Chapter 101: Arrows and Magic
Rakkan and Sherry watched as the doors to the Unarmed Combat arena opened and Darkshot slowly walked out of the room. He’d been inside for 8 minutes, and in that time Rakkan and Sherry had both seen Aegis’ notification. Rakkan had his arms crossed, a serious expression on his face as he watched Darkshot walk towards the quest NPC, whilst Sherry looked anxiously hopeful.
“Congratulations on pass-” The quest NPC began her dialogue, but hearing the first few words were enough for Rakkan to let out a loud cheer, while Sherry let out an excited sqeal.
“We did it, we all did it, first try!” Sherry shouted excitedly.
“Good, ‘cause we’ve still got a lot of quests to complete. Can’t be wasting time. You saw the message?” Rakkan asked Darkshot. Darkshot nodded back at him.
“Aegis is your party leader, right?” Sherry asked.
“Yeah. He’s always up to something. We can’t get left behind.” Darkshot replied, and Rakkan nodded back at him. “Unarmed Combat was the first one.” He said as he finished talking with the NPC and stepped towards the other two. The three of them walked side by side towards the exit of the training hall, back to the training grounds.
“Travis says he’ll be back in a week to help with the others if you need it, but…” Sherry began.
“He also said we should be able to do the rest on our own.” Rakkan finished her thought for her.
“Mhm.” She nodded as they exited the hall and descended the stairs out front down to the training grounds. She turned to watch as Darkshot equipped his longbow and quiver again, and Rakkan equipped his bladed fist. “I guess this is goodbye for now, since I’m all done here. But I wish you guys the best of luck, I’m sure you’ll be able to beat all of your quests in no time.” Sherry smiled at them.
“Thanks.” Rakkan nodded at her, as she turned and walked away, and Darkshot watched her leave. Rakkan watched Darkshot following her with her eyes, and let out a light huff of air, causing Darkshot to look at him.
“What?” Darkshot asked Rakkan.
“Nothin, just, you probably won’t see her again. Did you even ask to add her to your friends list?” Rakkan raised an eyebrow at Darkshot.
“Huh? We’ll see her again. She’s a Night Hunter.” Darkshot said dismissively.
“She’s also a merchant player though. But whatever, none of my business.” Rakkan shrugged.
“So what?” Darkshot grumbled back.
“Nothin, just, saw you lookin’ at her a lot. Figured you mighta wanted to see her again. But, yeah, nevermind. None of my business.” Rakkan added with another shrug as he moved towards a training dummy with his bladed fist. Darkshot watched Rakkan do this, then glanced towards Sherry as she was reaching the exit of the training grounds, about to step back into the streets of Kordas. Darkshot let out an annoyed sigh at himself.
“Fine, fine, I’ll take initiative.” He whispered under his breath as he suddenly rushed after Sherry in a full on sprint. “Sherry! Sherry, wait a second!” Darkshot called out to her, causing Rakkan to smirk. Sherry heard Darkshot calling out and stopped just at the archway of the training grounds leading back to the streets of Kordas, turning to face him.
“Yup?” She asked curiously.
“Uh, well…” Darkshot said awkwardly as he caught up, standing a meter away. “I thought, you know, since it was fun spending time together, maybe we should add each other to our friends list. You know, in case we want to hang out again sometime.” Darkshot suggested.
“Oh. right.” Sherry thought about it. “I’m not really going to be going on adventures though, like you will be. I’m just going to be hanging around Kordas doing merchant quests. No more training for me.” She shrugged back innocently.
“That’s fine. Then, we can just hang out together whenever I’m in Kordas. You know, once I’m done with all these quests.” Darkshot replied awkwardly.
“Ok. Sure, I guess the three of us can hang out again sometime.” Sherry shrugged as she started to open up her interface.
“Or, maybe just the two of us. Without Rakkan.” Darkshot suggested.
“You mean like a date?” Sherry asked as she paused her interface fidgeting, and Darkshot could see she was starting to blush under her short white fur.
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, unless you already have a boyfriend or something.” Darkshot replied nervously.
“No… I don’t.” She replied while avoiding his eyes.
“Cool, then… is it okay if I add you?” Darkshot asked.
