You have learned a new skill in the Bowyer class.

MATERIAL INFUSION: CHANNEL MAGICAL ENERGY INTO RAW MATERIALS USED IN BOWCRAFT, ENHANCING THE BOW’S NATURAL PROPERTIES. INFUSED BOWS HAVE A CHANCE TO GAIN UNIQUE PROPERTIES BASED ON THE MATERIAL USED, SUCH AS INCREASED DURABILITY, ATTACK POWER, OR MINOR ELEMENTAL DAMAGE. COST: 100 MANA

I finally made Expert Bowcraft skill reach level ten… and I sighed in relief. Gaining experience creating only rare bows was really inefficient and even with the parts of the Woodkin, I couldn’t make the Epic ones that easily. I was probably missing something.

The enchantments were fine, though. They all came in the Adept rank. Maybe I indeed should use a bunch of tattoos that increase dexterity, and even if drain all my mana in a couple of minutes and I have to take breaks, and I produce only a bow a day,

Regardless, I decided to fight for a bit and then recover my mana before trying the new skill and see the results. At this point in time, even though the labyrinth was of the draconic level, I realized that it couldn’t be compared to the Hellblazer labyrinth. I was already reaching the seventh floor on the second day before sunset.

True, I had a map, and I had trained a lot, but the number of monsters was smaller. I was alone, and I had gotten a bit stronger in the last year too… so, I wondered what the difference was.

‘I guess it must be the swords… the sharp enchantments make the monsters here look like they are made of butter.’

If that made things too easy, the other option was to use my fists and use my attacking skill in the Monk Class. I was quite curious if I could do that. In certain games, bare-handed fighters that had a lot of endurance and strength could cause insane damage with their fists and kicks. Perhaps this kind of build was possible in a world like this… it would be interesting, if anything. However, my martial knowledge of my previous life was limited, so it wasn’t a real option.

‘Let’s see… Hm? They again…’

I heard the sound of metallic footsteps approaching. I just started to use meditation to see how fast that skill could level up, but then those kids showed up again. No way I would close my eyes and meditate while there were people around.

I was resting on a dead end, so soon they appeared and checked on me for a moment. They were looking all around for my remains, apparently. Since they had a map, there was no point for them heading to dead ends… Regardless, they soon turned around and left.

‘They aren’t very good at this… perhaps I can make that mask using wood. If I paint it with the magic ink, then…’

It certainly wouldn’t be enough to create a magic item out of that… unless I used the boss’ materials. Perhaps the Wood Golem boss materials would be enough, but I decided to wait for a bit longer to wait until I could find the Woodkin boss. Better materials, better effects. Besides, I knew that were some trees that make weird wounds with the wind.

Decayed wood vibrates differently than living, flexible wood. Dead trees may act like natural instruments, with certain parts vibrating at lower frequencies that produce deep, ominous sounds. Perhaps I could use the same theory to change the sound of my voice… flutes in the past were made like that, after all.

I decided to write that down and try later. Eventually, I resumed my meditation and then tried to enchant the materials of the previous boss with Material Infusion. Weirdly enough, I could see a special aura on the pieces after the skill was activated, but I could tell that they were losing that aura over time.

‘It is a race against time, huh? Well, this will be hard…’

I increased my mana regeneration for situations like that, but I rarely started crafting a bow with so little mana left. It wasn’t that little, it was over half, but it was still not the perfect amount just in case something happened.

Thanks to the risk of failure, I focused more on the task ahead and then lost the notion of time and the space around me. There was only the need to make the bow as good as possible in my head… while I was making it, I didn’t think of anything, I just cleaned the parts that needed cleaned and fixed the others that needed to be fixed without even thinking about it.

You received 80 experience points.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Long Wooden Bow (Epic)

Enchantment Slots: 03

Bonus Effects: Sap-Infused Poison - The bow imbues arrows with a sticky sap poison that weakens enemies over time. The poison deals three points damage of per second for three seconds.

Piercing Thorns: Arrows shot from the bow grow small thorns in flight, causing extra bleeding damage to enemies upon impact. This effect deals three points of damage per second for three seconds.

Attack: 75

I smiled in satisfaction after waiting for a while. My mana was exhausted at the last moment, and then I had to rest for a couple of minutes before I had the chance to check the bow. Yeah, the skill made the difference. Perhaps now I could make a legendary bow since I already made an Epic one without Material Infusion.

