Chapter 98
Archer’s training field was located on the other side of the castle near the river. It was a very wide place with the grasses but nothing else. At the moment, there were five figures standing there. They had bows and arrows. The targets were 100 meters away from them.
Four of them were men while the fifth was woman. Each had two servants by their sides waiting to deliver arrows or other needs.
Youth came to the venue and patted his palms. Five of them stopped and turned to look over.
“I’m here to introduce a new companion to you. Actually, in a sense your predecessor. ” said the youth as he pointed over to Dudian: “His name is Dean and he will be training with you today onwards.”
All five of them checked Dudian. The first impression was handsome while the second was quiet.
“Instructor, he is a newbie right? How come he is going to be our predecessor? ” One of the white skinned youth’s frowned.
Youth smiled: “Dean used to be a scavenger but accidentally got the magic marks. He is a worthy hunter but lacks of vocational skills. He will study here for a year to graduate and naturally will be your predecessor unless you can finish your training before he graduates. ”
All of them were surprised, they couldn’t help but take few more glances at Dudian.
The youth came towards a vacant shelf: “This is your position. Because of your physique, you have to shot at least thousand times before your training is over. You won’t be able to eat before you finish your training. So when thousand shots are finished then you end the training for today.”
Dudian nodded. He knew about the cruelty of the world outside the giant wall more than the others. So his purpose in training was not to simply complete the task given by the instructors but to improve his own survival skills.
“For the first seven days, I won’t require anything but shooting 1000 times a day. However, afterwards there will be requirements such as exact hits.” Youth’s previous easy-going attitude had changed.
Dudian nodded.
The youth had apparently arranged for two young servants to stand before the vacant track in advance. One of the servants handed over the bow with difficulty to Dudian while the other got the arrows ready.
Dudian took the heavy bow as it was lighter than a feather. He aimed and started to shoot immediately.
The youth got bored of watching so he said to Dudian: “If there is anything you need tell those two. They are the servants who are responsible to cater your needs during the training.”
Dudian nodded slightly and continued to shoot.
Initial training was only repeated archery. It’s aim was to improve the accuracy of the arrows. It was the most important way of attack by the archer. Because of an arrow error, it may lead to companions tragic death in the claw of the monster. Therefore, the requirements regarding the accuracy was almost at point where they wanted to archer to metamorphose with the bow and arrows.
13 year old boy who was standing next to the Dudian looked at him curiously. He wanted to know what kind of powerful effects would the magic marks have.
Soon, the boy was disappointed as Dudian’s archery level was worse than him. After 10 consequent shots Dudian hadn’t successfully hit the target even once. All of them were off target.
“It seems that hunter’s specialty is nothing more than physical buff, nothing special.” The boy wasn’t concerned about Dudian anymore as he continued with his own archery training.
Dudian repeatedly shot the arrows. He gradually grasped the feeling after dozens of the arrows shot. He was able to understand the visualization of the target, grasping the distance with the actualy position, deviation of the arrows, injection of strength, deviation of arrows, angle changes and many other things as he practiced.
It would be extremely difficult to shoot a target 100 meters away in the old days. But Dudian and the five trainee hunters were not ordinary people from the old days. Dudian knew that the trainees have received ‘blessings’ as they could easily pull the bowstrings.
The more you were able to pull the string the more benefits there were. First of all you would be able to shoot farther of the distance. Second benefits was that the accuracy would be higher.
Fundamental principle, of closer you shoot, easier it is to hit, lied in the strength of the shooter!
“If an ordinary person shot after fifty meter the arrows will decline as the strength will weaken. Moreover because of the airflow there will be deviation from the target. But in my hands, this heavy bow will have the same effect when the arrow reaches 80 meters as if it was 10 meters away from me. So the arrow will still be in heyday of strength. Stronger a bow, much better it will withstand the tension. It seems I will need a good bow!” Dudian fumbled with the feeling of shooting, but also thought of the future plan.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
He constantly shot the arrows while the servant at the side would help to fill the basket.
After two hundred arrows, Dudian’s target hitting rate was significantly improved. Basically, he would hit two out of 10 times. But because of his improved physique, once he was skilled enough the target rate would increase rapidly.
However, it was the first stage and the target was entry level. So difficulty would increase as the time passed!
Boy next to him took a break. Unintentionally he caught a glimpse of Dudian’s target. He was stunned as 30 of Dudian’s shot had already nailed onto the target. However, at the same time the boy had only shot 160 arrows. Even if Dudian was faster than him, but there was a small gap. So even though Dudian couldn’t be compared with him but his skill was improving at an astonishing rate and was more than enough to reach the instructor’s requirements.
“Change targets,” Dudian said.
A servant immediately put on a black armor suit and carefully ran over to renew the target.
Dudian didn’t take a break but continued to shoot.
He made a shot and it hit the target.
Dudian shot out and once again the target was hit.
Dudian continued shooting.
Soon, five arrows out of ten were hitting the target. Although three arrows out of five were hitting the most outer edge of the target but the results were very good.
Dudian thought of the undeads outside the giant wall. He narrowed his eyes and aimed the target’s head as it was the deadly part of the undeads.
After four hundred continous shots, Dudian felt soreness in his arms. He stopped to rest so that his arms could slightly restore.
Soon, at dusk, the sun went down.
Dudian had shot eight hundred arrows. However, his successful hitting rate was declining as the soreness in his arms increased by the each shot. However he kept shooting as today he was purely exercising his arms and getting the feeling of shots.
At this time, five trainee hunters had already completed their respective tasks and were panting because of exhaustion. They said few words to Dudian before leaving.
Dudian stood as the sun set. There were drops of sweat dripping from his face as he continued to shoot. After every shot, a voice will emerge from his heart advising him to stop to rest. However, every single time he would think of the undeads and the beasts outside the giant wall. He would think about their ferocious appearance and about the helpless feeling that he got when he was chased after by them. Then his blood would boil and he would continue to shoot.
Inertness is innate, but insistence is your choice.