Upon awakening, Carn found himself back in God’s Paradise and a notification sounded in his ear, "By consuming the compulsory education solution, your base stats have improved: Wisdom +6, Intelligence +4, and Fortitude +3."
Carn was thrilled with the notification and headed down to the training area to meet Kiera. She was standing with a group of rangers who were practicing their aim on target dummies.
"Hey, Carn, come line up here and shoot at those dummies over there." Kiera pointed at a group of dummies roughly 50 meters away. "Don't use hunter's accuracy when training, as it won't help you improve your aim."
Carn lined up with the other rangers and drew his bow. To his surprise, he found it easier to gauge how to shoot the arrow. He released the arrow with a satisfying swoosh, and it hit the dummy's chest.
Kiera and the other hunters were impressed, but Carn continued to hit the target four more times in a row. She was amazed since just the day before, he had been struggling to hit targets only 20 meters away.
Carn was equally surprised by his newfound skill. He theorized that the education solution he had consumed had helped him to better understand how to aim and how the arrows would move in the air. However, he didn't fully understand it himself.
“Okay, well it looks like you're already in the zone, so let's begin your mana-based skill training today. Before we start, can you tell me where you invested your 15 skill points?” Kiera asked.
“I put 7 in agility and 4 in strength and intelligence.” Carn said.
“Alright, you are going for more of a mixed build, can you please use Magic Arrow to hit that target over there?” She asked.
“Sure no problem.” Carn said.
In his head he thought of a magic arrow and mana coalesced to form a blue arrow on his bow. He drew back and launched the arrow. The arrow didn’t even make an arc as it zoomed into the dummy.
BANG
The mana arrow slammed into the dummy and ripped a hole through it. The students looked at Carn with wide eyes as the dummy was smoking from the attack.
“Holy shit,” Kiera said dumbfounded, “Kid you are level 1 correct?”
“Yes I am,” Carn said, sounding extremely worried. “Teacher, I really can't pay for the damages to the dummy. Please let me know what I can do to fix it!”
“Oh you don’t have to worry about that, the dummies fix themselves automatically.” She said as the dummy started to stitch itself back together, “Well the goal of the training is for you to use Magic Arrow until you run out of mana so you can get used to firing arrows with mana deficiency.”
“Okay, should I shoot until I run out of mana then?” Carn asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“Sure, do just that. Wait until the dummy fixes itself before firing another arrow though,” Kiera said, still amazed by the power of Carn's attack.
Carn started shooting, and every arrow hit the dummy with incredible force, blowing holes in it. After seven shots, Kiera wondered when Carn would run out of mana.
As Carn drew back to shoot the eighth arrow, he felt a strange sensation. The arrow he summoned was no longer blue, but instead looked like it was on fire. He released the arrow, and it flew straight through the dummy, taking off its entire upper half.
Kiera was speechless. She recognized the skill as Fire-forged Arrow, which only fire-focused rangers learned after specializing into a magical-based ranger class at level 50. It made no sense for a level 1 ranger to be able to use such a skill.
“How did you do that?” she asked, her voice serious.
Carn hesitated for a moment but then decided to answer truthfully. “I think it's an effect of a passive skill. Although, I’d prefer not to tell you what that passive skill is, if that's alright with you,” he said, bowing deeply.
“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Kiera said, rubbing her forehead. “You should be running out of mana soon. Tell me how low on mana you are.”
“Uh well, how do I say this, in the time between shots, while the dummy is regenerating, it seems that my mana is regenerating back to full, probably due to a passive skill.” He said, scratching his head.
Kiera was stumped. So he has a passive skill that can make his Magic Arrow into a Fire-forged Arrow by chance and a passive skill that regenerates his mana she incorrectly theorized, “In any case we still need you to bottom out your mana could you shoot this special dummy until you are out of mana?”
She pointed to a dummy that seemed to be made out of some type of metal that was 100 meters away from the firing line.
