After Nick left, I thought how to efficiently get rid of this village. Burning it down, might allow some people to escape and notify other villages about me. I didn't need such attention. What I required, was a poison. A poison that could end every last person in this village. I took out the Great Scriptures of Evil Medic, and sieved through it. There were a few recipes that would do the job, but the herbs required were rather rare. 'I can't have it too difficult, otherwise we will never gather the required materials for the poison' I thought. I required something more simple, but deadly at the same time. The Great Scriptures of Evil Medic, didn't contain simple recipes. 'In that case, the Evil Manual of Medicine is next' I thought. I searched my memory, and finally found something. The poison was called Cloud Haze Poison. The herbs required were not rare, but the process of making that medicine... was difficult. At least it would be difficult for me. The Cloud Haze Poison was initially in liquid state. When it made contact with the air, it would turn into a cloud of poison, hence the name. Depending on the strength, the cloud could be as small as 20 metres in size, and as big as 100 metres. The potency played a part in the size too. The poison would be less potent when the cloud was big, as the poison was spread over bigger distance. 'I will need at least three bottles of that' I thought. My plan was to set up the three bottles in a shape of a triangle, which would cover the whole Village. Thanks to the small size of the village, three bottles should do the job, but of course I would prefer more just in case. How the poison worked, was simple too. When inhaled, it would spread inside one's body and affect the internal organs. The poison would eat away at the organs, making people vomit blood, until they died from blood loss or organ failure. Rather gruesome poison, but had some disadvantages too. For one, if the weather was windy, it would disperse the poison, and hardly affect anyone. The poison worked on strong individuals, but at a slower rate. If they got the antidote quickly enough, the injuries they would sustain would be meagre. It was really important, that I had antidote for this poison. Because I would need to release the poison myself, antidote was a must. That was another disadvantage. If I was unlucky, the poison could affect me at the same time. Hence the necessity for antidote. My plan was ready. 'I might need to adapt or change some things in the near future, but the poison and the antidote should be enough' I thought. I couldn't really do much at that time. Rand was suspicious of me, and would watch me closely for sure. 'Maybe Nick can get the ingredients. I will ask, when I tell him my plan' I thought. I practiced my skills for the rest of that day, while minding my surroundings. I wasn't sure whether Rand would pop in again or not. In the morning of the next day, I arrived at the Workshop and became a bit surprised. Besides Grond who was pretty much there every day, Rand was there as well. I said, "You don't come here often. Actually, you never visited before". Rand didn't reply to me at all, instead he turned towards Grond, and said "I will talk with you some other time". He then left the Workshop. I shrugged my shoulders, and went to work. There was one piece of evidence, that could prove my guilt. It was the copy of the Manual, with those strange poses. But I wasn't stupid enough to carry it with me, or leave it at my house. Rand could search the house twenty times over, he wouldn't find it. I would collect that Manual on my way, when everything inside the village was taken care of. When I returned to my house, Nick was already there waiting for me. "You know, Rand searched this house once already. He really thinks you had something to do with it" he said. I shrugged my shoulder while replying, "So? He can prove nothing, and I do my job. I'm not entirely sure, but I think he is more concerned about that copy of the Manual. Yea he might've lost a great dog, but no dog is irreplaceable". Nick smiled, then asked "Shall we continue our training?". I stopped him, and told him about my plan first. After hearing me out, he smiled while saying "So you chose to go with Cloud Haze Poison? Not a bad choice at all, but I think you will need more than three bottles. Anyway, I will look for the ingredients. When I have them, I will show you how to make this poison. I will just in case, make a few bottles for you. I will make the antidote too, just in case". I agreed to that, and we continued our training. Nick gave me some pointers, after our training session. So far, I only used my sleeves and shirt to hide my daggers. He suggested I learned how to retrieve a dagger from any part of my body. Whether I was running, jumping or standing, I had to be able to retrieve a dagger, and throw it at the same time. When he left, I gave it some more thoughts. 'When I jump, run and so on, I can't really retrieve my daggers from those specific places. In that case, how can I retrieve them, without sacrificing my movements?' I asked myself. I was mostly motionless, when I threw my daggers. When I was moving, I only used my hands, or rather daggers stored up my sleeves. This had to change, and I had an idea already. The idea was simple, but difficult at the same time. All I had to do in theory, was to move in a way I could always retrieve a dagger from any part of my body. I tried it out, and to some extent I was able to achieve that. It wouldn't be easy to cover my whole body though. I also had to get used to the placement of those daggers. These daggers didn't just float around either. I used special holders, which allowed for my daggers to be attached. The holders were partialy designed by me, and partialy by Nick. They were made from leather, which Nick supplied. 'I will need to ask Nick for more leather. With that, I can make a few more holders' I thought. Hiding a dagger in my sleeve was too basic already. If I ever wanted to master the Art, I needed to be more creative than that. While I practiced my movements and dagger retrieval, I came up with another idea. There was a limited amount of daggers, that my body could hold. What if I couldn't collect them, due to my opponent being too strong? If I ran out of daggers, it would mean I became defenceless really. My idea was to use the strings, and attach my daggers to them. With that, the problem of retrieving my daggers, would be solved. Not only that, I could attack at much faster rate as well, because in theory, I would have infinite amount of throws. That wasn't precisely close combat skill, nor was it a long range skill. It was kind of in the middle. 'If I threw my daggers without a string, the range would be longer, but then I loose a dagger. Although I sacrifice some range, I gain a dagger every time I attack. The benefits outweigh the shorter distance disadvantage' I thought. I wouldn't need tens of daggers just for one battle, theoretically at least. In case I needed longer range, I could always throw the daggers without the strings attached. That idea came to me thanks to Nick's training. I was inspired by those puppets, and wondered why he never proposed using weapons at the other end. 'Either way, I can talk about this with Nick next time. Seems like a good idea to me' I thought. I trained a while longer, before Shelly moaned that it was hungry. Shelly ate less now that it slept whole day, which was good actually. I didn't want to go out, and hunt a wolf or boar every day. Especially with Rand snooping around. After a short trip to the river and back, I laid down in my bed to read the book I've yet to memorize.