New Map

I started my day as usual. Training the 1st and 2nd modified diagram, then the training with Shelly and then dinner. While I was resting, I decided to have a look through the books that I found on the remains of that woman who used her fist in combat.

The 1st book I took out was a book about swords. I was a bit disappointed because it would be useless to me. Learning to wield another weapon besides my daggers and a bow which I wanted to learn would be too time consuming. Although I was a bit disappointed but it struck me as weird that she had a book on swords. I check the book in greater details and noticed that it was different compared to the books I found on the other guys.

The book was called "Slash of the Thousand Arms". I thought 'That is a lavish title' and decided to check the contents. Although sword skills would be useless to me but that could be also said about the book on whips. I didn't intend to learn how to wield a whip but the second part of the book was about unpredictability which could provide some benefits. I wanted to check if this book would also allow for such things even without a sword.

I skimmed through the book for a while but didn't find anything of that sort. It described the method to slash the sword many times at once and create the effect or illusion of attacking once but with multiple slashes. It was useless to me but then I thought of something. 'This book describes how to train hands in order to accomplish that. It also doesn't require sword as a weapon. Dagger could be used as well, its just that the book doesn't state that. It focuses on swords only'. My thoughts continued 'What if I were to adapt those fast movements to my close combat skills with the dagger. Dagger was lighter than a sword and so it could be even faster. If I can adapt those principles to my close combat then it would produce another skill'.

I didn't have time to try and adapt the principles behind that sword skill to my dagger now. I could only do it after I've mastered my other skills or at least hit a wall and couldn't progress any further, like with the "Avoid the Light" or "Become a Hidden Weapon". Although I wouldn't learn sword wielding, I could still adapt some skills from that area.

I decided to leave this book for later. 'When I get some time, I will check it again in greater details but for now my mid range combat is more important' I thought. Training the Stringed Hidden Weapons would be the next skill in line after I trained my body.

The next book I took out was a fist skill. When I skimmed through it, it described how to use strength properly through the medium of your fists. It also described couple of training methods that could make the fists tougher and more resilient towards damage. One such method was to use fine sand. The book described to get some kind of big bowl and place the fine sand inside. The method was quite crude as the practitioner would have to, well hit that sand with their bare fists. The method maybe worked but it would also require loads of medicine due to the damages inflicted on ones hands. This was not the best solution for me so I didn't take it seriously.

But I decided to keep that book anyway. 'I will study it later, when my main skills are properly trained' I thought. There was one more book in the bag. Or rather what I thought was a book, it turned out that the third "book" was a map and when I unfolded it, it actually covered larger area than the one I got from Nick. The map I got from Nick would be invalid if we traveled for couple of days north but this map covered at least 14 more days of travel towards north and there was some kind of settlement there as well.

The map was more detailed compared to Nick's map. It showed mountain range in the forest or rather covered by the Great Forest as well as some names in red which I didn't know the meaning of but could kind of figure it out. 'I think the names in red mean very dangerous areas' I thought. There were names such as Lava Pit or Marshland. There were some names in black, probably describing animal dwellings and such. One of the names was "Wolf Den" which could only describe some kind of large population of wolves.

I was happy that we got even better map, now I wouldn't have to worry what is further up north and we could travel there in case we wanted to. The settlement or village was quite big. It was not a city because cities were displayed differently on the map. The map still covered the area of the map I got from Nick it just expanded towards north a lot.

The settlement or village was called Aria and it was about 5 or 6 days of horseback travel towards the north eastern direction from our current location. I thought 'These people were probably from that village. I wonder how they can survive in this forest when the beasts are numerous. No wonder that group of people had decent skills'. Another weird point was that their village was so far away yet they made it till here, the question was "What for?" I said out loud.

I didn't know their reasons but I just hoped that no more people would come here. Just like Nick said, the less I interact with people the better. The group that wanted to take over our shelter which we built tirelessly for couple of days was a good example of that. Just because they need to rest, it automatically means I don't have to? Why should I give them something for free when they did nothing for me in return except the hostility I received when I approached our home.

I dispersed those thoughts and threw all the staff back into my bag. I didn't have time to wonder about those things at the moment. My training was waiting.