“Ya I can do that,” Carn responded.
“Hey Rourke, I want to use the metal dummy. Could you take a break for a bit?” Kiera shouted
The burly Rourke gave a thumbs up and Kiera and Carn walked over.
Captain Rourke assumed that Kiera was going to demonstrate her magical prowess to Carn. However, he became confused when he saw Carn preparing to take the shot instead.
“Why is he lining up to shoot the metal dummy, this kid came in yesterday, did he do something to upset you?” He whispered with concern in his voice.
“Just watch,” Kiera responded.
Captain Rourke tentatively shut his mouth and watched Carn as he pulled back his bow.
Carn shot an arrow with explosive force and it arced in the air before slamming into the metal dummy leaving no traces of damage. Rourke was impressed but he still didn’t understand what was going on.
Carn fired arrow after arrow for 5 minutes straight with relatively good accuracy, only six arrows missing. On his 23rd arrow, Carn pulled back and the arrow shined yellow. It looked like a lightning bolt as it sat in his bow and it crackled with a fierce energy. Looking at the arrow Carn adjusted his aim instead of arcing it he aimed straight at the dummy and released.
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The arrow crackled in the air before impacting the metal dummy with a resounding boom. When the dust settled the dummy had a dent in it that was slowly disappearing as it repaired itself.
Rourke looked astonished as he looked at Carn and back at Kiera, they were both astonished that he shot 23 magic arrows let alone an electric one.
Kiera whispered under his breath so only Rourke could hear, “He shot a Fire-forged arrow earlier now he’s shooting a Thunder-forged Arrow. He said it is an effect of a passive skill but I can’t help thinking that he is lying about his level and is messing with us.”
“That electric arrow seemed less powerful than a Thunder-forged arrow and it is very rude to ask for his stats but I agree we need to check to be certain,” Captain Rourke agreed.
Carn was completely drained of mana and felt utterly exhausted. He looked over at his teacher and the captain, noticing that they were engaged in a discussion. Deciding to make use of his time, Carn pulled out his bow and began shooting regular arrows until his companions were finished talking. As his teacher had explained earlier, the purpose of the exercise was to show the difficulty of hitting a target when drained of mana.
Even at a distance of only 50 meters Carn’s accuracy had drastically dropped and he found it hard to . After half an hour of shooting, Carn felt his exhaustion fade away. When he looked up, he saw that the two rangers were staring at him in silence.
"Did I do something wrong?" Carn asked, confused by their quiet scrutiny.
Rourke replied gruffly, "No, not at all. I assume you're no longer mana exhausted?"
"That's right. I'll probably need to train more in that state, though. It's really difficult to hit arrows like that," Carn said with an awkward laugh.
Then, Rourke asked in a serious tone, "Carn, if it's alright with you, could we take a look at your stats and level?"
All of a sudden, a pop-up menu appeared in front of Carn:
Allow Ranger Kiera and Captain Rourke to view your level and stats?
-Yes- -No-
Carn clicked yes and said, “Sure why not.”
Kiera and Rourke looked intently at the screens that appeared in front of them.
It displayed Carn at level 1 and showed his stats:
[https://i.imgur.io/1nP4Hwm_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
The two were shocked the highest stat total they had seen at level one was 200 and even that was an edge case. Carn had a total of 250. You would need to be at least level 20 to get these stats using unspent points. It was absurd.
“It seems we are in the presence of a monster,” Rourke muttered under his breath.
“Carn get some rest and meet me in the training field tomorrow for hand to hand training,” Kiera said as if in a trance.
When Carn excused himself he heard a pleasant ding echo in his ear.
- You have completed Ranger Training Part 2 -
Intelligence, Wisdom, Agility, and Fortitude have increased by 1 point
For impressing your teacher you gain 1 more point in each of these stats.
