章節 44: Limits
A few days went by, allowing me to finish the other two sculptures as well. 'Since Tara isn't back yet, I might as well practice my overlaying skills', I decided. There were two Formations of special interest to me. The flame and protective Formations. These were the ones I decided to practice on, because I required them for the fourth sculpture.
'Let's start with the protective Formation as a base', I said to myself and began drawing one. A while later, the base Formation was completed. The harder part was overlaying another Formation on top. The Runes couldn't interfere with each other. Moreover, they had to be perfect. The overlaid Formations underwent a larger stress, especially if the Formation was big. Fortunately, my Formations would be small, therefore I had less to worry about.
The first attempt failed, so did the second and third. Only after the sixth attempt, both Formations worked together. 'I have to get it right every time. There are no mistakes allowed in this process', I thought, not falling for the illusion of being able to do it. The sculpture had six vines, which meant six overlaid Formations. Of course they would be drawn one after the other, not all together. Yet the difficulty remained.
"Anna! Your training!", mother called me over in the afternoon. I got a lot of practice, but not enough. I had to get it right the first time, every time. "How's your progress with Formations?", mother asked me after our sword practice. "It's going alright, I guess. Overlaying is a new concept to me, therefore I'm studying and practicing that at the moment. Tara should be here soon. She'll bring more sculptures for me, but we will see about them. Anyway, it's not going badly at least", I replied. "My daughter is working really hard, eh? I'll let you off today, go get some rest", she said out of nowhere. 'I'm not sure what hit her today, but I'm not going to question such generosity', I thought then thanked her.
The next day, Tara came back with more sculptures. "I brought you eight more this time. How's the work coming along?", she asked. "Three sculptures are finished already. The fourth sculpture will be a bit more annoying, but I'm on it. Anyway, come in and I'll show you the finished ones", I invited her inside. Tara was impressed by my work, even though we were dealing with wooden sculptures. "That vine sculpture though… If you manage to make all of that, we can ask for a higher price. This could be like the best sculpture out of the lot", she said.
"I'm learning to overlay the Formations at the moment. As soon as my skills are satisfactory, this sculpture will be done as well", I explained. "Cool, I'll leave you to it. There's about two weeks left before my trip to the Land of Sands. Just don't overwork yourself. Make as many as you can, without dying in the process, alright?", Tara said. "No worries, I'll manage. By the way, how much are you paying for those sculptures?", I asked. "Three Red Hals per each sculpture. In other words, I paid thirty-six Red Hals for the lot. My plan is to sell them at double their price. That's not very cheap, but not expensive either", she replied.
"I'll leave the pricing and selling to you. I'm paying you half for doing this after all, hehe. Alright, the business is dealt with, but why don't you stay over for today?", I proposed. "I don't want to disturb you, and there are a few things to take care of at Apium. I'll see you in a few weeks time. Moreover, I'll bring more sculptures, if you want of course", she declined to stay. "Sure, keep them coming. That way, we can build up a stock", I agreed then bid her farewell.
Time slowly slipped away. My days looked mostly the same at that stage. Waking up in the morning to make Formations or practice overlaying. Then training with my mother in the afternoon. When my overlaying skills reached a good proficiency, I was able to attempt laying them on the vine sculpture. That sculpture took over three days to finish, but it was a success. Everything worked well, the Formations were linked as well as overlaid and nothing exploded.
On the day Tara came back to pick the finished sculptures up, I was able to hand eleven of them to her. That included the vine sculpture, which was my pride and joy. "We have eleven sculptures altogether. That should produce a small profit for us. I'll take it from here, oh and here are a few more sculptures to work on. Since I'll be gone for about a month, take your time. There's no rush at all", Tara said.
"Before you leave, I have a request. When you sell those sculptures, can you buy some stuff from the Land of Sands? Sculptures are great and all, but shouldn't we diversify a bit? With different items on sale, we might be able to appeal to a larger market, right?". She stared at me for a while, but then replied, "Haha, you just stole my idea. Moreover, I know the perfect type of items we can buy. You know stuff with performers painted on them, right?". "Yes… This would be perfect. I remember them selling paintings, clothing and whatnot with those popular performers. Get whatever you can, so that we can sell it for a much better price", I agreed.
"Yea, yea. If done correctly, we can make much more money at Sedon. They also love performers over there", Tara added. "Great! Go already, sell out stuff while it's hot!", I urged her. Tara laughed in reply, then bid me farewell. "You seem really happy. Can't wait to make some money?", mother came over to ask. "Yea, this is only the beginning. As soon as we get this thing rolling, we will earn a lot more!", I exclaimed enthusiastically. "Okay, okay, calm down a bit. I'm happy when you are happy, but we have some training to do", she said.
Mother trained me tirelessly every day, but something didn't feel right to me. "Mom, I feel kind of weird… Don't look at me like that, it's not what you think! It's just that… I don't know how to say it. I feel like my body stopped improving. Do I need to train even harder or something?", I asked her one day. "Oh, so it was that. You see, there are certain limits of what you can achieve. Your strength doesn't grow, because you arrived at that limit", she explained. I was a bit confused, "Does that mean I can't grow anymore? You are much stronger than me, so how does that work?".