“Yeah.” She smiled as she pressed a few more buttons on her interface, and Darkshot got her friend's request. “Good luck on the rest of your quests.” She bowed before turning and heading quickly off into the streets of Kordas.
“Thanks!” He called out after her, and stood idly around a few moments after she’d left. “I can totally take initiative.” He said to himself proudly, before heading back towards Rakkan.
“How’d it go?” Rakkan asked once Darkshot had gotten close enough.
“Friendslisted. Easy.” Darkshot held his hand out for a high five.
“Nice.” Rakkan high fived him.
“Now… let’s see how this works.” Darkshot said with newfound confidence, pulling out his longbow as he stepped over towards the shooting range, in front of a row of archery targets a few meters away from the target dummies where Rakkan was. Darkshot wasn’t the only one there, several other players were practicing shots, but Darkshot ignored them as he drew an arrow from his quiver calmly and carefully lined it up with his bowstring. It lined up perfectly, with ease, first try, and he’d just remembered he needed to disable skill assistance to practice properly.
He quickly moved through his interface and disabled skill assistance from his Longbow Mastery, then tried again. He pulled another arrow out of his quiver and attempted to nock it, and this time, he took much more focus and time to get the arrow lined up on the bowstring. It was unacceptably slow. But without being told, he knew what he needed to do. Travis’ words were still echoing fresh in his mind. If he wanted to learn to do the tricks, the basics had to become as easy as breathing. The best way to do that was by repeating the basic motions.
He knew he looked stupid doing it, and even got a few funny stares from the other players near him on the shooting range, but he didn’t care. He didn’t fire a single arrow that entire day, he instead just repeatedly took arrows out of his quiver and practiced nocking them quickly. Rakkan didn’t take long before joining Darkshot, practicing loading his crossbow repeatedly, rather than shooting it. It was repetitive, and boring, but they both knew that his method of training was incredibly effective.
A few days of practicing that, and then shooting the bow itself, and Darkshot felt confident enough to challenge the quest once more. Both he and Rakkan were determined to get the quests done by the time Travis had returned from his dungeon delve, and once Rakkan got the hang of learning one of his melee weapons he quickly fell into a groove and figured out how to swing all of them around while keeping his balance. They became so comfortable with their weapons, that they thought of holding them as nothing more than breathing.
Soon enough, Darkshot found himself standing on the ledge of the arena for his Longbow Mastery intermediate quest. The door into the quest room had shut behind him. This time, he didn’t feel the need to nock his arrow before the skill had abandoned him. He jumped down into the arena, and from there, smoothly drew an arrow out of his quiver and pulled it back with the bowstring. He waited patiently for the boar, the first enemy of the test, to charge out from the door on the other end of the arena.
Once he spotted it, he calmly took a deep breath, lined up the shot, and released the arrow. It soared smoothly through the air with a light whistling sound as it pierced the boar in its head, between the eyes, dealing critical damage and killing the boar immediately. A few seconds after it fell the next enemy skittered out of the door on the far end of the arena. [Giant Wolfspider - 30] sat above its head. After its initial quick skittering forward, it leapt with great strength and speed to one of the walls of the arena to its right, obscuring itself from Darkshot’s vision through the use of the pillars. Darkshot calmly pulled another arrow from his quiver and nocked it in his bow. He aimed it in the direction of where he’d seen the Spider jump even though it was currently out of his line of sight.
The Wolfspider suddenly jumped again, towards the next pillar closest to Darkshot. It grabbed onto the opposite side of the pillar, hiding its torso from Darkshots view, but its thin hairy legs had wrapped around the pillar and were ever-so-slightly visible to Darkshot. He took a deep breath, aimed at one of the thin visible spider legs, and released the arrow. Once it’d hit, the spider let out a loud screech and tumbled back off the pillar, making its entire body visible to Darkshot as it recomposed itself on the ground. Darkshot took advantage of this opening by quickly drawing another arrow, pulling it back in his bow, and firing it, aiming at the Spider. It wasn’t a perfect hit, but the arrow pierced the underside of the Wolfspiders abdomen as it rolled around trying to get back upright after being shot in its foot.
