Limits
chapter-39

When I visited Nick again he was home this time. I told him "I managed to create a dagger, can we start the training now?". Nick smiled and said "Then let's see the dagger" I took out my dagger and passed it to Nick. He was astonished due to design of the dagger and said "Why does it look so weird… This! The balance is perfect and this dagger can be used for throwing and close combat!".

I was a bit smug about my own creation and said "Ha! of course it's perfect, I made it!". Nick's face went a bit grim and then he replied "This dagger is very good. It's a shame I have no techniques for blacksmithing that I can teach you. You will have to visit the closest city from here, That is Terent. There, you will be able to find very good blacksmiths and learn from them. I can see you have some talent in blacksmithing".

I asked Nick "Where is Terent?" to which he said "Oh, right. It's about a month time from here on foot. Maybe 2 weeks if you travel by horse". I was shocked '2 weeks just to get there on horse?' I asked Nick again "is it far away from the capital city?" to which Nick sneered and said "From Terent? to Endros Imperial City? I don't know maybe half a year? Something like that. Of course imperials have different means of travel but let us leave that for different time". I nodded my head in understanding, yet I was still shocked 'Half a year to get there from the city called Terent. That is a lot!' I thought to myself.

Then I said to Nick "I made it from the mould. I had to carve this shape first. It's not like I could actually use hammer to create such weapon". To which Nick replied "A lot of blacksmiths use molds that were created by some skilled people. Real blacksmiths can produce that kind of shape without moulds. It's still very rare for someone to carve that kind of weapon". He then continued "As you now have a dagger, we will start your training. Go to your house and I will visit you later and tell you about the first training".

I went back to my house and waited for Nick. He arrived about 30 minutes later and said "I shall now impart to you the first training of the art of hidden weapons the way I was taught". I nodded my head and Nick continued "Your first training is aim. I know you already practiced that and have good aim but that is mostly for stationary objects".

He then went back to the corner and retrieved couple of hey puppets the size of human. I was a bit stunned and asked "Why do you have these puppets?". To which Nick said "Because you only practised on stationary objects most of your time, You will have to practise on objects that can move and evade your attacks. If you can't aim properly, how can you kill your opponent".

Before I said anything, Nick continued "Yes, this is a killing art and don't look so stupid. Of course these puppets cannot move by themselves and that is why, I will train with you. I have to move these puppets in order to make them the moving objects. Because you have only one dagger, we will use one puppet. When you have more daggers, I will increase the number of puppets as well".

Nick also added "I will move the puppet in a specific way and you will have to attack as well as retrieve your dagger. So pay attention to movements of the puppet and remember to retrieve your dagger. In reality, you may have more daggers than just 5 or 10 but what if you use them all. This is to teach you how to retrieve your weapons when you are under attack".

I then saw one of the puppets move. It became alive all of a sudden and moved as if it was Nick himself. Nick shouted "Don't space out and start your training!". I decided I would ask about this later and just trained my aim. Aiming at a moving object especially one that was controlled by Nick was not easy. I couldn't hit it even once and the puppet would attack as well. I never received any damage but Nick constantly said "You are dead" when the puppet's attack connected, it was driving me mad.

After about 2 hours of training, I did even manage to hit the puppet once. Even the act of retrieving my dagger without hearing "You've died" was also very difficult. I asked Nick "How do you control this puppet?" to which he said "It will be part of your training later. When the time comes, I will explain it". I nodded my head in understanding.

Nick then said "I will come over at the evening everyday and train with you for couple of hours. Make sure to get more of those daggers soon. I want you to learn how to manipulate many daggers at the same time. I can also give you one hint. Use your training from art of stealth in this training. It will help". He then left. I knew what he meant. I was supposed to calculate the behaviour of the puppet. I tried that already but it was a puppet and not a living person or even being. It was very hard to determine what would happen next. Nick in the past told me that art of stealth and art of hidden weapons is kind of connected to each other. It seems that some things will apply to both arts.

The rest of the evening I spent reading the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and tried to memorize more recipes from this book.

Morning the next day, I went to the workshop to work on my ingots as usual and collect some leftovers that I would use for my daggers. Then I would go to river and then I would train with Nick.

Days passed like this and the date of the wedding was coming closer. The date was confirmed and I had my own plans. I needed poison, which I had. I also needed another type of poison which I had to get. It was called Everlasting Dew. This would make the male impotent and woman to not bear children. It was a cruel poison but it was actually one of the easy/intermediate recipes from the Evil Manual of Medicine. The materials for it were also quite common and I already asked Nick about this poison. When he heard what I want to do, he was a bit shocked but soon an evil grin appeared on his face.

I couldn't do anything about his nature, so I let him be and enjoy himself for a while. He promised he will deliver that poison to me before the wedding took place. I had learned skills good enough to hide from anyone in this village, well besides Nick. I also started to learn art of hidden weapons. If I had to take out some guards on my way, that would no longer be a problem.

The time of my revenge was closing in and I trained even harder before the grand celebration would be held. I would make it my grand celebration!