars further back were merging like crazy.


    ''This is bad'' I thought. Around fifty Mordars merged together, which I didn''t witness before. The result of that, was a huge vine like tree with only one big eye in the middle. "It ends here, Human", the huge Mordar spoke. I was shocked ''Mordars can speak¡­ No, not all Mordars can. This Mordar is different... Interesting'' I thought and formed another ball of mist in my hand. I didn''t back away, but advanced forwards. I moved closer and closer. Because the smaller merged Mordars had their branches and roots burned, they had very little to defend themselves with. With a strong throw, I released another ball of mist at them.


    But before my ball could arrive, a huge vine like branch mmed the ground in front of the other Mordars, and took the hit. "Shing!", a section of it froze immediately. That was it though, nothing else happened to that huge branch. Even worse, it vibrated slightly, and the ice atop it broke apart. "It''s futile Human. Now that you saw our true Form, your own choice is death".


    ''This is bad¡­ real bad'' I thought, and quickly backed away. That thing was beyond my abilities. ''If I were to ssify its strength, it would easily outdo most Humans who broke past their Half Step of Inner Limits''. That huge Mordar wasn''t something a single Human could take on. I doubted that even Yater, Irwin or Nathan would be able to take care of that guy by themselves. Just as I zigzagged back to where I came from, the ground beneath me shattered. A long and thick roots emerged from underground. There was no time to think about it. I used the Blink Formation to its fullest, and appeared around forty metres away. "BOOOM!" The are I used to be at, caved in and trembled from the powerful smack from those roots.


    ''If I''m hit by that, I don''t think I cane out of it unscathed'' I thought. The distance between us increased, but not by much. The roots continued chasing me, while I utilised my Art of Stealth and the Blink Formation as soon as it was avable for the next use. Suddenly, the ruts dug themselves back into the ground. The huge Mordar was nning something. I extended both of my hands, and released the elements. This time I made them stronger, until I pped my hands to make a lot of mist. The mist was much biggerpared to before, and my left hand hurt quite a lot from the explosion.


    I didn''t stay in the mist. Instead, I changed my direction, and ran away. I thought the roots will aim for the mist, but that huge Mordar nned something else. Instead of attacking that mist, the roots extended further past the mist, then resurfaced. The amount of those roots, was staggering. They created a tall wall of vine like roots, which blocked my way of escape. The wall alone spanned for a few hundred metres.


    Although I could use the Blink Formation to get past them, the problem was their reach. Those roots extended at least thirty to forty metres into the air. Even if I blinked past them, the huge Mordar only had to m them down. In other words, my Blink Formation would need to take me around seventy-eighty metres in distance. ''Suly said forty metres was already stretching it. Seventy would surely break it. It might not even take me that far, or break on the spot due to overcharge.


    The branches were now catching up too. I had to run, and I had to run fast. ''The best choice is to go around it'' I thought, and headed towards one end of the root wall. I was struggling. I was close to being hit many times, but the worst part was something else. The roots that acted as a wall, they simply moved with me. I couldn''t get to the other side, even if I wanted to go around them. The huge Mordar trapped me in like a mouse. ''If that''s the result of fifty Mordars merging... What would happen if all Mordars merged? What would that produce?'' I asked myself.


    Around fifty produced a monster. In that case double, triple or quadruple, would produce something out of legends. ''The Primal Limits. Yater and Irwin said that the North had at least two such existences'' I thought, while avoiding death. The keyword was "at least". In other words, North could house even five or six such existences. ''This uncovered some stuff already. If Mordars have such an ability, Eterians can use it easily'' I thought. So far, Eterians tried to overtake the poption, not exterminate it. But if their ns changed, we would face more of such things¡­ If not worse.


    I searched for a way out, but the wall of roots was simply too big. I had to use everything and anything at my disposal. My Auras, my Power of Ice, the me Formation on my glove and even my skills in the Arts. ''Speed! I need speed!'' I thought, as I tried to get faster.


    It was useless though. One of the branches finally caught up to me. It didn''te from above, the branch swept sideways towards me. The only path of escape, was up. I jumped as much as I could, and evaded that branch. This was just the beginning. Three more branches flew my way. Two from above, one from the side again in a sweeping motion. I didn''t give up, I couldn''t give up. "Like hell this is the end!" I shouted while releasing my daggers.


    I poured my Auras into the daggers, and released them upwards "Art of Hidden Weapons: Double Aura Carnage!". The daggers flew through the air, like ten beams of light. "Swosh! Boom! Boom! Booom!...". My daggers shed with the two branches, punching out five holes in each of them. An Aura deep inside me awakened, just before my daggers hit. This allowed my daggers to pass though those branches and slow them down. "This is not the end!" I shouted while releasing a new Form. A Form I created on the spot.


    "Art of Hidden Weapons: Aura Rotary Form!". My body spun around, while the daggers created a sort of domain of des around me. Due to my spin, the speed of my daggers increased. It increased so much, the two branches were ripped to shreds. ''I did it!'' I thought, but I celebrated too quickly. Thest branch arrived. I didn''t have time to do anything anymore. I had no way of escaping. In that split second moment, I made a decision. I activated the Formation on my chest piece.


    "BOOOM!".


    I was sted away with a force strong enough to instantly kill me. I didn''t die though. My armour took the hit, although not fully. The strength behind that blow was staggering, which resulted in my Formation breaking. Inded a few hundred metres away, pain stretching through my body. "It''s futile... Human. No matter what you do... The result will be the same". The Mordar was surely talkative. I picked myself up, and quickly drank one of the best medicines I had. The Greater Medical Extract.


    This was the same medicine, I gave to Suly. The effects were¡­ surprising. The Medicine took away all the pain, but that wouldn''t be much. It actually restored all my energy. I was back at the top of my condition. ''Only one more left. Even with my third Aura awakened, this thing didn''t suffer much from it'' I thought. My Unyielding Aura already dissipated, and I had to fulfil certain conditions to awaken it again. This was something, I still couldn''t do.


    I was out of ideas though. I had no useful poison with me. I didn''t have Yellow Dust anymore. My skills were useless against it, and I couldn''t even escape. Although I was at the top of my condition again, the situation was really hopeless.

 Chapter 410

    Chapter 410


    ''Even if I could release the Forbidden Form, this wouldn''t help much though. Mordars are kind of immune to Auras. Besides, that huge Mordar is not something my daggers and Power of Ice can take on'' I thought. I had two options, both of which were impossible. The first and most obvious, was to run away. The second option was to break through my Half Step. ''I would need a miracle to escape, or to break through at this specific time. I don''t think I''m able to create either'' I thought.


    Then I recalled something. ''Wait, I have that red orb thing. I meant to ask Alicia or Suly about it, but I totally forgot I had it'' I thought. I had no idea what would happen if I activated it, but I hoped for something big. I quickly abandoned my thoughts, and ran away from that spot. The branches and roots were already on their way to catch me.


    I didn''t know what that red orb would do, but I could always try. I ran my maximum speed, while utilising all my skills. I was actually running towards the huge Mordar. "It''s futile Human, your death is near" the Mordar said. I didn''t pay him heed though, and ran like crazy. For some reason, the attacks lessened when I got closer. I guessed it was mostly because the huge Mordar extended his roots far away. I was running towards it, therefore it had to retract them... But he seemed to have problems with that.


    That worked to my advantage, and allowed me to get in range. I activated the red orb, and threw it as hard as I could. The huge Mordar panicked a bit actually, but when the red orb arrived¡­ nothing happened. No explosion, no nothing. "What the fuck is that junk!?" I eximed pissed.


    The huge Mordar eximed, "Insolent Human, feel my wrath!". I couldn''t back up anymore. The roots were behind me, and they were getting close. The only way now, was forwards. "Damn it, I have no way out. Frosty! Some help would be useful!" I eximed. I didn''t expect anything, but my arm suddenly became much colder. I took a look and noticed my arm glistering.


    ''The Power of Ice¡­ it''s increasing inside my arm'' I thought. I knew what this meant, and quickly formed a ball of mist atop my palm. The ball though¡­ It was hugepared to before. At least five times bigger than what I could achieve normally. I condensed it and condensed it, until it became azure in colour. "Catch this you rotten tree!" I eximed, and threw the ball of mist.


    It flew towards the Mordar at a very fast speed, much faster than ever before. The Mordar used his branches as a means to defend, when the ball of mist arrived. "Shing! Creak!". The branches froze solid, while the huge Mordar released an ear piercing screech. ''Now''s my chance!'' I thought, and activated the me Formation. I didn''t care if it broke, I increased the power until the me became unstable. This was the limit of a limits, any more and the Formation would break and backfire¡­ It was actually on the verge of breaking already.


    With arge ball of me on my left palm, I threw it and hoped to destroy that Mordar. "BOOOM!", a loud explosion sounded when the ball of me hit the frozen branches. The branches were pulverized. The Mordar''s "crown" ceased to exist, while it released another loud screech. Unfortunately, the Power of Ice was gone, I couldn''t use it anymore. The Formation on my glove was strained, and almost broke apart too.


    But, there was an opening. If I could just destroy that eye, the Mordar would die. I continued running towards it, this was all or nothing. With ten daggers around me, I ran like crazy. The Mordar had no branches to defend, and it''s roots were behind me trying to catch up. I was about to end that nightmare, but the huge Mordar had another ace up his sleeve.


    "You will pay for this!" he shouted, and actually lifted himself up. Although retracting his branches was difficult for him, he could grow them again and lift himself up into the air. "Bastard! Come down here, and let me finish you!". Hundreds of thick roots buried deep in the ground, supported the huge Mordar. I wouldn''t make it by jumping, but I could use the roots. With a squat, I released all the strength I had in my legs.


    "BOOOM!".


    I flew upwards, my target was one of the roots supporting the Mordar. Just before I was about to lose my momentum, I quickly stabbed my daggers into the root. One stab after the other, I made my way upwards. The Mordar shook his root vigorously, which almost made me fall off. ''I have to use other roots too'' I thought, and jumped between them. But the Mordar seemed too quiet, too confident.


    I quickly found out why. He was able to grow smaller roots out of the main ones, as if branches. ''Shit!'' I eximed in my mind, while the roots attacked. I couldn''t hold on to the main root anymore, and got pushed off. The distance between me and the ground, was at least seventy metres. Then I recalled something, ''Wait! I have those herbs from Elysian Empire'' I thought, and quickly ate one. The herb in question was called Livi Sprout. I could jump higher with its help, but that wasn''t the only useful thing.


    ''If Ind from such a height and jump again, I will make it to that Mordar''s core no problem!'' I thought. My legs hurt like hell when Inded, but that wasn''t important. The Mordar thought I would stay there, perhaps with broken legs as well. What he saw instead, was me jumping up at an even greater speed. Speed so fast, no roots could stop me anymore. I actually overshot the Mordar a bit, but that was not an issue.


    Ten daggers appeared around me again, while I used the Blink Formation to appear in front of the Mordar''s eye. The Mordar eximed, "Impossible!", but this was the end for him. "Begone monster! Art of Hidden Weapons: Aura Rotary Form!". As soon as my des hit therge eye, the Mordar screeched. My daggers slowly ripped the flesh away, until I made it inside, and grinded the whole eye into mincemeat.


    The screeching stopped, the roots stopped as well. Silence filled the air. "I did it, I came out on top!" I eximed. I was tired, the whole thing took its toll on my body. I walked out of the eye area, and stood there looking at the horizon. I could see Sedon, and even the Land of Mirages further away. Suddenly my instincts red up, and out of nowhere a root came out trying to stab my heart. I only had enough time to move slightly, but this alone saved my life. The root missed my heart, and stabbed right through my chest. "UGH¡­ How?", I asked while cutting away that root.


    The Mordar was dead... Or so I thought. One eye survived. Not because I wasn''t thorough enough destroying that huge eye, but because it was hidden somewhere else. More roots appeared, trying to kill me. Then I saw a small red eye in the corner of the vine like trunk. A dagger escaped my hand, and stabbed through that eye. The roots fell to the ground lifeless, but I stayed alert. I surveyed the whole trunk, but fortunately found no more eyes.


    "He almost got me at thest possible chance". I took out the root, and was about to take care of my injuries, when I suddenly felt like falling down. The roots lost their strength, and the dead Mordar began falling down like a huge block of wood. I drank some medicine in order not to bleed to death, and prepared to jump. I waited until we got low enough, at which point I mmed my legs onto the trunk, and jumped away from the falling Mordar.


    "BOOOM!!". The ground shattered and trembled from the sheer weight of that Mordar. I stumbled a few times, before stopping. When the dust cleared, I looked at the heap of vine like roots and a huge trunkying there. "If not for Frosty, I wouldn''t be able to do it. If his branches were not destroyed, I would never have the chance to take him out. I was lucky too. Not only did I have that herb, the Mordar lifted up as a means to defend himself due to the loss of branches. If I took away one of those elements, I would''ve died".


    There were more Mordars there, and I didn''t need to fight another such monster. My decision was clear, I left that ce as quickly as I could. "Seriously though, my armour can''tst even one battle" I said to myself. After that battle, my mind became clearer. I no longer felt out of sorts, although I paid a price for it. There were some good points. I learned that Mordars are much more dangerous, than I previously assumed. ''I can ask Suly to try and repair itter¡­ I hope she can'' I thought. It was mostly the Formations that were strained, fortunately the clothes didn''t break apart.


    One thing was bugging me though. I noticed something throughout my battle. I wasn''t sure what it was yet, but I had a feeling new doors would open in front of me. It was something I needed to test out and experiment with. That was for the near future. At that point, I just wanted to return to Sedon.

 Chapter 411

    Chapter 411


    I walked around the Sludge Factory, I had enough Mordars for one day. This time though, I didn''t encounter any enemies, which I was grateful for. Soon, the walls of Sedon appeared in my view. The walls were being repaired, and looked much better than before. Ama managed to stand up to the challenge. She actually rose much above it. From the looks of it, she was improving the walls at the same time. People at Sedon knew me well by now, so no one made any issues about my entry.


    Simple checkter, I was inside. At the area where soldiers and warriors trained, I saw the Lizards and Atols sparring together. ''Atols improved quite a bit, but the Lizards are not bad either. They trained diligently, and it seems this paid off'' I thought. When the Leader of Lizards spotted me, he ordered everyone to stop, and gather around. ''You don''t have to do that guys¡­'' I thought.


    "It''s fine, you guys can return to training. I see you made great improvements. Sparring with different people is also good, you will learn much more. Great job guys". The soldiers and warriors eximed "YES!", and returned to their training. Only a few Atols and the Leader of Lizards was left. "Seriously though, you don''t have to act like this with me. By the way, I still don''t know your names. It will be hard to just call you "hey you". So although this is a bitte, I''d like to know".


    The leader of Lizards replied "I''m called Lerion, and I''m responsible for our forces in Sedon. General Harlin.." I stopped him, and said "You are a good leader, and you care for your soldiers. You deserve this position if not greater". He nodded, and seemed pleased. I wasn''t trying to please him though, he was a good leader and I just said the truth. I turned to the five Atols, who lead their own groups.


    They looked at each other, and introduced themselves one after the other. "I''m called Mani", "I''m called n", "I''m called Eram", "I''m called Atal", "And I''m called Olip". I nodded while asking, "Great, you guys have your own units right?". They nodded, while I continued "Does your units specialise in any form ofbat or tactics?". The looked at each other confused. ''So that''s a no'' I thought. "Look at it this way. If you all charge at the enemy together, why would you need five leaders? If every unit specialised in a specific tactic, then you could utilise your forces better, right?".


    They understood my meaning, and one of them asked. "But which unit should specialise in what?". I replied, "That will depend on you and your people. For example, two of your units can take more of a "block the enemy" approach. While other unit would specialise in striking from the side. Another can act as a support. There are many tactics the unit can carry out. There are five of you, try to figure something out. You can ask Lerion for some clues and suggestions. Is that alright with you Lerion?".


    He replied, "I have no problem with that. We can help them find the best uses for their units". The five Atols thought about it, then replied to Lerion. "In that case, we would like to try that". ''This is sorted then. They will learn how to strategize and use their units better, while Lerion can learn something too. They should be alright for now'' I thought.


    With that taken care of, I asked. "Do you have any news?". Lerion replied, "Yes we do. Boltier was attacked, and heavily damaged. Although the enemy retreated, they didn''t retreat far. It seems our enemies are finally making a move".


    This wasn''t such a good news. ''I wonder what they used to attack Voltars? Was it Destroyers, or something else?'' I asked myself. With a slight nod, I said "Be ready, an enemy army might approach Sedon too. What about your supplies?". He replied, "We are good with supplies for a while. They shouldst us around two to three months". ''Hmmm¡­ Although that seems like a lot, it might not be that much. Boltier was attacked and is damaged. They might not be able to give us supplies anymore'' I thought.


    "Do you know where Crow is?" I asked. Lerion and the five Atols shook their heads in reply. They didn''t seem to know. ''We need a solid n. Royal Army is out of the question. They will sit there, and keep Arangard safe... At least for now. Sedon is rtively safe, and with new walls, it shouldst much longer during a battle. Boltier is the problem. Eterians cannot get their hands on it, no matter what'' I thought.


    We needed something new. Something that could defeat an army gathered at Boltier, or any city to be exact. ''I have to speak with Ama, maybe she can figure something out'' I thought, and told the leaders they could leave. Before I went to see Ama though, I checked up on the fields. The herbs sprouted very nicely. The Atols responsible for them already managed to gather some. I asked "How is it going?". They stopped working and told me about the fields.


    They didn''t encounter any problems, although Endrosian herbs were taking quite a long time to grow properly. My reply was simple, "Just give them time. As long as they grow here, we are good. Take special care of Blood Yarns and Night Safises. We will need them a lot". They nodded, and were about to return to work, but I stopped them. "Before you go. I promised to teach you some stuff guys. I will do that when I deal with a few other things. Then you can start making medicine for the city". Their mood lifted up a bit. ''Did they think I forgot?'' I asked myself. Either way, with their moods improved, they returned to work.


    My next destination, was the walls of Sedon. I had to find Ama, and it wasn''t actually that hard to do. She worked hard as usual, I said looking at her back. "Looks great. You are even trying to improve those walls". She replied while working, "Yea, it wasn''t easy in the beginning, but we are getting there. Is there something you need, or have you just came by to say hello?".


    I smiled while replying, "There is something¡­ A few things. I know you are busy, but I need your help". She stopped working, looked at me then asked "Seems serious. What is it?". I continued, "I need a house, a private house but without the floorboards. It will be used for rare herbs from Apium. That is just a small matter though. The biggest issue is, I need something like a Destroyer".


    She asked confused, "Destroyer?". I pped my forehead lightly, and drew the Destroyer on a piece of paper. She looked at it for a while, then asked "You need this thing designed and built?". I shook my head, "No, this is too cumbersome. What we need is something smaller. It would be best if we could ce it atop the walls. This would allow us to shoot from the walls, and kill loads of enemies. With that, Sedon would be much safer. Ultimately though, I would want that in Boltier first".


    She thought about it for a while, then replied. "Does it have to shoot boulders?". I replied with a question, "What do you have in mind?". She asked "What if we createdrge bows?". This idea was not that bad, but one question remained. "Who would operate such big bows? We would need tens of people to tension it, special arrows would need to be made too". She grabbed the paper I had, and said "I have an idea".

 Chapter 412

    Chapter 412


    It took her a while of scribbling, before she presented the piece of paper to me. ''That design¡­ It''s amazing!'' I eximed in my mind. Arge bow sat atop a tform. From the looks of it, the weapon could be rotated and even tilted up and down. This gave it a great amount of usability. I asked "How do we tension it?". She replied "See this here? This is a slot for the arrow. This metal underneath is used to make the arrow stay in ce, but not only that. The handle is attached below, and connects to that piece. Two or three people would be enough to tension it using that handle. Then there is the release handle, which would release that tray on which arrow rests, and fling it outside. In theory, this would be very powerful¡­ but theplexity is as equally difficult".


    I asked stunned, "How did youe up with this?". She smiled while replying, "Imagination. Although it looks nice on paper, but we would need a lot of people to actually create it. As you know, we don''t have people. Everyone who''s willing, is already working on the walls. That was priority from what I gather". ''Hmmm, I won''t be able to build this by myself. It has wooden and metal elements. Even if we made it from metal alone, I don''t think the cksmith would be able to aplish that'' I thought. It was worth a try with the cksmith.


    I took the paper while saying, "I will try with the cksmiths. Maybe they can help with it, after all they are not working on the wall". She replied, "You can try. When the walls are done, I will have time to do it... If that is the next priority". I asked the crucial question, "How long do you think it will take, for the walls to be repaired?". She thought about it for a while. "Around a month. We already did great progress, and Shades help out as much as they can. Lerry is very hard working, and tries to learn how to do this properly. I''m very grateful for Lerry, he has a lot of motivation".


    ''A month¡­ That''s too much'' I thought. I needed those weapons pretty much now. There was no other way, but to help out as well. Although I wanted to go to Boltier sooner, the weapons would be game changing. "Alright, I will deal with this. Thanks for the design. Oh, and can you spare one or two people for that private house. I need to nt those herbs as soon as I can". She sighed while replying, "I will make a design, and instruct someone to do it. The walls might take longer to be repaired because of that¡­". I said, "Don''t worry too much about it. The walls are already in much better shape". She nodded, while I bid her farewell.


    I went to meet with the cksmiths. I wanted to get their opinion about the design. After they checked the design, one of them replied "That''s going to be difficult. We only have six cksmiths in the city. Even if you help out, that''s seven. Don''t get me wrong, it is possible to make this thing, but it would require some time". That was under the pretense, everything was made from metal. I asked, "What if we use wood and metal for construction? I would take care of wood, and shape it to the precise sizes, while you take care of metalponents?".


    They thought about it for a while. The older cksmith answered, "It would certainly shorten the time needed to make this. We would need to decide on which elements had to be made from metal, and which from the wood. There is one more problem". I asked "Yes?". He continued, "Where will you get such a strong string? It would need to be very strong, and those for normal bows wouldn''t work".


    ''Hmm, that is a problem'' I thought, and asked "Any ideas?". They shook their heads, but I recalled something. "What if we use animal tendons?". The oldest cksmith replied, "They would have to be very strong. Where would you get such tendons?". I had an idea in mind, therefore I replied "I think I know where. Let''s decide on whichponents you will be responsible for. Tat way you can start working, while I get the string for our new weapon". They nodded, and we gathered around the design, trying to figure out which parts should be made from what.


    A whileter, we decided on what to do, and they went straight to work. I on the other hand, left Sedon. ''Ognars are very big, and should have very strong tendons. With enough of them, we will be able to create the string'' I thought. Although Ognras were much more scarce due to the war, one could still find them in the wilderness. It still took me a while of searching, before I found three Ognars. ''Hmm, from the look of it, two are adults and one is still young'' I thought.


    These creatures were already scarce, so I opted for the adult male. I quickly killed one of the Ognars, while scaring off the other two with my Auras. They wouldn''t fight, if they knew they couldn''t win. I didn''t waste that Ognar either. It''s meat was still rather precious, so I took that as well as the tendons needed for the bow. I checked, and they were rather hard to pull. Of course I used normal strength, if I were to use my full strength, I feared that I would snap them. I didn''t need that.


    All in all, I got nine such tendons. The shorter tendons were not useful to us, I only picked the longest ones I could find. With the meat and tendons in hand, I returned to Sedon. ''We will have to process those tendons, but that is not an issue'' I thought. As I already mentioned. Nathan knew some weird stuff, when it came to making things from¡­ animals. I showed the tendons to the cksmiths, and told them to test them out. They pulled a few times each, and agreed it would be useful for the bow string.


    I had to process them first, we didn''t want for them to rot. For that I needed medicine. ''While I''m at it, I can show them how to make some medicine as well'' I thought, and headed towards the fields. I called over all the Atols working there, and told them to follow me. There was a small storage house for the harvested herbs, and that is where we headed.


    Inside, I set up the equipment while saying "I will teach you how to make medicine from Arran Grass and Oviral nts. I call it Arran Liquid, and it''s not that hard to make. To make this medicine, you will need a pot with a lid, like this one". I pointed at the pot I just set up, then continued "This you will get by yourself. One should be enough for all of you, as I want you to do it here, not in the open. You won''t have space for more than one, so you will have to share for now. Later, when the private house is built, all of you can practice inside there. Alright?".


    They nodded in understanding, so I continued. "The recipe is simple really", I handed them a piece of paper with instructions. They read through it, and nodded their heads. "I will show you now, how it is done. Watch closely". With water inside the pot, I started the fire underneath. When the water began to boil, I threw both herbs inside. After a while, I took out the dregs, and closed the lid. I told them to wait a few minutes, before opening it. I also said that they shouldn''t worry about the steam, it was intended. Because the lid was sealed, the steam would wreak havoc inside, and escape through tiny holes. This process was necessary, otherwise the medicine would lose its effectiveness.


    After a few minutes, I extinguished the fire. "Now we wait a while. Let it cool down properly, then we can open the lid and retrieve the medicine". They nodded to that as well, as we waited for the pot to cool down. I asked "Do you have any questions?". One of them seemed a bit shy, so I added "Go on, it''s better to ask than not ask. If you don''t understand something, I can exin it".


    The guy nodded, and asked "The cooking time¡­ What happens if we cook it too much or too little?". I replied "The medicine will either not work, or you will receive a worse quality medicine. With practice, you will find the right amount of time required. I can''t tell you specifically, because it will depend on the me below the pot". He nodded, and another Atol asked "What about the me? How do we know it''s the right size?". I replied, "That you have to judge by looking at the pot. For example, when you throw in the herbs required at first, make sure the water boils, but not too much. We don''t want to burn those herbs. When the lid is sealed, look at the amount of steaming out. If its too little, then the fire is too weak. That is precisely why I showed you how it''s done. You saw the amount of steaming out from my pot, right? You have to maintain that kind of heat".


    She nodded as well, and they didn''t seem to have any more questions. When the pot cooled down enough, I unsealed it and showed them the finished product. "By the way, you can also tell if the medicine is good by smelling it. The richer the smell of medicine, the better quality it will have. For example, the medicine I made now has around 90% potency. In other words, 90% of the healing properties were retained. This one batch can serve five people. As for bottles or other containers, you will need to ask someone, or make them by yourselves".


    They nodded in understanding, while I poured the content into five bottles. "Here, take one each and use this as a temte. You canpare your medicine with myter, but don''t worry too much about it. At first your medicine will be of worse quality, but with time, you will learn to do it properly". They each took a bottle, and examined it. I continued, "You now know the process of making a simple medicine. Go and get some tools required, then you can practice here. Remember to use enough herbs for one batch only. In case you are unsessful, you will waste less herbs". They nodded, and left the storage to get the tools. While they were gone, I prepared to do another medicine.

 Chapter 413

    Chapter 413


    I had to make a specific medicine, which could be used to prolong the freshness of¡­ skin. This was a trick Nathan taught me, and I had the herbs required with me at all times. There was no name for it, but the herbs used were called Light Tulip and Powdery Shroom. The shroom''s properties were poisonous, but in a weird way. It actually stopped the dposition of corpses and such. It grew on the corpses and carcases alike, and was quite rare. The herb wasn''t poisonous to touch, but if ingested, there would be a few issues one would need to deal with.


    For one, some of the organs could stop functioning, and that could be fatal. The Light Tulip on the other hand, had medical properties. It improved regeneration and promoted freshness. In a sense, it could be used as a refreshing tonic for the body. But when those two were mixed, they produced something else entirely.


    I had to cook the shroom first, and then take out the dregs before throwing in the Light Tulip. The next step was also different. After the Light Tulip, I had to extinguish the fire for a while. The properties of Light Tulip would slowly seep into the mixture. Only when the properties werepletely extracted, I could start the fire again.


    With the medicinepleted, I didn''t extinguish the fire. Instead, I threw the Ognar''s tendons inside, then covered the pot with the lid. The medicine didn''t boil, but had to stay warm for the tendons to absorb the medicine. Meanwhile the Atols returned with arge pot and a few other tools. The pot had a lid, but no holes in it. I took the lid from them, and punched out some tiny holes in it.


    "Here, with this, the pot and lid should be alright. Wait for a while, as I finish with this thing. You can start practicing afterwards" I said while passing them the lid. One of the Atols asked curious, "What medicine did you make this time?". I replied with a smile, "It''s not really a medicine per say. It''s something I need to prolong the freshness of the tendons. Before you ask, I need them for new weapon". They nodded, and didn''t pry any further.


    Around ten to twenty minutester, I extinguished the me and took out the warm tendons from the pot. They became a bit more stic, but that would change when they cooled down properly. After pocketing the tendons, I took the pot outside, and dumped the content somewhere safer. "Alright. Practice one at a time. I need to work on that new weapon. If you have any issues, I will be somewhere near the fields. Pop in to ask anything that''s on your minds". They nodded and seemed quite eager to begin their practice.


    I left them, and headed to the ce where Shades stored those dead trees. I was quite shocked by the amount left. ''Hmm, I think they will need loads more, looking at the state of those walls'' I thought. The amount left, was abysmalpared to what used to be there. I also used some of that for the water delivery system... I still took onerge log, and carried it towards the fields.


    ''I will take half of the army with meter, and we will cut down some trees... Whether they are dead or not'' I thought. This would be a good exercise for them. Atols and Lizards would gain some experience at the same time. ''The problem is, we need to go to Dead Forest again¡­ Before that, I need to take that Voltic Orb from Crow. Just in case'' I thought.


    With the log transported, I took out my Razor Swords and connected them while activating the Formation. "Vooom!", the sword hummed into life. I needed a few specific pieces for the weapon. For one, I needed the arch, which would be used to hold the string. I also needed the tform, on which therge bow would rest. Then there was the underbody of the bow, and a few other bits and pieces.


    ''I have the design memorised, I just have to work from my memory'' I thought, and cut the log into a fewrge pieces. I couldn''t use my Razor Sword in order to shape them, so I had to use my daggers. Precision was time consuming, but it had to be done. I sat the hour after hour, shaping the pieces. I began from the hardest, and the most important pieces.


    During my first day, I only managed to create therge arch, or the bow''s main body. This had to be sculpted out rather precisely, and had to have a specific size. Too small, and the rest of metalponents wouldn''t work. Too big, and the arch wouldn''t fit well, or work as intended. Sculpting it, was just the beginning. I had to harden it, but I had no clue how. I needed someone who made bows in the past, or ask Ama again.


    I tried cksmiths, and they actually knew someone who made bows inside Sedon. It was a Shade called Irsa, she was supposedly the best bow maker Shades had to offer. I visited her workshop, and noticed many unfinished bows either hanging orying around. I asked the Shade inside, "Irsa?". She turned towards me while asking, "Yes, that''s me. Do you need a bow?". I smiled, and took out the arch I made before.


    She looked at it confused. "I didn''t make this did I? It''s too big to be used as a bow". I replied, "No, I made this. What I need is a way to harden it. Make it more resilient, more tough". She was still confused, and asked "Why would you need such a big bow?". I drew the design from my memory, and passed the paper to her. She looked at it for a while, then asked "What is this?". I replied, "New weapon of war". Sheughed, "This? It won''t work".


    This time I was confused. I asked perturbed, "Why wouldn''t it work?". She asked another question, "Was it designed by a bow craftsman?". I shook my head. She continued, "There you go, that is your answer". It didn''t make sense to me, so I asked for a reason. She said, "You see, this thing will break after its first use. The bnce is off, and even if you managed to shoot one arrow from it, the aim? Forget about it".


    I replied, "Improve it then. You have the expertise it seems". She shook her head, crumpled the paper and threw it away. She then said, "I don''t intend to, even though I know who you are. Your standing means nothing to me, so I will not help you". I smiled, and turned around. ''A Shade who doesn''t wish to help during a war. Interesting'' I thought, and left her workshop. It was true, I couldn''t force her. It was her choice, and I had to respect that.


    I went to see Ama first. She was a bit annoyed that I disturbed her again, but I told her it was important. "Alright, what is it?". I said, "You know the design. I spoke with a bow maker, she said it will not work". Ama thought about it, and asked "Why? I mean, I''m not a bow craftsman, but I''ve seen a few bows in my life. Although Atols don''t use them, others do". I replied, "She said that the bnce is off, and that it would break after its first use. She also said that the aim would be terrible". Ama wasn''t pleased with thosements, and asked for paper. I gave her some, and she sketched out the design again.


    She showed it to me, and said "ording to my calctions, the bnce is perfect. I told you, I''m no bow maker, but that bitch lied to you. You have this trey here, right? This will prevent any vibrations from affecting the arrow, when it''s released. Aim? That bitch is crazy. Build it, and let''s see who''s aim is better. I will shoot at her, while she shoots at me from her bow. Let''s see who has better aim!".


    That was even more interesting. Ama was a good craftsman. Although bows were not her specialty, she had the imagination and skills to make it a reality. The Shade simply dismissed it, and refused to correct those mistakes too. ''I think I know why'' I thought, and left Ama quickly. I made it back to Irsa''s workshop, and as I suspected, she wasn''t there. The crumpled paper? Gone as well. ''So a rat... Run¡­ Run fast Shade. Because if I catch you, you will wish for a quick death'' I thought, and disappeared.


    I scoured the city, but she was nowhere to be found. I ced my mask on, and tried again. No results. ''Outside the city then¡­ Which way would she go? Towards Land of Mirages, or elsewhere'' I thought. I tried the gate first, the Shades responsible for opening and closing the gate, told me no one left. ''Hmmm¡­ Underground, or she scaled the walls'' I thought. It wouldn''t be impossible. After all the walls were under construction. Scaffolding was everywhere. ''Sludge Factory then'' I thought, and rushed towards the walls that overlooked the entire Sludge Factory. Very few people worked on that side, as the walls were pretty much undamaged.


    In the distance, running on the surface of Sludge Factory, I saw a lone Shade. ''There you are'' I thought, but there was a problem. I couldn''t chase her there. ''I used the Sludge Factory when I was with Crow, this would exin why it didn''t attack. Would it work again?'' I asked myself. I needed a Shade, and fast. One of them worked on the wall nearby. I appeared next to him, and grabbed him. "Hey! What are you doing!?". I replied, "I need to use the Sludge Factory. Let me borrow you for a minute". "What?". But before he could say anything else, I jumped down.


    "Are you insane!? The sludge will kill you!". Wended on the soft sludge, and sunk a few good metres down. The purple exterior ripped open, revealing thousands of red eyes. The sludge didn''t attack though, it slowly brought us above the surface again. "Huh? How is that possible?" he asked. I didn''t waste time, and ran at my full speed with the Shade attached to me.

 Chapter 414

    Chapter 414


    Irsa noticed my pursue, and shock was stered on her face. She ran even faster, and took her bow out to shoot. Her archery skills were great, I had a hard time avoiding the arrows, but she couldn''t escape anymore. The Shade I was carrying asked, "Isn''t that Irsa? Why is she shooting at us?". I replied, "She betrayed you guys. She is a spy, and obviously doesn''t want to get caught".


    The Shade was visibly shocked. I continued the pursuit, while she utilised some sort of skill, and melded into the Sludge Factory. ''Hmmm, I can''t sense her at all'' I thought and asked the Shade, "Can you locate her?". He shook his head, and replied "No, I''m not as strong as you guys. I never saw anyone disappear into the sludge either". That was a problem. I had no doubt she was still escaping, the problem was direction. ''She headed towards the Dead Forest before, but would she head there now as well'' I thought. Surely she wasn''t stupid enough. I tried using my Power of Ice, but nothing happened.


    I could guess the reason. ''Fire will work as well'' I thought, and formed a ball of me atop my palm. The Shade got scared, they were afraid of fire after all. "Don''t worry, it''s not to hurt you" I said, and threw the ball of mes in front of me. "Boom!". The area of Sludge Factory caught fire and the eyes revealed themselves screeching. "Sorry guys, but I need to find her" I said quietly. The Sludge spew something out further in the distance. It was Irsa. She was even more shocked than before, but I didn''t wait anymore. With my daggers ready, I threw them as hard as I could. A few daggers akin to beams of light, flew through the air straight at Irsa.


    Those daggers weren''t intended to kill her, but distract her. I sped forwards, and released another ball of mes, at her this time. I could hear a slight creak, as I threw the ball. The Formation was broken. I wouldn''t be able to use it anymore. That didn''t matter though, she had to evade the ball of me and that gave me time to use Blink Formation.


    "Swoosh!", I appeared next to her with a dagger on her neck. She froze in ce, while I tapped on few pressure points, to my surprise she fainted. ''Good thing Shades have pressure points too. I wasn''t entirely sure it would work'' I thought. While I held her, I released the other Shade. "That was crazy you know¡­ How did you know that Sludge wouldn''t attack?". I replied, "Because I did that in the past already. Anyway, we should return. I still need to interrogate her. Will you manage by yourself, or do you need a lift?". He shook his head a few times, and replied "No, no. I will return by myself". I added "Don''t tell anyone what happened here. I''m serious, there may be more spies inside the city, we don''t need to rm them. If need be, you can ount for her actions today, right?". He nodded quickly, and agreed.


    I nodded, and left him there. ''I knew cities would have spies, but not that strong. She broke through her Inner Limits, and isn''t the usual Shade. No matter, we will soon find out everything'' I thought, as I headed back to the gate. Before I entered though, I wrapped her in animal skins. I didn''t want to alert other spies, if such existed inside the city. I searched for Lerry, he might''ve been aware where Crow or his people gathered.


    Lerry worked on the walls, therefore it didn''t take long for me to find him. "Hey Lerry, I have a question" I said. He turned around, and noticed the "package" I was carrying. "Oh hey...What''s up with the animal furs?". I replied, "Don''t worry about them. Can you tell me where to find Crow, or in the least where I find his people?". He replied, "I don''t know where Crow is, but his people upy a certain building". He pointed in a specific direction, and said "See this tall building over there? That''s where his house is".


    I knew the ce perfectly well. It was the building which used to belong to Overseers. I thanked him, and left. I quickly made my way to the Overseers building, and entered inside. One of the Shades was surprised to see me, and asked "Are you looking for Crow?". I replied, "Him, or someone who has higher ranking. If no one''s there, that''s fine too. I just want to use your basement". He invited me inside, and asked me to wait a bit. The Shade headed upstairs, then returned with another familiar Shade. It was the female I once met, when I decided to test the people of Sedon. She was the one who apologized to me for the misunderstanding.


    She said, rather coldly I might add. "Crow is not around, which you should be fully aware of. What is your business here?". I replied, "Drop the attitude, I need to use your basement. Do you still have those torture rooms?". She scoffed, "No. We don''t torture people". I said, "Doesn''t matter, I need some privacy. I can find my way to the basement by myself". She stopped me, and asked "What''s inside those animal furs?".


    I replied, "Come with me, and you will find out". I then headed to the basement, and chose one of the rooms. Indeed, the basement acted as a storage now, no torture devices or anything of that sort was around. ''A shame, I could use them now'' I thought. The female Shade entered the room, and closed the doors behind. I dropped the "package" onto the floor, and undid the furs covering it.


    The Shade who came in with me, was rather shocked to see Irsa fainted on the floor. She asked with clear anger in her voice. "What do you think you are doing?". I replied, "A job you clearly can''t do. She is a spy. She tried to steal the secrets of the new weapon of war we designed". She continued asking, "Do you have a proof?". I replied "Not only proof, a witness too. While I chased after her, I grabbed one Shade toe with me. He can tell you what happened. As for the proof?". I searched her body, and retrieved the crumpled paper.


    "Here it is, your proof". She took the paper and looked at it for a while. "That is the new weapon of war?". I replied by asking, "What else, a sack of potatoes? Now, it''s time for her interrogation. I know she can meld into the Sludge Factory, I don''t know if she can repeat that on any terrain. Keep an eye on her, and don''t let her escape".


    I tapped on a few pressure points, and let her wake up. Irsa looked around disorientated, but quickly realised she was caught. She also saw the other Shade inside the room, and screamed. "Help me! He is crazy! He wanted to kill me!". I walked up to her, and served her a punch. "Yea, will not work missy. Now, how about you tell me where were you going with my design?".


    She replied, "What design, I know nothing of any design! Please help me!". I grabbed her by the neck and said, "I have a few methods to make you sing, but I''m ying nice so far. Tell me, and I will not kill you. You have my word". She still feigned ignorance, and pleaded to the Shade behind me.


    I said, "It''s your choice". I only had a few bottles of medicine left. One bottle of the best medicine I could make, and the other which was second best. I only had three bottles of that left, but I was willing to sacrifice that in exchange for some answers. I was about to pour the medicine onto Irsa, when the Shade behind me said. "Are you sure she is a spy? Perhaps she had that design, but where did she get it from? What were the circumstances? Why did she run away?".


    I replied, "Shade, just because you work for Crow, I have no problem neutralising you. Don''t test my patience". She replied angrily, "You have no right to be the judge here! Give her to us, we will deal with it. If she is a traitor, we will punish her of course. I will not allow you to do whatever you like inside our city".


    I released both my Auras, and appeared next to her. "I told you not to test my patience". She couldn''t escape anymore, as I tapped a few of her pressure points. She fell to the ground unconscious, while I said "Consider this a gift. If not for Crow, you would be dead already". I turned towards Irsa, who had difficulty moving. She was still trying to meld into the ground, but wasn''t fast enough. I grabbed her by her hair, and dragged her out of the ground. "Where do you think you are going? Your tricks might work on weak minded, but not me. I''m no idiot Irsa, and I can be ruthless too. Tell me what I want to know, and I will let you live".


    She snorted while replying, "Go fuck yourself". ''Have it your way then'' I thought, and poured my medicine all over her body. She screamed as the medicine burned her. I tapped her throat, and blocked any sound froming out. "I don''t take pleasure in torture, I''m not like that Eterian. I do what needs to be done. The sooner you answer, the sooner this will be over". The hate in her eyes intensified.


    I undid another bottle of medicine, and slowly poured that on her too. I knew she wanted to scream, but I didn''t want to listen to her screams. I wasn''t interested in screams, but answers.

 Chapter 415

    Chapter 415


    I dropped her onto the floor, as the medicine burned her body. "Ready to talk?" I asked. She grabbed her body, and tried anything for the medicine to stop burning, but it wouldn''t. The medicine I used, was very strong. She looked at me with hatred clear in her eyes. I took out my dagger, and said "I don''t know why you betrayed your people. I don''t know what Eterians promised you in exchange or whether they control you. But if they promised you something, don''t count on it".


    With a quick sh, her arm was severed. She grabbed her shoulder in pain, and tried to scream. Although her mouth opened, no sounds came out. A pool of blood already appeared, while I tapped on a few of her pressure points, to stop the bleeding. "I told you. The sooner you give me answers, the sooner this will be over with. I can still attach that arm, if you answer my questions". I tapped her neck again, allowing her to speak. She cried for a while, then said "Go and die¡­ I have nothing to say!".


    ''She''s starting to break'' I thought and continued. "Your name is not Irsa, is it?", her reaction was what I was looking for. That hint of confusion, and deeply hidden emotions. Her name was Irsa, but I needed to know her reaction. I asked, "Did they promise you wealth or position?... No? Do they hold someone or something dear to you?... Oh, so that''s what it was?". She looked down while responding, "Shut up you bastard. What do you know?". "There are many things I don''t know Irsa. For one, what do Eterians n on doing?" I asked. She didn''t reply this time, and stared at the ground.


    "You know. If you tell me, I can get back whatever or whoever they took from you. Consider your options. You can either tell me everything, and I''ll be willing to help you. Or you can be tortured then die. In case of thetter, Eterians will do whatever they want with whoever, or whatever you are trying to protect". I gave her a moment. Although I gave her a choice, I had no intention of helping her at all. I had no time to worry about someone, or something taken away by Eterians. To me, she was already a lost cause. Those who betray once, can do it again. I didn''t give second chances.


    I then heard the doors open, and another Shade walked in. "What is this mess exactly?". It was Crow, he finally returned. I replied "I will tell you in a while, just wait a moment", then turned towards Irsa. "So Irsa, will you tell me? Or you wish to be stubborn, and die for Eterians?". Her eyes were on Crow who just entered. She wanted to say something to him, but I stopped her from making any sounds. "Your choice Irsa. If you want to y those silly games, we can have it your way". A few tapster, she fainted on the floor.


    I turned towards Crow, and said "She is a spy. As for that Shadeying there, she tried to save her¡­ Sort of. I left her alive only because she is one of your people". He sighed while saying, "I will talk with her. How do you know she is a spy though?". I replied, "Search that woman there. She has the new design for the weapon of war on her. Irsa tried stealing that design, and notify Eterians". Crow searched his underling, and retrieved the paper. "So it is. The design for a new weapon. Arge bow eh? Can you actually build it?". I told him the events as they yed out, and then waited for him to process all that.


    He asked after a while, "There is no doubt in my mind that Irsa is a spy. You are telling me Lira tried stopping you?". I replied, "Do you suspect her as well? It might be, but I''m not sure about her. She only wavered when Irsa started begging her to do something. For all I know, she is just weak minded". Crow nodded while saying, "I will monitor her myself. If she is a spy, I will deal with her appropriately".


    "It seems Irsa will be hard to break. Although she wavered, we might not be able to pull anything out of her. Have any ideas?" I asked. Crow thought about it for a while before replying, "If you want, you can leave her with me. I might think of something to break her. Anyway, there are other important news".


    I nodded while asking, "What did you find out about Mordars?". Crow didn''t seem to have good news. He said, "We are in deep shit, that''s what. They are slowly advancing towards us, and I saw a huge ass Mordar in the distance. With the army we have here, I don''t know if we can win. I haven''t checked the Dead Forest yet, but I suspect they will make a move too".


    "The Dead Forest will not be a great issue. As for the huge Mordar, I already killed one. I''m not bragging, I know how powerful this thing is. I almost died myself. If that attacked us, we are indeed screwed... Unless we build those new weapons of war". Crow shook his head for a while, then asked "Wait a minute, let''s go back a second. You killed that huge Mordar?". I nodded in reply. "Why am I even surprised?" he asked himself, then continued. "Alright, I will deal with Irsa. Can you build those things though?... Or rather build enough of them?".


    I wasn''t sure, after all what could one guy and a few smiths do alone. I said, "Maybe, the cksmiths are already working on some parts. As you know, I already have the arch or main body of the bow. I will ask Ama and check out Irsa shop for something to toughen the wood. We need arrows¡­ There''s just too much to do, and a few people to do it with... Crow, I have a favour". He replied "Sure, what do you need?". I asked, "Can you take the army, and go to the Dead Forest?". He narrowed his eyes while asking, "You want to get rid of the remaining Mordars there?".


    I replied, "Kind of. I need wood, a lot of it. Ama will require wood for the walls, while I need it for the new weapons. Not only can we exterminate the Mordars still inside the Dead Forest, we can fill up our supply of wood". He nodded, "If that is what you want, I will...". I stopped him, he reminded me of something. "Crow, do you think I''m a bad person?" I asked.


    He was surprised by the question, but answered nevertheless. "No, you help as much as you can. You can be crazy, I know that too well. That doesn''t make you bad though¡­ Why do you ask such a question?". I asked another, "Do you think my methods¡­ are too much?". He sighed while replying, "Sometimes¡­ You can be scary at times, but you value people close to you. I never doubted that... Nex, did something happen? You never asked such questions". I shook my hand while saying, "No it''s fine. Thanks for everything, I know I don''t say that often". He smiled, "We are friends right?". I smiled back and replied, "We are friends".

 Chapter 416

    Chapter 416


    Crow continued, "Get some rest, the cksmiths are already working on the parts. I will take the army out, once I deal with those two. Just take a day of, cool down. I will take care of the rest". I smiled while saying, "It''s fine. I will manage. I still have to notify the soldiers that they are going to the Dead Forest. After all, Harlin told Lizards to listen to me, while Atols came here with me too. Anyway, I will see you around". I then left the basement, and headed straight to Ama. I still needed to finish at least one weapon. When it was done, we could get more people to copy our process. Supervised of course, as I didn''t count on skilled people to simply appear out of nowhere.


    When Ama saw me, she asked "Did you talk with her?". I replied "Talk? She was a spy. Why do you think I left so quickly. Anyway, she''s been taken care of, but I need something from you". Ama was still shocked that a Shade could be a spy. I waved my hand in front of her, calling out her name. She finally woke up, and asked "What do you need?". I said, "I need something to make wood tougher, stronger. I have my doubts the dead wood alone will be enough for our weapon. I prefer to be safe than sorry".


    She nodded and replied, "I have something, but I don''t have much. It''s made from fruits that grow in Apium, but there may be another way to strengthen the wood". I was open to any ideas. "It''s like with the walls. I''m using wood, but rocks go around it. This makes the structure stronger and more resilient. For the weapon, we could use metal strips. This way, we could stop the grain from splitting, and the bow shouldn''t break. Such strips shouldn''t be hard to make either".


    I thought about it, and asked. "Like the rings around barrel?". She nodded "Exactly that. Just make sure you put three or four strips around the arch, and other elements that will be under more stress. It should be fine with dead wood alone, but if you want added strength, that is the solution". I nodded and thanked her. It was a good solution actually, and easy to implement. All that time I thought about normal bows, but the new weapon of war wasn''t just some bow.


    With that, I returned to the cksmiths. I made the strips myself, as to not disturb their work. When the metal strips were ready, I hammered them half cold onto the wood. After a quick cool down, the metal strips dug into the wood, holding it firmly in ce. "Great, this should do it. All that''s left is the tform, and some other bits and pieces. Guys! When will you finish on your side?". The oldest cksmith replied, "Most of the easy stuff is done. We are still working on those release and tension parts. They should be done in two days at most". I nodded, and headed back to work myself.


    A few days passed, and we had all the parts required. Crow also took the army stationed in Sedon, and headed for Dead Forest. I cautioned him, "If you see any signs of trouble, leave immediately. Run, don''t worry about anything else. We can''t lose our army there. If you can''t run, use the Voltic Orb. Don''t try to save it, people are more important than things". He nodded, and left shortly after that.


    Me and the cksmiths on the other hand, took care of the assembly process. The easier parts to assemble, were the big parts. The arch I prepared slid nicely into the tform. The weapon would shoot horizontally, not vertically like a normal bow. Moreover, thanks to the design, the tform was rotatable while the arch itself was stuck to it permanently. This was to eliminate any movements between the arch and the tform it rested upon.


    With that connected, we had to put the tensioning parts into ce. This in itself wasn''t easy. The job was fiddly, and required at least two people. After much trial and error, we finally added those parts in as well. They were hidden underneath the arch as well as the tform. With everything connected, we added a cogwheel, which would turn and tension the string together with the arrow. "Alright. We have the tray, and we have the tensioning parts in ces. Now all we have to do is add the release lever. Remember guys, it has to connect with the arrow block. If the arrow block is not released, the arrow will go nowhere". They nodded, and we proceeded to finalise the design.


    The arrow block served a crucial purpose. It was there to stop the arrow from moving forwards, while we tensioned the string. The metal block would then be released, and pulled downwards, while the arrow would get released forwards. With the new weapon assembled, we had to test it. I made a few arrows just to test the new weapon, but we opted not to shoot at walls. ''Ama would kill us, if we damaged them again'' I thought.


    "Let''s take this to the top of the walls. We can actually test how well this will work in its original ce, and what range it will have". The cksmiths agreed, and we carried it up the walls. Fortunately, one of the improvements Ama did, were the exterior stairs to ess the walls. We carried the weapon atop the walls, then ced it down. "Alright, let''s check if it works!" I said excited.


    We loaded the arrow in, and then used the cogwheel to tensions it. Besides some initial creaks, when we fully tensioned the bow, it no longer creaked. "Who wants to pull the handle?". The cksmiths looked at me, so I pulled. "Bam!", the arrow flew through the air, but not alone. The force behind that shot was so strong, the weapon was about to leave the walls as well. I quickly grabbed it, and pulled with as much strength I had. The cksmiths also helped, and pulled me back in, with the weapon still in my hands.


    "That was close¡­" I said, half scared our new weapon would be destroyed like that. "Hey guys, where is that arrow?" one of the cksmiths asked. We scoured the wastnd in front of us, and finally noticed some dust in the distance. "That''s¡­ How far do you think that is?" the oldest cksmith asked. I looked in awe, and answered absentmindedly "Around 400, maybe 500 metres?". The arrow didn''t simply fly those 400-500 metres, it crashed into the ground producing a small hole. It was small from afar, but in reality, it had around five metres in radius.


    The weapon was really powerful, Ama designed something extraordinary indeed. "We need to make sure to permanently attach them atop the walls. We don''t need them flying off after a single use". They agreed, but we would leave the cement of our new weapons to Ama. There were a few adjustments we would need to make, but that could be taken care of, when the second one was built.


    "Alright, we need to make more, a lot more of them. I will go visit Lerry and Ama. I should be able to gather some people. Although they will not be craftsmen or cksmiths, we can still use some help. With the use of temtes, we should be able to increase production. They will be able to help you guys too. Even the simple task of making Ingots, will save you time". They agreed to that, and returned to work.


