After we ate the food, I placed the rest of the cooked meat into my bag in order to prepare for the next morning. I now knew I would need larger quantities of food every time I woke up therefore I had to store up for that occasion. After sorting out the food, we returned to our shelter. I placed the vision sealing mask back on Shelly and said "Try running around between trees now. You already have some experience so it shouldn't be that difficult". Shelly nodded its head and went off to train near the trees.
I on the other hand, started my practise with daggers. I was already quite skilled with retrieving and hiding my weapons so I didn't need to practise this further for now. When I fought with that old woman in the Limestone Village, one very crucial detail became apparent. Although my aim was quite good, my daggers needed to be more unpredictable. If I couldn't accomplish that, the strong opponents such as that old woman could easily render my skills useless.
For that I needed the book I found on the old woman's body. I wanted to learn how to be more unpredictable but I didn't need the softness part of the skill. I also didn't know if that was a general skill or was it for the whip users. I started to read the Soft Fish Technique. After a while of reading, I noticed that the whip was required as a main weapon. I would need to learn how to use a whip in order to learn this technique but I never considered that option. I searched through the book in order to find methods that would allow my daggers to be less predictable.
The book mostly pointed towards flexibility of the whip and how it could change directions midway as well as unpredictable behaviour it could create. It would be very hard to change those skills in order to use them with a dagger. First, a dagger was a close range weapon or a throwing weapon which would count as mid ran one time use weapon. This in itself had no compatibility with a whip that was mid range weapon and was not one use only. The next problem was that I had to throw my dagger while whip would always stay in my hand. This meant I could manipulate it all times. Because of that, it give the whip unpredictable behaviour.
When I threw my dagger, I had no more control over it. Of course I wanted to learn Stringed Hidden Weapons skill but I didn't master my puppet skills yet. I could give it a try but that was not really unpredictable behaviour of a hidden weapon. In order for it to be unpredictable and a throwing weapon, I would have to find a way for the dagger to change directions while it was already thrown.
'It could be done with strings but how would I achieve it without them?' I thought. I spent some time thinking about it and came to a point where I had 2 options. The first option was to somehow affect the dagger while it was already thrown and the other was to throw the dagger in such a way, that it would change the direction midway.
While I was thinking like this, a gust of wind suddenly blew through the area I was in. I looked at the trees, the bushes, the waterfall then the water and realised something "WIND!". I could use wind to my advantage. 'If I could sense the wind and predict the currents, then a thrown dagger could change directions midway' I thought. This was easier said than done. How exactly would one predict the wind. It could not be predicted, a gust of wind could blow from left once but then a frontal wind could blow. There is no way to predict that.
I thought 'It's a longshot but that would make my daggers unpredictable and thrown daggers could change directions or angles midway'. Hypothetically, if I threw a dagger at someone's head. That person would try to either shield that area or avoid the dagger but what if the dagger suddenly changed directions and aimed for the heart. Even the old hag that I barely killed would not be able to predict that.
I thought 'But how am I supposed to predict the wind and use it to throw my daggers. This is impossible idea and I'm getting too far ahead of myself. It's not possible to do this!'. Then I remembered something 'Nick said that all the people who mastered their arts developed them by themselves. If I relay on Nick's teachings all the time while suppressing my own ideas, will I ever master my arts?' I asked myself. The answer was
"NO! If Nick said that avoiding the light is possible as well as becoming the hidden weapon is also possible. THEN PREDICTING THE WIND IS ALSO POSSIBLE!". I could feel something building inside of me, like a desire or thirst. I felt as if something inside my body, urged me to follow my path. While I was in that state, Shelly ran over due to my shout and wondered what I was on about. I woke up from that state and said to Shelly "Don't worry, I just figured out what I need to do". Then I sent Shelly off to continue its training.
I knew that predicting the wind would be as hard as avoiding the light or becoming a hidden weapon but it was a goal I set for myself. My own feat that seemed impossible. My senses were already trained but I needed to train them further. The mask that Shelly used would not be able to help me, I needed a different plan.
I needed to train my hearing as well as the sense of touch. The wind was everywhere but if I could determine the wind by using my body as well as using my hearing, it could be possible to accomplish that deed. I went to the open area not far away from our shelter. I then closed my eyes and focus only on the wind. I needed to cancel out all the other noises and learn to find the wind. I needed to register not the rustling of grass or leaves, not the sound of waterfall that was close by but the sound of the pure wind that flew through the air, unrestrained, blowing around me.
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