Chapter 19- Reward?
*Ding*
Resilience (RES) +2
Vitality (VIT) +1
Health (HP) +10
It was currently 2:30 am in Velskryn and around 11:30 pm back on Luminara. Abel had been at it for hours and lost count the amount of times he had re-packed the quiver, not to mention the amount of shots he’d made. While the improvement of each shot was miniscule, after so many attempts his arrows no longer looked pathetic in their flight.
“Alright lad, your shots are finally looking somewhat decent. You still need a lot of practice but it’s looking a heck of a lot better than before! Since you can now shoot a decently powered arrow, I think it’s time to teach you the next step.” The instructor finally deemed Abel proficient enough to learn the next step in wielding a bow.
“What separates a good archer and a bad one isn’t just their speed with the bow or the power of their arrows. Most importantly, it’s their aim and accuracy! What’s the point in being a fast notcher or shooting a strong arrow when you’re aim is worse than Umber Wolf shit! You have to have good accuracy regardless of your situation. Whether you’re standing still, running backwards or riding on horseback. It’s goes the same for your target, whether its stationary or moving swiftly, you should aim to never miss. In my own classification, an archer can be categorized as decent, proficient or an expert!”
The instructor carried on with his explanation after he clapped his hands, causing other targets to show up and triggering them to start moving around.
Abel wasn’t sure if the mechanism was magical or mechanical in nature because although it reacted to the instructors’ clap, he could hear the sound of gears creaking and spinning, the tell-tale signs of a mechanical system starting to operate. He didn’t waste his thoughts on such trivial matters and paid attention to instructor Cedric’s following words.
“When you can hit a stationary target while standing still, then you’re a decent archer. When you introduced movement into one of the 2 bodies, then you’re halfway to becoming proficient and when both you and your target are moving swiftly… only then can you be considered proficient. As for a true expert archer? You’d reach a realm where the arrows can still be swayed even after leaving the bow. Beyond that is a legendary realm that is beyond even me! Very few of these divine archers even exist throughout the world. This is my own classification and doesn’t correspond to the so-called ‘levels’ in a skill.”
As instructor Cedric explained, he slowly shot at several moving targets and towards the end of his explanation, he started stepping around in chaotic manner; back and forth or sideways, but he was still accurately shooting at the moving targets.
“Unfortunately, even after so many years I still fall short of reaching the level of an expert.” This was the first time Abel heard a sense of longing from the loud instructor and his voice even lessened by a few decibels as though to support the yearning he felt for such a realm. But he quickly snapped out of it and continued,
“You just have to hit moving targets as you’re standing still. No need to move your feet, I was just showing you so you can get a glimpse at real archery!”
‘It seems the favorability is already coming in handy since he’s teaching me more than he’s obligated to.’ Abel inwardly thought as he took up his pose once more. Although he knew it wouldn’t be simple.
When he started shooting arrows, he truly understood the saying “the best always makes it look easy”. Just introducing movement onto his target shot up the difficulty greatly.
‘I’ll definitely have to spend a lot of time practicing, maybe it will help if I practice in real life too… No, I should concentrate on the game. I barely have time to spend with Frankie and Melly and I haven’t even started my martial arts practice. I should practice archery on weaker beasts in-game, it’ll surely improve with time.’
Abel kept up his practice with moving targets. He would occasionally hit a target but he inwardly knew it was a lucky shot as he hadn’t actually been aiming at it in the first place. Time passed and before he knew it, his satiety level in real life was dropping until a notification roused him from his practice.
*Ding*
It is recommended for user to temporarily log out.
*pant* *pant*
“Sir, may I be excused for half an hour? There’s something I need to tend to…” Abel wasn’t sure how to tell the instructor he needed to log out but it seemed the man understood anyway.
“It’s fine. I know you travelers have strange conditions you need to meet in order to stay in our world. Go do what you must, how long will it take?”
“Just 15 *pant* to 20 minutes *pant* sir” Abel gaspingly replied while trying to control his breath, his arms shaking.