    I visited Lerry first. He was very eager toe and help us himself, but I declined. "Just focus on the walls for now. Ama needs you, and I can''t take you away from her. I just need a few people who are not working on the walls right now. Some of them will make ingots, while other carve wood. They don''t need experience, only the will to work and help us out" I said. Lerry nodded, and promised he would organise some help.


    I then found Ama, and told her the good news. "The weapon you designed? Works perfectly well. We already shot from it once, now we will build more of them". She nodded, and replied "That''s great. With those weapons, we have a much stronger defensive line". I continued, "You will have to fix them permanently atop the walls. They are so powerful, the weapon almost flew off the walls when we shot from it. I''m serious, make sure even two of me can''t move it out of its ce". She nodded while replying, "I will think of something. You left that weapon on the wall I suppose?". I replied, "Yes¡­ There is one more thing. This time, it will be something you will like".


    She seemed sceptical, but waited for me to continue. "Well, the new weapon needs a name right? Eterians have Destroyers, while we have... this. You designed it, so you should name it" I said. She was surprised, but in a good way. After a while of thinking, she said. "Give me some time, I want the name to be good". I smiled, and left her to it.


    My next stop was the fields. I showed the Atols there, how to make some weak poison. I also showed them the antidote for it, and checked their progress on the medicine they were supposed to practice producing. They showed me all the bottles, they managed to umte inside the storage. There were around 40 bottles of medicine, all of them were good grade. ''Not the best, but very useful'' I thought. This struck me as a bit weird, so I asked "You didn''t make any mistakes?". They lowered their heads in shame, while one Atols said "No. We only have that much, because we made a lot of mistakes. Around 50 bottles were useless¡­". ''Wow, they went at it rather seriously. Good, this means they want to learn and improve'' I thought.


    I replied, "Don''t worry about it, those herbs grow quickly, so no harm done. Just continue with the poison and medicine. If you want, you can separate yourself. Three of you can be responsible for medicine, while the other three for poison. This way, you will have more experience in one specific category, and improve faster". They didn''t seem to mind the idea, so I continued. "Figure it out between yourselves. I can also see that the construction of our private house has started. That''s good, soon all of you will be able to practice at once". They nodded, and I left them to do my own work.

 Chapter 417

    Chapter 417


    Days slowly passed, as we created more and more weapons of war. Before Crow returned, we had four more weapons at our disposal. Crow''s expedition was a sess. It turned out that the Dead Forest wasn''tprised of Mordars only. Although we had a few loses, it wasn''t anything major. Crow was able to take care of the leftover Mordars without the use of Voltic Orb. This was great news, as we could use it for the impending battle. Additionally, all the soldiers and warriors brought some wood with them. With that, we resupplied ourselves with wood, which should be enough for walls and for the weapons of war.


    Now that the army was back, I utilised them to help us with the weapons of war. After all, we needed to make as many of them as we could. With the use of temtes, a few exnations and general n, we were able to increase production exponentially. While we were at it, I asked Crow to make a trip to Obsidian Mountains. "Do you want to ask the Royal Army for help?" he asked. Iughed at what he said. I was quite certain Lizards wouldn''t send anyone. I wasn''t after their people, but their resources. I said, "No, they will not agree anyway. What I''m after is Ore. We need more Ore, or weapons. Good weapons. Lizards should be alright, their weapons are not that bad. But Atols? Their weapons are still rubbish. We need to upgrade them, and if we can upgrade the Lizards too, it would be great".


    He asked, "Will they just give us some resources though? We are allies and all, but Arrangard will need them too". I replied, "There are a few ways we can get resources. For one, we can threaten them. After all, if Sedon falls, they will have one less ally to fight the war. You can mention Boltier as well, if you choose to go that path. Or you can talk with specific people. Harlin, Lazar and a certain cksmith in Olrad¡­ If he''s still there. I''d say he is not due to his knowledge of sh Blurite Steel. Either way, they should be able to help you out. Harlin will do whatever is in his power to help. I''m not sure about Lazar though. There is one more thing, I will need you to check".


    "What''s that?" he asked. I said, "I need to know if Alicia returned. I''m getting worried about her. I understand that Lunite can be hard to work with, but I''m starting to suspect¡­". He stopped me, and asked "Lunite? Are you telling me you got your hands on Lunite?". I shrugged my shoulders while saying, "It belonged to my family. Anyway, something might have happened to her. She lives at Lazar''s ce, he has a new house in Olrad. He can tell you that himself. If she is there, get my new weapon from her".


    Crow asked "What is she refuses to give it to me?". That could be a problem. I thought about it, then said "Just tell her, my right arm will not be happy about it. She should get the meaning". He nodded, and went to collect a few of his people. I assigned two units of Atols to join him. After all, it was better safe than sorry.


    While Crow and the rest left, I supervised the guys working on the new weapons for a while, but then left. They were doing alright. Besides, the cksmiths could take care of the rest. Instead, I visited Ama. She already fixed the first weapon of war on top of the wall, and even had a name for it. "I want to name it Scorpion. With the arrows so fast and destructive, just like the tail of a scorpion. With your knowledge of medicine, I''m sure you will use some poison on it too. Therefore a fitting name for our new weapon of war".


    I agreed, it was a good name. "We shall call them Scorpions from now on. There are a few more you can fix already, while I''ll be leaving for a while. I want to scout the area, check for enemies and such. You should be alright here". She nodded, and bid me farewell. I left Sedon, and headed directly towards the Mordar Forest. I wanted to scout the enemy myself, and check on their progress. From what Crow said, they were advancing towards us, but slowly.


    A few days away from Sedon, I saw the Mordars over the horizon. ''This is bad indeed. The Dead Forest was nothing inparison'' I thought. The huge Mordar at the back, was bigger than what I faced, at least it looked bigger. The normal Mordars were few in numbers, most of them merged together to make even more annoying opponents. Those fused, were not that big. I estimated that ten of them fused at most, ad as little as three is some cases. The size of Mordar Army though, wasrge. Although they went for quality over quantity, they didn''tck the quantity either. ''From what I see, there are around 260 Mordars, not counting that huge one. Around 210 of them, are merged Mordars...They are serious on getting Sedon¡­ Really serious'' I thought. Our weapons of war, might not be enough.


    Our armyprised of around 130 Atols, and around 240 Lizards. Although bigger numerically, our forces wouldn''t stand a chance against the Army of Mordars. I didn''t count the Shades, but even then we would have serious issues. ''I need fire¡­ ming arrows are not a bad idea, but would they work? With the huge Mordar behind them, I doubt we can win like that, but it''s always something'' I thought and left that ce. Poison could be used too. The problem was, I didn''t have those strong poisonous herbs yet. At the rate those Mordars advanced, I wouldn''t have those herbs for the battle either.


    "We have around two weeks, before they stand in front of our gates. We need to make the most of that time" I said to myself. One army advancing towards Sedon, another camping outside Boltier. If my prediction was right, Golems would attack Obsidian Mountains. Although my actions might''ve been ruthless, we had one less enemy to worry about. ''See Fox? Would you argue with my actions now? Do you think we had to sacrifice Obsidian Mountains first, before attacking Golems?¡­ It''s a shame you didn''t understand'' I thought to myself.


    Now I was sure we needed better weapons. I was sure I needed my weapon, but that was wholly dependant on Alicia. ''We need more than we have. Weck soldiers, weck materials¡­ I''m starting to think that we are fighting a war we already lost'' I thought. I stood in front of a choice as well. I could abandon North, leave and never return. Or I could stay, and fight. I decided to fight. Not because I wanted to y a saviour, but because my friends needed me. "Throughout my life, there were only a few people¡­ and creatures, I could call friends. Crow always helped me. Lazar also helped, even though he had his own bias. Harlin is the same. How could I call them my friends, if I abandoned them now?".


    It was time for me to test some things out. During the battle with the huge Mordar, I noticed some things when I used everything I had at my disposal. More precisely, my Auras were not that simple¡­ No, no Aura was that simple. Auras could create shapes too, it could manifest instead of just affecting people like a wave in the sea. If what I experienced was correct, this was the door to my mastery of Arts. The more I thought about it, the more stuff I realised.


    "That is how Yater was able to create illusions. That is how Irwin tamed his rage, and became a master. That is how Nathan became a hidden weapon himself. The answer to all their skills, is Aura" I said to myself. The Aura that could manifest hidden weapons. The Aura that could manifest illusions. The Aura that could manifest the rage. ''Three Arts¡­ No, four Arts. Four masteries, four ways but one method'' I thought. Something in my mind clicked, when I realised all that. Everything became clearer. Everything made sense. A smile appeared on my face. "So that is the secret of Arts. Humans could practice Arts, because Humans could use Auras" I said to myself.

 Chapter 418

    Chapter 418


    I used to think otherwise, but it seemed that Auras were much more than some fancy methods of affecting an opponent. Auras were part of Humans, and therefore not something that should be dismissed. But, that didn''t mean I became a master. Realising something, and aplishing it, were two different things. While on my way, I tried manipting my Aura. I tried making shapes, I tried materialising or manifesting my Auras. But I couldn''t do it. It wasn''t because it was impossible, it was because Icked something.


    ''Is the requirement to break through? I already experienced the Auras of those that broke though their Half Step. Does that mean, I need to break through too?'' I asked myself. Although my Auras were able to affect the reality in a very slight way, it wasn''t enough. My Auras needed to be stronger, much stronger for me topletely master them. I was a bit disappointed. After all, I thought I had something new. Something that could help me immensely.


    "I can''t simply wish to break through, and it will happen. The Blood Yarn is useless to me now. I could probably try to break through, with the use of Earth Grabbing Sprout¡­ Although the 5th Diagram ispleted now, I''m not sure if I will be able to break through¡­ Maybe if I had the 6th Diagram, it would be different" I said to myself. The 6th Diagram, was thest diagram in that Manual. My knowledge wasn''t enough to modify it. No matter how much I tried, it seemed beyond my capabilities. I missed something more, much more than what my medical knowledge could ount for. ''Maybe I will find out in the future, but for now, there is no way for me to use the 6th Diagram'' I thought.


    After a few days, I made it back to Sedon. Even though I tried breaking through, I didn''t seed. On my way though, I hunted two more Ognars for their tendons. We needed more of them, and I could only retrieve six tendons from each Ognar. Back at Sedon, the production of Scorpions halted, precisely due tock of tendons. I quickly made some medicine, and soaked the tendons inside.


    We had six Scorpions fully assembled, and on the walls. With the additional tendons, we would have twelve more. A lot of parts were ready, therefore the assembly could take ce, after I delivered the tendons to them. I focused on something else though. I had to make arrows. First the wood had to be shaped into shafts,ter we would need to make loads of arrowheads and attach them to those shafts.


    ''I hope that Crow returns with supplies, we are already running dry on Ore'' I thought. The army of Mordars would be here soon as well. Time was not on our side, but we had to manage somehow. We couldn''t give up.


    As soon as Scorpions were assembled, they were transported to the walls. We prioritized the walls that faced the Wilderness, after all that was the direction from which the Mordar Army approached. I was making arrows like crazy, while Atols worked on poison and medicine for the whole city. We worked like this for a few days, and when wecked tendons, I told Lerion to go and hunt some Ognars.


    The walls soon became filled with Scorpions, and when I made over 300 arrow shafts, Crow finally returned from Obsidian Mountains. "What are the news?" I asked. Crow smiled, and replied "Well, you were wrong. Here are our reinforcements". Crow pointed towards the gate, where an army of Lizards marched forwards. Iughed "They agreed? That is great news then. With the additional manpower, we have bigger chances. What about the Ore?". He nodded, and told me not to worry about it. He also mentioned that a few cksmiths came from Aranagard, they would help us with the weapons and whatnot.


    I was really surprised, but it seems Lizards changed their mind. ''This can work now. We could''ve saved a lot of time, if everyone cooperated like this from the beginning'' I thought. With that out of the way, I said "I''ve been outside, and scouted the army of Mordars advancing towards us. They will be here in about a week now. That huge Mordar though¡­ It''s bigger than what I faced. Did you get my new weapon?".


    He shook his head, and asked me to follow him. We went somewhere more quiet, where Crow said "Alicia is still missing. Nex, did you destroy Golems?". I wasn''t even surprised he found out. I replied "Yea, it was me". He grabbed my shoulders, and continued "I''m not judging you. I''m sure you had a reason". I nodded, and said "Golems became our enemies. I know this may seem a bit crazy, but consider this. Vanauts are attacking Boltier. Mordars are attacking Sedon". He realised what I meant, and asked "Golems were supposed to attack Obsidian Mountains?".


    I replied, "Yes. They were running out of the energy source, and Eterians promised them a new source. I have a feeling, the new source was supposed to be that Crystal in Boltier. Moreover, a Golem I knew told me about it. He knew we would be enemies, and with two cities being attacked, Golems would attack Obsidian Mountains. I couldn''t allow that". He replied, "No, you are right. We would be in even deeper shit, if Obsidian Mountains were under siege¡­ Suly is pissed at you though. It might be because of that Fox. I''m not sure what happened between you two, but was that the reason you asked me those questions before?".


    I sighed while replying, "Yea, pretty much. Destroying Golems would appear as ruthless move to anyone. But as you can see, I had my reasons. We would have to fight them anyway, lose more people. If it was inevitable anyway, I decided to get rid of that problem beforehand. She didn''t take it lightly". Crow said, "She was blind in that case. More blind than I was without my eyes. Me, Lazar and Harlin¡­ We know you can make some crazy decisions sometimes, but it was always for the better. We still consider you as our own, we will never abandon you either. You have my word". I grabbed his shoulder, and said "I never doubted you guys. Now, let''s prepare to kick some Mordar asses". He smiled while replying, "Yea, let''s!".


    We returned to the Scorpion assembly area, where the Royal Army waited. Harlin was there, he came over and grabbed my shoulder. "Long time no see. You changed this ce a lot. New weapons, herbs growing everywhere. We are here to give you some help, and from what I know, it is thanks to you we don''t have to deal with Golems. Tell us, how can we help here?". I thought about it, and replied with a smile. "We need to make weapons. Anyone strong enough, can make ingots. While experienced cksmiths will make weapons for Atols, Shades and you guys. We need to upgrade the soldiers as much as it is possible".


    I then turned to Crow, "Bring the Shades who will also defend the city, we need to give them new weapons too¡­ It will be busy, but we can do it". He nodded, and disappeared. I continued, "I will take care of the arrows for the Scorpions. If you guys want to get yourself familiarised with our new weapons of war, they are ced atop the walls. Go have a look, you will be operating them". Harlin and his soldiers went to have a look, while I spoke to the cksmiths. "The workshop is small, but we can set some things outside, and work there. There are only two furnaces, so we will have to share somehow. Take orders from Shades and Atols, as the Lizard weapons are mostly alright. If we have time, we will take care of the Royal Army". They nodded, and went straight to work. I followed them as well, I had to make loads of ingots and arrowheads.

 Chapter 419

    Chapter 419


    The whole city was aware we would get attacked soon. Everyone worked to either make more weapons of war, finish up the walls or help Atols take care of the fields. Even though our private house was almost finished, there was no point for me to nt the herbs now. They wouldn''t grow, besides a lot of buildings might get damaged during the battle. Instead, I worked like crazy to finish those arrowheads. ''A bit over 300 shots might not be a lot, but we don''t have the time to create more really. I still need to make some Extracts, before the battle takes ce'' I thought.


    Crow scouted the enemy army again, and notified everyone that they were about three days away from appearing here. I left the making of arrowheads to other cksmiths, and focused on medicine making. I had to make loads of Extracts from Blood Yarn and Earth Grabbing Sprouts. The stronger soldiers we had, the higher probability we would win.


    The amount of herbs was not that small, but it wouldn''t be enough for everyone. I worked tirelessly for the next two days. With all the blood Yarn and Earth Grabbing Sprout exhausted, I moved on to a more potent poisons and medicines. I had to restock my own supply, and besides just as Ama suggested, I wanted to use the stronger poison for the Scorpions. Of course I wanted to use the fire as well, this time Crow helped with that. He proposed an idea to use mmable oil. The arrows would be dipped in that oil, and shot just before being ignited.


    It wasn''t a bad idea, but I wasn''t sure if the me wouldn''t extinguish due to the speed at which those arrows would travel. It was worth a try, and we loaded one Scorpion to test it. With the arrow dipped in that oil, we lit it and shot it out. "Baam!", The arrow flew through the air, while the Scorpion stayed in ce. That alone was good enough. We looked at the arrow, and the me managed to survive until the arrow hit the ground. "It weakened, but as long as we use enough oil, and hit the Mordars straight on, we should be able to burn them" I said.


    With that, we had the ability to use some poison or fire with our arrows. The next step was to improve our soldiers. I gathered all the Shades, Atols and Lizards who were above average, and distributed both Extracts to them. I told them to take the Blood Yarn Extract first, then take the Earth Grabbing Sprout Extract next. The amount I distributed was not that great though. Everyone got at most ten milliliters of those Extracts, and I could only select a bit over 100 soldiers.


    That was for normal soldiers, there were a few people who I wanted to improve much more. Lerion was one of them. I gave him twenty-five milliliters of both Extracts. He was close to breaking through to his Inner Limits, and I hoped he would break through before the battle. Crow also brought a few of his people. I asked curiously, "Where is that woman Lira?". Crow shook his head, "She is confined. I don''t trust her anymore. I''m not sure whether she is a spy or not". I gave the present Shades some Extracts, and asked Crow to bring me to her.


    He was surprised about that, but agreed nevertheless. We entered the Overseers building, and headed upstairs. There were two rooms on the second floor, that were guarded. We entered the one on the left, where Lira sat. She looked at me with hatred in her eyes, while Crow stood behind me. "You brought him here to torture me as well? I''m not a spy, I never was!" she stated. I asked Crow to give us a minute. He agreed and left the room.


    I sat down on the other chair, and said "You hate me, that much is clear". She replied, "That much I can agree with. I hate you, how you treat people, how you need to control everything". I shook my head, "You don''t know me. You have no idea what I''ve been through, and how my life looked like... Do you know why Crow believes me so much? It''s because he trusts me. He knows me for many years, we''ve been through thick and thin together. Yet all you do is assume. Do you know what would happen if I let Irsa escape?".


    She didn''t reply, just stared at me. I continued, "Eterians would receive the design of our new weapons. They wouldn''t necessarily build them, but they would know how to deal with us. They would be prepared. Irsa tried manipting you, and you fell for it. That is all". She finally replied after a while, "That doesn''t change anything. You still use people like objects. You destroy anything you see fit. Who gave you the right to decide all that?". I thought about it, and replied "You remind me of someone. She also said something like that to me. The answer is, no. No one gave me the right to decide. But the world isn''t fair Lira. I will stop at nothing to defeat my enemies. Yes, it is ruthless, but only thanks to that your city might just survive. Where would your values go, when there was no city and all Shades perished?".


    Before she replied, I continued "I don''t think you are a spy. You are just weak. I also figured why you are so angry at me. It''s not because I treated Irsa the way I did. It''s because of Crow, isn''t it?". Her face changed slightly. I said, "Crow is not my ve, he will never be. I''m not manipting him in any way. He has the right to say no, when I ask him to do something. Do you know why he does it anyway? Even if its dangerous?". She asked "Why?". I replied, "Because he knows it''s necessary. Don''t think that Crow is stupid, he can think for himself. It''s you who can''t. You assumed I was using him, yet he would do the same things without me telling him".


    I let that sink in, before saying "I came here to give you a chance. I once was given a chance too. You can hate me all you want, that is not my concern. My concern is the Mordar Army, which will arrive shortly. We need people, we need strong people to defend this city. Your skills are good, you have the potential. But, if you prefer to sit here, I will leave".


    A while of silenceter, she replied "What is that chance about?". I smiled, and ced two bottles in front of her. "You broke through your Inner Limits right? The red liquid is a blood purifying medicine. There''s thirty-five milliliters in there. The bottle next to it, will increase your strength by a lot. You can take the red one only once in your life". I then stood up, and headed towards the doors. Before I left, I said "You assumed wrong by the way. A lot of soldiers got this, as well as new weapons. Crow received this kind of medicine from me twice. I''m not a monster to my friends, as you paint me to be". I then left the room.


    Crow said, "You seem to believe her more than I do". I replied, "She is not a spy, she is just looking out for you...". I was lost in my thoughts for a while. ''Wasn''t I the same? Didn''t I try to look after someone as well?''. Crow grabbed my shoulder, and asked concerned "Nex, is everything alright?". I woke up from my thoughts, "Yea, why do you ask?". He said, "You never cried before". I touched my cheeks and indeed, I''ve been crying. I smiled, "I''m alright. Memories of the past I suppose. Talk with her yourself, she is not a bad person".


    I then left to find the five Atol leaders. I wanted to hand the leftover extracts to them. I had around a hundred milliliters left, which would mean twenty for each. When I handed them the Extracts, they were very happy and thanked me many times. I said "Mani, n, Eram, Atal and Olip. All of you deserve this medicine. Take it, and try to break through to your Inner Limits. The other medicine is for your strength. Use it when you want to break through, not now". They nodded, and found a spot to drink the Blood Yarn Extract.


    The painful screams resounded through whole Sedon. As if it turned into a ghost city full of pained souls. I couldn''t help everyone with the absorption of the Blood Yarn Extract, but these people were warriors or soldiers. If they went through this, they would be stronger, a lot stronger in the future. ''We should see the Mordars crossing the horizon tomorrow. I have to rest properly, I have to be at the top of my condition for the battle'' I thought.

 Chapter 420

    Chapter 420


    After a proper rest, I walked out of the still unfinished private house. Soldiers were busy preparing for the battle, while cksmiths worked like crazy making orders. The arrows for Scorpions were distributed atop the walls as well. Each Scorpion would have around 28 shots. Not a crazy amount, but if we used it well, we could wipeout the army of Mordars.


    Harlin as always told the soldiers how to attack, and the overall strategies they would undertake. I joined them, and proposed to do as much damage with Scorpions, as we could. Then we would see, and attack if necessary. Crow and other Shades were also gathered in another spot. There were three more Shades who stood next to Crow. ''So they are the other council members'' I guessed. Lira was there too, she stood behind Crow. I could feel her energy was a lot stronger than before. She decided to take my Extracts, and seemed to have reached a simr stage to mine.


    When I walked up to them, Crow asked "I assume we will use those Scorpions first?". I nodded while replying, "Yes, we will do as much damage as we can first. I opted for fire arrows. I think the poison can be more useful to you guys instead. I have a few bottles, which I will distribute to the guys at the walls, but here take the rest of them". I handed Crow most of my poison supply. "With this, you should be able to take care of your injuries. Distribute it as you see fit. As for your forces, those that can use bows, can join others atop the walls. Everyone else waits for the results".


    One of the council members asked, "What are the chances we will win?". I thought about it, and said "60% at most. I have no idea how strong that huge Mordar will be. Although I faced something simr, this one is much bigger". What I didn''t tell anyone, was the crazy length of the roots. Mordars could grow them to a certain extent, therger the Mordar, the longer the roots could be. With that huge Mordar, I was sure he could destroy the whole city from afar. I only hoped they were overconfident, and approached us closer. Close enough to be in range of our Scorpions.


    I left them to do their preparations soon after, and climbed the walls. In the distance, I could already see the huge Mordar moving slowly towards us. ''They are here'' I thought. I found Ama and told her to cease any work for now. Normal people needed to hide away, while only soldiers and warriors should stay outside, defending the city. Lerry wanted to help out too, but I told him to hide as well. "You already helped us a lot. Now it''s our turn to do whatever we can, and destroy our enemies. Although, there is something you can do".


    He asked "Anything, as long as I can help". I nodded, and replied "Go to the six Atols responsible for the fields. They will need to take care of injured people, but six of them might not be enough. Take a few people with you, and help them out when they need help". He nodded and left to join the Atols.


    I then shouted, "The enemy is approaching us! Only warriors and soldiers should stay outside! They rest of you hide, we will take care of the rest!". People retreated to their homes, and closed the doors. Lizards climbed the walls as well, and mounted the Scorpions. Harlin walked over to me and said, "That Mordar is huge indeed. Do you think those Scorpions will work?". I replied, "We will see. Crow has the Voltic Orb, in case we need to blow something up, we can use it as ast resort. Make your soldiers wait for now. There is no need to leave the city, it would be pointless anyway". I threw him a few bottles of medicine, and said "Stay alive Harlin". He nodded, and joined his people.


    Shades appeared on the walls too. I joined them, as I was also able to use a bow. Although our bows might not do much damage to Mordars, we could always act as distraction. Everyone could see the huge Mordar approaching, but no one even took as much as a step backwards. They knew we had to fight, we had to fight and win. With the huge Mordar at the back, smaller Mordars appeared in front of it. There were no Vanauts in sight, which was understandable. They were attacking Boltier at that time. The weird thing was, there were no Furians either. ''Are they that confident? Or do Furians have another job?'' I asked myself.


    It was no longer that important now. "Get ready guys! When I give you the sign, ignite your arrows and shoot at our enemy!". Everyone shouted back "Yes!", as we awaited the Mordars. When the Mordars were just outside of our range, they stopped. For some reason, they didn''t attack. Instead a few people jumped down from the huge Mordar, and headed towards us. "Eterians" I said. They stood in front of the Mordar army, and looked at us. I recognised one of them, it was the guy who destroyed Arangard.


    One of the Eterians stepped forwards, and said "There is no need for you to fight! Drop your weapons, and no one will suffer! No one has to die today!". I knew exactly what they were trying to do. Those few Eterians were trying to influence the minds of soldiers. They wanted to take over the city, without moving as much as a finger. ''Tough luck Eterian, your n will not work'' I thought, and said "Don''t listen to him. Remember the medicine I gave you? Drink it now!". I brought a lot of Serelis back from Apium, and all soldiers received some. Moreover it was in concentrated form, therefore it would work much better.


    All the soldiers, warriors and Shades drank the Serelis I gave to them before the battle, and stood their ground, looking straight at the Eterians. I smiled. ''It seems Serelis works quite well. With so many people, and their calm minds, Eterians can''t manipte anyone'' I thought.


    The Eterians were not happy that their little tricks didn''t work. He shouted again, "That is your choice then!". The Eterians retreated towards the huge Mordar, while their army began advancing again. ''Come,e closer!'' I screamed in my mind. So far the Mordars didn''t use their roots to attack us, and that overconfidence would destroy them.


    When the huge Mordar entered our shooting range, I shouted "Light those arrows, and let them FLY!". "Baam!", "Baam!", "Baam!", "Baam!", "Baam!", "Baam!"... The Scorpions shot our arrows one after the other. Even though Mordars were still over 500 metres away from us, that wasn''t a problem. As long as we tilted the Scorpions upwards a bit, the range got extended.


    "Reload and shoot again!", I screamed, while shooting my own bow. A rain of arrows flew towards Mordars. All those arrows were dipped in oil and set ame, just like the Scorpion''s arrows. "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!"... The screeches filled the air, as Mordars died or were set on fire. The huge Mordar finally acted, as hundreds of roots resurfaced creating a wall protecting the smaller Mordars below.


    "Don''t stop shooting! Tilt the Scorpions up a bit more!" I shouted, while hiding my bow, and running towards Crow. "Crow, give me the Voltic Orb". He asked stunned "Don''t tell me you want to go there?". But before I could reply, I heard a loud "Boom!" behind me. One of the roots mmed into the walls, destroying one of the Scorpions and killing a few people. I shouted, "Continue shooting! Take the injured away from the wall!".


    I said to Crow, "Someone has to go there. I dealt with it once, I know its weaknesses. You have to continue shooting, and give me support from walls". Crow handed me the Orb, and said "I''m going with you. I''m not asking either". I nodded and jumped forwards. The walls were pretty tall, but I could use them to my advantage still. When I was close to the ground, I kicked the wall andunched myself horizontally. "Boom!" Inded outside the city walls. Another "boom!" sounded behind me, then one more.


    ''Hmm?'' I turned around wondering who was the third person. When I saw her, I understood. "Let''s go guys". As we began running, another root mmed into the wall. "BOOM!", "ARGHH!". Painful screams resounded through the air. "Quickly, we don''t have much time!". Not only did we have a limited amount of arrows, the huge Mordar was already fighting back.

 Chapter 421

    Chapter 421


    While we ran towards the wall of roots, I said "The huge Mordar''s weakness is in his roots and branches. The further he extends them, the harder it is for him to retract them. This will allow us to get close. His weak point is the huge eye in the middle. We need to destroy it". Lira asked, "How are we going to get past those roots though?". I replied, "That is something I will take care of¡­ Dodge!". I quickly jumped to the side, while both Crow and Lira jumped to the other. "BOOM!". A root smashed the ground from above.


    "I will make an opening! Follow me closely, he can recover and rece those roots quickly!". We sped forwards, while I condensed the Power of Ice in my right hand. Fortunately the power returned, otherwise we would need to use brute force. "Bam!", "Boom!". The roots smashed around us like thick whips, shattering the ground. I threw the ball of mist at one section of the roots, and shouted "Get ready!".


    We were around thirty metres away from the wall, and the roots were about to smack us into the ground. But before they could, my ball of mist arrived and froze a whole section. "Shing!". I immediately released my Auras, and shattered the frozen roots. But this was not enough. Ten daggers appeared around me, and Iunched myself forwards with a spin. "Art of Hidden Weapons: Aura Rotary Form!". A domain of des cut through whatever was left of the roots, and we made it past the wall.


    One the other side, an army of smaller Mordars awaited us. "Don''t mingle with those Mordars too much! We need to take down that monster there!" I shouted while pointing at the huge Mordar. A plethora of roots and branches flew our way, but Crow and Lira could easily dodge them. Their bodies changed to either a shadow or a dark smoke, and moved past the roots. I on the other hand, utilised my Art of Stealth and disappeared too.


    Some roots and branches gave us trouble still, mainly due to the sheer number of them. Then the world began warping. ''Eterians are making their move'' I thought, and quickly drank Serelis. With my mind calm, I had a better chance of resisting those illusions. Advancing became difficult nevertheless. Some Mordars were hidden by those illusions, Crow seemed alright, but Lira had some difficulties coping.


    "Crow, help Lira out a bit, I can manage by myself!". The dark smoke enveloped Lira who appeared outside of a Mordar''s shadow. I took out my Razor Sword, and joined them while activating the Formation. "Vooom!", the sword sprung to life. I got in front of Crow and Lira, and said "I''ll make way, follow me". While appearing and disappearing, I cut those roots and branches like butter. Screams filled the air, as Mordars were either chopped in half or had their roots trimmed.


    We had a few situations where I had to take a hit, as there was no other way around it. I tried blocking as much as I could, but the damage was mounting up. My bones began creaking from the powerful ps, but we finally made it past the smaller Mordars. "Last stretch! The huge Mordar will try to smash us to pieces, look out for the roots and branches. I can see that the Eterians are starting to move as well" I said.


    Crow replied, "I can take care of Eterians, you two can deal with the huge Mordar". I wanted to take him up on that offer, when I noticed something. No, I noticed someone. I stopped in my tracks, and stared ahead. Crow and Lira stopped too, while Crow asked "What''s going¡­?". He saw her too.


    "Crow, take the Voltic Orb and go. Destroy the eye with its use. I will join you as soon as I can" I said. He grabbed the Voltic Orb and Lira, while saying "Let''s go". She was confused, but didn''t ask anything. I sighed and slowly walked towards Fox, while taking off my own mask. "Why are you here? Of all ces, you must be here?" I asked. I didn''t want to believe it. After all, Eterians were good at illusions. But I was certain it wasn''t an illusion, Crow would''ve said something.


    Fox replied, "I''m here to stop you. You''ve done enough". She then disappeared, and I could feel multiple attacks heading towards me. I utilised my Art of Stealth too while asking, "Why did you join Eterians? Are you under their control?". There was no answer. Instead, a dagger appeared next to me. I sidestepped, and threw a punch to my right. I hit nothing, but I knew Fox was somewhere near me


    ''No other choice'' I thought, and gathered the Power of Ice in my hand. When it was condensed enough, I mmed my hand into the ground. "Freeze!". The area around me froze, while a figure faintly appeared to my left. Fox had her legs stuck in ice, and couldn''t move. "Wake up Fox, Eterians are controlling you!" I said while walking towards her. She struggled, "Y..Yes¡­". I tried grabbing her, but it was just a clone, a puff of smoke that disappeared into nothingness. My instincts screamed at me, but it was toote.


    A dagger already struck my back. "Ungh" I grunted. "Die, Dark Traveller", she said with enough killing intent to suffocate some people. I distanced myself from her. The dagger still stuck in my body, I could feel my energy being drained. ''Poison'' I thought, and took out some antidote. I wasn''t sure how strong that poison would be, and which antidote would work, but I had to take something.


    Just as I was about to drink it, my instincts screamed again. I jumped upwards, and quickly gulped down the antidote. Before I could evennd, something smashed me from behind, and I crashed into the ground. "Urgh", another grunt left my mouth. I tried picking myself up, yet another strike smashed me back to the ground. ''Shit. The antidote is working, but only a bit. It will slow down the poison from spreading, but didn''t remove it'' I thought. I quickly used the Blink Formation, and appeared dozens of metres away. With a few taps, I sealed some of my own blood cirction channels. ''My strength will suffer due to this, but at least the poison will not spread'' I thought.


    I could control my body perfectly, but the poison was weird. It wasn''t killing me, it was making me weaker. I took out some medicine, and quickly drank it. Just before another dagger appeared in front of my face. I wanted to release both of my Auras, but then nothing happened. I only had enough time to lean backwards, yet that wasn''t enough. "Swoosh!", the dagger ripped through my armour, and wounded me slightly. I stumbled backwards, trying to find my footing. There was a problem though.


    ''That poison, it sealed my Auras!'' I realised. I never heard of such poison, no Human developed such thing, this was developed to fight Humans specifically. Fox appeared in front of me, and said "Your struggle is futile. This will be your grave". Although this might looked like she had an upper hand, she overestimated herself. Just as she was about to deliver the strike, my Blink Formation became usable again. I disappeared for that ce, while appearing behind her. With my right hand, I punched her. "Booom!".


    Fox grunted and flew through the air, while half of her back froze. I quickly took out another antidote, and then another. But no antidote worked. ''Shit, I have nothing on that. It''s a poison I never encountered before'' I thought. Fox tried to pick herself up, but I didn''t let her. With a strong push, I smashed her back into the ground. I grabbed my back and took out the dagger. I wasn''t surprised to see, that it was made by me.


    A sudden voice sounded behind me, "It''s not nice to treat your friend like this". I didn''t turn around to look. Instead, I tapped a few of Fox''s pressure points. I needed to make sure she didn''t pick herself up again. With Fox taken care of, I said "You got some balls to appear in front of me again, Eterian". The guy wasn''t really perturbed at all, he just stood there with a smile. "Did you like my present? I have one or maybe even two more". I heard a loud howl in the distance, and saw te running towards us.


    The Eterian continued, "You know, that was quite ruthless on your part. Destroying Varent was not nice. We want to pay you back a bit more for such service". I sneered, "You got me with that new poison though. I wonder how you managed to produce it?". He smiled, "It''s good, isn''t it? Purpose made for you Humans. Without your Auras, you are as weak as you can be. I''m sure you have more questions, but te is really happy to y with you. I won''t make him wait any longer". He backed off, while te stood between us. I could use my Blink Formation, but I knew the Eterian wasn''t stupid. He distanced himself just outside of my range. Even if I tried something, I was sure he had a n B. ''It seems I need to fight te then. I hope this poison doesn''tst long'' I thought.

 Chapter 422

    Chapter 422


    te rushed at me, with speed I was barely able to keep up with. ''Just what the hell is that dog'' I thought, as I began stepping backwards. Utilising my Natural Path skill, I moved in difficult to predict patterns, yet te was able to keep up. I took out my Bastard Sword, and activated the Formation. The weight made me slow down, but I only needed one hit against te. It had to get close, otherwise it wouldn''t attack either. ''An eye for an eye'' I thought and braced myself.


    te finally arrived, and its stone mouth opened to bite me. I extended my right hand, and willed the Power of Ice to appear. te mmed into me while biting my arm. I slid backwards and released a cry, "ARGH!... Freeze!". te''s mouth formed ice crystals, and then froze. I ripped my arm away, which had a few holes from te teeth. With my left hand, I swung the sword down. "Booom!". te crashed into the ground, unable to move anymore. The force behind that strike was so great, te''s body showed cracks all over. It was still alive, but not able to fight anymore.


    The Eterianughed, "Wow, you still have so much strength, even though your Auras are sealed. A really tough bastard, aren''t you?". I hid my sword, and turned towards him. I froze on the spot, while he continued "I told you, I have one more present for you. You seem to care a lot about this Fox person. I wonder why?". He was holding Fox in front of him, with a sword in his other hand.


    Even though my Auras were sealed, I could still feel anger, hatred and desire to destroy him. "Put her down Eterian". With a smile on his face, he replied "Oh... Did our little Human fall in love?". There was nothing more in this world, that I wanted at that stage. I wanted to maim that Eterian, torture him for eternity. "Put. Her. Down!".


    "Swoosh!", "Ungh! Cough¡­ Cough". "I''m sorry, my hand must have slipped. But don''t worry, you can join her soon as well. You can be together, isn''t that great?". He dropped her body to the ground, while I stared in shock. "You know, war is like this. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose" he said. I slowly walked towards Fox''s body, my mind nk. "I''m not a monster Human, you can enjoy your final moments together. Besides, I will not be the one to finish you of". He walked away, but I couldn''t care less about that now.


    I dropped on my knees in front of Fox. ''Medicine, I need medicine'' I said to myself. I grabbed the strongest medicine I had, and poured it into her wound, by the look of it, her heart might''ve been pierced, and she was dying with each passing second. "Don''t die on me,e on...". I poured another bottle of medicine, then one more.


    I grabbed her mask, but her hand suddenly stopped me. "N..Nex?". I said, "Everything is fine, everything will be alright". She continued, "I''m¡­ I''m sorry. I¡­ ". I stopped her, "No, it''s alright. Everything is fine". She continued, "This¡­. This is¡­ the end for me. I didn''t¡­ I didn''t want it¡­ to end like this. I''m sorry¡­ I love you". She pressed something into my hand, then stopped talking... moving. I tried another bottle of medicine, but she wouldn''t start moving again. I didn''t even notice when my tears began falling.


    "No, I can''t ept that¡­ I can''t lose you as well". My memories of her shed in front of me. The first time I met her, the time we fought in the Arena. The time we spent together travelling and living in the Imperial City. I knew about it a long time ago, yet I pushed those feelings away. I loved her for a long time, yet I never had a chance to tell her. I opened my hand, and saw the ne she gave mest time.


    "Time to die¡­ Human", the voice of huge Mordar sounded in my ears. As my instincts screamed at me to move, I didn''t. "You will regret this Eterians¡­". I raised my hand up, and stopped the root flying at me. "BOOM!". The ground caved in, while I stood up holding the root. "Freeze". "Crickle¡­ Shing!... Crack!". The whole root froze and shattered. An Aura deep inside me awakened like never before. No poison could stop me now, nothing in this world mattered to me anymore.


    I walked forwards slowly, as the roots of the huge Mordar tried mming into me. To no avail, before they could evene close, they were obliterated. The Eterian who happily walked toward the huge Mordar, noticed themotion behind. I saw panic on his face. "Art of Stealth: Illusionary Step". I disappeared from that ce, and three of me appeared next to each other advancing towards the Eterian. "Impossible! You are not any normal Human. Those eyes! You monster!" he screamed.


    I extended my hand forward, and motioned it upwards. "Art of Hidden Weapons: Sleeping de Forest". Suddenly, hundreds of Aura daggers appeared from underneath the ground, and shot upwards. "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!"... The Eterian had nowhere to hide. He was impaled by the daggers created from my Aura, and died instantly. I didn''t stop though, with my illusionary clones on each side, I took out the Razor Swords and connected them. "Vooom!", "Voom!", "Voom!". Three hums reverberated through the air, as I made my way towards the smaller Mordars defending the huge Mordar.


    Screeches sounded left and right, as I murdered the Mordars on my path. I then heard someone scream, "Take care of him! Don''t let him get here!". More thick roots flew my way, like whips trying to squat an ant. "Art of Hidden Weapons: Stringless Aura Form". Hundreds of Aura daggers appeared around me, as I raised the storm slicing the rootsing my way.


    Before I arrived at the huge Mordar''s main body, I heard a loud "BOOOM! ZIIIT!" and felt a lot of electrical energy being released. When I looked up, I saw the damage Voltic Orb caused to the huge Mordar. His eye was damaged, and barely holding up. While his branches were burned and scattered with the wind. The Mordar released an ear piercing screech, while two figures fell from the top of the Mordar.


    It was Crow and Lira, and from the looks of it, none of them looked great. I disappeared for that ce, and quickly made my way towards them. With a strong jump, I caught both of them mid air, andnded with "Boom!". Both Lira and Crow had an arm missing, Crow''s left arm was gone, while Lira''s right arm was gone. I poured poison on both their wounds, then tapped a few of their pressure points.


    "You did great guys. Let me take care of the rest". Crow smiled weakly, "Go¡­ Finish them off". I left them there, and looked up again. "The Dark Traveller! A monster of a Human, those eyes prove who you really are! No wonder we had so many problems with you. Great Mordar, kill that Human at any cost! He can''t be allowed to live!". The Mordar replied, "Help me out¡­ You fools!".


    I no longer feared those roots, those people were mine to reap their lives. "Swoosh!", I disappeared from that ce, and climbed the huge Mordar who elevated itself. The roots tried attacking me, but no root could ever locate me anymore. The Eterians attacked as well. They tried those illusions, but I already saw through them. They were not as strong anymore, they were afraid of me.


    I destroyed the roots on my way, cut anything into pieces. Wherever I passed, I left a trail of destruction and death. The Eterians realised I couldn''t be stopped, so they tried escaping. "Futile attempt. Art of Hidden Weapons: Stringless Aura Form". Hundreds of daggers appeared around me, as they flew towards the Eterians. This Form was no longer normal, the range was not simple five or ten metres, I could throw and retrieve my daggers at a distance of 50-100 metres. I called it stringless, because the strings were made from my Aura. They tried defending, but their bodies were not as strong as those of a Human. They relied on illusions and maniption, and although they had ess to their abilities,bat was not their forte. "Boom!","Boom!", "Boom!", "Boom!"... My Aura daggers punched a multitude of holes in each Eterian trying to flee.


    The voice of huge Mordar sounded again, "We surrender... Human! Let us leave... We will not attack you again!". I appeared in front of his eye, and replied "No one will walk away from here alive. Nothing will survive, not even your seed". I raised my hand up, as hundreds of daggers destroyed the eyes of the huge Mordar. This was the end of Mordar Army. The battle was over. My body felt heavy, and my Aura disappeared. I was tired, I felt like I overused my strength multiple times. I no longer had the strength to stand, and fell face first onto the roots. The huge Mordar began falling down, I fell with it. "Booom!", the Mordar crashed into the ground, and all its roots became lifeless. Thest thing I heard was some familiar screams, and more Mordar screeches.

 Chapter 423

    Chapter 423


    I don''t know for how long I was out. It seemed like an eternity to me. When I finally opened my eyes, I noticed wooden ceiling and walls. I tried picking myself up, but my whole body pulsated with pain. ''I''m alive¡­ But so what?'' I asked myself. We won the battle, but so what? What victory meant to me, when I lost more than I was willing to lose. Iid there thinking about everything that happened. "Hey, you woke up" Crow said.


    I kept my eyes on the ceiling, and replied "Yea¡­". Crow seemed hesitant about something, but he finally said "About Fox, she is alive". My body moved by itself, and I tried to stand up, but I was too weak. Crow grabbed my shoulder while saying, "Hey,y down alright?". I demanded "Take me to her", even though I wasn''t able to stand. Crow held me down while saying. "She is alive, but in a poor state. Lay down, you can see herter. Thatrge stone dog is there too. It tried to protect her, when we scoured the battlefield. Rest for now".


    I didn''t try to get up anymore, and sighed internally. "How''s your arm?" I asked. Heughed, "It''s gone. It seems I have some luck when ites to losing my arms. Lira though¡­ She doesn''t want to admit it, but I know it was a hard blow to her". I replied, "I will attach new arms for you guys when I get better. As for the arms? Irsa has one more, right?". He shook his head "It''s fine, you don''t have to go around collecting people''s arms, to rece mine. Anyway, the damages to the city were rather severe, but we won. The Mordars mostly perished, and we don''t have to worry about them. They shouldn''t be able to produce another huge Mordar anytime in the future".


    I thought about it, then said. "Eterians might attack again, this time using a different tactic. Do you recall seeing any Furians on that battlefield?". Crow narrowed his eyes, and asked "You think that Eterians will return soon?". I replied, "Yes, since they fear me so much now. The Mordars that escaped, they will notify Eterians sooner orter. They will know what happened and they will do anything to remove me. This war¡­ It has just begun".


    A slight pauseter, I continued. "Make sure the walls are being repaired. Instruct people to make more Scorpions, and tell Ama to visit me. I have an improvement for the walls". He nodded, and was about to leave, but I stopped him. "Tell Harlin toe over as well, I want to talk with him about something that''s been bugging me for a long time". Crow left, while I collected my thoughts. ''They were overconfident with the Mordar Army, but now they are aware of everything. We need to remove the danger from Boltier too'' I thought. I wanted to send Harlin and most of the soldiers there, but I also wanted to ask a few things of him. Things about Alicia in particr.


    Both Ama and Harlin took their time. Ama was first to arrive though. "You wanted to see me? You don''t look so good" she said. I gave her a slight smile, then replied. "I will manage somehow. Either way, I have an idea for the wall improvement. How damaged are the walls?". She replied almost instantly, "Very. The damages to the northern and eastern walls are¡­ severe. Out of all the Scorpions we had, only three managed to survive". I nodded lightly and continued, "You have a lot of work in front of you, but you also have the ability to design from the ground up. My design is simple, yetplicated. What I want you to do, is create rooms inside the walls. Those rooms would house the Scorpions, and we canyer those rooms one above the other. With the height of the walls in Sedon, we can easily create three floors. With that, we could fit three times as many Scorpions on each wall".


    He eyes lit up, and she asked herself quietly. "Why didn''t I think of that?". The answer was rather simple. I said, "Because you never saw the Human Empire. The walls of the Imperial City are hollow on the inside. Archers can stand there and shoot, while being protected by the walls. They have Formations too, but I''m sure you can''t do that". She nodded while saying "There are a few Formation practitioners inside Sedon, but for such a project, we would require a few masters in the least". That was correct, and because masters were scarce, it wasn''t a viable option in the short run. I continued, "I didn''t propose that before, due tock of time, and it would require a lot of modifications to the existing walls. Now that the walls are destroyed, we can implement such an idea. Can you do that?".


    She murmured to herself a bit more, then replied. "Yea, I have an idea. Obviously, we still need to make the walls thick. Since there will be hollowed out sections in the middle, we need thick walls to protect the other side. I have some ideas, I will go to work immediately". She left quickly, seemingly very excited about this new challenge. A whileter Harlin came by. He asked, "How do you feel?". I replied with a slight smile, "I''ve been better. Harlin there are a few things I need to find out. I also want you to take the Army, and destroy the enemy camp near Boltier".


    He nodded, "We thought about Boltier too. We need to help them out, and I was already nning to go there next. With Mordars gone, we should be fine for a while here". I was already sceptical about that, and said. "Not entirely, but do take the army and leave for Boltier". He asked confused, "What do you have in mind?". I continued, "Eterians will return, and they will return sooner than you might think. They need to get rid of me, I already folded their ns too many times. But there is another reason, they fear me. It seems I''m not just any normal Human in their eyes".


    He asked, "Shouldn''t we stay here in that case? From what I know, Boltier is holding up for now". I shook my head slightly, "No. Go help them, and take the medicine with you. When you go to the Atols making medicine, I want you to give them a recipe for antidote. Where are my things?". Harlin grabbed the bag, and ced it next to me. I took out some paper and coal. I wrote down a medium strength antidote, which should help Lizards fight the poison that Vanauts use.


    I passed him the paper, and said "As soon as you get enough bottles of antidote, move out". He nodded, then asked "You mentioned something else. What did you want to know?". I replied, "This has been bugging me for a while now, but you might know. Where are the other Grey Lizards?". Harlin wasn''t really shocked by the question, yet he still asked. "How do you know there are more?". I snorted, "Do you think I''m an idiot? Just because they were chased away, that doesn''t mean they died off. We could use their help". He shook his head, "I don''t know where they hide, all I know is that it''s somewhere underground. I doubt they would help us anyway. They didn''t really reveal themselves this long, and I don''t think they wish to do that now".


    I asked, "What about Alicia?". He replied, "Alicia is a sort of messenger¡­ At least in a sense. She wouldn''t pass our messages to her people, she lives outside to gain information and rely them to her people. A sort of spy, but not a spy at the same time. She is not trying to pry any secrets, she only reports the overall situation from the outside. How? I don''t know, through Formations would be my guess. You might not know that, but Grey Lizards are really good with Formations".


    I asked another question, "Do you think Eterians know their whereabouts?". He replied, "That is impossible. We don''t know, no one knows really. I''d even go as far as to say that Hatmandor is not aware where they are located. They hid themselves a long time ago, so long they were mostly forgotten". I asked myst question, "Did Alicia return? She was supposed to get my new weapon". He shook his head, "I don''t know. Maybe, or maybe not. I can send someone to check on that". I nodded, "Please do¡­ How''s¡­ How''s Fox?".


    He sighed, "She is barely alive. She was wounded in her heart, but the wound healed. I guessed it was your doing, with the medicine you can make, no one else should be able to achieve such effect". He hesitated for a while. I knew he wanted to say something, so I asked "What is it?". "We removed her mask and... I don''t think she waspletely honest with you". I replied, "Doesn''t matter now. When she is ready, she will take it off. I know she is not an Eterian". He nodded, "No, she is not". I continued, "Then that is enough for me. I have onest favour".


    "As long as it is in my power, I will do it". I nodded and said, "Take her away from here. Away from me. Take her to Olrad, let her recover there". He nodded, "I will arrange for her to be moved there¡­ What about that stone dog? It''s quite aggressive towards others, and protects her". I asked "te? Take him with her. Let him protect her. After all, it is thanks to her that te is alive". He nodded, and left. I had to recover, I had to recover as quickly as I could.


    ''I need to leave this ce as well. I don''t know how strongly Eterians will desire my death, but as long as I''m not here, they will search somewhere else'' I thought. Although I wouldn''t be there to help them, Sedon already had people who were helping a lot. Ama and the other Atols, together with Crow and Harlin. ''They should be alright without me'' I thought.

 Chapter 424

    Chapter 424


    The process of my recovery was not that long. When I recovered enough energy, I used it to repair my body. I didn''t want to overuse medicine, so I took it very moderately. Fortunately, Eterians didn''t arrive throughout that time. Fox was also moved to Obsidian Mountains. That ce had much less chances of being attacked. Harlin left for Boltier, while Crow visited me regrly. As soon as I got better, I asked him for the arm I cut off of Irsa.


    He told me not to worry, but I insisted, and told him to bring Lira. Crow return with Lira and the arm shortly after. I had to "trim" the arm to fit Lira''s, but that wasn''t a problem. As long as I had the other arm for reference, it was quite easy at this stage. She was scared of me doing anything to her, but Crow reassured her that I was the best doctor he ever saw. After preparing some poison, I started the procedure. It wasn''t any different from Crow''s procedure, and I had experience doing that already.


    About an hourter, her new arm was properly attached. "Don''t try to use your arm for a while now. Keep it stiff and let it properly heal". She nodded while thanking me, but then asked. "What about Crow? Can you not fix his arm?". I smiled, "I need an arm for that. He asked me not to go hack people''s arms off for him, and I don''t know anyone who deserves such thing. I can''t do itter either, the nerves can die off, and he will never be able to use this arm again. If you want me to fix it, I can, but I need an arm". She stood up, and replied "I will get you an arm". Crow tried to stop her, but I must say he did a half assed job at that.


    I smiled, "You had the ability to stop her, yet you didn''t. I don''t know who will be the lucky guy, that will lose his arm". Crow sighed, then replied "I know. Lira was in difficult situation before she joined me. The other Shade was stronger than her, and abused her. Now that she is stronger, she will try to get his hand". I asked curiously, "And you are going to stand there, waiting?". He replied with a snort, "She is also stronger than me. I''m only at about her level, because of you. Not only due to the medicine, but also your tips. I focused on my training more, that is why there are such results".


