Limits

After contemplating for a while, Nick answered "I don't know". I kind of expected this answer but still asked the question. Nick the said "Maybe in the future you will be able to find the answers which I never could". He then continued "Focus on this as much as you can. Reading the book and recipes is secondary now. You already have good knowledge of the art of medicine, you just lack 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 took a long breath in then released it and said "Fine, I shall tell you". I listened carefully when Nick continued "Do you remember the story of the emperor being the slave?". I was a bit confused but I said "Yes, I remember". Nick continued "What did I say then?". I searched my memories and said "I only remember that you said he was a slave and that he had to develop the art of hidden weapons. You also said he never mastered it".

Nick said "Yes, that is correct. Yet there is a part of this story I never told you". I said to Nick "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 whenever you believe me or not, what matters is the story".

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

I asked "Why so?" to which Nick continued "I only told you a generalisation. Now I'm going to tell you the full story. Endros when he was young, he lived a very poor life. He slept on streets a lot of times and had to resort to stealing in order to eat. One day he stole from a wealthy trader and got caught. He was beaten up and enslaved, then sold for couple pieces of copper. He was 10 years old at that time. He was kind to others and tried to help those who were also in similar situation but that was not his real nature. His real nature was pure evil, which slept deep inside him. After he got sold, he was tortured mentally and forced to work. Growing up like this, being humiliated at every step, being bullied by other slaves and punished for even the slight error, his rage finally hit the limit and he killed one of the older slaves that worked for the same master".

"He was punished severely. They cut his skin with knives, they drowned him until he almost died many times and even assaulted him in other ways. He lived through it but never regretted killing that slave. He then started developing the art that is known today as art of hidden weapons. He would hide pebbles, sticks and what not, trying to figure out how to kill most effectively. He was already pure evil at the age of 14. He trained like this for about 3 years and when he was called to his master bedroom, Before his master could do anything he killed him silently with a sharpened stick". I interrupted Nick and said "What about the guards?". Nick continued "He opened the door and with the element of surprise killed the guard outside. He then took his weapon and slaughtered the whole mansion. It didn't matter if the person was a slave or not. All died". I sad "What about other guards? He surely had more of them" to which Nick said "Yes he had apparently 5 guards, but who would suspect a child to do anything to a guard. He killed them one by one and besides after being there for so many years, he learned their habits".

Nick then continued "You may ask. What does this have to do with art of hidden weapons? The answer is right in the story. There are 4 conditions needed to develop the real art of hidden weapons. Revenge is the first condition. When there is revenge, there is rage. Second condition is slavery or in other words true restrictions of your movement and possessions, slavery just so happens to be the best method. Third is the mind. You need to be strong mentally and not being swayed by even the end of the world. For you that is easier due to your nature. The fourth is to kill someone and feel nothing"

I looked at Nick and said "Ok, so what am I supposed to do?". Nick said "If I teach you how to do it, you will only be able to 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 say this, it's pointless but I will still give you the choice. 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, as if he never expected that kind of answer. "Right, choose both... Maybe this has a chance to work". I then said "Why don't you teach me and I can do it my way and learn more by myself when I have experience. Who said that if you teach me I have no way to improve?".

Nick answered "Normally it wouldn't work but because of your unyielding nature, it just might work. I actually forgot you are this kind of human and therefore treated you as just any other. I never heard of anyone with unyielding nature trying to learn art of hidden weapons". I thought for a while and said "So you will teach me but when it comes to learning by myself, you said there are 4 conditions. I don't meet all of them".

Nick said "No, you are wrong. You met all of them. What I wanted, was to intensify the rage inside you. I know you are enraged deep inside but that was not enough for true skills to come to fruition. So I wanted to plant some events for you to gain that extra rage". He then continued "If you didn't meet all the conditions, you would probably not be able to learn what you did as a slave. You meet all the conditions because you learned or rather starting to learn, that proves you met them all".

I said to nick "What about the 4th condition. I started to learn art of hidden weapons long before Dina died by my hands". Nick smiled and said "You met two of the four conditions because of your nature, that is why I once said that your nature is worse than being of evil nature. In other words, for people with your nature there is no good or evil. The other requirement that you didn't get due to your nature was slavery, yet you've been a slave already so you experienced it and that is why you developed what you developed. The last requirement was revenge. You already had revenge long before you became a slave but it intensified when you became one".

"So in overall, you meet all the requirements. Yet we shall do it different way. I will teach you what I know and you must develop your own arts. How you are going to achieve this, I don't know but I'm certain of one thing. You will try it until you die because that is your nature".

I said "I shall try". Nick smiled and said "First you need real weapons in order to practice. You will create them by yourself and with your own imagination. Don't try to copy my knives. Just go with what you wanted to do earlier or improve upon that idea. When you have the weapons, we will start the training". I nodded my head in understanding.

Nick then continued "Don't forget to read the book from time to time and practise as much as you can the art of stealth. Remember that you need to combine your whole training that you did to this point and just remember the phase 'Avoid the light'".

I said "Alright" and went out to practice my new training method. I would start the work in blacksmith's workshop tomorrow, although gathering enough materials to create couple of daggers would take a while, it was still just couple of weeks at most and then I could finally start to learn the final art in Nick's possession. The Art of Hidden Weapons!