Two hits wasn’t enough to kill the Wolfspider, but it was still disoriented, and Darkshot was quick at drawing and shooting now, thanks to all his repeated practice. He was able to fire at and hit the spider a third time, this time killing it. Two enemies out of ten down, Darkshot did his best to stay calm, still having barely taken a step from where he’d landed when he jumped into the arena initially. He prepared another arrow from his quiver and listened carefully for the sound of the next enemy's footsteps.
This time he heard a pair of four hoofprints clopping on the tiled floor from the dark doorway on the opposite end of the arena. Atleast, at first it was only four. Then he heard a second set, and watched as two beasts stomped forward. [Lanuskian Dustcharger - Level 30] sat above both of their heads. It was the same beast that’d appeared in Aegis’ Shield Mastery quest, though Darkshot had never seen them before. They had large flattened skulls with odd red shimmering colorations down the front from the top of their horns down to the base of their snouts, and they held their snouts pointed downwards to keep the flat frontal part facing Darkshot as if using it as a shield to protect the rest of their body.
Darkshot imagined an arrow wouldn’t work on them from the front based on this behaviour, but he thought he ought to test it out just in case, and fired a shot at the leftmost Dustcharger. The moment the arrow impacted the front of its flattened head, the arrow exploded into a puff of dusty mist, dealing no damage. As this happened, both Dustchargers began to paw at the dirt and prepared to charge at him. He pulled another arrow back in his bowstring and calmly waited for them to charge. Thanks to his training over the past month, with unarmed combat and his longbow, he knew how much time he’d need to jump out of the way to avoid them. He knew how long he could wait, he could track how fast they were moving towards them as they broke into their charges.
Just as they were about to crash into Darkshot with the front of their skulls, he dashed to the side and spun around, firing several shots at them from behind once they’d missed him and ran past. They were quick chargers, but slow turners, and in the time it took the two of them to attempt to curve their bodies around back to where Darkshot had been standing, he’d hit them from their unprotected backs enough times to take them both out. He quickly recomposed himself and patiently turned back towards the door on the farside of the arena, four enemies down.
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This time, as he listened for the next set of enemies, he heard not footsteps, but the flapping of wings. Suddenly 5 black winged bat-like creatures swooped out of the door on the far side of the arena and took off into the air, fanning out in the sky above the open arena roof. [Reaper - Level 30] stood above all of them. He aimed his bow upward towards them, but noticed none of them were swooping too close, they began circling above him, at a great enough distance that if he tried to shoot, they’d have enough time to dodge even if he aimed perfectly.
The creatures weren’t ignoring him, they all had their eyes on him and screeched down at him aggressively. They seemed to be waiting for something. Darkshot thought about it for a moment, and looked at the arrow he had nocked. Just like he was waiting for one of them to close in so he could shoot, they were waiting for him to shoot to close in. They weren’t elite enemies, this was just part of their basic AI, and Darkshot was proud of himself for noticing it before he’d given in to the temptation of just shooting up at them wildly.
Instead, he feigned a shot, pretending to release the arrow by pulling the bowstring back and letting it go, but as he let go he pulled the arrow off of the bowstring at the last second. It made the noise of the string flinging forward, which was enough to trick the Reapers into thinking Darkshot had fired, and they all immediately swooped into action, soaring down at him from high above with loud screeches, until they’d spotted him with the arrow still in his hand.
Once they had, they tried to pull up quickly again, but in the short time they took to switch directions, he’d managed to fire the arrow up at one of them, piercing through its head and killing it, taking the number of Reapers flying above down to four. He quickly pulled another arrow from his quiver and saw the remaining four flying cautiously high up above again. Thankfully, they were not Elite, which meant he could use the same tactic repeatedly, and they wouldn’t learn from their mistakes. Darkshot did exactly that, tricking the reapers one by one into swooping towards him by feigning shots, then using real shots on them, until he’d taken them all out.
9 Enemies down, only one remaining to complete the quest. He repositioned himself back to where he’d started at in the arena, nocked an arrow and aimed it in the direction of the door on the far side, taking a deep breath as he listened patiently. He heard footsteps approaching, they were light, and they stopped within the darkness of the doorway before they’d stepped out into the light and made themselves visible. Darkshot kept calm and waited, expecting to hear or see them any moment now, but instead, he heard the familiar sound of a bowstring being pulled back.
