Limits

The first page contain an introduction to the book. It described what the book is exactly about and what content was available inside. The book had a few chapters, those were separating different human structures such as a chapter on skin, bones, muscles but also organs such as heart, eyes and brain. It was quite detailed from what I could see in the beginning. I started reading the first chapter which was a general information about human body.

The book was very interesting to me and I found it very useful. There were some things that I didn't know about already. Stuff like the amount of blood humans possessed in their bodies. There were also different stages of blood loss. The book talked about 4 of such stages. The 1st and initial stage of blood loss is when a human loses up to 15% of their blood. At this stage, no real issues will occur in the human body but they will feel a bit weak.

If a human loses 15 - 30% of their blood, they will enter the 2nd stage of the blood loss. At this stage, the skin pales and gets colder while the heart beat increases. The weakness of the body becomes more apparent and supplements are needed to restore the blood.

If a human loses between 30 to 40% of their blood, they will enter 3rd stage of blood loss. The blood pressure drops drastically at that point. The heart beat increases even more and the human would enter a "shock" stage where there is not enough blood to support the body properly. At this stage, supplements must be given to the human immediately.

If a human loses more than 40% of their blood, they would enter the 4th stage. 'This book simply states "Death" at that point' I thought as I read through it. The 4th stage was death. If a human loses more than 40% of their blood, the organs will cease to operate. 'That means, I can lose up to 40% of my blood but not more. A typical human body according to the book possesses about 5 litres of blood. I don't know if skinnier people have less blood and fatter people more but I can assume the 5 litre as my standard. If I took away 40% of that, then I would be left with 3 litres of blood. That is the minimum I need in order to survive. I can lose 2 litres of blood but the more blood I lose, the weaker I become. I have to remember about that' I thought and continued reading.

The book had some of those tiny details that would really help me out. Even basic stuff such as the amount of blood humans possess and how much we can lose, was helpful due to the fact I fight a lot. I read the whole chapter that introduced me to the human body in more details and decided to have a rest. I was tired and it was probably late already. I placed the book down and looked at the chair which was always occupied by Laly.

"This is very useful book, it contains a lot of things that will help me improve my Art of Medicine even further. Thanks again, it means a lot to me". Laly sitting on the chair smiled and said "It's just a book that I wouldn't use anyway. If it's of any use to you, that's great. It's late already, you should go to sleep". I nodded and said "I know, I can tell that you are worried about the aura but it will be there".

She didn't comment on that, I laid down and closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, I was in the dream world. 'As I said to her, I just have to train and the dreams will return' I thought and listened to the Dark Traveller speaking away. The dream went in cycles as usual and when the 20th cycle finished, I woke up in my bed.

Laly was sitting next to the bed and seemed asleep. I didn't disturb her and went out to start my day. In the afternoon, Laly came over to again instruct me on the archery and even praised me that I made huge improvements. I guessed that it was all thanks to my previous training with throwing weapons. I already trained my aim very well, I just had to get adjusted to the basic archery stance as well as the bow itself.

I practiced like this for the rest of the afternoon and in the evening, I continued reading the Corporeal Structure book. Days went like this and a week passed. My basic archery stance was perfected and Laly introduced me to new technique of being even more precise. She said "Your aim is very good and your stance is perfected but we always used a target fairly close to us. A 100 metre target is not that difficult to hit. With this bow, you should be able to hit a target that is about 300 metres away". I was a bit stunned ' I thought 100 metres is quite far away but to hit something 300 metres away?' I thought and decided to ask for a demonstration. "Can you show me how you do it?" to which Laly said "Of course" and took out her bow.

I stopped her and said "No, use this bow" and handed her my bow. She looked at me and smiled "Do you seriously think that changing bows will somehow make me fail? Then look" she said and notched an arrow on the bow. Before she released the arrow, she asked "Do you see that tree with a broken trunk? It's about 300 metres from here in that direction". She showed me the tree she was talking about and indeed, it was about 300 metres away from where we stood. I said "Yep, I see it".

She didn't respond this time but simply smiled and released her arrow. "Swooosh!!" the arrow flew through the air and hit the target dead straight in the center. "Very Nice!" I exclaimed. Laly gave the bow back to me and said "If you simply try to shoot an arrow and aim at that tree, you will most probably fail. You have to learn how to read weather conditions further away. The wind here can blow left but at the target it can blow right. You have to take note of those things and adjust to them. This way, you will be able to hit a target that is 300 metres away every time".

I thought about it for a while and came up with something. I said "I think I know how to do it". Laly only laughed at my comment and didn't believe me but I didn't care. 'I trained the Natural Path skill, this involved perceiving the changes in nature. If I can perceive the changes that occur 300 metres away, I will be able to adjust to them and hit the target' I thought. She didn't give me a specific solution to that problem but she didn't have to, I already learned one.

I retrieved an arrow and notched it onto the bow. I took my aim and then looked at the nature along the path my arrow would take. This was the same as with the Natural Path skill but instead of me doing all the stuff, the arrow would do it. I aimed like this for a while and then "Swooosh!" the arrow flew through the air and barely missed the target.

Laly was shocked at first but then said "That was probably just luck, try again!". I didn't mind her comment, it was something new for me as well. Implementing a skill such a Natural Path to something like archery was probably never done before. I took out another arrow and notched it onto the bow.

I took aim again and tried to perceive the changes happening on the path that my arrow would take. After a while, I released the arrow "Swooosh!" another miss but again a close miss. Laly didn't want to believe that as well and said "Again!". I could feel she was excited as well as shocked about that display.

I repeated those shots and finally on the 7th try, I managed to hit the tree. It was off center but a hit was a hit. I said "I have this figured out, I just need some time to get used to it". She couldn't believe it herself and blurted out "Again". I practiced like this for a few hours and by that time, I had about 70% accuracy. Out of 10 arrows I shot, 7 would hit the tree and a few would be very close to the center.

Laly was stunned and asked "How did you do it? I remember that I had to practice for a very long time before I could even get to the same accuracy as you". I said "It's because I used one of my skills to help me with that. You remember me running around for days on end? That is the skill I used in order to hit my target. Although it seems incredible that I was able to do so very fast, you need to take under consideration the amount of time I spent on my Natural Path skill".

Laly seemed to calm down and said "Oh! So that's how it was. I thought you are some kind of born archer", I replied "Hey! Incorporating that skill to the archery was not easy! Learning it was even more difficult, so cut me some slack". She smiled and said "We will continue tomorrow. When you are able to hit the tree every time, we will move on to the next technique". I nodded my head and we went back to the cave.