I tried making the Cloud Haze Poison again, but I failed this time. The poison that came out was burned, and not useful at all. 'I should train my weighing skills, before any further attempts. I don't want to waste more herbs' I thought. The process was also taxing on my mind. I had to focus constantly, and make sure I followed all the steps correctly. After cleaning up everything, I decided to throw away the content of that bottle somewhere inside the forest.
When I thought about forest, I looked at Shelly reflexively. It's been a while since Shelly bothered me about food, or anything else really. It just slept in the corner, never waking up. 'That's odd. Shelly would be up by now. Usually it would be hungry, and nagging me about it. But it didn't wake up since yesterday' I thought. I walked over, and called out "Shelly, wake up". There was no response whatsoever. 'This is not normal. Shelly would wake up, when I called its name. Something must have happened' I thought.
I patted Shelly's head, and called out again "Shelly, are you alright?". Shelly was still asleep, with no signs of waking up. 'Why isn't Shelly waking up?' I asked myself. I examined it in greater details, but everything seemed alright to me. 'The temperature seems normal. It's eyes are in the state of rest, as if it was asleep... Just what is going on?' I thought.
I then picked Shelly up, and immediately noticed the increase in weight. Shelly weighed about one and a half times as much, as it used to. I already noticed that Shelly grew a bit bigger, but this wouldn't make its weight increase by such an amount. 'Maybe Nick will have a clue as to what is happening to Shelly' I thought. Nick had much more experience than me, and he knew much more than me as well.
Fortunately Nick was at home, sitting in his chair as usual. I asked him, "Nick, can you check something for me?". He opened his eyes surprised, "Something happened?". I nodded while replying, "I think something's wrong with Shelly. Can you check it for me? It didn't wake up since yesterday. You know much more than me, so maybe you will figure it out". He didn't move from his chair, and simply replied. "If you are talking about your turtle, then I already saw it. You don't have to worry about its health. Rather, did you give it something lately?".
I thought about it, and only one thing came to my mind. "Now that I think about it... Yes. After you taught me how to create Vital Liquid, Shelly came over begging for it. I gave it one of your bottles, and it just drank it whole. Shelly then returned to sleep, as if nothing happened. Did the medicine harm Shelly?".
Nick shook his head while replying, "No, the medicine wouldn't harm it. Vital Liquid that you gave to your turtle, will actually help it develop. Turtles by nature are steady and live their lives as if in slow motion. Thanks to that, turtles can live longer. It's not that they can't move faster than usually, it's just that they prefer not to. As for your turtle, the medicine you gave it works a bit differently on it. Instead of healing your turtle, which I assume had no injuries, it helps it develop".
I was shocked. 'A medicine can help animals develop? How?' I asked myself. "I don't get it, how is Shelly going to develop precisely?". Nick smiled, "It depends on the turtle. For example, Vital Liquid might be used to extend its life. In a sense, it is possible for turtle, yet not so much for Humans. After all, we are not the same. Your turtle wouldn't gain many years thanks to the medicine, but such steady accumulation lets them live longer. From what I know, turtles can live twice if not three times as long as Humans can".
I asked, "How about its weight? Can a turtle increase its weight?". Nick looked at me for a while, and said. "I don't know. Are you telling me your turtle's weight increased?". I nodded while replying, "Yes, by quite a bit I might add. Through these few months Shelly stayed with me, it maybe grew a few centimetres at best. But its weight? It's like 50% more now". He replied, "That is indeed weird, but as I said, it's up to your turtle what it wishes to develop. We can also chose in what way to develop, so don't look at me like that. You can chose to develop your arms for example. So that they are faster or stronger. Same is with everything else. Although increase in weight may seem weird to you, but it just might be possible for your turtle". I wasn't sure about that. 'Maybe it's because Shelly ate so much in the past? That could explain it' I thought.
Nick continued, "Don't worry about your turtle, its going to be alright. Focus on your training instead. Your turtle will wake up, when it absorbs the medicine. It may take a day, or even a week". I heaved a sigh of relief, and said "That's good". Then a sudden thought appeared in my mind. "What if I give Shelly more medicine? Wouldn't Shelly develop constantly?". Nick shook his head, "No. That concerns Humans too. If you abuse the medicine, its effectiveness would become weaker and weaker. So much so the medicine wouldn't work anymore. Don't feed your turtle anymore, if it doesn't need it. Same goes for you. Use it when you are injured, not to test it". I nodded my head, and left.
I returned to my house, and shot one more glance at Shelly. 'It will wake up sooner or later, I'm sure' I thought, and resumed my training. I was getting better with my puppet control, but I was still far away from mastering that exercise.
The hardest part of controling two puppets, was to control them differently. In other words, I had to treat each puppet as it was a complete different entity. Nick told me to think of it like the puppets represented my opponents. My opponents had their own brains, and could do different things at the same time. This was the crucial step in this exercise. I had to control each puppet, as if they had their own brains.
Nick also told me, there was similar style of training that some people could do. It wasn't with the use of puppets, but ones imagination. He told me that some people were supposedly able to imagine their opponents so vividly, they could actually fight against them. When I asked more about it, he said it was really hard to achieve. Not only did you need to know your opponent, you had to have a very, very good imagination. Nick also said it was an ancient sort of technique, and no one really used it anymore, or even tried using it. The reason was simple. People in cities, or even villages had sparring partners.
I was sceptical about it, while Nick himself didn't think much about it. After all, he only heard about such skill, and it was pointless most of the time. The next day, I did my errands and trained my weighing a bit more, before attempting to do another batch of Cloud Haze Poison. This time though, I succedded and even surpassed my previous result. The poison looked cleaner and stronger compared to my first try. 'Great! With this, I have five bottles of Cloud Haze Poison. I should try to make some medicine too. After all, Nick brought the herbs for that too' I thought.
Although Nick didn't show me how to make antidote for that poison, the recipe was rather simple. All I needed was two herbs. Lilith Petal Flower, which promoted regeneration and absorbtion. Usually used for stuff like flu, where it would absorb the illness. The herbs was rather weak, and could only be used for very weak illnesses, like flu.
The other herb called Olivian Berry, was quite common and used pretty much by all people. This herb was used to make flamable oil, but it had a second use. When mixed with Lilith Petal Flower, this regenerative oil would burn away the poison inside ones body, while keeping it receoverd at the same time. Moreoever, the oil would absort the poison which didn't burn away. Humans could... excrement it later, without much of a worry.