Nothing but Darkness

When I opened my eyes, I was in my dream. The problem was that although it seemed like my dream, there was nothing in there. No Dark Traveller, no objects, no nothing. Darkness filled the entire place. I wasn't even able to see anything. 'What is this supposed to be? Am I blind or something?' I thought. I tried placing my hand in front of my eyes and found out that I wasn't blind, I could barely see the outline of my hand.

"This is weird. Why am I here? There seems to be nothing but darkness. Am I supposed to sit here like this and do nothing?" I said to myself. I decided to walk around and explore. I thought that there might be something there in the darkness. I walked for a long time but it seemed that I didn't move at all. The scenery didn't change and there was no sense of time. When I moved, I still could see nothing, whichever direction I went to.

I decided to do some exercises, I had nothing else to do anyway. I tried imagining the exercises from my dreams but to no avail. I tried saying some things in Ancient Language as well but that didn't work either.

All that was left for me to do, was to either train without any weights, tools and weapons or try to come up with some new skills. I tried training for a bit but because there was no sense of time. It didn't matter how long I trained, I also didn't get tired either. I felt as if I was dead and just walked in the darkness mindlessly. I thought 'I should spend some time trying to come up with new skills or try to improve the current ones I have'.

I thought about my current skill set and tried to add some adjustments. The first skill I tried to improve was my throwing skill. I didn't have any weapons on me, I could only come up with ideas but not test them. At least not stuff that involved weapons or tools. I remembered the book I found when I killed that old woman, the Soft Fish Technique. I went through my memory and tried to remember the things written inside. My memory was much better now and I could recall some things from that book but not a lot of them.

I knew I had to be more unpredictable. 'This could be achieved by couple of different routes, now that I think about it' I thought. The 1st way was for me to change direction of my daggers after they were thrown. I already figured out a skill based on that. The other option would be to make my daggers invisible or rather, create my daggers from a material that would not reflect much light. 'I don't know if such material exists. Even if it does, it's not like I can just find it laying on the ground, inside a forest' I thought.

This was a far fetched idea but it would be possible to be much more unpredictable with daggers that are less visible and harder to spot. 'My daggers are already intricate and unusual. Nick didn't use daggers either, he used knifes like those used by doctors. I already found my own style of the weapon i.e. the dagger I created in the past. Only the materials can change but the shape is very suitable for me' I thought.

I had one more idea. 'Speed. The faster I can throw the dagger, the more unpredictable it is or rather, the harder it is to be spotted and dodged. Besides speed, I would need perfect control of my body. Not some simple control of my strength but of every muscle movement. Throwing the dagger so fast, it would seem that I never moved my hand in the first place. It is possible because Nick wasn't far away from that. Back then, my senses were still undeveloped. I would be able to spot those knifes now. It must be possible though, if I could be fast enough' I thought.

I was already in the process of training my new skill from the Art of Stealth. I didn't give much thought about the stealth as I knew what I had to do and how to improve the new skill. My Art of Medicine didn't progress much. I was able to produce simple medicines or poisons but I had no tools or ingredients to try out the more intermediate or advanced recipes. My Art of Medicine was stagnant at the moment.

'I don't know how long I've been here. It seems like eternity. There is no sun or moon, there are no seasons or even things to look at' I thought. In the beginning, I tried to count how many hours, days and so on passed but I gave up after my counting reached days.

"This is just ridiculous! It's impossible for me to stay in here for days. Something must be wrong! I need to leave this place" I said out loud. There was no change to my state whenever I wished to leave, train or just sit and think. I never became tired and never felt hunger. I laid down tired of feeling or seeing nothing around me and closed my eyes. 'I might as well just sleep' I thought and fell asleep.

When my eyes opened again, I was no longer in a dream. The darkness was replaced by light, objects and what not. "Finally!" I exclaimed. "What finally?" the voice of the creature drifted from close by. I said "It doesn't matter. How long did I sleep for?" to which she answered "About a day". This got me thinking 'Just a day passed but in my dream? Days, if not weeks passed. This is too weird, I hope I will not get to see that dream again'.

I tried to sit up but for some reason, I wasn't able to do so. I looked down and around my body, there were straps and what not attached onto my limbs and body. I asked "Why did you strap me like this?". The voice got closer and the creature stood next to me. She said "You were doing some weird stuff and your wounds were opening all the time. I strapped you down for your own safety. Wait a minute, I will undo them".

I waited patiently until she undid the straps. I then sat up and took a look around. It was a cave with a few different rooms. I couldn't see anything out of ordinary. 'She has some decor and stuff but nothing extraordinary' I thought. When she saw that I was alright, she went back to her place and sat down. "We can talk now. I'm sure you will have loads to ask, I will answer your questions so take it slow" she said and awaited my questions.