Limits

Chapter 38

I woke up the next day and went straight to the workshop. I started my work as usual and waited for Grond to leave, like he usually did. I didn't bring the moulds with me because I didn't want Grond noticing them.

When Grond finally left, I went straight to my house and retrieved one mould. I wouldn't have any time to actually cast more than one dagger in the time Grond was gone. It would take more than a week to create the 10 daggers that I wanted but everyday I would have more and more and more.

For now, I wanted to cast at least one. I would still need to sharpen it and polish it. Back at the workshop, I melted the purified steel ingot I had made for myself and poured it into the mould. I waited for it to cool down a bit and then submerged it into the water.

After the mould cooled a bit more, I broke it open and inside laid a brand new dagger. It was sleek and a bit dull but I knew I would have to polish it and sharpen the edge. Moulds were not able to create sharp edges or polished surfaces. Moulds were used to create the shape but I still needed to complete the dagger by giving it an edge as well as polish.

I went to the grindstone and started pressing the pedal to rotate the wheel that will allow me to create an edge of the weapon. I spend about 5 minutes on melting the ingot, then about 15 minutes creating it. I now had a bit less than 10 minutes to create an edge and polish the dagger. I didn't rush this process though. I carefully grinded the blade of the dagger and created a very fine edge that would cut a falling hair. It wasn't hard anyway because the dagger was quite thin already.

I could do the polishing later. It was also an easy process. I just had to "wash" it with sand. In the workshop, there was a tool to do that. You just put in the weapon or tool that you want to polish and sand inside. Then you close it and spin it around. After a while it would be polished. I didn't have time for that right now and also it could be done without this machine. I would do it when I get the chance. I hid the dagger in my shirt and went back to work.

I wanted to play with it due to excitement but Grond would be here anytime, so I restrained that thought. After I created the rest of the ingots, I went straight to Nick. When I arrived he was not there. I could only continue on with my other plans and meet with Nick later.

I went to the river and saw that my pond was now clean and the water flow was very good. I set my sight on the fishes in the river not far away and watched them to determine which ones had the ability to avoid the light. After about 30 minutes of waiting, I found 2 such fishes. Now the problem was catching them.

I set up the net and picked up some pebbles. I wanted to use the pebbles in order to lure the desired fishes into my net. I threw couple of pebbles while calculating the behaviour of the fishes that I determined would have the ability I was after. Fortunately one of them got caught in the net when I pulled it out.

I placed the fishes that I caught inside the pond that I created and went out to get more of them. I needed at least 2-3 fishes with this ability and just couple of normal fishes. I already had 3 fishes in the pond and one of them was able to use the ability to avoid the light.

I casted my net again and observed the school of fishes. After a while, I found couple that were able to use the ability and so I repeated my previous actions. After doing so for over an hour, I finally got 3 fishes with the ability to avoid the light and 5 fishes that were just normal.

I went to the river again and searched for the predator to those fishes. It could be a fish but there were also other predators. One such predator was a turtle. Normally you would think that turtles eat plants but this one ate fishes. I went after the turtle because It would hunt just one fish to satisfy its hunger and then rest at the bottom of the river. If I let it into the pond, it would just eat one fish and then rest. I wouldn't have to worry that all the fishes would die to the predator and one fish a day or two would be easy to replenish.

The turtle I was looking for was not so easy to find though. Other predators were much more common but this turtle mostly spent his time at the bottom of the river and left only to hunt the fishes. I had to search for couple of hours before I finally found one. The turtle was not really aggressive towards me, it was annoyed that I picked it up but didn't seem to get angry to the point where it would try to eat me. It couldn't anyway. It was only about 40 centimetres big.

I took the turtle back to the pond and released it inside. It went to the bottom of the pond and stared at me. I though 'Can turtles stare at people?'. Maybe it was annoyed and just wanted me to leave. I moved away from the pond couple of steps and the turtle started to get accustomed with his new surroundings.

Anyone would be confused if they got picked up, moved somewhere else and then placed down. The turtle noticed the fishes and seemed satisfied with his new home. If you have food that is very close to you, then you don't have to look for it, just hunt it.

It seemed that the turtle was a bit hungry so he creeped under water towards the fishes. I watched the whole process. I noticed that the 3 fishes that had the ability to avoid light also had the ability to sense a predator. These fishes were responsible for informing others that predator was coming. They had a purpose in the group as well as means to avoid their own death.

The turtle got closer and lunged at one of the fishes. I was surprised when I saw that turtle. It was at least twice as fast as these fishes. No wonder he could hunt them. He caught one of the normal fishes and returned back to where I dropped it, which was closer to the first gate, where the fresh water was pouring into the pond.

I thought that my efforts were not in vain and I would be able to study the fishes in greater details due to only couple of them being there. I wasn't scared that the turtle would leave because it had the food near him and a fresh water that washed the pond all the time. It could just go out of water and walk on land but these were simple creatures and the turtle would stay there. I was at least 90% sure of that.

I knew that the turtle will eat and then go to sleep for today and there was no longer a point for me to stay there, so I decided I would go back to the village and check if Nick has returned.

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