Rising up in the morning after a well deserved rest, my body and mind were ready to begin a new day. Albedo was already up, eating some fruit and waiting for me. I could see she was motivated. After having some fruit myself, I grabbed my weapons and bag.
"Pick up your spear, girl. Follow me."
We took a few steps outside, making sure no one was around before starting the grueling training. I instructed her on how to hold the spear and demonstrated some moves to help her get accustomed to it. Then, I proceeded to beat the crap out of her. It was a bit ruthless, perhaps, but it was the best way for her to learn. She had goals to achieve, and she needed to understand that it wasn't going to be easy to take down the Carja.
She was sweating and suffering some minor bruises but never gave up the fight. She didn't let the spear drop from her hands, and I was impressed.
"Good. She has potential," I thought to myself.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Let's head back and eat something. I need to leave for a hunt soon."
"Uff, yeah, okay. If you're hungry, we can stop. Let's go."
She was pretty banged up but still smiling. Training to kill her enemies was truly the best exercise a Nora seeking revenge could have in the morning.
We went inside, and she began cooking the leftover meat while I crafted a needle out of scrap metal and animal bones.
"Take this. It should work fine. Your job today is to gather food and wood. Try to catch some fish with the spear if you can, and then see if you can make something out of these leathers to use."
"You don't need anything for yourself? It's your spoils. I can wait."
Looking at the torn, dirty rags she was still wearing, I told her I was fine. My clothes were better crafted anyway.
Picking up my weapons again, I headed toward the Watcher site. I was going to test my new spear and skills by killing whatever I could find. There were just three Watchers guarding nothing at all.
"No one around. Paths marked. Ready to roll."
Concentrating on the closest Watcher, I drove my shiny new spear into its heart. My Silent Strike skill was amazing, I knew exactly where and when to strike, and the machine went down just like that. Easy. But I made some noise, which alerted the other two. I picked up a stone, threw it in one direction, and went the other way, getting ready to kill another Watcher. Soon, the site was clear. Mission success. I had done it again, and now it was time to scrape the Watchers for my deserved loot.
With my bag full of loot and half the day already gone, I decided it was a good time to look for Krest again while keeping an eye out for potential animals to hunt.
I walked for hours, taking in my surroundings and hunting some game, but no Krest was to be found. Soon, it was time to head back. As I neared my cave, I spotted a trader. Maybe today was my lucky day he didn't know I was an outcast.
"Hey there. You got fire arrows? Maybe some outfits I can buy? Or a new bow?"
I asked, silently praying to the All-Mother that he didn't recognize me.
"Sure do! Best fire arrows in the Sacred Lands. How many do you want, and what do you have to trade?"
Great. He didn't know me. It was my lucky day. Finally, I could upgrade my gear and sell my loot.
After some bartering, I managed to get ten fire arrows, a new outfit, and a new bow. I could give my old bow to Albedo. The best part was that the trader knew where Krest was and pointed me to his location. But that was all he needed to know I was an outcast, and he started screaming at me to get the hell out of there and not speak about it to anyone.
I already had what I wanted, so I nodded at him and left. Now I knew where Krest was set up, and I could always trade with him.
Entering the cave after dark, I was greeted by Albedo, who was both shining and grinning at me with four cooked fish already prepared.
"Look, Noir! I did it! Four fish! Hehehe. Come sit, you must be tired."
"Good job. I got a present for you."
I handed her my old outfit, bow, and a quiver full of arrows. She was overjoyed and cried for a while.
We ate our dinner and started talking about future training. I explained my personal goals for the next few days. I needed to gather more food and supplies. I planned to return to my base, learn to program, and experiment with the parts I'd gathered. Albedo was almost ready to learn more about the real world we lived in. She had nothing left, so for the next ten days, I would kill everything on sight and continue training her to be my personal killing machine.
And then, I would drop the true bomb on her.