    I nodded while saying, "I will be leaving soon. I know there might be more spies inside Sedon, but we can make use of Irsa". Irsa was caught, and Crow kept the gates closed after that. No one was able to leave alone, only inrger groups. This was to prevent spies leaving. The groups were also assigned by the council, not chosen by Shades. That was why, no one could rm Eterians before the battle. He asked confused, "What do you mean?". I replied, "Eterians want me dead, and I mean it. I have two choices as well. I can leave or stay inside Sedon. In case of theter, Eterians will concentrate their forces on Sedon, because they don''t need to search for me. The former option, is a bit different". He asked, "In what sense?".


    I continued, "Well, there are two possible oues when I leave. One, they still attack you guys with full force. Or two, they attack you, but they also search for me. This means their forces would be divided. That is why I want to use Irsa". He nodded, but asked something else. "I sort of don''t get it. Why would they be after you so much? I understand that you folded their ns a few times, but would they divide their forces just for you?". I replied, "If what I saw is correct, I will be their priority. I also know why, but I myself wasn''t aware my nature¡­ my Aura was so special".


    I continued, "In the past, someone told me I had an unyielding will. The Aura that awakened inside me, it''s like I was born with it. Not something I learned, like other Humans. The Unyielding Aura, they fear it. I know why as well. From the disy alone, you should too. Besides, they actually poisoned me. Eterians created a poison, which could seal my Auras¡­ All Human Auras, except one. At least one, but judging by the shock on their faces, there shouldn''t be others".


    Heughed, "I knew you were not an ordinary guy, but this? So you want to leave, but where will you go?". I grinned, "I want to find Grey Lizards". Crow tilted his head, "Grey Lizards? Like that Alicia, or Suly?". I replied, "Yes, exactly like them. You might not know, but Alicia and Suly are not some freaks. They are Lizards, and highly intelligent Lizards at that. Why am I confident in saying that? Because they delve into Formations. Before Suly met Alicia, she never experienced Formations. Now, she can do so many things with them. Sure Humans, Shades and whoever else might have some talented people, but I don''t believe that to be the case".


    He asked confused, "Why?". I continued, "Because if you take any odd Shade or Human, the chances are they have no talent for Formations. I believe that Grey Lizards are not like that. I believe all Grey Lizards have aptitude for Formations and knowledge. I also think that this was one of the reasons Royal Lizards banished them. If I manage to find them and get their help, we can destroy Eterians. Scorpions? Picture those things shoot out fireballs, not arrows".


    He asked stunned, "Are they that amazing?". I replied, "Those are my spections. I don''t know how many of them are there, and what they are able to do exactly. But even Harlin told me they are damn good with Formations. I also know they are hiding underground". Heughed, "That narrows it¡­ Do you want to go around digging?". I shook my head while replying, "No, I need the old knowledge. Oldest written stuff of the North. I will visit cities along the way for sure, but I will try to find other clues elsewhere. For one, the Ruins of Ravan might provide some answers".


    Crow looked at me seriously, "You are aware that this ce is home to Vanauts?". I replied, "Vanauts don''t give a shit about such knowledge. Besides, I know of a way to¡­ Let''s just say walk around that ce unnoticed. I never wanted to use it, but if I have no choice, so be it". Crow asked what it was, and I simply told him I would be a Vanaut. He was confused, but I didn''t want to go into details. This was Nathan''s skill, the ability to skin any adult Human to wear their skin. Unfortunately for me, I was able to go a step further, and even wear the skins of humanoid creatures.


    That was thanks to my master in energy and body control. I could change my shape a bit, to amodate some races. Vanauts, were one of those races. Vanauts came in two or three different forms. Some were straightened upwards, just like Humans, but had the head and bodies of a rat. Others had more of a t faces, like hamsters. Although they were a bit hunched, they would serve their purpose.


    I didn''t visit Ruins of Ravan in the past, this ce was totally unknown to me. Crow asked, "What if you don''t find anything? I mean it would be great if you did, but what if you don''t? What do we do then?". I replied, "Do think I will be simply walking there, doing nothing? I need toplete the masteries of my Arts. Now that I broke through, there is nothing stopping me. That is the second purpose of me leaving".


    Crow was about to ask something, when the doors opened. "I have the arm". I replied jokingly, "It''s the wrong one". She didn''t buy it though, and replied "Yea, nice try. Anyway, can you repair his arm now?". I nodded, and grabbed the arm from her. "The guy was a bit more muscr than you Crow. Fitting that will be a pain". Irsa and Lira had simr body dimensions, which wasn''t a problem matching those arms.


    But when the arm was thick, and Crow was thin¡­ It wouldn''t be easy to match them, it would look¡­ weird. "I can give it a try, but I promise nothing" I said, and invited Crow to sit down.

 Chapter 425

    Chapter 425


    It wasn''t easy to rece that arm. The connection looked rather weird, and because most of Crow''s arm was gone, I couldn''t really sculpt the new arm well. The results were, rather weird. His shoulder looked a bit thinner, but his arm was thicker. Comparing his both arms, it didn''t look right. "That''s the best I can do, with the arm I got. It should work in the future, but how well it will work¡­ That I don''t know. You might find it weird at first, but you should get used to it. After all, you got used to your new eyes".


    Crow didn''t reallyin. He knew he would be left without an arm, if I wasn''t there. I then told him about my ns concerning Irsa. "As I said, I want to use Irsa to our advantage. It may seem weird what I''m about to say, but I want you to let her escape. But before that, I need you to make it clear to her that I left this ce. Of course not directly. Make it so that she can hear the news, while you discuss something with another person. You can figure this stuff out yourself". Crow wasn''t even surprised, he said "I get the idea. You are hoping that Eterians divide their forces. Irsa is not a threat, therefore releasing her will not be a problem. Besides, without her arm, she is basically useless". That was true, she was an archer. An archer needs two arms in order to wield a bow, now she couldn''t do that anymore.


    With that taken care of, I left them to their own stuff. I still had a few things to take care of. Atols needed two or three more recipes for poison and medicine. I also wanted to give them one or two more antidote recipes, and make some medicine for myself. Fortunately, our private house waspleted. There were no windows, and all doors had locks. Special rooms were designed to house the fields, on which I would nt the rare herbs from Apium. The six Atols had their own personal rooms, and although small, it would be enough for them.


    With the new recipes in hand, I showed them how to care for rare herbs. I wouldn''t be around to take care of them myself, and those herbs were quite crucial. With their help, I would be able to create the strongest medicine and poison I could. They picked up on the knowledge quickly, after all they were farmers. A day or soter, I finished my own medicines, poisons and whatnot, then left Sedon. I headed for Boltier first. Not only in order to find out the knowledge of old, but also to check up on Harlin and the states of the conflict there.


    On my way, I experimented with my Auras. Due to the Unyielding Aura awakening, the poison was gone. I wasn''t sure whether the poison would stay long in my system, or stop working after a while. Fortunately, I was able to use my Auras after the recovery. There was something else as well. Due to the¡­ recent events, I broke through my Half Step, and became a part of an elite group of all races. I wasn''t invincible by any means, there was always a sky above the sky. Although my strength improved a bit, the biggest difference were my Auras. I could now manifest my Auras, just like I did during the Sedon Battle.


    The degree to which I could achieve that, differed. I might''ve touched the mastery in Arts during the battle, but my other Auras were not able to replicate those effects. ''Besides the basic manifestation of my Auras, I can''t use such attacks at this stage. I need to hone my Auras and get more used to the new methods'' I thought. Most of what I did during that battle, was instincts. Now, I had to do it by myself. From my experimentation, I was able to create three Aura Daggers. This number might seem abysmalpared to what I did in the past, but my Domineering and Bloodlust Auras were much, much weaker than the Unyielding Aura.


    ''This should be no surprise, but with time, I should be able to at least reach simr heights'' I thought. Of course, if I could use my Unyielding Aura any time I wanted, I would have ess to such strength straight away. I familiarised myself with my Auras a bit more, before I arrived in the Voltars territory.


    The war, it was visible almost everywhere one walked to. The camp that used to belong to Vanauts, was all scorched and destroyed. mes raging from one temporary tent to another. Loads of Lizards stood in the vicinity of the camp, as it burned. I walked up to them, and asked "All done?". One of the Lizards nodded, "Yes, but there are problems. Boltier¡­ there is a gue. We can''t enter the city, as we might be infected as well".


    That was indeed bad news. Although the enemy camp was dealt with, Voltars could perish at the same time. "Where is Harlin or Lerion?" I asked. He pointed me further inside their gathering, and said "Both of them should be there". I nodded and left. I quickly found Harlin, and asking him about more details concerning that gue. He said, "I don''t know the full details, but a lot of Voltars were poisoned and died. We know that it spreads from one person to another, therefore half of the Boltier is sealed to contain the gue. As it is right now, these people are waiting for death. Can you help them?".


    I wasn''t sure whether I could. I had my own personal antidotes, but even if they worked, it was nowhere enough to cure all Voltars. I replied, "I doubt it, but I can have a look. We don''t want to encounter the same gue in other cities either, therefore finding an antidote would be a good idea. Whether I can help them or not, will depend on the type of herbs I need to use for antidote. If the herbs are rarer, we might not be able to do much". He nodded while saying, "In that case, head there and have a look. Giving it a try is better than doing nothing. With the stuff you always have, you should be alright with the gue". I agreed with that.


    Before I left, I said "You can return to Sedon. We don''t know when Eterians might arrive. Crow should''ve implemented my n into action, but I''m not entirely sure how Eterians will act. Better safe than sorry I guess. Leave Lerion and a few guys here, I might need them to keep guard, or pass some information to you guys". He nodded, and gathered his people.


    I on the other hand, left towards Boltier''s gates. The gates were closed, and a few Voltars stood in front of them. They warned me that the city had a gue, but I exined "I''m here for that precise reason. I want to have a look at this gue". They looked at each other, while one spoke. "We can let you in, but you will not be able to ess the healthy part of the city. We advise you not to enter, even if you are trying to help".


    I waved my hand, and told him to open the gate. They opened it slightly, and let me inside. More Voltars stood behind the gate. They looked healthy, and probably not affected by the gue. I told them my reason for visit, and they directed me to a certain area. They said that I could enter, but leaving was a different story. If I showed any symptoms of the gue, they will confine me inside as well. This meant that before I could leave, I had to be confined for a few days for observation.


    This was rather annoying, but understandable. I headed to the barricaded area, and noticed that a lot of the transport system for Voltars was not functional. Strong people could break out of confinement, but the guards were there for that exact reason. Inside, I saw people dying. Voltars were normally blue in colour, and usually surrounded by energy. The Voltars inside the gued area, were different. Their skin dark purple, and the energy that used to be around their bodies, was nowhere near.


    Those were the heavily gued Voltars. The lighter shade of purple, or even a slight tint meant the Voltar was not that affected yet. Those who saw me enter this area, were really stunned. One healthier Voltar asked, "Human, why did you enter this death zone? You don''t look like the gue affected you yet". I replied, "I''m here to try and help you. I''m not sure how strong this poison is, or how it was made. I need to¡­ examine some of you".


    Heughed, "What? I''m supposed to believe that. What sick ideas did those bastards up highe up with this time. We are dying here, and they send some Human to experiment on us?". I replied, "No one sent me here, and I don''t give a shit about those you spoke of. I don''t need your belief either. I''m here to check out the gue, and try to cure it. I will have to worry as well, if I can''t cure it". He was taken aback by my direct approach, but I didn''t speak to him anymore. Instead, I shouted out to everyone. "Listen up! I''m here to cure this gue, after all I entered this area myself. I will need to examine a few of you, especially at different stages of this gue. You can either help me, or I can do it myself. In case of theter, you will get no cure from me when I find it. It''s your choice!".

 Chapter 426

    Chapter 426


    A few Voltars approached me, and agreed to help me. One of them said, "Anything you do to me, is nothingpared to what our own people did to us. If there is even just a shade of hope, I will do anything to help you". It seemed to me they got some wrong ideas though. I would extract some of their blood, check their bodies and so on, but no one would experiment or torture them. I replied, "You got the wrong idea guys. I''m not here to make this any more painful. I only require some of your blood, and check your condition. In other words, examine your bodies. Nothing else".


    The others looked to be relieved due to my assurances. I took blood samples from all that gathered, and asked to take some blood from those very ill. They took me to some of those Voltars, where I tried to extract the blood. The problem was, it was no longer blood. It was purple in colour mostly. ''This is bad, very bad. I''m not sure I can still save these people'' I thought. I tried pressure points, to slow down their blood, but this actually made things worse. I quickly unblocked their veins, and let them rest.


    "This is bad. I can''t slow down their blood like that. If I do, the poison acts much faster. Let me examine those samples first, I need to figure out what we are fighting with". The Voltars nodded, while I asked for some quiet and isted area, where I could work. They allowed me to use one of the houses, that floated closer to the ground. Almost no one had the strength to jump to those houses, as the transport system was disabled.


    Inside was empty, and no one would bother me either. I set up my tools, and started from the most contaminated blood I collected. I tried heating it up, freezing it and even distilling it. It took a while, but I got some results. The poison could be burned out to some degree, but that alone wouldn''t cure the Voltars. This poison was so vicious, it actually multiplied even after it was burned. Almost as if it was alive.


    Freezing it also helped slowing it down, but not cure it. After I distilled some blood, I received the residue, and the original form of the poison. It was a purple gas cloud. This poison could travel by airways but also by skin, as the skin seemed to absorb it. ''My antidotes will not help here. I need a new antidote, and I need it fast'' I thought. I didn''t feel any effects yet, but then I came up with an idea. ''Can Auras help here?'' I asked myself.


    I decided to test it. With my hand extended, I released my Domineering Aura. I wanted to warp the Aura around my hand, and then drop some of the contaminated blood onto it. It was potentially dangerous, but there were no other Humans who could test it here. I didn''t use the purple blood, as it was the strongest, I went with the one in the middle. A few drops of the hazy blood fell onto my palm, and wiggled like a living creature. It was trying to get to my skin, but it couldn''t due to my Aura. The blood wasn''t intelligent by any means. Although it tried to drill into my skin, it wouldn''t move elsewhere. I tried destroying the blood with the use of my Aura, and I seeded, the blood disintegrated into nothingness.


    My Aura was able to stop it and even destroy it, but that meant I would have to destroy all Voltars, in order to cure them. If I did a bit at a time, I would achieve nothing potentially. The blood would simply replicate itself, and fill the body once again. But, that didn''t mean I had no methods. ''My Aura works well, but what I need is purification, not destruction'' I thought.


    There might''ve been a way to use my Aura to some extent, but I required some kind of antidote. ''Fight poison with poison'' I thought. This might sound stupid, but in reality, I could destroy that poison with another more vicious poison. Adding in some medicine and perhaps some antidotes, it would be possible. ''I need herbs. With what I have on me, that''s not going to be enough'' I thought, and left the house.


    I released my Aura, but wrapped it around my body. I wanted to check how well I could defend against the poison, while interacting with the infected Voltars. The sickest Voltars spread poison by simply breathing, my Aura picked up small amounts of poison trying to infect me as well. ''I am already infected in that case, but with my Aura, I can burn that small amount inside my body'' I thought. That is what I did exactly. With my Aura being able to enter my body, I burned out any residue of that poison.


    I had an urge to vomit when I did that. When I did, the blood wasn''t entirely red. Some Voltars asked concerned, "Are you alright?". I held my hand up, and replied "I''m fine, I just burned away the poison inside me. I can cure this, but I need herbs. This will not be simple though. I am protected due to my Auras, but you guys don''t have them, that is why you were infected so badly. Don''t be mistaken either, I can''t use my Aura to destroy your blood. If I did that, I would kill more than half of you".


    People converged and asked together, "Then what are we going to do? Are we supposed to die, just like that?". I shook my head, and said "No. I need herbs, and there are a few Lizards outside. I will tell them to bring those herbs, while I stay here and help you guys cope with everything. For one, we need to iste the patients. Those heavily affected breathe out this poison, and affect you guys even more. I need to move them each to a separate area, and slow down their blood".


    They thought I wanted to simply iste the worst cases, and let them die. I shook my head, and replied "No, I want to help them, and help you. The more it spreads, the worse everyone''s state will be. The herbs will not arrive in a day or two, we need to preserve everyone''s condition, not make it worse. I will also check with my Aura, and try to help those heavily infected. I can''t destroy all their blood, but a bit of it might help them, we will have to check that. Don''t get too close to each other, keep a distance especially when you speak. I''ll be back in a bit, after I tell the guys outside what to bring".


    But the Voltars were sceptical, one of them eximed, "The guards will not let you out just like that! It''s a waste of time!". I replied, "Who said I will ask their permission? I cane and go to this ce as I wish, no one here can stop me. Especially some guards. Wait for me, and don''t do anything stupid. Keep your distance, and I will be back in a bit". I then disappeared, and headed towards the gate.


    I easily bypassed the guards and arrived at the closed gate, with more guards standing there. I appeared next to them, and said "Open the gate". They were stunned, and asked where did Ie from. I told them I needed a few things, and I would be back in a while. But they insisted I stay for observation. Moreover, that I should do it quickly. I didn''t say anything else, and simply used my Aura, then opened the gate myself.


    Of course Voltars tried stopping me, but most of them were at their Outer Limits stage, not even my opponents in the long run. In the distance, I could see Lerion''s small camp. I quickly made my way there, and entered the camp. "Lerion, I need you to collect herbs from Sedon. I will give you a list. The Atols working there, should be able to provide those herbs for you. I will need quite a bit, so take your whole unit, and return as soon as you can. This is important" I said.


    Lerion nodded, and gathered his troops. They moved out immediately, while I travelled back to Boltier. The guards were not happy to see me, but were even more baffled when I just went back to the infected area. Inside, I noticed that Voltars kept their distance from the severely infected people. I nodded, and began moving those people around. I ced some inside houses, some outside. Generally, I tried to ce them in one area, that would act as the severely infected zone.


    Those with medium severity infection, were also ced into smaller groups, and distanced themselves from the severely infected zone. While the mostly healthy Voltars stayed nearer the entrance to the whole infected area. With everything separated into proper zones, I said. "Alright, now I can take care of some things. I will go check the severely infected people first. I will try my Auras, and see if that helps them. I will also try to cool them down. If it helps, we can do the same to you guys. Maybe it can even cure those who have very light symptoms right now". They didn''t protest anymore. After all I was their only hope, and I proved it by returning to the infected area.

 Chapter 427

    Chapter 427


    I had to have my Aura activated at all times, when wandering around the infected area. If I allowed my condition to get worse too, we could be doomed. Back at the severely infected zone, I tried using my Aura to affect the Voltar with purple skin. As soon as my Aura entered his body, he began vomiting purple blood. I stopped, letting him rest a bit. "I know this doesn''t feel good, but we need to do this. If this is a viable method to stop the poison for even a bit, it will be worth it".


    Heughed, "Do it Human! I already abandoned any hope". I tried once more, while the Voltar vomited more and more purple blood. Even though he lost so much blood, he looked a bit better. I gave him some medicine, and awaited the results. The Voltar fell asleep for a while. When he finally woke up, he eximed "I feel a bit better! It seems whatever you did, worked!".


    ''Yea... It worked, but the degree of this "work" is rubbish. Let''s test the antidote next'' I thought, and passed him some. He drank it, and we waited a while. "I don''t feel any different" he said. The antidote I gave him was rather strong, I was a bit surprised it had no effects. ''Alright then, let''s try freezing him a bit'' I thought and extended my right arm. "I will cool your body down, this might be a bit ufortable, but bear with it". He nodded, and I released the Power of Ice.


    His temperature dropped, while some cold air escaped his mouth. I stopped at that point, and check his body over. The blood slowed down, and wasn''t as active as before. He nodded slowly, and said "The feeling of something eating me from inside lessened. I feel like going to sleep though". I tried my Aura once more. With the blood slowed down, I hoped for better effects.


    This time, he didn''t vomit straight away, instead my Aura circted his system for a while. When he vomited blood, it was a bit less purple. He also told me he felt better. ''This is very slow, and I would need a lot of medicine to cure one Voltar. Although his symptoms lessened, they will return after awhile'' I thought. This was not a solution, but a temporary prevention. I said, "Rest for now, I will visit others, and do the same. Hopefully you guys canst until the herbs arrive".


    He closed his eyes, and fell asleep. I repeated this process on the severely infected Voltars, but my medicine was running dry. There were exactly forty-six Voltars with severe infection. I tried helping them all, but my stack of medicine was almost gone. I only had around a dozen bottles left. I also had about two dozen of stronger medicine, but no Greater Medical Extract. The herbs required for that medicine were nted recently, they wouldn''t sprout for a while.


    I then did the same to mildly infected Voltars, but didn''t use my medicine anymore. They had much more strengthpared to the severely infected Voltars, and could hold on without my medicine. The healthiest Voltars were almost fully cured. Although I told them not to leave. They still had poison inside their bodies, and could infect others given enough time. Using my Auras for such a long time, tired me out a lot. I needed to rest, and rest somewhere where the poison wouldn''t affect me.


    I notified the Voltars that I was leaving for a while, and would return soon. When I left the infected area, a lot more guards were stationed there. A few Inner Limits Voltars were there too. When they saw me exit, one of them said "We need you to stay where you are. We can''t allow for this gue to infect others". I replied, "I''m not infected thanks to my Aura. You can monitor me if you want, but I will go back there as soon as I got some sleep. Which ce can I use to rest?".


    They didn''t expect me to just cooperate, but I had nothing to hide really. They pointed me to a building at the side, and told me I could stay there. They also made it clear that I couldn''t leave without being observed first. I didn''t mind. Besides, I already told them I would go back to the infected area again. The time slowly passed, while I tried to sustain the lives of the Voltars inside the infected area. I was mostly focused on the severely infected, because they needed most attention.


    Every once in awhile, I would leave that area and check for news. Lerion was gone for quite some time already, and I was getting worried. Fortunately, that was unnecessary. Lerion did return with all the herbs, and even a bit more than I specified on the note he got. "Alright, this should be enough. Stay inside or somewhere outside if you want. I might need some help still". He nodded, and stayed inside the city. I on the other hand, returned to the Infected area and made my way to one of the houses. I had loads to do, and Extracts were a must at this stage. Normal medicine, antidotes or poison was simply useless here.


    I wasn''t after the usual Extracts either. I had toe up with something new, something that was stronger than the poison in their bodies. My experimentations started. I had ess to five different herbs, with poisonous effects. Those were the Ghost x, which usually wasn''t poisonous, but could be. Then there were the four herbs I got from Endrosian Empire. The Loom Flowers, Ill Sprouts, Erasing Shroom and Pooling Shots. Each of those herbs were not that poisonous, but I knew certainbinations might produce some weird effects. At least, that was what I hoped for.


    I tried mixing those herbs in different proportions, at different temperatures and cooking times. Of course I used very small quantities of the herbs, as I couldn''t really waste them too much. This process alone, took me some time. Not only did I work on the new poison, antidote and even medicine, I also had to monitor the whole infected poption of Voltars.


    The days slowly passed again. The results were not that great though. I tried all the herbs I had, but the poison I could create, was nowhere near what I required. ''This is a problem. Not only do I not have a solution, I''m staying in this ce for too long'' I thought. Although Eterians shouldn''t be aware of my whereabouts, I couldn''t be entirely sure on that either.


    I needed something new, something that didn''t require rare herbs to aplish this. ''Pressure points don''t work. My Aura works, but in a limited way. The herbs I have, are not enough to cure this... Freezing those Voltars, is not going to be the solution either'' I thought. There was nothing I coulde up with. There was nothing at my disposal topletely cure those severely infected.


    This bugged my mind for some time. I was only able to preserve their conditions, not cure them. ''Would Nick be able to cure this?'' I asked myself. Nick didn''t teach me everything he knew, there was simply no time for that. From all the knowledge he possessed, he passed the bare minimum to me. I left the house, and looked at the Voltars suffering everywhere. There was no point for me to deceive them, I had no cure, and I wouldn''t get it in a long time. Perhaps if I had ess to those rarer herbs, I would be able to cure it.


    I shouted for everyone to hear, "I''m sorry, I can''t cure it. Not with what I have avable to me here. I don''t have ess to better herbs, I don''t have a method to cure you guys. I can help those slightly affected, but anyone else¡­ I can''t do anything".


    Most Voltars dropped their head down. They lost hope, but I had no way of helping them. Even if I went to Apium and returned with better herbs, I''d still need to figure out the poison and antidote. My trip alone would take time, and time was something a lot of Voltars didn''t have. Half if not more of them would die before I returned. More could die, before I even had the cure. The least I could do was save those with light infection.


    A few Voltars approached me, while one of them spoke for the group. "You did what you could. You wanted to help us, we know that fully well. We can only ask you to save as many of us here, as it is possible. We Voltars gathered here, we are still very grateful for what you did". Some other Voltars said stuff like "It''s a shame I can''t give this gue to those damned Eterians", "He did what he can, that counts" and "A Human with morepassion than our own kind. We should be ashamed".


    It wasn''tpassion. I had selfish desires to help them as well. I sighed. ''These Voltars ced their hopes and trust onto me. I still feel like shit, to fail them like that'' I thought. I decided to stay a bit longer, cure those who could be cured, and work on new ideas. Anything new that could help them, this was as much as I could do.

 Chapter 428

    Chapter 428


    A few days passed and although I figured out nothing new, I was able to save a few Voltars thanks to my Aura and medicine. Some Voltars already died, as I was focused on curing those who could be cured. There was one weird thing. When I checked up on those who died, I could see some sort of purple flowers sprouting from their corpses. I collected a few of them, and did some experiments. Those flowers contained pure poison, that affected these Voltars in the first ce.


    ''I never seen these flowers before. The Thousand and One Herbs book didn''t contain them'' I thought. There was only one conclusion I coulde up with. Elysian Empire. Elysians had a plethora of herbs, which were not in the book I received from Nick. This alone begged the question, "Are Elysians involved in this war?" I asked myself.


    This made more sense, the more I thought about it. Formations that allowed Mordars to blend in. Strong poison, especially one that could seal Human Auras. This had Elysians written all over it. ''Elysians are technically Humans too. But that would mean Elysians are actively trying to help Eterians'' I thought. The problem was, I wasn''t sure whether Elysians were doing this on their own ord, or whether Eterians manipted some of them. I wasn''t sure about the rtionship between Elysians and Eterians either. They were Humans, but not Endrosians.


    I had the concentrated poison, but I had no herbs to create antidote still. I tried a few times, but nothing worked. The poison was too strong, and I couldn''t make anything stronger than that. I couldn''t help those Voltars, but I could collect the flowers. Those things were really poisonous, and that could be useful in the future. Eterians and Elysians were not immune to poison at all. They might have an antidote, but that didn''t matter. As long as the poison could be introduced back to them, it would be an effective way to disturb them. This alone opened more possibilities.


    More Voltars died, as I collected the flowers and froze their bodies. I couldn''t let those corpses stay intact or really stay inside the city at all. I destroyed the corpses, and burned anything that was left of them. In overall, eighty-two Voltars died. I had loads of flowers already, so I didn''t collect more. On the other hand, I managed to save a hundred-thirteen Voltars from their death. The rest which amounted to forty-one, was destined to die.


    Some of them didn''t want to suffer anymore, and asked me to end their lives. I obliged. Me giving them death, would be less painful than waiting for the poison to slowly kill them. With the Power of Ice, I slowly froze the Voltars until they fell asleep and died. This was as peaceful death as I could probably make. Soon, all went quiet. No one besides myself was left in the infected area. With all the infected Voltars taken care of, I left the area as well. I wasn''t about to leave the city just yet. I wanted information, and Voltars would provide that to me, whether they liked it or not.


    I told the guards outside that the area was cleared up. I also asked where could I find some important people. One of them volunteered to take me there. While we walked, he said "My sister was one of the infected, you saved her for which I''m really grateful. If there is any way I could repay you, asked". I replied, "Don''t worry about it. You can''t help me with what I need. Only highly positioned Voltars will have ess to the information I require". He stayed quiet for a while, then said "Maybe I can''t help, but others might be able to. You helped us out, and people are grateful for that. If you can''t get what you are looking for, visit me again. I will ask others if they can help you instead".


    I doubted that the usual Voltars could help out, but I appreciated the gesture anyway. We soon arrived at the area, where the city was alive and well. We stopped before one of the buildings, where the Voltar asked me to wait for a while. He travelled inside the building, and came back with another Voltar shortly after. "So you are the one who risked his life to help us out? How can we help you?". The Voltar looked to be some sort ofmander, therefore I said "I need the knowledge of the old. More specifically, any records that you have of the past. A distant past". He thought about it, and asked "Why do you need such records?". I replied "I''m looking for something. The old records might have a hint concerning that. I don''t care for your secrets, especially that Collecting Crystal. I only want the old records which speak of the North".


    He nodded, and asked me to follow him. We headed towards the Grand Pce, where all the important figure stayed. I had to wait again, while the Voltar travelled to the pce in order to ask about my request. It took him a while to return, but the news he brought were not to my satisfaction. He said, "They will not allow you in¡­ Even after what you did for us, they simply ignore it. I''m really sorry, you shouldn''t be treated like that. I will try a few others. I might get the permission for you, but I can''t promise anything". I asked instead, "Where is Shak?".


    He was rather surprised when I mentioned him. He asked, "You know him?". I replied, "Just tell me where he is, and I will deal with the rest. If they make problems for me again, I have no problem treating them to the same poison that killed your people. I''m not someone that can be just used, you can tell them that". He told me to wait again, and returned to the Pce. He returned much quicker that time, and brought different news. "They will let you in, but you will be allowed to view only certain knowledge. You will be escorted inside. Please wait here, as they need to arrange the transport".


    I looked up, and judged the distance. ''I don''t think I could make it with a single jump. If I used the Livi Sprout, I could probably get close'' I thought. There was no point for me to try at that stage. I would get picked up soon anyway. Indeed, a few Voltars floated down on some piece of metallic looking tform. I never seen that kind of thing, and I obviously knew it worked due to Formations. When theynded, they asked me to board, after which we lifted up and flew towards the Grand Pce.


    There were three Voltars on that tform. All of them reached their Inner Limits. I assumed these guys were there as my escort, making sure I didn''t do anything stupid. I didn''t mind really, as long as I got what I wanted. We arrived at the Grand Pce, and left the tform to climb the stairs. Before we entered, one of the Voltars said "Behave yourself Human. This is the Grand Pce, a ce of royalty". I appeared next to him, with a dagger on his neck. "I think it''s you who should behave yourself around me. I never liked royalty, whether Human or Voltar kind. Cut the crap, and take me to what I came here for".


    I took away the dagger, and stood there waiting. He snorted while replying, "We know about you, and we are not scared of you either. Bare that in mind as well. Follow us, and don''t wander around by yourself". We entered the pce, and although there was a bad aftertaste in my mouth, I had to admit it looked exquisite. Beautiful white stone columns ornate the staircase leading to the upper floors. Paintings of Voltars hung on the walls, and even sculptures of Voltars harnessing or using electric energy, stood on disy prominently.


    Another Voltar already waited for us. It was a female dressed in elegant clothing. A pale blue dress, that really hugged her body, and hair tied neatly into a bun. Her energy output was strong as well. She seemed to be a part of Elite Voltars, but not belonging to military force. We approached her, while she weed me. "Wee to the Grand Pce. I will be the one showing you around. Please don''t wander to other areas, and ask if you need something. I will be with you at most times during your visit, but if I''m not around, someone else will take my ce. Is all clear?".


    I nodded in reply, and the three Voltars left us alone. I actually thought they would follow us around, but it seems that woman was really strong. She didn''t really introduce herself, but it didn''t matter to me that much.

 Chapter 429

    Chapter 429


    I followed her upstairs in silence, until she spoke herself. "The higher ups can be a bit stubborn. Fortunately for you, I met Oren on my way, and he exined the situation. Otherwise you wouldn''t gain entry". I smiled, "I''m not so sure about that". She turned around "Yes, Shak would help you out, maybe even for free. I don''t doubt your abilities either, Mr Dark Traveller. But, don''t assume Voltars are that weak". This sounded more like a warning to me. I would receive what I came for, so I didn''t mind.


    She faced forwards again, and said "You will be allowed to browse through the history of North alone. No other knowledge will be essible to you. Please bare that in mind, as I will not repeat this warning". I replied, "That is all I''m interested in". She nodded while saying, "I''m d to hear that then".


    We climbed more, and more stairs. Until we arrived at what looked like the top floor. There were ten guards stationed there, all at the Inner Limits stage. They greeted the woman with respect, and allowed us to enter the only room on that floor. I was a bit surprised by the amount of strong Voltars the city possessed. I saw at least fourteen of those Voltars. ''Sedon has at least eight Shades at the Inner Limits stage. At least one that passed the Half Step as well. That woman should''ve passed that stage too'' I thought.


    I shouldn''t be really surprised. Voltars, Shades and Lizards were the major races of the North. Their poption wasrge,pared to other races. This meant, more people had a chance to reach such stage. Humans had a lot more of such people, due to the amount of us in the world. Avians were not a major race at all, they didn''t even have one person at the Inner Limits stage. The same was true with Atols, although the Warrior Faction Leader reached that stage, as well as few other warriors. Their race was small inparison to others. At best one or two thousands Atols existed in the North. Golems were not that different, but they were much strongerparably.


    This begged a question. Why was the North so diverse, while the rest of Perival Continent belonged to Humans? While we entered the room, I realised it was a huge library. Books, scrolls and whatnot, filled the shelves. Before she said anything, I said "I have a question". She replied, "Sure, go ahead". I asked, "Why is North so diverse? You are trapped inside here, while Humans roam the rest of the continent. Who exactly trapped you here?".


    She smiled, "That you can find out, if you read about the Northern history. We don''t have the exact ounts for the history of the North to be honest. But, I''m sure we have the most extensive collection of books, that the North has on offer. Not all books here are about North. There are loads that concern Endrosians and Elysians. Yes, we know about them too. We have books on all races known to us, or those that existed". She shot me a nce after thest sentence.


    She continued, "The tables are to your disposition. Tell me what exactly are you interested in, and I will bring you the books concerning that subject". I nodded while saying, "I need books about the beginnings of the North. Any old book you can find on Lizards is also great". She asked interested, "Lizards?". I replied, "Yes Lizards. Their history, past events and stuff like that. I don''t need anything recent".


    She told me to sit down at the table, and wait for her to bring the books. Once I sat down, I took a more detailed look at the library. The wood was old, very old but in good shape. The whole ce smelled like old books and dust, while dim orbs of electric energy illuminating the whole room from above. There were different sections spread throughout the whole library. Some concerning recent events, while others concerning specific races. The section for Humans was not small, it probably detailed a lot of stuff about both Endrosians and Elysians.


    She returned after a while, and presented a few books to me. "Those are the books you asked for. You are not allowed to copy anything. When you''re done reading them, let me or someone else know. We will return them to their original ce". There were a total of four books. Three of them about Northern History, while only one about Lizards. ''I hoped to get more books about Lizards, but whatever. After all, I asked for the oldest records they had'' I thought.


    I began from the book about Lizards. The book described how Lizards struggled in the beginning to set up their home at Obsidian Mountains. It described how they built Arangard, their main city, and how theyter branched out to other volcanoes. Apparently, the Obsidian Mountains was much more deadly back then. Lava would spew out of volcanoes, and the Lizards sustained a few losses in the process of creating Arangard.


    They didn''t have help from anyone else either. All of that was built by their own hands. As the book describes, it was crude in the beginning and not what it becameter. There was no mention of Grey Lizards in that book, the book referred to them collectively as Lizards. I put the book down, and looked around me. The woman was sitting further away, reading something herself. I asked her, "Can I got something a bit more recent on Lizards? This describes how they built Arangard, I would like to read about something that concerned a bit more recent history".


    She seemed surprised for some reason, and asked "You already read it?". I shrugged my shoulders while replying, "Is that so surprising?". She only smiled, and took the book. "I will bring you something more recent, but if you tell me what you are looking for, it would be easier". I simply replied, "Grey Lizards". She was stunned again, but then smiled. "So I see why you need the knowledge of the old times. We have nothing on their whereabouts, if that is what you are looking for. Grey Lizards would be forgotten, if not for a few appearing every so often. We have some records on the Grey Lizards, but that was before they were banished".


    I asked, "What about Hatmandor?". She narrowed her eyes, and replied "I''m not allowed to discuss them. We are not allowed to keep records on them either. It has been like this since ancient times, that is all I can say". I nodded and didn''t push any further. Instead, I read the other three books she brought.


    The first book answered the previous question I asked her. It told the story of why North is the North, and how it came to be. From what I gathered, North was not isted in the past, and all those races were not prominent there. Almost all the major races of the North, originate from around the Perival Continent. There were two exceptions. Golems and Eterians. Even Furians were not part of the North in the past, they used to live alongside Humans. Back then Shades, Lizards, Avians and a few other minor races, were considered monsters. The world was ruled by Humans, Furians, Eterians and another race I had never heard of.


    The race was called Bramans. The book had no picture of that race, but from the description it provided, I gathered they were a sort of humanoid dogs. They had tails, and head that looked like that of a dog, but they were intelligent and had their own society. This was the race which Humans exterminated, but the book didn''t describe the reason.


    Supposedly this prompted Humans to fight others, and wars erupted left and right. Voltars existed during that time, but they were a very minor race that avoided most humanoid races. Reasons were not stated again, therefore I didn''t know why. The book described that due to the wars, a lot of minor races who were considered monsters, asked someone or something for help. The book wasn''t specific on that either.


    The help came in the form of a barrier. The barrier that surrounds the North wasn''t ced there to trap all those races inside, but to protect them from all the wars. Although this seemed to be the case, I felt something was wrong as well. The barrier prevented those races from leaving, but allowed strong Humans to enter. This was under the condition of course. That condition stands till this day. Humans had to pass trials, in order to enter North.


    The book argued it was a trap, to make Humans fear the new North, and leave it in peace. Eterians and Furians also had the ability to cross the barrier just like Humans, but the restrictions ced on them were not that severe. I found it weird, but the book didn''t describe that in detail either.


    This was when Eterians also fought against Humans, and Furians joined them. This was the great war all Humans told me about, and where the hate of Eterians as well as Furianses from. The book didn''t describe any events in detail or even at all. It was mostly generalisation, probably due to second-hand information. Voltars at that time were a minor race. Minor race which didn''t interact with others much as well. This suggested to me that, they couldn''t be the original owners of that knowledge.


    The record was really hazy, and I extrapted a lot when I read it. Nevertheless, one thing was clear. The barrier was created by someone or something to protect the minor species. My instincts pointed towards Hatmandor. Strangely, the book mentioned nothing about Elysians. Maybe due to generalisation, or perhaps for other reasons. ''Although I still don''t know exactly how the barrier came to be, but I know the reason it exists'' I thought.


    There was another thing that I recalled. ''You started it'' I thought. That''s what the Eterian told me, before I killed him. I wasn''t sure how everything tied in, I required more information.

 Chapter 430

    Chapter 430


    The second book described the early days of the North. North wasn''t a wastnd that is became. It had quite varied topography, with forests,kes and wends. For some reason, this started to change over time. Due to the barrier and the limited resources, the forests thinned out, and thekes disappeared. Or at least that is what the book stated. The water was still there in the North, but usually underground. Atols were the ones who managed to produce water again. They usually traded the water with others, butter cities managed to simply purify the water they had.


    All was due to Formations, and countless years of studying. The book didn''t state who came up with those Formations, nor who implemented them. All it mentioned was that all races struggled with water at the beginning. With those Formations in ce, North became much more habitable and rich. ''The book mostly describes the struggle of fresh water source, andter the solution of Formations. It was either Hatmandor or Grey Lizards who came up with that. That is my guess at least'' I thought.


    The third book mentioned how each race selected their own area. Avians chose Vulture Cliffs because they could fly, and didn''t have any skills in crafting. Theyter developed that area a bit, but it''s all gone now. With Shades, it was a bit of a different story. The book didn''t state how the Sludge Factory came to be, it only states it was there. When Shades evolved from the Sludge Factory, they set up small camps either atop it, or around it. Later when more powerful individuals appeared, they got help from Atols and Lizards. That''s when Sedon was established. At first, Sedon had no walls, it was much smallerpared to what it becameter. Of course others couldn''t ess the Sludge Factory, hence Sedon was built at the edge of it.


    Later, Shades improved and extended their city towards the Sludge Factory, where it stands. Voltars were also a bit different. There was nothing about the Collecting Crystal inside the book, but the city was built around it. Thanks to the collected knowledge of other races, Voltars were able to create a floating city, with electric energy coursing through it. Again, the book didn''t describe who helped them with Formations. ''I don''t believe Voltars would be able to make that city themselves'' I thought.


    Golems were different though. They already existed before the barrier appeared. Voltars had nothing on them really, when it came to the time before and after the barrier appeared. Golems were mentioned very scarcely throughout the three books I read. Atols on the other hand, they focused on preserving the nature. That is also the reason why North wasn''tpletely barren. The book mentioned nothing of Avians and Atols fighting, nor did it mention any other conflicts. Vanauts were not mentioned much either, and Furians as well as Eterians only towards the end of the book.


    There was no mention of Mordars, Slethers or even Orcs. ''These records are really iplete. I received no clues whatsoever, even though I learned a few things about the Northern History'' I thought. I took a look around the room, and the woman was gone. Someone else sat in her ce. I called out to him, "Hey! I''m done with those books. Can you get me a few others?". The guy stood up, then grabbed the books from the table. He asked, "What do you want?". His attitude wasplete opposite of that woman, but it didn''t matter. I asked, "Do you have anything about the Ruins of Ravan? I''d like to get some books on Eterians too. Nothing recent, more of a history and such".


    He didn''t bother replying, and simply left to get the books. ''My next stop is going to be Ruins of Ravan. It would be best to know what that ce was, and who lived there'' I thought. I had a suspicion it belonged to Bramans. Ravan was in ruins, maybe even due to war. If that was the case, chances were I would find nothing useful there. Bramans ceased to exist before Grey Lizards were banished. ''I mean, Lizards might have some records of that, but they will surely have no clue where Grey Lizards went'' I thought. When you banish someone, why would you care where they go?


    Yet something didn''t feel right to me. ''If Royal Lizards were scared of them, why would they simply banish them, not kill them. That doesn''t make sense. The Northern History is too hazy. There are too many crossroads, and too many variations in those stories'' I thought. Voltars had ess to a lot of things, but their records were notpletely urate. A lot of stuff was either excluded, or they were showing me generalisations only.


    The Voltar soon returned with my books, and this time he only brought two. I asked, "You don''t have more stuff on Eterians?". He replied with a shrug, "You asked for history, that is what you get". He then sat back down at his own table, and didn''t bother with me anymore. ''Yea, they might not want to give me the knowledge I require'' I thought. I refused to believe that they had only one book on Eterians.


    ''If that''s how you want to y this game'' I thought. I wasn''t about to storm the ce, but the war was not over. Sooner orter, they would pay for their arrogance. I grabbed the first book, which contained some information about Ruins of Ravan. The information was useless though, at least to me. They had no idea where the ruins came from, and who they belonged to. The book only described how Vanauts took that ces as their home, after most of the North began its development.


    The book on Eterians was also rubbish. No events before the barrier appeared were described. Only events after most races developed, and joined the war against Eterians. Supposedly, that was when Humans recognised other races, and helped destroy Eterians. Furians were not mentioned in those ounts.


    ''This is rubbish. I learned a few new things for sure, but nothing really important'' I thought. I was simply wasting my time. I stood up while saying, "I''m done here, you can have your books back". I didn''t care if he was supposed to escort me or not, I simply headed towards the doors.


    The Voltar quickly followed me, while I left the library. ''I still need to check the Ruins of Ravan. Although I might find nothing, it''s worth a try'' I thought. On our way downstairs, I met that Voltar woman again. She asked surprised, "Already finished?". I didn''t reply, and simply left towards the doors. She snorted and instructed the guy to take me out of the pce. I also didn''t need that. I stopped on thest step outside the pce, and ate one Livi Sprout. "Swoosh!".


    I jumped down,nding with a "Boom!" shortly after. The Voltars in the area looked at themotion I created, but that wasn''t my concern. My mood was already spoiled by their stubbornness. I found Lerion near the gate, and told him we were leaving. He quickly gathered his unit, then we left Boltier. "Did something happen?" he asked me outside the city. I replied, "Doesn''t matter. You should return to Sedon, I have a few other ces to visit. Take care on your way back". He nodded, and left with his unit. I on the other hand, headed towards Ruins of Ravan.

 Chapter 431

    Chapter 431


    On my way, I tried to deduce where Grey Lizards could''ve possibly hid themselves. ''Obsidian Mountains should be out of the question. There isva underground, logically nothing should be able to survive there. They shouldn''t be underneath Sedon either. The Sludge Factory is there, which again should exclude it'' I thought. This still left me with a lot of ces. They could even be under Boltier or around that area. They could''ve made their camp in the Land of Sands as well, it was entirely possible.


    Although I excluded a few locations, the North wasn''t small by any means. I knew very little about Grey Lizards. Even though I knew Alicia, she was too secretive. Always careful with her words and actions. ''She is a bit greedy, but that just a trait she has. Tells me nothing of her people really. Suly is not a good example either¡­ I wonder about her mother though'' I thought. Lazar would know something perhaps, I decided to ask him when I got the chance.


    I didn''t stop my training either. I had to master my Auras and Arts at the same time. Although I could be considered to have touched on the mastery, it wasn''tpleted yet. With my Bloodlust Aura, I wasn''t able to manifest my rage, but I was able to do a few other things. I could make Aura Swords that thirsted for blood. I wasn''t sure about the effects they would have during battle, as I had no one to test them on.


    I called that sword, Sword of Rage. I was able to wield it, just like any odd weapon, but there was a price to pay. My blood would boil, and the uncontroble hunger for carnage demanded me to destroy everything in my surroundings. This was concentrated rage, a pure form of rage manifested in an image of a sword. I had to learn how to control that again, just like I used to train with Irwin.


    The other Arts were not different. My Art of Stealth was the most developed and advanced though. I could make weak illusions, but nothing of the sort I disyed during a battle with Mordar Army. I was only able to affect the reality slightly. Another thing I figured out, was that my Bloodlust Aura wasn''tpatible with illusions. I could only use my Domineering Aura, in order to create them. I couldn''t create any illusion I wanted either. My Aura restricted the types of illusions I was able to produce.


    Yater''s Aura was calm and faint. He could affect the reality greatly, but the effects would look subtle. I could only affect the reality in more¡­ Domineering ways. Which meant my path was that of rather shy illusions, not subtle and silent. ''Each mastery is different, eh?'' I thought. Thinking like this, a question popped into my mind. ''Furians, they can use Auras too. At least that''s what I was told. No Furian used an Aura so far, which is weird. Does that mean Eterians sealed their Auras? Or perhaps not every Furian can use them?'' I asked myself.


    Another question appeared in my mind, ''If Furians can have Auras, does that mean they can master the Arts too?''. It would make sense. Humans were able to learn Arts, because they possessed Auras. Without them, there would be no masters. Perhaps I took Auras for amon thing. Not all Humans had Auras. Even those who broke through to their Outer Limits mightck them. This was something a Human had toprehend and learn by themselves. That could be the reason why no Furians had an Aura so far. At least those were my spections.


    I had two more Arts that I learned. The Art of Hidden Weapons was different to what I expected. Again, due to my Aura being of a certain type, my Art of Hidden Weapons looked differently to what I expected. The Aura Daggers I created, would actually disintegrate my opponents¡­ Or rather make them more dense. I found that out after some more experimentations. Usually my target were the dead trees, but that was too easy and basic for my experimentation. Instead, I opted for the ground.


    The two Aura Daggers mmed into the ground. Two holes a few times bigger than the daggers themselves, were created as a result. The weird thing was, there was no explosion. The ground simply separated into loose sand or rocks. The best way I can exin it, would be like this. The ground beneath my feet might seem solid and condensed, but that wasn''t the case entirely. It could be packed to a much higher degree. That is what my Aura did. It made the sand more dense, morepact, hence creating those holes.


    When I checked those holes, they were incredibly hot to touch. This alone made me wonder about something. ''My Domineering Aura used to have a different effect. It would actually push everything away, or perhaps I judged it wrongly back then?'' I thought. It was entirely possible that my Aura always had this effect, but it was weaker and seemed like it was pushing things away. Now that my Auras could manifest into reality, the true abilities surfaced.


    This also reminded me of the Darkness Element. Although that Element simply pulverized anything it came into contact, instead of packing it more tightly. The North had none of that Element though. This was also the reason behind my restricted strength. ''If I was able to use the Darkness Element, I would be much stronger'' I thought. North was poor in most Elements, except Earth and Air Elements. In smaller quantities, but ever present and useless to me at the same time.


    I also figured out another thing. I was actually able to "explode" my daggers at any point in time. This alone gave me loads of possibilities. I no longer had the need to hit my opponent directly, I could affect the area around them too. With more practice, I was also able to hide my Aura underneath the ground. The Sleeping de Forest was basically a greater form of that. My Unyielding Aura was many times stronger than what Domineering Aura could achieve, hence the lesser effects. Either way, I could still make three Aura Daggers pop out of the ground, only the range was much shorter.


    ''Hmm... The range should increase, as long as my Aura gets better. I feel like I''m learning about my Auras all over again'' I thought. The range was around 15-20 metres, iparable to what I did during the Sedon Battle. Thest Art, was the Art of Medicine. But I waspletely clueless as to how my Auras could improve that Art. ''Do I use my Auras when making medicine or poison? Would that be effective though? My Bloodlust Aura must be useless when ites to that. Domineering Aura¡­ Wait! If my Domineering Aura actually packs things more tightly, wouldn''t that help me make even stronger Extracts?'' I asked myself.


    It was something worth trying. After all, I had a few good days of travelling left, before I would reach the Ruins of Ravan. I made sure no dead trees were in sight, and set up my stuff to prepare some medicine. ''Let''s test if this works while making the standard medicine, I can then test that with Extracts'' I thought. As the medicine cooked, I introduced some of my Aura into the pot. I thought something would happen, but the process was basically the same as always. ''Either way, I should check the medicine first'' I thought, and opened the pot.


    It looked the same to me at first nce, but then I noticed it was really pure. The strength of the medicine increased by a very small margin as well. I tried a few more times, just to make sure it wasn''t some sort of fluke. The results were simr, or rather sometimes better, sometimes worse. ''It works, but it also depends on how much Aura I release into the pot'' I thought.


    If too much Aura was introduced, the medicine would simply lose its effectiveness. As if the medical properties were squished too much, and destroyed in the process. Too little, and the results were meagre. After a few more tries, I found an optimal amount of Aura. This allowed for my normal medicine to be around 1.3 times stronger than usual, and pure. Pure to the point where I couldn''t see any impurities with my mask on.


    I also realised why that was the case. All the impurities were dense enough to just fall to the bottom, and stick to the pot. I had to scrape the pot clean, when I realised those impurities collected to a point, they were visible by naked eye. ''This should mean, I can use Aura to enhance my medicine¡­ I don''t think I would be able to help Voltars anyway. If I had those rarer herbs, and introduced my Aura to medicine making¡­ They might''ve been saved'' I thought. I didn''t think about that anymore, and proceeded to set up my distillery.

 Chapter 432

    Chapter 432


    I already had medicine avable to make an Extract of, and that is what I used. While the medicine was being slowly extracted, I introduced my Aura little by little. The effects were rather disappointing. What normally should be an Extract, became much weaker. I tried a few more times, with varying amounts of Aura, but the effects were megre at best. The Extracts would either be useless or gain so little, it would be pointless to do that anyway.


    ''Hmm, maybe I should do this after the process ispleted'' I thought. I made a few more Extracts, and tested my theory. This time, the effects were much better. Everything still depended on the amount of Aura introduced, but I managed to find something. One of the Extracts separated inside the bottle. Top half of the bottle was pale milky green in colour, while the bottom half was greener and full of colour. I carefully separated the liquids, and took a proper look. The milky pale liquid was almost devoid of any medical properties, like some sort of dirty water. The green liquid was something else entirely.


    ''This liquid is worth at least three Extracts of the same medicine¡­'' I thought. The strength of that usually basic medicine, became that of a rare grade medicine. ''The process became a bit moreplicated, but the effects are worth it. I wonder about poison though'' I thought. I still had those poisonous flowers from Boltier, but processing them wasn''t easy. Usually no one would be able to survive after making that poison, but I had my Auras for protection.


    After I cooked up the poison, and made sure I wasn''t affected by it as well, I ced it into the distillery. This poison was already concentrated, but I was after an even stronger, more vicious poison. As usual, the poisonous cloud appeared, and then condensed into the second bottle. The residue inside the first bottle, was still usable as a poison, but lost a lot of its poisonous properties.


    When the cloud condensed, I introduced my Aura. What I witnessed next¡­ I could only describe as creepy. The poison inside the bottle began moving. Although I experienced that already, that movement was different. ''Is that thing alive?'' I asked myself. The poison also separated itself into two separate liquids, but it waspletely different to the medicine. The dark purple liquid formed tiny spheres of concentrated poison, that moved as if alive. The rest of the liquid became hazy purple, in which those poisonous spheres floated and moved around. There was more. One of the spheres seemed to devour others, and became bigger and bigger. The tiny spheres actually escaped from it, as far away as the bottle allowed.


