Limits-Chapter 31: Calculated Behaviour

I could see some people walking around, mostly drunk people who left the tavern and headed home. Tavern was very popular actually. It had guest rooms and alcohol and most importantly, it wasn't expensive. It thrived now compared to the past due to Rand's granddaughter. Senty was engaged to that so called young master from the Grasshill Village and the popularity of the Horeseplain Village went soaring. They sold more stuff and had more people come and visit. It was supposedly to make friends and good connections before Rand's granddaughter married the guy from Grasshill Village.

I looked at the behaviour of the drunk people but all I could see was, well drunk people. I noticed that they sometimes fall, sometimes stumble or sometimes shout some profanities and so on. That was ordinary for a drunk. I looked at the way they walk and it was all over the place. There was no rhythm or specific order, no. It was all chaos.

I thought 'I will do it with other people tomorrow. I can train this anytime I want, maybe besides night time'. I went back to my house. I laid down in my bed to read the book Nick gave me before I went to sleep. The book contained very detailed recipes about medicine and poison. If I were to rate the difficulty, it was at least 4 times harder to understand and memorize than the Evil Manual of Medicine.

On the very first page was a detailed description of a poison that could paralyse the whole body for couple of hours. It also depended on how strong physically someone was. I realised that this must've been the poison Nick used when he threw the knives at me at his place couple of months ago. It was very powerful this poison and although I was stronger than normal people back then I was also starved. The poison worked on me for couple of hours so how long would it work on just a random guy.

Another thought entered my mind 'How long would it last against Rand?' I didn't know but I estimated that an hour if I were lucky, nevertheless I assumed half an hour should be more probable. If that was the case, then the guy who watched me would probably be paralysed for about 2 hours and Senty, Rand's granddaughter should be around the same time.

With this poison, I could do a lot in two hours. This would be useful to my plan later on, when the wedding takes place or rather not take place if I had my way. I looked at the ingredients and the method to produce this poison, it wasn't very hard to produce or the materials were not that rare but the problem was that I was a slave now and I couldn't just leave to gather the herbs. There was only one solution to that, Nick. If I asked him, he may be able to provide me with the herbs. I knew he laughed at me when I wanted to practise making medicine and poison but this is different. I wanted it for something real, not just waste ingredients. It would be even better if he gave me that poison. He already knows how to make it and it would save the ingredients as well as time to get that poison. Maybe he even has some stored somewhere.

With that plan in my mind, I went to sleep. I wouldn't see Nick often now and going to his house could be suspicious, so I had to wait for about a week when he would come over and test me on my knowledge from the medical book.

The week went on as usual with the exception of my training in the art of stealth. I had to watch people which I thought was not hard but then I discovered that doing so without anyone noticing was actually very difficult. Besides that, there was a part of watching their every move and judging what would happen next. I had to do so much thinking that my brain power gave up after a while.

Training like this was mentally stressing but after a few days, I was getting used to this type of work out. Not that I had much improvement in actually guessing or predicting what the people will do based on how they behaved and moved.

At the end of the week, Nick came over to test me from the book knowledge. I read only couple of recipes because most of my time was spent on the monitoring part of the art of stealth. I only remembered one recipe to its fullest and that was the poison I wanted from Nick. If he could supply it that would be ideal or at least supply the ingredients for it.

I asked Nick "Can you give me some Axon Poison?" to which Nick was stunned and then asked "Why do you need it?" I thought 'So he has it, good. I just need him to hand me some'. I said "I need it for the coming wedding". I could see flash of evil in Nick's eyes and the evil grin he did whenever I told him about the wedding. He said "That is good. I will give you some, hehehe". I said "Thanks, it will save me a lot of trouble" Nick then asked "How is your training going?" to which I said "Not very well, it's very taxing to concentrate on what people do and then try and predict what they are going to do next. There are many possibilities…" Then I realised something. 'Wait! Possibilities! That is what I need!'.

Nick saw that I discovered something and didn't disturb me anymore. I went out to look for people. I wanted to watch them and find out if my idea would work. My idea was simple, I would have to calculate probability of certain actions happening. For example, if a drunk person was walking wobbly then what would happen next based on the information I had. I would assign more probable events more percent and less probable less percent. This way I would be able to know better but also prepare for other possibilities that were likely.

It was easy in theory but in reality, I couldn't assign percentage to those actions due to lack of knowledge and skill of judging. I was too excited about the idea that I forgot myself a bit. I wanted to still do it in the future but for now I would have to train my focus first. I was able to focus when working on something or training but there was a caveat and that was, the person I was watching couldn't notice me.

With that in my mind, I spend the rest of my time that day to judge people's behaviours. Time went like this and another 3 weeks passed. I was crazy on observing people and sometimes I was so focused that others noticed me looking at them. There were some troubles as I got chased or shouted at. Now I had a stupid nickname going around the village and that was "Dirty Pervert". The hell did I do to deserve that! I only looked at people when they were walking or eating but not in their private space.

I didn't care that much about it but it was still annoying. I had some major improvements with my predictions. I could now use the idea of percentages to work out roughly what events were more probable than others. I could also judge people better due to the amount of time I watched people. With time you get to see more details and more behaviours. As you proceed on that path it becomes easier to figure out certain things.

Two weeks back, Nick gave me a vial of liquid and said that this was the Axon Poison I wanted. I was elated, thanks to this vial my plan will be more smooth. He also came up with a name for his second book and that was "Great Scriptures Of Evil Medic". I didn't know wherever I should laugh or cry. He just had to include word Evil in everything he named. I guessed that it was because of his nature.

I managed to memorize about 8 recipes completely from the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. I still had loads but I figured I will memorize the ones that seemed most useful to me and my situation. My training was going along nicely and I learned more recipes from the Great Scriptures of Evil medic everyday. My strength didn't rise anymore as my body stabilised at a certain point. I was skinny like an skeleton but I had a lot of strength and iIwas healthy at that.

Even Nick didn't know what to do about my weird constitution and he just accepted it as if I was like this from the beginning. I also accepted that I will look like this but it didn't matter to much that much anymore. I didn't have to look good because for who? Like this, I spent my days doing village tasks, training and reading.