Limits

Chapter 35

In the morning, I went to the blacksmith's workshop to start my work. I was required to do 3 ingots a day and that was it. If I finished in 1 hour my day would be done. On the other hand if I had difficulties, then even staying overtime would be justified. I was being paid by quantity not hours of work.

I could easily finish 3 ingots in about 2 hours with my strength. The problem was, if I did it so fast then it would be suspicious. I didn't want that, therefore I set my work hours between 4-5 hours a day. If I went there at 7am then worked till 12 or 1pm I would have the rest of the day to myself and because I was no longer going around hungry, I didn't have to go to the river to fish. I did it anyway sometimes just for pleasure but that was only if I wanted to forget about everything and just rest.

At the workshop, I saw that Grond was already there working the ingots. It was probably his 1st ingot as he didn't seem that tired. When he saw me he said "You can start your work whenever you like but remember to create 3 ingots a day. You can use all the tools in the workshop. You will receive your lunch here at 11 am. Is all clear?". I nodded my head and went over to the tool rack to get a hammer and couple of other tools, such as pincers and moulds.

The workshop had an area where all the ore was stored. There was iron, coal, purified coal used to create steel, copper and so on. I took couple lumps of iron ore and couple lumps of purified coal. I was supposed to create purified steel ingots, therefore I had to use specific technique which I learned long time ago and specific proportions.

First, I had to melt two lumps of iron ore and one lump of purified coal. Then pour that into the mould, flatten it and then melt again adding another lump of iron ore and lump of purified coal. I could never figure out why not put 3 lumps of iron ore and two lumps of purified coal at once and then melt it but that was all Grond showed me. I followed whatever were the instructions. I didn't care whenever if that would be better or not, I was asked to do this and so I did this. Besides that, I also learned couple of other things such as how to sharpen metal. Mind you, he didn't teach me that, I just saw him do it and therefore I could probably repeat the process or maybe it was just my imagination telling me that I could.

I finished my first ingot in an hour. Which would be normal because I was fresh. I had to rest not to arouse suspicion and started working at about 8.30 am. I finished my 2nd ingot at about 10.30am and rested for another 30 minutes. I wanted to eat lunch first, that is why I timed myself to be able to reach this hour after creating 2 ingots. After eating lunch which took about 10 minutes, I started my 3rd ingot and finished it by 12.30pm. Grond in that time created 2 ingots as he was much more lazy than I thought. After the first ingot he rested for half an hour and then went out for a bit. He started again the second one only at 10am. He didn't finish before the lunch and restarted his work at about 11.30. He then finished at about 12 pm and again took 30 minutes break. In the same time I managed to create 3, a seasoned blacksmith only created 2. That is why I assumed he must be lazy.

I told Grond that I was done with my work. He was slightly surprised and went back to work. I didn't have to stay there anymore and I had my training to take care of. At the end of the week I would get paid and I already had some leftovers. It was not enough to create even one dagger but it was something nevertheless.

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I returned to my house and tried to train the last step that Nick told me about in art of stealth. He said to combine all my previous training and avoid the light. I thought about it for a while. 'My first training was balance and movement. My second training was instincts and senses and the last training was the behaviour'. Then I tried to figure out what would happen if I try and combine them. 'If I combine all of that, then what would I get? Balance and movement can be attributed to agility. This way, my 1st training can be referred as such. Next was senses and instincts. I can probably round this up to sensitivity of the environment. In other words domain. The last was behaviour but it isn't that simple to categorize. I would say that it is patience and observation. In other words vigilance'.

I had 3 categories of agility, domain and vigilance 'But how can I combine these 3?'. I was thinking on how to do it, yet no idea came to my mind. Agility and vigilance for example would make you slower because you had to pay attention. Domain and agility also contradicted each other. If the terrain was not suitable, I would have to slow down. The domain and vigilance could be categorised as one. Therefore in theory this could be taken as one category which would be stealth.