    Soon, the devouring sphere absorbed half of those tiny spheres, then suddenly stopped. The other spheres stayed away, floating near the walls of the bottle, as if afraid of being caught. Therger sphere stayed in the middle, its edges constantly moving like waves in the sea. I didn''t know what to think of it, and what exactly was that poison. I ced my mask on, to have a better look.


    ''I can''t see anything really¡­ No there is something'' I thought. Therger sphere had some kind of smaller orb or perhaps a core inside. It wasn''t purple, but dark grey. Very faint, I was barely able to spot it. ''What exactly is that thing?'' I asked myself. I removed the bottle from the distillery, and kept it to the side. After cleaning up the rest, I made the strongest medical Extract I could. I wanted to check if such a thing existed in medicine as well.


    Although I couldn''t make the Greater Medical Extract, I could make something strong still. ''I should probably give names to those medicines'' I thought. I decided to do thatter, after I was done with everything. I used some Night Safises, Oviral nts and Arran Grass, to make an Medium Medical Extract. Perhaps not the best name, but it acted as a temporary name. With that taken care of, I introduced my Aura into the bottle.


    I did it slowly, a bit at a time, until I received my results. ''Hmm, this is different to what that poison disyed, but I guess it depends on the properties too'' I thought. Medicine was used for healing, and had mild nature in a way. Poison wasplete opposite, it was aggressive in nature. The medicine separated into two liquids as well. This time though it wasn''t green, it was bright yellow. The other half was hazy yellow at the same time. The difference between poison and medicine, was that it didn''t separate into tiny spheres. It stayed as one sphere and moved very little, almost nothing at all to be exact.


    Only after I checked it with my mask, did I discover the movement. There was a tiny, barely noticeable core inside too, but it was dark green in colour. ''Interesting. I don''t know what that core is though. Whether it''s a living thing, or simply a core. Do those spheres move because of their sort of nature and properties, or because they are alive in some way?'' I asked myself.


    I had no answer really. I simply didn''t know, and had no means of checking. After some more thinking, I came up with another possibility. The core might represent the purest form of medicine or poison, that could exist. The way both acted would be dictated by the nature of those herbs. Mild nature for healing herbs, aggressive nature for poisonous herbs. I also had no way of collecting that core. No tools existed, or perhaps could even exist to achieve that.


    ''I wonder about the strength though'' I thought. After removing the hazy yellow liquid from the bottle, I was left with the bright yellow liquid only. The smell didn''t seem to change muchpared to other Extracts, but the effectiveness¡­ It was something else entirely. The strength was not the same as Greater Medical Extract, though it wasn''t far off. ''This is very usable in such case. I will have to experiment more with that, and make more medicine as well as poison when I get the chance. For now, it''s time to resume my journey'' I thought, and cleaned everything up.


    I didn''t encounter any enemies on my way to the Ruins of Ravan, which was a bit weird. No Mordars ever appeared, no Vanauts, Furians or anything. ''Did they pull their forces back, after the defeats?'' I asked myself. Mordars sustained heavy damages for sure, Vanauts shouldn''t be much better, but it bugged me. ''I refuse to believe that Eterians simply backed off, they must be nning something big¡­ Maybe I will find something out from Vanauts'' I thought.


    I was a few days away from the ruins. I would need to catch one Vanaut¡­ and wear his skin. ''With that, I should be able to roam their territory freely'' I thought. Days slowly passed, as I made my way towards the ruins. About a day or so away, I finally spotted some Vanauts. This was a perfect opportunity to grab one guy, and impersonate him. The group had twelve Vanauts from what I could see, and most of them had heads of a rat. Something I wasn''t looking for.


    There was one weak looking Vanaut with a different head, but I opted to search somece else. I didn''t want topromise too much. The lower standing the Vanaut had, the harder it would be for me to gain ess anywhere. I moved past them in search of another group. Fortunately, I didn''t have to search for too long. Another bigger group appeared in the distance.


    ''Alright, this group has some better contenders'' I thought. There were twenty-one Vanauts in that group, and five of them had heads that of a hamster. I had to wait for them to sleep, I wanted to be as silent as I could be. I assumed they would take turns sleeping, but at that stage all of them were awake. ''When my target goes to sleep, I will sneak in, grab him and leave. I can then head to the ruins'' I thought. But first, I had to learn their behaviours. If I acted like a Human, my cover would be blown rather easily.


    Vanauts had strange habits to be sure. They acted like rodents, but ones that could speak and walk on two legs. Fortunately, those Vanauts with hamster like heads, had very small tails, not like those rat headed ones. Another reason I targeted them. I couldn''t possibly grow a tail, even if I could, I would go that far. Vanauts always chewed something, it seemed like this was their idea for passing time. Whether it was a piece of wood, bone or whatever, they chew on it. Another very crucial difference was that Vanauts had no bags, they didn''t carry anything with them, except their weapons. Some of the rat headed ones had belts to which bottles were attached, but nothing else.


    The hardest thing to copy, would be their speech. They didn''t talk like Humans, Eterians or whatever. Their speech was impaired, as if Human spoke without his or her teeth. I had to practice that, as otherwise they would quickly find out. "Tsshiss? Sshoo arhe you?... It''s not that easy to be honest¡­" I said to myself. There was no way around it, I had to practice speaking in brokennguage, otherwise I would be found out.

 Chapter 433

    Chapter 433


    I watched and listened to them more attentively. They could speak some words normally, with a weird ent but still understandable. It seemed to me they had most problems with "th" sounds. Instead of "The", they would say "Sfe" or "Fe". They also had some problems with letter like "P". Instead of saying "Top", they would say "Tof". That though depended on individual though, and some of them were able to say the letter "P". After a while, I realised they usually reced those letters with "F". As long as I could mimic that, it shouldn''t pose too many problems.


    "Sfo, fats how I whill Sfpeak¡­" I tried it out. ''Yea, a bit more practice and I should be fine'' I thought and continued. The Vanauts didn''t stay in one ce though. They moved to different locations every once in a while. I had to follow them, while staying hidden at all times. When finally half of them went to sleep, my target was in that group as well. It was time to make my move.


    I approached them at a normal pace, and move past those who kept guard. It wasn''t that difficult to be honest, all of these Vanauts were below Inner Limits stage. I stopped in front of my target, and in quick session tapped a few pressure points. I wasn''t sure whether those locations would work, as they looked different to the usual humanoid creatures.


    It sort of worked, and didn''t at the same time. The Vanaut couldn''t move, but woke up. I reacted quickly, and tapped on his throat. It seemed to work, as the Vanaut was unable to make any sounds. I then tried a few more locations, and the Vanaut finally fainted. ''Good, now I just need to take him outside unnoticed'' I thought. This was actually harder than it seemed. Although I knew the Art of Stealth, the Art was personal and usable by me alone. I wasn''t able to make other things disappear.


    Or at least in a sense I couldn''t. Illusions were able to do that, but my Domineering Aura wasn''t useful for such stuff. I had a different way, it was a distraction. A in and simple method, but usually most effective. I threw a few rocks in one direction, while waiting for the Vanauts to check it out. Without fail, the Vanauts quickly gathered around the spot where the sound came from, while I left in the opposite direction.


    With my speed, they had no way of noticing anything at all. I ran further and further away, until I could get some peace and quiet. "Alright, I have the body. I just need to kill him, and skin him carefully". It wasn''t that difficult though, I skinned many animals in my life. Vanauts might be more humanoid, but the creature was a creature. Vanauts had muscles, tendons and such, just like most creatures and races. After the painless death, I skinned him in a way that preserved the skin.


    I couldn''t cut his head, legs or arms for obvious reasons. But I could extract the skeleton without the need of cutting these parts. The only part I cut, was the stomach. It was also through this opening, I would climb into the skin. The skinning was just the beginning though, I still had to soak it inside a medical bath. Otherwise it would rot after a while. Shades had the ability to stop the corpses from rotting, but that was mainly due to fusing with those corpses. I wasn''t fusing with it, but simply wearing it.


    With the medical bath prepared, I threw the skin inside and allowed it to soak. This had to stay in that bath for a while, and I used that time to rearrange all my stuff. I had to ce everything I had into my Storage Feather, it didn''t increase in size and could be easily carried while I was inside the skin. Unfortunately, I had to take my clothes off too. With that packed into the Storage Feather, I was left standing in my underwear. Hiding the Feather was not a problem, and the bags were empty too. All of that could easily fit inside the skin with me. That was perfect, as I didn''t have to leave stuff behind. I also took out a special thread and needle, then ced them on the side. This would be used to stitch the skin back up.


    When the skin was ready, I squeezed out the excess of medicine from it, and then rolled it out onto the ground. ''I really don''t want to do this though¡­'' I thought when I saw the skin in front of me. It was cleaned out and all, but still. This was the best choice though. Even though I could use my Art of Stealth to infiltrate their camp, I could find out much more if I posed as one of them. I opened up the still wet skin, and slowly climbed inside. I had to modify my body to a certain extent, in order to fit. A bit of wiggling and adjusting, I finally fitted into the skin. "Fis is sfo disfgufting¡­" I said to myself, realising I didn''t even try to speak in a brokennguage.


    "Why did I frain it fen? Ah, Wafever". I was inside the skin, but I had to act quickly. When the skin dried out, it would shrink and make it stick much better to my body. Walking, was not easy inside that skin. Everything became new to me. Walking, moving my arms, fingers and even simple movements of my head. I struggled, but picked up the threat and needle, then proceeded to stitch myself up. "Fis is so anoyfing" I said to myself, while trying to use those thin w like fingers to stitch the skin.


    After much, much more fiddling, I finally managed to do it. ''The stitches should disappear after the skin dries. I need to get used to this skin first, I can''t act as if I''m some sort of retarded Vanaut'' I thought. I didn''t head to the ruins just yet, I practiced first. Basic movements changed into moreplex movements. Running, jumping and so on. When the skin dried, it stuck very firmly to my body. Thanks to that, my movements be more natural, and I could act like a Vanaut. This was not the end though.


    ''I still need to replicate their smell. Right now, the whole skin smells like medicine, this will arouse suspicion'' I thought. Fortunately, I knew how to replicate the smell of Vanauts. Using some weak poisonous herbs, I smeared them all over my body. I also rolled on the ground, to make myself more dirty. With that taken care of, I was ready to enter the ruins.


    I wasn''t really sure what to expect, when I arrived there. But I could just feign ignorance, in case someone asked me more private questions. I met Vanauts on my way, but they didn''t seem to care much about me. The closer I got to the ruins, the more of them I saw. ''Their poption is not small, even though they lost so many people. Are they breeding like crazy or something?'' I asked myself.


    I then saw the ruins. The most prominent parts were the leftover walls, and a destroyed tower. The walls as well as the tower, seemed to be constructed from some sort of bricks. I never encountered that colour of a brick, greenish grey colour was rather unusual. At first I thought it was moss and dirt, but on closer inspection, they had that colour. A few Vanauts approached me, they looked to be guards of the ruins. "Fhy are you fere?" one of them asked.


    I shook my head while replying, "I''m not sfure. Foke up in fe miffle of nofere, and came here". Another guy asked, "Enemy affacked you?". I shook my head, and again replied that I didn''t know. They asked for location, and I pointed them there. They told me they will check it out, before allowing me to enter. ''Good, they didn''t seem overly suspicious. While they chase non existent enemy, I can explore the ruins'' I thought.

 Chapter 434

    Chapter 434


    The ruins were just that, ruins. Loads of shacks of questionable quality, were built throughout the Ruins of Ravan. Most of them were created with the use of dead trees. There were a few bricked buildings, of course from bricks that used to belong to Ravan. Even though the "city" looked more like a temporary vige, that wasn''t the biggest surprise. The biggest surprise was the amount of Vanauts still alive. ''These things must breed like crazy'' I thought at the sheer amount of them walking around.


    There were easily three to four thousand of them. That of course didn''t ount for the whole poption. I assumed the numbers were around double of that. Other than the amount of Vanauts still alive, I noticed another peculiar thing. Holes filled with some sort of gooey liquid. On closer inspection, it was poison. ''So they don''t make their poison from herbs, but use a different method'' I thought. It was possible to receive poison from other sources than herbs. Dirt mixed in with severs, and their techniques allowed them to make some nasty stuff. But, not something that could seal Auras.


    I was more and more sure that Elysians had something to do with this. I visited any ruined building on my way, trying to scour for books, scripts or anything that could help me learn something new. Yet I found nothing. Maybe due to passage of time, or simply because Vanauts lived there and destroyed anything worth destroying. ''There is that tower over there too. Seems that anything made from those bricks, is reserved for Vanauts with higher standing'' I thought.


    It was worth a try. I headed to the shabby stone buildings first. Once there, I immediately noticed that the Vanauts in those areas, were not some simple "citizens". They usually had some sort of armour, and strength that surpassed those usual Vanauts. ''Even a few of them reached their Inner Limits, but only a few'' I thought. The area possessed three or four Inner Limits Vanauts at best. Although that wasn''t much, I was only at the fringes of the richer area, for theck of more fitting words.


    A few Vanauts stopped me. They asked for a reason of my visit, since I was a low status Vanaut. I told them the same lie I sold to the Vanauts at the entrance, and imed that my head hurt. They told me to keep to my area of "The City", and not to bother high standing Vanauts. Unfortunately I couldn''t ess that tower or any buildings, but that didn''t mean my trip there was useless. I turned around and returned to the lower parts of "The City".


    That is how they referred to Ravan. Simple "The City" or rather "Fe City", as if they couldn''te up with a better name. ''I guess it serves the purpose, everyone knows what that means and refers to'' I thought. In the lower part of Fe City, I listened in on the conversations various Vanauts had. Usually they talked about the recent battle, and how those Lizard and Voltar bastards killed a lot of them.


    Some happily discussed how the gue would destroy half of Boltier. ''I wonder how their faces would look like, if they found out that only around two hundred Voltars died due to their gue'' I thought. A few of them discussed Eterians too, and they didn''t seem to have very good opinion of them. Usually theyined how Eterians always sent Vanauts out to the battlefield, yet they themselves never acted properly. One Vanaut in particr, imed that Eterians were doing this on purpose to weaken Vanauts.


    I came closer to that group, and asked them "Fhy do you fink fat?". He replied, "Did you foke up yesferday? Obfiously Eferians fant us feakened, fat fhay fey can rule over us!". The Vanauts gathered around agreed by nodding their heads. The Guy who just said that, took out a bone then chewed on it. Others did the same, but I didn''t have anything to chew on. I could only stand there looking weird. The guy who just spoke, asked "You don''f hafe any?". I shook my head while saying, "No, I fas affacked, and refurned not fat long ago".


    He nodded, and took out another bone, then handed it to me. "Fere, you can hafe fat". I took the bone reluctantly, thanked him and chewed on it as well. ''Ugh¡­ This is so disgusting¡­'' I thought to myself. After a while of chewing, he stopped and asked "Fho affacked you?". I shook my head then said, "I don''f knof¡­ Maybe fe Sfadof feofle". They called Shades, Shadow People. It was something I found out while listening in on various conversations. At first, I was clueless as to what they were on about, but then I realised when I reced those letters.


    The Vanaut nodded and said, "Yes, Fe Sfadof feofle are difficulf to deal fif. Fhe can''f foison fem. Forfunately, fhe fhere not sent fere. Eferians, aren''f fat stufid after all". I processed that sentence, before replying "Fhat ns do fhe hafe nof?". He thought about it while chewing on the bone, then replied "Higfer ufs are hafing a meefing nof. Fhe fhill knof, once feye ouf". ''So the higher ups are discussing some things right now¡­ I should stay here for a while longer, and try to find out more'' I thought.


    A few Vanauts hung out next to our group, and they seemed to be females. The guy who I spoke with, stopped chewing his bone and approached them. He was basically flirting, and the female Vanauts didn''t seem to mind at all. After a while, he called two other Vanauts to join him for some good time, and then looked at me. "Fhy don''f you join us?". He asked.


    ''No way in hell, am I joining that type of party'' I thought and declined. I told him that I still felt out of sorts, and needed some rest. He didn''t find it suspicious for some reason. He told me I could meet him hereter, if I wanted to chat and chew together. He and a few other Vanauts left to a more private ce. Chewing was also a sort of social thing. That is how they spent time, other than trying for new descendants.


    I left that ce as well, and roamed around the lower parts of the ruins. Vanauts although might look like rodents, they were actually very friendly. I tried to understand why they were fighting that war. To some extent, I was able to find that out. Eterians promised them a better life. At that stage, they lived inside a ruined city. Themon Vanauts and probably those more important ones, wanted to live a better life.


    When I asked a few about the hate of Shades, Lizards and so on, their answer was surprising as well. They usually didn''t hate other races, they fought the war because they were ordered and additionally wanted a better life. That was when I talked with younger Vanauts, but when I tried an old Vanaut, I was stunned by what he told me.


    He was a bit surprised and angry that I didn''t know all those things, but at the same time he weed the conversation. I also gave him my bone, and he shared even more. The old Vanaut''s name was Flif, and he described to me the history as well as their culture in more details.


    I learned that Vanauts didn''t live very long, hence they reproduced so fast. Flif was around 41 years old. In the past, he was a warrior of a good standing, but due to some battles, he lost his leg which he showed me. Vanauts had a lifespan of around 40 years from what I figured outter in the future. Weaker Vanauts would die sooner, while those stronger would live a bit longer. But even the strongest Vanauts couldn''t make it past 60 years of age.


    At the age of four, Vanauts were considered adults already. They could reproduce, and fight in the war. I mention years, but Vanauts themselves didn''t know precisely how long they lived. I learned about their exact lifespan much, muchter. That was only about their lifespan, which wasn''t that important. What he shared next, really cleared up some things.


    He told me that Vanauts were not weed in any city they tried to visit. This race was not very powerful, and didn''t have much wealth to speak of. People usually associated Vanauts with dirt, poison and anything else that sounded bad. One would think that Shades would love to do some business with Vanauts, and buy some poison from them. But that wasn''t the case. Vanauts tried in the past, but were always rejected.


    The rejections began piling up, until Vanauts couldn''t take it anymore. They became hostile to others, to all those races that looked at them with disgust and annoyance. That was also why they chose to side with Eterians. Although that happened in the past, I knew what he said was most probably true. Vanauts were rather weing and cared for each other in their own way. The ugly exterior, but good intentions. I witnessed that myself.


    The old Vanaut wasn''t exactly living on the streets either. Although he was kicked out from the upper part of Fe City, but that was thew. Stronger get to enjoy more benefits, while weaker stay in the lower part of Fe City. There were others who visited him. They brought him food, something to chew on and talked with him from time to time. ''This whole race is misunderstood¡­ They are fighting this war, because they want something more from life. They want to prove that they aren''t just some dirt'' I thought after bidding farewell to the old Vanaut.


    Was this wrong of them? If I was born as a Vanaut, wouldn''t I want to improve my life too? They simply didn''t have a choice in this war. The more I learned about those races, the less convinced I was about the allied forces. Voltars'' arrogance, Lizards'' narrow views and Shades'' care for their own business. ''Let''s see what''s going to happen. For now, I need to wait for that meeting to finish'' I thought.

 Chapter 435

    Chapter 435


    I spent a few days talking with Vanauts and exploring the ruins. I learned a few more things about Vanauts, until my new "friend" Alif told me that the meeting was over. We were supposed to gather, and listen to the instructions. Alif was the Vanaut who gave me a bone to chew on. We made our way to the assembly area, where a lot of Vanauts already waited.


    Higher standing Vanauts, disyed a clear line between them and themon Vanauts. They stood proudly in front of the whole crowd. In Vanaut customs, those higher standing Vanauts had something to be proud of. After all, they rose above others and proved themselves in one way or another. A few more imposing Vanauts arrived as well. Two of them wore leather armour, while the other two wore something akin to robes. A clear distinction between the two professions.


    Vanauts could either be Warriors, or guers. Thetter referred to those who concocted their poisons, and didn''t have a lot of strength or fighting skills. They usually stayed back, and used their poison to affect enemy. Vanauts had resistance to poison, which was their natural trait. That didn''t mean they werepletely immune. Shades were notpletely immune either. They could only absorb a specific amount of poison. If the poison passed a certain threshold, they would be affected by it too. Vanauts on the other hand, could use medicine freely. The medicine didn''t affect them in a deteriorating way, like it did to Shades.


    One of the warriors stepped forward, and announced the ns for the future. He spoke a lot in brokennguage, and I needed time to process everything. But from what I understood, Vanauts would stay back for now. They lost arge number of their poption, which he quoted to be about half. He also encouraged others to propagate, and try for new descendants. Besides that, he assigned a few groups responsible for keeping the food supply steady.


    It turned out that Vanauts reared some animals for food. Those animals were kept within the upper area of Fe City, but I wasn''t sure what those animals were. Vanauts could also feed on dead bodies without much of an issue. Although they didn''t resort to cannibalism, any enemy they defeated would be eaten. From the war, they umted some corpses. Those were usually reserved for the low standing Vanauts, while meat was rarely seen inside the lower area of Fe City. The food they proposed to me a few times, was just that. Thankfully I ate none of it, otherwise I would vomit on the spot after figuring out where it came from.


    Food was a problem for me though. I could only eat what I found or hunted myself. Finding something inside Fe City, wasn''t easy though. I had to resort to hunting, and even that was difficult. For one, finding anything edible wasn''t easy. I managed to find a Scrambler, but hunting it was another story. I was able to use my Auras within the skin, but other skills were really not avable to me. Utilising my Arts, was also something I had difficulties with. Fortunately, my Auras were enough to hunt it, and that is what I ate for the most part.


    Either way, I heard their ns and that was enough for me. Vanauts would stay dormant for a while, which meant we didn''t have to worry about them attacking. Soon after, I left Fe City and entered the wilderness again. A safe distance away from Fe City, I used my Aura to break the skin apart, and finally threw it off of my body. "I don''t think I want to repeat such thing ever again" I said to myself.


    My next destination was Apium. They also kept records of the past, and I wanted to view them. But before I went anywhere, I had to wash myself. Wearing that skin for those few days was not the cleanest experience, I stank like an old fart. Fortunately I carried water with me, and I had a pot which I would need to clean properlyter. After a proper "bath", I dressed myself and rearranged all my stuff.


    It would take me awhile to get to Apium, but I could spend it on practicing as well. The time passed, until Apium appeared in sight. ''Doesn''t look like they were attacked during that time. That''s good'' I thought, and increased my pace. As always, there were few warriors outside, patrolling the area. They knew who I was, and didn''t really make any problems for me. I went straight to the area where all Faction Leaders could be found.


    I went straight to the Warrior Faction Leader first. "I didn''t think I would see you here so soon", he said when I entered the room. I replied, "I need to have a look at the Northern History. I''m sure you guys kept some sort of records. Anything old you might have, would be a great help". He thought about it, then replied "I myself can''t help you here. We warriors are not responsible for such records. We have some, but those usually refer to our values passed down from generation to generation. If you want something about Northern History, you need to ask the other two. I''m sure you are aware how much the Craftsmen Leader hates you".


    It was no wonder he hated me. "That''s not going to be a problem. I will visit Ulon first, we will see after that. As for your people, they improved and most of them are still alive. I know you wanted to ask about them, hence I''m telling you right now". He smiled and thanked me.


    I went to see Ulon, who was busy with some medicine making. I waited patiently for him to finish, before asking "Hi. Do you have any records of the Northern History?". He returned the greeting, then asked "Northern History?". I exined what I was looking for, and he shook his head. "We have some history here, but our faction didn''t usually leave Apium. The Craftsmen Faction went outside the most, they should have loads of records from the past".


    I nodded, and asked him about the progress in his medicine making. He replied, "Not that bad actually. I''m already very proficient at all the recipes you left for me, and I even improved our own old recipes. Thanks to that, I was able to pass them to a few people. We made quite a lot of medicine". This wasn''t actually a bad idea to stock up on some medicine, and even make a few Extracts. I asked him for a few rare herbs, and in exchange, I would give him my strongest medicine.


    He agreed, and handed me the herbs required to make Greater Medical Extract. I told him, "I will make thister. Right now, I want to visit the Craftsmen Faction". He asked concerned, "Will you be alright though? I don''t think he will let you see those records, considering what happened in the past". Iughed, "I don''t need his permission", then disappeared from his room.


    I made it to the Craftsmen Faction building, and climbed the stairs. When I entered through the doors, the Leader asked "What is it? I told you guys not to disturb me". But before he could look up, I appeared next to him and tapped on a few of his pressure points. "Yea, I''m not one of your people though" I said, and headed towards the bookshelves inside the room. I didn''t have to worry about him for another two or three hours. Most of the books detailed crafting techniques, and although interesting in a way, that wasn''t what I was looking for.


    I only found a few books detailing the expeditions to other cities and such. The books described what those Atols were supposed to build, and the techniques they used to build. That was until I found an old and tattered book, hidden behind the other books on a shelf. The book described the time of the conflict between Grey Lizards and the Royal Lizards. There were no reason stated, but there was something else.


    Atols were asked to design a new home for Grey Lizards, but for some reason, were not the ones who built it. Although the book mentioned Atols proposing a reasonable prices for making their new home, the Grey Lizards declined. That wasn''t all, the n detailed theyout, or proposedyout of their new home. It wasn''t that small, from what the book described, but it was supposedly buried very deep beneath the ground.


    There was another piece of information, much more crucial than the design of their new home. It was the ce. Although not exact location, the book stated they wanted to construct this somewhere between Lizards'' and Golems'' territories. The book also mentioned that the entrance would need to look natural, and blend in with the surroundings. ''This is already something. If Grey Lizards didn''t change these ns, they must be somewhere between the Land of Sand and Obsidian Mountains. Looking at it from this standpoint, my guess would be closer to the Land of Sand. That would eliminate any danger from theva underneath'' I thought.


    I didn''t have the exact location, but I had an area. An area which was much, much smallerpared to the whole North. I hid the book back to its original ce, and left the room. I wanted to leave for Obsidian Mountains straight away, but I had to make the medicine first.

 Chapter 436

    Chapter 436


    I made my way back to Ulon''s ce, where I asked him for some private ce. He offered his own room, and told me to take as much time as I needed. He left shortly after that, while I set up my tools. This time though, I wouldn''t be making simple Extracts. I would be making Aura infused Extracts. First and foremost, I had to make the medicine from the herbs avable to me. The next step was also straightforward. I had to make the Zenith Extract from the cooked medicine. The process took a while, but I finally had the Extract to work with.


    I slowly introduced my Aura, while the liquid inside the bottle began changed. It slowly separated into pure medicine, and leftover liquid with almost no healing properties. The medicine was much more alive,pared to Extracts from moremon herbs. Although it didn''t act aggressively like the poison did, it had its own movement pattern. The medicine was calm in nature, but much more livelypared to the weaker equivalents. The medicine wasn''t green as well, it was golden in colour.


    The smell of medical properties also intensified, but again not that much. I didn''t doubt its superior strength by one bit. From an Extract that amounted to about eighty milliliters, I received only thirty milliliters of the pure form of medicine. Although the amount was reduced by more than two folds, strength wasparable to about a hundred and fifty milliliters of the Zenith Extract. When I separated both liquids, I came to a rather important conclusion. Using that pure medicine would not be easy. It was gooey and stuck to the bottle. I didn''t want to use the other part of Extract, which was basically water. That was because there were tiny impurities in that.


    ''Hmm, I need to introduce some sort of liquid, but also make sure it''s pure'' I thought, and immediately recalled Serelis. It was basically water, but with an additional effect. I still had some left, therefore I tried introducing that. Even if the mind calming properties were gone, it would still act as a purified water. I poured about fifty milliliters of Serelis into the bottle, and checked out the results.


    The pure form of medicine formed a ball again, and floated happily inside Serelis. This was good enough. The medicine stayed pure, while Serelis or waterter on, would allow for easy use of the medicine. ''Great. This worked rather well. I will need to stock up on Serelis, and make a few more bottles of this stuff. I should name my creations appropriately though. Now''s a good time, I guess'' I thought.


    I wrecked my brain about suitable names, especially taking under consideration the herbs used. In the end, I came up with a few new names for my Extracts. For the newly created Greater Medical Extract, I decided to use the name Golden Iris. It was made with the use of ck Irises, and the colour of the Extract was golden, hence I chose such a name.


    For other Extracts, such as Medium Medical Extract, I would use the name Night Star. That was due to the Night Safises used to make that Extract. Of course I could use other herbs to rece Night Safises, but the Extracts with such strength would be named Night Stars. The Low Medical Extracts would be called Vital Cure. Usually lower tier medicine, were made with the use of some sort of grass type herbs. I lumped a lot of Extracts together under one name, but it didn''t matter much. Their strength was the factors, and there was no point for me to refer to them by different names all the time.


    Stuff like Vital Liquid or Arran Liquid, those things were rather close in strength. Such Extracts would fall under the category of Vital Cures. The same went for other medicines. As for the poison, I didn''t adapt a simr approach. After all, each poison was different and affected people differently. Therefore names were still required. For mytest creations, the poison from Boltier was named Flower gue. The poison I made from Ghost x and other herbs, was named Haunting Poison. There were also the poisons I used for Shades, but I lumped them together as Shade Liquid. These poisons had the same effect usually, they only varied a bit in strength.


    I cleaned up everything, and asked Ulon for some help. I said, "I have the medicine ready, but I need more Serelis. Can you deliver that, and a few other herbs to me?". He took the bottle I made, and replied "This is your best medicine?". I smiled, "Yes. Don''t let it fool you though. Although the smell is rich, this medicine is different. Let me put it like this, if you get mortally wounded, this thing can save your life".


    He stared at the bottle in shock. "It''s that strong?". I nodded, "Yes. I used something less powerful than this, and it was already effective. This thing? It should be something that no one can replicate. I''m not 100% sure on that, but I believe this is the rarest thing you can get, when ites to medicine". He nodded, and hid the bottle safely in his clothes. Ulon told me to wait inside the room, while he went to fetch all the stuff I asked for.


    In the end, I made three more bottles of Golden Iris. I also created other medicine, as the amount of those rare herbs was really limited. The other Extracts amounted to five bottles of Night Star, each containing a hundred milliliters. As well as twenty one bottles of Vital Cure, also separated to a hundred milliliters each. I gave one bottle of Night Star, and three bottles of Vital Cure to Ulon.


    I could stay to make more Night Stars and Vital Cures, but I wanted to check out some stuff at Obsidian Mountains. After handing Ulon the medicine, he asked if I couldn''t make more of that really strong stuff. I told him, "No, not really. The herbs required to make it, grow very slowly. I have already exhausted a lot of your supply. Even with what you have in your garden, I would only be able to make five or six more bottles. Besides, this is a life saving medicine, don''t take it too lightly".


    He was a bit disappointed we couldn''t make more, but happy at the same time to have been given a bottle. He asked, "What do you call this?". I replied with a smile, "Golden Iris. Good, isn''t it?". He repeated the name a few times, then nodded. "Yes, very fitting name. So what now, are you leaving?". I nodded while replying, "Yes. I''m off to another ce, where I can find some more information. By the way, the people you sent to Sedon. They improved as well. I taught them how to make medicine, and poison for Shades. When they return, you will have a few morepetent people in your ranks".


    Heughed, "That''s great to hear. Thanks for everything. You can be scary sometimes, but you are helping us greatly... If you ever need anything, be sure to visit me". I grabbed his shoulder and smiled, "I will. Take care of yourself Ulon. Till we meet next time". I left Apium shortly after saying my farewell to Ulon, and headed back to Obsidian Mountains. Not only to check out their historical records, but also to check if Alicia was back. I hoped she returned already, and would finally have my weapon ready. There was another reason. With her around, I could also try to get the location of Grey Lizards, or perhaps send them a message.


    My journey back was rather uneventful. Mordars backed up to their own area, which meant I didn''t have to worry about them spotting me. I encountered no Furians or other minor races on my way either. This situation felt like the war was over, but I knew damn well otherwise. Although Vanauts would stay back, that didn''t mean Eterians would as well.


    Time slowly passed, until I made it back to Obsidian Mountains. Lizards were hard at work reconstructing Arangard, and the progress was really astonishing. They didn''t have any help from Atols, yet they were able to recreate their old city. Inside Arangard, I met with a few Lizards, and they even celebrated the news of Sedon and Boltier winning. Those victories elevated their spirit for sure, they became more optimistic about the war. I also met Jora by ident. He told me that they had an easy time now. No one attacked them, Mordars and Vanauts backed off, and Eterians didn''t seem to be making any moves.


    I found that weird though. I wasn''t sure why Eterians made no moves. After all, the walls of Sedon were heavily damaged, the Scorpions were destroyed. It would be a while before everything could be repaired. ''Something must be up. I refuse to believe Eterians would simply give up'' I thought. The more time we had, the more worried I became. If they nned something big, it would take time for them to realise that n. That only meant trouble for us, I would much prefer if they attacked at least a bit. Ultimately, I could do nothing about it. The only solution we had at that stage, was to prepare for the worst case.


    While I talked with Jora, I asked him about the Northern History. He was a bit surprised I asked about such thing, but then said "Fortunately, a lot of records survived the attack, but we lost some stuff as well. I can ask if they will allow you to view those records". I nodded while replying, "I don''t need any of your secrets or anything like that. I need the history. The time when you and Grey Lizards separated, stuff like that".


    He narrowed his eyes, then asked "Why do you need that specific period?". I figured he kind of belonged to the Royal Lizards, that question wasn''t a surprise. I didn''t tell him the exact reason, I only told him there was something lost in the North at that time. "I''m searching for that thing. With its help, we might have better chances at winning this war". He tried probing what it was exactly, but I gave him some vague answers. He asked, "Are you sure that thing exists?". My reply was simple, "That is what I''m trying to figure out. If it does exist, we have much better chances fighting Eterians. I already found some evidence elsewhere, I just need more information".


    He asked me to wait a bit, while he went and asked about it. It took him a while to return, but he at least had good news. They would show me their records, under one condition. I would have to share with them, whatever I was looking for. I was lying to them, but at this stage I couldn''t care less about that. There were no relics or anything, but that is the lie they received.

 Chapter 437

    Chapter 437


    I was taken to arge, newly built stone mansion. Inside, a few Lizards already awaited us. They were dressed in elegant robes, and had a schrly mood. Moreover, they were simr to Jora. Their royal blood was not as purepared to him, but I could see some hints of golden streaks across their skins. One of the Lizards speed forward, and weed. "Wee to our newly built library. Follow us, we will take you to a more private ce, where you can view the books". I nodded, and followed them, Jora also joined us, and walked next to me.


    They had loads of books, but not as many as Voltars had. We entered a room inside the library, where the leading schrly Lizards said. "You asked for the period where they Greys were banished, right? Have a seat, and we will bring you everything we have on that".


    I nodded and took a seat. Jora sat next to me, then asked "What exactly is that relic?". I made up some lies on the spot, "There are supposedly a few of them, and they reach antiquity. Those weapons are supposedly so powerful, one could overwhelm an army with their use". He thought about it before replying, "I never heard of such things. I''m not well versed with the history, but don''t you think those relics are just fairytale?".


    I said with a smile, "That''s precisely what I''m trying to find out". A whileter, the three schrly Lizards returned, and each of them was carrying a few books. Altogether, there were nine of them. They ced the books in front of me, then the leading schr said. "Those are the records from that period. I read them myself in the past, but found nothing about relics". I grabbed the first book, and read it. The book described how Grey and Royal Lizards worked together, but then mentioned some sort of betrayal on Grey Lizards'' part.


    The record wasn''t detailed, but from what I gathered, the Grey Lizards overstepped their qualifications. Not much else was mentioned, but that''s what supposedly warranted their banishment. It mentioned how the Royal Lizards were benevolent, and took all their previous work under consideration. Hence the Royal Lizards didn''t kill them, but let them leave. I found it a bit fishy, that was when I recalled something. ''The history is written by the winners'' I thought.


    The Royal Lizards might''ve simply wrote betrayal, but the book didn''t even detail what betrayal it was. Only some vague notion of overstepping their qualifications. This could mean anything really. The cooperation between both factions was also vague. Supposedly, the Grey Lizards were responsible for Formations that helped improve water quality. How they overstepped those qualifications, was a mystery to me.


    I ced the book down, and said to the leading schr. "I don''t get it. The book mentioned that Grey Lizards betrayed you guys, but it doesn''t mention anything about it. So what happened?". All of them narrowed their eyes, and I could feel that question was out of ce for them. I smiled, "No need to be so stressed. I was only curious. Anyway, this book doesn''t have anything on relics, I will check the other ones".


    I grabbed the second book, and read it. That book described a period after the Grey Lizards left. Supposedly, their race thrived without the Grey Lizards, and they established more cities and viges around the Obsidian Mountains. The weird thing was, they hardly mentioned any resources with which that was aplished. They did mention Atols, and how they helped them craft some of those new settlements. The book talked about two new cities, and three viges. Coincidentally, that was the same amount they had currently. Yet, Atols only built one city, and two viges for them. The rest was supposedly built by Lizards alone.


    ''Hmm, I don''t doubt Lizards could create a city, after all Arangard was made by them. I feel like something is off here, like this is not the truth'' I thought, and ced the book down. I looked at the schrs. I didn''t want to arouse more suspicions with my question, therefore I decided to ask none about that book. Instead I said, "This book details construction of new cities and viges. It does cover a longer period of time, but has no information on other locations. Is there anything else before the Grey Lizards left?".


    The leading schr took one of the books from the stack, and handed it to me. He asked, "Why do you concern yourself so much with Grey Lizards?". I replied, "It was during that time those relics were lost, or rather seen. From the records I got, it was around that time period. I''m looking for mentions of locations, or strange events in overall. This could help me locate those relics". An obvious lie, but I said it so confidently, they could find no faults with my statement.


    I grabbed the book he handed to me, and read it. The book indeed described a period before the Grey Lizards left, but it focused on rtionship with Shades. At first they were hostile, actually everything was hostile in the North. Those races did everything to protect themselves, and their territories.


    Although small conflicts arose here and there, it was never bad enough to warrant a war. The book described a deal that Shades made with Lizards. Because Shadescked knowledge of Formations, the Grey Lizards were supposed to help them out. The book didn''t mention with what exactly. While the Shades offered information on other races. That wasn''t all. They proposed an alliance, whichsted till that day, as well as a few other things like resources.


    ''My guess would be, Shades needed water. The Grey Lizards were sent to help them out'' I thought. That seemed like the most logical conclusion. The records were always all over the ce. Voltars might had sorted their records properly, but they simply didn''t allow me to view them. How much truth was in those records, no one really knew anymore.


    I ced the book down, and shook my head. The leading schr said, "If you are looking for books that describe more locations during that period, I''m afraid we might only have one or two more. The books you see here, will mostly not describe that". I asked him to bring those two books, but he refused. "Only the Royals have ess to those books. Even me or Jora aren''t authorised to take them out". This made me wonder what those books contained. Truth perhaps?


    I told them that I found nothing new. The schrly Lizard said, "I read loads of books here, but I never heard of such relics. Where did you find such information?". I thought about it, but in reality I was making some more lies. When I got an idea, I asked him. "Do you know who Bramans were?". He thought about it, but shook his head in the end. I continued, "It was a race that lived in antiquity. Humans waged a war against them, and won. Bramans no longer exist, but they were originally living here in the North".


    He asked shocked, "I''m aware that Humans fought a war, before we made home here at Obsidian Mountains, but I wasn''t aware how that other race was called. Where did you get that history?". I continued, "Partially from Voltars, and some from other sources. Unfortunately, there is nothing in those books that can help me locate them. I will have to search in a few other ces".


    Jora said, "Maybe you are simply chasing something that never existed? This happened so many years ago". I came up with another lie. "Remember when Vanauts were digging for something? What if they were digging because of those relics?". This was such an absurd lie, I wouldn''t believe it myself. They were obviously digging toward those cities, not looking for any relics that I just made up.


    But for some reason, they bought it without a second thought. The schrly Lizard said, "That is entirely possible. Eterians might know about those relics too, and they are searching for them". Jora jumped in as well, "Do you need help locating those things? We can send a few group, if we have an approximate locations". I was stunned by their immediate change, and willingness to help. ''They really want to get their hands on those non existent relics'' I thought.


    I had no location for them to search, but I could make one up. I said, "I might have something in mind, but I''m not sure. If you don''t mind sending a few people, then that is alright". He asked me for the location, quite excitedly I might add. I told them, "Don''t get excited. Do not send too many people. For one, we don''t want this to look suspicious. The other reason is, you might be wasting resources. I have a location in mind, but I''m not sure about it at all. Treat it as a guess".


    They urged me to tell them the location, so I did. "I think the area where Dead Forest was, might have some clues about those relics. Again, send only a few people. If they find something, that will be great". Jora stood up while replying, "I will send a few people there to check the area. If you find anything else, be sure to share it with us". He then left, while I returned the books to the schrly Lizards. I left Arangard soon after, and headed to Olrad.

 Chapter 438

    Chapter 438


    I didn''t bother visiting Lazar. Instead, I went straight to his house and knocked on the doors. There were no lights inside, which wasn''t that weird. Suly spent her time inside the basement, therefore I was sure someone was home. I waited for a while, but no one opened. I knocked again, yet the result was the same. ''Did they move houses?'' I asked myself. I was about to leave, when I heard a quiet "What do you want?".


    It was Suly''s voice, but the doors remained locked. I said, "Open the doors Suly". I was greeted with silence again. ''No other choice'' I thought and pressed the handle hard, while pushing the doors in. "Booom!", I was suddenly sted away a few metres. I managed tond, and stabilise myself but the surprise on my was must''ve been evident. Some sort of force smashed into me the moment I tried to open the doors, I wasn''t wounded though. "Open the doors, Suly" I said once more. This time, I got a reply. "Leave, you are not weed here".


    ''Lazar will need new doors then'' I thought, and extended my right hand. A ball of mist condensed atop my palm. I didn''t condense it too much, but it would be more than enough to freeze the doors. I threw the ball, and approached slowly as well. What happened next, was out of my expectations. Instead of freezing the doors, the ball bounced back and flew at me. I had little time to react, but fortunately managed to evade it. The ball of mistnded behind me, freezing the area while producing an ice pir. ''This is getting annoying already'' I thought, and walked up to the doors again.


    "Let me in Suly, you don''t want to make me mad". Some sort of force tried to push me away again, but this time I released my Auras. "Booom", the force was stopped dead in tracks. A screeching sound emanated throughout the area, as the force and my Auras shed. I extended my right hand, and punched. "Boom!". The doors rattled, but didn''t give way. A panicked voice sounded from within the house, "Leave us alone! I won''t let you hurt her again!".


    ''Hurt her? Is she talking about Fox?'' I asked myself. Themotion was getting louder and louder, soon Lizards would arrive to investigate. Not that it mattered much, yet I didn''t want to deal with that as well. I replied, "I''m not here to hurt anyone. You think I would save her, if I wanted to kill her?". The force pushing against me stopped suddenly, and the doors opened. I went inside quickly, and closed them behind me.


    I made my way downstairs into the basement. Suly stood at the entrance, with her arms crossed. She obviously demanded an exnation. te was there too, he stood behind Suly, as if protecting her. I sighed while asking, "What do you want me to tell you?". She replied, "The truth would be the best". I walked down the stair, and stood in front of Suly. te was already growling at me, ready to attack at any time. I said, "I will tell you, after I see her. Let''s go".


    Suly gave up, and asked te to calm down. He backed up while keeping his eyes on me. No doubt he wanted me dead, but controlled himself rather well. We walked towards the room at the other side of the basement, while te lead the way. Inside, a few bookshelves stood here and there, as well as one bed. That was precisely where Foxid. She was asleep, but alive. I walked up to the bed, while te eyed my every movement.


    I said, "I''m not here to hurt her, or you", then sat next to her. I just stared, but no words left my mouth. Suly asked, "So?". I stared for a while longer, then asked "Where do I start?". She replied, "How about from the beginning?". I nodded slightly, and told Suly what happened. Why Fox was in such a state, what happened before that and the feelings I had for her. It was difficult in the beginning, but once I said one thing, I said another and so on. I narrated the events to Suly, while looking at Fox all the time.


    When I finally took my eyes off of her, I looked at Suly. She was shocked, perhaps too shocked. My gaze travelled to the nearby te, who stared at me just as intently as before. Perhaps even more intently. I said, "I''m not asking for your forgiveness. What I did to you and your people, I myself would never forgive that. The hate in your eyes is well deserved". He stared, but didn''t do anything. I turned towards Suly again, "Suly, I need to find Alicia¡­ No, I need to find Grey Lizards".


    She finally snapped out of it, then asked. "Why? What sort of hideous things do you want to do now?". I shook my head, "I did what needed to be done¡­ Perhaps I''m evil, perhaps I''m the bad guy here. That doesn''t change the war. This war will engulf everything the longer itsts. You haven''t seen the war through my or other people''s eyes. You are still a kid".


    She got worked up while replying, "So what!? What right do you have to choose who lives and who dies? You destroyed a whole race, now you want to destroy more! I will never tell you anything!". I sighed and stood up. te stood up as well, he was prepared to attack any time. I said, "I told you, I will not harm you. Suly might hate me now, but that doesn''t mean I will harm her. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead". te made some growling sounds, while Suly eximed. "See! That is exactly what I am talking about! You are not some master of life and death!".


    I looked back at Fox, and then back at Suly. When I started walking towards her, she became scared. I smiled and extended my hand to patted her head. te finally attacked, but I didn''t retaliate. I let him bite my arm, just like he did during the Sedon Battle. "Bam!" tes stony mouth bit down on my right arm, while blood dripped to the floor. Suly stopped crying, and looked at me shocked. I said to te, "This is the most I can allow you to do. If you want revenge, find me after the war is over".


    te let go of my hand, and retreated. I smiled at Suly while saying, "You are a good kid Suly. Whether the world hates me, or loves me¡­ I''m not interested in that. You also assumed wrong. I didn''t exterminate all Golems, there are Golems who survived. The Golem race still exists, although weakened by a lot. The same was with Avians. I didn''t kill them all, but I did destroy most of them. Life can always persist, so long there is a way".


    When she looked at my right arm, I could see the tears swelling up in her eyes again. I extended my arm, while ayer of frost appeared on it, freezing the blood. I patted her head, then said. "You are a bright kid¡­ Take care of Fox for me. I have a war to end".


    Before Suly could say anything, I disappeared from the basement and left the house. Outside, I noticed a few Lizards investigating themotion I caused, as well as the ice pir that was left behind. I also saw Lazar running toward the house, and made myself visible again. He spotted me, and order his people to return. "I have everything under control guys, you can leave now". They agreed, and left.


    Lazar walked up to me, and asked "So you returned... It seems you already went inside". I replied, "You don''t have to be so on edge. I wouldn''t hurt Suly, no matter how much she hated me". He asked, "If you came here for Alicia, she is not here. If you came here to see Fox, well I guess you already did. If there is nothing else, I''m not going to take your time". I said, "Being mad will not solve this war". He shrugged, "me yourself for that. You going around destroying others, as if life meant nothing to you. Is there anything else?".


    I replied, "I''m looking for Grey Lizards". He snorted, "Good luck I guess. Why should that concern me?". I looked at his house, and then back at him. Heughed while asking, "You think I know where they hide? Sure, Suly''s mother was a Grey Lizard, but that doesn''t mean she revealed anything to me. Besides, I never cared. If that''s all, I have my own thing to take care of".


    He turned around, and started walking away. I didn''t doubt what he said, he had no clue where to find them, and he really didn''t care about that. Before he left, I said. "Whatever you think of me, it''s up to you. I do what''s necessary. Doesn''t matter anymore. Whether I''m a monster, or not¡­ Everyone can decide for themselves".


    I knew Lizards had narrow views, that much was already proved to me many times. I didn''t stay around to hear his reply, or theck of it. I left Olrad, and the Obsidian Mountains. Grey Lizards were the priority now, they could help end this war. The problem was finding them. I knew the general area, but I couldn''t just dig everywhere hoping to find their hideout. ''They specialise in Formations. This might make the entrance even more hidden. I might have a way to locate Formations, but it will take time'' I thought. I had no other clues. Lizards had nothing useful, Voltars refused to show me the proper records, while Atols only had the design and approximate area.


    ''If my guess is correct, they should be closer to the Land of Sands, rather than Obsidian Mountains. Well, I need to start somewhere'' I thought, and headed south east. I would start from there, and make my way north.

 Chapter 439

    Chapter 439


    The ce I arrived at, was aplete wilderness. There was nothing there, except a few dead trees. ''Let''s get to work then'' I thought, and used my Auras, as well as the Power of Ice to try and find any hidden Formations. I tried the dead trees, the ground, rocks, anything in sight really.


    I found nothing in the area. I move further north in a zigzag pattern, and repeated the same process. Time slowly passed. Although I found nothing, I was training at the same time. I had to constantly use my Auras, as well as the Power of Ice. My Aurassted a lot longer though. With the Power of Ice, I was limited to how much I could use it. Even if I used it moderately and with average strength, I still had to wait after a certain amount of uses. It was something I could use additionally, but not something I could rely on when searching.


    Using my Auras had more benefits as well. Not only was I able to search the area, but also train the control and intensity of my Auras. The more time passed, the more adapted I became with the new way of using my Auras. At that stage, I could create five Aura Daggers. My control got better as well, and I could to some extent practice the Stringless Aura Form. ''There''s still room for improvement. I broke through not that long ago, and the next step should be the Primal Limits... No matter how I look at it, I''m far away from reaching that stage'' I thought.


    The other three masters in the Forbidden Arts, didn''t reach that stage either. That didn''t mean they abandoned the idea of reaching it. Nathan was already in front of a wall, while Irwin and Yater didn''t have much before they would stumble upon it too. Nathan told me that reaching the Primal Limits stage, wasn''t based on talent alone. There were loads of talented people in the past and present, who couldn''t reach that stage. This required luck, and a lot of it.


    From what Nathan told me, the historical figures used a lot of resources in order to break that wall. Even then it wasn''t guaranteed. Not only one''s blood had to be pure, one had to grasp the understanding of some things. It wasn''t enough to simply have a set of poses, which would allow one to break through. Even life and death struggles wouldn''t mean much in that case. In simple terms, it was something one had to achieve on their own.


    ''There are a few figures who reached that stage, during the current period. Ha! But who would share such things with an outsider? Elysians would never tell me anything, I would only get killed for asking such questions. The Emperor of the Endrosian Empire didn''t really reach that stage. It was all thanks to some sort of inheritance item. While North? Hatmandor perhaps, but why would they share their secrets with me?'' I thought. There was no way for me, or people like Nathan to get such information. We had to do it on our own.


    I wasn''t worried about that though. Before I reach the wall, that Nathan reach, it would take a long time. I could feel it myself, progressing and increasing my strength was no longer that easy. That didn''t mean I couldn''t improve. I estimated that around twenty Aura Daggers would be my limit. That was under the condition I controlled, and strengthened my Domineering Aura. As for my Bloodlust Aura? I was able to create two Swords of Rage, but there was a catch. Those swordsbined, possessed the same strength as just one Sword of Rage. In other words, I wasn''t able to intensify my Aura, I was only able to split it.


    The weird thing was, when I split the Aura into two Swords of Rage, the pressure on my body lessened a bit. Even though I was using the same amount of Aura for one and two swords, the single sword made my blood boil much more. I guessed that one Sword of Rage was much more condensed. This affected me more, and was harder to control. Both methods had advantages and disadvantages. With one Sword of Rage, the strength of the Aura Sword was greater. At the same time, it was harder to control. When I split that into two swords, the pressure lessened but the strength suffered too.


    There was another thing I figured out. I tried using those swords, just like my Aura Daggers in the Stringless Aura Form. But I couldn''t do it. The Bloodlust Aura did not allow me to make any strings, or control those swords in anyplex ways. I could throw them, but not retrieve them. I figured that might''ve been due to the nature of my Auras. The Domineering Aura packed things tightly, which meant my Aura stuck together very well. This allowed me to make loads of different shapes, and utilise the Aura in different ways. Such as making Aura Strings, or producing different shapes.


    The Bloodlust Aura was not like that. It was crazy, aggressive and unpredictable in nature. Although I was able to make shapes out of it, the shapes had to be simple and promote killing. After all, a sword was a weapon used for killing. If I tried to make something like a heart from that Aura, it would simply refuse to form such shape. ''While I''m on it, what exact nature does my Unyielding Aura have then?'' I asked myself. The Aura acted just like Domineering Aura. I was able to form all sorts of shapes, and even use it for illusions. That wasn''t all, the Unyielding Aura had different effects too. Illusions hardly affected me, and it seemed like my instincts got sharper while the Aura was awakened. The weirdest part was that, it couldn''t be sealed by the poison. My other Auras were affected, but not the Unyielding Aura.


