Limits

Deep in the forest. Together with Shelly, we were searching for a suitable group of animals we could hunt. The search was not going very well as we found groups that were either too big or would be to troublesome to deal with. 'I think that due to our mass hunting, the animals got into even bigger groups and the variants started to show more often' I thought.

One variant such as silver bear or black wolf were not a problem now but when the group had 3 black wolves or 2 silver bears, that would be too troublesome to hunt them. At the same time, groups that numbered in excess of 30 were just too big to hunt. Even if we killed half of the group, the other half would retreat and maybe try to return with reinforcements and I didn't want that. Who knew what type of beasts would arrive to get rid of us.

After combing through the forest for over an hour, we finally found a group of boars that number 24. There was a variant in that group which we never encountered before. Normal boars were brown but the variant was dark yellow. It was also a bit bigger than normal boars and had larger tusks. We didn't know what abilities and characteristics the yellow boar had but we decided to tackle that group together, just to be on the safe side.

I snuck up closer to the group of boars but due to the weight I was carrying, the yellow boar found me out as I stepped on something that made cracking sound. Immediately other boars followed the view of the yellow boar and saw nothing. Although I was found out by the yellow boar due to the sound, it didn't immediately mean that those animals knew my location exactly.

I didn't wait any longer and started throwing my daggers to kill off some normal boars. I also wanted to test the strength of the yellow boar variant. Although my aim suffered a bit due to the weight, the boars were packed in a group and it would be hard to miss that group for someone with my skills. In fact if I did miss, I could just pack my staff and crawl into some kind of hole.

The daggers killed normal boars without any problems but the yellow boar was more crafty and hid behind other animals in the group to avoid the attack. Now the group of boars knew my location but they didn't know one thing for certain. Shelly was still waiting to take action. When the boars rushed at me, Shelly also made its move.

Gaining momentum, Shelly charged at the group from the side. The boars never expected to be attacked, by a turtle nonetheless that was actually faster than them. The boars were bewildered and the next moment "Boom!" Shelly crashed into them like a boulder. Couple of boars died from the impact and even the yellow variant flew into the air.

The yellow boar didn't die but it struggling to get up. I quickly threw more daggers and finished it off. Its skin was tougher than normal boars but due to the disorientation and the amount of daggers, it died nevertheless. Shelly meanwhile attacked other boars and killed couple of them again. The fight quickly ended and none of the boars survived. I made a fire and then started extracting the meat. I cooked some while dismembering the other boars. When I was done extracting meat from all the boars, we had our dinner.

I was multitasking in order to prevent the situation similar to the "silver bear appears" from occuring. When we were done with our dinner, we went back to our camp. I told Shelly to just rest as I needed to focus on my own training. Shelly didn't mind that and went to sleep, I on the other hand started my training afresh.

First I warmed up and did my father's training. I then started to run for 30 minutes, rest and run again. I later changed from my legs to my hands and tried to find appropriate balance and walk. This lasted until evening where I stopped and retired for the night.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the dream. The dark figure was training some weird stuff again. I got closer in order to learn what it was doing. The dark figure would jump like a frog for a while, it would then change that to running on all fours. It did that for a while as well and again changed to rolling like a wheel. Some time later, it would walk in a weird way as if its head was very heavy and pulling the dark figure backwards. The next thing the dark figure did was running but in some kind of weird fashion. It placed its arms behind while legs were a bit bent. It ran quite fast and its body was very low to the ground.

After all that, the dark figure started again with the frog jumps. I thought 'OK, so the dark figure will cycle it like this. I will try to join in on the same exercise and we will see if I get killed'. I started to mimic the dark figure and jump like a frog. This time the dark figure did not run towards me in order to kill me but simply trained as if nothing happened.

I thought 'OK, so I can train here but I'm only allowed to mimic this thing. Otherwise I will be killed'. I mimicked the dark figure for a while and noticed that it changed the training method to running like an animal on all its limbs. I mimicked that as well and ran like an idiot around. 'Fortunately this is only a dream. I would be too embarrassed to show my face to Shelly if it saw that kind of stuff' I thought and continued on with the running.

Soon the dark figure changed its style of training to the one where it would roll like a wheel. I had no idea what this was supposed to train but I repeated it nevertheless. Then I mimicked the way it walked as if it had a very heavy head. Lastly, I ran around with my arms behind my back and my knees bent a bit. This exercise was actually very hard to do. If I never trained my body, I would not be able to mimic that.

The figure suddenly stopped and repeated all the exercises again. After the second cycle, I was dead tired. I thought 'I don't even have the weight on me and yet I got so tired already. I wonder for how long will I have to stay here in order wake up'. I took a break and because the dark figure would not attack me as long as I didn't do anything other than walking, talking or sitting around and of course the training that the dark figure did itself, I had nothing to worry about.

I rested for 2 cycles and started to train again. My limit even after resting was just 1 cycle and later towards the end I was barely finishing that one cycle. I guessed 'Is it because I was fresh when I first started the training with this dark figure? and now I'm tired and can't do more than one cycle?'. I didn't know the answer but it was apparent that I could do 1 cycle after the initial 2 in the beginning.

When the 20th cycle finished, my vision blacked out. I opened my eyes again and noticed that I woke up. I thought 'So it will also repeat 20 times, just like when I had to die 20 times'. This was good because I wouldn't have to search for specific conditions to wake up. Like dying for example, which I was not a fan of.