Limits

I became more relaxed, 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 flames 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 replay 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 villager 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 be completely 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 replay 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 plans to move my training someplace else.

I wasn't planning 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 a laughter 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 similar. I barely saw a projectile flying at me fast!

I jumped to the side while shock was plastered 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 a large 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 similar stuff that I learned. What do you want from me? If you wanted to kill me, you had many occasions 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 place". I picked up my stuff and started to leave towards north.

I wanted to have peace and quiet at least in a relative 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 I laughed 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 place. 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.