    Even though I probably had that Aura since birth, I knew very little about it. ''I know about a few properties of that Aura, and have a vague idea about the conditions required to awaken it. But, nothing else other than that'' I thought. The Aura wouldn''t necessarily awaken in a life and death struggle. No, it depended on something else. Something had to snap inside me. It wasn''t some simple rage, hate or whatever else. It felt more like something that affected my values deep down. When I had enough and didn''t want to take it anymore.


    Those were simple terms, but not so simple to achieve. I tried many times, but it seemed to me that the Aura required a natural course of actions. Only under certain circumstances would it awaken. The strength also depended on my stage. Back at Sedon, I broke through while the Aura awakened, that was the reason for its superior strength. I was able to manifest it, precisely because of my breakthrough. ''I''m not about to create some artificial events, just to test it'' I thought. Fox''s injuries were enough for me. I had no desire to see my other friends in such state.


    I abandoned the thoughts about my Unyielding Aura, and continued the search. I had loads of ground to cover, and I only just begun. Day in and day out, I looked left and right checking anything appearing in my view. Yet there were no results, no clues to be found. Nothing was there.


    ''I already spent a few days worth of time here. There must be a better way, or rather a quicker way'' I thought. I tried recalling everything I knew about Formations. I knew that Formations consisted of runes. Those runes were ced or drawn in specific patterns to create a Formation. The difficult part was that, those runes became invisible once the Formation waspleted. At least, when someone like Alicia or Suly did it. Beginners wouldn''t be able to blend those runes, into whatever they were drawn or ced on.


    This meant, I couldn''t simply spot them. ''I can''t spot them, but I can spot something else'' I thought. There was indeed a way, if the Formation was a certain type of course. One type of Formations, gathered the energy around them in order to function. This meant, it would have to gather the energy at all times. ''The question is, what does such Formation actually gather as an energy source?'' I asked myself.


    The Formations that required users'' energy to be activated, meant I had to supply it. In other words, my body or me, worked as a supply for the Formation to function. But, what about Formations ced in the wilderness, or those that had a constant effect? Where did they gather the energy from? The only conclusion I coulde up with, were the Elemental Orbs. I wasn''t aware of anything else, that could function as an energy source for those Formations.


    ''If my guess is correct, I might be able to find hidden Formations'' I thought. The n was simple. I had to search for increased activity of those Orbs, or theck of them in certain areas. I retrieved the mask, and ced it on my face. "It''s worth a try" I said to myself, and activated the Formation.

 Chapter 440

    Chapter 440


    The Elemental Orbs appeared in my view, scarcely spread throughout the wilderness. There was no pattern, or anything missing as far as I could see. That didn''t mean it wasn''t working. I took my time, and moved from one area to the next one. Time slowly passed, while I found nothing. Sometimes my mind would y tricks on me, and I would "notice" something wrong. But every time I tested out that ce or object, nothing was there.


    ''I only searched like one percent of the area I designated for myself. There''s still loads to cover'' I thought. I searched tirelessly, only taking breaks when I had to. At first, I thought those Elemental Orbs floated randomly around the wilderness, but then I began noticing patterns. I didn''t want to believe it myself, and though I looked at those things for far too long. Yet even after taking a break, I still managed to spot some patterns.


    The Earth Element Orbs would float closer to the ground, and in a specific direction. That direction was further north. That wasn''t continuous though, those Orbs acted as if they were attracted to something for a while, but then that attraction disappeared. The Orbs would basically make a circle, and return to the same area.


    The Air Element Orbs were a bit different though. They were attracted by something too, but in a different direction. From what I figured out, they were moving towards north-east. The pattern of movement was simr to the Earth Element Orbs, butrger in range. That wasn''t all, those Orbs had obvious properties too. Earth Element Orbs were heavy, and floated very slowly closer to the ground. Air Element Orbs were lighter, and floated higher up at much greater speeds.


    There was another thing. Those Orbs, they had a sort of lifespan too. Not that they were alive, but they simply ceased to exist after some time. New Orbs would appear, while the old ones would fade away into nothingness. Or perhaps, they simply faded away for a while, and appeared again somece else. I wasn''t sure, because I couldn''t see that.


    I couldn''t interact with those Orbs, I had no affinity towards any of them. Yet the movement was peculiar, and really mysterious. ''Why would those Orbs move in different directions for a while, but then return? What exactly is attracting those things?'' I asked myself. I wasn''t sure, or rather there were too many unknowns, but I decided to follow those patterns. They pointed me towards north-east, and that''s where I headed.


    The closer I got to the Land of Sands, the stronger those patterns became. When I entered the Land of Sands, I saw something stranger. The Earth Element Orbs gathered into one location, and seemed to be disappearing more often. I wouldn''t call it a storm of Orbs, but the pattern looked something like it. The Orbs moved in a spiralling manner around a certain area, but that wasn''t the only area. There was another area further east. Instead of Earth Element Orbs, Air Element Orbs circted around it.


    Those areas were in the middle of nowhere. There were no caves, trees, rocks or anything. Only sand. When I entered those locations, the Orbs flew around me, but not in the middle where I stood. Something must''ve made them move in circles around those areas, yet the strangest thing was I felt nothing with my body. If not for my mask, I would never discover that, even if I passed through this ce a thousand times.


    ''I''m not sure whether it''s a Formation causing this, or something else. All I know is that, something must be underneath'' I thought. I condensed the Power of Ice in my hand, and threw it at the ground. The ground froze, but nothing else happened. I tried my Auras next, and buried them deep into the sand. That brought no results either. ''Just how deeply is that thing buried?'' I asked myself.


    No matter what I did, nothing worked on any of those areas. ''I came this far, there must be something underneath. If I can''t reach it with my Auras, I have to dig'' I thought. I felt I was close to something, I just didn''t know exactly what that something was. I took out my Bastard Sword, and dug. Whether I shed, or used it as a spade, the effects would be simr. Because this was the Land of Sands, the ground was rather loose. The digging area had to be rather big, otherwise the sand would simply fall back down.


    I dug and dug, and dug some more. Until I finally reached something hard. ''That''s just rock¡­ Do I need to dig through that as well?'' I asked myself. There was no obvious signs of anything, but before I dug even more, I decided to try my Auras again. I released my Auras, and tried probing the rocky ground beneath me.


    A whileter, my Auras encountered nothing that stopped them. There were no Formations or anything really. ''My Auras have a limited reach, when ites to going through solid stuff like rocks. At best I might reach twenty metres deep. This should mean, whatever is down there must be buried even deeper'' I thought.


    Perhaps the area I chose to try it on, was not the best one. I chose to try the area where the Earth Element Orbs gathered. The Orbs floated closer to the ground, while some of them would enter the ground and the rock beneath my feet. It was entirely possible that whatever was buried in that area, was buried much deeper. There was another thing. With the hole I dug, the Orbs were attracted even more. They acted in a more active way, and entered the rocky ground much more regrly.


    ''There is no doubt in my mind that something is there. It would be pointless to start digging at the other area. The depth of that something might be the same in both areas. I might as well continue, and dig through the rock'' I thought, and proceeded to m my sword into the ground. With the Formation active, the sword broke the rocks with each strike. I began digging again, but the rocky ground got harder and harder the deeper I went. As if those Earth Orbs were strengthening the ground beneath my feet.


    It took me a while, but I managed to dig down a few metres. This time though, I dug down a smaller area, about three metres in radius. The further down I went, the less space I had to swing my sword. At the end, I was totally exhausted. ''I''m not sure if this is enough, but I will take a rest first, and then continue after. A few more metres down, and I will check again'' I thought.


    After my rest, I continued digging. The hole was quite deep already, about fifteen metres deep from the surface. I decided to give it a try at that stage. With my Auras released, I pushed them deeper into the ground. Just as my Auras were about to reach the limit, I felt something. My Auras got bounced back a little. I wasn''t sure what exactly bounced my Auras back, but it wasn''t the ground or at least I didn''t think it was.


    I tried again, and the same thing happened. A slight push backwards, faint but real. ''I need to dig a bit deeper, and try when my Auras can reach it better. Whatever that thing is, it must have something to do with how those Elemental Orbs act'' I thought, and continued digging deeper.

 Chapter 441

    Chapter 441


    I dug down a bit more, and tried my Auras again. This time, the force pushing back my Auras was stronger, a lot stronger. ''That no longer felt like a push, but retaliation. Just what the hell is buried down there? Is it really some sort of Formation?'' I asked myself. Just as I was contemting on the thing below me, I felt sudden pressure envelop me. "Ungh" a grunt left my mouth. I couldn''t move, as if the gravity increased at least tenfold.


    Then I heard thumping¡­ "Thump¡­ Thump...Thump¡­". It was very slow and faint, but it sounded like a heartbeat. "What the fuck is below there?" I asked myself shocked. I quickly retrieved my Auras, and tried to move away from that ce. Even with my Auras enveloping me, I wasn''t able to move. That wasn''t the end, I felt a presence hidden below the rocky ground. It felt sinister, even more than my Bloodlust Aura.


    "Move¡­ Move¡­ MOVE!" I screamed to myself, but stayed rooted in ce. The thumping became louder, and some sort of energy seeped out through the ground. Scarlet mist appeared, as if trying to coil itself around me. My Bloodlust Aura intensified, and I was losing control of it. The longer I stood there, the bigger my desire to kill and destroy everything surrounding me grew. "Ha.. Ha.. Ha", a crazedugh escaped my mouth. I had to get away, and I had to leave fast. I looked at my right arm, and tried to release the Power of Ice. Anything, as long as it allowed me to escape.


    Fortunately the ball of mist appeared, but it was weak and fragile. More crazedughs escaped my mouth, as I felt my Aura taking control of me. I used everything I had to condense the ball of mist, as much as I could. Releasing that ball of mist next to me would also freeze me to some extent, but it was better than nothing. I was about to release the ball, when the pressure lessened and light appeared around me. I looked up, and noticed a few figures standing over my head. I couldn''t see the figures well due to the sudden light, but when I looked down again, the scarlet mist began dispersing.


    Suddenly, a loud scream came from below. A terrifying scream, that I would never forget. It made my bones rattle, and my legs weak. The scream was short in reality, but to me itsted too long forfort. Then, silence. No more thumping, no more scarlet mist, no more pressure. I wanted to jump out of that hole as quickly as I could, but before I was able to do that, I became immobilized again. "Do you even realise what cmity your actions would''ve brought? If not for us arriving here in time, we would all be doomed" A voice said.


    I couldn''t look up, but that ent reminded me of someone. "Grey Lizards" I said out loud. There was a while of silence, until another voice spoke. "Human, why did you want to release that thing?". I tried shaking my head, but I couldn''t. Instead, I replied "I didn''t know about it. I was searching for you, not for whatever that thing is¡­ What the hell is that thing anyway?". No one answered my question. Instead, one of the Lizards said, "Leave this ce alone. Never, under any circumstances return to this ce. Your mobility will return in a while, we suggest you don''t get into such situations again. That is your first and final warning".


    I shouted, "Wait! We need your help. The war¡­". I was cut short, "We don''t care about your war Human. If you try to look for us again, we shall not be polite anymore". Before I could say anything else, they''ve already left. ''Damn! I have more questions than answers. Just what the hell was that thing? What exactly is lurking beneath the North?'' I asked myself.


    After a while, I could finally move my body. Then I heard more rumble from above. I wasn''t going to stay even a second longer in that hole, and jumped out. Some kind of Formation activated, and filled the hole with rocks. Bit by bit, the area I dug up, became filled with rocks and sand. It looked like nothing happened at all. As if I was never there digging the ground.


    "I have no clue what that thing was, but it wasn''t something I could defy. What type of existence has such power? Primal Limits existence? Then who sealed it exactly? Hatmandor? Grey Lizards?" I asked myself. I still felt heavy, the aftermath of that thing gripping me with its power, was not something I ever experienced. That existence, was beyond anythingprehensible.


    I wanted nothing to do with that ce, but I wanted something from the Grey Lizards. ''I don''t care if you warned me. You have my stuff, and I want it back'' I thought, and headed in the same direction those Lizards left. I couldn''t be sure where they lived exactly, but I knew it was further up north. I wondered if the trick with my mask would work again. The thing my Auras touched, was surely a Formation. A Formation which kept whatever that was, inside its prison. I didn''t break the Formation in any way, but my interference awakened whatever was below. ''At least, that is what I think happened'' I thought.


    I couldn''t be a 100% sure, but it seemed usible. The Elemental Orbs acted in the same way, with the difference of direction. They were now attracted south, of course towards the area I left. ''Alright, let''s get this organised. The Elemental Orbs are used as an energy source for Formations. This means I should be able to find any Formation, so long it collects the energy from its environment. Whatever is down there, should not be disturbed. That I will agree on as well'' I thought.


    The Grey Lizards had a way of monitoring their Formations. They arrived to that thing, because they knew something was going on. My guess was that they got notified somehow, when I touched the Formation with my Aura for the first time. ''This should mean, they are about one day worth of time, away from that location. In other words, I need to search in such radius'' I thought.


    It wasn''t easy though. The Elemental Orbs were always attracted towards that thing''s location. I could see nothing that would indicate another Formation. ''Maybe they fooled me? After all, they could pretend to go north, while in fact they headed somece elseter. Grey Lizards are not stupid, and they obviously didn''t underestimate me'' I thought. The question was, whether my search area was correct? Maybe they had some sort of means of traveling faster than I assumed.


    I had to increase the scope of my search. Whether it was in the Land of Sands, or just outside of it. I would find them sooner orter, and get my sword back.

 Chapter 442

    Chapter 442


    Time slowly passed, as my search area extended. I found nothing for a long time, until I arrived at the border between the wilderness and the Land of Sands. With my experience spotting those patterns, I finally noticed something. There was a slight deviation of Elemental Orbs. Not as strong as before, but something must''ve been in the area. ''They have a way to monitor their Formations. If I start digging again, I will attract their attention, and they can easily immobilize me again. I need to be a bit more tricky'' I thought.


    I wasn''t sure whether this was indeed the location, but I found nothing else so far. I also preferred to be safe than sorry. Unfortunately, there was nowhere I could hide. I could use my Art of Stealth, but I wasn''t sure how well would that work. It was worth a try either way. I released my Auras, and probed the ground. This time, the Formation wasn''t buried as deeply as it was for that thing. My Auras reached it, and bounced back strongly upon contact.


    I quickly retrieved my Auras, and hid myself. I wanted to know whether this was their hideout, and more importantly how to enter it. I waited for a long time, but no one came out of some secret entrance, nor came running to check what happened. Pretty much nothing happened. I didn''t reveal myself, instead used my Domineering Aura to probe the Formation again. This time, I made sure to strike it harder. A faint "Pak" sound travelled through the ground, as my Aura bounced away from the Formation.


    I waited again, but saw no movement or anything. ''Maybe this is just some kind of leftover Formation, that is no longer used for anything. This might not be the ce of their hideout, but I will try this a few more times and we will see'' I thought. I hoped they would either get annoyed ande out, or that someone would arrive here.


    I tried a few more times, even increased my strength every time. Although the sound of my Aura smashing into the Formation got louder, nothing else happened. ''Yea, it''s probably nothing. Maybe it''s still further up the north of the wilderness, or perhaps in the Land of Sands¡­ I''m not sure anymore'' I thought. I covered quite arge area already, and a lot of time has passed. I had no clue what was going on with the war, nor if I could find those damned Grey Lizards at all.


    I was contemting where should I go next, when I noticed something. Something moved in my peripheral view. I turned my head around, and saw something moving. I couldn''t see what it was, but I knew it walking towards the Formation. ''It''s either a stealth skill, or a Formation which hides the owner. There is no doubt in my mind who that is'' I thought. I waited patiently, as the Grey Lizard didn''t seem to notice me. I couldn''t see the real shape and all, but I could see what that hazy figure was doing.


    The Lizard checked the Formation, did some stuff to it and then stared at the ground for a while. I stood still, and observed. The Lizard just stood there looking at the Formation, but that was it. I felt like he was waiting for something, as if waiting for me to make my move. Time slowly passed. The Lizard finally stopped staring at the ground, and looked around. He didn''t seem to find anyone, and slowly made his way back.


    I stayed still just in case, but I followed all the movements he made. He walked south for a while, stopping once in a while and staring at the ground. ''Is that guy testing me or something?'' I asked myself. The Lizard was really cautious. He would walk around ces, stare at the ground for no apparent reason, then look around for anyone. This went on for a while, until he stopped in what seemed like a random ce.


    The ce though, wasn''t random. He crouched down, and seemed to have activated the Formation hidden there. After a while, the figure simply disappeared. I couldn''t feel any presence at all, nothing was in the surroundings that felt alive. I still didn''t move. ''The Grey Lizards are not stupid. If I follow him there right now, this will never work. I need to return to this ceter, after they drop their guard'' I thought.


    I burned the image of that area into my mind, otherwise it would be hard to find the exact spot where the Grey Lizard disappeared. I then slowly left, making sure my movements didn''t disturb anything. Just to make sure, I spent some time searching for other ces, trying to find any other hidden Formations. I was unsessful though. ''I think enough time has passed for me to try and get inside'' I thought, and headed back to the location of that Formation.


    It was as peaceful and quiet as usual, but I stayed hidden just to make it more safe. When I approached the spot where the Grey Lizard disappeared, I tried activating the Formation but nothing happened. ''Hmm, I''m sure this is the ce'' I thought, and tried all around the spot. Nothing worked, I couldn''t seem to activate the Formation there. ''Does that mean, I need some sort of special item to activate it?'' I asked myself.


    I was entirely possible, but I didn''t see anything that the Lizard held. Perhaps I needed something else. ''What if those steps he took, were not some random steps?'' I thought. I didn''t really pay much attention to other spots, as I thought he was testing the waters. I had to recall those spots, and try the same path that Grey Lizard used. I tried for a long time, until I finally found something. It wasn''t that obvious, but something activated below me. That though, was just one spot, and there were at least six of such spots. Whether some of them were real or not, I had no way of knowing.


    These Formations were not activated by an outside source, therefore my Auras were useless here. I searched for a bit longer, and found another Formation. ''Alright, that makes two. Worst case, there are four more left'' I thought, and was about to search again, when something buzzed and my instincts screamed at me. I jumped backwards as hard as I could, while some sort of earth spikes grew from the ground.


    If I stayed there any longer, I would be impaled. This wasn''t the end, I could feel my movements slowing down. I tried using my Auras to envelop myself, and even moved further back. The force pressing down on me lessened, while a voice travelled from all around. "We gave you the warning, yet you still wish to die. Let''s have it your way Human".


    I quickly replied, "Just give me back my stuff". It was quiet for a while, then the voice replied. "We have nothing that belongs to you". I got pissed, and said "Stop spouting bullshit. Alicia took my sword, she is one of you. If she isn''t here, where is she?". The voice asked, "What do you mean Human?". I replied, "Exactly what I said. Don''t act stupid, tell me where Alicia is". After a while of silence, the voice replied "We don''t know Human".


    This was just priceless. I asked halfughingly, "So you''re telling me, Alicia didn''t return here. She didn''t return to Olrad or Obsidian Mountains at all, and disappeared... Just like that? You want to tell me, Eterians or someone else found her? With my Sword?". The voice replied, "We would know, if she was in danger. That doesn''t change anything Human. You were warned". Suddenly, the whole area lit up and sealed my movements.


    "Damned bastard. I''m telling you, let go of me!". There was no response this time. Instead, the pressure on my body increased, while earth spikes pierced through my legs, arms and body. "Argh!" I screamed in pain. "You should''ve heed to our warnings Human. me yourself for your actions". More spikes pierced through my body, and I was losing consciousness.


    ''Release me'', a sudden voice sounded in my head. I closed my eyes, and saw the figure, or rather "me" standing in front of me. The "me" that stood in front, had red eyes. Not like those of a Shade, butpletely red. "My" skin was also reddened, with purple veins visible all over. A smirk was on "my" face, as if "I" knew this would happen. ''Release me. You know that''s the only way, right?''. I asked confused, ''How can you?¡­ You were supposed to be sealed''. The "me"ughed, ''Sealed? Can you really seal your hate? Your rage and your vengeance? Release me, that is why you are here after all''.

 Chapter 443

    Chapter 443


    The "me" in front extended his hand, inviting me to let it all go. To stop resisting, and give myself into him. I was losing any reason I had left at this stage. ''This is fine, right? There is no other way¡­'' I thought to myself, and slowly extended my hand as well. ''Good, you finally agree. We can make this world painted red, nothing can stop us'', the "me" said. Before our hands touched, I saw something in the darkness behind him. There was something there in the distance. An old memory perhaps, something I saw before but couldn''t quite recall.


    Time seemed to freeze. Neither of us moved closer, as the scene yed out in front of me. I didn''t know what it was at first. It looked like my memory of sorts. I saw my parents running through the forest, they seemed to be running away from something or someone. I was small at that time, maybe four or even younger. While my mother held me tight to her chest, I moved my head to the side. Arrows passed us, almost wounding my mother and father.


    We were being attacked by someone, I couldn''t see who chased after us. Besides, everything was hazy, like a dream. Father said something to my mother, and stopped running. My mother stopped too, but a bit further away. She was holding me tightly, while I looked up and saw concern on her face. She looked at me too, and said in a ghostly voice. "It''s alright Nex¡­ Everything¡­ Alright". A few figures emerged from the forest, and faced my father. They said something as well, but I didn''t know what. I couldn''t hear what any of them said, neither what my father was saying


    The fight was intense, and my father''s opponents seemed to be too strong. He was fighting a losing battle. My mother must''ve seen this. She backed away slowly, then let me down near a tree. "...Stay here Nex¡­ Hide yourself¡­" my mother''s ghostly voice sounded. She rushed towards my father''s side, trying to help him out. I stayed behind the tree, peeking at the battle taking ce in front of me.


    It seemed like my parents could turn the tides. My mother''s help seemed to give my father a boost, and they began pushing back their opponents. Suddenly, someone grabbed me from behind, and screamed some stuff I couldn''t hear¡­ Or perhaps didn''t remember. I saw myself shouting towards my mother, crying for help and attention. My mother tried to rush towards me, but she was stopped by others. My father didn''t fare well either. The man holding me demanded something from my parents, but I didn''t know what. ''Was this about the Moon de?'' I asked myself watching the scene.


    My mother was really angry, I could see it on her face. She wanted nothing else, but to get me back from the clutches of that man. Yet she couldn''t. The injuries on her body only increased with time, while my father didn''t fare any better. I could see myself crying, but the man covered my face and said something I couldn''t hear.


    I couldn''t scream anymore, while my mother tried everything just to get to me. She was punched heavily to her face, and flew away crashing into a tree. I wanted to shout, but I couldn''t. It was then, that my father''s Aura awakened¡­ An Aura that was just like mine. Full of hate, vengeance and thirst for blood. Father hid his sword, and took out another. It was the Moon de. The people surrounding my father panicked, but tried to attack again. Their attempts were futile though, my father cut them down like leaves in the wind. All his opponents dropped to the ground, like lifeless puppets.


    Father slowly walked towards me and the man. My mother screamed something, but I didn''t know what. She seemed distressed, fearing something bad would happen. The man holding me screamed something, I could feel his hand tremble.


    My father didn''t stop, he walked closer and closer towards us. A hideous smile on his face, as if he wouldn''t mind killing anything at this stage. What I saw in my father, was exactly what I saw in myself. The pure rage took over him, he no longer distinguished between foes and allies. The man gripping me couldn''t take it anymore, and backed off while dropping me to the ground. My fatherughter reverberated through the area, as he threw his sword at the man trying to escape.


    I didn''t see what happened to that man, my focus was on my father who was still walking towards me. Just as he approached, another sword appeared in his hand. I couldn''t move. I didn''t understand what was happening, but I was scared of my father. There was no love in his eyes, only hatred and desire to kill. Suddenly, someone ran in front of me¡­ It was my mother. She blocked my father''s path, and said something. I don''t know what she said, but whatever it was didn''t stop my father. A sword pierced right through my mother''s stomach, while her blood sttered all over my face.


    I could feel the tears rolling down my eyes, but my mother stood there unmoving. Father pulled out the sword, probably to repeat what he just did. I thought he would kill my mother, I couldn''t take it anymore. I closed my eyes and shouted, "STOP!". When I opened my eyes again, everything quieted down. My mother was lying on the ground, while my father tended to her. Although wounded, she wasn''t dead. I didn''t see pain on her face, but relief. She was relieved that nothing happened to me, and my father gained control of himself.


    "I''m so sorry son. I¡­ We will live in peace from now¡­ No more fighting... No more blood¡­ to me Nex... If you ever lose control¡­ You can''t fight it¡­ to ept it¡­ Don''t go down... path I went down". Father said in a ghostly voice. It was hazy and hard to understand, but those were the words I could make out. My father beckoned me toe over, but I was too scared. Only when I saw the smile and his usual expression, did my legs finally move.


    My mother said something to me as well, but I couldn''t make anything out. Perhaps she was d I was alright and unharmed. Father took care of mother''s injuries, collected the Moon de, and carried both of us out of there. Then, the scene stopped. Silence all around me. No second me, no father or mother around. Everything disappeared.


    ''Why do I feel like father knew this would happen? He wanted to tell me something, but perhaps I was too young and shocked to remember anything else'' I thought. This felt like a dream, like it never happened. It looked like my memory, but I didn''t remember that happening. ''Was I imagining things, or that really happened? What was my father trying to say? I can''t fight it? ept it¡­ I shouldn''t follow the same path he went?'' I asked myself.


    ''Was he asking me to simply ept that anger, and be a crazed killing tool? No, my father would never tell me to do that. He would never tell me to be a senseless being, that would kill anything in sight. He must have meant it in a different way'' my thoughts continued. Then it dawned on me, ''Was I supposed to ept my anger, rage and hatred, not fight it. ept who I was, instead of trying to control it? Is that what you meant back then father?'' I thought.

 Chapter 444

    Chapter 444


    The darkness slowly distorted, while the other me appeared with his outstretched hand. My hand was outstretched towards him as well, but I knew what needed to be done now. As the other me was about to grab my arm, I grabbed his arm instead. ''No'' I said.The other me''s face changed. He asked, ''You still want to be stubborn? Don''t you see? What else can you do, die? Perish, like thest loser? You need me, and you know that!''.


    I held his arm tightly while replying, ''No, I was wrong. You are part of me, you are me. We were never two separate entities, we were always one... Now I understand. I tried to imprison myself, I tried to control myself. Blinded by the fear, unable to face who I really was''. Silence filled the area. The other me or rather my other feelings, I tried to push them away for far too long. I made myself a prisoner, a prisoner to my own feelings. ''eptance? You want to finally ept me?''. The other me asked. I nodded, ''We were always one, it was my fault for trying to push you away''. The other me smirked, ''... eptance...So be it. ept your rage, your hate and your vengeance. Show them who we really are!''.


    The other me slowly merged with me, I felt pure hate and rage coursing through my veins, but those were my real feelings. Feelings I tried to seal and forget about. I was no longer scared, after all that''s who I was in the first ce. My eyes suddenly opened, and the world was painted in red. It no longer left odd or alienating to me, it felt natural.


    The earth spikes impaling me, crumbled to pieces unable to resist my Aura. I felt the rage, I felt the hatred but I was calm. I inhaled some air loudly, then exhaled. "Let me show you, who I really am". I fought the pressure holding me down, and slowly extended my hand upwards. My Aura gathered, and manifested the Sword of Rage into existence. It wasn''t any simple sword, it was at least ten times bigger than what I could manifest before. I grabbed the sword and using all of my strength, swung it down. "BOOOOM!", "SCREEECH!".


    The Formation holding me in ce flickered, while the pressure on my body lessened. "You are still alive? What are you exactly?... That thing, it must''ve possessed you!" The Lizard eximed. I lifted my giant Sword of Rage, and swung it back down again. "BOOOOM!", "CRACK!". The sword broke apart, while the ground shattered from my strike. The Formation broke apart as well, no longer affecting my body. Nothing was stopping me now.


    I took a step forward, while the ground broke apart under my feet. More Formations appeared all around me, trying to imprison me again. I extended my hand, and willed my Aura to condense again. This time, I didn''t create a sword, but arge w like hand, simr to what my right hand looked like. I swiped my right arm, while the w like Aura swiped through all the Formations appearing in front of me. "Crack!", "Crack!", "Crack!"... The Formations shattered one after the other, as my Aural w swiped through them.


    "Don''t think you can get away that easily monster!" the Lizard screamed, while more Formations appeared both on the ground and in the air. "Sword of Rage: Condensed Form". A sword appeared in my hand, resembling the Razor Swords I had. It was much more condensedpared to before, while wails and pure hatred seeped out of it. I took another step forward, and with a "Boom!" elerated to speeds even those Formations had a hard time following.


    I appeared next to the Formation and swung my sword, before disappearing and appearing next to another Formation. Sounds of breaking reverberated through the air, as all the Formations broke apart. "Is that all you got?". I taunted the Lizard. A loud "Hmph!" sounded in my ears, while another Formation appeared beneath me. I sidestepped but more Formations appeared on the ground, with earth spikes trying to impale me.


    I jumped upwards, evading all those Formations. "You thought that you could get away?!" The voice of the Lizard sounded again. I smirked, "I wasn''t even trying". I condensed anotherrge Sword of Rage in my hand, and threw it at the ground below. "Swooosh!" the sword flew downward, while Formations appeared everywhere trying to stop it. Screeching reverberated throughout the area, as my sword shed with the Formations. That wasn''t enough to stop my sword thought. "BOOOM! SCREECH!". Some sort ofrge Formations below flickered, while the ground broke apart even more.


    An angry voice of the Lizard sounded in my ears. "Where are you going to run away now?!". That was true, I was in mid air. In the past this might''ve been a problem, but not to the current me. A sword materialised itself under my feet, while I used it to jump even higher. More swords appeared, while I used them to elevate myself higher and higher. "I think you should worry about yourself!" I shouted, and began condensing the Bloodlust Aura in my hand. I willed everyst part of my Aura to condense and create something that even thatrge Formation couldn''t stand.


    A spear full of rage, hatred and vengeance, condensed in my hand. The spear released screams, cries and crazed noises. The spear represented the embodiment of my rage. "Art of War: The Spear of Judgement" I said, while throwing the spear downwards. My spear descended, gaining speed with each passing second. I could see the Formations breaking, before my spear even arrived. When it did, it pierced right through the ground without any noises. Then, "BOOOOM!" the ground imploded, and rose to the air revealing a huge hole. A st of air pushed everything aside to reveal a destroyed base of Grey Lizards.


    Therge Formation that used to protect them, gone. I used the Domineering Aura to create some Aura Daggers, and slowed down my descent. Inded just outside therge hole, while my Bloodlust Aura became feeble. I couldn''t use it at all, as if all the rage stored inside me disappeared. When I looked down into therge hole, I saw Lizards struggling to remove rubble and fallen debris. All of them had injuries, but I didn''t see anyone dead. "M...Monster... " one of the Lizards mumbled when he saw me. I jumped into the hole,nding in the centre. They backed away, unwilling to fight anymore. Fear evident in their eyes. "Not so vicious now, are we?" I asked with a smirk.

 Chapter 445

    Chapter 445


    I noticed a few tunnels leading deeper into their base, but I wasn''t about to go exploring. "I must admit, your Formations are really great. It''s a shame you picked a fight with me" I said. A few Lizards stepped forwards. "We don''t regret fighting for our home. Kill us, finish what you started!". I looked at all of them, then shook my head. "No. I will not kill you. You paid the price for this pointless exercise. You wanted to destroy me, but I''m willing to forget that".


    I continued, "You told me I should me myself. I shall return the same to you. me yourself for your narrow mind, Lizards are Lizards after all. Grey, green, red, ck or yellow, no matter the colour, you are all the same". The Lizard spoke again, "Then what do you want?". I sat down on the copsed wall, and replied. "I told you what I wanted, I want my sword back. I would''ve left, if you don''t have it. Yet you were the ones who tried to make me stay".


    He retorted, "So that you reveal our home to others? We might as well fight now, and die". Iughed for a while. "That was your problem? I thought you guys were smart. Blood Pacts exist, I had no intention of revealing your location to anyone. I wouldn''t decline a Blood Pact, but you were blinded by your own ego. Sure Formations are strong and useful, but they are not invincible".


    He asked angrily, "Why did you destroy us then? If you could leave, why didn''t you leave?". I became serious, "You thought I would let you go, just like that? I value my life, just like you value yours. I don''t take attempts at my life lightly. You should be happy I don''t intend to take it any further. None of you died, and everything here can be repaired". He replied, "Fine, we paid for it. Let''s make a Blood Pact, and you can go wherever you want".


    I released my Domineering Aura, and enveloped the whole group. They dropped down to their knees, while I replied. "I think you misunderstood me. You are in no position to give me orders. You lost the ability to demand anything from me, the moment you tried to kill me. Now, you just have to behave, or I will give that location to whoever wishes to know. Your own kin perhaps, or Eterians. Maybe even Humans". He gritted his teeth while asking, "You are threatening us?".


    I retrieved my Aura while replying, "No, I''m warning you. I''m willing to forgive and forget, if you are willing to help". He asked, "What do you want from us? We will not fight this war, it doesn''t concern us¡­". I stopped him, "That is why your views are narrow. Don''t be so block headed, and think about it. If I was able to find you, do you think others can''t?".


    He replied, "You don''t know that". Iughed, "I don''t, and you do? You can take the risk, while I can leave the North anytime I want. Listen, and listen well. If this war is lost, most if not the whole North will be the yground of Eterians. Who will save you from their clutches, when they start searching for you?". He asked, "You say that person is you? You want to be the saviour? Be the hero?". I shook my head, "No, not anymore. Truthfully, I wanted to own the North for myself, be the legend that I myself never believed in".


    A few other Lizards walked out of the rubble, and stood in front of the leading Lizard. "Our home was found out, our future is no longer that safe. This¡­ Human... is fighting a war he doesn''t need to, yet we sit here hidden. Shouldn''t we fight for our own home too?", one of the Lizards said. The leaders face changed, and asked everyone to let him handle this. I chimed in, "I''m not asking you to reveal yourselves. I''m not telling you to go to the frontlines, and lose your lives. You are not warriors, nor are you soldiers".


    They looked at me in confusion, while the leader asked. "Then what do you want? Formations? How can we help you from this ce, when the battles take ce elsewhere?". I smiled, "You can. Weapons, armour, items. If I''m able to equip the people with the best we can have, wouldn''t fighting the war be easier for us?".


    The leader asked, "And we are supposed to trust you?". This time, I didn''t have to answer. One of the Lizards answered for me. "We know who he is, Alicia knows him too. Suspecting him now, would be pointless. Stop being so stubborn, we have a say in this as well!". They argued for a while, and came to ept my offer. "Good. In that case, I will not reveal your location nor do I intend to take it any further". I looked up, and said "You should probably repair this as soon as you can".


    I then stood up, and walked towards the Grey Lizards. The leader asked confused, "Where are you going?". I replied in a "as a matter of fact" manner, "Inside. What is the point of you hiding anything from me, since I know where you live? Don''t worry, I know nothing about Formations except some basics. I''m not here to steal your methods of creating Formations". I then turned towards one of the Lizards who promoted my idea, and asked. "Which tunnel do I take? I need some rest".


    He looked at me for a while, then at his leader, then at me again. I smiled, and waited. He pointed towards the tunnel in the middle, "You can use this one. Let me show you where you can stay". I nodded, and followed after him. But before we entered the tunnel, I coughed out some blood and dropped to my knee. ''I''m tired as hell'' I thought, slowly picking myself up.


    The Lizard turned around, and saw what happened. "Hey, are you alright?". I smiled, "You almost killed me you know. My wounds didn''t heal much during this time". It was my Aura that kept everything in check. I was weakened, and couldn''t use my Auras anymore. I drank some medicine, then continued. "I just need some rest. I will be fine". He nodded, and told me to follow him.


    We went through the tunnel, until I saw some light. We entered arge room, with more hallways branching out to different sections. We entered one such hallway, where he showed me a room I could use. "You can stay here, but don''t wander around alone. You can always return to the main section we just passed. Someone is usually there, and will tend to your needs¡­ Do you need treatment?". I waved my hand while replying, "Nah, I will manage on my own".


    The room they provided for me was rather small, but had a bed and a desk with a chair. It was more than enough for me. Iid down, and rested. I needed to recover from all those injuries. Although my blood wasn''t leaking anymore, my internal organs were damaged due to the spikes. I had to slowly take care of that with my energy and medicine.


    Time slowly passed, while I took care of my injuries. No one really visited me, and I didn''t wander around either. When I was mostly alright, I finally left my room. Following the hallway toward the open area, I spotted a few Lizards talking with each other. "Hey, I''m a bit hungry¡­ You have anything?" I asked. My provisions were gone already, but I focused on my recovery first instead of looking for food.


    The Lizards turned towards me, and gasped. I tilted my head while asking, "What''s wrong?". One of the Lizards pointed at me, then asked "Are¡­ Are you alive?". I was even more confused now. "Well, I''m standing here in front of you guys, so the answer is yes?". She continued, "Your face¡­". I took out a well polished piece of metal from my bag, and took a look at myself. ''Ah, go figure'' I thought when I saw my reflection. I was back to being a skeleton, but the view didn''t really surprise me much. I replied, "Oh that. I just need to eat something¡­ No wonder I feel so hungry. Just how much time has passed?".


    She motioned for me to follow her, and took me to their kitchen area. On our way, I took a look at my body in more details. I felt hunger, but not starvation at this stage. My left arm did shrivel a bit though. I didn''t notice due to the armour. My right arm was mostly alright, but the damaged bandages revealed how dry it became. Inside the kitchen, she brought some food for me. I thanked her, but she didn''t leave. "If you want to ask about something, go ahead. I have a few questions of my own too" I said while eating.

 Chapter 446

    Chapter 446


    She didn''t hesitate anymore, and asked. "That arm of yours¡­ Did you¡­ you know?". I smiled, "No, I didn''t kill any Lizard for this arm, nor did I hack a random corpse. I know what you are thinking, but contrary to what people believe, this is my arm. How it came to be like this, is another story which I will not share with you". I continued, "How about I ask a question now?". I wanted to do a sort of exchange of questions, and she didn''t seem to mind that.


    I asked, "What exactly is that thing below the ground? The one I encountered while looking for you guys". She replied, "I''m not sure myself. I know it''s evil, and it''s been there since ancient times. We the Grey Lizards were tasked to keep an eye on the seals. You know, make sure that thing never escapes". Just as she finished, a Lizard walked over and said. "It''s called Hydra, and it was sealed a long time ago. We were not the ones who sealed it though". I asked, "Hatmandor?". He nodded in confirmation, then sat at our table.


    The female Lizard was shocked and wanted to leave, but the guy told her she could stay. I said, "Seems you have a high standing here. Especially since you seem to know so much". He replied, "You could say that. I don''t know much about Hydra though, but I know that all those Formations and knowledge came from Hatmandor. That was the reward for our duties. Well, we of course developed our own stuffter, but that is how everything went".


    I smiled, "Go on. You must''ve wanted to ask me something important, since you shared that with me". He smiled, "Was I that obvious? Here is my question then. How did you manage to find us?". I smiled again, "Is the question indeed, right?". I took out my mask, and said "It''s thanks to this. I can sort of see Formations that collect energy from the environment". He looked at the mask for a while, then asked "Can I have a look at it?". I threw the mask at him, "By all means, there are no secret Formations on it anyway. It was made by Alicia after all".


    He was even more shocked. Before he jumped to any conclusions, I added "Alicia is not to be med. It''s not due to Formations alone. Give it a try if you want, but I''m quite sure you will spot nothing". He took me up on that offer, and ced the mask on. The mask morphed into a face of a Lizard, but it was weird. The eyes were not hollow, instead they were golden. Other than that, there were four horn like structuresing out on each side. Sort of like whiskers, but not exactly.


    After a while, he said "It''s a Formation that improves eyesight. I can see better, but I can''t see any Formations hidden anywhere". I asked, "Can you see anything floating around?". He shook his head, then took off the mask. "Huh? Why does it look like this?... Another Formation?". I nodded, "Yes, it''s a Formation that changes the shape based on who wears it". He passed the mask back to me while asking, "I still don''t know how you were able to find us".


    I replied with a smile, "I think it''s my turn for asking questions. Answer, and I will tell you exactly how. It''s not like I mind telling you". He agreed to my proposal, so I asked. "Hatmandor. Who are they exactly?". He motioned for the female Lizard to leave, and only spoke when we were alone. "Hatmandor is an ancient race of some sort. I don''t know what race, what they are called or where theye from. I only know they were the ones who told us how to use Formations properly. Hatmandor is the ind just north of the North, that is why we call them like that. They don''t originate from that ind though. Hydra was not originally a creature that existed here either. They are much more advanced than we are. Their Formations are beyond ours, while their knowledge is more vast than the whole Continent¡­ At least I think that to be the case".


    He continued, "There is one more thing. They were here long before North became what it is today. After all, they were the ones who created the barrier". I already suspected that, and I could guess the reason for this barrier too. That Hydra, the barrier, it would make sense. I wanted to ask about it, but he smiled while saying "Isn''t it your turn now?".


    "It is indeed. Do you know about Elements? Well, I call them that. There are at least six Elements in this world. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Darkness and Nature. Although I suspect there is one more. If there is darkness, there must be light. Maybe I wasn''t simply able to find them yet. Anyway, those Elements are responsible for feeding the Formations. Since I can track them, I was able to find your location¡­ and the location of Hydra".


    He stared at me for a while. I waved my hand in front of his face, but it didn''t wake him up. I pped my hands in front of him, and he finally woke up from his thoughts. "Elements you say¡­ That would make sense, after all where would the Formations get the energy from? We always thought that there must be something in the air or ground, but it turns out it was those Elements you speak of. You said there are at least six of them, right? Even possibly seven?".


    I nodded, "Yes, but North doesn''t have them all. Earth and Air Elements are the mostmon. Fire not so much, except Obsidian Mountains. Water Element is even more scarce. As for the Darkness and Nature? Darkness Element is absent in the North, there is no night, therefore no darkness. It doesn''t work in dark ces, it has to be night specifically. The Nature Element can be found in Apium, but it is rather scarce too".


    He mumbled something to himself, then said "Yea, I have some ideas now. I should share that with others. This might allow for new Formations to exist". Just as he was about to leave, I asked onest question. "Is the Hydra rted to the barrier?". He nodded, "In a way. Others don''t know that, especially our own kin¡­ I can tell you moreter, I need to go now". He left quickly, while I was left hanging. ''Ah whatever, I will get some answerster'' I thought, and went to get more food.


    Fortunately, Grey Lizards had loads of food. ''I don''t remember how long its been since I ate so well. I should probably check up on those guys too'' I thought, and headed back to therge hole I made in their base. I was surprised to see it already repaired, although a few Lizards were still there doing some stuff. "You guys are quick. I guess Formations are really useful". They didn''t really mind me, and continued with their tasks.


    I returned to the open area, where I asked about their leader. The Lizard replied, "They should be in their area. It''s that tunnel over there, but you won''t be able to ¡­ Please don''t break any more Formations alright. I will go there and ask for someone to meet you". I agreed, and waited in the open area.

 Chapter 447

    Chapter 447


    The Lizard return rather quickly, and told me they were busy at that time. Someone would visit me, and I should wait in the room they provided. I nodded, and returned to my room. It was better not to pry, they would be suspicious again and I wouldn''t get anything useful out of them. ''I wonder how they are doing'' I thought. Harlin and Crow should be able to take care of Sedon, but I was worried that Eterians might simply overwhelm them. ''Fox should be fine in Olrad. Hopefully she can recover soon'' I thought.


    There were a few questions I needed answers to. Some about Hatmandor, while others about Eterians and other races. I needed to understand the history. I had a feeling that Northern History was the key to this war. ''For one Vanauts fight this war, because they have no other choice. Wherever they went, they were not epted. Vanauts can still switch sides, if I show them we can coexist together'' I thought. There was also another thing I needed from Grey Lizards.


    To be precise, it was a way to ess Land of Mirages. Removing that mist would be even better, but I wasn''t sure if the Grey Lizards would be able to achieve that. Especially since they wouldn''t move away from their base. That was a vital reason for my search of Grey Lizards. If we couldn''t expose Eterians, the war would never end. I took a look at myself, the set of leather clothes I received from Suly and Fox was tattered already. My own armour was also badly damaged. I needed a recement, or rather an improvement.


    Time slowly passed. I sorted all the information I had, until someone knocked on my door. I opened them and stepped outside. "I''m here to take you to see the leaders. Follow me". I nodded and followed him to the same tunnel the other Lizard pointed out. We made it to another open area, where a few Grey Lizards dressed in various clothes awaited. I also saw the guy I spoke with earlier, the one who told me about Hydra and other things.


    The leader I already met, said "Follow us, we will discuss everything in private". He and a few other Lizards walked towards the doors at the back of the open area, while I followed them. Inside, I saw some chairs and arge table. We all took a seat. The first to speak was the Lizard who told me about Hydra. "The Elements you told me about, they must exist. We already tested some stuff, and we can improve our Formations. We are grateful for such knowledge".


    I waved my hand, "It''s nothing much. I never treated it as a secret. Can I get some answers first?". They looked at each other, and nodded in unison. I said, "Tell me about the Hydra and the Barrier". One of the Lizards replied, "People of the North believe that the barrier was created to protect them¡­ That is not entirely true. It''s true that due to Humans waging wars left and right, the minor races escaped towards the North. That was when the barrier was created, Hydra was the biggest reason, but Hatmandor had someone who cared for minor races. That person added a condition for the barrier. Humans, Eteriand and Furians would need to pass trials, before they were able to enter the North. This was more of a trap for Humans, as Eterians lived in the North, and they could easily go past those trials".


    Another Lizard continued, "There was one drawback to all of this. The minor races were not allowed to leave. Onlyter did we the Grey Lizards learn that the barrier is a huge andplicated Formation. We can leave the North, if the barrier allows for it. Of course, that can only be decided by Hatmandor. As far as we are aware, no one was allowed to leave". I nodded while asking, "How does that tie in to Hydra?". The guy who told me about Hydra, replied "I told you already, we don''t know how Hydra appeared here. Although we have some guesses. Hatmandor obviously didn''t bring it with them, otherwise they would retrieve Hydra a long time ago. If they had a way to control it, why would they seal it? There are a few other possibilities. Hydra came here by itself¡­ From where, we don''t have a clue. Someone might have brought Hydra here, to destroy this continent¡­ or perhaps Hatmandor".


    Another Lizard added, "There is also one more far fetched possibility. Bramans were responsible for Hydra". I was a bit surprised. "Bramans? Weren''t they extinct before the barrier formed?". The leader replied, "So you know about them. Well, that depends on who you ask. It is possible not all Bramans died, and supposedly they indulged in some darker form of practices". I narrowed my eyes, "What sort of practices?". He sighed "They worshipped something, as to what that thing was¡­ We don''t know. This idea is far fetched as we said. It certainly is possible, but very unlikely".


    This was indeed interesting. I asked, "What about the war between Bramans and Humans? You know something about it?". He replied, "No, not much really. Perhaps we might know even less than you do". I asked a different question, "Eterians. What can you tell me about them?". One of the Lizards asked in reply, "What exactly do you want to know? I''m sure you are aware of their abilities, do you mean their history?". I nodded, "Yes. I need to understand why they waged this war. I''m aware that Humans fought Eterians here in the North, but why did the Eterians fight Humans in the first ce?".


    They shook their heads. "We don''t know. The history of Humans and Eterians go way beyond our records and knowledge. We were a minor race during that time, a race considered to be simple monsters. We have no ess to such information. My guess is, only Humans, Eterians and Furians know". That was another thing I wanted to ask, "Furians, why are they helping Eterians?". They shook their heads again. I asked, "In that case, what about you guys? The Royal Lizards wrote betrayal, but I don''t buy it".


    The leader replied with a scoff, "Then that means you have a brain. Betrayal? They wanted to use Hydra as a weapon. They somehow learned about Hydra, and that we were supposed to keep it sealed. They wanted us to control Hydra, and use it to take over the North. Let me tell you, the Royals were always shady, and it didn''t change with time". I asked, "Does that mean you ran away?". He replied, "We didn''t have any other choice. Grey Lizards were always a minority in our poption. They didn''t banish us, we left by ourselves. The Royals are rotten, but there are good Lizards there as well. They look past the lies Royals spouted, and ept us".


    Iughed, "This reminded me of something. The Royal Lizards are searching for some non-existent relics. It just shows they would go far for powerful weapons". They looked at each other, while the leader asked. "Relics?". I replied while waving my hand, "It''s just some stuff I made up on the spot. I wanted to ess their records, and needed a reason. I gave them one". The Grey Lizards shook their heads in response.


    I continued, "Anyway, it didn''t make sense to me either. What about other races? Shades, Voltars or Atols?". Another Lizard replied, "Shades usually cared for themselves¡­ Not that we me them. We did help them out in the past, but the Royals also gained a lot from that. It''s not like Royals would do something for free. As for Voltars? They were always arrogant, thinking they were above other minor races. As far as we are aware, they are only truly scared of Hatmandor".


    Another Lizard said, "Atols are good people. They have those Fractions and whatnot, but their ancestors cared for peace and preservation. They also designed the base for us, but we decided not to involve Atols. It was before we left the Obsidian Mountains though, but we already nned to leave by that time". The Lizard next to him, chimed in as well. "As for the other races, they stayed a minority in the North. Conquered by others usually. They never reach a status of a major race, and are treated like we were in the past".


    I became a bit more serious, "We should discuss your help in this war now. I don''t know what''s the situation out there, I was busy searching for you. As far as I know, anything might''ve happened". Our conversation moved towards the Formations and the help Grey Lizards could offer.

 Chapter 448

    Chapter 448


    They agreed to put Formations on weapons and whatnot, but they didn''t really have any weapons. No Grey Lizard was a cksmith, although a lot of them could tailor. They still required materials for that, and I needed to provide them. Either that, or get weapons, armours and whatnot for them, which they could improve. With that established, I said "I have a personal favour though. The armour you see on me, it''s already tattered and most of the Formations are broken". One of the Lizards replied, "We can repair it no problem". I shook my head, "Not repair it. I want you to make the best armour you can. The best Formations you can use, I might need them¡­ Unfortunately, I don''t have any materials. I can pay you for that with something else though".


    The leader replied, "We don''t need money, but we are willing to give you some materials for your armour. After all, you shared the knowledge of Elements with us. That alone is a good enough payment". I nodded and started taking off my armour. I changed into the old set of clothes, and asked them to have a look at the ruined set. They each took something and examined it, before passing the pieces between themselves. One of the Lizards asked, "Was this made by us?". I nodded, "Yes, but you might not know her¡­ I mean if Alicia didn''t tell you about her". He asked confused, "Her? Oh you mean that child from Olrad? Alicia took her in? That''s new, who would''ve thought".


    I smiled, "Yes, Suly is really talented. She ced all those Formations by herself". He nodded, "Yes, not bad at all. Although they are a bit weak, the potential is there". I continued, "The Formation on the cloak, I want the same one or rather better one. Other Formations¡­ You can improve upon them or add something you think is necessary". He nodded, and told me they would take care of that.


    I had a few more things to take care of, before I left. "Can you contact Alicia?" I asked. The leader replied, "We can try, but we can''t really tell her toe here if she doesn''t want to". I was a bit confused, "What do you mean by that?". He replied, "Well, Alicia is one of us, as in us here in this room. More precisely, she has the same position as me. I can''t really order her around, and it was her choice to live outside. We usually sent some less prominent members, but Alicia decided she wanted to go". I was surprised for sure. ''To think she held such a high position here'' I thought.


    Either way, I told them to try. After all, I wanted my sword back or whatever Alicia decided to do with it. I then asked about thest thing. "You are aware what Land of Mirages is, right?". They nodded in reply, while I continued. "I need a way to disperse that mist, or the ability to go inside without being affected". They stayed silent for a while, then murmured something underneath their breaths. Finally, one of the Lizards broke the silence. "That''s too difficult". Another Lizard chimed in, "It''s not impossible of course, but we would have to be there and that is not something we are willing to do". The leader added, "The Formation required to achieve such thing, would not be that simple and take a lot of time. Not only would we need to leave this ce with a considerable amount of us, we would have to stay near the Land of Mirages for an extended amount of time".


    The others nodded their heads, except one guy who was still lost in his thoughts. It was the Lizard who told me about Hydra. He suddenly eximed, "Wait! There might be a way. Don''t forget the Elements. We are still new to this type of knowledge, but we already established some things, right?". The others looked at him, and nodded slightly. He continued, "In that case, what we need is the knowledge about that mist". I asked confused "What do you mean by that?". He replied, "It''s simple, we need to know what Elements this mist consist of". Another Lizard added, "We might be able to seed, and we don''t have to go there. If we can massively collect that Element or Elements that the mist consists of, we should be able to disperse it".


