The next morning, I checked my surroundings stealthily. I did that in order to check whenever the group that followed me, was still there. I looked for a while and didn't spot them but I wasn't convinced yet. 'It might be a sham, they may have left or are pretending they did. I need to continue this charade for a while longer' I thought and packed my staff to continue my journey north.
I was traveling at a slower pace compared to the past. I wasn't getting very far every day but I continuously traveled and so the distance to my destination got shorter and shorter. Of course I didn't want to arrive there just like that. I wanted to practice my skills beforehand but if I had no choice and they still followed after me, I would have to do just that.
I only had about a dozen of my daggers left. I couldn't use my daggers as throwing weapons lightly. Especially fighting against a group of strong opponents. I didn't know their skills either but they had advantage in numbers. Close combat would be difficult as well. That was why I wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs. You don't fight the fights you can't win.
In the afternoon, I found a group of wolves, still the usual normal wolves. I wondered 'Where the hell are all the variants?'. I didn't see one for a long time now and this seemed a bit suspicious. Although it struck me as weird, I was happy nevertheless. Fighting variants would mean that I had to expose my skills and if that group of humans still followed after me, I would be in even greater disadvantage once they attacked.
I used wooden spears and whatnot to take care of the group of wolves. The group consisted of 4 wolves anyway, I wasn't worried about being injured or dying. I made it look as if I was struggling with that group, just to let them know I wasn't that powerful. Of course provided they were still trailing behind me. I traveled and hunted when necessary for few days and didn't notice them hiding anywhere. I decided to test that.
I went into the forest and disappeared between the trees. If they were watching that, they would surely find it surprising and maybe even try to find my location. I didn't need for them to really chase after me, just expose their location, of course provided they were still there. I waited for a while, then about 30 minutes passed. I saw no response. I thought 'Maybe they can see me?' I returned to my camp to pack my stuff and then sprinted into the forest. I went into stealth immediately and ran further north. After an hour of running at my full speed while staying in stealth, I hid at the top of a tree and waited patiently.
One hour, two hours, 4 hours and nothing. I released a sigh and thought 'OK, so they finally left. Now I just have to travel as far as I can in one night, I can then resume my training'. I sprinted through the night leaving as little tracks as I could. When the sun raised over the horizon, I stopped to rest and thought 'Now I can finally focus on my training'. I made a camp nearby and rested till afternoon.
Because I met these people, I now had to find a new place to train my new skill from the Art of Stealth. I had to repeat the same process and again find the most suitable route that would take me to the same destination.
This time, I chose a large boulder as my destination. It was about 10 minutes away, if I ran in straight line. Of course, I wasn't interested in running at full speed in straight line, instead I needed to do it at optimal speed while staying hidden. Soon after, I selected my 1st route. 'Hmm, about 17 minutes' I thought after traversing it. It was one of the fastest routes I could find but then again, I had to try many in order to have something to compare them.
I ran and ran and ran like crazy. Forwards and backwards, each time using a different route. Some routes took me 20 minutes to run while some took 16 or 17. I never managed to go below 16 minutes mark. It was due to the lack of objects that would allow me to hide my presence. I contemplated and compared the routes again, finally choosing one that was most optimal.
'I have my route. Next step, improving it!' I thought. Although I started from the most optimal route and focused on improving that, I would try to improve other routes as well. This would help me with the familiarisation process of the skill. If I learned how each leaf, grass blade, flower, pebble and whatnot behaved while I traveled, I could then use those small details to improve my route. I would also be a step closer to mastering the skill of calculating the best route. There was one more reason. It was to learn the behaviour of nature. I was doing the same thing when I learned how humans behave. The more people I watched and studied, the better able I was to predict what they were going to do. This same thing is at least ten times harder when it comes to nature.
For one, I had to watch not one entity or object but the whole route. Human was just one entity and calculating behaviour based on muscle movement, facial expressions or state was much easier to do than figuring out what a blade of grass would do. Plants or rocks didn't have muscles or facial expressions. This was the reason why it was so hard to predict the behaviour of nature.
I ran the route many times and managed to memorize it like the back of my hand but it wasn't enough. Simple memorisation would improve my time for sure but that was not what I was after. I took a break in order to eat something and then decided to train my body. I now had a bag with the same effect as the bags I owned in the past.
I didn't know the maximum capacity of the bag but I was about to find out. I stuffed as many heavy things inside as I could, until the bag would take no more. When I tried to lift it, the bag was very heavy. It was heavy to the point that my past training with weight paled in comparison. I tried to put the bag onto my back but it was already difficult to lift it. I decided to take out some of the rocks and make the bag weight less. I thought 'This bag seems to be capable of fitting more stuff inside than my previous bag. Probably because the one from Nick was old and this one is newer'.
I placed the 'still heavy but not to the point of crushing me' bag on my back and started my body training. As usual, I started with the modified diagram first. With the weight on me, the duration I could stay in the pose suffered a lot. I was able to stay only 8 minutes in the 1st modified pose. As for the 2nd pose? Measly 4,5 minutes. I expected that already so I wasn't disappointed. I also knew that I didn't carry any weight on me for a long time, my body would need to adjust to it again, even though I was stronger compared to the past.
I carried on with my training until the evening. After dinner, I relaxed for a while and tried to modify the 3rd diagram. When I got tired, I went to sleep. I hoped that this time, I would dream the dream of the talking dark figure.