“Shit.” Darkshot said as he quickly dashed to the side, and just barely avoided an arrow flying past him that had been shot from the darkness. He couldn’t see who was shooting at him, and he immediately felt the irony of his name being Darkshot as someone shot at him from the cover of darkness. Just as Darkshot recomposed himself and stood upright again, he heard the sound of another arrow being loosed, and dashed again, this time moving to stand behind a pillar. The moment he used the pillar for cover, he could hear more footsteps - whoever his opponent was, they’d just run and hid somewhere inside the arena with him and were no longer hiding in the darkness of the doorway.
He could tell that much using his hearing, but he didn’t have an exact sense of which pillar they’d run to hide behind. He was anxious about poking his head out to check - this opponent was significantly more threatening than the previous 9. Still, he did his best to stay calm and believed in his training, taking a deep breath.
He jumped out from behind his pillar and glanced around, expecting to be shot at immediately once he was in the open, but instead it went quiet, save for the sound of his breathing and light footsteps on the sand covered tiled floor of the arena. He jerked his head around towards each of the other pillars, looking for any sort of indication on where this 10th and final enemy was hiding, but there was nothing that stood out to him right away. As per the parameters of his test, he wasn’t allowed to use any other spells or skills to complete it, including his tracking skill - he had to rely on his senses alone.
The next few moments of silence felt much longer than they actually were. One wrong move, and Darkshot would have to start the quest over. He did his best to remain calm and patient, meticularly scanning for any sort of information he could use. Suddenly a small gnome-sized creature in a sandy colored cloak rolled out from behind a pillar with a shortbow and released an arrow at Darkshot. Despite the gnome having only a second to aim, it’s aim was perfect, but Darkshot reacted quick enough to sidestep the shot and avoid it, while firing his own shot simultaneously. Darkshot’s aim was also perfect, and the gnome didn't dodge. He hit the gnome NPC right in the head, killing it instantly. Darkshot’s adrenaline didn’t let up, his heart was still beating and he remained focused, until he heard the sound of the doors opening behind him.
“Congratulations. You may have had a slow start, but you improved greatly, and you’ve impressed me. You’ve passed the test. You are ready to begin learning intermediate Longbow techniques.” Esmerille called to him from the doorway above.
“Hell yeah, good shit!” Rakkan shouted excitedly from behind Esmerille.
“Of course I passed it. I’m Darkshot.” He called back in his deep theatrical voice.
“That’s way cooler now, you know, since you actually know how to shoot stuff.” Rakkan joked as Darkshot climbed up the ladder out of the arena.
“It was always cool.” Darkshot shrugged dismissively. “You’re done all of yours, right?”
“Yeah. Once you pass the first one, there isn’t much variation, just gotta learn the fighting style of each weapon. I’m no master, but it was enough for the quests.” Rakkan smiled.
“Phew. Finally, I was worried we’d be stuck here forever.” Darkshot cheered as they stepped out of the training hall underneath the afternoon sun, Darkshot stretching his arms up towards the sky. “Mighta took us a bit longer than Aegis, Pyri, and Lina, but we got there in the end.” Darkshot said.
“Yeah. Actually, I was worried I’d be the only one stuck on these quests, so, glad you sucked as badly as I did.” Rakkan smirked.
“That’s what party members are for. Stealing loot and failing alongside you. Right? I think.” Darkshot joked. “I’ll admit, I was a bit iffy about Aegis bringing you into the group. But, you’re alright." Darkshot gently patted Rakkan on the shoulder. "Y’know, whenever you’re not losing your temper, and muttering stuff about being an encyclopedia.” He added. Rakkan just smiled awkwardly back at him. As he did, they both heard the sound of obnoxiously loud clapping coming from the base of the marble staircase down below them. They looked down to see Travis clapping and staring up at them.
“I must say, I’m impressed. A month ago you guys looked like a couple of uncoordinated toddlers fresh out of your mommas wombs. Now look at you both. All intermediate weapon mastery quests done.” Travis said with an impressed grin, and both Darkshot and Rakkan had somehow forgotten how weird Travis’ character looked, having trouble looking him in the eyes again.
“Thanks for all your help. Really.” Darkshot said sincerely.
