Limits Chapter 143

I tried to fall asleep for a while but her staring at me was annoying . It felt like an animal waiting for some kind of chunky size of its favourite meat . I managed to get some sleep but didn't dream of the Dark Traveller . It was because I didn't train my body or skills that day .

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I saw was Laly's face . I asked "What are you doing exactly?" . She said quite brashly "Where is your aura? You didn't have it during the whole night! What happened to it?" . I replied "First, get off my face and second, I didn't dream of anything last night . How could I have that aura?" . She looked at me for a while and asked "What do you mean?" .

I replied "If I don't have my dreams, I will not have that aura" . She got worked up and said "But it never happened before . Why don't you have a dream? We agreed that I will use your aura and you will learn about my skills in exchange . Don't try to swindle me!" . 'Yep, she is crazy' I thought and said "Calm down . There is a reason for that . Sit down and I will explain . Stop acting crazy" .

She quickly made her way to the only chair in the room and sat there . She looked like a loyal dog waiting for her owner's return . I said "If I don't train my body or my skills, I don't have dreams . It's a side effect of having that aura, I guess . It never happened before because I always trained! Yesterday, we ran the whole way, I wasn't training anything but running . Today, I will train and at night, the aura will return" .

She seemed to calm down and said "Well then, why don't you go train now?" . ' . . . I would anyway . You don't have to tell me that' I thought and got off from the bed . I was about to walk out when I remembered something and said "Right, I have a specific timeframe for my training . So could you teach me about archery in the afternoon? I also need a bow and arrows" . She replied "Sure, any time you like . It's not like I have things to do . As for the bow, I have an old one that I don't use anymore so you can have that . Don't worry about arrows either, I can make some for you . "

"Great, I'm off to train then" I said and went outside the cave . I started my day from the 3rd modified diagram . I was able to last a bit longer now but the improvements were very tiny . Still lasting for 4 . 5 minutes was a large improvement nevertheless . After my initial warm up, I ate my breakfast and then prepared to practice my Natural Path skill . Before I could do that, I had to find another destination, then figure out all possible routes to that destination and so on . I think you know the drill .

It was afternoon when I finished with my routes . I found an optimal route that took me 23 minutes to run . I chose a destination further away, just to make it more interesting . My training with Laly would soon start, I ate my dinner before starting any other training . With all that done, I called out "Laly! Are you ready?" . After a while, I heard her response "Yep, I will be there in a minute!" .

Laly arrived shortly after she responded and handed me a bow . "This is for you . It is an old bow that I used long time ago but it is still very good . It also has very good bow string so you don't have to worry about breaking it" she said and I took the bow . The bow was quite light . I expected it to be much more heavy, considering that I didn't have to worry about breaking it . 'I'm not that knowledgeable about bows . I can shoot one but I don't know what this wood is . I used to work with wood but it was common type, stuff like oak or chestnut' I thought .

The bow itself was from some kind of red wood that was very light . The string was very tight but at the same time stretchy . I pulled on the string to see how much strength I needed in order to use it . I found out that not a lot of my strength was needed in order to open the bow fully . 'She said that I can't break this bow… Sounds like a challenge to me' I thought and used my maximum strength to pull the bowstring .

I could hear some creaks and Laly shouted immediately "Stop!" . I stopped pulling and asked her "I will not be able to destroy it huh?" . She responded "I forgot you were this strong physically . Don't use your full strength . Half of your strength is the maximum you should go with!" . I nodded my head in agreement . I didn't want to break a perfectly useful bow but I also wanted to prove a point .

Laly started laying out her understanding of archery . "Your posture is quite important in the beginning . I'm already in advanced stages, I can run and shoot accurately but you can't! So don't try that!" . 'Damn, she was quick to figure me out' I thought and replied "Alright, I will learn from the beginning as you say" . Laly nodded her head and continued "I will show you the basic posture so just copy me . If you do something wrong, I will point it out" . I nodded my head and looked at Laly .

She stood straight with her legs apart, about half a metre of distance . Her upper body was twisted to the side a bit while her bow and arrow were prominently displayed in front of her . I tried to position myself in the exact posture and awaited her comments . Laly said "You are taller than me so keep your legs a bit further apart . You are also twisting your upper body too much . Hold the bow a bit higher and hold your arrow dead straight" .

I adjusted all of the things she pointed out and asked "Is this alright now?" to which she responded "Plausible . Now draw your bow and release the arrow . Don't make any unnecessary movements! Just draw and release . Aim at the tree over there" and she pointed at a tree that was about 100 metres away . I did as she said and pulled the string of the bow then released it while aiming at the tree . "Swoosh!" .

"You missed . Try again" . I drew another arrow and tried again but this time, I corrected my aim a bit . "Swoosh!" . The arrow barely scraped the tree but it was improvement nevertheless . Laly said "You have to concentrate more . Take under consideration things like wind and the distance . Don't assume that if you use more strength, the arrow will hit your target" . I tried again but this time, I focused more and felt for any wind that could blow my arrow off the path . After a while "Swoosh! . . . Puk!" The arrow embedded itself into the tree .

I was a bit off the centre of the tree but it was a hit nevertheless . Laly said "just continue like this and I will correct any errors you make . You need to get used to the basic stance as well as shooting in that stance . With time, I will introduce more advanced methods of archery" . I nodded my head and continued shooting .

Chapter end