Limits

The process of creating Cloud Haze Poison went smoothly, even more smoothly than the last time because I had some experience. Although it went more smoothly and I knew how to do the processes better, my poison was still not comparable to Nick's. Although it might seem that 20% less effectiveness is not much but closing that gap and getting the perfect proportions was not so easy.

The 100% efficiency of the poison would be perfect. Nick was well experienced in creating poisons and medicines and so he would create such poison with at least 95% potency. Of the other hand I was a newbie and therefore closing that gap to 90% or higher would require a lot of experience.

The poison I created first time only had 80% of potency, for the second time it had around 82% potency but I was not delusional that every time I attempt to create this poison, I would get higher result. I guessed that on a perfect day with my skills, I would be able to make the Cloud Haze Poison with 85% potency. That was my skill limit as well as limit of my experience.

I stored the poison in a safe place and continued with my training. I still tried to figure out which fingers and what combination of movements should I do in order to manipulate 3 puppets. As I said before, this was the breakthrough point of the skill because I would have to use one hand to manipulate two puppets while manipulating one with the other or use some of the fingers from both of my hands to manipulate the 3rd puppet.

I wanted to attempt the first option I had, which was to manipulate two puppets with one hand. I only used two puppets because complexity would be much smaller than using 3. But instead of using my both hands I would use one. With that in my mind, I tried different combinations of fingers. I figured that doing it in sequence such as my thumb and index finger would manipulate one puppet while my middle finger, ring finger and pinkie would manipulate the 2nd puppet.

The problem was, I would have to use two fingers for one puppet and 3 for the other. I tried couple of such combinations and I didn't get too far. I then got an idea to use my middle finger for both puppets. Although one finger would affect both puppets, this would balance the fingers used for each puppet.

I tried it and found out that this method suited me the most. I still couldn't control the puppets very well but with more training and time, I should be able to control two puppets with one hand. This would also correspond to the other hand. If I managed to learn how to control two puppets with my left hand, I would be able to do the same with my right hand. This would bring the total to four puppets and at this stage, I would be welcomed with the final step of puppet control. Five puppets with both hands.

When I've mastered this skill I would then be able to try and convert that into my idea of Stringed Hidden Weapons. I know the name is not that great but it seems I had a bad naming sense for the skills, just like Nick for his books.

After training with the puppets, I would train in stealth. I had no insights whatsoever about this "avoid the light" part but this didn't stop me from mastering the skills I already knew. I also worked on my camouflage skills that I learned from the fishes in the river near the village. The more auras I was able to copy and adapt to, the better would my camouflage skills work.

Experience and practise were the virtue of all skills and that was what I aimed for with all my arts. My Art of Medicine was also steadily improving. Each day I tried to remember more recipes and now I completely remembered 46 recipes from the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic. There were less than 50% of recipes left for me to remember but the ones that were left, were the hardest to create and most rare. Those recipes contained many details and I wanted to make sure I remembered all the processes, ingredients and so on by heart. This way I wouldn't make any mistakes when the time came to create those recipes.

The days went by like this and Nick would visit occasionally to check on my progress and sometimes give me pointers when it came to the Art of Medicine or the puppet manipulation. Nick didn't have much time left and therefore I produced the Cloud Haze Poison without training my weighting skills.

Nick brought the containers he mentioned to me a while ago and I trained with them but the problem was, I wouldn't be able to train so fast and finish the poison before Nick's death. Therefore I created the Cloud Haze Poison one at a time, while taking 2 or 3 days off between making it.

I now had 5 vials of the poison and 2 vials of the antidote which I made. If I were to count the stuff Nick game to me the total would come to 6 vials of Cloud Haze Poison. One was at least 95% potent and the rest were 80% potency and over, I also had 3 vials of the antidote. I vial of antidote was enough for couple of people and it lasted for couple of hours, so technically a person who drank the antidote could walk around for a while in the cloud of poison and not be affected. The antidote would give in after certain amount of time but I had more vials of the antidote and Nick checked to. It also had 78% and 80% potency which would mean that taking half of the bottle was enough to stop even 100% potency poison for 10 minutes.

That was plenty of time for my plan. My plan also changed a bit because I had more poison therefore I planned to still set up a triangle of poison that would cover the whole village but instead of 1 vial at each point of the triangle, I would use 2 vials and make sure the poison takes desired effect.

There were some good news as well. Shelly woke up from its slumber and seemed excited. I asked Shelly when it woke up "How do you feel Shelly?" to which the turtle seemed very happy but giddy. I asked out of curiosity "Did you learn something new or improved something?" to which Shelly showed the new skills it developed.

It was actually not anything new, it was still speed but the speed displayed was on par to my speed. In the past I was much faster than Shelly. I also never used my full speed when traveling to the Grasshill Village due to Shelly being with me. Now that I saw the speed Shelly displayed, I estimated that the speed would be around the same as mine at my peak.

I thought about it some more and said "You are faster but doesn't that mean, you will have to eat even more due to the energy you will spent?" to which Shelly looked at me as if I wronged it. I didn't mind Shelly eating more, it was fine if it wants to eat more, as long as it can stay this fast, I could be sure that no people in around these part will be able to harm it.

I said to Shelly "It's fine, you can eat as much as you want" and Shelly calmed down a bit. I then continued with a serious expression "We will soon leave this village and live in the forest but before that there are some thing I have to do. We shall raze this village to the ground and destroy any life. I already have the means and I will give you some antidote when the day comes. After I'm done here, we will leave". Shelly nodded its head in understanding and then pointed towards the door. I knew what Shelly wanted. It was to go out and hunt for food. I opened the door and let Shelly hunt for food by itself. I wasn't worried that someone might attack it, even Rand would be helpless against a turtle with such speed.

When Shelly went out to get something to eat, I returned to my training and continued my daily grinding of skills.