70 Shelly's New Strength

Two days went by since the incident. I felt much better already, but Shelly didn't wake up at that stage yet. This was something I witnessed before. When Shelly received my medicine for the first time, the same thing happened. Moreover, its shell fully healed after those two days. Which meant, there was no need for more medicine. Just like Nick said, overdoing it could cause immunity later.

I couldn't really train anything, which gave me time to look through the medical notes and books. The notes I got from the Limestone Village were really good. Nick only taught me some basics about the body, but the notes were much more extensive. With vein, nerve and muscle diagrams depicting all details. 'That guy had to cut up a few Humans, in order to receive such detailed drawing...', that thought made me recall the creature inside the glass sphere.

'Are those dreams really related to that creature?', I asked myself. The more I looked at it, the more unsure I was. There were two events that happened before those dreams started occurring. The visit to the Limestone Village, and the book which turned to dust. 'If a fucking boulder can turn me into a skeleton, then why shouldn't a book giving weird dreams exist?', I reasoned.

The most bizzare part had to be the lack of other dreams. I either dreamt about that hooded figure, or nothing at all. At least nothing my mind could remember. 'If it was indeed that book, what sort of consequences am I looking at? Will I go crazy or something? Will those dreams stop after a while?', I asked myself. With no answer in sight, I could only leave those thoughts behind.

A few days later, Shelly finally woke up from its slumber. "Hey, how do you feel?", I asked. Shelly happily ran over, then rubbed its head on my pants. "You saved both of us. I'm really happy to have such a friend... Let me check you over a bit", I added while picking Shelly up. "Wow! You got a bit heavier again... You are a bit bigger too, or did you get bigger earlier? I'm not sure anymore. Anyway, you seem healthy and your shell looks as sleek as glass. It's good to have you back".

"Mah, mah!", Shelly exclaimed at me, for calling it fat. "I don't care about your weight, it just surprised me a bit. There, I'll let you down... Anyway, you cheeky turtle. I'm sure you used that medicine for something else than recovery", I added. "Mah!", Shelly made a single noise then showed off its new strength.

Not only did Shelly get faster, but its shell became harder. Shelly demonstrated that with a tree. Though the tree wasn't thick, Shelly managed to break it. Moreover, there wasn't a single mark on its shell after that impact. "Well, I'll be damned. You really got stronger, eh? I'm happy though. With such a strong shell, there's less to worry about. Still! We will continue your training. Just because your shell is tougher and your speed increased by a bit, that doesn't mean you can't improve further", I said.

Shelly agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Before that though, let's eat something, right?", I added. Shelly's mood changed immediately when it heard about food. After our small meal, Shelly practiced its senses, while I tried to figure out the Art of Stealth's use of speed.

Shelly was doing really well though, for a creature that had no external ears. Shelly could hear me no problem, but its ears were hidden. The training of its senses proved to be a good direction though. Shelly learned how to use the sense of smell, touch and hearing, to walk around the area without stumbling. Running even at low speeds was still difficult, but the progress was there.

I decided to focus more on my strength and raw power, than simple speed. I didn't abandon my training in the Art of Stealth, but spent less time doing it. The silver bear made me realise how weak my body still was. I couldn't even wound it, which was a problem. I didn't have an infinite amount of poison on me, and the herbs required to make such a strong poison were not exactly common. My only option was to push my body further, gain more strength, more power to deal with such creatures.

Another two weeks passed. We got used to the life in our little shack, and fortunately no silver bears visited us ever again. Moreover, the forest came back to life since the silver bear and his sleuth were gone. Deer and rabbits frequented the river much more often, and even wolves and bears stumbled upon it sometimes. This meant we didn't have to go far in order to hunt.

Shelly made even more improvements with its senses and hunting skills. Shelly no longer slammed into things randomly, but instead used its powerful mouth to attack most of the time. Shelly was able to take care of the normal wolves without any issues, and save some energy in the process.

My body training was progressing slowly, but progressing nonetheless. Moreover, I noticed something else when practicing my Art of Stealth. My speed didn't make me stealthy at all, but it made me adapt to the terrain. My speed barely suffered while moving through obstacles, and hard terrain. Not considered stealth, but made me think about something else. 'Sometimes being stealthy will not work. Like with that silver bear, it could actually track me down. What if I use the speed and terrain to my advantage?', I asked myself.

The purpose wasn't to fight, but to flee. In order to fight another day, one had to keep his life. The ability to run through the forest unperturbed, would surely increase my chances of escaping. 'Who knows, maybe this will lead to something new. Just like my idea with those strings, and daggers. It's worth a try, since no other idea comes to my mind', I thought.

Even though Nick taught me how to analyse and predict stuff, nature wasn't a living or walking being. At least in a sense. There were no nevers, ticks or facial expressions of nature... Or were there? I quickly realised how difficult my idea would be to achieve. Nature didn't seem to have predictable patterns, but the keyword was 'seem'. That's what I intended to find out with my new training method.

The task in front of me looked impossible, but Nick proved to me that 'impossible' was relative to who looked at it. With that thought in mind, I ran around the forest while trying to predict the best path my body could take. The best and fastest path from one point to another.