    I replied, "That is under one condition, that mist must be a Formation. If it''s not, collecting a certain type of Element might do nothing to it". He nodded, "We believe that the mist is a Formation, whether that''s true or not¡­ You will have to find that out for us". I agreed, this was much better than trying nothing at all. The leader said, "In that case, we all know what to do. We will try to contact Alicia, and improve your armour. It should be ready by the time you return". I nodded, and left the room. I had to take the leg and arm guards with me, as Grey Lizards wouldn''t be able to repair them. Besides, I wanted to improve that armour too.


    Although I left the room, I wasn''t sure how to leave that ce. I went back inside, and asked them about it. One of them told me to follow him. The Lizard showed me how to activate the Formations, allowing me to leave their base. Before I left though, he told me to hide myself. He also mentioned that when I returned, I should take extra care not to be followed. I nodded while melding into the shadow, then disappeared from their base.


    Shortly after, I appeared outside. ''This Formation is really useful, I wonder if they could make one for longer distances'' I thought, and made my way towards Sedon. I could visit Obsidian Mountains on my way, but I decided against that. I didn''t want to waste time on detours, as I had no clue what was really going on. My pace wasn''t slowpared to before. I no longer trained on my way, there was no time for that.


    Time passed quickly. I made it back to Sedon, which changed a lot during the time I was absent. The new walls were taller, more beefy and had a few towers. "Wow, Ama really did a great job" I said to myself. Although the city walls looked a bit. Two sides were taller and more robust, while the old walls looked weak and puny inparison. The atmosphere inside the city was rather lively, morale high. ''I''m still uneasy about this whole peaceful situation. This is like the quiet before the storm, I just hope nothing major will ur before I get those Formations'' I thought.


    I also noticed that some people worked on Scorpions. ''My guess is, more people worked on the walls this time. This would exin why the Scorpions are still not finished'' I thought, and headed towards the Lizards'' area. Harlin was training his soldiers, and helping out Atols as well. ''Seems like Atols and Lizards make good allies. This is good, once they are familiar with each other, fighting alongside will be easier for them'' I thought.


    "Harlin, it''s been a while" I called out. He turned around and smiled. "You look like shit man. What sort of trouble did you cause this time?". Iughed "It''s nothing much, I will tell youter. For now, gather your people. I have something to say". He rolled his eyes but assembled his soldiers, while Atols gathered next to me. "Hey guys, you are doing very well. I can see that Olip, Atal and Mani reached their Inner Limits. Good job guys. n and Eram, you are not far away from it either. Keep at it, and you will reach it soon. I see improvements in the rest of you too. Work hard, and you can achieve the same height".


    The Atols replied "Yes!", in unison. With all the soldiers and warriors gathered, I said. "I need to borrow your weapons, armours and whatnot for a while. We will improve your equipment, to a much, much better standard. Make sure the stuff you give me is the best you have. That way, you will receive the most from it when I return it to you". The soldiers began murmuring among themselves, but Atols didn''t really have any issues. All of them dumped their weapons in front of me. "You were the one who provided equipment for us. We have no need to suspect you. We believe in you".


    Harlin scolded his soldiers, and handed me his things. I said, "Guys, make sure youbel this stuff. I have no way of distinguishing your equipment¡­ Especially that kind of amount". They did as I asked, and handed me whatever they thought was best. I got two full bags of stuff, and I would have to carry all that back to the Grey Lizards. ''Yea... '' I thought. I left the bags there, as I didn''t want to carry them on me all the time. Besides, I had to collect more. Shades also needed an upgrade.


    I added before leaving, "You guys still have weapons and other things, so you shouldn''t be that worried. I will be back as soon as those get improved". I wanted to meet with Crow next, and then a few other people. I also had to repair my own armour, Grey Lizards didn''t have ess to a furnace, but Sedon had. Using that would be much quickerpared to me building one from scratch. Before I left, I told Harlin to meet me at Crow''s ceter.

 Chapter 449

    Chapter 449


    Fortunately, Crow was inside the city. I told him about my ns, my findings and a way to expose Eterians. "That is great news. If we have a way to disperse that mist, Eterians will be vulnerable. As for the weapon and armour improvements, I will gather the people and tell them about it" he said. I nodded, and asked him about his arm. "I don''tin. It works fine, even though it''s a bit disproportionate. That doesn''t matter though, do you want me to go with you? You might need some backup there". I declined, "No, stay here. Besides, I need to deliver all that stuff to Grey Lizards first. While they work on improving your equipment, I will go to the Land of Mirages".


    He nodded, and silence filled the air. "I''m still worried though. Eterians made no moves¡­ This is bad" I said after a while. Crow replied, "I think that is actually great. We had the time to improve and reconstruct our walls. With the addition of Scorpions, we are much better prepared now. You also mentioned that Vanauts gave up for now, and will stay at the Ruins of Ravan. This is also great news, Boltier has nothing to worry about in such case".


    I still felt uneasy, as if I forgot about something. "War is not that simple Crow. Eterians are no idiots. If they are taking their time, that can only mean they are nning something big. This might look like paranoia to you, but I''m alive thanks to that paranoia. Prepare for the worst case Crow. Don''t, under any circumstances, drop your guard down". He agreed, before leaving to gather the other Shades. I decided to stay at his ce. Harlin was supposed to meet me there.


    Before Harlin came over, I saw Lira enter the room. "Came to visit me?" I asked. Her expression was no longer cold and hateful towards me. She replied, "I¡­ I should apologize". I raised my hand to stop her. "No, don''t. You''re watching out for Crow, I appreciate that. Take care of him when I''m not around". She smiled, and nodded her head. "Since you are here, you can leave your stuff with me". She nodded again, and passed me her stuff. "I still can''t believe you actually found them" she said.


    I replied, "Well, I almost paid with my life for that¡­ actually twice. Anyway, they will help us, but make sure no one else knows about it. We can''t have everyone know about the Grey Lizards. They wish to stay hidden, and I promised to respect that wish". She nodded, and then left to do her own things. Harlin came not long after. I exined to him everything, just like I did to Crow. He was much more shockedpared to Crow.


    "You really did find them? Damn" he said. "Yes, but no one is to find out their location. Don''t spread that around, especially to Royals. I don''t need them interfering". He nodded, "That I wouldn''t do. Royals are rather greedy, and worry about themselves a lot. What you said to me in the past¡­ You were a hundred percent right. As long as I''m useful to them, they will keep me. The moment my usefulness disappears, I will be abandoned".


    "Yea, I only wished others realised that" I replied. "You mean Lazar, don''t you? He always had his own ways of dealing with things. Since Mira died, he always tried to protect everything" he said. I asked, "Suly''s mother?". Harlin continued, "Yea. Mira meant the world to him. He changed after she passed away. You see, Mira was really sick, just like Suly. The Grey Lizards had no cure, and having Suly was already dangerous for her. Yet she still chose to have her. Lazar never forgave himself for that, as if it was his fault Mira died. He still talks about you, you know? You changed his life in a way, and he never forgot about it. Him and Suly managed to repair their rtionship, only thanks to you. It''s just that sometimes your actions are extreme for him".


    "Yea, not just for him Harlin. Not just for him¡­" I replied. "It''s fine, we will work it out somehow. First, we need to take care of this war" he added. That was true. I had to stop this conflict. Whether we use overwhelming strength or strategy, the sooner this war ended, the better for everyone. We waited for a while longer, before Crow returned. "I gathered all the Shades, they are waiting downstairs. I told them you will improve their equipment, and although they seemed a bit suspicious, I managed to convince them".


    I stood up while replying, "Good. After I collect that, I need to repair my own stuff, and meet with a few other people. Then I will be off to deliver all that stuff. It will take a while for everything to be improved for sure, but you should be alright with the new walls". I looked at them both, then continued. "Watch out, and don''t let your guard down. I know you might be happy about this temporary peace, but I just feel it in my bones¡­ Something ising, I just don''t know how big that will be".


    They nodded, and followed me downstairs. Loads of Shades waited there already, I didn''t need to tell them what to do, and simply took out one of my empty bags. "Guys, make sure youbel your stuff somehow. When I bring it back, you might have a hard time finding your things". A lot of Shades smiled, while one of them said "We already did that". I smiled, and nodded as well. With that taken care of, I took the bag back to the training grounds of Lizards and Atols.


    I had to take those three bags with me, and run back to the Grey Lizards. ''Boy¡­ I so wish for that Formation, which transported me to and from the Grey Lizards'' base'' I thought. I then visited the smithy, and repaired my armour. They fortunately had sh Blurite in stock, so I used it to repair and remodel some of the parts. Although the leg and arm guards looked almost the same, I added a few mobility improvements, as well as more metal to certain parts for better protection.


    ''I just have to visit a few other guys, and I can be on my way'' I thought. My first stop was the medical house, where the six Atols worked on perfecting their medicine or poison making. "How are you guys doing?" I asked. All of them told me about the improvements they made, as well as the state of various herbs. The rare herbs were growing well, but it would take more time for them to fully develop. This meant, none of them could be used yet. "Don''t worry about it. When they are ready, store them for me". They agreed to do that, then returned to work.


    I visited Ama too. She was enthusiastic about the new walls, and was preparing to repair the damaged buildings. "I have some more time now, since the walls are finished. If you need anything specific, let me know" she said. I didn''t really need anything, and told her to focus on whatever she wanted. ''Although, there might be something'' I thought. "Ama, can you build a basement¡­ Or rather a shelter. In case we are attacked again, those who are not fit to fight, can take shelter under the ground. This could also serve as a ce for treatment" I said.


    She nodded, "That is not a bad idea. We can even go a step further, and connect the medical house to the basement. That way, we will have a supply of medicine to treat those in need". I nodded, but warned her. "Remember that there are sewers below Sedon. I''m not saying you can''t use a part of that, but be sure that nothing gets obstructed". She nodded while telling me she knew.


    I left her to do her work, and went back to the training area to pick up the bags. I could use my Storage Feather to some degree, but still wouldn''t be able to fit everything. ''I guess I can fit some stuff there, it will always make it lighter. I will have to ask Grey Lizards about more of such items'' I thought. With everything sorted and taken care of, I left the city and headed back to the wilderness.

 Chapter 450

    Chapter 450


    I made my way back to the Grey Lizards'' base as quickly as I could. I also made sure no one followed me. When I arrived back at the location, I activated the Formations in order it was exined to me, and appeared inside their base. ''It took me a while to reach this ce, with these bags full of stuff'' I thought. Although I could carry that much, doing so for an extended period of time tired me out anyway.


    Just as I was about to reach the open area, a Formation appeared out of nowhere, stopping me dead in tracks. "What the?" I asked myself. A familiar voice sounded in my ears. "You bastard! Let settle some scores, shall we?". I asked confused, "Alicia? What do you mean? What are you doing exactly?". She walked up to me, then replied in an angry tone. "You have no clue, do you? I almost died thanks to you!".


    I was even more confused. "What the hell are you on about? We haven''t seen each other for a long time. When did I want to kill you exactly?". She activated more Formations while replying, "You damned blocked! You almost destroyed me, with that fucking Varent! How are you going to pay me back for that? HUH!". My mind went nk for a while. I was only able to utter "Oh...".


    "Don''t "Oh" you fucking bastard! I almost died there. If not for the Formations protecting that ce¡­ Pay up". I replied, "Alicia, calm down. We can talk about it". She increased the pressure on the Formation, while I grunted. "Talk about it? TALK ABOUT IT!? I demandpensation, NOW!". I replied a bit angry, "What the hell do you want me to do!? You know damn well I have no money!". She activated more Formations. The pressure increased, and I dropped to my knees unable to stand up anymore. "You dare speak back to me?".


    "Alicia! Stop it". The voice of the leader sounded from behind. "Shut up Tulin! This doesn''t concern you". I could feel the rage building up inside me, but I suppressed it. "You are right, it''s my fault. I can''t turn back time anymore, what''s done is done. I can only apologize". The force holding me in ce stopped, and I was able to move again. Just as I stood up, Alicia''s hand was already outstretched in a pping motion. I could easily evade it, but I deserved to be pped. "Pak"... "Ow!".


    "What the hell are you made out of?", she asked while holding her hand. I didn''t feel any pain, instead Alicia felt pain. I said, "I''m sorry. It was never my intention to bring you harm¡­ I was being too reckless". She said, "Come, we will talk in private". Before I followed her though, I left the bags with the leader. "Those are the things, you can start working¡­". "I said follow me!" Alicia interrupted. I quickly followed her.


    We entered one of the empty rooms, where she activated some sort of Formations. "Go on, how are you going to repay me?". I sat down while replying, "You know I don''t have any money I can give you? Besides, money doesn''t solve this... I can give you medicine. Not that I want this to happen again, but it''s the most valuable thing I have with me". She stretched her hand out, while replying with two simple words. "Give me". I took out the Golden Iris from my Storage Feather, and passed it to her.


    "This is improved medicine, that even Suly didn''t get. It''s the best thing I can create currently" I said. She looked at it suspiciously, as if I handed her something fake. "Seriously? You think I would give you something fake? After what happened to you? I can acknowledge my mistakes you know". I then added, "Only one other person in the world has this medicine. That is only because he provided the herbs for me". She hid the bottle, then said "Fine, I will forgive you".


    She sat down as well, and stared at me. I wasn''t sure what to say. The only thing that came to my mind was my weapon. "Do you have my¡­". She interrupted, "We can talk about it after I get some answers". I nodded in agreement. She said, "I''m aware why you destroyed Varent. I also find out about their cooperation with Eterians. That doesn''t mean I approve of what you did". I replied, "Yea, you are not the only one who told me that". She nodded, "At least you understand. You did what you thought best, I can''t fault that. I will only ask you to be careful, next time you want to pull something like that".


    I agreed, "You are right. That is why I want to end this war". She asked, "How will you end it?". I shook my head, "I don''t know yet. There''s been enough bloodshed. If I can expose Eterians, they might stop waging that war". She asked surprised, "So you want a peaceful solution?". I sighed, "I''m no longer able to distinguish who is right, and who is wrong. Why do Eterians fight? Why did Humans destroy Bramans? Why Furians joined the war? All of that is unknown to me. Vanauts are misunderstood, Golems were sick of life, Atols always chose to help out and do whatever was right¡­ It makes me think we are the bad guys here".


    She replied, "You wouldn''t be wrong". I asked confused, "Do you know something?". Sheid back in her chair while replying, "In a way. I chose to live outside, because I could gather information. Lizards are blind Nex, they chase after power. They are the ones who want to own North. Voltars were always annoying and arrogant. The Formations and whatnot inside their cities¡­ Why do you think they wanted for those buildings to float? So they can look at other from above. Shades have their own internal struggle. They might be treating each other well now, but that wasn''t the case before the war. A dog eat dog world, if you know what I mean".


    I nodded, "I''m aware of those things. But I still don''t know the reason for this war". She replied, "Because you don''t know about the past. I don''t know much either, but I managed to figure some things out. Humans were never saints Nex, but Bramans were even worse". I asked, "What do you mean?". She continued, "You know about Hydra right?". I nodded, while she said "Then you should know one of the theories behind it". I asked, "Are you saying that Bramans really had something to do with Hydra?".


    She nodded, "That is what I believe. I''m notpletely sure, but it seems probable to me. If Hydra is here due to Bramans, there is no wonder why Humans would want to exterminate them". I asked, "Didn''t Hatmandor deal with Hydra?". She replied, "Yes they did. But as you saw yourself, they didn''t destroy it. You ever wondered why?". I asked, "Because Hydra was too strong for them?". She replied, "That could be one exnation. Another would be¡­ They wanted to use it themselves if such need arose".


    I asked, "What about Eterians and Furians then?". She replied, "Eterians were weaker than Bramans. No, I shall put it differently. Eterians couldn''t manipte Bramans, their illusions and charms simply didn''t work on them¡­ At least ording to the stuff I unearthed. Bramans were fighting a losing war against Humans, it''s not true that Eterians stayed out of it during that time". ''Humans always told me we were betrayed, does that refer to that then?'' I asked myself.


    She continued, "As for Furians? You are mistaken. They are not fighting willingly". I already suspected that Eterians manipted Furians in a way. She confirmed my suspicion. I said, "I kind of expected that. I also figured out, how they could control them. Eterians have ess to special poison. A poison that seals Auras. Furians have Auras too right?". She nodded, "That is true. If such poison was used, they would be better able to control the whole Furian poption. I didn''t hear about this poison though, but it seems you are quite sure". I replied, "But that is present, what about the past?".


    She said, "Look at Lizards. The Royals manipted the whole race into believing we betrayed them. Couldn''t Eterians do the same to Furians. Convince them that Humans are their enemies. There will be those who don''t believe it, just like there are Lizards who don''t believe Royals. But Eterians can easily control that, and that they did for a very long time. A lot of that is spection, as I don''t have concrete proof. Yet it just fits together, doesn''t it?".


    It did fit together, but I wasn''t sure why the war started in the first ce. I asked, "Couldn''t Eterians slowly overtake the whole North? Why wage a war? Why do such a thing? Revenge? Showing off?". She shook her head, "That I don''t know. It''s weird to me as well. If Eterians slowly manipted the higher standing people, and controlled everything from the shadows¡­ It would be possible. Somehow, it seems to me they are rushing. As if they have very little time". It kind of looked that way. ''At the beginning, they wanted to overtake everything quietly, but then they changed into frontal attacks. It does feel like they are running out of time, but what exactly is rushing them?'' I asked myself.


    Alicia said, "The Land of Mirages is the answer. You wanted to disperse the mist, if we can achieve that, we might be able to learn a few more things". I nodded, "Yes, I will go back to check the mist out. I also brought equipment from Sedon. As long as we have means of defending, we should be alright¡­ So what about my weapon?". She sighed, "It''s not done yet¡­ In a way. The weapon is finished, but I still need to do all the Formations¡­ If not for...". I stopped her, "I get it, it''s my fault. You don''t need excuses really, I will wait. I asked because I''m curious". She added, "It will be done. You will get your armour with the weapon when they are ready. Find out what that mist is about, then return here". I nodded and left the ce.

 Chapter 451

    Chapter 451


    I made my way towards the Land of Mirages, not stopping at any city. There was no time, and I had a bad feeling about everything. No enemies blocked my path, not a soul was around. Everything was too quiet for my liking. I ran like crazy, passing Sludge Factory and Sedon, until I finally arrived at the Land of Mirages. All was quiet, no one else was around. No one walked in or out of the mist. ''I can''t stay here for long. There is no way I can deal with all of them, if they find out I''m here'', I thought and equipped my mask. While focusing on the mist from afar, I didn''t notice anything. ''Getting closer is not something I want to do, but seems I have no other choice'', I thought. Just as I approached the mist, I saw a figure emerging from within.


    ''What the?...'', I asked myself. It was Fox, but that was impossible. It was obviously an illusion, but didn''t attack me in any shape or form. Fox just stood there, inviting me inside. I wasn''t stupid enough to enter, but there was a bigger problem. Although I met an Eterian with the ability to show me those I wished to meet, that mist was no simple Eterian. The whole mist was basically a "visible" illusion, that could show me anyone I wished for. Like a mirror that can reflect your desires. I tried focusing on the mist, while ignoring the "Fox" inside.


    The more I stared, the more figures emerged. Nick, Shelly and even my parents appeared next to Fox. I knew these were illusions, but I still wanted to go there and meet them again. My body took a step forward by itself, but I managed to regain my thoughts. ''This ce is really dangerous. It tries to lure me in, by disying the ones I love or respect'', I thought.


    ''There are no Elements here, nothing. This is not a Formation, or not a Formation that gathers energy from outside'', I thought. There was nothing I could do, but then I got an idea. ''Perhaps the mist can''t be absorbed with the use of Elements, but what about dispersing it with the use of wind?'', I asked myself. I could feel the currents and predict them, but I couldn''t control the wind. ''I can''t control it, but I can try and make some'', I thought and took out my Bastard Sword.


    With its t side and Formation active, I swung the sword from side to side as quickly as I could. This raised a small storm, but didn''t affect the mist whatsoever. I then got another idea. I infused my Domineering Aura into the sword, and released it while swinging. This time, the effects were much more apparent. ''So, that is its weakness. No wonder they wanted an Aura Sealing Poison. If Humans attacked, they could somehow poison them, and deal with any amount that came to their front door. If Auras are sealed, they are pretty much invincible'', I thought.


    I stopped swinging my sword, and hid it back to my Storage Feather. I had an answer, or rather the weakness of the mist, but it was nothing to be happy about. I rushed back to the Grey Lizards, this was not a ce I wanted to stay for a longer period of time. I stopped as little as possible during my return journey. ''Maybe Lizards will have some sort of idea, how to fight that¡­ But I fear they can achieve nothing'', I thought. A lot of runningter, I made it back to their camp. I was barely walking at that stage. To return as fast as I could, I barely rested and only ate while running. After activating the Formations, I appeared inside the base. ''I need to rest'', I thought and fell down onto my ass.


    A whileter, a few Lizards appeared out of the corridor. When they saw me, they quickly ran over and asked what happened. " I just ran at full speed for a long time. I need some rest, but bring Alicia and others here, I have some news to share with them", I replied. One of the Lizards quickly made his way back, while the other two stayed behind. They asked for an exnation, but I told them to wait.


    Alicia appeared first. "So, what did you find?", she asked. I told her to wait, before others arrived. We didn''t have to wait for long, the others arrived shortly after Alicia. "What''s going on? What did you find out?", Tulin asked. I told them what I found out. How Auras were effective against the mist, and how it wasn''t any sort of Formation or rather a Formation that collected Elements.


    Alicia spoke first, "That is bad news indeed. In other words, only Humans can possibly do something about that mist. Since you mentioned that poison, Eterians have nothing to worry about so long every Human is affected". Although the poison was not permanent, itsted a long time. There was no known cure for it either. ''Humans became rather rare in the North, but it would be wrong to assume the Emperor doesn''t know about the war. If he sends people to stop Eterians and they are affected by the poison¡­ It will be a total annihtion'', I thought.


    I wasn''t sure whether that was what Eterians aimed for. Tulin asked, "Can''t you go back to your Empire? Ask Humans toe here?". I snorted, "I don''t have to do that. They will arrive sooner orter. As long as the Emperor or Royals learned of the Eterians'' return, they will most probably send an army towards the North". He replied, "Isn''t that good? Under your leadership and knowledge, you can defeat the Eterians".


    I shook my head, "Under my leadership? These are Royals we are talking about, don''t be delusional. They might not even believe me when I tell them about the poison. Moreover, people like me are hunted down by Royals. As soon as they spot my Arts, they will treat me as an enemy". Alicia said, "We might not have a way to disperse that mist, but we can defend and weaken them. As long as theye to us and we defeat them, we can buy more time".


    In theory, it wasn''t a bad idea. Theory didn''t mean reality. "What if they arrive with something, we simply cannot defend against. That is the problem, we simply don''t know what to expect", I said. Tulin argued, "We just have to wait for the Human reinforcements. They were able to winst time. With all of usbined, we can do it again. Don''t show them those Arts of yours, simply convey the message about poison when the Human army appears".


    I could do it, but it wouldn''t solve the problem anyway. "We will see how this ys out. Either way, did you finish improving all the stuff I brought?". Tulin shook his head, "You were gone for a short amount of time. There''s no way we would finish that quickly". "There is more to do, but I will trouble Alicia about it". Alicia scoffed, "Trouble me? Go die bastard! My hands are already full with that damned weapon and armour of yours". "Let''s just talk", I said, and slowly picked myself up. "Oh, I would like some food too". They looked at each other, and shook their heads.


    Alicia gave up, and told me to follow her. We went to get some food, and then back to her private room. "So, what is it?", she asked. "I have a bad feeling about this", I stated. She asked, "About Human army? Just don''t show them your Arts, and you should be fine". I shook my head, "I couldn''t care less about some Human army. They will not solve this problem. A deep seeded hatred, passed down from generation to generation. Do you think I will be around here in a hundred years, stopping whatever is happening?". She asked confused, "Wouldn''t you be though?".


    "What are you on about. I will either die or became an old fart. Humans don''t live that long". She asked shocked, "You don''t know?". I wasn''t sure what she referred to. Humans didn''t live that long,pared with Eterians we had a very short lifespan. Sheughed a bit, "So you don''t know? Maybe that''s for the better". I asked, "I don''t know what exactly? Am I supposed to live more than 100 years at this stage? Where did you get that from?".


    She replied, "You will find out, when the time is right. It''s not my ce to tell you anything it seems. But back on the topic, you want to own the North, right? That was your purpose, that is why you joined this war. You could''ve just left, live however you liked". "You are wrong, but right as well. I don''t intend to be the protector of the North, its ruler or emperor. It''s true, those were my intentions", I replied.


    She asked surprised, "What made you change your mind?". I leaned back, "An Eterian". She stayed quiet for a while, before asking, "Do you mean, you belie¡­". I stopped her, "Just like you, I also uncovered a lot of stuff. I saw much more than you could ever see. What you told me, only confirmed my suspicions".

 Chapter 452

    Chapter 452


    She looked at me, expecting an answer. "Think Alicia. When everything started?", I asked her. She replied, "You mean the past, before the barrier? What does that have to do with anything?". I said, "It started from Bramans and Humans waging a war on each other. Eterians lived in the North, a ce where war engulfed them. They ultimately sided with Bramans, although they perished. Did you ever wonder why?". She shook her head, so I asked, "What if Bramans didn''t perish. What if they are the ones behind this war?". Alicia replied sternly, "You are delusional. A race that perished or barely survived with a few members, how could they control Eterians?".


    "You know what that Eterian told me?", I asked. She didn''t reply, but seemed eager to find out. I continued, "There are existences in this world, that look down on races such as Humans or Eterians. You might think Hatmandor, like I did back then, but he just smirked. He mocked Hatmandor". Alicia looked at me seriously, "Are you suggesting, there are other forces behind all of this?".


    I nodded, "North is convoluted. There are contradictions everywhere, but Hydra is real. Bramans existed before the time the barrier was created, perhaps even after too. What if someone is manipting Eterians. What if this war has a greater meaning than simple struggle of power?". She replied, "But you have no proof. For all we know, Eterians want to exact their revenge. Doesn''t that sound more probable? There is also you in all of this. You keep on staying here, even though you have no reason".


    "It''s true, I might be able to take my friends away from here. Leave this ce and never return. Let the northerners worry about North". She asked confused, "Then why?". I continued, "Because I want to explore my life. I''ve seen the whole continent, I need to go further. Further towards the north, beyond Hatmandor and the sea. Have you ever wondered, what is out there? What if there is another continent like this? Different, yet familiar? Hatmandor, Hydra, I believe those things don''t belong to this ce. They must''vee from somewhere, a ce that is full of wonders, full of new things and ideas".


    "Even so, that doesn''t exin why you are here", she said. "That is true. I don''t know myself. I''m somehow attracted to this ce, somehow want to help those people out. My friends are here too, you are my friend as well. I can''t leave, without knowing my friends will do well here. Hence I don''t want to win this war, what would be the point? Another one could break out, then another. An endless power struggle, without a reason. I want to stop this pointless struggle. I know what revenge mean, what rage is. Yet, I am the one who is looking for a solution to end this war, not to win it". She smirked, "Says a guy who removed a few races from existence".


    "I am willing to pay for what I did, if the North bes united and peaceful", I said. Alicia sighed while asking, "So what exactly do you n on doing?". I replied, "It''s simple butplicated at the same time. I want to focus on that outside force, I just feel it in my bones that something is not right here. If I can take them out, Eterians wouldn''t need to fight anymore. Yes, the hatred would still be there, but time has already proved how we can forget such things. So long enough time passes, people will forget, the old will die, reced by new generation".


    I continued, "I know, it is far fetched and all that, but you don''t have a way to disperse that mist. For now, finish the equipment I gathered in Sedon, and we will defend. I will try to figure out some more stuff".


    She nodded, "It''s not like I have a choice really¡­ Do what you will, as long as you promise to protect¡­". I stopped her, "I know you are worried about Suly, but Obsidian Mountains should be fine for now. If they attack, it will be Sedon or Boltier". She nodded, while I left the room to check up on Tulin. I needed to know how long it would take them, to finish with all the equipment. ''Good thing I don''t have to motivate them. After they heard about the mist, they became much more eager toplete those Formations'', I thought.


    I found some Lizards in the open area, and asked about the equipment. They told me all the important figures got involved at that stage, and they should be done much quicker. I decided to wait, instead of running around between cities and camps.


    The time slowly passed. I had nothing to do really, and I didn''t want to pester others, therefore I only sat in my room trying to improve my Aura manifestation. Other than sleeping and breaks for meals, I stayed inside the room, until someone knocked on the doors. It was one of the Lizards, and she informed me that the equipment I brought was ready. "Great, I will collect it and then deliver that stuff to Sedon. I''m sure they are getting worried already", I told her.


    We went to the open area, where the Lizards already awaited us. Alicia and Tulin were there too. Tulin spoke first, "All the equipment you brought, has had Formations ced on them. We ced the best Formations we could in this short amount of time, but how strong those Formations are is dependant on the piece of equipment itself. Make sure to deliver them to Sedon, so that they can better defend the city".


    I just realised I still haven''t asked them about better storage items. When I did, they already had that covered. "We made new storage items for you. The weight in each bag will be 70% less heavy, and you can fit quite a lot into those new and improved bags. We made three for you, although one is enough to store all the equipment, we separated it into two bags. The third is empty and for your personal use". I thanked them, and asked about my weapon.


    Alicia smiled, "I knew you would ask. Not ready yet. You asked me for the best Formations I can create. With the knowledge of Elements avable to us, my Formations can also improve. But, that means I need more time to make them. It will take me some more time to finish everything. Do what you intend for now, and take this with you". She handed me a sort of statuette depicting a dead tree.


    I asked confused, "What does it do?". She replied, "Nothing". I was lost. ''Why would you give me that then?'', I asked myself. "It does nothing, because it''s supposed to do nothing. When I finish with your weapon and armour, I will break the same statuette. The one you have will break as well. That means you cane back here, and pick up your stuff". She then walked up, and said "Be careful" quietly. I nodded, and headed towards the exit.


    With the improved equipment, Sedon could defend itself for a longer period of time. ''This will give me time to investigate some more. I will probably need to make another trip to Boltier, but this time I shall be much more persistent'', I thought while activating the Formations. Since Sedon was repaired, they could make more Scorpions and send them to Boltier. I appeared outside, and stealthy left the area. The load was not that cumbersome anymore, but the way back was long anyway.

 Chapter 453

    Chapter 453


    I ran past the Obsidian Mountains and Sludge Factory, before arriving to Sedon. What I saw made me stop in my tracks. The city, it was in ruins once more. No, it was worse than before. The two newly built walls, werepletely razed to the ground. The bridge connecting the wilderness and Sedon, gone. The gate didn''t fare any better. ''What the hell happened here?'', I asked myself while rushing towards the destroyed walls.


    Corpses of various races littered the ground, which suggested to me it didn''t happen that long ago. I made it to the destroyed walls, and grabbed the first guy I could see for questioning. "I can see you were attacked, but what exactly created such damages?". The Lizard looked hurt, and had a hard time answering. I gave him some medicine, and waited.


    "After you left¡­ Eterians and Furians arrived¡­ They were too powerful", he said. I realised that he wouldn''t tell me anything useful. I made my way towards Crow''s ce. The damages were severe to say the least. Most buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged. The state of the city was much worsepared to the previous Mordar Army attack. Corpses littered the streets, while people huddled in corners, fear stered over their faces. ''I knew I had a bad feeling about this'', I thought.


    One of the Shades called me over, just as I approached Crow''s ce. "We are in deep shit this time. Theck of weapons didn''t help us much you know". He was rather pissed, but who wouldn''t be. I replied, "I have your weapons, you will get them soon¡­ I know, they are useless to you now, but you are still alive. The walls Ama built saved you". He sighed, "I''m not saying it''s your fault, but people will me you. Crow is inside, go meet with him. He will tell you more bad news".


    The situation seemed to be getting worse and worse. I climbed the stairs towards Crow''s office. I was able to hear a few voices arguing about something. When I entered, the room was filled with all sorts of people. "You finally returned!", Crow eximed. Besides Crow, there were Voltars, Shades and Lizards inside the room. The presence of Voltars was odd to me, but I didn''t think much of it at that time.


    "Crow, what the hell happened here?", I asked. "It''s not only here. Boltier is down, we lost it". I stood there in shock. "How is that possible? If the Eterians and Furians attacked you, who attacked Boltier?", I asked. One of the Voltars replied while gritting his teeth, "Corpse Dogs". Before I could say anything else, another Voltar added. "There were thousands upon thousands of them. An army we never saw before". I grabbed the bridge of my nose while asking, "How could Corpse Dogs force your walls?".


    The Voltars looked at each other, before one of them replied. "There were Human looking dogs¡­". I stopped him. "Wait a minute. Corpse Dogs returned, and now you tell me there were Humanoid Corpse Dogs¡­". It clicked in my mind, I finally figured out where those Corpse Dogs came from. I didn''t listen to what they say anymore, I was lost in my own thoughts. ''Corpse Dogs, of course they are the fucking descendants of Bramans! The answer was in front of me this whole time'', I thought.


    "Fuck me", I started. Everyone went quiet inside the room. "Do you guys have any idea what those Corpse Dogs are?", I asked. They shook their heads. "These are not some Corpse Dogs, these are descendants of Bramans. A race thought to no longer exist". Crow asked, "Bramans?". Others seemed as clueless as Crow. I replied, "Yes, Bramans. A race Humans fought in the past. This whole thing, the wars and all that? It began from Bramans and Humans". One of the Voltars asked, "Then what are we supposed to do? We lost our city, Sedon is in ruins. No matter how fast we work, we might simply not be able to repair everything in time for the next attack".


    There was something bothering me though. "Why did Eterians and Furians leave?". This time Crow replied, "They sustained some loses for sure, Scorpions took out a good portion of Furians. But they were on a winning position after the walls were destroyed. They used Destroyers, and a lot of them. Maybe they left due to Voltars?". I asked for more details. Crow exined how the battle urred. In reality, Boltier was attacked first. When Voltars realised they couldn''t win, they abandoned their city and escaped towards Sedon. That was when Sedon became under attack. Voltars made their way towards Sedon, without the knowledge of enemy striking at the same time.


    Crow also told me we had some great losses. Although Harlin was alive, Lerion died during the battle. He paid with his life, to securely escort Voltars back to Sedon. Harlin was in a bad shape, asleep in the medical room. After Voltars arrived to the City, the Eterians and Furians retreated.


    ''They were winning, yet retreated. Why? Conservation of people? Awaiting Bramans to sweep past the city? Or was there a different reason?'', I asked myself. The question to me was, why did they fully invaded Boltier, but not Sedon. I asked, "What happened to the Collecting Crystal inside Boltier?". One of the Voltars replied, "It should still be there. The Corpse Dogs didn''t attack it, if that what you ask for. They would blow up, if they destroyed it". I said, "You can keep that fairy tale to yourself. As for the Crystal, you had pretty much an unlimited amount of energy, yet you were overwhelmed. Tell me, how did the Corpse Dogs behave? What did they do?".


    They were confused by my questioning, and even angry. "What the hell do you mean? How they behaved? Unlimited energy?". The other Voltar stopped him, and continued himself. "You are right, their behaviour strikes me as weird now that I think about it. The Corpse Dogs made way towards the centre of Boltier, of course that is where the Collecting Crystal is. What struck me as weird, they sometimes ignored us. As in, if we were further away from their advance, they would leave us alone".


    ''That means they were after the Collecting Crystal from the start. Since they got it, Eterians decided not to waste strength and people. That was their objective'', I thought. Before anything else, I asked another question. "Bramans, those Humanoid Dogs. How did they fight you?". Both replied "Formations", while one of them continued. "They used some sort of Formations that melted out walls. It wasn''t the heat, it looked like a ck bile that melted anything it came into contact".


    The other Voltar said, "They didn''t enter the city together with the Corpse Dogs. At least as far as we are aware. They stayed outside, and let the Corpse Dogs take care of the rest". I took out the two bags with equipment, and handed them to Crow. "This is the improved equipment. I know it''s a bit toote, but pass it onto people. I need to leave immediately". One of the Voltars eximed, "You want to leave us now!? At such time?". I grabbed him and said, "You have no idea how dangerous this situation is. If Bramans returned, this war is nothingpared to what can really happen".


    I turned to Crow, "Leave this city immediately. Go to Obsidian Mountains, and wait there". Crow sighed, "Alright". The others were stunned, and demanded an answer. "If you are attacked here, you are dead. There is nothing I can do about it, no amount of improved weapons will win you this war at this stage. Leave for Obsidian Mountains as soon as you pack your stuff". Just as I finished speaking, a Lizard entered the office. "I have news from Obsidian Mountains!".


    I turned around and asked for the news. "A Human Army has arrived to aid us! They are currently staying at Obsidian Mountains". The others cheered, thinking the situation was resolved. I said to the Lizard, "Expect the whole Sedon at your Obsidian Mountains. Convey that message to them, tell them Sedon retreats to Obsidian Mountains, where thest defence will be". The Lizard was stunned, but nodded his head and left quickly.


    The Voltar objected, "With Human reinforcements, we don''t need to retreat. We should stay here, and wait for them to arrive!". I repeated myself, "No, you will leave". They argued, "You are not our leader! We don''t have to listen to you". I grabbed the two Voltars by their necks. "Don''t fucking waste my time. When I tell you to leave, I have damned good reason to say that". I dropped them to the ground, and looked at Crow. "Leave, I''m serious. Take all Lizards, Atols and Shades with you. If Voltars want to stay, let them be".


    He nodded, while I motioned for him to follow me. We left the city, where I said. "Once you arrive at Obsidian Mountains, tell the Humans that Bramans returned. Tell them that Eterians have a poison which can seal their Auras. Make sure to convey that message to them". He nodded while asking, "What''s so serious, that you need to notify Grey Lizards about it?". I replied, "If Bramans had anything to do with Hydra, they might try to release it again. The question is, why didn''t Hatmandor intervene yet?".


    "Hydra?", Crow asked. "A being that dwells below the North. It was sealed by Hatmandor from what I gather, a long time ago too. This also ties in with the barrier surrounding the North. If they try to release it, we will be doomed", I replied. "If that is the case, Hatmandor would intervene right? Or do you mean Hatmandor was destroyed by Bramans?", Crow asked. I shook my head, "I don''t know. The Grey Lizards need to know about this. They are the ones responsible for the seals. I will inform them, but make sure you retreat. No matter how you convince them, make them retreat". Crow nodded, while I bid him farewell.

 Chapter 454

    Chapter 454


    I ran like crazy. This was not something we could take lightly. The Grey Lizards had to know about this, and they had to know immediately. I didn''t stop, even when I was hungry. My whole food supply was gone, but I had to run. When I finally arrived, I didn''t even have the strength to hide myself. With thest bit of energy left in my body, I activated thest Formation and disappeared.


    When I appeared inside their base, I fell face first onto the ground. I needed food, a lot of it. Fortunately, a Lizard walked out of the tunnel. She wasn''t surprised to see me in that state. She asked, "Have you been running again?", before approaching me and trying to lift me up. "Wow, you are heavy! I can barely lift you up by myself. Did something happen, for you toe back here exhausted like this?". I could only reply, "Food, give me food".


    She dragged me to the open area, where more Lizards helped out. I ate like crazy, the food simply vanished from the tes. In the meantime, I told them to gather everyone. Just as all the important figures appeared, Alicia asked. "What is it? Your stuff is not ready yet". I replied, "Bramans, they are back". The Lizards looked at each other, and murmured between themselves. Alicia continued, "How do you know?". "Because Boltier was already lost to them. Sedon is not in any good shape either. I told Shades to retreat. If they stayed in the ruins of Sedon, they would simply die there", I replied.


    Tulin said, "What do we do then? If Bramans are back, we need Humans more than ever". I added, "Humans already arrived at Obsidian Mountains. Crow is supposed to tell them about Bramans and the poison". Tulin asked confused, "Then why did youe here, you need anything?". I looked at Alicia, "I told you there are other forces behind this. Bramans... If they really had something to do with Hydra, do you think they will let it be sealed forever?".


    Before Alicia could say anything, Tulin butted in. "We have no proof about that. We can monitor the seal, but Hatmandor would intervene if someone wanted to release Hydra". I still looked at Alicia. She asked, "You know more, right?". I nodded, "The Bramans were after Collecting Crystal inside Boltier. I don''t know what their ns are, but what if it is Hydra? Can we actually let such possibility go? As for Hatmandor, can''t you contact them? This is no longer about war, the whole North and perhaps even continent is in danger".


    Alicia nodded, then replied "I can try and contact them. Hopefully they will do something about this". I nodded, "I will stay here, wait for the weapon and armour to be finished. In case I am the one to stop them, I will need everything I can get". She nodded, and headed to her private room. I turned towards Tulin, "Make sure everything is alright with the seals. You guys told me that yourselves, if Hydra is released, we are screwed". He agreed to that, even though he doubted Bramans had anything to do with Hydra. I asked a few other Lizards to help me train. One of them asked, "How can we help you?". I replied, "Formations. I need pressure or danger to improve. The more I fight against Formations, the better I will be. Bramans use Formations, I can''t allow myself to be hindered by them". They agreed, and told me to follow them to a bigger area.


    There were four Lizards that agreed to help me. As we arrived at another open area, the Lizards asked everyone to leave. "How do you propose we do it?", one of them asked. I thought about it, before replying "How about we try with one of you. If I can deal with Formations one of you creates, we can increase the number of participants. I will not attack you guys directly, I will only deal with Formations". They agreed, and one of them stepped forwards.


    The Lizard ced his hands onto the floor, while Formations appeared all around me. I released my Domineering Aura, and tried to deal with them. I had to either break them, or make sure they wouldn''t affect me. I found that I could break the easy Formations, but those were usually distractions. Grey Lizards were not idiots, and although they didn''t have any experience fighting, they could still use their heads. The more powerful Formations were the key, therefore I focused my Aura on them. I was able to dodge vines and whatnot, that tried to restrict my movements, but sealing Formations were more difficult. Those didn''t really release any physical attacks, they simply appeared and hindered my movements.


    ''I can cope with one Lizard, this is too easy'', I thought after a while. Because it was too easy, I asked one more Lizard to join in. With two minds trying to "attack" me, the difficulty increased. Although I wasn''t getting injured or anything, it was hard to cope with the Formations they threw at me. I trained like this, until the two Lizards became too tired to continue. I asked the other two to rece them, while they rested. Although it was still two people, I had an even harder time.


    They were fresh, while I already used my Aura a lot. I was caught a few times, but there was something missing. ''I''m not in any danger whatsoever. They are simply trying to restrict my movements. That is not how Bramans will fight, they will try everything to kill me'', I thought. At the end of our session, I raised that exact issue. "Although that kind of practice is somewhat useful, it''s not enough at that stage. You are simply trying to restrict me, not attack me".


    One of the Lizards asked, "Are you asking us to actually try and hurt you? I thought this was supposed to be treated as training". I nodded, "Yes training, but if you don''t attack me, I can''t get the real experience from this training. Don''t worry about me, and attack. I will not retaliate". They looked at each other, unsure what to do. I was asking them to basically fight me, and injure me. Not something a normal person would ask for.


    One of them asked, "Are you sure. If we hurt you, you will notin or you know¡­". I nodded, "I will not attack you. Just don''t try to go for my life, as in my head for example. Other injuries, I can take care of". They agreed, but they were too tired to continue. I asked if more Lizards could help us. They didn''t need to be at their skill level, but act as a support. One of them replied, "It shouldn''t be a problem to involve more people. This is actually good practice for us too. We don''t spar with each other, and since you are willing to be a target for all those Formations, a lot of other Lizards will dly join in".


    I asked them to bring those interested, and we could work something out. But before that, I had to eat something. They were always stunned at my appetite. I actually wondered where they got their food from. They told me that Atols were not the only one who could grow nts and rear animals. Grey Lizards had that as well, they were self sufficient, and didn''t need to leave their camp at all. That was great news, because I required a lot of food when training like that.


    "Howe you can eat that much? You don''t look fat at all. Yet the amount of food you eat, is enough to feed a few Lizards per day". I smiled, "It''s something from the past. The more energy I use, the more food I require. That is also one of the reasons why my strength is better,pared to those at the same stage as me". For some reason, they didn''t have a hard timeprehending that. One of them said, "That makes sense". After escorting me to the kitchen, they left in order to recruit a few other Lizards for my training. It was a win-win situation. They could practice using their Formations, while I could get used to being attacked by Formations.

 Chapter 455

    Chapter 455


    The four Lizards collected quite a number of other Lizards for my training. There were more than twenty of them waiting at the open area. "That is quite a lot, I hope you have loads of food", I said. One of them smiled, "We should be fine. How do you want to proceed?". I thought about it for a bit, before giving him an answer. "The four of you are the strongest here I assume. Each of you will take four Lizards from that group, whatever is left will be the fifth group". They agreed to those arrangements, and chose their teammates.


    The first group stepped forwards. "Are you ready", the Lizard asked. I nodded in response, while releasing my Aura. They all ced their hands onto the floor, and Formations appeared left and right. This time though, they were actually attacking me. I broke a few of them, before realising I was being trapped. ''It would be much easier if I could actually attacked them¡­'', I thought. Of course, that was not the purpose of my training.


    Before I knew it, a few Formations managed to wound me slightly. I had to be creative. Using my Aura to make weapons or whatever, wouldn''t work that well when I faced a lot of opponents. I needed something else. A sort of area of effect skill, that could affect multiple Formations at once. Although I had a certain idea in mind, I had no time to test it out.


    The four Lizards became exhausted, while my body was littered with small wounds. "We will take a break, I want to test something out", I said. Before I faced another group, I tested out my idea. It was rather simple in concept, but when I tried the difficulty was beyond hard. My idea involved creating a domain using my Aura. The idea was the same as me releasing my Aura, and affecting all opponents in certain radius. The difference this time, was manifestation. I wanted to manifest a domain, a sort of area of effect attack which would epass all my opponents, but with the strength of a manifested Aura.


    I released my Aura, but this time tried manifesting it all around me. I quickly realized my Domineering Aura was too weak to achieve this. I tried with Bloodlust Aura, and although it was stronger, the effects were the same. I couldn''t create a domain around me. Only when Ibined both Auras, did I see some effects. A few areas around me, had a materialized form of my Auras. The Auras looked like kes, not snowkes, more rugged and ripped. As if my Aura was trying to rip the reality itself. The amount was small, while their sizes were rather tiny, but those kes were the very condensed form of my Auras.


    The Lizards had no idea what was going on, as they watch me experiment with my Auras. After my sessful attempt, one of them asked, "What was that?". I exined to them what I was trying to achieve, and they agreed it was a good idea. I wanted to test one more thing before I faced another group.


    ''My Auras are simply too weak to achieve that now, but what if I created a smaller radius?'', I thought. I tried to make a domain about five meters in radius. I didn''t expect it would be this difficult, as five metres seemed rather small to me. After testing it out, I decided to halve the radius and figure out what would happen. To my surprise, the kes turned intorge patches, but notplete domain. There were loads of gaps, through which something might go through.


    ''So the smaller the radius, the moreplete this domain will be. However, if the radius is too small, I will not be able to affect more distant Formations'', I thought. Even so, I tried a metre and half a metre in radius. Only at half a metre in radius, the domain became mostlypleted. Although the radius was very small, it was a start. ''There is another problem. Such use of Auras depletes my energy at an astonishing rate. I can''t simply walk around with that at all times. I will have to use it only when necessary'', I thought.


    I decided to test that out during my next practice session. I wanted to know what effects this would have on Formations. The next group stepped forwards, and proceeded to attack. At first, I evaded and broke the Formations as per usual. When I found myself in a pinch and unable to escape, I tried utilising the Aura domain. As soon as the Formations appeared inside my Aura domain, they copsed. A more fitting description would be, they became packed so densely from my Domineering Aura, and pressured so much by my Bloodlust Aura, the Formations kind of imploded and disappeared.


    It wasn''t without costs. The energy consumption left me with barely forty percent of my energy. I wasn''t at my peak by any means, but from my estimates, this one use of Aura domain cost me about eight to ten percent of my energy. It was very taxing, but effective. I couldn''tst as long as the Lizards that time, and exhausted my energy first. The four Lizards approached me. "That idea of yours is really effective, but it seems you also pay the price for using it", one of them said. I agreed, but with practice and familiarity, my Auras would be stronger and able to cope with such consumption.


    We repeated the same process many times. I would face usually two groups, eat, face two more and then sleep. I had no idea how much time passed, but when I asked, they told me its been about four days since the training began. Just as I trained with one of the groups, Alicia came for a visit. I stopped, because Alicia wouldn''t bother me if it wasn''t anything important.


    I walked up to her, but she asked to go somewhere private. I told the others to take a break, before following Alicia. When we arrived to her private room, she said, "I haven''t received any news from the Delegate. This is worrying, as he would reply after receiving such a message, even to make sure it was truthful". I asked, "Can he be busy with something?". She shook her head. "The Delegate stays outside of Hatmandor. That is the person we contact if we wish to exchange something from them. Only a few people have ess to this method ofmunication. Us Grey Lizards, the Royal Lizards, Voltars and Atols. Not even Shades have the ability to contact the Delegate. Maybe perhaps Eterians have that ability too, but they of course wouldn''t contact them".


    "In other words, he was taken out?", I asked. She shook her head again. "If he was, Hatmandor would learn about it. Each and every Delegate has a special item or something with them. Remember the statuette I gave you? We can also use it to determine if someone is in trouble. Hatmandor has more advanced Formations than we do, as soon as the Delegate dies, they would find out". I thought about it some more. "In that case, he was captured. They couldn''t kill him, because that would rm Hatmandor. If they allowed him to use that item thing, again Hatmandor would be notified. It can only mean, that guy was ambushed and imprisoned".


    She nodded, "That is the most logical conclusion. This is bad though, we can''t contact Hatmandor, and what you said seems even more real. If Hatmandor doesn''t help us, the Hydra might get released again". It was bad, but I needed strength in order to stop Bramans. If I went there at my current strength andck of equipment, no one would listen. ''I need strength, overwhelming strength. Stop the war, and make sure everyone fights against Bramans. It is no longer about who is right or wrong, this is about the future of the North'', I thought.

 Chapter 456

    Chapter 456


    "Finish my weapon and armour. I will stop this war no matter what, and we will move out against Bramans. If Hatmandor is of no use, we have to do it ourselves", I said. Alicia agreed, and promised to finish as soon as possible. I on the other hand, returned to my training.


    The time slowly passed. I forgot how many times I faced the Lizards and Formations, but my Domineering Aura improved a lot. Under constant danger, my body adapted quickly. I could face two groups in a row without many issues, even though the Lizards I faced also got better. They were able to better utilise their Formations, and make them more tricky to dodge or destroy. They worked like real teams, not just a bunch of guys who happened to be in the same group.


    I decided to increase the difficulty at that stage. "Since I can keep up with one group, how about two groups attack at the same time?", I asked. They didn''t think this was a good idea. After all, I would face at least ten Grey Lizards. I added, "I need danger. The more my life is in danger, the more I can adapt. I''m not talented like others, but I can quickly learn to adapt in certain situations. This almost always required danger".


    They finally agreed, but didn''t take it seriously. After all, they considered me as a friend, an ally. No one would want to seriously harm a friend or an ally. "Take this seriously! Even if you beat me half dead, I have enough medicine to be half dead twenty times over!", I shouted. They looked at each other, then nodded. My training straight from hell began.


    The Formations appeared everywhere. If I were to rely on the Aura domain, my energy wouldn''tst half an hour. I took damage, and a lot. At one point the Lizards stopped, because I became a bloody mess. I spit some blood, "Why did you stop? Want me to change the rules? What if I''m able to attack back, would that motivate you more?". They took a step back, while one of them replied, "But... But you are very injured already. If we continue, you will really die". Iughed and released my Bloodlust Aura. "Want to get your ass whooped by the so called very injured person?".


    They quickly ced their hands back onto the floor, and continued their attack. My Bloodlust Aura was different, very different. It required rage, the more hatred or rage I experienced or "collected", the stronger my Aura became. At the time I fought against Grey Lizards, my Aura fully awakened. All the rage and hatred from the past resurfaced. The rage of my past became mostly used up, hence I needed to build it up more. The more I got pissed and beaten around, the better for my Aura.


    At the end of that session, I dropped face first onto the ground. I had no strength left, I couldn''t move a muscle, no matter how much I tried. The Lizards rushed to me, and expressed their views. "We told you this was stupid. You can''t even stand on your legs". I smiled, "So? You have no idea how many times I was in such a state. Irwin never yed nice¡­". "Irwin?", one of them asked. I replied, "It''s an old story. Can you bring me some food?". They sighed, and a few Lizards went to the kitchen to fetch me some food.


