Arson walked with the new bow Acu handed him once they’d left the restaurant. The bow seemed to have wheels and gears that Arson didn’t understand entirely. Though he lived in a far more advanced realm, he’d still never seen a compound bow, hearing the term for the first time from Acu.

Acu and he made their way to the dungeon, taking a back way that would allow them to not have to deal with the extraordinary crowds that had gathered for the grand opening.

The guards bowed at them bow as they walked by. The pair received the same treatment by all they passed when entering the facility that held the portal, and Arson felt awkward with each and every bow that occurred.

He’d been in Origin for a quarter fortnight, but didn’t feel he’d done anything spectacular enough to invoke respect from the citizens. Yet this was another of Arson’s many weaknesses. An incapability of seeing oneself was something that many struggled with, and Arson was one of many shepherded within the flock of self doubt.

He was being guided by two of the city’s strongest individuals, and would soon be introduced to even more prominent figures within Origin.

“What is it, boy? Your thoughts are heavy enough to weigh down the world around you?”

Arson’s brow furrowed as he took a moment to decipher what the man meant, sighing as he realized his face must have shown his internal dilemma across his features and even his stature.

“Just wondering why I am here. I truly don’t believe I’ve done anything special, but still I am being treated with a reverence that I feel unworthy of.”

“Ah, I see, I have felt this my entire life, living in the shadow of my father,” responded Acu to Arson’s surprise.

“How so?”

Acu glanced back at Arson with a chuckle.

“You are truly a foreigner if you can ask a question about my father. He held the Icon of the Arrow in a time when Icons were said to be myths.”

Arson honestly believed Icons were myths. In Maelstrom they were only spoken about like legends or fables, but to hear they were real surprised Arson to his core. As he once dreamed of becoming the Icon of Magic, a loftier goal than Arson would be able to understand even if he lived as long as Almarine and Carter Omni combined.

“Is that what you wish to ascend to, the Icon of the Arrow, I mean?”

Acu simply shook his head.

“There are gods and Primordials alike that haven’t even reached the level of an Icon. To be recognized by creation in such a manner is to be unrivaled in any one thing, gods with these mantles are known as greater gods, and Primordials with Icons are known as natural forces, as they embody what they have become through and through. To do so as a mortal or demigod is simply unnatural. No, I wish for simpler things.”

Arson nodded to himself, deep in thought.

“You, however, should reach for the stars and beyond my boy. A savant such as yourself seems above the point of genius to an alarming degree.”

Arson laughed.

“I’m no genius, just have always had good teachers, and quite a bit of luck, nothing more. I sometimes think my only talent is truly doing things that no one else wants to. I often even feel it is an air of idiocy that pushes me to take on the difficult task, rather than doing as many around me have always done, and live for the things that make life easier.”

“Ha, very well said for such a youngling, but don’t think of things that way if you can help it, boy. Many have told me it is my superior blood, or my upbringing that has led to my current position, but none know how my father left me in the woods as a child to survive by myself, as well as my siblings, before me, and only I survived, yet they seem to want my life and everything I’ve worked for, regardless of all the things they’ve seen me lose.”

“Living through the trials I’ve had thus far showed me just how easy I’ve had things, even the talent that many say I have I personally feel I have done nothing to deserve,” said Arson, a scoff coming from his wrist, making him look at his watch. Anastasia shaking her head at him, which he found odd as the AI never seemed to interrupt conversations he had with others.

“It seems the odd woman trapped in your timepiece doesn’t agree with you, and I barely know a thing about you and find it hard to believe myself, but let us save this discussion for another time, we are here.”

Anastasia snickered, and Arson rolled his eyes at her. Though she seemed to want him dead most days, at other times she expressed a level of frustration at his own believed limits that he couldn’t understand.

He pushed the thoughts away, looking around the wide open space. Many of the Stealth Guild roamed about the room, and Arson even noticed Breaker speaking with many well dressed individuals. The group all wore different tabards, making Arson wonder if they were also heads of different guilds within the city of Origin.

