Limits

I went inside the cave and set up all my equipment for making medicine. I needed fresh water which was not available in the cave. I called out to Shelly "Shelly!. Come here, I need you to do something". Shelly immediately came running over and waited for instructions. I said "Take this bottle and bring me fresh water. I will set up all the herbs. By the way, you will need to do couple of trips, so be ready when I tell you". Shelly nodded it's head and took the bottle while running off to fill it with water.

I measured ingredients as best as I could to make one batch and left them on the side. I also prepared the putty to close the vial after the poison was inside. I carried a bit of it with me just in case but it wouldn't be a problem to get some more. Coal could sometimes be found as rocks on the ground while clay could be found near wet areas, such as ponds or rivers.

After about 10 minutes, I was ready to start but because I had no fresh water, I needed to wait for Shelly to return. After another couple of minutes, Shelly finally returned with the water. I took out a measuring container and measured 200 milliliters of water. After pouring the needed amount of water into the pot, the bottle was still a bit more than half full, this meant it would be enough for the 2nd batch of poison.

I started the process of producing the Cloud Haze Poison next. First I poured water into the pot and started the fire. I then added Poison Grass into the water and waited for it to start boiling. When the water-herb mixture was staring to boil, I threw in the Cloud Mushroom. I would need to wait couple of minutes, I decided to prepare the herbs for the next batch. I measure the weight of Poison Grass, Cloud Mushroom and Haze Flower before the 5 minutes mark was up.

Leaving aside the herbs for the next batch, I opened the lid of the pot and threw in the last ingredient, The Haze Flower. I then Sealed the pot with the lid and waited for it to cook and turn into the poison. I now had a bit of time to spare so I called again for Shelly.

Shelly came running again and stood there waiting for my orders. I said "When I start the next batch, you can go and fill the bottle again, so that I will not have to wait for water". Shelly nodded it's head and waited for me to start the next batch. In overall, I was able to create one batch of the Cloud Haze Poison every 30 minutes, so creating a dozen of such batches would take about 6 hours.

Although it was possible to do it this fast, the longer I would do it the more mistakes I would make in further batches, I decided to create 4 batches then rest and continue later, when I'm rested and fresh. The poison now cooked for long enough, I extinguished the flames and waited about 10 minutes for the poison to liquify. After the wait, I placed the vial with a cork that had appropriate hole in it under extraction valve and poured the poison inside. When the vial was almost full, I closed the valve and prepared to seal the vial. With one quick move, I pulled on the vial and sealed it with the putty.

I needed to burn all the remnants left in the pot first before I could clean it. After burning the dregs and cleaning the pot, I again poured the water inside and threw in the Poison Grass to start the process anew. After the 4 batches were done, I took a break and went out with Shelly to hunt some food. I wasn't heartless to hunt the furry deer creatures, instead we opted for stuff like wolves or bears.

It wasn't hard to find aggressive animals in the forest, the problem was numbers. The further north we went the lesser villages were present on the map. If we were to travel north for about another two weeks, there wouldn't be any more villages there according to the map. I always imagined how the map of the whole empire would look like. I imagined it as being somewhat round, where the village I came from was located at the south of the empire which was not very far away from the sea, yet I got the feeling that north was not the location of the Imperial City.

I thought 'Wouldn't there be more villages and cities further north if it was closer towards the Imperial City? And also the number of creatures increases the further north we go. This is weird'. Because I had this concept of a round empire, I always thought that I lived at the bottom which was south and imperial city would be in the centre. 'It seems that it might not be the case or maybe there is another reason to that' I thought to myself.

Whatever the reason was, I didn't concern me at them moment. The smallest group of bears we found on our way was 12 of them. While 2 in the group were black bears. I decided to chose this group as hoping to find a small group of 3 or 4 bears was hard in these parts of the forest.

I threw about a dozen of daggers and killed as many normal bear as I could. I usually aimed for heads or heart and because I trained in the Art of Hidden Weapons everyday, I was able to throw 3 daggers at once with one hand. Also because of the training I did in the Art of Stealth as well as Hidden Weapons, it didn't matter which hand I was using, both hands were equally trained.

I could achieve throwing many daggers due to speed and and flexibility of my fingers. I was also better able to retrieve daggers from hidden places on my body, due to the training I did. With that attack 5 bears died and there were 5 normal bears and 2 black bears left. Shelly didn't wait for the bears to charge towards us and took the initiative to attack.

When Shelly rammed one of the normal bears, I could see it fly into the air and landing on the ground couple of metres away. Fresh blood started to ooze out, I guessed that the bear died from that impact and this astonished me. In the past, Shelly couldn't kill a bear but incapacitate it. Now though, Shelly actually killed one.

I still attacked other bears while attentively watching Shelly's next attack. I wanted to know if it was a fluke or was Shelly stronger. After throwing couple of more daggers and killing another 2 bears, I was faced with 2 black bears which I decided to fight in close combat. I also wanted to practise that and black bears were very good partners for that training.

Meanwhile Shelly attacked another bear. The attack again made the bear fly and blood started to ooze out. It seemed that Shelly was stronger now but because it attacked recklessly, another bear got a chance to attack and striked Shelly with it's paw.

What happened next stunned me. I thought Shelly is going to suffer some damage but to my surprise, it was the bear who suffered damage. With such a heavy strike, the bear actually broke its paw while Shelly seemed to be unscathed from this attack.

I no longer had any time to look at what Shelly was doing and simply fought the two black bears. The black bears were faster and stronger than normal bears. Because of that, my skills were tested even further. I had to calculate the behaviour of both bears at the same time and avoid their combined attacks while attacking myself. After struggling for about 10 minutes, I finally killed both bears and saw that Shelly was done as well.

I said to Shelly "You are stronger. What did you do?" to which Shelly draw something on the ground. When I looked at the drawing, it was a vial and it hit me 'That's right! I gave Shelly some Vital Liquid after we ran away from the caterpillar looking creatures. I gave Shelly one to drink and I smeared one on it's shell. This explains why Shelly is stronger'.

I said "Good but don't think that I will give you a lot of that Vital Liquid, It will not help you when you really need it". Shelly nodded it's head in understanding although I could see some unwillingness in it's eyes.

I then said "Alright, let's cook some meat and then return to the cave". Shelly's mood skyrocketed when I said that and we prepared to roast our dinner.