Limits

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 plan'.

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, and landed 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 plan". 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 population 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 explanation "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, come 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 explain 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 them coming, 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 place. 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 training comerced. When I was out of air, I would resurface, take in some air and then submerge myself again. I also took regular breaks, the Darkness Perception seemed to drain my energy faster. I didn't allow my energy to be drained completely. 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, compared 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 place 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 plan. 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.