“We couldn’t have done it without you, sir, or, m’am.” Rakkan bowed politely, causing Travis to raise his eyebrows at them.
“I didn’t do anything except show you guys training techniques. You did all the hard work. And, I prefer m’am.” Travis replied.
“Of course he does.” Darkshot whispered under his breath.
“Now, don’t go telling everyone I gave out free training, or everyone’s going to be bothering me for some private lessons. Get outta here, go get your intermediate class quests done.” Travis waved them away as he walked past them, heading into the training hall. Rakkan and Darkshot walked together down the stairs and across the training grounds until they reached the streets of Kordas.
“Guess this is were we gotta go it alone.” Darkshot said as he looked in the direction of the Ranger’s hall, going down the street in the opposite direction to where Rakkan was looking.
“Guess so. Next time we meet, we’ll have our intermediate classes.” Rakkan replied. “You think we’ll be able to do them, using all this stuff we learned?” Rakkan asked, and Darkshot could see he was worried.
“Hah. Hell no. We’ll probably fail the quests a bunch.” Darkshot joked, and it worked on cheering up Rakkan a bit, causing him to chuckle. “But… you want to get revenge, and I want to help my friend, so we'll just keep trying till the quests are completed.” Darkshot said, and Rakkan gave him a nod.
“See you back in Rene.” Rakkan held his fist out to Darkshot.
“Hopefully before the summer ends.” Darkshot replied as he pounded Rakkan’s fist, and with that, the two turned and walked their separate paths towards their intermediate class quests.
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“I’ve only got a short amount of time before the Airship to Arallia leaves. What’s the matter?” Trexon asked as he marched through the Wizard Tower of Kordas. He was being led by an Apprentice Wizard member of the Night Hunters, wearing purple robes with the Night Hunter emblem on the back of it, a male elf with a brown pony tail and a staff on his back named [Yorgi - Level 30].
“I don’t know, she’s saying that Jael is a bugged NPC, and she’s been wrecking the place and locking the doors, preventing other players from doing their quests and studying the magic tomes.” Yorgi explained to Trexon as the two walked hastily down a long hallway lined with paintings on the walls and a fine purple strip of carpet down the center.
“If a player is causing that much of a commotion, why not call the Kordas guard and have her thrown in jail?” Trexon asked.
“That’s just it, she’s not breaking any laws. She’s causing the most chaos she possibly can without actually committing any crimes.” Yorgi explained as they turned down a corridor, and Trexon attempted to push a pair of double doors in front of them open, but they wouldn’t give- they were locked. Trexon let out an annoyed sigh and pulled out his staff, tapping it on the lock of the door and causing it to make a clicking sound as he’d unlocked the door using magic, and swung the doors open to Archmage Jael’s office.
Inside he saw the player [Pyri - Level 30] sitting cross-legged in the center of the tiled floor of Archmage Jael’s office. Books from the shelves were strewn about the floor as if a tornado had come through, and a particularly tall stack of roughly 25 books was standing beside Pyri. She currently had an open book in her lap and was calmly reading it. Behind her across the room and sitting at his desk was Archmage Jael. Neither seemed bothered by the gigantic mess of a room around them, both reading in silence, and neither reacted to Trexon entering the room.
“There, that’s her. She’s the one who keeps locking players out of Archmage Jael’s office. She’s also been taking those spellbooks from the beginners library and bringing them up here with her, locking herself in this room. Since she’s still in the Wizard Tower , it’s not technically stealing, but because she keeps locking the office, it prevents all other players from reading those books and learning those spells.” Yorgi explained. Despite Jael and Pyri both hearing him give Trexon his explanation, neither reacted.
“Hm.” Trexon looked at the two of them curiously. “Let me guess. Jael won’t give you your intermediate class quest.” Trexon said to Pyri, and without looking up from the book she was reading, she gave a thumbs up in Trexon's direction.
“He’s bugged. Assign a new Archmage NPC to the Tower so I can get my quest, or I’ll keep legally messing with all the wizard players of Kordas.” Pyri replied in monotone.
“How long has she been doing this for?” Trexon asked Yorgi.
“About a week.” Yorgi answered. “I didn’t want to disturb your dungeon delve with the Night Hunters since you were all looking forward to it…” Yorgi replied anxiously.