Arson waved at Breaker when the man looked in his direction, but paid the rest no mind when they looked to see who Breaker had given a simple nod to. Acu seemed indifferent to those gathered, strolling to the center of the room without a care for the looks he was receiving. So Arson followed the bowman’s lead.

“Hello Master Acu, it is a pleasure,” said three familiar attendants at once. The trio bowing to Acu, and then Arson.

“Greetings to you as well, young master Arson. Will you both be entering now?”

The middle attendant gestured toward a series of nearby stairs, and Acu nodded in confirmation.

“Splendid, do you need the formal instructions for the portal's use, or—"

“No, we will be fine. Thank you.”

Acu gestured for Arson to follow, moving past the trio without pause in his stride.

“Thank you,” said Arson, rushing by to keep up with Acu.

They walked down the stairs that cut directly into the stone floor, leading to a glimmering portal that looked like a small pond to Arson. The face of the portal consistently shifting colors with every blink that passed as Arson watched.

“I was right, it is an ad infinitum,” Acu said to himself before he looked to Arson.

“What is that?”

“A portal that leads to all dungeons throughout creation. I’ve only ever seen one before. This is both amazing and incredibly dangerous. We will have to made sure we are connected to one another when we enter, or we could very well end up in separate places.”

Acue pulled free a rope from his spacial inventory, a necklace Arson only just noticed that hung from his neck, and began to tie the rope around his waist, gesturing for Arson to do the same.

“Why exactly are we jumping into the dangerous portal-to-anywhere-dungeons again?”

“We need materials.”

Arson thought the man would say more, instead he only turned to check the integrity of Arson’s knots, yanking him slightly to insure there was no chance the rope would slip.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be, I suppose…”

“Good. No matter what happens, don’t let go of your bow,” said Acu, taking a step backward.

“Of course not. Why would I—“

The words were stolen from Arson’s lips as Acu vanished, leaving nothing but the rope now being rapidly pulled through the portal. Arson’s stomach dropped as he watched the quickly diminishing tether but a moment from drawing him directly into the portal, the gateway’s face settling on an ominous red.

“Son of a—“

He was jerked off his feet and pulled directly into the dungeon, finding himself plummeting through the air, flipping end over end, until he smashed into the ground below. He groaned, rolling over to see Acu standing, looking around at their environment.

*Just keep shooting: this test is to determine how difficult the dungeon of Origin will be for you, Tested. You have only the tools you entered with inside this mana free zone. Difficulty of the dungeon will be set based on how long it takes for first blood to be obtained by your enemies. For this challenge, Quivers will be given the rune of Unending. Good luck, young Godling.*

Arson got to his feet slowly, looking around to see that they stood in Origin. However the streets were empty, and there were no signs of life in any direction.

The pair had been dropped on a rooftop in a random quarter of the city. Haphazardly placed beside two quivers suited for them both. One large, and another smaller.

Arson walked over to the quivers and lifted the larger one, whistling as he threw it toward Acu to grab his attention, everything changing the moment he lifted the smaller quiver.

“What in the bloody sparks is that?”

Acu stared into the distance, looking at something well outside of Arson’s view. The master took one of the many arrows given by the runic quivers they’d received, and took aim. Arson waited to see what the man was aiming at, when a figure came into view.

What seemed to be a white eyed humanoid rushed toward them across a distant roof at an all-out sprint. A rune was inscribed on both of the being's temples, flaring with a multi colored light. The sound of snarling heard across the space that separated them from what Arson thought to be a man in the clothes of a common merchant.

It wasn’t until it ran straight off the roof, falling to the ground ground below and the sound of snapping bones touched Arson’s ears that he even realized that he too should be preparing for what was to come.

“Aim for the head, lad,” said Acu, drawing back his bow string as they watched the seemingly possessed man crawl on the ground below, until the vomit inducing angles of his legs snapped back into place, allowing him to right himself and charge once more.

“That’s not good.”

“Focus, boy! They will probably come from anywhere and everywhere, and with us out in the open like this, we may be more at risk than anything, even though we have the high ground.”

