Chapter 86: Strength Or Skill?

I tried to manipulate the puppet and I noticed it was more difficult, the additional weight on my arms as well as my back, prevent me from controlling the puppet very smoothly. Although Shelly couldn't see that and trained as usual, I had some problems in order to maintain the training. 'Who would have guessed that adding just this much weight onto my arms would create such effect? Well there is this heavy bag on my back as well so it probably plays a huge role too' I thought.

I wasn't thinking of taking off the bag or the weights and simply tried to adjust to the weight to continue on with the training. After an hour or so I was getting tired. The weight played its part, although it might seemed that the weight was nothing in the beginning but continuous training proved otherwise. I stopped the training soon after and said to Shelly "It is enough for today. You are doing improvements although I had a hard time controlling the puppet. We will try to increase the number of puppets to two tomorrow and see how it goes". Shelly nodded and was quite pleased with itself.

'I myself wonder how my control will look like when I try two puppets at once' I thought to myself. I let Shelly go to the shelter and rest while I focused on the 2nd diagram from the Strength Manual. I didn't modify it for long as I felt tired from all the weight carrying and went to bed soon after.

I still had to face the dream of mine and try to find some meaning in the words spoken by the dark figure. I fell asleep and woke up in front of the dark figure again, who started talking as usual. The dream went as usual and this time I wasn't able to figure out any new meaning either. When I woke up, I ate some breakfast and went outside to train the 1st modified diagram.

I didn't even last 15 minutes this time. It was all due to the weight that I was carrying. The time I could stay in that pose was a bit less than 10 minutes. The weight alone took away 5 minutes of the time I was able to practice this pose for. 'I wonder what type of effect would it have when I reach 15 minutes with the weight on' I thought.

I was adding stones to my bag as the food was disappearing, it was in order to maintain roughly the same weight. If I were to rely on food only to fill in my bag, it would not be a proper training. Every time I took away some food, I would place about an equal amount of stones inside. it might seem stupid to carry around stones but hell it was my training and I didn't care about the method but the effects it would bring.

Shelly came out of our shelter a while later and I gave it breakfast. I then decided to train with Shelly first and do my own training later. I took out two puppets from my bag and asked Shelly "Ready?" to which Shelly nodded and we begun our training after I placed the mask on it.

Shelly was able to cope with two puppets but that was mainly due to the weight I was carrying. It didn't mean it would be able to if I dropped all of that weight. Nevertheless, we continued on like this till afternoon.

After the dinner we went out to hunt as usual. The hunt this time was not very thrilling but still possessed some difficulties for me and especially my accuracy. Due to the weight, I missed quite often and this resulted in more dagger throwing. This was not progress but backstepping, yet I wasn't disappointed. 'If I manage to pull through all of this, the fruits of my training will be much greater' I thought.

We returned from the hunt and went to do our own separate training. Shelly was becoming more crafty and experienced when fighting against larger groups of animals. This was a good sign and proved that Shelly was learning something new everyday.

I on the other hand started my Stringed Hidden Weapons training but was soon left helpless. Due to the weight, it was now even harder to train in that skill. I wondered what possible things I could do in order to adjust faster to that weight. Improving my skills was quite troublesome with it and I wouldn't progress much, especially when I adapt to the weight and all proportions would change.

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I thought and thought and finally figured something out. 'Why not just do simple exercises? It may be crude but wouldn't that allow me to simply get accustomed to that weight much faster?'. The only problem with that would be the lack of practice of other skills. 'I would have to sacrifice learning something new... again, in order to get stronger first'.

This had its advantages too. When I'm adjusted to the weight, the effects might be even more amazing than simply grinding the skill while the weight pulls me down at all times. I decided to leave all the skills behind and focus on that. Although I would not make any progress when it came to skills, I would gain more strength in exchange. Strength was not an absolute power. It would boost my ability to make damage and perhaps my movements but it wouldn't provide any technique.

All that being said, I still went for strength. 'If I'm as strong as a silver bear or stronger then I will be able to kill such opponent with bare hands, I can work on my skills later'. I had loads of skills to work on, not only 3 types of arts that I learned from Nick but also skills I developed myself.

I then thought about exercises I should be doing. 'The Strength Manual focuses mainly on hidden muscles and I can practise it only once a day. Besides I only have the 1st diagram modified, I will need to spend the rest of my free time on modifying the 2nd diagram'. I would still practise the Strength Manual but that was not enough and didn't cover my other muscles.

I thought 'What sort of exercises will I need in order to train all my usual muscles?'. Then the answer came to me in a flash. "That is right! I remember my father doing sets of exercises each morning. Mother also liked to watch him do it. Just what were those exercises?". I tried hard to remember and recall what type of exercises my father did.

'Now that I think about it, why would father do exercises every morning?'. My parents always told me they were merchants or simply put peddlers, selling stuff around the village and sometimes leaving the village while I would be under the care of my neighbours.

'Yet our heirloom was a sword, father used to do a lot of exercises everyday and he knew how to make fire and such… Did they lie to me? Why would a peddler train his or her body? and why would the heirloom be a sword which I wasn't supposed to show to anyone?' I never wondered about those things. I was a stupid village boy, ignorant and blind but now? All these questions and my parents' past behaviour was weird indeed, if they really were peddlers.

I no longer had a way to find out, they died when traveling from some kind of village to Freemount Village. Some people escaped that tragedy and reported it to the village chief. That was how I found out. 'It seems strange and full of holes when I wonder about it now. I shall pay a visit to the Freemount Village when I'm done with my arts'.

I then tried to recall my father's exercises. First he would stretch out for a while, I guessed that it was to warm up the muscles. A very common thing before exercising. After stretching for whatever time, he would crouch and then stand up for a while. The next exercise he would do was to lay down, put his hands behind his head and lift his legs up high while maintaining them straight. Next he would do some punches in the air for whatever reason and then stand on both hands while the legs would be straightened upwards and work with his arms up and down.

I thought 'Some of those things are a bit stupid but hell, he did them for some kind of reason, so I will take that as 1 part of my training. I will need additional exercises as well in order to fill in my day' and started devising the 2nd part of my training.

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