“Mmm, go on lad. I’ll be here waiting”
With that, Abel bowed and slowly made his way out of the training citadel, taking a few sips of water while he was walking.
‘Open Panel Menu’ Once he was on the central square, he swiftly left Faeron and then logged out of the pod.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling of the pod before him but he felt his stomach rumble right after. He was amazed at how the pod seemed to tell him he needed to log out without affecting his gameplay. Though he was sure if he ignored the notification and kept playing, then he would’ve been forcibly logged out of the system after a while.
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He got up and stretched before making his way to the kitchen. He found some of Savory Crust’s specialty meat pies placed in the warmer stove and a note from Melly,
“Don’t tire yourself out, get some rest when you need to!”
Abel smiled as he gobbled up the food in a matter of minutes, quickly throwing out the disposable aluminum tray it was kept in. He drank some water and left a note for them not to make him breakfast as he wasn’t sure when he’d log out again. He then went to the bathroom to take care of nature’s call before going back into his pod.
The cascading colors passed by and a few seconds passed before he logged back into the game. As he made his way into the training citadel, he ate some black bread to pull up his satiety level before heading back to practice. It hadn’t been 15 minutes since he left but he was back at it again, relentlessly practicing his shots at moving targets.
At first, he would get a few lucky shots but he slowly figured out his own personal technique to guess where his target would be. Many small things could affect his shot, from his fingering technique to the arrows and even the air resistance, it all played a part.
Slowly but surely, Abel started getting more shots on target, although most of them were far off the center mark it was still a hit in the end.
By the time his accuracy had risen to 50%, it was already day break in Velskryn as the sun was slowly rising above the horizon. After an incalculable number of arrows were shot, he finally heard the chime he had been longing for.
*Ding*
+New skill: Basic Bow Proficiency – Increases attack range with a bow +3%, Increase attack power with a bow +3%.
+New Stat: Dexterity (DEX)- After shooting 10,000 arrows with minimal break, you have grained the ability to dynamically use your hands and fingers with skill. Increases attack speed and critical hit chance. +10
+Agility (AGI) +2
+Resilience (RES) +2
‘Finally, Open Character Stats’ Abel let a out a sigh in relief as he took a quick look at his updated stats.
Name: Red Sky
Level: 1
Profession: None
Alignment: Neutral
Title: None
Reputation: 0
Health (HP): 180
Mana (MP): 100
Strength (STR): 20
Agility (AGI): 18
Endurance (END): 18
Toughness (TGH): 12
Vitality (VIT): 18
Wisdom (WDM): 10
Intelligence (INT): 10
Resilience (RES): 7
Dexterity (DEX): 10
Luck: 0
Satiety: 68
Stamina: 42
He was happily stunned at having unlocked the dexterity stat. He was planning on getting it with his ranger profession but if he could unlock it early then perhaps it’ll only add more dexterity points when he actually gets the class. Dexterity seemed different from resilience, the former gained 10 points at once while the latter only had 2 and only reached 7 after relentless practice in the training yard.
Regardless, he was ecstatic at the gains, although he could only fire arrows when he was standing, he was sure he’d be able to improve tremendously with enough time and sufficient practice.
His overall stats were around twice that of a newly created character, it might not seem like much but with a higher level, a profession, diligent practice and some good equipment, this disparity in stats would only widen later on!
‘I can’t get arrogant, I’m sure there are plenty of other players that know about the training course and have passed it. Just because this bit of information wasn’t online doesn’t mean people don’t know about it.’ After squashing the rising voice of arrogance within his head, he saw instructor Cedric walk up to him with a smile on his face.
“Good! You didn’t disappoint me kid, you did good!” Abel wasn’t sure if the old man enjoyed cultivating talents or if he actually got some type of reward from the training citadel for his job. All that mattered to Abel was that his favorability was good and he did an even better job throughout his 2 weapon training courses.
