46 Energy of the Body

The life returned to 'normal', after the wedding. I worked at the smithy, and trained with Nick during the evenings and nights. One night, Nick pointed something out to me. "You know, that turtle has been observing us?". I honestly forgot about the turtle at that point, since my focus was mostly on the things Nick tried to teach me.

"Oh, you mean that turtle. I saw it a few times after you caught it, but didn't pay it any mind. Seems it settled near the river after all. Good for it, I guess", I replied. "... I'm teaching an idiot. Why do you think that turtle stares at us? No, at you?", Nick asked. "How the hell should I know? I don't read minds. I might see some behaviour patterns with people, but who knows what the turtle thinks? Maybe it's interested with what I'm doing here?", I replied a bit annoyed.

"Oh it is interested for sure, and in you. Stop being a blockhead, that turtle wants to be with you", Nick explained. "... That sounded a bit weird, old man", "Go there, and see for yourself. That guy will stay there instead of escaping. We can bet if you want", he added. "Sigh... Fine! I'll go there". I gave in to Nick's words, and headed towards the river.

The turtle was of course there, and it simply stared at me. I approached it closer, but as Nick said, it didn't try to escape. "Do you like me or something?", I asked a bit confused. "Mah!", the turtle replied, but it made no sense to me. "So why are you staring at... Wait a minute, that's not going to work here. Do you want to join me there?", I asked instead. "Mah, mah, maaah", the turtle replied with a nod.

"So why you didn't come over before?". I realised that my question couldn't be answered 'yes' or 'no', but the turtle made some sounds, then stared at Nick. "Oh, you don't like that guy. He's not going to hurt you though...", at that point, I felt like my mind was gone. 'I've lost it, I'm talking with a turtle... I know this guy can understand us, but still'.

The turtle got closer and made a few noises. "What is it?", I asked while crouching and patting it's head. "Mah!", whatever that meant, I said that it was time for me to go back to training. This time, the turtle didn't simply leave, but rather followed me. "So you want to go with me?", "Mah!", the turtle nodded.

I came back to Nick with the turtle, and placed it down on the side. "You found a new friend", Nick said with a grin. "I'm not sure why it wants to follow me. I can't get used to the fact it can also understand me", I replied. "You'll get used to it. I told you, people keep all sorts of pets and companions. This isn't that strange, and this little guy has potential to develop more. Remember the variants we spoke of before?", he said.

Nick then pointed at the medicine pot, where a new batch of medicine was finished. "Seems this guy is also interested in that", "Huh? The turtle wants medicine? Do you think it's hurt?", I asked. "I'm a human doctor, not a turtle doctor. Maybe there's some pain in it's body? You can give it some medicine, it not going to harm it anyway", he proposed. Since the medicine was finished, it didn't really matter to me.

"You want this?", I asked the turtle. "Mah, maaah!", it got excited. "Are you hurt anywhere?", but this time the turtle shook its head. 'Huh? Does it only want to taste it because of curiosity? Maybe the smell attracts it?', I questioned myself, then asked Nick for a bowl. "Here you go, some medicine", I said. The turtle drank the medicine, and seemed happy about it. "I've no idea what this turtle is, to be honest".

Nick had something to say about that. "You know, if there are no injuries, the medicine still promotes healing and whatnot. I think this is the best time to talk about energy with you". "What do you mean by energy? Like, energy to lift a rock?", I asked. "Sort of... How do I explain it though. Maybe like that. You have blood pumping through your veins, right. Your blood travels all around your body, and of course blood is tangible. Then imagine something like blood inside your body, but it's not visible. That's energy. Every being has energy, whether humans or animals. That's why, everyone can change", he explained.

"Now, remember about the formation inside the bag? You must've felt something when you activated it, right?", he asked. "Yes, it felt like something reached inside my body. The feeling was weird for sure", "That's exactly what energy is. The formation, in order to work, requires energy. There is no energy inside the formation itself, therefore the user must provide it. The sensation you felt back then, was energy being extracted from your body", he added.

