Limits

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 village 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 Plain. 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 Plain 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 Plains, 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 Plain, 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 near large 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 the lack 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, come 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 in large 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 to come 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 practice combat, 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 minutes later, 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 to compare 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 flame was too strong, and burnt the medicine. She calmed down after a while, and started again. This time her flame 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, her last attempt ended in success, and it was much better compared 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 twenty laps around the whole village, 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 village. 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.