บท 123: Illusionary Path

This time hunting went smoothly. I was able to find a group of wolves very quickly, disposing of them took even less time. With some meat in my bag, I returned to the camp and continued playing lumberjack game with my daggers.

By the evening, I was done with my new weights. I added some new modifications along the way and created more weights from the other half of the trunk. I cut one piece of the trunk to a size I couldn't lift, I left it like this on purpose. 'This large piece will serve me as part of my training' I thought. I needed that kind of weight for the future exercises and to further develop my strength at the same time.

The other weights would allow me to train my control of the lower to middle ranges of my strength. I also created heavier weights for the top middle range of my strength. I already had the weights for the upper range of my strength, those were created from the shorter but wider part of trunk. This way, I could learn to control my body much better. I would be able to train ranges such as 55% or 75% but also 80 or 90%. I didn't train anything else that day, I simply laid down and relaxed. The night was still young therefore I tried to figure out some words from the Ancient Language.

I tried different meanings with words I already knew or heard. This gave me some new ideas and I was able to get some more meaning out of the language. I found that Therak could mean "my" or "mine". The dark figure used that word often but not very often. It also used that word twice, when answering me. 'If my guess is correct, then the sentence Lak? Lak Lan Therak Devorak would mean "You? You are my/mine…" but my/mine what?' I thought.

I wondered about possible words that could fit that sentence 'It can't be stuff like "my father?" that's just stupid! The same would apply to brother, sister or whatnot. It must be something else. Maybe "friend" but again, I don't know that… whatever this dark figure is, at all. How could it call me friend?' I thought as I couldn't figure it out. I knew it referred to something that a person could be. The problem was that there were just too many words fitting that sentence.

The translation of the word Therak made sense but figuring out the last word would get me nowhere. I decided to change to another sentence. 'The other thing that the dark figure answer to my question was Ze, Kiq Thes Therak Reles. This could translate as "No, don't … my/mine... ". This also doesn't help much with figuring out the other words' I thought.

I had to look at the context. I asked the dark figure "Can you do this?" and jump up. The dark figure answered "no". 'I didn't notice any emotions in its voice…. What could it be?' I thought. I wrecked my brain about it and tried to figure it out. Then all of a sudden, I found a sentence that would make sense in those circumstances.

'He could've answered "No, don't test my patience". This would make sense. I asked the "Who am I?" question and the dark figure answered... whoever I am. I then asked, "Can you do this?" and jumped. Maybe it got annoyed because I asked questions. I don't know if this thing is somehow alive to be able to respond to me but then, what could it do? End the dream? This thing can't affect me when I'm not asleep. Maybe it was just a generic answer, kind of prearranged into my dream' I thought.

The more I thought about that sentence, the more sense it made. It also fitted the circumstances. I decided to translate it as such. With this, I was one step closer towards basic understanding of the Ancient Language. I stopped thinking about the Ancient Language and prepared myself for the next dream. This time, I knew I would be in a dream where the dark figure trains something. I was quite excited about the prospects of trying out those new exercises myself.

When I opened my eyes again, I stood in front of the dark figure. Without any introductions, the dark figure started by doing the 1st exercise. I got closer and wanted to join in but I didn't know how. I thought about different way of joining. After a while, I took a step forward and noticed that a glass like tile, shined a bit underneath my feet. 'So the exercises started. Let's see how this thing goes then' I thought and took a step forward.

"Baam!"

I felt a lot of pain and then darkness. When I opened my eyes again, I was still in the dream. To be precise, I was standing in the same place I always stood when I entered my dream. I looked at the dark figure and it was still practicing the 1st exercise. I decided to give it a try again. 'There must be some sort of trick to it. This thing isn't really running on that path, it just walks or jumps sometimes' I thought and again took a step forward.

A glass like tile appeared under my feet with a slight glint, barely visible to the naked eye. This was the beginning of the path, that much I knew. I wasn't stupid enough to again take a blind step. Instead, I had a look around me. This glass like path was very hard to spot, I guessed that this was precisely the aim of this exercise.

I looked around me and noticed nothing. 'This is harder than I imagined. I need to focus better' I thought and started focusing on one piece of ground at a time. After a while, I finally noticed something. It looked like a square tile but seemed invisible. It was about two steps away from where I stood. I decided to give it a go and jumped lightly on top of it.

"Thud"

I was glad that nothing happened when I landed. The floor became more visible when I stood on it. I took a detailed look at the piece of floor before anything else. I touched it, jumped on top of it and so on. It was very sturdy, maybe even more sturdy than metal. When I jumped on it, it didn't make any sounds, other than the sound of my feet landing on top of it.

I wasted no more time with that tile and started to search for the next one. It went like this for a while. I was only able to find 5 of them. The dark figure managed to finish already and started next exercise. The tiles I already uncovered disappeared, while I stood there as if bewildered. 'This probably indicates that I ran out of time' I thought. I was bewildered because the next exercise didn't start automatically. I had to actually think about starting it before it actually did.

I thought about the 2nd exercise and what seemed like metallic basin, appeared in front of me. It was suspended in air. I checked it from top to bottom, there were no wires or strings attached to it. The basin just levitated like this, as if it was perfectly normal. 'Whatever, I will try this 2nd exercise. Let me see what is this thing all about'.