Arson watched as Acu shot his first arrow, piercing the man through the skull; the man dropping to the ground once more like a puppet with its strings cut.

Then the sounds of snarling began coming from every direction, like a forest full of disturbed bees nests. Arson spun slowly, drawing an arrow of his own, just in time to see a woman in a ripped dress climb atop the roof, snarling as she rushed him.

“Maiden, forgive me…”

Arson fired, and the woman’s head snapped backward with the shot, taking her sailing off the roof.

He rushed to see what happened to the woman, and immediately regretted his choice; seeing a dozen or more of them climbing the side of the building they were on at incredible speeds.

“Acu, we got incoming!”

Arson backed away from the roof’s edge and prepared another arrow. Another two beings emerged snarling at Arson and he fired at the one on the left, before hurrying to take another shot.

His second shot missed, taking the ear off the man, but Acu sent out a shot of his own, sending the second man rocketing backward.

“For every shot you miss is 1000 practice shots I make you take when we leave here.”

“Yes sir,” said Arson taking a deep breath as he aimed at his next target.

Arson kept firing, and enemies kept coming. No matter how many they shot between the eyes, more rushed onto the roof; Arson wondering if the enemies were truly as unending as the arrows in the quiver he used.

Arson soon faced his first issue with the overwhelming enemy, as he wasn’t firing fast enough, forced to wait until the enemy stood upright on the roof and then take a shot. While his master fired the moment their enemies poked their heads up to ascend over the roof’s edge.

Arson grew frantic, until he remembered the ease in which he could sense his enemy while he used his Closed Eye Dominion, fighting the golems under Master Breaker’s test just the previous night.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. And his Closed Eye Dominion stretched out further than ever before.

“What are you doing, boy? Fire!”

Arson started to shoot again. His enemies now lit up in his vision like floating orbs of energy well before they could even eclipse the boundary of the edge. His rate of fire now tripling, as he didn’t have to wait to see where they were coming from, he already knew. Each shot prepared well in advance.

They continued to fire, killing their enemy at an astonishing pace. Yet the numbers only grew, and Arson was forced to dig deep, his mana normally there to aid his body break beyond its limits, giving him, speed, stamina and even power.

Really going to have to thank momma Jade for all the physical training. I’d probably be dead already without it.

Arson split his mind, focusing on both Master Acu’s form and his targets, leaning into precision rather than raw power for each and every shot.

He realized that it wasn’t hard to penetrate the skulls of the monster-like individuals they fought against, learning more and more how to increase his rate of fire with every shot he analyzed Master Acu take.

He split his mind again, focusing on his breathing, finding it easier for his muscles to keep up with the repetitive motion with every controlled breath he managed; soon finding it easier to focus on the task at hand.

His thoughts scattered less, and his accuracy increased even further.

Without realizing it, he and Master Acu, had begun slowly turning to cover one another, an endless stream of arrows killing their targets with an ever increasing ease. The two back to back, separated by no more than a yard at a time, operating at a new level of teamwork. Each shot taken even more fluid than the last, with Master Acu having to worry less about Arson, and Arson growing more comfortable the longer they survived.

Then the flood came, and a new level of enemy was forced upon the pair. Master and student confronted by dozens upon dozens of enemies all at once.

Arson felt as if he would have had his mana to rely on, that maybe he would have had a chance, but instead he felt pure panic as half a dozen people made it but a handful of yards away from him in a near instance, filling him with dread.

He felt as if he was back in the Mana Monarch kingdom, surrounded by corrupted core beasts without the tools that helped him survive. His want to summon Jack in the perilous situation, higher than any other he ever experienced. Fear touching his soul in a way he hadn’t felt since before he formed his physical core, exploring the more dangerous areas within the orphanage he’d grown up in.

He froze momentarily. Until Master Acu’s words shocked him out of his state of delirium, forcing him to pull a multitude of arrows out of the quiver to attempt something he’d only seen Master Acu perform once before.

“Just keep shooting, boy!”