Limits

The scene in front of me repeated 20 times like last time and I finally woke up. I again felt the hunger as if I didn't eat anything for couple of days. I got up from my bed and opened my bag in order to get some food.

I again ate a lot until I satisfied my hunger, I then checked my body. I didn't get skinnier like before but I couldn't get much skinnier than that anyway. I woke Shelly up and said "It's time for our training. Eat something first and then we shall start". I waited for Shelly to eat its breakfast and then put on the vision sealing mask on it.

I went outside myself and started by training in the 1st diagram of the Strength Manual. I decided to call it Strength Manual because that was what this manual helped to train. I was again stunned when I noticed that I could last now 13 minutes while in the pose. This got me wondering 'Will I improve every time I have this dream?'. I knew that would be impossible because I only improved 1 minute compared to the 2 minutes last time.

Although I had more strength, the price I had to pay was not small either. My mind was being overexerted every time I had that dream, my body was also overexerted as if I was overusing my body every night. I guessed that the reason I had to eat so much was also due to the overuse of my mind and body. It was less severe this time, this could only mean that my body was adjusting to that state.

After the 1st diagram exercise, I went back to my training with puppets. I noticed that I could also focus a bit better. Although this didn't allow me to instantly master the skill of puppetry, it helped me to be one step closer to mastery. I trained like this until it was afternoon and decided to stop in order to eat lunch.

I called out to Shelly "Shelly, let's go and hunt something". A while later, Shelly came running towards me with the mask still attached. Shelly was making large improvements as well but it wasn't due to the dreams, perhaps it was getting better accustomed to the lack of vision and became more skillful with the use of senses such as smell or hearing.

I took the mask off from Shelly's head and we went deeper into the forest in order to hunt. On our way we found a group of boars that numbered in 23 and decided to hunt them. I could kill most of those boars no problem within a short amount of time but instead I opted for another way. I said to Shelly "You will deal with all of them, Let's see what you've learned". Shelly looked at me and I could see worry on its face. I said "I will not help you, deal with this yourself. If you always follow me and deal with single targets that are left behind by me then you will learn nothing. What if we are separated and you have to deal with a large group of animals or creatures?".

Shelly looked at me with even more worry. Probably because it didn't want to be separated. This was a sort of taboo when it came to Shelly, it wanted to go with me even to the ends of hell. Although Shelly didn't want to be separated, it could happen due to different circumstances and it would have to deal with problems by itself.

I said again "Go, it will help you grow. Besides, treat it as a part of training". Shelly reluctantly nodded its head and sped off towards the pack of boars. Shelly needed to develop its combat skills. Shelly would just ram into targets that were left behind by me and that was not good. It was a simpleminded attack at whatever was moving without any skill or plan. I chose this pack of animals for Shelly to try and hunt because they were boars. Boars were not as difficult as bears or wolves. Wolves were very crafty while bears were very strong. Boars on the other hand had some strength and worked in a group in order to maximize their strength of many against few. This was a perfect place for Shelly to develop its skills and gain some combat experience.

When the boars noticed Shelly rushing towards them, they immediately grouped together and started their counterattack. Although the boars might've been right in doing this against one foe but this was a bad idea against Shelly. Shelly didn't stop but increased its speed even more.

When Shelly rammed into the boars that were packed into a group trying to trample Shelly, the results were as I already predicted. The boars at the front didn't expect that kind of impact and about 6 boars flew into the air from the collision. When they dropped, all the boars were dead while blood started to flow from their snouts. Shelly's momentum was stopped and now it was in the middle of the boars that survived the attack. Shelly's tactic was not bad but it had one crucial negative aspect. When the attack finished and there were enemies in the vicinity, Shelly would not be able to attack like this again as it needed space to gain speed. This left Shelly in a very vulnerable position.

The boars that survived the impact and those that were mostly unaffected from the impact, immediately attacked Shelly. Shelly became quite confused, It didn't know what to do next and got hit couple of times while backing out. The hard shell on Shelly provided it with very good defence, I wasn't worried that Shelly would die very quickly. Besides if the situation got out of hand and Shelly's life was at stake, I would intervene. I didn't say that to Shelly for it to focus fully and treat it as a life or death kind of situation. That was why for the sake of Shelly's learning, I said I would do nothing.

While Shelly was pushed back more and more and received more damage, it's instincts kicked in and it started to use its mouth as a weapon. Although turtles were slow due to their lifestyle, that didn't mean they were slow all the time. Turtles could be very fast when attacking with their mouth. Shelly already showed that when hunting fishes. Shelly would use its mouth in order to catch the fish but on other occasions like fighting wolves or bears, it didn't use its mouth in order to attack.

Now, Shelly attacked with its mouth and the boars with their weak defence of only skin could not block the attack. The boars would lose considerable chunks of their meat when Shelly bit them. Shelly would also eat the meat and attack again. I guessed that this method would replenish some energy Shelly lost but also damage its opponent. It was a much better method of combat compared to straight out running into things, especially for longer periods of time. Ramming into things would be effective in a one on one battle but fighting this type of group would be the complete opposite.

Shelly through the use of its mouth, killed or rather ate about 5 more boars. The boars started to panic because about a half of them already died and some of that half was eaten alive. This allowed Shelly some room and it used that disorder to gain momentum and rammed into the group again. This time there were less boars in the group and they were not as densely packed so only 3 died from the impact.

The boars couldn't take it anymore and started to run away. Shelly ran after some and killed almost all of them. Although some ran away there were about 18 boars that died from Shelly's attacks and that was enough for one hunt.

I came over to Shelly, who was already quite exhaust and said "Good job but you could've done much better". Shelly looked at me a bit angry. Instead of a proper prise, it got some remarks. I continued "From now on you will hunt different types of animals alone. Although you could hunt small groups or single animals by yourself, in these parts there are rarely any lone animals". Shelly again was not happy about that and complained to me.

I said "You can complain or you can improve yourself. The more you battle the better and you can't always follow me. You have to think for yourself and learn how to deal with stuff by yourself". Shelly dropped its head down and after a while lifted it up and nodded in agreement. I then said "Good. Then we shall now cook the food and return to the training".