    They asked me where I kept my medicine, but I told them I was fine. The blood loss was rather severe, that was why I tapped on my pressure points during the whole training. The reason I fell like a moth to a me, wasn''t due to blood loss but due to my energy beingpletely spent. "It''s fine, I won''t bleed to death. I will use some medicine after I eat". The Lizards returned quickly, and fed me some food. As soon as I was able to pick myself up, I ate by myself. "We really shouldn''t continue this. Your body will break", the higher standing Lizard said. I smiled, "I told you, I went through this for about five years. You think I''m that easy to kill?". He sighed, and left me alone to recover.


    I had to eat a lot, and then use some minor medicine to heal my wounds. Although my recovery speed was really fast, I would need more time and energy for that. Of course, I used the medicine very moderately. Just as Nick told me many years ago, one shouldn''t abuse medicine. With my injuries taken care of and my energy restored, I asked the other two groups to step forwards. They again hesitated, which was a normal reaction. I basically asked them to half kill me, and that was not something they were willing to do so easily. Grey Lizards were not warriors, they didn''t have such mentality.


    Although I understood that, there was no better way for me. I asked if I should attack, for them to be serious. They finally took it more seriously, probably scared I would actually attack. The process of me dropping to the floor, bloodied and unable to move, became a standard sight in that area. Some even argued I was insane, but they simply didn''t get it. While it did hurt a lot, I adapted more and more. The Bloodlust Aura became thicker and stronger. The Domineering Aura was bing stronger too, I was getting used to smother maniption and execution as well. My ability to escape predicaments improved too. Even my instincts became more acute towards Formations.


    This was not enough though. I already nned for something more outrageous, but decided to wait with that. Wait until I could fully face the two groups, ande out rtively¡­ well not half dead. There were no news from Alicia, nor Tulin. Which probably meant the seals were alright, and Hydra was still trapped underneath the ground. Of course I had no news from Sedon, Obsidian Mountains or anywhere for that matter.


    ''They should''ve already left Sedon. From what I gather, around two and a half weeks have passed since I arrived at the Grey Lizard''s camp. This should be enough time for Crow and the whole city to leave. If everything went well, they are at or near Obsidian Mountains'', I thought. That was where I would head, after Alicia finished my new weapon and armour.


    The training went on until I was sure the Lizards got used to beating me up with those Formations, and I was able to take the beating. A few more sessionster, I finally asked them to increase the difficulty. They straight out rejected this time. Even threatening them with retaliation didn''t help. "This is insane. If a third group joins, you will surely die. We can''t let that happen", one of the Lizards said.


    I argued, "Listen, we don''t have much time. I need to improve as much as I can. The more pressure I''m under, the better. I know this is a bit dangerous, but we simply don''t have the luxury to take things slowly". I then came up with another idea. "How about I leave some medicine with you guys? If I''m really too injured, feed it to me. I will give you some of my stronger medicine, so that my life will not be in danger. Is that better?".


    They talked about it, and agreed to test it out. I passed two bottles of Night Star Extract to two leaders of different groups. "In case one is not enough, use the other one. This is strong, and I mean it. I''m not trying to y a trick on you". They nodded, and three groups stepped forwards. ''That is a lot of Lizards'', I thought. I had to face fifteen Lizards, which meant a plethora of Formations. This wouldn''t be easy in any shape or form, and if they took it seriously, my life was indeed at risk. As soon as their hands touched the floor, I started moving.

 Chapter 457

    Chapter 457


    First and most important rule about fighting against Formations, was movement. Stopping in one ce spelled disaster, especially against so many people. Even though I used the Art of Stealth, there were too many Formations appearing. I even tried Illusions, but they were quickly shattered against the plethora of attacks. I could read their eye movements, but they were able to create a few Formations at once. This allowed them to corner me, and the damage started mounting up.


    I used whatever I had, but restricted myself to Auras only. My daggers couldn''t damage Formations. Even if I infused my daggers with Auras, the effects wouldn''t be that great. With Aura Dagger in each hand, I shed, stabbed and threw them like crazy. I even used the Forms from the Art of Hidden Weapons, but with Aura weapons.


    Not even ten minutes passed before I dropped to the ground. The Lizards stopped their attacked abruptly, and rushed towards me. "I''m¡­ fine¡­ I still have energy", I said. They insisted that I take the medicine, but I refused. "My life¡­ is not in danger. I... just need to rest". They gave me some space, while I used my energy to mend my body. ''This is difficult, I can''tst very long against such concentrated attacks'', I thought. Although that was the case, I had no intention of stopping there. The more I pressured myself, the better. It always worked like this for me. If I lived peacefully, I would simply stagnate.


    ''I wonder if that is the reason Humans have such a hard time reaching Primal Limit. Those that don''t constantly seek danger, and try to improve themselves, there is no challenge in their lives. There is no reason for them to improve'', I thought. Hence I had to do this, I had to make it harder on myself. Be someone they had to listen to, whether due to respect or fear.


    We continued that bloody training for days on end. I forgot how many times I got knocked unconscious, how many wounds my body was riddled with. Only thanks to my medicine, I was able to keep my body in one piece. No one else would be able to repeat what I did, not without the drive, medicine and skills I possessed. The training though, it paid off. Although facing the three teams at once, was no doubt difficult and bordering on impossible, I began adapting.


    I relied more on my instincts, rather than pure skills. My senses developed with each passing session. My Auras grew, and thickened bing more reliable and stronger. I learned to utilise my Domineering Aura much better. The Sleeping de Forest, a form I used during the battle of Sedon, I could now target multiple locations at once. This helped me greatly, especially since a lot of Formations appeared on the floor.


    Even though the amount of Aura daggers I was able to create with my Domineering Aura, was nowhere near the time my Unyielding Aura awakened, each dagger had enough strength to destroy a minor Formation. If I could use my Unyielding Aura as I pleased, the three groups wouldn''t stand a chance at that stage. My Bloodlust Aura became more intense too. With all those countless defeats, I was rather pissed to be honest. No one likes to lose. Moreover, no one would like to be beaten half dead, as well as lose multiple times. This actually reminded me of learning together with Irwin.


    Besides my Auras and senses, my strength didn''t really advance any further. I didn''t arrive at the wall to Primal Limits yet, I was still far away from it. I simply focused on evasion, speed and ability to quickly dispose of Formations, rather than strength. Being strong was nice, but it became secondary. I might''ve been able to overwhelm a few Formations with my body alone, but facing an unknown number of Bramans? This was not a viable method. I had no clue what Bramans were capable of. Just because they had knowledge of Formations, that didn''t mean they were weak physically. Humans could be warriors, Formation masters, doctors and so on. There was no incentive to believe Bramans focused on Formations like Grey Lizards did.


    I was getting a bit worried too. Alicia was still not done with my new equipment, and I had no clue what was going on in the outside world. I wavered between visiting Obsidian Mountains and staying with Grey Lizards. Ultimately, I decided to stay. Without the proper gear, I wouldn''t be able to do much, even if something was happening. There was the possibility, no one came to Obsidian Mountains yet, which would waste my time. Time I could better spend on training, than running around.


    That was when the bad news came. During my training, Tulin rushed into the area, with a few other Lizards. We stopped immediately, enquiring as to what happened. "You were right about those Bramans! They already scouted the seal. We were able to chase them away, but they know about it and they were probably trying to spy on us", Tulin said. This was bad indeed. "Where is Alicia?", I asked. Tulin replied, "She locked herself in her room. Most probably to finish that weapon and armour of yours. Hatmandor doesn''t respond, you can''t leave without your stuff, and we don''t know what is going on outside¡­ This is hopeless".


    I calmed everyone down, "It does look bad, but we still have time. From what you just told me, Bramans will require some sort of preparations. That means, we can still do something about it. Let Alicia finish the weapon and armour, don''t disturb her. As soon as I have that, I will head to Obsidian Mountains. From there, we can march towards Bramans".


    Tulin agreed, but before he left, I asked him about the Formations used for the entry and exit to the base. "You want something like that, but portable?", he asked. I nodded, "Yes, if we could move between ces quickly, that could help out a lot". He shook his head, "That is impossible. The Formations required to achieve this, areplicated andrge. No ordinary item could hold them, and besides the distance you could travel wouldn''t be that great". I asked, "What if you used Elements? Could you increase the range?". He thought about it, but before he answered, another Lizard did that for him. "It is possible. If we collect the Elements required and make the Formations bigger, while adding supplementary Collecting Formations¡­ The answer is yes, it is possible".


    Tulin argued, "Although possible, the amount of work and time to set up even two such Formations would be staggering. The war would end before we could potentially set up something like that. This would in turn make it useless, not even mentioning the fact we would have to leave our home". I replied, "Perhaps it is now, but who knows about the future. You are right, for now it would be useless to do that, but keep that in mind for the future".


    He didn''t seem to take my words too seriously, and left instead. ''This war will end sooner orter. If each city had such Formation, then travel as well as information channels would improve tremendously. No matter, I still need to wait for Alicia. There''s nothing else I can do but train, make sure I''m as good as I can be'', I thought and asked the Lizards to resume our training.

 Chapter 458

    Chapter 458


    The time passed. There were no other news from Tulin about the seals, so I assumed everything was in order. My training progressed well, even though the results were mostly the same. Loads of injuries, and my energypletely spent.


    The day finally came. During a break between sessions, Alicia visited the area. "Are you done?", I asked hopeful. She grinned while nodding her head. "I''m done, I have your new weapon and armour with me. Let me tell you, it wasn''t easy you know. The sheer amount of work I put into this¡­ I''m confident that no one in the North and your Empire perhaps, has such weapon and armour". I rushed to her, like a kid rushing for a candy.


    "Where is it, show it to me!". She took out the armour first. "Although it looks kind of the same, I did improve on the design. After all, the person who made it had no idea about your real abilities I assume". I grabbed the armour, and began undressing. "Whoa! Wait a minute, let me at least turn around". I replied, "It doesn''t matter, does it? I''m a Human and you are a Lizard". She retorted, "I''m still ady!".


    ''Well she is, but again, does it matter? I never found Lizards attractive, ah whatever'', I thought and moved elsewhere. The armour looked a bit differently, but had more pockets for my weapons. ''Although I want to rely more on my Aura weapons, this isn''t bad at all'', I thought. I still had a use for my normal daggers and other weapons. I wasn''t about to abandon my whole training and hold on to Auras for dear life. That would be unwise.


    With all the pieces fitting snugly to my body, I returned to Alicia. "Not bad. You look like a proper warrior now", she said. I thanked her, and asked about Formations. She smiled, "Of course you want to know. Suly did a good job creating those Formations, although you broke most of them. I on the other hand, improved on them". I asked, "So it has the same Formations?". She nodded, "Yes, but they are much, much stronger. Remember that I now possess the knowledge of Elements, those Formations are no longer that simple".


    I asked for an exnation. "Your whole armour has a protective Formation. You only had it on your chest piece, right? Now everything has it. It''s also much better than what Suly ced on your set. Not only can this Formation absorb much more damage, it is supported by Elemental Collection", she exined. I asked unsure, "You mean my armour collects the Elemental Orbs?". She nodded, "Yes, constantly. Of course, there is a capacity limit. The best thing is that, this collects Earth Element. Earth is everywhere, therefore you should be able to fill up the charge rather quickly and easily".


    That really was a great improvement. "How long will it take to reach that capacity limit? And what if the armour is not charged? Can I still use that Formation?". She replied, "Slow down, I will exin everything, just let me do that". I shut up instantly, and awaited further exnations. "Look at you, being all obedient and stuff. Anyway, It will take a while, that is why I said rather quickly. It might take a few good hours, before it reaches the capacity limit. Yes, you can use this without having any Elements collected. The Formation will automatically convert your energy into Earth Element. Before you ask, it is possible and that is why it took me so long to finish".


    I nodded while asking about other pieces. "That glove of yours, it has the same Formation, but again Elemental Collection is implemented too. This is a bit more tricky though. The glove requires Fire Element, and that can be only found at Obsidian Mountains I assume. Well, since you are heading there anyway, you should be alright. Again, you can activate this with your energy too".


    She continued, "The pants are not that much different. Theycked Formations, so I made them into more of an Elemental Collection piece. In other words, your pants store the collected Elements, and are very durable. The boots didn''t change that much either. I did the same with Elements, but added a small bonus. You can store weapons inside your boots. It''s actually quite interesting. The Formation doesn''t work as a normal storage item would. It will only hold a few of your daggers, but if you activate the Formation, you can shoot them out at your opponent. Great, isn''t it?".


    That was indeed a great idea. Even mid air, I could still attack with such a hidden card. That was like the precise definition of Hidden Weapons. I liked what she did, but she saved the best forst. "Your cloak", she smiled before continuing, "You remember the Blink Formation? Well, it just became much, much better".


    "Instead of moving you maybe thirty metres, you can multiply that by four. Moreover, thanks to the Elements, this recharges much quicker and you don''t even have to use your energy. From what I saw, you strained this Formation a lot. Therefore, there is a seal preventing you from breaking it again. I know this will limit the range, but prevent the Formation from breaking. Before you ask, the charge is based on Air Elements. As you know, the air is everywhere. Therefore you should have no issues recharging it. Using your energy, the Formation will take the required amount. You will not be able to feed it more than the maximum charge. As soon as you feed it maximum amount, it will activate".


    "That is indeed the best set of clothes I ever had. Not only did you repair it, you made it so much better. I''m really thankful for that", I said. She smiled, then handed me something else. It was a mask, simr to what I had, but the design of the skull was different. "It''s a present. This mask doesn''t change shapes, it will improve your sight, but a bit differently. You already know about Elemental Collection, this one has it but there is a difference. It will collect four different Elements. I don''t know how well it will work for you, but depending on which Element you use, your view will change".


    I was a bit confused, "Change? In what way?". She replied, "As I said, I don''t know how well it will work, but in theory it should allow you to see more". That was rather mysterious answer, but I could test it out once I left. There was only thest thing to take care of, my new weapon. "Yes, yes, I have it. Did you really think I would forget? It took me so long to finish that". She took something out from her storage item, and then presented it to me.

 Chapter 459

    Chapter 459


    I was taken aback when I saw my new weapon. "It''s a bit underwhelming, don''t you think? I gave you a whole sword, and I get a dagger in return¡­ Did that cksmith scam you or something?". She replied, "You think I would be scammed? Moreover, you think this is just any normal weapon?". The design of that dagger was really intricate, with a long slender but rugged main de, which slightly curving like a letter "S". The top of the handle had three smaller protruding des, those three w like de would point towards my hand. I wasn''t sure whether that was an aesthetic or a feature.


    The bottom of the main de, had a small rugged hole. Or rather, the hole looked like someone bit off a chunk of the main de. The handle was fully metallic, with simr w like protrusions at the bottom of it. The whole dagger was silver with a pale blue hints here and there. It looked stunning to be sure, even I could see that the dagger was made by master cksmith. Yet, it was a dagger. ''I gave her a sword, I didn''t expect a dagger in return. Where is all the leftover material?, I asked myself.


    She hinted that the weapon was not normal, but any Formation wouldn''t exin the missing materials. She saw my expression of doubt, and handed me the dagger. "You think I would let him steal the materials? Don''t be a fool! Take it and have a look yourself". I grabbed the dagger, and immediately noticed its weight. ''That''s weird. Why does it weigh that much? If I remember correctly, this weight is simr to the Moon de. Did hepress the sword into a dagger or something?'', I asked myself again.


    Besides the weight, I also noticed the bnce. It was perfect, at least that was good. I took a more detailed look, and noticed something else. The area where the handle and the main de met, it looked like a creature opening its mouth, spewing out the de. What''s more, there was a small hole inside the handle. It was near the area where the main de and handle met. I had no idea what that hole was supposed to be used for, but I knew it wasn''t for strings. The handle itself had lines carved into it. Some of them resembled scales. Looking at the whole dagger, it really looked like some sort of creature spewing out a de.


    It wasn''t even that sharp, when I tested it. I turned towards Alicia and asked, "Are you sure this is my weapon? I mean, it looks good and all, but surely this is not the best weapon a master cksmith can create. From Lunite nevertheless". She replied, "You never saw a good weapon, did you. If you knew what this weapon is capable of, you would never say anything close to that". I was getting annoyed, "Look, this weapon is not even that sharp. It''s one dagger, from a whole sword I gave to you. Perhaps it has good Formations, but what about the pure quality of this dagger?".


    She was still smiling like an idiot. "You have no idea how stupid you sound right now. After you activate this weapon, you will beg for forgiveness". She then pointed at a small hole on the handle. "See this? Pour your blood into it". I was even more confused, but then I recalled that Moon de required my blood in order to reveal its true potential.


    I cut my finger, and poured a drop of blood. Alicia looked at me, "A drop? Put your heart into it". I squeezed out a few more drops, but nothing happened anyway. She grabbed my hand while saying, "Give me your dagger¡­ Not this one, the other one". I gave her one of my sh Blurite daggers. She grabbed it, and shed my hand open. "What are you doing?", I asked even more annoyed. "Shut up will you, just watch", she replied seemingly annoyed.


    The blood gushed onto my new dagger, but not a drop fell down from it. The dagger absorbed all the blood at an rming rate. "What the¡­?", I asked out loud while the dagger absorbed more and more. I felt as if the dagger was sucking away my blood, even though I wasn''t holding it with my cut hand. That changed, when Alicia ced my bleeding hand onto the dagger. The suction was really beyond anything I expected. "Oi! I don''t want to bleed to death!", I said while trying to remove my hand. I couldn''t though. No matter how much strength I used, my hand wouldn''t move away.


    "Just a bit more! This should be nothing for you!", she eximed. A short whileter, the suction finally ceased. I quickly removed my hand from the dagger, and looked at Alicia. I was pissed to be sure. "Stop moaning, and have a look at your weapon again", she said. I looked down to see nothing has changed. "Are you trying to piss me off? Because you are doing well in that department".


    She pointed at the area where the hole should be. "Look, I thought your sight was really good", she said. I looked again, and noticed a small scarlet bead. The hole was no longer a hole, there was a bead inside. I was still clueless, and my patience was running dry. "You asked for a weapon that can be used by your bloodline only. That''s what this weapon is. It''s not a normal weapon by any means. This is a masterpiece when ites to smithing and Formations. This dagger you see, this is its basic form. Try it out".


    I wasn''t sure what she meant by basic form, but I decided to try it out. I swung the dagger a few time, before Alicia shouted "STOP!". I quickly realised why she asked me to stop. The dagger released silver air des, that looked like a crescent moon. Fortunately, no one stood in the trajectory of those des, otherwise they would be shed in half or worse. The silver des mmed into a wall, leaving deep scars on it. ''This dagger is that powerful?'', I asked myself.


    I didn''t use my full strength to swing the dagger, but the disy alone left me shocked. The new Moon de was something else entirely. "Watch out where you swing that thing, this is not a toy!", Alicia eximed. I looked at the dagger in my hand, "This wasn''t a Formation. It wasn''t even any skill. It was pure sharpness of that thing". She nodded, "Of course, it was made from Lunite after all. Moreover, its real abilities are avable to you only. If you have kids, they can use this weapon too. After all, they would have your blood coursing through their veins".


    "That is not all, right? You mentioned basic form. In that case, what is not a basic form of this dagger". She smiled, "This dagger is not just one dagger, but ten packed as one. Although, this might be a bit misleading. The other nine daggers are not separate weapons. The dagger you hold in your hand is the main dagger, while the other nine are supportive to this main one. In other words, you can release them, to attack multiple opponents. Try separating this dagger, you should be able to achieve this".


    I nodded, and willed for the dagger to separate. A quiet "hum" escape the dagger, then more noises followed. "Click", "Voom", "Swoosh!". The other nine daggers appeared around the main dagger, but they looked differently. Those daggers were des without handles, and they were a bit smallerpared to the main de of the dagger. ''Where the hell did those daggers, or dese from?'', I thought. I even checked the thickness of the main dagger, but it looked the same to me.


    "What, you wonder how that''s possible? Well, it''s because of Formations. This dagger acts simrly to a storage item. There is no weight reduction or anything, it only holds those nine other des and allows for specific connection between them. That connection is thanks to Elements. At first we wanted to make you have nine additional daggers, and control them together with this one. Since I arrived here, I delved into Elements, and I was able to figure this out. You know the best part? This weapon can be controlled by your Auras. I told you this is a masterpiece".


    I threw the daggers upwards, and used my Domineering Aura to control them. "This is not bad at all. The daggers are certainly useful this way", I said after trying out a few moves. This time though, I minded the strength and the speed of each swing. A small demonstrationter, I retrieved the daggers and asked, "Do I simply will them to return to the basic form?". Alicia nodded, and that was what I did. The smaller daggers raised up from my hand, and rejoined the main dagger.


    "It''s a good weapon, sorry I doubted you. The sharpness of this new Moon de is really great, I will surely have a use for this", I said. Alicia smiled, "That is why I said, you''d be sorry for spout such words. Yet, you are still wrong. That alone wouldn''t be so special, nor deserve to be called a masterpiece. There is more, but I will let you try and figure it out". ''There is more? In that case, what else can this dagger do? Kill my opponents by itself or something?'' I asked myself, and tried a few things out.

 Chapter 460

    Chapter 460


    Nothing seemed to work though. The other Formation Alicia mentioned, had to be activated in specific way. I gave up after a while, and shook my head. "I have no clue. Why don''t you just tell me?". She replied in a roundabout way, "There are all sorts of weapons in the world, right? When you think about a weapon with great range, whates to your mind?". ''Bow'', I thought, and tried activating the Formation.


    "Tsss", "Ziit", "Click, Click, Click", "Swoosh!". The dagger in my hand transformed into a bow. A full size bow¡­ from a dagger. "What is this?", I asked out loud, unable to hide the shock. "This is the bow form of your new weapon. Quite neat, isn''t it?", she replied. A bow... It was made from the hidden des, as well as a string that was hidden inside the handle. I didn''t know what string it was, but it couldn''t be anything rubbish from what I saw so far.


    The design seemed intricate, as well as weird. Of the nine hidden des, only seven were used to make the upper and lower limbs of the bow, while the handle acted as a grip. The eighth and ninth des were attached to the upper limb, but horizontally not vertically. The colour of the bow was also the same, silver with bluish tint. "How did you manage that?", I asked. "With Formations of course. You already know about the hidden des, but you didn''t know about the use of these small holes. That is their purpose. The des are riveted in ce with the use of those holes, and make up a bow. I only made the assembly possible, while the master cksmith created all these elements", Alicia replied.


    I retrieved an arrow in order to try the bow, but Alicia stopped me. "There is no need for arrows, you can simply use your Aura". I looked at her stunned, "Are you telling me, this bow can shoot Aural Arrows?". She nodded, "Just like you could control the daggers with your Aura, this bow shoots out Aural Arrows as you called them. Moreover, it will help you form these arrows and add Elemental energy into them. Which Aura you use, should not matter". I nodded excitedly, ready to test that out. Alicia stopped me again. "Are you an idiot? If you shoot this here, someone is bound to get injured. You can y with this, after you leave". I agreed, but couldn''t wait to test it out. An arrow created from my Aura and infused with Elements¡­ It wasn''t something I heard of before.


    I tried changing the bow back to the dagger, and realised how simple it was. ''This is quite simple. Think of the form, and activate the Formation. I like this weapon, I like it a lot'', I thought. With the weapon changed back to the dagger form, I said "Thank you, this weapon is really great. I couldn''t even dream up such a design. I should go now, I need to find out what''s going on at the Obsidian Mountains". Alicia stopped me again, "Did I say that was the end?".


    I waspletely dumbfounded. "Come on, you are pulling my leg... right? This weapon is already great, how can there be more?". She grinned, "Oh, but there is. This weapon has three forms in total. The dagger, the bow and another form. The dagger was designed to go with your Art, therefore it is more of a mid range weapon, rather than close range one. A bow is a long range weapon, as you know. Therefore, by the power of deduction, a close range weapon is missing".


    I asked, "A sword?" while trying to activate the Formation. Nothing happened though. "Swords are overrated and overused, we made something more special for you. Given who you are, thest form should suit you". I was still clueless, even after trying a few other options. No matter what I thought of, it simply didn''t work. No axes, maces or staves appeared. "I told you, this is quite a unique weapon. Do you know what scythe is?".


    I knew what scythe was, but I never saw anyone use it as a weapon. "A scythe? Isn''t that like a tool, rather than a weapon?", I asked. She smiled, "Depends in whose hands. A farmer might see it as a tool, a warrior as a weapon". I decided to give it a try, and this time it worked. "Tssssk", "Click, Click, Click", "Pak, Pak, Pak", "Ziiit!", "Pat!". The dagger transformed into a scythe, but it didn''t look like anything a farmer would use.


    Four of the hidden des made up the de of the scythe. The hidden des were connected so well, I could barely spot four different des hanging on together. The other five des, together with the main de and handle, made up the pole part of the scythe. The pole or handle of the scythe, was made out of des obviously. That meant I couldn''t really grab any part of the pole, or so I thought. "This weapon belongs to you, and will not harm the owner. You can touch these des, but others will get sliced by them. Before you ask, this is the power of Formations and bloodline weapons", Alicia said.


    "Before anything else, what can this scythe do?". She smiled, "If you are asking about any special Formations, then there are none. It might be a bit disappointing to you, but this scythe is like a normal weapon. Although many times sharper. There are no special Formations, simply because I couldn''t fit anymore. It''s still a very powerful weapon. If used well, it can wreak havoc". I nodded before swinging the scythe a few times, of course minding where I swung. Silver air des left the scythe destroying the nearby wall.


    "Stop breaking things!", Alicia eximed. I stopped, and asked about the string that was attached to all the des. "What about the string? Does it hold the weapon in ce or something?". She tapped her head, "Oh right, I forgot about that. Although there are no special Formations avable for this form, this weapon can target a few enemies at once. Once you leave, you can test it out however you want". I nodded while replying, "I will need to get used to this weapon. Handling it feels weird, but familiar for some reason".


    She smiled, "You will get used to it. That is all, no more surprises. You may go now, make sure Bramans are stopped. We can''t let Hydra escape". Before I left, I had something else to say. "You should help out too. Grey Lizards are great with Formations, and your help might be vital against Bramans. I''m not forcing any of you, but think about it. With your help, we would have a much easier time for sure". She didn''t reply, and I left it at that. I had a war to stop, and kick some Braman asses. ''Time to end this'', I thought while activating the Formations to leave their base.

 Chapter 461

    Chapter 461


    The distance between Grey Lizards'' base and Obsidian Mountains, was not thatrge. I would make it in about two days of running. Rushing was not the solution though, I had to keep an eye on my energy just in case. That gave me an opportunity to y around with my new weapon, the new Moon de. I started from the dagger form. Utilising the nine hidden des, I tried a few moves in the open. The power of those des and the dagger were so great, the ground I aimed at was shed and diced to smithereens.


    "Damn this weapon is good... I can even use it for an upgraded Stringed Hidden Weapons, where my Aura would work as a string. This form fits perfectly for the Art of Hidden Weapons", I said to myself. Before I moved on to other forms, I yed around with the dagger a bit more.


    This produced some interesting results. I was able to copy most of the other skills with the dagger and its nine des. All the standard Forms became upgraded versions, where instead of strings, I used my Aura for maniption. Not only was this easier and faster than manipting strings, all the skills became stronger. There were limitations of course. I couldn''t replicate the mastery skills, such as Sleeping des Forest. I could smash the dagger and its des into the ground, but they couldn''t travel underneath the ground like my Auras. That was the main premise of that skill. My Aura would travel beneath my opponent, before bursting outwards from underneath.


    Although mastery skills were unavable with the dagger form, my range became much biggerpared to strings. I could control the dagger and the des, up to about twenty metres in radius. This was indeed a mid ranged weapon Alicia talked about. I decided to y around with the bow next. "Tsss", "Ziit", "Click, Click, Click", "Swoosh!", the bow appeared in my hand. "This could be my new pastime. The way this weapon changes forms is great!", I eximed.


    Since I didn''t need arrows, I wasn''t sure how to proceed. "Do I simply pull the string?", I asked myself. I pulled the string, but nothing happened. ''Hmm, it''s not going to take my Aura automatically, I probably need to feed it some'', I thought while proceeding to do just that. This time, as soon as I pulled the string, a pale yellow arrow formed between the string and the arrow rest area. "Wow! This really worked, and it wasn''t that difficult either", I eximed again.


    I wasn''t sure whether any Elemental Energy was added to the arrow, but that alone was enough for me. There were no targets to shoot at, therefore I decided to shoot into the distance. "Swoosh!". The arrow didn''t fly as far as I expected, only about a hundred to a hundred and fifty metres. My expression changed, when the arrownded, or rather crashed into the ground. "Booom!", a deafening sound travelled through the area.


    I quickly made my way to the ce my arrownded, and took a look. "This is broken¡­ How can such a weapon exist?", I asked myself, looking at the sight in front of me. Not only did my arrow create a small crater, the earth became sopact, that I had a hard time believing it was due to my Aura. "Elements!", I quickly realised the reason. The Aural Arrow must''ve been infused with Earth Element, which made it heavier. Adding in the Domineering Aura on top, the results were staggering. "This bow isparable to a Scorpion, yet I can hold it in one hand", I mumbled to myself, stunned.


    The damage was great due to Earth Element, but what about the other Elements? "Air Element should be present here as well, but how do I attract that instead of Earth Element? Or does the bow chooses by itself which Element is incorporated?", I wondered. I gave it a few more tries, before concluding it was indeed random. Sometimes my arrows would fly a shorter distance, that was due to the Earth Element. Yet sometimes, they would fly a great distance, thanks to the Air Element. "The Air Element is great as well. The range is around five hundred metres, and the arrow pierces right through the ground, like a knife through butter. Adding in my Domineering Aura, the damage is substantial too", I said to myself.


    A few more triester, I finally figured it out. I couldn''t really control which Element the arrow would have, but I found a way to distinguish between them. This became even more apparent when I used my Bloodlust Aura. "So, if the arrow has a yellow tint to it, that means it will be of Earth Element. On the other hand, if it''s a whitish green tint, the arrow will be of Air Element. By the power of deduction, red tint would mean Fire Element, and blue tint would mean Water Element. This could probably be applied to Nature, Darkness and Light Elements, although I have nowhere to test that right now", I concluded.


    The consumption of my Auras wasn''t that small, but I could support it for a few good shots. With the bow mostly figured out, I decided to focus on thest form, the scythe form. "Tssssk", "Pak, Pak, Click", "Click, Click, Click", "Pak, Pak, Pak", "Ziiit!", "Pat!", the bow changed into a scythe. ''Fortunately, I don''t have to revert back to the dagger form, and then to the scythe form. That would be too time consuming'', I thought. The convenience of changing to any form, from any form was great. I approved.


    "Let''s see what this weapon can do!", I eximed, and swung the scythe around me. With each more powerful swing, a silver air de flew to the distance, sometimes crashing into the ground, sometimes disappearing into nothingness. "Hahahaha, this weapon is great! I feel like this weapon always belonged to me!", I eximed. Then something even more extraordinary happened. The hidden des that made up the main de of the scythe, separated and flew about in different directions. All of them still attached to the string.


    I saw this chance, and spun around like a storm. A barrage of silver air des flew left and right, as me and the scythe raised a storm. I stopped abruptly, while the four des returned to normal with a "ng, ng, ng" sound. "So, that''s the use of this string. Neat, very neat! I love this new weapon!". The scythe form didn''t require my Aura at all, yet it was a very powerful weapon. I couldn''t repeat the same with the dagger or bow forms. "The range in closebat is not really that close though. My reach is about three metres, excluding the silver air des. I wonder about very, very closebat?", I said to myself.


    In case of a sword, or even a dagger, I could attack and defend at a very close range. I wasn''t so sure about that scythe though. It was bigger, and the de was positioned differently to what I was used to. "I can stick with the dagger in very closebat, or use the pole. It''s made out of des after all. Perhaps with more use, I will find a proper style for using this weapon, but there is no time right now", I said to myself.


    I still had to make it back to Obsidian Mountains. Convince everyone to attack Bramans, and hope that everything would go well. I was certain Crow wouldn''t leave Obsidian Mountains without me, but I wasn''t so sure about the others. Humans, Lizards and Voltars, we would require them. If they simply marched alone, and lost¡­ We would be in deep trouble.

 Chapter 462

    Chapter 462


    I ran as quickly towards Obsidian Mounts as I could, while conserving my energy. When I finally saw the volcanoes, I stopped for a short break. ''New weapon, check. Armour, check. Ability to kick Braman asses, hopefully check'', I thought. I wasn''t sure what to tell everyone when I arrived. Stuff like "Follow me!", wouldn''t work. I had to exin everything, or at least enough to convince the Lizards, Humans and others.


    I wasn''t sure how to exin it either. "A powerful monster is about to break out! Therefore we need to kill Bramans!", was not something people would easily buy. ''Ah, I will think of something once I face them. Trying toe up with a speech is not my type of thing anyway'', I thought and rushed toward Arangard.


    When I finally arrived, one of the worst case scenarios, was currently ying itself out in front of me. ''Damn, I''m toote'', I thought at the sight. The Eterians and Furians already attacked Obsidian Mountains. From the looks of it, the battle didn''tst that long yet. The good news was that Humans, Lizard and other races were all there. The Destroyers were abandoned, while both armies attacked in hand to handbat. "I need to stop this", I said to myself, trying to think of something.


    ''Attention'', I thought and took out my mask as well as the Bastard Sword. With my mask on, I took a step forward, elerating towards the battlefield. Just as my speed reached the pinnacle, I mmed my leg into the ground,unching myself upwards. Using my Aura as stepping tforms, I rushed forwards and upwards at the same time.


    Higher and higher, until I had a view of the whole battlefield. I scanned the battlefield and made some quick calctions, before activating the Formation inside the Bastard Sword and throwing it. "RHAH!", I used everything I had for that throw. The heavy sword descended quickly, gaining speed with each passing second. Its target, the middle of the battlefield. Before Inded, the sword began screeching, sting through the air towards its destination.


    "BOOOM!".


    The sword smashed into the ground, creating crater like caving and releasing a shockwave strong enough for others to be blown away. Inded shortly after, walking slowly towards the battlefield full of disoriented people.


    "What happened!?", "Someone else attacked us!", "Have you seen what happened?!". "Look! It''s a sword!". "Whe¡­ Where the hell did that sworde from?". "Hey! Someone is there!". The fighting stopped, and all those gathered looked towards me. "He is¡­ He disappeared...", "Crack¡­ Cling!", I retrieved my sword before saying, "This war¡­ It ends here".


    "Fall back! Regroup!", one of the Eterians shouted. Both armies moved backwards, creating space in between. A space where I stood. "We don''t have time for wars. There is much more at stake, than some resources and power", I said. A few Eterians stepped out of the ranks. "So we finally meet. The elusive Dark Traveller, as they call you", one of the Eterians said.


    "You know about Bramans, but do you know what they intend to do?". He snorted, "You mean Hydra? We know". I nodded, "In that case, you should know what can happen, when they release it". Heughed, "Total destruction of your Empire, that''s what will happen!". I shook my head, "Is that what Bramans promised you? What if I promise you freedom?".


    A few Humans also stepped out of the ranks, but not to talk, they actually attacked. They tried to take that opportunity, and kill some highly positioned Eterians, but that was not my n. "Swoosh!", I swiped my hand, and all their attacks became neutralised. I used my Bloodlust Aura on purpose, there was no need to hide who I was. "I didn''t ask you to interfere, Royals". "You! That Aura... You know the Forbidden Arts! We should destroy you, together with those bastards!", one of them said with shock stered on his face.


    The Eterianughed, "Even your own race is against you, yet you want to promise us freedom? We are free already, and we will get rid of those who stand in our way!". "You are ves. Bramans will use you, not work with you. The Hydra is not something that should roam this ce. What any race thinks of me, is irrelevant. Right now, I''m here to stop this pointless war", I replied.


    The Humans attacked again, but this time, I was included as the target. "This is not your Endrosian Empire", I said, as all the attacks flying at me got destroyed. Lizards, Shades and Atols stood all around me, protecting me. "Betrayers! You stand with the one who practices disgusting Arts! Didn''t you hear him? He is trying to make a deal with Eterians!", one of the Humans eximed.


    "I''d suggest you speak less, if you don''t want your tongue cut. Knowing his short temper, I can totally see that happening", Crow and Lira appeared next to the Humans, and slowly walked towards me. "It''s been a while. Seems you got a lot stronger too", he said while other Shades followed. Even Voltars began moving, I wasn''t even surprised who was leading them. "I heard what happened in Boltier. You should''ve visited me instead. We Voltars are not cowards, we will help you face Bramans. It''s the least we can do for you", said Shak.


    A few Royal Lizards voiced their objections, but were stopped by someone else. "You think we can stop Hydra? He is trying to fight amon enemy, an enemy trying to destroy everything. Stop being so blind already", said Harlin as he walked out of the crowd, his soldiers following him.


    "You are the general of Royal Army! You want to side with him!?", a few Royal Lizards protested. That wasn''t all, Jora stepped out as well. "The Eterian already confirmed it. That Hydra, if it''s as dangerous as they say, this war is pointless indeed". He grabbed his people and walked towards me as well. The Royal Lizards became speechless, but Humans on the other hand more furious. "Betrayers¡­ Bunch of fucking betrayers¡­".


    "You might hate who I am, you might hate Eterians or Furians. But even you must''ve noticed the seriousness of this situation. Do you think your Emperor can stop Hydra? Wouldn''t Hatmandor already appear? It was them who sealed Hydra, but where are they now? The choice is simple, you can suck it up, and help me destroy Bramans. Or you can sit hereining", I said.


    They gritted their teeth, but one of them finally stepped up. "Fine. We will help you deal with Bramans, but don''t expect anything else". I nodded, and turned towards Eterians. "p, p, p, p", the leader of Eterians pped a few times. "Great show, but you forgot about something. It''s not like we agreed to help you. If you want to stop Bramans, you''d have to get through us!". He grabbed his weapon, while a few other Furians joined his side.


    Others on my side readied their weapons too, but I stopped them. "You are as much victims as perpetrators in all this. Furians don''t belong to you, and you are not ves of Bramans. I don''t know what they did for you to listen in the past, but we can stop them, together. End this hatred once and for all". Instead of an answer, I got a few attacks flying my way. I walked forwards, releasing my Aura domain. "Crack, Pak, Bam, Pak", the attacks couldn''t go through and broke apart. "We don''t need advice from a monster like you", he replied while charging at me with his sword.

 Chapter 463

    Chapter 463


    Others charged as well, especially the Furians at his side. Humans, Lizards and others readied their weapons as well, but I stopped them again. "You want to stop an entire army alone?", one of them asked. "Just stay back", I replied while taking a step forward. "You think you can face us alone Human? What arrogance!", the Eterian leader shouted, and split into five. A smile appeared on my face, but the mask obstructed it. "I was surprised that you''d want to fight head on. An Eterian who specialises in closebat, that''s a first", I said, while my copy appeared next to me.


    "Sadly, you are not the only one", I added before both me and my copy bent down, and elerated towards them. "BOOM!"... "What speed!", the people behind me eximed. I quickly arrived in front of the Eterian and his illusions, but he wasn''t my target. "Art of War: Warlike Combat", "Boom!, Boom!, Boom!", the three Furians behind him flew into the air, as my Aura resurfaced underneath them. The Eterian and his copies tried attacking my copy, whereas I made another move.


    "Bam!, Swoosh!, Bam!", another two Furians got punched into the air, while I left my back exposed. "You loose", the Eterian imed. I smiled but didn''t turn around, "Did I?". "Pak¡­ Huh?", one of the Eterians tripped over a rock I concealed with my Aura. The other four tried mming their swords into my back. While my right arm was concealed from their view, I condensed a ball of mist, ready to be released anytime.


    Just as the des arrived, I used my Blink Formation, and appeared a few metres above them. "Shing!", the whole area froze, while an ice pir rose into the air. The other four copies disappeared due to damage, while the "real" Eterian tried to find his footing. "With just one copy, I don''t think you can make it", I said to him. The fifth copy smiled, and disappeared into nothingness. A voice travelled from the crowd of Eterians. "For you to see through it, not bad. Being able to resist that many illusions, you really are a monster". An Eterian with a long slender sword stepped out of the crowd. This was their leader, a mastermind in a way.


    The reason I was able to resist those illusions, was rather simple but amazing. The Aural domain didn''t affect only physical attacks or Formations. It was able to disrupt illusions too. That was something I found during the whole battle, otherwise I wouldn''t be so easy going. Thanks to Grey Lizards and the training, my Auras became much stronger, but also my control because much more fluid. The Aural domain didn''t require as much Auras as it did in the past, especially if I enveloped my body alone inside that domain.


    I decided to try something else. "How about this? Let''s have a bout. If I win, you will help us defeat Bramans. If you win, I will join you and do whatever you want. We can do a Blood Pact, which will prevent any cheating. I will even allow you to choose a few Furians as your aids, just to make it more interesting. Up for it?".


    Heughed, "That confident? How about, I refuse?". "Grip", "Gah!". I used the Blink Formation to appear in front of him, and grabbed him by his neck. That was the asion I was waiting for. He lost focus for a second, and that was enough. "You are mistaken Eterian. I can kill any of you as I please. Destroying you can be this simple, yet I¡­", before I could finish, a dagger appeared in his hand. He thrusted it towards my heart, without a second thought. I smiled underneath my mask, and activated the Formation. "ng!", his dagger stopped on the armour, unable to make as much as a scratch. I grabbed his dagger, and took a look at it. "Poison? I already went through this once. Not going to work this time though". I hid the dagger away, this was a good opportunity to actually try and find a cureter.


    "Let¡­ Me¡­ Go", he squeezed out. Others surrounded me with their weapons ready, but no one moved. I could feel other Eterians trying to influence me with their illusion, which meant I didn''t have much time. "I wonder whether others would change their minds, if I got rid of you. One guy for a whole race, not such a bad deal, don''t you think?". Before he squeezed out anything else, I heard a familiar voice. "Wait, don''t kill him!". It was Nick''s voice to be precise. I lost focus for a split second, but that was enough for him to escape my grasp.


    Others immediately attacked, while I stomped on the ground, andunched myself backwards. Fortunately my reaction was well timed, otherwise I might''ve gotten injured from all the Aural attacks. At a much safer distance, I spoke once more. "So, we meet again Laly. It wasn''t nice of you to betray me back then, in the Great Forest". The familiar Eterian appeared from the group, but her face revealed a deep shock. "Yes, I still remember you. Yes, it was me back then. Seems you grew up well. Your skills improved", I said. She didn''t reply, but a hoarse voice of the Eterian leader sounded from the backlines instead. "Kill him!".


    The Furians advanced again, while Eterians tried their illusions. ''I need to break their control over Furians. If Furians wake up, we might have a chance'', I thought while backing up. Arrows and even Aural skills were flying my way. ''Turns out they didn''t seal all Furians'' Auras. Those guys must be controlled more thoroughly then. If I can wake one of them up, there might be a chance'', I thought. The disy of my strength didn''t work, which meant I had to strike a different spot.


    I stopped abruptly, before advancing towards the Furian army chasing after me. I wanted to grab one of those Furians, and test something out. Just as I appeared in front of a Furian, a few attacks headed my way. With the Natural Path skill and my intensified Domineering Aura, I appeared and disappeared like an illusion. This was no longer some simple Natural Path skill, ''Art of Stealth: Illusionary Path''. All their attacks missed, while I grabbed the Furian who was able to use his Aura. As soon as he was in my hands, I increased the range of my Aura domain to epass both of us, before retreating toward the allied troops.


    "You should''ve killed him, when you had the chance", one of the Humans spoke quite annoyed. "I might have a way to bring Furians back on our side", I replied while letting the Furian go. He was still inside my domain, which shielded him from illusions. My domain wasn''t there to just attack, I could also protect others as long as they stayed within. "Crow, Atols and Lizards, gain me some time. I need to test something. Harlin, you stay here with me", I said. Crow appeared next to me, and motioned for others to follow.


    The Furian was disoriented, unsure what to do. "Can you hear me?", I asked. He looked at me confused, "Who are you?", I pointed at his race, "You were controlled, like others. Some of you are controlled directly, some of you follow the lead of those who are controlled. I''m not your enemy Furian, I want to stop this war". He grabbed his head, screaming in pain. ''Serelis!'', I thought and gave him some. "Drink this, you will feel better". He grabbed the bottle, and drank its contents without a second thought.


    A whileter, he stopped grabbing his head. "We¡­ aren''t we enemies? You want to help me¡­ us? A Human?". I nodded, "I know how it is to be owned, to do whatever someone tells you to do, to obey. You are not a ves Furian, you should dictate your own path in this world". He shook his head, "I no longer¡­ I don''t know what to think anymore...". I replied, "Help me, help me free your people". He grabbed his head again, "How? How can I do that?". I smiled, "Just stay here, and wait for my sign. I will try to help your people, and when they wake up. Speak to them, tell them the truth". He nodded, while I called Harlin over. "Watch over him, don''t let Eterians make eye contact with him anymore. Make sure he is in no danger", I said before rushing towards the battlefield.


    "Crow! Tell your guys to retreat! You will aid me! Atols and Lizards, you retreat as well!", I shouted. Crow did as I said, and all the Shades as well as Atols and Lizards retreated. "What do you have in mind?", Crow asked while appearing next to me. "I need to free all the Furians. Without guards, Eterians are quite defenceless. They rely on Furians to keep an enemy busy. If Furians wake up, we can stop this war".


    I grabbed him, and jumped to the side. A few attacksnded in the ce we used to be at. "We will round up all the Furians, and then I will try something out. Your task will be to make sure I don''t die", I added. He nodded, and looked behind. "Lira, you retreat too!". She refused, and persisted to follow us. "Let her be, we don''t have time for that", I said as we got closer to the Eterians.


    "Kill him! All of you, kill him!", the leader of Eterians shouted once more. All the Furians charged at us, their whole armyprised of hundreds of soldiers, created a wall between us and the Eterians. ''Good, here goes all or nothing'', I thought and used the Blink Formation. As soon as I appeared in the middle of the Furian army, I released my Auras to the maximum. ''Come on, a bit more!'', I screamed in my mind, as the Aural domain began enveloping all the Furians.

 Chapter 464

    Chapter 464


    "RAAAAGH!", I screamed even more intensely, as my Auras grew. More Furians were epassed, more Furians stopped being affected, until I could no longer extend my Auras. "Haaah¡­ Haah¡­ I made it somehow", I said to myself barely supporting the Aural domain at its current state. I didn''t have much time, my Auras would soon disappear, and I would be defenceless.


    Some Furians grab their heads and screamed in pain, while others looked at them in confusion. "Attack him! He is there", one of the Furians shouted, but Crow and Lira appeared next to me. "You are being controlled. Wake up, realize what is going on. I''m not your enemy", I said to them. "Lies! Don''t listen to him, attack while we have the chance!", another Furian shouted. Those who were not controlled, were probably brainwashed. Only a minority of Furians was being controlled, those were the ones with Auras.


    "I already helped one of you. Take a look for yourselves, he is fine and not under the control of Eterians. You''ve been lied to, you became ves to Eterians. You are not tools, you are living beings with your own consciousness!", I eximed, while Crow and Lira made sure no one approached me.


    A few Furians looked into the distance. More precisely, at one of their own standing next to Humans and Lizards. ''Go on, tell your people the truth'', I thought. But the Furian seemed afraid, unable to form words. "See, he is lying! They took him as a hostage!", the other Furians eximed. I added, "He is not a hostage, he is free. Free of the Eterian control. Think, would I try to help you, if that wasn''t the case? Would I try to shield you away from their illusions?".


    I couldn''t support my Aural domain for much longer. If they didn''t break free, the n would be a failure. Those affected started realising something. "Were¡­ were we controlled?", "I don''t remember much¡­", "If he wants to help us... ". Others tried to persuade their fellow Furians, but the doubt was already sown.


    "How long can you keep this up for?", Crow asked quietly. "Not much longer, I''m already losing all my strength", I replied. "In that case, we will escape as soon as your Auras break. You tried, that counts", he added. Maybe it counted, but wouldn''t change a lot. If Furians were controlled again, the war would resume. Either we would destroy them, or be destroyed by them. I had no other solutions, there was no other way to change their minds.


    ''Maybe I ced too much hope on that Furian... Although I can''t me him. Being controlled for so long, anyone would be confused, scared and unable to act'', I thought. Perhaps it was meant to be like this, perhaps it was time to stop. "He didn''t lie!", a familiar voice reverberated through the air. "Fox?", I asked myself in disbelief.


    Her hand resting on the saved Furian''s shoulder, as she stood facing the Furian army. "Eterians lied to you, brainwashed you to believe we are enemies of Humans! We are not! We are not ves to Eterians, we should dictate our own lives!", she screamed before taking her mask of. Her eyes, were that of a Furian. ''Is that why you were afraid of showing your face to me? You thought I would reject you based on that?'', I thought.


    "She.. she is¡­", "This, how can this¡­?", "She is alive?". The Furians asked themselves, unable to believe what they saw. "Am I not a living proof of Humans and Furians being able to coexist?! I was controlled too, they used me as well! Just like they are using you! I''m alive only thanks to this man, the same man who is trying to help you!". The Furians looked at each other, they looked at Fox, and even looked at me. "Furians, I never had a bias towards any race¡­ This is the only chance I can create for you¡­ Tread your own path, not a path selected by others". "Tak!", I dropped to my knees. The domain slowly vanished as my Auras were totally spent.


    Crow and Lira grabbed me, and retreated. The Furians didn''t chase us, the looked at Eterians instead. "Go kill them!", "He is weak, finish him off", the Eterians shouted. Furians didn''t budge anymore, they stood resolutely facing Eterians. "We will no longer do your bidding. We have our own free will, this is where we part ways, Eterians!", one of them imed. "Bunch of useless ves! Control them, don''t let them get away!", the Eterian leader shouted.


    "Crow... lead Furians to our side, protect them¡­", I said weakly. "Lira, take him back. This is an order", he said before going back for Furians. As Lira dragged me back to our side, a few other people advanced towards us. "It seems you seeded. Turns out you can actually help someone, instead of destroying them", Lira said. I was too tired to answer that. Harlin lead his troops to escort me, Crow and help Lira with the burden of dragging me back. "I''ll be damned Nex", was the only thing he could say.


    We arrived safely to our side, where Fox was already waiting. "He''s all yours", Harlin said, and dropped me to the ground. ''Thanks friend, really nice of you'', I thought. "Alright guys, no need to stare", Lira said to the crowd. Fox crouched next to me, "How¡­ you know¡­ ". It was the first time I saw her without the mask, no wonder she was shy. A short silenceter, she fumbled through my stuff, and took out some medicine. "Will this help you?", she asked but still took my mask off and fed me the medicine.


    Although I wasn''t injured, the Night Star Extract could replenish my energy to a certain extent. A whileter, I could finally move on my own. "You know, it''s weird looking at you without the mask", I said with a smile. "What? You don''t like my face or something?", she replied half shy. "You have beautiful eyes, you shouldn''t hide them", I replied. I could see the tears in her eyes. "I''m sorry, for what I did", I added.


    She shook her head, "It''s not that. Father used to say, that my mom always told him how beautiful my eyes were... I''m happy you think that way". I slowly picked myself up, and extended my hand towards her. "The war didn''t end yet. We need to stop Eterians, and defeat Bramans. Hydra is not something that should see the light of day".

 Chapter 465

    Chapter 465


    The Furians under the escort of Crow and Lizards, made it safely back to our side. Eterians became pretty much defenceless. "Crow, take them to the back. Let them rest", I said, before looking at Fox again. "Go with them, they will feel more at ease with you around". She nodded, but seemed unwilling to let go of my hand. "Go, we still need to take care of Eterians", I added. With Furians liberated, I turned towards Eterians. Their faces said it all.


    "I''m surprised you guys didn''t take this opportunity to take me out", I said to the leader of the Human army. He snorted, "We gave you the word. Bramans are our enemy number one. We know when to leave our differences behind, and unite for ourmon enemy". I smiled before shouting towards Eterians, "You''ve lost! Why don''t you give it up?! What is the point of you resisting now?!".


    The leader shouted back, "That''s what you think?! You believe this puny army of yours, will be able to take on Bramans?! How naive! Since we lost, we are dead anyway! Might as well take as many of you with as, as we can!". I saw him motion to someone, and a lone man walked out of the crowd. "A Human?", others asked shocked. I narrowed my eyes, unsure what he was about to do.


    "I''ll let you have a taste of mytest creation!", the man shouted, before taking out multiple bottles of some sort of liquid. ''Poison?'', I asked myself. Before I could act in any way, the man opened each bottle, one after the other. A purple haze began escaping the bottles, which in turn formed a cloud. It wasn''t a normal cloud, it acted as if it was alive. The cloud didn''t move towards Eterians for some reason, it began floating towards us. "Move back guys. Quickly!", I ordered. This might''ve looked like Cloud Haze Poison, but it wasn''t.