“And you, miss, how long have you been stuck trying to get a quest from Jael?” Trexon asked her.
“A month.” She finally looked up from her book, glaring at Trexon. “More than a month actually. He kept shoving different spell books into my hands anytime I asked for my intermediate class quest.” Pyri stood up and pointed at the tall pile of spell books beside her. “I learned them all. Every single spell is level 30. Still nothing. He’s bugged.” Pyri said, annoyed.
“He’s not bugged. He’s an elite, he has free thought.” Trexon sighed as he turned his attention to Jael. “You want to explain yourself, Jael? Why aren’t you giving this young wizard her intermediate class quest?” Trexon asked Jael, and Jael finally looked up from his desk to pay attention to the three players in his office.
“She came in here demanding I give her the intermediate class quest for Controlmancer.” Jael replied calmly.
“And? She didn’t meet the requirements for that class?” Trexon asked as all eyes turned to Jael.
“Oh, no, she met them. Pratically any wizard who reaches level 30 is qualified to become a Controlmancer.” Jael shrugged.
“See!? Bullshit! He’s a broken NPC.” Pyri pointed at Jael angrily, but Trexon chose to ignore this comment for the time being.
“Then why not give her the class quest?” Trexon asked. Jael looked Pyri in the eyes carefully, and she glared back at him, before Jael turned to look at Trexon.
“Because, of all the hundreds of spells she could have chosen to learn as a beginner Wizard, she felt perfectly comfortable with only having learned two.” Jael said, and with these words, Pyri glanced between Jael and Trexon as they stared at each other as if they were having a silent conversation, whilst Yorgi looked confused about what was going on. “Lumina, and…”
“Cinderbolt.” Trexon answered for Jael as he turned to stare at Pyri with an interested squint.
“So? So what? What is wrong with Cinderbolt?” Pyri asked defensively, glancing between Jael and Trexon as they both now stared at her curiously. Eventually Trexon gave a knowing nod to Jael.
“Sorry, it’s up to you to figure out how to get your quest.” Trexon apologized to Pyri as he turned and started heading out of the office.
“What? What the hell? Aren’t you the leading guild in this city? You’re just gonna let this NPC bully me and not give me my quest?” Pyri stomped after Trexon angrily as he left the office and walked down the halls out of the Wizard Tower. “Fine, if you won’t do anything about him, I’m just going to keep messing up this Tower for everyone!” Pyri shouted angrily, causing Trexon to stop walking with a sigh, and turn to face her again.
“Listen. He’s not bugged. He’s one of those, what do you call, yoda-type NPCs. He won’t give you the answer, he wants you to find the answer yourself.” Trexon replied apologetically to Pyri.
“Answer to what?” Pyri groaned in annoyance.
“Exactly.” Trexon nodded back, as Yorgi, who'd been following behind them, glanced between the two of them still confused.
“Sorry, I wish I could help more, but I’ve got to leave on an Airship shortly. If you’re still stuck when I get back, I’ll try to help out.” Trexon said as he turned from Pyri and continued walking away hastily, Yorgi following behind him.
“Answer to what, dammit! I just want my stupid quest. This is so bullshit.” Pyri sighed in frustration as she watched Yorgi and Trexon disappear around a corner in the hallway.
“Sir, I don’t get it, what’s the big deal about her learning Cinderbolt?” Yorgi asked once he and Trexon had gotten far away from Pyri.
“How many beginning Wizard players do you know that go for Cinderbolt as their only spell?” Trexon asked him.
“Well... none… most wizards learn a bunch of the beginner spells. And, well, Cinderbolt isn’t even that great of a spell.” Yorgi replied with a shrug, causing Trexon to force a smile at Yorgi while patting him on the shoulder.
“Keep an eye on Pyri and Jael. In doing so, I have a feeling you’ll soon learn a few interesting things about being a magic user in this game.” Trexon said to him. “Try to keep things under control until I get back.”
“R-right.” Yorgi said as he stopped walking and watched as Trexon exited out of the building, heading out into the streets of Kordas. Yorgi apprehensively turned back down the direction of the hallway that he’d left Pyri at, and heard a loud banging noise come towards him, echoing off the walls. Yorgi could do nothing but sigh to himself.