"Wait a minute, isn't that bad then?", I asked a bit afraid. "Of course not. Same with blood. If you bleed a bit, every once in a while, does that mean you will die?", "... No, the blood replenishes itself inside my body... So the energy is the same?", I replied a bit unsure. "Yes, you can overexert yourself... Which would be similar to losing a lot of blood. At one point, if you loose too much blood, well you die. Same with energy, if you go beyond a certain threshold, you might die, or suffer serious injuries. That's what plagues my body. You don't see any injuries on me, but my lifespan got shorter because of that reason", he described.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous, to use your energy?", "Haha, without your energy, you'd be dead in seconds against an opponent who can utilise it. So far you experienced villages, and rarely such people have any sort of proper knowledge of energy. They might use it sometimes, unconsciously, but they don't know how or why it works like that. Rand for example, he has a set of exercises from somewhere, which helps with gaining energy. He does that through hidden muscles... I'll tell you more about that later. Anyway, thanks to practicing that, he is able to exert more strength, or run faster. That's what energy is used for", he explained.

"That's why Senty was stronger than other guys?", I realised. "Precisely, she practiced the same set of exercises as her grandfather. You can see how beneficial energy can be, right? Now, I can't teach you what energy really is, or how to best utilise it. That's something everyone has to figure out by themselves. Of course knowing about it, makes it easier... Once you are done with Rand, make sure to take his exercise method. With the knowledge of human body, you should be able to adapt it for your own needs. Before you ask, my method isn't suitable for you, hence you will not learn it", Nick said.

"Right... Are those exercises the only way to improve your energy?", I asked next. "No, any exercise is good. Simply some sets give you better benefits, and manage that at a faster rate. If you were to simply run around, do squats and whatnot, it would take you much longer... Here's another notion, the energy is tied to your limits. Before you ask about that, we can break our limits, there are even stages of broken limits", he revealed.

That sounded weird. I could grasp the idea of surpassing one's limits, but Nick's definition sounded a bit different. "I know that look, and yes, no villagers know about limits. What they call warriors, are people who usually broke past a limit. There are two of them, The Outer Limit, and the Inner Limit. For your curiosity sake, I wasn't able to reach Inner Limits, because of the overexerting my energy accident. Who knows, it could've been possible... Perhaps. Moreover, each limit has a half step. You didn't even broke past that half step towards the Outer Limits. Once you do, you'll see the difference... Albeit, it will be nothing compared to breaking past an actual Limit", he added further explanation.

I wasn't sure what to think anymore. Outer and Inner Limits, energy and whatnot. "You just have to remember that, not figure everything out now. That's the crux of it, really. You train your body, surpass your limits and attain more energy, strength, speed or whatever you desire. I'll be slowly teaching you how energy can be used, albeit your control of that energy will be really poor. Once you enter the Outer Limits, you'll notice how different energy use is", he said.

"I see... Then what about the turtle?", "Turtles have energy too. Now, back to the talk involving medicine. You could say that medicine heals the body, but it also replenishes energy. However, if there are no injuries, the energy still gets absorbed inside the body. Even a turtle can break past limits, if there's enough energy to achieve that. That's how you get variants inside the Great Forest. I'm not talking about a black wolf, albeit they have more energy than regular ones. There are creatures you've never seen before", he replied.

"Your turtle will most probably absorb that energy from the medicine, since it isn't used for healing of wounds. Before you ask the stupid question, no. You can't simply drink medicine all the time, and get stronger. You will develop immunity to that medicine, as well as others. With time, the medicine will cease to work, and if you get injured? Well, tough luck. So, don't feed that turtle any more medicine... Raise it however you will, but medicine should be used only when necessary", he added.

"I understand", "Don't worry, Nex. Me teaching you about energy, and Limits was already planned. I suppose this was a perfect chance to explain such stuff. We'll do some practice in the future, but right now, you need to focus on arts", Nick said. I turned towards the turtle, and realised it fell asleep. "It's late, I'll take this guy with me then, and we will continue the training tomorrow. Alright?", "Sure. Training at this point would be useless, since you will think about all the stuff you heard. Rest, and we'll continue tomorrow", Nick replied before we headed back.