“It was all due to your expert guidance sir! It had been instrumental and I wouldn’t have been nearly as fast without it.” Abel had become quite proficient at sucking up to the old man but deep down, there was actual truth to his words of flattery.
*Ding*Instructor Cedric’s favorability towards you has increased. Favorability has reached friendly.
Abel was surprised that his favorability had already reached friendly. It was well known how difficult it was to raise favorability with NPC’s, especially without any reputation. Whether it was due to Abel’s hard work, politeness or just a plus point to finishing the training quickly, it had reached the next tier.
‘It’s probably a combination of many things that made it rise so fast’ Abel was overjoyed he reached the next tier right before his reward was handed out, it meant he’d truly be getting something great!
Favorability in Faeron had several tiers, but all characters would start out at Neutral. On the negative spectrum of favorability, you had Disliked followed by Despised and then Detested. After that was Mortal Enemy where it would prove near impossible to change the favorability for the better. People joked online that you had to be careful in Faeron because it was 3 D’s and you’re out!
On the opposite end, after favorability increases, it would reach Friendly followed by Trusted, then Honored and finally Revered. It was already difficult enough reaching Friendly and no one had reached Trusted yet.
If anyone had then they kept it to themselves since it was never mentioned in any of the game broadcasts Abel watched in the past couple of weeks. He couldn’t even imagine what it took to reach Honored much less Revered. What’s also worth noting is that it was much easier to build negative favorability and destroy positive favorability when interacting with NPC’s, destruction was much easier than creation after all.
“Mmm, its good you haven’t gotten a swollen head just because you’ve learned some basic skills, unlike some of those other travelers…” Instructor Cedric nodded his head in approval.
When favorability increases, it was much easier to glean pieces of information from NPC’s that would have otherwise been difficult to know, building on what the instructor just said, Abel curiously asked,
“Sir, do the other travelers become arrogant after finishing their basic weapons training?”
“Well I haven’t personally experienced it but I have heard of such happenings in other training citadels across the world. Among the 4,932 that have passed the training, about half of them show signs of arrogance while more than two thirds show blatant disrespect! Such scum better not show their faces around here or I’ll definitely teach them some manners in the place of their parents.”
Instructor Cedric looked truly angry at the mention of those other players and the information he revealed was quite informative.
‘No wonder not a lot of people mentioned this online. Other than hiding the fact that you could increase your stats and even gain new stats, they probably got a rough beating too hahahaha’ Abel was inwardly amused at the players that took Faeron as ‘just another’ VR game with rigid NPC’s.
“Here you go lad, you’ve earned this” Instructor Cedric magically pulled out a longbow that seemed to be made of light ebony wood with a thin bow string connecting its ends, he also pulled out a quiver filled with arrows.
“Inspect”
*Ding*
[Ordinary Longbow]
Attack power: 18-20
Range: 50 meters
Durability: 30/30
Description: Mass produced longbow from the Kingdom of Veridia. Given to all those that pass the Basic Archery Course. Although ordinary, it has a good range and durability.
[Ordinary Iron Arrow]
Attack power: 3-5
Durability: 1
Description: Mass produced iron arrows made from hollow wood from the Kingdom of Veridia.
Abel was quite happy to get a quiver of arrows, he thought he’d have to buy his own and was actually dreading the expense. Thankfully, he could put off spending money on more arrows until he finished the 50 in the leather quiver.
“Now for your reward… To be honest, I’m not sure what to give you! An energy consuming skill won’t do you any good right now and you’ve already got decent weapons for your current level.”
‘No please just give me a flashy and strong skill or give me a nice weapon I can sell for a lot of money, that would be great too.’ Abel was inwardly sweating, hoping the instructor won’t scam him, he just wanted a good reward that he could sell to make some money.
After a minute of silent pondering, instructor Cedric finally spoke “Hmmm, That’s it! I’ve got just the right reward for you lad. But first, let me warn you, getting the final reward won’t be easy. You’ll have to show even more perseverance and work hard than the past 2 days. All I’m doing is giving you a chance, the rest will be up to you! Now listen up…”