A couple of days passed with not much happening. During the day Carn talked with Alicia and had begun walking around again. During the night he entered God’s Paradise and trained with Keira, he had seen a noticeable improvement in his melee skills, and his accuracy while moving, and while under the effects of mana deprivation had increased as well. Learning tracking was relatively easy to the point that even Kiera was surprised. She thought that he was cheating at some points but after multiple days it seemed he just had an inborn talent for it. It was like nature itself revealed clues that it normally would’ve kept hidden.
After 4 days of training, all of Carn’s stats had increased by 2 besides his agility and strength which had increased by 4 and charisma and luck which were unaffected.
After he woke up on the 4th day a representative from Stanford arrived with a standardized test. Due to the enhanced Compulsory Education Solution, the test was a breeze, however, without it Carn probably would have struggled to get even a third of the questions correct.
Going back into God’s Paradise, Carn was ready for the final day of Ranger training, he had improved a lot but was excited to finally be done. He wanted to explore the world and make a name for himself, not hole himself up in one place.
When he got to the training area it seemed like a crowd was forming around where he did melee training. Carn passed through novice and expert rangers and reached the center. The melee area now had small obstacles and cover made of tree roots. It looked like an arena of sorts. Captain Rourke, Kiera, and an old man with long robes and gnarled old staff stood at the center.
Rourke spotted Carn and waved him over, “For the final day of training you will duel Kiera with her level reduced by this shaman here. The old shaman gave a friendly wave. Novice Rangers can’t graduate if they don’t survive 10 minutes in the arena, if you can defeat your teacher we will give you a separate reward. Are you ready?” Rourke asked.
Carn was surprised at this final test, “I have a question first, why are so many people gathered?”
“They all have heard the news of the ‘Super Rookie’ and want to see if you can beat the longstanding record of the fastest instance of a student beating their teacher,” Kiera said glaring at some of the rangers who were organizing and placing bets.
“Ah I see,” Carn said, “Let’s start then, don’t want to keep the people waiting.”
Carn and Kiera stood at either end of the arena, various obstacles made of roots stood between them. Each had a bow and arrow and a dagger. Kiera was wearing simple cotton clothes instead of her armor to have the playing field be even.
Suddenly the reserved and gruff Rourke stood in front of the crowd, “Welcome Rangers! Today will be a match to determine Ranger training graduation! On the left, we have the tall and the too-talented for his own good, super rookie… CARN ROSWAL. On the right, we have the fierce expert ranger of Sienna village who has defeated a Wyvern in solo combat… KIERA STANTON!” He shouted like an announcer, “The match will begin on the shaman's call.”
Kiera saw Rourke walking into the crowd to place a bet with one of the rangers and she got annoyed and readied herself for combat.
The shaman spoke, “Kiera will you allow me to temporarily lower your level for this competition.”
Kiera nodded and the shaman slammed his staff and a purple light fell over her body. Her stats had been reduced as far as they could go or in other words, she was about as strong as a level 15.
“May the match begin!” The shaman said before baking away into the crowd.
Carn and Kiera took a few steps back from each other and drew their bows. They both fired at the same time, and their arrows met in the air and fell to the ground.
Carn wanted to keep his distance, so he began to move sideways to avoid Kiera's attacks. Kiera followed him, aiming and firing arrows with impressive speed and accuracy. But Carn was fast, and he managed to dodge most of them.
Carn shot an arrow in Kiera's direction, but she jumped to the side and fired back. Carn sidestepped the incoming arrow and shot another one. This time Kiera managed to block it with her bow, and she quickly closed the distance between them.
Carn panicked for a moment, not sure what to do. He knew that he was not skilled enough in close combat to beat Kiera. But he had to try.
Kiera lunged at him with her dagger, and Carn stepped back and drew his own. He swung at her, but Kiera easily dodged and kicked him in the chest. Carn stumbled back, but he quickly recovered and slashed at Kiera again. This time she blocked his attack with her bow and pushed him away.
They circled each other, waiting for an opening. Kiera was clearly the more skilled fighter, but Carn was determined to win. He fainted a strike, and Kiera fell for it, stepping back for a moment. Carn took advantage of the opening and lunged at her with his dagger. Kiera blocked his attack, but Carn managed to grab her wrist and twist it, making her drop her dagger.
Kiera twisted out of Carn’s grip and pushed him away. She acrobatically grabbed her dagger from the floor and looked for Carn, however, instead of Carn taking this chance to attack he backed up and mana coalesced on his bow.
Carn knew he had to keep his distance if he wanted to win this fight. He focused on his mana and drew it into his bow, forming a blue energy arrow. Kiera watched him warily, her bow at the ready.
Carn took a deep breath and fired his Mana Arrow at Kiera. She dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack, but Carn followed up with another Mana Arrow. Kiera dodged behind one of the tree roots and took cover waiting for an opening, but Carn kept firing, keeping the pressure on.
Carn fired Mana Arrow after Mana Arrow, the wood started to splinter and Kiera couldn’t find an opening to escape or counterattack.
Suddenly one of the Mana Arrow’s Carn was about to shoot started to glow bright red and the once blue arrow now looked like an arrow made of fire. He launched this arrow into Kiera’s cover, demolishing it and causing dust to obscure his vision.
Carn thought he had won but then he saw movement in the dust, Kiera leaped through the dust and slashed at him with her dagger, leaving a gash in his left arm. The two clashed in a flurry of blows, and Carn knew how to win.
When Kiera stabbed at his gut he adjusted slightly but let himself get stabbed. Using Kiera’s surprise he kicked her back making her slam into an obstacle. Kiera was dazed for a moment but when she came back to her senses she saw Carn standing above her with his bow drawn and an arrow made of pure electricity was crackling and pointed at her face.
