Limits

When I opened my eyes again, I stood in front of the dark figure that started talking away a short while later. I listened attentively and paid greater attention to the words that preceded or followed the ones I already knew. After a few cycles of the dream, I didn't figure anything out but then it hit me. I tried different meanings with the words, I thought I could translate and I hit the jackpot.

'If my guess is correct, The word Korak could mean "who"'. I found that the words usually ending with "ak" meant a person or referred to someone like Lak or Ak which meant "You" and "It" respectively. If my guess was correct then the words ending with "ak" could be deciphered more easily. I would only need to find what those words meant specifically and a few words could be deciphered.

I was now gaining better ideas about the structure of the language. If there were patterns such as those, I could decipher the language much faster. I listened for a few cycles and found another word that fitted the description. 'So, I also have word Seurak. I don't know what it means yet but I need to pay attention and maybe I will be able to figure it out' I thought.

I then came up with another idea 'Why not try and ask this dark figure what or who it is?'. I couldn't ask "What are you?" but I could ask "Who are you?" as I had those words translated already and if my translations are correct then maybe I will hear an answer. While the figure was talking away as usually, I constructed my sentence in the ancient language and spoke it out loud.

"Korak Lan Lak?"

My pronunciation was rubbish and not at all natural but the words I've spoken were spoken correctly. The dark figure stopped talking and after a short while it said "Fer Lei Fal Gor Trevak" then continued on where it left off with the usual speech. I was stunned and thought 'It actually answered me. I don't know what it said but it said something different and familiar at the same time'.

I tried to decipher the words that the dark figure answer with to my question. I already knew the first three words, Fer Lei Fal meant "I am the" 'So the dark figure actually said who it was but I don't know what those last two words represent'. I tried to figure it out but then lost in my thoughts I felt pain and then darkness.

When I opened my eyes it was already morning. I thought 'I was thinking about the words so much that I lost track and the dark figure killed me for the 20th time, I assume. But what do those words mean?'. The last two words Gor and Trevak were a mystery. I knew Trevak contained "ak" at the end so it must mean something concerning that dark figure. I thought more about it and wrecked my brain. I then realised something.

'Trevak, Trevak…. Sounds a bit like travel. It could be a coincidence but at the same time it could mean traveller. This would mean that the dark figure is some sort of traveller or was' I thought. 'If it is a traveller then what does Gor stands for? Old traveller? Ancient traveller?' I thought and tried to figure it out but no answers were coming to my head. I simply didn't know what word did the dark figure use before traveller. It could be anything, stuff like old, funny, grumpy, mysterious and whatnot. I had no way of finding it out this way. I had to narrow it down but I couldn't ask the dark figure "What does Gor mean?" as I didn't even have words "what" and "mean" translated. I didn't know if the dark figure from my dream used those words.

I wouldn't give up and I believed that with time, I would be able to find translation for most if not all words that the dark figure spoke. I stopped worrying about those things and got back to my training. The weight that was in my new bag, put me back onto my original path. Now besides training my body, I could train stealth with that weight on. This further enhanced my training and made it more difficult.

I ran my routes as usual and then trained my body. When I felt hungry, I would eat or go hunting in order to get some food. Fortunately, these parts of the forest weren't greatly populated with strong monsters and I could train in relative peace. The people which I met a while ago, didn't appear anymore. I kept my eyes peeled but it brought no results, which I was happy about. I didn't want to meet them ever again, well maybe when I'm much stronger than now but by then, I wouldn't have to worry about such groups.

A week passed since I made camp in this place. My days looked monotone again but I wasn't complaining. I focused on my stealth skill as well as the language of the dark figure. I was able to improve my times tremendously due to familiarity of the routes but also because I started adapting to the weight on my back.

The most optimal route now took me a bit less than 20 minutes to run. Mind you, this was still with the heavy bag I was carrying on my back. I also learned more about the nature. I couldn't say that I was at the point of predicting the behaviour of nature but I could see patterns of sort. There was a limited amount of changes that could happen to a blade of grass or a leaf. The more I practiced and noticed the greater was my experience.

My time improved daily, although the improvement was getting smaller and smaller. I was also gaining more and more experience while doing it. My body training continued as usual and I was now very close to completely modifying the 3rd diagram. As for my dreams and the Ancient Language? I studied it every night. Although I made no new discoveries, I became more certain that the translations I already had, were indeed correct. 'This would be much faster if the dark figure gesticulated more but it only speaks and sometimes uses gestures, I can't see its face as well. It's much harder to guess the meaning of those words' I thought.

I thought about using different sentences in the Ancient Language, of course from the words I already knew. I would need to ask questions or just simply state something useless due to the limitations of my translated words. Although I didn't expect much, I was mostly interested in the responses that the dark figure would say or not say. I thought 'Who knows, maybe a pattern would emerge. With pattern, I could translate more words'. I decided to give it a go next time I fall asleep.