Limits

We went back to the cave where the furry deer were living. I said to Shelly "Go tell them that we did our part of the deal". Shelly nodded its head and went towards the animals to interact with them. After a while, Shelly and an old furry deer come over to me and Shelly motioned for us to follow the furry deer.

We followed the animal for quite a while towards the mountain peak then noticed a hidden cave. If someone ever tried to go this way, they wouldn't probably find this cave anyway it was very well hidden. The furry deer motioned with its head to follow it inside and that we did.

Inside the cave I could see some precious herbs growing around the place. Most of them would be useful when creating medicine for wounds and so I said to Shelly "We will collect the herbs as well. Those herbs will be very useful for us in the future". Shelly nodded its head and communicated that to the furry deer. It didn't seem to have any problems with us collecting some herbs. I took the herbs that would be most useful for us such as Wild Ivory that would speed up the healing processes when mixed into a medicine. I also took some Ripening Grass and Lavish Hemp. Both of those promoted better healing effects.

Further inside the cave, I found some Hectic Mushrooms that could be used to create strong poison. I had to use the gloves that Nick left for me in order to harvest them. Touching this mushroom with bare hands was dangerous in itself. We traveled further inside the cave and the light got dimmer and dimmer. I took out the mask which improved vision and put it on.

I could see much better in the cave now and spotted another herb. It was called Dark Weed and it grew in very dark and damp places. This herb could be used in a recipe that enhanced stealth, I collected as much as there was and we moved on towards the depths of the cave.

We finally arrived at the end of the cave. The light in this part of the cave was almost non existent but animals were more adapted to darker places than humans so Shelly and the furry deer had no real issues walking in the depths of the cave. I had the mask which helped me see better so no one suffered any real discomfort. The furry deer pointed at the corner of the cave and there was a desk and a table next to it, both were made out of stone. I thought 'So, someone must've been living here and probably left some things behind. This will be our reward I suppose'.

I got closer to the desk and noticed just one book on it. It said "Experience Of Death". I was intrigued by the title and tried to grab the book in order to read it but when I touched it, the book turned into dust. The dust formed a cloud and the wind blew the dust into my face. I coughed couple of times due to the dust and said quite annoyed "Was that supposed to be our reward? This destroyed book?".

Shelly noticed my frustration and communicated with the furry deer. After a while, Shelly came over to explain that this book was indeed our reward. Everything we found in this cave was supposed to be our reward. I thought 'Oh well, we still got loads of rare herbs so no harm done. Maybe there is something else here'. I said to Shelly "Search the place for anything else. If we can find something useful we will take it". Shelly nodded its head and started to search. The furry deer also helped us.

We searched the cave very thoroughly but we could find nothing else. I said to Shelly "Never mind, we got some herbs out of it so it was worthwhile. We also helped those animals from being experimented on. We shall leave now". Shelly agreed with me as it couldn't find anything as well. We left the cave and I said to the furry deer "This is where we part our ways. The deal is done and you should be relatively safe now". After Shelly translated that we went on our way towards north.

It was still daytime when we left the cave and we had long way to go. I practised my Art of Stealth on the way and I would give the vision sealing mask to Shelly once in a while. Although Shelly was getting more used to the mask, it was nowhere near perfecting its senses. I also practised the modified diagram from the manual I found in Rand's mansion. I could now last 7 minutes before I had to stop. It was improvement and the more I practised it the longer I was able to say in that position.

My strength also improved compared to before. Although I was still skinny no matter how much I ate, in a weird way my strength increased while my muscles were more defined but not much bigger. In the evening, we arrived at a clearing and decided to make a shelter at that place. It was relatively safe as I couldn't see any large groups of animals around and it was open space so it would be easier to spot something.

After building the shelter and eating our dinner, I practised some more with my puppets. I could already control 4 puppets without any problems. Now laid the last step of this training, which was to control all 5 puppets using both hands. I again tried different finger combinations and found out that controlling the last puppet with both of my thumbs was the most ideal way for me. The thumbs would be responsible for one puppet while the rest of the fingers would be responsible for other 4 puppets.

Because it was too difficult to control the 5th puppet right now, I started to learn how to control 4 puppets with only 8 fingers, meaning not using my thumbs. In one aspect of that skill, I already had some experience therefore it wasn't that hard to adapt those 4 puppets onto different fingers. The problems started when I wanted to add the 5th puppet.

My coordination would be very sloppy and I couldn't focus enough to control all 5 puppets at once either. 'I need to practice with 4 puppets on 8 fingers and also train my mind. I need to do more difficult training when it comes to doing different things at the same time' I thought to myself.

Shelly on the other hand was trying to use other senses while walking around with the vision sealing mask. After some time, I noticed that the sky was already dark. I called out to Shelly "Shelly, it's enough for one day, we need to rest and we will continue tomorrow". Shelly walked slowly towards my voice and I took off the mask from its head. We went to sleep in order to regenerate strength for the next day.