I was shooting the arrows for the better part of the afternoon. Laly said the more I practice shooting the better I will get. Of course that was true with anything I did but I guessed that she wanted to motivate me. "You can stop for now. You were at it for couple of hours now. Get some rest. You will not learn the archery in one day" Laly said.
I stopped my practice and prepared to make some late dinner for myself. When the meat was roasting, I asked "I never saw you eat. What do Eterians eat actually?". She responded "The same stuff as you humans do? I mean, we are not that much different. Why do you keep treating me like some sort of rare creature?".
'... She is kind of right about that' I thought and decided to change topics. "Do you want some meat?". She shook her head again and said "No, I'm not hungry". I was baffled, 'I never saw her eat so why wouldn't she be hungry?' I asked myself. I ate my dinner and decided that it was enough archery training for one day. Instead, I thought I could try and start modifying the 4th diagram from the Strength Manual. 'It's always good to have it already modified. When I need it, I will have it straight away. Besides, I don't know how long it will take me to modify it' I thought.
I drew the 4th diagram on the ground using a stick and stared at it for a while. I was trying to find out anything that could be changed and improved. I also knew that I would have to add an intent or aura at the end. I wasn't bothered by that at that moment. I would have to first modify it before I could try and add aura to it.
Laly that was sitting next to me looked at the drawing as well and asked "What is this?". I responded to her "This? A diagram that allows me to train my strength. The pose I do in the morning is the 3rd diagram that I modified. This one is 4th and I'm trying to modify it now". She looked at me and then at the diagram while saying "So that is the reason why you always did those stupid poses every morning. I always wondered why would you do it. I didn't want to be rude so I didn't ask. There are loads of people who have some strange habits".
'Anyone would think that probably. I mean, those poses do look weird' I thought. Laly then said "But if you have the pose already, why are you modifying it? Just use this one" to which I responded "I can't, it's not right for me. These diagrams were much weaker and not suitable for me before I modified them. This is the 4th diagram and the difficulty to modify them rises every time I try to modify the next diagram. From what I can see already, my medical knowledge is too shallow to modify it. I don't see much wrong with it and even if I change some small bits, this will not work".
Laly stared at the diagram for a while and said "Maybe I can help you". I was not only confused but shocked. 'She can help me? HOW!?' I asked myself. I looked at her and said "How? Do you know a lot about the Art of Medicine?" to which she responded "No but I do have some books that are quite advanced. I don't understand many things from them but maybe you will be able to".
'BOOKS!' I screamed in my mind. "Give them to me!" I said in a hurry as if she was about to burn them to ashes. She shook her hand a books started appearing. This was another shocking moment. It looked like she magically pulled out those books from thin air. I asked "How did you do that?" to which she said "What? Oooh! You mean how I retrieved those books? I have the same thing as you do but a bit or rather a lot better. You have those bags of yours that are quite common with humans but I have something else" and she showed me her wrist.
"This is my bracelet. It has the same functions as your bag but this thing is much better. Not only it reduces the weight of the things inside, it can also fit much more than those crappy bags" she said. 'This is amazing!' I thought and asked "Did you make it? How is this made? What are the materials? Where can I find them?". I was like a small child who was shown something amazing and mystical, that was why I showered her with questions.
She said "Calm down. No I didn't make it, I received it from my parents. They gave it to me as a present. I don't know how it's made, I'm not very knowledgeable about such materials. I know that my parents paid a huge price for someone to create it for them". I was a bit disappointed because if she knew how to make those things, I could learn that and make my own in the future. Still, she had some medical books, I took whatever I was given.
There were a total of 3 books. Their titles "Corporeal Structure", "Bone Treatment Log" and "Nerves and Pressure Points". As I read the titles, I got more excited. The 1st book probably described stuff about our physical bodies which would be useful to me as I probably didn't know everything. Nick taught me a lot about the human body but I'm sure he didn't or couldn't teach me everything. 'I might find some very useful things inside that book' I thought.
The 2nd title was a bit mysterious. A log would suggest some kind of entries in order of dates. 'If my guess is correct, this books should contain a specific date and time with a cause and method of treating that cause for the patient. All of this will probably refer to the bones in human's body' I thought. The 3rd title was something I studied in the past with Nick but at a very basic level. 'Nick only showed me couple of pressure points and explained some stuff about our nervous system but this book might hold a lot more' I thought.
With those books in my hands, I was a happy man. I looked at Laly and asked "How did you get those books?" to which she replied brazenly "I killed a guy who had them. It was quite a few years ago. Do you find them useful?". I said "Of course! These will be very useful to me. I will give them back to you once I'm done with them". She replied "No need, you can keep them. I have no use for them anyway and they were only clattering up my bracelet".
She didn't have to ask twice. 'If she doesn't want them back, I will take them gladly' I thought and took my books back to the cave. I was very eager to start reading them before I went to sleep. Laly followed me inside the cave and sat on the chair in my room as usual. I didn't think much of it as my focus was fully on the books. I chose the "Corporeal Structure" book and opened it on the first page.