After speaking with Vikir I left him to his shopping and headed outside the gate of Bruefidem. I went to the edge of a forest and found a big tree. I pulled out my dagger that I had decided to nickname “glowstick” and used it to mark a x into the tree. I then back up 10 meters, drew an arrow from my quiver, placed it in position, pulled back the string, and released. . .

The arrow flew sideways and lodged into the ground 5 meters away from the tree with the x. The string also slapped into my left arm and was stinging, so I was dejected both physically and mentally already and I just started archery.

“Shit, maybe I should’ve asked someone to teach me how to shoot a bow.” I muttered whilst rubbing my stinging arm.

“Maybe I should’ve started this yesterday and I could’ve asked Tace yesterday to help me out, but this morning Tace and the other three I met at the front gate left for a quest in another town, so Tace would be gone for a few days.”

“I could ask Vikir but I would feel bad bothering him, especially when he has to work later in the day.”

I decided on just going with trial and error to figure out archery, I thought eventually I would figure it out.

1 hour later

After an hour of training with the bow I have only managed to hit the root of the tree with an arrow, half of them still fly sideways, my left arm was now thoroughly bruised and 2 of my arrows were broken, leaving me with 10, this training session has not been very fruitful and I don’t think my blessing from Altajir is even working, cuz I’m not doing anything right.

‘Maybe I should go ask one of the adventurers at the guild for tips, most of them don’t seem hostile and it would probably save me from wasting my day.’ I thought while picking up arrows from the dirt.

“Geez, you must really hate grass.”

I turned around and saw a familiar face walking towards me.

“Vikir, what’s up, why are you out here?”

“Well I finished my morning errands and realized, you probably didn’t find a person to teach you archery, so I thought I’d stop by and give you some pointers, also here.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Vikir tossed me two leather items that I caught in my arms, which stung my left one.

“That glove is for your right hand, it will protect your fingers while drawing the bow, and that arm guard is for protecting your left arm from whipping yourself with the bow string, I already see that you need it.”

Vikir pointed to my left arm that was red and bruised.

“Thanks Vikir, I appreciate it.”

I equipped both items and felt a little more like an archer.

“Okay, now draw your bow back, let me see what we're working with.”

“Wait, really, you’ll help me?”

“Yeah why not, I got some time before work, so might as well stop you from wasting time.”

“Thanks again Vikir.”

I then got into my position, drew an arrow from my quiver, placed it in position, pulled back the string, and. . .

“STOP!”

I then froze in position with my string pulled back and turned towards Vikir.

“First spread your legs out more, about shoulder width, your legs are too close, so you’re unstable.”

I did as Vikir said and spread my legs to shoulder width apart.

“Good, you’re stance isn’t too bad, but stop leaning back, stand up straight.”

I followed Vikir’s instructions and fixed my posture.

“Good, well missing an eye it will be a little more difficult for you, but focus on the target, keep your left arm steady, and release.”

“Alright. . .”

. . .

“Wait, what do you mean it’s “more difficult” to shoot while missing an eye, I thought archers close their non-dominant eye before shooting.”

“I mean, I guess some do, but most I know, especially the good ones, keep both eyes open when shooting.”

“Shit. . .”

. . .

“So you spread my legs shoulders width apart, straight posture, keep left arm straight, focus on target, anything else?”

“So you’re just gonna ignore the issue?”

“Yep.”

. . .

“Nothing else really, just pull the string straight back and release.”

I did as Vikir said, pulled the string back and released, the arrow flew through the air and got stuck in the tree a little below the x mark.

“There you go kid, now keep at it and eventually you’ll be hitting that.”

“Thanks Vikir, hey, how do you know how to shoot a bow?”

“Oh, I learned it at the knight academy in Breufidem, it’s not required but they like it if you know how to handle other weapons than just swords.”

Vikir and I then conversed for an hour whilst I kept shooting arrows, I had gotten to the point where most of my arrows landed near the x mark, he then eventually left to start his shift waving goodbye with some words of advice.

“Remember kid, perfect practice makes perfect, keep at it.”

With that I was alone, and I continued to shoot arrows at the x mark, retrieve them and start all over, until the sun went down, my arms were sore and all of my arrows had hit the x mark from 10 meters away. I then traveled back to the front gate, where Vikir scolded me for shooting arrows all day with no break and returned to the inn I was staying at. That night, I didn’t lay on my side, because both my arms were sore and in pain.