Limits

Winter arrived. The days got shorter, nights longer and the temperature lower. I improved a lot during my training with Nick. Not only I recovered my strength but I also managed to learn something. I mastered the wooden poles, I could move however I liked on these poles. Even Nick was surprised at how good I was with those wooden poles.

My knowledge also reached better heights. I memorized both books and Nick asked me many questions. Some were difficult, where I had to give couple of answers and some were more obvious. I achieved that due to hard work, sweat and blood. Nick was overjoyed that I managed to master all the things to such a level with so little time. He praised me couple of times and also praised my strength.

My strength was now comparable to about that of Rand's strength. I was a lot swifter and agile due to the training with wooden poles everyday. In the beginning, it seemed to me that this training was created for balance. Later on, I realised that I learned to make no unnecessary movements and therefore I became more swift and more agile due to the control I had over my body.

Today Nick saw the results of my training and knowledge gaining. He then said "Very good. I shall impart now new knowledge to you and you can continued your further training". I nodded my head and Nick continued "I will not teach you the art of hidden weapons yet. I still have something to teach you before that". I thought about it and said "Why can't I learn all 3 altogether?" to which nick replied "It simple boy. It's because you already have fundations of hidden weapons. When I ask you to train it, it will look much differently to what you may expect. I need to teach you the other stuff first".

I was a bit confused 'So I do have a foundation but he still insist of teaching me something else first… That is a bit weird' I thought to myself. Nick then continued "I will tell you the next training you will do for the art of stealth. I will also give you this" and he threw to me another book. The book was not thick like the two previous ones. It had about 100 pages maybe. Nick said "This book contains basic knowledge of minor medicine creating. That means, there are recipes and methods of creating medicine for small to medium severity ailments". I was a bit surprised then I looked at the book again and I noticed there is no title so I asked Nick "There is no title here. What is this book called?" to which Nick responded "This is my book. I never actually thought of naming it. These are all my basic recipes and so it was only used by my and no one else. I guess naming it would be proper since you are going to be inheritor". He then went into a deep thought while I waited for him to finish.

After a while Nick exclaimed "I know! I will call this book Evil Manual of Medicine!". I was a bit taken aback and thought 'Why evil?'. Nick was gloating about his naming sense and I didn't really give a damn that much about the name but the content. 'If he wants to call it like that, then so be it. I shall call it Evil Manual of Medicine'. I said to Nick "Right, I will try to learn this then". Nick woke up from his dreams and said "Ahem. You do that. Now the part about the art of stealth training". He then continued "You will use this to train" He took out a mask that looked like a skeleton's head and passed it to me.

I was a bit confused and asked "What am I supposed to do with this?" to which Nick answered "You will put on that mask and navigate through the wooden poles". I thought to myself 'This can't be that difficult'. Nick as if reading my mind said "It's not as easy as you think because for this training I will change the position of the poles constantly and there will be more of them". He went to the corner and retrieved another 16 wooden poles of varying sizes.

I asked him "What is so difficult? I just have to put that mask on and move around them? EASY!" and I put the mask on. Then I saw nothing. Darkness was the only thing I saw. This mask was not just a blindfold, it was constructed in such a way that even if it shifted a bit up, down, left or right I still could see no light. I took the mask off and said "Now I understand" to which Nick smiled and said "I told you it will not be that easy".

I then asked another question "Why this design?" he smiled again and said "Because you remind me of a skeleton with your skinny body". I was kind of pissed 'It's not my fault I look like this… wait, it is kind of my fault I look like this. Damn it'. I asked "Do you have any tips?" to which Nick answered "Just one. Don't hit the poles". I said in anger "HAHA, very funny! That is not a tip, IT'S OBVIOUS TO ME!"

Nick then said "It's all you will get at least for now. Try to figure this out on your own". I calmed down a bit and said "Alright". Nick then added "I will be staying with you for couple of hours everyday but I will not aid you or speak to you, so focus on your training".

I nodded my head and put the mask back on. I tried walking with my hands stretched in front of me to feel for the poles and yet I always managed to get hit straight in my face. I was getting pissed because even if I crossed my arms so that no pole could go between them I still hit them with my face! It was obviously Nick's doing. He placed them behind my arms and I walked straight into them.

I decided to think about it before I lose consciousness due to walking into the wooden poles all the time. I came up with one idea, it was sound. I tried to listen to Nick's movements or pole movements. Any sound I could hear, I tried to find the direction and move accordingly. It didn't help much as I still walked straight into the wooden poles.

I thought 'There must be something else besides sound. But what? Smell?Taste? There were no other senses I could use'. My vision was blocked. My hearing didn't work and smell as well as taste wouldn't help here. I needed to think about this more.

The training went like this and I tried slow, fast and so on but nothing worked. I needed senses that were more able to pick even the tiniest details up. That was the only solution I could come up with. I needed to train my other senses.