Limits Chapter 50

Couple of weeks went by, and my control of the puppets improved. I was now able to fully control one puppet. It was nowhere near what Nick could do, but it was a start. I also told Nick about the plan I had. He agreed to get the herbs for . I insisted, that I wanted try making that poison, as well as antidote myself. I told him, to prepare a working antidote just in case. At least this way, I wouldn't kill myself, if my antidote didn't work.

My training in the Art of Stealth, hit a wall. I needed to figure out, how to achieve "Avoid the light" part of the Art. Even though I managed to add a new skill to my Art of Stealth, it was not the real part of it. It was just an additional skill, that I ca up with, while watching the fishes in the water.

My dical knowledge, was getting better by the day. I already morized 42 recipes. The ones that were left, were much harder to morize. This was all thanks to the complicated processes, required by those recipes. The Great Scriptures of Evil dic, was a hard book to morize completely. 'No wonder Nick told , to take it easy' I thought.

In my estimates, I would be able to morize the whole book, in about 3-4 months. Provided I spent a lot of ti on it. Otherwise, it would take longer. I promised Nick, that I would destroy this book, after I've fully morized it. That way, the book would not get discovered by other people. Unfortunately for , this ant that I had to morized every detail of it, perfectly.

I had one more book, that could be useful in the future. It was the manual, that I found on Rand's disciple. It was just a copy, and it probably was incomplete. Therefore, I planned to get the real thing. 'The original must be kept sowhere, in the Rand's mansion. If not there, he must've hidden it sowhere, sowhere that is even safer than his mansion' I thought. I was still quite certain, that the real manual, was at Rand's mansion. I was 80% sure of that. There was also the 20% possibility, that the manual was located soplace else.

'If during my plan, I'm unable to find the real book inside his mansion, then it will be sowhere else. I'd still prefer if it was at the mansion though' I thought to myself. Otherwise, I always had the copy, sothing was always better than nothing. Over a month passed, since I've returned to the village. Rand's suspicions, should've been non existent by now. I still didn't go out to collect the manual from the forest. I had stuff to train, and I could always do it, after I was done with that Village.

Instead of worrying about stuff, I worked on my dagger skills, and my control skills. When Nick ca over that day, he saw move one puppet around, as if it was alive. I stopped my training, and looked at Nick. He said "You can now control one puppet very well. I shall now tell you the last step, in the Art of Hidden Weapons. This will be the last step, passed to from my master. This doesn't an, it is the final step. This will be up to you, to figure out, what other steps you will be able to take". I nodded my head, asked "What type of training, do I have to do then?". Nick smiled, and responded "It's simple boy. You have to beco a hidden weapon".

I was baffled at this stage. 'First, I get the "avoid the light" thing. Now "beco a hidden weapon" thing. What is wrong with these people. Can't he just tell ? Why teach in riddles like this?!' I thought. Nick saw my face, and continued "Don't worry. This ti, I will actually tell you more. Rember that you are learning the Art of Hidden Weapons from , and at the sa ti, you are developing your own Art. What that ans, is quite simple. It ans for you to be the Hidden Weapon. In other words, all of you, should beco the Hidden Weapon".

Nick then continued "How you interpret what I said, is up to you. I will not help you any further, and I can't really. I didn't master this step. I have so insights in it, but I never mastered it. This step alone, was too much for , who know what is beyond this step". After Nick said that, he bid farewell, and said that he would be back later, to check on my progress.

I was left alone in the room. I thought about Nick's words. 'I'm supposed to beco a hidden weapon, but how? Carry weapons all over my body? So that every inch of my body, is a weapon? Is that even possible? Or does that an sothing else entirely?' I thought. I didn't know what else to think. Because I wouldn't be able to figure it out quickly, I decided to focus on what I could do, and improve. With ti, I could slowly uncover the aning behind Nick's words. Maybe I would be able to master it in the future, but using a different path. I had my own ideas, which I could use to create new skill, or improve those that I already had.

I trained with the puppets most of the ti now. I only took breaks to eat sothing with Shelly. After such a long ti, Shelly managed to grow a bit bigger. When I found Shelly, it was about 40 centitres big, but after about two months of ti, it grew about 10 centitres in size. I didn't notice that at first, because I used to spend a lot of ti with Shelly. Lately though, I was busy with my training, and only noticed now that Shelly got bigger. 'It may be due to the amount of food, that Shelly ate. Normally, it would eat one or two fishes, but while we travelled, Shelly ate more than ' I thought to myself. Shelly's diet changed still. Even though, it pretty much did nothing, it ate more at the sa ti. This changed, especially since Shelly tasted cooked food. Whenever I roasted sothing, I could see drool coming out of Shelly's mouth.

I was a bit worried 'What if Shelly is too big, to fit into places?. For now, it will fit through the door, but what about later?' I thought. What if it grew to one or two tres? With that in mind, I walked over to sleeping Shelly, and said "How big are you going to grow?". I didn't expect an answer, as it was rather a rhetorical question. To , it wouldn't matter how big Shelly grew. It could create so problems in the long run, but I wasn't that bothered. I already treated Shelly, as if it was my own family. Shelly on the other hand, after hearing that question, woke up and stared at with watery eyes. 'Shelly probably thinks, that I'm saying it eats too much'. I said in clarification "Don't worry, I was just wondering how big you can grow. You can eat as much as you like". Shelly beca happy about what I said, and went back to sleep....

Shelly didn't really act like a turtle anymore. It acted more like a dog. If there was food around, it would pester and beg for so. It didn't have the sa eyes as a dog, but to my surprise, a turtle could also make "cute eyes" and beg for food. Shelly also laid around for a whole day, and when it woke up, Shelly would always want to play with , and eat of course. Just like a dog, but the thing was, it was a turtle.

I didn't pay any more attention to Shelly, and focused on my training instead. The ti for my plan, was coming closer and closer. I had to be at the peak of my abilities, and squeeze out everything I could when training the Art of Stealth, as well as the Art of Hidden Weapons.