Limits-Chapter 30: Training the Arts

The task of navigating through the constantly changing maze of wooden poles was not easy. Even after couple of weeks I couldn't do it correctly. That didn't mean there were no improvements. Due to my eyesight being blocked by the mask, I had to rely on my hearing, just like the blind people do. Learning this skill is very hard if you are not actually blind.

The mask was supposed to simulate this blindness and thanks to it my hearing got better. That was also a problem because I could hear better therefore more sounds would annoy me and it took a long time to adjust to that. I could now filter out sounds such as mosquito flying around or people talking outside. I was able to focus more on the movement of the poles but I was still far away from getting any proper results.

I had about 50-50 chance of avoiding the wooden pole. This was not great but an improvement nevertheless. I was also mistaken about the smell senses. Due to my vision being restricted, my other senses were more sensitive with time. I even used this mask when going to sleep and when I had breaks at my house, just to practice more. I couldn't take this mask and walk around the village with it because that would be suspicious. But whenever I could, I wore the mask and tried to be blind as much as I could so that my other senses develop better.

After those couple of weeks of getting my other senses more acute, Nick told me a hint "Your thinking is very good. Yes you need to develop your other senses but there is also one other thing you are forgetting. You need to feel it with your body". This hint didn't tell me much, I was feeling it with my body, I walked into the damned thing countless times already!

After that hint he shut up again. I told him that I wanted to train this more than we used to. He usually did it for 2 hours but I wanted to extend that to 4 hours. Nick wasn't very keen on that but I pinned him down with a good argument "I need more time to practice otherwise it will take too long. Remember? You told me that you don't have much time left. Aren't you short on time?"

Nick considered that point and stopped being lazy. He did the training with me for 4 hours everyday. Yet I still couldn't do it. On the other hand, I already memorised most recipes from the Evil Manual of Medicine that Nick gave to me. There was one problem with that. It was just knowledge and so I didn't practice on how to actually create such medicine or how to treat illnesses on real people. I brought this point to Nick one day and he just laughed at me. I dropped this subject, I would have time to practice later on when I gain my freedom back.

Because it was winter my tasks did not change anymore. I had to produce wood for people to use as a fuel for fire and I had to produce ingots because that was what the village was selling. Nick told me that, if I didn't do these tasks the other people responsible for them would still need helpers to complete what I was doing.

It showed that I still used too much of my abilities but changing now would not affect their knowledge. It could be even more detrimental to my cause, they would become suspicious of me and I didn't want that. There were also some other information that Nick passed onto me. For example, Senty the village chief's granddaughter moved to the much larger Grasshill Village, where she stayed at her fiance place before the marriage took place.

I knew that the marriage will take place somewhere around the summer and Nick provided me with the date. He asked me why did I want to know that, so I said "Because I will make it a nightmare!" that was my plan from the beginning and I wouldn't change that! Nick hearing this answer had an evil grin on his face. His imagination probably took him too far.

I focused on my training mostly and at night, before I went to sleep I would read the recipes and try to memorize more of them. Time passed and the winter was at its end. The snow was melting slowly and new life started to bloom. After training hard for so long, I finally managed to train my hearing and other senses to an astonishing level. I could now hear tiny whispers even from far away. My smell sense became much better as well. This had also bad effects, any bad smell was also intensified. I managed to control my senses after so much training. I could hear the wind or choose to have a "normal hearing" just like other people would. This allowed me to sleep and function in everyday life. Otherwise if I were to hear very loud noises intensified couple of times, my ears would bleed.

The hint that Nick told me referred to instinct. This I found out later on, when by instincts I moved away from the wooden pole. I then learned how to harness my instincts. Together with my enhanced senses and instinct. I was able to do this training.

I could now navigate the maze and it didn't matter how much Nick changed the wooden poles, I always managed to avoid them. This concluded my training with the mask and wooden poles. I also memorized the whole Evil Manual of Medicine that Nick gave to me. He then checked my knowledge and I managed to answer all his questions.

Nick then told me he will teach me another method from the art of stealth. He then said that he has the last book for me to memorize. The book was his most valuable possession, it contained all the advanced and more profound recipes of the art of medicine.

The book was about 70 pages and each page contained one recipe. The recipes were quite difficult, they sometimes required in excess of 10 different herbs to produce the cure. Although it was like this, the diseases or illnesses that could be cured using the medicine were quite rare and very hard to treat even for famous doctors. About 43 pages from this book were about poison. The poison could cure many things but it was also a poison. From weak to very powerful.

Nick spent more than half of his life to produce all these recipes, I would like to see another doctor that did the same thing. When Nick gave me the last book, he said "Destroy all the other books when you are sure that you memorized them. Be sure to do that before I pass away" Then I said to him "What about this book?" The book again didn't have a name and so Nick again got fired up about naming it but he couldn't find any good name for now so he said he will do it later.

He said "You will do the same with this book, just that it will take you much longer to memorize this one. So you might have to do it after I pass away". He was also quite adamant in saying "Promise me you will destroy it and not sell it or show it to people!". I promised him. I knew how much work he had to put into this. If I were to sell it just like that or show it to people… Why would he even search for disciple?

We weren't in a master-student relationship but with time, I guess I could call him my friend. He helped me out when I needed help and so I should be able to promise him that no problem. After I promised him all that, he said "Now I'm going to teach you another method of training in the art of stealth. You are going to watch people. I want you to learn how to perceive what someone is going to do". I didn't really understand what he ment. To watch people, it wasn't hard but predicting or rather knowing what move are they going to do next was different.

I asked him "Why do I need to know that to be stealthy?" to which Nick answered "It's because if you know how someone will react, you can react accordingly. By the way, it doesn't have uses only in stealth but you will learn that soon". I asked Nick "So what am I supposed to do?" to which he replied "Go out and watch people, their behaviours. I want you to concentrate on how they move, not just where but how. I want you to know how they eat, stand, walk, run and so on. I'm not asking you where because if you want to study their behaviour you will have to know".

He then continued "This training will help you with a lot of things and I want you to be able to judge a person in an instant. From the way they stand, walk, speak, eat and behave in overall. This way you will know what to do in every situation".

I then asked "I can do that. Then what about art of hidden weapons?" to which Nick said "When the time comes, I will teach you! Now go and train. I have some other stuff to do". Then he left. I went out to see if any villager were outside. It was night already but maybe some of them would be around.

I opened the door to my house and just stood in the doorway, checking if there are any people around.