Limits

After we returned to our shelter I said to Shelly "Rest now, we will continue our training tomorrow". Shelly didn't even respond and went straight to bed. I guessed it must've been very tired from all the training and hunting it did.

I went to sleep as well. I knew the dream would appear again and so I was already prepared for that. I closed my eyes and soon my thoughts drifted away to the lands of dreams. When I opened my eyes, the dark figure stood in front of me. It started to speak again while I focused on the words as well as any gestures. I already figured out that some words were repeated more frequently. Now I needed to find the meaning of those words.

After the dream repeated another 15 times, I got a clue about one of the words that the dark figure spoke. It could mean "I or Me" and the word was Fer. The dark figure usual motioned towards itself when it spoke the word Fer. If my guess was correct, I had one word that I knew the meaning of. I was also excited and thought 'If my guess is correct then this would mean that I can decipher this language and find out what it is that the dark figure wants from me or what I need to do in order to stop those dreams'.

The dream repeated couple of more times and I finally woke up. I was hungry again so I reached into my bag and retrieved some food. I then thought about my discovery 'If the word Fer means I or Me then there must be a way to distinguish other words as well. I will have to pay more attention to the dark figure and its gestures. Even the small and unimportant ones could give me huge clues concerning the language it speaks'.

I woke Shelly up and gave it some food. I then said "I will start my training now, you can come over when you are done eating". Shelly nodded its head while I left to train the 1st diagram of the Strength Manual. I trained for 13 minutes and I noticed that I can still go one. This proved that those dreams or at least me starving myself helped in my improvements. I could now last 13 and a half minutes before I had to stop. The improvements were getting smaller and smaller but even if I reach 14 minutes in couple of days, that would still be great. This would mean I was much stronger compared to the past.

When I finished the training of my 1st diagram, I sat on the ground and waited for Shelly to come over for the mask. After about 15 minutes, Shelly came over and I put the mask on Shelly's head then said "You are not doing badly with those trees. Try increasing your speed when you feel confident. When you can run at your full speed through the forest, we can then start the next part of your training". Shelly nodded and ran away towards some trees.

I decided to train with puppets. My mind was getting better due to the dream as well and so I figured that it might be possible for me to use all 5 puppets. I placed the strings on my fingers and controlled the 5 puppets. It was much easier compared to the past when I tried it for the 1st time. Although I still made some errors but that was due to the additional puppet and the fact I was not used to using all my fingers yet.

I guessed that within couple of days, I should be able to have basic control over all the puppets. The mastery of my puppet skill would be in sight. I trained for a few hours with my puppets then called out towards Shelly "It's time for us to hunt". I still had some meat in my bag but I had other plans this time. I wanted to show Shelly how I hunt and maybe it would gain some ideas.

Shelly came running towards me and I took of the mask off from its head. I then said "I will hunt this time and you watch. Maybe you will get something out of it". Shelly nodded its head and followed after me. After searching for a while, I found a group of 17 bears. Five of them were black bears, they were much stronger than the usual brown ones.

I looked for the leader first and found him to be in the middle of the group. My plan was quite simple. I had different set of skills compared to Shelly and therefore I could take care of more enemies at the same time.

I got closer to the group and threw dozen of daggers at the bears. I targeted mostly the leader in order to take out the strongest first and create confusion and disorder amongst the rest of the bears. My daggers arrived and killed 3 bears including the leader.

My location would be exposed now so the instant I threw the daggers, I changed my position to a different one, where I would not be noticed by the rest of the group. The rest of the bears were enraged but confused at the same time. It was all because they couldn't locate their opponent, in other words me.

I threw more daggers and took out another 3 bears. This time I didn't change my position as I already lowered the number of enemies to a manageable size. I planned to fight in close combat. I could hide and throw daggers but I wanted to find out what are my improvements, especially my strength after practising the 1st diagram to this point.

I ran straight at the two remaining black bears. I wanted to take on the stronger opponents first and test my strength while the weaker bears would act as obstacles. Now the bears could see me and were enraged due to the loss of their comrades. The bears rushed at me but I simply evaded the weaker ones and ran straight at the black bears further in the back.

I arrived in front of the black bear and unleashed a barrage of attacks. Mind you, I used my fists to attack. Using daggers would not test my strength, I needed to know if my fists were capable of killing those bears. I already knew the weak points as well as limitations and skills of those bears. This gave me some leeway and I didn't have to worry about unexpected stuff.

I threw my punches at the black bear's torso, head and even arms. I also purposefully didn't evade some attacks to test my defences. When I got hit by the bear in my shoulder, it was dislocated but besides the pain, the bones didn't shatter nor break. This would've been a bit worse in the past. My bones would be probably broken by now. I Fixed my shoulder back into the right place and attacked with the other hand.

After pummeling one of the black bears for a while, it finally dropped dead on the ground. The other bears got scared and look at me in disbelief. I killed a black bear with my fists alone and compared to a bear I was like a stick. The brown bears decided to leg it while the 2nd black bear was dazed and not sure what to do. I attacked the bear and killed it after couple of minutes.

It wasn't uncommon for some animals to run away but to see 9 of the normal bears running away like that was a bit weird. I fought with the black bear and so the brown bears could easily run away. I didn't mind. This was to test my strength and I got the results I wanted. My strength rose dramatically compared to the past. In the past, I would be able to damage the black bear with my fist alone but killing one or two would be too exhausting. The strength I had now allowed me to do just that. My defence was also improved, my body was more sturdy. This meant I could take on some of the attacks but in the past I would be in a very bad situation if I even took one.

I called out towards Shelly and it came running over. I said "It doesn't matter that they ran away. I still killed a lot of them so this should be enough food for now. Did you learn anything useful?". Shelly nodded its head. It seemed that it got some ideas from my fight just now, this was a good thing. I nodded my head couple of times and then started to dismember the prey. While I was cutting up the 4th bear, I heard some noise in the distance. I stopped what I was doing and focused in the direction of the sound.