'It's weird. The domain and vigilance categories make it a stealth skill already, so why agility is there as well? How can you be stealthy moving fast… Wait! That is why the 1st training is with the poles! I get it now. Agility is speed but the agility I learned was speed through minimal movements and concrete balance that can change on the whim. The agility I learned is different to the one people usually think of. Mostly people assume speed and flexibility but what about complete control of your body and balance? This can also increase speed but in a different way.'

My thoughts continued 'If such is the case, then my agility is different to what people assume and it can be incorporated to the stealth art. I can be stealthy and fast at the same time. This is the art of stealth not just stealth skill!'.

This thought alone blew my mind. 'I already know the art of stealth! If I incorporate all my previous training then even the guy who monitored my on Rand's orders would never find me! I could do all this stuff but I never thought of combining it'. There was one problem though. The last part that Nick said was "Avoid the light". I thought even harder but I couldn't figure this out. 'How am I supposed to avoid the light?'.

I decided to test out my skills in the art of stealth that I managed to combine. I went outside and found a group of youngsters that used to chase after me. Now I was not a slave anymore but a worker, therefore the rules about not defending myself and having no possessions didn't apply to me anymore. Although I could crush them under my foot, I found them for another reason.

When they saw me approaching, one of them said "What do you want slave?" to which I smiled and said "Your mother was a slave last night, when she visited me. I mean woah, she was quite wild at times, I tell you". The guy got so angry, I could see his face burning with rage. He shouted "I will kill you, you fucking slave!" and he rushed at me. His friends were no exception and went after me as well.

That was my real purpose. I wanted to test out if I could be stealthy. Running away from them was as easy as stealing an ice cream from a child. What I wanted to do was hide next to them and check if they could find me with my current skills.

They soon lost track of me and searched around the area. I was many times next to them and they never spotted me. I followed them and even gave them hints. Yet they couldn't find me. The guy who I insulted said "I will get you for that, you slave!" and they left.

It seems my skills improved quite a lot when compared to the time I wanted to learn this by myself. Even when I was a breath away from them, they couldn't find me. Of course they were only kids of about 16 years of age and I would have to be more cautious against adults and skilled people, especially skilled people.

With that, I had an idea on what I could currently do with my skills. I still had loads of time on my hands which I was not really used to. I decided to go to the river and try to train the art of stealth more. 'Maybe I will get some kind of inspiration about this avoid the light part, while I train' I thought to myself and went to the river.

As usual it was all quiet there and I started to practise. I moved around the trees and rocks like I did in my 1st training with the poles but I could now combine other parts together to make my moves become even more intricate and stealthy.

I trained like this for couple of hours and decided to go fishing a bit. I had time and I also liked to do this because it was relaxing. I didn't have any nets or rods so I had to create one but because I did it so many times, I had no problem with that. I created a rod this time because I was not after the food instead I wanted to relax. I dug out some worms and used some metal scrap as my hook.

Sitting like this and fishing, forgetting about everything, I stared at the water in peace. I observed the fishes in the water and their behaviour. It was natural for me to now calculate the behaviour of anything that moved. I could tell where the fishes would go next or whenever the fish would bite the lure.

It was still bright and the sun was shining. In this serene setting, I sat there with my rod and observed the fishes. Then I saw something weird. The sun rays when they hit the water sometimes illuminated the scales of the fishes swimming around. The weird thing was that when I could see a predator fish coming over the brightly lit scales of the fish turned dim. Not because the sun didn't shine, no. It was because the fish felt that the predator is coming and somehow made the glistering on its scales disappear.

The fish was not invisible but it surely didn't stand out from the rest. It was like it wasn't there. I thought about the "Avoid the light" part that Nick talked about and realised something. Maybe humans were not the first to create such arts. Fishes existed for a long time maybe even longer than humans did, so what if humans actually copied these arts from other animals and just converted them in such a way that humans can use them.

'If it's true that animals were the original creators of fundamental techniques, then that means if I learn from animals, those primitive methods and apply them to my art of stealth. Wouldn't that give me clues or maybe even complete the art?'

With that thought in my mind I started to look at the fishes in greater details. I wanted to learn or at least know how the fish was able to hide from the rays of light and become less attractive to the predators in the water. As the old saying goes "Secrets hardest to unveil are held by nature".