《Into Nothing》126 // Push Them To Their Limits
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"I have no idea what you're planning, but if you really did poison them, then he's right. You are crazy," Luo Yun said after he crossed his arms. "And how did you even have the time to talk to all of them? That must have taken up the entirety of yesterday."
"Yeah, I got no work done, but I do my best. Unlike a certain someone..." Aleister looked straight at Syn. "You were supposed to tell me if anybody tried a scheme like this. Instead, I had to make up a bunch of bullshit on the spot or else it would ruin my plans for them."
"I can't sense the locations of people. And, do you not remember? I can't phase through walls anymore."
"Ugh. I forgot, but whatever, I'm not going to waste anymore time thinking about this mess." He took out his cauldron from his bag and dropped it on the dojo floor. "I got potions to brew."
"Huh?" Luo Yun rustled his hair as he said, "How in the world did you get your hands on a bag of holding? Not even I have one of those."
Aleister groaned. "It's complicated and a will no doubt soon turn into another giant headache that might cause my premature death."
"Very well, but whatever your plan is leaving the applicants list unsorted."
"They'll fix it tomorrow."
"If any of them are still alive by the end of today."
"They will be."
"And you're sure none of them will quit after obtaining the antidote?"
"Of course they won't. I will admit, it's a bit evil of me, but everything I said was to force commitment. I mentioned how much time they gave me by saying untrue amounts of how much time they spent in the room. And after that, with the food and drink, made them think they've committed their life into my hands. So at the end of it all, there's no way they will leave as they've already too much to go back."
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"I agree with the idea, but I will admit, I'm not the biggest fan of how much you're toying with their lives. In fact, are you sure they won't harbor resentment towards you?"
"That's fine. After all, I agreed to train them to their maximum potential. Even if they hate me at the end of it, that's fine by me. And who would be a fan of some who treats them with such blatant disregard for their lives."
"I can kind of understand where you're going with this, but why are you brewing potions here at the dojo instead of back at your place?"
"When they inevitably don't find the antidotes, they'll all come back to me asking me for it. Even though they committed their lives to the cause, none of them really want to die this way."
"You're even more interesting that I thought," Luo Yun said, as he took his leave.
Aleister let out a deep sigh.
"I'm surprised," Syn said.
"By the fact I would come up with such crazy ideas even now after I've rested and am of a methodical mind?"
"Yes. And by how much effort you're putting into training them. Just the other day, you didn't want to have any disciples. But here you are training four of them."
"I reconsidered, and I'm also using their training to my advantage. I can give them potions to test with no payment, well my payment is their training, and they won't say no."
"But paying people to test potions would barely cost you anything anyway, so that's barely a reason for you to do this. So what's the real reason behind this?"
"Why does anyone do anything?" Aleister retorted. "They were the ones that came to this dojo and they were the ones that fought over wanting to be trained by me. I do not know what I'm doing, so this is the best training I have for them."
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"Instead of just having them spar or something?"
"That would be pointless. Why would I teach them how to fight? Clearly they all want to resist against Weavers and not feel so powerless against them. So guess what I am doing. Making them feel utterly powerless. Nothing is in there control. I hold all the cards in my hand. They don't want to play in the game? Well, they don't have to, but that comes at the cost of their life. All of this is to show them how its not possible to resist against a Weaver...unless you become one yourself. Like I said, they will be tortured, and by the end they should become a Weaver, making it all worth it. That is my end goal, of course. But, I don't know well this will end up."
"Even if they die?"
"Why are you the one concerned about their lives? Yesterday you flew off because you didn't want to come with me to talk to everyone because in your eyes it was boring."
"It is. I'm all for not caring about the lives of other unimportant people, but I care about yours."
"How sweet, but I care about them to some extent. Especially after learning about them some more. That's why I'll continue to push and grind them down, but don't worry, I'll stop just short of their death. I don't want them to die, but I want to push them to that same breaking point."
"As long as you've thought about this, its fine. But after your speech yesterday, I gained a better understanding, and I didn't want their deaths to weigh down upon you."
"Their deaths will weight down upon me, even if they're okay with it, because I will have caused them. But, that's fine. After all, its effect will be similar to what I'm doing to them right now and act as that drive to get stronger."
"All I wanted to hear."
"Good. Now repeat that the instructions for that pill again. I actually don't remember any of the steps."
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