"Age can be a small factor, but the reason is a bit different. Your own body limits you from getting stronger. The reason my body is much stronger than yours, isn't because of age, it's because I broke past those limits", she explained. "Right, break past my body's limits… Why didn't you mention that before?", I was a bit angry that she never said anything.
"There was nothing you could do with that information anyway. I'm telling you now, because, well you actually need it, right?", she replied. "Alright... My next question is, how am I supposed to break past that limit?", I asked. "Hehe, just break past it? Yes, I'm aware how stupid this sounds, but what do you want me to tell you? Determination and willingness are the key factors here. You might break that first wall in front of you tomorrow, or in a few years. This depends on you", she explained.
"... Wait! First wall? How many walls are there?", my curiosity was starting to peak. "Who knows? I know about a few, but how many of them exist? I have no clue", she replied. "Then, how many walls did you break? How many limits have you exceeded?", I asked the most crucial question to me.
"It's a secret", mother replied with a smile. "Oh come on, mom! Don't give me that!", I exclaimed unsatisfied. "Alright, let me put it like this. When you break through your current limit, this will make no difference to me", she said. 'No difference? Then how strong is she?', I deliberated. "Pushing yourself is one answer, but that's not the only method. Sometimes, taking care of your worries and fears, might allow you to break through. Sometimes you might need an external stimulus, which will push you past your limit. It's up to you to figure this out", she added.
'In other words, she will not teach me anything about that… I can workout harder and stuff, it's worth a try', I thought. "I'll tell you one thing though. Don't try to do that often. Placing extra stress on your body too often, can break it. Be reasonable about it, instead of rushing everyday", mother said. "Alright, I promise to be reasonable".
Even though my mother's training was tiring, I just had to try and push myself further. I worked out until my body couldn't continue anymore, but nothing happened. 'I can't even stand up anymore... There doesn't seem to be any difference. Mom said it might take me a day or a year… I'm too tired to think about that now', I thought. Even the ground felt comfortable enough for me to fall asleep, and that's exactly what happened.
"Ugh… Where am I?", a groan escaped my mouth. 'This is not the ground, it's my bed… Mom must've carried me inside'. My whole body ached and refused to work properly. I had a hard time picking myself up from the bed, but then mother walked into my room. "The breakfast is ready. Now you should understand what I meant by reasonable, right? You have to take good care of your body. By the way, don't think we will skip your training today", she announced. Reluctantly, I dragged myself to the kitchen for some food. "Mom, can you tell me more about those limits?", I asked while taking a seat.
"Well, we usually categorise them into stages. The Outer Limits, Inner Limits and Primal Limits. You haven't reached any of those stages yet. Once you break past your current limit, that would be considered reaching the Outer Limits stage. The Outer and Inner Limits have something called a Half Step. The Half Step is basically like a mini wall, which blocks your progress in that said stage. Breaking past that Half Step will not make you a lot stronger, but allow you to improve further. As for Primal Limits, I don't really know much. There are only a few people in existence that reach such heights", she explained. This made me think about her previous words and strength. "... You've reached the Inner Limits stage, right?", I asked. "You figured it out, eh? Yes, that's the stage I reached", she replied with a smile.
"Then you must be super strong. After all, only a few people reached the Primal Limits stage", I said. "I'm not that strong, sweetie. There are loads of people at the Inner Limits stage, nothing to brag about… Anna, how old do you think I am?", she asked instead. I never wondered about that really. She looked rather young… No, she looked almost the same since I was a little kid. "I don't know... Thirty something probably?", I replied, unsure. "I'm happy you see it that way, but no. I'm actually forty-eight years old", she replied with a smile.
My mind couldn't cope with that, "Forty-eight? How can that be? You look no more than thirty. Mom, don't play jokes on me, alright? I'm already a grown up". "That is my age. You might wonder why I'm telling you this now, well there is a reason. Breaking past your limits has this effect, at least to some extent", she explained. "This makes you younger? Why didn't you mention that before!?", I asked, shocked. "No sweetie, nothing of such sort. When you break past your limits, the energy inside your body grows stronger. In other words, the stronger you are, the longer your lifespan will be. Of course, this affects everyone differently. For example, if an eighty years old person broke through, that doesn't mean he or she will suddenly live past a hundred years", she clarified.
"What if someone breaks past those limits quickly? Would they live for a long time? Stay young for many years to come?", I asked. "That depends. Time has different meanings to different races. Furians and Humans have similar lifespan. A normal person can live for about seventy to eighty years, without any training whatsoever. Eterians on the other hand, well they can live hundreds of years. Vanauts live about half as long as we do. Golems? Well, they live forever. As long as they have access to a special type of energy, they can live indefinitely. Breaking past your limits is not easy. No one can do it very fast, at least we never heard of anyone who could", she replied.
"Why didn't you tell me about that before? I'm asking for the real reason", I asked. "...I didn't want you to mindlessly chase after power. You've grown up now, so I can share this with you. Breaking past your limits is great, but without a proper set of skills, your new strength will be much more useless than you think", she added. "I get it, you want me to continue training. Mom, I'm no idiot", I replied. "That's good to hear", she said with a smile.
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