Limits

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 place.

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 flames coming 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 glad 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 black bear. It had red flames 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 flame was still burning around the prints, extinguishing after a while. The bear's speed was also very fast but not comparable 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 be compromised at the same time.

The bear showed no interest in us either and ran in similar 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 Flaming Silver Wolf and Flaming 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 and commanded 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 Flaming Silver Wolf and Flaming 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 placed 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 manipulation yet, I would worry about string manipulation later 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 would last 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. The complexity 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 become 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 place for a longer period of time. At least until we were able to face larger groups of elites by ourselves.