Limits

I laid there for two hours and the guy seemed patient at first but after two hours he begun to become impatient. I didn't care much and just laid there. I wanted to see how long it would take for him to leave or try to do something. At the 3 hours mark, he got so impatient that he walked over to the bed and nudged me a couple of times. You can already guess the effect that brought him, yep nothing. I still laid there as if asleep.

After another 30 minutes he gave up and left. I thought 'Well he's patient a bit but not enough'. After another 30 minutes I "woke up" and sat on the bed. The guy was nowhere to be seen. I even thought he will hide somewhere just to check if I was faking it but no, he just left. I got up and walked to the doors, when I opened them I still didn't see him. So I got out of the house to walk around.

I specifically headed towards the exit of the village. I wanted to check if he was secretly observing me. When I got to the village entrance, still no one stopped me. So I went out. I walked for couple of minutes and finally heard the sound of movement behind me. I guessed that it was probably that guy catching up to me now. He must've discovered I was not inside the house, so he went out to look for me.

I wasn't hiding or anything and if I wanted to, I would be gone already. Besides, he was not an opponent I had to worry about. After awhile he finally caught up with me and shouted "Stop!". I stopped and turned around, then I said "What do you want?".

He said "Where do you think you are going?" to which I replied with a question "Home?". He seemed a bit confused but after a while he said "We have an offer for you". To which I faked being confused because I already knew what he is going to say and said "What is it?".

He seemed relieved that I wanted to listen and said "Stay here and work for us. We will pay you and you will not be a slave anymore. You will be a worker with wages. What do you think?". I showed him the expression of thinking hard about something, which of course was faked again. 'I want to stay here anyway, you idiots. I wonder what type of faces they would have if they knew it! Hahaha'. I responded to him "Alright, what type of wages are we talking about?". He seemed happy at the thought that I wanted to accept, he said "We will give you 5 coppers a day and provide housing as well as food for you. Your job will be to create 3 purified steel ingots a day. You will not have to do other tasks, just this one". I again showed a "hard decision" kind of expression and said "5 coppers is not a lot. How about I get 10 coppers and some leftovers from the workshop?".

I could just plainly steal but if I could take the leftovers, I could steal with an excuse. The guy seemed to think about it and said "I can't make that decision. I have to ask Rand". To which I said "Fine, go ask him". He then said "Follow me then".

Back at Rand's place. He told me to wait inside a guest room and went to meet with Rand. After a while he came out and said "Fine, we will agree to those terms, as long as you can produce 3 purified steel ingots a day". To which I said "Then I shall take this job!". I then continued "I want my wages to be paid on weekly basis. Is that fine?" to which he said "Yes, we will pay you weekly". I told him that I will start from tomorrow and left the house.

This was dealt with. Now I had access to blacksmith's workshop as well as some materials. I would be able to create more perfect daggers with the help of purified steel. The quality would be much better than just iron. I went back to my house and started to read the book. I still had loads to memorize from it. The further I went the harder it was to memorize and learn those recipes. The processes were getting harder and harder.

I say this but after that one year or rather couple of months training under Nick, I made loads of improvements. I could now judge people quite accurately and could assign percentages to their behaviours. I was mostly right but sometimes there was an error in my calculations or the less likely thing happened. I wanted to predict something for up to 90% probability. I would be able to work with that. There was also the other 10% which was not likely but could still happen. I would just have to assume the 10% in my actions just in case. But that would be in the future. Right now I could only predict behaviour for up to 60-65%. So what I predicted as 60-65% would be an action or event more likely to happen but the other 35-40% still had some good chances of happening. That's why I still made errors in my judgment.

Nick didn't show me any new methods of training nor did he give me any other book to read. I learned to be patient due to the predicting behaviour training I did for so long, therefore I didn't ask Nick for any other methods. I assumed, he knew better than me when to introduce something new.

That day I focused on the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic and tried to memorize more of the recipes. One caught my attention. It was a drug that could double the strength when consumed for a while but later excruciating pain would cover the whole body. I thought 'This could be useful. Although the after effects are quite severe, this could be my trump card if I was in a life or death moment'.

The ingredients required to make this drug were quite rare and some very hard to find. I didn't have any ingredients now but in the future, if I manage to get my hands on them I would be in theory create such drug. It was called Burst Pill and I paid special attention when memorizing this recipe.

The day passed and night came. Nick as usual brought me some food and asked how was I doing. I said to him "I can now predict what someone will do based on their behaviour. I can also assign percentages to certain possibilities. Now I'm only able to go as high as 65% of probability but I will get better with time". Nick prised my effort and said "The use of percentages is not a bad idea. It's a shame I never came up with it".

Nick asked me about the stay in the village, I said "It's sorted already. I will work as a blacksmith and produce 3 purified steel ingots a day". Nick said "So they will pay you now? How much are they willing to give?" I said "10 coppers a day". Nick laughed for a while and said "10 COPPERS! Hahahaha. This is priceless. Do you know how much a blacksmith who can create 3 purified steel ingots a day can earn?" to which I said "I don't, how should I know?". Nick said "About 1 or 2 silvers". 'I knew they wouldn't pay me much but that is a bit steep'. I said to nick "Whatever. I will get the leftovers, so I can create weapons as well". Nick said "Good thinking lad. You will be able to create your own weapons".

He then asked me some questions about the recipes, mostly the ones I've already read. I knew most answers but sometimes I made a mistake or just couldn't remember the details. Nick said "Don't rush, you will memorize this book sooner or later". He then said "I think it is time for your next stage of the training". I got my hopes up, I thought 'Finally, he will teach me about the art of hidden weapons' but my hopes were shattered when Nick said "The next step of your training in the art of stealth is melding". Although I thought he will finally teach me about the art of hidden weapons, I was still surprised when he said melding. 'Was it the same thing as he always does?' I thought to myself.

I asked Nick "How am I going to train this?" to which Nick smiled and said "You just have to avoid light". I was not only confused, I was dumbfounded. 'Avoid light? How the hell am I supposed to do this? If there is a shadow then yea but what about on the streets and in daylight?'. Nick saw my expression and said "It is difficult, I'm not going to lie to you but there is a method. You have to apply all the previous training you did and combine that with 'Avoid the light' part".

He then continued "This will take you some time to master but that is the final step of your training. So don't get discouraged. Even if it takes you couple of years to master this, that is still a very good result. It took me 5 years to master this technique".

I asked Nick out of curiosity "What about the next step? You said that masters of this art can even hide in light. What about that?" Nick stared at the ceiling and didn't answer. I guessed that he to was contemplating on what would be the next step.