Carn had completed the second day of training given by Kiera and Rourke, and the rewards he had received were more than he had expected. Despite this, he couldn't help but notice that something seemed off about his companions' behavior. They had been acting strangely ever since he had shown them his skills, and it left him with a sense of unease.
As he lay down to rest for the night, the events of the day kept playing through his mind. He couldn't shake the feeling that Kiera and Rourke were acting weird around him. Finally, exhaustion took over and he fell asleep.
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Carn woke up in the hospital room again, feeling a sense of familiarity wash over him. He spent the morning talking to Alicia, the kind nurse who had been taking care of him since he arrived. They chatted about everything from the weather to Carn's favorite foods. But just as they were settling into a comfortable silence, Alicia's phone rang.
"Excuse me for a moment, I have to take this," Alicia said apologetically before stepping out of the room.
Carn was left alone with his thoughts, slurping on a bowl of soup. He couldn't believe how much his life had changed in just a few days. The attention and care he was receiving here in the hospital were something he never experienced before. He thought back to his old life, and his body trembled at the memory. He was determined to never go back to living like that again.
Just as he finished his soup, Alicia returned to the room with a phone in her hand. "This call was actually for you, use the button to call me back when you are done talking," she said with a smile.
Alicia waved at Carn before leaving the room. Carn smiled and waved back and put the phone to his ear, “Hello this is Carn, delivery or take-,” He stopped himself mid-sentence and his face turned bright red, "Hello, this is Carn, who am I speaking to?" he said, hoping to salvage the awkward moment.
On the other end of the line, there was a hearty chuckle. "This is Mr. Nobody, Peter Cho. Can I get some dumplings for delivery?" he said.
Feeling embarrassed, Carn apologized, but Mr. Cho had big news for him. "No worries. I talked with Stanford's president and told her about your circumstances. She said she would happily accept you, but with a couple of conditions," he said, sounding pleased.
"Really? What are the conditions? If I can, I will happily fulfill them," Carn replied, coughing roughly.
“Mr. Cho's concern for Carn's cough was palpable as he spoke, "That cough sounds nasty. Are they treating you well over there?"
Carn quickly assured him, "Yes, yes, I'm fine. The doc said it should go away soon. So, what are the conditions?"
With a note of excitement in his voice, Mr. Cho replied, "The president of Stanford said that you need to have taken a Compulsory Education Solution, and to confirm your ability, she needs you to take a standardized test. But the good news is that she can send it to the hospital with a proctor so that you can take it whenever you're ready."
"That's great! And thank you for the Solution, it was amazing," Carn said gratefully.
"No problem," Mr. Cho said. "The guy I bought it from owed me a favor, so it was practically free.”
Mr. Cho continued with another condition, “Also, the president requested that you take an aptitude test for combat."
Carn was confused. "Combat? Why the need for that?"
"It's a new initiative by college institutes to guide those with an aptitude for combat to become protectors in times of need. For those less gifted, it's to give them the knowledge to protect themselves in the case of a disaster," Mr. Cho explained. "It's an effort to prevent needless deaths of people who have the strength to protect themselves and others but not the knowledge to utilize it."
“I can do that but I’m not very strong for someone my age,” Carn said concerned.
“The scores for tests that depend on raw strength and quickness are affected by the amount of time the person has played God’s Paradise so you don’t need to worry about being placed poorly because of that.” Mr. Cho said reassuringly.
Carn's breathing became labored, and he felt a heavy pain in his chest. "You sure you're all right, Carn?" Mr. Cho asked with concern.
"I don't know," Carn replied, coughing heavily. "It feels like something is stuck in my throat." He continued to cough, and his head started to feel light.
"Carn, I'm getting worried. Call someone in to check on you," Mr. Cho urged.
Suddenly, Carn couldn't breathe. Mr. Cho's voice sounded distant and muffled, and the fear set in. He felt like he was drowning, with an immense weight on his chest that he couldn't lift.
Alicia burst into the room, and Carn's vision started to fade.