I decided to take a break and rest properly for a change after eating something. The excitement didn’t let me relax that much, but I knew that I would once the adrenaline went away. Thanks to that, a new idea came to mind… one that made me smirk.

‘I guess I will become a ninja…’

… …

A few hours passed and then the group of young soldiers finally were returning after hunting some Woodkin. Their usual training routine was to reach the second boss chamber and then return as fast as possible, all in order to make them get stronger and used to fighting while tired, but they received the orders to take their time and keep an eye on the weirdo that was inside the dungeon.

Still, soon enough, they found no signs in the area that he had been and no signs that he had advanced, either. Based on what they knew, they imagined that he would only return to the entrance of the dungeon in the morning, and it was around midnight.

“Did we miss him?”

“No, it is impossible… we didn’t find signs of him ahead, and there are no signs that he left this place. Unless he can fly.”

That didn’t make much sense, only very powerful mages can fly… someone like that would have skills that would them pretty valuable. Someone like that wouldn’t be in a dungeon or anywhere else crafting bows. Something was off.

They checked the area for signs of battles, but they found nothing. No signs of blood either… even if he had been caught off guard while resting, that wouldn’t make him be killed without struggling a bit.

The group returned to the start of the floor and checked the whole place, all dead ends, and they even split up, but they found no signs of the weirdo. They did the same thing on all the other floors until morning. They were insanely tired thanks to that.

Still, when they reached the fifth floor of the first section, they soon saw the weirdo passing by them using an automatic bike like nothing had happened. Their mouths stood hanging open for a while in total shock.

… …

I felt a bit bad when I left those guys behind. They were just kids, but I made them lose the whole night looking for me through the beginning of the dungeon. I just wanted to do some tests, and it worked.

I used a bunch of camouflage spells on my clothes and on the bandages too, and I also used the skill. Thanks to that, several layers of camouflage made me disappear. Even when I was half a meter away from them, the kids didn’t find me. Thanks to that, Sneak granted me a bunch of experience.

‘This was interesting, and I can probably use it to run away in a bind, or to surprise someone who is looking for me.’

I had the stealth and bow skills necessary to make a surprise attack with an arrow cause a shit ton of damage. Perhaps I could even use that against bosses. It was worth of an idea that I should write down and study in the future.

Before long, I was back at the entrance of the dungeon and soon Cassius showed up with the leader of the knights as well. It seemed that they had been waiting for their report a bit earlier, but since the kids lost time looking for me, they decided to come and check things.

“Did you find a group of young soldiers recently, Fletcher? Or when you were coming here?”

I nodded, and he sighed in relief. Since I didn’t do anything else, he assumed that they were fine. The captain studied me with a frown on his face. He will have wrinkles in his late twenties if he maintain that expression all the time. Not like it was my problem. Still, soon he opened his eyes widely when he saw the bows that I passed to Cassius.

“Oh, incredible… you can make Epic bows with only the branches of the Woodkin, huh? The extra effects and the three slots of poison enchantments… I can pay you thirty Terra coins for each one of them. What do you think?”

I nodded again… I wondered if I should keep making business with people who only want bows with nasty effects. Still, in my eyes, money is like a blade. It’s neither good nor bad on its own, but it becomes dangerous or useful depending on whose hands hold it. In the wrong hands, it can bring out the worst in people. Money can be a tool for control, manipulation, and harm, creating greed, division, and even suffering. But when held by someone with a good heart and purpose, money has a completely different power. Not like I wanted to say that I had a good heart or anything.

Money can become a means to lift others up, to create opportunities, to make a positive difference. It’s the same currency but with entirely different consequences based on how it’s used and why. So to me, the power of money really depends on the one who wields it. Even if they came from the hands of assholes… I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I was right, though.

“Here is the payment and here is the meal that my daughter prepared. By the way, how was it? I am sure she will be happy if I said that someone else told it was good.”

I wrote down on a piece of paper the answer in advance: it was edible. There was nothing wrong with it.

Cassius looked at the paper in confusion and then frowned while looking at me. Still, I just left the area and returned to the dungeon, since I had a lot of work to do. I didn’t know about that at that time, but that answer caused me a lot of trouble later.