    It was the same poison I encountered at Boltier. All the races behind me started retreating, while I tried toe up with something. "Do you have a way to neutralise this?", Harlin asked. "If I know him, he does", Crow said appearing next to me. "This is the same poison that was used on Voltars. I can try and freeze it. Coldness had an effect on the poison, as far as I remember", I replied. With my arm extended, I started forming the ball of mist atop my hand.


    "Crow, you have any way of dealing with such a vicious poison?", I asked in the meantime. "Trying to absorb a part of it... seems rather dangerous. Try freezing it first", he replied. With the ball formed and condensed, I mmed my leg on the ground and threw it as hard as I could.


    "Swoosh!", "Pak!", "Crickle¡­ Crackle". The ball of mist hit the target, but didn''t freeze the cloud. "The cloud only slowed down", I said. "Try once more?", Harlin asked. I tried once more like he asked. "Swoosh!", "Pak!", "Crickle¡­ Crackle". ''Although the poisonous cloud didn''t freeze, the speed at which it moves decreased'', I thought. "Give it one more shot. It''s rather slow right now", Crow said. I agreed, and formed another ball. This time, the cloud became really slow. "Although this is not a solution, it will buy us some time", I said, but then the guy at the other sideughed. "Hmph! You think it will be that easy?", he took out another bottle, and threw it at the ground.


    "This dude has more¡­ Can you freeze it enough, so that Crow can...?", I stopped Harlin midway. "This is not the same stuff, it''s something else", I said. We watched as another cloud formed, but it wasn''t poison. ''Medicine?'', I asked myself unsure. I was shocked at what I witnessed a few momentster. The poisonous cloud started devouring the other cloud. "Come on! Have you ran out of your ice balls?!", the man taunted me.


    "Are you telling me that freezing will not work?", Harlin asked. "Perhaps, let''s see. I have a few more shots left in me", I replied. I was sure he had more bottles of that other stuff, but it was worth a try. As soon as the ball of mist became condensed enough, I would throw it at the cloud. The guy on the other side got pissed, and dropped a few more bottles of that other stuff.


    "I think he dumped everything he had. Can you keep it up?", Crow asked. "Not for much longer. Perhaps two more times, and I''m done for. Guys, retreat. If I have to, I will use my Aura to fight it". Harlin snorted, "Don''t joke around. Who would drag your half dead body back?". I smiled, "Fair point". Just as I was condensing another ball atop my hand, I heard something interesting. "Hurry up! We don''t have much time!", one of the Eterians shouted at the Human.


    The guy shouted back at him, but I was already analysing the words of that Eterian. ''There are two possibilities. They took an antidote of some sort, and the cloud of poison will not attack them for a period of time. Or the cloud will vanish soon'', I thought. "We have to stall this, it seems they are running out of time for some reason", I said and threw the condensed ball at the cloud.


    I managed to squeeze out one more ball of mist, and threw it at the cloud as well. The guy on the other side was furious. "Whatever!", he shouted before dumping even more bottles of that other liquid. "Turns out he still had some in stock", I said. The cloud quickly recovered, but still devoured the other cloud. "Any other ideas, gentlemen?", I asked. "We run?", Harlin replied. "Maybe we can attract it to one of the Volcanoes?", Crow asked.


    I pped myself, because I forgot about something. "I still have my glove! I totally forgot about it". I was used to the fact that the Formation on my glove was broken. "The fire should affect this poison too. Although we need extreme fire¡­ Back up guys, closer to the volcanoes. I need Fire Element for this to work", I said and ran towards one of the volcanoes. The guy saw us retreating, and shouted, "See! He is out of ammo! Now they are dead!".


    The others were fortunately much further away, so they would be affectedst. "Alright, this should be enough", I said and extended my left hand. A me burst into life, epassing my hand. I tried to increase the intensity, and the me grew to a much, much bigger size. "Don''te close to me with that", Crow said. "I just need to condense it. It might take a second", I said and focused.


    The guy responsible for all that poison, noticed what we were doing. "Hey! What is he doing exactly?!", he asked the Eterians. "You didn''t tell me he could do that as well!", he shouted at them again. I increased the output, whilepressing the me into the ball. "Catch this!", I shouted while throwing the ball of fire at the cloud. "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!", a loud explosion reverberated through the air. The ball of fire created arge hole inside the cloud, but didn''t destroy it. "Not enough? I will serve you one more!", I shouted and began condensing another ball. The cloud had to reform, but still made its way towards us.


    "It''s getting closer¡­ Nex¡­", Harlin said through his teeth. When the ball was ready, I immediately threw it. "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!", anotherrge hole appeared inside the cloud. "Retreat, fast!", I eximed, while trying to condense another ball. "Do something!", the leader of Eterians screamed. The Human shook his head, and began running towards the direction of the barrier. "Crow!", I shouted. "I''m on it", he replied. Crows mission was to take out that guy, while the cloud chased after me.


    With another ball ready, "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!". The poisonous cloud became much smaller, but it''s speed increased. ''No other choice'', I thought and grabbed Golden Iris. "Run Harlin, run as far as you can. I will try to use my Aura and destroy thispletely", I said before drinking it. He refused, so I told him I wasn''t asking. With my Domineering Aura, I grabbed him and flung him away. ''It''s all or nothing'', I thought as my energy quickly restored.


    "That is as far as you go!", I shouted and released my Domineering Aura to the max. I was trying to envelop the cloud, condense it and burn it down in one go. The cloud fought viciously against my Aura, but with my energy restored, there was no way for it to escape anymore. At the same time, I was condensing a ball of fire atop my hand, "Disappear for me!", I shouted and threw the ball. "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!". The cloud trapped within my Aura, burned to thest possible wisp. ''Fortunately he didn''t have any more of that poison. I would be in deep shit otherwise'', I thought to myself. Most of my energy was spent again, but notpletely. I was still able to move and function properly.


    I saw Crow carrying that one guy with him, while Eterians just stood there. "What? Not even going to try and run away?", I asked with a smirk. But then I saw Crow stopping all of a sudden. The Eterians were also seemingly rooted in ce. ''What the?'', I thought. Harlin shouted from behind, "L...Look up!". I was confused to be sure, but then looked up and scoured the sky.

 Chapter 466

    Chapter 466


    My face quickly changed. Not because there were people floating in the skies, not because they most likely represented Hatmandor. No, it was due to how they looked. ''Impossible!'', I eximed in my mind. These people¡­ creatures or whoever they were, they looked exactly like the Dark Traveller from my dreams. "Are you that shocked to see us, Human?", one of them asked.


    I stood there stunned, unable to say anything. So many thoughts ran through my mind, I wasn''t able to think straight anymore. "...What about Bramans?", I finally managed to squeeze out a question. "Bramans? They are already gone", he said before turning his head towards Eterians. "Did you really think that pity n of yours would work? Did you think we would''ve left Bramans alive, if we didn''t have countermeasures?", he asked.


    The faces of all Eterians changed. They lost, and they knew the consequences of losing. Others looked at each other, and asked themselves, "Does that mean the war is over?". The hooded figure extended his hand, and flicked his finger. The Eterian leader got knocked to the ground, as if something heavy pressed on him. "I will take care of youter, we came here for much more pressing matter", he said and looked at me. ''Me? Do they know about the Dark Traveller?'', I asked myself.


    The hooded figure extended his hand, and pointed it at me. "Boom!", the ground where I used to stand, caved in. "Oh, you evaded that?", the hooded figure asked. This time though, he didn''t extend his hand or made any motions with his fingers. Yet, I could still feel many attacks flying my way.


    "Boom!, Boom!, Boom!, Boom!, Boom!...".


    "So it wasn''t a fluke, you can really sense the Formations", the hooded figure said. "Why are you attacking me? We are not enemies, as far as I''m aware. Moreover, I was nning to do your job", I said. Another hooded figure stepped forwards, "Watch your words Human. Master was only...". The so called master stopped him, "I didn''t ask you to interfere". The other hooded figure bowed down, and backed away.


    "You have something that belongs to us, Human. Return it, and we shall leave you alone", he said. I shook my head, "I have no idea what you''re talking about. I never took anything from you. This is the first time we met". "Oh but you do", he replied, pointing at my arm. To be precise, at my right arm. ''Frosty?... Is that why you hid yourself? Are they the ones after you?'', I asked myself.


    The hooded figure continued, "You have no idea, do you Human? Why don''t youe out, King of ciers... Bgor". I looked at my arm again, ''Bgor? King of ciers? Is that who you really are Frosty?'', I thought. My arm lit up suddenly, and a voice reverberated through my mind. ''Run Nex!''. I took a step backwards, and disappeared. "Do you seriously think we will let you escape this time?", the hooded figure asked. I could feel somethinging towards me, something big. Without hesitation, I used the Blink Formation and appeared dozens of metres away.


    "BOOOM!", "Crumble!, Crumble!".


    A whole area spanning about thirty metres in radius, simply copsed inwards, creating a huge crater. As if a huge hammer smacked the earth in its face. ''This is bad'', I thought without stopping. "How about I increase the pressure?", the hooded figure asked. I felt another Formationing. No, it was a few of them. "BOOOM!, BOOOM!, BOOM!", "Crumble!, Crumble!". I was barely able to evade, as the ground received the beating of its lifetime. ''He is strong¡­ This is no longer a realm of Inner Limits¡­ This guy is at Primal Limits stage'', I thought and ran at maximum speed. My goal was to get out of the North, leave towards Endrosian Empire.


    "How about I make it more interesting?", the hooded figure said. Suddenly I felt danger all over me. Even though I used the Blink Formation to its fullest, I still felt danger. "BOOOM!, BOOOM!, BOOOM!, BOOOM!, BOOOM!, BOOOM!...". There was no way I could escape that kind of area of effect attack. "URGH!", I was caught up in one of those sts, and got mmed into the ground¡­ hard. Every bone in my body rattled, even though I used my Auras as well as the Formations ced on the armour, to protect myself.


    "Nex!", I heard Fox''s cry. I struggled to pick myself up, the blow was really too hard. "Stay¡­ Stay back!", I shouted while lifting myself up to my feet. "I''m surprised you came out of this unscathed. Those Lizards made a great armour for you. Have they finally figured out the existence of Elements?", the hooded figure asked. I grabbed some medicine, and drank it immediately. ''This is hopeless, I can''t escape this. This guy is simply too strong'', I thought, and looked at my arm again.


    Frosty was with me since the first time I visited the North. How could I abandon him?


    "Do you think Bgor cares about you Human? He simply uses you as a shield. He doesn''t care whether you die or not. The question is, why should you care?", the hooded figure asked. "He... is... my... friend!", I shouted and retreated again. "You know¡­"... "BOOOM!"... "I never understood you Humans..."... "BOOOM!"..."With your knowledge in Arts and the ability to use Auras¡­ perhaps you''d have a chance at escaping. If you actually reached a higher stage"... "BOOOM!", "ARGH!". I was sted into the ground once more.


    "Ungh...Pat!", I couldn''t pick myself up anymore. "I dealt with a few so called masters in those Arts. Nothing special in my opinion. You are a bit different Human, you seem to know more than the masters I faced in the past", the hooded figure said. I tried picking myself up again, but this time someone''s hand helped me. "Fox?", I asked. "You are not alone, there are others who will help you in need", she said while looking back.


    Crow, Harlin and others were there too. They stood there between me and the hooded figures. I shook my head, "It''s¡­ pointless¡­ We can''t¡­ win¡­ Leave, before he¡­ attacks you as well". She shook her head and held onto me no matter what. "Your resistance will y no difference. But, if you are sick of your lives, I will grant you that request", the hooded figure said. Just as he was about to smash us into pieces, a voice travelled through the area.


    "Wait!", Alicia screamed. "Hmm? The Elusive Grey Lizards left their little hideout?", the hooded figure asked. "Don''t kill him. He tried to help you, he wanted to prevent Hydra from escaping. That must count for something", Alicia said. "As soon as Bgor is released, we will not take this matter any further", he replied. Alicia turned towards me. "Nex, give them what they want. There is no hope when you die, life matters the most". I was about to decline, when my arm glowed and a creature appeared in front of me.

 Chapter 467

    Chapter 467


    "Frosty?", arge creature stood in front of me. This was no longer a small lizard, but a huge creature with wings, long neck and long tail as thick as a Human. The blue scales covering Frosty''s whole body, glistered like well polished metal. His deep blue eyes, reflected wisdom and ancient feel. "ROOAR!", Frosty turned towards the hooded figures, and released an ear piercing roar.


    "We meet again King of ciers, Ice Dragon Bgor", the hooded figure stated. ''Dragon?'', I asked myself unaware what that was. "Frosty is a... Dragon?", Fox was even more shocked than me. I asked, "What is that?". She looked at me in disbelief, "You don''t know?... Dragons¡­ Ancient Beasts thought to exist in legends alone. Yet, this is not a legend, not a fairytale. This is reality". I looked back at Frosty, "Does that mean you are very strong?".


    Frosty didn''t reply to me, instead he spread his wings and lifted off into the air. "You fell from the glory, Bgor. You used to be a majestic creature in the past, but now? You are just but a shadow of your past self... Why don''t you submit to us? It''s that easy and simple. We can go the hard way, and make you submit if you so choose", the hooded figure said. "The likes of you shall not know the glory of which you speak. Neither of you were kings or rulers, neither tasted the power of which you speak ill. A bunch of runaways wish tomand I, the King of ciers?", Frosty replied.


    "A fallen king, dragon. Catch him!", the hooded figure eximed with clear anger in his voice. I could feel a series of Formations flying towards Frosty, but Frosty didn''t seem perturbed by that. "RAAAWR!", Frosty''s roar was apanied by a stream of ice, which shot towards the hooded figures. "CREAK!, CRACK!... SHATTER!", the Formations broke like cheap pottery.


    The hooded figures didn''t panic at all. They floated there indifferently, as if Frosty''s ice breath meant nothing to them. I soon realised why. The ice breath hit an invisible wall, creating ice pirs and spikes all over it. That wasn''t the end, with a simple "Hmph!" from the hooded figure, all the ice shattered. "This time, there is no escape for you, Bgor", the hooded figure said, and extended his arms. Other hooded figures did the same, and targeted Frosty.


    Frosty pped his wings and distanced himself, but something seemed off. ''Why doesn''t Frosty simply escape?'', I asked myself. A plethora of Formations tried mming Frosty to the ground, but he somehow managed to avoid them. "Frosty! Run away from the North!", I shouted. The hooded figureughed, "Run away? Bgor can''t run away, not from this ce". I was shocked, ''Does that mean the barrier also stops Frosty from leaving? Wasn''t the barrier ced many years ago?'', I asked myself.


    Frosty was able to leave the North, as long as he was hidden inside my arm. That exined a few things, but at the same time created more questions. ''Why wouldn''t Frosty simply escape after we left the North? I spent so much time in the Endrosian Empire, Frosty had many chances to simply leave as he wished... Yet, he didn''t¡­ I need to do something, I can''t leave Frosty like this'', I thought. "You can let go of me, I can manage on my own", I told Fox who was supporting me. She refused, so I grabbed her hand and smiled. She finally allowed me to stand on my own. I immediately took out some medicine from my storage, and consumed it. ''As long as I''m close to the barrier and Frosty returns to my arm, we should be able to escape'', I thought.


    Frosty was already struggling to evade all those Formations, I knew they would win sooner orter. Frosty distanced himself further and further, while the hooded figures gave chase. ''Chance!'', I thought and disappeared. I ran like crazy, utilising everything my body and Formations had on offer.


    "Frosty!", I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Follow me!". Frosty must''ve gotten my meaning, and flew towards me. "Foolish Human! We gave you a chance once!", the hooded figure eximed, and aimed towards me. "ROOAR!", Frosty''s ice breath assaulted the hooded figures, buying me some time. ''I can make it, we can escape!'', I thought. That would be too beautiful and hopeful. "NEX!", Fox''s scream reverberated through the air.


    "Choose Human! Her or that damned beast!", the hooded figure said with clear anger in his voice. I stopped, and looked back. Fox hung mid-air, struggling to get herself out of the hooded figure''s grasps. Frosty tried attacking them again, but to no avail. Fox was in their clutches, and I stood in front of a choice. Save a friend who saved my ass a few times, or save the woman I loved. ''I''m sorry Frosty, I can''t lose her... I don''t want to lose you either... I''m too powerless'', I thought and started walking back towards them.


    "Good choice Human", he said before throwing Fox to the ground. Fortunately, others were there to catch her, but escaping was no longer an option. I was powerless, defeated. Frosty was finally caught up by their Formations, and mmed to the ground. I made my way back as quickly as I could, but what would that change? "ROAR!", Frosty''s painful screams reverberated through the area. ''How can I face him now, I failed him when he needed me the most'', I thought as more Formations appeared around Frosty, sealing all his movements.


    Fox rushed towards me, and hugged me. "I''m sorry Nex¡­ I know you care about him, but there''s nothing we can do now¡­ Future¡­ Future is unknown. We might still save him", she said quietly. I patted her head, as tears fell down my eyes. ''Future... '', I looked Frosty in his eyes. ''You did well Nex. I couldn''t ask for more. You tried everything you could¡­ Thank you'', Frosty''s voice sounded in my mind.


    I couldn''t stop the tears. I failed him, yet he thanked me. "Ungh!", a sudden pressure locked me and Fox in ce. "That is why I never liked Humans. Since you wanted to interfere so much, I will make sure you never walk this earth again", the hooded figure said. "You promised!", Alicia shouted. "Bam!", "Shut up Lizard". The hooded figure said after blowing Alicia away. "Know your ce", he added.


    "Aranak, we got what we came for. Let''s restrict the Eterians, and leave", another hooded figure approached him. "No, I will deal with this Human first", he replied and turned towards me. "You dared to stand in our way, we will now demonstrate the consequences of your actions", he said. Frosty started iling like mad, trying to release himself. "BOOOM!", "Quiet down dragon! I will deal with you soon", Aranak said.


    "Let¡­ her go", I squeezed out. Aranak didn''t care what I said anymore, he raised his hand to strike down. Time froze for a second. I looked at Frosty, still trying to free himself. I looked at my friends, who were as rooted to the ground as I was. I looked at Fox, who was holding onto me, no matter what happened next. "Life¡­ Life was never fair¡­", "Crack!". "I knew about that for a long time¡­", "CRACK!". "But¡­ I refuse to give in¡­", "SHATTER!". "I refuse to give in, for the people I love". "BOOOM!, SCREEECH!".


    "Hmmm?". "Crack!, Crack!, SHATTER!". "That Aura!", the Humans eximed. "So, you were hiding your true abilities. The Unyielding Will, it''s been a while since I encountered such a Human", Aranak said with a hint of surprise. "You might be an existence at Primal Limits, but¡­", "BOOOM!", "... I''m not someone who fears such existences!", I eximed while fully releasing my Aura.


    "Let me whoop this guy''s ass Fox, it won''t take long", I said while stroking Fox''s head. She looked me in the eyes and smiled, "Your eyes changed as well". I returned the smile, and let her get behind me. "Tap¡­ Tap¡­ Tap... Wannae down here, or should I go up there... Aranak?", I asked while stepping forwards. "What confidence. Good, I will grant you that request", he replied before turning towards other hooded figures. "You stay out of this, I will enjoy myself a bit more".

 Chapter 468

    Chapter 468


    "Since you are noting down¡­", "Tsss", "Ziit", "Click, Click, Click", "Swoosh!", "...Moon de: Sharpshooter Form", I said and aimed my bow at Aranak. "Interesting weapon Human. I might be tempted to keep it for my collection", he said before raising his arms. "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!", "Swoosh!...", I shot one arrow after another, each with different Element. ''Fire, Earth, Fire, Air, Air, Earth¡­'', I said in my mind judging which Element the arrows had.


    "BOOOM!", "Bam!...Voom!", "BOOOM!", "Swoosh!... Screech!"... The arrows flew at his defensive Formations, each producing different results. Fire Element producedrge explosions, Earth Element copsed the Formations, while Wind Element pierced right through them. I didn''t stop firing the arrows, but Aranak was able to cope with my attacks. "Not bad, these are some powerful arrows. The idea of incorporating Elements is great too, but this will get you nowhere", he said.


    ''Arts Mastery: Illusionary Shot'', I thought, and ten identical copies of me appeared around the area. Each with a bow and an arrow, each shooting at the same time. As soon as the arrows left the bows, they disappeared. This was no longer a simple attack that utilised an Art, it was abination of two Arts, two masteries. "BOOOM!", a loud explosion broke the protective Formation Aranak set up. "Again not bad, but...", "Moon de: Reaper Form...". "Swoosh!, BAM!... SCREEECH!", I swung the scythe as hard as I could, while appearing behind him.


    "Shatter!, Shatter!, Shatter!...", the Formations protecting Aranak began shattering like cheap pottery. "Don''t get ahead of yourself, Human!", "BAM!". He released enough energy to make the illusion explode. The illusions I created, were no longer basic and simple. These things could attack, and couldn''t be simply ignored. As soon as my copy vanished, another attack arrived. "Shooo!, BOOOM!". The condensed ball of fire, mmed into him from below. I wasn''t finished though. With his focus on my previous attack, I released another. This time, it was the real me appearing a few metres away from him.


    With the scythe in hand, I swung it continuously producing air des aimed at him. At one point, the scythe separated creating a storm of silver air des. The barrier protecting him showed cracks, I knew it would give way soon. I used Swords of Rage to make myself spin faster and fast, until the scythe returned back to normal. "RAAH!", I screamed and swung the scythe as strongly as I could. A huge silver air de left the scythe, flying straight at Aranak. This was not a simple air de anymore, it was covered with my Unyielding Aura.


    "Hmph!", he snorted and extended his hand. "BOOM!...SCReeeech¡­", the silver air de disappeared into thin air, while Aranak stood there unharmed. "I must say, you are indeed different. You should be proud, Human. I will show you my real power", he said.


    ''This guy¡­'', I thought uponnding on the ground. I changed the Moon de''s Form back to the bow, and awaited his attack. I could feel something powerful waking up inside Aranak. A dark smoke escaped his body, and I felt a familiar power. As soon as he extended his arm, I evaded immediately. "VOOOM!", a huge hole appeared in the ce I stood. ''Just as I suspected, the Darkness Element'', I thought while moving constantly.


    Aranak simply stood in the air, pointing his finger at my locations and creating a multitude of holes on the ground. "You don''t seem surprised Human, have you seen this power before?", he asked. I wasn''t surprised, because I was able to use that as well. The problem was, Northcked night and day cycles, there was no Darkness Element present. "How did you collect the Darkness Element?", I asked while running and shooting.


    My arrows simply disappeared, before they could even arrive near Aranak. "Darkness Element? Is that how you call it? It''s not called Darkness Element, this is the Void Element". I didn''t know how he managed to collect the Void Element inside North, but I knew this was bad. The Element was really powerful, it would disintegrate anything in its path.


    ''There''s no other choice'', I thought and hid the Moon de away. "Have you given up, Human?", Aranak asked. ''No, I intend to end this. All Elements must have their limits, even this Void Element'', I thought and began condensing a spear in my hand. "Oh? You still have tricks up your sleeve?", Aranak asked while stopping his assault. I snorted, "Are you that confident? For you to wait so patiently, you must have great faith in that Element". "I told you Human, I will show you the difference between our powers. Condense your Aura, show me the most powerful attack you can muster!", he eximed.


    I poured everything I had into that spear. Every Aura, everyst bit of energy, for this one final shot. "Booom!", the ground beneath my hand caved in and shattered. The spear became incredibly dense and heavy, but it didn''t wail, screech or make any noises, it was serene. "Oh! That is very interesting, Human. Come, show me your strength!", he eximed again. "Arts¡­ Mastery¡­ Unyielding Spear!", I eximed while throwing the spear at him. "VOOOM!", the spear travelled a few metres before disappearing. When it appeared again, there were hundreds of them surrounding Aranak.


    He extended his hands, and willed the Void Element to cover his body. Although he disappeared from my view, the spears were already aimed at his location. Ear piercing screeches reverberated through the area, as they shed with the invisible Aranak. Although loads of spears were destroyed, his protection suffered as well. After about half of the spears hit him, I could already make out the hooded figure inside the protective barrier.


    "Did you think those spears were illusions?... All of those spears are real, all of them possess the same power", I said towards him. I created an illusion, without an illusion. He expected for me to use it, but I didn''t. This was thebination of Art of War and Hidden Weapons, but I made it look like the Art of Stealth was involved as well. More spears arrived, while Aranak became more visible. "AAAAAH!", he screamed trying to resist the spears flying his way. With only ten spears left, he was almost defenceless.


    He resorted to using Formations, because his Void Element couldn''t keep up. "You damned Human! Don''t be so smug just yet!", he eximed while more Formations appeared. All of them were being shattered by my spears. Everything vanished, but a lone spear. "Swoosh!", "BOOOM!". This was a direct hit, he had to take damage from that. Silence filled the area. No corpse fell down, only a cloud of smoke hung in the air. "... Grrrr¡­ Are you happy Human?", Aranak''s voice sounded from within the cloud of smoke.


    I smiled, "I would be happy, if you actually perished". "BOOM!", I got mmed into the ground. "I give you that. You were the strongest Human I ever faced. That alone is a great honor for you", he said. I struggled to pick myself up, and barely managed that. "You still have strength to stand, a true warrior indeed. You deserve a proper death, Human".


    Sometimes, a man can''t give up¡­


    "Boom!", "Where do you think you are going?", "Booom!", "Argh!".


    Sometimes, a man has to carry everything on his shoulders...


    "Still alive?", "Boom!, Boom!, Boom!, Boom!...".


    But sometimes, that is not enough¡­


    "BOOM!".


    "This is where you life ends, Human", he said while lifting me into the air. "You fought well, I can respect that. Once you are gone, I will not kill your friends. Consider this as a gift from me, while I''ll take your weapon as your gift to me", he added. Iughed and coughed up some blood. "I already proved one thing", I said weakly. "What would that be?", he asked. "You are like any other creature. You bleed as well. You are as mortal as I am¡­ One day¡­ One day your life will end as well", I replied. "Boom!", he threw me to the ground.


    I could hear people calling my name, but it was no use. I used everything I had just to wound him. I couldn''t move anymore, this was the end indeed. As I closed my eyes, I felt regret. I regretted not spending more time with Fox. I regretted myck of power, the inability to help Frosty when it was necessary. ''Would I do things differently, if I could turn back time?... Probably not'', I thought. I didn''t regret my life. However tough it was, there were people who cared. People I could call my friends, people I could call my family.


    My old friends and my family appeared in front of me. ''It seems I am about to join you guys. It''s been a journey indeed¡­ Father, Mother, Shelly, Nick and you Dina¡­ I shall also leave with a smile on my face''. I felt strangely at peace. Although this was the end for me, I was satisfied with my life. It was time to let go of everything.

 Chapter 469

    Chapter 469


    ''Pak...Pak...Pak...Pak'', I heard footsteps while the familiar figures of my loved ones disappeared. What appeared in front of my eyes, was a hooded figure. ''The Dark Traveller?'', I asked in disbelief.


    ''Rei Lak Khire Eres Fer?''.


    (Can you finally hear me?)


    ''Fer¡­ Jer Fhin? Jer Kiq Lak Deros Tarvus?''


    (I¡­ Why now? Why didn''t you appear before?)


    ''Lak Lans Neres Bahr Lak Ga, Devorak. Fer Lei Derin, Arevas Lak Setres Pram. Lak Meras Jar Laphas Rani Furaqi Gak. Sehros Lak Rithes Kroh Lak Eratos, Fer Jar Sarovas Nroh Khire Lak Gen''.


    (You were blinded by your life, disciple. I''m here, because you stopped worrying. Your mind was clouded with unnecessary things. Since you let go of your past, I was able to finally wake you up)


    ''Jiq Ak Norph? Fer Raveh Anaras Fal Tekhjar... ''


    (Isn''t it toote? I already lost the fight)


    ''Ak Jiq Seran Norph. Lak Lan Therak Devorak Sarvus. Lak Lan Fal Deriun Gor Trevak. Lak Sathov Tratis Lak Lakdar Bahtis. Eravas, Lehis Lak Lan Deriun''.


    (It isn''t toote. You are my inheritor after all. You are the next Dark Traveller. You will tread on your own path. Stand up, for you are the next in line)


    The Dark Traveller raised his hand, and I stood up. I could feel the energy filling my body, but that wasn''t all. The knowledge, an inheritance passed from one Dark Traveller to another. All of that was passed to me.


    ''Thekos, Gor Trevak''.


    (Go, Dark Traveller)


    I opened my eyes, and the world changed. It was dark, but I could see everything. All objects were grey, while grey ash fell from the sky seemingly without an end. ''So that is what you meant by "Rin Therak Grantis, Ak Neras Hephes. Fal For Gophas Tar Nroh Fal Bah, Aroh Deros Saphes¡­". In my world, it always rains. The grey ash falls to the ground, as if snow¡­ Now I see the world with your eyes'', I thought. "Fer Lei Gor Trevak¡­", I said picking myself up.


    "Impossible! Thatnguage! That energy! You can''t be! I won''t allow that!", Aranak screamed as if he saw the death itself. "Sekar Sak! Peris Ji Merah!", he added in the High Language. There was only one thing I could use, one thing I was able to produce. "Sethis Goris", I said as my life energy began draining. A domain or barrier appeared, enveloping all living beings. It wasn''t a simple barrier or domain, this was something called Eternal Darkness, and I wasn''t sure I could call that a skill.


    Besides me, no one else would be able to perceive anything inside that domain. Nothing could pierce it, not even light. But, there was a price to pay for such power. The longer I kept it going, the quicker I would die. I saw Aranak trying to locate me, how others stood in shock. How Fox tried breaking away from Crow''s grasp, and run towards me. I extended my hand, and the Moon de appeared in it. ''... Reaper Form'', I thought and the weapon changed its form.


    "It seems I was not destined to die just yet", I said towards Aranak, but my voice came from everywhere. "You bastard! If I knew you were his inheritor, I would have killed you much sooner. This was supposed to be my power! I was supposed to be the next in line!", he screamed. "Life is weird, isn''t it?", I said, and swung the scythe. There were no shy skills, mysterious methods or hidden powers. I simply swung the scythe, which released the Void Element energy.


    The barrier of darkness disappeared shortly after. My vision returned back to normal, and silence filled the air. Aranak, a being at the Primal Limits stage got cut in half, while the Void Element slowly ate away his body. He made no sounds, there were no screams, no cursing. Only a sound of "Thud!" filled the area, once his lifeless corpse fell from the sky.


    "ng!", I dropped the scythe onto the ground. That was it, no more energy. I sacrificed a few good years just to execute that one attack. I looked at my hands, they werepletely dry, with bones visible to the naked eye. ''I probably look much worse than I did in the past¡­ Well, I overused my energy a few hundred times... I suppose I can''tin'', I thought. My hands wouldn''t move, my legs only kept me standing, but as soon as I took a step¡­ I would fall and perhaps crumble to dust.


    "Finish it off", I said with a raspy voice. Even though I became the next Dark Traveller, I was too weak to hold such power. ''Dark Traveller, you must''ve been an existence, even beyond your own race''s belief'', I thought. One of the hooded figures slowly descended, while my friends tried rushing towards me. He swiped his hand, locking them all in ce.


    Hended gently a few metres away from me, and slowly walked forwards. "Well, at least I killed one of you. I''m a corpse anyway, so let''s get this over with", I said. Just as he stopped in front of me, he bowed. "Merak Ataris Lak Bhros, Ovarak", he said using the High Language. I looked at him shocked, "Ovarak?". He straightened himself, and replied "Yes, you are the next Dark Traveller, who was my master. You are the next inheritor in line".


    I was confused, Aranak clearly wanted to kill me when he found out, but that guy weed me back. "Alicia told me about you a long time ago. She wasn''t certain, but when I saw you, I knew. Did you think that was his name? This is a title, not a name. Even I don''t know his real name, and yours will probably perish with time", he said.


    I smiled, "Were you testing me? If you knew, why did you allow him to beat me up like that?". He replied, "I wouldn''t let him kill you, but it''s true. I wanted to witness my master''s powers once more. Even if you didn''t disy them, I was ready to make it look like you died. Aranak was jealous of the Dark Traveller, he wanted his power. Master knew that very well, hence he set out to find an inheritor. Only the one he chose, would be the next Dark Traveller".


    "I didn''t meet your master, I only found a¡­", he stopped me. "The previous Dark Traveller was the real master of Formations. You didn''t have to meet him, you only had to meet his will. That is what you did, and that is how you became next in line". I smiled again, "Does it matter? My body is about to crumble to pieces anyway. Do you want me to pass this inheritance to someone else? Is that your purpose?". He shook his head, "It''s not that easy to die for the Dark Traveller, master even referred to that as a sort of curse. You will live, there is much in front of you".


    He ced his hand on my shoulder, and used his energy. I quickly realised what he was doing, he was transferring his own Void Element to rebuild my body. "You will learn to do this by yourself. After all, we are only disciples and have limited ess to the Void Element", he said and stopped shortly after. I could move a bit, but my body wasn''t in great shape. "So what now?", I asked. "Now? You tread your own path, young Dark Traveller".

 Chapter 470

    Chapter 470


    I looked at Frosty and asked, "Can you release my friend?". The hooded figure lifted his hand up, and the Formations holding Frosty down, disappeared. "Bgor belongs to you, hence we will not try to im him... I have much to teach you, young Dark Traveller. Come with us, the knowledge awaits you". I turned around and looked at all the people gathered.


    As soon as my gazended on them, they kneeled down. Even some Eterians did, while their leader stood there with a twisted face. Only Humans stood there bewildered, unsure what to do. Frosty approached me, and lowered his head. "They know what you represent, even if they don''t fully understand. It was your predecessor, who cared about them a lot. You seem to have the same traits as him. You care about this ce and the people living here. You already proved it", the hooded figure said. "All of you, stand up", I said. People rose to their feet, and looked at me.


    "I don''t want to be an Emperor, don''t kneel in front of me. I don''t want to rule or conquer anyone, that''s not my business¡­ Eterians, this war¡­ Let''s end it here. Why don''t we stop living in the past, and move on towards the future?", I said. The leader replied, "Bullshit! I will take none of your lies. No matter who you be, you are still a Human!". I looked at him for a while, "You know, I see my past self in you. I used to be like you. Full of rage and hatred, convinced that you were my enemies. With time, I learned to ept who I was, as well as ept the rage inside me. Everyone can change, it''s up to them to do it".


    He grabbed his sword, and rushed at me. I didn''t have to act this time, other Eterians did that for me. "What are you doing! Let go of me! I won''t let this end like that!", he screamed. "What did Humans do to you? There is a reason, I''m sure. What have you gone through, to hate us so much?", I asked. He screamed, "Shut up! You know nothing! I will kill all of you!". The hooded figure next to me raised his hand, but I stopped him. "You wish to let them go?", he asked.


    "Let go of him", I said towards the Eterians holding their leader down. They tried to drag him back, or perhaps save his life. I repeated, "Let him go, I will not kill him". They finally let go, and he charged at me straight away. I didn''t have the strength to fight him, but perhaps I didn''t need to. He ran at me, with deep emotions in his eyes. Perhaps he had no one to turn to, no one who would listen to him. There was no illusions, skills or abilities involved, he simple ran towards me with his sword.


    "You were different in the past, right? Did it happen when you were a kid?". He told me to shut up, and swung his sword towards me. "Was it your parents?", I asked as the sword stopped in front of me.


    His face said it all. Just like Humans, Eterians loved their parents, they were the ones who gave them life. I grabbed his sword, "My parents died as well. Probably killed by Humans because of greed. But, I''m aware that not every Human is a bad person. All races will have such people, even yours. Does that mean I should exterminate you, because of a few rotten apples?".


    I continued, "I''m not saying forgive, I never did. But, none of us here are the people you are looking for, am I right? Who knows, maybe they already died a long time ago. Perhaps they were killed, or perhaps they died of old age. In other words, you are chasing the shadows of your past". I looked past him, and saw a lone Eterian woman standing there. "It seems there is someone who cares about you. Take a look for yourself", I added with a smile. He turned around and saw her as well. "I was consumed by my own revenge and ideas, that I didn''t notice or perhaps refused to notice others. It''s time to let go. Start anew, someone will be there to apany you".


    He released the grip on his sword, "You are willing to let us go, but what about other Humans?", he asked. I smiled, "Do you live in Endrosian Empire or in the North? Humans have no say in here¡­", I looked at the Human side, "They will go back to their Empire, and stay out of the North''s business". He smiled, "And? You will be here to make sure they do?". I smiled back, "Perhaps. Your lifespan is much greater than that of a Human. People will forget about wars, and learn to ept you. As long as you respect others and their customs, they shall respect yours".


    "I will believe you, what do I have to lose anyway? If not for you, we would be as good as gone", he said while walking back towards the waiting Eterian. A few stepster he added, "You might not want to be their ruler, but in people''s hearts, you already became one. We will meet again, Dark Traveller", and ran towards the girl awaiting him. ''You are indeed simr to me Eterian. A shame you never told me your name. Perhaps in the future'', I thought.


    Frosty walked up next. "Before you ask, I knew about it. I hoped you''d awaken these powers sooner, but I can''t me you", he said. I snorted, "Shut up you overgrown lizard. Dragon my ass, you are Frosty and that is how I intend to call you. Frosty the lizard, who always hid in my arm". "I''m the mighty¡­", he started, but I smacked his head which was more painful to me than him. "...I told you to shut up. I saved your ass big time, don''t try to unt in front of me now", I replied and hugged him. "You''ve grown big. How will you fit inside houses and stuff?". He replied annoyed, "I''m not a pet... ".


    "I still don''t know your name", I said while turning towards the hooded figure. He nodded, "You can call me Eravak". I nodded as well, "Nice to meet you". "Can we go now? Or do you wish to say goodbye to others as well?". I smiled, "Nah, I will visit your ceter. I want to spend some time with the loved ones". Heughed, "The Dark Traveller threads a lone¡­", but I stopped him. "That was your master, I am me. My path will be different. After all, I''m the one who chooses the path". He stayed silent for a while. "You are right. In such case, we shall leave. This is for you", he handed me a figurine of some sort. "Otherwise you would have a hard time getting to the ind", he added.


    I nodded, and bid them farewell. I looked at the figurine which reminded me of the Dark Traveller. ''They hold you in high regard, even to this day'', I thought. I then noticed two words, "Hal Veratin? High¡­ what?", I asked myself. Frosty said, "This trantes as High City, or High Home. It''s how they call their ce". I looked at Frosty, "Oi! Since when did you know High Language?". "Since always? What? You never asked", he replied. I was defeated. Who would ask about such things, and a lizard nheless.


    The others joined me, while Fox grabbed me and squeezed tight. "...Hey¡­ I''m still hurt¡­ you know", I squeezed out. "You idiot¡­ How can you be so reckless?", she asked still holding onto me. I looked at Frosty for some help, but he simply turned around. ''I will remember that'', I thought. "The Dark Traveller eh?", Crow asked. "Would¡­ you mind?", I asked him. He rolled his eyes, and asked Fox to finally let go of me.


    "Does that change anything? I still think of you as my friends. A new age hase for the North, perhaps you guys should lead it", I said after Fox reluctantly stopped hugging me tightly. "Since everyone bowed down to you, they will do whatever you say", Harlin said. I smiled, "Just try to help each other out. Sedon and Boltier needs to be rebuilt. I''m sure Ama will be pleased with such news". "So what now?", Crow asked. "Now?", I looked at Fox, "I intend to spend some time with the one I love. Let''s meet here in a week or two".


    "Grrr...", I saw te approaching from the side. Fox looked at te, and then at me. "It seems there still more to take care of. Can you let me go? I promised after all", I said to Fox and for some reason she did. "I gave you my word, so this is your chance te", I said before stepping forward. teunched at me, but I didn''t dodge. "Bam!", I fell to the ground, while te held onto my right arm. I looked him in the eye, "Forgiveness". "You knew, didn''t you?", Fox asked. I knew, because te''s stare said it all. His eyes were filled with pain, but he forgave me. He was willing to put the past behind us, and continue living for the future. Fox patted te, "I told him you are not a bad man. Let the past be past. As you said, we should strive for a better future".


    I picked myself up, and approached him. "I''m sorry for what I did. I know this is not enough, but it''s a start. Golems can return, perhaps you can help them". We stared into each others eyes for a while, before I extended my hand and patted him. "You will do well, te". "Alright guys. I need a break, and I think I deserve it. We shall meet here in a few days", I said and grabbed Fox''s hand. "So where are we going?", asked Frosty.


    I replied, "You are going nowhere. Entertain my friends or something, I don''t know. Since you are outside, enjoy". Fox grabbed me, and disappeared. "Where are we going?", she asked after a while. "Somewhere quiet. I need to rest¡­ I know a nice ce, just head in that direction", I replied while pointing my finger.

 Chapter 471

    Chapter 471


    Some time passed before me and Fox made our way back to the Obsidian Mountains. "You don''t have to carry me¡­ you know?", she said. "I recovered somewhat already. Besides, are you embarrassed? As far as I remember, you weren''t that embarrassed¡­", she smacked my head before I could finish. "You are not the one to speak". "Well, I guess this was new for both of us", I said and looked at her.


    "What?", she asked diverting her gaze. "Did you really think I''d hate you? I don''t care about your origins, after all you didn''t care I was a ve". She looked back at me, "It worked out, didn''t it? That alone makes me happy". "Yes, it somehow worked out¡­", I said looking ahead.


    We arrived back at the Obsidian Mountains, and found our friends waiting for us. I let Fox down, before we approached them. "So? What is your n right now?", Crow asked. "I think you should worry more about your city, not what my ns are. You guys became a bit homeless, but with everyone''s help, the city should be back in shape soon".


    Harlin said, "They can live here for now. Although the environment is not great for them, they will have ess to all necessary provisions". I nodded, and looked to the side. Suly, Alicia and Lazar walked over. "You look like family guys", I said smiling. "Mind your own business!", Alicia eximed. Suly ran over and hugged me. "I''m sorry I doubted you. You did end the war, you really helped us", she said while sobbing.


    "Heh, I''m not that great you know? There were others who did a lot as well, don''t just look at me", I said while patting her head. "You can take some rest now. With the war over, Suly would be happy to have you around more", I said towards Lazar. He smiled, "I judged you wrongly too, although I didn''t like your methods, I never tried abandoning you¡­ I should¡­", I stopped him before he finished. "What you should do, is to finally make a move on Alicia. You guys are not that far apart in age, I assume. I''m sure Suly would like Alicia to join your family", I said while looking at Suly.


    She looked back at both of them, and nodded. "What?¡­ But¡­ I''m¡­ I...", Alicia stammered. "Suly, make sure they get together, they don''t seem to hate each other", I said quietly. She nodded, and ran towards her father. "Crow. While Sedon is being rebuilt, take a few Shades with you and visit Vanauts. They are not bad people, they were simply misunderstood. Try to amodate them a bit, build a rtionship with them. Both of you can gain something from this".


    He nodded while Lira grabbed his hand. Only Harlin stood there without anyone by his side. "Perhaps Alicia has some friends?", I asked. "Stop looking at me like that! What about Frosty? He is alone too, and he is very strong as well", Harlin replied. "You talking about him?", I asked while pointing at the sky. Frostynded making a lot of noise. "This king has no need for rtionship. I am¡­", before he finished, I said. "An overgrown lizard. Yes we know".


    "Let me freeze you once, Human", Frosty growled. "Maybeter. For now, it is time for me to say goodbye", I said. "So you are going to visit Hatmandor?", Crow asked. "This and some other things¡­ I will be gone for a while, but I will return one day or another". Fox grabbed my hand, but I shook my head. "You are staying as well". She looked at me angry, "What the hell are you talking about?". I pulled her closer, "This is my journey Fox, I still haven''t reached my goal. Besides, Furians need a leader. They will need your guidance, at least for a while".


    She didn''t like the idea at all, and I could understand her. At the same time, I myself wasn''t sure what awaited me out there. I wanted to leave Perival Continent, explore what was out there. I also knew danger would be part of my life. I couldn''t risk her life, no matter what. There was no doubt in my mind, there were other ces than Perival Continent. The hooded figures came from somece else, Frosty came from somece else. I wanted to see those ces, explore my life even further. I was a traveller after all.


    "This is as hard for you, as it is for me. I promise, I will return to you. Will you wait for me?", I asked. "After what you''ve done, do I have a choice?", she replied angrily. "It''s not like I will find a more beautiful creature than you", I said with a smile and kissed her. She grabbed my cheek, "You are so dense, that thought never entered my mind. It took you so long to finally notice me, I don''t have to be afraid of others", she replied.


    The othersughed, while I took out Fox''s pendant. "I still have it you know? It will always remind me of you. I don''t have anything meaningful to give you, but perhaps this will do", I said while taking out my mask. "It''s not the original which meant a lot more to me, but it is something that was important to me. Perhaps it will be of use to you", I added. She took the mask, "I''d prefer if you stay¡­ but you are stubborn, I know that very well. I will wait... Even if I have to wait for eternity, I will wait for you toe back". I smiled, and kissed her for thest time.


    "If Humans try to prod my whereabouts, make sure they think I''m still here. I don''t want them to get stupid ideas, when I leave. I will talk to the guys back in Hatmandor, and try to do something about this barrier. But for now, this is a farewell. Stay well guys, and I will see you in the future", I said. "Good luck, Dark Traveller!", the crowd eximed, while I motioned towards Frosty. "Let''s go, there are many wonders awaiting us. Maybe we can find you a nice dragon along the way", I said teasingly.


    "Hmph!... Oi! Where the hell are you sitting?", Frosty asked as I climbed onto his back. "You can fly, so it will be faster. How else do you want me to cross the sea?", I asked. "I refuse, no one is going to ride me!", he replied. "Ohe on, at least this once?", I said before adding in a whisper, "You owe me that much". Frosty sighed, and lifted off. "Fine, but this once!", he said. "See you guys! When I return, I hope to see the North flourish. Don''t fail me, hahaha!", I said before Frosty flew towards Hatmandor.

 Chapter 472

    Chapter 472


    This is where the story ends. I had many more adventures. I uncovered more secrets and wonders, but these stories are perhaps for a different time. Since the story ends here, I''d like to return to the beginning. Do you still wonder about limits? Even though I described to you how part of my life passed, I didn''t give you a clear answer.


    Limits, a concept that involves all living beings. Whether Human, Shade or deer, all of them have some sort of limits. People usually think about strength or intelligence, when they think about limits. I was the same, I used to think limits were there to gauge someone''s strength or intellect. That doesn''t seem to be the case. Limits epass everything, even emotions. The question, "What is the highest stage you can reach?", is meaningless. Besides, it''s boring.


    Quantifying ourselves by the stages¡­ I found it to be something I didn''t strive for. I wanted to explore my life, that was my goal. Whether I reached certain limits or not, it wouldn''t change who I was, or what goals I had. Limits were always subjective, not equal. If wepared two Humans at the same Limit Stage, would their intelligence, strength or stamina be the same? The answer is, no. It''s a nice concept, when one tries to judge the abilities of one being or another. But other than that, useless and boring concept.


    Hence, I stopped worrying about limits. I learned to appreciate the world more, instead of striving to pass each stage. In a sense, I live a limitless life. You never know what the future holds, what you will encounter on the next crossroads. That is something, no one can put a limit over. Your future is limitless, so long you seek your future. As I was told in the past, I shall repeat it here. All stories should be told. Life revolves around stories, and each person has a story to tell. Whether one''s story will be exciting or mundane, you never know until you hear the end of it.


    Each story can teach you something, and being able to hear many of them, might just enrich your own. That is the story of my life, or at least part of it. The story I trod through with my own feet. It''s time for you to tread your own path, toplete your own story. After all, we are all travellers.


    The question remains, right? What happens when you reach Primal Limits? Nothing, there will be another wall waiting in front of you. Even if you break that wall down, there will be another. At one point, you will arrive at a wall, you cannot bring down. No matter how much you try, no matter how long you live. You will simply get stuck at one point or another.


    The higher you go, the more meaningless your life bes. Do I know this feeling? No. There are beings much stronger than me in this world. Although they stand at the apex, they are boring. They have nothing to do with themselves. No amount of scenery or wonders would move their hearts. That was never the life I pursued. Their stories finished a long time ago, now they simply linger around. Without meaning or purpose.


    Just like Golems, who could potentially live for eternity. They lost their meaning, their purpose, they just existed. Locked in their little world, living a life without any meaning. Maybe I will arrive at such stage too. Perhaps this happens to all beings that live too long. Perhaps no one can survive the test of time. Or perhaps we will never know. I will leave this for you to decide, as for me? It''s time to close the book, and return home. I''ve been away for a long time, who knows what surprises await me when I return... I''m sure of one thing, it will not be boring.


    THE END

 Chapter 473

    Chapter 473


    We made it to the end. First of all, congrats for making it here. 472 chapters is not little and you made it here. Almost one year and a half of writting, and I will be cursed for the ending :D No matter. I thank you all, especially the "old guard" who read from pretty much the beginning, and supported me throughout this journey. And what a journey it was...


    Although this journeyes to an end, another will begin soon. As you probably know already, I''m Anna will be my next book. It will be a female MC (not romance), and it will be the same universe as my book Limits. You might call it a sequel to Limits. The synopsis will be published next month, at too. The cover will be updated towards middle or end of the next month as well. As for release at , you will get it from April. Whereas my p.atreons will receive it from March. I highly rmend you guys checking out my p.atreon next month, where this book will be first published. Even for as little as $1, you will have ess to at least 20 chapters a month. You will be at least 20 chapters ahead of , if you chose to continue supporting me each and every month.


    That will be the "tierless" p.atreons. In other words, if you want to support me by less then $2 a month. For the tiered p.atreons, this will be a bit different. For $2 or more, you will be able to chose a specific tier with added perks. The $2 tier will grant you two additional chapters of the I''m Anna book, ahead of what I publish. You will also receive the 1st volume of my e-book Limits for free (when ites out. I will talk about it below). The $4 tier will receive 4 chapters of I''m Anna, ahead of what is published. Additionally, you will have ess to the 1st and 2nd volume of my e-book Limits for free (when avable).


    The 6$ tier will have ess to 6 advanced chapters of I''m Anna (might change in the future to 7 or perhaps 8), and ess to the 1,2,3 and 4th volumes of my e-book Limits (when I finish them). Also you will have ess to some of the graphics I create for any novel. Thest $10 tier will have ess to 8 advanced chapters (with time possibly 9 or 10) of the I''m Anna book. Additionally, you will receive all volumes (6) of my e-book Limits for free (when I''m done with them). Moreover you will have ess to all the graphics and some of my notes I create for novels.


    If you would be interested in only buying my book. The 1st volume should be avable next month at amazon. I will be posting links in the description of this and my new novels when that happens.


    Since I''m on the topic of my e-book, I should be able to finish the 1st volume this month. It is aplete rewrite. The story goes in pretty much simr direction, but a lot of events are added or changed. I hope it will be more logical, with less plotholes and mistakes. With better flowing sentences and appropriatenguage. The Volume 1 will be published for p.atreons only at first, then for the general public. After that, volume 2, 3 and so on.


    Now, I told you guys not to vote for my novel, because it didn''t matter. You still did. When I checked the stats... I was overwhelmed. Hence, this is my reward for those who devoted their stones, and voted for my novel. Some voted everyday for over a year, some were close to that as well. The top 5 will receive a copy of the 1st volume of Limits for free. Moreover, they will stay remembered in this "chapter", as I will list them below:


    SaintOrder - 1262 votes


    darknede - 1168 votes


    Oliver19900 - 862 votes


    panku444 - 860 votes


    Unpoison - 859 votes


    The third ce was very closely contested, and those are the scores at the time of me writting this final message. SaintOrder, you don''t have to give me your e-mail, I already have it. The rest of you guys, use the discord and provide an e-mail for me. (if your nick is different at discord,ment your nick in thement section. That way I will be sure it is you). As I mentioned, the volume 1 should be avable at the end of this month, and you will get it as soon as I''m done with it. Thank all of you for voting and for caring, even though I didn''t ask you guys. That means a lot to me. I''m not sure whether that is a good prize or not, but I hope you will like it.


    And that is pretty much that. Please add I''m Anna to your library, if you wish to read it in the future. Or better yet, visit my p.atreon next month and subscribe :D I think I kept my promise of not dropping and finishing my novel, so you may expect the same from the next one. I will answer questions here or at discord, but there will be some questions I will simply not answer, because you will find out in the future. That is all from me, and I''m happy to have had you as my readers. Have fun reading other novels, and you are free to vote on anything now :D Use it while I''m Anna is not around :D All the best, DarkRay


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!