“What a stupid ability,” Kiera said, sounding bitter, “I concede, congrats.”
Carn lowered his bow and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He helped Kiera up, and she begrudgingly congratulated him.
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"Good job, Carn. You've improved a lot since we first met," Kiera said, wiping the dirt off her clothes.
"Thanks, Kiera. I couldn't have done it without your help," Carn replied, smiling.
The two walked back to the rest of the rangers, who were cheering and congratulating Carn on his victory. Rourke approached Carn, clapping him on the back.
"Congratulations, Roswal. You're a Ranger now," Rourke said, grinning, “Also thanks for the quick cash,” he said with a wink.
A wave of accomplishment washed over Carn as he basked in the cheers of the other Rangers. He had worked hard for this moment, and it had paid off. The attention he had always craved was finally his. Carn made a silent vow to keep training hard so that he could experience this sensation again in the future.
The shaman healed Carn and Kiera and her restrictions on her level was removed. While this was occurring Carn heard a pleasant ding in his ear.
- You have completed Ranger Training -
All stats increase by 2
You have received the title: Trained Ranger
You have received the active skill: Hunter’s Mark
You have received the passive skill: Arrow Regeneration
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
The notifications were euphoric and Carn felt himself grow stronger, before he could look at the menu Rourke approached him with a large wooden box in his hands.
The captain placed the box on the floor and Rourke handed Carn a bow from his back.
"While you didn't beat your instructor in record time, you did beat her. So, alongside the basic ranger gear, we will give you this," the captain said.
- You have received: Enhanced Recurve Bow -
Carn looked at the bow in his hands. It was simple but clean, made of dark wood similar to spruce, and very smooth with no blemishes on its surface. He checked its stats and saw that it was a huge upgrade from his old bow.
Carn looked at its stats.
Enhanced Recurve Bow:
Tier: Copper
Level: 5
Attack: 30
Description: A recurve bow made of shadow wood, when shot from the shadows the first arrow can't be detected.
Inside the box, there was a set of basic ranger gear, including leather chest armor and pants, a cloak, simple wooden arrows, gloves, boots, and a dagger. They all had similar styles with green and brown decals. Carn's defense from his gear increased from 6 to 65, and the damage of his arrows went up from a measly 2 to 10.
On top of all of this, Roark handed Carn a small wooden medallion with the image of a hooded Ranger on one side and his name engraved on the other.
“Whenever you complete a quest make sure you show them that medallion and the headquarters will get a bonus from the quest giver. This is how we keep our doors open so don’t forget to show it to them.” Rourke said.
Carn nodded his head and accepted the medallion. After saying his goodbyes, Carn began walking back to the city, examining the title and skills he had received.
Trained Ranger (Title)
Tier: Wood
A title given to all of those who completed Ranger training.
When equipped: +5 Agility and enhances your tracking abilities
Not equipped: +5 Agility
Hunter’s Mark (Active Skill)
Level: 1
Cost: 10 mana/min
Tier: Wood
Your mana marks a target in your vision, as long as you stay within 100 meters of them you will know which direction they are in.
Arrow Regeneration (Passive Skill)
Level: 1
Tier: Wood
Wood tier arrows automatically regenerate from the world's mana until your quiver is at full capacity at a rate of 1 arrow per 5 minutes.
"With Hunter's Mark, I can chase fleeing enemies," Carn thought. "And with Arrow Regeneration, I won't have to pick up all my arrows or worry if they break."
He decided to keep his old title equipped for now, as it provided more stats. But he knew he could switch to the new title if he needed to track someone. All in all, Carn was thrilled with his new gear and skills, and he couldn't wait to put them to the test.
Carn’s next decision was to determine where he should invest his newly gained 20 skill points.
He opened his character menu and pondered.
[https://i.imgur.io/jA12DmN_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
Over his time playing God’s Paradise he noticed that Charisma and Luck were treated as slightly different from the other stats, so out of curiosity he tried adding points into both however when he tried a voice sounded in his head, “Unspent points cannot be added to Charisma and Luck. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Carn shrugged as he didn’t really care for those stats anyway. In the end, he decided to put 8 points into agility, 1 into will and wisdom, and 5 into both Strength and intelligence.
His new stats looked like this:
[https://i.imgur.io/MOddXp6_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium]
After he finished adding points to his stats he heard the sound of a phone playing in his ear, and a robotic voice played in his ear, “Friend: Shaun Bradley, is calling do you want to answer?”
Carn was surprised but he remembered that he added Shaun as a friend earlier so he accepted the call.
“Hey kid, I heard from the grapevine that you finished training, hop on over to the guild house when you get the chance I have some good news for you,” Shaun said excitedly through his shiny white helmet.
“Alright sounds good, where is your guild house?” Carn asked, wondering what the good news was.
“You can’t miss it, go to the central plaza with the water fountain and you should be able to see it from there,” Shaun said.
“Alright, I'm on my way,” Carn replied.
“See you soon!” Shaun said as the call disconnected.
After about a half hour of walking, Carn reached the plaza with the water fountain. Shaun wasn’t lying, you really couldn’t miss the building if you tried.
In the heart of the city, a magnificent building rose up with a grandeur that commanded attention. Fashioned from glistening white marble and gilded with gold accents, the Pillars of the Sun guild building was a stunning sight to behold. Even amidst the other impressive structures nearby, it stood out with its regal splendor. The symbol of the guild, a massive sun emblazoned with golden rays, was prominently displayed above the entrance, encircled by a ring of intricately carved marble pillars. The guild building seemed to bask from the glow of the sun, exuding an air of prestige and power.